monster eggs

My big 3 year old

Bridger is now 3 years old. I can't believe how much this little guy has grown in 3 years, but he is enormous.

*Loved the idea of turning 3, but after a week, he informed me that he was now 4. He'd been 3 long enough... it might have something to do with the fact that holding up 4 fingers is so much easier than 3.

*Loves to eat with measuring spoons. the 1/4 tsp is his favorite. I don't mind at all because he spills less when he's only shoveling in a 1/4 tsp at a time.

*Tries so hard not to suck his thumb. And tries to rationalize it when he does. "I'm just cleaning it Daddy. I'm just cleaning it!"

*He's very opinionated and enjoys arguing. He says no to everything at first, even if it's something he wants... then he'll change his mind once he realizes that he spoke too soon.

*LOVES his trains. I don't think Santa knew how good a present those trains were going to be, but we owe him big for that one. Bridger will stay entertained with trains for a very long time. For his birthday he got a roundhouse and a turntable for his trains and I don't know if he's touched another toy since.

*He's so independent. Wants to do everything on his own and doesn't want help until he asks.

*Loves broccoli, beans, carrots and spinach and will eat at least 2 apples and a banana daily. He goes through the produce like crazy.


*Produce he doesn't care for: watermelon and potatoes... go figure.

*Still lactose intolerant, but only with straight milk, he does fine with yogurt and ice-cream and cheese... but milk gives him a nasty rash.

*Wants to be a bear when he grows up. Yep, you read that right. I questioned him on it, and even gave him some great alternatives, but he turned me down. He wants to be a bear.

*Climbs everything. He climbed about 10 feet up into one of our trees the other day, I'll have to keep a closer watch on him.

*Still very much a blanket boy... he has his three favorites, his green blanket (from my mom) his house blanket (which was made by Kari for Porter and was stolen by Briggs) and his squares blanket (also made by Kari for Bridge)

*He loves the corners of his blankets... they are all getting worn down and several have holes through the corners cause it's the part he likes to hold on to the most.

*would drink root beer all day everyday if we let him.

*Requests me to sing Popeye the Sailor man every night as his lullaby...

*Climbs on the counters, no matter how often we tell him not to, or put him in time outs... he's always climbing up to grab another apple.

*Mostly potty-trained

*He gets mad if you call him a little boy cause he's not a little boy, he's a big boy.

*He was sucking his thumb the other day and when I caught him I said, Bridger don't eat your thumb. "No mom, we don't eat thumbs, we eat lunch!"

*He's really excited to go to preschool this year and constantly asks if anyone passing by us is his teacher.

*Can easily count to 20 and has for quite some time. Knows all the letters of the alphabet and their sounds (has known that for quite some time too.)

*Sings all the time... my favorite (and I suspect his as well) is Praise to the Man. Porter learned it for his Primary program this year and Bridger picked it up from Porter... which is why it's quite an entertaining song to hear. Porter's interpretation of the song reinterpreted and sang by Bridger. I wish all songs were sung that way.  Perhaps then we could all be "lingling with glods"

This kid is just so adorable. He gives the best hugs and the best kisses and I'm just so lucky to spend everyday with him. I just can't believe he's so big.

Happy Birthday Briggs!

nickelcade

Kyle's idea to take the boys to the Nickelcade was genius. They haven't stopped talking about it since.  We went a couple weeks ago for family night and the boys had a blast!

 This was Porter's favorite game, stomping on the spiders.

 And he was pretty good at it too... just look at that score.

 Bridger liked to shoot things... anything. Especially the "robots" (this was not that game, Kyle took him over to the Terminator game and Bridger was fascinated.)

He also liked a game where you would shoot at all kinds of big scary bugs, spiders and bees and other yucky things. At home, he now has to "pew" them all the time. We play many of game of "pew" the bee.

 Porter also liked some of the shooting games. He was really good at some of them. Even the ones where he wasn't able to put the gun directly on the screen to shoot!

The boys keep asking to go back and I'm sure we will.

pinterest... how I love thee.

 Got this idea a while ago off of pinterest. The boys loved it. I started out with some leftover blue yarn and then had to switch to yellow... now looking at the pictures I wish I had used something with more contrast to it so you could see a little better.

 Both boys were intrigued. Porter was positive that he could crawl under all the strings, while Bridger tried very hard to climb through them all.

 It entertained them for a good 45 minutes or so.

It entertained their Momma for a good 45 minutes too!
(Bridger, while almost completely potty-trained during the day (Yay!!!)  still requires diapers at night and for naps...hence the diaper. And that little boy would rather walk around in underwear or a diaper and nothing else, hence the nakedness)

good times

Amy and I have been friends since Jr. High. The best of friends throughout our awkward high school years, and we've continued to have contact ever since. However, I realized that it had been almost 6 years since we had seen each other, 8 years since we had seen each other before that and about 10 years since we had hung out.
We were way overdue for a little reunion.
We decided to meet up at the Gateway Children's museum, and it was the perfect place to meet... the boys were so entertained and we had time to catch up.

 Plus, her little boys are absolutely adorable.

 Porter was thoroughly entertained by the cranes.

 The kitchen... oh, the kitchen. The boys had so much fun with all the fake food.

 And Bridger spent most of his time emptying the cabinets... mostly because he's not allowed to do this at home.

 Oh yeah, on the other side of the kitchen window was a little play area for the very little kids. Bridger was passing food to the little kids on the other side of the window. I believe this was a cabbage.

 Here he's passing a little boy a watermelon. I headed inside and told him that the food needed to stay in the kitchen. His response, "He's hungry, I give him some food, Mom!"
How do you say no to that?

 Then we headed up to the helicopter. I believe this was the favorite of the day.

 This kid has so much personality... I love the look of, "I got this" while he pretends to fly the chopper.

Cute kids, good friends, good food, good times.
Thanks Amy... lets not wait 10 years to get together again.

 It finally snowed. These pictures are from our first snowfall a couple of weeks ago. I love the big trees in our yard covered in snow. Love having our own yard.

 The boys were so excited to go out in the snow that Bridger headed out wearing only this...

 He came running back in the house shortly after, and ran straight to the wood stove saying that he needed to warm up his thumbs... really those are the last things I would have been complaining about being cold if I was wearing the same outfit... but we pulled out their new snow coats and pants and sent them out to build a fort.

 I remember when I was little using food coloring in water to color the snow, so I loaded a couple of spray bottles with hot water (to keep their hands warm) and let them paint their fort.

 It kept them entertained for hours. Porter is in love with the snow. He would play outside in it all day, every day if we let him. Bridger is a little less than impressed. He gets excited for a little while and then wants to come inside and get warm... although he is a big fan of eating the snow. He picks up big handfuls and stuffs them in his mouth.

Christmas in Moab

Our Christmas was supposed to be here. With my new job I was supposed to work Christmas Eve. But, a very sweet friend offered to work Christmas Eve for me, which freed me from a week of work and allowed us all to head to Moab for Christmas! It was so fun to be together with Kyle's family. We haven't been to Moab in quite a while and we haven't been able to be there when Kyle's siblings were there. This holiday season was no different from the others in that I took very few pictures and really wished that I had taken more. But here are the few that I did take.

We started Christmas Eve out with some very fun games, I don't know what this one was called, but Jill was pretty awesome at it. (Drawing pictures on the plate on the top of your head.)

We played round the world ping-pong, which really should become a yearly tradition, and the white elephant exchange.

 Dave sitting on his pocket chair from the white elephant.

 Christmas morning we came out to find the presents that Santa left for us.

 We couldn't pull Bridger away from the train set from Santa. He played with it for 2 1/2 hours straight, and even though other gifts were opened, if it didn't involve a train he didn't give it a second glance.

 Porter was thrilled to open presents. He was also in love with the train set, but he was more than happy to open present after present.

 It was a beautiful Christmas morning. 

Later on Christmas day we decided to go hiking. It seemed so warm during the day while we were out in the sun... but hiking in the snow and in the shade turned out to be pretty cold.

Bridger wanted to be carried most of the way. Porter, however, ran up and down the snow-packed hills. He thoroughly enjoys being outside in the snow.

 It was a perfect Christmas.