"Don't Let Him Eat Me"

The other day I was out in my garage preparing for the yard sale I was going to have. Riley was out as well riding his bike up and down the driveway. All of a sudden I hear this blood-curdling scream issued from Riley. I couldn't see him at the time, so I did what any self-respecting mom would do and screamed as well. This sent Todd, who was watching the Tour de France, running out to the garage. Riley came bolting into the garage clearly terrified out of his mind followed by...the little chihuahua who lives next door. :) This dog looks like a miniature doberman and I have to say acts like one too...(he suffers from "little dog syndrome"). This dog is definitely annoying, but harmless. Riley runs in crying, "don't let him eat me mom" and then runs over to Todd, "carry me daddy!" We just laughed and laughed...although part of me is always annoyed that our neighbors ALWAYS let the dog out in the front yard! Who lets their dog out in the front, especially when you have a HUGE, nice, fully fenced backyard for the dog to romp around in? Oh well.

Question of the Day

I've been tagged: What was I doing 5, 10, 15 and 20-years ago? Should be fun!

Let's see, 5-years ago I was 24-years old and had just graduated from BYU


We bought our first house in West Pittston, PA and did A LOT of this...


And, we were "expecting" this...



10-years ago I was 19 and had just finished my first year at Utah State...(and although there were some fun times, it was a disaster),



So, I moved back home and started singing with The Mormon Youth Symphony Chorus and had the time of my life!!!


15-year ago I was 14 years old...not a "pretty" time for me. The early 90's were a bad era for hair...and makeup...and glasses...and clothes! This was the summer before 8th grade (YIKES)...


But thanks to braces, and my friend Bliss's mom, Val, this is what I looked like the summer after 8th grade...


And finally, 20-years ago I was 9! I was going to Bonneville Elementary School in SLC, Utah. I was in Mrs. Orphanakis' fourth grade class. The only thing I remember, was that Mrs. Orphanakis was so beautiful and nice...oh, and the fact that my mom and I didn't know it was picture day and I went to school in my Girl Scout shirt. I got some major ridicule for that one. :)

Our Final Pick

Well, we finally picked a paint color and bought it this weekend. And...surprise...it isn't one of the colors that we posted before. The color we picked is...drum roll please..."Anonymous" by Sherwin Williams. Here is a link of you want to see it. Yea! I'm excited.

http://www.sherwin-williams.com/search/anonymous

Riley Sleeping

Proof that Riley sleeps like the dead.

Tanner

Todd and I have talked a lot about how different Tans is from Riley. It really is amazing. One big difference is Tanner's desire to climb things. Riley was always too cautious to climb much. He did climb, but I never worried about him because I knew he wouldn't do anything too drastic. Tanner on the other hand...well, he will climb on anything. He climbed on this little red activity table to open up his sock drawer and pull all his socks out the other day. I snapped a picture when he started to whine because he couldn't get down afterward. I guess that part is a little bit more difficult and comes with experience. I'm just waiting for him to crawl out of his crib. :)

 

One Cool Dude

Tanner has recently found the joys of sunglasses. He whines and whines until you put them on him. It cracks me up!

Thanks IKEA

Here is a look at our spoils from the weekend. I love IKEA!!



(sorry about the dots on the camera...does anyone else find it terribly difficult keeping things clean? Riley and Tanner manage to get things dirty that I swear they don't even touch!)


Our new kitchen desk. We LOVE it!!! It makes the space feel so much bigger.

Off to Minnesota

Okay, so we don't want to make anyone too jealous or anything, but we just went to Minnesota for vacation. I know, I know. Minnesota is just out of some of your reach, but don't feel too bad. I'm sure there are things almost as fun to do in your area. :)

We have been re-doing our kitchen and really wanted this desk at IKEA. Well, the closest one to our house is 6 1/2 hours away in you guessed it, Minnesota. So, off we went. It actually was a really fun trip, but I don't think I'll ever be moving there permanantly.

The drive there was fairly uneventful...hooray! We think we may move to Iowa one day though. Iowa is so "green". We passed so many cool wind farms...AND the gas prices were great! The mid grade gas was .15 cents cheaper than the low grade gas because they supplement it with ethonol made from all the corn in Iowa. It was awesome.

Our hotel was right next to the Mall of America and IKEA. Both places were so much fun. Although, IKEA would have been more fun without the two kids. Let's just say that we didn't get nearly as much time there as we would have liked. (sigh) We got our furniture though as well as some yummy IKEA treats to bring home with us. How I miss living near several IKEAs. We sure love Kansas, but that is one drawback.

The Mall of America is HUGE!!! I can't believe how big it is. It has every store known to man as well as a theme park, an aquarium, and many other fun things that we just didn't have time or energy to visit.

The kids both loved the pool. Tanner loved swimming and splashing around, while Riley loved putting his feet in and throwing Tanner the beach balls. All they wanted to do when we were at the hotel was go swimming. It wasn't crowded at all, so we were happy to swim as well.

We had many, many melt downs, but all it all it was a really fun little vacation.

 

 

 

 

Nickelodeon Universe

Riley had so much fun riding the rides at the Nickelodeon theme park in the center of the Mall of America. That kid loves to ride anything that is fast or spins. Poor Tanner though. He really wanted to ride the rides and was so mad at us for not letting him get on too. I eventually had to take him out and walk around because he was wiggin out so bad. Tanner, you may be big, but your not that big. :)

 

 

 

The Aquarium

We went to an awesome aquarium in the Mall of America. It was voted the best shark encouter by the Discovery Channel and we could totally see why. There was this amazing underground aquarium with a huge tunnel going through it. We really felt like we were in the ocean with the fish. It was pretty cool. Riley and Tanner were enthralled.

 

 

 

 

!!!Going Insane!!!

Okay, I'm pretty sure that the "why" questions are going to be the thing that finally drives me to insanity!!! They NEVER EVER stop! How can one child ask so many questions...most of them being completely unanswerable?!?!? I wish I could just look at him and tell him to be quiet for just 5 minutes...please, I'm begging you, 5-minutes!!!

Which Color?

We are having a hard time deciding which paint color to paint our house. I like one and Todd likes the other. So, being the diplomats that we are, we want to get everyone elses opinion on the matter.

 

Oh no...

Today as I was sitting down and chatting with Riley, I realized that we have entered the "Why" stage. We have actually been in this phase for a while, but I apparently was too daft to realize it until now. All day long I hear why, why, why. I have to admit that at times it is endearing, but more often than not, this is what it's like:

"Hey mom?"

"Yeah honey"

"Why did you get a bug bite?"

"Uh...because a bug bit me."

"WHY did the bug bite you?"

"Well, I taste good and the bug was hungry."

"Oh, yeah."

Now just repeat this conversation about a million times and you'll get the right idea. Here is a why question for you, WHY does Riley always ask questions that I either can't answer, or that I really don't know how to answer? I have a feeling that we will be hearing more "why's" than we care to think about over the next MANY years to come. :)