Our Family Pictures

I love pictures. Pictures of EVERYTHING. Sometimes I can be that crazy mom who stalks her child in whatever they are doing just so I can take a picture for "remembering." However, we have not had a family picture taken since the Christmas after Creighton was born. I have been waiting for the "perfect" time for the family picture. You know... when I have lost weight, when Creighton will cooperate more, when the weather is nice for outdoor pictures... Just a few of my excuses for not taking family pictures, but always having good intentions of taking them soon.

Thank goodness for mother-in-laws who schedule family pictures and tell you when and where and what to wear. I am so happy that she did it for me. The pictures actually turned out great and I am so pleased to make prints and hang them in the living room. We did take pictures of ALL of us, but here are just the ones of our little family.

No Lions, No Tigers, but BEARS-Oh My!

Yesterday we enjoyed spending our Saturday at Yellowstone BEAR WORLD!

We drove through the park and saw animals, fed the fish and ducks, went to the petting zoo, explored the gift shop and rode some rides! I should say that most of these things were ATTEMPTED. Of course, the gift shop truly was "explored" in Creighton-fashion and all things were touched at least twice and put back in what Creighton believed to be a better location. Creighton couldn't see the animals well and was more interested in eating his candy than looking at bears. He didn't want to feed fish or ducks, there was so much room to run!! He certainly didn't want to pet any animals like: a pot belly pig, goat, chickens, peacock, or deer. Again, so much room to explore and run!! He did however, LOVE the rides! 

We didn't know what to expect as we headed up to Bear World and were surprised to find little-kid amusement rides! Creighton loved the "choo-choo" and liked to sit up front and ring the bell. There was a mini-roller coaster he got to ride with his daddy, that was fun.

Creighton got to drive a bouncy car, I think that one was his favorite, but it was a little too bouncy for his daddy. And the biggest surprise of all, he liked the ride that took him WAY up in the air! He was laughing and giggling the whole time.

He was so sad when each ride was over and had a hard time understanding he needed to get off. But most of the rides he got to do a few times. We are going to Lagoon with Cason's family later this summer and I am glad to know Creighton will have a BLAST!

Cason's parents just live a few minutes from Bear World so they met us there for some bear fun!

 The baby bears were so cute, I wanted to take one home with me!!

This is Creighton's "growliest" bear face he could muster! Oooh-scary!!

Speaking of bears... remember Mr. Bear, Creighton's favorite stuffed animal? He appears in a lot of pictures I take of Creighton because he likes to tote him around the house; usually swinging him by his hat. Creighton calls Mr. Bear "baby" and likes to wrap him up in a blanket and insists I rock him to sleep while he shows him pictures in a book. Mr. Bear is always sleeping and asks us to "Ssshhh..."

It's nice to see him sometimes being so soft and gentle. Because there are many times I would not consider him soft and gentle. But... he is a little boy after all.

Being his mom is wonderful and I wouldn't change it for anything! But it sure is a demanding full-time job with lots of overtime. It requires so many skills that I don't have and am slowly trying to learn.

Lately, Creighton has been throwing A LOT of tantrums. I guess this is what people refer to as the "Terrible Twos".  Me: "Creighton, please put that back." Him: "NO!!!" Then he throws himself onto the floor, flails around like a fish out of water and screams and cries. He also throws things. A lot. I am hoping that this passes soon.

It is especially frustrating on Sunday. When he decides it is time to go, it is TIME TO GO and he will do everything in his power so that I know. On Sundays we sit by ourselves since Cason sits on the stand. When stake conference comes around I am happy to have Cason sit with us and I let him deal with him. But a few weeks ago Cason wasn't able to go, so I was not looking forward to wrestling with Creighton during a 2 hour stake conference. I even let Creighton bring Mr. Bear, hoping that would keep him happy. No such luck.

These tantrums and naughty behavior sometimes make me into a frustrated and impatient mommy. I often feel like our day is full of him not listening or obeying, him getting mad at me, him crying... But at the end of the day when I reflect I realize it wasn't even 10% of our day. So during those "hard" times I remind myself it is just a small moment in time. Because always a few minutes later he is running to me, "Hugs?" And gives me a big squeeze and then says, "Kiss?" and gives me a big smooch! Or he wants me to read him a book, or he wants to do a puzzle, or he wants to go outside and play...

I seem to take his behavior so personally. But I am learning, it really doesn't have anything to do with me, it is just him and his age and him learning to listen and obey and understand why I say "no" or "not yet". I am learning how to deal with his unwelcome behavior as I continue to pray for guidance to be a better mommy.

A few nights ago he decided to play "dress-up" and grabbed a vest and his hat from his closet to add to his pajama top. He must of thought it made good "working" attire. That night I brought into the living room some very large boxes and he crawled in and out of them with his tools and tool box "fixing" things. He likes to walk around the house with a tool, hammer or saw usually, and say, "fixing...fixing...fixing..."

He also likes to be "making" and loves to play in the kitchen and make soup! Most food Creighton makes is soup. He also loves to help mommy make real food. His favorite food to make is pancakes!

Creighton loves pancakes. A few weeks back there was a day where I couldn't get him to eat ANYTHING and when it was bedtime he was really fussy and wouldn't sleep. Clearly, because he was hungry. So I gave in, took him to the kitchen, and let him pick out whatever he wanted to eat. He grabbed the syrup from the fridge. Errr... I knew it. But I filled the pancakes with some leftover scrambled egg and sausage mixture for some protein. And he loved it :) Cason was like, "You really did that?" Hey-desperate times call for desperate measures. Moms with picky eaters or non-eaters totally understand.

Creighton has also FINALLY started saying Mommy. Cason must have been working with Creighton to say it for an early Mother's Day gift! Now Creighton likes to walk around the house pointing at everything that is mine and say, "Mommy's!" Creighton loves to talk about families and in all books he points out the mommy and daddy. (Pretty much any woman is a mom and any man is a dad) He has a Book of Mormon ABC Book and everytime we get to N is for Nephi he screams, "DADDY!"

Creighton and his dad made sure I had a wonderful Mother's Day with gifts, a good dinner, and plenty of love! I am so happy to be a mom! 

The Weather

The last week has been just beautiful here in Pocatello. It has been so warm and sunny. Perfect weather for being outside for gardening, yard work, and of course playing. We even have a bit of color on our faces and arms! Though the weather has been enjoyable, Sunday I was melting. The "heat" came on so quickly. So Cason brought up our air conditioning unit from the basement. Sadly, we do not have AC.

 It has made things much more enjoyable in our house. We are grateful for the nice weather, the yard is turning green and some flowers are blooming! We even attempted a photo shoot in the front yard one sunny day.

 Grama Wilde decided to bring up the outside toys from the basement and let Creighton practice driving in her living room. He loves the tractor and yellow car. Sadly, he is still a few inches too short, but by the end of the summer he'll do great!

 Creighton's Grama is so nice. She told him that he could TAKE HOME the tractor! Yay!! He was so excited! (The tractor was his mommy's... it is 22 years old :) However, he is not allowed to bring home the yellow car. (That one is Aunt Whitney's...)

The past week we have been pretending like it's June. And wouldn't you know... last night it was cloudy, windy, and rainy. And this morning in the paper I read that it is supposed to snow all weekend. Currently I am wrapped up in a blanket. It's cold in here!

Working Hard at Hardly Working

We have been so lucky this weekend! Cason has had a 4-day weekend! How did we get so lucky? Well, he is working 2 double-shifts next week as well as his regular schedule, so he got Thursday and Friday off this week as a, "thanks for working your butt off next week".

Well, when daddy gets time off, we do what daddy wants, and daddy sure knows how to have a good time! He loves to watch movies, go out to eat, go shopping, take naps and get cozy, go to the park, have lots of ice cream, and play play play! So we have taken some time to have fun.

Daddy works real hard and doesn't have a lot of time to rest. So Creighton showed him how he likes to relax. Just roll yourself up in some quilt batting!

Silly boy.

 This weekend we rented some movies-Cason loves to watch a good movie! For Creighton and I: Mulan, Mickey Mouse, Pooh Bear, Mary Poppins, and The Muppets. And since it WAS daddy's idea, we did let him get a movie: Mission Impossible. Cason had never seen Mary Poppins, so I made sure I sang along with all the songs for him to get a real good show. Creighton and I giggled as we watched Pooh Bear get stuck in rabbit's hole... he ate too much honey! And I forgot how I really love Mulan. Disney movies are like THE BEST. Tonight I think we'll watch some Mickey Mouse. But then once the Jazz game starts, we'll let daddy watch that.

This Friday and last we have been watching our little nephew, Kyle! Creighton likes to have Kyle around. I think. Except he doesn't like to always be told "Ssshhh... Baby Kyle is sleeping." He likes to read Kyle books and yesterday he taught him what the farm animals say. And he always likes to make sure that Kyle has plenty of blankets. It's not hard work to watch Kyle, he is such a sweet baby!

Daddy likes to go to the park and it has been great park-playing weather! Creighton prefers to go down the slide backwards. More adventurous that way.

We did have to do a little bit of yard work yesterday. Pesky weeds! And grass that is constantly growing! But we made time to have fun while working. Creighton loves water and ran through the sprinkler!! Yes. I let my child run through the sprinkler when it is 68 degrees outside.

 He really loves the water.

We have also been working more on our garden. I intended on having a small garden this year. But once I went to the nursery and saw all the possibilities... Well, you know... It is going to be a little bigger then 2-3 vegetables like I had said. A LOT bigger. That is, if everything grows that is supposed to. Today we created a little fence around the garden to keep out the dog. And I'm not positive it will even keep her out of it...

I am 100% sure I now know why my dad never let us have a dog growing up. They are more work than they are worth!

 We have a fenced yard and behind our fence is an open, grassy area and today we were digging around in there (it looks like a jungle... grass and weeds like 3 feet tall) and found some treasures! That is where we found the wire fencing to put around our garden, and I also found this...

A little "shabby chic" or "vintage" potter! It is made from an old dryer drum. Now, what to put in it?

Today was a beautiful day to work in the garden! (But not Cason's idea of fun... more like Katie's idea of fun to have his help!) Creighton even busted out his shorts for the first time this year and we bought sunscreen and strawberries at Costco. Strawberry Shortcakes for dessert tonight! (We've been working hard :) we deserve it!) We are excited for the summer!

Creighton and his Grampa Dennis.

So the past few days we have done some things that Cason wanted to do with his time off. But let's be honest... it was mostly things Creighton and I wanted to do with Cason. It is so much more fun to do things together as a family. We will miss daddy next week with him being gone so much. But we are glad we got to do so much together this weekend!!

"Hop"penings

I just can't resist a chessy blog title. Nor can I resist opportunities, like holidays, to make lots of yummy treats, participate in fun and messy traditions, giving gifts and taking LOADS of pictures!

To begin our Easter weekend we helped my sister, celebrate her 18th birthday. This year her birthday fell on Good Friday. I can't imagine a better day to celebrate an 18th birthday. This is definitely going to be a lucky year for her! Creighton gave his aunt Sidnie a bouquet of flowers this year.

It is hard to imagine my little sister is 18. I remember very well the day she was born.

 My mom's friend, Lori, checked me out of school (1st grade) and took me and my sister, Whitney, to Burger King for lunch, before heading to the hospital, and we talked about how excited we were for Sidnie's arrival! Except for Whitney... she was excited for a baby boy. She was sure it was going to be a baby boy. (It was not)

Usually, when I think about my sisters, I picture myself between the ages of 10-12 and my sister Whitney, 8-10 and Sidnie, as a toddler. Seems like we were that age forever. I suppose I have a lot of memories from that particular time period. Hard to believe she is 18...

Saturday we were again with family, the Chambers', and celebrated the birthday's of Cason's dad and sister, Marie. Creighton participated in his first ever Easter egg hunt!

Then, that night as our own family, we colored Easter eggs and it was a blast! It didn't take long for Creighton to get the hang of it. He loved coloring eggs and wanted to dunk each egg in all of the colors. His favorite color was the pink!

 He had a great time and was so proud of his eggs.

The Easter Bunny visited everyone at our house, including mommy!

And on holidays, we throw nutrition out the window! For breakfast, M&M's and chocolate milk. 

But that's okay because my mom made us a delicious Easter dinner! After of course, we attended church in our best Easter outfits.

 And it is only appropriate that when you are wearing one of your best outfits that you dirty it by jumping on the trampoline!

Hooray for Easter! We love to celebrate holidays with lots of style, but we also love to take the time to reflect on the original purpose of the holidays. This one, celebrating Jesus Christ. We are so blessed to know of Jesus Christ and to understand his great sacrifice for us.

We are loving this beautiful spring weather we have been having the past few days. We have been taking advantage of it and trying to beautify our lawn and garden. The lawn has been mowed, weeds pulled, and a garden begun! 

Last year I wanted to have a garden, but it didn't happen. So this year I was adamant and reminded Cason almost daily. Today I came home from work and he had built this beauty... 

We are going to try a small raised garden. This year we may do only 2-3 kinds of vegetables. We are not sure how green our thumbs are. 

There is always something "hop"pening around here... and that's the way I like it! 

What Creighton is Learning

Creighton is 2 now. Which means it is time to start learning new things.

One thing that he has learned lately is to listen. Whenever Creighton hears almost ANYTHING, he will cup his ear, get a serious look on his face and say, "What's that?" Then he will point in the direction of the noise, cup his ear, and press his fingers to his lips to tell you to "Ssshh..."so he can hear it better. At our house he is usually hearing a car/truck/motorcycle, a train, or a dog barking.

Creighton loves learning new noises and trying to imitate noises that he hears. He says, "choo choo" and "vroom vroom" for vehicles. And he knows "moooo" and "woof". He also tries to cluck like a chicken but it just seems as though he is choking on something.

We are encourgaging AS MUCH talking as we can around here. When Creighton had his 2 year check-up the pediatrician was a little concerned that Creighton wasn't saying much and not yet putting two words together. So we have been working on it a whole lot and Creighton is learning to talk much more often.

I won't list all of the words that he can say because it is becoming quite the long list but some of his favorites are: please and toons (cartoons) and heavy. He is a great helper and likes to help mommy. But often things are to "heavy" for Creighton to lift on his own and he grunts, "heavy, heavy".

Creighton likes to sit in the largest part of the grocery cart and stack all of the groceries into piles. Then he hands them to me in the check-out line. On Monday we went to 4 stores and at the last one he saw a display of chips and he screamed, "chips, chips!" so he got to have a bag of chips because he had really been a trooper throughout the long morning.

He also likes to help clean all areas of the house except for his own bedroom and when his toys are scattered in the living room, kitchen, basement, stairs, bathroom, etc... His favorite chore is to unload the dishwasher. He likes to put the silverware in the silverware drawer. He attempts to lift out bakeware and then grunts, "heavy, heavy". I am grateful that he is learning to be such a helper.

I am embarrassed to admit Creighton has learned a nasty habit from his mommy. BITING HIS NAILS. Everyone that sees him biting his nails has the same reaction, "Is he BITING his nails?!" Apparently he is the first 2 year old they have ever seen to do that. Yikes. Not quite sure what is worse- biting his nails or sucking his thumb. We have attempted in the last few weeks to stop the thumb sucking. Of course, it has not worked.

A few months back I bought Creighton a froggy potty. NOT because I intended on potty training him immediately. Only to start talking to him about it. Creighton does like to sit on the froggy potty. But even more than that he likes his bear, Mr. Bear, to sit on the potty. It might be effective for Creighton to learn to use the potty by him teaching his bear to use the potty. Creighton's daddy has also taught him to say "potty" words. So now Creighton usually makes an announcement that he is about to go or that he has gone. He also lets us know that he is "stinky".  I am sure that official potty training will begin shortly.

(Creighton doesn't like his picture taken while sitting on the froggy potty.)

However, please don't ask me how the potty training is going. I remember when my sister-in-law was training my niece and everyone would ask her at every family gathering, "How's the potty training?" and she was so sad to have to say things like, "not going well..." "we took a break.." "not yet..." I totally get it. People often ask, "Is Creighton talking more?" I use to have to say, "not really..." "a little..." It is just a reminder that you are working super hard and not seeing any progress!

If I put a strap and buckle on the potty I am sure that he would ALWAYS be on the potty.

Creighton loves buckles. Car seat buckles, high chair buckles, booster seat buckles, shopping cart buckles... you name it. He always INSISTS on being buckled in. A few weeks ago we retired the high chair and got Creighton a booster seat. He just has a fit if he isn't buckled in. But he is a smart little guy and has learned to buckle himself in anywhere. (I'm pretty sure his motto is, "Safety First!") But we have learned that at most restaurants the high chairs have broken belts and that DOES NOT make him happy. He is just distraught about it.

But he has also learned that hugs and kisses make everything better! He gives fabulous hugs and most of the time for no reason at all. He will come up to me and throw out his arms and say, "hugs!" and squeeze me real tight. He gives good kisses too. But lately his kisses have been real wet. He has started kissing like Callie... with his tongue. And he blows raspberries on mommy's arms, neck, cheeks, legs... really any exposed skin. His favorite time to blow raspberries is during sacrament meeting because he always gets many giggles from those sitting near us. 

Everday he is learning something new. It is just amazing. So grateful I have been able to be stay-at-home mommy for the past two weeks and spend TONS more time with my sweet boy.