It has been a while since I wrote last. I feel bad about that. No excuses, I just stopped being consistent about this. But I love what this habit does to my attitude about the boys and being a mom, so I thought I'd start writing about the boys again ... here it goes:

Noah

1. He has this ritual, as of late, to pray for all of our ailments. Which is wonderful and thoughtful, however, he never takes into account that we heal and no longer need prayers in our behalf for an illness we had a few months ago, but he keeps praying for my throat (I had a sore throat at the beginning of February), Liam's eye (which he got stitches for in October of last year), and his own cough (which he currently suffers from). The other night he was listing the ailments off and he peeked out of one eye and whispered to Daniel, "Daddy, do you have anything wrong with you?" Daniel answered 'no' and so Noah ended his prayer.

2. He has begun to get embaressed about things. I knew this day would come. It's too bad. I love seeing children in their tactless way ask questions, take off their shoes in public and pick their noses. It's hilarious. Once about 2 weeks ago we went to the gym and I told Noah to take his snow boots off when we got there. He stood there motionless, got a scrunched up look on his face and whispered in my ear, "But then I will just be wearing my socks!" He seemed mortified by the idea. I told him it was OK and he took off his boots. Today at preschool it was "wear your favorite hat day", so Noah showed up in a hard hat form our dress ups. As we waited to go in, he noticed that some kids weren't wearing hats. He asked me why and I said they probably forgot to. That was not enough for him. He approached one of his teachers and asked, "Isn't it favorite hat day today?" She answered 'yes' and he seemed satisfied with that. sigh. He is getting older and concerned with what others think. He will waste so much time on that over the next 20 years.

Liam

1. Liam has become my little friend. He clearly enjoys my company over everyone else's, including Daniel's. But besides that, we spend every moment with each other. Noah will go to preschool and Liam and I will go shopping together, go to the gym together, or hang out at home together. I remember this time happening when Noah was about the same age. When they are 2, they aren't old enough to do very much alone, but they can walk and talk and go with me everywhere, so they do. And so Liam does. He is a fun pal, most of the time. He gives me lots of love and kisses and snuggles. He holds my hand when we walk. I like all of that.

2. We dropped off Noah at preschool yesterday and then headed to the gym. I turned on some music in the car. Liam requested a song. He asked for "Bust it" (Bust a Move). Right at the beginning of the song a guy says "Bust it!" I replayed that beginning over and over again until both Liam and I were laughing outloud. It was fun. Liam has a good laugh. It's not very loud, but it tumbles out of him in a melodious way. Almost a chuckle though. And he always gets hiccups when he laughs too hard. It's adorable.

Noah

1. Tonight at the dinner table I said, "Noah, your eyes are just glowing!" and Noah said, "what is glowing?" I said, "glowing is like shining". Noah stopped and thought for a few seconds, then I saw something go 'click' in his little brain and he busted out into song and sang, "I am like a star shining brightly! Shining for the whole world to see! I can do and say happy things each day for I know Heavenly Father loves me". It was a glorious moment.

Liam

1. He is currently saying "wook! I daw noah un daddy, wook!" He's sitting in the little vintage school desk I got at a recent mom to mom sale and drawing lines with a pencil on a paper. He keeps bringing it over to me and holding it about 1 inch form my eyeball and saying, "wook!"

Noah


1. Yesterday while sitting at the dinner table Noah said this, “Mommy, I’m SO glad you had me. Because if you only had one Liam and not Noah then you would just have one Liam. And that would be sad.” “Why?” I asked and Noah said, “Because Liam is super, super, super, super mean”. He’s right. Liam has been a living terror for the last little while – screaming, tantruming, hitting … ugh, the terrible twos. I guess Noah is noticing it too.

Noah

1. We have a Primary Music CD in our car and listen to it everyday now. Today we were listening to the song "The Church of Jesus Christ" and Noah was singing it at the top of his lungs. He stopped singing halfway through the song and said, "Mommy? Did you hear me 'yell-singing'? I was doing that because I love Jesus. He's the coolest guy ever. He could walk on water!" It was an awesome moment.

2. I called Daniel when I was on my way home tonight. He told me that Noah was sitting there on the couch "reading" his joke book in preparation for the Ward Variety Show on Saturday. That brought a huge grin to me face. Noah is our little comedian.

Liam

1. His toes are wonderful. His little feet are still chubby and he has cankles.

Noah

1. Sometimes Noah says things wrong. Here are two from today:

 without - "with-about"
poison ivy - "poison and ivy"

Liam

1. Last night while in the car I put on a Primary music CD to listen to. Liam LOVED it. His favorite songs were: Follow the Prophet, Sunbeam, Give Said the Little Stream, and Popcorn Popping. My favorite part was listening to him sing the chorus to Follow the Prophet. He sang, "fah-woah a pofet .... eee no a waaaaay!" It was awesome. He even raised his voice in pitch at the end. Totally adorable.

Noah

1. Our next door neighbors have a grandson named Adam. Adam is just a few months younger than Noah. Five minutes ago I heard some pounding at my front door - it was Adam. He wanted to know if Noah could come and play at his Gramps' house in their pool (wading pool). Noah was so excited. He threw on some swim trunks, I gave him a towel and had him wear his hat and as I was smearing sunblock on his body, Adam was staring at us in our front room from outside the clear galss storm door. It was totally cute. I love that Noah has friends, and that they can play next door and I can look out my window and see them laughing and jumping around. Yeah for Noah. I'm glad he's enjoying the sun outside.

Noah

1. Today Noah came up to me and said, "Mommy, I want to live right next to the beach so I can have a beach life" ... kid after my own heart. I want that too Noah ... sooooo badly. I'll work on it :)

2. He was so happy today because the Ordaz boys came over to play. When Noah gets excited he usually hurts himself and others. He flips around and kicks the air and runs around and waves his arms wildly .... ahhh, it's really crazy. He hasn't played with the Ordaz boys for over a month because they've been on vacation and so this morning when I saw him freaking out with happiness, I just smiled. He just couldn't contain himself and I guess I couldn't really blame him.

3. Noah, Antonio and Alejandro were talking at the lunch table (in and of itself ... that is awesome to watch). You have to see their faces. Antonio usually has a furrowed brow as he talks very seriously about pretty much everything. Alejandro smiles a lot and jokes. Noah is the most dramatic. His eyes get big, he uses his hands to talk and speaks with major inflection in his tone .... so hilarious. They were discussing the solar system, specifically the sun. Noah interjected, "the sun is not just a sun ya know. It's a  (dramatic pause) star (said very slowly)" The boys said they knew that. Noah continued sharing factoids when he said, "Saturn is the planet with the rings around it". The boys then went on to discuss that other planets had rings too .... the knowledge was flowing over lunch today.

Liam

1. He's talking so much lately and I can actually understand most of it. When I heard him waking up after his nap, I went in to get him and I was on the phone with Daniel (who has been out of town all week in Colorado, backpacking with Eric and Ian). I asked Liam if he wanted to talk to Daddy, he said, "yeah". He usually just says "hi", "gee" (good) and "yeah" to all questions/conversation on the phone, but this time when daddy asked about what he did with the Ordaz boys Liam came up with "payee ties" (playing with toys). Good for you Liam! I love your sweet face.

2. The weather was so incredibly wonderful tonight that we got Wendy's and went to a nearby park to eat dinner and play inthe sunshine. I set us up on the only bench left at the park not being used. It was directly in the sun. Liam sat down and went to take a swig of his chocolate milk. As he raised the drink, he was staring right at the sun. I watched him. He put the drink down, looked upset, then tried raising it again, this time with eyes tightly shut, but he gave that up just as quickly. He turned to me and said, "Mommy, eee sun eyes". I told him to stand up and turn around and try again. He said, "ok". He did it again, not facing the sun but with eyes still squeezed shut. Halfway through his drink he popped open one eye cautiously, then happily opened the other eye as he ralized it was safe. I love watching this little person figure stuff out. It's beautiful. You can almost see the wheels turning in their head as they think through problems in front of you and I love it.

3. Liam doesn't like to get dirty. A few days ago, we were at a park. Liam was wearing his flip flops. I watched him as he walked around the park. He kept getting tanbark in his flip flops and everytime he did (which was about every 15 seconds) he would stop, rip off his flip flop, pick it up to his mouth and blow on the flip flop to get the tanbark off, then throw the shoes down and try to slide his foot in. This only worked a few times, then he must've gotten too sweaty, because his fat little feet had tanbark stuck to them and when he'd throw the shoe down and try to slip his foot in them, his foot was covered in tanbark. He looked so frustrated and deflated when he yelled out to me to help.

OK, I feel bad in just posting a sad movie, so here's a few good ones too, so it balanced out a bit ...

This is what Liam did when Noah and I asked him to dance:

Singing Liam:

There's one more video of Liam re-situating his "beek-ink" (blanket) for like 3 minutes and singing, it's great, but I'll have to post it later.

2 year old Liam

Liam has been pretty ridiculous these days. He gets upset and screams all. the. time. It has been tough. I know you are all saying, "what?? Sweet little Liam? Angel face Liam? He wouldn't!" So ... I am documenting it with this little video. This is so indicative of what my days are like. Little fights and screaming fits are the norm around here lately. It happens about 15 times a day, maybe more like 27 times .... hmmm, tomorrow I'll count.

Since pretty much the only people that read this blog are my sisters and mom, I feel safe in posting this video. It is sad:

Noah

1. This morning Daniel made eggs and pancakes for breakfast and let me sleep in. I hobbled into breakfast this morning in my jammies and the boys were already eating with Daniel. Noah leaned way down in his seat so his foot would reach mine under the table and tapped my toes with his. I asked why he did that and he replied, "I was just giving your toes a high five with my toes. It's called a toe high five!"

Liam

1. Repeats everything we say, especially Noah. It's just priceless to listen to his interpretation of what was just said. He sounds like someone from another country or something because his English vowels are usually wrong and so he pronounces things wrong. I tell him he is the cutest little foreigner ever, because he is.

Noah

1. The difference between boys and girls: "Girls wear leggings and boys have adams' apples", "Girls and boys are different when we go to church. Girls wear skirts and boys wear fancy pants. And they wear different shoes. Girl shoes have different stuff on them and boys have nothing.", "Girls have curly hair and boys have spikey hair".

2. We had a rough morning filled with errands to run - Costco trip, JoAnn's to use my coupons and the library to return overdue books. It was stressful. Liam was really the worst - crying, yelling, dumping bottles of water on everything in our cart and pinching Noah's cheek so hard it left a scratch mark (more like nail marks). So we came home and Liam went straight down for a nap and Noah played outside. Noah has very good ears. He hears stuff before I do 80% of the time. He can hear Daniel drive up, neighbors talking outside, birds, other animals and .... the ice cream truck. I felt so bad for Noah after the morning of rough trips that when he heard the ice cream truck and asked for ice cream, I said, "sure". We both ran outside and the ice cream truck was nowhere to be seen or heard. I thought maybe Noah had made a mistake, until 30 seconds later, the ice cream truck came around the bend way down at the end of our street. Noah's hearing is phenominal. Noah was pumped. He got the Shrek ice cream. He was so excited that after he got his ice cream, he just started talking to the teenager who was driving the truck. He told him Liam scratched his face and that he was excited about his ice cream and "goodbye". It was great. Noah looked happy and it made me happy.

Noah

1. He kept his "Sunday hat" on all day today at church.

2. Today in Primary I was in charge of giving the sharing time lesson and leading singing time. We were talking about the miracles Jesus performed and specifically about the ten lepers. I asked if anyone in the Junior Primary (kids from 3-7 years old) knew what a leper was. Noah's hand shot up. I called on him and he said, "I know about lepers because you told me about them on the way to church one day. There are ten of them." I love him so much.

3. Noah loves to help. And sometimes he's actually helpful. Today after church he helped Daniel take the dishes out of the dishwasher and then helped me by licking the cookie dough off the spatula. What a good helper.

4. Noah sounded out the word "dog" in Sacrament meeting today. He's so smart. He spent the majority of Sacrament meeting drawing letters and numbers on his magnetic drawing board. But really, his favorite thing to do with letters is to write out a line of letters that nowhere even comes close to resembling a word and then asks Daniel (because I refuse to do this anymore) to sound it out and tell him what it says. It usually comes out sounding pretty funny and Noah loves it.

Liam

1. He asked for and wore his "Sunday hat" all day.

2. He makes what Daniel refers to as "friendly eyes" at people. He tries to catch peoples' eyes by staring at them and not saying a word, once they look his eyebrows raise and he smiles all demurely ... oh man, it is so fantastic to watch. Sometimes people (and when I say "people", I really mean individuals who are trying to listen to the talks in Sacrament meeting and sitting in the rows behind us) will smile back at him or wave or something. When they do this, he usually laughs. It is gorgeous to watch. What a little flirt.

3. I am going to get in a car accident someday because Liam is so gosh darn beautiful. It's easy to appreciate his gorgeous little face when we're on the way home from church because it's holding very still and looking ever so serene. I looked back to check on the boys at a stop light and noticed Liam just staring out the window, holding prefectly still. I took a silent picture in my mind of the light illuminating his eyes, cheeks and lips. It was so breathtaking. As I stared, he turned and looked at me with his huge, dark brown eyes deepset under his little eyebrows. A tiny, tired smile stretched across his lips just slightly before he turned back to the window. Just so pretty. I kept looking back to catch more glimpses the rest of the car ride home. It was so tempting to watch him and not the road.

Noah

1. His Playlist right now:
21 Guns - GreenDay
Life is Highway - Rascal Flatts
Hey Soul Sister - Train
Un Do It - Carrie Underwood
I'm Yours - Jason Mraz
Glitter in the Air - Pink

2. Noah is my little pal. I had to go to Kinkos tonight and get some color copies and laminate some stuff for the boys. I took just Noah with me. He stood very close to me and hugged my arm for about a minute before he warmed up to the place and started wandering around. He was first drawn to the greeting cards. He would find silly ones with a dog wearing a hat on the front and point it out to me. He made friends with the ladies behind the counter, syaing "hi" and talking about Liam (like they should know who he was). He helped out with cutting the papers and laminated tags. Then one of the Kinkos ladies behind the counter asked Noah to come help her do something. I finished up at the cutting counter before I walked over to see what they were up to. Noah was sitting there, chatting casually with the lady and using the price tag gun to show the sale price on the snickers bars. I offfered to buy him one and the lady said we could have it because Noah worked for it. My little Noah. What a pal.

3. Today Noah asked me about telescopes (I have no idea where he even heard about telescopes). He asked if they could see through trees and buildings. I said no. He asked if they could see the universe. I said yes. I think he knew the answers before I said them. Sometimes I feel like he's just testing me or something. What a little man.

Liam

1. His Playlist right now:
I asked Liam what his fravorite song was and he said, "un-doit! ... truck, firetruck .. firetruck song" - I think he got distracted ...
Un Do It - Carrie Underwood
My Little Buttercup
Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam
Barges

2. He LOVES to play ball outside. I will find him in the backyard just throwing balls around all by himself. Tonight Daniel was throwing footballs to the boys. Liam had the most serious face on as he would wind up and then toss the football. He throws pretty far for a 2 year old. He walked over to me with the football in his hand and he looked very serious. He started "explaining" something to me. I honestly have no idea what he was saying but he was so focused and so serious and he ended his explanation by stamping his fat foot so hard on the cement I expected him to flinch in pain, but he didn't. He just looked at me from beneath his eyebrows with a slightly menacing look and lips slightly pursed. Oh man, it was so awesome.

3.  Liam doesn't like cold or hot food. He likes everything to be luke warm. Tonight after dinner, we had ice cream cones (yes, I have cones in my pantry ... what?! Noah is a bad influence at the grocery store ... especially when they're only $1.50). Everyone got an ice cream cone with one scoop. Liam licked away at his for a few minutes before putting it down and saying, "eee ah-nt mee pah-tah" (I want more pasta). We gave him some, then he said, "eee ah-nt wah-ee-men" (I want watermelon). How awesome is that? To have a 2 year old that asks for pasta and watermelon over ice cream?! I love my healthy little Liam.

Noah

1. I was working on some stuff on the computer and Noah and Liam were in the office with me, doing crafts. They were cutting and gluing and taping. Anyway, Noah says, "I'm going to make a kite for Haley, you know Haley?" I said, "yeah, I know Haley. How are you going to make a kite?" And Noah says, "You know, easy. Like this" and he started cutting out paper and a piece of string. He's an awesome little crafter.

Liam

1. I was changing Liam's diaper and he started making conversation while I worked on a pretty heinous poopy diaper. He said, "Noah eee tine out", I said, "Yup, Noah's on time out". Liam says, "Noah cuh mommy's peepee", "Yes, Noah did cut mommy's paper. Was that good or bad?" ... "bad!" He totally gets it these days. I think he really understands most of what's going on now.

2. While dressing Liam for church yesterday he got away from me and ran over to his closet, then pointed up with his fat finger and said, "Sunay hut!" (Sunday hat). So I got his awsome Easter hat down and let him where it to church. It is a light blue, white and gray striped newsie hat that Aunt Christina let us borrow for a while. Since Liam was wearing his hat, it inspired Noah to wear his and my boys looked so awesome at church yesterday .. that got lots of compliments. Liam has style.

Noah

1. I told Noah that we needed to buzz his hair, so he had to take off his shorts and tshirt. Noah quickly responded, "I can't do that! Then everyone will think I'm wicked". I asked why he thought that and he said, "Because I will be outside in just my underwear!" Such a modest little man.

Liam

1. Liam got up this morning, ate some vitamins, had some juice and a little breakfast, then walked around for a while, then asked Daniel, "eee nap, daddy, nap!" He only wanted to be awake long enough to eat and take a small break before he was ready to be unconcious again. What 2 year old is like this?! It's hilarious. Nobody else's 2 year old asks to be put down for a nap at 8:30 am after sleeping for 12 hours until 7:30 am. It's awesome and funny and a little weird all at the same time.

Good Boys

I wanted to add a little side note to my boys:

I remember holding a grudge against my parents until a few years ago. I thought they really did me wrong. I  felt I was unjustly punished and never understood. I felt like I was a "bad kid" and I didn't like that. A few years ago, I was visiting my family for Christmas in California and my whole family (parents, sisters, bros-in-law) went to the Oakland temple together. It was a wonderful experience. While in the Celestial Room, my dad came up to me. He sat down next to me and just said, "I am sorry for any mistakes we might have made as parents. I hope you forgive us. We did the best we could and I know we made mistakes and I'm sorry for that." I sat there and wept. I hugged my dad and all was forgiven. I have not thought another bad thought about my growing up years.

I want my boys to know that in case I forget to tell them: they are good boys - no, they are great boys and I love them very much. I want them to know that they are incredibly smart and loving and are capable. I am doing my best at being a mommy and I make a LOT of mistakes. I yell. I get frustrated. I take out my sadness on them. My boys should know it's not their fault.

I have dealt with depression for a long time now. I think it's genetic. I spent the better part of the past 8 years of my marriage trying to find out why I am sad. I blamed Daniel for a few years, then I blamed pregnancy and Noah, then I blamed Liam and having two kids as being too much for me. I blamed my circumstances, my stress, my callings and I have finally found out that I am just sad sometimes and it is nobody's fault. I simply feel depressed sometimes and that can feel like: anxiety, frustration, anger and deep sadness at times. To my boys, I must seem very hard to please, like they can do nothing right. I do not want them to feel that way.

I'm sorry boys. I love you. You are the highlight of my life, as is your daddy, Daniel. I will do my best not to blame anymore, but to move forward and work harder to be grateful and happy. You are so beautiful. I can see your little spirits radiating everyday. You are excited about everything and you are so funny. You are open, honest and sincere. You are my little buddies, my friends that I hang out with everyday. You try to make me happy and I love you for that. Whenever you see me crying, you always come close, hug me, kiss me and Noah even tells me, "Why are you crying? Why are you sad?", "I care about you Mommy", "I love you Mommy". Thanks. I love you too.

Noah

1. Daniel isn't coming home tonight because he has school until 9 pm, so the boys don't get to see him before bedtime. So, our schedule is off a little and we found ourselves having a late lunch at 4 pm and at target looking at toys around 5 pm. Noah has been earning money slowly over the past 6 months or so doing "extra chores". Noah has his own chore chart, but in order to earn money, he has to do "extra chores" and after looking at all the toys at target tonight, he was motivated to do "extra chores" galore! Since we'v been home, he has cleaned up the front room, cleaned his room, made his bed, cleared off the kitchen table and currently, he is vacuuming the kitchen floor. He keeps hopping around and asking me for more chores to do so he can earn money and go back to Target to get one specific truck that he latched on to. I love it. He has goals.

2. I had to sit down with Noah and break the news to him that even if he earned all the money he needed tonight, we weren't going back to Target until tomorrow. He was very worried that the truck he wanted would get taken by somebody else. I remember feeling that way. Infact, I can recall feeling that way as early as a few months ago at a mom to mom sale. I stood in line shifting my weight from one foot to another, counting the women in line ahead of me and wondering if they'd find that perfect set of boys' clothing that I needed for MY boys. It's funny. I wonder if Noah or I will ever learn how to be patient and calm.

Liam

1. While at Target, Liam foundthis little "finger skateboard". It's a tiny skateboard about 1 inch wide and 3 inches long. It came with a set of extra wheels, a tiny screwdriver and stickers to decorate the board with. It was $2.50. Liam found the same kind of "finger skateboard" in the sand while we were camping this past weekend and held on to it for two days before loosing it somewhere. So when Liam saw this skateboard in the store .... he got very excited. His face lightened up, he pointed his fat pointer finger and yelled, "WOOK! Mommy, wook! bate-board! bate-board!" He grabbed it and carried it around for the entire 20 minutes we were at Target. When we started for the check out lines, I told him we had to get money from his piggy bank if he wanted it and we could come back. He looked confused and clutched the skateboard tighter. It was as if he sort of knew what I was getting at, but wasn't sure and wasn't taking any chances with letting his skateboard go. I told him again we didn't have his money with us and to leave the skateboard. His face switched from confusion and anger to total sadness. He looked like he was going to cry. I couldn't take it. I bought it for him and said we'd take the money from his piggy bank when we got home. I am a wimp. Liam is too cute. And he has not let that skateboard out of his sight all night. Worth it.

Noah

1. Today I asked Noah to draw me some "space pictures" so I could frame them and hang them up in his room as decoration. He asked what he should draw and I said, "How about a spaceship with windows and lots of people inside, looking out the windows?" Noah immediately corrected me, "Mommy, people aren't in spaceships, only ASTRONAUTS are in spaceships". He's too smart for me these days.

2. Noah needs a Daniel in his life, just like I do. Right now, I am in the office typing away and all I can hear is Noah speaking non-stop at Daniel. I don't even hear Daniel responding, but Noah has been a run-on sentence for about 20 minutes now. He came into the office about 5 minutes ago and said, "I'm playing Family Home Evening with Daddy. I am telling him stories. I already told him all of the story of the fireman and the firetruck and the dog." He just loves it when Daniel comes home and he can just talk and talk and talk at him. I feel the same way.

Liam

1. I was showing the "space pictures" to Daniel. We were doing this in the bathroom because the boys were in the bath. I asked Noah what one of the pictures was of and Noah said, "It's a spacer sausage" (he means flying saucer) to which Liam quickly jumped in and said, "eee ont sausage peash" (I want sausage please). I think Liam only knew what sausage was because we had some on our camping trip for breakfast with eggs. It is so funny that my little eater, Liam, wanted to put in a request for food as soon as he thought it was available.

2. Today it was hot - in the 90's and like 120% humidity, so we were mostly staying indoors, except for Liam. Liam is such a little man. He likes to putter around in the garage and throw balls and do manly man stuff, all the time. Today I was outside transplanting my little tomato plant and Liam came up to me with one of Daniel's leather work gloves that was on the work bench in the garage and asked "on?". I said he could put it on and so he did. Then he ran into the garage and grabbed a football, ran back to me and said, "ee catch? ... guv ... beeball" (want to play catch? I have my glove and football). Such a little athlete - even in 90 degree weather.

Noah

1. Out of the blue, Noah walks in fro outside in the backyard and we have this conversation ...

Noah:  "Are tigers visus?"
Me: "vicious?"
Noah: "Yeah ... can squirrels, racoons and tigers be visus?"
Me: "yeah, they can"
Noah: "why are they visus?"
Me: "I don't know"
Noah: "maybe because they don't like you"

Yes, you're reading this right .... my daily blog has been neglected for a week ... am I going to try and catch up you ask? No. I'm moving on ...

Noah

1. The conversation Noah and I had in the car ride to the gym this morning:

Noah: Mommy, I think I am going to say a little prayer now.
Me: OK
Noah: Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this day and oh Lord and in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. Mommy, I'm done.
Me: OK, that was a nice prayer.
Noah: Did you know that Tow Mater says "oh Lord" even when he's not saying a prayer? That's bad right? You only say "oh Lord" when you're talking to Heavenly Father in a prayer, right?
Me: right, Noah, you are very smart. Good job.
Noah: yeah.

2. Tonight we all went and swam at Aqua Tots as a family because it was "bring a friend to Aqua Tots" night - so me and Noah were the friends. Noah had a noodle under his arms and I was holding his tummy up as he swam around the pool. He turned to me after several minutes of this and said, "Can you let go of me Mommy?" My little fearless Noah. I hope he doesn't seriously hurt himself one of these days being so fearless.

3. Emma Butler came over with her mommy and little sister, Katie, to have a play date with us this afternoon. Noah and Emma played outside. I have a hard time differentiating between a sad cry and laughing really hard sometimes, when it comes to kids. You'd think that wouldn't be hard to tell the difference bewteen, but if you have kids, you know what I mean. So Emma was laughing hard at Noah and Noah just LOVED it. He did the same little flip on the swing set over and over again just because Emma was laughing so hard at him. Noah glows from the inside out when people find him funny. I know how he feels.

Liam

1. He calls every truck we pass a "fire truck" and requires me to repeat what he's saying so he knows I know what he's saying. It's pretty distracting to do this while I'm driving because we see a truck about every 30 seconds. It's amazing I haven't been in an accident, but I count y blessings - Liam is talking so much these days!!

2. Liam loves his bed (crib). I don't know how we will ever convince him to move into a "big boy bed" one of these days, he just seems so completely content in his crib. And I know this because for the past two days, Liam has had 4 hour naps! And I finally go in to his room to rouse him and find him lying there with a serene look on his face, his blanket in his hands and a grin when he sees me. And yesterday when I finally pulled him out of his bed he said, "no, bed! bed!" ... this kid is totally awesome.

3. Liam calms himself and lulls himself to sleep by gripping the softest, fleecy part of his favorite blanket in his hands and rubbing it ever so gently across his lips and fingertips. The other day I noticed him dragging around his blanket. He stopped in his tracks in the middle of the office when he looked down and saw an old scrape on his knee. He bent over and carefully rubbed his blanket across his knee. It was hilarious. Then I started noticing him rubbing his blanket gently against several other items - a stuffed animal, some legos and me. He's sharing the love I guess.