Happy 4th of July

We didn't celebrate the 4th with parades or bbqs or fireworks this year. The day was mostly marked by doing lots of laundry and getting a bunch of food ready for our trip to Maine. But, we did dress the boys in appropriate colors and had a lovely morning at the farm together. Lewis is an excellent raspberry picker, and we were all very happy to eat the results! It was a warm, cloudy day with great light for pictures, so we got a bunch of neat shots!

Mommy apologizes for not getting as good pictures of the boys with Daddy as we got with Mommy. By the time we swapped, the kids were done!!!

Utah Trip

We were so lucky to take a trip out to Utah during which we had lots of lovely time with family and saw wonderful friends too.

The flight out was great! Amazing, in fact! This was our first paid seat for Lewis. Now, we don’t like having to shell out the extra cash, but having a whole row to ourselves and a seat for him was SO much easier. Lewis was in heaven seeing the plane and the train outside the airport and riding the little “school bus” from the parking lot. In pre-super-security days, I would have planned weekly trips to the airport, just to play. It was such a hit! Beau was a happy camper too. Some friends gave us a little travel cot a couple years ago. We now realize that we never really saw the light on its merits when we just had Lewis. Check out how this thing fit right under the seat! We had a little crib for Beau when he needed to sleep. And, we had a playpen when he was awake. It’s the little things that get us so excited!

Our time at Thurl’s house with Papa John and Didi was just heavenly. Lewis was SO excited to be with his Papa John and Didi and Uncle Thurl. He was also so excited to be in a new place with lots of things to explore. Thurl has the neatest little play house that he built for his kids. He has a big trampoline that Lewis loved. And, he has an actual train that travels on a track around the periphery of his living room. Lewis was in heaven! We had brought out an inflatable baby pool with us. And, Papa John bought two trucks for Lewis to play with. We were set!

While we were out there, we also had a quick visit with Aunt Millie. It was lovely to see her, and we were inspired by her determination and progress.

We snuck in a picnic in the park with a couple of the “Boise Boys” and their families. Lewis became fast friends with Mazzi...well, 2 year old style friends with Mazzi, which meant that she chased him around the fields trying to get him to play with her while he spent time pretending that his truck was digging everything in sight. J

We were also able to spend lots of good time catching up with the “DC family”. That always feeds our souls! Jenn and David had a lovely wedding reception on Thursday evening where we saw DC family friends as well as many other folks we had known in DC or elsewhere. The group got together for a brunch on Friday morning that was lots of fun. And, we were honored to attend the wedding ceremony in the Salt Lake Temple and a dinner reception afterwards. The DC family snuck in our traditional “Friends are Friends Forever” moment. We were just overjoyed at being able to celebrate such a happy union of two amazing, incredible, very special people.

We spent our last day with family. Cat had come up to watch our boys while we attended the wedding. (She’s such an angel! She and Didi both, especially since Lewis decided to climb out of the pack and play instead of napping. So, Cat had to keep him entertained ALL day while Didi played with Beau.) We had fun at the local ward’s 4^th of July parade in the morning. The afternoon brought Lewis’s first ever movie – Cars 2. He started out mesmerized. Climbed on Mommy’s lap at one point because he was scared. Got taken out to the bathroom because Mommy realized he had soaked her through with an overflowing diaper. Ick! Spent the last half delirious and dancing in front of his seat. And only had to leave about 5 minutes early with Daddy because he was just done! Beau loved his first movie too and slept like a champ the whole time! The rest of the day just brought chats together, laughter, memories, and catching up. We had a birthday dinner for Mike complete with Didi’s cherry pie – delish! We just wish it all could have been longer!

Our last weekend with Jaime, Jeff, and Carter

To refresh everyone – Jaime, Jeff, and Carter are our neighbors, and we love them! Jaime, we discovered, also happens to be Mike’s second or third cousin once or twice removed...I can’t ever figure those out! So, they’re stuck with us – we’re family! Jeff just accepted a faculty position at UC Irvine. Sadly, the day we left to fly out to Utah, they moved from Pennington for good. We’re so, so sad. They've been wonderful friends.

The weekend before they left, we went to Howell Living History farm together with the kids. Carter and Lewis especially loved seeing the sheep. It was a gorgeous day, and reminded us how lucky we are to live here. And, how lucky we’ve been to have such good friends living so close by!

Tidbits from our boys

Here are some tidbits and notes from the boys!

April 26, 2011

At the playground today, Lewis started dragging a truck around in the sandbox. As he did that, he said, “Come on cute truck! Come on cute truck!”

Beau has an accomplishment as of yesterday. He used to suck his thumb on just the left hand. Now it looks like he can suck on either side. Ambidextrous thumb sucking! He’s very versatile.

Just yesterday, Lewis started forming questions properly. Before, he would just ask a question through intonation. “I go to the park?” “I eat some cereal?” Now he’s asking me questions all day long. “Mommy, can I climb on the couch?” “Mommy, can I touch this?” My favorite question that he asked many times yesterday was, “Mommy, can I help you?” He wanted to help with the laundry, and help change his diaper...his own diaper that is. He’s a really good helper.

May 3, 2011

Tonight, Beau rolled from his back to his tummy. He’s been a little roller for the past few weeks side to side. All of a sudden, he’s ended up on his tummy, and we’re not sure if he knows how to get off!

May 5, 2011

Today Lewis saw his friend Matthew at the park. They were playing and running around. At one point Lewis sort of tripped on this cement area and fell. I don’t think it hurt too much. He stood up and said, “I’m OK. I’m OK”. Then he looked up at Matthew and held out his hand and said, “You kiss it? You kiss it?” Matthew bent down and kissed his hand. It was so cute!

May 10, 2011

Today we went to the doctor because Beau hadn’t pooped in a week and a half. Prior to that, he hadn’t pooped for a week, and when he did poop, it was really small. So, I had been talking to the nurses and we had tried different things, to no avail. We went to the doctor, and he was nursing just before they called us into the doctor’s room. The nurse weighed him and took his temperature. Then she left and I started nursing him again, and then he went...and boy was it a big one! When the doctor came in, I had to tell her that he hadn’t pooped for a week and a half, but he had just gone that minute. We were all very happy about it though!

I feel so happy and lucky because the last couple days have just been heavenly. This is what life is all about! The weather has just been gorgeous – about 70 degrees and sunny. Yesterday morning, Lewis and I went for a long jog. We saw the sheep in a field behind our neighborhood. Then we ran to the train station and then ran by some water, which he loves. Afterwards we ran to Kunkel Park and spent a couple hours playing at the park. It was so lovely! Then we went home for lunch. In the afternoon the neighbor girls came over and played with Lewis while Mommy managed to finish up a bit of work. Then we went outside and played in the yard and Jaime, Jeff, and Carter came by and we played with them for a bit. We have such a wonderful life! We’re so blessed!

Today we went on a quick errand in the morning and had to take Beau to the doctor. On the way home from there we came by Terhune Orchards. It was 75 degrees and sunny. Lewis wanted to see the horse, and he fed the goats. He played on the tractors, and we had a picnic. It was heavenly! I love my life!

Lewis asked tonight if he could have a cauliflower. He actually meant a dandelion, but he couldn’t remember how to say it. Cauliflower is pretty close...I can see it!

May 16, 2011

Lewis just woke up from a nap, and I could hear him yelling, “Can we go to the farm? Can we go to the farm?” He just wakes up thinking right away of whatever you told him right before bed, and he’s really excited!

May 18, 2011

We have a little problem. Beau has gotten really good at rolling from his back to his tummy, but he hasn’t figured out how to roll back the other way. So, every time I go get him when he’s crying really hard, it’s because he’s on his tummy and he can’t figure out how to get back. Ah dear.

Today as I went to walk down the stairs with Lewis behind me, he all of a sudden said, “Norah, can I hold my hand?” (Which means can I hold your hand.) Too cute!

May 21, 2011

I woke up (at 6:15am) to Lewis saying, “Please, I have a band aid? Can I have a band aid, Norah?” So funny! Then I got Lewis up and gave him his band aid, and he was very excited. I asked him if he wanted to snug in Mommy’s bed, and he said OK. And then he said, “And read books in Mommy’s bed?” I said, yeah! I got him up and he pointed at the door and said, “Go in your crib!”, and then he broke out in laughter at his joke!

May 25, 2011

This morning Lewis wanted to say the prayer for our morning scripture study, and it went something like this:

Dear Heavenly Father, We’re grateful for this day. Thank you for Beau and Mommy and Daddy and Lewis. And...we’re grateful for this day. And, thank you for the trucks and that we saw the train. And for Beau, and Mommy, and Daddy, and Lewis! In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

May 27, 2011

This morning a baby deer sat down just outside our window. I took Lewis to see him. It was very cute!

May 29, 2011

This morning Lewis came into the room. He saw the picture of Jesus hanging on our wall and he said, “That’s Jesus!” I told him that’s right. Then he said, “Jesus on the bus?” I told him that Jesus didn’t really have busses in his time. Then he mentioned a couple other things about Jesus playing with toys and such. And then he said, “And Jesus talks to President Monson”. I told him that’s right. J

June 6, 2011

Daddy was working from home this morning, and he told Lewis, “I need to do my work”. Lewis responded, “You need to do your work? No. You not to do your work. Can you play with my work?”

June 7, 2011

Just a note about Beau. Beau is the cutest ever. He is getting bigger. People are commenting that he looks different. I think he looks more and more Wasden, and I see more of his Daddy in him. I can just get this glimpse that he’s going to be so tall, dark, and handsome. He is still an avid thumb sucker. He tries to fit his entire fist in his mouth from time to time. His little feet are always flexed, and he always has his big toes pointing straight up. He normally sits or lies with his feet crossed and sort of rubs them together, which I’ve realized means I need to keep his big toe nail trimmed really well, otherwise he scratches his feet up.

Beau just came down to Richmond with me. He did wonderfully in the car. He did get fussy at one point, and I started to singing to him to calm him down. Regular songs didn’t quite do the trick, but when I sang his name in, say, a five note scale or in thirds, he calmed right down. So, he definitely recognizes his name. Everyone down in Richmond said he was such a happy baby. He just constantly smiles at everyone, and he’s so, so cute!

People love his name, by the way. I think it’s so easy for little kids to say, that they latch on to it. We have numerous friends from the library or the neighborhood who always talk about “Baby Beau” and want to see “Baby Beau”.

Beau is a little roller. He’s been able to roll very well for a long time. He can now roll well forwards and backwards. Today I was reading books to Lewis before his nap, and Beau started rolling around, and he managed to roll himself right under Lewis’ crib. Lewis hadn’t really noticed, so when I finished reading the book, I asked Lewis if he knew were Beau was. Lewis looked a bit perplexed and distraught, but then he heard Beau under the crib and lay down to find him. He thought that was so funny!

June 8, 2011

Today Lewis and Beau both took a bath together. Lewis was so cute. He was splashing Beau and making him laugh so loudly. Mommy messed it all up because I made Lewis start splashing more gently, but then Beau stopped laughing at him. It was very cute. After the bath, I was struggling to keep Lewis on task to have him dress and get ready. At one point he ran away from me, and next thing I knew, he had somehow opened a bottle of Listerine and he was pouring it all over himself, as well as on the white armchair in his room and down on the rug. Ahhhh!!!! Thankfully Listerine is alcohol based, and it wiped right up! Phew!

Lewis had a haircut tonight and he was really excited for his haircut. As I was finishing, I said to Lewis, “OK. I think I’m just about done”. Lewis exclaimed, “It’s treat time!”

June 9, 2011

Bad news in the world of keeping things clean today. Lewis has figured how to unscrew his sippy cups, even though they sort of have a safety feature. I got him up from his nap and he was all wet. I thought, is that sweat? Did he wet his bed? And then I saw the opened cup. This is going to get interesting!

June 10, 2011

Lewis was just having a whiney moment, and so I told him, “Lewis, you’re being a prima donna!” He told me, “No, I not a donna. I want to eat a donut!”

This afternoon, Lewis asked me, “Can I ask a favor? Can we see pictures on the puter?” (which means the computer) SOOOOOO cute! This little boy is too much!

June 13, 2011

Today Lewis was wearing a pair of shorts that were a tad too big for him. On the way home from the park, I realized that Lewis wasn't with me and turned around to tell him to hurry up. Instead, I saw a very cute little exhibitionist!

June 15, 2011

I’ve just started telling Lewis stories, just like Baba did for me when I was little. So, we do Goldilocks and the Three Bears, The Three Billy Goats Gruff, and we’ve delved into Little Red Riding Hood. Lewis also requests the Noah story, the New York City story, and the Teddy Bear Picnic story. It’s SO cute! He loves it so much that he just sits on my lap mesmerized and gives me so many hugs because he’s just loving it all so much! It’s so cute!!! He calls the Goldilocks story, “Lillylocks”. And, he knows the songs that go in the stories now. And, he likes to pretend to tell the stories himself now too. In fact, after I had finished telling him the Lillylocks story the other day, then I needed to change his messy diaper. While I changed it, he started telling me the story of the poop, because he was still in story telling mode. “And, then, there was a poop!”

We also got to skype with Baba and Gogo the other day before nap time and had Baba tell Lewis the story over skype. It was amazing! We’re half a world away, but Baba and Gogo can still tell Lewis a bedtime story and sing him a song and blow kisses before bed!

When Kristen, our babysitter, left today, Lewis asked, “Oh, where’s Kristen?” I told him that she had to go home. He looked out the window and yelled at the top of his lungs, “Bye, Kristen, Bye, Kristen!” Finally, he threw himself down on the couch and said, “I love Kristen!”

I gave Lewis a new Mr. Elephant Man today because his old one is so disgusting from him chewing on it all the time. I gave him the new one, and he seemed happy. Then he looked a bit quizzical and asked me, “What’s that?” I told him it was Mr. Elephant Man, and he told me, “Yes, you’re right”. But then he tried to eat Mr. Elephant’s Man’s nose when he woke up from his nap. He sort of looked at it like he was a bit confused and then told me, “Oh, that’s yucky!” Just not the same!

June 16, 2011

Yesterday I gave Lewis applesauce with lunch. He had finished one bowl of applesauce, and he wanted more. So, he told me, I want more “apple sausage”. I asked, “Oh, do you want more applesauce?” “No!” he replied, “that’s apple sausage!”

June 21, 2011

Lewis was just looking at this flyer that came in the mail. It has a picture on it of a little girl pushing a toy lawn mower. So, he told me, “That girl is lawnding!” Isn’t that a great verb!!!

Today we read the gospel picture book, which he really likes. He saw a picture of Jesus and the rich man from the story in the New Testament. He pointed to the picture and said, “Oh, does that look like Auntie Mish?”, pointing to the picture of the rich man. Hmmm...maybe...but I’m pretty sure Auntie Mish is MUCH more beautiful than that!

Summer has arrived!

(I wrote this up on June 22^nd, but wasn’t able to get it posted before we left for our trip. So here it is!)

It’s so nice to have the warmer weather back. We’ve spent endless hours at the playground already! It’s such a treat.

Our farm where we have a share is open again for the season. We’re thrilled about that! Lewis is now an expert strawberry picker, choosing the mostly red ones, with a few exceptions. He also is great at pulling off the snap peas. But, his favorite is just playing on all the toys they have for kids at the farm pick-up stand. And, we’re enjoying all our fresh, summer produce again!

Other joys of the summer have included lots of late afternoon play dates with Carter. Our friends Jaime and Jeff, who live across the street, and their son Carter are moving at the end of June. We’re so, so sad. We’ve been trying to soak in the time with them. Lewis has loved playing in their back yard or having barbeques at their house. And, we’ve loved having them drop by for adventures in the baby pool in our back yard or playing with the cars and trucks in the driveway. It will be very sad to see them go!

For Mother’s Day, my love made a wonderful picnic, and we went to Washington Crossing State Park, which is a bit of a tradition. Lewis absolutely loved it because it’s overlooking the river, and he’s obsessed with seeing water. So, he loved seeing the water and the boats. We even saw some see-doos, which he calls skee-doos, and he really liked those. His favorite was seeing the ducks. We taught him how to feed them with bread, and he thought that was really cool. He was really into it, except that he couldn’t throw it close enough to them so they could actually get it. Instead, he would just hold it and sort of lob it at them while furiously running after them yelling, “DUCKS, DUCKS” at the top of his lungs. Of course, they didn’t think that was so great, so they ran away from him. But, he wasn’t deterred! He also ran after some geese and threw rocks in the water. It was a great picnic!

We also had Pennington Day in May, which is our favorite town event! The whole family ran the 5K this year...well, Lewis and Beau in the stroller. We did let Lewis out to run across the finish line at the end, and he loved that!

Mike was able to go out to Utah for a long weekend to attend our friend Jason Boyd’s wedding. We wish we all could have gone! But, Mike had a great weekend at the wedding festivities, and also especially visiting with family there.

We were so lucky over Memorial Day Weekend to have Baba here! He had meetings in Boston leading up to the weekend, so he snuck in a trip to see us too. The weekend was lots of fun! We went on a little, local hike through the woods. We saw two turtles and three frogs, threw lots of rocks in the stream, were bitten by many, many mosquitoes, tromped through a mud-pit when we lost the trail, and generally enjoyed ourselves. Lewis was a champ! That kid has tons of stamina. He walked the whole two hours. Beau, on the other hand, slept through most of it!

Besides that, we went to the local pizza shop together, visited the playground, picked strawberries at the farm, and had lots of time to read books, build train tracks, and play at home. Lewis’s favorite new toy was Baba’s ipod! He and Baba are two peas in a pod, and they spent lots of time watching “Wheels on the Bus” together or “I’ve been working on the railroad”, or whatever other fun apps or videos Baba could find for Lewis! We also went to Pennington’s Memorial Day Parade, which was a hit! I think we must have seen 20 fire trucks!!! Lewis was in heaven! We had fun at our church Memorial Day Picnic, which is always a great tradition.

We even fit in a surprise early birthday party for Mike over the holiday weekend! I had ordered him a bike trailer for the kids, and a hitch for the car. Since I didn’t want to miss a whole month of the summer while waiting for his birthday, and since I was pretty sure I’d never keep them hidden from Mike for that long, we threw a party. Jake, Mish, and the girls came over, and we had a “biker dude” themed party, complete with “biker dude” trivia, pin-the-motorcycle-on-the-road, and a decorated helmet as a party hat! It was fun to all be together. I also have to say that Mommy made a killer key lime pie for dessert. Mmmmmmm!!!!!

At the beginning of June, Mommy took Beau down to the...HOOHAH!!! This year’s Hoohah was in Richmond, where we all attended our 10^th college reunion. Yay Spiders! It was really fun to be back on campus and remember how beautiful it all is and how much fun we had. I saw lots of friends and familiar faces. And, of course, the Hoohah was a delight as always. I love my girls! Beau did wonderfully, surviving the long car trip, and smiling away at everyone he saw!

June has flow by all too quickly. We’ve had gorgeous weather, and we’ve just loved every outdoor minute! Lewis has a new skill – spraying the hose! He’s thrilled with it, and constantly wants to play with the water. He loves filling up the baby pool and jumping in it too. If I let him out of my site when we’re chatting with a neighbor or something, you can be sure that he’ll run back completely soaked having had a lovely jump in the pool! He has learned to water the garden for me, which is very useful. And, he’s only sprayed me and Beau a couple times when he wasn’t supposed to. I’m sure there are many more to come!

A week ago, we spent a lovely Saturday in New York City. Mommy had to go in for a youth temple trip with the kids from church. So, we made a day of it! We spent the morning at the Museum of Natural History with Lewis. He loved the dinosaurs and the huge whale and other sea life. Then, we picnicked in Central Park by the lake. After that, Daddy explored the Lincoln Center with the kids while Mommy went to the temple. And, we all met up at Central Park where Lewis had discovered the water fountains at a great playground area. He was stripped down to his diaper and was having a grand old time! The other treat was that our friend Colleen happened to be in the city as well that day, so she met us at Central Park and spent the afternoon also chasing after wet and sandy Lewis with us. It was so fun to catch up with her. It was just pure sunshine!

Otherwise, Mommy’s been happy to have Lewis play with babysitters for a few mornings so she could get some work done. I still keep up with a bit of work for ETS, and it’s become increasingly more difficult to try and do it with 2 little boys who sometimes give me a good, long, quiet nap time, but sometimes don’t necessarily agree on nap time. So, that’s been really fun for Lewis, and nice for me too!

The last thing that I’ll include is just a note that on Sunday, I will officially be released from my calling serving in the Young Women’s program. It will be an emotional change since I loved working with those girls so much, and just loved working with all the other leaders too. It really was a treat and a blessing. I learned so much about myself and found the work and time to be so fulfilling. So, it feels like the end of an era! It was almost 3 years! But, change is such a good thing, and I’m thrilled for the women who will be stepping in now. They are definitely memories I will treasure.

The month is now drawing to a close, and we’re getting ready to go out of town for a while. We’ll be headed to Utah first to visit Papa John, Didi, Uncle Thurl, and Aunt Cat. While we’re there, we will also get to spend time with the DC family as we celebrate Jenn Lloyd’s wedding! It will be such a treat to be with everyone there!

We fly back from that, will have one day to do laundry and re-pack, and then we drive up to Maine. We’ll stay with Mike’s Aunt Kathleen and Uncle Earl for a few days up there. And then we’ll head to Bar Harbour for Timmy and Katie’s wedding (Norah’s good HS friend). We can’t wait! Not so much for the 12 hour drive with 2 kids part, but we’re very excited for the rest of it!

Happy summer to you all! Happy 4^th of July!