Sunday, May 31, 2009

Lions, and Tigers, and Tiny Balls, oh my!

I love being a mom! I would like to introduce you to the 7th, 8th, and 9th members of the family... Wine Keen (Lion King), and the 2 Tiders (tigers). These are Daniel's FAVORITE toys. They go everywhere with him. They live on the bookshelf in the living room.
He sleeps with them. Ignore the tornado that is his bed, that is a story for another time! They have to be beside him in the car or we can't leave. He thinks I am the meanest mommy because they have to wait in the car when we go to church or to the store. They are pretty easy to have around, though. They don't eat very much, just a bite of mommy's nose or finger now and then. The only problem is that they don't like each other...
They are constantly fighting. The battle always happens on the piano bench, don't ask me why. And it usually ends with Lion King throwing Tiger #1 across the room.
Daniel doesn't have the market cornered on obsessions in this house. Here is Zach's:
Tiny balls...Yep, he finds them everywhere we go. I had no idea there were so many out there, but at almost every store, park, and house he can find one tucked in some random corner. Atleast it is free, but quite often the balls get lost and we are stuck on hands and knees searching under everything to find his lost treasure. Tears are shed and life is OVER until the next tiny discovery is made!
I can blame Michael's obsession on his dad! It all started a few of years ago when Drew let a 2 year old watch scenes from the 1st Spiderman movie! He was hooked. He's had superheros on the brain ever since. Right now it is Spiderman. The little boy next door has a Spiderman costume, and after begging me for days to get him one, he gave up and made one of his own out of paper and scotch tape.
Pretty intimidating, huh?

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Long Weekend Fun

Okay, I know my posts tend to be overloaded with pictures and a little light on the text, so this was going to be my attemt to swing the other way.... but then I got looking at pictures from the holiday weekend and, well...what can I say, I have cute kids! John has passed the one month mark and is growing and changing so much. He smiles now, which is so much fun. He loves to stare at his older brothers. Just hearing one of thier voices makes him stop crying. He loves his baby swing and the vibrating function on his bouncer. Overall he is a pretty laid back kid (like his daddy) unless he is hungry, and then watch out!

We decided to spend the weekend out enjoying the sunshine. We headed up the canyon on Saturday to see the Temple Quarry Trail. Again, a good one for us because it was very stroller friendly.
This is the spot where the church cut granite blocks out of the mountain and hauled them down to build the Salt Lake Temple. Pretty amazing concidering that spot is up the canyon on 94th South. That's a long way to pull a rock!!

The veiw was breathtaking. We were surrounded by tall jagged mountains and rushing waterfalls. The boys, however, were more interested in the wildlife...or really the bugs. Beatles and bees were everywhere. Inchworms were hanging from trees by long silk threads all over the trail. You couldn't see them until you walked smack into them. We had hundreds of hitchhikers.
There were huge bolders all along the way for the boys to climb on. I wasn't too thrilled about this one because on the other side it overlooked the roaring river. Drew was snapping pictures and I was waving my arms and yelling not to move any higher. We looked ridiculous!


Then, on Monday, we decided to walk the Jordan River Trail and play at the parks along the way.




Throwing rocks in the water was a big hit, and... we had to look for more bugs.
This was the catch of the day. Michael was pretty proud of himself and had to stop anyone we passed to show-and-tell. I was public enemy #1, because I informed him there was NO way this bug was living in our house! I have a strict catch and release policy when it comes to creepy crawlies! Luckily he forgave me when he found 2 potato bugs on our front porch!

Monday, May 18, 2009

Adventures at City Creek Canyon

John is almost 4 weeks old! I can't believe how fast the time is flying by. Here is a pic from our first Sunday back to church. Now that life is finally settling back down to normal we decided it was time to get out as a family again. Saturday was a beautiful sunny day, so we headed out to City Creek Canyon to go exploring. The boys had a good time chasing butterflies, getting "attacked" by friendly dogs, and climbing on anything and everything!







There were lots of snack breaks!
That looks safe!

I had to put in a pic of John, just to prove that he was there too. He slept almost the whole time. If you look close you can see poor Michael's injured hand. He had to make sure it got in the shot! There was just too much to look at to keep an eye on where he was going.

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

He's finally here!

We welcomed 10 lb 22 inch baby John Maxwell into the world April 22 at 1:13 am. The Dr was concerned about a few things, so they had the NICU nurses in our room for the delivery. I don't think those nurses were used to handling a baby as big as John. They all just kept saying, "He's so big. He's so BIG!"
His head, measuring at a whopping 37 cm, was bigger than the tape measure!
Here's the proof... 10 lbs!
Okay, don't judge... I just gave birth to a TANK!
The boys were thrilled to meet thier new brother.

Thank goodness Grandma Goostrey was there. My water broke at home and three hours later John was out! We would have been in big trouble without my mom coming down from Boise a week early to help out.

I think Daniel likes the idea that he is no longer the little guy in the house. He is constantly asking to hold John. And everytime I turn around he is snuggling up to the baby and piling his favorite blankets and toys on his baby bro.

Another picture of a very tired mommy!
Awww, so cute!
Does it get any better than this?