happy wednesday (humpday)!

What makes me happy today?

• Em is home from her adventures with Grandma and Pa in Massachusetts visiting Miles.  I really missed that sweet girly.  She's definitely 3 though - she's been working me since about 10 minutes after she got home last night.  
• Van walking around in jeans and no shirt behind me.  He loves to be "nakey" and I love that he loves to be nakey.  What a boy.  
• Trunk or Treat is tonight at church.  Halloween is the lamest holiday.... until you have kids!  :)
• My friend had baby #5 last night.  1 boy, 4 girls.  She's such a good mom and I'm thankful to have her as my friend.  And they all have J names - that makes me happy too.  They are a great family. 
• The scriptures.  I had a really good scripture study just standing at my bathroom counter reading this morning.  Aaron and I had a conversation the other day about "feasting" (click for scripture reference) on the scriptures and how when you go to a feast you don't necessarily have to stuff yourself full to enjoy the feast - it's savoring what you do eat.  That's totally scripture study for me - I don't necessarily have the lack of interference right now (ahem - kids) to sit down and study like a professional scriptorian.  I don't get much out of the scriptures if I just read them, but if I really pay attention and savor what I read, my feast is complete the the spirit of my day is completely different.  
• My grandparents are back for the winter.  They winter here and I just love having them around.  They are amazing people and I love that my kids know and love them too. 
• And this picture from a few weeks ago makes me happy.  Little goofballs in my dryer. 

happy humpday - van turns 2!

My not-so-baby boy turns 2 tomorrow.  On this Humpday I'll write about Van because HE makes me happy! 

• For a long time he's been attempting basically any word you ask him to try... except his name.  He finally gave it a go about a month ago and he calls himself "Dan".  So funny.  So he'll repeat things like "Van's smart" which comes out as "Dan's mart".  Or "Vanny happy" - "Danny happy!".  We love our little Dan. 
• He loves trucks more than anything in the world.  Truck is definitely his most used word. 
• Second to trucks is probably bikes.  He's a pretty aggressive little peddler.  
• He loves water - water in the pool, water in the ocean, water in a drinking fountain, water in the sprinklers, water in the street, water in a mud puddle at the park, water in the sink, water in the hose.  He's my water baby, for sure. 
• He loves to identify things that belong to people - if something is pink he tells me its' "Emmy's".  He likes to find my shoes and say "Mommy's shoes".  Daddy's briefcase is a no no and he loves to point at it (and let's be honest, get into it) and say "Daddy's case".  He loves "Ma's puse" (Grandma's purse) because it has mints and the iPhone.  He loves "Pa's tuck" (Grandpa's truck).  He identified something as his for the 1st time today, too.  He likes to identify people, too - his friends, Emery's friends, this weekend it was Mark who we went camping with.  Every time he saw him he'd shout - "Mark!"
• This little non-verbal guy has surprised his mom by learning over half of the alphabet already.  
• He loves to count things, which always sounds about like, "2, 2, 2, 6!"  
• He loves colors - he knows white and purple always and everything else he guesses as pink (he's had lots of exposure to pink because Em always wants pink EVERYTHING).  He's a lot better if he's picking out colors out of small groups.  Then he gets most of them right.  He did tell me today though that his favorite color is blue when I asked him. 
• He loves one on one time with mom.  He likes to do things like coloring and puzzles, as long as he's sitting on my lap.  :)
• He's really learning to follow directions well and is getting really coordinated.  
• He loves to kiss Emery's princesses.  
• He can be a sensitive little guy and sometimes gets really upset when someone bumps into him or when mom accidentally bumps his head.  Sometimes he gets down right angry!  We've started calling him "anger management".
• This kid is WILD!!  I've been told he spends all of nursery trying to escape.  He only sits still for an occassional Blue's Clues episode ("Dues Dues") - and by sit still I mean crawl/walk around my bed throwing pillows on the floor and climbing in and out of the blankets.  And jumping until mom catches him doing it.  He doesn't focus on anything yet.  We're working on it.  :)
• He loves to jump and climb on EVERYTHING!  He spends a crazy amount of time just jumping around the house.  
• He loves to kiss ouchies better and have his kissed better too.  
• He quit napping.  Why do my kids do that at 2? 
• He loves to dance and sing.  He loves to sing the last word of songs that have a big finish and hold the note forever.  He will run around the living room in circles for forever laughing (aka dancing) if I'll sit and play piano to accompany him. 
• He's getting very independent and loves to do things him "self", and he tells me so frequently.  He likes to walk by himself (in his own direction, away from mom...), get into his car seat himself and if you try to interfere you're going to get a piece of Van's mind.  :)
• He loves meat, rice, fruit, burritos, sandwiches, broccoli, sweet potatoes... well lots of things really.  I've been blessed with another good eater.  If I could get rid of the pesky milk, egg, soy and nut allergies this kid would eat anything!

Happy Birthday, Vander Mander!   You have no idea how happy we are to have you in this family.  Mommy's heart is so full with you in it. 

His birthday morning set up (2 days early since dad was to be out of town on the real birthday!)

with his presents

I asked for a happy cake face and I got this - he loves to do happy and sad faces.  Here's sad....

And here's happy!  Silly boy!

beach and camping with Mark and Bek

We celebrated our 6th anniversary on Friday by going to California for the weekend and had so much fun!  On Friday we went to Leo Carrillo State Park and enjoyed a very warm beach day (until some crazy fog rolled in and it got cold!), tide pools with anemones, crabs, snails and star fish, sand castle building, caves and just being together.  We had never been to the beach (a CA beach) with the 4 of us together and it was so fun!  Emery loved playing in the sand and making friends with all of the little girls on the beach and Van loved running and splashing in the water. 

crazy face kids

crazy face mom

crazy face dad

six years - i love this furry man

Then we headed to hang out with our favorite California hosts, Mark and Bekah.  We stayed up way to late talking as usual, visited the canals in Venice (which were AMAZING!), went to Venice Beach - aka the human zoo, then drove to Malibu Creek Canyon for some camping.  So glad we could carry on that tradition this year again.  Thanks for another fabulous California adventure - we love you guys!

4 car seats, 4 adults...

and camping stuff and food for 8 people, all in Ruby!  Love our car! 

cute Lukey

big muscles!

the canals at Venice - so pretty!

Happy Wendesday (Humpday!)

Wow - Wednesday again!!  Comin' at ya.... this week's addition of what makes me happy on this lovely mid-week hump:

• My sushi-snob husband.  He ate at Elko's most renowned sushi establishment tonight.  Claimed to be Top 5 sushi in the state.  Too expensive, no Japanese people to be found (if you're a connoisseur of sushi you know this is a problem) and could the fish really be that fresh?  He flew in on a plane with propellors, people.  Needless to say he talked the people at the table next to him into trying his favorite Reno sushi next time.  Lots better.  He's so cute.  And such a snob.  
• Words like "squishy", "nakey" and "potatoes" that make everyone around our house giggle.  
• My cute kids who squish into corners to read together. 

• Tiny trucks in my bed.  

• Toddler scissors.  Best invention ever and this kid could cut paper all day and not kill anyone or hurt himself. 

camping, BBQ and a baby blessing

We had a great weekend!  On Friday we headed to a local canyon with 30 other people from the ward and camped.  We had tons of baby campers, some 1st timers and I don't think any last timers.  SUCCESS!!!  We ate, camp-fired, slept (not much), rapelled (some 1st timers on that one too!) and the kids climbed rocks until they couldn't climb any more. 

Em and her best buddy Jayne.  These two think something is wrong if they don't get to play every day. 

Jayne's little sister, Jersey.  a.k.a "Jers" to Van, his partner in crime.  These two are trouble.

A little PJ rapelling with my friend Sonna - her 1st time!  She did great!

These cute girls drug their camp chairs all over kingdom come. 

Dad and cute Van eating man-sized sandwiches for dinner in the back of Ruby.

 And we got together with my red heads and their families for a little BBQ since we were all in the same town for once! - for Maggi and David to bless baby Liam in church.  I apparently didn't get any pictures of Jack or Liam, but they were there and they were ADORABLE!!  Our kids play so cute together.  They must love each other because their mommies love each other so much. 

Dudes in the car.  I'm sure you can imagine how much coaxing it took to get Van out of this car for any extended period of time. 

young love - Isn't Russell's smile the cutest thing you've ever seen?

Look out boys - that little girl is a knock out!  Russell seems to think so!

happy wednesday (hump day)!!

Wow!!  I'm doing this two weeks in a row.  Not bad.  Though I haven't blogged anything in between. 

Some things that made this Hump Day a happy one. 

• Van sitting on my lap "helping" me with a project when he was supposed to be taking a nap.  (If Van could talk, he'd probably pipe in: "Mom, almost 2-year-olds totally don't nap anymore.  How could you ask me to miss all that action while I'm asleep?")  He was so sweet sitting with me cutting stuff with his little scissors and trying not to get burnt by the glue gun.  
• The ladies I serve with in Relief Society.  We had a Presidency meeting last night.  Man, I love those 3.  They are strong, they are compassionate, they are hilarious.  
• My hubby calling me every 20 minutes for part of the afternoon.  Turns out he was trying to prevent my loneliness for him.  And I thought he was just really bored.  He loves me. 
• That my daughter loves to accessorize.  Jacket, hat, necklace, scarfs, a million hair bows, etc, etc, etc.  SO not like her mama.  I love to see what she picks out to wear every day.  
• Emery's nose - aka her sniffer.  That girl can smell anything from a mile away... or 10 minutes later.  I had a banana and peanut butter in the kitchen this morning.  5 minutes after it was all gone and put away Emery comes down stairs and says, "Mom, I want a banana and peanut butter too."   To which I reply, "What do you mean, too?"  She says, "Mom, you had a banana and peanut butter.  I can smell it." 
• Needing to wear a jacket today.  It felt so good to need a jacket after months of blistering in the heat!  

No pictures again... my computer isn't really working.  That was not a happy part of today.  :)

Hope your Wednesday was as happy as mine!