Grandparents are great!

Especially great-grandparents! In May (yes, I'm just now blogging about it...) I went to Utah and took the boys to see my grandparents in Bountiful. It's always so much fun for everyone because of all the fun things my grandparents have at their house. Not least of which is my grandpa's train room! I enjoyed it as a child (though not nearly as much as my kids) so it's really fun for me to see my kids love visiting too!
I can't tell you how much time my siblings, cousins and I spent drawing on this giant chalkboard in the basement. My grandma has countless pictures, and now she can add a few more!
The swing set was added after I was little kid, but my siblings and kiddos sure loved it. Bryce was just as happy as could be on that swing!
Caleb had a blast on the slide. It's set up right next to a tree, so Grandpa catches kids on the way down to avoid getting accidentally scraped up.
We did several other things I didn't get pictures of, including playing with trucks, coloring, and Play-Doh! After dinner, we had to take pose for pictures for Grandma! (That's why she's not in it!)
Caleb did manage to snag one of her, and it's the only one from the trip, so I'm glad!
On the drive back to Lehi to my sister's house, my kids crashed. It was such a fun day and one I hope to be able to repeat soon!
So cute.

Why I'm not a bachelor anymore (as if you needed me to explain)

Heather and the kids have been gone to Utah since Friday and aren't returning until this upcoming Sunday night.  This is the longest I've been home alone in years.  Here are some advantages to being home alone, and some disadvantages


Advantages

• The ability to come and go when I please.  I forgot how much I loved this kind of flexibility!
• The ability to watch whatever show or movie whenever I want on TV
• I don't have to be the least bit quiet late at night
• I have completed many fix it projects around the house that have sat untouched for months and years, and I did it all in a matter of a couple of days.
• The kitchen is really easy to clean when all you have to load is a bowl and spoon once a day.
• I have the entire bed to myself, although this isn't always an advantage (see disadvantages below).
•  No children's bed-time routine (That gives me at least 30-45 more minutes every night)

Disadvantages

• No one to talk to outside of work.  
• Driving to my parents' house can get expensive when driving 30 miles one way on a nightly basis.  Sorry family in Arvada.  It's nothing personal!
• Cold cereal, scrambled eggs and turkey Sandwiches 3 meals a day can get a little boring.  I may switch to Mac and Cheese in the coming days.  I don't know how I lived off cases of Ramen for weeks at a time when I was 20.
• Sleeping alone.  I have grown accustomed to falling asleep with someone next to me.  This is probably the toughest part.  I don't sleep as well because I get cold and admittedly I really like my wife.
• The days draaaaaaaaaaaaaag on!  I was hoping today was Thursday and not Wednesday.
• I hear weird noises in the house at night that I don't hear when my family is there.  Overly paranoid?  I hope not.
• I find myself watching A LOT more TV than I used to.  ESPN's Sportcenter or 'Man vs. Food' have been watched a lot more than usual, especially at weird hours of the night.
• No one is there to wake me up when I fall asleep in front of the TV.  Fortunately, this has only happened a couple of times and for not very long.

Well, there you have it.  The thing I miss most is being close to my wife and children.  Even though there are days when my kids drive me crazy, being away from them reminds me how much I love them and really do care about them.  The same goes for my wife.  Heather is so fun to talk to, she understands me, supports me and treats me like I'm a special guy.  You can't get that in any other relationship.  It's easy to be in love with such a beautiful woman who takes such good care of you.

I have considered going to a movie or eating dinner somewhere by myself, I've never done it before.  What do you all recommend?

Am I in a Commercial?

As I was watching tv with my hubby, I saw a charming commercial that reminded me of a real-life, horribly ridiculous experience I had a few weeks ago.

Jodie and I were making a without-the-kids-because-we-could trip to Wal-Mart on a normal evening. We got some necessary and, of course, unnecessary items, and took our haul to the check out lane. I was actually surprised how many people were there at 9pm, and, apparently so were the cashiers because there were not enough of them. We ended up in a long line and Jodie started making small talk about the wait with a young woman behind us. She was of indeterminate age, but she had braces and an immature wardrobe. To set the stage fully, I really feel the need to include the entire dialogue with said person.

Teeny-Bopper-Dressed-Braces-Girl: "We NEVER let the lines get this long at the store I work at."
Jodie: "Oh, where do you work?"
TBDBG: "Babies R Us"
J: "That's great." (We were both thinking, no kidding the lines never get this long...Babies R Us is never that busy!)
TBDBG: "What kind of sippy cups do you have there?" (One of the necessary items were sippies for Bryn.)
J: "Um, not sure, just whatever brand they had back there."
(And now I won't bore you with the details of this portion of the conversation. Suffice it to say, TBDBG was very knowledgeable about sippies and the best kind, which Jodie most certainly didn't have and, coincidentally, are only carried at Babies R Us.)
J: "Well, ok, I think I'll try this one out though and see how it works."
TBDBG: So, are you two sisters or something?" (This was just funny and we were both flattered! We told her we weren't.)
TBDBG: (Turning to me) "So do you have kids?"
Me: Yeah, I have two little boys. Do you have any kids? (She was just so knowledgeable about necessary items, it made me wonder how she raised her kids.)
TBDBG: "Oh no, I'm waiting until I'm married. I mean, I've got the guy figured out, but I'm still waiting."
J: "Oh, are you engaged?"
TBDBG: "No, but he gave me a promise ring." (She holds up her hand to show us her ring, which was sweet: yellow gold with a blue stone.)
TBDBG: (dead serious) "He went to Jared!"

I just started laughing! I seriously couldn't help it. I have never heard anyone actually say that! Jodie, with much more control over her emotions, just smiled and said, "Oh...that's great!" It was hilarious.

We could not get through the line fast enough then. As soon as we got out the doors, we busted up laughing! We had to run to the car because we were afraid TBDBG would walk out and hear us more than enjoying a joke at her expense.

Now I have one to check off my list: appear in a commercial.

Well, close enough.

Easter Eggs...and more...are Yummy!

We had a lot of fun dyeing Easter eggs this year. The kiddos loved coloring on the eggs and all the other fun elements, like wrapping rubber bands and adding stickers and mixing colors and everything. Bryce just kept trying (unsuccessfully) to drink the dye...doesn't it look like juice or something? Yuck.
Things took a turn for the worst when Caleb spilled the red dye. Fortunately, it was contained on the deliberately placed table cloth. Plus we had 3 egg dyeing kits (I forgot that I bought some last year!) so I just opened one of the little packets that had a red tablet to refill our red dye. Caleb was thrilled to still have red.

All of a sudden, Bryce is bawling his eyes out. Apparently, though it looks like candy, egg dyeing tablets do NOT taste like candy! He managed to grab the blue tablet and chew it up! His entire mouth was dark blue! And like the cruel mom I am, I withheld giving him a drink until we could get a picture!
He gratefully accepted a glass of water, and back-washed blue every time he took a drink...so funny! Grandma gave Bryce an animal cracker to help get rid of the yucky taste. He stopped crying to take a bite and when he took it out of his mouth, he looked at it...it was green...and he said, "Uh-oh!"
In spite of the drama, Caleb's eggs turned out adorable, and he had a blast.
Bryce was eventually happy too, and the blue mostly disappeared out of his mouth by bedtime.
It did take another day and half to get all the dye out of his system...but he seemed none the worse for it! I hope he has now learned his lesson, but I'm not holding my breath. Happy Easter!

I'm Still Here...

Hey everyone, just a quick post to let all of my loyal readers of my deeply entertaining blog (ha!) know that I haven't died, because of course that's what you would assume since I haven't blogged in months. I've actually got some really fun posts coming up, like "Is Easter egg dye edible?" and "Caleb's favorite birthday present was from an infomercial!"

In the mean time, here is a quick update:

Bryce's favorite things right now are bubbles, meticulously copying Caleb's every move, and naming everything in sight. He has a shoe fetish as well...he wears everything from Caleb's flip flops to Jon-Michael's basketball shoes to my high heels.

Caleb just turned 5 and can't wait to start "real" school. (Because joy school doesn't count.) We continue to be pleasantly overwhelmed with the amount of paper he goes through because he draws every day.

Heather is forever on a quest for the perfect book, although some recent favorites include The Queen's Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner and Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater. She thinks she can grow green things and has been watering dirt on the back patio for over a week in the hope that the seeds there will grow.

Jon-Michael is deliberately punishing himself by playing basketball at 5:30 am a couple days a week, which is good, because his body is really starting to show his age at the recently attained age of 32. (Ha ha!)

As you can tell, we are just full of fun lately, but stay tuned for actual posts in the near future!

Craig Ferguson...in the flesh!

As an avid reader, I've signed up to get emails about local book signings. It's been great because I've been able to see a couple authors I never would have seen otherwise! Most recently I found out that Craig Ferguson, host of The Late, Late Show, was coming to town for his "memoirs." I haven't read it, and I suspect it will have a bit of language...but how often do you get to see a famous tv star! Jon-Michael and I occasionally watch his show when we're up that late, and he is very funny. We went with Jon-Michael's mother and sister, who, along with their husbands, are fans!
We didn't get very good seats; we sat in the very last row, in fact. I'm just grateful we got seats in the same room...many people couldn't fit and had to sit in an overflow area where they could only hear him. Here's a good idea of how far away we were:
Craig read a bit from the preface of his book and then answered questions. As you can imagine, he was very entertaining. We laughed our heads off! One of the things I like about him is that he's so unpretentious. On the other end of the spectrum, he said not to make him a role model, but he won't promise not to disappoint.
We spent about 3 hours at The Tattered Cover downtown, all in all. We had to wait in line to get tickets to get a book signed. Then we had to wait for another hour for him to come speak. He answered questions for about 45 minutes, and then we had to wait another hour or so to actually get our books signed. We got tickets in the 220's so we had to wait for at least that many people to go before us. We had a good time though, and have officially autographed merchandise!

Haircuts! oh, and Happy Thanksgiving...

So Bryce finally got his first haircut! Here is a good shot of his curls from October when we went to the Denver Aquarium. They were so cute, but when you get the ward's resident mullet-wearer complimenting Bryce's hair style, it's time for a change. So on Thanksgiving, I took advantage of my two stylist sisters being in town! My sister Jocelyn cut Bryce's hair.

Bryce was pretty good about it...once we gave him a sucker. Then he pretty much didn't care what we did to him!

He also got a washcloth so he could wash his hands and face whenever he wanted. He likes being a big boy.

I'm not sure what this face is, but it's so cute and it makes me laugh!

Almost finished!

But Bryce wasn't the only one who got a haircut! I get sick of my hair style every so often, and since I have two sisters and a sister-in-law who are stylists, I pretty much get it cut whenever I want! For illustration purposes, here is my hair a couple of weeks ago with my girls Leah and Tricia. I was totally ready for a change...so that's what I did!

I know the lighting isn't great, but if you can't tell...it's short! And I love it! For some reason, I don't have a picture to post of my sister Allie, who cut my hair...well, I do, but I don't think she'd want me to post it! ;) Thanks for the haircuts Allie and Jocie!

We had a really fun Thanksgiving at my parents' house with my two sisters and their hubbys and my brother in from out of town. We don't all get to be together as often as we'd like, so it was a great time. And I'm grateful for more things than I'm willing to type up right now, but know that I am grateful.

And here's a funny little video of a few things that I'm grateful for...it shows Caleb trying to do push-ups (hilarious!) and you can get a good look at Bryce's finished haircut. Enjoy!