Riddle me this...

Question: What happens when your blinds and a hammer come in contact??

Answer: Something breaks! And I'll give you a clue...it wasn't the hammer.

And the culprit was???
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Daddy!!

Worse than nails on a chalkboard...

I made Taco Soup for dinner the other night. It's been cooling down here and the crisp, fall air has been wonderful it it's small doses.
We all scooted up to the counter with our bowls of warm soup garnished with tortilla chips. I was enjoying my meal. After a few bites I decided to scoop my soup with the chips. I had the perfect chips, holding up the perfect amount of soup, and I took the perfectly hard bite...pain shot through my teeth. I had chomped down on something terribly hard. My body shuddered as my teeth ground together, my salivary glands went haywire, and the thunder in my head was deafening. Dave's head whipped in my direction at the sound he heard resonating from my mouth.
I promptly spit the entire bite out onto the counter. I was certain I had broken teeth and was chewing on bits and pieces of them. Alas, was lay in the masticated pile was a rock. I had bit it so hard, it broke in half. It was about the size of a pea and was embedded in a piece of diced tomatoes.
I was traumatized. My appetite entirely disappeared and I was sick to my stomach. It took all of us quite a bit longer to finish our meals and we were all chewing so gingerly teeth weren't even a requirement.
If the can of tomatoes hadn't come from my food storage and the receipt been disposed of months prior, you can bet I wouldn't have sought some sort of compensation as it is, every time I recall the experience, I shudder. I no longer feel the same way about taco soup.

Drake's 2 year stats

37 inches tall and 32 pounds

fully recovered from Croup, and in good health

Vacation of Firsts

We went to Idaho at the beginning of September. We were able to visit both families, and we were able to see our good friends the Hawkes.
The biggest reason for the trip was to bless our beautiful Brooks...more to come on that. There were a lot of firsts involving this trip; some great, some not:

-First time taking the boys on a road trip. Three small children and 2000 miles of driving was intimidating. Now that it's over; it's more intimidating than ever...the kids were THAT awesome in the car. I take that back; Carson was and ANGEL on the trip - seriously. The baby was alright; we got what we expected I suppose. Drake, Drake, Drake; what do I even say? He was a force to be reckoned with; I'll just leave it at that.
-First time Carson has thrown up from car sickness, oh, wait, never mind. Billionth time.
-First time meeting the adorable Sarah, our new niece-in-law. Weird calling her niece, since she is much more like a sister and friend.

First time on the worlds largest swing! Eden Wyoming has the most enormous swing-set ever! It was so tall, you couldn't push it to it's highest potential. Dave, with his arm fully extended was even too short (drastically). It was probably 25 feet tall, and the best part of all was that it was a baby swing set. I about died laughing.

First time on a four-wheeler for all four of my boys. Thanks again Hawkes brothers for all the rides!

First close encounter with a horse. Carson fed Barbie's horse some yummy apples from Grandma's tree.
First time at Funland! Carson, Drake, and Saydee got to ride airplanes...

...horses! (the carousel)...

...the ferris wheel (mommy and daddy came on this one)...

... and choo-choo trains!

Our wonderful vacation also consisted of lots of canning. It took 12 hours to can 9 bushels of apples. We also played with lots of cousins, enjoyed some good food, and caught up on much needed sleep. Dave and I also got to go on a couple much needed dates. It was wonderful. We can't wait to go again next year!

Happy Birthday Drake!

Dear Drake,

We love you very much; you have filled the last two years with laughs, adventures, and spunk. It has been a delight watching you develop in so many ways. Some of the things daddy loves about you are:

-doing “brave hugs” when you are afraid of what is under the bed

-wrestling

-bribing you to eat in soooooo many ways : airplanes, choo-choo trains, motorcycles, lions, and snakes

-how you run up to him after sacrament meeting ready to be taken to nursery

- how excited you are when he picks you up when nursery is done

-dancing and singing songs with him

Some of the things mommy loves about you are:

-the way you talk. You currently substitute “f” for “tr” which makes for some naughty language. You also say “yeep” for yes. You are exploring your language a lot more and are adorable in the process

-your ear-piercing screams. It means you are healthy

-your love for Carson and Brooks. Nobody is more loyal than you

- your adorable little run. Never mind the fact that you fall quite often

- Your sparkly eyes and zest for life

-How excited you get to tell her things

-The fact that you can now say your own prayers

You like to do everything that Carson does; and tease him in the process. You have a few favorite movies, some of which are: anything Dora, Tangled (you like to sing along), and Shaggy Dog. Your favorite color is orange. You like to eat hot cereal, fruit snacks, anything cheese, nuts, lots of vegetables, and “beeeeeeg guckers” (big suckers). You love to sing and dance. You have a strong will. You have an awesome belly laugh.

Thank you for filling our lives with joy. You are a wonderful little boy whom we adore.

Blasphemy

Carson likes to sit down and read the scriptures. If he has the regular Book of Mormon, he will usually use biblical lingo while making up verse after verse. When reading the illustrated and abridged version his "reading" gets a little more...imaginative...cough cough.
We have been wanting to capture this for quite a while so tonight I finally whipped open the computer and typed while he talked. This was tonight's sampling:

"He knows how to teach the children. We didn’t know just what to do. We just love one another. The crucify man he thought he didn’t want some milk. He wanted bad guy water. He wanted the arrow. Would crucify Jesus. Jesus thought he would be really sad he didn’t know what to do He was just sitting on the cross. And he just knows what to do. The Lord, Jesus, He came crucified. The Lord, He gave the people some yummy coffee. He wanted some fruit snacks, not coffee. He wanted some milk. Because he wanted milk because it’s good for him. He wanted to see the Lord."

You can probably tell he was reading the illustrated copy by what he said. It is also laced with conversations we have been having lately. Carson is very intrigued by some of the things our neighbors do and we have tried to explain principles to him without getting ourselves in too much trouble. For example, our next door neighbor (male) wears earrings, has long hair, and drinks coffee. We have tried explaining that only mommy wears earrings and that it's best if boys don't have them. That goes for the long hair as well. We've also explained that coffee isn't good for us and we shouldn't drink it, but "O" (the neighbor), might not know better so we should be good examples.

Our neighbor across the street smokes. Carson will stand out on the front porch with his little belly thrust out, jam a finger up his nose, and stare across the street with that piercing gaze of his and yell, "Mommy!" (without breaking the stare) "Chris is smoking!! He shouldn't be smoking, mommy!" It is always painfully awkward.

On the flip side, Carson likes to know the nutritional benefit of whatever he may be consuming at the time. (The kid is smart!) Thus..."he wanted milk."

Proud Parents

We think all of our kids are pretty special. Today we captured a few shots with Brooks. He is currently just under 2.5 months. We wanted to show his awesome hair that we get comments on quite a bit. I affectionately refer to it as "Kramer Hair".

A pair of good looking boys if I do say so myself!

Burying our swords...Literally

For FHE this last Monday we taught the boys about the Anti-Nephi-Lehites. At this stage our goal was to drive home the most basic lesson taken from the story...to stop fighting. We then made paper swords and went in the backyard to bury them....


...the very next morning Carson retrieved the shovel and proceeded to "unbury" the swords. The usual chaos ensued...

at least we tried.

Love Hate Relationship

Drake has a hitting problem. HELP?! The other day he kept hitting Carson and while Carson was ok, he was tired and his feelings were hurt. He burst out in tears. After a combination of a gentle scolding and being surprised by Carson's reaction; Drake couldn't contain his own sorrow. I urged him give Carson a hug and apologize. He wrapped his little arms around Carson's waist, laid his head on his chest and just sobbed for a good few minutes. Carson graciously stood there while Drake soothed himself...I stifled laughter and grabbed the camera :).

Brooks' 2 Month Appointment

This kid is adorable! AND he has a slew of problems. Stink.

Height: 24''
Weight: 12 lbs 6 oz
Head: 16 1/4''

He has a pretty serious case of dry skin. He has some AWFUL baby acne...or so I thought until it wouldn't really go away. That is when I did a bit of investigating and had figured for myself it might be mild eczema. Turns out I was right. After talking with the doctor she looked at the few spots he had on his chest and told me I had it figured properly. I now need to step up from baby lotion to Hydrocortisone Cream.
The bigger problem is his head. He has what I call "Plate Tectonics" going on. One of the skull bones on the top of his head is "diving" under the mid suture line. He is pretty lopsided and the doctor didn't think anything of it at his 2 week appointment. "We'll take a look at it at 2 months" she said. "It should take care of itself". Sho' 'nuff it didn't. She wants me to do some little exercises with him and see if there is any improvement by his 4 months appointment. If there isn't she will refer us.
She thinks the reason he has this is because of how he was positioned in utero. All three of my boys have felt like they have been positioned the same to me. Drake came out with a lopsided head as well so the doctor is probably right. Drake's finally fixed itself entirely by about 18 months. Brooks also has a little Torticollis contributing to the problem. Either way, I hope we can fix this ourselves because to be perfectly frank, we don't have the money to take care of the problem but would have to because he is QUITE lopsided.
Otherwise, Brooks is happy and healthy. He continues to be a sweet baby and we love him dearly.