It's all about Dino's around here.

Our boy LOVES dinosaurs. This was dinner the other night. Quite frankly this could be the dinner scene any day of the week. The morning starts with a little Dinosaur train on channel 11. The afternoon is spent chasing his sister around the house with his T-Rex.

On occasion we make it down to the Dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving point. The first time there he was a little overwhelmed. The sound effects scared him so bad he didn't want to get out of the stroller. Not so tough after all. I told him.

The kids with a favorite cousin Drew.
Drew is the best kid seriously!

Oh the deception

If you know Chad you know that he love baseball. He plays softball every chance he gets. We have gone to a number of his games and the kids love to yell at him from the stands. I told Finley that we were going to see her dad today at work.

Oh mom, that is gonna be so much fun! I'm gonna say, "Hit a home run dad!!!" He's gonna be so happy.

Apparently Fin is still under the impression that her father plays ball for a living. I called Chad and told him we won't be coming up when we get to his office. I can't bring myself to disappoint her.

I like pink skin

On Tuesday we went to Target. As we were strolling down one of the aisles we passed by a black man (there are very few in Utah) and this is what proceeded to come out of Finley's mouth.

Mom that man is black, he is so black. Mom, I don't like black skin. I only like white skin.

Oh boy, did she really just say that...even worse did that man really just hear her say that. Yes he did.

I was not clever enough to come up with some quick little comment to diffuse the tension building in aisle 3. I just booked it around the corner took a deep breath and asked her some more questions.

We talked about skin color and that people come in all different colors. We pointed to various models we found on packaging. We talked about being nice to every one no matter what they looked like. The first thing she said after our little chat was, " I don't like my skin, it's just skin colored. I don't like skin colored skin. I just like pink skin, and not black skin either."

When I get older

At breakfast the other morning Fin said;

When I get older I will say please, and thank you. Right now I can just say, "I WANT MORE MILK!!!"

A couple of months ago I woke up to this site. When I asked Fin about it she said that they were all feeling a little bit too sick.

Boxes Boxes Boxes

We are excited to be settling into our new home. Finley says she misses her old house with the tall stairs in Portland, and her best friend Isabelle. Moving is tough, even for 3 year olds, but we really lucked out finding such a great place. We love our new abode! Can't wait to fill you all in on the details. For now we have loads of boxes to unpack.

Funny Girl

Here are some of the conversations that we have been having lately

After noticing that her bangs had been cut I asked;

Me: Fin did you cut your hair?
Fin: No?
Me: Did Tucker cut your hair?
Fin: ...Ah...Yes?! Yes he did mom...
Me: Why did he cut your hair? (knowing full well that she was the culprit.)
Fin: He just didn't like my hair in my eyes always. Mom now I know how to just cut my hair all by myself. My auntie Melinda (who is a hairstylist) taught me and now I just know how.
Me: So you did cut your own hair!
Fin: Ah......no I didn't.

Monday I tried to teach Fin a little bit about Martin Luther King on our car ride up to the Museum. At the end of my little story I asked her what he taught us about. This was her response:

Um...he taught us about skin.
...and that humans are people, and I have pink skin... huh mom, I have pink skin... I love the color pink. Mom I wish I had my own cute pink bird.

She has had the sharing bag in preschool 2 times already. The first time she was asked to bring her favorite Christmas gift to show the class. She chose to bring her "Goblins" as she calls them. They are huge fuzzy pompoms that she decorated with pipe cleaners, feathers and stickers. She said that they were her "favorite creatures ever". The second time she chose to bring her "PD" which is a little calculator she got as a happy meal prize. She could not be dissuaded, and I tried. She told her class that her PD was a very important thing and that it was kind of fiery hot so no one could touch it.

As for this little devil he is the very definition of terrible two's.
Favorite phrases:

No mom...I not.
I stronger mom, I big.
Need food mom, need more food.
Ah, Sankyou (thank you) mom. Sanks.
Like it! (Which really means: I do not like that! Don't even try to make me eat that!)
Hear that sound, mom hear that? (Which is ALWAYS in reference to a toot.)

When he's not busy making a mess he is usually standing in the naughty corner.

You're gonna love this

buy her stuff here
mimiware.etsy.com

My sister-in-law Michele paints these beautiful one of a kind pieces of kitchenware. I LOVE her bowls. They are beautiful. Today she was featured on Studio 5 (a local news program) check out her clip below.

It was a great week...

We loved almost every minute of the past week (apart from the toddler meltdowns). Christmas was filled with family and delicious foods. The kids loved waking up Christmas morning to a Santa Trap and gifts under the tree. When Grandma asked Finley what she got from Santa she replied with a very long sigh..."He did not bring me a Barbie!" Who knew she wanted a Barbie? He can't get it right every time!

Christmas Morning

We rang in the New Year with our cute cousins and a traditional Pizza Making Night. Our kids love making pizza with their dad. Happy New Year to you all.

The Celebration

The Birthday Boy

Take me out to the ball game...Take me out with the crowd...buy me some peanuts and cracker jacks.. I don't care if I ever get back....let me root, root, root, for the home team...if they don't win it's a shame...For it's one, two, three strikes, you're out, At the old ball game."

We ate hot pretzels, nachos, Chicago dogs... complete with cucumbers, tomatoes, onions and relish... chips, pop and candy, candy, candy. I should have passed out toothbrushes and tums as party favors instead of high pitched baseball whistles and bubble gum.

We watched The Sand Lot and swung at a baseball pinata. The best part of the night (according to some) was when my nephew Drew cracked me right across the forehead with the plastic bat we were using to break the pinata. People fell off the couch they were laughing so hard.


Opening gifts was a little rough.
This was the low point of the day. Things got much better once he opened his new batting machine.

A Christmas Story

The night before we went to see Santa, Fin saw a little bit of the movie, A Christmas Story. She saw the part where the Ralphie goes to see Santa and Santa puts his big black boot on Ralphies face and pushes him down the slide.

When I told her the next morning that we were going to see Jolly Old St. Nick, she got a panicked look on her face. She said "Mom, I don't want to see that man! He will put his boot on my face and kick me down." It took a little convincing before she decided she wanted to meet him.


We spent the afternoon Shopping in Cold, Cold Park City and then headed out to Find St. Nick. The line to meet him was SOOOOOO long! We waited for about 20 minutes and having not made much progress we bailed and headed to Macy's to mail him a letter instead, hoping that would satisfy her need to talk to Santa... well, it didn't, so we went to find another less-crowded Santa.


We found one and he had reindeer! Finley loved it. Tuck hated the idea of sitting on a strange looking strangers lap and cried his eyes out.
(90th S & State, Tree Lot)

Merry Christmas

We are 1 for 3 as far as "Merry" Christmas outings go. We went to my hometown of Alpine last weekend to cut down our Christmas tree and both toddlers were in tears. It was a bitter 21 degrees, windy and snowy. The best part of the day was the marshmallows that came in their hot chocolate and visiting their cousins.

1st outing- Tree Cutting: tears

2nd outing-The Lights at Temple Square: cheers
Even though we FROZE the kids loved it. They were mesmerized by the incredible amount of lights. They also loved seeing the nativity and baby Jesus, or "Baby Finley" according to Finley. We brought my little niece Fanny along. We love her!

3rd outing- Santa- There were cheers and tears
More in the next post.

One year older.

Hey Batter Batter, Swing Batter
Tucker ropes a fastball into the left-center gap
Rounds first
and slides safely into Second.


Today Celebrates Tuck's 2nd birthday, Thank goodness we're gonna have a 2nd chance to celebrate because this little slugger was sick as a dog. It was a rough way to spend his big day. We are hoping for a Grand Slam of a Party next weekend, until then...
We love you Tuck. Happy Birthday Son.

red rock everywhere

Our Thanksgiving weekend was spent in the Red Rock.

The guys all went out for the annual turkey shoot (skeet shooting in the desert) while my mom and I stayed home and cooked the feast. Chad came home from the shoot 10 dollars poorer, and my brother Jonny came back 50 dollars richer.

They managed to high center the jeep. The youngsters got a mouthful of red dirt while watching the men folk unwedge the jeep.

Wrig got spooked by the gun shots and managed to cut the underside of her leg on a rock and received 8 staples. She hated the turkey shoot, every minute of it and will not be invited to participate next year.



The dinner was AMAZING. The nights were spent laughing. I love this time of year. More than anything I love seeing red rock everywhere I look.