Swinging finally

All last year I encouraged Ashton to learn to pump his legs and swing himself. I encouraged him but I continued to push him often and I would tell him that he was cut off at five and after his birthday I was not going to push him anymore. Well his birthday came and I refused to push him. Last week Ashton and Ransom wanted to swing and I agreed to give Ashton two pushed and was it. Well, I am happy to report that he was able to keep himself going and even go higher. He did a great job pumping his legs finally!

Maybe next week he will learn to ride his bike without training wheels.

Happy Birthday!

On St Patrick's Day we celebrated Tahlia's Birthday with her. We had a lot of fun getting ready for it.
Tahlia had a great birthday and loved all of the attention. We found her second tooth on her birthday too.

Cookie Monster

Tonight after dinner Laura shared her Smiley Face cookies with us. Yummy! This is what happened. John picked up his cookie and took a bit and Tahlia was yelling and "grabbing" with her fingers. John asked her if she wanted some and pretended to give it to her and then did not. She screamed and then John broke a piece off to give to her and she continued to cry and yell. She wanted the cookie. So John gave it to her and she instantly stopped crying and was laughing. She was so so so happy! How cute is she eating the cookies from Pittsburgh. (Yeah they are that good!) She actually turned the cookie over to lick the icing off. Thanks Aunt Laura for sharing and to Ethan for sending them. We love them!





Last week Tuesday I realized that Tahlia had cut her first tooth, and it happens to be a sweet tooth! If you look carefully you can see the one and only tooth in her mouth. Yeah!

Bubble Gum!

So yesterday I went to the gas station to wash the car. Well I went in to buy the wash and Ashton begged me to get gum. So being the kind mommy that I am I got bubble gum! I know just a little different from our norm. So as we sat in line waiting for our turn to go in I taught the kids (aka Ashton) to blow bubbles. He was so proud of himself for blowing some bubbles. He was doing a great job, his bubbles were just a little camera shy, so I helped him a little. (Please don't tell him that I told you that last part!)




Kids say the darnedest things. Recently Ashton has been rating his love for us on a number system. 100 being the most and 1 the least. When he is very happy with something that we do for him or with him he says "I love you 100!" Then we get a big hug and kiss. I am only guessing that it started us telling him "I love you TOO!" Not to be confused with two.
Yesterday Ashton had a doosy. He spoke and I was on the floor rolling. We were watching Extreme Home makeover and there was a lady that was born without legs and was confined to a wheel chair. It was a moving story. So in the middle of the story Ashton turns to me and says "Does she not have legs because Jesus didn't have enough?" I did not mean to embarrass him but it was great. I love the way kids think of things, it always gives me a fresh perspective.

Temple Open House

Last week we finally went to the Draper Temple Open House. I was very excited to take the kids to see the temple. We had spent several weeks talking about going to the temple. How we should act. Why we have temples. What we might see in the temple. All in efforts to get them ready to go. Ashton was very very excited to see inside the temple. He loved it. Ransom loved it too. After we were done we asked Ashton what was his favorite part and he answered that it was the celestial room, "It was so pretty." I am amazed at how well the kids did in the temple. I know they knew it is a holy place and could feel that.



Ashton is already looking forward to doing this again when our new temple, Oquirrh Mountain Temple, is done and ready to be dedicated later this year.

last trip to the beach

We were all sad to see Saturday come. We pack all our things up and headed to the beach to enjoy it one last time. We had birds to chase and seals with babies to see. It was a beautiful morning to enjoy a walk on the beach. As I was walking around I over heard some guy express my sentiments on his cell to someone else. He said "I have just found the place I want to stay forever. I think I will stay here until I am 85 and then I will head to Palm Spring." Of course I thought why bother moving then.
We had a great time visiting and playing with family. We saw some great sights and loved every minute of it.




I have to tell one last story. On Sunday we finished our trip and returned home. On the way home the speed limit is posted 75 through Beaver and John was tired of following another Pilot and slowed down to get away from him. He went from 80 to 78.
Next thing I know there is a police going south that turned around in the grass a started heading north. We thought oh that is interesting and kept going. Next thing we know he is behind us with his lights on. So we pulled over and he walked up to the window and said "I pulled you over because I clocked you at 91 blah blah." We were shocked. I knew that John would never say anything so I did. When he came back and told us he was going to be generous and wrote the ticket up for only 9 over. That is when I started in. I told him that John hardly ever went over 80 but he is still human. I then told him at the time he was doing less then 80 and that I have been watching the speedometer the whole time. I told him about another pilot we were following. Then I told him if he needs to give us a ticket then he can give it to us for going 5 over since that is the only crime we committed. He told me that a ticket for five or nine is the same and it will not effect insurance. He told me a bunch of stories and I told him again to make it for five then since that was the only crime committed and he said "ah I am just giving you a warning this time, be careful and go the speed limit."
I am sorry to say this is why I have lost respect for law enforcement. We were just driving along trying to get home and stay safe. We were all buckled in and the kids were all asleep until we stopped, the driving was careful and we were not speeding excessively and yet it was us pulled over. Never mind the peps passing us going around 95mph. What the heck? Fortunately, we only got a warning in the end. So my question is how accurate is a radar gun on someone going the opposite direction and did he actually use a radar gun. Also, I wonder what so I teach my kids about law enforcment?
With all of that out we had a great time but now we are home safe and sound and it is great to be home.

Legoland

On Thursday and Friday we went to Lego land. Thankfully Grandma kept Tahlia on Thursday there was nothing for her to do at the park. Went other family and that was a lot of fun for us because we could still go on rides without the kids or with the kids. Ashton loved Lego land there were rides to go on, but he still reminds me that he loves Disneyland more, that was his favorite.


Now I have to give a commentary on Lego land. If you have a trip planned there and you are very excited about it you may not want to continue reading. With that said Lego land had some unique features that are cool, they have replicated everything with legos, like downtown NYC and Las Vegas. But after that I thought that the rides were lame and they are very very very very very strict on height to ride each and every ride. But my biggest pet peeve is that the workers on the rides took there good old time loading and unloading every ride. I mean seriously I go to ride as many rides as possible and they were slowing me down and I do not like that to much, even though I never really had anywhere to go because the kids could not go on anything. It is really geared for seven and older.