Life inside 1209 Rainbow Cove

This one sleeps a lot when his mommy remembers that he needs to take a nap. He also smiles a lot. He loves watching the birds in our back yard and he loves singing songs and turning pages in books and scooting himself all over our floor in circular  motions. He also loves flying!This one keeps us on our toes! He likes it when I chase him and say, "I'm gonna get you!" Sometimes while he is playing I hear him say, "I'm gonna get me!" He says a lot of funny things while he is playing! A few days ago he was playing with this little stuffed bunny with a baseball sewn in his hands. This is what I heard: Max: "Can I have the baseball, throw it, bunny?" (Bunny): "No, mine baseball, no can have it" Max: "Please bunny? Please can have baseball?Throw it?" (Bunny): No want you throw it. Mine baseball. I hold it" That conversation went on along those lines for a few minutes. I thought it was so funny to hear him reasoning it out with himself. I hear him play like that all the time. It always makes me wish he would be this age forever.

And not only has this little guy totally mastered sitting but he has discovered his toes and he sure loves them!

Landscaping!

I figured we needed a new heading for this part because it is so exciting. We have been preparing our yard for grass! That means we have been pulling out all those weeds that were bigger than men! Javier was the one who started it. One day he just went outin the yard and said, "enough is enough! I'm going to pull out these weeds!"

40 hours, 4 red arms, and 4 red hands later... (red arms from sunburn, red hands from blisters)...

This half is done

This half still to go

But we're excited! We're on a roll!

So while I was working on that earlier today, Sammy was napping and I turned on Thomas for Max, which will guarantee he wont get into trouble (because he loves Thomas, he could never leave and make mischeif while its on). But, it finished before I did, so when I came in, I found Max was entertaining himself by pouring marshmallows into a measuring shot glass while eating spaghetti-Os. I just thought it was funny.

Then a few minutes later I heard him telling one marshmallow to say sorry to another one and when it wouldn't, he put it in time out behind his back. I guess that means he is learning about consequences?

I sure love those little monkeys, and the big monkey too that they look like! And just for the record, I love Round Rock! Its probably the most beautiful place on Earth, and I have never met nicer strangers in my life than the strangers I meet here. Love it!

Tender Mercies

Cute little goofy Max has decided he is going to be a baseball player for Halloween. He is so excited about it, he talks about it all the time.Well, Yesterday I started looking for costumes on line, and they are expensive! And dumb looking! SO I kept trying to talk him into other things. Like, "Max look at this cool costume! Don't you want to be batman for Halloween?" Max: "No want to be batman! I be baseball Halloween!!!" That was his repsonse to everything! I thought it was so funny that he is so opinionated even though he is so little and probably doesn't even remember what Halloween is! I did find a cool idea for making a baseball player costume though so I guess it will work.

Something else funny about Max these days is that all trains are Thomas to him and he LOVES Thomas!! We live just about a block away from train tracks, so we hear trains all the time and anytime we go anywhere we drive by the train. Whenever we hear the train or see one, Max screams out, "SLOW DOWN, THOMAS!!" Also when he plays with his own trains, he names them all. Blue ones are always Thomas, green trains are Percy, and Red trains are James and he repeats over and over again, "James no like a get dirty."

Sammy can sit up all by himself now. For a long time too. I can just leave him sitting and go do something else. The other day I tried to take a picture of him sitting by Max and it was funny because he kept leaning over. Max thought it was hillarious! He's such a good boy though. When he wants to play on his tummy, he just leans over so he falls and then rolls over without making a sound.

The workman just left this the other day in the empty lot by our house. No one was there, sooo I insisted we take advantage of the photo op. How often do you get to take a picture in a huge bulldozer?

I love this picture!

We put Max in this church outfit last week for the first time and we were totally flabergasted by how handsome he is. Maybe its just because he's my son, but seriously, so handsome! He knows it too. Yesterday after I got him dressed he ran to my room and said, "Mommy I look in the mirror and see how handsome" So Yeah, I am raising vain children. I can't help it!

And I wish this picture actually captured how beautiful Sammy's eyes are. Some beauties are too delicate to capture on camera I guess. They are changing from grey to pretty brown and I just love staring into them all day! They are sooo pretty.

And his coy little smile too, just for good measure.

They made these, "I am a child of God" crowns in nursery last week and cute Max has wanted to wear it everyday. What a great idea huh.

Speaking of nursery, I had kind of a cool experience this week. I have been so worried about Max and Sam lately. They have just been having a really hard time and I felt completely out of ideas about how to help Max be nicer and Sammy be happier. I felt like part of the problem was my calling because I have been really busy with it lately. Well, I prayed that the Lord would fill in the gaps I was leaving while I was busy with his work and he totally gave me the answer and actually through primary! I was talking to the president the other day and she suggested that maybe my kids needed more sleep. Well, it was one of those moments where you just feel the pure intelligence flowing in and I knew immediately that that would fix the problems. And so, we came home and I worked out what their new sleep schedule should be and since then, they have both been so soooooo much happier and Max has been back to kisses and loves to his brother and Sammy has been all giggles all the time again. I am so grateful!!! It is amazing to me that life always presents us with these situations where we could either do what makes sense (like I was almost thinking about saying, I can't do this calling with 2 babies, its too hard for them) or what God has asked us to do, and doing the thing that doesn't make sense but is in line with God's will always ends up so amazingly much better! Tender Mercy. I think that the Lord mixes things up in our lives sometimes just so he can show us he loves us. Feeling his love is better than living a calm perfect life anyway.