wes being wes

why sleep when i can do this?



me? sit still?


only for a few seconds.....and only for THIS puzzle!

swimming and tumbling

william swam with his winter clothes on today. this is practice in case he falls in a pool/lake with his clothes on. he really didn't seem to mind, which totally surprised me. here are 2 different videos of him doing the swim, float, swim sequence with his clothes on. (for more info on this program, click here).






also, jala and her mom have the Tumblebus. if you live up here, you've probably seen this thing around town. all the seats are out of it, and there is all kind of play stuff in it....slides, trampoline, tunnels, etc. anyway, they brought it to the pool this morning for the kids to play on. william and charlie had a blast. wes even got in on the action. (william had a sucker beforehand, so please excuse his blue lips.)

trouble

one of those moments

a few nights ago as all three freshly bathed boys sat in the den watching the australian open, i couldn't help but have one of those moments. one of those moments where you just feel so unbelievably blessed. one of those moments where you just want your brain to take and store a picture so you can pull it out and look at it whenever you want to. one of those moments where you just have to pause for a minute and give praise and thanks to God for all the blessings that he has so graciously poured out upon you.

a few years ago when we were still at 1st pres. in jackson, chase and i had a sunday school teacher that wanted us to memorize his favorite verse. i did, and it has since become one of my favorites (if not the favorite). it can be applied in so many different situations, and it runs through my head no telling how many times a day.

now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus, throughout all generations forever and ever. amen. Eph. 3:20

i'm definitely living a life that is way, way more than i could have ever asked for or imagined. so in the words of one of my favorite hymns: To God be the glory, great things He has done!

the cage is back in action!

when chase, william and i returned from san diego in 2006, my mom had bought and assembled the cage (better known as a superyard xt to those who care) in our den. it quickly became my best friend! to those who have never experienced the joy of a mobile, little person, it may seem cruel. but to those who have, i think we would all agree that the dude who invented this thing is highly deserving of the next nobel peace prize. anyway, today i realized that it was time to pull my little friend out of the closet and set him up once again in the middle of the den. as i mentioned in a previous post, wes has really been on the go lately and pulling up on stuff. well, his confidence in doing so has reached a new level. as he was standing up playing his piano, doing a lovely stevie wonder impersonation, i rounded the corner and watched him fall on his head. screaming ensued. i watched him try to pull up on a bucket of legos which, much to his displeasure, dumped out all over him as he fell. screaming ensued. i walked out of the room for 2 seconds to get his and william's jackets, and upon return found him standing up next to the hearth. now, thankfully, i do have some of those foam, rubber things that line the brick around it, but we do have a sliver of hardwood floor between the carpet and hearth. he had on socks. i got to him just in time to catch him as he slipped and prevented that ER trip and the screaming that would have ensued! so.....out came the cage!



it's a huge hit. wes loves it. he can crawl all over it and pull up on the walls. i put his toys in there, and he's as happy as can be. william loves it. he made me drape a blanket over part of it to make a "cave," and he stayed in there all night! mama loves it. two kids corralled in 8 square feet of space. what's not to love?




*in my first post, i wrote about william's "character of the day" role playing. well, i had to mention of few of the new characters.
1) horse....no name, just horse.
2)biscuit....the puppy dog. anybody with kids has probably read at least one biscuit book. we have all 800 (thanks miss shirley), and william is infatuated with each and every one. he likes for you to tie a ribbon on his belt loop (the leash) and take him walking to the big city and the pet show.
3)cook man....a japanese hibachi grill cook. we went to eat at one of these last weekend with william's buddy, charlie. it was their first time to witness this obviously amazing display of genius. he will stand at his easel in the kitchen and throw his arms in all directions (cooking) and then present you with some rice for your enjoyment.

4)noah....from the bible. this one is my personal favorite. you'll walk in the kitchen, and the conversation will go something like this:

"hey, i'm noah. get your hammers out!"

"noah who?" (we have several noah friends.)

"noah, the ark noah. get your hammers out!"

"why do i need a hammer, noah?"

"to build my boat!"

at which point, he heads over to his workbench to get his hammer and then proceeds to beat on every wall, cabinet, chair and table in my house as he builds his boat. wes thinks this is hilarious, and sometimes if he's feeling generous, william will give wes a wrench to help him out on the construction. poor little guy, maybe one day he'll graduate to the privileged position of hammerer.

I'm a fish!

last summer, william started swimming with a program called ISR. they teach kids as young as 6 months how to survive if they were to fall into the water. he learned their "swim, float, swim" sequence....how to float in order to breathe and then swim towards the wall/ladder/steps/dock/whatever, float, swim, etc. you get the picture. anyway, he has been doing the winter refresher course this week, and he apparently still remembers how to do it. he really enjoys it. once we got past the first 2 weeks last summer of screaming like a wild monkey, he's been great. he loves going to the pool. he gets in and floats and jokes around with miss jala. it's really amazing to see my child do this. she can throw him backwards in a flip, and he'll just pop right up to a floating position. the first time you see your kid do this, it's just a total "wow" moment! i've tried to post a video below of him swimming (1st video...not sure what i'm doing). maybe you can see it.

Here we go......

well, after much harassment because my mother had a blog and i didn't, i have decided to give this a try. if you are reading this, you more than likely know that i am an idiot when it comes to technology. so, if something looks wrong or stupid, please feel free to tell me. of course, then you will probably have to tell me step by step how to fix it!!

let me see if i can provide a worthy update of life over here. william got potty trained over christmas! (can you hear the hallelujah chorus in the background?) it seemed as if everyone else around his age at our church has been potty trained for forever, so i finally bit the bullet and did it. with the help of some Cheerios (for target practice), M&Ms, Junior Mints, Rice Krispie Treats, and stickers, he got the hang of it fairly quickly. that's not to say that it wasn't the most frustrating thing that i have ever done in my life! i'm pretty sure about that, and i don't envy anybody that has to do it!

his imagination is still running wild. right now, he likes to stand on the couch and yell "attention, everyone!" before diving onto his bean bag on the floor. i have no idea where this comes from, but he is all about it. he also likes to pretend that he is someone new every day. he'll tell you who he is in the morning, and then he pretty much only answers to that name all day long. he has been bailey (our neighbor's dog), diego, boots, and his favorite of late, anthony dixon. when he is anthony dixon, he has to wear his MSU football helmet 24/7. his aim is bad enough, so please imagine what the bathroom looks like when he tries to pee wearing a helmet! thank goodness for clorox wipes!

wes is crawling these days! he actually just got the hang of it. he has been fairly mobile for a while, but it's been more of a squirmy roll thing with a spinning on his stomach to get where he wanted to go. william better watch out! he can pull up on stuff, too. somehow, he figured out how to do this before he learned how to crawl. to say that he loves to stand up would be an understatement, so i had him pegged as one of those kids that never crawls and just goes straight to walking. chase disagreed, and i guess i lost that one!


we also have a new tv at our house....one of those big, flat ones. and now, instead of the basic 50 channels that you get with comcast, we have 900+ with direct tv. and you can be sure that we have every sports channel known to man! however, even with all this high def stuff, the local channels still don't have a signal that is clear enough for chase's satisfaction. so, he has been talking to frank montgomery (who has apparently succesfully rigged up his own tv), and they have decided that we need some sort of antennae on our roof. from there, you can split some wire and drill a hole in the brick wall of my house (um....no) to run to the tv to make the local channels better. let's not forget that i already have a black tv cable tacked to the brick and running in front of my fireplace (very attractive!) because i wouldn't let the direct tv man drill a hole in my outside wall. anyway, i don't think frank or chase could be considered "handymen," so i'm a little worried about all this talk! i can only hope that the weather will heat up, he will forget about the tv, play golf, and my house will stay in one piece!