Colton Blessing

Andy & Rachel blessed their sweet new baby, Colton Wayne Taylor, over Labor Day weekend. It is such a long drive with our little kids. Tige was leaning towards not making the long drive, and I non-chalantly suggested that he stay home with the kids while I went up with my parents. His response was "now there's an idea!" WHAT? I couldn't believe he agreed to let me leave him home with the kids. I ended up taking Kason with me to Afton and Tige stayed home all weekend with the 2 little ones. My dad drove the whole way while I read a book in the back. It was AWESOME! This is baby Colton. At 6 weeks old he's smaller than Taylor was when he was born last year. I LOVED snuggling with this sweet baby. They are so fun to hold when they are so small.

Kason & Brock holding him on the morning of his blessing.


Ready with his mom in his blessing outfit.

I had to add this little tid-bit about the weekend: On Monday morning as we were packing up and getting raedy to return home, I was holding little Colton while Rachel took a shower. Kason came and starting making tooting noises with his arm pit. You know the kind. He was doing that for Colton and that baby actually smiled a big GRIN 3 TIMES at him. True story. The next day at school, Kason came home with this paper about his weekend...


It says:

I went to my uncles house. Rachel had a baby and I got to hold him. And when I arm pit fart he smiles. It was fun.



Boy did I get a good laugh out of that one! I'll bet his teacher did too. He's such a funny boy.



Thanks for having us Andy & Rachel. We were so glad to be a part of your special day.

Kason's Fashion Sense

Kason got dressed today in red/white/blue plaid shorts and a white shirt with maroon and yellow horizontal stripes (the shorts had a tiny yellow line on them too). When I saw him our conversation went like this:

“Kason, your clothes don’t match at all. We need to pick something else.”

“Sure they match mom, stripes and stripes!”

“The colors don’t match.”

“Sure they do. White, white. Yellow, yellow.”

"And maroon?”

“2 out of 3 mom!”

How to argue with that? I love this kid! and off he went to school.

Fish!

Kason, aka my shark boy, has wanted fish for a very long time. Years and years. Tige & I didn't want to deal with cleaning the tank so we've been resistant. He's recently been saying "I need a fish to take care of so I can learn some responsibility." Yeah right kid. I have plenty of other ways to teach you responsibility. Uh, hello? We do have a dog you can feed.

Anyway, at our 4th of July outing in Richfield there was a booth where you throw bean bags to win a fish. I begged him not to do it because you had to make 2 out of 3 bean bag tosses (plus the fish were really ugly). I was afraid he would either 1) not win and cry about it; or 2) win one and we'd have to deal with trying to get it home alive in the plastic baggie. Either way not fun.

I finally promised him that if he'd just wait until we'd get back home I'd go get him a blasted fish. Fast forward to our new fish. We found a beta tank with a divider so the push-over that I am got him 2 fish with all the trimmings. He's been taking very good care of them. He's as happy as can be with "Nibbles" and "Gilbert." You'd have thought he won the lottery...

Smart Kason

My son is such a smart little boy that he exhausts me. He asks me questions every day that I simply can't believe he comes up with. Here's a sample of some of the questions he's asked me in the last 2 weeks:

How many gallons of blood does an adult body have? (my answer, um, 2 or 3?)
How many inches is the earth?
Which country has the most people? (China?)
Which country has the least people? (Iceland?)
Which language is spoken the most? (Chinese?)
Do insects have lungs? (Yes? He proved later it's no.)
How did that baby get in your tummy? (uh, um . . . it's complicated. Ask your dad)!
How many times do you breathe in a year?
How many seconds are in a year?
How many days have I been alive?
How many websites on are the internet?
How many people are in the world?
Can the average human lick his own armpit? (Yes, see . . . )

He's SIX people. My two standby answers for these types of questions are: 1) I don't know--we'll have to look that up; or 2) you'll have to ask daddy.

The other day he also said "I'm a chatterbox. I must burn a lot of calories!" I couldn't agree more.

My kids in their Easter clothes. I know I'm biased, but I think they're rather adorable.

A little of everything

I just downloaded a bunch of miscellaneous pictures from my camera, so this is going to be a miscellaneous post. But I have to start with my hilarious son who makes me laugh every day. Kason is a shark expert, as I'm sure you know by now. We record most of the shark documentaries on "Shark Week" on the Discovery Channel, and he watches them all the time and has most of them memorized. Today he was telling us how there were 3 shark attacks in New Jersey in one day in the early 1900's. He said "a boy named Joseph Smith who was 14 years old got his leg bit off." Tige and I busted up since he's apparently getting his shark stories and his church stories mixed up. Perhaps he's been taught recently in primary about Joseph Smith's leg trauma and the first vision at age 14? I don't know . . . funny though.
Abby's little floor toy makes up into this cool tunnel, and she's been enjoying creeping/crawling/sliding underneath it the past few days. I know I'm biased, but I honestly think she's about the most beautiful creature that ever lived. Her beautiful blue eyes are changing colors. I think they're going to be brown, but right now they're kind of a gray/green.

Tige's new shades. They're vented on top for running & biking and have several interchangable colors of lenses. He's doing all 3 legs of a sprint triathalon this weekend, so these puppies should come in handy.

We went to the dinosaur museum here in St. George last week. We drive by it frequently, and I was so tired of Kason begging all the time to go. Have to say I wasn't impressed. I guess I was expecting "Night at the Museum" dinosaur fossils or something and there were NONE. Only rocks with prints, some of which were nearly impossible to see, especially for kids. Anyway, now we've done it and he can stop begging.

Kason thinks Abby is a 5 year old boy that he can wrestle and tumble around with. I am constantly telling him to leave her alone, to stop touching her or lifting her, and that "she's a fragile flower." He loves to put his head in her lap and have her pull his hair or hit him. Urgh! Just yesterday she put a couple of huge scratches on his face. It's going to be hard to teach her not to hit when he eggs her on like he does.

But they just adore each other. Abby lights up every single time she sees him. He loves to hold her and play with her. He's a very good helper. They are really quite a pair!

Hikes, Fathers & Sons, and family

I just downloaded about 2 weeks worth of pictures on my camera and was surprised to find so many pictures there. I've apparently gotten quite far behind, so this post is going to contain a menagerie of pictures and outings:

Sweet baby girl. 7 1/2 months old. She occasionally is so tuckered out that she falls alseep being burped at her bedtime feeding. I have to take advantage of these snuggle times. I just can't get enough of her!

Father's & Son's outing on Monther's Day weekend. This is hiking up a cinder cone trail volcano by Snow Canyon State Park. Could Kason's face be any dirtier? You can tell how steep the volcano was in this picture. Tige says it was really bad and he's glad Abby & I weren't with them. Kason invited our neighbor and his 2 sons to hike too, which they gladly took him up on. The dad told me a few days later "next time Kason invites us on a little hike, I'm saying NO!" I guess it was pretty dificult for 3 little boys and 2 dads trying to keep them from sliding down to the bottom.

View from the top of the volcano. There's another little volcano in the distance. And what did I do while the boys were gone? Read a whole novel from start to finish. It was wonderful.

Our first slip-n-slide this year with cousins. A great way to spend a hot afternoon.

Tige's grandparents were here 2 weeks ago and we played games and went out to eat with them. I think Abby might be trying to pull Great Grandpa's chest hair??? Hope she didn't hurt him!

Great Grandma. They just couldn't get enough of Abby.

Ward Party at the park on Cinco de Mayo. This is how Abby looked upon returning home.

Kason & Tige hiked at Zion 2 weeks ago. I had no idea he hiked with his beloved "blue puppy" until I downloaded this picture. Too funny! This has been his favorite snuggle toy since he was a baby.

View from Zion.

They saw lots of deer on this Zion hike. I was impressed that Tige caught this picture with the deer peeking at them through the trees.

Getting in "shape"

Tige took Kason jogging around the neighborhood this morning, and while they were at it, Kason said "why are we doing this dad?" Tige said "to get in shape." Kason said, "so if we don't jog our heads will be square?"

That kid is seriously hilarious!

Kason's Talent & Abby's 1st Swim

We've had a very full and fun day today. This morning our ward had a Primary Talent Show, and for Kason's talent he told jokes. He's quite a ham as you can see from the video below. Then we went with Clark's family to the Kite Festival (along with about 10 million other people). After the kite festival, we were hot, so we went to our gym for a swim. It was Abby's first time swimming, and she loved it. The outdoor pool was just a little cold for my taste, but the indoor pool was perfect! After she swam, she curled up and went to sleep. Such a sweetie!

This outing brought back lots of memories of Kason's first swimming outings in Virginia in the same little inflatable boat with my friends Stacy & Shannon and their boys. I sure miss them.

Just chilling in in the pool

First time in the outdoor pool with Mr. Snorkel and Daddy.

She's starting to say "da da da da" a little bit.

Not sure who enjoyed snuggling in the pool more, me or her.

Hitting Fun

I was just downloading a group of videos from my Flip. This video was taken about a month ago (I'm way behind). I had to get after Tige for teaching my sweet kids bad things, but it's too cute not to share.

Classic Kason

Since I publish my blog into a bound book, I figured this was a great place to record some of the funny sayings of my boy. Kason comes up with some hilarious sayings, and here are some of his best that I have jotted down in chronological order (warning there's a lot of potty and body humor):

Age 2:

--Kason woke up from his nap and asked where daddy was. I told him he was downstairs, and on the way downstairs Kason said “Daddy, ready or not here I come.”
--I asked Kason what he wanted for breakfast. He said, “Salsa!”
--I asked Kason how come he isn’t going pee-pee in the potty anymore. He put his hands up by his face and started shaking really hard and said “I scared of pee-pee!”
--Tige got home from work and the hospital paged him about 10 minutes later to come back in. Kason was sad that daddy had to leave again, and I explained to him that someone at the hospital was sick and daddy needs to help them. He said “I sick. Daddy help me!”
--I put Kason to bed, and when leaving his room I said “night, night angel.” He said “night angel Mom.”
--I was changing Kason’s poopy diaper, and he said “hurts.” I said “your bum hurts?” And he said “yeah, put ice cream on it!”
--Kason pooped in the potty today so we gave him a new train named James. We went to dinner at our Branch President's house and Kason proceeded to tell him “I went poo-poo and got a new train. Aren’t you proud of me?”
--I asked Kason if he wanted a “little piece of pizza” for lunch. He said, “no, a BIG one!”
--We were sitting in church, and Kason announced, rather, loudly “Mom, I have snot in my nose!”
--We were on vacation in Myrtle Beach and Kason and I got in the shower together to rinse the beach sand off. (Although Tige frequently showers with Kason, to my recollection this was my first time showering with Kason or being in close proximity to him while I was naked.) He pointed to my private area and said “what happened, mommy?”
--When Kason woke up this morning and I went in his room he asked where daddy was (as he does almost every morning). I told him daddy was at work and he said “I missed daddy while I was sleeping.”
--We were in the car and Kason said “Mom, turn the air on.” So I turned it on and when it had been blowing about 10 seconds, he said “Mmmm. That’s nice!”

Age 3

--Kason brought me the box of graham crackers from the cupboard and said “can I have a graham crapper?”
--Kason asked me “why did daddy marry you.” I said “because Daddy loves me.” Kason said, “no, I love you best!”
--I was just trying to teach Kason to write his name, and instead of trying to copy the letters I wrote, he just drew a big scribble. I said “that’s not letters, it’s scribbles.” He said “that’s not scribbles, it’s a planet! It’s Mars!”
--Kason was in the bathroom with me when I stepped out of the shower. He pointed to my breasts and said “what are those?” I said, “those are my breasts.” He said, “no, they’re muscles. Really big muscles.”
--Tige and Kason were sitting on the floor rolling a ball to each other. Toffee went and sat by Tige, and Kason said, “sorry, Toffee you can’t play. You don’t have opposable thumbs.”
--While living at my parents in Cedar city—my mom took Kason into town for an errand. They drove past the cemetery on main street and Kason said, “look Grandma! It’s Stonehenge!”

Age 4

--I was in the office and Kason came and told me “Charlie and Lola is on.” I said “that’s great!” He said, “no it’s fantastic!”
--Just a few minutes after breakfast Kason asked for a snack. I said “no because you just ate breakfast.” He put his hands on his hips and said “that’s ridiculous mom. That’s just ridiculous!”
--I was nursing Abby, and Kason came up and gave my partially-exposed breast a big squeeze and said “mom, you have huge armpits.”

Age 5

--He was sitting on the toilet this morning, and after a few minutes I said “are you done?” He said “yeah, but I just like to sit here and rest.”
--Kason had a sliver in his foot and I was trying to get it out with a needle. He was crying and carrying on and said covered his eyes and said “tell me when it’s over.” After trying for a minute or 2, he said “mom, you are SO not good at this!”
--After going potty Kason yelled “mom will you come and wipe me?” I said, “no, you can wipe yourself.” He said, “but I’m tired of wiping myself. I have to do it all the time.”
--I was wearing my swimming suit, and Kason came up and hugged my leg and said “ooh, your leg feels like a cactus!”
--Kason said “mom, will you bring me my transformer paper because I’m in the bathroom pooping and I need something to look at.”
--I told Kason I was turning the TV to the “tabernacle choir to listen to church music” and he said “I don’t like Towercrackle Choir!”

Our Muddy, Wet, "Worst Hike Ever!"

Tige had the day off work yesterday, so after preschool we headed to Zion National Park to hike the Emerald Pool trails in the beautiful 66 degree weather. Kason and I both had brand new hiking shoes and new wool hiking socks. Nice and clean.
Everything started off great. Kason was again saying "we're discovering things" and "what a great day."

We reached the lower pool and loved seeing the beautiful waterfalls. We even managed a picture of the whole family.

We got to walk under the waterfall, which Kason thought was great.

Tige and I stopped underneath the waterfall to take this picture of the falls above. We didn't realize that Kason didn't stop and was tromping ahead through VERY thick mud!

One of his shoes got stuck in the thick mud and came off, so naturally he then took a step into the mud with his new hiking socks. We yelled at him to stop, and did our best to clean him up now that he has two muddy shoes, one muddy sock, muddy pants, and muddy hands. Urgh! We didn't have supplies for this--just a wipe or two in case Abby needed a diaper change. Keep in mind this is that nasty red rock clay-type mud.

Once we're out of the mud, we hike up to the middle pools and stop for a snack.

Then we hike to the upper pools, which had an awesome waterfall this time of the year. It was wet and breezy up there, and Abby was sucking in her breath with each breeze.

But she was still happy and smiling!

We hiked back down to the middle falls and had to make a choice--continue across the little river to make a full loop, or go back to the lower pools the way we came through the mud. We didn't want more mud, and the river looked so shallow and harmless . . .

So across the river we go. Tige went first, and Kason and I followed with me holding his hand. When we got in the water and Kason's feet started getting wet, he panicked and tried to lift both feet and was kind of flailing dead weight. I only had a hold of one hand. Tige tried to reach out to take him, but he was one step too far away. So as Tige reached out for him and I let him go, down he went face first in the river like a pancake--drenched from head to toe. He comes up screaming! Poor little dude. Tige stripped his wet shirt off, but of course, we had no change of clothes with us. His pants, underwear, socks, and shoes are drenched with cold water. We tried to down play it by saying "wasn't that refreshing?" Kason's answer, "NO! IT WAS NOT REFRESHING! IT WAS LIKE ANTARTICA!"

So Tige took off his dry shirt and let Kason wear it the rest of the way. Kason told everyone we passed on the trail about how he fell in the cold river. Tige and I realize crossing the river was not the brightest decision we've ever made.

We hiked down quickly, and had to strip Kason naked for our 45 minute drive home. We bundled him in my sweatshirt, his jacket, and any other dry thing we had in the car. We learned a lesson that we should be more prepared with changes of clothes (and a video camera) next time. Tige and I laughed about it all the way home, but Kason didn't think it was so funny. Just this morning he said "mom, remember that hike we went on where my shoes got muddy and I fell in the river? That was the WORST HIKE EVER!" I wonder how long it will be before Kason thinks it's funny . . .

My Dad is . . .

Yesterday Kason informed us that his daddy is just like Handy Manny because he can fix anything. There's probably no greater compliment from a 5 year old boy, right?

Also, the other day Kason caught us kissing in the kitchen, and he started pouting and said "you guys are kissing each other and no one is kissing me!" It was pretty funny. And I proceeded to smoother him with kisses.

O Christmas Tree

We had our ward party last night, where Kason got to see Santa. He asked for "an orange jet that transforms into any kind of shark I want." Good luck finding that Santa!

A man from church came up to Kason and told him how cute Abby is and how all of his kids are grown up and could he take Abby home so they'll have a baby again. Kason said "do you have a mommy? Well, maybe she could have a baby in a few weeks." We all thought this was hysterical--pretty much, no way, get your own!

We have a gorgeous tree in our living room. I love it! Almost all of the decorations are from my wedding reception--the only perk of getting married at Christmas time.

Abigail's Nursery

We've been working this weekend to get the baby's nursery in order. Everything is now put away, hung up, and ready. It's so adorable--I just love it! My mom made me 3 darling ballerina wall hangings. I can't believe the hours and hours of work. She's way too good to me. She also made me two quilts and hemstitched 2 receiving blankets with matching burp cloths. I made the little "ABBY" wallhangings, and I'm quite proud of myself since I came up with the idea in my head. They turned out really cute.

Kason's funny for the week was when I was walking into the kitchen and he said, "Mom, look at your tummy! It's HUGE! Muy Grande! You can hardly wobble!" I called Tige at work to tell him what Kason said, and he couldn't stop laughing.

I'm due in 2 weeks, but am having dozens of contractions each day and am dialated to a 2, so I'm hoping maybe it will be sooner. I'm so ready to be done. I'm tired of the aching, being uncomfortable, and especially the puking. 13 days is the longest I've gone in the last 9 months without losing a meal.

The crib and ballerina wall hangings

Close up of one of the wall hangings my mom did. Look at all that detail and work.

Changing table and more decor.

My ABBY wall hangings with irredescent glitter.