Firsts all around

Some firsts at our house. Kason lost his FIRST tooth yesterday. It's been loose for almost 2 months, so I'm glad it finally came out. He's been asking when he'd lose a tooth for about 1.5 years. Whew!

And at 19 months Abby ALMOST has enough hair to do something with. Two days ago I managed to pull a little bit of it into a rubber band and added a bow. She kept pulling the bow out, but that rubber band held. There was only about 2 inches of hair or less once it was up.

She wasn't sure what to think about it and kept reaching up to touch it. When Kason came home from school and saw her, he started laughing. Then in the afternoon when Tige came home and saw her, he started laughing too. What's up with that? I thought she looked adorable!

It'll probably be something we just do on Sundays. There's really not enough hair yet to do much else.

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.

Easter Week

Life has been busy for us this spring, and I've gotten behind blogging for a couple of weeks. So this post is going to be the last 2 weeks all lumped together. Tige rode in the "Tour de St. George" where he did a 60+ mile bike ride. Why for the love of Pete would anyone do such a thing? I don't know. But there were hundreds of crazies just like him all riding down the road. It was a terribly windy day, which made for a rough ride. The wind took several bikers out right in front of Tige, and when they got over to Sand Hollow, they were riding through thick sand that had blown over the road. He rode his 60 miles in 4.5 hours.
Last week we went to Las Vegas to vacation with my parents and Andy & Rachel. I'm not sure why I didn't snap very many pictures. Probably because we stayed busy and had lots of fun. Tige and I took the opportunity to go see the Broadway play "The Lion King" while we had someone to watch the kids.

Kason, Abby & little Ryan

We went bowling. Lots of fun, and Kason bowled an 86--pretty impressive for a 6 year old!

Tige showing Kason how it's done.

I bowled also, although I don't recommend it nearly 7 months pregnant. After chucking that ball for 2 games, my back would hardly let me move. I should have known better.

"Open NOW elevator!" Abby couldn't wait to get to the pool.

Swimming fun

Saturday and Sunday we had a quiet Easter weekend by ourselves. We went to Snow Canyon for a little hike and bike ride. Abby LOVES being outdoors.

We got Kason a bigger bike since when he peddles his first bike, his knees were practically hitting his cheeks. This one only has hand brakes so it took a little getting used to. I dropped them off at the top of the bike trail at Snow Canyon and they biked all the way to the entrance. But Kason hit a pole by the entrance and "hurt my crotch" so that cut the ride short. Hopefully he'll get the hang of squeezing the hand brakes so next time will be more fun.

Hunting for eggs in the backyard. For Easter, Kason got a new church shirt, tie and socks, a summer outfit, and lots of candy.

Abby loved picking up eggs once she figured out what was going on. She got 2 new church dresses with some frilly socks, and a summer outfit with some shoes.

Abby is 18 months now, although I still find it hard to believe. She's growing up right before my eyes. She still has very little hair and doesn't say too many words, although she chatters to herself constantly. She says "mama, dada, doggie, puppy, blue, hi, eyes, and baby." She has 16 teeth and takes one good 3-4 hour nap in the afternoon. She loves her 2 blankies and drags them all over the house. She's a wiggle worm at church, and looks for ways to "escape" from the bench.

She LOVES our dog Toffee, but poor Toffee barely puts up with her lovin'. Toffee runs when she sees Abby coming, but occassionally Abby catches her for a quick snuggle.

She loves anything that has to do with her brother. She doesn't play with dolls or girly things--she likes sharks, snakes, spiders, and trucks. She will NOT look at the camera and smile and pose for pictures. I don't have many pictures to show just how cute and precious she really is because she's always on the go.

We got a glimpse in Las Vegas of how she might be in 2.5 months when new baby arrives. Tige was holding little nephew Ryan on one knee and Abby on the other knee. Ryan got fussy, so I went and picked him up from Tige. Abby went berzerk and started crying and was very upset that her mom picked up another baby and not her. Uh oh!

New Swingset!

Tige has a secret way of getting things he wants. It's called badger and pester the wife about it until she finally says "fine! If you'll just shutup about it, you can get it!" This is the way he got his truck, his xbox 360, his flatscreen TV, and most recently his road bike. Well guess what folks? It works for me too. I've been badgering and pestering Tige to get the kids a nice swingset for at least a year. "We need it this summer so the kids can play on it while I'm dealing with the new baby . . . " It worked! Tige broke down and bought this AWESEOME swingset at Costco. Then we just had to build it . . .

2.5 weeks later it's finished, and I must say, it's magnificent. It was beastly to put together, probably took us about 30 hours all together. We spent the first 3 hours just sorting through the hundreds of pieces of wood and sorting & labeling the thousands of pieces of hardware. Once that was done though, it made it so much faster and smoother. My husband is a master builder, and I read the instructions, told him what to do, and gathered supplies. It was fun to build it together. The kids already love it! So do I.

Getting started--the picnic table and the base of the playhouse.

Gathering wood for the next step.

Starting on the roof

More roof

Abby, our "good" helper

Roof finished

Last screws in the bay window

Bay window and sides finished.

Rounded "peeping" window

Swings up! We actually finished the swinging portion around 8:00 p.m., just getting dark and ready for the kids to go to bed. But Tige insisted they must swing. So we turned on the outside lights and let them swing in the dark. They loved it.

Dormer Windows

Ratchet Abby, again such a "good" helper. Why does everything go in her mouth? Yuck.

Installing the steering wheels

and telescope.

Completely finished. So exciting.

A friendly game of tic-tac-toe.

Now I need a patio set so I can sit in a cushy chair outside and watch the kids while reading a book. Let the badgering begin!

Moab Half Marathon & Hospital visit

Today Tige ran the Moab Half Marathon. It was his 2nd half marathon, and he did great by beating his first time by 15 minutes. Kirk & Matt both ran it too, so the boys have had a good time talking about it and anticipating it for awhile.

The weekend didn't go at all as planned. We were supposed to leave to Monticello/Moab on Friday morning when Kason got out of school. Instead, Kason woke up at 3:00 a.m. coughing very hard and complaining of pain. I gave him some cough medicine, a drink and tucked him back in. An hour later, I could hear him crying, and I went in his room to find him gapsing for air and writhing in pain. I quickly got Tige to look at him, and we decided a trip to the ER was in order. I took him to the hospital where the admitting nurse promptly announced over the walkie-talkie that she had a 6 year old in "respiratory distress." If that doesn't get a mother's heart racing, I don't know what does. The nurses and Dr.'s checked him out and sent him for an x-ray of his chest/lungs. We waited FOREVER to get the results of the x-ray, but they gave Kason some pain medication, and soon he was breathing more easily. I read a whole Magic Tree House book to him while we waited. Eventually he was diagnosed with pleurisy, which is a viral inflammation of the lungs. They sent us home with some lortab/tylenol to treat the pain. Yesterday was a horrible day with him laying in the chair like a zombie running a really high fever. He wouldn't eat anything all day and only drank about 2 oz of fluid. That's soooo not like Kason. He hardly moved or spoke all day. I've never seen him so sick. Abby also has a cold, so it has not been a fun weekend. Today, Kason is doing better and I can see that soon he'll be good as new. We feel bad we missed dad's race, but we hear that there were so many people there (5,000 runners) we probably wouldn't have seen him anyway.

Kason said some really funny things in the hospital that I want to remember, so I'll jot them down. They told him they were going to take an x-ray, and me said to me, “if they take too many pictures of you, it could fry your brain and kill you!” (He’d apparently seen this on 1000 Ways To Die, a TV show that mom doesn't approve of, but I think dad let's him watch when I'm not around). As he was being wheeled down the hall for the x-ray he said “good thing I don’t have a brain-eating amoeba.” They asked if he’d had chicken pox, and he said “what are chicken pox?” We explained it to him and he said “oh, kind of like poison ivy!” While laying in the bed waiting for x-ray results, he said “I’m totally miserable.” Such a cute little trooper.