Little Bakers

My boys love to bake!

If I make any mention of the word cookie, cake, muffins, or bread, they immediately push their chairs up to the counter and want to help. Sometimes it's a challenge keeping eggs from getting broken or fingers from getting burned, but they love it and I think it's adorable!

On Sunday we had several bananas that were overripe, so it became obvious that we needed some banana bread muffins! They boys were very helpful:

Tommy's getting really good at mixing. Sometimes I can even let go!

Jack grabbed the spatula from me as soon as I went to use it. He needs to work on his technique, but it wasn't bad for his first time :-)

(Daddy's taking the photos, in case you were wondering if I had a 3rd arm)

These pics are from the Valentine's Day cake we made for Daddy. This is their favorite part!

Little cuties :-)

The boys did an excellent job of putting the muffin liners in the cupcake pans. They're growing up so fast!

We Believe...

Tommy just said the First Article of Faith completely by himself! Amazing!

I think that kid will do just about anything for a jelly bean. Except potty train.

Finding Fun

This past Sunday was the first Sunday in a loooong time that a) no one was sick, b) everyone was "in town", and c) Logan wasn't scheduled to work, so he wasn't sleeping during the day. So the family had a lot of "together" time.

So....what do you d0?

Growing up, my family always tried to avoid treating Sunday like another Saturday, and so movie options were limited to Sabbath appropriate materials (scripture stories, etc.). Logan and I haven't built up a good "Sunday Movie Library" (I REALLY miss those old Living Scripture movies!), so I've been pretty flexible with the boys as far as watching Disney films goes, but this tends to make the boys want to get into their "weekday routine", including asking to go to the store and things like that. Now that Tommy is getting a bit older and more conscious of church and things, I'm trying to find time to focus on building our family and start some Sunday traditions.

Last Sunday Tommy did not have a good day at church (he had to leave his classes several times, and declared that he "didn't want to go to Sunbeams.") So, I've been "practicing Primary" with Tommy each day this week, trying to help him learn how to sit quietly while someone else is talking. To do this, I've been enticing him with jelly beans. The first day he got jelly beans after sitting quietly for 1 minute, the next day 3 minutes, etc. I've started adding teaching a mini-lesson as well, and he's getting better. He was reluctant to go to class on Sunday, but when I told him he would get jelly beans at home if he stayed in class his spirits rallied some. However, I was shocked that he actually stayed in class the WHOLE TIME! I guess practicing does help. I wasn't planning on "practicing" on Sunday, since he had already been to Sunbeams, but on Sunday afternoon he ran up to me and said, "More jelly beans, Mommy?" I responded that to get jelly beans he would have to practice sitting, and he needed to get his chair. He quickly ran over to his chair (Jack following along, of course), and asked to practice. So precious! We made it to 6 minutes with both boys. Yay!!! Small victories feel so good :-)

When Jack went down for his nap, Logan and I tried to play "Candyland" with Tommy. That was...interesting. He was so excited to see the game pieces, but he had no interest in playing! He kept taking the little plastic children and using them as action figures in his imaginary world (he has a very active imagination), and he quickly lost interest in identifying colors or trying to count. For a first attempt it wasn't bad. We'll have to try again soon.

We then moved on to one of our favorite family activities--baking! The boys LOVE to help me bake, and it's been so funny to watch Jack try to "help" more and more each time. I started out with just Tommy, but as soon as Jack realized what we were doing he pushed his chair right up to the counter and started saying "Hep! Hep!" (his way of saying he wants to help). I let each boy put in some of the ingredients, and Tommy actually held the mixer all by himself for a while! I wish I could have gotten a picture, but that would have required me stepping a way for a moment, which would NOT have been a good idea! The cookies were delicious, and are almost gone already...must be elves or something, eating them when we're all asleep...

Anywho, those are some of the "major events" from the past week. They boys are growing up so much, it's crazy to think they'll have another sibling soon! And then we get to start the desire for crawling/walking/talking all over again...

Cute Pics!

These are some photos that were taken while we were out in Washington. Ain't they cute?

All the Davis cousins

Just Noticed

I have little tracker thingy on my blog letting me know how far along I am with this pregnancy. Turns out I have 95 days left! That's a double digit number! Where has time gone???

Oh, and the heartbeat is "trending female" (it's consistently above 160, which I guess tends to indicate a female baby).

Is there an Anna Rae in our future?

West Coast Wanderings

Now that I've had a few days to get back on my feet, here's a recap of the boys' and my trip out west: (warning: this turned out much longer than I originally anticipated...I won't be offended if you just skip to the photos at the bottom.)

The morning of February 1st (the day of our departure) I woke up with an icky stomach bug. I thought it was food poisoning, because I had no other symptoms, but we're not really sure...anywho, turns out Logan also had the lucky bug, but thankfully the boys were free and clear! Our flight didn't leave until 5pm, so after a lot of ginger ale, prayer, and a blessing, I seemed okay to travel. I left Logan sick in bed (very sad...he had to stay and work, so he wasn't scheduled to go on the trip, but I felt bad leaving him sick!) and went with Nanna to the airport for our trip out west. Poor Nanna had recently sprained her ankle, so we made quite an interesting group at the tiny Charlottesville airport!

The flight out was okay--Jack got really cranky around his bed time, but when he finally decided to go to sleep it wasn't so bad. Tommy was great on the plane--if he's always like that, I'll travel with him any time! I was so glad Nanna was with me, because I definitely couldn't have handled them on my own!

We got into Seattle around 10pm, and Nanna left with my sister Christy, while the boys and I went with Grandma Rae Rae to the car rental agency. After a fun adventure there (involving getting two screaming kids into a car, signing paper work, and preparing to drive away, only to discover the car I was in had a problem, requiring that we change to another car just moments after the kids had stopped screaming) we were on our way to Edgewood!

We spent the next few days in Washington, playing with Grandma Rae Rae and Grandpa Tad (Logan's parents), visiting Luke and Twylla and their kids (Logan's brother and family), and enjoying the much milder northwest weather. The boys sleep schedule was CRAZY due to jet lag, but thanks to Disney movies, my iPad, and Netflix, we managed to stay relatively quiet in the mornings even though we woke up hours before everyone else.

The one down side to the Washington portion of the trip was that Jack was SUPER clingy. We think that since his dad wasn't around, and with Nanna disappearing after the plane ride, he was convinced that at any moment I would disappear, too. We managed okay, but it was kinda trying at times. Tommy would have random moments where he'd start crying for his dad, but other than that he did really well.

I also had the great opportunity to do a Lia Sophia show for my mother-in-law! It was lots of fun (even though Jack decided he needed to attend as well, instead of going to bed) and I'm glad we got to do it :-)

On Saturday (Feb. 5th) we went to Kirkland and saw Logan's extended family, who just happened to live a few streets over from my sister Christy! We had pizza and let the grandkids play together, and then headed over to Christy's for my nephew Alton's baptism. Tommy and Jack didn't feel like sitting through the service, but luckily my big brother Seth helped me walk the halls with them, and kept Tommy entertained.

Nanna then joined me on a car ride down to Newberg, OR., to stay at my sister Hope's house. We went to church in my old home ward (although I only recognized about 5 people; it's changed so much!), after which we decided to go visit the cemetery where my brother is buried.

Now, I mentioned that I had switched rental cars at the last second. The first car was a strange Nissan hatchback, but it had automatic locks, windows, keyless remote, and a nifty looking dashboard. The second car they gave me was a Toyota Yaris, and it was weird. Nothing on it was automatic, and the speedometer was in the middle of the dashboard, instead of in front of the driver. It's gas meter was odd too, and, as we came to find out, was not required to actually let you know if you were running low on gas.

We got to the top of Bell Mountain, and were stopping at a stop sign (on an incline) when the car died. Dead as a doornail. No gas. No juice. No movement.

It was highly embarrassing (who runs out of gas anymore???!), but thankfully some good Samaritans pushed us out of the way of traffic, and helped us get some gas. Seriously, the only warning the car gave us that it was even low on gas was a gentle fade-in-fade-out of the gas meter. No "ding" sound, no gas light, nothing. Grr.

Anywho, we managed to get back to Hope and John's, and had a nice family dinner with Seth and his girls, Hope, John, Sarah, and our cousin Tara. We got some pictures, too (of course)!

On Monday I drove into Portland to see some of my dear high school friends. It was so great to see them! I had to see them in "shifts" because our schedules didn't align, but the boys were real troupers. We saw Jeremy in the morning, and had delicious pastries at some artsy bakery in Portland (along with a deliciously LARGE cup of hot chocolate), and it was great getting to catch up with him. We then ran over to the Fifth Avenue building to meet Beth, where we once again indulged in hot chocolate (what can I say--it's a thing with me). Since we were meeting in a business building, the boys weren't terribly happy, but once we walked them back to the car and let them play in there they were much happier (and let Beth and I catch up!). We drove out to Canby (both boys slept on the way out) and had dinner with Matt and his family. It was so nice to get to meet his little girl, and get to know his wife better! It was a very long and busy day, but it was great! I wish I could have seen even more people, but sadly, our schedules didn't match up :(

On Tuesday we drove back up to Washington, during which time we stopped briefly at the Portland Temple (beautiful!), went shopping at Deseret Books in Lake Oswego, and got horribly lost on our way back to Kirkland to see Christy. Since we didn't have a GPS system with us, we had to call Christy to look up directions from the random address we were at, and had a jolly adventure getting onto the right roads!

We spent the night at Rae Rae and Tad's, and left early in the morning for home. I was so ready to go! It's fun seeing family and friends, and I'm really glad we went, but I REALLY missed Logan! So did the boys--when I went to wake up Tommy (who had finally adjusted to west coast time) early in the morning, he didn't really want to wake up, but as soon as I said "We're going on an airplane to see Daddy" he sat up straight in bed and said, "Go to see Daddy?!" It was really cute!

The flight back was MUCH better than I thought it would be. I was sure with no in-flight movie the kids would go crazy, but we managed okay. Jack even took a two hour nap, which was great for us!

When we arrived in Charlottesville it was snowing, strangely enough, so that delayed getting home a bit, but Logan was up and waiting for us when we arrived. The kids were elated! Tommy couldn't wait to see Daddy, Diego, Calli, and all of his toys again (which he promptly took out of the toybox and began playing with). It took us about 45 minutes to get them calmed down, but the kids did manage to go to sleep. I was so happy to be back in my bed, and back with my hubby---he doesn't kick like Jack does!

And now, some photos:

Jack playing with his Uncle John while we visited Aunt Christy

Jack and Tommy enjoying fancy hot chocolate at the bakery in Portland

Grandpa Tad (photo taken by Jack, with a little help from Mommy)

Seth "entertaining" Tommy at Alton's baptism

All the Feinauer grandkids, together for the first time! (Sarah's hiding behind her mom)

Me, my siblings, and my Mom

(L->R) Nanna, Seth, Christy, Hope, Me

My sisters and me

(oldest->youngest)

The boys with their uncle Carson. You can see the family resemblance to Logan.

Dinner at Nana and Papa Davis' (Logan's paternal grandparents).

L->R: Jack, Me, Nana Davis, Spencer, Tommy, and Andrew

(I may have Spencer and Andrew mixed up; they're twins, and I don't always get them right. They're Logan's brother Luke's boys)

Tommy and Andrew ( I think)

Jack. Being cute. He fell off the chair about a minute later. Kinda funny.

Guess that sums it up! It was fun being out there, but it's great to come home :-)

The Little Bookworm

A little anecdote about the differences in my two boys:

When Tommy was about 18 months old, he would wake up from his afternoon nap, jump out of bed and bang on his bedroom door to let us know he was awake.

Jack, on the other hand, wakes up, and begins to READ to himself. I only know he's awake because he'll occasionally call out (I'm not sure what he's saying, but it's yelled out in a calm manner).

When I go in to get him, I see this:

We conveniently placed Jack's bed next to his bookcase, and he is constantly grabbing books and looking through them! It's really adorable, and he loves looking at all the pictures. He's my little bookworm!