The favorite spot in the house is...

Mom and Dad's bed!

Jared and Lydia love playing around on our bed. This makes total sense to me as I LOVED playing around on my parents bed when I was little. We often have a nice family snuggle on Saturday mornings.  Anytime I go into our room Lydia runs in after me and  "asks" (points and stretches her arms to the bed  saying "Ahahah" and signing please rapidly) to be put on our bed.  As soon as she is on it she crawls to the top and starts burrowing under the covers.  I can often find Jared in there too. I think they both wish they could take their naps there.  Jared keeps saying his bed is getting too little for him (it's not) and asking if he will get a big bed when he is 4. He is compiling a long list of things he will be able to do when he turns 4 some practical (ride his bike even though we try to get him to do it now) and not so practical like drive?  He is really looking forward to his birthday.

Lydia is turning into quite a little imp.  She used to be so helpful and such a good listener. Sadly she has moved away from that and more into running away and not listening. Jared was right around 21 months when I first noticed "the terrible twos" It looks like it has hit Lydia.  Sadly we will just have to have timeouts a lot more often. At the same time she is completely adorable.

 This is one of her favorite spots to go when I ask her to do something. She runs over there and acts like I won't find her.

 We keep the puzzles under our ottoman and she really wanted to play with them this day.

Puppy Dog Ears

Lydia's hair is super fine (I love how soft it is) and after we take her pigtails out they leave noticeable indentations. Mark commented on this the other day calling them that. Its pretty accurate.

 Lydia loves looking at her baby book that I made her.  This make me super happy. She will climb onto the couch ,(a skill she mastered this past week or so) and grab it off the shelf. Then she grabs Jared's for him. I love it!

Jared's imaginative play is really taking off.  I never know if he is: a baby mouse, a fireman, a construction worker, a fish, a baby bird or a puppy dog. Lately he has been a puppy dog more often than a little boy. He has been really interested in trying to get Lydia to play along with him lately with marginal success.  He really is a sweet big brother and tries hard to include Lydia and look out for her. We have his preschool open house next week and have been busy reading lots of books from the library about preschool. I think he is getting pretty excited.

Mark's classroom is another favorite spot. Jared and Lydia both love visiting Mark there (also no surprise to me as I loved visiting my Mom's classroom, and they just like seeing Mark). We stopped by the store today (and totally forgot the item I went there to get. Sigh) and Jared said "we really need to get Daddy a donut and take it to him."  It wouldn't hurt that he would get one in the process and get to visit Mark's classroom but I thought it was sweet so we did. It was fun to surprise Mark.  I am happy that we can do that now. Last year I was working M-F and Lydia was so small I didn't feel like we really could so it's super nice to go now. Mark has been working on the 50 states and the Oceans and Continents with his students.  They are not very good at it.  (His words) Coincidentally (it really wasn't planned) Jared and I have been doing a bit of Geography in his learning time and he loves it!  We have been learning the 50 states (It's not weird, Mark loves maps, we both love to travel and I minored in Geography).  Mark has a big map of the United States up on his bulletin board and little post-its with the state name so kids can go and work on it. We took Jared over so he could put up the states he knows (As of this morning: CA, OR, WA, ID, WY, MT, NV, UT, CO, AZ, NM, TX, LA, VA, FA, ME, NY and Canada obviously not a state) He is really good at it. Mark left it up to shame his students a little bit. I may teach him the continents and oceans just to see if he does it quicker then Mark's 6th graders. 
I can't believe summer is almost over! The end of August is when summer ends to me. So much happens in August! Mark has been in school for 2 weeks. He celebrated his birthday last week. My parents celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary yesterday. Our 9 year anniversary is next week and I can almost put up fall decorations. If I am being perfectly honest I have enjoyed this summer so much more then previous years which has been so very nice. It has helped that we have had terrific rainstorms that have cooled the afternoons down. The last time the area (the airport specifically)received more rain this this year was 1948. (From July 01 till now) I love it but it has been pretty scary for areas near the burn scars with terrible flash flooding. I am looking forward to Fall of course but am so thankful its been such a nice summer.

A morning at the Denver Aquarium

The past few weeks Jared and I have been "learning" all about the ocean and the creatures you find there. Jared was really interested and had fun reading the books I got at the library and doing our projects. Therefore I convinced Mark that we should spend the money (it really is expensive!) and take Jared and Lydia to an Aquarium.  It was great fun to see Jared point out things we learned about and ask me when we would see certain ones.   He told me he liked the sea urchins and jelly fish the most.  Lydia was pretty impressed too.

 

 Trying to pet the stingrays.

 

 

I am not ready to say I want to homeschool my kids but it is fun to teach them things and see them learning it right away.

32

Handsome Guy!

Doesn't look quite 32 does he?

Mark celebrated his 32nd birthday on Friday.  I made him a special breakfast (monkey bread (he loves it!) and eggs with ham) and he opened his presents before he left for school.  I worked so hard this year to make his presents a surprise. Typically we go shopping together and pick them out but this year I really tried and marginally succeeded. I ordered him a BYU Idaho Alumni license plate which he had mentioned wanting a few weeks ago and a fancy hot/cold cup for work. We bought some basic cheap cups a few years back but based on how much Mark loves making smoothies in the summer and hot chocolate in the winter it seemed he should get a nice one. Unfortunately I had to order his license plate cover online so he saw something had been purchased from there and seeing that he is a pretty smart guy it was no surprise when he opened it. At least I got it here in plenty of time.  The cup was even more ridiculous. I walked into Bed Bath and Beyond the other day and they had these cups on sell and right in front of the display was one with the Brazilian flag on it.  Mark served his mission in Brazil so I thought perfect, and useful!  Along with that purchase I bought a salad dressing dispenser because we really want to start making our own salad dressings. I wasn't sure if I wanted to keep the salad dressing bottle so I kept the receipt and Mark saw it and read it!  It didn't say Brazil cup but it said Brazil so he knew he was getting something related to Brazil.  Oh well. He was happy with his gifts.

 

I also followed his cue from my birthday last year and made him an ice cream cake. The one he made me last year was amazing and I was very happy with how this one turned out. Mark loves mint flavored things he requested a mint cake. We did an Oreo crust then and layer of fudge sauce for the bottom. Then I broke up peppermint bark and mixed it into the ice cream like Coldstone.  Then I did another layer of  crushed Oreos with fudge sauce and did a layer of Mint Oreos mixed into the ice cream. The Pyrex pan was full by this time but Mark wanted more mint so I added a layer of fudge sauce and then he just scooped mint chocolate chip ice cream on top. So delicious and Minty.
Mark and I also had the chance to go out to Tucanos for lunch together. He helped at student registration a few weeks ago so Friday he got to leave school early.  They were having an assessment day in the morning then just teacher work time in the afternoon. We love hanging out with our kids but love hanging out with just each other too. It was fun to actually go out on his birthday and I am sure he loved getting to leave work a little early.
Jared and Lydia had fun celebrating Mark's birthday.  They are so lucky to have such an excellent father. We are all so blessed to have such a steadfast, willing, loving, fun guy in our life. We love you Markus!

Blessed

Today Jared, Lydia and I went over to a park for a picnic.  (Mark went up to the temple with the youth). We go to parks all the time but normally just to play so it was extra fun to eat lunch there. As I watched them playing I just loved how happy I felt.  How much love I felt for them.  It's hard to put into words how much happiness Jared and Lydia bring me. To describe what a great life I have. I was on Facebook this morning and a friend had posted a picture of her little almost 2 year old sleeping and she commented that she wished she could "freeze time".  It's so true. Some days I wish I could freeze time for just a little while. I love these days with Jared and Lydia. (even though they can be exhausting..so MANY questions!!) When they are just with me. Soon enough they will go off to school which will be great but I will always cherish this time with them.  When they were so young and thought I was so fun and silly and smart and wonderful. Recently I was in the car coming back form the temple with some ladies and these ladies were talking about their children who are all teenagers.  It was so strange to hear what challenges they and their kids are facing. What their daily lives are like compared to mine.  I am not worried about them being teenagers right now, I am too busy enjoying them now but as I listened to them I realized how our lives will change. It will be interesting to figure out how to best approach them with Mark.

In the meantime, when Jared is completely over reacting about little things and Lydia is running away instead of listening I am grateful I have these moments to look back on. I don't necessarily need to freeze time but I do know I need to enjoy it as much as I can and use it well.   There are so many popular blog posts about really being with your children, enjoying them when they are little, making your time count, and most importantly realizing what an important job it is even if it feels never ending and like you don't matter to the outside world.  (Where are all the posts about enjoying your teenagers)? The basic thing I always get out of these articles is to just spend TIME with your kids and not be too HARD on yourself.  I don't write any where near as well as those individuals or give any supporting evidence but I think that is what really matters. I love being their Mom and am beyond blessed.

 

Back to school again

Mark went back to school today.  This is his fourth year teaching in District 49. We sent him off with his "back to school treats" (Snickers and Chex mix) after a delicious breakfast of waffles and eggs with ham.  He is teaching 6th grade again and will also be coaching Cross Country. The High School up the street needs a tennis coach so he planned on applying for that but since they have a different bell schedule he would have missed a lot of his last class period. When the Athletic Director at his school heard he was interested in the tennis job she offered him the Cross Country one at his school. He played tennis in high school and would really enjoy coaching it but he also ran cross country in high school and it will be a lot more convenient for him to do it at his school.  Mark running is sort of a joke between us.  I run three days a week and have been for the last year and still don't feel like I am very good at it.  Last Fall Mark decided to be healthy and run as well.  He lasted 6 weeks and then stopped. The crazy thing is that he can not run for years and years and then jump back in it like he never stopped. Its just a little bit frustrating. Running will never be that easy for me but I am WAY more consistent. We hope that Mark gets lots of nice kids with even nicer, helpful (or just not crazy) parents.