Easter

April 4, 2010

For Easter this year we headed out to my parents house. As usual we waited until after Ian's nap to commence in the Easter activities. Ian loved looking for the Easter egg's hidden around the house and was happy to find a basket full of play-doh toys.

After a snack for lunch and just before naptime we colored Easter Eggs. It was not exactly the best activity with a very independent boy but we still had fun. He loved putting the eggs in the bowls, trying to help stir, and putting stickers everywhere. We later discovered that crayons color on egg shells really well, so we had fun coloring pictures too.

Ian trying to be patient and let mommy help him.

Ian helping dunk the eggs. He looks like he is being soft but he just drops it from there and stirs a little too fast.

Ian putting the stickers on his nose.

Another Easter tradition is we each have a color of yarn and another person strings it all over the house. At the end of the string is your Easter gift. I am not sure why we still do this we are not exactly loving -we tend to try and make the path as difficult to accomplish as possible. This year we did not even do gifts at the end of the string because we put them out with Ian's. Ian however loved running through the string. He would go over it, then under it, and occasionally try and run straight through it. I am sure we'll do it again next year!

March 21, 2010

Tim's 25th Birthday!

Last month I turned 25, this month Tim turned 25.
Yes I am the older and wiser one in the family :)

I would like to add to this post but the truth is I have no idea what we did all day or what Tim got for his birthday. Note to self: do not blog about things months later. The only things I would even remember with or without pictures is the cake. My mom makes this cake for Tim every year for his birthday it is a "Better than anything cake." Have to keep it g-rated people this blog is public. It is Tim's favorite and apparently due to the picture below Ian doesn't mind the taste of it either.

March 19, 2010

We have lost more good neighbors :( Tricia and Mark lived next door to us for a year and Ian (as well as Tim and I) absolutely loved them. Probably because Tricia would let Ian climb on the coffee table and give it a good spit shine, dump out all the dominoes and run like mad, or take the plastic globe apart and throw the world around the room as if it were a ball. When they came home from Disneyland they brought Ian back a Mickey shirt. We did not even know he knew who Mickey was but ever since then Ian has been crazy about micky mouse.
We helped them move out -well they really did everything before we even got there so we pretty much just sat around while the kids had a blast running through the empty house.

Ian watching Tricia or as he would say it "Icia" clean the vent.

Lily, Ian, and Reilly having fun running around in the empty house. Yes Ian got that nice bruise on his head about 15 minutes prior this picture. He got running too fast up the stairs, slipped on the cornerstair and nailed his forehead right on the sharp corner of the trim. Ouch!

Although Tricia is back on the East coast, due to Mark's work he has been staying with us here in Utah. You would never know he actually stays here. He is gone to work before any of us are awake and back late at night after we are already asleep, and gone nearly every weekend. But Ian loves the rare opportunities he does get to see Mark and follows him around as if he were his shadow. It used to be that every night in his prayers Ian would always say "bless Icia, and Mark." Now it is "Mark and Icia." Don't worry though Tricia every time Mark walks in the door he still looks for "Icia."
We will miss you but look forward to keeping in touch!
Maybe one day you'll come back to Utah :)

No shoes, No shirt, No Problem!

Ian lately has been going through many random phases. Phase 1: For a few days he would wake up in the morning come get me and say "rink, wa wa (drink water)" and rush to the bathroom. Why the bathroom you ask???

Now you know. Which by the way I have never ever done this. I am not sure where he learned it. Tim??? Thankfully that has ended!

Phase 2 -No shoes: He does not like to wear shoes or socks. However if he has been wearing socks he loves picking out the sock lint.

Phase 3 -No shirt: This seems to be hear to stay. Besides loving the marshmallows in Marshmallow Matey's (he throws the cereal part to the dog). He loves getting dressed himself. Well let's reverse that...if it were up to him he would wear absolutely nothing. After sometime he finally decides to get dressed himself. When I try to help him he shouts "No, ME." He actually does really well getting dressed and does it correctly. Then he giggles and either pulls an arm out the bottom of the shirt or out the neck.
Eventually as the day goes on he loses his pants and thinks it is hilarious!

Phase 4 -No problem: He sure is a happy little camper! He never has been much of a problem. Don't get me wrong he has his moments as does every child I am sure. But overall he is very loving . He loves watching (in order) Bolt, Nemo, Handy Manny, and Cars. Although he will never actually watch the whole show. Besides Bolt -but that is only when we are driving to Salt Lake.
He is always trying to be helpful (even if it really isn't). Helping me mash bananas for banana bread. He would mash them and then eat some when I turned my back.
Did I mention he loves helping. This past week Tim's grandmother passed away and Tim headed out to New York to be with the family and attend the funeral. He loved helping daddy pack :)

Phase 5: This was unfortunately very short lived. For a little while when Ian would wake up in the morning he would stay in his room and wait for me to come and get him. One morning he woke up around 6:30 and it was just to early for me to drag myself out of bed for the day. I waited for a minute and then went to go get him and was surprised to see this...

He had fallen fast asleep! How he ended up in this specific spot and angle I am not sure. He did not seem to mind and I was not going to chance moving him. So there he slept and to bed I went (it only lasted about 15 minutes).

Aquarium

The week after everyone left Ian and I headed down to stay with Amy and Jimmer for the weekend. I had a technology conference that I needed to attend for work. Tim had some tests to take that weekend for school. Luckily Amy was able to watch Ian while I went to the conference which happened to be no more than five minutes from their home -bonus! On Saturday the conference got out early -as it should it was my birthday (I am now a quarter of a century old -scary)! So we headed to the aquarium in Draper.

I think this was probably Ian's favorite! Ribbit Ribbit

The best part of the aquarium was the octopus (far right). We all could have sat there and watched for hours. Maybe not hours but definitely quite a while.

Ian watching the piranhas -snap!
They have little benches that the kids can stand on to see all of the fish which he loved. The best was hearing every kid say nemo over and over again as they passed the clownfish...it echoed throughout the aquarium. Plus they had a few picture spots like below.
Thanks for letting us stay with you and taking care of Ian! Ian had a blast as you can see!

Faces of Ian!

The last day that everyone was here Ian was quite the animated boy!

We even made homemade applesauce just before everyone headed out. Ian loves applesauce!
Ian never used to really eat apples. He would put them in his mouth and then slowly spit them out. These must have been good apples because he was just biting right into them if we did not cut them up fast enough. Then he starting using the apple as a ball when he was finished.

Thanks Amy for all the wonderful pictures you took of Ian!

GranMac visit

Just after Valentines Day "nama mac" as Ian says came for a visit. Ian always loves having people stay with us. As you can tell in the picture above (they were playing peek-a-ROOOAAARRR)! The Hinkley's sent along a pair of sunglasses as well. This is the only pair of sunglasses that Ian will actually wear! He loves them!

Nan also brought some fun new toys for Ian which he has mastered already! He loves the magnetic puzzles (his favorite is the ocean one). He pulls them out with the pole then puts them back in very quickly.

We were luckily enough that the timing work out perfectly for everyone. While the Thompson were busy having a little fun of their own, Nan was able to watch Ian while I was at work and Tim was at school. As you can see he had a little to much fun during naptime!!! Notice the top right picture?? Odd I know, but he though it was silly! In one week he got three new pairs of shoes. We were waiting on two pairs to come in the mail (See-Kai-Run shoes our favorite) and he would no longer wear the old ones. So he got a third pair of shoes while we waited for the others to arrive. And of course, the new shoes came that the next day. So for the next couple of weeks he wanted all of his shoes and socks with him in bed. One pair already doesn't fit -this boy is growing much to fast. At 21 months he is already in a shoe size 8 and moving quickly to a bigger size.

When the new set of shoes arrived he had to test them out -this is how he tries on new shoes!

Ian loved hanging out with his grandma and had a blast putting on lotion.Amy and Jimmer came up for the weekend and as usual Ian loves having a friends around to play. We had many late nights and things got a little crazy. Ian loved scaring people with his roar and of course we all were a little more dramatic just for him.

No one did it quite as well as Jimmer!



Ian began to think that he really did scare him - he started scaring him and giving him kisses to make it better.

While the boys and Nan heading out skiing. I went to work and Amy stayed home with Ian. All weekend we heard a lot of "Amy, nimmer." He can say Amy perfectly but Jimmer comes out as "nimmer." He loves to talk to anyone on the phone but Amy is about the only one that he will actually stay on the phone with for more a few minutes. He definitely loves Amy!

After a busy week filled with tons of fun you can imagine that everyone crashed. Thanks for coming out and taking care of Ian hopefully we'll see you again really soon!