While driving home a few nights ago...

Milo: Mom?

Me: Yes Milo

Milo: Will I stay little forever?



Oh I wish - then I would be able to hear these funny questions forever.

its a miracle!

What? Can it be? Two posts in two days? I must have gone mad. Or bored. Actually I am neither (at least I'm pretty sure I'm not mad). I just wanted to share a few pictures from our day at the Children's Discovery Gardens.

Mason and Milo's cousins, Emma and Leora, came to visit from Washington. And yes, Mason is giving bunny ears to the bear statue.

Mason keeping a cool head.

My mom and Leora (whom Milo refers to as La-Lora)

So many pretty flowers at the Gardens!

week in review

My life for the most part has been pretty normal lately. Well, normal for me anyhow. Each day I try to think of something fun to do. This serves multiple purposes of course. It keeps us all busy and it keeps the boys from breaking toys over each others heads - or whatever other nonsense they end up doing when they are inside the house together for more that about 30 minutes.

So besides the "normal" stuff, here's a few exciting things that happened.

The first excitment came Tuesday at Thanksgiving Point. I had just finished eating lunch at the Trellis Cafe with my mom and the boys (had a very yummy spinach salad) - and we were walking through the entry area when I looked over and saw Elder Uchtdorf. I know this may not be so exciting to some people, but he is pretty much my favorite apostle if I'm allowed to say that. I have always been excited to hear his stories because to me his life (and accent) are so different. Anyway. At first I could not believe my eyes, I tried to ask my mom what she thought so she said I should listen while he was talking to see if I could hear his accent. So that was probably weird for a minute. Us and his family were about the only ones in the lobby and he was walking off to the side talking on a cell phone. Not exactly a situation where you can be sneaky and sly, but we tried. Well, I am not good with akward situations - or with being brave - so of course I left without saying anything. So I didn't talk to him and I have no cool picture to show, but it was still neat to me.

Next we go to Wednesday evening. I decided, no I was coerced into thinking that it would be a good idea for me to attend a softball game. Not to watch, to actually play. Let me briefly give you a history of my softball skills. The last time I remember playing was gym class in middle school, of which time I always had a fear of the ball created by ideas that I would be the one kid in class to be hit in the face with it. For this reason I made sure to stand in far outfield where I could pretend to play. I also tried my hardest to be at the end of the batting line. But of course I remember all these things but then think to myself, "Oh that was so long ago. I've practiced T-Ball with Mason many times and I'm not too shabby. How hard can it be to keep your eye on the ball and swing the bat into it? I can do this no problem." Bad idea. I should have listened to my memories instead. So we start off by throwing the ball around to warm up, then we divide into teams. Ok, so this was more like a practice I guess since we only had six players on each team. First I am outfield. No biggie since I had just warmed up catching and throwing a ball. Well, I am sorry to say that even with all my "I can do anything" attitude I still never caught a ball. Although in my defense I'm not sure if one really ever came to my area. So I'm playing thinking this is not too big of a deal. Then my team goes infield. I suddenly realize that with only six of us I will most likely get a turn to bat. So now here's what I'm thinking - "Oh no, what have I done? Why am I here? I have no idea how to hit a ball." Then my can-do-it attiude kicks in, "Hey remember how you practiced with Mason? Just keep your eye on the ball and it will be easy." Wrong again. I was the loser who just kept swinging and swinging but never making contact. Not too bad you think, three strikes and you're out anyway. Nope. Remember that this is more of a practice, so everyone's being nice and letting me try as many times as I need. Woohoo. I get to stand at the plate while everyone watches me for as long as it takes to hit the ball. Then I would hit the ball, run to first, only to realize that it was a foul therby making me run back and start the whole wonderful process again. Yes I did finally hit the ball, three times in all. And here are some things I learned that night: 1. hitting a softball with a bat is not that easy if you haven't done it in like 15 years. 2. Practicing T-ball and toss-the-ball-lightly with Mason does not work for adult games. 3. If Mason's sporting future depends at all on my ability to help teach him, he will do much better trying soccer than baseball.

Of course an exciting week cannot be so without good food. Thursday I had a wonderfully yummy breakfast with some friends at a resturaunt I've never been to - later my sister informed me it was featured on a show on Food Network. Later that day we celebrated the 24th. A holiday to remember the pioneers who settled Utah - to me it's like another 4th of July; business closed, BBQ's, family and fireworks.

So there you are. The week's wrap-up you might not have wanted, but you got anyway.

my mosaic

So I saw this on my friends page, thought it was cute, and decided to copy. This may be a little silly but i like the randomness - and the pretty colors!

1. What is your first name? Emily
2. What is your favorite food? mashed potatoes & popcorn
3. What high school did you go to? alta
4. What is your favorite color? purple
5. Who is your celebrity crush? david beckham

6. Favorite drink? hot chocolate

7. Dream vacation? foreign country
8. Favorite dessert? creme brulee
9. What you want to be when you grow up? smarter
10. What do you love most in life? the boys
11. One Word to describe you? optimistic
12. Your flickr name? monkeybumm

So if you like pretty colors and random pictures here's how you can do your own...

1. Type each of your answers from the questions into Flickr Search

2. Using only the first page, pick an image

3. Copy and paste the URLs into this Mosaic Maker

Voila!

the nutty boys

So a while back I gave an example of why I call my kids monkeys. These last couple of days I've been reminded once again. I thought I would share some of these little reminders so everyone could experience.

Exhibit A: Mason scratches his leg.

As with most injuries, it seems like they just don't capture the same on camera. But the idea is there. Mason likes to do very crazy things on his bike. He does wheelies, rides down front porch steps, jumps curbs, jumps ramps (sometimes putting objects on one side to jump over) & tries to balance along the curb on his bike. Needless to say he's had a few accidents. His latest happend two days ago. The funny thing about him is that I never even knew this crash happened until he was done playing for the night. He said to me, "Mom, I fell down on my bike and look what happened." I asked him when it happened and he replied, "Oh, a little while ago." Either he's really tough or he just loves to play so much he couldn't be bothered to take care of it. Probably a little of both.

Exhibit B: Milo rolls

This is probably one of the funniest things I've ever captured on video. Milo is always the comedian and I don't think he even realizes it, which makes it all the more hilarious. What made it more funny was the fact that this was the third time it had happened. The first two times I wasn't ready for it, but by the third time I thought I'd get the camera out just in case. I fully expected that after two times down the hill Milo would have rememebered what had happened and try to prevent it. Well, that's Milo for you - he's just thinking of the moment at hand, so carefree and happy all the time.

camps and holidays and museums, oh my!

Ok. So I feel like it's been so long since I've posted I have to decide what to actually post about. I guess that means we've been keeping pretty busy. My biggest adventure recently was girls camp. I, along with a handful of other adults, took all the young girls (12-18) in our church for a little week-long adventure in the mountains. When I was a young girl this was sometimes refered to as "rough camp". It cannot be called that any longer without lying. This place was built with youth and family groups in mind. Everything was organized and kept very clean. And although it was not as nice as home (public bathrooms, waiting in line to shower, bugs, dirt & wooden bunkbeds) it was a far cry from tents and outhouses. So beyond the fact that I had to sleep in a sleeping bag and learn how to balance my dirty clothes, clean clothes, towel and shower supplies on only one hook in the bathroom I had a very fun time. I don't even think I got a single bug bite thanks to my constant application of bug spray.

And for the visual interest...

I got home from camp the afternoon of the 4th and have been busy ever since. Here's a few more photos of some of the fun things we've been doing.

Milo loved to swing the sparklers in circles, while dancing around and making rocket/airplane noises.

Mason's sparklers ran out right as I was about to take the picture. Either that suprised him, or he was upset at the fact that he could no longer try to light items on fire. And by "items" I am refering to the trees, plants, sparkler boxes and whatever else seemed exciting to watch burn.

Mason, Milo and Lightning (Milo's spiderman cheetah) enjoying the view from the waterfall at Thanksgiving Point.

We invited a friend of Mason's with us for a trip to the Dinosaur Museum. This week the museum was celebrating it's birthday. They had some fun extra activites and crafts for the kids to do. Here they are showing off the face painting they got.

Milo wanted to take his picture next to this dinosaur painted on the wall.