Sunday, April 24, 2011

Easter.

Just another typical Sunday for us...




Except this time we matched,


and it was Easter Sunday.








Grandpa (pronounced "BomPAW") is definitely Preston's new favorite person in the entire world....





Will, a map of the Olympic National Park, and a serious look on his face.


I think it's safe to assume that the man is busy planning his next adventure in this next scene...



And Grandma, the creator of our yummy Easter meal.







We hope you had a wonderful Easter too!




P.S. 2 more new posts below...

A Taylor Post: Rice Please.


Hi there.

Just thought I'd update you on my progress with solid foods.



What can I say? I love rice cereal.

They tried to trick me into peas this morning, and maybe they got a few bites past me, but no more. Now I'm onto their tricks. I now carefully inspect every spoonful that comes towards my mouth.


They should know by now that all I eat is rice, rice, and rice!



And mommy's milk of course. And no bottles please. Just straight from the source and that's it. And yes I will put up a huge fuss if you try to make me do it any other way.

Picky? Nahhh. I just like to consider myself a man of taste. I know what I like and don't settle for less!

P.S. Beach Bum post below.

Beach Bum.

Now this is a true beach bum...




who had to be carried by his dad,




because he had an accident in his shorts,




Even though said dad had been asking him for the last hour if he needed to use the potty...







...who kept insisting "No! I not need to go potty!", and then therefore sneakily decided to do the deed while Mommy was busy taking pictures of her and Taylor...


Then the beach bum decided that he did not enjoy wearing wet pants.





Who knew that a family outing to the beach to enjoy the final few hours of a beautiful sunny day...




With plans to find crabs, sea shells and dig in the sand...







Would only last a very short time...

thanks to our little beach bum.




Oh, and P.S....




Preston, if you are reading this someday and are old enough to be embarrassed by this, we're sorry just a little bit. :)


Monday, April 18, 2011

A Sweet Preston Story


I wanted to share a sweet story about Preston so that I would always remember it. That photo has nothing to do with the story, by the way, but I took it of him during his nap today. I thought it perfectly represented what we see in him when all of his worries are put aside and he sleeps like a little angel.


This past weekend we had our stake conference. As we are now in the same stake as my parents, we all get to enjoy Grandpa (a.k.a. the Stake President) give talks and do a lot of things that we don't normally get to see him do as normal day to day "Grandpa". I was also recently called as the Stake Choir Accompanist (gee I wonder who suggested me for that calling?), as my mom is the Stake Music Chairman and Choir Conductor.


During Sunday's meeting, we (Will, Preston, Taylor, and I) occupied the very front left-hand row so that I could be close enough to the stand to get up and down to play the piano. The little boys were starting to get a bit restless, as we were now going on 2 days of church and the 2nd hour of this particular meeting and right during naptime to boot.


It was my turn to get up and perform again, and noticed that Will was out in the hallway with Taylor and I couldn't just leave Preston by himself sitting on the bench (both of my parents were on the stand). I didn't know the family behind us either, so didn't want to ask them at the last minute to help. Will ended up stepping in right as I was about to get up, but I could tell Taylor was not ready to be back inside the chapel yet. He was super fussy and on the verge of a total meltdown.


So I took Preston's hand and brought him up on the stand with me while the choir performed - figuring that Will would need to step out into the hall again with Taylor. It was a total spontaneous decision and I wasn't even sure what I was going to do with him. I couldn't let him sit at the piano with me because I had a page turner occupying the other half of my piano bench with me. So I had him sit on the bottom row (step), which was about 4 feet behind me.


As the choir all stood up to sing, Preston noticed that everyone around him all of a sudden stood up. So he stood up too. Then he decided that he wanted to be a part of whatever was going on, and so he ever so intently pushed one of the sopranos over so that he could climb up onto the step next to where she was standing.


Then everyone started to sing. He stood there looking at Grandma (who was conducting the choir), and then proceeded to mimick her conducting skills. He had both of his hands waving in the air as if he was conducting the choir - which I've had him do many times with me while sitting in my lap during church while sitting in the congregation singing hymns.


I had no idea what was going on, because I was facing the opposite direction and playing the piano. I wanted to turn around so bad to check on him, but knew I needed to focus on playing the right notes so I couldn't turn to look. My only hope was just that he wasn't wandering around the stand, or crying because he realized hundreds of people were staring at him. Little did I know that he was doing a fantastic job of participating in the stake choir as well as entertaining the audience.


Next, a minute into the song, Preston all of a sudden realized that everyone else had choir folders and he didn't. So he had the brilliant idea (Will said you could see his mind thinking of what to do while standing up there), of walking back down to the bench and grabbing a hymn book and then returning to finish the rest of the song with the choir. Only, when he came back to the pew, Will grabbed him and kept him there instead of allowing him to go back up to the stand. Will was worried that he was causing too much of a scene and being a distraction. However, as Will told Preston he couldn't go back up there, Preston started to cry these humungous tears of sadness.


That is when the song ended and I came down off the stand and saw Preston standing there waiting for me with these big tears running down his cheeks. All I heard him say was that he wanted to go back up next to Grandma. My dad was the next speaker and he was already up at the podium starting his talk and so I didn't want Preston going up there right in the middle of his talk, so I had him sit on my lap for the rest of the time...which about 10 minutes later he was totally zonked out and snoozing away.


After the meeting was over, I had a few people come up to me afterwards and tell me how adorable Preston was. At that point, I still didn't have any idea what had happened while I was up there playing the piano. I didn't know about Preston standing up with the choir to sing, pushing the soprano over, conducting the choir, and then trying to get his hymnbook and crying because he couldn't go back up to sing.


It was so sweet. I love my little boy and his excitement about music, participating and wanting to be a "big boy" and do big things.

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Boys and Pianos

Both of our little boys enjoy playing the piano. As I was filming Taylor podunking around on my keyboard the other day, I remembered a video that we took of Preston around the same age. When I dug up the one of Preston, I realized that they were almost the exact same age, give or take a few days. Incredible right?

They also look a lot alike, have similar hair color, and mannerisms at the same age. It's too cute...have a look...

I also posted 2 other new posts today below (Preston singing his ABC's, and Taylor's 8 month post). Scroll down...(I just have to put that in for people who link to our blog via blog rolls on their own blog and our most recent post only shows up and they click on the blog homepage to see the rest).

Preston Singing

Preston has recently learned his ABC's, and has taken an interest in singing. Here is his vocal debut singing the famous song "ABC's" atuned to the original French traditional melody you also know as "Twinkle Twinkle".


Take it away Preston...



Also: Scroll to previous post to see Taylor's 8 months old post!

A Taylor Post: I'm 8 months!












I can't believe that it's already been 8 months since Taylor Alexander has come to our family. Time sure does fly fast when you're having fun then!


Speaking of fun, here are some fun things about our little Taylor man...


- He weighs 20 lbs

- He is wearing mostly 6 -9 month clothing

- No teeth yet

- Is still working on rolling over, but so far it's a no go.

- Loves to lunge forward as if he's going to sprint forward and crawl, except he falls on his face and ends up on his belly.

- Has become very vocal lately and jibber-jabbers quite a bit. His favorite expressions are "A Duh!", "Da da da da da", and "Pthhhhhhhhhhhh".

- Goes to bed around 6:30pm - 7pm, wakes up almost like clockwork at 12am, 3am, and 6:45am. Still no sleeping through the night. :(

- Loves, loves, loves rice cereal. And that's about it. Absolutely hates everything else.

- Still very much a momma's boy. He's okay with other people as long as he can still see me. Let's hope he outgrows this by the time he goes to college or else this is going to be a problem.

- Loves his big brother and watches everything he does.

- Is a very fast swiper, so guard your dinner plates, water bottles, and keys.

- Is also known to be very quick at sticking his foot in his diaper, so you have to be super quick when changing poopies or else you've got to clean up more than just a bum.

- Totally mesmorized by Baby Einstein.

- Loves to pound on the piano keys.

- Stubborn - yes. But also very good natured. (does that sound like someone else we know, starts with a W and ends with an ill?)

- Things need to be his idea. If you take a toy away, he'll throw a fit, but if you try to give it back he won't take it. You've got to put it down next to him so that he can pick it up himself so he thinks it was his idea, not yours.

- Loves to be tickled, hide under blankets, and grab your face.

- Looks like Jenni, acts like Will.


We love him!

Sunday, April 10, 2011

It's a Yellow Time of Year

Hi.



You may not know this, because you most likely see me wearing black & white combinations so often, but one of my favorite colors is yellow.

And this time of year, the color yellow is everywhere. It's very happy. The color yellow, that is. It's a very happy color.


There's yellow in the bathtub in Mr. Rubber Ducky...


Yellow bath towels...


...with cute chubby babies in them. :)



Yellow flowers...



...with cousin buddies playing in them.






Please ignore the wallop sized bruise on Taylor's right cheek. He went face-first into the corner of my computer desk, poor guy.





There were yellow daffodils in the nearby fields after Preston ran his first race last Saturday...




He fell and skinned his knee up pretty bad, but he pulled through and finished 2 miles.


Which...when you consider his leg length, is a pretty big deal. Good job Preston!



Ahhh, yellow...



...It's good to see you.


'Til next time!