She was tricking me!

We got what we were hoping for... it looks like baby is Healthy and Strong!

Oh, and She is a GIRL!

Heath said, "I just thought it was a boy all this time.  She was tricking me!"

 We celebrated by grabbing a $5 hot n' ready from Little Cesar's on the way home.  Pizza... Pizza...

Houston's hallmark question these days, "Whats dat?"

"Zombie fingers"  - Heath

 And Heath snapped this o' so attractive picture of me.

 "Mommy, go like this."

Were going crazy! We're so excited for you to join us, sweet little girl!

Pumpkins & Mummys & Zombies! Oh, my!

 Playgroup took a trip to a pumpkin patch close by.  It was SO fun!  I think this was probably my favorite I've ever been to.  

On our way home I asked Heath what his favorite part was about the pumpkin patch.  He said, "Being a pumpkin, a mummy and a zombie!"

Apparently to be a hit for Heath you just need cut out's he can put his face into.

No playground or tractors or sandbox or anything.... (although they had those too, and I'm pretty sure He loved them as well.)

 The "scary maze!"  Heath was so brave and did it all by himself.

 "Daddy would love this zombie!"

 The super awesome kid's corn maze.  Houston & I went through with Heath the first time, then he went again and again and again on his own.

 For most of the morning Houston was pretty content to sit in the stroller, I think there may have just been too much to take in all at once for him.  After he ventured out on his own he took about 5 minutes to navigate getting down this slide.  It was pretty entertaining to watch.

 This is Miles.  He came over to play on Monday.  After he left Heath said, "Mom, I sure like that Miles boy.  He's a lot nicer than the big kids."  

He's referring to a time when we were with several families with older kids. Heath was trying pretty hard to play along and fit in with the big kids, but it really didn't work out in his favor.  7-10 year olds are just on a different level than 3 year old Heath. Even when they're trying hard to help him out. (maybe someday he'll figure that out.)  4 year old Miles though is pretty close... and he's a super sweet kid.

 This just makes me laugh, I caught him just as he was saying, "Mom what's this FOR?"


Their dreams came true, they got to ride a bucking bronco. 

 Houston kept saying, "FAT PIG!" 

I didn't even know he knew the word fat. 

But if he was going to use it to describe something, this pig is a pretty good something.

My wife just told me.

 We usually put the boys to bed around 7, but leave the light on so they can "read" in their beds.  Most nights they fall asleep around 7:30, in their beds, with books scattered all about.   The other night Houston landed like this.  Don't worry, there was a big old puddle of drool there too.  : )

 This little guys is sure growing up fast on me!  This past week he decided he was going to potty train himself.  Once he puts his mind to something that's how it's going to be.
 He started asking to go to the bathroom, so like any good mother, I let him.  He's been super consistent for about a week now.  He hasn't pooped in the potty yet, (Apparently that's kinda scary, it took Heath a long time to make that jump too) but pretty well has the potty down.  And the best part? He's not needing any reinforcement.  No potty candies here, just a high five and a little yay and he's satisfied.  What a super little man!

 This is Houston's fishing hat, at least that's what he calls it, "My fishing pole hat."   He has been wearing it everywhere lately.

 I just thought this outfit was pretty hilarious.  We were going to story time at the library and the grocery store.  Houston insisted on wearing shorts, (even though it was a bit chilly outside) a jacket, his fishing pole hat on  backwards, and his "cwock shoes"  If only he had socks on as well.

 Breyer's is by far my all time favorite ice cream, but pretty pricy.  A store here in town was running a sale $2 a carton rather than $5.20 so we had to hit it up!  The only catch was that you HAD to buy 4 cartons. Oh, sad day.   Heath spotted this flavor and was SO excited! I was pretty impressed that he noticed his name amongst all the grocery store chaos. And, it was DELICIOUS!

 Preschool has been going well.  Heath still loves it and asks for it every day. (which was my goal) He's learning so much right now.  I love how eager he is to soak it all in.

Houston as well has been picking up a lot, a lot more than I thought he would.

He can now count to 10 all by himself, and sing the alphabet (although it's kinda hard to understand sometimes.)

Needless to say his teacher's pretty impressed with his progress.

 Heath loves to pretend he's Houston's Daddy now.  He calls him "Son" most time while they play together.




Houston pretty well follows Heath around all day every day.   Heath will be dictating and commentating on what they're doing, and what they're going to be doing next and Houston follows along saying, "YEAH!" & "Otay!"  






Heath talks very excitedly about being a Dad lately.  He says he's going to have 4 boys, then 4 girls.  One of the boys is going to be named Teton, and one of the girls is going to be Gwillow.

 When Heath grows up he says he wants to be a Daddy Scientist Superman.  We'll see how that turns out for him.

Heath has been so curious about how things are made and work lately. A few of the things he's asked about, and we've learned about lately are:

How do they make windows?
How do people make a fence?
How are tennis rackets made?
How do they make drinking fountains?
How does Daddy build a house?
How do toilets work?
How do our stomach's work?
How do we breathe?

I tell you this little guy is full of questions these days. : )

 A week or so ago Heath was asking about how our hearts work.  So I got online and started looking around for videos about hearts.  We watched a few different ones, then came to a Bill Nye video about circulation.  We watched it, and Heath absolutely LOVED it!  

The next week at the library Heath spotted a Bill Nye section in the DVD's.  So we checked out a couple.  He and Houston have asked to watch those 2 DVD's so many times! (although they Actually watch TV about once every other day or so.) It surprises me that Houston loves them too and will sit through a whole episode.   They ask for Bill Nye all the time.  It's especially cute to me when Houston says, "Bill Nye Mommy?"

So now our boys go around saying to each other, "SCIENCE RULES!"






Heath: "Mommy, did you know that bugs skeletons are on the outside of their body?"

Me: "I did. How did you know that Heath?"

Heath: "My wife just told me."

I'm pretty sure it was Bill Nye's Insect episode though....

 Yesterday while we were putting the boys to bed Heath asked Matt, "Why are cows just naked all the time?"



My all time favorite question though is, "Why do people only have one throat?"

Daddy has had this grand plan to make a Halloween pinata for all the cousins to whack at when we go home to visit. 

Last night he said, "So about that pinata...."

Oh yeah, I was supposed to make one! So the next morning the boys and I set out on making a pumpkin pinata.  

They both had mini balloons to cover on their own while I worked on the real big one.  They actually did some pretty good work.

Then it became a fun game to take all the strips back off one at a time and throw the balloons, but that's to be expected.  : )

A Couple Little Runts

The Missionaries live in the apartment complex next to ours.  So, almost every day they walk by our living room window around 10am.  Heath has a little internal clock and usually is waiting by the window to wave at them and give them a big smile as they go by.  He'll then come running to find me and say, "Mom, I said Hi to the Missionaries!" The other day he said, "Mom, I saw the missionaries. They're going to find some special good Mommies to marry."   I guess he thought missionaries spend their 2 years looking for a wife? HA! So we had a little talk about what people really do when they serve a mission.   He thought it was just part of the natural progression of life.  According to him you are a Missionary, then a Daddy, then a Grandpa.

 The other day I walked in on the boys, in the living room.  Houston was laying on the floor crying and Heath was just standing there whacking him over the head with a pillow repeatedly.  I said something like, "Heath, Stop That! Don't hurt Houston!"   He replied, "It's ok Mom.  Jesus takes away our naughty things."   We had a good little lesson on the atonement and repentance for Family Home Evening the next night. 
Its amazing to me to see the faith and trust he had in what he had learned. Even though he didn't quite understand it all, he knew that Jesus could take away his "naughty things"

Luke 18:17 Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein.

Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein.

 A couple days after Houston's birthday he bit his binkie through. The first few nights were a bit rough, but when he would start to fuss for it, it'd say, "What happened to your binkie?" "Broken  : (  Huten, bit it."  Then he'd be ok with things.  

Since then he has been talking up a storm.  He talks all day every day.  We don't always understand everything he's saying, but he's saying 4-6 word sentences regularly that we can understand.  It's so super cute!  

Heath loves spinach soup.  According to him it makes him have strong muscles just like Popeye.  He now tells us, "Daddy is stronger than Mommy, and I'm stronger than Daddy."  It does taste pretty good regardless...  After dinner Heath said, "That was a really good, yummy treat Mommy."  I'm glad he considers his dinner as a treat!  : )

Houston has also started singing a lot.   Almost every night since I can remember, he's asked for me to sing  "The Temple Song" at bedtime.    The other day as I was singing, Houston started singing right along with me.  He knew both verses pretty well through.   It was so surprising to me, and pretty stinkin adorable!  What a sweet little guy. : )  He has since sung it all by himself to us.   So cute!     We'll have to catch it on video soon.

 Houston has been playing Daddy a lot lately. He has a baby doll that he carts around during the day and wraps in blankets.  Every now and then he'll put it on his bed and cover it (all of it, poor suffocating baby) with a blanket.  Then He'll come out and put his finger to his face and tell Heath and Me, "twiet! ssshhhh... baby sleep, baby sleep."   If we get too loud while his baby's sleeping he'll remind us to be quiet again.   He also does it with his horses and other animals at times.

 Our boys LOVE soup.  Soup and Bread.  Which is a great thing because we eat it several times a week.  The other day I had the loaf of bread sitting on the table and we'd been cutting of pieces as we ate them.  Heath asked for more water so I got up to refill. When I turned back around Houston had climbed onto the table, grabbed the loaf, ripped out the center, ate it, and had his face in the hole snarfing down more bread.  What a little piggie! He'd already had 2 Houston sized bowls of soup. 

I decided to make myself a super awesome body pregnancy pillow this go around.  I've always wished I had one, so this time I made it happen. I used one of those old over-sized carnival styrofoam stuffed toys for the stuffing. It went really well, most of the mess stayed in the kitchen and was easily managed, up until the very end when I dropped the not quite sealed yet pillow while walking to the sewing machine that I had set up in the living room.   oops.  Well it sure turned into fun for an hour or so for two little boys and cleaned up easy enough with the vacuum. 

 It's pretty much amazing!  I haven't decided yet who likes it the most.  Me or Matt.  He always swipes it for naps.

 The other day Heath was jumping from the window ledge in the living room to the floor.  I told him it probably wasn't a good idea.  He said, "but Mom, the Lord told me to do it." 

We had a talk about how the Holy Ghost helps us to make good choices.  He doesn't prompt us to do things that could be dangerous or naughty. 




Houston is super awesome and particular about putting things where they go.  Every time we go somewhere, as soon as we get home he takes off his shoes and puts them into his closet.  I don't ever have to say anything.  He also is really good about putting the toys away when it's time to clean up the living room.

  Tonight about 30 minutes after I'd put the boys to bed Houston started banging on the door and crying hysterically.  I opened the door and Houston had found two toy horses and said, "Horsies, in toy closet!"  We went to the toy closet, and he put them away, then was happy to lay down and go to sleep.  Such a particular little boy.  He had been playing with those horses most of the afternoon.  You'd think he'd just take them to bed with him. 

I love this pic Heath took of Houston. (looks like he's punching my bum)