Things I'm Loving

• This face of victory... See belong for a long, boring story about Jack's frustrating and ridiculous eating habits. 

Yesterday, Jack ate two bites of bread for breakfast. We went grocery shopping later and he begged for a slice of pizza on the way out. I bought him a piece but when we got home, he said it was yucky (because a string of cheese was sticking out). I pulled it off but it was too late - already a yucky piece. He asked for a PB&J so I made one and he immediately refused it and asked for bread and ketchup. Then he refused the bread and ketchup and asked for toast (which he didn't eat either). I thought that he would eventually cave and eat something of all the dang things on the table for him but he held out for HOURS and the later it got, the more grouchy and angry and ornery and horrible he became. I don't think he knows when he is hungry. So at 4:30, I caved and got the one specific type of pizza that he never passes up - a fresh Little Caesar's Hot-N-Ready (not leftover Little Caesars - he won't eat leftovers) He is so ridiculous. Good thing he's cute :)

• Jack's "scarecrow" costume. I have no idea why he thinks he looks like a scarecrow when he puts stickers all over his face but that is what he claims to be :)

• BOBAS!!!!! In IOWA!!!! It is not quite as amazing as my favorite one in Arizona but it is the most comparable that I have found. I'm not sure how I'm going to keep myself from going every single day. 

• This cute article. 

"People tell you a lot about how much parenting will change your life and they’re right. But usually they mean that you won’t ever sleep in again (you won’t) and a few other things about how much we “give up” to become parents. No one tells you how much you’re going to laugh. No one tells you how much wisdom resides in these small humans, how much they will teach you about love and life and friendship and forgiveness and worship. No one tells you how good and freeing it is to leave your selfishness behind. No one tells you about recapturing your own wonder and innocence, about re-reading the Ramona books, about playing football in the basement, about birthday parties and snow days and every day beauty. All the best things I know about the big nouns and verbs of a life came back into my life because of them....

...When you have been given the tremendous gift of being able to have a baby, to give birth to that baby, to love that baby, it marks you. It should, perhaps, and so this season has marked more than just my stretched-out body, it has marked my soul."

• Baby leg rolls!

 

• Neighbor wrestling

• Jack's response when I told him that we needed to pick up Spencer at work - "NOOOO!!!! Daddy too heavy!" 
• My new "sleep training" method since David still wakes up usually two times in the night and since nothing is working and since Jack wakes up at the crack of dawn and wakes David up (I had no idea having them share a room would be so horrific). My new sleep training method is to train myself to take a nap every single day and it's going pretty well :) I have been averaging three naps a week and I feel like a completely different person come 5 pm (when I am usually hangry and tired and unpleasant) Our house is a wreck, but I feel SANE!

Trick-or-treating x 4 and other stuff

We've been trick-or-treating four times now and it's not even Halloween yet... I'm really maxing out on my opportunities to use my kids to get candy ;)

We also went to a Halloween parade on Saturday. Jack and Spencer got the candy while I contained David :)

Last weekend, my friend used our camera and took some pictures of us for Christmas cards. Out of the 500 plus pictures, and after tickling David nonstop and using reverse psychology on Jack ("you better not smile, Jack!") We got a couple of both Jack and David looking at the camera and smiling. It was a miracle!
We had a lot of three out of fours though, dang it!
 
 
 
But most just looked like this :)

P.S. It is BEAUTIFUL in Iowa right now! Fall is my favorite!

Jack requests bread and ketchup for most meals these days. I think there is something seriously wrong with his taste buds.

... Except when it comes to donuts. Spencer made donuts with him on Saturday (I don't make donuts) and he wanted donuts in every color! They were yummy!
 
 
My fear and hate for baking with yeast must be genetic. This is a group text screen shot with my mom and aunt when I sent them the donut recipe:
 
Jack and David are basically the same size now. Jack is wears mostly 2T and some 3T and David wears 18-24 months!

And important information that I know everyone wants to know... Unfortunately David has two little teeth now. Nursing is now a miserable experience.

Weekend

This weekend we trick-or-treated at the mall, we went to our church talent show, we took family pictures, we wrestled our kids at church, and we napped.

On Friday night, I got a random email from my talented friend, Elizabeth, who I lived with my freshman year of college. (GO AGGIES!) She totally made my evening!

I am pretty technically challenged when it comes to blogging, so this was such a fun surprise! I love my new duck blog layout :) Thanks, Elizabeth!!!!
P.S. Elizabeth is an amazing photographer, swim teacher, and event planner... she basically OWNS that Pinterest place, so if you are in the Mesa area you should contact her! I wish I lived closer to her so I could hang out with her and take advantage of all of her amazing talents :)

Friday Photo Dump

David sleeps in the craziest positions. These pictures of David were all taken within 24 hours... no wonder we are both sleep deprived!

 
 
 
It rained a lot this week and I made the mistake of taking both kids to the grocery store on a day that it was pouring. We hung out in the car hoping the rain would slow down a bit before we shopped. (it didn't, we got drenched)

 
Spencer had a work softball game last weekend that we all went to and Jack and David's expressions say it all - freezing and boring!!!
 
We spent the sunny days either at the park or outside catching bugs.
 
 

Things I'm loving

• The all-you-can-eat pizza place that charges their age times fifty cents for a kids buffet. That means that for one buck, Jack gets all-you-can-eat pizza and a drink! An adult buffet isn't required with a child's buffet so I will be spending a lot of time (and a teensy bit of money) getting food down my child's stomach at this place!

 

• THESE CHOCOLATE CHIP TOFFEE COOKIES!!!!!!! I thought I had found the world's best chocolate chip cookie recipe until I made these. They are AMAZING. You haven't really lived until you try them.
• Baby bum-in-the-air sleeping :) David's sleeps in all sorts of crazy hilarious positions (when he is actually sleeping and not up crying multiple times in the night) so this was a rare occasion.

 

• The two books that I got for my birthday. I just finished one of them (Wonder) and I LOVED it! It's the best young adult novel I've read in a long time. Beats The Fault In Our Stars by a long shot in my opinion.  

"If every single person in this room made it a rule that wherever you are, whenever you can, you will try to act a little kinder than is necessary - the world really would be a better place. And if you do this, if you act just a little kinder than is necessary, someone else, somewhere, someday, may recognize in you, in every single one of you, the face of God." - Mr. Tushman 

• The third Aldi meal plan that we finished in September. We did the 20 slow cooker meals for $150 and our favorite meal was the Korean Pork Tacos.
• Jack's tumbling class. He loved it and watching him in class melted my heart a little. 

• My brother Isaac's awesome Halloween decorations! Halloween is his favorite holiday and he usually gets a bunch of huge and spooky decorations for Christmas (after they go on clearance after the holiday! Genius!) Jack cries to go to Isaac's scary Halloween house almost every day and it breaks my heart. Thank goodness for Facetime! He often gets a tour of their spooky house (and a peak at the blower in the garage, of course!)

 

• Texts from my cousin and grandma this week... selfie poles, Max Hall's coke is caffeine free, hug everyone even Spencer.... haha I love my family!

 

• First trick-or-treat of the season with "viva" (Olivia) at the local chiropractic college! I learned that Jack has horrible taste in candy... original tootsie rolls over butterfingers?! Pixie stix over milk duds?! Come on, man! (It took major convincing to get Jack to be Dash for Halloween. He wants to be a WITCH and he wants David to be a GHOST! hahaha)

 

Things I'm loving

• The zoo! Our closest zoo is a little too far and a tiny bit not-as-cool-as-Birmingham's-zoo for me to justify getting passes this year. However, I found out that it is free on weekdays in October so we were there right on October 1st and plan on living there this month ;) We went twice last week and it was so fun!

David is 8 months old and has been to 5 different zoos - Birmingham, New Orleans, Phoenix, Salt Lake, and Niabi (in Illinois)... that's impressive!

I have two different double strollers but squished them into this single... I just really love this stroller. Jack only fell out the back end twice... oops!
 

David had his finger up the cows nostril by the time I got to him.
 

Jack loved feeding the giraffes!
 
 


The baby monkey was 4 days old!!!
 
 

• Utah State beating BYPoo in Provo! GO AGGIES! GO AGGIES! HEY! HEY! HEY!
• Sitting at home all weekend long watching conference. With Jack and David's craziness, I didn't hear much, but I loved President Uchtdorf's talk from the Priesthood Session and this quote from Cheryl Esplin's talk about the Sacrament:

"One Sunday, after her self evaluation, she began to feel gloomy and pessimistic. She could see that she was making the same errors over and over again, week to week. But then, she had a distinct impression that she was neglecting a big part of the Atonement - Christ's enabling power. She was forgetting all the times the Savior helped her be who she needed to be and serve beyond her own capacity. With this in mind, she reflected again on the previous week. She said, "A feeling of joy broke through my melancholy as I noted He had given me many opportunities and abilities. I noted with gratitude the ability I had to recognize my child's need when it wasn't obvious. I noted that on a day when I felt that I could not pack in one more thing to do, I was able to offer strengthening words to a friend. I had shown patience in a circumstance that usually elicited the opposite for me. As I thanked God for the Savior's enabling power in my life, I felt so much more optimistic toward the repentance process I was working through, and I looked to the next week with renewed hope."

• Halloween time!!! I got a few things on clearance last year after Halloween that I was excited to put up. My mom is awesome and sent us a Halloween package that included these adorable pjs that Jack wore for two days straight. He wore them to the zoo and to the gym... it wasn't worth the fight!)

 

It's not much, and definitely not pinterest worthy, but I'm happy I finally have some Halloween decor!
 

• My quirky child who held the butter all the way home from the grocery store because he was so excited to "cook it". 

 

• My baby!!!!