Merry Christmas!

Cougar and Action would like to wish you and yours a very merry Christmas!

It's All Fun and Games....

Stuck

Phoenix has developed the nasty habit of pulling his shoulders and arms out of his car seat straps while we are driving. I adjusted the entire car seat and finally got it to where he couldn't get out. We had to drive for 20 minutes with him yelling "Mommy! I GUH! I GUH!" Before he realized that I didn't care he was stuck and wasn't going to help. He tends to be a determined little guy, I wouldn't be surprised if he found another way out in a little while. :)

Shining Mom Moment

Cougar is outside playing a little t-ball with the neighbor boy, Junior, who's about 6. Junior hit the ball and Cougar was very complimentary "Wow! What a good hit!" Cougar's turn. He hits the tee and the ball barely goes anywhere. Junior says "Whoa, that was stupid." (Hey rude kid!) Cougar just laughed and said "I can't say that, but it was lame, I'll try again." He's not allowed to say stupid and all the thousands of times I've said "Use NICE words" may have sunk in!

I'm Sad.

Our big galoof, Theron has died. He was a big, lurpy, loving yellow lab and I'm going to miss him. We've had him since the first year of our marriage and I thought he had several more good years in him. Theron was a great dog, so willing to please. He loved standing next to me to get his ears scratched and his chest thumped. He helped Mark and I figure out our parenting styles and how to work with each other before we had kids to mess up on. He was the first pet we picked out together. He was a good pick. Goodbye, Friend.

The Injury

As you may know. Phoenix broke his leg last Monday. I didn't see what happened, but Cougar says he tripped and landed on Phoe-Phoe's legs. Sounds credible to me. He was miserable in his splint, but after they put on the cast on Friday, he's been slowing learning how to be a terror again.

This cast was actually replaced today. I took him back in because the cast was scraping his foot, causing a blister between his toes, and bruising his chubby thigh. Our doctor took one look at it and said "Let's put a new one on." He couldn't believe how worn the thing was after just a few short days. He put on the same color cast, but it extends past his toes and has more room in the foot to avoid all the previous problems.

Two crazy boys sitting on the bathroom counter. (Yes, I am still trying to train both my potty trained boys to put the seat down...)

If I had a girl, she would probably look a little like this. :)

Preschool Graduation!

Cougar had his preschool graduation last week. It's so strange for me to think that he is TOO BIG for preschool. It's on to kindergarten for him now. He's ready and excited. If we can only make it through the summer.

Here he is with his preschool friends putting on a play of the 5 little pigs. (Very similar to the 3 little pigs only with extra kids.)

A-too-ta-tah. A-too-ta-tah. A-too-ta-tay. (something like that) A very classic and very silly song and dance.

Miss Marilyn. This woman supplied sanity for me 3 times a week. She has taught Cougar (and me) so much. We're going to miss her!

Child Slavery

Cougar: "Mommy, what are slaves?"

Me: "Slaves are people who are forced to do hard work."

Cougar: "Oh, like me."

What have we been up to?

Soccer has started! What? That's the wrong kid? Oh right. Phoenix thinks he's big.

Cougar's just happy to be outside running around. He loves soccer.

Mark fixed the brakes on my car. Lots of fun for him. He got help from Phoenix who, like I said before, thinks he's big.

I made my first sewing project since I strained my back sewing back in October (I am paying for it. I hurt!) I made this super fancy backseat organizer. If you don't look closely you won't see the puckered seams and uneven lines. I already love it. My favorite part is the colored pencil holder pockets. I used those Crayola Twistables so there's no need for sharpening back there. Hopefully, this will help in my attempt to keep our car cleaner.

April Fool's Day

I like this day, but for some reason I can never remember it! I've been wanting to try to make yucky fake food desserts, but never remember. Cougar however looks forward to April Fool's Day like it's Christmas. I think I have a prankster on my hands. My favorite trick he tried yesterday was when he said "Mom! There's a enchilada on your shoulder" I gave the appropriate "Eww! Gross! (slight freak out)" response. Come to find out he didn't mean I had a large, cheesy, delicious mexican dish on my person, but a big, creepy, hairy spider. Ha! He'd gotten enchilada and tarantula mixed up!

For show and tell at preschool he was supposed to bring something to trick his class. He chose to take some gross pretend body parts (thanks Mom!). He had a tongue, hand, foot and eyeball. When it was his turn to show, he told his class he pulled them off his little brother! I'm going to have to watch my back as he gets bigger!

A Milestone.

We as a family have reached a milestone. I just heard my first "Mom! He's got more than me!" I'm so grateful that we've reached this point.

Future Doctor?

Cougar: "We have three lungs. One for breathing, one for drinks and one for food. Did you know that, Mom?"

Me: "No, I didn't"

Cougar: "That's because you don't know a lot about our bodies, and I do."

Me: "oh"

Safe Kids Fair

This weekend was the annual Safe Kids Fair. We got to go all together as a family. Mark even got to come. He had a day off and it was amazing. We also met my sister Heidi and her family. Here are a few highlights.

Reptiles! Cougar is holding a very pretty corn snake. They also had a 140 pound Burmese python and a few other scaly critters. Way cool!

The whole reason we went! Batman! We got a quick visit with the Caped Crusader himself! Cougar loved it! You may not be able to tell, but Cougar is wearing a Batman hat and shirt as well as Batman socks and shoes. Batman even signed Cougar's shirt. According to Cougar it was well worth Daddy's standing in line for 45 minutes.

STAR WARS!

A giant pickle!

STAR WARS AGAIN!

STAR WARS YET AGAIN!

(Cougar kept going back, he's a little obsessed with Star Wars. Darth Vader was supposed to be there, but I guess he was sick. Poor, Darth Vader!)

The boys got to climb inside a helicopter and pretend to drive it! So fun!

Sparky the Fire Dog.

Overall, it was a fun day, though it did get crazier and crazier. It was just so enjoyable to be together.

Problem Solver

As Cougar and I read our scriptures this morning we talked about the Tree of Life from Lehi's vision. We talked about how eating the fruit brought joy. How the people in the great and spacious building were wicked and unhappy. Cougar had a question. "Why don't they just throw the fruit to the people in the building? Then everyone can be happy!"

Samuel the Lamanite

For family night tonight we read the story of Samuel the Lamanite. Then Cougar got to dress up and "cry repentance" to us while standing on the cabinet behind our couch. Mark and I yelled an him to get out of our city. Then we shot at him with Nerf guns. It was lots of fun.

Exercise

Cougar said while bouncing on his hopper ball thing.

"Mom! I'm burning a lot of allergies!"

For Dad.*

Cougar said to me today "Whoa Mom! The inside of my marshmallow is sticky!"

*My dad said to me the other day "Three words. Blog Up Date" There you go, Dad. It's updated.