It's been a long time!

It's been way too long since we've had a blog post.  Here's a little family update.

Phoenix is 3 years old and full of spunk.  He talks constantly and has quite a witty sense of humor.  His latest, most often repeated phrase is "I kidding".  He got a hair cut today and Mommy got it cut short!  His curls are almost gone.  I'm pretty sure they'll grow back.  We got him seated in the chair and the stylist started to brush his hair when he started yelling "I'n a boy!  I'n a boy!"  I translated for him and he settled down, I guess he just wanted to make sure he was getting a boy hair cut.  

Mark continues to work at AutoZone and enjoys it.  He comes home and works on our house and does all the things I was unable to accomplish during the day. What a great guy! 

Cougar is Cougar, what can I say?  He's in first grade and is reading like a maniac.  It's so fun to see him actually reading and enjoying it!  He's getting tall, he's almost up to my shoulder!  He's got lots of friends at school and in our new ward.  It's fun to see him confidently interacting with kids his own age.  He reminds me a lot of David, my little brother.

There's no picture of me, I'm always behind the camera.  I'm 33 weeks along with our third little one.  I'm getting really anxious to meet this little person that is bruising my insides.  I'm feeling good and going strong!

Spiderman is a Jedi Knight

Cougar convinced me to get down the dress up box today. Boy, did they have fun.

Cougar asked me to take this picture so that it would look like a storm trooper had walked in our house. How many storm troopers have cute little toes poking out of their boots?
We have an abundance of lightsabers at our house. They come out to play mulitple times a day. This picture was taken right off our front porch. You can be jealous of our view. :)
Phoenix was so excited to see this Spiderman costume, he about jumped out of his skin before we could get it on him. We had to go show Daddy at work. Okay, we didn't have to, but it was a fun reason to get out of the house. In the car Phoenix kept saying "Ee! I Spy!" ("See I'm Spiderman!")

I'm so glad when Daddy comes home

Mark's been gone on a little business trip to Las Vegas the past couple days. He's back now, and I'm not the only one who missed him.

By the way, Phoenix is out of his crib and now sleeps in a toddler bed. I wonder how this picture would look if he was still in the crib?

Like Pulling Teeth

These pictures are a little out of order, but you're tough, you can handle it. My little monkey has to do everything his big brother does and big brother was getting his picture taken. If his face isn't dirty he looks like a girl, I keep it dirty so people aren't confused. ;)
Giant gaping whole in a freckled face. Does it get more Norman Rockwell than this kid?

Cougar lost his first tooth last night by tying a piece of floss to his tooth and the other end to the bullet of a nerf gun. Then he shot the nerf gun. It came out on the first try and he was so excited about it! My little brother pulled a tooth out this way and Cougar thought it was the greatest idea ever. Of course, he had to pull his out just like David did, he does everything David does. Today, the second tooth was hanging by a thread, but it was STUBBORN. We made several tries at pulling it out.

We tied it to Nike, our dog and made her run.

Cougar tried the trusty Nerf gun again.

We tried to get Phoenix to run while holding the string, that didn't work. (He hates clothes. I hate the fight dressing him causes, so he's naked most of the time, deal with it.)

Cougar tried running while Daddy held the string. This pulled it enough to make it bleed. The blood freaked him out a little bit and he let me pull it out. Poor little guy was just getting so frustrated he was on the verge of tears. We kept telling him, "It doesn't have to come out tonight. We can stop if you want, this is all up to you." He would have none of it. He was bound and determined that dang tooth was going to come out tonight!

Dinner

How do you know it's almost dinner time at our house? Daddy's not home, yet. Phoenix can be found IN the snack cupboard. Cougar is grunting, stomping and pouting all around the house. And last, but not least, Mommy is sneaking chocolate of some kind between chopping, mixing and stirring. :)

For Mom

My mom got this for Phoenix for Christmas. We finally broke it out the other day when I decided the floor needed to be mopped. We don't have a bathtub, Phoenix is desperate for one. It wasn't long until somebody left a surprise in his diaper. We had to change the diaper, dump the water, sanitize everything and refill. It's not uncommon now to hear him ask in his sweetest voice, "Mommy, wawa, peas?" I am especially grateful for the drain in the middle of my kitchen floor. :)

Watch closely and you'll see that he's wearing his socks still.