Sunday, May 27, 2007

A little of this and That!

It's been a busy week for us Johnsons! We spent Wednesday, Thursday, and some of Friday in Edmonton for Cliff's Lasik eye surgery. All went well and he can now see much better and no longer needs his glasses! Yeah for him! We also got to do some fun things with the kids - we spent and afternoon in West Ed and Cliff and Zane did some mini-golf. We watched the sea lion show from inside the arena- lots of laughs! and of course did some swimming at the hotel. So lots of fun, and a few challenges (2 kids in one hotel room...you do the math)

We also moved Rhett into a big boy bed! We originally built a bunk on the bottom of Zane's loft bed, but after one night we discovered that it was much too short - he couldn't sit up without bonking his head. Not ideal. So, yesterday the boys and I went bed shopping and got a great deal at JYSK. We got it all set up last night and we're off and running with no more crib and hopefully better sleep to come!

I am also moving forward with my decorating plans for the kids room. I'm going with a beach theme (did I mention that I loved California!) I got new curtains made and love them. Im' going to take some of the surfing pics that we took and blow them up and frame them. I hope to get the dressers and book shelf painted too and then I'll be able to say that I actually decorated one room by planning it instead of with what I had in the house.

So, here's some pics of the old bed, new bed, and the curtains!

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

So much to tell!































We had a wonderful time in California! It was nice weather - not to hot and not too cold. A little smokey because of brush fires around but that kept me from getting too burnt! We did tons of touristy things - took over 200 pictures! We edited them down a bit...but still have lots to show our good memories! We also discovered that if I am going to fly I have to have anti-nausea medicine. I'll spare you the details (those of you I have told I know are still laughing!) And that I love baby palm trees. Also - never ever ever go anywhere without your temple recommend! I keep mine with my clothes and we ended up with the opportunity to go to the LA temple - something we didn't think we were going to be able to do - but since my recommend was in Red Deer we had to settle for walking around the grounds. Their visitor center was closed for renos. All in all it was a fabulous 2nd honeymoon and I would highly recommend a trip of that length to anyone who has been married 5+ years! (Thanks again mom and dad for wathing the boys!)

Oh - most favorite thing we did - was the Medival Times dinner and show! So cool! They do real jousting, sword fighting, ride horses, costumes, great food, wonderful horse ballet show! We can't say enough good things about it. There is one in Canada - Toronto - and the rest are in the states. If you are ever in an area to see one - do it! You won't regret it. (Thanks Leslie for the tip!)

We're kinda back to reality - we leave tomorrow morning for Edmonton - Cliff is getting a pre-op consult for Lasik eye surgery and if it goes well he will be getting done on Thursday. So, we're in Edmonton until Friday sometime - most likely!






Thursday, May 10, 2007

This and That

I'm supposed to be packing right now....but I'm stressing and need to de-stress a little. Let me back up - we are leaving in 2 more sleeps - that means leaving my children and getting on an airplane and leaving - most of me is excited, some is sad to leave. The control freak in me is having a hard time right now because I was informed by my boss today that we have to get about 4 hours of yard work done tomorrow and that just does not fit well with my schedule. Grrr. Oh well...I will get done what I can get done.

Rhett had his 1 yr checkup yesterday....he is 25 lbs, 10.5 ounces and 32 inches tall! What a bruiser this kid is! I was curious to see how much bigger he is than Zane was and on Zane's birthday he was 25 lbs and 31 inches. So not as big of a difference as I thought. Maybe it's just because he's been mobile for a while now and Zane didn't start walking on his own until 13 months.

I had lots to say until I started to type....I know that we are going to have a fabulous vacation and I'm so glad my wonderful husband decided that we needed this!

Sunday, May 06, 2007

Birthday #1!!







Rhett's birthday #1 has come and gone...and it was a lot of fun! Here are some of my favorite pictures....



Grandma & Grandpa J, Auntie Kristie, & Uncle Jamie were able to be her ethis weekend with us. (We'll do cake next weekend with my family). Rhett LOVED his cupcake - I wasn't surprised since he devoured the one at Zane's party. He was very enchanted by the fire and quite mystified when Zane blew it out for him. As for presents....he really could have cared less about the wrapping paper....until it was off the presents.... but was enthralled by the new trucks that he recieved. Zane had a tough time understanding that Rhett got to see, touch and play with first, but he did pretty good. All in all it was a fun weekend and we're looking forward to the next year!

Friday, May 04, 2007

Happy Birthday Rhett

Today is Rhett's 1st birthday - and yes, I am awed at how fast the year has gone by. One minute we had this tiny little baby who smelled good and stayed put, and then we blinked and he was replaced with a toddler who never stands still, loves to chase his brother and brings life and joy into our house. What did we ever do without him in our family?

Of course I have been remembering all week the details of last year on this day - and I am so thankful for modern medicine, talented and caring nurses and doctors, and technology. Without the list above neither Rhett nor I would have made it here. It's a very sobering thought - one that I have tried not dwell on. Moving on from the morbid: Although today is his actual "birthday" he doesn't seem changed from yesterday or the day before. I was thinking that we all change just a little in small ways every day and then when we look back we can see just how far we have come.

We haven't had the party yet - Cliff's family is coming in sometime tomorrow and we will do the cupcakes and presents then. We did let him open the gift from Zane - and Zane had a hard time with the fact that it was Rhett's and that Rhett should get to check it out first. Sigh, the trials of being the first child. I did take some pics today (which will follow shortly) and had the idea that I would be able to to post a picture from last year in the SCN and follow it with one from today. However, my computer is having issues today and not wanting to read the pics that I burned onto my CD from last year. (I had over 1000 pics so they could not all sit on my harddrive!) I can see the images with their numbers but not open for some reason. Beyond frustration right now but my list of things to do is still quite long so I will worry about it another day. Instead, I will post some pics from today!

He was such a happy little boy today, even though he got short-shifted on his naps! We went for lunch and ran a ton of errands in the yucky, sleety rain, and he smiled the whole time. What a trooper!

We love our little boy Rhett and hope that all of his birthdays will be marked with so many smiles and so many changes in the year before!

Thursday, May 03, 2007

Conversations

I am constantly amazed at the conversation topics Zane comes up with. The following is a conversation we had in the van on the way to the toy store. I had noticed that he was just staring out the window and was looking very serious:
me: Zane, what's wrong?
Zane: Nothing - I'm just thinking
me: What are you thinking about
Zane: i'm thinking about what I want to be when I grow up
me: Oh, well that's good. What do you think you want to be?
Zane: A doctor
me: Well a doctor is a good thing. Why do you want to be a doctor
Zane: Because they help people.
me: Yes, they do help people. We have a good doctor who helps us. You could be like him.
Zane: Yeah, or maybe a fire man.
me: Yes fire men help people too
Zane: Yeah, and they get to shoot water! (much enthusiasm at this part)
me: (trying not to giggle now) Yes, they do get to shoot water too
Zane: But I don't know how to shoot water - sigh
me: That's ok - they teach you how to shoot water in Fireman school. You could go after your mission.
Zane: Yeah, after my mission I can learn how to shoot the water.
This was the end of his profound speech but I have been floored by it all day. Who knew that my 4 year old was thinking about different professions in the world and wondering which ones he would like already. Sigh - he's growing up way too fast.

Once we got to the toy store the mission was to buy a present for Rhett and one for our friend Kobee - both from Zane. So we started through the toys looking for Rhett and Zane would gravitate towards everything that HE wanted - any time I pointed out something that I thought Rhett would like he would say no. Finally we agreed on a toy and found something for Kobee. As an aside - shopping for little girls when you only have boys - even though I am a girl myself - is a hard undertaking! We went with princess dress up stuff so hopefully that will be a hit.

Rhett still hasn't cut his 8th tooth yet - sigh. I'm really hoping that he does it before we get to Grandma's.

I think that's the most profound I can be tonight!

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Motrin - my new best friend!

Today was a day that I needed Leslie here! (Don't get me wrong - I am thrilled for you to be in Toronto and hope that you are having the time of your life!)
It's just that last night was Hell. We stayed up until midnight with the missionaires watching the documentary on PBS all about Mormons. (they got special permission from their Area leader). I was really disappointed because they basically made us seem like kooks. But I won't get started on that because my mom and I already hashed about it for about an hour and it just makes me frustrated and sad. We hadn't even made it to bed yet when Rhett woke up. I went to get him some pain meds - he finally cut the right bottom tooth he's been working on but now is on to the left - and realized that we were out of Motrin. Not good. So I gave him some Tylenol Cold (he was pretty stuffy) and that just didn't even touch it! I tried everything that I could think of to get him to doze off again. Bottles, rocking, humming, no humming, little chair, big chair, couch. You name it and I tried it. He would get drowsy and his breathing would go all deep and even and I'd think - finally - and look down to see these gorgeous blue eyes just looking up at me in misery - and me being the horrible mom that I can be sometimes - actually had the audacity to yell at him a few times when he was screaming like a banshee. He has develped a new scream and I think it is about 50x worse than his old loudest scream. Finally around 2 I put him down and he started wondering around the house. He'd pick up a toy and bring it to me and I would tell him that I wasn't playing and that I wanted to sleep. He'd just look at me like - why would you want to sleep now mom? He even went to the window and pulled the curtain back so he could look outside - it was really cute but I was not in the mood to laugh at him. He finally conked out around 3:30 and I stumbled to bed praying that he would sleep until 8:00. (I know, I know, but I can dream right!) Yeah, 5:30 rolls around and he's up screaming again. Thankfully he took a bottle and was asleep by 6:00 so off to bed I went again. Both boys were up at 7:00 and Cliff got up with them but I was up 10 mintues later because Rhett was crying and screaming and beating at my door. I got him some breakfast and headed back to bed but he just screamed and cried. Definitely didn't want me out of his sight. Even with a full belly when I headed off to the shower he stood in the hall and cried and screamed the entire time. Poor Cliff. Rhett wants nothing to do with him when he gets into this mood. I had given him more tylenol at some point but obviously it wasn't working. We took Cliff to work and drove straight to WalMart where I bought more Motrin and some of those teething soothers which apparently he doesn't like. Sigh. We got home and I finally got him to sleep around 10 - he only slept for 45 mins so I only got a half hour nap. Can we say Zombie!!!! I was determined that he get some sleep so I worked for another 45 mins and finally got him back to sleep for an hour and a half - and he stayed up for the rest of the day. Ahhhhhh!!!!! He was fairly decent though once he woke up - I just have to keep him drugged for the next couple of days until this silly tooth finally cuts.

Whew - I feel better. When I tell you these things I know that you know exactly how I feel and will just let me vent without thinking that I am such a whiner. At least, that's what I tell myself and if you think differently I don't want to know! Hee Hee Hee.

I hope that you guys are having a fabulous time (if you are reading this in Toronto) and if you are already home I missed you tons!

Sunday, April 29, 2007

Just for Leslie!

For those of you who don't know, my best friend Leslie is in Toronto for a week and I am under strict instructions to blog several times in order to catch her up! So if the rest of you don't want to read these entries for the next week I will understand. To make it easier I'm going to type just like I would talk to Leslie - by the way you've only been gone for 3 days and already I am going into phone withdrawl!



I know you've been waiting to see me all dudded up and girly girly so I'll post the pics first and then tell you all the details of the awards night last night. (so fun!)










My hair was sooooo curly! I told Melissa that she had to make sure it wouldn't move (It was a little windy) and she
pulled out a can of hair
spray called helmet head! It definitely did it's job! Rhett didn't recognize me for a minute when he woke up from his nap - poor kid is so miserable with these teethe. I got dressed, did makeup and headed to Trail to pick up Cliff. A couple of sales guys were sitting there when I walked in and I got "wows" from them so that made me feel pretty good. Cliff was just finishing up with a customer but was very impressed when he was done. So I was feeling very gorgeous and that was nice! (Still going to join weight watchers when we get home though) So we left Trail and headed for the Lodge. We met Chris and his girl friend Carrie at the little pub restaurant there and Janice and Alan got there at the same time as us. So we hung out there for a while and it was a little interesting for me because I've never really hung out with Chris or Carrie. But the longer we sat there the more I forgot how much younger I am and just really enjoyed it. Then we moved to "poolside". This is where they were having cocktails and h'deuvers and checking everyone in. It was torture!!!! It was crowded, noisy and the floor was all uneven which made walking in my fab shoes not the best thing I've ever done. Thankfully we were only out there for 10 or 15 mins before we got to head into the ball room. We found our table which was right up front and we were thinking that this was great until they turned the speakers on. Oh my gosh I don't think my hearing will ever be the same again. The MC was the guy who does the Rebel games - goes out on ice with a jersy over his suite and explains the halfgame show etc. Can't remember his name - sorry. As he started going throught he program I was trying so hard not to giggle because you could totally tell that he was a hockey guy just by the infulction and emphasis of his voice. But after a while I got used to it. But there were a lot of other weird things - they started off with O Canada - no biggie except that NO ONE sang. I was really surprised. Then they called the mayor to say a prayer - and called him His Worship. Too weird for me. So the mayor steps up to pray and unrolls a piece of paper and starts reading his prayer. Immediately the thought came to me that this was just like Rameumpton in the Book of Mormon - especially when he got to the end and it rhymed! Cliff didn't get to experience this because he was in line to get us some drinks. So they started off with the 1st half of the awards and there was one company who I swear only hire employees if they are ex-cheerleeders. Every time they were nominated and then if they won their tables would errupt into screams and shouts and clapping - which is great to show company pride and all but I thought it was a little tacky for an awards night. But no one asked me. They serverd supper after the first half were awarded - it was pretty good. Fruit salad on lettuce, sorbet that apparently had champagne in it but no one bothered to tell us until we had eaten a good portion - then main course of beef with salsa on it and yummy roasted veggies. Dessert (I can never remember if this has 2 s's or 1....sigh) was a row of strawberries, then whip creme, then chocolate that looked like a cookie but was really soft with a truffle next to it. Very rich - Cliff ended up with his and the leftovers of a couple others and was buzzing pretty good for awhile. After supper they started the rest of the awards. Trail was up for supplier of the year but didn't get it- maybe next year. After the awards people just mingled as they blasted music out. Some people were very very very tipsy - there were a couple of younger girls whom I'm assuming came as dates. One girl actually tripped and fell and just about bashed her head into the stage! She lost her shoe in the process and after 3 attempts of putting it back on her friend stepped in to help her. Meanwhile their dates were standing back taking pictures. Again...I'm so grateful for my husband! So it was a different night then we usually spend but it was a lot of fun too.

Sunday, April 15, 2007

Time Warp

I feel like I have been the victim of a time warp - the last post I had was 2 weeks ago but it seems like it was more like 2 months. We've jammed a lot of things into the past couple of weeks!

Cliff and I were able to go to Calgary and apply for our passports. We went up Wednesday night and stayed with his aunt & uncle, while Zane had his first sleep over at a friends house! He did fabulously! I was really worried that he would be ok when we dropped him off but have a really hard time when it was time for bed and stuff but I couldn't have been more wrong! My very grown up 4 year old informed me that it was only a sleepover and I had to beg for a hug and kiss good bye. Happily we only had to be in line for about 45 minutes in the morning and ended up being #16. 20 minutes after they opened we were processed and on our way to breakfast! We should be receiving our passports by the end of the month, or first week of May.

We were also blessed to be able to go home for Easter and had a lot of fun with both families. Zane and Rhett had a lot of fun finding eggs - Zane finding the eggs that were hidden and Rhett finding the eggs that were in Zane's basket! Lots of treats and spoilage for all. The Easter bunny also made sure to bring some nice new church books for the kids - to try and emphasize the real meaning of Easter. We went to church in Barnwell and were really blessed to see lots of old friends. It's always like going home when we go to the Barnwell ward.

I am so thankful for all the things that the Easter season brings: spring, egg hunts, flowers, birds etc. But most important I am so thankful for my Saviour and for his sacrifice for me. Because of the Atonement I can depend on Him for the remission of my sins, as well as the comfort and knowledge of eternal families and burdens that are lightened. There is nothing that He hasn't experienced or suffered and I know that He will help me through all things in my life as long as I ask him.

Cliff has good news for him that translates to good news for our family! Trail has been working for awhile to get a particular builder here in Red Deer to use them as their supplier for appliances. For those who don't know how this works, here's a quick summary: The home owner buys the house from the builder and the appliances are already included in the price. When a builder has a contract with Trail, their account is assigned to a sales person who makes sure the proper appliances are delivered on time etc and helps the home owner pick out different appliances if they want. Then that sales person gets commission on the product put into that home. This particular builder does a massive amount of homes per year and has agreed to award 60 homes to Trail at the moment. If they like the way things go they will award the whole contract of 500-600 houses PER YEAR to Trail. So, how is this good news for Cliff you ask? Well he is the sales person that is in charge of this account! So, potentially if things go well he will be making commission on all those houses per year! The rest of the news is that he is soon going to be the Assistant Manager of Trail here in Red Deer. I am so proud of my hubby! He has worked really hard to get to this spot and is being rewarded for the last 2 years of hard work! Congrats hon! (Of course this means that my golf widowship has just been signed and sealed. Sigh.)

Here's some cute pics of my kids! Hope everyone had a fabulous Easter weekend and congrats again to Suz and Keith for their beautiful baby boy Cameron born on Easter Sunday and Tisha and James for their beautiful baby boy TJ born on the 13th! All the best to you and your new babes!








Sunday, April 01, 2007

Red Tape and New Steps

If you have ever applied for a passport you will understand what I mean by red tape. As most of you know Cliff and I are going to California in May and we are just finishing up on everything for our passports. We have to have references and someone from a big list of professionals that have know us for at least 2 years verify our identity. As we have lived here just under 2 years that has caused a little extra work for us. Thank goodness Cliff's Aunt Bev is a lawyer and happy to help us. Thanks again Auntie Bev! Oh, and I hope I never have to show my passport picture to anyone but the person behind the counter. Because you can't smile I look so sad in my picture. Really I'm just sleep deprived but you don't really notice how much a smile does for you until you have a picture where you can't smile. Anyways, hopefully we will get everything together in time for a quick trip to the consolate in Calgary this week before heading home for Easter.

Rhett is walking more and more each day. It's funny because sometimes he'll start walking and just keep going and then other times he starts off and then changes his mind and crawls - I don't know if it's because he can get there faster by crawling or if he gets distracted by something in front of him. Either way he thinks he's quite the kid now - he likes to walk around with a bottle in his hand and stop and take a swig every now and then. He's also discoverd his voice! Everything he says these days is done in a shriek. I don't know if my ears will ever be the same. Still I wouldn't trade him in!

Zane has the cold that has had me down for most of the week but I think he'll rebound quickly. He slept a lot today and hopefully he'll sleep some more tomorrow and be good to go by mid week. He is his usual busy self and although he loves his little brother he is definitely getting frustrated with him wanting everything that Zane has. We are also working on learning how to ride a bike! He never learned how to ride a trike so he has to learn how to pedal....it's going pretty good. If the weather would cooperate it would go a lot faster. But he seems to be enjoying it.

This is a short post....we are just hoping that we will all be healthy by the weekend so we can enjoy our time with everyone at Easter and me and the boys can stay for a week!

Thursday, March 22, 2007

Happy Birthday Zane!




Wow...Zane is 4 years old today!!! It's really hard to believe that that much time has gone by and that this beautiful, wonderful, energetic, incredibly smart little boy is the baby that I first held 4 years ago. I have to brag about my son - it is his birthday after all and I am feeling somewhat sentimental. Zane constantly amazes me with how quickly he grasps onto concepts. If he doesn't understand something he will often question me about it and then will sit there and mull it over and re-explain it to me in the terms that he understood it. Most often he gets it right and the times that he doesn't he's not far off. He loves to do mazes! I bought him a preschool book that had 32 mazes in it and he did them all in under 45 minutes. He just sat there and did maze after maze. He is amazing on the computer. He knows exactly how to get to the games that he likes to play and can do things in our paint progam that amazes me. He loves to play the games that reinforce his letters and counting and stuff like that. His thirst for knowledge somedays takes my breath away. He loves books! It has been so fun lately to see him grow more and more interested in books and to watch him "read" his favorites to Rhett. Of course he loves all the boy stuff too. He loves to build these amazing creations with his blocks and is constantly guarding them from Rhett - something that continues to be a source of frustration for him. But he builds buildings, cars, boats, roller coaster and of course - shooting things as he calls them. Cars and trucks are always a big part of play as well and lately anything pirate is a big hit.


When we first brought Zane home and Cliff went back to work and it was just me and him there were several days where I just sat in the chair and watched him and would wonder what in the world I would ever do with a boy! I didn't know how to make truck noises or shooting noises and we all know that my athletic ability is severely lacking! But I have since learned that boys are so much fun! They look at the world in such a different way then girls and he teaches me something new everyday. I am so lucky to be his mommy and I hope that he will always love me the way he does now. The best part of my day is when he looks at me and says "Mommy - I love you a 10 today!" And he holds up all his fingers to prove his point. Does it get any better than having the unconditional love of your child? I don't think so.

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

From the Mouth of Babes!

Wow - it's been 2 weeks since I last posted - it doesn't feel like that long but it does feel that long. It's been an eventful 2 weeks as Rhett rolled into his 5th ear infection which prompted our doc to refer us to an ear specialist. We saw him yesterday and will see him again in 6 weeks. The good news is that the current infection is gone and he's hopeful that Rhett will outgrow the infections. The other bad news is that he still has some fluid in there. We go back in 6 weeks and I think he'll be following us throughout the next year or so. He's not a tube pusher which we like 'cause neither of us is eager for surgery for Rhett. He also is cutting 4 teeth - 2 have broken and the other 2 won't be far behind - that will bring his total to 6! He is also getting more brave with trying to walk - he's down to holding onto one finger for the most part when he walks with me and just wants to go all the time. He's learned how to wave bye-bye and loves to practice with me throughout the day and is starting to recognize voices on the phone. I think his favorite is Uma - how he refers to my mom at the moment - his face just lights up when she's on speaker phone. Wow - he's really done a lot!


Zane goes between being the most delightful almost 4 year old I know to the most stubborn, attitude bearing, can't reason with him - almost 4 year old. But mostly the first scenario. He has developed a fear of the dark recently and also a fear of 'dark cows' - which from what I've been able to put together stems from the little robot dude with the THX and cow sounds at the beginning of some Disney Pixar movies. After a couple of tearful bedtimes I suggested that we pray and ask Heavenly Father and Jesus to help him. He agreed and tearfully followed my prompts. After we finished he was so much calmer and said that he felt better. He slept fine that night and the next morning I overheard him telling Cliff that Jesus had come and made the Dark Cows go away. Unfortunately, this experience hasn't been quite enough to rid him of fear totally but I believe it is building his faith - he goes to sleep at night with a flashlight pointing straight on the picture of Christ in their room. He also comes up with little phrases that crack me up all the time. His latest is "I hope so!" I often get this response when I ask him if he can do something - like pick up his toys or pick out some clothes. Something to that effect.

Did I mention that it is trying to be spring here? I know that all of you in Southern Alberta are thinking - so what? But please remember that we have had snow for 6 months - that's half the year! We have to fit 3 seasons into 6 months - and 2 of them are my favorite ones. Sigh. Anyways, I'm really happy to see grass again and the big puddles and the snow piles slowly starting to disappear. I don't even care that I washed my van on Staurday and it didn't even stay clean for 2 hours.

I haven't been taking as many pics this month - been too busy trying to keep Rhett happy but I got these ones today of him eating mac and cheese. I couldn't resist - too cute!
I also took these ones the other day of Zane being a pirate. According to him his name is Pirate Zane Markus Johnson. As soon as Rhett saw me go for the camera he got as close to Zane as possible....I have two camera loving kids!



What can I say...I'm a sleep deprived mom who loves her boys and wouldn't trade staying at home with them for anything! I'm so lucky to be married to Cliff - he spoils me and loves me and cherishes me. What more could a girl ask for!



Thursday, March 01, 2007

Mum's the word


Our visit to Raymond and Barnwell went well and we had a lot of fun....minus all of us being sick! The boys had minor colds when we left Red Deer and by the time we hit Raymond both were running low grade fevers and coughing like crazy. Rhett ended up with double ear infections and Zane a cold. Yuck. Grammie claims to still have enjoyed us but I think she's had much more fun at our house this week now that everyone is pretty much over the sickness and happy once again.

Rhett has his first word - it's mom. It took me a while to make sure he really knew what he was saying but mom helped me confirm. He's also working on 'more' - especially when there are popcorn twists involved.

Zane is almsot 4 - I can't believe it. The time has certainly flown and my fun 3 year old is suddenly morphing into this very willful 4 year old who doesn't want to do anything that doesn't work well with his own personal agenda. Needless to say we have been having a few battles as we both adjust to this new dynamic. I remember it being like this when he was really close to being 3 as well and thinking that I would never survive 3. As it turns out 3 has been one of my favorite ages. But he is so keen to learn new things. He has been learning about rhyming words and will out of the blue look up and say "mom - cat and hat - they rhyme" or something like that. We bought him some books that he can trace numbers and letters in and he really likes thoses - they're like a white board so the pen just wipes off right after he's done and he can do it as many times as he likes. He also loves books. We've been going to the library once a week and he has a lot of fun picking out new books to bring home and read.

Rhett is trying to cut more teeth. Hopefullly they will be in soon and not be as bad as his first two. He is growing like a weed these days and I can't believe that we are on the verge of toddler hood. He's starting to get brave and take falling steps between us - mostly towards mom so it probably won't be much longer now before he's running around after Zane. He already follows him and just tries so hard to be as tall as Zane so he can touch everything that Zane does.


All in all life is really good right now and we are hoping for spring soon. It will be really nice to see grass here again.