Sleep is a changin'

Forgive me if I sound sleepy these days. Max is now in a toddler bed, and Ben is in the crib. You would think Max was the one having a hard time adjusting. Actually, so far he's been great -- it's Ben having trouble! Apparently he liked being crammed in that cozy bassinet. The crib is more spacious and I think it freaked him out. But he did much better last night.

Max loves showing off the big boy bed. It came from his new favorite relative, 2-year-old Eliana (JB's cousin's daughter. They played big time at the wedding reception). Uncle Scott delivered it and helped put it together so that was pretty cool for Max too. He shows it to all our visitors, and jumps up and down on it like a kangaroo.

He is turning into such a jumper. I keep telling him, "Don't jump on the bed/couch/chair/table because it will ruin our furniture." Part of me thinks maybe I should just let him do it. I loved jumping on the furniture when I was younger -- when did I become uncool? Then I realize I became uncool when I became a mom, and now I have to pay for new furniture if our stuff breaks. So I set aside one thing for jumping, climbing or rolling: the love sak my sister made us downstairs. Too bad I end up trying to take a nap on it while he kanagroos around me.

The wedding

Some pictures! This is from the wedding dinner Wednesday night. It's hard to get two squirmy boys to look at the camera. It was drizzling when we came out of the temple, but Max was in heaven with the umbrella.

The Richards family waits for pictures on the steps.

We loved getting pictures of Sarah and Joe with their nephews and niece. You should have seen the photographer doing amazing stunts to get the kids to look at her!

Max and his cousin Emily take a break.

It was fun to think about our wedding almost 5 years ago, and fun to see everybody at the reception. Congrats Sarah and Joe!

The binkie you never knew about

I forgot Ben's binkie Sunday while we were at the Richards' house for Scott's homecoming on Sunday (he gave a great talk by the way). Ben was getting sad and tired, so we tried giving him an empty Baby Tylenol bottle he likes to play with. Next thing we knew, he was sucking on the soft, chewy top it like it was his binkie.

It worked! He fell asleep in Grandpa's arms.

Sick part 2

The boys are better -- now it's JB and me! My roughest time was Wednesday evening, and I still feel a little suspect this morning. JB looked pretty bad last night. Sometimes I wonder if it would be better for the whole family to get sick at once and get over it all at the same time. But it's harder to take care of others when you are feeling poorly yourself.

Thankfully we all got through his sister's wedding just fine yesterday. I think the excitement of the day really helped. I should get a few pictures to post soon. Max and Ben looked so cute, and even though the potential was there, they didn't melt down too badly after a full day of "Smile for the camera! Look here! Hey, say cheese!"

It rained on us outside the Temple but the drizzling stopped in time for the reception. The whole day was so nice. When we were on the way home last night Max sleepily said, "I want to see Sarah again in her dress." Then he nodded off. It's hard to carry that boy inside the house when he's sound asleep!

Sick

My poor boys. they caught a yucky bug sweeping the neighborhood. Max just got over a few rough days of fever and runny nose. He's much better, but now Ben has it. He had a temp of 101.2 yesterday so I took him to the doctor. She said she was encouraged by the fact that through his tears, he smiled at her. If he gets listless, then I should worry. He slept better last night than the night before so hopefully he'll be back to almost normal for JB's sister's wedding tomorrow.

It was a surprise to see how much he weighs. The nurse, seeing his size, said "Just sit him up here." My response: "He can't quite sit up by himself yet, he's too young." Nurse: "What? How old is he?" me: "5 1/2 months." Nurse: "!!!"

You see, he's not only long, he now weighs 18 pounds, 15.2 ounces! I'm rounding up to 19 pounds next week.

Ready

Bring on the solid food, he says! Almost there, Benji-boy.

Fun times

We went to Lagoon a week ago, and here are some pictures. It had been since last summer but Max still remembered all his favorite rides.He and his cousin Emily love the cars, boats, planes and helicopters just their size.

For some reason this next picture is bigger than the others (my computer-savvy brothers are probably groaning at my ignorance) but at least this way you can also see Ben on his first carousel ride to my left. JB is holding him tight as he looks at me (pre-haircut) and Max.

New hair

With my sister-in-law's wedding coming up in six days, and for the good of humanity, I finally did something about my hair.It's much shorter, and all the too-blonde highlights I was growing out are gone. I was so pleased about it this morning, that I've been stomping down the hallway like a full-figured model looking fierce on the runway. That's also because I just watched the finale of "America's Next Top Model." Whitney, the winner, was called "full-figured" because she's a size 10. I call it a perfect 10.

Here's me with my best model face.I think I look bemused, bothered or bewildered -- I'm not sure which.

Scott is back!

JB's youngest brother Scott is now a returned missionary. He came back from Florida on Monday, and we were so excited to see him at the airport.

From left to right: JB, Ben, Max, me, Nona (Pauline), Scott, Grandpa (John), Emily and Bart. The other siblings were still at work but gave Scott big hugs at home.

Emily was two days old when Scott left, and Max was nine months old. Here's Scott wondering how to hold this very tall toddler!

Here's Ben trying to eat Scott's tie, and the oldest and youngest brothers reunited again.

More pics from my trip

Ben was squealing in the stroller near the end of our walk so Bekah gave him some loves. He then squealed with delight.
Look at all the babies! This was his favorite moment from shopping with us.
A good moment on the plane. That's the Skymall magazine. I think it's open to an ad for hair restoration.

David Archuleta

I know hundreds -- if not thousands -- of young teenage girls have by now posted their pictures they got of David Archuleta's hometown visit on Friday, but I just had to post mine.



To be fair, I was there for work. But I can't explain why my heart started pounding fast when he stepped out of the limo. I think it was the adrenaline of covering the news story live. Yeah, that's it!

The Graduate

I went to Kansas City last Thursday through Sunday to visit my sister Rebekah and see her get her MBA. She rocks!

I took young Benjamin with me. He ate his shoe during the ceremony.

We ate yummy food to celebrate. Pure, local, yummy BBQ one day and crab legs the next.

We also took a long walk, played the Wii, went shopping...my trip ended too soon. But thankfully Ben did very well on the airplane rides. It was funny to see people walk to my row then keep going when they saw the baby. He slept most of the time, and once I even got an extra seat beside me.

Next time we visit Max wants to go -- so does JB. I brought back some barbecue in a small cooler and they loved it.

To Do

I'm only doing part of a list after being tagged, just because I feel like it.

To Do:
1. Upload pics and blog about my trip to see my sister get her MBA
2. Eat more seafood
3. Read the next book for book group
4. Vote for the Davids on "American Idol"
5. Vote for Kristi on "Dancing with the Stars"
6. Weed among the flowers/plant-type thingys around the yard
7. Learn about gardening
8. Buy even more shoes and become the sassiest thing ever
9. Clean out my boys' drawers of too-small clothes (Ben's already up to 9-12 month clothing)
10. Visit friends (Max keeps asking about Gracie!)
11. Write thank-yous
12. Potty-train Max. Somehow I also have to get this on Max's to-do list as well. Any suggestions?