These are a few of my favorite things

1. Creative friends: So, remember when I wanted to take credit for the awesome new look of my blog, but then I told the truth about how it was the work of the fabulous, basically-my-best-friend Jayna Haws? Well, luckily for all of you, she's decided to business-ize her hobby! It's called Friend of a Friend Blog Makeovers, and as my friend (or blog stalker) you're totally eligible to be her customer! Jayna's really creative and stylish, and she'll work with existing themes or come up with something completely new and fun. And since justifying $30-40 for a blog makeover to your husband sounds painful (and futile), Jayna's much lower prices are a steal! Contact her at jaynahaws@yahoo.com for more info.

2. Toddling toddlers: Will can officially walk. It's SO cute to see him traipse around the house. We're only a week in, so it still slightly resembles the walking style of a fresh-off-the-horse cowboy but he's getting faster and faster.

3. Madagascar. And Madagascar 2. Oh, wait, those are Clyde's current favorites! Chuck DVR'd Madagascar for Clyde when we were out of town for Easter, and we've watched it everyday since. It's pretty good, although I like the Disney/Pixar movies a little better. Clyde is particularly enamored with the 'sea water?' bit where they drink and then spit out the water. He tries to replicate the scene frequently, but luckily he hasn't figured out not to swallow first. . . yet. Friday night we grabbed Madagascar 2 from the redbox and had a family movie night.

(Special shout-out to Chuck's cousin Lehi, who's headed to Madagascar on his mission - he enters the MTC on May 13th! You rock, buddy!)

4. Being early to church: Admittedly, it was only by like two and a half minutes, but it still felt good to be there and seated and feel relaxed. We just might try it again sometime.

5. School friends: Three hour evening classes are SO much easier to get through when you have friends to sit and joke around with. I've had multiple classes with Jason and Sarah before, and this semester we're all together Tuesday and Wednesday nights. They've seriously saved my sanity. And they complimented me lots on my most recent presentation (about the inmate subculture, no less) so they're officially friends for life. I even friended them on Facebook, is there any higher commitment?

6. 'I Run to You' by Lady Antebellum: It's so sweet and catchy. I tried to make Chuck listen to it, as a 'Honey, this is how I feel about you; you're the safe haven I run to' kind of moment, but I gave up after he said, "Wait, what are they running away from?" It's obvious he's been listening to sports talk radio instead of music for way too long. . . sigh.

The funniest text/picture message conversation I've had in a while

Message 1:

Sam to Jana: We wish you were here!

Message 2:

Jana to Sam: I'll trade you for some chocolate cupcakes!

Message 3:

Sam to Jana: We can meet in Snowville for the exchange

Message 4:

Jana to Sam: Clyde will bring the grilled cheese!

Message 5:

Sam to Jana: too late....this is getting weird

How we spent our Sunday afternoon (hint: not at church)

In our defense, we tried to go to church. We got all dolled up, left the house fifteen minutes early and drove to the Birch building, where there were only a handful of cars in the parking lot. At this point I figured that the work to fix the flooding damage at our regular meetinghouse must have finished, so we drove to the Amity building, where there were no cars. I then realized it must have been Stake Conference, an earlier meeting with several wards at the Greenhurst building. Oops! That's what we get for being out of town last week, having General Conference the week before, and only making it for the last two hours (due to the silly snow) the week before that.

So, we came back home and played outside in the lovely 70 degree weather!

Will recently learned to make spit bubbles, and as it's a favorite pastime of mine as well, I couldn't be prouder.

Since the boys were all dressed up I tried to take some cute pictures, but . . .
they were less than cooperative,

easily distracted,

and flew the coop. (Clyde is yelling "Mom - brother! Mom - brother!" to alert me that Will isn't following the rules)

Will's very stable on his feet, but the combination of the grass and only wearing one shoe got to him.

Thank goodness for older brothers who catch you when you fall :)

We then played in the backyard for a while (technically I sat in the shade and read Good Housekeeping) and had a lovely afternoon. We do promise to be front and center in church next week, though . . .

A few of my thoughts - and you can keep your penny!

* Clyde is in the adorable 'repeat-everything-anyone-else-says' phase as he expands his vocabulary and verbal development, which keeps Chuck and me on our toes. . . most of the time. There's a chance that just this week the wee lad has repeated "hot bum" (I won't specify in reference to whom) and "DARN it!" Luckily pretty mild so far.

* Will is officially weaned, which means that for the first time in almost three and a half years I don't have a fetus/person dependent on my body for nutrition. Anyone else want a Dr. Pepper?

* Chuck has prepared more meals in the last week than I possibly have in the last month . . . pancakes (twice), French toast, plenty o' PB&J, roast beef croissant-wiches, chicken salad, jambalaya, etc. Fabulous.

* I have officially started commenting on the Biggest Loser recap discussion threads on tvguide.com. I can't help it; I'm just full of opinions and insight about this show! And then I check back periodically to see how many other readers agree with me and have 'recommended' my comment. SO embarrassing . . .

* I sorta wish I harbored ill will towards an ex-boyfriend (hmm, that would require me to have an ex-boyfriend, which I don't) just because I like the All-American Rejects song "Gives You Hell" so much. It's so darn catchy.

* Speaking of music, on our recent drive to Elko I played some vintage Good Charlotte, aka their first (and best) CD. To my surprise, I remembered all the words. To every song.

* I was recently reminded that I have NO idea what I'm doing in any type of garden setting. And I have no real desire to learn. I feel bad that our house had such a beautiful flower garden in the front yard last year when we moved in, because it's totally wasted on me. I mix up 'perennials' and 'annuals' all the time (doesn't 'annual' sound like it comes back annually? No?) and I'm pretty sure I pulled up some things I shouldn't have as I weeded the other day. I already told Chuck I just want to pave the entire backyard, like a big rollerskating rink, rather than deal with the landscaping along the back fence.

* I've watched the youtube clip of Susan Boyle several times, and I still swell with pride (and tear up a little) every time as she silences, then completely inspires, her critics and the jerks in the audience. "And that's just one side of me!"

* In the past three weeks I've turned in four papers, taken three quizzes, taken two exams and participated in three discussion boards. In the next three weeks I'll (hopefully) turn in four more papers, take one quiz, participate in four discussion boards, do two presentations, and take four final exams.
I. can't. wait. for. summer.  (and neither can my children!)

I got whacked at Godfather's Pizza (disclaimer: not their actual slogan)

To wrap up our fun Utah spring break, we headed to the wonderful home of the Smith family and during our time there I found my new favorite pizza joint: Godfather's Pizza! But more on that later . . .

We usually head to Smiths' over General Conference weekend, so we found ourselves with more free time this visit. Heidi was gracious enough to let me pretend to be 16 again, and we hit up the mall on Friday evening (just me and Heidi! NO children!) and had a blast. Heidi is gorgeous and super cool and I hope it didn't hurt her image too much to be seen with me - she saw like five people she knew there within an hour long period. It was crazy. The highlights of the mall trip were the laughs at Victoria's Secret, Heidi being appalled that I thought a brown AND black dress was cute (apparently those colors shouldn't really mix, especially in that particular pattern), Heidi begrudgingly allowing me to browse toddler boys' clothing, Heidi discovering halfway through the trip that I was wearing crocs (and comparing me to her grandpa), and me telling the very aggressive salesman at the Dead Sea Scrolls kiosk that we had to run because our boyfriends were waiting for us (and as we left the mall going completely out of our way to avoid walking past them again).

At the Smith home itself, there was also lots of fun to be had playing the Wii.

First Chuck went up against Ben in boxing . . . and lost. Then I went up against Ben in boxing . . . and lost very badly. Then my mom and Heidi went up against Courtney and Ben in tennis . . . and I'm not sure who won, but I'd put my money on Ben. Clyde and Will had fun jumping into the love sac. This picture makes it look like they're the same size, but I promise Clyde is bigger. Okay, maybe Chuck was throwing them onto it at this point.

Reed recently acquired two Godfather's Pizza restaurants so he took all of us there for dinner on Saturday night. It was so fun to eat at a restaurant with the owner and watch him randomly walk back into the kitchen and such. We all enjoyed the food and atmosphere, although there should definitely be pictures of various Smith/Hugo/Braden/Izatt/etc. family members on the wall. SO, if you happen to be in the Harrisville area, drop in for lunch or dinner and mention my name - it won't do anything for the price, and the person will probably look at you funny, but it will make me feel special :)
Here are all of the girls: Heidi, Gloria, Pam, Courtney, Jana
It's hard to see, but if you look closely you can see my cute hair and make-up,
courtesy of Heidi. We both had cute braids a la Jennifer Aniston at the Oscars.

We had a very fun, albeit short, visit with Smiths (we did miss Nate dearly). The next morning when we left, Clyde cried and cried and kept screaming "I want this house! I want this house!" (Granted, if you saw their house, you'd probably want it too . . . ) He especially loved Heidi, or Hei-i as he called her.
Here he is in the car as we began our journey back to Boise. He calmed down pretty quickly, but then I felt like crying when our driving conditions turned into this:
(note: all on-the-road pictures are taken by Chuck, the front seat passenger. I would not attempt to take pictures while driving in snow!)

There was some sort of ridiculous spring blizzard between Tremonton and Snowville so we drove 15 mph and couldn't see a thing. After a while the snow cleared up and we thought we were home free, until we encountered this:

A firetruck weaved its way around traffic and we came to a virtual standstill. We finally saw why:

An accident involving two semis! It looked pretty bad, but when I checked online after we got home it said that no one was seriously injured. It also said that the freeway was closed for three hours while they cleared the semis from the road; we made it past just in time!

A few miles later we were again reminded of the importance of driving SLOWLY on snowy roads:

Yep, flipped over. Again, no serious injuries, luckily.

After Snowville the weather and roads cleared up wonderfully and we continued on our way. At one point, a Dodge Charger passed us going way too fast, which ticked me off. So I admit I was pretty happy when we saw this:

Okay, so Chuck didn't get the Charger in the picture, but it was definitely him. AND his trunk was getting searched!

The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful as you can tell from backseat crew :)

We love you Smiths, thanks again for having us! We can't wait to see you some time this summer :)

We went to Hogle Zoo, Zoo, Zoo

To celebrate Will's birthday while we were in Utah, we decided to take the double-y ear infected child to Hogle Zoo in the freezing cold - happy birthday! In my defense, at that point I didn't know he had ear infections and I also didn't realize that Utah would still have snow on the ground at the end of March. Thankfully Chuck grabbed Will's winter hat and we alternated between inside and outside exhibits to stay warm, so we were still able to have lots of fun - here are more pics on Sam and Terri's post.

(A special thanks to Chuck's sister Melissa and her family for the Boise Zoo family pass they gave us for Christmas - it got us in half price at Hogle!)

We checked out all of the monkeys/apes/gorillas first. Clyde was pretty mesmerized by some of the jumping and swinging, and I think he may have walked away with a few new ideas - yikes!

Chuck and his siblings have what they term 'monkey arms' (it makes it extra fun to try to buy dress shirts without him there to double check the sleeve length!) so we knew he'd do well measuring up against the apes :)

Smart boys in hats!

We wandered in to the crocodile 'greenhouse' only to find it empty, since the crocodile had been returned to his native Louisiana. Luckily they had kept the heat on and we enjoyed feeling our fingers and toes for a while. I also ran into an old floormate from my freshman year at BYU, which was fun.

We had to stop for a quick photo op with my awesome red Crocs. Clyde's been really into rhinos lately; he's especially intrigued by their horns. He had fun watching the real ones but was kinda freaked out by this statue.

Sam was hilarious at the zoo, he spoke with such awe about all of the animals. He was VERY disappointed when we found that the two black bears were hiding down in the moat, only barely visible with the side mirror. He made it his personal mission to lure them out . . . .

since Clyde couldn't quite see them down there. After a solid twenty minutes of Sam's bear-like noises, whistles, and pleading, they followed their curiosity up into our line of sight and we were able to move on :)

Of course, right then another family came up and got to immediately see them, enjoying the benefits of Sam's hard work. I think he should charge people to stay an exhibit ahead of them and make sure the animals are friendly and visible!

Will and I practiced our 'roars'. We're pretty menacing, eh?

Here's the animal Sam truly connected with, however: the giraffe. Who knows what he said to the animal, but all of a sudden the giraffe leaned his head down RIGHT next to Sam's hand and just looked at him. He held it like that for a while as we all stared in amazement. By the time I realized what was actually happening and made a stealth beeline for the camera, the bond was broken and the giraffe retreated. It was crazy!

Poor little boy, this doesn't even look comfortable! It was at this point that we decided to wrap up our zoo adventure and head back to the warmth of Sam and Terri's house. . .

after a photo op with the elephant, that is. How cute is my mom?

We love our cuddly boys :)

Tuesday adventures

I promise I'll recap the rest of the Utah trip highlights soon, but I wanted to post these pictures from yesterday first. Will had his one year check-up at the pediatrician, so we stopped by and visited my grandpa while we were in Boise.

The little chubbs fell asleep on the way to the doctor's office. Doesn't he look so cute and preppy? And is it wrong to put gel in a one-year-old's hair?

Just for fun, here's a picture of Clyde asleep on his way home from his one-year check-up (immunization shots = no pants). And yeah, I put Will in the same shirt on purpose. I'm kind of a dork and I'm okay with that.

Here are the boys playing in the waiting room Doesn't he look like a grown-up boy? Where oh where did my baby go? The check-up was excellent. I love their doctor, which is why we haven't switched to someone in Nampa yet. She said Will's ears look great, so we can stop the antibiotics. He weighs 22lbs (50%) and is 31 inches tall (75%).
I wanted to hang around Boise a bit so that we could see Chuck between his all-day training and his regular shift at work. We had an hour until he was ready, so we stopped by my grandpa's house for a visit!

Will had fun playing with all of the animals. . .

and Clyde had fun going 'boom' (jumping) off Grandpa's couch, which Grandpa was not expecting :)
Clyde and Grandpa had fun singing Clyde's current fave song, Popcorn Popping. I'm not sure who was cuter 'looking out the window'!

He also offered to walk Clyde to the car, which is always helpful to a mom juggling two kids.

It was really nice to see my grandpa; I know he must be lonely without my grandma, so I'm going to really try to make it over there often. Plus it's good for my self-esteem; yesterday when we were leaving he gave me the sweetest hug and said how proud of me he was and what a good mom I am and how he always knew I'd be an amazing woman. Cue the waterworks :)
We then had just enough time to meet up with Chuck for an early dinner (where Clyde shamelessly flirted with an older lady in the next booth over) before he went back to work and we came home.

Oh, and one of the concerns I discussed with Dr. Schaffer is Will's lack of interest in finger foods; he finds little appeal in Cheerios, crackers, etc. She wasn't worried and I guess I shouldn't be either since this is what I found later that evening . . .

I guess he just prefers to feed himself with utensils! Serves me right for leaving Clyde's Key Lime yogurt within reach.

and yes, in true blogging fashion I only shrieked about the carpet for a half a second before I grabbed the camera :)