Green Beans and Meltdowns

Dave took Ian to the store on Saturday to purchase a few things for mom. They went to the produce section to purchase the salad that I insisted we eat with our Little Caesar's Pizza. Dave was checking out the produce when he heard Ian about 20 feet away gagging and about ready to throw up. He ran over and Ian was eating something and apparently not liking it too much. He dug it out of his mouth and asked him what he was eating. Ian pointed and said "Those green beans." He was pointing at the Serrano hot peppers! They headed for the drinking fountain and Ian ended up carrying around a root beer to cool his wounded mouth while they shopped. When they reached the checkout Dave made Ian tell the cashier he stole a pepper and after a re-telling of the story the cashier said he had paid enough for his hot mistake.

Ian's had quite the adventures when it comes to shopping lately. Today at Old Navy he some how got up on the table of sweaters and was crawling around in them. I immediately quarantined him to the shopping cart and he promptly threw a tantrum for the rest of the shopping trip (we left without buying what I had picked out). When Dave came home today he asked what happened at Old Navy and Ian said, "Meltdown."

Fish and Apples

So, the other day I decided we needed to eat better. Of course this decision came after a trip to the gym and a visit to the scale. The boys and I prepared to go shopping list and all (Miles ate the list about 5 minutes into the shopping trip). Yes, we are usually a one stop buy everything at Walmart kind of family, but I decided we needed to eat fish to be healthy and thier meat department is a little lacking in this area. I told Ian we would go to Harmon's to buy fish. We got to the meat counter and Ian was fascinated with the whole salmon-head and all. I bought a pound of shrimp and we headed home. We arrived at home and Ian promptly asked if we could have fish for lunch. I was not going to cook shrimp so I pulled out a can of tuna. He was so excited-"Yea-we're having fish." I started to put it on the bread and he looked confused, "Mommy where is the head?" He thought I had bought the whole salmon and somehow got it into the can! I told him the butcher chopped off the head. He has had tuna on every sandwich for a week now, and apparently is so interested in fish he told James Mair (his friend Ben's dad) all about the fish he eats for lunch.

Now, the apples--Cameo apples are my favorite (book clubers I haven't tried honey crisp yet). They are big and crunchy, tart and sweet and they just taste like fall. They do not sell these at Walmart so while we were at Harmon's we bought a bag full of apples as well. These are "Mommy's apples" Ian gets the little Gala's from Walmart. So, fish and apples for lunch have been a hit at my house-mmm, maybe apples chopped up and added to the fish would be good?! :)

Hide and Seek

Yesterday Ian kept begging me to play hide and seek. So, into the bedroom I went to start counting to 10 while Ian went of to hide. Now his hide and seek abilities have improved, he use to sit on the bed in his bedroom and yell for you to come find him. I said ready or not here I come and off Miles and I went to find Ian. I was surprised to not hear anything-Ian usually starts to laugh or yell due to excitement. I started looking in closets and saying "Where is Ian?" Pretty soon I heard a thumping on the coat closet door and there he was hiding on top of all my purses. Then off I went to hide. I opted for the shower in the bathroom because I could stand up. I forgot how fun it was to wait quietly in anticipation of someone to find you and if you are lucky enough you can scare the liver out of them by yelling boo at that exact moment. Ian found me and my boo made him jump. We played a few more rounds with Ian getting better at finding new hiding places each time. The excitement did take over though and eventually I could hear giggling, banging, and ghost noises coming from where ever my little disappearing boy had gone to hide.

Useless info. you all were just dying to hear!

I have been tagged. Okay Gretchen here it is..8 semi-interesting, useless, strange, and unusual facts about me.

1. I taught junior high for 4 years. Some say I was crazy. I did enjoy it most days, but there were days I wished I had majored in something a little more predictable. I taught math (which I did not major in-I was really good and pretending I knew what I was talking about), U.S. History, Utah History (I think I learned most of this info at church), and World Geography (learned this from reading National Geographic).

2. I can not swim. I took lessons as a child and had to re-take level 3 twice and then I just quit going. I still do not like deep water. Someday I would like to take swimming lessons, but I've heard it's hard to teach and old dog new tricks.

3. I have worn glasses since I was 6 years old. Now I am so near-sighted I am far-sighted. I really can not see anything without my contacts or glasses. Growing up I had some wonderful 2 inch thick glasses when combined with bad eighties hair--I was a knock-out!

4. Lately I have been into watching not what is currently on TV, but what use to be on TV. I have been checking out old TV series from the library. My favorites lately are MacGyver--this one is mostly for Dave, but who doesn't love a great adventure, Remington Steele--Handsome man with British accent, and Gilmore Girls--someday I will talk really fast and say lots of smart and witty things.

5. I hate shopping! Yes it is true most women love to shop for clothing. I absolutely detest it. It's a combination of being a tight wad with the money and having the longest legs and biggest feet ever.

6. I love to clean and organize things. I absolutely love to throw things out, de-junk, vacuum, dust, straighten, scrub...you get the idea. Strange it is, but I believe it is in my genes (Thanks mom and grandma Lee). My new favorite is the magic eraser--scrub off scuffs in a second-who wouldn't call that fun?!

7. I have a terrible sweet tooth. I think that one came in the genes too (thanks dad and grandpa Lee). If there are sweets in the house especially any baked goods, I just can't keep my hands off of them. My mom use to say we were a cake a day family--chocolate buttermilk being the favorite.

8. My favorite place in the whole world is Grand Teton National Park. If we were billionaires we would live there. My parents met there, we vacationed there as kids, I worked there for 5 summers/1 winter during college, and I met Dave there.

I was never very good at tag-so anyone in my friends/family side bar that wants to pick up on this one go for it.

Mild Miles

My little guy is growing up, and he is such an angel baby. He has always been an "easy" baby--very little crying, easy to please, he can entertain himself, lots of happy baby noises, slept through the night at about 8 weeks, likes to be cuddled, he is just a sweet kid. He has been so much fun lately--big smiles for everyone (especially Ian who is his favorite), he likes to crawl over and try to suck my face while I am doing Pilate's, he crawls around the house looking for Ian when he is at pre-school, he gets down-right giddy when daddy comes home. Ian is my intense one-Miles is my mild one. Here are some recent shots of my cutie.

Like I said Miles rarely cries, but when he does I can't help but laugh because he looks so cute with that scrunched up nose and frowny mouth.

Looking for big brother!

Ready to crawl anywhere.

Helping with the laundry.

March of the Elephants

Ian and Dave watching for elephants.

Here they come!

There they go--

A few days ago the circus came to town. We decided to go downtown to the Gateway to see the elephant walk. Dave called us at the last minute from work and said he would meet us there. We arrived early along with all the other stroller pushing, baby sling wearing mom's and staked out a great spot to view the action. We waited in great anticipation to see the circus parade; especially Bello the elephant who was having a birthday! We waited for about 25 minutes and then we saw the parade coming. I myself have never been to the circus so I was very excited to see what it was all about. As they came closer we could see a man riding on top of the first elephant. Then about seven huge and impressive elephants marched by to which Ian's only response was, "Mommy, they stink!" This whole march took approximately 45 seconds--it was impressive (the elephants even held each others tails) but it seemed almost comical that it was so short lived. We all just kind of sat there after the elephants had past looking at each other and wondering if that was really it.

The Cake

This post is for my sister Mindy. She is a certified Wilton Cake decorating instructor--which means she can make a cake look amazing. Ian requested a Ninja Turtle cake for his birthday, and if Mindy lived closer she would have been put in charge-but since she doesn't I was left with the job of making a red velvet (Ian's favorite) cake look like a mask wearing, sword toting green fighting machine. After a few phone calls to Aunt Mindy here is the result-

Raphael the "Red Ninja Turtle"