Things Our Son Says

Cole is in to Spiderman and Elmo. I'm trying to wean him off of Elmo (Who wants their son to be in love with a wussy, girl-talking monster puppet when they can idolize completely fake and unrealistic super heroes? Come on!) and so for his birthday last month, we bought him quite a few Spiderman things, including a little plastic plate set that has silverware, etc. The plate is one of those kiddie plates with the different sections on it.

Now, to the point of this post. The other night we were eating corn for dinner. Cole loves corn. He also pronounces it "porn". So, as he cleared out the little section of his plate that had corn on it, revealing the Spiderman logo on his plate, he said, "More porn please."

Which of course caused a smirk and a chuckle from Jen and I. And then to top it off, he pointed to where it said Spiderman and said, "More Spiderman porn please." I lost it. It was hilarious. Of course, I had to ask him to repeat himself (I know, I know, I'm a horrible father, laughing at my son's speech impediments) which caused more laughter (mostly from me - Jen's way better than this).

So, that begs the question. Do I really want my son getting into Spiderman if that's what he's asking for?

It's a...

Well, we are having another boy! We are very surprised! I have said boy from the beginning but everyone else was thinking girl. Luckily, Teanna is okay with this and she is excited. I'm sure when we bring him home and she realizes that it really is a boy she might have different feelings! We are so excited and can't wait to welcome our new little guy!!

What?

Today was our first doctor appointment, which is always very exciting. So, we were able to have an ultrasound and my Dr. informs me that I am not 9 weeks, which we thought, but that I am only 7 weeks, he thinks! What? I don't want to go back two weeks! So my new due date is April 8. Jake informed me that we would still have the baby around my original due date. So I guess that is okay! We will have another ultrasound next time and will know for sure. Teanna decided she wanted to go with us. Cole was sick and we didn't trust him, so he stayed home with Grandma. She asked so many questions and was so excited to hear the heartbeat. It is so fun to see how much she loves this baby already. She understands a lot more than when we were expecting Cole. She is such a good big sister. Cole gets so excited when he sees a baby and always makes sure to point them out to me and then inform me that there is a baby in mama's belly!

Are We Crazy?

I know it has been awhile. I haven't figured out how to put the pictures from my camera to my computer yet. I am really lame when it comes to stuff like that, so I am waiting for Jake to show me how.
Anyways, we are expecting baby #3! I am due March 24, but will go 2 weeks early thanks to scheduled c-sections. We are very excited! Teanna only wants a girl no boys! Cole is learning that he isn't the baby anymore and that he is a big boy! I am still shocked that we will have three kids but I am very excited. I took three pregnancy tests throughout the month that were negative and I decided to try one more time and to my surprise it was positive! The third pregnancy seems to be a lot different for me because I haven't been as worried or scared as I was with the others. We are very excited for this new chapter in our lives and feel very blessed.

Happy Father's Day!

I can finally do the blog thing all by myself without Jake's help! So, I wanted to tell him Happy Father's Day! He is such a good dad and does so much for our family. He had to be both parents when I broke my wrist and he was so good to us. We love you so much. Thank you for everything you do for us and being such a good dad and husband!

Graduation!!

Well, Teanna had her first pre-school graduation! Even though we will have two more, it was pretty exciting. Mom cried through the whole thing!! Her class had a program to show us what they learned throughout the year and it was so cute!! We are so proud of Teanna and everything she has learned this school year. She has grown so much and we love her lots!!

San Diego Day #3

I think day 3 was, by consensus, the best day we had. We drove up to the San Diego Wild Animal Park in Escondido. For those of you ever considering a trip to San Diego, I highly recommend the Wild Animal Park - before the Zoo or Sea World. It was fun. You can take a safari ride, you get to see more animals, and I didn't feel like it was as crowded. And the drive through beautiful Escondido valley is amazing. I loved every part of it.

Here's some memories from that day:

Cole in a giant fake nest. It took us a while to convince him to come out.

Cheetah in repose. We got to get pretty close to these guys. They were awesome.

This lioness was kind enough to pose right next to the exhibit glass. You don't fully appreciate how large and how scary these animals are until you see one up close.

After we spent a couple more hours on the beach.

Cole's got all the poses and coy looks of a supermodel. I wonder if there's ever been a red-headed one.

Yup. Those guns are real. So's the farmer's tan. This was while we waited to grab a quick bite to eat at Jack-in-the-Box. Not recommended. Ever. Even if it's the last fast food joint on the planet. Horrible, horrible, horrible. Really. I didn't look near this dashing after we ate.

San Diego Day #2

It's only a couple weeks late, but here's some highlights from our day at the San Diego Zoo. (I'd give it 2-3 stars out of 5. It wasn't my fave. I think our kids were still a little too young and it was pricey beyond belief. But still a good time.)

This is really like one of two shots I have of Cole. This is right after he pooped for the first time on vacation. Finally! He was so relieved that he subsequently fell asleep and then slept most the day. Until we took the bus tour and he kicked me in the sweet spot the whole time...

Which could lead to this expression, except that we took this picture and the one of Jen below earlier in the day. I think I make a pretty good howler monkey. I've got the physique.

Jen's just way too cute to be a howler monkey. She does give the monkey a nice hair-do though.

Here's Jen's parents struggling to climb on the gorilla statue's back. I kept waiting for some little kid to walk by and say (you must read this in an innocent little kid voice - like the Simpson's neighbors - for the full effect), "Mommy, what are those two monkeys doing?"

Sibling love. Isn't it beautiful? This is right after I changed Cole and before he fell asleep.

Jen spent half the day taking pictures of the plants. I thought this shot was pretty cool. Who knows, she may grow up to be a wildlife photographer. She captured the picture of the two monkeys earlier and then this...

I have no idea what exhibit Teanna is in front of, but I'm pretty sure it's monkeys. That's almost all there is to see at the San Diego Zoo. Birds and monkeys.

San Diego Day #1

While everyone takes turns showering off the sand from Mission Beach, I thought I'd throw up some pictures from our day in the sun. We started out by driving down to the pier. We were lucky enough to walk onto the USS Midway for free (usually about $20 per person) because there was a special Memorial Day ceremony. So we walked around the decommissioned aircraft carrier, took some pictures and looked at all the cool airplanes.

Jen and the kids in front of a jet.

A really cool jet. Just amazing to me that something so big can fly, especially off a ship!

Then we took a ferry across the bay to Coronado island. Teanna and Cole loved being on the boat and seeing the sea lions on the buoy. We walked around and enjoyed the beauty of Coronado for a couple hours, went back to the mainland, and then walked up and down the pier, looking at the amazing ships - including the Star of India which has circumnavigated the globe an amazing 21 times since 1863, the oldest active ship in the world.

Teanna and Cole on the ferry.

Me and Jen on Coronado. This place makes us look good. At least me. Jen always does.

After that both the kids fell asleep while we drove up to the San Diego temple and took a few moments to relax and shoot some pictures. We drove back down to Seaport Village had dinner and rode a 100 year old carousel.

I love this temple. It is so incredibly beautiful, like a castle. You just drive down the freeway and BAM, you're hit with a does of Mormon beauty. It's hard not to notice. Great missionary tool...

This is my attempt to be artistic with our new camera. You know, take a shot of something with something else in the foreground. Not sure it worked out exactly, but hey, I still think I'm pretty cool.

We finished the day by going to Mission Beach - didn't realize the beach didn't have changing places, so only the kids changed into their swimsuits - and watched Teanna love the water and Cole love the sand.

I buried Cole in the sand 3 different times. We left the swim diapers back at the hotel, so the poor kid had sand everywhere...you know.

Teanna loved the water. Cole, not so much. She kept running away from the waves.

Hopefully I'll have time to update day #2 tomorrow.

Family Fun Time

We're trying to give our kids some fun experiences during the summer since I don't work on Fridays. So far, we've been to St. George (really it was in March, but it still counts), the dentist (Teanna wishes she could go back every day. Whenever we drive past the dentist's office, she asks if we can go in. She'll learn.), Thanksgiving Point and down to the Manti temple. Teanna was so disappointed she couldn't go into the temple, but both kids loved being there and talking about the special place by the rocks where dad asked mom the "most important question ever"! (It was, "Hey, how you doin'?" with an eyebrow raise and a hip nod. Just kidding. "Will you marry me?")

Enjoy the pictures.

This is how Cole slept on the way home from St. George. I think he was a little bugged by his sister at this point.

Teanna the movie star (love those sun glasses they let you wear) getting her teeth cleaned.

"I love the dentist! My teeth are so clean!"

Teanna only rode the horses once. Not much of a cowgirl this year.

Cole, however, rode them 3 times! And he loved it.

Me and the kids. Cole started saying "cheese" when we took these pictures. It was awesome.

Jen and the kids. Still as beautiful as the day we trudged through the snow for our wedding pictures.

Jen and Teanna. I couldn't help but think about how important Jen is for our kids, holding their hands and helping them step by step on their journey through life.

Two beautiful kids. Best of friends. As we left the temple, Teanna said she wants to marry Cole in the Manti temple. (We're still working on that one...)

Really, we're alive

Hey! Happy New Year!

I mean really, how hard is it to post some entries on a blog. Really?

Well, I've finally got Jen loving snowmobiling and going to the cabin in the winter. Here's some pics of my family in their snow clothes at the cabin. It's the greatest thing to have grown up snowmobiling and sledding and now watching my kids sit inside and play with my old Star Wars toys...

Both Teanna and Cole would rather drive the snowmobiles than go sledding. Or play with my Star Wars toys. I guess I should be happy either way! Enjoy.

Mom and Teanna at the bottom of the hill!

Good thing Teanna can still stand like a Princess in snow clothes.

Don't let Cole fool you. He's having a great time.