Sunday 10

A little early since I'm leaving tomorrow...

Just thought this was cute! :)

1) I got my hair cut. Well, it was really more of a trim but I needed it. I haven't cut it since last October...isn't that crazy! They chopped it so short back then so I've been trying to grow it back out ever since.

2) We also took Tyler to get his hair cut. Normally we would just do it ourselves but Ty has 2 cowlicks in the back so it's just a little crazy. If we cut it weird then the back sticks straight up. So we took him in and he screamed the whole time. Like Guy had to literally hold his head between his hands to keep it straight while he thrashed around. So he left with a pretty bad hair cut, but it could have been worse considering how difficult he was being. I think I probably could have done as good of a job at home so maybe next time I will attempt it.

3) Packing for just myself to go on a trip is great. I just love how easy it is. No diapers or anything kid related! After packing everything I need for a week, I still have room to spare in my suitcase which is crazy. I'm so used to packing light I guess because I'm always sharing a suitcase with the kids. Brayden gave me a little bag with like 10 cars in it that want to ride on the "pirate ship." I told him that only 2 could come so the lucky 2 (lightning mcqueen and mater b/c they have eyes) are packed safely in the spot he chose in my suitcase. He keeps asking if there are going to be pirates on the boat and told me if I see one to say "Arrrrg" b/c that's how they say hello. He also told me quite a few other useful pirate tips so if I do happen to run into a mexican pirate on the cruise I will be set! :)

P.S. Wish me luck flying into the dreaded LA airport again where I have had the worst of luck. If I have no problems flying tomorrow it will be a miracle!!!

4) In primary at church, they have this thing called the "share bag" where kids fill up the bag with things from home that they want to share with everybody to help get to know them better. So they asked BB to do it a few weeks ago but we were going to be out of town that Sunday so he couldn't. He was pretty sad about it and even had a corner in his room with stuff he had gotten together to put in the share bag (I wondered why our family picture kept disappearing off the end table in the living room and showing up in that corner.) So we decided that he could do his "share bag show" for us at home. That got him really excited so he gathered up all his favorite things in a pillow case and Guy and I sat on the couch while he put on his show. Tyler of course wanted to stand up there next to Brayden b/c he is basically BB's shadow!

He pulled out: our family picture, his favorite game: Sequence for kids, his shin guards and cleats b/c soccer is his favorite sport, his favorite hot wheels car, box of mac and cheese (one of his food groups), and other random things. We watched the show a million times because he kept adding things and of course had to start over every time. It was pretty cute though, especially when he would start by saying, "Hi, my name is Brayden" like he was doing it in primary. He's been practicing all week so he can share his bag with Grandpa Hill next week. He's very excited about this!

5) Brayden loves singing 'I am a child of God.' But instead of singing the line "With parents kind and dear" he always sings "With parents kind of dear." So funny!

6) Ty is so cute! When you give him something he wants he will always say "tank you." Brayden hears Tyler doing it so it reminds him to say it. What a good example Ty Ty!

7) Ty knows where his nose is but he points to his ears when you say eyes, and his eyes when you say ears. We'll keep working on that one!

8) If Tyler sees the fridge open, he makes a mad dash for it because the boy LOVES gogurts right now. And he loves getting them out of the fridge all by himself. Truly, he would eat the whole box in a day if I let him!

9) We haven't been the best in the past at reading scriptures with the boys. It's kind of hard when they are so young I think b/c they have such a short attention span. But we just started using one of those easy reader Book of Mormon's with pictures and have been doing pretty good at reading a story out of it before bed every night. This last week we have read the 2000 stripling warriors every single night. Brayden requests it so how do you say no to that! The reason is because both the boys get their swords and act it out as Guy reads it. Brayden gets very into it and Ty just runs around the room waving his sword in the air and running into things. It is quite entertaining!

10) We were at the store the other day and Brayden saw a guy that was literally covered from head to toe in colorful tattoos. He could not stop staring at him and finally he leaned over to me and whispered, "Mom, I don't think that guy's mom ever told him that markers are only for paper." :)

If you want a quiet morning...

tie some string around your kids stuffed animals.

They haven't left their room all morning b/c they've been so busy walking dogs and making them houses.

It kind of reminds me of when my sisters and I would play zoo and would use masking tape on the floor to make cages for all our stuffed animals. That was one of our favorite games! I love seeing my kids use their imaginations together. And I love seeing the stuffed animals getting played with...they usually just sit in their room taking up space!

More Random Moments...

Making cookies with a batman cowboy. He was very impressed with himself that he could wink and do a thumbs up at the same time. That takes skill!

And he loves the cookie dough! Brayden found the cookie dough container in the fridge yesterday and snuck it back to his room. I knew it was way too quiet in there and when I walked in, both boys were stuffing their faces with it. When I took it away Tyler threw himself on the floor like the world was ending. He is the most dramatic child!!!

I now have a space ship on the side of my couch that magically appeared. Of course no one is admitting to doing it but I think I have a pretty good idea! I just hope it comes off...

I found Tyler hiding in the tiny laundry closet one day, waiting for someone to come find him. I don't know why I thought it was so funny. I was in the kitchen and heard him growling (no idea what game he was playing) and then I just saw his little face barely peeking out.

Brayden thought it was a good hiding spot too

Ty has made this mess a million times...why have I not moved the q-tips yet? And apparentely I never get him dressed either.

Secret hide outs are an every day mess around here

I bought a sun hat for my cruise next week and both the boys thought it was funny to try it on

This is brayden pretending to be me

And this it Ty at 3 AM on Saturday night. He woke up at 1 and did not go back to bed until around 4. Isn't that ridiculous! He was up a ton last night too...this no bottle thing is messing him up big time I think! So at 3 we were desperate and turned on his baby einstein movie and we all sat in our bed and watched it and ate goldfish. I wish I could bribe Tyler to sleep all night with sticker charts and hot wheel cars!!

Sunday 10

Every Sunday my cousin Rachel does a post called Sunday 10, where she posts 10 random thoughts or things that happened over the last week. I love reading her posts and I think its a great idea so I decided I would start doing it too and see if I can keep it up every week. I have not been the greatest at keeping a journal other than this blog and all I really do on here is post pictures of things we go do it seems like. So hopefully this will get me to put a little more down on here so we can remember little things as time goes on. This will probably be really long and random so you can skip over it if you want...it's mostly for me!


1) Brayden has been a little prankster lately. He has these rubber snakes that he hides around the house, trying to scare me. I've found them in the fridge, freezer, dresser drawers, my bed, the shower, and a million other places. I, of course, give him a good scream when I find one because I know how happy it makes him, but really it just fuels the fire and makes this a never-ending game. I will admit, it did freak me out once when I caught a glimpse of one hanging in the shower without my contacts in. That might have been a real scream! He also tricked me this week with a pair of his stinky shoes. He has these sandals that seriously smell awful. And we always joke with him that we can smell him coming cause his feet are so stinky. So the other day, he brought me one of his shoes and said, "Guess what mom, my sandals don't smell anymore. Daddy cleaned them really good and now they aren't stinky at all." I really did believe him and was first of all, surprised Guy had cleaned them and second, surprised they really didn't stink anymore. So, I smelled them (because yes, I am that gullible) and sure enough....they stunk as bad as ever! Brayden laughed and laughed. The funny thing is, is that he played this same trick on Guy earlier that day saying that I had cleaned them. What a little trickster!

2) Guy just read his first book EVER this week. And when I say ever, I mean EVER! He has never read a book all the way through in his life. So on my way to Australia I read the book The Hunger Games and I loved it! It's one of those books you just can't put down until you finish it. Anyways, I told him he had to read it and for the first time ever, he listened to me and did (I think it had something to do with being bored on our 15 hour flight!) He pretty much loved it too and is now on the 2nd book in the series. Honestly, I really have to do a double take every time I walk in the room and see him reading. The only problem is now we're going to have to fight over the 3rd book when it comes out in August!

3) I kind of feel like I have checked out of real life. It's like now since I know we are moving, I am just ready to move. I can't get anything productive done it seems like. We have been living the last year in the smallest apartment. And all of our junk is with us and taking over. I feel like I spend all my time cleaning and literally it takes 5 minutes for it to all become undone. This place is so small that even when a few things are out, it just feels smaller. So I am ready to move and have some space again. I'm hoping we can rent a townhouse or a small house in Florida. And three bedrooms is a must! And of course in a nice, safe, family area with good ward and schools and lots of activities I can do with the kids. Not too much to ask, right...I'm just hoping a place like that exists for us there.

4) This wonderful, beautiful cup has been getting me through this HOT Texas summer. We have a RaceTrac (gas station) right around the corner and they sell this baby for $6.99. And for that price, you get unlimited free refills on fountain drinks and slushies until September 6. We basically got our money's worth the first weekend we got it and even bought a 2nd cup. And whenever I go in there to fill up my cup, I see all the other people with their wonderful deal cups filling up too and we are all just smiling because it really is the greatest deal in the world. And I love them for it. Plus their gas is cheap...I love them for that too!

5) Ty loves little people toys. We find him carrying around at least 3 around the house at all times. But the funny part is that he has his favorites. He loves the horses. He will carry around 2 horses and a zebra and sometimes the camel because I think he thinks its a horse too. He will search through all of them until he finds those exact ones. It's pretty cute! I can remember BB loving little people toys at this age too...but never this much!

Playing Peekaboo with his horse and zebra

6) The other thing Ty loves is soft things. He will find all the blankets, pillows, even laundry in the house and make a pile and lay on it. And he just lays there and smiles and waits for someone to notice how cute he is! Or he will take a blanket and just sit there with it over his head until someone says, "Where's Tyler" and then he will pop out. I'm always amazed at how long he will sit under a blanket and wait for someone to notice him! When he's tired he finds a blanket and wraps it around his head, kinda like a shepherd, and cuddles. It's the cutest when he does this in his car seat with just his little face peeking out. He is definitely my cuddly boy and I love it!

7) BB has had a hard time going to bed since we came back from Australia. He has thrown some major temper tantrums and quite literally made Guy and I go crazy. I love how all kids are just programmed with the same bedtime excuses to stay up longer. "I need a drink, I'm scared, I never took my vitamin today..." The list goes on and on and of course, we all used them! But seriously, with both the boys sharing a room, he was keeping Tyler up and it would be 10:30 at night and they would both be wide awake. So we decided to get them on a better routine and brought in a wonderful sticker chart, complete with a little bribery. Hey, it's working! He gets a sticker every time he goes to bed without making a fuss and he has to sleep in his bed all night (he would usually make an appearance in our room every night around 3.) So as of yesterday, he got 10 stickers and got to get his reward which is a trip to the store to pick out a new hot wheel car. He was very excited about it and already planned what car he wants to work towards next.

Brayden with his new race car

8) Back in March, my dad called me and asked me if I would like to go on a cruise with my mom and sisters this summer and that it was all on him. Umm, is that really even a question??? Of course I said YES!!! No brainer! I have never been on a cruise in my life or a trip with just my sister's and mom. So he booked us a Mexican Riviera cruise and we leave in a week. I am so excited to go! Guy's dad is coming for a week to watch the boys which will be lots of fun for them too. All I can say is dad, you really are the BEST!

9) Our good friends the Gillespie's planned a going away party at their house yesterday for us and 2 other families that are moving soon from our ward at church. We had so much fun seeing everybody and are so grateful for all the wonderful people we have met while we have been here. I realized, once again, that I will miss this place when we move. Saying goodbye is always hard but who knows, maybe we'll be back here someday. You never know with Guy's job! Thank you SO much Jessica for throwing the party for us. It was seriously so sweet of you! And thank you SO much for all those clothes for Tyler!!! :)

10) Operation no more bottle has begun over here for Tyler. Let's just say it is making us all miserable but it's just time. I hope it will work so we can begin operation no more binkie!

July 4th Weekend

We had a great 4th of July weekend. We spent lots of time swimming, relaxing, and of course watching fireworks. We went to 2 shows and had better luck with our second time. The first one we ended up sitting too far away so the next night we sat right where they shot them off and they were right over our heads! Brayden had fun singing 'Happy Birthday' to America over and over and over again all weekend. We thought they were gonna cancel the fireworks the first night, but luckily the weather cleared up just in time. It was really nice too because the earlier rain storm had cooled things down a bit so we enjoyed that!

We sat right by the small airport where all the planes and jets took off and landed. The boys loved it and I thought of my dad the whole time. He would have loved it too!
Waiting for the show to start. We didn't realize we were facing the wrong way...haha! We just followed everyone else! Oh well, we saw the show from the car. The boys had fun with the light sticks once it got dark.
And like every good firework show, the traffic to leave was ridiculous so both the kiddos fell asleep as we inched our way out. Fun night though!
We went to a parade which the boys loved. It didn't have much in it but I guess if they throw out candy it's a success to the kids! Playing Go Fish and Old Maid before it started was my favorite part. Brayden would freak out if he had the old maid in his hand and he quickly learned the trick of sticking it up a little higher in his hand of cards so it would get picked! :)

I felt like we needed to do something festive so we made these strawberries that my Aunt Stacy made with us our first 4th here in Texas. You just melt white chocolate chips, dip them in, and then coat the bottom with blue sprinkles. Pretty easy and yummy :) Brayden was a great helper!

Seriously, I love fireworks! They just make me so happy! :) Our second time going made up for our first night since we sat so close. We weren't sure if Ty would love the fireworks or hate them at this age but he LOVED them. He would clap and point the whole time and watched mesmorized. I was happy to find out they do a firework show every friday night over Grapevine lake by us so I think we'll have to head over and watch them again this summer. Hope everyone else had a great 4th! We are so grateful to live in this beautiful country!!!

Sydney- Our Last Stop!

Sydney was an amazing city. We spent our last few days there and wished we could have had more time to explore it. But we saw the main stuff...the opera house and bridge, of course. And I apologize because it appears that's what most of our pictures are of. It was hard to not take a picture with them as the background every time we passed by! But that is what Sydney is known for so it was exciting to see in person. Like I said before, it is Winter over in Australia and Sydney was pretty cold. I was not quite prepared for it so I had to buy a sweatshirt to stay warm!
Honestly, the opera house is amazing! It looks different from every angle and we could not stop taking pictures of it. Very cool architecture!

And the bridge right by it was equally as amazing

You could pay big bucks to do a bridge climb where you climb up the very top of the bridge to the flags. It was so outrageously expensive though and they wouldn't even let you take a camera to capture the amazing view so I thought it was kind of a rip off. But it was amazing how many people we saw doing it while we were there. That bridge is a money maker!
The harbor itself was really cool. You could literally take a ferry everywhere so we hopped on a tourist ferry our first day there. It was just us and a hundred Chinese tourists! haha, it was pretty funny. It was fun to see all the crazy expensive houses right off the harbor. I can't imagine what it would be like to live there with the opera house and bridge as your view every day.

View of the Opera House from the water

I wanted to go to the zoo and aquarium there so bad but we just didn't have time. Yes, I love going to places like that even when my kids are not with us! To get to the Taronga zoo you have to take a ferry since its on the other side of the harbor. And they said the giraffes actually have one of the best views of the harbor...it's a coveted spot! Lucky little giraffes!!!

The city was beautiful at night all lit up

We spontaneously decided to see the Broadway play Wicked while we were there one night. Since it got dark at 6 and the whole city seemed to head off to the bars and clubs after dinner, we decided that it would be fun. Plus we figured we might as well since we didn't have to figure out babysitting!
All I can say is we LOVED the play. Seriously so good and I can't get the songs out of my head!

We asked this guy to take a picture of us in front of the opera house and he did a great job getting us in the picture...just not so much the opera house!

Taking a ferry to Manly Beach

Manly Beach was beautiful. It was cold though and only the brave surfers in wetsuits were out in the water!

Yes, this man is salsa dancing with a blow up doll in the Sydney Harbor. One of the dumber things we saw people doing there to try to make a little extra cash. There were some cool entertainment like mimes, magicians, aboriginal didgeridoo players, etc. We had fun eating way too expensive gelato and wandering around watching it all. And Guy bought himself a didgeridoo CD from some aboriginals because he knew BB would love to dance to it. And he was right!

The city part by the Sydney Harbor it called The Rocks. We were amazed by how clean this city was. We would see street cleaners out cleaning the sidewalks off all the time. It made it really nice to walk through.

And here's a shocker...more bridge and Opera House pictures!!! We got up really early on the day we were flying home so we could see the harbor one last time!

Phew, so that's our trip to Australia. Truly a once in a lifetime trip that I will never ever forget and I am SO beyond grateful we had the opportunity to go. I have to say that I am almost as exhausted blogging about this trip as I was over there. I think I'll be taking a little blogging break now!