Dash was a master at the IPad puzzles.
But in an attempt to get him away from the screen, we started to have him do floor puzzles.
Not only is he amazing at them, but he is now addicted to them instead!
Good thing there are a lot of people in and out of this house.
Because, between all of us, he gets to do this same dinosaur puzzle at least seven times a day.
It’s also a good thing he took to them so nicely.
Because his putting the IPad in the bath would have caused a WAY bigger disruption in his life if he hadn’t had these floor puzzles to lean on!
Our annual trip with Britni’s Family was amazing — yet again! We got a whole lot crammed into seven days. Here are some of the highlights:
Waiting outside the car and Pizza Factory in St. George as Micah tooka business call inside the car.
Not moments later — I changed Dash’s dirty diaper in the rocks.
We were a sight to behold!
I took the kids on an adventure.
We went past the barbed wire and tried to get to the very top of a pretty big hill.
Here we are 3/4 of the way up.
(Check out our teeny tiny car way below us on the dirt road inlet.)
I had to make an executive decision to stop the hike because we were entering a very muddy and extremely steep area.
I might have treked on, but according to Dash — he needed to be held most of the time and I had falling kids.
It got a little too hairy.
My favorite part of the trip was when we took these two matchers skiing for the first time.
I was AMAZED at how well they did on their first day!
Scout was trying to take jumps the whole time, and Navy sucked the snow off her glove while zipping down the hill.
I had an absolute blast with them!
The sleeping arrangements always start out with the four oldest together.
It takes about 30 minutes, but someone is almost always sent into another bed for bugging the other kids.
I bet you couldn’t guess what person that was???
Hint — she wears a bow most of the time!
The morning we woke up to snow was so exciting for the kids.
Like usual — my cold lovers went right out into it.
At first they were trying to catch snowflakes with their tongues.
But then Scout and Dash made this microscopic snowman.
(If you can see the carrot in this picture, then you are looking at the snowman!)
Dash took the barn swing to the mouth.
It was a little ugly.
We headed to the U to visit our one and only — NayNay!
Then I drove to Seth’s to let Navy hang with Rose for the night so I could take Scout on the slopes again.
I was worried Navy would be bummed, but within a second of being there, she was in little girl heaven!
Scout was pumped to ski for a second day.
This day we braved a tone of easy slopes, and a few harder blues.
He hated the harder blues, but L O V E D the easier ones.
After skiing, we went to hang with the cousins, and all of the boys played a pretty legit game of football.
Scout loves being amongst all of his boy cousins!
And finally, we had to finish the week out.
And since we came like white trash, it was obvious that we would leave like white trash.
Here are the kids in their PJ’s in Primm.
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Seastrands — Let’s hope this annual tradition never goes by the wayside.
It is WAY WAY WAY too much fun to skip!
Until next year!
I was tuckered at Tucker tire.
Navy and Dash were on a roll for being naughty. They had already polished off their donuts, climbed all over everywhere, gotten water ten times each and everything else there was to do in their small waiting room. Honestly, I was about done in when an angel walked through the doors. It is a guy from our ward whom I barely know. When he came in, he recognized us and started making paper airplanes with them, he played Simon says with them, he folded boats for them. I don’t think he will ever realize what a blessing he was to me that day. Two hours in a waiting room with a 2 and 5 year old was a crazy idea. But not crazier than a lawyer who was getting his tires changed and just played and entertained a few kids for an hour.
I was a last minute volunteer for the Jog-A-Thon.
Apparently Scout didn’t want to wear his jog-a-thon shirt — or be a wallflower.
Guess he takes after me.
Navy and Dash joined in on the stretching.
And then it was off to the races.
Or by the looks of his starting stance, the frog jump.
As I was letting out the bath water (30 minutes after the actual bath), I noticed a blue toy that wasn’t familiar to me. I know every single squirty toy, tea party toy, and rubber ducky in the bunch. So where did this blue, rather large toy come from?
I know where — It came from the table next to the couch — right where I had been looking something up the night before.
On the blue IPad!
With bubbles under the screen, and an hour soak, I think it is wishful thinking that this IPad is going to go from the real bath to a rice bath successfully.
Well my darling little Dash — you have sealed your fate!
Did anyone think it was ever going to happen?
Well it did!
And there was a photographer that captured the whole thing for proof!
Welcome Jon — we are thrilled to finally have you!
I thought using this picture with Dash’s bloody/fat lip was fitting for my following story.
Really, it is just recounting a nightmare I lived today.
Pippi was asleep, and Dash, Navy and I were in the Family Night Room. I kept thinking it would be a good time to run at the harbor, so finally got up to go. Dash told me he was tired and he didn’t want to go, so I put on Monsters Inc. (his favorite movie right now) and told him to watch it. Foolishly (and for the first time ever) I called out to my mom I was leaving Dash and Pippi. Then Navy and I left.
We timed the run — 22 minutes.
When we returned, the front door was open and I could see Nonnie eating at the table. I immediately told Navy to run and ask where Dash was as I called out for him. She said she hadn’t seen him all morning and thought he was with us. (I had ALWAYS walked in to tell her every detail of when I am gone, but this time I stupidly only called out to make her aware.)
I told Navy to search the house, but I knew he wasn’t in there.
I ran around our cul-de-sac calling out his name. He is intrigued by the neighbor’s dog, and sometimes checks him out through the front door’s glass.
As I ran and didn’t find him, I started running out of our street.
An old Colombian lady came around the corner. I asked if she had seen a two year old boy in red pajamas?
She had and pointed me away from the cul-de-sac.
I ran, and when I got to the end of the street, I yelled back, “WHERE!”
She pointed me towards the school, and I sprinted.
(I was barely gone — how could he be nowhere in sight?)
I ran into Angi’s house and screamed, “Do you guys have Dash?”
When she told me they didn’t, I ran back to the street.
(She and Jon soon followed.)
I ran and ran.
I went into the school, and saw the Colombian lady there again.
I yelled to her, “Where? Where did you see him?!”
She pointed me in the direction past the school.
I was calling out for anyone who had a phone, because I needed to call 911.
The Colombian lady told me “I knew she was a bad lady. She was pulling him, and her eyes were down and he was trying to get away from her.”
I ran my fastest, flagged down a truck and asked him to help me find my boy — and that someone had taken him.
(No phone??? Who in the world doesn’t have a phone now days? I needed to call 911!)
He drove me around as I screamed out the window.
There wasn’t a soul on the streets.
(He is in one of these houses, and I don’t have a clue which one!)
I screamed and screamed.
When he turned the corner to a park I have taken my kids to, I got out.
There was a man stretching and I asked if he had seen my 2 year old little boy.
He said he’d been there 10 minutes and that he hadn’t, but to look up the road.
I ran while screaming.
And then fell to my knees in huge sobs as I saw a police car.
I knew he had to be there.
As I ran another 15 feet, I saw two little feet in red pajamas sticking out.
I bent over and cried and cried.
When I finally could, I walked over to him and held him as I cried some more.
I asked him where he had been, and why he left the house.
Then he looked at me and asked, “I go home to play the blue IPad now?”
(Obviously you don’t understand what you just put me through.)
Angi showed up on a bike a few minutes later.
Other neighbors showed up.
The lady who had him was as opposite from the description as possible.
She had found him a few houses down from our house and he was trying to take his pajamas off. She stopped to ask where his mom was, and we realized in hindsight that he was saying”harbor”. So she took him by the hand to get him back to me and he led her out the gates, and about 1/4 mile away from our house. All in the direction of the harbor.
The policeman was really nice and left us after a few minutes.
The lady who had him was beyond kind, and said he was happy and talking to her the whole time.
Soon after, Micah came driving home because he got a frantic call from Nonnie.
But he came home to a mother with a death grip on her boy, a 1/4 mile from home.
All was well.
When we finally got home, the Columbian lady came back by. She had been searching that whole time. She was scared to death. She recounted what she had seen, and knew the lady probably turned good when someone saw her trying to take him. We are all pretty sure she saw a mother with a tantruming kid at the school — because she had seen this at the school, which is not anywhere near where Dash and the lady were.
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Talk about a nightmare in real life.
I think I am actually scarred.
Dash and the rest of us took a box of candy over to what turned out to be another neighbor — who had walked with Dash part way to the harbor this morning.
When she came to the door, he reached out and said, “Thank you for saving my life and keeping me safe!”
And the rest of us all said the same.
And on the box, I wrote, “Thank you for being good.”
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I am pretty convinced that most people are good.
But this day, I was so blessed and happy that one of those “good” people found our little boy.
Shoot me now!
Scout had a tooth rotting out of his head, so I called the dentist to get him in immediately. And because I was going to make the trek with him, I made the appointment for all three of mine with teeth.
Scout did in fact have a tooth rotting away.
So he got needles galore.
Navy turned out to be “an excellent brusher”.
Good thing I have one.
And this kid — I walked him into his appointment. He was great. Opened when he needed to open. Swished when he needed to swish. So I left him behind to man the other troops. When the hygenist came out to hand him off to me, she went on and on to tell me how great he was. So I finished with, “Great — so his teeth are all cleaned and ready to go?” To which she replied, “No, I just spent 20 minutes explaining to him what his next appointment will be.”
WHAT?!
Give me a break and just brush his stinking teeth!
I am not the type of mom who explains and prepares my two year olds for a simple teeth cleaning.
I guess the silver lining was that he wasn’t scared to hang out in the dentist’s chair. Even when it was Scout’s turn.
The golden lining — this girl was a gem the whole time I ran between rooms.
Even Dash rewarded her with one of his coveted “Special Kisses”.
This boy on a scooter = dangerous times.
This boy on a scooter with sunglasses = unapologetic cool guy.
This boy on a scooter with sunglasses but stopped by mom = liar liar pants on fire.
I finally explained to him that his very own bloody lip was proof that he was part of the collision.
And more than likely … the cause.
Navy has mastered the “sister selfie”.
Or at least she thinks she has because I have dozens of new ones every time I upload my photos from my phone.
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