{I HaTe BedTimE}

We have this book called "I Hate Bedtime" about a dog that doesn't want to go to bed and tries to think of things to do to stay awake! Jeremiah read this to Ayden one night at bedtime and ever since then, Ayden has had the book memorized. Tonight, he asked me to get the video camera and video him reading the book so he could watch it! I love it!! It makes me so excited for him to learn and start reading books to us! He is at such a fun age! =)

{a GirLy DinoSaUr}

I love this about Zoe!! This morning she came downstairs with Ayden's dinosaur stuff on....she was growling and yelling "scared, scared, scared" (meaning that she wanted us to be scared of her)! She thought she was so funny! I love that even when she is trying to be a tough little boy, she is still so dainty and girly!! And only minutes later, she was sitting on the floor, lining up all of her princesses....calling them by name! I love that she has so much fun playing with all of Ayden's toys, but can always come back to the girly things!! Girls are so fun!! =)

{the GOOD nite lite}

Ever since we moved to Cali, we have had some major sleeping issues with Ayden. I spoke about these issues here and here! The first few months we were here, he was waking up every morning between 4:30 and 5:30 am and getting out of bed numerous times throughout the night!! Lately, things haven't been THAT bad, but we have still had some issues with getting him to stay in bed at bedtime and keeping him from waking up before 6 am! We have tried naps, no naps, earlier bedtime, later bedtime, bribery, punishments, YOU NAME IT!!

I thought we were just doomed and that sleep was something of the past until a friend of mine told me about The Good Nite Lite which was recently in Parenting Magazine and on the show "The Doctors". We debated for a few months on whether or not to get it because it was $35 and we didn't want to spend $35 on a night light that probably wasn't going to work!!

I am proud to say that we bit the bullet and our Good Nite Lite arrived about 2 weeks ago! There is a 30 day guarantee on the product and it said you could return for a full refund if your child's sleep habits didn't change, so we knew if worse came to worse, we could get our money back! It has been the best $35 we have EVER spent in our lives!! Ayden is a brand new boy....a GREAT sleeper!! It is working wonders and I am knocking on wood right now in hopes that I don't jinx us!!

The way that it works is we can set it to turn on and off at whatever time we want to. When the moon comes on, it is time for bed.



So our moon comes on at 7:45 pm. At about 7 pm, we start asking Ayden to go check to see if the moon is up. So for about an hour, he knows that bedtime is right around the corner and when he finally does see the moon, he gets so excited! It's almost like he is relieved that it is FINALLY bedtime!! He gets right into bed and falls asleep shortly after we tuck him in! The moon stays on all night and he can't come out of his room until the sun comes on.



We have the sun set to come on at 6:30 am (which is still early, but so much better than the 5:30 am, 5:45 am, 6 am that he had been doing)! We have been amazed at how well it is working and that he is actually capable of staying in his room until the sun comes up on his night light! There are some mornings when he wakes up early and comes into our room, but we walk him back and say he needs to stay in his bed until the sun comes up....surprisingly, he falls right back to sleep! On most mornings, we can hear him running down the hallway to our room at about 6:31 am....but there have also been some mornings that he has slept until 7 or 7:30 am (which he hasn't done in FOREVER)!! He is so excited and starts shouting "The sunshine is up, the sunshine is up, it's morning time, time to wake up"!! It is working great!!

Ayden had been having trouble at school lately with listening to his teachers. But ever since we have gotten his new night light, he has had a GREAT report every day at school!! I am convinced that it is because he is going to sleep at the same exact time every night and getting lots more sleep than he used to! Another bonus!!

Thank you Good Nite Lite for making our nights a little bit longer!! I can't wait to start changing the wake up time little by little here and there until he is sleeping in until 9 am (a girl can dream, right??)!!

{friEnDs}

Over the past month, I have really noticed a change in how Zoe and Ayden interact with each other. For the first time in almost 2 years, I am realizing how lucky we are that they are so close in age (let's be honest....for the first year of Zoe's life, I didn't think I would make it through with 2 "babies" so close in age)! They truly are becoming the best of friends. I also didn't think that was going to happen since they aren't 2 boys or 2 girls, but it clearly doesn't matter....they LOVE to play with each other!

I love that when Zoe is not too busy being a dainty little princess, she knows the name of all of Ayden's favorite dinosaurs, she knows the name of every tool on Handy Manny, she walks around the house with her hands up high....growling and trying to scare people, and she walks around shooting things as she calls herself "Astro Boy"!! And I love that when Ayden is not too busy being a rough, tough, busy boy, he can sit down and have a tea party with Zoe, he can shove a bottle in one of Zoe's baby's mouths when it is crying, and that he knows who Princess Ariel is!

I have really caught them in the act lately....really enjoying each other's company. Zoe gets so excited when Ayden asks her to play with him and when Zoe is taking a nap, Ayden often asks me if we can wake her so she can play with him! It is quite cute!

Ayden reading Zoe a story....so cute!





Pretending to be sleeping bears in their tent....



Racing their race cars down the hallway....



Making and tasting some "Alphabet Soup" while Mommy cooks dinner....



Giving each other rides on the back of Zoe's bike....





Ayden teaching Zoe how to play his new Leapster....



That being said, becoming the best of friends and spending a lot more time together has brought out some serious fights!! There is a lot of tattling and crying going on! A couple nights ago, Zoe bit Ayden on the back. I put her in time out for 1 minute. I asked her why she was in time out and she knew it was because she bit Ayden. I took her over to him to say sorry and give him a hug and instead, she punched him in the stomach. Nice!! Back to time out she went for another minute. When time was up, she had to say sorry to him, but she REFUSED!! Her strong willed personality and stubbornness definitely reared it's ugly face that night! Any time I asked her to say "sorry" she shouted "NO!!" She had to stay in time out until she said sorry.....a one minute time out turned into 35 minutes!! I asked her about every 2 minutes if she was ready to apologize yet and she shouted "No!" and she stayed in time out! She never did apologize that night and ended up going to bed straight from timeout! Wow....all she had to do was say a FIVE letter word.....whether she meant it or not....she just had to say it!! I guess her winning the battle was more important than being able to play! After that, we looked at each other and agreed we are in BIG BIG trouble with this one as a teenager!! =)

{wE hAvE iT....cAbiN fEvEr!!}

I haven't done a lot of blogging lately because not much has gone on here! Zoe has had the stomach flu since last Thursday, which has pretty much kept us homebound all weekend!



The poor girl has been sleeping about 18-20 hours a day for the past 3 days and is just not herself! She has been such a snuggle bug and wants to be held every waking minute (which I really do love)! The sleep has been a good thing because I know she needs it, but it definitely traps us at home.....which leads to another VERY BORED 3 year old in the house! And a very bored 30 year old Daddy too....luckilly he got to get out of the house today and go to work since he didn't leave the house for 48 straight hours on Saturday and Sunday. Luckily on Saturday, Ayden and I got to get out for a couple hours to go to a birthday party at Chuck-E-Cheese! So needless to say, CABIN FEVER is definitely setting in and we are desperately searching for things to do!

Ayden has had to resort to making his own entertainment....after all, there is only so much TV that someone can watch in 4 days!! This morning, when I came downstairs, he was sitting in front of the TV with a plate of red velvet cake! I wondered how he got this and was about to call Jeremiah and ask him why he gave Ayden cake for breakfast when Ayden said he did it all by himself!! I asked him how he cut such a nice piece.....he said he used his own knife! And I asked him where he got the birthday cake plates....he said he found them in the cupboard!






I looked in the fridge and he put everything back so nicely....the plate of cake was in the way back with things in front of it. I asked him how he got to the cake plate....he said he had to move the milk, the water and the pickles!! I guess I was a little impressed and couldn't be THAT mad at him. At least he didn't make a huge mess....there could've been a piece of red velvet cake that fell on the floor for me to clean up! And at least I caught him before he could take a bite or that would have been a major mess all over the floor in front of the TV!

Good thing the day is coming to an end.....and Zoe is feeling much better and is back to playing with her princesses!

Hopefully the all the sickyness is behind us for a while!!

{a liTTle piECe of hEAveN in A sALad}

WHO KNEW???? Today I heard from one of my friends that there is a Cafe Rio restaurant here in Lake Forest! Who knew?? We had no idea!! This is a major Utah HOT SPOT and when we first moved to Utah, our good friends took us there right away to introduce us to the long lines and great food...I think it may have been the very first restuarant we ever went to there!!

We don't miss the cold weather, but we often talk about some of the "Utah only" restaurants that we miss! Cafe Rio was on that list, so when I found out today that there was a new one only 30 minutes away, we had no choice but to go there for dinner and we asked Jeremiah's bro and his wife to join us!

I love that we drove 30 minutes (1 hr roundtrip) to get there, spent $12 roundtrip on the toll road, and stood in line for literally 1 hour....just to order! But it was well worth it and tasted better than ever!

The most amusing part of the night was the fact that I think every Mormon in the state of California went there for dinner tonight. The line was out the door and I stood in line for 1 hour while Jeremiah tried to save the kids from getting run over by cars outside the restaurant. I have never seen so many U of U and BYU hats and sweatshirts under one roof since we've been here! It was loud....very loud....there were kids EVERYWHERE!!! The older couple standing in line behind me asked each other, "Why are there so many kids here??" And there were at least 10 pregnant girls....that I could even count! People in line made comments about how Cafe Rio in Cali is the same as In N Out in Utah! Ha....so true! At least I had an amusing hour of people watching and conversing with strangers around me as I stood in line. It was the closest thing that we've had to being back in Utah....what a fun night!!

To all you locals that have never tried it, I recommend it.....go there on your next date night! But be prepared for the long lines! Don't worry though....the Pork Barbacoa Salad is well worth the wait and to die for!

{PrAcTiCe what you PrEaCh}

The day that you discover that your child truely listens to the things you say is a great day! That day for me was today! Too bad Ayden is a better "listener" than he is a "do-er" because he obviously has no problem telling his sister and other kids things that I tell him.....all along, I thought the things I said went in one ear and out the other! Obivously not! Now if I could just somehow teach him that he needs to "practice what he preaches", that will be another great day!

I observed this conversation with Ayden and Zoe while they were sitting in the back yard having a snack this afternoon.....

Ayden: "Zoe, you do NOT hit. That is not nice to hit. You need to go in time out right now." (He drags her by the shirt -not sure where he learned that one from....I swear I don't do that- and plops her down on the cement). He tells her not to get up.

Zoe: "Ok Aydee" (She sits there quietly for about 2 minutes....and doesn't move a muscle. Ayden stands about 2 feet away from her....staring her down)!

Ayden: (after about 2 minutes, he bends down to be eye level with her) "Zoe, why did I put you in time out?"

Zoe: "Hit you!"

Ayden: "You need to say sorry Zoe."

Zoe: "Sorry Aydee!" (they hug)

Ayden: "You can get up now Zoe. No more time out. Come on, let's go play!"

Zoe jumps up and they start playing. I went up to Zoe and asked her what happened and she told me she was in time out. I asked her why and she said because she hit Aydee. Funny thing about this story is I was watching the whole time and Zoe never even touched him...he made the whole thing up and she complied by sitting in time out for something she didn't do! It was funny though to see him go through the steps we go through when we put him in time out!

A little bit later, we were outside with some neighbor kids. One neighbor kid was riding Ayden's bike around. Another kid wanted to ride it and they were fighting over whose turn it was. The one kid that wasn't riding his bike came up and asked Ayden if he could have a turn. Ayden said, "Nathan is riding my bike. You need to be very patient and wait your turn!"

It's good to know he DOES indeed hear what we say!! Maybe someday he will start actually DOING what we say!!

{The Next Lance Armstrong}

I would first like to announce that this is the first ever (and maybe the last) blog post written by Jeremiah. Yes I wrote this. Now, I don't blog about anything. I only blog about significant world changing events, which leads us to the purpose of this post. Ayden, at the age of 3 1/2, rode his bike without training wheels on Jan. 2nd, 2010. (I think this is pretty awesome since I didn't learn to ride my bike without training wheels until I was 5 years old and Lindsay was 6 years old!) This date will go down in the history books, just like Dec. 17, 1903 (Wright brothers first flight). In 20 or so years when Ayden is the winningest Tour de France rider ever, people will look back on this date just like we look back on and celebrate July 4th 1776.

The above sequence of pictures is of Ayden's first unassisted ride without training wheels (approximately 50yrds). This is a view that Ayden's competitors will just have to get used to, Ayden's backside getting smaller as he disappears into the distance. The only thing I have to do now is build his endurance from 50 yrds to 100 mi or so. Easy!!!

This video was shot the evening after his first successful ride. I'm sure this video will be used in one of those athlete bio clips between events on Tour de France broadcasts.

The only problem with my plan is that so far, whenever I ask him if he wants to ride his bike, he says no. I have to bribe him with candy and other things that he likes. However, I did round up some neighborhood kids this evening and set up an unoffical race. This lit up his competitive fire and he rode quite a few laps around the track we set up. Although he lost by a significant margin and some of the kids were on scooters and others were running, I'm sure Jan. 3rd, 2010 will also be a historical date.

AYDEN IS FREAKING AWESOME!!!
(can you tell I am a proud Dad??? Way to go Aydee Doo!)

{why MUST vacation ALWAYS come to an END?!?!?}

We have had such a fun vacation...I am sad that it is all coming to an end and the reality of Monday morning is right around the corner! The kids and I both have enjoyed having Daddy home all week and will miss him when he has to go back to work on Monday!

On Wednesday morning, we went out to my parents house in La Quinta. My Grandma Emmy and Auntie Grace (who we haven't seen since last Christmas) were there all week with my parents, so we went to visit them! We had a fun time visiting, ate lots of yummy food, played games and the kids had a blast playing with their cousins because Joe, Cara, Cooper, Carter and Crew were there also! Jeremiah and I were able to sneak away on 2 bike rides....one on Wednesday and one on Thursday, so that was fun to leave the kids behind and Jeremiah enjoyed the break of having to pull them in the trailer!

Here are some pics from our day....



After the kids ate dinner, we put in a movie so the adults could enjoy their dinner in some peace and quiet (yeah right...like that really happened)!! The kids laid out their sleeping bags in front of the TV!

(A little unnamed 3 year old may have been playing with my camera a little too much lately, which just might explain why the lens doesn't fully open some of the time & I find pictures that have a little extra black around the edges!!! Ugh!!)



Cooper and Carter got a penny book for collecting pennies in their stockings, so Grandpa whipped out his old old pennies and we ALL had a blast searching through hundreds of pennies to find special dates for the kids to fill their books with! Who knew pennies could be so entertaining!!!

The only "non participators" in the penny finding game....my mom and Auntie Grace! =)

And Ayden's new Leapster was even entertaining for the BIG kids!

It's SUCKER time....AKA "make the biggest, stickiest mess of your life time" if you are Zoe!!

All 13 of us squeezed in and spent the night! The next day, the kids had a blast playing in Grandpa's jeep again and going for a long ride on the golf cart!! Who needs Disneyland when you can just go to La Quinta to play with Grandpa's jeep and golf cart!?!?!?

Grammy and Grandpa babysat all the kids so Joe, Cara, Jeremiah and I could go for a bike ride!

We couldn't leave without getting a picture of Great Grandma Emmy and all 5 of her Great Grandkids!!

And a pic of the whole gang! It's a miracle....all 13 people looking at the camera at the same time!

On Thursday afternoon, we drove up to Big Bear for New Years Eve! It was such a nice, quiet night with just our family! When we arrived, we found that we could not get to the front door without walking through a foot of snow!! Welcome to Big Bear!!! It was fun trekking through the snow, carrying kids and all of our things! Jeremiah decided to try to shovel the snow so we could park in the driveway (which he estimated was about 80 feet long)! As you can imagine, that shovel job never got completed!! As I watched him through the window, I could only imagine the vulgar words that were coming out of his mouth!! Jeremiah was never fond of shoveling when we lived in Utah!!

It was funny to me that he was shoveling a foot of snow and the boat was sitting in the garage in the background!! Oh wouldn't it be nice to be boating and basking in the sun right now....that's ok, we will enjoy that in a few months!! =)

The kids went straight for the toys when we got there and found all their favorites that they haven't seen in a few months!

Jeremiah finally gave up on shoveling after an hour and came in to build us a toasty fire while I started making dinner!

We have a tradition of doing homemade pizzas on New Years Eve! Ever since we have been married, making homemade pizzas has been one of mine and Jeremiah's favorite things to do....it is so fun to let our kids be involved now....even if there is a MAJOR mess to clean up afterwards!!

There was a whole lot of eating going on and not much making!! They ate half the toppings before they even started their own pizzas!! Silly kids!

Mmmmm....the finished product!!!

Happy New Year!!! The kids stayed up late.....about 9 pm for both of them! We didn't have any hats or blowers because I forgot to bring them!! But we did have a lot of fun just sitting around by the toasty warm fire enjoying the cabin as a family!! I was so ready to call it a night at 11, but Jeremiah made us wait until midnight to ring in the New Year....I ended up falling asleep on the couch! I love being old and having New Years Eve not be a huge deal! I do not miss the days of being out at a big, loud, crazy party and worry about driving home from somewhere at 1 in the morning! We decided that this will be a new tradition of ours.....spending New Years in Big Bear!!

On New Years Day, the kids were SUPER excited to get all their snow gear on and venture out in the snow!

Zoe got all of this on by herself and she was ready to go!!

Our two little snow bunnies....all ready to go!!

Ayden's favorite part was making snowballs.....and throwing them at Mommy and Daddy!

Zoe could hardly move in this outfit! She looked like a puffy little marshmallow man!!

We were lucky that we didn't have to go far to sled....there were some great hills right in our own backyard!!

Zoe is holding on for dear life to the sled....she's not sure she trusts Ayden being behind her as they go downhill!!

Weeeeee................

Zoe sat on this little tree stump for a lot of the time just watching Ayden go up and down the hills!

We decided to take a break when the kids started to get cold and go inside! Our friends, the Conlees, came up to spend the rest of the day with us! It was fun to hang out and fun for the kids to go back out in the snow! This was James' first time in the snow EVER so he watched Ayden go down on the sled a few times and he was all set!

Ayden and James all bundled up....ready for the snow!!

Angela and Jake!

Cute little baby Jakey! He always has a smile on his face!

Even the big Daddy's got in on the fun!

Ayden and James ready to go down together!

Jeremiah and Ayden....ready to go down together!!

They went SUPER fast!!

And totally crashed at the end!!

The boys found all the digger toys in the garage and were not interested in building a snowman anymore....

So Jeremiah and Craig built this little guy....

Here are a couple short videos of the sledding fun!!

Thanks so much for coming up guys....we had a blast!

We got all packed up and ready to go....closed everything up in the cabin and were on our way! We went about a 1/2 mile out of the neighborhood to get to Big Bear Blvd and the traffic was STOPPED!!! Traffic like we have NEVER seen in Big Bear before! We sat in it for about 5 minutes and decided we would go back to the cabin and stay another night since we had nothing to rush back for! We thought how dumb it would be to sit in traffic when we had a place to stay for free!! I'm so glad that we have the cabin to go to!! So we drove back, unpacked again and came home today! We miss the snow sometimes, so it was great to get away and play! But we are so glad that we can leave our warm, sunny house and drive a little over an hour to be in the snow.....only to leave it again to go back to our warm, sunny house!! We have had such a fun vacation....wish it could go on forever!!