Birthdays & Banana Peel

It's January and that means lots of birthdays! I love it! Carrie kicked off the month and enjoyed a quiet day at home with her new little guy. I would have gladly spent the entire day with her, but my gross little boys were still off limits from Archer...and I totally get it now why little kids shouldn't have much contact with babies. For example, as I sit here and write this, Ben is next to me on the couch with his big toes (yes, both of them) in his mouth. The list of other gross things they do is long....they lick things which have no business being licked, they chew their toenails, stick their hands down their pants and then sniff/and or lick them, dig around in their noses and lick their boogers or wipe them on things. Little boys are gross!

The following week was full of birthdays...five of them! Celebrating were my siblings Eric and Michel; niece and nephew, Karissa and Ian; and my very dear friend, Brandi. I had plans to make Brandi a cake and thought she would be busy most of the day, so I was only planning on a quick visit to drop it off to her. I was happy that I got a little more than a quick visit.

The boys and I met up with Brandi and her three men at Jump Around a/k/a the Banana Peel which is where her oldest, Ian, works. When I told the boys where we were going, Ben kept asking me when we were headed to the Banana Peel. It took us a while to get it out of him, but apparently Ben calls it that because there's a huge jumping pillow there that he thinks is slippery like a banana peel.

Brandi and I enjoyed a little birthday breakfast and a nice visit while the boys had fun being boys! I loved the opportunity to spend part of her day with her. There was a time several years back when we had lost touch with each other, and it feels wonderful to have her back in my life! She's a wonderful friend, and is such a positive influence in my life.

There are more birthdays coming up...my brother James celebrates this month as well as a delightful little girl who will be turning one. The boys and I are excited to be heading out to Florida next week to celebrate Emma's first birthday with her family and friends.

To each of you with a birthday this month, Happy Birthday! What better way to kick off a new year each year than with so many beautiful individuals starting a new year themselves! Love and best wishes to each of you for a wonderful year, and many more happy and healthy returns!

Flushed

Darius takes his wedding band off whenever he works at Delta. He usually leaves it in certain areas, and it's not unusual for him to forget where he leaves it. We'd been looking for it for several days without any luck when yesterday I finally asked the boys if they had seen it.

Me: "Hey Zach, do you know what happened to Daddy's wedding ring?"

Zach: "It's in the toilet."

Me: "Why is it in the toilet?"

Zach: "Because I flushed it. I'm sorry."

Me: "Why did you flush it?"

Zach: "I'm sorry. Are you mad at me?"

Me: "No, I'm just wondering why Daddy's ring ended up in the toilet. What happened? Were you playing with it while you were on the toilet?"

Zach: "Yeah. I dropped it, and I flushed in the toilet."

Me: "Was there poop in the toilet?"

Zach: "Yeah."

Me: "So you flushed the ring with the poop?"

Zach: "Yeah."

Me: "How are you going to get Daddy's ring back?"

Zach: "I don't know. It's going to be covered in poop and pee pee. That's going to be gross. Are you going to clean it off Mommy? We can clean it off with toilet paper."

I wish I could remember the whole conversation with Zach about the ring. It's not funny that we've now lost a second wedding band, but it was impossible not to be amused by the things Zach was saying. I wonder if he ever would have come clean about the whole thing if I hadn't asked.

Happy Birthday Archer

The best Christmas gift ever.

Archer greeted the world early this morning, and I've been on cloud nine all day. I'm in love already, and I know his parents are light years beyond me.

Congratulations Carrie & Bobby! You made one beautiful little boy, and I couldn't be happier for you.

"This is the best Christmas ever!" - Ben

Christmas + little kiddos = getting up really early. I guess when you tease a kid for months with talk of Santa and there are presents under the tree taunting them for weeks, it's to be expected. What a fun morning it was with our boys, sleepy and all. Joy spent the night with us, and we loved having her here with us this morning before she headed off for fun on the ski slopes.

 

Can you guess what the boys' latest obsession is???

We had a lot of generous help from family and friends to lighten our load and help us give the boys a great Christmas this year, and we can't express enough how grateful we are to all those wonderful people. You know who you are, and we sincerely thank you again!

Later in the day after visiting a very special person, we hosted a little pizza night for some of my family. My parents are here visiting from their mission for the week and they joined us as well as my brother Clair's family. We loved having them all over, and we have loved the opportunity we have had this year to see all of my family within a week's period of time. It's not very often anymore that that happens, and it's so great to see everyone and catch up.

 

As Ben has been saying all day, "This is the best Christmas ever!" I agree Ben, it's been an awesome day, a really awesome day.

Holiday Love to our Family & Friends

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