A Day Out With Thomas

I was sooo excited to surprise Alex by taking him to Heber Valley Railroad for "A Day Out With Thomas". We didn't tell him where we were going, we just let him figure it out as we approached the railroad and he saw the signs.

It was pretty cool, they had the inside of the train decorated with Thomas characters and had Thomas music playing. It was so cute to watch Alex sing along.

Alex got to meet Sir Topham Hatt. We were pretty impressed that Alex wasn't the least bit apprehensive about going up to him.

One of Alex's favorite parts of the day was going to The Dairy Keen in Heber for lunch afterwards. They have a miniature track that runs the perimeter of the wall of the restaurant, with a Thomas train chugging along.

Alex sporting his new Thomas "ink".

I'm so glad we got to take Alex, he is more than ever completely obsessed with Thomas and trains, and this is such a perfect age for this sort of thing. Alex's only complaint was that as we were leaving, Alex said goodbye to Thomas, but Thomas didn't say goodbye back! I told Alex that I saw Thomas wink at him. Next year I'll have to have a talk with Thomas about his manners!

Homage to Jake

I had fun taking pictures of my nephew Jake who is about to graduate from high school.


Jake is... obviously handsome, with dimples to die for....

a sweetheart who my kids adore, sings in the school choir, plays violin, is active in church....

a talented soccer player...

who has an additional talent of knowing how to defy gravity...

Congratulations Jake, may you continue to fly and always land on solid ground.

Happy Mohyers Day

I was watching an interview on t.v. with singer/songwriter Hilary Weeks this morning. She said something that really struck me. One day while on a lunch date with her little girl she had a thought come to mind. She said, "I will spend eternity knowing Callie as an adult, but right here, right now, tonight and for the next few precious years I will know her as a child. What a gift to know the children in our lives as children." This thought really touched me, and just at that moment as if on cue, Steph and Alex walked in the room with a Mother's Day card that Steph helped Alex make. Steph wrote down the reasons Alex says that he loves me. A few of those were...

*Because I love hers so much.
*He is my Mohyer (mother).
*He kisses me on my cheek. (Alex gets a little mixed up with his pronouns!)
*I missed chu.
Steph told him he needed to write a letter so Alex instructed her to write "x. eodf."

I struggled to read it without getting choked up. Funny how the simple words of a 3 year old can mean so much.

Gettin' Our Easter Swag On

As a kid, one of my favorite things about Easter was getting a new Easter outfit. Now as a mom, it's getting the kids new outfits. Here's Alex rockin' his straight up supermodel status. Can you tell this kid has been forced to pose for a lot of photos over the years?

Steph found a really cute dress at Down East. It's not often that she can find a dress that both of us can agree on, so we were pretty excited about this one.

It wasn't the warmest day today, but at least it didn't rain so that we could have an Easter egg hunt. The nice thing about 3 year olds is that all you have to do is scatter a dozen eggs in obvious places and they think it's the greatest!

Alex's First Soccer Game

Alex had his first soccer game last Saturday. Unfortunately, I had to work so I missed it, I was so bummed. It sounds like he had a lot of fun. He was a little apprehensive about getting real close to the action, but he participated and even sat with his team on the sidelines so we were pretty happy about that.

At home after the game as Steve was taking off Alex's uniform, Alex said, "Ok, you can take it back now!" Hopefully he'll still be excited when he realizes that he has to play again tomorrow!

In other sporting news, Stephenie has been coaching the sophomore softball team at West High. She seems to be enjoying it ok, I think it's a good experience for her. She is a busy girl between softball, school and work, but that's ok because busy is good!

A Few Odds and Ends

Last month we got to meet my new great nephew, who Alex calls "Baby Abram". Alex sure thought he was cute and wanted to hold him. He sure is a sweet little guy.

I just had to snap this picture. Often people ask me how in the world I manage working a 12 hour night shift only to come home and take care of a 3 year old, then some days go back to work again all night. Obviously, on some days I don't do it very well. This is Alex after I had been "dozing" off and on throughout the day after a night shift. Tissues shredded on the floor, crazy man hair, no shirt and pants two inches too short. Some days it's all about survival!

Another one of my favorites, Alex often puts his undies on backwards, leaving two cute little cheeks peeking out.

We just signed Alex up for soccer for the first time. At first, he was pretty adamant that he wanted nothing to do with it, but after getting his uniform and meeting the team last night he seems a lot more excited about it now. His uniform drowns him, I'm afraid his shorts may fall down as he's running down the field! His first game was supposed to be tomorrow, but due to this blankety-blankin' Utah weather, it's been snowed out. I'm about to lose my mind if spring doesn't buck up and tell winter to hit the road real quick!

"Unbe-WEAVE-able"

Steph was missing her long hair and decided to get extensions. I thought it was kind of strange, it's like one day you have shoulder length hair and the next it's midway down your back... slightly obvious you had a little help. But I guess it's a generational thing, apparently lots of girls get them so no one really thinks twice about it. I tried to discourage her from doing it mainly because of the price. You would croak if you knew how much she paid, but in the end it does look nice.

One day one of her extensions fell out and she wanted to see how Alex looks with long hair...

Cute rat's tail, huh? His dad didn't think so!