No Exception to the Rule

Every kid cuts their own hair at least once when they are little, right? Or has a sibling cut their hair, etc. So I don't know why I was so shocked when Will walked in the room on a Saturday afternoon last month with his nice, long, thick hair that had a quarter sized chunk taken out all the way to the scalp and asked, "Mommy, do you like my hair?" He had even sprayed it with the spray bottle and combed it down. He is a regular ol' barber, I tell ya.

Will showing off the proud new 'do. Actually Ryan took this pic of this bench to send to a friend who was wondering about where we got our bench in our yard, but believe it or not it is the only picture I have of Will before it started growing back. Ryan couldn't believe I didn't take a pic before buzzing it. Then later he also told me I should have shaved something cool into the back of his head before I took it all off. Information that would have been helpful yesterday, Ry. I think I was so horrified cause I have always disliked buzz cuts and never wanted to do it on my boys and the thought that now I was going to have to do one was so sad to me that thoughts of this being a kodak moment did not really formulate.

So this pic is funny because Will has started to put himself to bed for naps randomly. He stopped napping about 9 months ago (ugh!) and so we deal with the "zombie tired at 6 pm but will stay up til midnight if he naps so we just deal with the monster every night for a few awful hours" phase. All you moms know what I am talking about. Well apparently he is not getting enough sleep cause on a couple different occasions now I have been doing something in a different room while he is playing in the afternoon then I will notice it is unusually quiet, only to go check on him and find this. Not only does he climb into bed on his own, he tucks himself in up to his chin! This is just completely astonishing to me, who fought him for months to take naps in the afternoon and tried every method possible until finally giving in to the notion that the nap stage of life was over for my little one and spending 3 hours every afternoon trying to get him to lay down wasn't really panning out.

I was so spoiled for Mother's Day this year! This was my delicious breakfast, and Ryan even took my specific Weight Watchers worthy requests for food (minus the choc covered strawberries, I think he was shooting from the hip on that one), otherwise you can believe there would have been more than a yogurt parfait for breakfast. But it was exactly what I wanted and I loved it! Then after church I didn't have to lift a finger and had a delicious pasta dinner (my favorite!). I got this tiered stand as my gift, and my two boys just took such good care of me all day. I felt so blessed to be a mom this year and hope I can make Ryan feel half as special on Father's Day! I also had such a great time thinking of all the ways my mother has been so incredibly influential in my life and was able to call and thank her for all she has given me. Motherhood truly is the greatest gift, and to be a mother is one of the greatest sacrifices and blessings all in the same!

Cousins, need I say more? These two are just too adorable together. Thanks Jen for posting this pic so I could steal it!

More Catch Up

Ryan taking a ski day away from work, courtesy of one of the insurance carriers.

Has my life really come to this? I always said I would never let my kid sleep in my bed, and even as a baby and when I was nursing Will in the middle of the night I never let him fall asleep next to me. The past little while he has been coming in the middle of the night and climbing into bed with us, and this is what I wake up to in the morning. We have carried him back into his bed a few times when he does it, but there are lots of nights I am so tired that I don't even wake up when he comes in! Then the result is a restless night of sleep for both Ryan and I as we are getting kicked and shoved, followed by our bed being completely taken over by morning by a 3-foot munchkin. I love how he is just so relaxed and enjoying his rest in this pic, while I have bruises in my ribs.

Will making a birthday cake for our friend, Rob, whose house he and daddy went to to wish him a happy birthday the night before.

Will the photographer collage. He took all of these pictures of the family. He's getting pretty handy with that camera! Maybe we are getting a little glimpse into his future career ;)

Snow Days 2011 Style

I can't help but look back at these pics from Feb and March and think those were the days when snow was still exciting. Now that it is May and we have still had snowstorms this month, the prospect of any more storms on the horizon just don't have quite the same "let's rush out and build a snowman" kind of feel. Wonder why.

For Valentine's this year I decided to start the tradition for Will that I had growing up. My mom and dad would always tell us cupid came on Valentine's and sneak around the house at night, ring the doorbell and leave chocolates and/or a gift for each of us. I remember running to the door to see whose name was written on the next red cellophane wrapped box, as I recall that they only left one gift at a time. It is a fun memory. I also made a heart shaped pizza for dinner, and Ryan brought me flowers and my new favorite treat from the Sweet Tooth Fairy: cakebites. I don't know if it was Will or me that was more excited about these cakebites after looking at this pic of us. I will also never get tired of fresh flowers or think they are a waste, as some do. Do any of you think flowers are a waste?

We were also able to go snowmobiling the weekend before Valentine's for the second year in a row, thanks to IASIS hospitals. They do a little retreat up at Daniel's Summit in Heber each year where we get a nice dinner and entertainment Friday night, then on Sat morn they do breakfast and we head out for 4 hours of snowmobiling on some of the most gorgeous trails and open range areas that I have ever been on. In one particularly treacherous spot I tipped my snowmobile on its side trying to make it up this hill and it got stuck. There was another person up ahead of me who made the same mistake and a bunch of guys helped them out and they were on their way over to help me, but right before they got there I finally was able to pull myself out of it by rocking on the one side of the snowmobile with both feet. I felt pretty good that I didn't just topple over and let it fall and crash but that I put my foot down and held it up and figured out how to get it unstuck on my own. Being the wimp that I am, that was a pretty big moment for me :) I was so excited to get to use my new snow jacket that Ryan's mom gave me for Christmas!

Ah, the many ways we pass the time inside when the snow is outside.

Left- Will got his animals out one day and tucked them into bed on the living room floor along with himself. Right top- I have always thought the super hero pjs with the capes are adorable on children, and now that I have a hero obsessed little one he has a set of his very own. Right bottom- This is how we do winter lunch picnics "B" family style: towel and dog included.

Left- I started my 7 mile run with a slight drizzle coming down. Little did I know what that "slight drizzle" would turn into! I felt like a wet dog by time I got home...and looked like it too. So I had to get a picture.

Right- It snowed something like 8 inches one day after it had been warm for awhile and we thought it was the last snow of the season (ha ha), so we jumped at the chance to use the snowman making items our friends gave us for Christmas for at least one time this season! The top pic is the original man, and the bottom was after he got a tummy tuck since the snow was melting so fast that he fell over and we really wanted Ry to be able to see it when he got home. Alas, everything was melted in mere hours. It was quite the large range of change in the weather that day!