Hair's to You, Mr. Tolman!

I love him with his long curly locks that extend beyond the cap during the winter.I love him with the short, stylish crop that is neatly tucked in the cap during the spring.I'm in love with Josh's nice, smooth, dark hair! Just love it!!!
[But even if he had none, I'd love him just the same!]

Bucket List: Item #2

From the time I began dating Josh, I wanted to go to England. I had a Humanities class in college that really instilled in me a love for the history of the arts, and I yearned to visit multiple places in Europe, especially England because of its historical richness. Josh served a mission in the Leeds England mission, and he always had a desire to return to that beautiful country, too.

So in 2008, after 10 years of marriage, we finally took a long-overdue honeymoon and went on a 10-day trip to England. We visited places all over England and it was absolutely wonderful! We spent time in the large cities of London and Manchester and Leeds, but the area we enjoyed the most was the northern end of the country, with all the countrysides and rolling hills and farms and rock walls and old towns.

Near the end of the trip, we spent one night and part of a day in Scotland. We stayed at a lovely bed & breakfast in Dumfries, on the southwest end of the country near the border. We visited a 100-year-old golf course and toured the gorgeous and historic Caerlaverock Castle. We enjoyed every single minute of being in Scotland. The time spent there was at the top of our favorite moments from the trip.

We both loved being in Scotland so much, that if we ever had the opportunity, we both swear we would move there! Josh and I both vowed that on our next European trip, we would spend more time in Scotland and visit Ireland as well.

The 2nd official item on my bucket list: Take a vacation across Scotland and Ireland with Josh!

a Bear turned Webelo

The scouts' Blue & Gold Banquet was at the end of February. After the dinner, the boys demonstrated individual science projects for the program. Ammon's project was growing water jelly crystals, from a science kit that Grandma P. gave him last year.

He earned several awards that night, including his: Bear cub scout badge, Webelos ribbons, gold and silver arrowheads, pinewood derby section, soccer belt loop, and he got the new Grand Teton Council badge. He was one decorated boy!

Pre-Cool

Kanyon has been loving going to pre-school. He calls it his "pre-cool"! He started going two mornings a week at the end of February.

In preparation for the big first day, we used baby steps to get him ready by: weaning him from sucking on the binky during the day (still working on the night-time binky), potty-trained him using extra incentives for the first week (he still has multiple accidents each week, though), and introduced him to the preschool environment a few weeks before-hand (with his OT Gayle at her last visit).

He is so happy the mornings we tell him he's going to preschool! He's excited to get dressed and ready and go! He enjoys being there and has only had a few minor meltdowns and one potty accident since he started attending! His teachers are excellent and very knowledgable and caring and fun. I'm so grateful he loves it and I'm thankful he's doing so well and I'm appreciative of his wonderful teachers!

THE FIRST DAY

HIS OWN CUBBY

PLAYING WITH HIS TEACHER

HIS FIRST CRAFT

(he was so proud of it he carried it around everywhere for 24 hours!)

do you deja vu?

Have you ever had deja vu?
Deja vu is the sensation of experiencing a new situation but thinking and feeling that it has occurred before.
I've experienced this phenomenon since I was a young teenager.
In the past week, I've had it three times, which is a bit much. Much more than normal.
It's never in a larger-than-life situation; it usually happens during a mundane task.
Like last Sunday, Kanyon was bouncing on my lap at church as the congregation was singing a certain song and somebody leaned over and said a certain phrase to me. I knew in that moment I'd lived it before.
It's rather a strange sensation.
Do any of you have it as often as I do?
I've heard it said that experiencing deja vu means that you're living your life on track, that you've viewed your life before, and when you experience it, you're doing what you should be doing in this life.
Do you think that's true?
Is that even possible?
I'm never for certain if my deja vu is something I've experienced previously in a night-time dream, because my dreams are so vivid, or if it really is something that I remember from the pre-mortal life.
What do YOU think?

All Tuckered Out...

...and apparently prepared to sleep in an igloo!

Happy Valentines = Happy Boys

Step 1: Choose Valentines cards to give to classmates, then write names, attach candy, apply stickers.

Step 2: Make Valentines containers to hold all the received love notes and candy.

Step 3: Open Valentines from others, smile at fun notes, eat too many sweets, adhere all received tattoos and stickers to the body, laugh repeatedly from all the sugar in the blood system.

Seriously, what's not to LOVE about VALENTINES?!!!

Love at Home

At the beginning of February, I wanted to really foster the feeling of love within our home. At the first Family Home Evening of the month, we talked to the boys about sharing their love for their brothers in small ways. We asked them to each perform one small task every day to give service and show love for every member in the family. It was delightful to see the kindness and love abound in our home!

The boys also each worked on making homemade valentine cards for one another. It was a three day project: the first day they went through some old books and cut out pictures they would like to put on a card for each person in the family, the second day they glued the pictures to construction paper and wrote notes in them, and the third day they hid the cards in the house for the recipients to find! The boys loved finding the hidden cards and reading the sweet messages inside of them from their brothers!

After seeing how much they enjoyed that, Josh and I gave them our valentines in a similar way. We made some cards, wrote hand written messages on them, and fastened some chocolate to them before hiding them for the boys to find! We hid the valentines from Grandma P., too. They had such a great time searching for them and discovering their three cards (and eating the chocolates too)!

I just love Valentines Day! I've always loved receiving hand-written love notes, and being the recipient of affectionate service. Valentine's Day also happens to be the anniversary of the day Josh proposed to me. When we were first married, I asked him if we could please celebrate Valentine's each year with a simple hand-written card for each other. And he's honored that request ever since. It was so neat this year to start that tradition with my children too!

I had such a wonderful time observing as my home was filled with love, being given and received, from each member of our family! Because as the song truly states, "There is beauty all around, when there's love at home!"

1 + 2 = 3

ONE birthday boy

TWO family parties

THREE years of life

Happy Birthday Kanyon! Having you in our family has been the grandest adventure! We love you and are so grateful you are growing into such a big boy! You bring our lives such happiness and joy, and we can't imagine what are our lives would be without you!

Special Thanks to Grandma P. for making the fun train cake, to Grandma T. for the cute train set, to Mick & Jen for the little tractors, and to everyone who remembered him on his special day! At age 3, Kanyon's favorites are:
TOYS--trains, cars, trucks, tractors, books, lego blocks, balls
ACTIVITIES--exploring outdoors, playing in the dirt pile, jumping in puddles, "helping" grandpa on the ranch, playing golf at dad's work, playing "Putt-Putt" computer games, bossing his brothers
TV SHOWS--Diego, Dora, Max & Ruby, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Thomas the Train
MOVIES--Cars, Polar Express
FOOD--cheese, hamburger, hot dogs, ketchup, pudding, ice cream
IMPERSONATIONS--growling like a bear, mewing like a cat, yipping like a puppy

Allergies: To Be or Not To Be?

For several months last year, Kanyon's pediatric neurologist ordered many tests to try and determine what is causing him to wake up at night, to discover why he bangs his head during the day, to explain his extreme sensitivities. All of the tests (blood tests, CT scan, Sleep Study) produced normal results and were inconclusive as to the reason for his discomfort and pain.

The next step was to go to a pediatric G.I. (Gastro-Intestinal) Doctor. Every time we need to see a specialist, we have to get a referral from Kanyon's regular Doctor. His Dr. informed us that the nearest Pediatric GI Dr. is in Salt Lake City. Because of the distance, it was decided that we would go to an allergist in Idaho Falls first to determine if he has any major allergies that could be causing his symptoms. So the appointment was made to see the allergist in February.

It was a long appointment (2 1/2 hours), because we visited with the Allergist Doctor, Kanyon had the allergy prick tests done, and then Doctor discussed the results with us. I was nervous how Kanyon would do with all of it, so I took him to a store first and bought him a prize (a new train, yay!) so he could play with it while we were at the doctor's office for so long.

He did so well during the testing! He was poked 7 times with 56 needles total. Each needle is dipped in chemicals from different foods, grasses, trees, molds, animals, etc. before being inserted into the back. He was uncomfortable and only cried just a little bit, and then he wanted to itch his back like crazy, which I had to keep him from doing. After 20 minutes, each area that was poked was examined to see if there was an irritable response from the skin on his back. Only one of the 56 showed signs of an allergy--the tobacco one (the swollen, irritated spot towards the base of his back).We believe that he's been allergic to milk from his infancy. But it's not a strong enough allergy in his body to show up on his back in the test. The Doctor said he could still be allergic to milk, but the only way to know for certain is to remove all milk products from his diet for 3 weeks to see if there are any differences.

I'm glad that he doesn't have several allergies, and I'm grateful that his only prominent allergy is to tobacco (the Doctor said it's a common allergy--and I promise nobody in our home smokes), but I'm also disappointed that we'll have to continue to medically pursue this endeavor to discover the cause of his ailments, because I'm not satisfied with the Pediatric Neurologist's diagnosis of PDD-NOS (Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified on the Autistic Spectrum).

So, back to the Doctor we'll go...