Pete Pages

Monday, August 17, 2009

Project central

We've stayed VERY busy this week with various house projects. We enlisted the help of some great visitors (thanks guys!)...we'll see if they ever come to visit us again. I don't know if I have ever painted a room in my life and was surprised at how much fun it was to pick out colors and paint (stripping wallpaper was another story). I gained some confidence in some areas that have always scared me to try and also learned that I'm actually pretty good at painting edges without taping--who knew? I have to give a brief testimonial on "sample-size" paint: I think it's well worth spending $2.99 a can to really see if you like the color on the wall...some of the colors we ended up going with seemed like they would be too bold or dark in the store and ended up being my favorites!

The first room painted was a perfect pale pink room for Liv, of course. The crib-size quilt I made for her this spring finally has a home...

and we are beginning to feel more and more "at home" too.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Opa

If I had to sum Tosh up with one word it would probably be charismatic. This kid has so much life and enthusiasm stuffed into one little body that it's no wonder he has curls--an extension of his lively demeanor and zeal.

Every morning Tosh greets me (and everyone else he may see) with pure excitement as if he is seeing some long-lost friend. I look forward to this greeting every day, even when the greeting comes earlier than I would like (no daylight savings in AZ = he is always up before 6:00am)...

This morning Tosh greeted me with an enthusiastic, "Hey Babe!"

As I write this, he is running around the house yelling "Opa!" Seriously, "opa" like he is at some Greek festival and he is having the time of his life! And that sums it up.

Conversations and there you have its

Hewitt: How many eyes does Jesus have?
Burke: Two
Hewitt: How can He see everyone?
Burke: How would He see everyone with ten eyes? He just can, Hewitt.
Hewitt: Mom, Jesus is an expert.

Hewitt: You know laughing without laughing? Well that's smiling. It's laughing without making sounds.

Burke (holding Liv): What do you want to be when you grow up, Liv?
Hewitt: A fairy or a princess!
Burke: She wants to be a Mom.

Saturday, August 8, 2009

Girl-geous

I've mentioned in earlier entries how cute Hewitt is with Liv. He spends so much of his day talking to her, kissing her, singing to her, etc. He repeats so much of what we say and will often greet Liv with, "hi, baby girl!" just like I do. The other day I was calling her "Gorgeous," and Hewitt must have heard this because the next time he greeted her he said, "Hi Girl-geous!" I thought that was darling! Wouldn't "Girlgeous" make at great name for a girly boutique or salon?

I got a couple of new shots of these two this evening (Liv is very into her hands lately, as you can see). What cuties.

Mr. Toad's wild swim

Well here I write from the state of Arizona. I haven't had the time or ability to write about our happenings over the past few weeks as it's been crazy busy and we're still unpacking and trying to get settled in... not to mention that I didn't have internet until a couple of days ago and just found my camera this morning.

We had a surprise visitor today. Burke mentioned to me that he felt something "like a fish" touch him while he was swimming in our pool this afternoon. Being the *concerned parent* that I am, I told him that it was probably just a leaf and not to worry about it. About five minutes later he flew out of the pool as fast as you can imagine yelling, "There's a fish!" I bent down to take a look and about died when I saw the following swimming around our pool:

You cannot tell by the picture, but this thing was HUGE (it had to have been at least 9 or 10 inches). I was so grossed out by this (still am) and told the boys, no more swimming for the day (pool guy comes on Monday). Hewitt was pretty excited about the toad and said, "Now we have a pet!" When I told the boys that we needed to figure out how to get rid of it Burke said, "Let's take him to D.I. (Deseret Industries--like Goodwill)." That is the funniest thing I have heard in awhile.

Rob and I have subsequently learned that the Sonoran Dessert Toad is common to this area and that they really like the water during monsoon/mating season. We caught him and set him free in front of our house. He held nice and still for a close-up (well, as close as I was willing to get) and although it created some excitement to our otherwise work-filled Saturday, we hope not to see him again.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Summer shoot

I've had requests from both Grandmothers recently for updated photos of their grandchildren...

So I bribed the boys with cookies for their cooperation today and was actually quite pleased with the results:

Baby girl just smiles at me simply because she loves me;
no bribery required.

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Thirsty

My BIL took this photo of Hewitt at my FIL's 70th b-day party last weekend. I didn't see it happen (I would have probably freaked out), but I think it is so funny now.

Another Hewitt "funny" is that I keep hearing him refer to "Purell" as hand soapatizer. I love this kid.

Pete said...

Hewitt was just telling me about a new game he created where you can't touch the ball with your hands or feet. He said, "You can only hit the ball with your leg or foot-wrist." And so I clarified, "You mean your ankle?"
(10/8/09)

Me to Hewitt: Whatcha doin?
Hewitt: Arting. It's making art.
(10/2/09; Hewitt's 5th b-day)

Two jokes by Burke:
What does a storm wear?
Thunderwear!

What do you call King Kong's feet?
Big Foot!
(9/26/09)

I had the following conversation with Tosh:
Me: Are you a boy or a girl?
T: Boy
Me: Is Livvy a boy or a girl?
T: Baby
Me: Yes, but is Baby Liv a boy or a girl?
T: Girl
Me: Is Daddy a boy or a girl?
T: Big boy
Me: Is Mommy a boy or a girl?
T: Mommy a babe!
(Not prompted, I promise! 9/3/09)

Hewitt had set up a bunch of toy figures and Tosh was trying to play with them... Hewitt was telling Tosh not to touch them and I asked him to share the toys or to go and get some more figures for Tosh to play with. Hewitt said, "These are not toys! They are art!" (9/3/09)

We were driving along a road near our house (a rather quiet highway, really) and Hewitt suddenly exclaimed, "Mom! I just found the road to our old house! Keep driving straight!" I looked up and realized there were some big mountains in the FAR distance. Hewitt clearly thought he was staring at Utah. (8/28/09)

Hewitt brought home a little "Groundhog's Day" craft that he had made at preschool and kept calling the groundhog a bear. When I tried to tell him it was really a groundhog he looked at me like I was very silly and said, "It's a BEAR Mom, not a CORNDOG!" (2/2/09)

I explained to Burke about the recent airplane crash into the Hudson River and knowing that he would be very concerned, I quickly told him that all of the passengers were just fine. He looked at me with a worried look and said, "What about the birds? Are they okay?" (1/15/09)

I have a trunk full of old performing costumes from when I was a kid. Hewitt saw the trunk in the basement and told Rob that he wanted to open up the "treasure chest." Rob asked him if he knew what was in the trunk/chest and Hewitt replied that it was full of clothes. When Rob told Hewitt that he didn't want him to make a big mess Hewitt said, "I won't make a mess, I will just get out one clo." I guess that "clo" would be the singular form of clothes... (1/13/09)

Burke is always mentioning how he wants us to have lots more babies because he wants "hundreds" of brothers and sisters. I was explaining to him this morning about how it gets harder and more dangerous to have babies as a woman gets older...he looked at me and said, "Well, you look young Mom, like 19!" Then he leaned in closer and said, "Well, I do see some indents in your skin around your eyes (those would be wrinkles--thanks for noticing)." (12/26/08)

Hewitt blew his nose and must have accidentally gotten some snot or tissue in his mouth because he said, "Yuck! That tastes like cow dung!" (12/24/08)

Tosh got to Hewitt's cup of water at the table today and dumped it all over Hewitt's lap and onto the floor. Rob asked Hewitt, "Are you a little wet?" and he said, "I'm a BIG wet!" (12/24/08)

Rob was playing "Memory" with the boys and when Burke got a few matches in a row Hewitt said, "Wow Burkie, you're on fire!" (11/08)

We just bought some sod for our park strip and while Burke and I were looking at the pallet, I mentioned that some of the pieces looked like crabgrass and that we needed to find the best pieces of grass to buy. Burke looked at the sod for a little while and said, "None of it looks like crap grass to me!"

While I was flossing Burke's teeth he said, "Wait--I need to tell you something." I paused flossing and he said, "You sure know how to be a good mom!" (now there's a treasured compliment!)

Hewitt watched Rob kill a fly in our kitchen and then asked, "Did he cry? Did he want his mommy fly?"

I told Hewitt that I was going to get Tosh a snack and asked if he would like one. He paused and then said, "I'll take a milkshake." What am I, a drive-up window?

Hewitt was asking for toast today and when I pulled out the bread he said, "No, the 'letter O' toast!" I finally figured out that he wanted a toasted english muffin.

Burke came down for breakfast and said, "Mom, it might not look like my bed is made and you might not like it, but it's really stripes that I did as a design on my bed."

Hewitt has really liked eating plain tortillas lately. When I asked him if he wanted one he said, "Oh. Sure. I'll have a mamma mia."

Hewitt understands things very literally. When Rob told him that he "needed to fly" this morning (go to work), Hewitt asked, "Where is the fly? In the house?" When Rob asked him if he had a runny nose he said, "No. It's just boogers."

When Rob was leaving for work he hugged the boys and told them to "be good for Mommy and do exactly what she says." Burke said, "OK bye Dad, you be good at work and do exactly what your boss says."

We were discussing prophets in the scriptures for Family Home Evening and when Rob asked Burke which prophet(s) wrote the Book of Mormon Burke said, "Nephi, Jacob, Enos..." and continued to name the books in order. Rob and I were pretty surprised and couldn't help laughing.

I was just eavesdropping on Hewitt while he was playing with his toys and heard him say, "Ladies and jumpingmen..."

Burke was heading off to a neighbor's house to play and stuck his head back in the door and called, "I'll be traveling by bike."

When the garage door opens for us to drive in, Hewitt will pretend to be scared and say, "Oh no, it's the garage mouth! He's going to eat us!"

Hewitt got distracted and starting playing with his toys during lunch and when I reminded him to please keep eating he said, "But Mommy, I'm working."