Children's Books

Sometimes we go to the library. The library is a wonderful, glorious place. The library has an incredible selection of children's books. When we first started checking books out for Lincoln, I would just walk along the rows and select books at random to check out. But man oh man, I can't even count the numerous amounts of times that I would start reading the books to Lincoln and think, "This has got to be the STUPIDEST book ever written". One specific book is coming to mind. It was called Night Rabbits. I got it because Lincoln has been really in to rabbits lately and I thought he'd like to listen to a story about one (other than the two stories we currently own about rabbits that we've read 8 billion times).

Well... if you haven't read Night Rabbits, don't. And if you haven't heard of Night Rabbits, there is a very good reason. If you were to take a group of 13 year olds and teach them about similes and metaphors for the first time and let them loose on their own to practice writing some, Night Rabbits is what you would get for a result. The book is full of metaphors, which isn't a bad thing, except the metaphors are all something like, "As her father mowed the lawn, sweat dripped off of his body like water from a sprinkler." I mean let's analyze that for just a second. What if sweat really came out of your body the way water comes out of a sprinkler? Yuck! Don't get me wrong, sweating is gross, but it's not that gross. The book is full of good ones like that. Not to mention that is has no story line whatsoever, and it really isn't even about rabbits at all. AND the art work isn't that great either. Why someone paid money to have this thing published, I'll never know. Why someone thought this would entertain a small child, I'll never know.

But that's not the point of this post. The point is, that I thought since I struggle to find good kids' books, that maybe some of you do too. So I thought I would make a list of the kids' books that Lincoln and I love, and hopefully it will be helpful for you guys. I also hope you'll share with us the kids' books you and your kids love so that we have some ideas for the next time we hit the library.

FAVORITE CHILDREN'S' BOOKS (in no particular order)
One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish by Dr Seuss
Jamberry by Bruce Degen
Pajama Time by Sandra Boynton
Barnyard Dance by Sandra Boynton
Snuggle Puppy by Sandra Boynton
Olivia by Ian Falconer
Thumper Counts to Ten by Kitty Richards
Is Your Mama a Lama? by Deborah Guarino
The Going to Bed Book by Sandra Boynton
Swing! by Rufus Butler Seder
Sheep in a Jeep by Nancy Shaw
Goodnight Moon by Margret Wise Brown
Quiet Loud by Leslie Patricelli
My Little Book About Jesus by Val Chadwick Bagley
Green Eggs and Ham by Dr Seuss
If You Give a Moose a Muffin by Laura Joffe Numeroff
Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak

First Swim

My three favorite boys, Aaron, Lincoln and Ivan. Lincoln is pointing at the moon.

Today was our first swim of 2009 and Ivan's first swim of his life. Sad that we had to wait all the way until the end of June, but there's not much you can do about rainy weather. Today was a beautiful day and the sun was shining, so we took the boys to Veterans' Memorial Pool.

Linc getting all warmed up in his towel during a "pool check" where everyone had to be out of the water

We started out in the kiddy pool, which is ginormous! Lincoln wasn't sure what to think about all the kids running around and laughing and screaming with delight, or the water that was up to his belly button. He clung on to Aaron for most of the time. He did let me take him up onto the play equipment. I made him go down the kiddy slide. He panicked every time and tried to grab onto the bars or the sides of the slide so he wouldn't have to go down, but when Aaron caught him at the bottom, he always asked to go again, so we think he liked it.

Ivan basking in the shade. We were really happy Linc's old swim suit fit him.

After the pool check, we decided to try out Lincoln's new life jacket. There were some big water slides, and Aaron and Lincoln went down them. With Lincoln sitting on Aaron's lap of course. Even though Linc made a hilarious startled face as they came out of the slide and into the water, he still asked to go again.

Lincoln and Mommy warming up in the sun

For the last little bit that we were there we ventured over to the big swimming pool. Ivan had fallen asleep on my should so I picked a shady spot on the side and just put my feet in while I held him. Aaron and Lincoln got in the pool and Aaron taught Lincoln how to float in his life jacket and kick is feet to get where he wanted to go.

I Wrote a Book

So, I wrote my first book...well sort of. It's a book that has all my blog entries and pictures from 2008. It's hard cover with a dust jacket, in an 8x10 size. I'm pretty excited to have it. I have to give credit to Marci for telling me about blurb.com which is the website I went to to make this book. You download their program for free, and use it to create your book. They even have a feature that will "slurp" your blog into a book for you. Then all you have to do is go back and choose the layouts you want. They also recently added a feature where you can make your own layouts, which I am very excited to use when I do my next book. Pretty much I'm planning to make a book a year out of my blog and call it family history. But the book turned out really nice and I am very happy! It's makes all the hours I blogged instead of cleaning my house well worth it. :)

We Have a New Nephew!

I am happy to announce that Aaron and I have another darling little nephew! Luke Ryan is the newest son of Aaron's sister Sydni and her husband Jake. I don't want to steal any of Syd's thunder so you'll have to go to her blog to get all the juicy details. I just wanted to let everyone know how happy we are that Luke is here. We hope he and Ivan become as good of buddies and Linc and Zac. Congratulations guys! (Oh, and I stole these pictures off of Jake's Facebook.)

Sydni, Zac, and Baby Luke. Look at all that hair! So cute.

Jake, Sydni, and Luke Yoshioka

Takin' Care of Business

Mom and Tanner came down to visit today. Mom had to go to UVU to get Kyle registered to start school in the fall. Kyle comes home July 15th!! I'm so excited. It's gonna be great having him live down here too, we'll get to see him all the time.

At UVU campus Lincoln had a blast. I figured since Tanner was around to chase after him that he was ok to walk instead of riding in the stroller. Tanner also had fun with my camera and took a couple pics. I like the one above because it looks like Linc is ready to take care of business.

Gramma and Linc both wore their Texas shirts today...how cute. After we got Kyle registered we went to Costco and spent way too much money (as per usual) and then Mom bought lunch and we took it home to eat it. When Linc and Ivan were down for their naps, Mom taught be how to make hooded bath towels. I'm making some for Sydni's baby Luke who should be coming any day now. We got the towels all cut out and pinned together, all I had to do was sew the hood part to the towel part and I was done. My mom had to go, but I figured it couldn't be that hard.

Well...in all I broke five needles. After breaking the first three, I had to wait until Aaron got home so we could run to Wal-Mart and get some more. After dinner and putting Lincoln to bed, Aaron was holding Ivan so I could sew, and I broke two more needles with no progress on the towels. I hadn't even made it an inch yet. Ivan was being fussy, and Aaron asked if I would take him because his back was starting to hurt. I told him I would if he finished sewing the towels. I was pretty much joking just because I was frustrated, but Aaron sat right down and finished the towels in about 5 minutes. He didn't break one needle, and he's never sewn anything before this in his life. On a machine anyways. I give up! :)

Oh, and this is my lovely sewing machine that I inherited from my great grandmother. It is, no lie, about 50 years old and weighs about twice that many pounds. It only sews a straight stitch. It's awesome. Some day I'll get a new one. But today this is what it's gotta be.

The Actual Day

We've been celebrating Father's Day for a week now, so the actual day was kind of anti-climactic. I meant to get up early and make Aaron breakfast in bed, but once again we had a wild night with the boys and got very little sleep, so that idea got scratched. Then it was the usual Sunday morning fiasco of getting all of us showered, fed, and dressed in time to be to church early enough to get a bench. We made it though. Lincoln does so much better during sacrament meeting if we have a bench than he does if we are on the chairs in the back. My lesson in Sunday school went pretty well I think. I felt like I was a lot more organized this time and that because of that things went more smoothly. When we got home from church, we fed the boys and put them down for a nap and then Aaron and I went to have a nap too. The boys kept waking up, and I kept getting up with them so Aaron could have a nap. Finally I got them all settled down and decided it wasn't worth going to lie back down so I got up and started dinner. I made rolls, and zesty bow tie pasta salad, and cooked up the leftover meat from our BBQ on Friday. The boys woke up just as I was letting the rolls rise, so Aaron had to get up :( and hold Ivan while I worked on dinner. But Lincoln attempted to help with dinner too. The pic above is of him peeling the onion for me. The rolls recipe makes a ton, so after dinner we went and took all of the extra rolls around to our neighbors. So I mean, it wasn't a thrill a minute, but it was a decent Father's Day I think.

Saturday in Hooper

This was the only picture I managed to take today

Today was kind of a whirlwind of a day. We all got kind of a late start due to two little boys who forgot that they are supposed to sleep when it's night time. Anyways, Aaron and I were recently called to be Gospel Doctrine teachers and it's my week to teach the lesson. So at 10:00am I went over to the Provo library and stayed there and worked on my lesson, which was on "Seeking knowledge by study and also by faith", until 2:00pm. All I have to say is that Aaron is a better parent than I am. When I walked through the door at 2:00 the boys were napping, the kitchen and living room were spotless, and Aaron was working on the laundry. He greeted me with a smile and a big hug and a kiss. So much for him knowing what it was like to stay home with the boys all day, he accomplished more in four hours than I do in a week. But it was a nice change to have the house clean.

Since I have to be at church on Sunday to teach the lesson, we decided to go up to Hooper today to celebrate Father's Day with my family. After we packed the car, we woke up the boys and loaded them in too and then took off. It rained a lot the whole way there, which made us very grateful we'd done our BBQ yesterday. We had fun just hangin' out and talking with the fam. Tanya and Nelson came over. They are having a baby in November and they showed us the ultrasound that says it's gonna be a boy. Cool. They are naming him Grahm Gerald Strong. We had to leave before Steph and Kirk got there, so that we could be back in Provo before Linc's bedtime. Ivan started shrieking about 5 minutes into the drive, so we had to pull over and Aaron opted to squish into the back seat between the car seats and keep the kids entertained while I drove home.

Father's Day BBQ

As many of you may know, I am horrible at surprises. Well, maybe that's not actually the case, because I love to plan surprises and I love to surprise people, what I'm horrible at is waiting a long time after I have put a surprise together before I carry it out. This Father's Day makes a perfect example. So since the summer started, Aaron has been kind of in to BBQing. We've gone over to the park several times and used the grills over there, and we've had a good time. The only problem is that the park is usually crowded, the picnic tables are disgusting to say the least, and we have to haul all of our food, eating accessories, and children a semi-long distance. But, I thought, if this is something Aaron really wants to get into then I'll help him out a bit. You see, Aaron knows practically nothing about BBQing, so every time we go it's trial and error, and we are learning a lot and making some progress.

Anyways, I thought that for Father's Day it would be a great idea to get him some grilling tools like a pair of tongs, a wire brush, a metal spatula (so he'll stop using my nice kitchen one), etc. Then he'd have the tools to grill. I also went online and found him and awesome book called The BBQ Bible and ordered that for him so that he would have the know how to grill as well. When I went to Home Depot to pick up the tools, I noticed that had a little round 14 inch charcoal grill on sale for $20 and I figured that since I never really got Aaron a birthday present (this is another story entirely, but it wasn't my fault, I told him he could spend $50 of ours along with a $50 gift card he had to Best Buy and pick out something nice that he wanted, and he never got around to spending the $50 of ours, just the gift card, so ya that's the short version, needless to say, I felt like I still had $50 I could spend on him.) I was justified in spending a little extra on Father's Day. So I got the grill.

I brought everything home and wrapped it and put it under the bed so Aaron wouldn't find it. (He always finds where I hide his presents, that's why I wrapped them too, just in case.) Then I set about waiting for Father's Day to roll around. Well....it took forever! So I gave him his present a week early, thinking we could get in some good grilling practice before Father's Day. Then it rained all week.

So today, was the first day we were able to do any grilling at all. We invited our friends Danny and Suzy Park and their two kids Nathan and Kaitlyn (who are Lincoln and Ivan's ages) over to enjoy the BBQ with us. We got a pork loin, and cut it up into little chunks and made a Caribbean marinade I found in Aaron's new BBQ book, and marinaded it all morning. We also found a really yummy recipe for grilled pineapple that we made too. Out of the pork chunks we made shish-ka-bobs. The were very yummy, but the pineapple was by far the best. For dessert Danny went to the store and got the stuff to do S'mores. It's been a long time since I had a S'more, and it was a very tasty treat. the weather was beautiful, the company was great, and the kids were reasonable well behaved, well except Ivan. Not really sure was his trouble was, but he wanted me, and no one else, to hold him and rock him the whole time.

Oh, and Lincoln, poor kid, he was riding a little plastic scooter thing and it was up on the grass, which is elevated and bordered on the outside edge by railroad ties, and then below the railroad ties is the asphalt, anyways, he was riding this scooter, and scooted it right over the edge of the railroad tie. The scooter nose dived and Lincoln fell forward over the front of the scooter and landed face first on the asphalt. He's got a really good scrape that starts on his forehead and goes all the way down his nose. Here's a picture of it after Aaron got all the gravel washed off of his face. It doesn't look as bad in this picture, because you can't really see it, but I bet it looks bad once it all scabs over.

Ivan is Three Months Old

Ivan is three months old these days. He's getting big. And by big I mean tall. He's a very long baby but not so much a chubby baby like Lincoln was. Ivan is getting more interactive as the days go by. He smiles and coos and laughs a lot now. He's getting really good at grabbing a hold of things in front of him, like the strand of beads we put on his chair, or my hair (that's a favorite).

He's doing a little better with sleeping. He usually goes to bed around 10:00 - 10:30 and wakes up somewhere around 3:00 or 4:00 and then again around 6:00 or 7:00. He has a fussy period at night that starts about dinner time and ends when he finally falls asleep around 10:30pm. He usually takes a morning nap and an early afternoon nap. These naps usually last between an hour and three hours. And then he'll take sporadic little 15 - 20 minute naps here and there throughout the day.

Ivan loves to be up and able to see. Sometimes he cries just because he wants to be up, so consequently he gets held a lot. He also like to be in his jumpy seat, and will stay in there contentedly for about 20 minutes at a time. (That is if we can keep Lincoln from pushing the swing.)

We are all the way switched over to formula now. No, I didn't make my goal of reaching three months, but it just wasn't worth the stress anymore, and things are a lot happier around here now that Ivan just takes a bottle. He has adjusted to the formula a lot better than Lincoln did too. It doesn't make Ivan constipated, and even though he is pretty spitty it's usually only right after he's eaten.

All of Ivan's beautiful dark hair that I worked so hard to put on his head is in the process of falling out. He kind of has the "Larry Ropelato" hair style going on right now, haha! But don't worry, he's still cute! (Ivan, not Larry.)

Ivan has also recently picked up the habit of sucking on his burp clothes. Lincoln never did this, so I don't know, maybe Ivan is weird. But sometimes when he's crying and he's not hungry, not poopy or wet, doesn't want the binkie etc, if you hand him a burp cloth (a clean one of course) he'll grab it, and stick part of it in his mouth and kind of chew/suck on it, and it calms him right down. So maybe that means he's destined to be a blankie baby or something. I guess we'll have to keep on the look out and see what happens. But it is causing me to have to haul around one more burp cloth than I already do. Oh well though, I'd rather it be a piece of cloth than a binkie I think.

Anyways, we love our little Ivan and watching him grow and develop his personality is so exciting. Here's to another month!

Book Review: East of Eden

by John Steinbeck

rating: 4 of 5 stars

I delayed a long time in writing this review because I didn't know quite how to word the summary of the book without making it sound evil. And I will admit the plot is a little dark, but with good reason. Anyways, I finally found one I like on Wikipedia so I'll share it here:

Plot summary
The story is primarily set in the Salinas Valley, California, between the beginning of the 20th century and the end of the Great War (World War I), though some chapters are in Connecticut and Massachusetts, and the story goes as far back as the American Civil War.

In the beginning of East of Eden, before introducing his characters, John Steinbeck carefully establishes the setting with a description of the Salinas Valley in Northern California.

Adam Trask, after a tumultuous childhood in the East and enduring harsh treatment from his younger brother, Charles, spends his time first in the military and then wandering the country. He is caught for vagrancy and asks Charles for 100 dollars. Charles reveals that their father has died and now they have an inheritance of 50,000 dollars each. When the brothers live together at the family farm in Connecticut, they find Cathy Ames, a viciously beaten woman, on their doorstep. Adam falls in love with her, and soon marries her.

Samuel Hamilton and his wife Liza, immigrants from Ireland, raise their nine children on the rough infertile hillside. As the Hamilton children leave the nest, Adam Trask — newly wed and newly rich after inheriting considerable wealth from his deceased father, Cyrus Trask — settles with the pregnant Cathy into a large and fertile plot near the Hamilton plot. Shortly after Cathy gives birth to twins, she shoots Adam in the shoulder and flees. Adam recovers and raises his children with the help of his Cantonese cook, Lee.

Meanwhile, Cathy becomes a prostitute at a brothel in the city of Salinas. She renames herself Kate to avoid recognition, and eventually becomes the owner of the most "respectable" brothel in the area, after killing its former owner, Faye, who had called Kate her daughter and said that she would inherit all her wealth. Kate makes the brothel infamous for its brutal treatment of clients. Samuel Hamilton later reveals Cathy's whereabouts to Adam, hoping that the truth will not kill him but set him free. Adam later visits Cathy during a trip, and Cathy (now Kate) reveals to him that his brother Charles is possibly the biological father of his two boys.

Adam's sons, named Caleb (Cal) and Aaron (Aron) — echoing Cain and Abel in the Bible — grow up oblivious of their mother's situation, with Cal pursuing a career in business with Will Hamilton, one of Samuel's sons, and Aron going to college to become an Episcopalian priest. Aron goes on to become very popular among the townspeople, while Cal goes on to become a recluse. At a very early age, Aron meets a popular girl named Abra from a well-to-do family, and the two fall in love. Cal finds out about his mother from a drunken acquaintance of his father, and goes to meet her; Kate learns of her two children, and recognizes Cal's similarity to herself in mindset and similarity to Charles in appearance.

Adam becomes inspired by Samuel Hamilton's inventiveness and begins to come up with ideas on how to transport produce across the country using iceboxes on trains. The plan fails, causing Adam and his family, now living in Salinas, to lose most of their wealth. To give a gift to his father — admittedly to buy his father's love — Cal works with Will Hamilton to make his father's money back, capitalizing on World War I by selling beans grown in the Salinas Valley to nations in Europe for a considerable premium.

Aron returns from Stanford for Thanksgiving. At dinner, Cal gives his father the money, but Adam refuses to accept the money and tells him to give it back to the poor farmers he exploited. Adam adds

I would have been so happy if you could have given me — well, what your brother has — pride in the thing he's doing, gladness in his progress. Money, even clean money, doesn't stack up with that.[3:]

and concludes with

If you want to give me a present — give me a good life. That would be something I could value.

In a fit of jealousy, Cal takes his brother to see their mother, knowing it will be a shock to Aron (who is still under the belief that she had died and was buried on the East Coast). Aron, his idealistic world view shattered, enlists in the army to fight in World War I. He is killed in battle in the last year of the war, and Adam suffers a stroke upon hearing the news from Lee. Cal, who later befriends Abra after Aron leaves for war, tells her why Aron left and tries to convince her to run away with him. She instead persuades him to return home.

The novel ends with a bedridden Adam giving Cal his blessing in the form of the word Timshel! (a Hebrew word said in the novel to mean 'thou mayest'), alluding to the point that Cal may have the ability to conquer his evil nature.

Major themes
The book explores themes of depravity, beneficence, love, and the struggle for acceptance, greatness, and the capacity for self-destruction and especially of guilt and freedom. It ties these themes together with references to and many parallels with the biblical Book of Genesis (especially Genesis Chapter 4, the story of Cain and Abel).

Steinbeck's inspiration for the novel comes from the fourth chapter of Genesis, verses one through sixteen, which recounts the story of Cain and Abel. The title, East of Eden, was chosen by Steinbeck from Genesis, Chapter 4, verse 16: "And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden" (King James Version).

Steinbeck's allusion to Cain and Abel is furthered by the naming of the Trask family; the first letters of the names of the brothers are in match throughout the generations (Charles and Adam, Cal and Aron).

That's some of what Wikipedia has to say. If you found that interesting I suggest going to the sight and reading the rest of it.

Despite the story's darkness, I really liked it. I thought it was thought provoking and enlightening. I realize that Steinbeck's view of the Cain and Able story isn't exactly LDS doctrine, but I don't think that detracts from the story at all. In fact, I don't even think that's the point of the story. I think the point of the story is this: all men have a little bit of evil in them (aka the "natural man") and they have a choice about whether or not they overcome that evil.

I'm a big fan of Steinbeck and his writing style and I wasn't disappointed by this book. He uses words beautifully, especially when describing the Salinas Valley in the first couple of chapters. This book is supposed to be his "greatest work", and it was very good, but I still find myself liking Grapes of Wrath better. Just a personal opinion though.

I like the way he portrayed the characters in this book. I especially like Lee and Samuel Hamilton. I'm not a fan of Cathy/Kate, but I don't think anyone really is supposed to be since she represents Satan in this story.

Because it's dark, and because of the nature of Cathy's occupation, I won't recommend that everyone read this book. I'm pretty sure it won the Nobel prize though. Anyways I will say that I liked it a lot, and it gave me a lot to think about.

L-I-N-O-O-L-N

A little while ago Krystal wanted Lincoln to say his name, so she pointed to the painted letters that we hung up on his wall. But instead of saying "Lincoln," Lincoln said "O" which happened to be the letter she was pointing too. Well between reading Book of Mormon ABC's and his name on the wall... he's picked up a little more.



In the movie he names all the letters in his name except for "C" where he needed a little help. After he finishes, he usually says "Lincoln," but we're not really sure if that's exactly what he said this time... it might be "fishies," but that's close enough.

The Goff's Visit Provo

Yesterday Aaron's sister Lisa and her family stopped by to visit us. They were on their way to visit Jared's (Lisa's husband) family in Minorsville. Aaron decided to take the day off, so we all went up to Bridal Veil Falls. We ate lunch up there and then Aaron and Jared took the two older boys, Jordan and Carter, on the hike up to the falls, while Lisa and I stayed at the bottom with Spencer, Aneya, Lincoln, and Ivan.

We let the kids play in the water at the bottom of the falls. Lincoln was so funny, he'd wade in, then come back quickly saying "Toad, toad (cold, cold)" and want to sit in my lap for about two seconds, then he'd get back up and wade right in again.

Me, Ivan, and Lisa watching the kids play

Aneya on a rock

Ivan and Aaron

Later in the afternoon we all went to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house.

Here's Aneya and Linc playing in the fountain.

See how Moroni's arm is black in this picture? An usher told us that the day before it had gotten struck with lightening. Apparently most Angel Moronis have a lightening rod built into them. I never knew. But the inside of the temple was absolutely beautiful, and the tour was very informative. Go if you have the chance.

All in all we had a great day with the Goffs. Thanks for stopping by guys, we'll see you again in August!

"The Mound"

Ivan really likes to sit up, but Aaron and I don't always like having to hold him up. So Aaron invented "the mound" which is a blanket wrapped around Ivan so that he is supported on all sides and can't tip over. Ivan seemed to enjoy it too. This was especially helpful while we were getting the house cleaned up for Lisa and her family to come and visit us. Don't worry, one of us was always close, it's not like we left him "unattended" or anything. :)

Aaron the Daddy

Tonight Aaron's brother Kelly came over for dinner and wanted me to help him come up with an outline or at least some ideas, for his six page Humanities paper that is due tomorrow that he hasn't started on yet. While I was helping him, Aaron took the boys in another room so that it would be quiet for Kelly and I to work. In the middle Kelly got a phone call, and since it was getting to be Lincoln's bedtime, I decided that while Kelly was on the phone, I'd go back and kiss Linc goodnight. I found all three boys in Ivan's room, cuddled up in the papasan chair, with Aaron reading them stories. Cute, cute, cute! I love my Aaron, and I'm so glad that he is such a fun daddy to our little boys.

The Trouble with Time Out

Ok, I feel like I've been posting a ton about Lincoln lately, but the kid has been on a roll of cracking me up. So we've been having a little trouble with time out at our house. I originally just had him sit where ever he was, but he kept finding things to play with, or would enjoy just watching what we were doing while he sat there. Like to the point that when I tell him he can get up he doesn't even want to! What kind of punishment is that? So I redid my tactics, thinking that if he had to sit in a place where there were no toys and he couldn't see anyone, maybe he'd like it a little less and it would start serving it's purpose again. My brilliant new time out location? The corner that has the front door on one side and the closet door on the other. It was fool proof...or so I thought. I put him in time out the other morning, then went back into the kitchen to finish what I was doing. In a minute or so, when he was being really quiet and calm I went him to tell him he was allowed to get up. This is what I saw:

So I guess I'll have to come up with something else. Any ideas?

One Little Monkey...

The strangest thing has been happening, and I haven't been able to figure it out. Until today, Aaron solved the mystery! Ok, so it goes like this...a couple of weeks ago I went in to get Lincoln up from his nap. On his dresser there are three pictures, one of him and Zac, one of he and Aaron and I, and one of him, me, my mom, my grandma, and my great grandma (it's a five generation picture). Anyways, on this particular day, the pictures were knocked over. But we'd recently had the humidifier in his room, so I didn't think much of it, and just put the picture up right again. But over the course of a few weeks, I started to notice that every time I went in to get Lincoln, either from nap, or in the mornings, his pictures were knocked over. At first I thought maybe Aaron had bumped them, but it kept happening, so I knew that was out. The dresser is too tall for Linc to reach the top of it while standing on the floor, so I knew that was out. I thought maybe Linc was throwing his stuffed animals out of the crib and hitting the pictures, but the animals were always still in the crib, and his arms aren't long enough to swing the animals out and hit the picture while he's still holding on to them. There is a square laundry basket width between the crib and the dresser, I know because that's where the laundry basket sits. :) I thought maybe he was reaching down and grabbing clothes out of the laundry basket and swinging them at the dresser and knocking the pictures over...but there was never any laundry on the ground, and it's kind of hard for me to believe an almost two year old would think to put the laundry neatly back in the basket afterwards. So ya, it was really driving me nuts, because I could not figure out how Lincoln was knocking the pictures down. So today, Aaron went to get Linc up after his nap. He came out and asked me if I'd put the pictures on the dresser down, I told him no, and explained to him what I just explained above. Aaron was like, I bet I know how he does it, he climbs across the mattress. We have a twin mattress that I inherited, and we have no where to set it up, but we don't want to get rid of it because it's a nice mattress and Linc will need one sooner or later, so for now we've been storing it propped up on its side behind Lincoln's crib. Well, I didn't believe Linc could get up that high, let alone not lose his balance and fall...but I was wrong as you will soon see from this video. Aaron grabbed the camera and Lincoln and set Linc in his crib and took this:

The funny part is that he never attempted (well, maybe he attempted, I don't know, but he never succeeded) to get out of bed, he always got right back in his crib, because I always found him in his crib when he woke up. Needless to say, the mattress has been moved to behind Ivan's crib. Hopefully it'll be awhile before he turns monkey on me. :)

Flowers.....for Me?

It's spring time again, and I still live in an apartment, which means another year that I don't get to do a garden. But yesterday Aaron decided that we could improvise again this year, and he built me a planter box.

We don't have a patio like we did in Texas, so this planter box is quite a bit smaller, but Aaron stained it and it looks really nice. Plus I think he improved his design because he didn't have to use wire this time.


We went to Home Depot to pick out the flowers. We decided to go with a yellow and orange theme. My two favorite colors.


We got one big, cool, spiky looking yellow flower for the center. Then on the outsides we did daisies that have an orange center that fades out into yellow and then white, and bright orange marigolds. Ya, I know what you're thinking...I thought Krystal hated Marigolds. I do. I planted these as a tribute to my dad, who happens to be the reason I hate Marigolds. Every year when I was growing up my dad would bring home flowers and it was my job to plant them. Well, he always brought home like 4 flats of Marigolds with the instructions that I was to plant every single one of them, and disperse them evenly all over the yard. And I had to redo it again every year because Marigolds are annuals. It took me all day, and by the end I vowed I would never plant another Marigold as long as I lived. Well....here's to you Dad, for the rest of the summer every time I open my front door I will think of you and of how much I hate Marigolds. :) They do look nice though.


Even if our planter box is small, I think it adds a nice touch to our apartment complex. It brightens it up a little, so you don't notice the concrete wall and the cars in the parking lot so much right when you walk out the front door.

22 Months Old

Lincoln has survived to the ripe old age of 22 months. He's starting to get such a personality and that makes every day an adventure with him. Needless to say, Aaron and I laugh a lot when Lincoln is around because of all his crazy antics. The picture above pretty much describes his personality...he's a ham. His vocabulary is improving every day. He's started putting two or three words together at a time. He'll say things like "night daddy" or "more see-yo (cereal)" or "rad-dit go side? (rabbit go outside?)" And he's a little parrot, repeating the last word of almost everything you say to him. When he tells you what he wants, and you repeat it for clarification, instead of saying yes, he says ok! Like you've already agreed to it. For example Linc will say "Mama teat?" and I'll say "You want a treat?" and he'll say "Tay! (ok)" like you were the one who suggested it and he thought it was a great idea. It's funny. He's also finally starting to learn his name. He calls himself "kee-kan" or "dee-dan". He likes to sit on my "flap (lap)" to read stories. One of his favorite snacks are "bay-pees (grapies)". And he's trying very hard to learn that he needs to be quiet while the baby is "sweeping (sleeping)".

Speaking of sleeping, Lincoln has been a terrible sleeper since Ivan was born. He almost always wakes up at least once in the middle of the night. Sometimes it's for a diaper change, sometimes he wants a drink, and sometimes, I guess, he just feels like being awake and letting the world know about it....loudly. He has kind of a weird sleeping quirk, as in, he takes random objects to bed with him. It started slowly. I bought him a teddy bear, he never really seemed overly attached to it, but I always put it in bed with him, so that if we were sleeping somewhere besides our apartment he would still feel like there was something familiar with him. One night we couldn't find the bear, and surprisingly, he asked for it. So we substituted with a stuffed baby. Then we found the bear, but the next night, he wanted Bear and Baby. Then for Valentines Day Grandma Swan sent him a little stuffed dog, we had just been to Vancouver for Christmas and Lincoln really liked their dog Mo, so he started calling the stuffed dog Mo Mo, and wanted to sleep with all three. Then for Easter, we got him a stuffed rabbit. "Rad-dit" is now part of the sleeping crew too. AND lately he's been wanting to take to bed a toy as well. Usually whatever he was playing with when I announced that it was nap time. At first it was just something like a matchbox car, so no big deal and I let him take it. But then we went out of control. Here are some of the things he's taken to bed: his turtle bath toy, measuring cups, wooden spoon, spatula, the punkpin gut scooper (can you tell he plays in my kitchen drawers?), a giant magnifying glass (this one is starting to be a regular, he almost always asks for it), plastic train, his sippy (he doesn't care if there's water in it or not, he just wants the cup), books, the plastic outlet protector cover thing, tennis ball, etc. I usually let him pick one thing (if he asks) to take to bed with him other than the four stuffed animals, because I figure it's easier to let him sleep with a toy than to deal with his tantrum because I'm taking it away. As long as it won't hurt him, I let him. Here are some things he's asked to sleep with that I would not let him take to bed: my keys, giant blue bouncy ball, his backpack dog with the long long tail (meant as sort of a child leash for when you are in crowded places), computer mouse, drum sticks, and a balloon.

Linc loves to play outside, ride his bike, watch the big kids play, climb up on the back of the couch and look out the window (and pop the screen out!), eat "nacks and teats (snacks and treats)", do anything with Daddy, push the shopping cart, go to nursery, read books, sing songs, and get into everything. Oh, and a few weird things, he likes me to clean out his ears and wash his hands, but he hates to have his teeth brushed or his diaper changed. He likes to put on "show-shun (lotion)" and chap stick, and will only let me clip his finger nails if he gets to choose which finger I'm going to do next (which often times includes my fingers as well as his).

In two months he'll be two. Wow! It'll be interesting to see what that brings our way, since he's already head-strong and stubborn (which I'm sure he got those traits from Aaron, haha, just don't ask my mom about it or she'll probably tell you the truth.) But ya, we love our little Linc-a-doo and we love watching him learn new things and try new things, and we mostly always love listening to him chatter all day long.

All right! I'm lame, I'll admit it!

I always told myself that I wouldn't dress my kids in matching outfits. So what do I do the very first time that Lincoln and Ivan get the same shirt? Yup. Lame. But they were so cute in their little Provo Library Summer Reading T-shirts. *sigh* I'm fighting it, I'm fighting it hard, but I'm slowly being dragged down into the eternal pit of stereotypical motherhood.

A Chat With Ivan

Shah-wing!

Ivan has reached a new stange in his short little life. The stage where he likes to be up looking at everything. So the other day I got the brilliant idea that instead of trying to hold him and cook dinner one handed, I would get out the baby jumpy-seat swing thingy. He loved being in it. He's not quite fat enough for it yet, so we had to prop him up with a blanket, but that worked great.

He's so cute, the little bug!

Sorry again for the blurry picture, but he was smiling again and I couldn't resist! Note: please choose to ignore the disaster of a living room that you can see behind the child. I do clean my house I promise, just usually not until the kids are in bed because there is no point. :)

Lincoln's Cheese

For a little while, Lincoln wouldn't smile when I wanted to take his picture, so I did what everyone does, and started telling him to "say cheese". Now whenever I pull out the camera for anything, he yells "cheese! cheese!" until I take his picture. A smile is not always in the bargain, but here are some of Lincoln's "cheeses".

The New Desk

The walls are closing in on us here in Provo. Why? Well, because we keep inheriting more stuff! It seems like our apartment gets smaller by the week. Haha. But it's all with good reason. Someday we'll have somewhere to put it all, right?

So here's the story of our desk. Mom and Kerry own a condo here in Provo, it's where all of us kids that are going to BYU lived before we each got married. Bryan and Emily just moved out of it so that Bryan could do an internship in New York, so now the condo is empty and Mom and Kerry are selling it. (So if you know of anyone interested in a condo in Provo...) They came down last week to clean it all out and get it ready to be shown. They'd taken out most of the furniture already, but there was still this desk that used to be Kerry's. They were just planning on leaving it at the house for the people who bought it. Well, Aaron has been wanting a nice desk for a long time, so we spoke up. And they gave it to us. Yay! Thanks Mom and Kerry. You have made all of Aaron's studying dreams come true, because now he can study at the desk, instead of at the kitchen table. Amazingly enough the desk fit in my mom's Rav4 so we even had it delivered! Then, after the kids were in bed, Aaron and I spent about 2 hours rearranging the furniture in the living room so that it looked just right. After all that all we ended up doing was putting the desk where the love seat used to be and putting the love seat under the window where nothing used to be...but hey, we got a good work out sliding the couch with the hide-a-bed in it all over the place. :) So that is the story of how we got our new desk.

Linc and the "Boon"

A Super Sunday

So apparently nursery must have been a little rough this week or something. When we got home from church we planned on feeding Lincoln some lunch before his nap, just like always. Anyways, Aaron got Linc some yogurt, then made himself a sandwich and sat down to eat it. I was in the other room with Ivan, and walked into the kitchen and asked Aaron if he had seen Lincoln lately. Aaron turned his head, and this is what we saw. Linc, ready to pray over his half eaten yogurt, fast asleep! We laughed pretty hard, took some pictures, then put him in his crib.

A little bit ago, Aaron and I got called to teach Gospel Doctrine...super. Well this week was my first time to give the lesson. It was on the three degrees of glory. I thought it went ok, but was a little boring. I had an object lesson to go with it, but I was nervous and sort of rushed through it, and it didn't come out quite the way I wanted to. But I survived to tell the tale, so I guess it wasn't so bad. And the good news is that I don't have to do it again for three more weeks.

We had our friends the Parks over for dinner. I made vegetable lasagna, and it turned out really good I thought. It was nice to spend time with them, and to let Lincoln and Nathan (their little boy) run around and play together. We always have a good time with the Parks.

Later on, one of our neighbors stopped by and asked if we wanted to come up and play some games with them and another neighbor. So we used our cell phones as a baby monitor and headed on up. We played a game called Loaded Questions. It was pretty funny. We laughed a lot and had a good time getting to know our neighbors. We also stayed over there until midnight, I don't know what we were thinking, considering that we have a baby who gets up several times during the night and a toddler that wakes up bright and early, but oh well. We still had fun.