How do you train up a kid properly?

Well, if they are half Biada, you start them early on garlic and pasta! Today we had pasta and sauce made out of my garden canned tomatoes, garlic, and onion. Henry is SO into food this last week or so. As he watched every bite go in and the empty fork come out, I decided to give him some. So I pulled out the total blender, put in some pasta and sauce, and blended it up until it was smooth and creamy! Henry ate two servings, and could hardly contain himself in between bites. Forget that Gerber stuff, this tasted good, and was very healthy. Garlic has many health benefits, and my tomatoes are organic, canned fresh from my garden and high in lycopene! And don't think that there was just a little sprinkle of garlic powder in there, if you know me you know that we buy chopped garlic in bulk and use large quantities.

So sorry to all you babies out there whose moms feed them rice cereal (following doctors orders!), Henry's mom throws that all out the window and gives him the goods!

1st Nephi 3:7

Isaac has memorized a few things including this scripture written below. He actually can do it better than this, but he gets kind of show-offy when he knows other people will see it, and he doesn't quite do as well. But here it is, documented so we don't forget how brilliant our son is :)

1st Nephi 3:7 And it came to pass that I, Nephi, said unto my father: I ^awill go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no ^bcommandments unto the children of men, save he shall ^cprepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them.

Happy Birthday to me!

So yesterday was my 26th birthday. Which marks the beginning of the birthday marathon that is March and April. 3/35- me, 4/6- Mom, 4/8- Isaac, 4/11 our anniversary, 4/16- Dave, 4/27- Dad. WOW!

So on my birthday, the city was rude enough to hold a city council meeting. Thus, I decided to go spend the day in Bountiful with my fam. It was a nice day, very relaxing. My family watched the kids so I could go to the temple. When I showed up, they said they had been praying for patrons, and I thanked them very much because even with their prayers it was really tough to get there. After my temple work I treated myself to dinner in the temple cafeteria (With my birthday money from my in-laws- Thanks to them even though they aren't bloggers :) I had Tilapia (to die for!), potatoes, vegetables, a roll, and some divine peach pie. I thought it was a great way to spend my birthday!

My parents bought a birthday cake, which I'll post pictures of later. It had a lot more character when Dawson accidentally stuck his hand in it. Then it said, "Ha y Birthday."

As for presents.... I asked Dave for new jeans, but I asked him to let me take care of it :). My parents got me a $50 gift card to Cafe Sabor or Hamilton's (Two incredible restaurants). And Dave's parents gave me some birthday money, perfume, and a book about motherhood. Oh, and of course I must mention my friend DeAnne who gave me Southwestern Eggrolls from Chili's which I promptly scarfed down. Mmmm, I love them! Seriously, you can never go wrong with giving food as a gift!

Sweet Henry

I know I'm obsessed with this baby, but I really can't believe how sweet this boy is. I'm just madly in love with him and I can feel his babyhood slipping through my fingers. So I feel the need to capture it somehow, and pictures seem to be the only way!


Okay, is that not the best picture ever? What a beautiful boy!


Bubba is MY boy. Finally a kid that looks related to me. What do you think?
Big brother Dawson is crazy about Bubba too. He is totally into the baby thing now!
And better yet.... He can't truly understand Bubba unless he spends some time in his shoes..... or his exersaucer. Goofy Daws!

Chili's

I joined this thing called BzzAgent, where you get to try new things, and then try to spread the word. So this time they let us try some new burgers at Chili's. We loved them, so I'm going to spread the word now.

Last night we went out to dinner with our friends Spencer and DeAnne. We had some coupons for these awesome new

SMOKEHOUSE BACON BIG MOUTH BURGER*

And they were so good! I wasn't quite sure how I was going to eat it because they were so big! I ended up eating it in quarters, and I gave one quarter to Isaac. They have this REALLY thick bacon on them, and are so yummy! Then for dessert we had these little things called "Sweet Shots." It's a shot glass that's filled with layers of chocolate mousse, whipped cream, etc. So if you're having a hankering for a night out, go check out Chili's, we always love Chili's.

I wanna do that when I get big!

I forgot to include this story in my Idaho post, but it probably deserves it's own post anyway.

We were stopped in a parking lot just off the freeway while I was nursing Henry. We were exhausted from our kids crying, and both Dave and I were kind of talking and zoning out. Isaac was in the back seat talking. Like I said, we were kind of zoned out, so I was answering Isaac with generic answers, "Uh-huh, oh yeah, okay Isaac." (It made me so mad when my mom did that to me, but what can you do?) Finally it clicked in my mind what he was saying and I realized it was a very important teaching moment that I was failing! Here are the bits and pieces I recalled once I realized what he was talking about.

"Look Mommy, that guy has FIRE coming out of his mouth."
"That's cool Mommy, he can blow smoke out of his mouth."
"He just puts that stick in his mouth and then he blows out the smoke."
"Yeah, when I get big like him, then I will put a stick in my mouth and I will blow out FIRE!"

"AHHHHHHH, no Isaac!" (What a sheltered life he lives in Utah that he's never noticed a person smoking in him almost 4 years!) We explained to him that smoking really wasn't something to aspire to. We don't smoke because it is bad for our bodies and can make us so sick that we can die. He recalled this experience several times since then, and everytime he talks about how sad it is that the guy is going to die. I'm not sure how accurate his understanding of smoking is, but it definitely is an improvement from him wanting to do that when he got big!

Idaho!

Dave was invited to do a Best of EFY this weekend in Boise, Idaho. So we decided to make a weekend out of it, and pack up the kids in a rental car! We got our rental car, gas, hotel, and a pretty good per diem for food, so you can't beat the price!

Henry- performed very poorly in the car. He cried a lot, and had a hard time sleeping through our stop and go schedule. He did great in the hotel room though, and taught us that it isn't out of the question for an infant to poop 7 times in 24 hours when you're on a road trip. Yikes! Henry loved swimming in the pool, which gives us hope for this summer with Mexico and our boating adventures.

Dawson- Did really well for him! I learned this week that he broke a molar through, and has 3 more to go, so you can't expect too much from him right now. He did great in the car, and he ate well. He enjoyed the time out of the car, and the lack of snow in Idaho, he loved running around. When we took him swimming, he screamed his guts out (Granted it was 10:45 at night when we got to the hotel). He wouldn't let us take his clothes off, or put a swimsuit on, so in the end he walked down to the pool with a swim diaper and socks. I wish I had a picture of that. As we walked into the pool room he was yelling NO, NO, NO, NO! Dave convinced him that he could just watch us swim. Within a few minutes, he dipped his toes in, realized it was warm and fun, and had a blast. He jumped in about a hundred times, swinging his arms back and forth like he was going to jump really high (He basically just fell in:). When we left the pool.... he screamed. *Sigh*

Isaac- Usually travels really well, but struggled a little bit this time. Maybe it was the fact that he was sitting next to Dawson who tried to steal anything Isaac tried to play with. Or maybe it was the fact that he learned the age old phrase, "Are we almost there?" Uggh. But he loved the adventures we had swimming, eating, and even stopping to see some sites.

Dave- Did great at giving his talk on Joseph Smith. The only problem was he ended up teaching in his suit and..... crocs. Dave is known for forgetting at least one element of his church clothing when he travels. He usually ends up borrowing a tie, white shirt, belt, or something. Or he goes to church in something really embarrassing, like jeans, and then says, "Hey, it's Hawaii!" This time he forgot his shoes. So he taught in naavy blue crocs, which was good because his suit was navy blue! Like always though, Dave was superman, changing diapers, holding binkies, pouring bottles of milk, refereeing fights, wiping tears, teaching, and even being patient with his wife. Thanks for making it fun, Dave!

Erica- Ended up driving almost the whole way.... like always. I don't get tired at the wheel, and if I drive it means that Dave has to tend the kids, so I almost always drive. I had a great time, I love being with my family.

Idaho- Is nearly desolate. Here in town we fight over lots being 1/3 and acre or 1/2 an acre, and we pay 70,000 for that 1/3 an acre! If you ever feel like we're running out of space in the United States, just drive up to Idaho. Miles and miles of absolutely nothing. There are many cities in Idaho with the word "falls" in them. I realized that I have never really SEEN these falls, so we decided to stop and see some in Twin. We visited the Shoshone Falls which were absolutely incredible. I thought they would be 20 ft high, maybe! They're HUGE, 212 ft high! We learned that they actually put out as many cubic feet of water as Niagara Falls every year. Isaac loved them, and really, so did Dave and I. We also enjoyed looking over the big canyon in Twin Falls and seeing the snake river and the bridge. Isaac was a little bit nervous about driving over that bridge, but luckily he didn't notice it while we were driving.

We also got to see the brand new Twin Falls temple that is not yet finished. It's gorgeous.

We went to Carl's Jr. in Boise while Dave taught. The kids played on the 3-story playground, and loved it. As I sat there I saw a Dad herding up lots of little orange and blue boys. They were all dressed with Boise State t-shirts and coats, including the Dad. I asked the dad if there was a game tonight. He answered, "No, there isn't a game, my wife had a baby, and we're going to the hospital to pick her up. I thought it would be fun if we were all dressed alike." I started laughing. That is such a Dave thing to do! I can just see him dressing up the whole family in Aggie attire to come get me at the hospital. Then I looked at his 3 boys and asked what they had...... another boy! I told him that was probably my future.

I was reminded of two things this weekend
1. It doesn't matter where you go on a road trip, as long as you're together.
2. You better stay awhile once you get there, because the drive is so dang hard!

Funny Dawson story

Dawson has been a little bit sick and yesterday he slept until 12:30 in the afternoon. He went to bed for the night at 5:00 pm. Very strange schedule! So I was geared up for him waking up some time in the middle of the night, which he did. At 3:30 Dawson woke up to go watch ball. So I brought my blanket and laid on the couch while he watched/played ball in the middle of the night. I didn't turn on any lights because I wanted it to be abundantly clear that it was still night time. As I lay there, he kept coming up and kissing my knee. I couldn't figure out why he kept doing that. Finally I opened my eyes a little bit and paid attention to him when he did it the next time. I realized he was saying Bubba when he kissed my knee (I don't pay attention to the word bubba as it sounds very similar to baba(bottle), bobo(Blanky), and bubu(buh-bye))

He thought my bare knee, which was poking out of my blanket, was Bubba's bald head. So he kept kissing it and saying "Bubba." Hey, it was dark!