Speaking of food:

Jay Alvin loves food. Any kind. (Except for baby food. He's decided that he's too good for pureed food.) Any how, the other day he and Leo were playing on a mattress on the floor. They had some goldfish crackers that got spilled onto the floor. When Jay Alvin went after them he ended up falling on his face, but he didn't let that stop him. He was shoving fish into his mouth before he even rolled over.

And yesterday he decided to take a nap like this.

(Which is totally unrelated to anything in this post.)

Leo loves ice cream. He would eat it all day long if I would let him. (I wonder where he gets that from?) This morning he rolled out of bed and said, "Mom. Dora?" (This is how we usually start the day.) I dragged myself out of bed and pulled up Dora on Netflix. I started a random episode and went back to bed. Well, the episode I chose just happened to be one where Dora and Boots go chasing after an ice cream truck. Within minutes Leo was in our room asking for ice cream. When I told him we were out of ice cream he informed me that I could get some from the truck. So I explained to him that all the ice cream trucks in Utah were hibernating for the winter, and that seemed to satisfy him. A few minutes later however he came running up to me (I was in the bathroom at this point) and told me that if I went across the lake I could find the truck. (Just then I heard Dora say, "Help us get across the lake and to Coney Island so we can find the ice cream truck.) How do you argue with that?

I didn't. I just got the boy some ice cream.

Sad Story

Walmart lost Leo's picture with Santa.

Huge sad face.

They told me, "Come back tomorrow. (Yesterday.) Santa will be here again."

So, even though it was Sunday, I dragged Leo back to sit on Santa's lap again.

But Santa had the flu that day.

*Sigh*

He won't be back again until after we're gone.

Sorry Leo.

P.S. If you want to shop for Christmas without the hassle of holiday crowds go to Walmart in Utah on Sunday morning. I think there were only 10 people there.

I love Walmart.

 I know some people refuse to shop there, but I'll never understand why. Everything you need is right there in one place. They have the lowest prices and they'll price match if they don't. And today, they had Santa. Now, I have never had any intention of taking my kids to see Santa. Every time I hear someone talk about it, it seems like a nightmare. I just don't care enough to stand in line and then pay a bunch of money for a picture of my kid crying on some strange man's lap. But today there was no line, Santa was incredibly nice, and the pictures were free. 

Yes that's right. 

FREE. 

I love Walmart.

Leo's picture will be posted soon. It took all of our shopping trip to convince him to sit on Santa's lap so his picture wasn't printed when we picked these up.

When Jay Alvin wants to be picked up he does this really adorable thing. He'll crawl up to you and bump his head into your leg. Then he'll just keep rocking back and forth on his hands and knees, bumping into you repeatedly, until you pick him up. If you're sitting in a chair he'll even bump up against the chair until you get him. We've been trying to get it on video for weeks, because he's starting to use other methods to get what he wants. Of course, as soon as we pull out the camera he won't do it. Well, this morning he started crawling towards Ty so I grabbed the camera and started filming. Only, instead of what he usually does he just crawled up to Ty and stopped in front of him. So Ty picked him up, moved him across the room and we tried again. This is what happened:

What a little stinker! He's totally laughing at us. Good thing he's so cute.

Oh, and I cut Leo's hair yesterday. No more pony tails.

Sometimes when I'm combing Leo's long, thick, blonde hair I just can't help myself. . .

Sorry son!

Today I am thankful that I have so much to be thankful for. 

As I was putting this adorable turkey on our wall I was reminded once again that we are so blessed.

(I emphasized adorable because Ty thinks it's obnoxious looking and he wants to punch it in the face every time he sees it. "It's the beady little eyes.")

Some of the feathers are a little silly, and quite a few are trivial, but one of the things I've been feeling extra grateful for is that I have a Heavenly Father who knows me, loves me, and has a plan for me.

I know this.

I've always known this.

But for some reason it often slips my mind.

This past year we have made a lot, and I really do mean a lot, of changes to our life plan.

There were many, many times when I felt like we had no idea what we were doing.

(Probably because we didn't.)

We had a vague end-goal in sight and I felt like we were stumbling blindly towards it.

These past few months though, things have really started to come together.

I'm starting to see how Heavenly Father guided us to make the choices that would lead us to this place.

If you would have told me 6 months ago that I would still be in Utah, not only now but for the next year, I probably would have killed myself.

But that's the plan and I just feel peace.

I'm so thankful.