Dad's Visit

Playing with Eli
Grandpa and the boys

My dad came to visit this past weekend to be here for Joshua's blessing. (Josh is named after him, after all.) It was so great to have him here and a million thanks to my sister Cherie for giving him skymiles for the trip.

He got here late Thursday night and Friday we did a lot of shopping and then went to JCPenny and had pictures taken of Josh and Eli. Saturday we drove down to Nauvoo and had a great time then stopped at the Three Samurai in Coralville for a wonderful Japanese dinner.

Sunday was the day we blessed Joshua Marlin Lasley. It was great to have my dad here for that and most of Morgan's family was able to come too as well as some good friends from Coralville. It was a great weekend and we had a lot of fun. Thanks for coming, Dad!

Visiting the Temple

Last Saturday we drove down to Nauvoo to attend the Temple. We swapped babysitting with the Jolleys which was really nice. Morgan and I were able to do a session of sealings, and my dad attended an endowment session. The kids were badly in need of some fresh air so while Morgan and my dad watched the babies I took the older kids out for a walk around the Temple. They loved showing me where the statue of the horses were and then they had fun just running around, back and forth. What fun kids!

Starting to Smile

Here is a picture of Josh smiling, and this isn't even one of his "big" smiles. He is almost 7 weeks old now and is really starting to smile and even try to "talk" to you. He was really cooing with my dad this morning which made me feel a little bad because I don't spend as much time just playing with Josh as I did with Eli.
Morgan was talking with me last night and saying that Josh's first words were probably going to be "No Eli" since that is probably what he hears most often as I am trying to keep Eli from giving Josh full body hugs. At least we know they like each other though. We'll see how long that lasts, right? :)

Guitar

Eli absolutely LOVES the guitar. Morgan has one downstairs and Eli will often ask to go downstairs to play it. This past Monday we were hanging out with the Ortegas is Coralville and Eli found their toy guitar and loved playing with it (even though he didn't exactly 'get it'). At home Eli has decided that the rolling pin is his little guitar. I guess because it moves when he strums it. That makes one more thing that we know we could get him for Christmas.

Namesake

(I don't know how to rotate the picture...sorry).

So, we name Josh, Joshua Marlin Lasley after my dad and I was surprised and happy when we found out that he (my dad) was going to be able to come out to Iowa for Josh's baby blessing.
My sister had a bunch of sky-miles that were going to expire and so she gave them to my dad to get his airline ticket.
Morgan went last night to Cedar Rapids and picked him up and they got here about 12:30am. Today we have just been hanging out and grocery shopping. We might go to JCPenny later and try to get some pictures of the boys, but we'll have to see if they are going to cooperate.

Hypocrite

I am a hypocrite. But, if it is any consolation, I now realize it. Why you ask? Because it bothers me a lot when my friends and family don't update their blogs often. I think, "Come on, it doesn't take that long to write a little note, post a picture, etc." But lately I find myself not blogging as often as I used to and I wonder if people are thinking the same thing about me.

So I am going to try not to think poorly of people who don't update their websites, as well as to update mine a little more often. The things I write may be repetitive (with the occasional milestone) but that is what my life feels like to me.




Now for something fun - I don't have any pictures right now, but we had a really good day yesterday. Morgan had to go down to Coralville for a continuing education seminar and Sunday night I got an email from Jamie inviting the boys and I to spend the day with her (she knew we were coming because Morgan was going disc golfing with Reuben afterwards). I had been hemming and hawing for a week or so trying to decide if I should call and try to invite myself down to her place so once I saw that she was free I called to let her know we would be there. Eli had a really good time playing with Isaac and they played better this time than they had before. Less pushing and crying all around. It was a lot of fun and a great way to spend a Monday.

Horray! Poop!

(This picture was taken after the following story...obviously-no one goes to the bathroom with pants on. At least not effectively.)
I know that being excited about poop is not really a normal thing. I also realize that I am celebrating the beginning of a long and probably gross phase, but once it is over I am going to be really happy.
Anyway, this morning I was getting ready to give Josh a bath and Eli (who had been playing loudly in the kitchen) suddenly became mostly silent, with a few grunts. I asked him if he was going poop, he said yes. I decided to wait to give Josh his bath until I had changed Eli's diaper - no need to keep the smell around. So Eli climbs onto our poop-deck (the changing table) and tells me he wants to sit on the potty. So I clean him off and we go to the bathroom so he can sit on the toilet. Lo and behold, he went some more.
This is the first time that Eli has said he wanted to sit on the potty and actually accomplished his goal. After he was done we put his new diaper on then I felt this needed to be recorded for history. I had Eli sit on the potty and shout Horray. I think we are both pretty excited.

P.S. I found costumes for the boys and an idea for mine, but you will have to wait and see what it is.

Halloween Worries

(Wearing a eye patch at Grandma and Grandpa's house this weekend)

I don't know what to have Eli be for Halloween. We don't have any costumes his size for him to wear. He doesn't "LOVE" or really desire to be any one thing...in fact he doesn't really even understand the concept of Halloween. He knows we have decorations up, but that is about the extent of it.
I want to go get him a costume but I wish it were easier than it is. The Walmart and Target sections are so crazy, and I think I want him to try it on before I buy it. Also, I want to have something that can be seen while he is Trick or Treating and that he can be warm in as well. Finally I sort of feel that he should be something that roars - mostly because he loves to roar/growl and I think it would be cute. I don't want to dress him up as a bug and have him roaring all the time.
I guess I just need to go to some of the stores and see what I can find.
As far as Josh goes, we do have a couple of bunting-type costumes that he could wear, but I think they will be very big on him so I am tempted to buy him something new to wear too.

Safety First

I don't know if I just wasn't thinking, but Morgan showed me the brilliant idea of using the Boppy to help Eli hold Josh. Duh! Now when Eli wants to hold Josh he'll often ask for the Boppy because he knows that is what he has to have.

We've also taught Eli the phrase "Will you..." So now when he wants something we'll ask him to use a sentence. They are not grammatically correct yet, mostly, "Will you cold water, please?" "Will you up please?" "Will you hold you please?" He does use please all of the time, which is really nice.

The other thing Eli entertains us will is his Horray! He'll be asking to go outside, eat a fruit snack, blow bubbles, etc. and once I say okay he'll shout Horray! Blow bubbles.