Cute Talking

I love the ways my boys talk and get words mixed up sometimes. I never correct them because it is too precious.

Jackson had a friend in our ward whose parents got divorced so he learned about that last year. Then, through the elections for president last year, he heard (somehow) about abortion (kind of bugs me that he heard that at school I think). Anyway, we have discussed both and taught him how we feel about both. I guess he just associates them with eachother because he now calls divorce- "divortion". It is SO cute and I love how innocent he is. He just said last night that he thinks someone got a divortion (referring to a married couple). I love it.

Bennett can't quite say his R's yet and so weird is "wee-ode" and my favorite is "weed me a stowee". I know he will get over it for his own good in the next couple years but I will secretly be so sad when he sounds grown up.

Isaac is the cutest talker of all, of course, because he is 2. He says "woo" for you and that is my favorite part. He always says "woo want wour shoes?" and brings me my shoes. He also still is obsessed with birthdays and when I made a cake for an enrichment activity last week he was FREAKING OUT about whose birthday it was. It was totally precious! I told him it was a lady's birthday and I was making her a cake and he went around talking about "happy birthday to the lady" and "where are the lady's presents" and "who took the lady's balloons". I felt sorry for him by dinner time and thought I should not make another cake in our house until it is for a real birthday he will get to see! He is totally obsessed.

Have you ever lost your wallet or something important? It is the most annoying thing to me. I hate errors... and that sounds like I am a computer or something, but I really do hate small mistakes that cause lots of trouble.

Things are a little WILD here....

The end of summer, before school starts, is a little dysfunctional over here. The boys are all acting like little animals in their cleanliness and fighting habits, and to top it off we have some animals here! The animals are the highlight these days....

This is our favorite dog of all time! His name is Digger and we babysit him for our friends pretty often. He is the best, most patient with Isaac, sweet, little dog.

Here is Bennett a couple nights ago ready for bed. He has on his way-too-small for him Super Mario Brothers pajama shirt (with long sleeves for those cold Las Vegas nights), a musket of sorts, and a coonskin cap he got from Grandma and Grandpa Hawkins for his birthday.

This is our new pet! And there is another one that was hiding so I couldn't get his picture. Our friends were moving to Washington and gave us their tortoises, and I must say they are the perfect pets for Las Vegas. They are small, live outside in a little habitat area that we (Adam) built for FHE on Monday night. They just eat minimal food, drink a little water, and hibernate all winter long. So, it is like having pets only 1/2 the year! They totally entertain the boys and give them something to do. So far they have been named: Sandy and Snippy, Sandy and Shelly, Sandy and Spongebob, and now apparently they are Sandy and Patrick. Like I said.... it gives the boys something to think about.

The Snake Pit

I have been reading a couple of stories every night to my boys from this little book that my Grandparents gave me called "Guess What Grandpa Saw," and they LOVE it. This is their favorite so far, and I actually read it last night for the first time too. Here it is as told by my Grandma Hawkins about Grandpa:


In Ruby Valley, Nevada we had a small ranch. It was beautiful but had one problem- snakes. Often when Grandpa would go out in the yard or into the field, rattlesnakes would be there. Our neighbors were Shoshone Indians. Near their homes was a den of snakes. The Indians worried that snakes would bite their children as they did bite cattle, horses, sheep, and dogs. Grandpa was a young man with small children too. He looked carefully down into the snake den and saw hundreds of rattlesnakes in balls and crawling all over eachother.
Grandpa and the Indian men packed four hundred pounds of T.N.T. explosives on horses and went up to the snake den. They lowered the two and a half pound blocks of T.N.T. down to the snakes. They taped a blasting cap on the prima cord with a twelve inch fuse. Three of the Indians ran away. The chief stayed to help Grandpa. Then Grandpa got a match and the chief said "I tink I go." Grandpa lit the fuse and ran after the Indians to a big boulder they had chosed for shelter. The blast went off and hundreds of snakes and rocks flew high into the air. Most of the snakes were dead. Thise in the snake pit were dead too. The Indians thanked Grandpa. They felt much safer.

Picture Overload!!!

Adam had 2 1/2 weeks off work so we filled it with vacations... and here are the pictures:

Bennett fishing with Grandpa Greene in Pine Valley, UT

Isaac reeling in a big one.... or just casting over and over again and getting caught in the weeds over and over again.

Jackson waiting patiently.

Grandma Greene and I relaxing on the blanket.

We also camped at Mt. Charleston here in Nevada. Here is a little boy SO excited to sleep in a sleeping bag!

We went on a nice hike.

Finally asleep....

Jackson late at night.

Sweet Ben.

Adam just a little annoyed at setting up the entire camp in the wind. It immediately died down when all the work was finished. He wasn't actually as mad as he looks.... I just got a picture at the right moment. Hilarious.

We stayed up late playing war with the kids. It was the easiest game and they LOVED it! Even Isaac got into it and he had the most fun. By the way, I won.

This was Isaac's reaction to the cards every time we said 1-2-3 and put our cards down. This cute face and jumping up came with screams and laughing. It was so cute and fun to watch him.

The first trip we took (these pictures are backwards) was to the LA area where we stayed in a couple different hotels, took Jackson to his appointment for the month at the hospital, went to an Angels game with some of my family, and crashed my parents anniversary celebration in Newport Beach.

Here they are with Grandpa Hawkins and cousin Zac Buck at the baseball game. They had a great time and Adam said it was a nice stadium and very cheap and family-friendly.

At our favorite beach, Newport!

This boy spent hours playing in the sand without stopping. He LOVES the beach.

Isaac playing with Grandma Hawkins. She was happy to have a playmate and we were happy she wanted to play with him. :)

Jackson did a lot of boogie-boarding and made me nervous with how brave he is now that he is 8. He would go way out where the waves started and he did great.

It was a really fun 2 1/2 weeks and today I got us all unpacked, laundry done, and back to normal. Adam went back to work and the boys played legos ALL day long.