General Conference

During our trip to Utah, Natalie, Anna, and I went to the Saturday morning session of General Conference in the Conference Center in SLC while Alex stayed with Amy.  Sheila met up with us to go to the session.

Afterwards we went to lunch with Johnny, Sheila, and their kids to a Peruvian restaurant in SLC.  It was delicious.  This is their daughter Heidi.

The Armstrong's

This past weekend we went to Utah to visit the Sipherd's, Dain and Annie, Jennifer and Jessica, and Amy and Austin.  It was a busy time.  Natalie and Anna came with Alex and me.  When we were at Dain and Annie's Price got his Lightning Mcqueen car out.  Alex looked like a preppy nerd driving it.  

Price drives it like a pro and as he drives off he likes to put his arm on the back of the seat and look back at you and pose like some cool kid.  Alex on the other hand just kept running into things.  It was so funny to watch.  

They had so much fun together.  I wish we could see them more often.

Naptime Antics

I have had a couple episodes with Alex since he was transferred to the big bed and since his passeys have been taken away. 

A couple weeks ago after Alex had been down stairs supposedly napping for about 30 minutes I thought I heard something.  I quietly went down stairs and outside the bedroom door I heard in a very distressed voice, “Mommy, help me.”  I went in and found him standing on the bed with his shirt off and his pants unbuttoned and he was trying to unzip his pants to take them off.  The box fan that was in his room was on full blast.  The sight was so funny I had to bite back my laughter.  I knew I still had to get after him for his behavior so this wouldn't continue. 

Then we had another one a couple days later.  I went downstairs to listen for Alex talking after about 15 minutes of him being down there for a nap.  I didn’t hear anything so I went back upstairs.  About an hour later I thought I heard something and I went in the bedroom to find Alex wide awake, sitting up in bed, and driving a small pickup over his blankets while making engine noises.  There was a chair pushed up to the dresser, which I am sure he stood on to get the truck.  I took the truck away and told him it was time to go to bed.  About another hour later he came upstairs and I could clearly tell he had not slept at all.  I made him lay down on Anna’s bed.  He came out to the kitchen about 10 minutes later and said in a very chipper voice, “morning, slept 2 hours.” 

The crib and passey made him focus on sleep.  I have only had a couple other days I had to go in and tell him so stop talking and go to sleep and it has only happened during nap times.  Since then he has been fine, so hopefully the adjustment is over.

Update on Adam

Adam is doing very well at OCS.  Today he had his RLP (Room, Locker, and Personnel) inspection.  I just received an email from him and he passed.  For those not familiar with the RLP, it is a very difficult inspection and it is not completely uncommon to fail out of the class because of this.  It takes a lot of preparation time.  Their rooms and uniforms are inspected and they are tested on their knowledge of things they have been memorizing since starting OCS.  This is the biggest test Adam will have while at OCS.  I am so happy for him.

Peanut Butter

The other night Alex and I made peanut butter cookies.  I opened a new jar of peanut butter for the cookies and Alex stuck his finger in it and got a big dip of it and sucked it off his finger.  I told him to not put his finger in it, while also meaning I didn’t want him to eat anymore.  He took the “keep your hands out” literally and helped himself to a small spoon out of the drawer and brought it over to me to get him some on the spoon.  I got him a small amount.  Then someone called and I left the jar unattended to answer the phone.  I came back to find Alex pulling a very large spoon out of the jar with a heaping amount of peanut butter on it.  I startled him and I had to hurry and grab it away before he stuck the whole thing in his mouth.  He was not happy about that.

Cowboy Al

We have not been in Inkom long, but Alex has already taken on the cowboy role. I am constantly telling him to not point his fake pistol at people. We went to visit Mammi and Papa this evening and he wanted to get all decked out before going. We went out to the chickens and Alex looked at me hesitantly and said, "shoot chickens?" It was finally his chance to embrace his new role as a cowboy and show off his pistol. Paige took some awesome pictures of Alex in action.  He has always loved being around the chickens. Click here and here to see more.

Alex takes his role very seriously. 

Waffles

This is Alex enjoying a waffle for breakfast.  Whenever I ask him what he wants to eat for any meal he will either say "Nothing" and carry on with whatever he is doing or he will exclaim, "Waffles!" and go fling open the fridge door looking for batter.  He would be happy with waffles for every meal, if only he could convince me. 

So Long Passey

Last Thursday night I told Alex that it was his last night with a passey.  He pretty much was down to just using it to sleep and occasionally in the car but I was tired of packing it around and making sure he had one.  It was time.  On Friday, March 9th Alex woke up and I told him it was time to destroy the passey.  Alex has a love for scissors so I thought snipping it would be an appropriate way for Alex to get rid of the passey.  He went upstairs, got out a pair of scissors and carefully snipped the passey and put both pieces in the garbage. (Note: Alex has about 10 passeys strategically placed throughout the house, car, and my purse, but we only destroyed 1, the rest have gone into hiding.  I think you could safely say that Alex and I had a strong addiction to the passey.)  I really thought we would have a rough go of it for the next few days after we got rid of them but he only has asked for one a couple times and with a slight reminder that we are all done with passeys he goes to bed without complaint.

This is one of my all time favorite passey pics that my friend took of Alex clear back in the fall of 2010. The passey has been a very loyal companion and has had a long life with Alex. Type "passey" in the search box at the top left of our blog to see previous passey stories and pictures. They won't disappoint

Good Morning

I woke up last week at 6:15am to Alex right in my face saying, “Tima get up?”  He is sleeping in the crib at my parent’s house and I still have not seen how he actually does it, but he crawls out of it in the mornings and after nap times.  The crib here is pretty deep and tall so to prevent an injury I decided to move him to a "big boy bed."  This happened on Tuesday, March 6th.  He was very hesitant at first because he loves the crib but after a little coaxing and telling him that this is how it was going to be he accepted.  We haven't had any problems with him staying in bed when it is time to sleep so the move has been successful. 

Sandpoint vs. Rhode Island

Adam has started his officer training at OCS in Newport, Rhode Island.  He started March 4th and graduates May 25th.  Alex and I are not going with him so we are living with my parents for the next few months.  Alex so far has loved being here.  There is an endless supply of tractors and trailers to play with and he loves being around Anna, Greg, and Jacob every day when they get home from school. 

When we lived in Boise Adam had to travel to Sandpoint, ID a lot for work.  He would leave on a Sunday night and get back at the end of the week on Friday night.  No matter how often I tell Alex that Adam is now in RI Alex always tells everyone that Adam is in, "Candpoint (Sandpoint)."