Memorial Day

We stopped by the Manti Temple to get a picture of Seth for his temple book.

Today we headed down to Sanpete county for Memorial Day. I know, technically Memorial Day is Monday, but we like to go on Saturday when it is slightly less crowded. This year we spent the entire hour long drive telling stories about Grandma Ockey (Randy's mom) and Grandma Benson (Randy's grandma). Dax and Mark knew Grandma Benson so they shared their memories too. It was amazing to talk about these two ladies who meant so much to our family. We also shared a little bit about our other grandmas and grandpas that have passed on.  Last night I put a few pictures, funeral programs, etc in sheet protectors. When we arrived at the cemetery, we took the pictures and info over to the grave and shared. We always clean up the grave site as well...that is our tradition from the beginning (we take a big pack of baby wipes for wiping bird poop). We talked about how even though they didn't know Grandma Ockey, she helped shape their lives because of the things she did for their dad. We wanted them to understand why it was important to remember those who have gone before us, and this was the first time I felt like they sort of grasped it--maybe because they are bigger, maybe because we tried a little harder.

We also did a few other adventures. We visited Grandpa Ockey's farm. We always like to go and see what is at Grandpa's farm hanging out with all his sheep. Dax was slightly afraid of the chickens because they followed us around everywhere, and he really wanted to pet a lamb.  Seth LOVES cats. If we see one in the neighborhood, he has to pet it. So the two running around the farm were no different.

Seth was fascinated, and slightly frightened, by the animals and their loud noises.

Dax hurrying away from the chickens!

Must-- Pet-- Lamb!

Seth Loves the cat!

We even hiked to a waterfall up Manti Canyon (more info on the other blog). And we ate at our favorite pizza place in Ephraim. It was a long, but amazing day. The boys were so great in the car and I felt like this was the best Memorial Day for remembering. We'll probably do this again next year.

I like this one too!

95 degrees in May!

Seth loved being in the kiddie pool!

Does anyone feel like May is a little schizophrenic? On Dax's birthday, May 1, it was snowing in the morning. Then this week, it has been so HOT! I don't remember a year where we were in the 90s in May. Then last night, I read this: "Is anyone else depressed that I still have my heater turned on and it is May 18th? I cannot believe how crazy this spring weather has been and my children are itching to be outside." This is a direct quote from two years ago when we were blogging about hikes on our other blog. I laughed last night when I read it again because I had been complaining that it was so stinking hot and it's only May 14th.  

We have actually had our air conditioner on for a few weeks and I feel like it is constantly running. When it kicked on this morning at 8:00 AM, I knew we were in for another warm day. My boys are LOVING it! They have been living outside. And we have already gone through a lot of popsicles. 

Yesterday, I decided to break out the pool and water toys. We spent the whole afternoon playing in the water. Seth was napping, but when he woke up we decided to let him try the pool. He's never had the chance. Seth loved it. He cried when I took him out. I just loved his big smiles. It's going to be a fun summer!

Warmer weather mean lots of outside adventures this year.
Here we are on Temple Square!

So happy!

Garbage Truck Party

The Birthday Boy!
I ordered this shirt from CafePress.

When Dax told me that he wanted a Garbage Truck Party, I had to admit I knew it was coming. He is obsessed with garbage trucks. But do you want to know the funny thing? Dax is also afraid of garbage trucks. I know, right? On garbage day, he worries and worries about being outside if the garbage truck is coming, but then he cries and cries if he misses watching the garbage truck dump our garbage from our window. Wednesdays are a little emotional around here.

Anyway, I looked all over the Internet for ideas for a garbage truck party. I did find a few ideas, very few, but it definitely got my brain going. I'm putting all the ideas from our party on here for anyone else who might need some help with a garbage truck party.

There aren't garbage truck birthday plates and such, so I glued a garbage truck on their party cups and drew a garbage truck on all the napkins, just to make it seem more festive. That was all the decorating that I did.

My garbage truck party gear.

As the guests arrived, they started by playing garbage trucks on our car mat. I pulled out all the smaller garbage trucks (we had 10) and put them around the outside. Then each guest picked one to play with while we waited for everyone to get there. I was surprised that they found it as fun as they did. We did this for about 10 minutes. Then we played Garbage Bingo. I created these bingo sheets using clip art of garbage related items. We used smarties for the markers, so they could eat them at the end.

Playing cars!

Playing Bingo!

The next activity was probably the biggest hit. I had seen the idea to get garbage picker uppers and have them pick up trash all over the yard, but they are expensive. Like $10 a piece. Then I saw these ice grabbers in the $1 section at Target that I thought would work. Since they were small, I put cotton balls and pom poms all over my basement floor instead of pieces of garbage, gave them each a bucket, and let them go to town. When they were done, they dumped them all out and did it again. After the second time, they made me promise we could do it again before they went home. Best $10 I ever spent.

Pickin' up trash!

Cleaning up the basement. They were great garbage men.

Next we went outside for a little recycling relay. They had to empty trash cans filled with garbage into a larger trash can. It was fun to see how intense 4 years old can get.

We had a trash shoot around. They had to shoot a diaper, newspaper, empty milk jug, and a fruit snack box. We did this activity a few times as well.

Even Seth participated in the relay!

We had a garbage truck picture coloring page--this was because I had to feed my baby who is still nursing so we needed something simple and quiet. Randy was in charge of this station while I was out of the room. It was a last second addition or I would have done silly prizes or something.

For the treat, I made dirt cups. The kids were a little nervous about eating them...I think they really thought it was dirt. When they saw Randy eating it, a few of them got a little more adventurous, but everyone ate the gummy worms, of course.

Mmmm! Dirt!

Last we opened presents and played with the garbage trucks for a few minutes while we waited for everyone's parents to show. I ordered these cute garbage cans for a $1/each which Dax filled with candy for their take home treats. They also got to take home their garbage picker uppers/ice grabbers. I thought it was a great party, and probably one of the cheapest ones ever.

He loved all his presents!

The party favors

Great party!

Here We Go Again

The stitches. Poor kid!

We have another set of stitches here at our house. This time Seth was the lucky candidate. He pulled the lamp off the dresser in his room, and it broke and cut his toe. I had left Seth in his room with Dax to grab the phone, and I heard a crash and immediate crying. I hurried down to see what happened and as I picked him up I saw blood all over the carpet. I started checking his head, mouth, but I didn't really think of his toe. Once I finally figured it out, I had walked down the hall to the kitchen (the kitchen is like our ER--that's where all the band-aids and medicine are kept). There were drips of blood all down our hallway that I later spent about a half hour scrubbing.

I held a towel to stop the bleeding for a minute, and then took a better look. I knew immediately it was very deep so I called the doctor as we were getting in the car. Getting stitches with a 10 month old was definitely a million times worse than Mark getting stitches. Mark held still and was very calm (other than getting a shot). Seth, on the other hand, screamed the entire time. Two nurses held his right leg, one at the knee, the other at his foot, while I held his arms and left leg and tried to comfort him at the same time. The comforting part didn't really work. Four stitches later, Seth was drenched in sweat and completely exhausted. No one could believe he needed that many stitches on his little tiny toe.

Such cute little toes. I didn't get any before pictures this time.

Seth has been a champ other than the actually suturing time. He has been crawling around everywhere and is still into everything. I have to keep shoes on him all the time because he kept yanking his socks off, and the bandaid would come off too. Seth doesn't like having socks and shoes on, so I have one pair he can't pull off. He'll be wearing these shoes a lot!

These shoes are slip-ons, that's why he can't get them off.

I'm definitely not going to win any awards for being a great mother this year. I am grateful Dax was in there so he could tell me what happened. I feel so guilty because it was so preventable. Now, I hope we can keep Dax safe from stitches!

Just a little bit clingy to mom, but that's normal anyway.

Busy as ever!

Dax is 4

Yesterday was Dax's birthday. When he woke up, he came running into our room and said, "YEA! I'm four!" It was such an accomplishment to Dax that he made it to four. I think that partially comes as being the last of four cousins to turn 4 in a 6 month span.

Dax went to preschool on his birthday. He brought his favorite treat--chocolate chip cookies. He was so excited to go and show off his new birthday shirt.

Dax is the king of silly faces!

Really? Snow on my birthday!

After preschool we went and had lunch at Arctic Circle with his cousins. Alice, who is two weeks older than Dax, had done this a few weeks ago, and for some reason Dax decided he had to do it too.

For dinner, Dax told me he wanted soup. He has been loving any kind of soup lately. He picked chicken noodle soup. I think Randy and I were just as excited as Dax was for dinner--it's our favorite right now.

Dax probably asked me 50 times when he could open presents. So finally after dinner, we opened presents and Dax opened the big garbage truck and garbage cans he had been waiting for all day. He has been playing with it nonstop.

So excited about this truck!

Today Dax said, "Well, I guess I'm almost 5. I'm 4 now, and that's pretty much 5."

Dax wanted a garbage truck cake for his birthday and for some reason I didn't stress over this cake as much. Some years I fret and fret over the cake, but even though this cake was time consuming, I stayed pretty calm. And even if I do say so myself, I think it turned out pretty amazing!

I remember four years ago when my doctor pulled and pulled with the forceps trying to get Dax out after I had been in labor for 19 hours, and then looked at me and said, "I'm so sorry Natalie. We're going to have to do a c-section." At that point, I didn't care and since my mom had c-sections, I wasn't too surprised. It was the best thing that happened. I recovered more quickly with Dax than Mark. Dax was and still is a happy kid. He has the best laugh. When he was a baby, everyone would comment on his laugh and how cute it was--Dax still has a great laugh. Dax has always been our best sleeper. Up until he was 3, he would tell us he was ready for a nap and would go lay down. It was awesome.

Dax has the kindest heart and is so defensive of his family. Today, I told Mark he couldn't play another video game and Mark started to cry. Dax immediately looked at me with a mad face and said, "Don't make my brother cry!" We wish Mark would learn some empathy from Dax. Dax has been more challenging than Mark for me as a mother, but he has provided me with some of the sweetest moments when he just walks up to give me a hug. Dax is a great helper as long as it is something he wants to do--usually yard work or taking out the garbage!

Dax worries me already from the teacher perspective. He loves to be silly and make others laugh. I just know he is going to be a class clown, but right now his preschool teacher says he is a great listener. I hope that keeps up. Everyone loves being around Dax and he has many friends. I hope he will use that for good as he gets older. Dax is very creative and makes up stories all the time. Really, Dax is just like his dad, which is a great thing. Dax also looks the most like his dad.

I love Dax so much and I'm grateful for the past four years to be his mom. I have learned a lot about patience from Dax, but also a lot about having fun and showing love.

Dax always eats the frosting first! Happy Birthday buddy!