FYI

A couple of people asked me where I got the pattern for the little car caddy. No pattern, but it's super easy...I saw it in www.createstudio.blogspot.com. Look for the Cozy Car Caddy.

Happy Birthday!

The Birthday

Monday was Talmage's 2 year old birthday. Wow, time really flies. We went in his bedroom, early Monday morning to wish him happy birthday. This is what we found.
A half-naked boy playing with his trucks and cars. He insists on bringing them to bed with him. It's okay with me because he is contained and happy and that makes me happy.
We ate some birthday pancakes (complete with candle, that he would not blow out) and opened some very modest gifts (one dollar matchbox cars from the dollar store). I also made him this little car caddy to carry his cars around in. He loved it. He drove his cars in and out of the pockets, parked them backwards and then forwards, etc....it feels good to be appreciated.
It folds up like this.
We had another little party that night...check out our awesome decorations (also from the dollar store). Andrew was really happy to be there. Too bad I didn't get a picture of him in the wet suit he bought earlier that day, it was also awesome.
No party is complete without some cake...truck cake, that is. You can't see the mold very well with chocolate cake, but I have a cake pan with truck molds. It's always a big hit, who doesn't like truck cake? We also put candles in the trucks and no, he would not blow them out.
That was our big day. It was so fun to celebrate the two years we've had with our little guy. He has been such a blessing in our lives. He keeps us happy and mindful of the most important things- family.

Whew

We got through croup with only 2 sleepless nights, one scary breathless encounter, heavy-duty humidification and lots of juice. The baby didn't get sick and Talmage learned a lot about trucks, city sanitation and fire trucks. We're looking forward to his 2 year old birthday on Monday....woo hoo.

Bad News

Talmage has croup. He's doing okay.
To appease him, we've watched redbox's 'Mighty Machines' about 20 times. It'll be a miracle if I have any cognisant ability after this is over.
If we can get through this without the baby getting sick, I'll be happy.

Halloween, fireman style

Two Fireman
A Fire Truck
And a Fire Dog
Yes, the fire truck was the most ghetto costume ever, but Talmage loved it to pieces, literally. I had to re-build it three times. And then came Halloween, not a party or get together, but the real deal and he fell in the costume and wouldn't put it on after that. Such a bummer, at least we got our money's worth.
P.S. I know these are pretty lame costumes, but next year...we are going to be something awesome. Any suggestions?

For my Dad, the baby whisperer:

Trucks

If you've ever talked to Talmage, you know what his best, most verbal, favorite word is: Truck. Wee-o wee-o is how he says fire trucks. You can guess what we talk about most of the day. We read books about trucks, laugh about trucks, line them up, drive them around, fill them with money, raisins or cheerios, really the possibilities are endless. And that is why Talmage was a fire truck for Halloween. (picture to come soon)

Revolutionized

We've had a couple of fun changes around here lately.
Let me explain.
My mom made another awesome blanket, this time for Logan.
This has REVOLUTIONIZED Logan...not really, but someday it will. Remember the awesome blanket my mom made for Talmage? It's very similar to this and he LOVES it. When my dad pulled this one out of his suitcase, Talmage looked at it with longing eyes and said, "ta-tee" (What he calls his blankey) He tried to rub his face in it, but I explained this blankey was for the baby. I went and got his blankey and he hugged it and pointed to this one and said, "bebe ta-tee"

Creamy Peanut Butter...this has REVOLUTIONIZED our lunchtimes.
Talmage will eat a whole pb&j sandwich... open faced. Cute, but very messy
Cake pops. I made these the other day and they REVOLUTIONIZED Grace. She couldn't get enough, and neither could Andrew.
Curtains. WOW, they have REVOLUTIONIZED our apartment. I've only had this fabric for, like, 4 months. I finally got them up and they make such a difference.
Change is good.

Let me help you....

Sometimes Talmage will try and feed Logan or put his binky in. I thought I would get a little video of it.
I love how he holds the bottle by his mouth and makes a biting sound, like its a carrot or something.
The kiss at the end is priceless...pucker up.
p.s. I understand about as much jibber jabber as you understand

For the record

Here is one of Logan's cute smiles. He's a happy guy.

Talmage and Logan

Every once in a while, Talmage is interested in Logan and will try to hold him or pick him up. As you can see it's not a very serious attempt.
I love that when I ask Talmage to kiss Logan he sighs, like, "don't ask too much of me, Mom".
I also loves that he runs away after about 5 seconds...a realistic portrayal of his attention span.

Closet Pride

As many of you know, Truston went to the University of Utah. (A minor flaw I was willing to overlook). He was the first member of his family to attend college out of high school and attended on a full scholarship for 4 years. He likes the U, but he's not dyed in the wool. I guess you could call him a fair-weather fan. Unfortunately for him, he married into a dyed in the wool through and through, BLUE family.
My siblings surprised us with some football tickets this last weekend and we went to the game. Lucky for Truston, they had this extra BYU t-shirt lying around. This was the best picture I could get of him...he kept darting around and covering up the 'cougar'. He is slowly turning sides. He even remarked during the game, "Our teams defense..." Baby steps, my friends, baby steps. Thanks, Tanner, Grace and Andrew for a great afternoon.
I tried to take a picture of the boys together...Talmage is totally disinterested and Logan is totally unaware. Still cute.

Happy Birthday Tanman!

This guy had a birthday:
We are so glad he's home from his mission in California and back at BYU...more fun for all of us.
And we celebrated all week long.
Thursday: dinner at Famous Daves..courtesy of the parentals
Saturday: BYU football game and a funnel cake/dance party
Sunday: dinner at the grandparents, and carrot cake
More people should have birthdays more often... it's fun to celebrate

Watch Out

Today I caught somebody making fun of my baby. Lucky for him, he looked at me before I chucked the shoe I had in my hand. Word to the wise, if you want to make fun of my children, don't be surprised if a hard wooden shoe comes flying straight for your head.
P.S. I have good aim and I throw hard.

Some Firsts

Today we celebrated some firsts:
1.)I put my tennis shoes on for he first time in...ahh....6 months. We went on a little walk.
2.) I gave Talmage his first plum and he loved it, in fact he ate 3.
3.) I put Logan in a big boy outfit. I shouldn't have done it, now he looks so big. I can't believe how fast 3 weeks have flown by. Here is a picture of him.
Today when I was feeding him, I looked down at his hands and toes and noticed that they are bigger. They may not look big to you, but they are chubbier then they were 3 weeks ago, or even a week ago. Babies grow so fast.
I also noticed that his feet seem to be developing into the characteristic "Bodine feet". His toes are already looking a little 'swollen'. (Somebody told us once that we should get Talmage's toes checked out because they looked swollen. I laughed out loud. Sorry buddy, they're just that fat.)

a surprise and some potty humor

There are many things that are different when you add another child to the mix. I though, for example, that one child crying would affect the other child. Not so. Talmage could care less when Logan is crying and Logan doesn't even flinch when Talmage is bawling. I thought they might wake each other up, sympathy cry or be annoyed, but as far as I can tell there is no change. a nice surprise.

On a more scatological note, if you have ever had a newborn, I'm sure you can remember being shocked at how loud and proud their bodily functions are. What is coming out of this little ten pound body would be more appropriate for a 300-lb burrito-contest-eating man. It's almost like they could shot themselves into space with the amount of gas released. This afternoon, I was sitting at the table with Talmage, holding Logan when he let one rip. Talmage started giggling and said, "woooow". He laughed for about a minute. I'm so glad the potty jokes have started.

Life in the slow lane

Logan is two weeks old and we are still hanging on. I think that we're doing really well and then I'll catch Talmage spreading breadcrumbs all over our apartment from the back of his fisher-price bus or making watermelon juice and painting it onto the sofa.
As far as i can tell, the biggest downside to two children under two is that one will be unsupervised part of the time, and it is probably the child that knows how to dig through the trash can or take pictures with the camera. For instance, I found you-know-who with the camera this morning and he had taken about 20 pictures. Here are the first couple...after that he expresses his artistic talent (or not) in a variety of shaky, fuzzy landscape shots. (Oh yeah, that is after he got into the bathtub after I had taken a shower and 'swam' around in the residual water...soaking wet from head to toe, not to mention gross.)



Yesterday, I lost my phone. I looked everywhere and couldn't find it. I finally remembered the last place I saw it was in the hands of this kid. I was sure it was in his room and I tore it apart looking for my phone. It wasn't ringing, so I assumed it must be dead. I all but gave up when I remembered one last hiding spot. Talmage likes to take the end off my exercise bike stand and slip his cars into the tube. Sure enough, there was my phone, tightly wedged into a metal tube. It was pushed so far back I had to pull it out with some kitchen tongs. That is the last time I will let him walk away with my phone. Just for kicks, here is a picture of the culprit.
One last thing, I've been trying to take some cute pictures of Logan for a baby announcement. Here is what happened this morning:



We will try again tomorrow

Big News!!!

Logan Samuel Bodine was born on September 1.
He weighed 8 lbs 13 ounces and was 20 inches long. He was born with some healthy sized cheeks, as you can see. We are so grateful and happy to have our little friend here with us.

Sorry, I can't fix this picture, but it is so cute with his little smile. I know that newborns don't 'smile' but I've caught quite a few.

Catch Up- July 4th

So, I have A LOT of catch-up to do.
This year I was a slacker and ditched my husband and his family fireworks and went to Houston for the wedding of my friend Christy.
It was beautiful! The ceremony was beautiful, the temple was beautiful, the flowers were beautiful, everything was wonderful. Hot, but wonderful.
I was a little worried because traveling with a child is kind of like traveling with a monkey, he is a wild card. But Talmage was super! He slept well, was charming and rolled with all the punches.
This is a picture of beautiful Christy and her sisters.
Her cute husband is into motocross and this was the grooms cake. This was the most awesome Grooms Cake I have ever seen! A stadium, complete with a little candy guy on a motocycle.
Their reception was at George Ranch. George Ranch is an old 1940's cattle ranch outside of Houston. They had a BBQ dinner and dancing at one of the old dance halls. In case you were wondering what I look like 7 months pregnant. If you think I can't get any bigger...wait for the next post.

What a Day!!!

So, on Tuesday, my brother Tanner came home from his mission. He's been serving for two years as a missionary in the Riverside California Mission. Lucky for us, he had a 9 hour lay over in Salt Lake City on his way to Alaska. So my brother, Andrew, and I went to the airport and 'picked' him up.

We made some signs.

Tanner tried to shake my hand at first. Ha, I side swiped that and gave him a big hug.

What a fun experience. Poor Tanner, all the other missionaries that got off the plane had crying mothers and large family groups...We were holding a sign that said 'baptize me'. I don't think he cared too much though.

We brought him to the SL temple and did a session with both the Myres and Coleman grandparents. It was a very special occasion and then we all ate a little dinner.

It only took Talmage the whole afternoon to warm up to Tanner. What a stinker. As he was leaving, Talmage jumped into his arms and we snapped this picture. Talmage looks funny because anytime you point a camera at him, he blinks furiously and flashes a really cheesy smile. (I have a funny video to post about that later)
Anyways, Talmage and Tanner have one special feature in common. White Hair. Tanner was the blondest kid you ever saw. Even his eyebrows were white, not so much anymore, but he's still pretty blonde.

So we brought him back to the airport and he flew to Anchorage, Alaska where the party continued. What a treat to see our favorite missionary come home, we've been waiting for weeks for this day to come.
As if that wasn't enough, Tuesday was also Truston's Birthday!! 25 years old!
I made some amazingly delicious (if I do say so myself) Lemon Meringue Cupcakes. We invited over our friends and family and had a one more party.
Truston was a sport, he even wore a hat and blew out a candle. The reflection of my flash happened to be the exact pinnacle of his birthday hat. It kind of looks like his birthday hat was also on fire. Maybe it was...it was a pretty awesome birthday party.

This last picture is totally unrelated, I just included it for laughs. Also because I think my family would like to see how Andrew dresses, not that it's any surprise, he's been doing this his whole life. Andrew spent most of the day with us; airport, temple, dinner, party, etc. He stayed for a while after everyone left. He got dressed in some more comfortable clothes and when he came out, this is what he was wearin; a striped shirt, plaid pants, Tanner's philmont belt that he's been wearing for the past two years (Tanner was a guide there, not Andrew, even though he tells everyone he was), black socks and yes...flip flops. If that wasn't enough, he started our toaster on fire. It's always a party when Andrew's around, even if you're only looking at what he's wearing. What a day.

The Matador

Talmage's new dance kind of reminds me of a matador. It's awesome.

Check This Out

I want one

More Favorite Things

Some more favorite things:
Riding Lawn Mowers
I really can't even tell you how much time he spends on this riding lawn mower, basically he climbs on and around it the entire time we are visiting Truston's parents. He loves it; he pretends to drive it, makes machine noises and turns all the spinning aparatus'.
This is my favorite:
Boys in swim suits.

He really does have a swim suit, not just a speedo diaper. (The swim suit had just come off at this point.) He was really pointing to a plane in the sky, but it looks like he's posing. Kills me.

Hello Summer

Two of my favorite things:
Pools and Otter Pops
It's going to be a good summer.

What he does best...

This poor child doesn't have a backyard. So he improvises...by pushing the jogging stroller up against our patio wall (we're in the basement), climbing on top of it and sticking his head over the ledge. He watches the neighbors, cars and buses (his favorite). Sometimes he'll climb up with a truck or two to drive along the wall.

A few of his favorite things...

Talmage really loves his blanket. A LOT. Thanks to my awesome mom for making this beautiful specimen of orange fur and aliens. We don't carry it everywhere, but around the house, it is his almost constant companion. Talmage also loves trucks, really anything with wheels and a motor.
The other day, I caught him giving his blanky a ride in his truck. It was so funny, I had to take a video and this is it.
Notice how well he plays until he realizes I have the camera. He instantly changes into a silly, cheesy mode. He also blows his nose at me. This is a newly acquired skill, for which I am grateful, I just wish he would do it when I have a kleenex somewhere nearby. Good thing no boogies ended up on the camera.
p.s. He can say 'cheese'. He can actually say a lot of things, but he will never do it on command. Only on his own terms...

Names

Now that we know we're having a boy, we can settle down and concentrate on picking a name. Wow, it's really hard. We have no ideas...actually I do and I will run them down with you. Tell me what you think.
There are two options:
1. We can embrace our nordic heritage and hope for another white haired, bright blue eyed baby and name him....Sven, Leif, Soren, Erik, etc.
2. We can steal our siblings name picks. HAH. Don't think I won't do it, because I would. For example, my brother told me the other day he wants a boy named Simon. Stolen. Another brother said he wants a boy named George. Stolen. Somebody else wants to name their baby Max. They better watch out!
Anyways, if anybody has any good suggestions, we would appreciate them. Me especially, since Truston's main role in this whole process is saying 'no, I knew somebody with that name' or 'no, that's weird.'

Chattering

I took this video a while ago and forgot that I had it on my camera.
Talmage talks ALL day, don't ask me what he's saying, though. I can't translate.
I guess we're doing a little better now, at least I know when he's saying, 'no way' to me.

Easter Egg Hunt

This Saturday we had an Easter Egg Hunt with our ward. It was really fun (even though it rained), and we even had a special Easter visitor. I was a little reticent about the bunny because Talmage is normally scared of those kind of things. I watched him anxiously as the Easter Bunny came out. His eyes got wide and he started walking towards him with a huge smile, pointing and laughing. The whole time the Easter Bunny was with us, he just followed him around the field, laughing and pointing. I wish I would've had a video camera, it was so funny. As proof, here is a picture.

Gender

It's a boy!
A little friend for Talmage.

did you know....

Did you know what Hannah Montana has her own anti-persperant.
Wow.
It's called Secret Rock Star Rose.

It was a good day.

On Thursday, after I had a good morning workout and feeling on cloud 9, I did something I would normally NEVER do. In fact, I have been procrastinating this certain item for..ah... months.
I called our insurance company.
If anybody has ever in this life or previous lives called an insurance company for any reason whatsoever, they know what I'm talking about.
Several things are guaranteed to happen:
1. You will wait for at least 15 minutes to talk to a person.
2. You will have no idea what they're talking about when you do talk to a real person.
3. You will feel swindled.
4. You will start using bad words and making death threats.
5. You will think.."Could this be any worse?" and then you remember some stupidos are trying to socialize medicine and you horrifically realize it could get worse...

BUT

That did not happen! I did have to wait a while to talk to a guy, but he was super nice, explained everything clearly and slowly and broke the happy news that there was several hundred dollars waiting for me to be reimbursed. Awesome. Then he told me more good news, I have even more money waiting for me to use. It just kept getting better. I was ready to profess my love to this man. It was awesome.

Hah.

I'm 18 weeks pregnant and this morning I did 3 100 IM's.
Hah.
It's going to be a good day.

Gusto

I'm sorry I haven't posted in so long. I don't think I could even tell you what I've been doing...I've just been lazy. And for a week or so I have been thinking there is nothing blog worthy going on...so I've been trying to think of something to post about. Well, today while Talmage and I were eating lunch...it hit me.
I fixed some tomato soup, which I normally detest, but being pregnant will do strange things to you, and I've had a hankering for tomato soup. I was leery about giving him soup, because, well...that sounds like too much mess and not enough eating. I went ahead and gave him a small bowl of soup. He tried a little bit and WOW...it was like I hadn't fed him in months. He slurped that soup with gusto. He couldn't get it in his mouth fast enough (it didn't help that he couldn't spoon very much into his mouth to begin with).


And then he realized he could just drink out of the bowl. He drank and drank and drank some more. I refilled his little bowl three times, and he loved every drop of that tomato soup. Who would've known?

This was one happy boy. If only he would eat all the time like that.

What is this?

That's right, a baby!

Number 2 will be here at the beginning of September. We are super excited!!

Fun in the Alaskan Sun

While I was in Alaska, I wanted to do some cross-country skiing because it seems to be quite the sport up there. In Alaska, people run in the summer to train for skiing in the winter. A little backwards, huh? My sister, Grace, has become quite the skier, and my dad goes every night. Whenever we went out, the trails were full of people and dogs. Of course everybody brings their giant wolf dogs, and sometimes they are skjorking. Yes, that is a real thing. It's when your wolf dog pulls you on your skis. We also saw quite a few people with baby sleds. Yes, a tiny sled to put your child in and strap to your body while you ski along pulling the sled. We even saw one women skjorking (strapped to a dog in front of her) with her baby sled (baby strapped to her back). It looked a little dangerous, if you ask me. These are some pictures of our last skiing excursion. It was pretty fun. Grace literally skied circles around us. But I didn't let that hurt my feelings.





Look closely at the last picture. Do you see a MOOSE? On our way back, Mango (my parents dog-not a wolf dog, just a golden retriever) kept barking at some bushes and when we took a closer look there was a moose chomping, about 15 ft. away. In case, you don't remember, the last time we went to Alaska, I had a very special moose encounter. The moose charged me, probably the scariest thing ever! So you can imagine I was a little skiddish, strapped to some skis, completely helpless. My only consolation was the two sharp poles in to my hands. I skied away as quickly as possible, and then my dad came up behind me yelling, "RUN". Just imagine me high-tailing it out of there as fast as possible. Oh yeah, he was joking. Good joke, dad.