The makings of an awesome tie

Trustin usually lets Zeke choose his tie each week.  Here is today's winner:

Why did Zeke pick this one?  Because it had "Batman and Temple!"

 We have decided that Ashlynn has the fasted lips in the west.  If you put anything remotely near her face she just lunges at it with her mouth with remarkable unexpected speed.  For example: Trustin was holding a toy truck in his lap and Ashlynn was sitting up tall until she noticed the truck and CHOMP.  All toys are meant to be eaten.

This is just a cute shot of our kiddos yesterday sitting in the bike trailer before we went on a bike ride.  They are so cute together.  Ashlynn just leans against Zeke and fall asleep and then Zekewill lean his head down to rest on hers.

Our magical couch and dinosaur investation

So this is what Zeke has been up to lately:

Really, this is about all he has been up to.  Trustin decided to show Zeke how to make a house out of the couch cushions and boy did Zeke catch on to the magic.  We are playing on that couch A LOT these days.  Luckily our couch takes many forms. 

The image pictured happens to be a train track, or railroad tunnels.

But our couch has also been known to become:

a bus

a house

a boat

Mater

Giant Chesco (Francesco, from Cars 2)

Little Chesco

and I'm pretty sure I'm missing a few. 

Oh, and we have to be sure we arrange the cushions correctly.  Each one has a slightly different way of being built. 

And the point of building these things typically is so that Zeke can "knock down on you" and then be "your hero" and help us escape from the wreckage.  At this point we must build them again.  Zeke is in heaven.  If we didn't already have a couch I think I'd buy one for Zeke for Christmas.

One of the cutest adventures we've had so far was while we were on the bus.  I built the bus and we both hopped in and suddenly Zeke pointed and exclaimed "Wappers!" (Raptors).  For the next long while we were throwing raptors out the windows of the bus, throwing raptor food off the bus to entice them off, tickling raptors, bouncing with raptors and running away from raptors.  When we were in the backyard later that day Zeke even found some raptors on top of our house which we quickly caught and rode around the backyard.    I don't know how all of these raptors came to invest our house but they are here in high quantities.  Lucky Zeke always knows what to do to take care of them.

Four Months Old!

Our little lady is four months old today!  Crazy!  I see little newborns and I can't believe how fast my little one has grown.  Ashlynn is such a ball of sunshine in our home and we are loving her so much.  She is starting to love playing with toys and looking at things.  She will sit in the bumbo as the centerpiece on our table while we eat breakfast and she just sits and smiles at us, studies the cereal boxes and tries to taste anything she can reach.  She loves to play peek-a-boo now too and will give us such big grins. 

It is exciting to see the ways she is just her own little person. She has a new habit we can't help but find a little bit adorable, but we are fighting it too.  See above.  It makes me smile because she doesn't just suck her thumb, she sucks her thumb and index finger.  That seemed like a strange combo to me, so I tried it out and sure enough, it is really a rather awkward position; but Ashlynn likes it. 

  One of my favorite sounds in the world is the sound of Ashlynn jabbering away when she is happy.  Lucky for us, she is a very happy baby.  And she has blessed us by being a very sleepy baby too.  I feel like she sleeps a ton!  And she ALWAYS (or at least very close to it) wakes up with a smile.  Those are my favorite smiles.  Even if she is completely asleep and we wake her up to put on jammies or go somewhere she just instantly starts smiling at us.

She loves Zeke and is extremely patient with him.  Zeke likes to do "dog piles" and Ashlynn usually tries to endure for as long as she can.  She loves it when Zeke comes and climbs on the side of the crib to say "good morning" and always gives him big smiles as I hold her down low so Zeke can give her a great big hug.

(Zeke is a bit confused and thinks her first name is Baby.  He used to point at the A in his alphabet books and say "A, Ashlynn" but now he says "A, Baby."  Pretty cute but I'm trying to stop calling her baby Ashlynn and just call her Ashlynn, because I don't want a little girl named Baby. :D )

Well, I guess that is the update on the smilely little Ashlynn girl that I love so much.

Faith as a Little Child

At stake conference this weekend our stake president gave a talk about becoming as a little child.  He naturally focused on the descriptions in the scriptures "meek, submissive, patient, full of love" all of which are excellent.  It was a good talk, but I found my mind wandering to a completely different side of how I need to be more like Zeke.

Zeke has perfect faith in Trustin and I.  An all too common conversation we have is one where we are driving in the car and Zeke requests milk when we didn't bring any milk with us.  I try to patiently explain that we didn't bring any milk but as soon as we get home we will get him some.  Zeke's response "want milk right now!"  There is no amount of logical reasoning that can sway him from this request.

These conversations are sometimes draining for me and I find myself getting frustrated that Zeke doesn't understand that it is literally impossible for me to give him milk when there is no milk to give.  But last night I was thinking about it as faith.  To Zeke, reason does not get in the way of his belief that Trustin and I can meet his needs.  Rationality has nothing to do with it. 

I wish I had that kind of faith, to take the beautiful scripture "For with God nothing shall be impossible"(Luke 1:37) and really act on it.  While I am incapable of making milk appear where there is none, with God that and so much more is possible. 

"Well it was fun when we weren't awake"

This was Trustin's assessment of the first camp out we did with Zeke last weekend.  I replied "You mean when we weren't conscious enough to know we were miserable?" "Yep."

We've wanted to take Zeke camping for a while now but somehow have never gotten around to it.  We have soccer games every Friday night so it has never really been a convenient option.  But last Friday we had no game and we knew that our days of "warm enough" weather were numbered.  So we went for it, but decided to keep it simple: a tent in the backyard so Ashlynn could stay in the house. 

Our first mistake:  we thought if we didn't start the camp out until Zeke was exhausted he would fall asleep quicker.  So we didn't even start setting up our tent until 10:00.

 Memo to me: Exhausted Zeke equals quicker meltdown. 

We were expecting oodles of excitement that not only did Zeke get to sleep in the same room as Mom and Dad (a goal he has definitely been inching towards lately) but he would get to sleep in a tent!  He was thrilled as he set the tent up with Trustin.  But by the time we were all situated in our sleeping bags it was one meltdown after another winding up with Zeke in the double sleeping bag between Trustin and I, trying to kick off the covers, begging for far more water than in safe to intake just before bed even with a diaper, pleading for a toy that was in the house bur refusing the tell us which toy, and when he wasn't crying and whining he was simply wiggling, talking, and doing anything but sleeping.  After more than an hour of this he finally fell asleep.  Hallelujah! So we finally did too.  Then the night was filled with Zeke partially waking, half asleep moping, and not staying in the sleeping bag (and remember that "warm enough" weather?  It wasn't actually warm, it was COLD).  Finally around 6 a.m. Zeke had had enough and woke up--ish. He wasn't awake enough to know what he wanted (he didn't want to stay in the tent, he didn't want to leave the tent...happiness could not be achieved under such conditions) so he just rolled around on us semi crying with us trying to decipher the means to bringing him (and us) sleep or at least contentment.  And then we realized the excess liquid of the night before had made its appearance.  Thus ended our camp out. Good thing our washer is big enough for sleeping bags.

Funny thing is, now that is over, Zeke thinks we had a great time.  He says with a giant grin "Zeke did camp-out with Mommy and Daddy!" And what might be even funnier, Trustin and I kind of think we did too. 

Happy Halloween!  We had a great one.  Well, technically it is tomorrow, but the ward trunk or treat counts for us, although we will probably dress up Zeke to pass out candy on Monday.  Zeke understood slightly better than last year, but still didn't seem to fully appreciate the magic.  He loved his costume and dressing up, and he loves the skeletons and scary decorations in our neighborhood (he says "hi" to the skeletons, even the creepy ones and has no concept of Halloween as a scary holiday).  But I was expecting super excitement at all the candy and there wasn't really much of that.  He just went from car to car an put candy in his bucket more out of obdience than delight.  Of course he was happy to eat it afterwards!

Because Zeke didn't fully understand Halloween we had a hard time finding out what he wanted to be for Halloween.  We found a Buzz Lightyear costume for $3.00 and went for it.  Of course a few days later Zeke declared that he wanted to be a MOOSE!  Where did that idea come from?  I think the motivator was the deer in my Dad's garage.  But luckily we were able to convince him that Buzz would be pretty cool too.  Trustin spent oodles of time making Buzz's wings, complete with battery powered lights!  Zeke loved it.

Ashlynn was our little baby penguin and naturally she was quite adorable and had no clue what was going on. 

Happy Halloween!

The Progression

So once upon a time... we decided to buy Zeke a twin bed, and we fretted about how the transition would go.  The time had come: a baby was on the way, ready to steal the crib, and Zeke had learned how to escape the crib, head first.  Still, we were nervous.  To our pleasant surprise the transition was remarkably easy.  Zeke loved his big bed and had no trouble sleeping in it (can you see where this is going?).  Not only would he sleep just fine in his bed but he wouldn't even get out of it, ever. After he would wake up he would sit there on his bed and call for us.  Then we'd come up and he'd climb down.

Then one day, it all changed. 

Zeke overheard us telling somebody how incredible it is that he never climbs out of his bed.  The VERY next day, you guessed it.  (Smart kid, eh?). 

See stage one: under the bed

Followed up quickly by stage two: sleeping by the door. He slept here every bedtime/naptime for weeks, we couldn't even open the door to peak at our little sleeper, except by sneaking a camer around the door.

Then we felt guilty because Zeke started saying "no lock door."  The lock disappeared with the admonition that he still needed to stay in his room.  He sort of obeyed.  see stage 3

That lasted a while, but then we hit stage 4: slowly creeping down the hall.  It was quite adorable really, he would bring his pillow, several blankets, his bedtime toys and set up his little bed in the hallway every night. 

I don't have a picture of the next one, but Zeke requested to sleep on the stairs.  Strangely, I said no.  This coupled with the fact that nap and bedtime were all preceded by several hours of playing and running around the hall and opening and closing his door and then finally falling asleep in the hallway  which meant walking on pins and needles from the rest of us and eliminating the possibility of Trustin and I watching movies in the living room after bedtime and premature ends to naptime if the phone rang led to the decision that Stage 2 (lock on the knob and kid sleeping by the door) was a rather lovely stage.  It has returned. 

First Day of School, and more

We made the mistake of putting Ashlynn in blue jeans and tennis shoes.  Suddenly I had this feeling like she was all dressed up for her first day of school.  I should not be allowed to feel like that when she is two months old. 

 hint of a smile

 See, she is way too old already.

Finally we caught some of her big smiles on camera! 

Yep, this kid is definitely ours.

The next few are photos from a ward activity up at Mt. Charleston.  It was so great to be somewhere with trees and cool area and nature.  It made me miss Pinetop.  We had a lot of fun and I wish it was just a bit closer so we could head up to the mountains all the time.

Zeke had to jump off pretty much every fallen tree we encountered.

And so Ashlynn did too.

A little baseball with sticks and pine cones.

Here's my whole life.

McKelle --- "I am going to exercise"

Zeke ---"Where my pink muscles are?"

Watch out for this kid.  He's tough.

Lately Zeke calls EVERYONE "that guy."  Men, women, children, prophets, book characters, parents.  Most common phrase "What that guy doing?"

Perhaps one of life's greatest enjoyments.

As for us: I started a ridiculous online course that is threatening to take over my existence or at least every single moment of Zeke's naps.  Trustin is still just working.  Nothing too exciting here.  But I do have a growing appreciation for freezer meals.

This video is kind of dim but catches some smiles.

Zeke's New Bed

Zeke recently decided that beds are overrated.  He now chooses to sleep on the floor in front of his bedroom door.  Every nap.  Every bedtime.  This is a mystery to me.

Blessing Day for our Sweet Girl

Trustin blessed Ashlynn this past Sunday.  It was a beautiful blessing for a beautiful little girl.  Grandma Brockbank made her blessing dress and it was exquisite.  Listening to the words of the blessing made me so proud of my Ashlynn and I can't wait to see her grow and learn.  She already means the world to me but I've found with both of my kids that every stage is "the cutest stage ever" and they just keep getting cuter! 

A little quick catch up

Here is a quick little catch up in photos:

Ashlynn almost went swimming for the first time, but then we decided that the water was too cold for her, so she just came with us to look cute.  She was quite successful at that.

 

 Sleeping Beauty.  I love it when babies or kids sleep with their bottoms in the air!

 Getting ready to read a bedtime story.

 Zeke wanted to have Ashlynn in the hamper with him...  Does this look safe?  Perhaps not. 

 Went to the carousel again.

 We are home!  Hooray!  It took six weeks to fix our house but we are so glad to be home, even if it does mean we have to start making our own beds and weeding the garden.  And here we are making cookies.  Zeke is my great assistant chef.

 One of the things Zeke missed the most while we were staying in the hotel was his red bike.  He is loving being reunited with this old friend.  A little thing we love about Zeke these days: He is handsome.  He is nothing but handsome.  If we say "Zeke you are so cute"(or any other adjective) he responds "No, Zeke handsoo!"

 We made riding bikes a family affair.

 ...for the whole family.

 Moving back in prompted a bit of Spring cleaning beginning with finally dealing with our massive pile of things that need to be shredded.  The best way to take care of that was by roasting marshmallows.

 Ashlynn's first time in the bumbo.  And she has finally started smiling. 

Finally, we got lots of great family pictures taken out at Lake Las Vegas by Trustin's dad.