Uh . . .

On the way to gymnastics Porter said that we go there because we need to exercise everyday. He wondered how his friend Sage at daycare gets exercise because he doesn't go to gymnastics. I told him that they exercise at daycare, like when they dance or run around. Then Porter said, "but you don't exercise, huh? When do you exercise? Dad exercises a lot." Uh. . . um. . . well.

a couple more of Angie's pictures

who knew that Dallin would be so interested in vegetables

The other kids in this picture are Christina's kids (Christina is another of Joe's cousins)

These are pictures that Angie took of the boys at Thanksgiving (Angie is Joe's cousin's wife).

All of the following pictures are from daycare. They gave me a disc with these pictures of the boys. It makes me a little sad to see the pictures and think about how much my boys have grown up and how much time they have had to spend at daycare (ugh, I don't really want to talk about that whole issue and the constant struggle I have with being a working mom and being pulled in two different directions)

counting and singing

This is Porter and Dallin explaining what they are going to be when they grow up, etc.

This is a video of Porter and Dallin playing in the basement. This is about how long they can last without fighting. I like how Dallin sneaks Porter's toy right after Porter tells him to leave it alone

I hate bed time

I hate bed time at our house. Dallin has to get dragged into his screaming, "no go bed, no go bed!" and Porter tries every tactic he can think to stall. Because Dallin wants to sleep in Porter's bed and cannot be distracted when Porter and I try to sneak off for books, I have to put Dallin to bed first. I read to him, which can take three times as long as it should because gets tired of books half way through and closes them and then changes his mind and wants to start all over again. Or he won't push the sound buttons on the sound button books but won't let me do it and won't let the book continue until the buttons have been pushed. Or he just has a lot of questions and comments along the way. Mostly, he just gets mad that he has to go to bed and that carries over into everything else. Lately, he wants me to lay on his floor until he falls asleep but I still need to put Porter to bed. Dallin and I have sort of struck a deal. I put him to bed and give him "spaceship kisses" (which are just regular kisses but he thinks are special somehow) and then leave the light on for him. I am supposed to come back after Porter is in bed and lay on Dallin's floor then. Dallin usually falls asleep before I come back though. So last night, I put Dallin into bed, discussed how I would be leaving the light on for him until I came back, and went to put Porter to bed. Just as I got Porter into bed (after collecting all the toys that need to sleep with him: his new motorcycle and rider, George (his monkey), and Yertle the Turtle; as well as getting his blankies set up appropriately, aim his humidifier at him, get him a juice, etc. etc.), Dallin started crying. I went back to tell him to wait and he wouldn't be consoled. Dallin screamed through all of Porter's book time, Porter's prayers, and Porter's tucking in. I told Porter I needed to go take care of Dallin and then Porter got upset. His "whole body is sick" and he is scared of the "darks" and wanted me to lay "behind" him. We negotiated that I would come back into his room and lay behind him after Dallin was asleep and so he settled into bed finally. I went and laid down on Dallin's floor and spent the next hour waiting for him to fall asleep. Every 5 or 10 minutes, I would hear, "Mom," "what" "no go." Finally, I fell asleep. I woke up, at what I thought was probably 1:00 or so am to go to my own bed. Sadly, it was 6:00 and time to get ready for work. Ugh. This is why I secretly hope that they will fall asleep watching tv before it is time to put them to bed.

Porter lately

Just like with Dallin, I am only going to hit some of Porter's recent highlights instead of trying to catch up on everything that Porter has ever done.

Today Porter told me that he would like to race motorcycles when he is grown up and he will probably drive on the road when he does. Prior to this, Porter considered being a policeman or an army guy when he grows up so that he can shoot bad guys.

Porter (and Dallin) have been interesting in dying lately. They are always killing each other when they play. I blame Joe's video games. Whenever Porter sees an elderly person, he says (usually loudly) that they are going to die soon. He was asking me where Grammy parents live, the other day and I told him that they are dead. He said it is because they got old. Then Dallin chimed in that Midnight is dead. Porter said he wishes he knew where Uncle Jess had buried Midnight. I told him he could ask Uncle Jess. Porter said that he was too scared to ask people questions and said that I could do it for him. Then he mentioned that if Uncle Jacob dies, Dad would drive his truck and I would give back my car because I would get Brucie. That might be true, at least the part about Joe taking Jacob's truck.

Last night, Porter was sick. We have all been sick lately but Porter was suffering the most last night. I gave him medicine and let him stay up watching movies until he felt better. At 1:30, I couldn't stand it anymore and made him go back to bed though, since I was too tired to last any longer. He watched DVRed episodes of little Einsteins and was on his second viewing of Dumbo. He was really mad at me. He hit me with his stuffed dog because he wanted to finish Dumbo. As soon as he woke up this morning, he asked to watch the rest of Dumbo. stinker. I hope that he sleeps better tonight.

Dallin lately

Okay, so I am not going to try to cover two years of Dallin's little milestones, etc. I will just write about a couple of cute things that he has done lately.
Dallin always wants to sleep in Porter's bed lately. Whenever, I try to put Porter to bed first, Dallin finds out what is going in and comes in to find us. He is very wiggly and talkative. It takes forever to read a book with Dallin commenting the whole time and then Porter can't fall asleep with Distracting Dallin around. One night, I finally took Dallin out and he started angrily screaming/crying. He wriggled away from me in the living room and went running down the hall crying. He climbed into Porter's bed as fast as he could and tried to lay quietly, while sniveling and sniffling. Porter felt bad for him and said he could stay and Dallin was so excited that the wiggling started again. The other night, we decided to try again to let Dallin sleep with Porter. Dallin laid there wiggling again and talking to himself. Joe came in and Dallin looked up and said, "I not wiggling." All the while, he couldn't even keep his blanket on since his feet were going so much. I left for a minute and came back to a still-wiggling-Dallin who was singing the ABC's (which he didn't pretty well and only missed a couple of letters in the middle) and swinging "Winne Pooh" around. After he finished with the ABC's, he started singing "Jesus Sunbeam" which basically goes, "Jesus Sunbeam da da da da da Sunbeam, Sunbeam." It took almost an hour to get him to fall asleep but he started crying again whenever I told him he would have to leave Porter's room if he didn't settle down. At about two that morning, Porter and Dallin filed into my room carrying all of their things. Porter woke me up and said, "Dallin wants you to lay behind him" and then they both headed back into Porter's room, knowing that I would follow behind.

I found out the other night that Dallin can count to 10 (well, 7. It takes a little prompting to get the rest of the way). We were reading the book about the 10 Little Ladybugs and he counted all the ladybugs on the cover.

Dallin has always loved wrestling with Joe, but ever since watching "Kunk Fu Pana," Dallin has been quite skillful about fighting. He gets his fists up, kicks his legs, jumps on Joe, etc.

Joseph Smith

Because Joe and I teach Primary now, I know that the boys have been talking about Joseph Smith and the Restoration of the Gospel in Porter's CTR5 class and Dallin's nursery class. I asked them about it what they have learned the the conversation went like this:

Mom: Dallin, did you talk about Joseph Smith in Nursery?
Dallin: Yes
Mom: who was Joseph Smith?
Dallin: I cuddered (colored) him
Mom: did they tell you anything else about him in nursery?
Dallin: no
Mom: Porter, did you learn about Joseph Smith in Primary?
Porter: Yes
Mom: Who was he?
Porter: the prophet
Mom: what else did they tell you about him?
Porter: Heavenly Father and Jesus told him not to join any of the churchs because they were all wrong
Mom: why did he Heavenly Father and Jesus come to talk to him?
Porter: I don't know
Mom: it was because he prayed didn't he?
Dallin: yes
Mom: why did he pray?
Porter: because he was reading the scriptures
Mom: yeah. Did you talk about who else came to visit Joseph Smith?
Porter: yeah, his family
Mom: did you talk about Moroni?
Porter: yeah, who was that?
Mom: Moroni was the angel who came to visit Joseph Smith. He was the last person to write in the Book of Mormon and he hid it when he was done so he came to Joseph Smith to tell him how to find the Golden Plates.
Porter: how come Moroni could fly?
Mom: because he died a long time ago and so his spirit wasn't in his body
Dallin: Meenight dead
Porter: yeah, so he was an angel. Can Midnight fly too like a angel?
Mom: probably

Dallin's contribution to most conversations lately is that Midnight is dead. Oh well, I was glad to learn that Porter was paying attention in Primary. I guess Dallin was too because at least he remembered coloring a picture of Joseph Smith. It was actually a nice little testimony building conversation for me too.

Beginnings

I have decided to start blogging about Porter and Dallin because I want to make sure I write down the funny/cute/terrible things they do and I am not good about keeping a journal. We'll see how this goes . . .