T is for...

Tad has a favorite letter.  I bet you can't guess what it is?! 
You would be amazed at all the places Tad can find the letter T.  During lunch he found 3.  Two on his fork (the back says sTainless sTeel)  and whatever brand of corndog he was eating had a T on the stick. 
He'll say "Can you find a T?" when we're on the computer, until we let him push the T on the keyboard.  
His other favorite T words are: Train, Track, Truck, Two, Tad, Tickle, Tease, Turn, Tiger, Thunder, Trailer.
Mom's favorite T words are:  Timeout, Talking and Toilet Training  (Most of the time.) 

Our Two and half year old.....
* Has stopped taking naps (we're lucky if we get one a week, lucky for us, he's a happy kid).
* Is on Pepcid everyday for his acid reflux (without it, he wakes up crying and hurling every night between 12am-1am.  I've gotten really good at remembering to give him his medicine so we can all sleep through the night.  Before we got his medicine, I have to say, Fred was a really good sport for sitting up with him.)
* Thinks everything and anything is a "Snowmobile Trailer" for his "barrels".  His favorite is piling stuff on the recliner with the footrest up.  I'm hoping he grows out of his hoarding soon- I hate piles of toys all over, but even if I pick them up, or make him pick them up, they grow back the next day.  
* Says "Yuck" if we kiss his cheek, but loves to give kisses and "squeeze your guts out".
* Is one Tough kid- he can almost tackle us, and if he runs full speed at you, there's a good chance you'll lose your balance.
* Picks out his own t-shirt: Elmo or Bob-the-Builder.  If you tell him to get dressed, I can guarantee it's going to be one of those 2 shirts, but he'll put it on himself. 
* Can be bribed with bananas, chocolate, bread, ice cream, truck books, stickers, McQueen (Cars), Apple Juice, Grandpa's Gummy Bears, and cinnamon toasties. 
*LOVES the shower.  He'll only strip himself down (even put his clothes in the laundry without being told!) if I tell him he can have a shower.  If I say bath, he takes forever to get his clothes off.  :}  
* Knows his Traffic lights.  Red means stop, green means go, yellow means be careful.  He is the best backseat driver you could ever find..... as soon as he sees the red light, "It red, that means stop".  "Okay buddy, I will when I get up there."  :}  The other day walking home from church he could completely point the way to our house.  Comforting, if he's ever lost within a couple blocks of our house. 

* I say talking is my favorite, but the phrases I DO NOT like:  *"Would you get me that?" (it's usually 2 feet from him, or he just threw it).  *Every time he cries and I ask what hurts it's always "My Eye" (that's a tear, not a pain). *"No, I doesn't need to go potty". *"Yes you did see it" (repeated 5X after he asks if I saw something and I didn't). *"Where's your puppy?" (He's a puppy about 3/4 of the day and refers to himself as "Puppy".  Funny, since we don't have a dog.  Not funny, because I can't put him out in the yard when he's too hyper.) 
* Toilet Training is going well.  He completed one chart and we took him to the store right away to get a "yellow" treat (Yellow is his favorite color, it had nothing to do with pee.) Now we're working on a second chart to reinforce "rewards" and this time he'll earn Pizza (that's what he chose) and a treat.  I spent 25 minutes in a bathroom stall at the zoo with him because he can't pee if he hears other kids.  He did finally go.  :}  We've moved on to trying to stand and I have to say it is so worth it!  I'll take 4 minutes (2 to pee & 2 to clean up the misses) as opposed to the minimum 10 to completely strip him, get him settled and wait. 

Our goal for the summer is to work on mastering the rest of the alphabet! I'm excited, I don't know if he is.  
AbCdEfGhIjKlMnOpQrStUvWxYz

Time flies

Where has all the time gone?    Look at my little boy!  Only 2 1/2 and he looks so grown up! 

 Where has all the time gone since I was young?  I'm getting older - I've hit the big 3-0. Fred took the day off and we drove to Manti to go to the temple (this is where we got our endowments out 10 years ago!)

We enjoyed a session and shook hands with Ed Pinegar (the temple president and church author). Then ate at "Fred's sports grill".  (best cookie dough shake I've ever had!

 Tad had spent the night at my parents' so we could leave early.   We picked him up and went to dinner at Union Grill in Ogden.  Then went to play at FatCats.  He loved the kid area and learned how to tell the other kids "Go ahead" so he didn't get run over. 

We played in the kid area and did a few arcade games while we waited for our turn for bowling.   Tad is a tough little dude and can pick up the balls by himself.  (We couldn't find smaller than 8lbs, but he did fine.)  We didn't use bumpers, just the rolling stand.  Tad was pretty funny explaining to Fred where the ball was or where it needed to go. 

I love ice cream, so we got an ice cream cake- Mint chocolate chip. YUM!

Tad had to help me blow out the candles.

We celebrated my birthday at my parents' house on Sunday.  My mom made cobbler for my cake.  Tad helped me blow out the candles, then my mom lit them for Tad.  He covered my mouth so I wouldn't help.  Once I moved away, he sat there.  I thought he'd blow them out right away, but he didn't, he started singing "happy birthday".   :} All month he's been convinced that it was his AND mommy's birthday. 

 We finally got a good snow storm.  This winter has been really warm.  It came at an unconvenient time, as Fred was trying to fix our car and the wind kept blowing snow where he was working.  Tad seemed to enjoy it though. 

 The snow didn't last long and we were able to enjoy a nice March day.  I thought it would be fun to go fly kites since it was windy.   I'm so grateful for Fred's work schedule, we were able to drop what we were doing and head to the park.  You can't ever plan to go fly kites, if you do, the day isn't windy, or it's a cold wind that isn't very fun. 

 The weather was ABSOLUTELY perfect!   Just enough wind that you didn't have to run to get your kite up in the air.  We're so lazy! 

 (Fred and I bought these kites when were first married - Hulk & Sesame Street.   Tad loved them!) 

 Tad was content to run around while Fred and I flew the kites.   He held mine for awhile, but let go of it at one point.  Luckily Fred caught it.

Tad's favorite part of the park was the drain grate. He also liked to stand by Fred to hold his kite.  I think this picture is funny of the two of them.  I don't know how we managed to not get the kites tangled with them standing this close.  :}

Monte Cristo

Tad loves to ride the snowmobiles in the driveway.  After mine and Fred's hunting trips, we decided we should take Tad out at least once this year.   He absolutely loved it!  And he is constantly talking about  the "no-mils" and pretending his toy chairs are snowmobiles.   He tells us to cover our ears while he starts them.   It's hilarious.    

Getting ready to go.

Bundled up and ready to go.  He's going to hate this picture when he's older. 

Dad and Tad- they rode together most of the time.  I like to ride fast, Fred just likes to putter along, so it worked out perfect!

I took advantage of riding alone and stopped to take a few pictures.

Tad rode with me for a little bit so Fred could play on some hills. 

He's the perfect size for riding with-  he can duck below the shield so he stays warmer, but he's big enough to hold on.  I thought we'd have to keep him on by squeezing him with our knees, nope, he's the perfect little riding buddy (except when he accidently hit the red emergency stop button).

I love his smug little look. 

We tried to get him to push the gas and move a little so he knew what it felt like.  All he'd do is push the handle a little, then throw himself into "hold-on" position.  :} 

Climbing the snow hills as Daddy loaded the trailer. 

It was a perfect day out.  Not too cold, the machines worked great, loaded easily.  Snow was good, a little deep in someplaces- like this fence that I decided we needed a family picture by.  You can see how deep it was on Fred's pants- kind of a challenge to set the camera timer and "run". 

Our little getaway.

After a long couple of months, and over a year since our last vacation of any kind, Fred and I went on an overnight trip....to Idaho.   I know, it doesn't sound that amazing, but it was just what we needed.  

The drive was only a few hours, then we did some sight seeing (as much as you can in Twin Falls). 

The view was pretty cool. 

We saw some cool bridges.

As far as we could tell, this is the famous Twin Falls - between the rocks in the middle.  Not impressive.

It was amazing that the area seems so flat, then all of a sudden you're crossing a large bridge. 

This is the first bridge (the picture does NOT do it justice) we crossed when we started noticing....the canyons.

I looked over from the bridge and saw this.   Amazing canyons in the middle of what seemed like a very flat area!

Left view from the Shoshone Falls.

What are the Shoshone Falls?  I had no idea, I've lived in the West my entire life and had never heard of the "Niagra of the West".   But here it is - less than 5 hours from us. 

We could have done a little hiking to where Evil Kneival jumped across the canyon, but it was chilly and the trail was icy.  I have to say, the area was pretty smelly - hopefully just from garbage that needed to be emptied.  The park seems like it would be beautiful in the summer.  One benefit of going in January was it wasn't crowded and we didn't have to pay a fee to get in.  

We ate at a restaurant - Elevation ##(?) it's supposed to have a view of the bridge that Fred was standing by in one of our pictures - but by the time we got there the sun was setting.  

The next day we went to the Twin Falls Temple.  It's a very small temple compared to most of the ones in Utah that we go to, but it was nice.   




Twin Falls, ID temple - this was a view from the trail as we hiked to see the "Twin Falls". 

We checked out of our hotel (which I had gotten an amazing deal on by booking online- AmericInn - a newer chain.  They serve cookies at 8pm :} ), tried some amazing hamburgers per the hotel clerks suggestion (Burger Stop).  Then headed for home. 
Along the way I made Fred stop at quilting stores.  Romantic, I know.   :}  I want to make us a new quilt for our bed and heard that Idaho has really good quilt stores.   They do..... but for a price, that I was NOT willing to pay.   But the fabric Fred picked out was kind of paisley and inspired us for the one we eventually did pick, back here at home, from a regular chain store, for 50% off, which came out to-- 75% off of what we would have paid in Idaho.  :} 
I'll post pictures afer I get it started. 
It was nice to have some time away, even if it was only to Idaho, it was a good, cheap, short trip.   We definitely feel rejuvenated. 

Hunting season took over our January

If you don't approve of hunting, stop reading now.  But just so you know, we don't do it just for sport, we do it to stock our food supply.  The DWR issues extra hunting tags to help control the herds that are destroying ranches.  We were lucky enough to get one of these tags. 

This picture of Tad by camels is important for later on. :}   We went to the zoo one day while daddy was at work. 

On Fred's days off, the 2 of us would go hunting.  We have a family sheep ranch and I grew up hunting.   It's been fun to share with Fred.   I was glad my parents were available to watch Tad each time we wanted to go.  
This is the view from the opposite side of the ranch.  Looking down towards the freeway.  If you look close you can see a blue barn and a white ranch house.  This is where my mom grew up (during part of the year).  There is also a cave along the red rocks (Cache Cave) where the pioneers would "Cache" food for the next group coming through.

 Fred and I took the truck up the first time and found we needed the snowmobiles, it didn't look like a lot of snow, but it was.   The snowmobile gave us a few problems and we ended up just having "picnics" on the end of the trailer because we spent more time working on them than riding them.  :{  
After taking one to the shop, we finally had a few good days riding them.    It was beautiful up there.  

If you look really close you can see some tan spots in the trees.

Finally, after several days AND weeks of hunting.  We heard one of our cousins had got their elk.  We followed their tracks a few days later and found a herd of 25.  (Everyone else said they'd seen 50-150 in the herd.)  Fred decided to hike down the hillside and get closer.  I stood on the one side and played with my camera lens.  :}  As soon as he was about to go through the trees to where he could get a shot, they started to move.  (How did we ever hunt without walkie talkies?) 

 The Saturday before the end of the hunt, he took my cousin Yance with him.  They met up with another cousin and managed to fill both tags!  As much fun as it was to have "dates", I was glad that we were done.  

Tad was so excited about daddy's new animal, from a distance.  :} 

When we went to grandma's house, Tad told her that "daddy got a big camel".   (The elk's teeth did look a lot like the camel's teeth that we had just seen at the zoo.)
Tad eventually would stand by dad and the elk, but not touch it.  
As Fred and my dad were working on the elk.  They put their knives down and Tad immediately picked one up. (We caught him before anything happened.)   He watches EVERYTHING we do and is too observant.  The other day he played "hunting" with dad, looking for elk, and jumping out of his pretend car to shoot it.  He knows he's only allowed to pretend to shoot bears and elk.  :}  But I still wonder how he knows about hunting, he never went with us. 
I'm very grateful for the added food supply and it's been delicious!