Movers and Shakers

Clay has been helping Cole break in his Cars roller skates. Cole enjoys practicing but likes to stop and rest a lot. His skating is very much like Luke's walking; they're not professionals yet.

I haven't taken pictures of Luke's new walking abilities but I would say he has advanced to "official walker" status. In fact, we just noticed last week that he hardly ever crawls anymore. Here he is on one of the bikes at the children's museum (he's still too little to reach pedals).

Hmmm...how can I tie this picture in with the post title "Movers and Shakers"? Uhhh...Luke's and Cole's lives are so fast paced that they sleep in the kitchen drawer at night so they can grab beakfast extra fast in the morning before they head out?
And once they are in the car, Luke takes care of the driving.

Seriously, as soon as I set him into our van he walks over to the steering wheel with keys in hand, finds the biggest key, and sticks it in the ignition just enough for it to stay hanging there.

Then he climbs into the driver's seat and pretends to drive. I had to capture this because he does it every time.

Beach Bums

We had a great time at the beach with our friend Jaime and her husband and kids. I was so excited when she called and invited us since we were looking at another Friday with Clay at his intensive class. It's so wonderful when someone helps you fill the day with fun things. I was even more excited when I heard that the beach was just on the other side of Malibu. Reason? Because then at the end of the day, I would be able to say to people, "Yeah, me and the boys just hung out in Malibu today. We're pretty cool like that". :) I'm very silly.

I don't have any pictures of Cole in the water but he was going crazy! He loved the waves and getting knocked over by them. Luke liked it too. He thought the sand was fantastic!

4th of July

We had a wonderful Independence Day! In the morning we went to my Dad's ward's pancake breakfast. Here is Cole at the flag raising ceremony. He let me paint his face and let me do paint touch-ups throughout the day. He told me "I'm sacrificing myself for the 4th of July".



It's not all sacrifice though. He enjoyed his chocolate chip pancakes very much.



My sister Amanda and I were talking about how much we love Breanne's sugar cookie, fruit pizza's. They are so delicious! We decided that we needed to make one American flag style. Cole placed all the fruit for us.



And sampled some too. We brought our masterpiece to the family bar-b-que at my grandparent's house.

Which brings me to the fateful drive to my grandparent's. We drove there with Amanda because why not save gas and we enjoy her company:) Her son, Connor, started seeming a little under the weather as we got nearer our destination. Then he started coughing--ooohh you know what kind of coughing I'm talking about (the kind that preceeds vomiting). Then it came, and came and came, right onto Cole!!! Poor little Connor. His clothes and Cole's clothes were completely soiled. Amanda kept driving and Cole and I were both frozen and speechless. Why do I always freeze in these kinds of situations? There's a number of things I could have done here to be helpful but nothing came to mind, except to hide my giggling from Cole and Amanda (Cole just had the funniest look on his face as he sat there staring at his soaked arms.) We finally were able to "re-group" at my grandparent's. Amanda drove Connor straight home and I drove my parent's car to the nearest Wal-Mart to get Cole some new shorts (after convincing my mom it was ok to take Cole to the store in just a shirt and underpants--I mean, come on, it's Wal-Mart. I'm sure the employees there have seen worse than a little boy with no shorts on). Anyway, one shopping trip and just $3 later, we were able to enjoy some BBQ hot dogs.



My favorite part of the 4th...FIREWORKS!!! Cole insisted that we go to the same park we go to every year. I can't blame him, I like keeping up traditions too.



A few days earlier we had a wonderful time visiting Clay's brother Clark and his wife Liesel and their beautiful little baby girl, Maybree. It was so nice to spend time with them and meet their sweet little girl.

Animalia

For those of you who don't know, our animal family has expanded to include two female dwarf hamsters. I had always thought that when it came to pets, I would never own a rodent, but these two hamsters are so adorable! Seriously, I am really quite fond of them. As I've mentioned before, ever since having little babies, I have had this inexplicable love and adoration for all creatures great and small.

Cole and I, and even Clay, love to hold them. They are approx. 2 inches of furriness and cuteness. Luke would squeeze them to death if he held them, so for now he just love's to watch them run through their exercise wheel and tunnel, and he love's to open and close the doors on the cage. Needless to say, we've had a hamster or two on the loose a few times...which is hilarious and fun, so much so that Cole let one loose on purpose today. The hamster that belongs to Luke is named Daphne (I got to name it) and Cole hasn't decided on a name for his. For now he affectionately calls it no name.


And just in case you are dying to see pictures of our other creatures (taken with our rather lousy camera)...here are Luke's male and female bettas, named by Cole Scaley and Scaley.


Goose, our rose-haired tarantula.



Goose's food: crickets



Cole has also come across a few dead bugs that he keeps on his dresser: a couple grasshoppers, a dragonfly, a moth, and a couple others we're not sure of.



And here we have the great "circle of life" atop Cole's dresser.

In Praise of CLAY!!!!

Another Father's Day has come and gone so I must write about my dearest, dearest love, Clay, before another Sunday passes.

Writing about Clay is hard though. The expanse of thoughts and feelings I have about him overwhelms me. It's like those new commercials they have for the search engine bing where it asks, "What has search overload done to us?" I think the name "Clay" and my mind reels off "Clay: Clay is wonderful, Clay is amazing, Clay is perfect, Clay is handsome, Clay is brilliant, Clay is passionate, Clay is ambitious, good student, good father, good provider..." etc. at turbo speed.

So perhaps for this post I will just focus on one quality. Oh, first I need a quote. Here it goes:

"Perhaps the most valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not; it is the first lesson that ought to be learned; and however early a man's training begins, it is probably the last lesson that he learns thoroughly."
Thomas H. Huxley
English biologist (1825 - 1895)

For those of you who don't know, Clay's dad LOVE's this quote and taught it to his 9 sons however many years ago. I don't particularly enjoy this quote, eventhough I believe it with every fiber of my being. I guess the truth can be hard for some people.

Clay on the other hand embraces it. It is his philosophy, his core, his way of life; to do that which must be done, whether or not it's fun, whether or not it's popular, whether or not he's sleepy, whether or not it totally (for lack of a better word) stinks! I want to be just like him!

Clay is so determined. This last year has been his busiest ever as a full-time student and full-time intern. Yet he has never complained or huffed or puffed or humphed or ugged or sighed while saying "uhhhh" or even yawned. He just does what he has to do, and does it with his handsome smile. When he has a rare moment of free time, he devotes it entirely to his little family.

I love you Clay! Thanks for being an incredible father!

Life is like

A few weeks ago, we went with a friend from the ward and her two boys to California Adventure. It was a lot of fun, of coarse. One of the best parts of California Adventure is the Live Playhouse Disney show. It features Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Handy Manny, My Friends Tigger and Pooh, and Little Einstiens. Now I ask you, does it get any better than that? Even Luke sat attentively for the entire show.

Cole and I have had a couple fun (short) trips to Legoland too. My sister received a tip from someone in her ward that Legoland is FREE for the last hour every day. FREE! Free parking, free admission, everything! At first I wondered if this was really on the up and up because when we went to check it out, there was just nobody there manning the parking booths or the ticket counters, so I thought to myself, "Are we really supposed to be doing this" as we breezed right through the park gates. But I have since found that it is a legitimate thing to do--the legoland people know about it and everything;) But before everyone rushes over to legoland, this free thing doesn't apply during the summer. Go figure. It was fun while it lasted. Cole and I managed to squeeze in 3 rides each time we visited, which was well worth the short drive there, and was an extraordinary way to pass the time as it sure beats riding the carousel at the mall for the millionth time.

Well, as we were waiting in line for one particular ride, I began thinking about all the theme park adventures we've had lately, and all the LONG lines we have waited in. I wondered what the ratio was of time spent on an actual ride to time spent waiting in line. Waiting...it makes me think of those lines from Dr. Suess:

"Waiting for a train to go
or a bus to come, or a plane to go
or the mail to come, or the rain to go,
or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow
or waiting around for a Yes or No
or waiting for their hair to grow.
Everyone is just waiting."

There is so much waiting in line at theme parks, and yet everyone is perfectly willing to do it, including you. You stand there, waiting for your turn, shifting your weight occasionally from your right foot to the left. No one seems to be moving, when you randomly gaze ahead toward the front of the line and see the lucky folks up there walking, taking a few steps forward and then you watch the ripple effect of their walking slowly trickle down to you. Now you're walking too and it feels so good to be moving forward, closer to that bend in the ropes that leads down that path and up those steps and through that windy tunnel and finally to the ride. "No, this line's not so bad" you think to yourself. "And look at all the people behind me. Ooooh, I'm glad I'm not them. I'm in a much better position than they are." It's funny how I always find myself thinking that. That somehow I was smarter or faster or more stategic than the throng of people behind me in line. Of coarse, the only reason the person behind me is behind me is because they were still enjoying the last few seconds of a ride while I was just starting to head to this one.

By the time it's your turn, you are ready! "This is it", you think "this is what it's all about. I've watched about 576 people get onto and off of this ride and now my time has come!" And the ride is wonderful and thrilling and...short.

So to sound very, very cliche, life is full of roller coasters, or to be more precise, life is full of various theme park attractions and the lines that come with them.

So many experiences can seem long, and hard, and even a bit boring, but just wait, that heart pounding, stomach flying into your chest feeling is around the bend somewhere.

Wow, give yourself a pat on the back if you read all of this!!!

Media Influence

Before Luke came along, our TV rule for Cole was that he could watch one hour of TV a day. But as soon as the morning sickness from my pregnancy with Luke began, TV became a neccessary evil. He still doesn't watch that much, in my opinion. But I have learned that kids are sponges! They are such prime targets for all the advertisements that come on during spongebob commercial breaks. They totally soak it all up. For example:

Cole said to me excitedly, "Mommy, do you know what they're doing with Benda-roos? They're doubling them with your paid order!"

He's also asked me out of the blue, "Mommy, are you 18 or older?"

One day, we were in the car and I started singing, "Everywhere we go-o, people wanna know-o, who we a-are..." (This is how a commercial for frosted flakes starts but that wasn't why I was singing it.) Cole broke in immediately with,
"Tigers are not afraid to get dirty, but they always play clean. They work hard and eat right with Kelloggs Frosted Flakes, part of this nutritious breakfast."

Just the other day, I was unloading the dishwasher and I knew that Clay was the one who had started the dishwasher. I was finding some dishes that weren't very clean looking so I said under my breath, "Oh, Clayton Glade..." Cole heard and said, "No, it's not Clayton Glade's fault. I saw a commercial that said that some dishwasher soaps don't get your dishes totally clean, so someone invented something that does get them totally clean".

Cole has also told me how at McDonald's their giving "customizable spongebob toys" in kidsmeals.

Maybe having him only watch movies would be a good solution.