Overheard at the gym

(Perky Girl behind counter greeting people and scanning membership cards as Tough Guy walks in)

Perky Girl: Hi! Oooh, I like your tattoo!
Tough Guy: (puffs chest a little) Thanks.
Perky Girl: Is it a lobster?
Tough Guy: (chest deflated, offended) It's a scorpion.

Symptoms of motherhood

My house is a wreck. It's undeniable. Anyone who walked in without giving me some advance notice would be acutely aware that little children live here. This fact has been the cause for many, many struggles within myself as to why it seems totally impossible for me to keep my house clean. Every day I put it back together and every day it gets demolished one more time. It's discouraging. Laundry is the bane of my existance and (heaven forbid) should I forget to move the load from the washer to the dryer, I'm just that much more behind because now I have to wash the same load twice! Dah! However, the other evening as I sat and surveyed the damage of yet another day, I had an epiphony. Really, it was inspiration as Heavenly Father helped to lift my perspective. Each piece of clutter was evidence of everything I had tried to do that day and was a symbol of my intentions and efforts. Pile of dishes? My family was fed. Toys everywhere? We played hard today. Board books piled

with scriptures piled on toddler development book? Suddenly I was able to look around and count the blessings of the day and think about what everything signified. I'm not sure that I'll be capable of that level of introspection every evening, but it really was a 'Count your Blessings' kind of thing where everything slips into focus for a moment. Pretty cool.

Happy Halloween and stuff...

Halloween was a pretty low-key affair at our house, mostly because the day itself was pretty rough. We had a doctor's appointment for Dallin at 8:00 in the morning and I took Logan with me because he had a cold and I didn't want to send a carrier monkey over to my visiting teacher's house. So, off we went to Tomball to visit the pediatric neurologist because Dallin has a pretty flat head and we needed to find out whether or not he ought to be in a helmet. The nurses at the doctor's office were nice and entertained Logan while I visited with the doctor, who pointed out that because Dallin's ears are now out of alignment, he definitely needs a helmet. *sigh* However, the doctor was also concerned that the plates in his head may be fusing too early (due to a small fontanel) and wanted us to get a CT scan as quickly as possible. If this turned out to be the case, then we would be looking at surgery for him. Not a fun prospect, as some of you can imagine (and relate). So, having an hour or two to kill, we went and wandered around the local HEB and then got some lunch for my two cranky boys - one of which was already on a nap deficit. The doctor had told me that it should only take about 10 minutes at the open MRI place that our referral was to and it might have if he would have given us a sedative for Dallin so that the tech could take the scan. Instead, we spent about 45 minutes in a small side room with Logan trying his best to dismantle a gurney and me trying my best to get over-tired, grouchy Dallin to go to sleep. Finally, he did doze off but woke up as soon as I laid him down on the pallet to do the scan. I ended up having to try and hold his head still by his chin as the tech did about five different scans. She didn't want to expose him to any more radiation than was necessary, so we called it a game after that - hoping that the doctor would be able to see what he needed to in the pictures that we had. By this time, it was about 4:30 in the afternoon and both boys were beside themselves as we began the 45 minute drive home. We had invited the missionaries over for dinner that night and I had been planning on doing something a little nicer, but ultimately, Little Caesar's pizza seemed to be the best option. Sadly, we didn't even put the kids in their costumes to take pictures. However, the good news is that Dallin doesn't need surgery - just the helmet. I am so grateful for my boys, though. I learn so much from them every day and I am so thankful for how hard they try to be good sports under difficult circumstances. What cool kids.

The long delay

I'm sorry that I haven't really been doing a very good job of keeping this updated. I think I put entirely too much pressure on myself to come up with something meaningful or poignant (sp?) but really that's not my purpose in blogging. So here I am!

We're having a lot of fun lately and I think we're getting better at finding balance between work/home/kids. They're each pretty hefty areas and are all so very important. I've been thinking about that alot lately.

This weekend Tom planned a fun trip to the butterfly atrium at the Natural History museum. Logan is in kind of a funny phase right now where EVERYTHING is scary. Everything. So, he was pretty unnerved by the "scary butterflies" but by the end, forgot to be scared at least some of the time.

We had a good time, though and I think it was healthy for him. I can't believe how big he's getting and how amazing his memory is. After we'll have family prayer in the evening, we have family hugs. Usually, we'll throw in a "sandwich hug" and squash the boys between us. Lately, Logan's been asking for "cheeseburger hugs" and "popcorn hugs" and we'll find a way to act that out. Kids are fun. He can count to ten, knows his shapes, including ovals and rectangles, and his favorite pastime is jumping on Mama's bed. If you ask him, he'll tell you that his name is "Logan Abargus" and is unbelievably good at saying please and thank you.

What can I say? He's so cool.

Dallin (aka Gadan) is getting closer to crawling every day. He's six (almost seven!) months old and thinks Logan is hilarious. He's getting very very talkative, but at this point he only speaks dinosaur. It's pretty funny - (Logan) "Scary! Scary Gadan dinosaur!" Ah, my boys.

In the grand tradition of my kids, he's obsessed with the keyboard (which is making writing this tough), likes music, and LOVES his daddy. It's so fun to see how they change and light up when Daddy comes home. Dallin's favorite pastime is probably splashing in the tub. I'm looking forward to getting to know him as he gets older and his personality emerges more and more. I've got such cool kids.

Logan's Birthday

So, I know I'm a little behind the times on this - especially since Logan's birthday was about a month ago - but I really wanted to put up some pictures. It was an interesting experience, holding a birthday party for a kid who cared. I guess it was one of those "gravity of being a parent" types of moments when you realize exactly how much small things mean to a little boy. He STILL (a full month later) will occasionally mention his firetruck birthday cake. It makes me glad I stayed up until 2:30 in the morning to make it. I guess that was part of his

gift.

I'm a blogger!

I finally decided to get on the blog-wagon and begin keeping better track of our day-to-day (or, more accurately, week-to-week) activities and progress. Everything is going well - although Dallin isn't consistently sleeping through the night yet. That makes for a pretty tired Mom, but I really can't complain. Logan seems to add new words to his vocabulary almost daily (today's word is watermelon) and Tom is working hard at Bechtel. Logan is just barely two and Dallin is just barely 5 months. We're having fun though. I'm excited to have this as an option for staying in touch and letting everyone know what's going on with us a little better.