I miss that Monkey face

The Hoho brings presents

Indeed.

Monkey calls Santa "The Hoho." I told Lauren that it sounds slightly inappropriate. Megan says it makes her think of a snack cake delivering presents. Both provide lovely mental images.

Yesterday we got to talk on Skype (best invention ever) so I got to stare at how beautiful Bug is (and how much he's changed in just twoish weeks - the difference is amazing when you don't see them everyday!) and I got to sit and talk to Monkey. Talking to Monkey basically means I just watch him do his thing and listen to whatever he feels like sharing. Sometimes that means nonsense words, sometimes I get a song. Yesterday I got both of those and I got to watch him writing. He wrote my name and said "This is your name, Zizi and you're a famous mom and you're a mom." I have no idea what that really means, but I loved it. I think he also told me at one point he was pretending to be a doctor. I'm guessing he was thinking in terms of writing notes in a folder or on a prescription pad as I'm sure he's seen the doctor do both. He started asking me questions at one point too which was, of course, adorable.

It's amazing how much they've both changed. This is for Lauren's sake that I'm writing this as she sees the boys everyday, but they are different. There were words Monkey was pronouncing much clearer and I even heard a distinct "S" during the alphabet song. Bug's face just looked different. He really is a handsome boy. They both are.

Anyway, I thought I'd share some of that. I miss those boys and my sissie and Wil. Not to mention my mom. Mom and I also had a good talk on the phone Saturday morning that made me stop and appreciate the fact that Mom, Lauren and I truly are more than just family, we're friends. It's an amazing blessing and makes all of this easier and more difficult all at the same time.

conversations with a 2 year old

Monkey: Zizi, Zizi. My job is tomorrow.
Me: Your job is tomorrow? What is your job?
Monkey: My job is to work hard, Zizi.


Also - this is totally random.

Me: You are getting so big Monkey. Do you know that?
Monkey: Yep. I'm big.
Me: How big are you?
Monkey: I'm big and beautiful.

Brothers

Look at these boys.

I figure that eventually we will forget that while these photos were being taken we had to remind Monkey to share his blocks with Bug, to let Bug have one block, to get Bug a new toy of his own if he didn't want to share the blocks, to be gentle with Bug, to not open the cabinet while Bug is in front of it, to not climb in the cabinet, to not taunt Bug.


That's right. Someday we'll look at these pictures and think "oh, look how nice they were to each other" and "they were so happy playing together." Of course Bug thinks Monkey walks on water so he truly was happy spending some quality time. Monkey was happy as long as Bug didn't mess up the "bus" he was building. Haha. Brothers are fun.

It makes me wonder (and try to remember) what was going on while my mom took pictures of my siblings and me when we were younger. I'm sure there are some awesome stories in there somewhere.

What a difference six months can make.

I count six adorable children, five noticeable growth spurts, four haircuts, three full-time school attendees, two almost 3-year-olds and one crawling baby.

More about Saturday with the kids

We went to my brothers house to celebrate K and Hailey's birthdays. Caleb turned 8 recently and the princess will be 3 on Friday. The princess was wearing an adorable dress that matches a dress for her American Girl doll (Lindsey Jr.). I think my sister-in-law found it at Ross.

I gave the kids their gifts I picked up for them from Cape Cod as soon as we got there. The younger ones got Webkins and Noah got a shirt. The shirt is a Men's Medium. He put it on and said, "See? It fits perfect!" It was down to his knees. This is the fashion sense of an 11-year-old boy.

A little later K and Hails opened their birthday gifts. K got more Webkins and Hailey got new stuff for her bunnies (Calico Corners animal doll house stuff). I made her doll a tutu and gave her an Amelia Bedelia book (Amy - get Boo an Amelia Bedelia book - she will love it).

We ate some yummy dinner then played for a little while and had some cake. I love playing with these kids. They are all so different and they love spending time together. Everyone wanted to help feed jBug or play with him or hold him. Monkey is always happy playing there because he loves his older cousins who are always happy to stop what they are doing and play with him. Plus, Hailey and I get to do silly girlie stuff like play dress ups or dolls or just lay around laughing and giggling at silly things.

So then there was cake. Ice cream cake and regular cake. The kids "dug" right in. With their mouths. It was fun and they are old enough not to make a huge mess. Monkey didn't know what to think of it and was very neat while eating with no utensils. They thought it was funny that they had icing all over their faces and noses.

So it was a fun afternoon with the kiddos.

Oh...and that photo of all of them was pure luck. Noah, Caleb and Josh are all old enough now to behave and smile for just long enough to get a photo. Or I should say if you give Bug to Caleb then K will smile willingly. Once we got Monkey on Noah's lap then Noah was making Monkey smile. The first photo with just the boys had Hailey over to the side pouting to hold Bug. Then I just put her in front of the boys and clicked real quick. The luck came in when I realized no one had blinked or turned their head or made a face. Really I just click and click and click and hope that at least one of the photos will be a good one. And there's a lot of "look over here!" "smile!" "Monkey come sit here!" "look at the camera!" along with various other noises.

Happy Birthday K

Caleb turned 8 last Saturday. He was born right after I moved to Utah for my freshman year of college. He has the most beautiful eyes and amazing curls. He loved Blues Clues for the longest time - I knew all the songs from the show because it made him happy that I would sit and play Blues Clues with him and sing all the songs. He had a thinking chair, a shirt that looked like Steve's and more note books than any one child could possibly have.

He's a collector. He picks something to like and then sticks with it for a long time. Blues Clues, Batman/Superheros, Pokemon and now Webkins. If all else fails, buy him a superhero toy and the kid is in heaven. He is silly and loves to dress up. He has a great imagination.

K loves to hold his baby cousins. When Bug is around, K is usually waiting for his turn to hold him. He will sit and just look at Bug. He doesn't fidget or get bored. I think he will have a connection with Bug the way Noah and Monkey have a connection. I can see so many similarities in them.

Finally, photos. These are some of my favorites from the last 8 years.

a few items of business

1. MEGAN IS HOME! Not that I can see her, but now I can talk to her on the phone and text her and that makes me happy - because she listens to a whole lot of my craziness and still likes me.

2. I have new readership! Emily Albright and her mom. I will be posting a wedding-related post for them, which sounds weird, but it's not really. I promise.

3. Cristin had her baby, Owen! 4 weeks early! Apparently he was ready to be born. He's in the hospital so he can finish growing and getting ready for the real world - so best wishes and lots of prayers to the Ricks family. He's a cutie!! Congratulations! (and in related news, I got prezzies sent out there just in time for his arrival! When he does come home, I hope they are enjoyed by him and his mommy.)

4. I spent most of my day yesterday with the kiddos. I took K his birthday presents early since I'll be gone this weekend. I can't believe he's 8. Craziness. He and Joshie are way into this Webkins thing - which I'm loving because it's so not as confusing and/or annoying as Pokemon. So he is now the proud owner of a Rotweiler named Steven (a name I chose) and a Gecko named Mark. K's name choices are the best ever - he doesn't waste his time with silly pet names - he goes for the serious people names. Love it. The rest of my time was spent playing pretend and dress ups with the Princess. We had a tea party (during which she remarked, "this is a wonderful tea party") complete with princess dishes, real (and delish) cookies and water instead of tea. I think she likes playing with me because I play all her girlie games with her. And I'm totally fine with that. It was such a fun day. I love those kiddos.

5. I'm going to the beach on Wednesday with one of my bestest pallies, Jamie!! I am so excited and so happy we made this vacation work! See all my exclamation marks?! That's how happy I am. I need a vacation very badly.

6. This is my final point and maybe it should have been first so in case I lost any of you. I need an idea of a name for my projects blog. Something fun but not annoying. Something having to do with me or a nick name of mine (Lindle, Linnie, Lindsey Lou Who, Zizi, Scooter, etc.) that I can put up there as a title so it's not so boring. So, pass along your ideas. I figure who better to ask than the ones who know me so well?

That's all for now. More posts to come soon!

Just because.

dee-yish-ous.

overheard at dinner while babysitting for the boys. this would be Monkey's first experience with tuna nuna casserole (tuna noodle)

Monkey: mmmm. this is yummy, yummy, yummy!
Me: i'm glad you like it, now eat it all up.
Monkey: (turns and looks me in the eye) this is dee-yish-ous!

he also says "gank you" instead of thank you and it's pretty cute.

so then we watched some old school toons (mickey and the giant and bongo the circus bear).
there's a part where a big bear comes and takes bongo's girlfriend because bongo doesn't understand how wilderness bears operate and bongo walks off into the woods by himself and cries a little. Monkey, who was very into this cartoon, says "he is going to go find someone new to play." that made me laugh.

we had some tummy time while we watched toons.

of course, for Monkey, tummy time usually means climbing on Zizi time.

then Bug made this face. look at that eyebrow!

Bug also "sat" by himself for like five seconds. not quite, but he's getting closer. and look at those chubs.

Bug went and played with grandma for an hour so I could spend some time alone with Monkey and then get him to bed. they were both really happy boys tonight. i love it when they are happy boys.

Lauren just got home and I was telling her about the night and I can't believe I forgot - Monkey asked me to sing him a song about Toby (the train) and Thomas and his friends. Here was the Thomas one.

Thomas and his friends like to ride on the tracks.
Choo Choo Choo Choo
Thomas and his friends like to eat fruit snacks.
Choo Choo Choo Choo
Thomas and his friends like to go sleep tight.
*insert snoring noise and rhyme with "choo"*
Thomas and his friends like to say good night.

So I'm a giant nerd. There's more evidence.

More evidence that I have a clone...

Friday night I watched the kiddos (minus Noah) and, like always, I pulled out my camera and the princess and I played the Camera Game. The Camera Game is one of my favorite things to do and I'll play with anyone who is willing. My niece is always willing and has recently started coming up with her own variety of faces. She'll pose and say, "take this one." When we first started playing this game on Friday I was watching the faces she was making and trying to coordinate - then I just got so distracted that I had a hard time doing that. She was being so silly and fun AND she was making MY faces which was so funny for me to watch.

Here's me:

Here's she:




Here's us:

That right there would be a face I make all the time when I play the camera game. See my first picture in this post. It's freaky.

I pretty much just love being her friend.

It feels like a four post kind of day

Probably because I haven't posted all weekend. I'm currently without internet because I am dog sitting for Max (aka Maximus, Max-E, Maxwell, etc.) who belongs to a nice couple in my home ward and who I dog sit on a fairly regular basis.


I like Max. He's an easy going dog who listens well (although his hearing is on the fritz at the mo') and only barks when someone is at the front door. I LOVE dogs who don't bark much. It's the only way to have a dog, I tell you. Also, he doesn't stare at me when I eat and he just stays by my side for the most part while I am at the house but not in an annoying "get away from me or else I'll scream" kind of way.


I have lots of pictures to post from my weekend of playing with family and friends (for purposes of this blog, from here on out "the kiddos" will refer to my brother's kids, "the boys" will be Lauren's sons, Monkey and Bug and I'll have to come up with something to call all of them as a whole, but those labels will do fine for now).


I babysat the kiddos minus one (Noah) on Friday night and we had a fun filled evening of Chick-fil-A, pretty sunsets, wrestling and a rousing game of Pretty Pretty Princess. Yes. I took plenty of future black mail photos. Muahahahahaha!


Saturday I slept in! Oh Saturday morning sleeping in is one of my all time favorite things to do. Hmmmm. Then I went out that night to dinner and a movie (Hancock) with friends. It was very fun, although I was in a somewhat grouchy at times mood (my jaw has really been hurting me, then add sinus pain on top of that and I am one unhappy camper), and the movie was alright. If you see it, pay $5 or less or wait for the DVD. Although I liked the characters (even Charlize Theron, who isn't really my favorite) and the story was pretty good, it lacked a little something. I can't quite put my finger on it. Enjoyable though - if you can overlook repeated use of the A-word.


Sunday I went to my home ward in order to stay close to Max so he wouldn't be so lonely. It worked out nice because Lauren invited me and Christy and John to have dinner with them and Wil's brother and his wife who were in town visiting for the weekend. She made delish florentine meatballs. At this I will say that I will forever love Rachel Ray for providing my sister (who was already a wonderful cook) with amazing recipes to make into her own even more amazing meals. Basically, the food was amazing. So we ate and played with the boys and enjoyed each others company and did I mention the food was amazing? I love my sissie and her husband for letting us all lounge around their home.


After dinner, Christy came back to the dog sitting house with me and we played Sims. Christy and I have recently begun bonding over this game. It's silly and it's fun. And then there was this secret on Post Secret this week.

There are a few things I like about this screen shot. I like that my Sim houses are designed a lot nicer than this one. I like that the person admits favortism toward one character (I recently made a Sim die because the character was bugging me so much) and I like that death is wearing a lei. No one else has party clothes on...apparently he really likes his job.

Doesn't this face just make you love America?

i just have to say...i love my camera

"who else strikes iron?" I know I asked the question, but Miri repeated it and I googled it. I don't remember the answer, but google had plenty to tell me.

I'm thinking of starting another blog but it would be dedicated solely to photos. I take a lot of photos and will soon be scanning in all our old family photos. I obviously wouldn't be putting up every photo available (I took 247 just in the three hours we spent at my Grandmother's on the 4th and I have about 8 albums to scan) but there are some gems in those albums that might be fun to share via the internets. Plus I want to buy a fancy camera and start taking photos again. I've been experimenting with the different settings on my "precious" (which is what I just improtu-ish named my camera that I love more than some things that are actually living) and getting some good photos of the kids that I am in love with. I wonder what I could do with that Canon I was coveting a couple of months ago. I've also been carrying my camera with me everywhere and actually taking pictures of things when the thought comes into my head to take a picture. like this lone balloon stuck in a field on the fourth of july with no one to party with.

of course i used zoom and didn't go save the balloon because i dislike balloons, but the picture is fun. the more i look at it, the more i like the colors...and the fact that i took it with my practically point and click amazing canon. it's like a camera that shoots awesomeness and times' it by ten!

More proof...although mother nature was 99.9% responsible for this beauty...

Seriously. That's just what the sky looked like. Christy and I were in the pool and I got out and ran and got my camera (which I have been keeping in my purse for such moments) and took like six of these photos. You can see the sun rays! I love it.

And then there's the newly discovered fireworks setting...

Which I intend to use with some sparklers later this week.
Not to mention the kids and pets setting....

That one is a little dark, but the turtle was moving toward me faster than one would expect and there was like a gagillion dogs around and very close to licking my face...of which I am not a fan.

Please don't think I'm posting all these to say, look how great I am at taking pictures, because I am not. I'm posting these to say, I really do own the greatest camera, and everyone should invest in one because anyone can get great photos with it and I forgot how much I love taking pictures and how happy it makes me to see fun photos of things and experiences that I enjoyed. Also, I love the subjects that surround me...how could I not constantly take pictures with subjects like these?