Happy, happy birthday Logan!

I cannot believe my little guy is 4! We had a fun time celebrating out here in Chicago. Some of the other families came over and we had pizza and cake. It was simple and fun. Though you know if we were at home we would have thrown a big ol' party. I love making a big deal over birthdays. He received many thoughtful gifts and pretty much doubled the amount of toys we have out here. I took a ton of pictures of him opening presents, but they are all on Jen's camera.

He is getting so big! I am amazed by how smart he is. He uses the computer so well, plays games like 'mahjong titans' and 'spot the difference'. He does 100 piece puzzles like they are nothing. He is a great help to me (and often a headache!). He is obsessed with who he is going to marry. He loves to color- especially with markers,- and he loves to have me color a picture and then he colors the same picture to match it. He is happiest when he is outside running free with the other boys. He needs his 'little bear' to sleep. He takes care of Bronson and gets upset when Bronson cries. He is an early riser and very independent. He likes to follow rules and is easily frustrated when other children don't follow the same rules. His laugh instantly melts my heart.
If I were to choose one word to describe Logan it would be 'energy'. Steve said his would be 'spirited'.

Don't worry!

Don't worry. This is mud. Logan is ALL BOY.

And Bronson is all things sweet! ----couple things to notice: Bronson is once again (and always) wearing his pirate hat. Also, Logan and Bronson both have Triceratops on their shirts. Logan insists that they need to match as much as possible.

Feeding the Geese

Yesterday I took the boys over to the park to feed the ducks. Only there were only a few ducks and about a million geese. They were not shy either. Right up in our faces. I don't think the ducks even got a crumb. I wanted to get pictures but that just wasn't possible with trying to keep the boys out of the water AND trying to keep the geese from getting too close. The boys weren't sure how to react. Logan tossed an entire piece of bread at them, then tried to retrieve it only to have the closest goose hiss at him. Needless to say, he was not impressed. I was asking him afterwards if it was fun, and he said "yeah, except for that one mean goose" ( I did not take this picture, just found it on the web.)The playground that we usually play at had a party going on so I took the boys for a walk around the park grounds. They had a great time jumping in puddles and running up and down the HUGE hills. Then we sat on the sand volleyball court while Logan made 'volcanoes' and Bronson made 'houses'. After the puddles and the sand the boys were nasty dirty and we went home and did baths. It was such a fun day at the park. Though next time I think we will go to the smaller pond that just had two ducks at it and leave the geese alone! Logan actually took this picture. His new favorite thing is to take pictures with my phone.

Tiffany has a blog!

So for any of you that know Tiffany Lindeman-now-Read, she now has a blog. I am taking it upon myself to let you all know. Not that I set it up for her or anything. I couldn't possibly be that pushy, could I? (If I can set up a blog, anyone can set up a blog.) I would post pictures of her and me together here, but I am on the laptop in Chicago and 99.95% of my pictures are on my PC in St George. So for those of you that know Tiffany (and any that don't-she is worth knowing) head over to her blog and let her know that you exist out here in blogland.

http://www.tiffanyandblair.blogspot.com/

Is anyone else as excited about this as I am? Probably not, but you should be!

Cheetah or Chipmunk?

Today Bronson came running up to me all excited saying "Cheetah, cheetah, cheetah!" telling me that there was a cheetah out the window. I thought maybe it was a bunny or maybe a cat. But, no. It was a chipmunk. Just sitting right outside the window. I managed to get a few pictures before the boys' excited squeals and window-banging scared it away. Two-year-old vocabulary cracks me up!

Brownies

Making brownies with toddlers is so much messier than making them by myself!

The latest from Chicago

We have been busy here in Chicago.

Bronson turned two in March and I had decided that I wouldn't try potty training until we were back in Utah, Bronson seems to have other plans. So we are doing what we can to encourage him. We put him in pull-ups for the simple reason that it is so much easier to use them than diapers when he likes to go potty 40 times a day. He likes to do it all by himself. Once I put him on the potty he tells me to "go out, I do it myself!" He is doing amazingly well. Hardly has any accidents, and when he does it is usually during nap times and of course at night. Can I tell you how nice it is to not have to change poopy diapers anymore? Ahhhhhhh.

Logan has been having a lot of up and down days lately. I don't know, maybe it is totally normal for almost 4 (two weeks until b-day). He just seems like he is an angel or a devil lately. So frustrating.

We are loving being out here. The people are so great. You know when you meet someone and you just click and you know that you will be friends. Yeah, it is like that. So fun. The boys are loving having kids to play with whenever they want and also loving Jen's puppy, Chloe, who by the way is so sweet that I am now convinced that I need a dog. And I am SO NOT a dog person.

We just went to a zoo the other day. They have tons of them out here, but we went to the free one. We had a great time. (minus the car drive to-and-from) We didn't bring a stroller out here to Chicago, but we did bring Bronson's monkey backpack/leash and that helped. They were pretty good at the zoo. Especially for not having had naps. There are rabbits ALL OVER out here and we actually saw the wolf chase after, catch, and eat one. That was pretty cool. Logan says to me, "did the wolf eat the bunny?" and I said, "yeah, looks like it." and he said, "did the bunny like it?" and I told him, "no, i don't think so." I thought it was funny.

Also, please note in the pictures Bronson's hat. His pirate hat. He is always wearing it. ALWAYS. I sometimes even hide it and he still asks for it. So funny. Hopefully he grows out of this stage before he grows out of his hat.

I guess that about covers it for now. I will try and do better at blogging more often. No promises!