"I Can Obey!"

Two weeks ago I picked Jacob up from nursery after church and he had this amazing little necklace he was wearing that read, "I Can Obey!"  I happily thought to myself that they must have learned about obedience in nursery and how that was a lesson Jacob severely needed at the time.  Jacob is actually a very good (and pretty obedient!) little boy, but the terrible two's have certainly struck!  He's especially been resisting nap time lately... which is very unlike him!  Yesterday in turned into a 3 hour battle of wills that ended with both of exhausted and grouchy.  Not fun.  So today when he started the screaming and throwing and kicking I had this though come to mind, "you already tried everything else... just try ignoring him."  So, I decided just to ignore his protests and let him figure it out.  He's asleep now.  Aaaahhh. :)
He's such a silly boy.  Yesterday we took him for a ride in our Elder's quorum president's truck.  It doesn't have any airbags on the passenger side so we put his car seat up there and he LOVED it.  He was squealing with delight and kept pointing out the different trucks and animals on the country roads we were driving.  It was fun.

Aaron has transitioned to the bouncer/walker (whatever you call it!) for play-time.  He LOVES being able to look around and play with toys while seeing what everyone else is doing.  But lately, if he's in there for more than 10 minutes he starts screaming and crying (see the pictures below!).  He's really wanted to snuggle a lot lately.  Teething, maybe?
Jacob loves having Aaron in there, too.  They've been playing together a lot lately which is so fun to see.

The other day Jacob and I were coloring in his Elmo coloring book when he started throwing the crayons.  I had him put them away since he was clearly done coloring, but apparently I missed one.  A few minutes later I found a beautiful little drawing on our WINDOW.  At least it wasn't the wall.  I couldn't help but laugh inwardly as I thought of the "beautiful" castle I drew on my bedroom wall when I was about four.  I still remember my mom scrubbing and scrubbing until she finally gave up and left it there for what seemed like years.  I was pretty proud of it.  hehe.  And that's not even to mention the potato people I drew through the dining room and into my parent's bedroom!  lol.
I couldn't decide if I should be mad at Jacob for drawing on the window, or proud of him because he drew his first circle??  lol! =P

I'm pretty sure Jacob was trying to hug Aaron "all better" here.

So sad!

Okay, the funniest part about this sequence of photos is that they all happened in this exact order only a few seconds apart from each other!  So sad!  lol.

Jacob has been way into the hands in the pockets lately... SO CUTE.

 How could I possibly get mad at those beautiful, big, blue eyes and peanut butter face?

 Thumb sucking makes everything better. =)

Hope you enjoyed!
Laura

Semi-older Pictures

This is Ben's last week of Realty school... WAHOO!  He is loving it...... and looking for clients! ;)  He's scheduled to take the state exam a week from today.  After that (assuming he passes the first time... hehe), he will officially be a Real estate agent!  I'm so proud of him.  He has worked just as hard for this as he did for his undergrad.  He's still in the process of ironing out some wrinkles so he can submit the rest of his Grad school application.  But it's looking like we're going to get it in on time.

One week from tomorrow Ben's little sis, Holly, flies in from Cape Verde where she served a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  We're so proud of her for how hard she has worked over the last year and a half.  And we are, once again, SO excited to see her!  The next day we will all head off to McCall for about a month.  I'm excited for Jacob to get to play with his cousins... he loves them!  I'm sure Aaron will just eat up the attention, too. He's such a little sweetheart, but he CANNOT stand to be alone for more than a few seconds!  lol.

Below are some older pictures I finally edited.  The first group just cracks me up.  Jacob is really in the "little scientist stage."

Before Aaron was born, Jacob was really into getting into his toy basket.  This is how we found him late one night when we went in to check on him.... toys on the floor, in his basket, and fast asleep!  We turned on the light so we could get a picture..... he didn't appreciate that too much. ;)

Back in June we had a Relief Society activity where we made body scrub.  It was so fun!  And it smells SO good!  Mine smell like orange cream Popsicles.... Mmmm!  I had a fun little photo shoot.  It was my first real attempt at product photography. :)

In July I took a Table Top photography class from Nicole Hill Gerulat.  One of our assignments was to create a "magazine cover."  This is my attempt right off the top of my head.  I think I did pretty decent for not studying up first!

In May I got to photograph my GORGEOUS sister in the law, Liesel.  We had fun together, and we're really happy with the way the pictures turned out!

I took this picture of Aaron just yesterday.... isn't that the saddest?!!  It's a classic, blackmail shot.  hehe.  He's just so darn cute... even when he cries!  (don't worry, I picked him up right after!!  ;)  )

Well, I still have a lot more to post.  But there's some enjoyment for you for now. ;)
Night!

Laura

A little Something!

This has been a LONG week.  Ben officially completed his first week of Realty school and passed the test today!  Woohoo!  He has really enjoyed it and learned a lot, despite the fact that it's all practically a foreign language to him.  I'm so proud of him for working so hard.  He was gone for almost 12 hours almost every day just to come home and study after an hour or so with us... he's such a trooper.

Meanwhile, we've had car troubles... so the boys and I have been stuck here.  I haven't even taken them outside much because it's been 100+ temperatures!  I may be a southern girl, but that's hot even for Texas!  There have been tons of fires around the area because of the drought.  So we've been completely stir crazy! Jacob has started this licking thing... and throwing all his toys... yeah.  More on that to come!  lol.

Tonight we had a special surprise!  We got to see one of my friends I grew up with, Ricky Blomquist.  He is a missionary here in Nampa and he just so happens to be assigned to this area right now!  It was so cool to see him and catch up on old times.  You can't see it because of the angle of the camera, but we are doing a silly "flamingo" stand.  We were laughing about how Ricky used to do that all the time when we were growing up.  His mom would tell me, "Laura, go tell Ricky to stop standing like a flamingo so that people would talk to him!"  haha!  I love that family!

We are super excited for Ben's sister, Holly, to get home from her mission in just a little less than two weeks!  We're looking forward to meeting her at the airport then heading off together to McCall for a few weeks.  The last time she saw Jacob he was 5 months old... now Aaron is 5 months old!  A lot has changed!  lol.

Until then, we're looking forward to MY sister (and her husband!) coming tomorrow!  YAY!  We're so excited to see Jeff and Manda... even though I think Jeff is more excited about seeing his family... don't know why. hehe.
Ben has another week to finish the second half of Realty school.  Then in a week and a half he's going to take the state exam to become a Realtor.  Crazy stuff!  We're excited.

Anyway, that's a very brief catch up. =)

Laura