A day off

Well I had the day off today.  With my extra time I decided to thrill the entire world with more Luke and Isaac footage. Below you'll find an updated video that we posted last year.  Enjoy it.

New Toy

For Christmas, Isaac got a new toy. Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger.

You may have heard that Buzz and Woody didn't get along well at first...

What about Spiderman? Isaac's favorite toy?

I'm Spiderman. This is my home. I wear red and blue, Isaac's favorite colors. You are green and purple. Like Barney. I give you a big fat thumbs down. I can spin webs. At your face. What can you do? Are those wings?

Let me see. What? these plastic things are so dumb. They must be so heavy you can't even jump, or swing,  or...

Listen here Spiderman! I would like to be your friend, but since you've  chosen to insult my colors...
WACK!

I must now teach you a face planting lesson.  I hope your mask had air bags.  Now you listen up, you bug.

I'm the official Ranger to these parts and you're just some creepy crawling vigilant who's just been replaced.  Isaac's my boy now.

Prepare to be lasered! No, please no Buzz Lightyear, I'm sorry about what I said, there's room for two of us here, there's.... ZZZZZAP!!!!!

Anyways. Christmas is over, Utah is over, and 2012 is over.  It's the beginning of a new day.

2012 was great: Curtis got married, Christelle got married, Ada was born, Clarissa was born, I didn't fail out of school, and The Hobbit came out.

Let me talk about that last one.

In 2001 I watched The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring (LotR FotR). After watching this movie I set out to read all the Lord of the Ring books.  Prior to this I had read mabye less than 5 novels of my own free will.  The Lord of the Rings books were so impressive to me that I immediately became a big fan.  

In 2002 I prepared to go to LotR TTT (The Two Towers) dressed as a Ring Wraith.  When I pulled up to the movie, I found one of my friends didn't have a costume, and so I let them wear my Ring Wraith costume.  Instead I put on my Boromir costume, I was prepared of course.  This was my first midnight showing I'd ever seen and I loved it.

The next year I graduated from high school and signed up to serve a mission for the LDS church.  I got my mission call in the mail and instead of waiting for my dad to come home, I called him on the phone and opened it with my mom sitting next to me. I opened the letter and began to read... I read, "You've been called to serve in the Tegucigalpa, Honduras mission.  You will enter the MTC on December 17th the day that The Lord of the Rings comes out."

That's literally what I said out loud while reading my calling.  

I couldn't believe it that my absolute favorite movie was coming out on the first day of my mission calling. I had prepared for years to dedicate myself to God and serve a mission.

I asked my church leaders if I could go to the midnight showing of the movie before I left for the mission.  They told me that I would be "set apart" or officially pronounced as a full time missionary on the night before the 17th.  I couldn't see my movie.

And so on the night before my all time favorite movie would come out, I went to the theaters.  All my friends were there standing in line.  I said my goodbyes.  Headed home, got turned into a missionary and wend to Honduras.

And that's when I went mad.

Well not technically mad.  I guess that's not possible.  What I mean is that is when I first began the process of going mad.

In Honduras I dedicated myself 100% to the missionary work. For 2 years I worked and didn't let myself even think much about home let alone the Lord of the Rings.  The months passed by and I finally fulfilled my time and came home.

Finally home I was free to watch my movie.  It was on my list of things to do:

My list:

1. See mom

2. See dad

3. See siblings

4. See the Lord of the Rings part 3 The Return of the King

5. See my friends

I made sure that it was perfect. I set up a viewing at my friends house, because he owned a projector and I could get the most out of the experience.

In total I waited 2 years and 12 days to watch that movie.  It was amazing and all my hopes and dreams and expectations were fulfilled.

My friends who gathered to see that movie absolutetly loved The Lord of the Rings just as much as me.  But that was back then in 2003 when it first came out.  Now in 2005 the movie was still awesome but kinda old news.  And as the years passed I discovered something strange... The hype for The Lord of the Rings did not fade for me. By 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, till 2012 I haven't stopped reading the books over and over again.  My excitement for Lord of the Rings conversation is as active as it was over ten years ago when it all started.

I even named both of my kids after important characters from the story.

I don't know if that's ever been done even among the craziest of fans.

And now as I think back on it all. Pizza makes sense to me.

In Honduras they eat beans, rice, eggs, and sometimes chicken.  I ate that food for 10 weeks straight and then I was invited to leave my area and travel to the nation's capital to enjoy a pizza dinner with my mission president.  

That pizza came from heaven.

Not because it was spectacular of itself, but because I had been denied it for so long.

The Lord of the Rings was practically on my plate before I was denied eating it.  And so although it's only a movie, and a novel, it's more to me because of my torture.

Simply put, my mind has been tortured into loving The Lord of the Rings.

So I hope that explains why I spent many years developing my Gandalf costume for the Hobbit, and why Legolas and Elessar ate dinner with me tonight.  

So let me tell you about my opinion of the Hobbit.

I watched it in 2D first.  That was the perfect thing to do.  That is how I fell in love with her and that's what she was like in my memories.  The movie was heart warming, exciting, and everything I ever hoped for.  Peter Jackson reflected the novel perfectly like I wanted him to.

A few weeks later I went again to watch the movie but this time in HFR 3D.  This was spectacular!  I love the new technology.  IHowever I'm so glad I didn't watch it this way first because it was a little strange.  I'm not used to middle earth like this, but it IS an improvement and it's going to take a little getting used to. 

I wish I could go back in time and tell this to all my friends.  Watch the movie first in 2D. Love it.  Then watch it again in HFR 3D, and get yourself adapted.  

I could talk all day about this as you can tell.

For those of you who have held out and are still reading, then you may be rewarded to know something. Amy and I have been trying to have a 3rd child for almost 1 year now with no luck. So that probably means we'll be a family of four forever.  If we still don't have any kids by the time we move out of Texas then I'm going to sell ALL our baby stuff and that will be a pretty big garage sale I'm telling ya.

Some updates.

Luke can repeat everything and copy everything that Isaac does

Isaac is old enough to go to Primary at church on Sundays instead of Nursery.  He'll have a teacher!

Amy gets to play with the two cutest boys in the world all day long while I'm at school.

Brad (me) has only 1 more semester of classes before leaving school on externships.

Other things to look forward to:

National Board Exam part 1 is in March, the same month as St. Patrick's day and the dedication of the Honduras Tegucigalpa Temple.

And in 241 days:

Announcement (Non baby)

We have 5 more days until the end of the world. It's so exciting!

What are yall going to do on Dec. 21, 2012? It's a good day to celebrate life.

Here are some valid ways the world may end that day:
1: Zombies (either previously dead ones or currently living people become zombies and come out to eat the rest of us)
2: Meteor, should we really trust that the star gazers would warn us?
3: Super virus/bacteria eats our brains
4: Nuclear bombs melt all the ice on the north and south poles and we all get flooded
5: All the techtonic energy is released and volcanoes pop up everywhere
6: Aliens laser us all
7: The government harvests too much steel from the earth's core and we implode
8: Apes become more intelligent than us and enslave us
9: The sun explodes.
10: The internet spawns robots determined to delete us.

But lets not think about this. We still have 5 days to pretend that life will go on.

So with baseless hope in our hearts, we now reveal some of our future plans.  A future plan assuming our peaceful world continues to function.

Amy, Isaac, Luke and I are planning on selling our Houston Texas house so that we can move BACK to Utah and be closer to family.

We've felt that this is where we're meant to be and although Utah is not an ideal place for private practice optometry, we do have faith that God will prepare something for us.

But don't be surprised if we end up living in Salt Lake City with a big fat Lone Star carved into our house, or our lawn. We may fly a Texas flag in the front yard.  Luke is a native Texan and we've all been changed thanks to our amazing time in the greatest state in the world.

We still have 1 more year to enjoy Texas, but we'll be spending a lot of that time preparing to move back to Utah.

Hope all you family and friends in Utah can celebrate a little today.  For my Houston friends, hey, most of yall are leaving Houston after graduation anyways so you can't be too mad at me.
-Brad

Moving on...

The election is over. I've written my response regarding this about 5 times.  Then I erase it.

So we as a country wanted change. But there's practically no change in the senate, house, and presidency.  Oh well.

The real changes coming in the future are more exciting if I talk about our family personally.  Today is my almost my last day as a 27 year old.  I have been hanging onto my youth very nicely.  I'm still young and beautiful. I can run up and down stairs without running out of breath. I can eat ice cream and steak without gaining a pound. My hair is thick and full with a partial golden shine.  My mind is active and has never been more full of information.  My kids and wife love me and we have everything we could ever wish for.

But there's one problem, that has devastated me.

Last week, I looked in the mirror.

And notice 2 hairs growing out of my right ear.

OH THE HORROR! I am old! I am hideous! Death is at my door!  I am so ashamed! Oh the pain of the end of youth! How frail is life! No one can understand the state of the elderly until it consumes you! It is all become dark.

At least I'm married to a beautiful young lady. Sorry Amy, but you're stuck with an old man, ha ha.

More about me.  I'm finishing up my 6th semester of Optometry school.  There's only 4 more to go, and happily half of those semesters are NOT in school, they're at externship sites outside of Houston.

In case you didn't hear, I'll be in SLC next summer, in Carthage Texas next fall, and then back in Houston at school for spring of 2014.

If you haven't heard about Carthage Texas I recommend watching the movie "Bernie" there's some bad language in the movie but it's really fun to watch knowing we'll be a part of that small town for a few months.

After all that I'll be a doctor. Can you believe it?

Amy is really enjoying our two boys.  Isaac and Luke are ten times more entertaining then they have ever been. Amy has been able to do a little less survival parenting and a little more behavioral parenting as the days go by. She enjoys being a mother but has also been very busy with working with the young women of our ward.  They are a great bunch of girls and Amy loves meeting with them and teaching. It keeps her busy every week and I love watching how much Amy actually cares about them and their personal spiritual progression.  I really have seen a lot of growth from Amy especially since they took her out of serving in the Primary.  And the most impressive surprise of all was the Gandalf costume she made. It's amazingly impressive. Amy managed to create a perfect replica of the costume that Gandalf the grey wore in the movies.  I sort of asked her to help me do it but she took on the project herself and succeeded greater than my best expectations.  I know I'm  a nerd and Amy doesn't disagree but her hard work combined with her previously hidden talents have really convinced me I'm the luckiest husband ever.  I don't know what i could do to even out the score.  Something tells me that maybe a hundred pounds of chocolate might do the trick.

Isaac is a good boy.  He has a lot of energy and certainly would benefit if we only had a safe place for him to go outside and play.  Our backyard no longer has deathly heat and humidity, nor does it have mosquitos that especially love Isaac's blood, but we still and forever will have mean fire ants.  Luke isn't quite big enough to play out in the dangerous ant hills yet and so Amy can't monitor both boys if Isaac is outside, so for the majority of time, Isaac is trapped indoors and has become addicted to movies.  He loves all movies all the time.  He isn't so obsessed with any one thing anymore, sorry Spiderman but you're becoming old.  Isaac spends more than half of his time playing with Luke rather than by himself.  He likes to be with mommy and ask her questions and do what she's doing. He's definitely a mommies boy.  It takes a lot of hard work to get him to admit that he loves daddy too.  Amy's starting to discipline him more, we've decided to switch roles. Since I've been bad cop for the first 3 years, Amy's going to take the job for the next 3. That way Isaac can learn to love me more. If it weren't for his severe speech problem I'd say he's ready to be sent off to school!  He's talked about going to preschool and he's very very excited about it.  It won't be long until we take that first step of letting him out to begin life outside the home!  It's exciting that as I finish up my last year of formal education, Isaac will be begining his!

Luke is no longer a baby.  But we still call him baby Luke.  I dunno how much longer we'll say that but I just can't help it. He's my precious little snuggle boy. While Isaac often hold grudges against me for being punished for his naughty behavior, Luke is always definitely a daddy's boy. When I come home from school or work Luke is definitely the first one to be waiting at the door (or running towards it) as soon as he hears the garage door closing.  I'm always greeted with a very quiet but very energetic "Dadda!" every time I open the door, and if I'm not fast enough to pick him up, he'll quickly coil himself around my leg and bury his face against me with one of the sweetest hugs I've ever had. It NEVER gets old and continues to be the best part of my day.  Luckily Isaac is starting to copy luke some days. It's funny because when Isaac runs up to hug me, he makes sure that Mommy is watching him as if he's putting on a silly show.  Luke is saying a few more words, he's finding that he has preferences with movies and stories.  He definitely loves copying Isaac.  And from what I see with food, Luke has still yet become picky to tastes of food. If he's picky it's due to general distractions and not due to flavor. I can still get him to eat absolutely anything as long as I'm entertaining him and keeping him in a good mood.  My only sorrow is that most family don't know Luke very well at all.

And that wraps up everyone! Or does it?  No no no, we're not pregnant. The optometry school class of 2014 accidently got a wonderful email this week finding out that Amy isn't pregnant. I know that some of you are thinking that we're trying to have another baby and you're wondering if Amy is secretly pregnant, well I'm sorry if you were hoping but we are not secretly having another one.  Amy is open about her hopes to someday have a baby girl. She really really does want one of those, but right now just isn't the right time for it.  So we all get to be content with the two crazy boys that we do have.  We're so happy to have Clarissa and Ada in the family and also all the other new cousins and babys that are coming into the lives of our friends, we're so happy for you guys.
Ok
and the next blog that I do will have pictures.

And for those of you that are still feeling down because of the lack of change in our government, well just be glad that you're not stuck in mordor.  Obama's not as bad as Sauron. Perspective.

Obama and Romney

Why did I vote for Mitt Romney? (brad speaking here)

That's right, I voted today. Spent a very long 75 minutes in a line feeling slightly uncomfortable seeing as how I was the only white person and the purpose of the line was to get a turn to either vote for a white guy or a black guy as our next president....

So Why did I vote Republican?

I consider myself an extremist. I do not agree with any of the parties. Therefore I am forced to vote for the party that comes closest to what I’d dream for. I hold my views based on principles. Principles that I believe if followed yield prosperity of a nation and if neglected yield destruction of a nation.  Due to the fact that these principles are unchanging, they are relatively boring. Turn on the news, “hey lets hear more about those thousand year old principles!” Nope. Not happening. The media would much rather entertain us with who said what, who was caught doing this and that. Attack ads are everywhere, but they rarely attack principles.  In my opinion, about 90% of what’s reported on TV is not important.  I personally don’t care what the president said in his first press conference in response to a strike on an embassy.  I don’t care what Romney left out of his Republican National Convention speech.  I definitely never care about what the polls are telling us, nor do I care about Obama’s beer factory or Romney’s dog.

Here’s what I do care about.

I care about freedom of choice, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedoms of due process, and all the other freedoms guaranteed in the constitution.

I do not care about freedom to avoid parental responsibilities, freedom of food, freedom of healthcare, freedom of education, freedom of employment, and freedom of tax exemption.

Note the words, “I do not care about” are not equal to the phrase, “I am against…”

The first freedoms I mentioned are very expensive, however I believe that they’re worth paying for at ALL COSTS.

The second list of freedoms is also very expensive, but they are not worth paying for until we become a very very rich nation.  I would love to buy anything I wanted, but the trouble is that I have a brain. If I can barely afford what I have now and attempt to buy more, then I risk losing all that I have. It is the same with our country. 

Always remember that a Democracy is the most expensive form of government.

I enjoy the famous quote by Francois Guisot (1787-1874): "Not to be a

republican at twenty is proof of want of heart; to be one at thirty is

proof of want of head."

This idea that the young dreamers with big hearts vote Democrat and the old realists with life experience and knowledge vote republican was just the case for myself.

When President Obama ran in 2008, I was just beginning to care about politics. I was beginning to be convinced that many aspects of the Republican party were old and irrelevant, while on the other hand many other aspects were old yet will forever be relevant.  Due to my Christian faith many social issues were Republican (abortion and traditional family).  However, since I was a student of science and thoroughly educated, I saw a few problems.  I distinctly remember an enormous amount of passion which I felt for alternate forms of energy, specifically nuclear energy.  Obama was definitely on my side here.  It just bothered me that old people and ignorant people could be so frightened of nuclear energy. It’s the greatest invention of all time! How could we not harvest it? Why do we continue to ruin our planet with dirty fossil fuels? One other topic close to me was immigration.  I didn’t understand the politics of immigration, but it seemed like Latinos liked Obama more, and since I love Latinos, then I also thought Obama could do something more for them. One last thing about republicans is that I didn’t like war. I believed that we were only in the Middle East for oil. I thought that Bush was never getting us out of there. I was honestly tired of war.

So I headed to the polls ready to vote in a presidential election for the first time in my life. I was ready to vote for Obama.  But then I told my wife, and she said no. I couldn’t cancel out her vote.  So I displayed wisdom, Happy wife=Happy life, and voted for old man McCain or whatever his name was.

Now it’s been 4 years and I’ve learned better.  And perhaps it’s thanks to president Obama.  Indeed he did many things as President, and in doing so it has never been easier to see the difference between our nation's two parties.  The left has moved very near to socialism and the right has responded in realigning itself to the rebel ideals of free market capitalism and independence founded by really old men from the 1700’s. 

Obama created the Affordable Care Act and the Tea Party arose out of nowhere in defiance.

Suddenly nuclear energy and immigration did not matter. These two parties were squaring off against each other over a much greater set of ideas.  A second did not pass until I knew which side I wanted to be on.

I’m young, but I have some international experience that few people get.  Add to that my formal education in Spanish and Latino-American history and I can tell you without a doubt that socialism is not only a path to poverty of freedoms but poverty of all temporal needs. Look at history, look at the present day Venezuela and Cuba.  Look at this old cartoon http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVh75ylAUXY

And when I saw the pathway Obama was leading America, I didn’t like it.  I finally realized the difference between the fundamental way of thinking between the two parties.

We both want free healthcare, we both want to let kids be on their parents plan until they’re 27. We both want pre existing conditions to be irrelevant.  But the republicans say no.  Why? Well a Democrat will say “because they have no soul,” and the Republican will say “because we can’t afford it, because it gives government too much power, because it’s unconstitutional, and because this leads us one step closer to socialism and loss of freedoms.”

This same argument repeats itself for more issues:  We both want food stamps to be available for the poor, We both want Medicaid, and Medicare for all who apply. We both want all senior citizens to retire and live wonderfully at age 65, and we both want everyone everywhere to be rich. We both want everyone to have an equal chance at achieving the American Dream. We both want to judge everyone and if someone has a statistical lesser advantage for financial success well by golly we should give them a handout and equal the playing field.  But the Republicans often say no. And is it because they have no soul, or as I believe, they know better. These are dreams that aren't possible without putting our more important freedoms at risk.  This is eating our dessert instead of our vegetables.

And here is where the Democrats fail to understand the Republicans. How they can just let suffering occur? How can these heartless republicans ignore the suffering, the old, the poor, and the veterans?

This is where one of my extremist principles come into play. Specifically this is the principle I am most passionate about. Here comes some religion.

One of the fundamental reasons we are placed on this Earth by God is to experience Charity, the love of God. Although the Democratic party boasts to have more Charity, it literally destroys it. Charity is the responsibility of the individual and not the government.  If you vote for someone because they’ll take care of the poor people for you, then they are inherently stripping you of your ability to feel one of the greatest joys in life. Real charity is never experienced by voting to have money taken from the rich and given to the poor.  Real charity occurs by working extra hard so that you can sustain yourself and have some leftover to donate to those less fortunate. It  is an opportunity that nobody should ever shrug off.  Charity and love holds families together and it can hold a community, a city, and our nation together.  There needs to remain a bond between all of us if we want to stay a United States of America.  When we give up that responsibility to the government, letting it become the steward of charity, then perhaps the poor get fed but the love that individuals feel is gone, only rarely being echoed in the hollowness of political speakers. I would like to have the right to give 20% of my earnings to charity, instead of having the government take that same 20% by force to feed the poor and support the elderly.  And now to consider those who are in need of help; consider the difference between waiting in line for the government to give you what you HAVE A RIGHT to receive versus being visited by someone who is willing to give of his/her own earnings to help you for the time being.  Who is more grateful? Which situation builds a greater country? And in which situation is there CHARITY? 

I watched a documentary about the changes made in Iran only a few years ago. A woman from Tehran said that before Iran became a religious state, she would wear her veil. It was a symbol of her commitment to God. It was sacred to her. Now all women are required by law to be veiled.  She said that this new government had robbed her of her religion, in the name of religion. What once was sacred is now despised.  It is the same with Charity.

But wait, you say, I don't want love. I want food. Love doesn't feed my babies.  Well of course it doesn't! Family must feed your babies, Religious organizations feed your babies.  There are non profit agencies all over the place where good people are volunteering to save those in need. Where the government to allot this responsibility to it's people and give them the opportunity to feed themselves and feel charity then do you think we could do it?  I not only believe we could be more productive than the government, I believe it would save our souls.

I have much much more to say. If anyone has any specific requests for me to describe my views on the family, abortion, immigration, foreign policy or anything else, then send me your opinion first and I will send you mine later.  (Oh and by the way my opinion on renewable energy has changed) These things take time to explain and that is not something I have much of.

Remember that understanding yields peace, not contention. My purpose is to help you understand me, and why I voted for Mitt Romney.

Love yall!
-Bradly Larson

Isaac's dream come true on the worst night of his life

Warning:  If you are squeamish, and take no joy in gross stories- go back to facebook.  This post is not for you.

Isaac loves movies.  He calls himself a movie boy.  I seriously have to monitor and limit his movie time or else he becomes addicted, and that is all he wants to do.  So what is his dream come true?  To stay up ALL night long watching movies!  He got to do just that a couple nights ago.  Not because he has a crazy nice mommy- but because he had a mommy desperate for sleep.  Under normal circumstances Isaac is a lovely sleeper who is quite obedient.  So even if he isn't sleeping, he knows that night time is time to be in bed.  So why would I need to resort to movies?

A couple of nights ago was Sunday.  It's so nice to have daddy home on Sunday.  We all ate dinner- I'd snacked all day so decided to just eat salad.  The boys had pasta and grapes with their salad.  We put them to bed as we usually do, then went to bed ourselves.  At about midnight, Isaac starts crying.  Brad goes to see what the problem is.  I continue to sleep  :)  about 30 minutes later I realize lights are on, washer is going, and Brad still hasn't come back to bed.  Brad then informs me that Isaac had puked all over.  I got up to give Isaac some love and comfort while Brad finishes up remaking his bed with new sheets.  Isaac seems just fine- we all go back to bed.

Not 20 minutes later, Isaac starts screaming again.  I go in to find puke all over him and all of his new bedding- again.  Another bath, another new set of sheets later I get him back into bed.  This time I'm smart enough to stick a bucket next to him.  He tells me he doesn't want to go to sleep, so I tell him just to lay on his pillow and relax then.  I sing him a song.  Go back to bed.  10 minutes later- Isaac comes walking in saying, "I puked in my bucket."  So I get up, empty his bucket for him.  Put him back to bed.  10 minutes later, he starts screaming again.  I go in- and am relieved to see no new puke.  He just isn't sleeping, and let his imagination run away from himself.  The closet door was open and it was freaking him out.  I close the door.  Go back to bed.  After a couple more times of being called back to his room, I realized that this kid is really not planning on going to sleep.

Movie time!  By this time it was 3 or 4 in the morning.  I wanted to sleep.  A movie was the only way that was going to happen.  So I set him up on the couch with his bucket.  Went back to bed. After that, he puked a tiny bit in his bucket a couple times, and I think I put in another movie after the first ended.  It's all really just a blur.  Long story short- it was a LONG night.  Morning time hits, and I'm still trying to get some sleep, when Luke wakes up.  I hear him screaming in his room.  So I go in to find- you guessed it- puke all over him and his bed.  Another bath, another load of laundry.

Both kids were starved after their heavings, and at breakfast I was surprised to see them eat as much as they usually do.  I was just really hoping I wouldn't be cleaning it off the floor in a short while.  A little while after breakfast, both kids were acting like their normal happy selves.  Not sick- like at all.  It'd been a few hours since a puking episode.  So I thought I'd run to the store with them to get some Gatorade.  Help rehydrate their little bodies.  We went to Target- not 5 minutes into our shopping trip, while walking down the isle, Isaac stops.  He gets that look on his face.  No time to run to the bathroom!  Seconds later he's decorated the isle in orange puke.  I notified an employee (I felt so bad), grabbed the gatorade, and left.  Luke fell asleep on the way home.  I put him down for his nap, put Isaac down for his.   Aw, a break.

Not for long.  Well ok, they did have some decent sized naps.  When Luke woke up, he woke up screaming again.  I go in to find a stinky mess.  This time he decided to explode out the other end though.  His diaper did not do so well of a job in containment, it was all over him, all over his bed.  Another bath, more laundry.  Luke had one more explosive diaper needing a bath about an hour later.  Then he had "contained" explosions for the rest of the night.  Poor guy got diaper rash by bedtime from so much poop.  Isaac had one more mishap, but his also came out the other end.  Finally got the kids to bed, and sighed a sigh of relief.  What a day.  I lost count of how many extra baths and loads of laundry  I did.  At least the carpet stayed clean!

I don't know if they got a stomach bug, or if it was something they ate?  I'd guess it was something they ate just because they were both sick at the same time.  But then Luke woke up this morning with a small fever.  He puked during breakfast, but then went right on eating.  I'm just so thankful I wasn't suffering along with them, made it a bit easier to take care of them.   Poor boys.  In the 3 1/2 years I've been a mom, I've gotten away with not having to clean up puke (except baby puke).  I've now been officially initiated.

ETA: Never mind about the carpet staying clean.  Luke left a nice little surprise for me, that I'm pretty sure he pushed onto the floor.  It'd be a talent to puke through the rails of the crib.  What was I thinking buy PINK gatorade!

I Love To See The Temple

A couple days ago an awesome friend from the ward took us to the temple.  She was so nice to watch the boys for me while I ran in to do a few names  :)  When it was her turn to go in, both boys thoroughly enjoyed walking around the temple grounds.  You could feel the spirit so strongly with these 2 precious children that so recently left heaven's arms!  It was such a nice way to kick off this Conference weekend.  

The boys appreciating the beautiful temple flowers.  I love how Luke copies everything Isaac does.  Everywhere Isaac would stop to smell the flowers, Luke would do the same.

My attempt at getting a cute picture of both boys in front of the temple.   1 and 3 year olds don't comply very well  :)

Cutie Pie Isaac

Another attempt at getting a Luke picture.  I thought he'd run back to me, and I could get one

Yeah right, he's outa here!

They loved the water fountains

Best temple pic of Luke  :)


Hope you all watch and enjoy General Conference this weekend, and feast upon the words spoken.  Conference weekend is my favorite!