18 Months!

I can't believe my little boy is 18 months old. He's handsome, cuddly, and so much fun!

We just took him to the Dr. and here are his 18 Month Stats:

Height: 33 3/4 in (81%)

Weight: 26 lbs (47%)

Head: 19 in (60%)

There is so much I could say about this little guy. He is a mama's boy for sure and I love his hugs followed by "yuh you" which means "love you"! He is starting to talk a lot more and use words we can understand. The other day I told Lexie "that's not nice" and he quickly repeated "das not nice". He started singing songs before he really started saying words. His favorite song right now is "Jesus Wants Me For a Sunbeam"; he sings "a subeam" and throws his arms in the air for emphasis. He can also sing most of the ABCs, and if he sees a letter O he points to it and says "O"; also, if he sees any letters on signs, on clothes, in books, or anywhere else he starts singing the ABC song. His favorite show is "Super Why" and he loves to sing the songs and dance. The kid just has music in his soul because he is constantly singing, dancing or both. His favorite toys right now are Mega Bloks (every morning he goes in Lexie's room to get them and comes out with them saying "bloks, bloks") and he loves Lexie's dollhouse because he can open and close the door. He is seriously a little OCD because he gets obsessed with opening and closing doors and you cannot get him to stop. The sad thing is, he is tall enough to reach the doorhandles at church so his first few times at nursery haven't gone so well because he can escape already. He will use anything he can find to stand on so he can turn the lights on and off and we have to keep the chairs out of the kitchen or he will climb up and stand on table. He is a really good sleeper now and goes down usually around 8:00 p.m. and gets up at 8:00 a.m. Lately when he wakes up he starts yelling "Mommy, Mommy" and if I don't get in there fast enough he changes to "Daddy, Daddy" which is super cute and always gets us laughing. He can eat with a spoon really well now, but sometimes it's just not fast enough for him so he uses his hands to shovel it in. One of his favorite foods is cereal and any box in the kitchen he points and says "cereal". He seems to prefer his left hand so that would be interesting for a house full of righties to end up with a lefty. He loves balls and is getting quite good at throwing them. He is completely attached to his sports blanket and loves pointing out all the different balls. I also love that he enjoys watching sports with me, especially football! I'm pretty sure he is going to be a little athlete and with a name like Hoyt it was bound to happen. :) His laugh is so infectious and his smile just makes me melt. I love you my little man!

Thanksgiving Weekend

This year we had Thanksgiving with the Lymans and Bryan's Bentley cousins. James, Jenny, and Bethany came to stay with us Wednesday night. My kids were so hyper about having company that getting them to bed took way too long so we were a bit tired the next day. We had Thanksgiving dinner at the church across from the Temple in St. George. I was glad we fed our kids before heading down because they didn't eat anything. All they wanted to do was run around with the other kids and play. Lexie and Bethany had a great time and would never stop for a picture so this is the best I got.

A bunch of us decided to take some of the kids to the park to play. The weather was pretty nice until it was getting dark and we decided to get back to the church. Hoyt had fun on the slide.

I wasn't able to really take pictures because the only thing I did the entire time was follow Hoyt around the church. He enjoyed exploring and opening every door in the entire church...yes at only 18 months he can open doors. I was VERY tired by the time Thanksgiving Day was over! Bryan at least got to visit with his cousins he hasn't seen for a long time. And I really don't mind having some bonding time with this handsome little dude!

We had such a great view of the temple and I took this picture at the perfect time of day. Love it!

We had planned to head over to visit my family for the remainder of the weekend since Bryan's family all left Friday morning, but my sister was really sick so we decided to stay home and have a relaxing weekend just the 4 of us and it turned out to be quite nice! Friday we slept in and stayed in our PJs for the majority of the day which was just what we needed after a tiring Thanksgiving Day. We went to the store in the evening when the Black Friday crowds were gone and I think I spent a whopping $2.64 or something. Saturday we went to Pizza Factory in support of Small Business Saturday and thanks to American Express we got a FREE delicious meal! We went to the park and then just again relaxed at home with the kids. While at the store, we did let the kids ride the little merry-go-round and they were perfectly happy. Even though I was disappointed to not see my family, it really was a nice, relaxing weekend we all enjoyed--especially Bryan who got a much-needed break from work.

We have been given so much this year and are grateful for many things: our eternal family, the Gospel, our Savior Jesus Christ, our house, Bryan's new job which provides us with the things we need. There is so much more; we are truly blessed!!!

Funny Kids!

These 2 little munchkins are the light of my life. In addition to bringing me a great deal of joy, they make me laugh several times a day. I love how kids find happiness in the smallest things...like a night out on the town getting ice cream cones at Arctic Circle.

Lately Lexie has been saying the funniest things and I wanted to write them down before I forgot.

The other night was actually really touching because she decided to "write" me a letter. She read it to me and said in her exact words: "Dear Mommy, I hope you realize that I love you very much!" I kind of got choked up with that one.

We went to the store one night and were looking at some Christmas stuff (because it's just everywhere in the store) and Lexie said "Why don't they have Thanksgiving stuff? That's just silly!" I agree that it is kind of ridiculous that I can't find any Thanksgiving decorations anywhere. For our front door window, Lexie and I printed and colored pictures of pilgrims, turkeys, etc. so we could celebrate Thanksgiving first before the craziness of Christmas hits.

One of Lexie's new favorite movies is the Liken the Scriptures David & Goliath and she keeps saying "Goliath is REALLY HUGE" and "He's the hugest guy in the world". Now, I don't think Thurl Bailey is that huge, but he is a big guy with a great voice! The other funny thing is that she associates giants with Jack and the Beanstalk so she keeps asking to watch "Goliath and the Beanstalk".

Because I did most of my Christmas shopping online, a lot of packages have been coming to our house. My kids have loved having bubble wrap and the other big air bubbles used for packing to pop. So when another box with big bubbles came the other day Lexie was so excited her response was: "Oh my cow, thanks for buying these bubbles!" I guess next year we'll forgo buying toys and just get some boxes and bubble wrap for the kids; it would provide hours and hours of entertainment and fun!

Lexie loves for me to go play in her room and she likes to have parties. Here is a video of our latest one that turned into a dance party. Hoyt was really getting into it, but wanted to play with the camera when I tried to video them.

Hoyt is getting so big and finally starting to talk and say things we understand. I know most of this post was focused on Lexie, but I will do an 18 month post for Hoyt soon and write more about him.

Halloween 2011

Our Halloween festivities started the week before when we decorated sugar cookies for FHE. As you can see, the kids had more fun eating the cookies than decorating, but they were yummy and it was fun.

I forgot to take pictures before the plastic wrap was on for some deliveries, but here is a plate of Halloween cookie goodness!

The next activity was carving pumpkins which we did Saturday evening. We almost didn't get pumpkins because we waited so long to buy them and 2 stores were out of good ones, but thank goodness Lins had plenty!

Bryan carved this pumpkin for the kids and they loved it!

Lexie asked every morning for about 2 weeks if it was Halloween. The day it finally arrived she asked to "Go to Halloween" a.k.a. trick-or-treating. She couldn't wait to put on her costume and go get some candy! I thought for sure Lexie would want to be a princess this year since she is really into that right now. I was looking at a costume store online that was having a big clearance and saw an ice skating costume and she said that's what she wanted to be. So I also found this future Olympic champion costume for Hoyt and thought it would be super cute to have them both be future Olympians. I was actually watching the 2008 summer olympics in the hospital while in labor with Lexie and watched the 2010 winter olympics while about 7 months pregnant with Hoyt so I guess that is just in their blood.

In the afternoon we went to SUU and visited some of my friends and let the kids trick-or-treat there. We then went trick-or-treating to some of our ward, but Hoyt had been sick for a few days and still wasn't 100% so after about 20 minutes we figured he was done. I stayed with Hoyt and handed out candy while making dinner and Bryan took Lexie trick-or-treating around the neighborhood. She LOVED it this year and her pumpkin got full after only going for about 45 minutes total. Once she got home she enjoyed handing out candy to the other kids who came to our house.

Future Michelle Kwan and Michael Phelps?

For dinner I thought about getting a Jack-O-Lantern pizza from Papa Murphy's but it was more than I wanted to pay so we just made our own pumpkin pizzas that were super yummy!

The kids enjoyed their Halloween meal.

Hoyt in his other Halloween outfit.

After carving the kids pumpkin, Bryan carved his huge pumpkin and here they are all lit up. I kept my pumpkin to make dinner-in-a-pumpkin later in the week! Happy Halloween!

Catching Up: This & That

The past few months I have worked on and off to catch up my blog. My goal has been to be up-to-date so I can get back on schedule and blog every week so I won't forget as many details. Well, this is the last post that gets me there...hooray! It is kind of a random post of a few events I wanted to blog about, but didn't have enough pictures or info for them to each have their own post so here we go.

I am laughing just looking at this picture. This is our cute little "Super Hoyt". The kids found the shades they used in the hospital when he was on the bili lights and they would wear them, but it was a little dangerous having their eyes completely covered because they were running into walls etc. Bryan cut eye holes and this is what resulted. I think it's hilarious and cute.

Lexie always likes to be with me in the kitchen cooking. Here she is helping me make some pizza for dinner.

September 30, my brother Matt returned from his mission to Nebraska! This is my 4th RM brother; there is one more to go, but he still has about 5 years. Luckily for us, Matt flew into Cedar so we all headed over to see him fly in and come off the plane.

I didn't get any pictures of our little family with the missionary, but here are some with my parents and little sister. Lexie had just turned 1 when Matt left and I was about 5 weeks pregnant with Hoyt, so a lot has changed in 2 years!

I did get a picture of Hoyt and Bryan waiting at the airport.

After the airport, we had everyone over to our house for pizza and cake. It was my immediate family and my Mickelson Grandparents. We had a great time eating and visiting. I made him a cake with our high school colors which goes perfectly with the Halloween season. :)

The next day was Saturday General Conference, so we decided to head to my parent's house to visit. We also wanted to see the leaves on the mountain. We didn't know it then, but it was the last time for us to go up the canyon and over the mountain because of a massive landslide that will take many months to fix. And to top off the trip, Lexie got carsick because she was trying to see the pretty leaves. She gets the motion sickness from my family (you should see us at Lagoon all downing dramamine), but usually she closes her eyes and takes a nap so she won't get sick. We didn't have time to stop and take pictures but I did get a few out the window of the car. I love fall!

So far October has been somewhat uneventful. Bryan is still working hard at his job and we appreciate all he does for us. It's so nice to be back in our home, and I feel like the kids are so much happier and have settled into a nice routine. They are finally on an amazing sleep schedule from 8 or 8:30 p.m. to 8:30 or 9:00 a.m. The hard part for me is getting to bed at a decent hour because I get so much accomplished in the evening while they are sleeping. We still need to finish painting, unpacking, and fixing the backyard; but we are healthy, happy and loving life!

On to a few more random pictures. The kids were really into a DVD about shapes and it was so cute we had to take a picture. Also, the other day Bryan bought me yellow roses which was cute. When we were first dating, he bought me yellow roses and told me they meant friendship and it became a joke between us. When he brought them to me the other day I asked if he wanted to be my friend; luckily, he is my best friend!

And now I am caught up!!! I hope I can stick with it and keep the blog current so I can remember all of the small things that go on with our family. I'm sure my slacking off has cause less people to even read my blog, but my main objective is keeping a journal and history of our family. Until next week...