Favorite Picture Friday

Bo the Wonder Dog snuggling with his red ball at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

Happy Birthday Carl!

My big brother-in-law is an old man today.  That's right, he's 33!  There are millions of reasons why I love Carl, but here are just a few:

• He makes my crazy sister slightly less crazy.
• Dutch loves him almost as much as he loves Grandpa Greg.
• Whenever I want to, I can hop down to Texas and stay with them.
• We watch hilarious shows together.
• He has a very similar sense of humor as my husband.
• He and Chris get along great!
• He builds things.  Really beautiful houses, to be exact.
• My niece and nephews are amazing little people, with a lot of the credit going to Carl and Carianne.
• If you don't know him he seems really shy and that makes it that much more funny when he does something hilarious.

Happy birthday Carl!  Hope to see you soon!

A List for Tuesday

Five Things I Miss About Chris When He Is Gone
(in no particular order)

1. There's no one to absorb my crazy, so Dutch and Bo get more of it than they're used to getting.
2. When there's a big bug in the house (like yesterday) I have to work up my courage to smash it myself instead of just yelling for Chris.
3. I don't have anyone to take over when Dutch is driving me crazy (like yesterday).
4. The bed feels very big and empty without my buddy snoring next to me.
5. If something is really funny Chris will laugh so hard his eyes crinkle up.

Can't wait until you're home again!

Grandma and Ba-Ba

Dutch talks a lot, but only a few of the words are recognizable to native English speakers.  Here is a list of the words Dutch says most often:

• Dada
• Mama
• Bo-Bo
• juice
• shoes
• cheese
• oh
• hi (he usually says this word really high-pitched and draws it out to two syllables)

His newest word is Grandma!  He started saying it just a couple of days ago.  Chris asked if he wanted to go to Grandma and Grandpa's and Dutch said, "Grandma?"  Then Chris proceeded to bug him to death until he wouldn't say it anymore.

I also think, but I'm not sure, that he calls Grandpa Greg "Ba-Ba."  I noticed this yesterday when he always seemed to use the word Grandma with the word Ba-Ba.  I'll have to pay more attention and I'll let you know.

Favorite Picture Friday

These pictures are a couple of months old, but they are of Dutch and his Sesame Street doctor bag.  It's an Elmo "bag", Cookie Monster stethoscope, Ernie blood pressure cuff, Bert thermometer, and Big Bird ear-looker-inner (I can't remember the real name).  His favorite by far is the stethoscope.

Silly Dutchie

I don't know if I posted these earlier or not.  Dutch has my headband around his face and my hat on his head and he's rocking on his horse.  For some reason lately he loves to wear my headbands and my hat when he rides his horse.  Apparently a cowboy needs a hat, and if a cowboy hat isn't available, he'll take what he can get.

The Zoo

Today marked Chris's and Dutch's first trip to Hogle Zoo and Dutch's first time really enjoying the zoo.  Chris has Mondays off so I decided we should do something to enjoy the beautiful weather.  We went to the zoo and Dutch would gasp and point every time he saw an animal.  Sometimes he was pointing in the absolute wrong direction, but it was still pretty cute.

We didn't take any pictures because there were hordes of children there all clamoring to play on all the best photo-op places.  Sorry for that.  Just know that he looked adorable in his red plaid shorts and too-big baseball hat.

Pregnancy Dreams, Without the Pregnancy

Last night was filled with the strangest dreams.  One was incredibly icky.  One was about a girl who misplaced her left hand and then couldn't get married.  One was a bunch of people sitting on big purple pillows discussing different movie locales.  And one was set in a museum where a girl wanted a 10% discount, but I wouldn't give it to her so she waited until there was another clerk and asked him, but he wouldn't either.

Very weird. These are the type of dreams I would have when I was pregnant, which I'm not. So where did they come from?

Poor Sick Bubby

Dutchie has allergies.  His eyes are watering, his nose is running, and he's being a huge butt-head.  Too bad he has to be 6-years-old to be able to take allergy medication.  Poor baby doesn't feel good at all and there's nothing I can do.

Favorite Picture Friday

Dutch wearing my purse around his neck.

He loved that he could just lift the flap and take stuff out of it.

(And his shirt says "Ladies Man")

Thankful for Friends

When we lived in Pennsylvania I didn't have any friends.  In the two years we lived there I didn't make a single friend that lived within a 100 mile radius of me.  It was hard.

Now that we're back here in Utah I have friends!  And not just mediocre, only see if you need to borrow sugar, type of friends, REAL friends.  I have gone out at least once a week (sometimes more) in the last month.  I am so thankful for my fabulous and wonderful friends who allowed me to pick up where we left off.

And I'm very grateful for the one set of "couple friends" that we have.  (For those of you who don't know "couple friends" are friends where the husband and wife both like the other husband and wife.  They are very rare and you're lucky if you have them.)

I just thought I would let everyone know how thankful I am for the friendships I have.

A List for Tuesday

An Update on Bo the Wonder Dog

• He has FINALLY grown out of his puppy exuberance... at 8 years old!
• When Dutch was a baby Bo would sometimes mow him over.  All I can say is, Dutch is giving paybacks now!
• Imagine the grossest smell in the entire world.  Now times that by 10.  Now imagine waking up with that taste in your mouth.  That's what's been happening to me lately because of Bo's toxic farting at night.
• He's barking less than he was at Grandpa Greg and Grandma Honey's house, but more than he ever did in Pittsburgh.
• I really cannot express how mellow he's become.  He's so relaxed 99% of the time and he lets Dutch just climb all over him.
• Bo still prefers people food to dog food and will only eat his dog food as a last resort.

I Bet You Wish Your Easter Bunny Was This Cute

This is Dutch wearing my bunny ears.  Isn't he so cute!

Dutch playing with his tool box that Easter Bunny Grandma Honey gave him.

He is stabbing it with the flag from his golf club set, except he ripped the flag off, so it's just a stick.

We had a quiet, but very good Easter here at the Davis family household.  Chris, Dutch, Greg, Josh, and Zaque all went up to the cabin from Saturday afternoon to Sunday afternoon.  Kellie and I both stayed at our respective homes and got caught up (which we were both happy to do).

For Easter Chris and I decided not to buy Dutch a bunch of toys because he really doesn't play with the toys he has.  He prefers to play with things like old cell phones and paper.  So we bought him clothes because he's too little to complain that all he got was clothes!  We couldn't get away with buying him NO toys, however, so Chris insisted we buy him a bubble gun. (For the record, I think Chris really wanted this and just use Dutch as a ruse to get it.)

Easter Bunny Davis gave Dutch a Charlie Brown Easter Beagle book, a wooden tool box with a wooden hammer, wrench, screwdriver and lots of little doo-dads and his very own notebook, all inside a purple pail (with matching shovel) that we proceeded to put on his head.  Bucket-head.

We had a very good Easter.  Chris and I didn't buy anything for each other, but we did receive some awesome tickets to see The Lion King when it comes to Salt Lake in September!  I saw it 5 years ago in London and it's one of the most visually amazing shows I've ever seen.  So I'm very excited for that, even if it is SO long to wait!

Hopefully I will be able to upload the pictures Chris took at the cabin from his cell phone.  I'm not sure the quality will be super-great, but that's okay.  Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!

Pictures to come tonight or tomorrow.