Holy Cow!

Well, actually goats. These two goats followed my neighbor home from his Saturday morning run. I'm not joking. We had a lot of fun and a few good laughs waiting for their owner to pick them up.

My neighbor had originally called the sheriff's department (which by the way laughed at him and told him to keep them corralled somewhere), but he and his wife got tired of waiting for them to show up, so he went and found the owner himself.

I'm not sure if the Sheriff's department, or animal control ever showed up.

Noah was pretty spooked by them until their owner put them in the back of his truck - he then cried and cried because he didn't want them to go home, he wanted to pet them more.

I Happy!!

You can't tell me kids this young don't learn anything from Nursery.
My current calling in our ward is a Nursery worker, I am the one in charge of lessons and singing time. For those of you who aren't familiar with the Mormon church, Nursery is a class designed for children 18 months old to 3 years old. Last week I taught a lesson on "I Can be Happy!" We went over the "Smiles" song in the Children's Songbook. (I put a copy of the song on the other side of their Happy/Sad face pictured above) We sang "If You're Happy and You Know it" and talked about smiling and frowning as well as other emotions.

Zoe, the youngest in our class, was so proud to show of her picture and inform everyone she saw, especially Daddy and Papa Mike that "I Happy!" She's still excited about it a whole week later.

It was nice to see her so excited and that she enjoyed Nursery, after the morning we had had. It was my first week of getting the kids ready for church, by myself, since Dan now has meetings before church. (He's the Elders Quorum President) Lets just say, things didn't go so well, but we still managed to make it on time. Zoe threw the biggest fit following me from room to room throwing herself down on the ground because she wanted to wear her Jammies (pajamas) and not the dress I had put on her. I can't believe that at 19 1/2 months old she can be so opinionated and vocal about her outfits.

However, today was much better all the way around - no arguments over outfits and we were early to church. In Nursery we talked about how "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam" and they colored a smiling Sunshine. Zoe once again was very proud of her picture and loved to tell all about our lesson: "I Happy, My Sunshine."

I Done Too!

She managed to shove half of a Twinkies in her mouth and exclaim: "I Done Too!," as she also wanted to go outside with Daddy and mow the lawn.

Overheard at the McDonalds' Home....

Noah -

"take a picture for our blog"

"that would be fun for our blog"

"It's Tasty"

"Are we going to Tayden's" (anytime we are in the car)

"Maybe in two hours we can go to Max and Luke's house"

"There are no more mores in there" (translation: it's empty)

"I'm sick of peeing my pants"

"I too much eats" (translation: I don't want to eat)

"My birthday is in July, Daddy's birthday is in July, Mommy's birthday is in August, Zoe's is in Auntie Jan" ... I was trying to give him a clue to say January, but hey Auntie Jan's birthday is also in January...

"It's very nasty, I don't like it" (after eating all but two bites of the granola bar)

Zoe
"Smile! Cheese!"

"I love you"..."want kiss?"

"Sorry, Sorry"

"Donald, my name!"

"Shzowy" (trying to get her to say Zoe)

"want purple one" (one of the few colors she knows; and a major source of conflict)

"ummm" (the answer to any question, or her response when you open the fridge trying to figure out what to make for lunch)

"you shopping me?" (she asked me while I was looking at Halloween costumes on eBay)

"Tasty"

That's my name!

I guess have really warped my kids.

They now see the Golden Arches of McDonalds' and proudly shout out "That's my Name!"

We pass a building that looks like a barn and Noah proudly announces "That's my Farm!"

He sees a picture of a boat and animals and exclaims "That's my Ark! and my Animals!"

My son thinks his family consists of "Old McDonald" Noah, "Old McDonald" Zoe, "Old McDonald" Shauna, and "Old McDonald" Dan.

He sings "Noah McDonald has a farm E-I-E-I-O"

My niece used to tell me that "Old MacDonald" was my song.

I guess I find it funny because I didn't grow up with this last name or all the teasing that goes along with it, unlike Dan who was teased growing up.

I just think its funny that they both can recognize and relate that they have a first and last name. Especially at a young age: Noah age 3, Zoe 19 months old.

In my defense I was just doing what all the Child Development books tell you to do. They say kids love hearing their name so personalize songs, by throwing their name in it.

I guess it's worked a little too well.

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This was overheard at a friend's house while we were delivering a meal to them after the arrival of a new baby......

Felicity: My dad built this sandbox, his name is Trevor.

Noah: Oh, My dad's name is "Uncle Dan"

Can you tell we've spent a lot of time with family this past summer?

Who wants Ice Cream?

Who does this little girl belong to?

Haven't her parents ever heard about table manners?

As you can see Zoe really loves her food.

Road Trip!

We recently took another road trip. This time it was a week long vacation to Utah. We went to see family, friends, and of course some of the sites.

The car ride itself was very uneventful which to us was great. No throw up this time! The motion sickness medicine worked.

However, Dan and I managed to experience Food poisoning while we were there. Which resulted in us not seeing a few people and things on our list. Sorry Jenn and Eric, I guess there is always next time.

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Here are a few cute things from our ride home.....

In the middle of no where Zoe yelled: Poop! Need Potty!! (she's not even potty trained yet) and boy was she insistent. It gave Dan and I a good laugh.

Pulling into out hometown at the round about she saw.......

out her window and exclaimed.......Get Icee there!! Get Icee there!!!! Icee there!!

Below are a few highlights from our trip....

Family!!

We had fun staying with family and Noah had a blast playing with his cousins. We did a lot of fun things together, but this was the only thing I managed to capture pictures of. We spent the day at the Children's Museum at the Gateway in downtown Salt Lake City....

Max and Noah driving the Jeep...Notice how neither one of them is watching the road!!
Max pretending to be a cowboy!!
Zoe and Jacob were able to mend fences a bit and be friends. I guess they even gave each other a hug and kiss goodbye at the end of our trip, too bad the camera wasn't handy for that one.
Luke climbing the rock wall.....
This is Max and Luke flying the "Life Flight" copter.....
Here's their crew.....
It was a fun day. Boy were the adults worn out by the end. Dan and I decided next time we need to take another adult of two with us. There was so much to see and do, but hard to keep track of everyone and their different abilities and interests.

Friends!!

We had the opportunity to see friends and hang out in our old neighborhood...We saw several friendly faces, however we didn't get to see everyone on our list, some by our choice, some by their choice. Maybe we'll have better luck next time.

Here are three out of the four Hotton kids playing at the West Jordan City Park with Noah...

Here's our old neighborhood park....
You can see our old house in the background....
It was fun watching my kids play with the neighborhood kids although it made me miss my old house and location a bit.

And The Sites!

"There sure are a lot of church buildings Mom." - Noah

When we first arrived in Utah, Noah thought every single church building we drove by was a Temple because of the white steeples. All the pictures of Temples I had shown him in Nursery had white steeples and our local building doesn't have a traditional steeple. So, it took some explaining the difference between a church building and a temple. Dan finally convinced him that the Temple has a trumpet in his mouth (an Angel Moroni with a trumpet). So, towards the end he would say, "Look Mom a temple with a trumpet in his mouth. A trumpet goes Toot Toot Toot!" For the most part that is a good way to distinguish between the two, but there are a few exceptions to that rule, take the Oakland Temple for example. I guess we will face that when it comes up.

We saw several Temples, some up close, some from far away, and one under construction. Here are a few pictures we took.

The Jordan River Temple. We could see this from Noah's bedroom window when we lived in West Jordan. Noah thought this was a very beautiful Temple, so did Zoe. I think we made a lot of people smile and probably laugh to themselves as we had a cute conversation with Noah as to who has gone into the temple and when he can go to the temple.
Zoe in front of the Salt Lake Temple.A view of the "Castle Temple" behind Noah... (taken from the roof of the Conference Center)

This picture didn't come out the greatest, but it was one of those cute moments between siblings that parents just love. This is on the top floor of the Conference Center. At the end of our tour, the kids wondered to the window. And being the nice big brother he can be Noah, was pointing out the temple to his sister and telling her all about it. It showed us that he pays attention to us more than we realize.A picture of the Conference Center......

Happy Birthday to me!!

That's right I celebrated another birthday about 2 1/2 weeks ago. As you can tell the kids really enjoyed my cakes. We tried bundtletts from "Nothing Bundt Cakes!"- Double Chocolate Chip, Red Velvet, Lemon Raspberry, and Carmel Praline Crunch. They were all very tasty.

My Dad asked me if I wished I had dyslexia that day (so I'd be 9 years younger). I thought a moment... I would have spent the day going to work and celebrating with co-workers instead of staying home and doing laundry. Which at that moment sounded much more exciting and glamorous. Then I realized I would have missed out in the excitement Noah had for my Birthday and I don't think I want to relive my 20s any time soon.

Just so you all don't feel too sorry for me, Dan did take me out to a nice lunch the day before. So, we managed to stretch out the celebration over two days.