21 mos

 Winston and Tyler jet-skiing over the weekend. He couldn't get enough of the 'boat'

It's time for another Winston post because he has grown up sooo much in the past few months and Tyler and I seriously cannot get over what a cute little boy he is. There is no way I can possibly post everything he is up to, but hopefully I'll catch all the highlights.

 Winston with his green muffin and gold coins on St. Patrick's Day. He looks so old to me in this photo :(

• He loves wearing baseball caps like Daddy.
• Whenever you say you're going to do something or go somewhere he says "too!" because he wants to come along.
• His favorite song at bedtime is "I Love to See the Temple", and if you start singing any other song he looks you in the eye and says, "No, no. Do." (like 'dough', which means temple).
• He LOVES to ride his scooter and is really good at it. He has pretty amazing balance for his age.
• We moved him to a twin bed a couple of weeks ago and the transition could not have been smoother. He stays put at night and for naps and doesn't get off until I come to get him. When he's awake his favorite game is to run down the hall, into the bedroom, and then belly flop on the bed :)
• He loves to wrestle with Koa, even if Koa doesn't always...
• He is climbing everything these days.
• I can't possibly count all the words he is saying now, but he does often put two words together, the most often being "up high" when he's climbing or standing on top of the centimeters-high dirt mound in the backyard. Some of our favorite words are pizza- tipitipi, yep- yeppa, yellow- lellow, basketball hoop- shoot, swaddle- schau, and airplane- brrrmmm.
• He loves to read by himself now and I'll find him in his room flipping through books reading aloud. It's all jibber-jabber until he sees something he knows and then he says that word excitedly.
• He calls all animals by the sound they make (i.e. a duck is a 'quack, quack').
• He favorite fun songs are "Popcorn" or 'pop,pop' and "Wheels on the Bus" or 'beep,beep'. He does all the actions for both songs and sings most of "Popcorn", but he only sings the "all through the town" part of "Wheels on the Bus".
• He knows the colors red, blue, yellow and green, but he is definitely obsessed with blue.
• He has about 20 variations to his yes and no. His voice fluctuation is spot on and you always know how he's feeling by the way he says the word.
• When he takes a drink he does "Bottoms up!", aka he wants everyone to be drinking while he is drinking.
• We had a couple of super cold weeks combined with either a sick mama or a sick baby, so we ended up watching a least part of a movie everyday and it had to be AristoCats. He would ask for it by meowing and he still talks about it all the time even if we haven't watched for a couple of weeks. He called Thomas O'Malley 'Bear' and loved when the cats would sing :)
• When we put him in bed at night we tell him mama and daddy love him and then he asks if the baby loves him, and if Jesus loves him, and if Koa loves him. On occasion he also wants to know if Pa, Granna, Jenny and Ben love him too :)
• He loves pointing out pictures of Jesus at church and at home.
• He wants Koa to come with him where ever he goes and calls to him saying, "Ko, Ko!" really loud.
• He is still a ball man. He loves to throw them high, punt them, and shoot hoops.
• He likes to run at top speed to us and get picked up and squeezed :)
• He likes to help buckle himself into his carseat and highchair now.
• Whenever he thinks he's hurt you or you're upset he looks very closely into your face and says, "Yeah? Yeah? Yeah?" as if to say, "We good?"
• The things he asks to see a million times a day are the moon, airplanes, blue anything, and Elliot (his buddy from church/neighborhood/L.A.).
• Before his nap and before bed he blows to kisses to the pictures of Jesus and the baby (himself) on the wall in his room.
• When he knows he's doing something he's not supposed to and you catch him he avoids looking you in the eye.
• His favorite foods are probably milk, cheerios, berries, yogurt, and pasta.
• He likes to put one arm around dadda and one arm around mama for big family hugs all the time.
• He is super ticklish and will say, "no, no!" if you start to tickle him, but when you stop he usually asks for more :)
• If you ask him where the baby is he'll point to my tummy and sometimes give it a kiss.
• He is still very OCD and picks up trash everywhere, asks for a towel to clean things, likes his toys/books put away in the right spots, etc.

I feel like there is soooo much more about him that I want to remember right now, but I just can't think of it all. I'll probably add stuff to this post for the next couple of days just for my own record keeping. But really he is just the best and so sweet and we know he's going to love being a big brother!

Instagram

After succumbing to the pressure of friends, I joined Instagram a few weeks ago. I'm totally technologically challenged and I'm still figuring out how to use it most of the time, but as a result I've taken a few more photos on my phone than usual. It's kind of fun because the photos show a little more daily life than I would normally record with a camera. I thought I'd post a bunch of the photos I've taken recently for those of you who don't have Instagram.

*Disclaimer: this is a major photo dump because there were just too many cute pictures, though I definitely did not post all of these to Instagram.

Tuckered boy; the first fire in our first fireplace; W insisted on putting a sticker on his cheek & then forgot all about it :)

 

 

Winston & I surprised Daddy at work with some pink 'It's a girl!' balloons the morning we got the news. [We've been working on it, & I think W can finally smile without closing his eyes]

 

Bundled up for another 20 degree day; partying with no pants cause it's 70 degrees & the day after the first photo was taken

The day we brought Koa home

Winston had a cold that turned into pneumonia & he had to use a nebulizer 3 times a day for 5 days. Luckily, AristoCats and some post-nebulizing Hershey kisses got us through.

 

Watching for 'brrrms' (airplanes); 'found one! '; 'where did they all go?'

The best crafts are the kind you eat :)

Kisses!

24 week selfie

Awesome bedhead; just reading some books (which is soooo cute to see)

 

Clearly Dad and W were paying attention while I was reading scriptures... 

 

My cute boy enjoying some fine weather and a chocolate chip cookie

W spends most of his days speeding around on his scooter right now

 This photo might be my favorite right now- Winston was making sure Koa ate his dinner & a second after I took this picture W turned around & proudly showed me that he was eating dogfood too! I couldn't help but smile and tell him how awesome he is :)

Turner Ski Trip 2014

For the last week of February we headed up to Utah for the annual Turner Ski Week. Formerly these trips have always taken place in Aspen, CO, but this year we all spent the week at Tyler's mom's new cabin in Midway, UT and did the skiing there. Unfortunately, the skiing was not great. The weather was a balmy 65 degrees for the first half of the week, and rainy and wet for the second half. Tyler still managed to ski four days and I fit in half a day.

The good thing about going to Utah though, is all the family, friends, and favorite places you get to see. We spent lots of time with both mine and Tyler's families, saw a few friends and I got to roam Provo a couple of times (which is awesome because I truly do love Provo, UT). I took very few pictures on the trip and several of them are from my phone, so I apologize for the quality. Sometimes you're just having too much fun to stop for a good photo :)

Some of the awesome things we did:

1. Skied with my sister Jenny (it was only her second time and she was pretty awesome).
2. Ate at J Dawgs (twice!), Cafe Zupas, & Cafe Rio.
3. Winston became obsessed with a ping-pong ball & paddle.
4. Went to the BYU Bookstore and picked up some new cougar gear and books (because, of course).
5. Went to the Springville Antique Mall with my mom and it blew my mind! I picked up some vintage cookie jars and a vintage toy we had growing up.
6. Found some awesome steals at the outlets.
7. Sealed my mom to her parents at the Salt Lake City Temple :)
8. Visited the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point with some L.A. friends.
9. Went on a double date with Jessie & Marcus to The Pie.
10. Played with family... lots.

 Tyler & Jenny on the slopes

 Playing around with Jenny... she probably fell right after this photo was taken :)

 I know this photo makes Tyler sooooo happy!

 While picking out a BYU shirt for Winston, I turned around and saw he had picked something else out :)

Happy Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day was pretty low-key for us this year. When Winston woke up I brought him downstairs to find a special Valentine's gift: a new red ball and a box full of sweets! We also gave Koa a new stuffed animal to chew on. Most of the day we spent as usual; running errands and cleaning up the house. I did sit outside and enjoy the 75 degree weather while eating chocolate chip cookies during Winston's nap, and that might have been the highlight. I think I'm pregnant... or maybe that's just me :)

Tyler came home early and surprised me with flowers and a new spot cleaner! Then we all went out to Jamba Juice to celebrate since we still aren't ready to leave Koa alone for too long. Afterwards Winston went to a friends house to play and eat pizza while Tyler and I caught a movie. Nothing too romantic, but it was still special.

You can tell by this series of photos that Winston was pretty excited to have a box of candy all to himself...

 

Open it!

I opened two of the Hershey kisses for him to eat before breakfast & when he asked for more I said no. Then I thought he was finishing eating those two for a while before I realized he had figured out how to open them himself & had eaten about eight. Lucky boy got a special holiday breakfast :)

Cool boy with his very own Jamba

Koa

 8 lbs. (The first time I held Winston he was 8 lbs. too :)

We have a new puppy! We brought Koa home Saturday and we already love him so much. He is an eight-week-old Toller and is very mellow as far as puppies go. He and Winston already love each other (Winston probably loves him a tad more...). He is still peeing all over the house, but hopefully we'll have him trained soon. He goes to bed great at night (no whining), but he does wake up once in the early morning to go potty. He is super cute and shnuggly and we're excited to have him join our family!

 

Winston's always putting his hand out for Koa to lick. He also gives Koa kisses on the nose and doesn't like to let him nap.... Oh, and if Koa has a bone, Winston has to have one too.

 

 Beautiful red coat

 He has pale blue eyes and a pink nose right now. His nose will stay pink, but his eyes will turn brown eventually.

 Sleeping in the sun; puppy heaven.

Best friends- I saw them sitting like this while I did the dishes this morning.

Hapai

18 week bump- baby girl due July 4th!

Snow Day

 

It snowed in Austin! When we moved here we were told this never happens...

 

It's really not much, but all the schools were cancelled and several roads were closed. Tyler still went to work, but he was one of the few. Just another day in the south :)

18 mos

In December Winston turned 18 mos and he is quite the big boy now. He is running, climbing, kicking, talking, and everything else. I don't think I can begin to cover everything he is up to, but I'll still list a few of the highlights.

We recently bought two of these wing-backs, and this one has become W's chair.

• He loves to kick and is really good at it. He'll line the ball up (and you), dribble it or jog in place for a minute, then kick it perfectly straight with a follow through. No idea where he got his amazing skills from, but he practices 24/7 so I guess we'll be putting him in soccer before long.
• He is talking a lot and says quite a few real words including ball, hot, hello/hi, dada, mama, baby, yes (several variations here), no, oh no, bye, whoa, all done, thank you, Pa, Ben, & Dane (the neighbor boy). I know there are a few others, but I can't think of them all right now. He also does a million animal sounds, my favorites being butterfly, dolphin & donkey.
• His face is extremely expressive, so you always know exactly how he feels about something. He gives stink-eye like no other.
• He is all boy- balls, tools, legos, rocks, sticks, cars, and scooters are his favorites.
• He also loves to read. His current favorite books are There's a Wocket in My Pocket by Dr. Suess, Peter Pan, Little Blue Truck by Alice Schertle, & The Zoo I Drew by Todd H. Doodler.
• He is VERY particular. He always knows exactly what he wants and how he wants it.
• He is also very clean. He frequently picks up his toys and books on his own and whenever he finds trash or crumbs, outside or inside, he says "oh no" and hands it to me to dispose of.
• He is still a pretty picky eater, but has recently started to eat more of a variety. I'm crossing my fingers it sticks :)
• He loves it when Daddy tosses him "high in the sky" and asks for it over and over again.
• He also loves to watch Daddy throw anything else (mostly balls) high.
• At night when we do his bedtime routine, he always asks Daddy for a kiss, then tells him to kiss Mama, and then gets a big smile on his face as he waves goodbye. He is such a sweet boy!
• When he's not really eating we'll ask him to do airplane and he'll do it to himself to take a bite each time.
• He is very proportionate- in the 85 percentile for head size, height & weight.
• He still loves baths; especially bubble baths.
• He is obsessed with putting lotion, shaving cream, chapstick, hand sanitizer, & deoderant on.
• I think his favorite food right now is probably graham crackers.
• He often dances/prances around on his tip-toes when he's really excited or having a lot of fun. We call it his 'happy feet'.
• If he could spend all of his time outside, he would.
• He likes to sing and dance and he loves it when Tyler and I sing "If You're Happy & You Know It" & "Jingle Bells".
• When we give him a bite of something (anything!) he'll often slowly close his eyes while he takes the bite as if he is savoring every moment. It's an eyes rolling back in the head kind of thing.
• He likes to help out around the house; especially emptying the dishwasher and putting clothes in the dryer.
• He started nursery in December and seems to enjoy it and do just fine so far.
• He is still pretty attached to his swaddle- he takes it everywhere, sucks on it and plays with the tags, & can't sleep without it.
• When something doesn't go his way he furrows his brow and smacks his thighs with both hands or stomps his foot.
• When he colors he only wants to use blue and orange.
• He is a sweet, well-behaved little boy and we love him!!

 Always happy with a ball

 

 He learned to blow kisses and I think it is the cutest thing ever :)

We couldn't love him more!