Anyone ready for some Spring Cleaning?

{Even though my good friends in the North still have many long, long, long months of winter ahead ;o) }

Join me as I venture into the Spring Cleaning for Normal People Challenge! (She also blogs at moneysavingmom.com, which is where I originally found her. A totally read-worthy blog if you're into tips, deal alerts, and coupons...)

Anyway, join me if you'd like, but either way, wish me good luck...I'll need it!!!

To give in, or not to give in...

Tonight, before bath time, I said "Levi, do you want anything to eat?" "No" was all he said. Me, again, "Are you sure? Aren't you hungry?" {Looking at me with his ever-so-cute "duh" eyes} "No hungry Mom. I don't."

Upstairs we went.

We get to the bathroom, he realizes what we're doing, and beelines for the door. Of course, I stop him. After I take off his shirt, with puppy dog eyes, and as he rubs his tummy, "Mom. Hungry." I just stare, trying not to laugh. "Yeah Mom, hungry? Yeah Mom, dinner, yeah, yeah. Dinner Mom?" As if in the last 2 minutes he realized he'd become famished.

I bathed him and put him to bed, amid many requests for many different types of food. The next 45 minutes, sounding like his little mouth is right next to the microphone on the monitor, he keeps saying "Mommy, dinner? Mommy, hot dogs?" Over and over :o)

I finally gave in after 48 minutes (and in his defense, he did down 2 hot dogs in about 30 seconds flat). He was so sweet.

But he does this all. the. time. And I always give in. I just can't stand it {see aforementioned comment about sweetness}. So, now I ask you, where do you draw the line?

Levi's new trick

He'll usually pronounce the words more, but he clams up when he's on the spot {just like his Mamma!}.

"I want to be a missionary now"...

One of our goals for this year is to have the missionaries over for dinner once a month. So far, we're one for one, lol.

After they left tonight, it was just silent for a few moments, then Levi said "Oh no! Rishiowaries! Come back!" And John Morgan hurriedly crawled over to the front door and started pounding on it, as if for them to come back.

It's sweet to see that these boys love the missionaries so much. And I'm so glad for the immediate blessing we received as we set forth to meet our goal to have the missionaries in our home more often. Our boys already look up to them, and hopefully that will grow as they do, and by the examples of the wonderful young men, our boys will have the desire and the steadfastness to let nothing dissuade them from serving the Lord when it's their time. These young men, although they change frequently, represent faithfulness, and righteousness, endurance, and obedience.

I'm so grateful for missionaries. For the work they do and the influence they have had on my life. My family is my family, and will be forever because of two young men like them, and they will forever hold a special place in my heart.

Thanks to all of you, men or women, that have served missions or supported those that have gone on missions. The world is surely a better place!

This was little Johnny M after they'd left ;o)

A day late and a dollar short...

...but, nevertheless, here are our 2008 Christmas portraits for your viewing pleasure!

We had a great time!

All Levi wanted to do was run around the studio, so we were pretty excited to get the good ones we did, lol. And that John Morgan. What a little ham...he loved having his pictures taken!

Here's to a new year, hopefully full of lots of great pictures, fun, and happy memories!

John Morgan's walking...

A little, anyway.

*Note: Sorry for the horrible quality. We're still working on getting a new cord for the video camera {where the good videos live}, apparently they don't sell them in stores. You have to order from the manufacturer. So for now, you get to keep watching cell phone videos. Yay!

He's been taking those baby steps for about 2 and a half weeks now. He'll walk up to 18 steps if he thinks he's going to get ice cream from my bowl, which of course he doesn't b/c of the milk allergy, but he does love the cold spoon, lol!

Pretty cute, huh?

*Afterthought: Joe-Z wants me to assure you that the fall wasn't as bad as it may seem. He just tumbled into my lap, happily searching for the spoon ;o)

Recognize this little guy?

I totally drew Curious George!

I'm only so excited about this because I do. not. draw. Or paint. Or anything in that realm.

But I think he turned out halfway decent (at least Levi recognized who it was)!

{Just don't tell anyone I did it by watching the "Drawn to George" feature from the new DVD we got from Ben and Brett for Christmas!}

Ever seen Matt dance?

Guaranteed to put a smile on your face!

Bringing in the New Year

Our first order of business for 2009 (way overdue in the first place) was to clean out the closet that held all of the toys:

(Notice how they spilled out into the living room so ugly-like)

And turn it into a real toy closet! Yay!

Admire:

Much better, don't you agree?

No more overspill into the living room! No more toys scattered all over my house! {The new rule is 1 tub per child at a time...then clean up if you want a new one!}

We love it. Couldn't have had more fun New Year's Eve than turning our disorganized mess into a beautiful, everything-in-it's-place closet!

Here's to hoping we can do the same with the rest of our lives, lol.

Happy {9 month} Birthday John Morgan!

John Morgan turned 9 months old yesterday. I really can't believe that time has gone by so fast!

In just these 9 months, he's brought joy beyond measure to our family!

Was the Santa picture successful?

I didn't have high hopes after the catastrophe we had this past Easter:

(Please ignore me in all my 8-and-a-half-month pregnant glory)

But, to my exceeding joy, we had semi-success!

John Morgan had a ball! He loved every minute of it and couldn't get enough of Santa! Levi was a little hesitant at first, but once he realized he was safe, he kept saying "cheese" over and over! I'm not sure who invented the phrase, "Say Cheese!" when trying to get someone to smile...obviously their child didn't look like this:

This was the best "cheese-face" {as we lovingly like to call it} of the bunch. Overall, we're very happy with it!

A moment to remember

We made the switch to 11 o'clock church today, with Sacrament last. This pretty much sums it up:

We asked him to fold his arms to say the closing prayer, and he never woke up.

;o)