Boston is two!

A few days before his birthday we redeemed his free kids meal at Red Robin…he loved the balloon they gave him but couldn’t figure out why all of those people were singing to him!

 

We had a family party at my mom’s house.  She made some of her scrumptious homemade pizza.  I helped a little too – hence the tractor apron.  What other kind of apron does a mom of two boys wear?

 

Waiting for his pizza….

 

King for the day in his new “Cars” chair.

 

Who needs toys when you have giant monster bags?

 

Always the clown…

 

Checking out his giraffe cake and smiling affably as we sing “Happy Birthday.”

 

Yellow buttercream frosting with orange fondant spots.

 

He was very intense about the candle blowing – here is is taking a very deep breath.

 

He blew them out in one try!

 

I know everyone says it as their kids grow up, but seriously, where the heck did my baby go?  I still think of him as “baby Boston.”  He is such a joy in our family and we are so glad he joined us two years ago. 

Proof!

You know that feeling mothers get when their baby is growing up and everyone starts referring to their baby as a little boy or a little girl instead of a baby?  Call it denial, call it nostalgia, I was really having a hard time with it until I walked into the den and found Boston thus occupied:

I think it should be clear to anyone that Boston is still a baby!

He kept saying “awww baby.”

In case you were wondering we had lent the infant seat to a friend for a few days…it was waiting its return to storage.

No one can deny his baby status! 

 

Okay, maybe his developing personality indicates that he really is growing up as proven by the following:

Mmmmmm Peanut butter sandwich!

Hair style: courtesy of Uncle Allen.

Maniacal facial expression: 100% Boston!

This little guy is seriously bursting with personality.  He is so goofy, and mischeivous.  I remember when I was pregnant with him I was blow drying my hair one day and out of the blue a clear strong impression came to me, “This baby is going to make us laugh.”  I turned to Scott and told him right away about that impression.  We are finding it to be true more and more as he grows.

Moustache March

In case you weren’t aware, it is Moustache March.  A few of the Smith men are known for their exceedingly hairy upper lips (think Mario and Luigi) Scott, his brother Josh, and their Dad all have what we have dubbed the “Smithstache.”  So a pact was made to grow out their facial hair for the month just to see what it would look like.    Here are the results which are somewhat frightening - if you have a fear of moustaches avert your eyes!

Scott was asked to speak in Sacrament Meeting and so he had to break the pact after only 10 days…also, it is apparently painful for him to have facial hair like this!  Yeah, that is only after 10 days!

 

Travis clearly won the “Frenchie” award.

 

Josh has an excellent “Smithstache” – he probably looked the most comfortable with the new look.

 

Dylan is the youngest…I don’t think he really inherited the “Smithsache.”  He clearly embraced the look however….

 

Unfortunately, Scott wasn’t in these photos since he had already shaved at this point.  Overall, I think I prefer clean shaven faces and I am not sad to bid Moustache March farewell!

Forts, Fat Lips, Friends and Footprints

Stephen is very proud of his Lego numbers 1-3 that he made almost entirely on his own – that number 2 is a tricky one!



Stephen's first major wreck on his bike resulted in this awesome fat lip.  He landed on his back (so glad he was wearing his helmet) and the handle bar caught him in the mouth.  Ouch!


We enjoyed a visit from the California cousins (my brother’s family).  They all decided to hold hands at the mall without any adult guidance.  Stephen and Anna are the best of friends and play together so well.  Boston and Jeremiah are starting to figure out the friend thing, though they are pretty competitive about most things still.  Especially when it comes to attention from Grandpa and Grandma.  Such cuties!


During the visit the boys learned about blanket forts.  This is one that existed in our living room for almost a week before we (Scott and I!) couldn’t stand it anymore.

Peeking in the front door…

Lunch is exceptionally more tasty when eaten in a fort.

We went on a little outdoor adventure with some friends from our ward at Usery Pass Park, which is in the desert about a half hour from here.

Here is what it looks like at Usery Pass – it is the wilderness.  I love it!

 It was unseasonably warm that day but that didn’t stop the boys from searching for the Javelina footprints along a sandy wash.  They were only able to find one print but hey – it was still pretty fun.  We then had a picnic and played at one of the playgrounds in the park.  Boston ended up with a few cactus spines in his pant leg – not his first encounter with cactus.  I don’t get it – Stephen is four and a half and I have never pulled spines out of him and yet Boston has had run-ins with them twice in two years!  Even after you pull the spines out, they leave sore red spots for a day or two.



Maybe over there?

I think we are on to something…

Really, these are all the highlights from March, mostly we just do the hum drum, sit around at home thing but who wants to read about that?

Valentine’s Day Cookies

So probably just like almost every other Mormon family we decided to make cookies for FHE on Valentine’s Day.  It was kind of a last minute thing and we didn’t have time to refrigerate cookie dough so we we went with pull apart dough and made buttercream frosting.  The boys (okay, mostly Stephen) absolutely insisted that we we make them blue with blue and green sprinkles.  I guess that’s what happens in a house of boys.  After we were done he was so mad because they didn’t look like Valentine cookies.  “They should be HEARTS!”  We don’t have a heart shaped cookie cutter.  No use explaining that is why Mommy wanted to make them pink and white….

 

There is just something about Boston’s adorable chubby hands sprinkling the sprinkles that is so dang cute!!!

 

 

Poor Stephen!  He was having a really good time but he was so tired and was starting to melt down toward the end. He did NOT want his picture taken – hence the awful, tearful grimace/forced smile.

Some stuff we have been up to

Dressing up…

Dressing up some more…

 

Riding bikes with Daddy…February is lovely in Arizona.  Seriously, you don’t get nicer weather than this!  Yes, we need one of those baby bike seats….

 

Playing with play dough…. This was Boston’s first experience with it.  He was pretty excited if you can’t tell.  He only licked it a little bit until Stephen cracked down on him and said if he did it again he was going to tell Mommy.

 

Stephen made this face with a HUGE long nose.  He said it was him!

 

Hiding out.  For some reason they love hiding in the closets.  There is seriously no space in there so I don’t get it!  They hid in my closet today for the longest time while I did dishes.  Stephen told me that they were waiting for me to come so they could scare me.  Boring for them but lucky for me they gave up before I got there.

 

I am so happy to report that my boys are starting to actually play together!  I LOVE it!  Stephen is pretty bossy but I think that is typical of an older sibling.  He is also pretty good about sharing and if he does upset Boston, I almost always immediately hear him trying to quiet him down.  I can tell because I hear a brief scream or cry from Boston and then “shhh shhhh shhh, shh shhhh shhhh,” from Stephen.  Then the crying stops.  If I peek on them to see what happened, Boston usually has the toy he wanted in his hand because Stephen gave it back to him.  Ha ha!  It makes me laugh.  Boston loves getting to play with his big brother.  The other funny thing they do is wrestle.  It is possible that I may regret thinking it is funny when they are wrestling as bigger boys in future but right now it is hilarious to watch them.  Usually Boston tackles Stephen and sits on top of him.  Then Stephen pushes him off and they do it all over again.  They both think it is so funny.