"Scooby, Scooby Doo! Where are you?"

When we moved in to our current home there was a room that was all decked out in huge, painted Scooby Doo characters, scary monsters and even the famous hippie Mystery Machine van. I remember thinking, "This is kind of a weird room for young kids." Apparently, I had no idea how popular it still was.

I find it so funny that my little boys have taken a liking...or loving... to one of MY old favorites. I never would have thought 25 years ago that I would still be watching this silly show with my own kids? Heck, the show came out before I was even born! In dog years, "Skooey, Skooey Goo" (as he is affectionately referred to by Noah) is 280 years old!

Now Adam and I laugh saying we should never have painted over poor Scoob.

WhAt'S uP wItH tHe ShIfLeTt'S

...Halloween activities galore these past few weeks. We went to our ward party, "Great-Grandmothers Halloween Party" (mine), and Gma and Gpa Shiflett's ward party AND Great-grandma Martin's birthday party. Whew! It's great because the boys got some really good use out of their costumes. Not so great because we have WAY too much candy and we still haven't gone trick or treating. So hopefully Halloween night won't be too anti-climactic. We aren't even done with the parties yet!

...I had my 22 week ultrasound and am happy to announce that nothing extra has sprouted between the baby's legs. We're still buying pink. Not that I ever doubted. :)

...Kyle had another field trip for preschool. We went to Engh's Gardens. Kyle LOVED the haystack maze while Noah, of course, LOVED the tractor. I hope to get a chance to take Kyle to an actual corn maze. He'd be in heaven.

...Kyle had his very first Primary program this past Sunday. Both sets of Grandparents came as well. It was so fun to watch him sing the songs he'd learned if sporadically, get stage fright when he couldn't recite his well memorized line, and cover his face with his tie half the time. He is such a bright, beautiful boy.

...I went with friends and saw "Thriller" by Odyssey Dance. I've always thought it looked cool and it was. Maybe a little morbid at times but cool.

...Saw my beautiful niece, Anna, in West Jordan Youth Theater's production "Crown of Lomeria". She was one of the glittering mermaids, "Aqua". It was so fun to see her on stage and I can't wait to do so again.

Boy Night

To avoid any confusion with this post, I wanted to make one thing clear: this is Adam speaking.

As many of you know my sons love their mommy (and with good reason) to the point that they tend to prefer her. "I want Mommy to put me to bed.", "Where is Mommy?", and "Mommy I want you." are often repeated calls in our household. This "Mommy preference" has turned into a challenge for me.

Whenever Erin goes out for one of her Girl's Night Out I take the opportunity to show my sons that I am way cooler than their mom. I attempt to do this by spoiling them. I take them to movies, to parks, for shakes, etc. We watch movies that moms don't watch like Star Wars. I ask them what they want to do and do it, within reason.

Last week Erin had an all day activity with her sisters and mother. I took Noah and Kyle to Jumpin' Jacks and had a great time. Afterwords we went to Abs and got hamburgers and shakes.

My strategy of trying to leap-frog Erin in coolness points is affectionately called "Boy Night" (or day). Both Kyle and Noah know that when Mommy is going out to one of her "boring" girls' nights that we are going to have fun.

Tonight was one of our "Boy Nights". Not one of the best ones though. I had to mow the lawn and pick up dog doo, so I ran around pretending to chase them with the lawn mower and telling them I would stuff them in the garbage. Don't worry they're boys they like that kind of stuff. After that we sat down and watched Scooby-Do together.

I am still losing the war. The boys still favor Mommy, but I am narrowing the gap. How do I know? Just ask Noah what we did last week: "I went Dumpin' Dack. I Dump. I don't cry." That may not seem like a lot, but when your going up against the most beautiful, smart, loving, caring, patient, fun Mommy in the world you take your victories where you can.

BOY NIGHTS RULE!

WhAt'S uP wItH tHe ShIfLeTt'S

...We bought the boys a new bunk bed so that Noah could retire the old crib and become a big boy. He really struggled the first few nights but is doing much better. Now we need to work on the naps. I'm not ready to give those up yet! (No pics due to the fact that our camera is BROKEN. Whaaa.)

...We went to my cousin, Lani's beautiful wedding reception.

...I attended the annual Girl's Day Out with my Mom and sisters. We went to Tai Pan and Gardner Village where I finally decided on nursery colors. Dawn is making me a quilt for the crib that I am way excited about! I'll post pics when the nursery is done.

...Kyle went to Coleman's (RaeLynn's little boy) birthday party and had a great time. He won at the game "pin the astronaut on the rocket". He literally nailed it!

...I was 20 weeks this past week and half way done!

As you can see from the picture above, my family took a nice, relaxing vacation to the planet Mars...I mean...Yellowstone. The Grandma and Grandpa invited us up to Island Park to experience cabin life, hob-nob with wild life and fill our nostrils with the...er...lovely fragrances of Yellowstone National Park. Enjoy some pictures of our adventures.

This nastiness is for those you will appreciate it. You know who you are.

I love experiencing life with my children. Everything becomes new and exciting.

Here come the rapids. Hold on boys!

Last time we floated down this river, Kyle was Noah's age and Noah stayed back at camp with my parents. It was fun to have him along this time. As you can see, the water is really deep.

Yummy apple that ended up bobbing down the river...

Toasted marshmallow, anyone?

At the Noah dubbed "Bunny House" enjoying some hot chocolate.

What's Up With the Shiflett's

...I have seriously just popped this week. One day I was wishing I looked pregnant and literally the next day I did. I'm having fun showing off my new tummy. Megan is getting more and more active too. Adam has finally started to enjoy her somersaults as well.

...We went to Yellowstone last weekend with Grandma and Grandpa Shiflett. We has a really good time. More on that to come.

...Much to Adam's chagrin, we are new members of the not so exclusive minivan club. Also more on this later.

...Kyle got to go to the WVC fire station for preschool. Both he and Noah really enjoyed themselves. This is right up Noah's ally since he loves any kind of vehicle. The first thing he said when he saw the fire truck was, "I gotta get in!" Sadly, he never got his wish.

...Adam and I celebrated our 7th anniversary. We went to "The Scarlet Pimpernel", which was wonderful, and out to Noodles since we both feel like a couple of old noodles...

...I had TWO GNO's this past week and never heard one complaint from my wonderful husband. See? LU-CKY.

Happy 7th Babe

Well, whadaya know. 7 years have come and gone and I still loooove my husband. In fact, I love him more than I did the day we said our "I do's". At the risk of sounding cliche, I am one lucky girl (I mean, look at my guys!). I am LU-CKY.

I'm just Noah

"Noah, you are such a sweet boy."
"No, I just Noah."
......

"Thank you for eating your dinner. What a good boy you are."
"No, Mommy. I just Noah."
.......

"What a silly boy you are."
"I just Noah."

So in case you are wondering, he's just Noah!

Preschool for Kyle

Kyle has been wanting to go to school for some time. Now he finally has a school to call his own. Luckily he is happy to go to school and meet new friends. He even asks me, "Mommy, do I get to learn today?" Let's hope this attitude extends all the way to graduation!

Its really nice that his preschool is only a 5 minute walk from my house. Sweet.

Girl? Girl? Is that possible?? Apparently it is. The Shiflett family will be welcoming a little GIRL into their family at the end of February and we couldn't be more excited. Little Girl Shiflett is already very modest since she intitially refused to give us a glimpse "down there". It took Tiffany (our wonderful tech) a few good pokes to my belly to get her to finally give us a peek.

After the ultrasound we couldn't wait to tell Kyle. Since he found out that I was pregnant, he has been stubbornly insisting that it was a baby sister. He already has a brother, hello! If we tried to tell him it could be a brother he just wouldn't have it. Well, the kid was right. He got all giggly when we told him the good news.

Adam was in a bit of a daze the entire night but he too is excited for this new adventure.

As for myself, I had pretty strong feelings it was a girl but just didn't actually think that my gut could be telling me the truth.

Well, I'm off to go look at something pink!

Bringing It Back

So as Adam and I were getting our blog ready to print, I read a lot of old posts while correcting typos etc. I realized that I had let my weekly post "What's Up With the Shiflett's" fall by the wayside which is sad because they were some of my best posts. Sometimes it's the little things that really matter... or are easy to forget. It was fun to read over them and recall how long it took Noah to crawl AND walk or that Kyle used to call his sandals- "puzzles".

For my memories sake, I am recommiting myself to begin again. No time like the present, right?

...I have finally started feeling little movements in my belly. I am only 14 weeks so it has been a welcome surprise.

...I've been hearing about Bunco parties for years but had never been invited to join one. *sniff* Finally someone deemed me cool enough to join theirs. So I went to my first Bunco party last week and won...well, won along with 4 others. I'm looking forward to next month already.

...I also went to a GNO the night after Bunco. I'm so spoiled but greatful! I have such a fearful...er... I mean, understanding husband. :)

...We went to Rock Springs to see my sweet little neice, Holly, baptized. The WHOLE fam damily was there too. It was great. The quote of the trip comes from a none too pleased 4 year-old after having to leave, "I want to play at Samuel's house FOREVER!!!" repeated 1000 times. Luckily Adam and I were able to have a good laugh over this.

...Noah and Kyle got Superman and Batman jammies which they more or less want to live in. As you can see by the picture below, Kyle is proud....Since my energy and motivation have made some sort of comeback, the boys and I took advantage of $2 Tuesdays at Thanksgving Point. This is a great deal since we got into both the Children's Gardens AND the big garden for a mere four bucks (normally it would be over $25!!) It is absolutely beautiful but once a year is definately plenty. I'll try to get the pics off my phone to post later.

Fun in the Unitas

We had a wonderful trip to the Unitas two weeks ago. Sure it rained like crazy. Sure it got down to 29 degrees at night, but what could be funner? We made the climb up the mountain for Erin's family reunion at Moon Lake. Before that though, Kyle, Tommy and I had a little "reventure" (Kyle's word for adventure). We backpacked in to Aftan Lake (shown in wide angle) and camped over night.

We made our way up to the lake and stopped short of making it to the lake to set up camp... and not a moment too soon. It started raining as I was throwing the rain fly over our tent. The first hour of our tripped started in a tent taking pictures of each other and telling stories.

After the rain we were able to continue the rest of the way to Aftan. Kyle really enjoyed hanging out with everyone. Taylor, Eric, Paul, Newty, Jack (dog), Amy and Ethan were with us which made for a lot of fun.


I had to share this pic as it is one of the only times Tommy did not look doppy.

After an excellent time at Aftan, we drove to Moon Lake and met up with Noah, Erin and the family reunion. The Bros had a sweet moment together by the lake after being apart for a whole day. They both missed each other. After Kyle and I left to go backpacking Erin said that Noah grabbed a backpack, put two apple sauce packages and two spoons in and kept telling Erin "Go camping".


Us hiking around the lake, just before it started to rain (again).

Of course Noah had his cousins to play with too. Noah and Coleman sat around the campfire for hours swapping man stores and how to survive in the wild and still avoid diaper rash.

Kyle snaps a pic of Will in yet another moment of silliness.

Getting together at the Coggle events usually means a few things. 1. food (the dutch oven cook off rocked) 2. fun (everyone had a great time around the camp fire) and 3. NOISE (everyone likes to create packs and talk over each other).

We had a wonderful time, in spite of the weather. Night one we say was the most wild thunderstorm we have ever experienced. Thunder and lighting rattled off in long streaks seemingly with out a gap to take a breath, as we huddled in our tent praying we would not be fried. Night two the temp dropped to below freezing, but thanks to our lumber jack sleeping bags we did not feel even a slight chill (thanks ma).



After years of complaining about the imperfect process of making s'mores, Erin discovered chocolate covered graham crackers. We quickly found that this new invention revolutionizes the s'more building process. Observe:

{Step 1} Roast Marshmallow: Using a rock as a balance for your roasting stick, position your marshmallow at a distance at which the underside begins to turn gold and the turn until all sides are evenly golden.

{Step 2} Mush: Place the marshmallow between two chocolate covered graham crackers and mush.

{Step 3} Enjoy (Stopping to pose for self portrait mid-bite): Eat the entire thing as quickly as possible so you can have "s'more".

{Repeat}

Notice in this process we were able to eliminate the annoying steps of unwrapping chocolate bar, placing on graham cracker and trying to melt the chocolate bar. Brilliant!!!

As far as Tommy goes, he had a wonderful time. Camping is one of the few times we let him really act like a dog. He ran around free as a bird on a number of hikes and had a great time meeting new people. However there was one unfortunate incident where Tommy pooped out Jack (shown here). The two dogs got tangled up and I think they ended up in positions that neither enjoyed.

4th of July

Okay so this is a bit of a catch up post, but we had a wonderful 4th and I wanted to post about it. This year we opted to skip the parade thing in the morning and instead celebrated our independence by sleeping in and having a easy-going morning. We went to Erin's parents house for lunch where the boys had a wonderful time running around and all kinds of craziness.

Most importantly Kyle was able to reunite with Will. Whenever these two get a chance to see each other they are inseparable. The whole time we were at Erin's parents house these two boys ran around with each other and Noah tried to keep up with them.

Noah also got to meet up with Reagan. Point to your brain Reagan... very good.

Noah decided we were not doing a good enough job documenting the family get together, so he took matters into his own hands and stole the camera. Here is a selection of his 4th portfolio:

These last three were taken as Noah ran toward me, Will, Kyle and Coleman which is pretty impressive... I think

After we had our fill of lunch we headed to Murray Park where we met up with my parents and grandmother to enjoy an American feast (including patriotic cupcakes).

Handsome devil...

Fun with glow sticks.

This is actually a pic of a little known superhero "Atomic Grandma".

The fireworks started (not shown) and Erin and I had prepared for the worst with our boys. The week prior we saw fireworks in Taylorsville and both boys were not so impressed. Kyle had us plug his hears the whole time and Noah stuffed his face in Erin's armpit to hide.

Kyle had a repeat performance, but once Noah got past the initial shock he had a great time. He laid on my chest and the rest of the night was filled with "didyouseedat", "thatwasbigone", "wow" and "thatwasloud".

Last but not least: I am proud to be an American. Being able to raise my family in a free country is one of my sweetest blessings. Thank you to all you military service people, government leader (all the ones that aren't crooks or cheating on your wives, that's why "leader" isn't plural) and postal service people (one of the more highly undervalued arms of the federal government, but I thought I'd give you so props while I was at it).