duke's italian ice

I don't know if anyone actually reads this, but if you do then you should go check out this new hot (or cold) find... (Note: something weird happened to this picture somewhere between texting it to myself and loading it here...the bottom shifted?)
Some of my favorite people, Duke and Lauren (you might know them as Cash and Splash) started their own company... duke's italian ice. You'll find them at the gateway, right on 4th west, at the entance to the restaurants, kind of by the tracks stop. It's delicious! I think William and I will spend a lot of time at Gateway this summer... cooling down with some italian ice and running through the fountain!

Don't mix Spaghetti and Peek-a-boo...

I don't think I could say it enough... William is a funny kid! I love watching him make new discoveries. One of his big ones lately has been peek-a-boo. He's done it for a while now, but the last week or so he does it ALL the time. He'll throw his hands over his face and wait for us to say "Where's William?" and then throws his arms out with a big smile as if to say "Here I am! I sure surprised you!" He chose to play during dinner tonight. Unfortunately I didn't get the camera out until after the game was over, but you can see the results.He had a ton on the left side of his head, smeared all throughout his hair! He was having the time of his life. I've never seen him eat so much. Another fun thing about William is how much he loves drinking out of a straw. This is convenient, because a few weeks ago when we were house sitting for my parents, my sister got us hooked on green fruit smoothies. Perfect way to sneak some vegetables in this little guy. You would never know that there is spinach mixed into this berry smoothie! Sounds disgusting... I know. But they are pretty good!William has also been very into talking on the phone. He'll grab anything from his toy cell phone to a wii remote to a spatula and put it up to his ear and walk around jabbering. It's so funny to watch... especially the spatula.And thank goodness for bumbos! I can't believe he still fits in it. Thank goodness he's skinny. He eats about half his meals up on the counter by me. We do have to watch him closely, but he loves it. Here he is being his goofy self. (note: this picture was taken before I realized the open jar of peanut butter was right next to him... he found it before we did. It's a good thing this kid doesn't have a peanut allergy!)Another thing I love about this boy is his laugh. Lately when he really gets laughing he puts his hand up to his mouth like this, like it's so funny he can hardly contain himself.
Now if we could only get those molars to come through...

A fun weekend

With the rainy weather coming and going it has been nice to take advantage of the nice weather that has snuck in a little over the weekend! On Saturday, William got to hang out with one of his favorite neighbors while Danny and I went out for a little bit. It was so nice to walk around Temple Square and in to Blue Lemon for a smoothie (I've heard good things about that place, but our experience wasn't that great. Maybe it was just not the best day to go? We'll have to go back and try again). We also have been talking about getting a new camera for a while, and finally decided to do it. Danny spoils me rotten. We've had a lot of fun playing with it the last few days! William likes to make it hard, rarely giving us opportunities to take pictures of anything of the back of his head. Does he ever stop moving?! I guess that's the fun of it.

My parents were in Hawaii on Mother's Day, so we all got together last night for dinner. It was especially fun because William's only cousin on my side was in town from Florida. My brother Ben wasn't able to come, but it was so fun to see Max and Andrea! Max is four, and is such a fun kid! He's definitely my brother's son. He is also very polite, and so cute to his cousin William. It was fun to see them play together! Here is Auntie Char and William giving Max a tickle torture:
William, out of the blue (in the middle of the tickling and rolling around), walked up and gave Max one of his big hugs. Max wasn't quite sure what to do about it...

But the tickling continued after!Max and William are 2 peas in a pod in that they both LOVE Grandma's red jeep. Tom had taken the doors off, and William and Max couldn't keep their hands off that steering wheel!We all strapped in while Grandpa took us for a ride over the speed bumps.

My mom kept a lot of our old toys... including our Laser Tag game! woo hoo! I always felt like I was on Star Trek with those... it must've been the noise it makes.

We spent some time in the backyard as well, jumping on the tramp, chasing Sadie, and swinging on the swings.But we shortly returned to the front yard because Ted and his friend made quite the find at a yard sale the day before! William was fascinated watching the older kids give the younger kids rides up and down the street. Max had a blast getting a ride from Auntie Sarah. William loved hanging out in the front yard with all the kids. There was a group of three or four of them who were in kindergarten and first grade that he would follow up and down the side walk like he was one of the gang. It was such a nice evening to be outside!

Grandma gave William a chocolate chip cookie to eat on the ride home.

He gobbled it up and zonked out before we were even halfway there!

William is lucky to have such fun grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins!

Rainy days...

First can I just say that this is on my list of best inventions ever? Seriously. Huge life saver. This kid LOVES juice boxes, and recently INSISTS on being the one to hold it. And anyone who has given a juice box knows they get excited, and when they get excited they squeeze, and you know what happens next. Treetop juice boxes fit in perfectly. It's fun to see him so proud of himself for holding on to the little handles and drinking his juice without spilling (not that he'd really care if he did spill). I got them on Amazon. Free shipping thanks to Amazon Mom. I highly recommend them! Besides Juice Boxes, William has another new love. The red jeep.We spent a lot of time in it while we were house sitting at my parents last week. It was nice to be outside without getting wet! Now he wants to get in it everytime it's in sight!

Why do I love living downtown?

Need I say more? Now if it would only stop raining...

Best hugs ever!!!

I would say that I have a pretty strong argument to say that William is the sweetest boy ever. I love this kid. He LOVES to give hugs. He'll be running around like a wildman, stop, and (usually) very softly (sometimes a "be soft" reminder is necessary) bend over and give the very patient Sadie a big hug. He'll be dancing around with his cousin Thomas and suddenly walk very calmly over and give him a big hug (followed by Thomas giving him a look that says "what are you doing!? I'm dancing here!"). We'll be sitting in church and he'll lean over and wrap his arms around his cute little friend Anya. At any random moment throughout the day I'll be holding him and he'll wrap his arms around my neck and put his head on my shoulder (sometimes followed by a great big slobbery kiss on the cheek!). He'll be playing, pushing his truck around, chasing Sadie, pulling out all the pots and pans, you name it, and he'll stop and throw his arms around my legs. And the very very best part is that he usually says "awwww" or "mmmmmm!" as he does.

Unfortunately all the pictures I have of him hugging Sadie are on a different camera, but here are some cute ones of him snuggling with his bear. He loves stuffed animals lately! A couple in our ward used this polar bear for an object lesson in Sunday School, and afterwards asked if William wanted it. Everytime he sees it, he takes off running and wraps his arms around it's neck. He'll turn it around until he finds it's ears (it's a good thing there are 2 of them... one for each hand) and carry it all over the place, which is hilarious to watch considering it's the same size as him!
He'll insist on holding it in the car, and yesterday in his high chair.

He may be a little wildman, but there is nothing I love more than his sweet hugs (except maybe the big kisses that follow!)

Happy late Easter!

Here are a couple of pictures of William in his cute Easter suit. My amazing mom made him these cute cute overalls, and he finally (sort of) fits in his saddle shoes she got him for Christmas.

Thank you Grandpa for taking pictures! He always gets such cute ones of William. It's hard to get pictures of him when he is looking and smiling at the same time. He is a busy boy!

Easter was a nice day. It's so good to be able to spend the day with family! We went to hear Danny's brother and his wife speak in church and they gave beautiful talks. Then we stopped by my parents for a while before going to Danny's parents for dinner. More pictures to come. William always has so much fun with his cute cousins! Grandma and Grandpa did a fun Easter egg hunt and we had a delicious dinner.
And I had to throw this picture in. The colander is one of his favorite toys. He'll walk all over the apartment with it on his head, and then take it in the tub with him. He's such a goofy boy!

busy monday

William is constantly surprising me these days. He is so curious and so adventurous and is constantly exploring and playing. Today was one of those days.

After breakfast he walked into the bathroom and did the sign for "bath" over and over until I turned the water on. We have a bubble machine that terrified him for the longest time, but he recently has come to love it. We ended up diluting the bubble liquid when we put it in the machine because they come out so fast. He ended up with a true bubble bath...Ater the tub he came out and picked up a Wii remote and pointed to the TV. I was curious to see what he'd do, so we sat on the couch (his new favorite play spot... we turn it into somewhat of a fort) and I put MarioKart on 2 players. He's no fool, he knows if his remote isn't doing anything. So he'd look at the buttons he was pushing and watch what they'd do on the game. You know he's really comfortable when he crosses his feet. He's quite the gamer...After a nap and lunch we decided to bike to Gateway to exchange somethings at Old Navy. We love bike rides. We are borrowing my parents' bike seat that attatches to the back, but are seriously considering getting one of these:

Anyone have any good or bad experiences they'd like to share? I think it'd be more fun to have him up where I can see him. I think he'd enjoy it more as well. We are also thinking about getting a second bike. Nothing too exciting, but something William and I can ride around downtown. We are considering checking out some yard sales this weekend. I was browsing around online today and found a picture of this beauty: It threw me back fifteen or so years. One of my three best buds growing up had a banana bike, and we'd take turns riding it around the circle. I think we'd even put two of us on there at a time. It was so fun. I wonder how a bike seat would fin on something like that...

Back to Gateway, William couldn't resist the fountains, and I couldn't resist letting him explore them. It's a good thing we had just purchased a new outfit at Old Navy, because otherwise it would've been a cold ride home. He wandered all over, fascinated, and always watching to see where the water would come out next. He'd get splashed, soaked, and look up to me with an excited smile.

It was a nice day, but by no means was it particularly warm. But he didn't cry because he was cold, he cried because we had to go. I think we'll make regular visits to the fountains this summer. And I'll always bring an extra outfit for my busy boy.

After another nap, we went to visit Grandma. One of my old neighbors found out that William likes Baby Signing Time, and let us borrow her stash of the Signing Time videos. There are some I think will be fun to try, like a Playtime, and one about the Zoo.

Our day ended with A new favorite tradition. Cafe Rio Night. We've got it down. There are between six and eight couples/families in our neighborhood that participate. The first Monday of every month everyone orders and pays online and then texts the designated person for the month. That person then goes and picks them all up and meets everyone in the Social Room so we can all eat and hang out. It's wonderful. We are lucky to have such good friends here. William loves seeing his buddies Josiah and Anya, and everyone else that plays with him. He's a lucky boy! It is a fun new tradition. Who can resist delivered Cafe Rio? Genius. We even topped it off with Rootbeer Floats.

So there was our Monday. We got back and William was so worn out he went right to bed. He's so good. We definitely love living downtown. I love being able to spend the day watching my cute little guy explore!