February

We finally broke Olive of her bad habit of carrying her pink blankie around with her everywhere. It's a shame really, because it served so many purposes... like keeping the sun out of her eyes, haha.

Our neighbors dug up their backyard BBQ which meant we saw multiple scorpions this month!! EWWW!!! The final straw was when I found a big, fat, LIVE one under the vacuum! I swear I screamed and freaked out like a wussy baby. Then I called our exterminators and made them come over to do an extra spray inside the house. DIE evil creatures from the dark! Die!!

Olive loves her little friend, Posey. When Travis comes home from work and asks her what she did that day, she'll often lie and say she played with Posey. At least this day it wasn't a lie! ;)

I had lots of quality Josie time this month. I finally got to go hear her speak for the second time ever at a Relief Society conference that my aunt was in charge of. She knocked it out of the park. I just sat there in awe of how she's developed as a public speaker. She is loved and admired by so many, but I know how these speaking assignments drain her. They moved that very weekend to Utah. It was so sad to see their "barn" all cleaned out. It's making me sad just writing about it! At least I know they'll visit often. Utah is a lucky place!

My parents treated us all to a rousing night of Super Cross!! We carpooled to Glendale and ate at Islands first. I busted some music and spastic dance moves in the front seat with the windows down while we parked. (My husband REALLY loves me.) Marcie said people's reactions were hysterical. Granted, someone must have slipped something in my drink because I was alllll over the place, but she said people were either disgusted or loving it. Relax, haters. Dancing is good for the soul. No alcohol involved. 

Stop working, DAD!!!!! It's impossible. 

I wasn't sure how much fun this was going to be, but I actually really enjoyed it! There were a couple minor crashes, but no one seemed to get very hurt... phew. And my sprinkle dipped ice cream cone was a nice touch. ;) 

Not exactly football people over here, but how can I pass up an opportunity to make Super bowl food?? We invited both sets of parents over plus Aubrey and Craig to help us eat carne asada fries, chips and salsa, jalapeno poppers, broccoli salad, veggies, and bread and dill dip. Then I made Texas sheet cake for dessert. Go orange team! ;)

Ohhh that spike is getting intense!!

Collin's Valentine's Day box. I'm rather impressed with how our ninja turtle turned out, but would like to know why this was a "home" project??! 

I don't feel like I save any of Weston's drawings, so this one is making the blog! This was back from Thanksgiving time. I love the boys' "spiky" hair. :)

Every day when I drop Weston off at preschool, this cute, little dog is patiently waiting at the door! I die! You'd almost mistake it for a porcelain decoration, but nope, it's the real deal. It might be my favorite thing in the world. How perfect does this preschool get, anyway?!

One, Friday morning we made it over to Grandma and Grandpa pomegranate's house so I could get some pictures. Grandma took the time to show me a few things on several genealogy sites and the kids played so well while we did that. We noticed "popcorn popping" on the tree as we left! It was a nice visit. We need to do it more often!

They even got a pomegranate to take home. :)

One Friday morning, Travis got a call from Bron saying he was coming down with the kids for a quick trip to Scottsdale while Megan was in Utah. So Trav met up with them at their hotel and let the kids swim all afternoon and evening. Worked out great for me! I got to go shopping, try a new Zumba class, get my toenails done, go to Target and grab some Gecko Grill for dinner. I watched Gilmore Girls (oh Rory!) and ate in peace. It felt like a Father's and Son's outing or something! Come down anytime, Bron!! 

The next day I joined in on the swimming. I was not expecting to be lying poolside in February, but man oh man, it was NICE!!! 5 stars, Arizona. You've outdone yourself. The kids swam to their heart's content and I even jumped in at the end. We ordered pina coladas and lunch and I felt like I had died and gone to heaven!!! Every once in a while, we live the posh life!

My old roommate, Stephanie, from BYU had text me earlier in the month to see if we could get together. She was coming to Scottsdale for a couple days with her husband for a conference. We met at True Food kitchen in the Scottsdale Quarter and 3 hours never flew by so fast! The food was AH-Mazzing!! This place has my love and devotion!! My mom was so nice to watch the kids for me. It was President's Day so she had all 3! Such a relaxing afternoon. Love this lady!!

One Saturday Aubrey and Trevor took the boys to a Diamonback's thing... I feel bad I don't even know what to call it. Collin and Weston were in Goldschmidt heaven though. Aubs and Trevor are my heroes. They had them for like 5 hours. It was weird for Trav and I to basically have a whole Saturday with just Olive. (But I'm not going to lie... it was awesome.)

While they were gone we decided to take our bikes out on the town! Tempe town lake to be exact!
I was in a funk from something that happened the night before so this was just what the doctor ordered. It was beautiful weather and with just one kid, it felt like we were on a date or something! 

We got a bite to eat at a little, corner cafe. Olive was totally hogging my salad! Eat your sugary muffin, girl! We got you the good stuff. Salads are for the miserable days of trying to care about your waistline.

Taken with a lame, I-phone, but I loved the symmetry of the light poles going on forever.  

One Saturday night date consisted of Masa Sushi (get the popcorn lobster!) and some politicking! Leah invited us to a meet and greet for a woman running for the U.S. Senate. It was a small gathering which made me nervous because I'm not "in the know" enough for intelligent questions. Still, it was interesting to hear her speak and  by the time it was over she definitely had our vote! Go Dr. Ward! Let's get McCain out of there!

I don't make breakfast during the week (OK, minus Olive's Malt-o-meal. The girl NEEDS her Malt-o-meal.) But Sunday is a different story! This was my first attempt at poached eggs. It shouldn't be that hard but boy it was a ROUGH go! I tried to do a bunch at once and had to toss them. I finally ended up with 2 for Trav and 2 for me, half of which were overdone and the other half were OK. My hollandaise didn't cream up very well. The kitchen was a disaster and the kids had to have egg-less pancakes because I'd blown through all of ours. Sigh. I WILL perfect this eventually.

I've been reading the Book of Mormon this year with David J. Ridges's supplement. This sentence hit me hard and I've thought about it constantly since. For me this is 100% accurate. And if it weren't for social media, I'd be doing a lot better job at it. :( 

In exasperation at having kids constantly needing me and following me around when I'm trying to get something done, I asked Weston to read Olive a book. (The alphabet book... her fav.) And he did it!! For heaven's sakes it worked! Maybe only for 10 minutes, but hey, I'll take it! 

If Olive could just be read to all day, she'd be in heaven. And if I had nothing to do all day long and could grant her that wish, I'd be in heaven too. Alas, she's lucky to get a couple a day. Here's Trav, throwing her a bone. It was so cute to see her so zoned in.  (I love that book!) When she noticed me taking a picture, she got a little distracted. :)  Pay close attention, Olive. Some boys are bums like Ronald. But not your Daddy. 

Valentine's Day!!

Valentine's Dayyyyyy!!!!!! The day of luuuuvvv! ;) It was kind of nice to have it on a Sunday. Since our church wasn't until noon, I made a special breakfast. Nutella and cream cheese stuffed French toast. It was indulgent. It was gooood. (I guess I'm still a little bitter about the let down that Snooze's stuffed French Toast was. It was supposed to be divine, but it was di-let down. {I'm so funny.} I am never more irritated than when let done by a "legit" restaurant.)

Then Mr. Evans had a little surprise waiting in the garage!!

Confession. I had used his car on Friday and heard something sliding around in the back. When I parked, I peered back there to find out what it was and saw a bike rack box. I promise you my stomach twisted. I thought, he couldn't have bought us bikes. Did he? But that is just too expensive. He really shouldn't have. I was a teensy bit upset with him. As I walked toward the store I mulled it over in my mind and then.... my next confession... I couldn't prevent a smile from creeping across my face. The pit in my stomach turned to pure excitement!! Eek! Bikes?! This could really fun. I just felt very guilty that I had inadvertently spoiled the surprise.

I don't think it mattered though because when I saw the actual bike (PINK! Did you notice?!) I was over the moon! Forget about when I actually got on and rode it down the street! Oh my gosh, I was not prepared for how that felt. Soooooo fun!!!!!! I felt like a kid again! In fact, I realized I had not had a bike of my own since I WAS A KID. Super lame sauce of me, but I admit, I even teared up a little. This was the best surprise ever!! Now I just need to add a bell and a basket and I'll be set. 

That night we had dinner at my mom's. We asked her if we could make it fancy! She did awesome!!! Goblets, silverware and REAL plates. We normally use paper and plastic everything! I added some candles. Sooo romantical. ;)

We overheard the boys clicking their glasses for a toast and saying, "Cheers!! To BACON!" Bahahaha! 

After dinner was the after-party!!! 

Two weeks ago I group text our family with a lip-sync challenge!

Just like on Jimmy Fallon.

Every couple was to pick a song and lip sync at least 1 minute of it on Valentine's Day. No rap.. since it was Sunday, after all. ;) I told them to think of duets or a love song or really ANYTHING fun! Jefferson and Craig could pair up or go solo. I got PLENTY of back lash from Casey and Austin but the sisters were on board!! I was SO excited! Travis and I couldn't narrow it down to one song so we picked two... Milli Vanilli, Girl You Know it's True, and Bare Naked Ladies, One Week. 

For One Week, we just straight lip synced. Holy heck it was HARD!! I literally practiced for the whole two weeks! Even looking at the lyrics we couldn't say them fast enough at first. We felt VERY accomplished when we finally got that down. ;)

For the Milli Vanilli song, we watched the music video over and over and choreographed a very {80's} dance to it. So, while everyone else was probably on a romantic Valentine's date Saturday night, we were busting a sweat, choreographing to Milli Vanilli. For the record, my husband rocks. I LOVE that he doesn't pitch fits about stuff like this and humors me without complaint!! He deserves a medal or something. ;)

OK, back to that night.

We drew numbers to see who would go first and my parents got #1.

We didn't know what to expect....

They were AWESOME!!! They chose Maroon 5, Sugar. And just like the music video, they came out behind a sheet. After the first verse they dropped it and started singing! We were dying!! My dad had his suit coat on and pulled an awesome Adam Levine! I was seriously so impressed that he was rocking out and getting into it! So was my mom! I guess one of his interviews had canceled that afternoon, so he spent 45 minutes in his office, trying to learn the words. Go Bishop Lindblom!!

Marcie and Austin did Dirty Dancing's "I Had the Time of My Life". Oh my gosh... they were my FAVORITE!! Austin!! He was actually really sick with the flu, yet he was all in! They had dance moves and even did the flying lift at the end! It was SO GREAT!! 

Then there was David and Abbey. They started off down the hallway and ran out in Grease outfits! Only, David was dressed like Sandy and Abbey was dressed like John Travolta. They danced to You're the One That I Want and David even held onto Abbey and she swung him around!! We were laughing our heads off. Super funny number!

Craig did a lip sync to a song that Sean Hayes did on Mother's Day with his husband. I had never seen it before, but Marcie showed it to us a couple weeks ago and I fell in love with it. Google it if you've never seen it! It was very fitting since Craig is the "chosen child", youngest and mama's boy. He rocked it. Yay, Craig!!

Shelley and Casey bailed at the last minute. They won't get out of it next time!

My Grandma and Grandpa were there for all of it. Hopefully they didn't think we were too sacrilegious, haha!

It was honestly SO much fun! We were laughing and singing along and I loved every second of it! I hereby declare this to the be the first ANNUAL Lindblom Valentine's Lip Sync Battle!!!

Weston turns 5!

Why does my heart just melt when I think of my Weston boy?? 

Oh wait, that's easy. Because he's as sweet, tender and lovable as a Care Bear. 

He snuggles on me, pushing his head into my lap, just like a cat. Which is appropriate, given his insane love of animals. I've started to think that his obsession probably stems from a desire to squish and love on them. They are soft and furry and just seem like they were made for Weston's hugs. And he still woefully begs for one on a regular basis. One day we were on a jog when I saw a cat lounging on a neighbor's wall. So mundane. But, I pointed it out to Weston since I knew he'd love just seeing a cat. Oh and he did. Like, pop out of the jogger with wild, happy eyes, pointing and exclaiming and begging to go back to pet it. Then, later that day he went with me to Michael's where he saw a picture frame with a stock picture of a dog in it. Clearly the coolest thing ever made. He begged me to go down that aisle 3 more times just so he could stare at it and then PLEADED with me to buy him the frame. That evening (while relishing the memories, I'm sure) Weston happily shared that he had had such a good day because, "Mom. I got to see a CAT and a DOG today!!!" These are the sorts of things that prompt me to coax him to never grow up and always stay my little boy.

His birthday fell on a Saturday this year. The week prior, he got to be the Star of the week at preschool. Which means he got to share some pages about himself and bring in his favorite toy and treat.

They made him a glittery crown that he loved and gave him a kite which was the BIGGEST hit. The boys spent an entire afternoon just running laps around the yard.

I felt really bad tricking him, but we told him his birthday was on Friday because our Saturday was so busy, there really wouldn't have been much time to celebrate. Since we were going to be at Amazing Jake's on Friday night, we did his special, family birthday dinner on Thursday night. He chose spaghetti and meatballs... I think because that's what older brother chooses. ;) And they loved to the Lady and the Tramp slurp with us when we have spaghetti. Trav just loves it too, haha.

That light up ice cube was a great take home from Disneyland 2 years ago!

Birthday donuts for breakfast!

And one gift to start the day. He was pretty happy with the nerf gun, I think. 

We went to Peter Piper Pizza for lunch because Karen invited us for Olivia's birthday. Collin had a half day so we all went. Trav got home from work early and helped Weston assemble another present... Batman Legos. 

Once Olive was up from her nap, it was Amazing Jake's time! It wasn't a birthday party year, so we just invited Lane and Rusty to enjoy they fun. They spent almost 4 hours riding everything they could think of. 

This made me giggle. Rusty was going to play this game no matter what. Olive took note and was doing it exactly the same.

When it was time for grub, the boys helped themselves while we were getting ours and Olive's food. When we walked to the table the boys were snickering and Rusty immediately cracked, "Lane has Diet Coke!!" 

To which Lane quickly refuted, "No! No, I have root beer." 

Then Rusty piped up, "Uh, yeah, me too!... 

I mean, I have Pepsi. 

Just kidding. It's root beer."

It was comical.

I probably wouldn't have checked, but Trav is a strickler and started sniffing. He affirmed they were both colas and took the drinks and told the boys to go get real root beers. They were really good natured about it and laughed and ran to get different drinks. What was really funny was watching Trav sit down with their sodas and drink them himself. We are suchhhh good examples.

We brought our own cake and sang and did presents. His cousins got him a new Gravedigger truck (his favorite) and a Ninja Turtle. Perfect.

Weston sleeps with his head at the foot of his bed. 

He still wears a pull-up at night.

He is now 5 but still wears size 2-3T underwear.

He loves Spiderman, Batman and Ninja Turtles.

He is really good to play by himself with his toys.

He still sits in a 5 point harness car seat.

He loves preschool but sort of struggles with his letters. I'm not even sure what to do about it. "H" and "Y" must have done him wrong in a different life.

He is actually surprisingly coordinated and does well in sports and games. 

I've noticed with his friends, his favorite activity is "playing house".

He is a GOOF-ball. Total clown and very silly.

He LOVES to sing. The Sunday before Christmas, the ward choir was singing an intense, opera-esque number. There were "Deio's" going all over the place and I notice in the corner of my eye, Weston. Completely focused. Eyes on the choir. With each "deio" his chin would lift and his eyes would raise as he mouthed the words and "sang along". No number we've ever heard before and certainly not one you'd be capable of just joining in with. Yet, here was my 4 year old, trying his darndest to get in on the action. Music is in his bones. Dancing is too. He's got a corner on this spontaneous, jerky, break dance style. It's great. ;)

He loves to snuggle. Oftentimes he'll come up to me and say, "Mom, we haven't gotten our snuggles in yet today." And that's my cue to stop what I'm doing and go cuddle on the couch with him. I don't mind it at all. 

I have this fear. That somehow, someway, he's going to fall in love with a non-affectionate girl and marry her. It seriously gives me anxiety. He NEEDS affection. It is absolutely his love language. I'm afraid I'm going to be all sorts of protective when this situation comes about.

He has been on this kick lately of wanting to know how everything is made. Really... everything. All day long I'm peppered with questions like, "But how is there electricity? How do they make fans? How do you make clocks? How do you make a blueberry?" It is endless. And you'd think the first 1,000 times I tell him, I don't know, would deter future questions. Nope.

OK, here's the BEST thing about Weston. If ANYTHING great happens to him, he wants to share it with Collin and Olive. He NEVER gets a treat, prize or candy at a birthday party, preschool or church, without saving it to share with his siblings. This is completely on his own accord. We don't make him share. He just wants to. And not in a guilty, begrudging way. It honestly makes him SO happy to share something he got with someone he loves. It just comes naturally. In fact, I've picked him up from parties before and the first thing he'll tell me about is all the party favors and how excited he is to go home and share them with Collin. And he truly is SO EXCITED and bursting at the seams that he has something great to give to his brother. It's so innocent and pure and I love him so much for it. It just shows how selfless his heart his. His brother isn't exactly the same way though, so when Collin comes home with treats, Weston usually gets his feelings hurt that Collin doesn't want to share. I feel like this is a drop in the bucket for how a harsh life is going to treat my soft-hearted Weston. 

Just writing this makes my heart ache because I never feel like I'm a good enough mom for Weston. I'm not soft spoken enough. I'M not affectionate enough. I'm not everything he needs from me. And I'm already stressed that my time is running out! He is growing up so fast! 5 is big!! 3 more of these and he'll be gone. I can't even handle it. I just thank Heavenly Father constantly for sending me this sensitive, caring soul to teach me to slow down and be more loving and thoughtful. Weston Travis Evans, you are a gift. Thank you for being mine.