I don’t exactly remember why Eli doesn’t have a shirt on. It’s possible that it was Cameron’s doing. He’s a little scrawny but makes up for it a hundred times over with his big eyes and big smile.
I’ve always wanted to get boots for Cameron. I found these at a yard sale for $2. Great find. Anyway, Cameron loves them and the other day I found him in his pajamas with his “cow boots” on. It’s a poor-quality picture, but you get the idea.

May 2006 – Cameron

May 2008 – Eli
(He looks more bald but really his hair is just lighter. )

Today, and it’s only 2:45pm, has been one of those days. I just need to share. It started with a visit to Barnes & Noble, usually a favorite of mine. I had low expectations of this visit though because I had the boys with me, but it was far worse than I had anticipated. Cameron did everything a 3-year does to humiliate his mother. Maybe some of you have had a child like this. He runs away from me so I have to run up and down aisles of books to chase him. I have two choices, run while pushing the stroller with Eli (extremely embarrassing) or leave the stroller behind. So then once I have caught Cameron I have to pick him up and retrieve the stroller, all the while he is screaming and crying and everyone is looking at me. I know the things I thought about mothers like me back before I had kids and I could feel the words shooting out of the stares…”She needs to discipline her children better” … “What a naughty boy!” (Which was absolutely true. Very naughty.) “Take that child out of this store.” I know that is probably what I should have done, haul the tantrum-throwing child back out to the car. But I don’t live close to B&N and I really just wanted to get this shopping trip over with. The thought of coming back and trying again was a nightmare in and of itself. So I quickly found the books I wanted and left the store very very angry.

Well, don’t drive angry. There is an intersection in Boise that is infamous in my family for car accidents. Five Mile and Fairview. And today, being the day that it was looking to be, was ripe for another crash. I wasn’t paying attention, obviously, and I smashed into the van in front of me. I instantly burts into tears, of course. Who wouldn’t? We pulled into a parking lot and surveyed the damage which seemed to be non-existant. The two women in the van were very kind. It was an older vehicle with it’s own share of dings and dents and she was not concerned. I gave her my name and phone number for peace of mind and got back into my car.

At this point I just should have gone home. But I still had a couple places to go and I just wanted to get it over with. Cameron was a little better at the next two stops but only because I confined him to the cart. (No carts at B&N.) But on the way home from our last store Eli started screaming. He screamed the whole way home. This was where I wished I could be an ambulance. I wanted all the cars to get out of my way, (so I wouldn’t hit anymore). I wanted to completely ignore all traffic laws and stoplights. I imagined just driving as fast as I could to get to my house as soon as I could so I could lock my children in their bedroom and let them sleep. Well, I made it home while still yielding to other vehicles and obeying traffic laws. Except for speeding. I figured “Oh heck. Why not get a ticket to top it all of?” No ticket thank goodness.

So here I sit in my quiet house with my sleeping children, who of course look like angels now. Thanks for reading.

There are a lot of things I love about Kuna, and most of them I will save for another post another day. But last Friday my visiting teacher told me about the Kuna High School Ag Expo. (That’s Agriculture Expo for you city dwellers.) The FFA (Future Farmers of America, again for the city dwellers) sponsored this event for a week where they had farm animals, tractors, displays about crops, dairies, etc at the high school which is only 2 minutes 43 seconds from our house. It was so neat. The boys just loved it. Except Eli wasn’t too fond of the large noisy animals.
They had baby chicks to hold and Cameron loved that. Eli liked it too after his initial confusion of the soft, chirpy thing Cameron was shoving in his face.
They handed out ice cream to the kids with a little “Ice cream comes from milk…milk comes from cows…” spiel. This was by far Eli’s favorite part, I’m sure.
Cameron got to climb up into a big tractor. What a little boys dream! He got a little scared though. When I climbed up with him and put my hands on the steering wheel he said “Don’t drive it Mom.” I got a couple good laughs from the warning stickers on the combine. Who makes these up? What exactly are they trying to say?

Almost all of the animals had young offspring with them. This goat had two little…baby goats? What do you call a baby goat? Obviously I didn’t learn that much. The goats were some of the noisy animals Eli wasn’t too fond of.
My favorite! Ever since I saw the original Charlotte’s Web when I was a kid I’ve loved little piggies. This mama pig was huge.
These are a couple calves. The brown one was only three days old. The girl let us in to pet them but Cameron told me he was scared of them. There were also horses, which Cameron loved and was not scared of petting, cows, chickens, rabbits, and sheep.
Nothing tops off a fun afternoon like saturated fats. We went to Artic Circle where Eli devoured french fries and Cameron had a “courtesy cone”. (Another thing I love about Kuna, or I guess that would be something I love about Artic Circle.) As we ate our french fries and mini-corndogs an employee brought us wax-dipped, I mean chocolate or orange dipped ice cream cones. They are called “courtesy cones” because they are free. How nice.

My older brother Bryan has left for Iraq. I have done my best to show compassion and understanding to those whose family members were serving in Iraq but now that it’s my own brother I realize that I never really understood their sacrifice. He is an attorney in the Air Force and his tour will be only 6 months in the Green Zone. Nonetheless, after I got off the phone with him the other night I felt the burden of worry settle over me.
The only reason I feel okay about putting this on my usually light-hearted blog is because of the way he has accepted his responsibility and because of his attitude about patriotism and service. I love and admire him very much. I am sure all those who have been where I am, or where my sister-in-law is, know the anguish. But my heart is filled with gratitude for all the hundreds of thousands of men and women who are so selfless. I honor the heroes over seas and also the American heroes at home who make the best of life without their husband or wife.

…into cross-dressing. A couple months ago we had a Mother-Daughter enrichment. Richard was still at work so I took the boys. Cameron was in the “children’s class” but I had Eli with me. They had set up this cute tea-table with hats and beads to take mom-daughter pictures. My friend Jaymie was the one doing the pictures and she thought this would be cute.
He is pretty cute, even in beads.

I am totally a Neil Diamond fan. I used to be a closet Neil Diamond fan but I’ve decided there is no shame in liking the guy. I remember when I was a kid I loved the song “Coming to America” (today!) In college Kari and Jodi made fun of his Christmas songs (super cheesy) but I secretly LOVED them. After watching “Fever Pitch” I remembered how much I like the song “Sweet Caroline”. Another favorite of mine is “Cracklin’ Rosie”. But right now, #3 on my playlist is “Forever in Blue Jeans”. Lori pointed out that nothing brings nostalgia like Neil Diamond and the boys and I love to dance to this song. Just a week ago or so, I was thinking to myself “It would be awesome if they did Neil Diamond on Idol.” I haven’t even watched Idol that much and for all I knew they probably already did. But I happened to wach Idol tonight and heard the great news. I am so excited I had Cameron sing “Sweet Caroline” for everyone to see. Watch out David and Syesha, Cameron Bird knows Neil!

This is my brother Evan on the day he went to the temple. He is leaving on a mission to Athens Greece in June. Sharp lookin’ kid!
Here is the fam. (Missing: My little brother Darren, Adri’s husband Will and son Charlie, and Cameron.) Love the expressions Brit and Dad! Here is Eli and the dozen horses that I mentioned that Cameron got for his birthday. It is so funny the things kids think of. Eli loaded all the horses into the school bus and took ’em for a ride!
One day while Eli was napping and Cameron was supposed to be napping he went crazy in his bedroom. He took all the diapers out of the baskets, all the books off the shelf, and all the clothes out of the dresser and put it all in the crib. Needless to say when I came upon the situation Eli was no longer sleeping (being covered in clothes, diapers and books) and Cameron was looking mighty guilty. I took everything out of the crib and put in on the floor and told Cameron to clean it up. This picture was taken when about half of the things had been cleaned up. He was obviously worn out and decided (finally) to take a nap. Oh I love the kid but I was not happy. Finding him asleep on the floor softened my heart though, and I helped him clean up the rest.
This one is for you Wendy! Thanks for the hand-me-downs. I love this sweatshirt and think of your boys every time Cameron wears it.

I’m not usually the type to brag about my husband. In fact there is a joke with my in-laws that I am the “brutally honest wife”. But Richard has been juggling all kinds of things lately and I want to pay tribute. He’s out of town now and when he is gone he likes to check the blog. So this is mostly for you Richard. I sure do love ya.

What I love about Richard: (In brief form)

1. He reassures my guilty conscience.
2. He flatters me to excess.
3. He holds himself to a high spiritual standard
4. I dream the dream, Richard executes the dream.
5. He gives his best effort professionally.
6. He takes his role as father seriously.
7. He broadens my horizons.
8. He embraces my interests.
9. He protects me from disappointment and shares bad news delicately.
10.He sees what’s good in me.