What you can do with a little wood and LOTS of time...

My latest and greatest scheme was to get the boys a swing set for Christmas, so naturally we now have a nearly completed swingset in the back yard...(but in my defense I haven't even bought half of their other gifts yet). I began the intense search on craigslist.com but after refreshing the search every ten minutes for three days I decided it would be a better use of my time to have Taylor build one...=] So I gathered together the hardware, canopy, trapeze bars, ladder, slide, rock wall, and baby swing from craigslist and a garage sale. Taylor visited five hardware/lumber stores and we were off.

Mainly Matthias tried to eat sand and suck the chemiclas off the wood, James drilled a lot of holes in the grass, I stood around and watched and/or went inside to sew, Taylor did most of the actual work...that's why we keep him around. I need someone to fulfill all my planning and scheming...that and he is pretty cute. So after three Saturdays and countless nights after work, we now have the product pictured above. All that's left...adding the ladder to the back, attaching the rope ladder and trapeze bars, builing a roof with canopy, and putting up railing on the sides. All in all, almost as much left as already done...looks like I might finish another quilt top soon. =]

To buy the actual swing set like ours at say Toys R Us would be around $600. Below is a small comparison of what it would cost to buy pieces of our swingset at "retail" price to what we actually paid:

Overpriced Retail Super Saver Shopping by Kristi
Slide $69 $20
Rock Wall $179 $20
Baby Swing $20 $10
Belt Swing $22 $22 (So I got sick of looking…)
Hardware Kit $70 $25 (thanks to Nannette!)
Add Hardware $25 $25
Wood $200 (one store) $170 (by pricing 5 different stores)
TOTAL $585 $292

Utah Trip

So I am a slacker, but we have been pretty busy. I am posting a couple pics from our last Utah trip and then on to the swing set. We had a blast in Utah during the first week of September and it was just fun to make a random trip up...because that will never happen again probably. September in Utah is just so lovely! The weather is perfect, peaches are in season, zuchinni is in season...life is good in the fall. We made some zuchinni bread, had a bonfire, bought a cute/modest dress, visited L&T on BYU campus, went hiking in the mountains, and attended a wedding of course. It was a wonderful trip! Thanks again to Wendy for the tics!

James and the giant Caecilian

James has a large animal/living creature book which we refer to often when discussing new life forms he has not yet encountered. Today we were researching newts, but happened to come across the Caecilian section of the book. They are actually quite disgusting looking amphibians that resemble earthworms or snakes. Taylor refused to look at them and so James started turning the pages and saying "I am going to find a better animal for Dad", but he just couldn't stay away from the cool looking Caecilians. (For more on Caecilians click the link above.)

And he's off...

So Matthias has recently decided that he is capable of walking and just launches himself away from furniture or whatever he happens to be holding. Up until about five days ago this caused him to land on his face repeatedly. However, now he is able to take up to 7 steps (usually closer to 3) before falling on his face. Fortunately James has made Matthias very injury proof, brave, and fearless so the face plants have minimal impact. (I suppose I should give him some credit for catching himself a lot of time.)

Here is a video of Matthias happily walking...oh wait, of course as soon as I pull out the camara he refuses to walk. Finally we were able to force him into this shot...sorry for the crying--normally he is a very happy walker and quite pleased with himself.

Also included in this post is a picture of Matthias signing the word "more" which he just learned today. He is quite the genius at 9 months and 11 days old. He can also sign milk and as you all know he is an avid clapper. "Yay!!" for Matthias...=]

James Speak before, during, and after Utah...

Before Utah...

Taylor called Matt a "leech on a leg" when he kept sucking on his leg
James continued to repeat "yeech on a yeg" over and over again in fits of hysteria. Apparently it was really funny.

when James left his room after he had been tucked in and I found him staring at Taylor, so I went to put him back in bed
"not yet, not that. I was talking with Dad."


During Utah...

when I went down to check on James then Matthias started crying
"Daddy checked on me. Matty crying. Check on him."

at bed time after I played with him all day long
"I been missin' you all day."

when I left my phone on the bed and it was on vibrate and someone called
"Your phone is honking. Honk, honk. Like that."

After Utah

while driving down the road
Mom: What are you doing?
James: Just thinking.
Mom: What are you thinking about?
James: About the trees.
Mom: What about the trees?
James: So tall.

to me last Sunday when Eric was putting his shoes and tie on for church
"Is him going to work? Is that guy going to MobilEx?"

Visit from the Murrays

So we were able to have our good friends come visit this past weekend and it was a blast! My best friend Bec and her husband Eric (Taylor's friend since he was 5 or so) came down with their 1 year old daughter Katelyn.

The boys absolutely adore Kate and the three of them had a great weekend together. James would wake up each morning and say, "is her awake?" "is her coming out yet[of the toyroom where they slept]" "is her going to play with me?" The kids played together so well and James kept kissing Katelyn (his betrothed) all weekend.

We had a great time chatting with Bec and Eric, playing games, eating, etc. We took the kids to the beach on Saturday and went to a BYU football party. (Matthias ate sand by the handfuls whenever we weren't looking.) Other than that we mostly just hung out and ate. It was a ton of fun and we hope they can come again!! Just not at 2:30am next time...=]

Let's all give a hand to Matthias Harvey...

So Matthias learned to clap on Sunday September 2, 2007.

He just put his hands together and...whoa, they hit one another, a sound resulted. He stared in amazement at the wonder he had created. Then he tried again...same results. Again, same. Amazing!! Now everyone was doing it and telling him how smart he was and how great. What an earth shattering discovery!

I put him down for a nap about 30 minutes later and when I laid him in his crib he was still clapping. Hope you enjoy the video as much as Matthias loves clapping!