Our OTHER son...

I've noticed that our recent (and infrequent) posts have strongly favored Reed so I thought I should try and even up the score by reminding everyone that we do have another son.

When Max was born I immediately loved him, but felt a little sorry for him because I thought secretly Reed would always be my favorite. Silly, silly me. This little boy is growing up way too fast and we could not love him more. Now I can say that even secretly they are both my favorite.

The world according to Reed

Two quick Reed stories:

Yesterday Reed asked Lindsay, "Mom, how did we get the Book of Mormon?"

Lindsay said, "You know how we got it. The angel Moroni appeared to Joseph Smith and told him about the gold plates that were buried in the Hill Cumorah. Then Joseph went to the Hill Cumorah and dug up the plates..."

"I don't think so."

"That's what really happened!"

"No. First he had to wait four years."

The second story is also from yesterday:

After dinner Reed told Lindsay, "Mom, can you keep Max happy?"

"Okay," Lindsay said slowly, then watched as Reed ran off. She heard doors opening and closing so she shouted to him, "What are you doing?"

"I'm going to run on the tread mill."

Happy Birthday Reed!

Reed has been telling me for about 6 months that he is "almost 4" so I shouldn't be surprised that the day actually arrived, however I still can't believe our little boy is 4!!! He's such a blessing and I can't imagine life without his cute and crazy personality. I've enjoyed when other people have done a "life recap" so I will shamelessly copy you all.


Reed at 2 days old. We had no idea what we were getting into... or how lucky we were.

1 year old! "You want a piece of me......uh..I mean my cake."

2 years old, but still too messy to be trusted with cake and clothes.


3 years old (for those who can't count fingers)


Our 4-year-old boy digging in his birthday garden.


Reed had a dinosaur party to celebrate this important occasion. He was very involved in the planning and loved every minute of the event. We love Reed!

Being dinosaurs


Digging for dinosaur bones

The future is NOW!

A couple of days ago Lindsay was rehashing the busy day she had. In the morning she taught the preschool group, which takes a lot of preparation and a lot of energy and a certain amount of recuperation after it's over. Then she had to prepare to have the missionaries over for dinner while cleaning up a house that had just entertained 9 kids between the ages of 2 and 5. At one point the washing machine was washing the clothes, the dishwasher was washing the dishes, the breadmaker was baking bread, the crock pot was cooking dinner, and the Scooba was washing the floors. She said, "I love it--I feel like the Jetsons!" Then she added, "All these things working for me and I still can't keep it together?!"

For the record, she does a great job keeping everything together and I love her for it. Heaven knows our life would be in shambles if we ever swapped roles.

PS She's not making me write this.
PPS She did make me add the PS.
PPPS The PPS was completely my own.

Wannabe

Max is such a little Reed wannabe. They are almost 3 years apart, but don't tell Max. He thinks he can do everything that Reed does. Reed loves to write--making lists, notes and stories--so Max has to be there right beside (or on top) of him doing the same. I guess I owe it to Reed that Max has held a pen properly since he was about 7 months old.


Reed didn't take any chances this St. Patrick's day--wearing green from head to toe. (I cut off his green shoes in this picture.)

"I just know a Leprechaun is going to see me and say, 'I don't think I want to pinch that little boy.'"

An ounce of prevention...

I've asked Reed several times not to drink lemonade out of the pitcher. Today when I found him about to do it again I also found all of my dish towels spread across the floor as well as a few stuffed into his shirt. When I asked him what was going on he explained that those were just in case he spilled on the floor and the ones inside his shirt were in case he spilled on his shirt. I guess I follow his logic...but I think tomorrow we'll have a little lesson about germs and backwashing.

Why we should read the scriptures and other wisdom from Reed

Just thought I'd post some quick Reedisms that we'd been meaning to post for a while.

The first was at the beginning of January when someone asked him what he got for Christmas. Reed's response: "I got a cut on my knee, but now I can't find it."

One day after preschool he showed Lindsay a picture he painted that looked like a blurry green blob. When Lindsay asked what it was he said, "Well, it was a tree, but then an arsonist got to it and burned the tree and the branches and all of the leaves." I guess he picked up that word last October when we went to California.

Last Sunday night Reed was giving a talk in our living room to me, Lindsay, and Grandmother. A lot of it was on Transformers and Optimus Prime ("And who helps Optimus Prime? It starts with a 'B'..."), but then he brought in the scriptures. "You need to read the scriptures so that you can get big and become a dad and get married. You need to look for someone who's not married. If they're married then you skip 'em."