The Jolley Art Museum

I majored in Art History in college and had dreams of becoming a curator in a museum. But who knew my career aspirations were waiting to be fulfilled at home on my own refrigerator? Would you like to see what's on exhibition right now? These are very important pieces by newcomer, Joseph Jolley. This one is his very first time writing his name. Darren would draw each letter on a Magna Doodle and then Joseph would copy it on his paper. Notice the classic backward "S" and he also wrote "Mom."The other one is Joseph's first drawing of his family. Don't you just love his use of shape and line? :) He's really not into drawing much, so this made me really excited. I am happy to be the curator of my refrigerator and to me, these works of art are more priceless than any Picasso or Van Gogh. In the future, I hope to have a similar exhibition from this upcoming artist. (I just had to share this cute picture of Justin.)

More from my big boy

My big boy just keeps getting bigger! Check out Joseph on his big boy bike! In true Joseph fashion, he's still a little frightened of it. We took it out in our neighborhood the first day he was on it and went down a little slope. He got going faster than he wanted to go and was too scared to hit the brakes. It took some heavy coaxing, but I got him back on the bike today at the park where I convinced him that the ground was level and he said, "This is fun fun fun, Mom!" Lately he's been calling me "Mom" instead of "Mommy." It's adorable, but it makes him seem old, too. I can't believe he's going to be 4 and starting Pre-school! Don't get me wrong, I love my big boy who can dress himself, go potty, go to Primary, but he'll always be my baby!

Happy (late) Easter!

Too bad it's a week later and I'm just posting about Easter. Oh well, better late than never, right? I have a good excuse. We went to Utah at the last minute for Easter/Darren's work and the night after we got back into town, my boys started with the stomach flu. Now everyone's finally better (assuming Darren and I missed it--knock on wood) and I'm finally getting around to posting the pictures of our wonderful Easter trip. It was a quick trip, but so well worth it. I was invited to a recruiting event at BYU with Darren for his work. It's so fun to do recruiting with him because it's like a free date night. My parents watched my kids (free babysitting) and Darren and I met up in Park City for dinner (free dinner). Of course there is schmoozing (is that a word?) involved and we mostly talk about his company but the recruits and their spouses are such nice people, I love meeting them. We got to attend the Mangum Family Easter Egg Hunt at my Grandma's house and it was so great to see so much family! Here's a picture of the kids way too busy with their loot to smile for the camera.Then we had a relaxing Easter Sunday at my parent's house for the last weekend they'll spend there before moving to Pleasant Grove. Everyone was there except our Elder Anderson who was celebrating his birthday in the DR. We went to church with my sis and her family, had my mom's delicious roast and mashed potatoes, watched "Enchanted" (if you have not seen this movie, you must rent it, it's adorable) and ate lots of candy. Hooray for Cadbury Creme Eggs!This is the family Easter picture I insisted on even though the kids were starving and tired from church. Joseph is upset about the sun in his eyes. I guess he's too accumstomed to overcast Seattle. :) I know you can't see Alexis in this picture, but I had to put this one in to show Joseph with his tongue out in concentration. He was very good at driving this thing and his cousin was a very good passenger and radio operator. Thanks for sharing your cool toy, Alexis!We had a McDonald's picnic before leaving for the airport. We had such a great time!

Happy Birthday, Elder Anderson!

We love you! We hope you have a great birthday and a Happy Easter! (Elder Anderson is currently serving in the Dominican Republic Santiago mission. He is allowed to view family websites, so we thought we'd sing to him for his birthday!) Listen for Joseph's cute "Taywer." :)

My boys!

Peekaboo Photos took these gorgeous pictures of my boys. I just had to share them all. Thanks, Mom! I will treasure them forever!

Playing "Haircut Store"

Joseph has always been deathly afraid of the hair clippers. The usual haircut for him consists of holding him down and buzzing his head at all one length as fast as possible while he screams bloody murder. But lately, Darren's been taking him to the salon when he gets his hair cut and Joseph has gotten aquainted with his hairdresser and the way the salon works. So now when it's time for a haircut, we play "haircut store." I have to set up my station and put up an "OPEN" sign on the door of my store. Then Joseph comes in and pretends he's Darren and I pretend I'm Lyn. It goes a little something like this:

Me: Hello, Darren. How are you doing today?
Joseph: Oh, I'm doing fine.
Me: How are your kids?
Joseph: Well, Joseph is 3 and he is just great and baby Justin is doing good too.
Me: And how's work going?
Joseph: Well I'm very busy, but I like my building.

There has been considerably less and less crying and last week I actually got to try to give him a "real" haircut by leaving it long on top and fading up the sides. Not bad for a first try, huh? I can now add "hairdresser" to my list of titles as a mom.

Blast from the Past

Since Christmas when Joseph saw the new Alvin and the Chipmunks movie, he's been obsessed with them. I decided I should show him who the original chipmunks were and put a DVD of their shows on hold at the library. When we brought it home, the opening theme song made me feel like I was 10 years old again. It was weird! Turns out, Joseph didn't really like them so much. He thought his chipmunks were way better. Then at the library, the Garfield and Friends DVD caught my eye. I used to watch that show every Saturday morning when I was a kid. And Joseph now loves Garfield and Odie just like his mom. It's so fun to introduce him to the stuff I loved as a kid and have it still be relevant to him. I also brought home a CD of Disney movie songs and now Joseph knows a song from all my favorite Disney movies: The Jungle Book, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast. It's amazing how those songs bring back the images of the movie so clearly in my mind. So now we've got a lot of movie watching to do. :) We watched Homeward Bound together the other night, and I sobbed just like I always do at the end when Shadow and Chance and Sassy make it back home to their owners. Is anybody with me? How fun to have a kid to share these things with.

See if you have the same flashbacks. I bet you'll be singing, "doo, doo, doo doo doo doo!"