March...

I thought that after the holidays were over in December that things would begin to slow down here around the house, but we were still just as busy in March as we were during the holidays... someone must had pushed the "fast forward" button in my life with out my knowing it and now it seems as if the days and weeks just fly by! It's often said about March, that the month "comes in like a lion, goes out like a lamb" but this past March "came in like a lion and went out like a lion"!

The first two weeks in March, on Mondays, Wednesdays, & Fridays, Noah participated in
Itty Bitty Ball over at the Lehi Legacy Recreation Center. This was his first time being part of an organized sport since last year, when he tried to play soccer in Sandy with Soccer Buddies (Soccer Buddies wasn't such a hit, probably because Noah was still too young). Each class was an hour long, and Noah was lucky enough to be on the same team as his cousin Daniel; two of our other friends had boys who were participating in the program, Laura & Kristy, but their boys, Logan & Tate, were together on another team. The program introduced the children to new sports every day. First the kids played BASEBALL. Noah LOVES baseball and actually plays really well for a three year old. More than a few strangers in the past have commented on what a great throw he has (he probably inherited his arm from my Dad, Richard. He was an awesome pitcher well into his forties). Noah also likes to bat; apparently he's a "switch hitter", meaning he bats both left and right handed, not favoring one side from the other; if he keeps this up and pursues a career in baseball this talent can prove very profitable.
The 2ND day of Itty Bitty Ball the kids were introduced to BASKETBALL. Noah had a GREAT time playing basketball and shooting hoops. He never caught onto dribbling the ball, but what 3 year old really knows how to dribble the ball down the court during a scrimmage game??? Okay, okay, there were a couple; they looked like maybe they were 4 though, and they were big kids, so I'm guessing maybe they were pushing 5 and I'll bet you 2 years in age makes a BIG difference when it comes to competing in sports! No worries though, Noah still has time to perfect his dribble and Harlem Globe Trotter tricks. I took all video during the day the kids played basketball, so sorry, no pictures, BUT, I did get the cutest video of Noah making a basket during a game. (You'll have to trust that he really did make a basket and that I got it on tape, because I don't intend to upload the footage onto my blog.) Just a funny little observation I made about Noah; when he's trying to focus or concentrate, for example, focus on running with the ball or shooting a hoop, he sticks his tongue out, just like me, just like his aunt Janna and just like his Grandpa T. Poor kid had sore chapped lips the ENTIRE two weeks of Itty Bitty Ball.

The 3RD day of Itty Bitty Ball the coaches introduced the kids to FOOTBALL. Don't worry it wasn't CONTACT football, instead it was FLAG FOOTBALL. First the kiddos traveled from station to station with their small teams learning different trades about the game,

Noah tries to jump high to catch the ball!... fumble. Coach called "time out".

Working on "aim" & "throw"...

then they played a scrimmage game against another team before class was over. Some of the kids were REALLY into the game; blocking and tackling, even doing touch down dances like the pros often do, but most the kiddos hadn't a clue what was going on. Some were waltzing around, while others were imitating a tackle even when there was NO ball in sight!

Noah tries to dodge the opponents...

I was standing near the field lines, when at one point during the game I saw off to the left, outside the playing field boundaries, some kid getting TACKLED by three other GINORMOUS kids (Seriously. These kids may have only been 4 or 5 years old, but they were the size of 8 year olds!); at first I could see it was all in fun, but when the boys continued to lay there dormant, smothering the poor child, I rushed over to help and realized MY SON was the one being tackled! Poor thing. Noah's a VERY SOCIAL CHILD and has NO RESERVATIONS when it comes to making friends. He's happy making friends with just about anyone, young, old, pretty, pretty ugly looking peeps; he doesn't discriminate... SO... after his class that third day I had to have a little talk with him and discuss the importance of making good friends with NICE people and tell MEAN people to go away. I don't think "the talk" was of any use because the next trip to class he was right back to hanging out with the BIG kids... he'll learn... he'll learn.

On the 4TH day of Itty Bitty Ball the kids played SOCCER.

Noah wore his Portuguese Soccer Jersey to class;
Grandma & Grandpa Campbell found it for him while they were down in Uruguay the week before visiting Noah's cousins.
No one, other than myself, knew the soccer jersey was Portuguese;
in fact I had a few mothers, including my own sister, ask me if it was a jersey for Mexico's National team...
...um, NO.

From Noah's pose in the picture above, can you tell what he's been OBSESSED with lately??? SUPERHEROS!

Noah was SO EXCITED about playing soccer prior to going to class, but, when it came time to actually play, opponent vs. opponent, during a scrimmage, he didn't have even the littlest desire to play! He was more interested in socializing on the playing field.

These kids lined up along the wall with Noah are his teammates.
I looked over one time during practice to witness Noah and the little boy to his left,
both picking their noses, showing each other their big boogers,
and then proceed to show each other that they'd eat the boogers too!!! GROSS!

I should have taught him that it's not cool to make friends with the opposing team; looks like he may be bi-partisan... So he didn't like game time, maybe because AGAIN some of the kids he played against looked like they'd been playing for YEARS, (I'm CONVINCED these kids were older than the age limit of 4); he did however enjoy practice time, making shots into the goal

He already understands the importance of "following through with a shot" and kicking with the laces.
Maybe he will be another David Beckham with just a little more practice for improvement...

and passing the ball back and forth to another player and dribbling the ball around cones. There's HOPE!

side note: I decided to buy the boys a REAL soccer ball, one their size, and one of those pop up goals that can easily be packed away. Since doing so, the boys, particularly Noah, have been practicing their shots and dribbling the ball around. He's REALLY improved A LOT over the last month. He's caught onto the fact that HANDS ARE NOT aloud in soccer and no longer tries to grab the ball with his hands. There's still plenty of HOPE for the kid in the game.

The 5TH day of class the kids played VOLLEYBALL... yes, volleyball. I was a bit worried initially before the class began, envisioning balls flying at our small childrens heads and knocking more than just a few of them out, but, my worries were calmed once I saw that instead of using real volleyballs the kids would be using beach balls. PAINLESS... good. Okay, so I'm not sure any of the 50 kids that were there that day excelled or showed exceptional talent in the sport; most of the kids were more interested in the ball itself and less interested in listening to instructions.

On the 6TH day of class the instructors brought out a HUGE parachute for all the children to play with together. It provided a good solid hour of entertainment, and once class was done all the children were given their awards, a treat, and their pictures. Yeah, as silly as it sounds since the program was only 2 weeks long, the kids still had team pics

All the kids that participated in Itty Bitty League received shirts 10 sizes too BIG for them.
Noah is the 2ND one from the right in the front and his cousin, Daniel, is on his right.

and individual sport pictures were taken. Noah's turned out... well, you be the judge...
Sort of silly.

Overall, he had A LOT of fun. Noah enjoyed being out and meeting new kids, playing new sports and I thought it was good that he learn to receive instruction from someone other than myself and family he's normally surrounded by. I LEARNED A LOT about Noah while he participated in Itty Bitty Ball; he's EXTREMELY SOCIAL and likes to talk a lot; in fact, he can be a bit of a distraction. I'd look over to see him talking to his other teammates or coach when he should have been listening or doing something else; he's also fearless- he doesn't hesitate a second before trying something new; he's EXTREMEMLY confidant, he was smaller than nearly every other kid there his age, with the exception of his cousin Daniel. (poor boys just got a bit of the Truesdell "short genes" in them), and he's just a tad bit slower at running races than the rest of the kids... WHO AM I KIDDING, he's super slow! He definitely IS NOT a track star... I felt bad for most of the parents there who were watching practices with me; their kids are just absolutely CRAZY and WIRED! I wondered to myself each day at Itty Bitty Ball whether I should have given Noah some Mountain Dew before hand to help liven him up like the other kids. SERIOUSLY I considered it, but, I decided I like my little man "mellow yellow".

Among some of the other things that kept us busy in March were visits from some of our friends. My good friend Amanda came by one afternoon in March with her two kids, Teancum & Cumorah; it's pathetic I don't see her more often than I do since she only lives 30 minutes from where I live, but like I've said numerous times in the past, I just get busy being a mom. When we do find time to get together it's fun to catch up, share juicy gossip about what's going on in San Diego with our friends and family and let the boys play.Another friend who came to visit us in March was one of my best friends/old roommates Sheena! Sheena actually came from Ohio to visit and stayed with us two nights. She brought with her, her little man Riley, who is just younger than Ian but older than Cohen. We had fun remembering the past and talking about "life" as we know it now. One evening, in which she stayed with us, we had a FAJITA NIGHT at my place with some of our other old roommates who still live here in Utah. Amy and Lauren came to dish on food and gossip.

4 of the 6 roommates. Sheena (far left), me, Amy & Lauren (Lauren was expecting a baby any day).

It had been YEARS since I'd last seen Lauren and the last time I had seen Amy I had just had Ian.

All 6 of the roomies 9 years ago!
Lauren (far left),
Sheena (ouch! Sheena that blue and white eye shadow is blinding me),
Lindsey, me, Amy & Danielle.
MY HOW WE HAVE ALL CHANGED!

I decided to make fajitas for our gathering since it was a traditional food my roommates and I used to make EVERY Thursday night in college. We called Thursdays, FAJITA NIGHT. It was custom to invite strangers, usually boys, HOT BOYS by the numbers, over to our apartment to wine and dine with us on those evenings (by "wine", I mean we used to serve and drink Virgin Margaritas and Pina Coladas).

Danielle and I shaking up drinks for the guests.

FAJITA NIGHTS were really popular and we NEVER had a guy turn down our invitation to come, but, as an apartment of 6 girls, we had the tendency to invite TOO MANY guys over each week, so it wasn't long before we had a waiting list for the guys. We didn't always play fair by the rules and invite over "next in line" on the list, because if there was an incredibly HOT guy any of us met and invited to FAJITA NIGHT, he had priority over any of the other guys. Anyhow, enough said... it was fun being with old roommates and reflecting on the STUPID (I'm not even sure STUPID is the best suited word) things we used to do in college.

Another friend who stopped by for a visit in March was my old mission companion Jolie! She was in Utah visiting from Washington. I hadn't seen Jolie since while we were in the mission field together; since then she got married (almost immediately after she got home off the mish) and has had 3 children, two girls and one boy, all of whom are near the same age as my kiddos. We decided to meet at the Thanksgiving Point Farm where we could talk and walk while our kids ran free.

Noah, Ian & one of Jolie's girls (sorry Jolie, I can't tell your two girls apart)
feeding the baby billy goat.

Ian didn't really want to feed the sheep his corn;
he actually wanted to keep it for himself and eat it.

We were met there by another companion of ours, Heidi, and her daughter Mae. Funny how it's already been 6 years since I'd last seen Jolie but it felt as though we had just seen each other the week before; sure we had to "fill each other in" on details of our lives post mish, but neither of our personalities had changed in the last 6 years and we still "clicked" the same as we had done before.

The weather continued to be UNPREDICTABLE during March; it snowed, it rained, we had wind- MAJOR WIND- so much wind that I found myself outside on our front lawn nearly every other day on an Easter Egg Hunt gathering the little decorative Easter Eggs I had hanging by my front door. By the time Easter finally arrived in April, I was completely OVER the thrill of an egg hunt!
On one particular windy day I found my guys outside doing this...FLYING A KITE!While the two older boys flew their kite with dad, Cohen chilled outside and watched from the back patio. Eventually he wandered off onto the grass, but after a minute or two of sitting in it, he began to be very unhappy with his new surrounding. THE KID DOES NOT LIKE THE GRASS!

Throwing a FIT and trying his fastest to get back onto the cement.

Cohen continued to practice his crawl in March... well, um... it wasn't really a crawl crawl, more like an army crawl. He dragged his self ALL OVER the place and really became speedy. He could get up on his knees and rock back and forth and even move a little on his knees but the kid wasn't interested much in getting around that way. Maybe he didn't want to have sore knees??? He was so funny to watch move around. He LOVED the new freedom that crawling gave him and he got really good at tackling his brothers to the ground... first he would crawl up next to one of them, usually Ian, and then grab at one of their pant legs; he'd tug just hard enough till they eventually lost their balance and fall, and then, he'd smother them and crawl on top of them and grab whatever it was they had in their hands out of their hands! (it was usually food he was after).

Cohen finally started eating baby food! Yes, some you mothers out there may be thinking to yourselves that 9 months is 3 months, maybe even 5 months, too late to start feeding a baby baby food, but, I like to wait before I introduce food other than formula to my children to reduce the possibility of them later developing food allergies (if you don't know what I'm talking about, discuss it with your child's pediatrician). Cohen seems to like ALL veggies and fruits alike.

Ian practiced his George Micheal impersonation in March... jk, but this is how I found him one morning just after I'd gone into their room to wake he and Noah up. He'd found some stickers that were in the back of one of his Disney books (b.t.w., I dare to ask, what kind of publishing company puts stickers at the back of chidrens books?!?) and decided to use one as an earring; it looked so funny and the first thing I thought of was George Michael the signer. (sorry about the snot in the picture).

Noah learned how to use the toilet. Remember this post and these pictures I published about a month ago???
And he also learned to LOVE these...And just like any man, he always needs some good reading material while using the toilet. HE prefers to read The New Yorker.Even his younger brother, Ian, tried using the toilet a time or two. Maybe if I'm lucky he'll be potty trained too before the new baby arrives in August!

Ian found his way into A LOT of mischief and trouble during March. Remember this post??? Yeah, he got that cut on his head in March and it's now May that I'm actually writing this and that cut still has yet to completely heal! He's really lucky he didn't need stitches, that silly kid. (b.t.w. I'm not sure if you've noticed or not, but in some of the pictures I photoshopped the cut on his forehead out of pictures; it just looked so bad and I hate seeing that scar, it reminds me of Harry Potters lightning bolt scar. Neosporin isn't working, maybe I need some Mederma).

The boys spent a lot of their time they were stuck inside the house, due to bad weather, wrestling. YES, the wrestling has already begun even though they're only 3, 1 and 9 months old!

They also spent MOST of their mornings chilling in our shower like old men in a sauna; every morning is such a STRUGGLE just to get EACH ONE OF THEM OUT of the shower! they really like it in there too much!

I nearly forgot about St. Patty's Day this year! In fact, I found myself at the store a day or two before the 17TH, in the meat isle, wondering why all of a sudden there was a BIG sale on corned beef??? Usually for St. Patricks Day I prepare steamed cabbage, steamed potatoes and carrots along with Corned Beef for the fam to eat; my mother always made us that meal while I was growing up, so I've decided to carry on the tradition for my own children to enjoy; but, this year, instead of making a traditional Irish dinner, I cooked a St. Patty's Day breakfast for the boys. Green Eggs and Ham. We also drank green milk and we read Dr. Seuss' book "Green Eggs and Ham" while we ate breakfast. Grandpa Campbell joined us for breakfast that morning.
The last week in March we found out at my 18 week ultrasound that we were expecting ANOTHER BOY in August! Remember this post???

The last Saturday in March, the 28th, I celebrated my "GOLDEN BIRTHDAY" by turning 28. I had a fabulous birthday; though we didn't do much to celebrate, just kept it pretty simple. By around 4 or so, we dropped all the boys off at my sister Trish's house to be watched, while Spencer and I went out for the evening. We had planned to go and see a movie and then after ward eat dinner at my favorite Brazilian restaurant in town called Tucanos but by the end of the night we hadn't done either. Just before our movie was to start, we stopped off at this model home place by Thanksgiving Point to discuss and look over plans for possibly building a house. (in case you've forgotten or weren't aware, our lease here at our place in up the end of August and we don't plan on renewing it... instead, we're looking to buy a home of our own, possibly even build this home of our own!) Anyhow, we got to talking with the guy that worked in the office for the developers and before we knew it, we missed our movie time! It was okay though because we were really digging the conversation we were having about possibly building. By the end of our discussion we liked the idea of building a house in that location (it was right next to Thanksgiving Point in Lehi on the golf course) and with those developers, so we put some money down that following week to reserve our plot of land. (note: after doing some more serious house hunting in March and April and going to the design center to pick out carpets, tiles, fixtures, etc. for the new house we were going to build, we've decided NOT to build. We're just going to buy a house that has already been built; it's a much smart/wiser investment). After our conversation with the developers, we headed off to dinner at Tucanos where we were met with a 2 1/2 hour wait! It was already 8 o'clock and the hostess told us the next available seating time wasn't until 10:30, so we decided to skip dinner at my fave Brazilian restaurant and go Chinese at P.F. Changs. Spencer HATES Changs (he absolutely HATES Chinese food so when ever we eat at P.F. Changs he orders the most expensive dish on the menu, the New York Steak, because it's the only "American" dish on the menu) but I LOVE it and since it was MY birthday I had picks on where we dined. Turns out we had to wait another 45 minutes there too- my birthday just so happened to be the same night as Sadie Hawkins for ALL of the high schools in the county. I LOVE P.F. Changs though, particularly because they have a Gluten Free menu that makes ordering food easy, breezy for me and they have the most delicious chocolate gluten free cake on their dessert menu! I'd consider going there to eat again tomorrow just to order the cake!

Wrapping things up, the last Sunday in March Spencer and I took all 3 of our boys to my MISSION REUNION with President Soares. I was a bit nervous prior to going; worried that maybe I wouldn't be able to remember my Portuguese and understand what President Soares was talking about in his fireside talk, but, to my relief, I still understood it perfectly! Though I can still understand Portuguese, I wasn't any mood to try and speak it; it's been YEARS since I last had a real conversation with another person in Portuguese, so I begged the President and his wife before we began "catching up", if I could speak in English (they're both Brazilian so Portuguese is their first language, but lucky for me, they lived here in the states a little and learned English as a second language). It was fun talking with the President and his wife, though the conversation was brief because their were other Elders there too who wanted their chance to talk to President. The President and his wife both had a hard time believing Spencer I already had 3 boys, with a 4TH on the way; I bet the President had a good chuckle thinking about it since I was the Sister in the mission who HATED taking orders from the Elders and yet here I'll be the mother to possibly 4 Elders, approximately 16-19 years from now! Aside from the President and his family, I didn't recognize many other faces; Heidi, one of my old mission comps, was there with her family and she was the only sister from the mission there; all the rest were Elders, and to be completely honest, I only knew a few of them (Sisters in my mission WERE NOT allowed to hang out with Elders, except it be at District or Zone meetings). Anyhow, it's hard to believe sometimes that it's already been so long since the mission, especially since my memories of Portugal and the people there whom I had met still are so fresh in my mind.

WOW how Spencer and I have changed
since my first mission reunion in
April of 2004!

Before I end, I can't forget to mention this little gem...

THE BOYS CUCKOO CLOCK.

Every hour, on the hour, this little yellow birdee comes out and chirps 12 times for us. We can hear him pretty much anywhere through out the house; I've gotten so used to his chirping I hardly hear him any more, BUT, Ian goes WILD each time he does, and that's any hour of the day we're either not away or asleep, at least a good 10 times a day. I purchased this little CUCKOO CLOCK online through Pottery Barn Kids; before you gasp is disbelief, allow me to mention I bought it half off on sale. We've had it now for just over two months and still whenever Ian sees the birdie come out and chirp on the hour he goes wild; his reaction each time is priceless and it has brought him so much JOY and for that reason alone I have to thank the Cuckoo in the Clock that keeps chirping away!