Malachi update

Malachi is getting so big. He's 22 months now. He is the exact same age Levi was when he was born.

He is starting to talk really well. He says understandable words and can repeat anything you say. He understands and comprehends everything we say and do. 

His most common word is "no". That seems to be his automatic answer to everything we ask him. He'll say "no", then think about it and answer how he really wants. 

One really cute phrase he says is "uh-huuh" and while he says it he does a little excited jump. 

Another common phrase is "what's that". Over and over.

He also commonly says "a hat" and puts things on his head, whether it's a hat or not.

A few times as he's helped me unload the dishwasher he'll pull out bowls or plates and put them on his head saying "a hat". 

Malachi has a good appetite, but he is such a picky eater. He'd eat bread all day long if we let him. Often I have stubborness wars with him when he won't eat what I put in front of him. I won't let him eat anything else until he finally is hungry enough and gives in and eats the food I give to him. 

He commonly will put his hand over his food and say "it's hot", whether his food is hot or not.

He has learned to bow his head and fold his arms when we pray. I did not teach him this. He just picked it up and started to do it.

He loves to read books. He'll sit on my lap and we'll read. And he just as much likes to flip through pages of books by himself. He especially likes books with animals. 

His favorite animal is a cat. We have a couple cats that wander the neighborhood and he gets excited when he sees them out the window. 

He's also got his animal sounds down.

He's been binky free for 4 months now. It was a rough transition at first, but now he doesn't look back.

He gotten to be whiner. He's learned if he whines he usually gets his way. Levi still pesters him and Malachi knows if he whines Levi will get in trouble.

There was a month when he would get upset and literally throw himself facedown on the floor and throw a fit. It was quite funny to see.

He likes the snow. And he probably likes the mud even more. Yesterday he got stuck in the mud and couldn't move. As I pulled on his hands he slipped right out of his boots. We all got a good laugh. He stood by the mud for a while saying "mud" and "stuck".

He likes to ride his little 3 wheeled bike.  He putts around as we go on walks and follows Levi around. He doesn't last as long on his bike as Levi does. I often end up carrying his bike home.

He really likes to brush his teeth. He knows which toothbrush and toothpaste is his. He also likes to sneak a taste of Levi's toothpaste whenever we're not looking.

He's been able to go to nursery at church for 4 months now. Some days he does well and Adrian and I can leave him and attend our meetings. Other days we have to stay with him the whole time in nursery. There was even a few times as we would turn down the hallway heading to nursery he would recognize where we were going and he would immediately turn around and whine and want to be held, knowing we were going to leave him.

He loves grandma and grandpa. Whenever we're at my mom's house he will prefer my mom over me. Makes me feel kind of bad sometimes. 

He loves going on 4 wheeler or motorcycle rides with my dad. 

He loves wearing any shoes he can find.

He's been taking one nap a day for a while now. That was nice because he and Levi would nap at the same time, giving me some alone time. Levi has since stopped taking naps. Two nights ago we moved Malachi into Levi's room so they could share a room. They've both done really well. Malachi is still adjusting to a new room and will play for a minute before he goes to sleep.
One of my favorite things he does is blow me kisses as he's going to bed. I'll say "I love you" and he'll blow me a kiss in return.

At a BBQ picnic at the park with Jana and Joe.

Malachi loves the vacuum. He gets excited when he sees me get it out and he follows it all around the room. He'll even put his on it to help me vacuum.

This mess seriously took 2 minutes to make. By the end of the day my whole house looks like this.

Road rash from taking a tumble on his bike. This kid is always falling on  his face.

I taught him to put his hands in his pockets when they get cold. He does it all by himself now. This was a very cold day. We went to the park and I lasted 5 minutes before I wanted to head to the car and warm up. The boys on the other hand lasted a good half hour and acted as if it wasn't freezing cold. I sat in the car while Adrian played with the boys outside.

Malachi loves his papa. Whenever Adrian is around he will always prefer Adrian to help him over me. He sometimes tells me "no", "stop", or "back" if I try to help him.

Malachi has such a sweet spirit. He has moments when he needs to be cuddled. In the mornings after I pull him out of bed I know I'm going to have to hold and cuddle him for 15-20 minutes. If I put him down before gets all his cuddles in he'll follow me around crying and beg to be picked up. I've learned to hold him until he hops off my lap on his own terms. He is also very, very stubborn. He will protest if he does not get his way and throws a huge fit if he never gets it.

Levi likes to play with the car ice scrapers and sweep the snow off the cars. Malachi frequently copies Levi. Another thing Malachi copies from Levi is undressing. Both boys are hardly ever dressed when they're at home because they love to have no clothes on, despite me dressing them every morning. He also pretends his hands are airplanes, just like Levi does.

Christmas and New Years 2014

We spent the holidays in Cedar. Though I tried to not get too busy with projects and obligations in December, I failed. I was very busy. We still managed to do some fun things with the kids.

We went up the mountain to my family's ranch and cut our own Christmas tree. It's been a few years since we've been able to have a live tree and our house smelled wonderful.

We also have an elf on the shelf named Benji who comes to visit every Christmas season. The boys loved waking up in the morning and running around the house to find Benji to see what he was up to in the night.

After one Family Home Evening we made a rice crispy train and decorated it. It was a lot better than the gingerbread train we did last year. Malachi liked to stick his finger in the icing and lick it. Levi took quite a bit of time decorating his engine. 

By the end Levi was squirting icing on his belly and sticking little candy balls to it.

We opened presents at our house Christmas morning. We got each boy 2 gifts and some stocking stuffers. We've realized they don't need much at all. In fact, after Levi opened his first gift, he said he wanted to wait until the next day to open any more gifts. Adrian and I would not go for that, so we coaxed him into opening all his gifts. Adrian and I did not get any gifts for each other or from Santa. 

Here's the tree Christmas morning.

Levi got a take-apart jeep with a power drill! He's pretty smart and can take it apart and put it together all by himself.

Malachi loves animals and he got some toy animals and a barn.

Levi got a new bike with pedals. He's not able to ride it yet. He needs a bit more confidence in himself to do it.

Malachi got a tool bench from grandma and grandpa. Both boys enjoy playing with this.

We woke up Christmas morning to snow, and it snowed all day long. It made for the perfect white Christmas.

We spent Christmas afternoon at my parent's house with my whole family. We had a short Christmas program and had a Christmas dinner. We did a white elephant gift exchange where Adrian and I both got gifts. My parents also got us each a gift, a manual wheat grinder and some 72 hour food blocks. It was just what we wanted, some additions to our emergency preparations.

We walked Main Street one December evening to look at Christmas Lights. We started at Lin's and got some chocolate chip cookies to eat while we walked. It was an enjoyable time. 

Here's one of my projects I did. I made some new ornaments for our tree. I cut off a limb from a fallen aspen tree up the mountain. My dad sliced it and drilled holes in them and I burned some Christmas images on them. I really liked how they turned out. I made about 40 ornaments total.

For New Year's we had a party at my sister Jana's house with most of my family. We had homemade pretzels and played New Years themed minute-to-win-it games. We all laughed a lot and really enjoyed our time together.

Thanksgiving 2014

For Thanksgiving dinner we got together with my dad's side of the family. We had the dinner at my grandma Vera's house after she passed. It was a sunny, but chilly day and the boys enjoyed playing with cousins and running around.

Grandma Vera

My grandma, my father's mother, Vera Davis Bulloch passed away on November 14, 2014. 

That evening my aunt Nicole had been with her when she started having chest pain. Nicole asked my grandma if she had been taking her medications lately and my grandma said no. So, Nicole left to go to the pharmacy to pick up my grandma's medications. When Nicole came back about 1.5 hours later my grandma was laying in her bed cold and blue. Nicole ran over to my aunt Lesa's house across the street and Lesa and her husband Matt started CPR. Family and ambulances were called. My grandma had no vital signs or heart activity. They transported her to the hospital where they intubated her and ultimately pronounced her dead. We're assuming it was from a heart attack since she was having chest pain earlier that evening.

A photographer was hired to take pictures of the funeral. These pictures were from her funeral.

 At the cemetery. 

Malachi putting a flower on her coffin.

We gave Levi a flower to put on her coffin, but he did not want to.

We had some family pictures taken at the luncheon after the burial.

I did not know my grandma Vera very well. I visited her a few times a year in her home. I saw her at family get togethers. At her funeral everyone talked so well about her and stated she was elect lady. I feel as if I missed out personally because I did not get to know her well.

There was two chances in her last month when I could have gone to go visit her. Both times I did not go because I did not want the hassle of going with the boys. Now, I wish I had gone.

As the family has gone through her home and personal belongings, I have acquired a large amount of her food storage. I've been really concerned lately about getting our family's food storage in place. This was definitely a blessing for our family and an answer to my prayers. 

Halloween 2014

Adrian was gone on Halloween. He had an interview in El Paso that day. 

When I asked Levi what he and Malachi wanted to dress up as for Halloween he said he wanted to be a bat. And he wanted Malachi to be a mosquito. Adrain and Levi often play a pretend game where Levi's hands are bats and Adrian's hands are mosquitos. In Levi's mind, bats eat mosquitos. So, it was quite funny that Levi said he wanted Malachi to be a mosquito. 

I made them both bat costumes. All it was, was felt wings connected to the bottom of the shirt sleeves and side of the shirt. I matched that with sweat pants and that's it. I did make a mask for Levi and hat with bat ears for Malachi, but neither of them wore those. 

The day before Halloween went to a Halloween Party at Kolob Regional with Cari where she works. The boys trick or treated to the resident's who were lined up along the hallway. They both enjoyed getting candy in their buckets. 

On Halloween night, we trick or treated around my parent's neighborhood with Cari and LeAnn's families. The boys lasted about ½ an hour before they were done. 

Here's their candy haul. They basically liked to play with it. Levi does not like candy so I ate most of his. Malachi was not into the chocolate candy bars so I ate those for him. All in all I'd say I ate 80% of both their candy. 

I made some halloween shaped jello jigglers for the boys. All they did was squish them and would not eat them.

I got pumpkins for the boys from my mom's garden. Cari invited us to go to a pumpkin farm in town so we went with her too.

I carved both the boys pumpkins. We carved a spider on Levi's and a cat on Malachi's. It was a lot of unappreciated work that rotted way too fast. Levi did enjoy pulling the seeds out of his though.

Fall 2014

During the fall when Adrian was gone we went up to the mountain (up right hand canyon) to take pictures of the kids with leaves. I went up twice. Once with Cari and Levi, and another time with Cari, both boys, and Jana . Levi was compleatly into playing and would not slow down to look at the camera. Malachi held still for just a minute, long enough to snap a few good pictures. 

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We tried to get a picture of all the kiddos. It's hard to get 4 kids looking happy and at the camera at the same time.

I tried to get some pictures of me with the kids. Levi was not happy to be told to hold still long enough for a picture.

We had our first snow storm in Cedar while Adrian was away in Salt Lake.  There was not much snow, but there was enough to build a snowman. I made a snowman, and Levi, all by himself, added a bum and and told me the snowman was pooping. Levi pretended the cleared snow tracks were train tracks. He loves trains!

They both had to have trucks to zoom around in the snow.

Malachi suddenly got the flu. Adrian had been gone for two months and day after he got back the car battery died and Malachi got very sick. I'm lucky God waited for him to be home before things fell apart. Malachi's breathing became very labored that we pulled out all our medicines and tricks to help him. He had heavy labored breathing for 48 hours straight. He coughed a lot and had a fever. We ended up calling the doctor, who we never got a hold of. Adrian and I had stayed up very late into the night talking and catching up since he'd been gone for 2 months and around 2 in the morning Malachi woke up restless and couldn't breathe.  Adrian gave him a blessing and by the end of the day Malachi was much better and breathing normally. It was kind of scary to see someone so little be so sick.

Here's a picture of the boys laying around trying to catch up on some sleep.