Toddler Brilliance

Skyler yelling, "Bad Mommy!" for taking too many pictures of him.  I should probably have this face recorded somewhere since this is the look I get for the better part of the day.  It's an interesting relationship we have.  He's mad at me most of the time and yet he wants to live in my lap.  Hmmm....

 

 

On Sundays when I was a kid I played something called the "marshmallow game" with my dad and sisters.  It's simple really.  Daddy would ask us a trivia gospel question and if we got the answer right we would get a marshmallow.  I'm pretty sure he used pennies and chocolate chips, too.  (And let me add that I really did learn a lot about the gospel from this game.  After all, every 5 year-old should know that another name for Satan is Beelzebub). Well we decided to play that game for FHE this week and we used popcorn instead.  We asked them simple questions like "Where are you going to get married?" and "What did Noah build?" and "Who is the prophet today?"  Fun, right?  The kids ate their fair share of popcorn and were happy to play.

 

So.  The next morning happened.  I thought I'd take a break and watch a movie with Lily and Skyler while Ella was napping.  They asked for popcorn.  I promise we don't eat popcorn on a daily basis, but I said "Sure you can!"  I made them a big bowl to share and when Skyler went to grab a handful Lily said, "Wait!  You have to answer a question first."  She proceeded to ask him gospel question and when he got the answer right she let him eat it.  Then it was Skyler's turn. 

 

Skyler:  "What do you do when you get sick?"

Lily:  *staring at him like that's the dumbest question in the universe* "Um.  You go to the doctor.  And they give you medicine."

Skyler:  "WRONG!  Temple, Lily.  Temple."

 

All while I'm just sitting on the couch watching this play out with my hand over my mouth.

 

 

Another quote of the day:

Me: *frustrated*  "Skyler, why did you wet your bed last night?"

Skyler:  "Because my bed needed a drink."  *Grins*

 

Ella Update

I think I'm overdue for an Ella update.  She is a huge part of our lives right now -- even if it doesn't show on the blog. 



 

Lily and Skyler were both chia pets, too, but I'm pretty sure Ella deserves some sort of award for her hair.  It's about 3-4 inches long all over her entire head.  It's full of curl and I have to wash it with head and shoulders during each bath to get rid of her cradle cap.  And since Lily and Skyler never lost any of their hair, I'm not expecting Ella to lose hers either.  It's darker at the ends and pretty light at the roots.  But it's different colors all over her head.  I'm not quite sure how it will all look when it's grown out, but for now I'm just hoping it's not zebra print.  Mmmm.  I just love rubbing my nose around in all that head fluff.

 

She's such a happy baby.  She only cries when she feels like she's been neglected for too long.  Depending on the day that could mean 45 seconds or 45 minutes.  But she's getting better at realizing that I've got my hands full and I can't hold her every second of the day.  She is especially happy first thing in the morning.  Whenever she wakes up she just beams at us like we're the best things that ever happened to her.  I always imagine her thinking, "Look at me Mommy!  I slept through the night!  Aren't you so proud of me?!?!"  Her happiness is pretty contagious.  Oh, and yes, she sleeps through the night about 80-90% of the time now.  Have I mentioned that I love this baby?

 

She is finally starting a schedule.  I'm not much of a schedule person myself, but I LOVE it when my kids are finally on one.  She takes a long nap in the morning, a long nap in the afternoon, and she stays awake until about 8 PM.  We wake her up to give her a bottle at 9, stick her in bed, and (most of the time) say goodnight until about 6:30 the next morning.

 

I'm not going to lie.  I thought three kids would be really really hard.  But people kept telling me that the third child is typically a mellow baby and since I'm a third child, I can testify of that.  Just kidding!  But Ella really does fit that stereotype.  And we love it.  Lily and Skyler have adjusted very well and help me out all the time.  The only real adjustment I've had to make is that I have a whole lot more laundry to do (I always forget how much laundry a baby goes through...) and I just have to be okay with the fact that at the end of the day not everything is going to get done, hence my freezer meals.  Other than that, we are a happy little bunch over here and Ella's one of the reasons why.  I just have to remind myself to enjoy everything while I can because she's already pushing 3 months and I have no idea where the time has flown. 

Camera Practice

I'm pretty sure that y'all don't visit my blog because of my fantastic photography skills.... or lack thereof.  Looking back at my blog posts, the only thing that makes me cringe are the poor pictures.  The cameras that I have had have always bothered me, and so for years I have longed for the day when I would have the money to invest in a much better camera.  With Ben's new job, that day is now.  Woot!  So we bought a few different cameras at Costco this week and tested them out.  I think we're just about settled on our Nikon.  So to make sure, we grabbed a pizza and had a picnic at the park.  Perfect time to practice on things other than what's lying around the house. 



 

This was just minutes after Ben discovered he had been lying down on a red ant hill and got over 70 bites on his arm.  Ouch.  He just laughed it off.

 

Swinging around.

 

Skyler's favorite feature of the playground.

 

 

 

She was playing hide and seek.  You'll never guess where she's hiding.

 

 

And a picture of our front porch.  Those flowers have bloomed approximately 382304.39084 times this summer.  (Lizzie, I added the decimal just for you.  I knew you'd love it.)  They've been in bloom since May.

 

For all of the pictures being unedited, I think they're pretty fabulous.  I guess we found a keeper.  Merry early Christmas to me!

Ben

 

Ben is my all-time, over the top, hands down best friend.  No competition.

 

When I'm about to wet my pants because something is so funny, he's the one I have to laugh with first.

 

When I'm at the end of my rope and I'm about to explode, he's the one who calmly takes over kid watching and dinner making so I can go take a shower and drown out the world.

 

He's the type of guy who asks me every single day what he can do for me and then tells me I'm pretty on top of it.  Although when I'm still wearing the same sweats from two days ago and my hair's in post-tornado mode, I'm not so sure he's telling the truth as he is just trying to make me happy.

 

I normally think it's super lame whenever people gush about their husbands/boyfriends online.  I think they are just trying to get public attention and attempting to make it look like their lives are all perfect and together. 

 

Well take a look at the zoomed out twin picture that I posted a few days ago:

 

My house is obviously not all together.

I wear shirts with spit up stains and I don't even feel gross about it.

Whenever I make dinner for people they always get a better meal than my family gets.

I only ever really put on make up when I'm going out in public.  And really only church.

 

I am not even close to the ideal housewife.

 

But I never really feel guilty about it.  Because Ben is so good at building me up and telling me how important I am.

 

This team effort thing is awesome.  So here's to every husband who ever made his wife feel good.  You guys rock.

Lily -- our little Sunbeam

First of all, I adore Lily.  I've always looked at her as this funny unique kid.  But lately I've figured out the truth.  She is a mini-me.  She copies everything I do, she talks like me, and even walks around in my 6 inch heels on a daily basis (because I totally do that.  Riiiiight. *wink*)

I completely forgot to update the blog about our ward's Primary Program that happened a month ago.  First of all, shout out to the Garner Ward Primary.  They still blow me out of the water with how well they do in these things.  They have the music completely memorized way ahead of time, they're reverent, and on the ball.  So as the first counselor in the presidency, I was excited to sit back, relax, and enjoy the program when that Sunday came. 

Ben and I got there early to get a front row seat (have I ever mentioned that the Primary Program is my favorite Sunday of the year?)  So when they invited the kids up onto the stand, I got excited, especially since Lily was the third kid to give her line.  "I can choose the right by being nice to everyone."  She was thrilled when it was her turn to go up to the pulpit.  Lily pretty much is never shy. 

But since her part was over with quickly, the rest of the program was sort of a bore for her.  So from her seat on the stand, she and Skyler kept talking/yelling to each other.  Can I tell you how hard it is to parent someone who is sitting far away from you?  You basically just have to point at them, quietly shush them, and throw threatening stares their way.  But no.  It didn't do too much. 

Some examples?  When the kids finished singing one of their songs and sat down together and were perfectly quiet, Lily kept standing up and pointed down at Skyler in a rock star type of way and shouted, "Skyler!  You're so handsome!"  Then in another silent lull we heard Lily loudly telling her teacher, "Skyler still poops in his diapers at night time."

She is our pride and joy. :)

General Conference Success

I was determined that this would be the year that my kiddos would get something out of conference.  I thought that it was a possibility.  Especially after I saw this idea off of Pinterest.  You choose a word or picture, and put it with a bowl of candy.  Whenever your kids hear or see the word, they can go up and get a piece from what they just said.  The results?  It worked like a charm.  I was dumb and thought that "missionary" would be one of the less common words, so I put whole cookies in its bowl.  And then they go and change all the missionary regulations and the kids are already full within the first little bit.

  After the first day, I discovered that taking out some of the sugary candy and replacing it with popcorn is a great idea.  The kids listened and did really well.  Our words were prayer, President Monson/prophet, Jesus Christ, temple, scriptures, missionaries, choose the right, and tithing.  Lily even started bartering with me toward the end.  When they would talk about blessings, she would ask me if she could get some candy corn because blessings are a type of prayer.  WHAT?!?!  Little smarty-pants.  Or when they would mention Book of Mormon prophets, she would say, "They're in the scriptures!" and go up and get some more goodies. 

Our kids weren't very good at eating their meals last weekend, though.  But if it's only 4 days of the year, I think it was a HUGE success.  I sense a new tradition coming on.

"You're going to do WHAT with a shark?"

I know what your first thought is when you see this picture.

 

"That Skyler kid is really intimidating.  I wouldn't want to get on his bad side."

 

I know.  Because I think that, too.

 

I mean, on a daily basis now when I get him upset and he starts searching his brain for a good threat to throw at me, he always yells,

 

"I'm going to hit you with a shark!"

 

Whoa there buddy.

 

But being the intelligent man that Ben is, knowing that one of Skyler's biggest fears is the common house fly, he responded once,

 

"Oh yeah?  Well I'm gonna hit you with a fly."

 

And that, my friends, is how you really scare a toddler and walk away like a boss.