Cupcake Destruction

I can not believe that Johnathon will be one year old tomorrow. It is supposed to rain all day- so we took our pictures today. I made him a cupcake and we headed outside. He had so much fun! He would go to the cupcake, take a few bites, and then go play. He came back for more several times. He also enjoyed playing with his hat and balloon- until he somehow untied the balloon from the table and let it fly away.  I had so much fun taking pictures. I love taking pictures outside- the lighting was beautiful! (The only editing I did with these was to crop a few of them and put them into a collage)

All Grown Up

She had to take a picture of it herself, that is why it is so blurry.

I have very independent children. They recently have begun to talk about all of the things they will do when they grow up. Especially about when they will move out and what their homes will be like. 18 is their magic age. At 18 they will be all grown up and able to do whatever they want. The first thing they plan to do is move out. Fortunately enough, they want us to come and visit. Lex wrote us a letter the other day inviting us to visit her when she moves.

The letter reads:  Dear Mom and Dad
I relly want you to kome to my home wen I am edtten. Ill tell you wir I will live. Collurodw Spring
Love Alexis
For you tow.

The map reads:
-start -forst stop -sokont stop -therd stop -finnisht

Translated: Dear Mom and Dad
I really want you to come to my home when I am 18. I'll tell you where I will live. Colorado Springs.
Love Alexis
For you two.
-start -first stop -second stop -third stop -finished

Half Down

So, I am officially half way done with this pregnancy. I was lucky to have only minor morning sickness (feeling occasionally nauseated- never vomiting). I went from craving lettuce and veggies to craving cookies (most other sweets don't work- just cookies). Baby went through a growth spurt- I wore pants on Saturday and then couldn't put them on the next Monday. I love my second trimesters. I am sleepy and sometimes my thoughts are foggy, but I mostly feel great! I have an appointment and an ultrasound in a couple weeks. Philip is still planning on finding out the gender and somehow keeping it from me. We don't have names picked yet, but we have the girl's names narrowed down to 5 and the boys names at about 12. We use a family name for each of our kids and so that makes our choosing a bit harder sometimes. Anyway, here is a picture taken at 20 weeks(ish).

Magic For Saint Patrick's Day

My husband and I have recently agreed to putting more effort into making holidays magical for our family. Unfortunately for us, the first holiday after our agreement wasn't an easy one. I mean, how do you create magic on a day that you see no real point in celebrating? Nonetheless, we did our best to make this St.Patrick's Day a day of magic for the girls.
Our day started last night when we picked out our green outfits. The girls were excited just to wear something special for the special day. We met up with some friends and went to a parade in Erin, TN. I can not believe how many people were at this thing!!!! The weather stayed beautiful until just after the parade, when it started to rain. While Lexi, Nater, and I watched the parade; Emi and Philip drove in it with the miata club. After the parade we ate our packed lunches picnic style and headed home. We took a ferry across the Cumberland River both ways- which was new to all of us. Once we got home we crashed- or would have if the kids would have let us. We did all rest for a while at least because we knew it would be a late night for the kids (got home at 9- 3 hours past the typical bed time). I made cookies and we went to an auction dinner at church. We were outbid on some of the items we were interested in, but we did walk away with 2 hours of babysitting (perfect, since we need a babysitter this coming up Friday). The girls didn't take long to fall asleep and I think they really did feel a bit of magic today.

Best part of the ferry ride was getting to be out of their seat belts to enjoy the experience.

Wouldn't it be great if we could ride like this all the time!

The ferry and the river.

After we crossed, waiting for our friends.

Jumping with excitement- she stood by herself near the road because some people chose to stand in front of us the whole time and she wouldn't have been able to see.

She dutifully waved at nearly every participant that went by.

Nater's first sucker.

Alexis made a friend. I am not sure what this girl kept saying to her, but she did chat her ear off.

He loved joining in the clapping, even though he had no idea what he was clapping for.

Nater ate lunch so well, and surprisingly stayed fairly clean.

Getting My Craft On

So, I had a pair of pants lying around that I wanted to save for a project. However, I really only needed the pockets from the pants and when I saw this on pinterest I thought- why not? And then I got crafting. 

Layered shapes hair pretties. I traced cookie cutters to get my shapes.

Plain ol' bows. Hoping to be able to use these as bow ties for the boy too.

Flower hair pretties. I am missing one- I think the boy ate it!

Lexi's favorite

Emi's favorite.

Small girl modeling grown up sized necklaces. I love her pose though.

I spent who knows how much time on this. Cutting and gluing and a tad bit of sewing. I started yesterday afternoon and just finished today. So instead of a clean house, or clean laundry, I have these beauties. I still have a few crafts to go- but I wanted to share what I have so far.

These are all of the posts i used. Thank you creative, crafty people for sharing your ideas with me:
http://madmim.com/fabric-flower-tutorial-6-the-burnt-edges-circle-flower/
http://www.stylemepretty.com/2011/05/30/diy-no-sew-bow-ties/
http://prudentbaby.com/2010/10/baby-kid/no-sew-rolled-fabric-flower-baby-headband-2/
http://prudentbaby.com/2010/02/baby-kid/diy-fabric-flower-hair-clip-2/
http://prudentbaby.com/2011/04/baby-kid/scrap-busting-hair-bows-2/
http://smallmagazine.typepad.com/smaller/2009/06/small-projects-scrap-fabric-necklaces.html
http://www.lollychops.com/lollychops/2009/10/raise-your-hand-if-you-like-butterflies-and-turkeys.html

And this is the pile of scraps that was left. An entire pair of pants and this is all that I had to get rid of :)

http://blogs.babble.com/the-new-home-ec/2011/09/08/25-free-scrap-busting-tutorials/

Bye Bye Bottle

Colors to match the kids Ikea dishes

We usually start this around 6 months, and we did- but with little consistency or success. So we are officially starting to transfer from bottle to cup today. (Poor boy will have to be used to this in a few short weeks because he looses his bottles on his first birthday) We picked up 6 cuppies at the store today. I gave the boy some juice in one and he is loving it. The rule will be that he can only have bottles during the night now. (by the way, these are the cups that have worked best for each of my kids. Which is nice, because they are cheap).

Kids Do And Say The Funnist Things

I used to write my girls personal letters about all of the fun and wonderful things they were doing. I still do, occasionally, but life gets too busy to really keep up with it. Instead, I find myself sharing them on Facebook. Mom tells me always that I need to keep a book for them of these things. I told her that is why I have the blog, and then realized that I don't often transfer those things from Facebook to the blog- so here it is. A partial list (about a year's worth) of cute, funny, wonderful, and crazy things my kids say and do that I want them to hear about someday.

The kids-

February 2012:

15-

Another great one: Alexis reached to get the plate of cookies I said they could have (only one left for each of them). As she is getting the plate down one of the cookies falls and lands frosting side down on the floor. She looks at her sister and says, "I got that one for you!"

Alexis has taken her pretending to be a horse to a new level. She currently has a basket tied to her dress straps, she fills it up and pulls it around the house. She calls it her carriage.

I kinda hate that my daughter can read advertising.
Alexis: "Emi do you want a piece of cheese? I promise you'll like it!"
Emi: "What's it taste like?"
Lexi: "I don't know. It says, 'good tasting', so it's good!"

My girls have watched us clean fingerprints off a number of DVDs and now believe water can fix any movie that is not working. Which is why it was so hilarious to see Alexis come out of the other room drying a vhs tape off with her dress. Yeah, that'll make it work!

14- so, the boy got into the trash can- grabbed an empty yogurt container and tried to lick the inside of it. So I gave him a mootube (portable yogurt like go-gurt). HE LOVED IT! He even tried licking his high chair tray clean after it was gone. I am glad he got a V-day gift, since he isn't getting any of the cookies.

11-our family has been making an effort to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables. I am loving it (especially this salad my husband just made). Alexis made a great observation about this today, "I was going to eat an orange too, but if I eat too many fruits I will have horrible diarrhea!" Love it!

9-And it has begun... Every time I turn around today, Nater is on something. He climbs on and off the couches and chair now. Even climbed up on the girls' step stool. I am not ready for a climber. Between that and his walking- we are going to be in major trouble soon!

January 2012-

30-Alexis just came out and tried to explain why Emi should not be in their shared room cleaning. I said to her, "do you work better alone?" Yes! So we sent Emi out of the room- to which she replied, "I told you you were wrong- I don't like cleaning!"

25-Nater all of a sudden wants to be a walker. He totally just stands unsupported today and even attempted a step. Silly boy!

23-Emi just asked me, "mom when I was born did I have a tag?" I asked her some questions to try to understand what a tag was. She said, "from the store, to know what number I was."

17-My daughters, Prince Alex and Princess Emily, just got married. After I pronounced them prince and princess- they danced and THEN sealed it with a kiss. Immediately after the kiss- they began fighting. Alex said "he" would go slay the dragon unicorn by swording it in the belly. Emily said, "you mean the horn?!" Now they are switching roles and I have another wedding ceremony to perform.

12-Johnathon is at an age that he is really starting to miss his Daddy. He asks for/about him during the day "daDA. Dada" and then whines when there is no Dad to show for his request. Then when Philip comes home Johnathon doesn't let him leave his sight. Philip just came home to shave and such, and Nater wants to be in his arms non-stop. It's such a cute stage. I love that he loves his Dad so much.

10-Johnathon and I discussed his levels of clean today. There is clean (in the bath- and for a short time after- like until he is dry). There is pre-filthy, filthy, and BEYOND filthy. hehehe. He really isn't THAT bad- but he always pulls his bibs off when he eats.

2011

December-

28-Emily is having so much fun discovering all the things there are in Texas. She keeps saying, "there's a ( insert name of restaurant or shopping chain here) in Texas!"

22-Emi has hit the emergent reading stage- beginning to sound out words and reading simple text (hop on pop). Today we practiced manipulating sounds of words by changing letters- I don't know who is more excited- me or her.

15-Dear Johnathon, I am not a jungle gym. When you climb on me and I move you to the floor it is not because I don't love you or I am neglecting you. It is simply because I am NOT a jungle gym.

9-And now... one more. I find it funny that Nater is now getting around the house much more slowly than before. He can still crawl rapidly- but it is no longer from room to room. He crawls rapidly from one piece of furniture to another. As soon as he comes to a sturdy piece of furniture he pulls himself up to standing and tries to walk. When he can't walk, he gets down and rapidly crawls to the NEXT piece of furniture.

5-watching nativity stories and the girls asked why they had a donkey. I tried to explain that there were not cars then. Emi replied, "because in church movies they don't have cars."

November-

22-I love that my girls play "having babies". Lexi was just lying on the floor (propped up on the body pillow) and said, "she's going to fall out in ten, nine..." at which point Emi stopped in the middle of her sentence (to me), turned around, and pulled the stuffed animal from under Lexi's dress. She tossed it at Lexi, turned around and finished her sentence. :D Girls are so much fun!

17-I am grateful for the innocence of children. Today Emi is telling my dad, "I am smart because I can write the uppercase R." and "we do homeschool because we don't know where the school outside is, but there is one. Only one!"

8-The girls are currently playing that their toys are in spirit world. Lexi just called out, "Quick fetch some hot water for Jesus! He's SICK! Quick!"

October-

27-Emi came in this morning and told me Lex said stupid. I said to remind her we don't say that word. Lexi's response- I didn't want you to tell.

23-Where do they get this stuff? Earlier Alexis came in the room with an animal under her shirt (as they often do when playing "pregnant") and asked if I knew what she had in there. I guessed "twins?" to which she replied, "no, I'm just really fat, you know"

September-

28-So much for taking the kids out to play while I clean outside area. There is a snake back there! The girls want to keep it as a pet. Emi wants to give it her toy snake to keep as his pet. I want to kill it (and I am usually a major fan of snakes- just not around my kids)

7-Alexis to me this morning: "your baby is still in Heaven"
Me: "what baby?"
Alexis: "the one that is coming soon"

She went on to announce that our neighbor is having 5 kids.

5-Alexis has apparently inherited a love of cheese from her father- she is currently having a slice of cheddar on top of a pancake for lunch. Emi, on the other hand, has inherited sarcasm- Miranda pulled a mango out of the fridge and asked what's this. Me: A mango Mir: what's a mango Emi: THAT!!!

1-Guess what today is? NOT August! (Lexi announced that today. She is excited for September. Come to think of it, so am I.)

August-

29-It's official. The boy is mobile ( he has been for some time- I finally saw how today). It seemed to me like 5 months is too early to be crawling. Slow down Nater!

21-Emi popped Lexi's tooth out. Lexi bit Emi's dress and Emi pulled the dress along with a tooth out of Lexi's mouth.

I wonder if this is how our Heavenly Father felt. Our conversation today went like this- Alexis: (as she runs from the table) "Mom, Emi got the cereal out" Me: "Did you eat some?" Alexis: "no" Me: "the truth" Alexis: "well, Emi got it out" Emi: "Lexi ate it" Lexi: "well, Emi got it out, Emi gave it to me" (I just couldn't help but hear- the women, that thou gavest to be with me, she gave me the fruit...)

19-Alexis told me this morning that she would like to be a tooth fairy when she grows up. She very well may get her wish.

18-Lexi just (finally) pulled her own tooth. She had that tooth hanging on by a thread for so long!

15-After a bit of an argument over Lexi wearing flip flops to school this morning she gave in and wore tennis shoes. First thing she announced after coming out the door of her classroom "Ms. Brooke wears flip flops to school- so we CAN!"

9-I love that Alexis always asks to taste Johnathon's baby food. Today she finished off what he didn't want of his peas.

8-Philip found a lock of curls in the art room today. I call Emi upstairs and identify the spot the hair is missing from. So I ask, did you get a hair cut? She smiles, rubs her hair and replies, "yeah, I did it myself!" She was so happy and proud I couldn't stay mad.

July-

31-Alexis is so kind. She cut a pair of panties out of construction paper for me. She gave them to me and told me they are my "big panties to cover me. Because (I) have a big one. Well, it's true!"

28-Emi just counted... she has 28 toes! I guess we missed a few last time we counted.

27-JohnnyNater ate his first solid food tonight. Not sure how much he actually consumed, mostly he wore it.

My girls always talk about marrying the neighbor boys. Today Lexi told Marshall, " I'll show you the cake I want when we get married" I didn't know she had such detailed plans already.

19-Emi was playing with her brother (next to me on the bed) I look over and she is halfway through changing his diaper- without any help. How crazy is that!

3-Decided to take the girls with me to the "army party" they had no idea who their guest of honor would be. Lexi talked his ear off, telling him about all the things he missed. Emi quietly basked in the happiness of him being home. Johnathon cried and screamed at him (to be fair, he was hungry). So happy to be whole again.

June-

27-The multitasking begins early! Alexis just asked, "while I play on the computer can I play a game on your phone?"

1-My girls packed their bags today to go to SC to see "our friend Willy (lily)" but I don't have to worry they will "live there for a few days and then come back to visit"

May-

22-Alexis just announced some very important information... "fast poop is diarrhea"

15-Miranda is making cookies. Emi brought her an egg and said, "I wanna hatch it!"

14-Emily is no stranger to wordly fashion. After her bath, she used her towel to make herself a fancy dress. She then explained to Lexi, "a fancy dress not for bras" (meaning breast). "That is why my bras aren't in it" Now to teach modesty...

11-Em: "Mom, there's a chipmunk on our puppies' gate"
Me: "oh no! what are we going to do?"
Em: "KILL him!"

9-Watched coming home with the girls today. Lexi broke down in tears, "I really wish my daddy was coming home soon. I really miss my daddy." We all do Lex, we all do!

8-Emi, "mom can I watch a movie?"
Me, "I don't think so"
Emi, "I don't think so means YES!

5-Talked a bit to the girls today about mothers and women. I asked how many kids they would like to one day have. Alexis answered, "as many as Jesus wants me to have"

Alexis' toy said to Emily's toy, "You're Jesus, and we are bad guys. So now you need to stay in this cave forever!"

April-

23-‎"I think Santa Clause came and brought us Easter eggs" That is what Lexi said when she saw her Easter eggs this morning. We have determined though that it was the Easter bunny who left us a nest of eggs downstairs. Happy Easter everybody. (today is candy day, so tomorrow can be focused on Christ)

20-Lexi sang this song to Emi earlier (Emi was only pretending to be sick)
"If you are sick you have to go to bed.
If you have to throw up, throw up in a bucket.
This is the throw up song.
Because throw up, is for EVERY one"

4-poor girls their "tummies have headaches" causing need for a "hot lava bath"

March-

31-I love how these kids hear what they want to hear. I gave them all some chocolate chips. Then I scooped myself some peanut butter and covered it in chocolate chips. They asked if they could have some. I said "No the rest are for me". They asked again. I asked what I had already told them. Marshall, "YES". Emi, "Maybe"

25-I was breathing through contractions while combing Emi's hair. She turns to me to see if she is done and I don't answer because I am breathing. So she says, "I don't need it blowed mom" and walks away.

Emi: "when we have fire in our mouth, we're dragons!"

5-UGH! Vomit at 2:30 in the morning. Poor Lexi, "my tummy hurt, and so then I threw up, and now my tummy doesn't hurt by my throat does.

February-

28-Emi: "Mir IS 3, she had a birthday!"
Lexi: "NO! 13!"

Mir is 23.

23-How awesome! Alexis wanted to do "homework" stuff, so we sat down and did some things. I told her I would write a word and she could read it. So we learned about the "silent e" She was able to read silent e words, explain to her grandma what a silent e is, and then pick silent e words out while we read a book together. She even picked out the words faces and closed as having silent e. Way to go Lex!

19-girls got hula hoops:
Emi says, "lex I am going to show you how to do a hula hoop" You do this (held up in air) and then throw it at people
guess they watch too much wii fit

3-The problem with a child that can hear the differences in letter sounds, and one that can't yet pronounce the differences.
"Wily"
"I'm Lily!"
"yeah, l-l- willy"
"NO! I'm LILY!"
Poor Emi really thinks she is saying Lily, Poor Lily doesn't want to be called willy any more.

1-Alexis to me, "WOW Mom! You look fat!"
Me to Lexi, "Oh yeah, why is that?"
Lexi, "Jonathon is growing!"

January-

26-Lexi put her nightgown on for bed and said, "my little boobs are starting to get bigger, they're starting to growing up."
Lily was asking what different noises things make. She asked what does a princess say and Emi whined, "eeeehhhh, I wanna go to the ball!"

A Pirate's Life For Me

We are nearly finished with one of the rooms in the house. It is currently Nater's room and will easily become a nursery for him and the baby when needed. We have the practical; crib, play pen, diapering closet, and dresser. And we have the fun; bookshelf, recliner, treasure maps, pirate ship tent area, treasure chests, blocks, and push toys. The kids all love to play in there and it cleans up quickly. I am loving this room, and it is better than I imagined even.

Fun: the pirate ship play tent. Inside are his large little people toys.

Dresser toppers. Not sure what will be in the chests yet.

Our practical: closet is a changing area with dirty clothes hamper hanging nearby.

The pillow that inspired it all. Made by my dear friend.

Lexi, Emi, and I made maps.

Prints and styrofoam. Simple and cheap way to add a bit of art to the walls. Hung safely out of reach above the crib.

Testimony

The girls often play church, during which they take turns sharing their beliefs and thoughts. They bare their testimonies in this way at least once a week. I love to hear the things they say. The sweet and pure understanding they have of the gospel. Today when we walked into church Alexis heard that it was fast and testimony meeting (for any who may not know- this is a meeting once a month in which members of the church I belong to are encouraged to fast and to share their beliefs during our first meeting). She turned to me and said, "I have a testimony!" She was so excited- as if it were a golden ticket! She knew she had her very own testimony. I told her that if she wanted she could ask her dad to take her up to share her testimony (as I was headed to the hall to take care of the boy). Sitting in the hall I heard first my husband over the microphone share his feelings. Then Alexis, "I love to share my testimony I know the church is true. I know that Heavenly Father is real." I cried a bit. I love the power that comes from those, who are so fresh from our Heavenly home, sharing what the Spirit testifies to them. I love the way I learn and grow daily through my children. I love to see things from their perspective, to feel things from their tender viewpoints and to learn from their experiences. I have a testimony that our Heavenly Father is real and He does love us. We are all his children and He wants us to do what is right so that we may return to Him again. I am so grateful for this knowledge and the blessings it brings to my life.

February In Pictures

Cherish took this one of me. Look at all of that hair.

My Cherish

Adventure is his middle name (well, not literally).

Everything still goes straight into his mouth.

Playing barefoot at the park.

I love how much this girl loves to eat apples. It gets me to eat more apples.

Crafting. Using the scissors correctly and not to cut hair.

Loving the beautiful weather and having fun at the park.

She loved hanging from this and marching her legs. "I'm walking on air!"

Self proclaimed Queen of climbing.

At the age of having to pose silly for every picture.

Running ahead of the group during a family walk.

Family walks around the block. Philip was taking the pictures.

Showing off their new outfits.

One day I will no longer have to cook. This girl will do it all. She would now, if I let her.

He loved the sound these made.

Our hopscotch will go all the way to 100. I think they made it to 12.

After picking the dandelion she ran inside to get a hair clip to hold it in her hair. So pretty!