Adelyn - 6 weeks

It's hard to believe that 6 weeks has already passed since Adelyn joined our family! She is so sweet and perfect!

My aunt Lorie made this quilt for her. I love it so much! It's going to replace the quilt that I bought with the crib bedding for Ellie when she was a baby. I love how the fun colors will add a little pop to Adelyn's bedroom (when she moves in). I also love it because Aunt Lorie made it just for Addy. She is always making things for others. I'm so lucky that we're the recipients!

Ellie is very sweet with Adelyn. We worried that she would have a really hard time adjusting to having a new baby since she has been the baby of the family for so long. We have been amazed at how much she loves her new sister and how kind & loving she is. Not that we thought she'd be mean! But we thought she'd be very jealous & she has been anything but!

This little guy is just as smitten as his daddy is with our adorable angel baby!



Life is good.

DIY Rambo

Jack is SUPER creative. For realz. He's always getting in trouble for making a mess of craft supplies & leaving the mess out. Or using things he shouldn't. When he saw this empty box of mine the wheels started turning & he started collecting stuff to turn it into a gun. I didn't help him at all! He did everything on here 100% by himself - even plugging in the hot glue gun & gluing! I love the Sid Pez in the back so he can cock his gun!

Love this boy! Tell me you don't love him too.

Jackson-isms

Doesn't he look like a little Hugh Hefner? He LOVES the robe that Jeremiah & I got him for Christmas & wears it around the house often in the morning & evening when he's in his pjs.



12/15/10:

Jack was drinking a Starbuck's Vanilla Bean Frappaccino for the first time & he said, "This drink is sooo good. I would say so darn good, but I'm not allowed to say darn, am I?"

Me: Yeah you can say darn.

Jack: Oh yeah, i forgot. It's frickin i can't say.

Me: Nope you can't say frickin.

Jack: But maybe if nobody was around & it was just you & me & you said that it was okay then I would say 'hey mom, this drink is so frickin good.'

Me: Jack, you can't say that.

Jack: Is it cause I'm not old enough?

12/15/10:

Jack was asking about the chocolate bunny on the Nestle Quik container & I said, "That's the Quik bunny." He said, "And the other one, the pink one, is the slow bunny."

12/15/10:
We were listening to I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas. The song says "I like hippopotamus's & hippopotamus's like me too."
Jack said, "Hippopotamus's don't like any people, right?" I said yep. He said, "Except for people with big fat butts!"

9/16/10:

A friend of ours passed away & I was talking to my kids about it. Callie & Jack pointed out sadly that the children won't be able to see their dad again or even call him.

Jack said, "When I'm a grown-up & I know somebody who's a loved one who dies, I'm gonna call their number & see who answers. Mom? Do you know Jesus' number?"

Happy 5th Birthday Jack!

Yesterday was the official birthday day. I can't believe Jack's 5! We started the day with Jack's breakfast of choice - crepes.



Normally the kids can only play Wii on Saturdays, but of course we can make an exception on a birthday! :) This was Jack. All. Day. Long. He had a break for church, a break to get ready for church, and a break for dinner, presents & cake/ice cream. He was a total zombie by the end of the day. Jeremiah said he can't do that again. It's once a year - I think it's fine.



Jack got lots of great presents. Lots of Legos! Other favs were an Iron Man mask from Aunt TT (my sister Tara), a grabber from my mom & dad, & Martian Matter from his awesome mom & dad (he's begging me right now to finish up on the computer so I can make an alien with him).







He wanted chocolate cake for his birthday party but I told him if he wanted the Lego cake to be colored that it couldn't be chocolate. The compromise was white cake for the party & chocolate cupcakes on his birthday. Earlier in the day I'd asked if he wanted me to decorate them Halloween-ish. He said oh yeah. But while I was decorating he said he'd wanted a Lego guy on his cupcake. Okay birthday boy, whatever you want.

Happy Birthday, Buddy Bear!

{now off to make aliens}

A Lego Party!

Funny that I always wanted to have a baby in October. I had visions of awesome halloween birthday parties, of course. But Jack REALLY REALLY REALLY wanted a Lego party! Okay, honestly his first choice was Mario Bros, but I said no (I LOVE playing Mario Bros, but Jack & Mario Bros is a whole nother post). Once he realized there was no way that I would do Mario Bros he was set on Legos. Once I realized he wasn't going to change his mind I went to work on the party (meaning lots of time checking out other people's lego parties on blogs) and got excited!

Of course as I was up till I can't even tell you what time the night before the party b/c I'm the queen of procrastination, I kept thinking why am I doing this? What's the point? The kids would have a fun time if I bought a dollar pin the tail on the donkey game at WalMart & had cake & ice cream, right? And that led to how silly birthday parties really are. I mean you invite all these people that wouldn't normally give you a gift on your birthday but then they are suddenly required to. I was telling this to Jeremiah yesterday morning before the party & he looked at me funny & said "who are you?"

It made it worth it while I was getting ready for the party. First Jack was going through some Legos since I'd bought a ton on eBay to fill the pinata with. There had been some minifigs in the mix and he was asking if I was putting them in the pinata. I told him I wasn't because I thought he'd want to keep them & if I put them in the pinata he would most likely not get them. He said, "Oh thanks mom! I do want to keep them! You're the best mom ever!" Then he came up to me & gave me a hug & said, "I love you mom. Thanks for all the hard work you're doing for my party." Awwww! He's the best!

Well onto the deets.

Party setup.

(door sign idea from here)


The table centerpiece is a big lego pinata that I made. I forgot to take a close-up of it! Total bummer since you can't really tell what it is in most of the pics! Plus it would be nice to have a momento of my labor :) The party was from 3-4:30 so I kept the snacks simple: grapes/apples & cucumbers/tomatoes on skewers, cheese & cracker lego bricks & juice box legos.

(Juice box idea here, cracker idea here, green lego base idea here)


The party.

As the kids arrived they got a set of Legos to build their own race cars. I saw on someone's blog to check the Halloween aisle at Target for little packages of Legos - score! I was so stoked to find them b/c I'd been watching eBay for days & days & nothing at the time was working. Thank goodness it's Halloween time! Once the kids had their cars built they could choose some stickers to personalize it (since all the cars were the same). I'd planned on a Lego race for our first game but the first several cars couldn't even make it down the ramp. They were WAY out of alignment! LOL They'd turn to the side a little bit down the ramp! One of the boys must have figured out how to adjust them b/c later they all seemed to be going straight, but we never ended up having an official race. The kids loved the ramp & came back to it later during the party also.



After the "races" it was snack time. I was so glad to have Kate at the party to help - from this point she took the rest of the pictures during the party. Thanks Kate!!!

Next we played "pin the head on the minifig." Each kid got a minifig head that they drew the face on. Funny note about Jack's: The new minifigs have a little more detail to the faces so when he was going through the previously mentioned bag of eBay Legos (that were definitely older) & found the minifigs he commented that he really liked the heads. They were like the faces on some of the guys that his friend Tyler has. So I love that that's the face he decided to draw on his (and I have to say he did a GREAT job of copying it)! The little boy at the bottom L in this collage, Spencer, was the winner - he got his head dead on!

Next we had a Lego relay. The kids were divided into 2 teams & had to use a spoon to get Legos from a bowl to a jar. If they dropped their Legos on the way they had to put them back in the bowl & hand the spoon to the next kid. Everyone got several turns but it wasn't a quick relay at all! I thought that this was an age appropriate game when I planned it, but these kids were probably the youngest it would work for because there was mass confusion going on! LOL Even Ellie & Nixon (Kate's little boy. He & Ellie are both 2) played & did really well. They were both very careful & didn't drop their Legos.

Onto the pinata! Always the highlight of a party. Because we're moving into major candy season I was sold when I was looking for party ideas & saw that a few other people filled their pinatas with Legos. Brilliant (although more expensive than candy unless you could find a bucket at a yard sale, which I didn't).

And finally cake & presents! (The white stuff on the cake is powdered sugar b/c I'd read a few years ago that you can give cakes a nice smooth finish by patting them down w/powdered sugar. I've done it before & it worked out, but it didn't work this time. Most of it got dissolved into the cake like it should have, but it left a mottled appearance. Combine that with the ugly shade of blue frosting and what you have is a kind of gross looking cake.)

As his guests left Jack gave them each a goody bag with Lego candy (called Candy Blox by Dubble Bubble), a little coloring book I downloaded from this girl & put together, and a set of 5 minifig crayons that I bought all packaged & ready to go from eBay. The kids also got to take home their race cars & a cello bag w/their legos from the pinata.



Yay! It's over!!! My feet looked like hobbit feet as my sister Tara said at the end of the night. Even my toes were swollen! But Jack has thanked me several times & said what a fun time he had.

Worth it.

stuff I've been meaning to add:

Callie:

(2/22/10)
She wanted to know what the title of a song was & asked if it was "Once In the Middle of a Table." Actual title: "Once Within a Lowly Stable."

(5/12/10)
At Subway after lunch I offered Callie a cookie:
"I decided I don't want a cookie cause I've had enough sugar & stuff like that & I don't want to get fat."

(5/14/10)
Callie was watching Enchanted in the car & at the end the bad lady is a dragon & falls off the building. Callie all of a sudden took off her headphones & said, "Well that's lame! Can't dragons fly?! That lady shouldn't have died. The movie makers did a bad job since dragons can fly so the lady should have lived!"

(5/17/10)
"Papa seems like an old man cause he's just quiet & likes to be bored."

(5/24/10)
After stopping by Jeremiah's office (it's a recycling center so the current price of cans is always up on a sign outside the yard):
"Mom, I forgot to ask Dad if he's really selling work, because see? It says cent 5-5"
She'd also talked about it a couple days before when she'd first noticed it & said, "He's trying to sell the business. It's for sale cause there's a price outside of it."

(6/17/10)
Callie: When you get more babies, Mom, after you get all your babies & you think you have enough you can be like, "I need to sell these ones."
Me: You think I should sell babies if I get tired of the babies?
Callie: Yeah.
Me: How much money do you think I could get for selling a baby?
Callie: I think you need to pay.
Me: You think I need to pay somebody?!
Callie: No, I think they need to pay 100 bucks. That's a lot of money.

(6/29/10)
We were getting a "party-in-a-box" package ready to send to Uncle Stuart on his mission for his birthday:
"Are you sure we can send him a party without people?"

(8/19/10)
"Mom, did you know about the tricks Kaelene (her fish) can do? Well one trick she never does and the other trick she can sometimes balance the food on her nose. I'm going to teach her another trick someday - a swimming trick. I'm going to teach her how to backstroke."

Jack:

(4/7/10)
To appreciate what he says next you have to check out Jack in this Splash Mountain pic while we were at Disneyland in mid-March (he cried at the bottom).

Jack: Next time we go to Disneyland & go on Splash Mountain I'm gonna try & not be scared."

Me: Really? You want to go on that?
Jack: Yeah.
Me: Why?
Jack: Cause I wanna be brave & I'll say woohoo!

(4/7/10)
"I can't drive to Utah to visit Spencer & Preston whenever I want because I don't know how to drive because I might bonk into a human or another Jeep or maybe a bicycle with a child on it."

(4/9/10)
It was a warm day & Callie had told Jack that he should have worn shorts:
"That's okay cause I have a hole in my pants so if I get warm I can just feel the air from the hole. It's better if you have a rip in your pants because if it's hot & you have a rip in your pants your knee can feel the warm."

(4/9/10)
"Heavenly Father made me a handsome boy, huh? He's great at making people, huh?"

(5/12/10)
On the way home from school Jack was practically giving me the silent treatment:

Me: Why don't you want to talk
Jack: Because I want to go to sleep. Cause I'm tired. Cause I worked my butt off at school today. And I played hard outside.

(6/29/10)
After I took a picture & was reviewing it on the camera:
"Are you gonna put that in your camera trash?"

Ellie:

(5/19/10)
Me: Are you a sweetie?
Ellie: No I'm not a sweetie! I'm just Ellie!

(9/10/10)
Ellie: I hate going to bed! Do you hate going to bed mom?
Me: No, but I don't like going to bed.
Ellie: Well I hate it!

First Soccer Game

This year Jackson is old enough to play soccer so he was very excited for us to sign him up. Last week he loved trying on new cleats & shin guards at home & kicking around his new size 3 (very small) soccer ball!

I went to his first practice last Wednesday and was able to see that our little guy has a long way to go to soccer stardom, but prior to this his only exposure to soccer has been kicking a Diego bouncy ball around the backyard. Oh, & he can identify a soccer ball! :) (I think we used to have a tiny one)

When Jeremiah was helping Jack get all ready for his game he was talking to him about all the goals he was going to score. I mouthed for Jeremiah to stop over Jack's head, and then when Jack was getting in the car told Jeremiah about the soccer practice & told him Jack probably wouldn't score a goal so don't pump him up too much. Is that bad of me? I'm a generally positive person, but I'm a realist. Of course when I told Jeremiah that he said, "Oh great!" and was immediately bummed. I told him give me a break. Jack's 4 and he's been to 1 practice, so his dreams of an all-star kid don't have to be dashed yet!

Before the game started Jack was blowing grass off his hands. I was thinking, awesome, I've got a dandelion picker. But once the game started he kept up with all the other kids & even scored TWO GOALS! Yay Jack! He was pumped about scoring twice & had a great time playing!



Scoring his first goal!

After he scored he just turned around as if nothing cool had happened & walked over to his team. His coach gave him a high-5. We're gonna have to work on a goal dance or something! lol

Enjoying a little half-time snack

Look at that hot assistant coach! That's right, my very own Mr. Divis!

Most of the kids (at least on Jack's team) didn't really know how to do the whole high-5 lineup. I'm sure they'll get the hang of it soon (since there's a game like every weekend for the next couple months).

Goooo team!

First Day of School!

Thursday, August 12, was Callie's first day of school. First grade! The afternoon before we went to meet her teacher. When I asked Callie what she thought of her teacher she said that she looked different than what she was expecting - her face, her hair, everything. Callie's new teacher is an older Asian woman & I think Callie was probably expecting a young Caucasian woman :)

We were worried about Callie crying about going to school on the first day & not getting out of the car since she was so apprehensive about being at school all day & eating lunch in the cafeteria. But everything was fine (the crying & not getting out of the car didn't happen until the 2nd day of school!). After school I asked if she had a great day & she said yes, but when I probed a little more it didn't sound to me like her day was very great. She said her teacher was kind of grumpy. She also said she mostly walked around (by herself - to check things out) at recess.

Then there was lunch. Like I said she was really nervous about lunch & guess how it goes down? She had to sit in between 2 boys she doesn't know & she says she tried talking to them but they didn't want to talk, so my poor little 6 year old is basically all alone eating her lunch with no friends & no socializing. She barely even nibbled her lunch. After talking to another mom that evening who has older kids, she told me that whoever the kids are in line next to when they walk into the cafeteria is who they have to sit by to eat lunch. An adult is standing directing them to places. That ticks me off that they can't choose to sit by their friends! As it's turned out for the past week + the first 2 days, Callie has been in charge of taking the basket that the kids deposit their lunch boxes into down to the cafeteria so she has to be at the back of the line, meaning she's not been able to line up to go to the cafeteria next to her friends. Hopefully her turn's over & this week will be different b/c she comes home most days with almost all of her lunch in her lunchbox. She says she's too embarrassed to eat it at school. I'm almost positive it would be different if she was sitting by friends! So frustrating!

Jack's first day of preschool school was great!



He loves doing what he thinks are rock star poses. I asked him a million times to just stand normal & give me a nice smile, but this is what I mostly got:

Jack is going to the same preschool that he went to last year. He LOVES his teacher and her 3 year old son who participates in class. Also his best buddy Tyler goes to preschool with him. There are only 6 kids in his class, not including the teacher's son, & this year they are all boys. One of the other boys is also in our ward so Jack knows him a little. He was totally stoked to go to school last Tuesday morning and was going to just hop out of the car & go in since that's what he did the last part of last year. Since it was the first day I went in with him though & he walked right in & made himself at home while I said hi to his teacher & some other moms. After school he said he'd loved it.

I asked him what he'd had for snack that day. The teacher's son is assigned to bring snack the first week of school so when Jack told me he had ice cream for a snack I thought how lucky/fun for a first-day-of-school snack! I asked him what kind & he said vanilla. And chocolate. And blueberry. I asked him what kind he chose & he said he had them all. I doubted that! A minute later after we'd moved onto other topics he said, "I was just kidding about having ice cream for a snack today mom. We had carrots & celery." LOL My 4 year old is a little trickster! Then we had a little discussion on tricking vs. lying. This time it was tricking & it was fine (and funny). I told him to make sure & tell the truth when we ask him things like, "Did you make your bed? Have you picked up your toys?" etc. You know, the important stuff. Good times.

beginning of the school year surveys {2010}

Callie

Age: 6
Height: 45 1/2 "
Weight: 41 lbs
Hair color: light brown

Favorites:
Animal: Baby penguins. And peacocks. And dogs & fish. Pretty much all animals.
Food: Pasta Carbonara
Game: Bear Trap with Daddy
Toy: Baby Doll
Thing to do: spend time with my Mom doing crafts
Book: Quite Enough Hot Dogs (Rookie Reader book by Wil Mara)
Color: Pink. And all the colors.
Movie: Barbie and the 12 Dancing Princesses
Song: Bella Note (from Lady & the Tramp)
Primary Song: Come, Follow Me

My best friend is: Corinne, Kenadee & Kaelene
Other friends I like to play with: Alexis
Things I like to do with my friends: "I like to play with them & do crafts & stuff"
If I had a pet it would be a: dog (she actually has a fish)
named: Kaelene (named Kaelene)
What people like about me: "That I help and care and share, and I'm nice. And that I'm so cute."
Things I can do really well: "I'm really good at making people feel better. And I'm really good at helping. I'm good at doing crafts, playing the piano, singing, listening (not), following, being brave, math, baby-sitting, and pretty much everything."

Jack

Age: 4 1/2
Height: 40 1/2"
Weight: 36 lbs
Hair color: dark blonde

Favorites:
Animal: shark
Food: Pasta Carbonara
Game: Piranah Panic
Toy: "Imaginext dinosaurs. Or Legos. Or dragon castle stuff (also Imaginext). All my toys!"
Thing to do: Play Mario Bros (which he's been grounded from for 6 months and rarely gets to play anyway)
Book: Dinosaur Book (Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs [and Other Prehistoric Creatures] by John Malam)
Color: blue
Movie: Peter Pan
Song: Apples & Bananas
Primary Song: I Am a Child of God

My best friend is: Tyler
Other friends I like to play with: Isaac, Kenadee, Kiera, Collin
Things I like to do with my friends: Play Mario Bros (he's only ever played w/Tyler a few times)
If I had a pet it would be a: sea turtle
named: Jack-in-the-box
What people like about me: "I'm always nice. I don't know what else they like about me."
Things I can do really well: "I'm good at playing Mario Bros & I always smoke aunt Kayleigh on playing. And I'm good at playing with my toys & writing."

Jack, the bug guy

Jack is fearless - and quick! - when it comes to insects & creepy things! He can catch flies, moths, lizards, you name it. We've had to show him pictures of scorpions, spiders & snakes so that he hopefully won't attempt to touch those guys! He loves insects!

One day Callie ran in to tell us we had to come see the insect that Jack had caught! The kids loved passing this guy around. Unfortunately for him it probably is what led to his death!

Before I knew what he was doing one day Jack had this lizard in the house! It wriggled away too, but luckily Jack caught him again right away & I promptly sent them both outside!

Swim Lessons Summer '10

We did 2 2-week sessions of swim lessons this year at the public pool. The classes were small & the kids had their 30-minute lessons at the same time. They also got to take them with friends!

Jack & his best buddy Tyler had Jose & Tiffany for their first session, & Annie for the second. Jack does NOT like getting his face/head wet so swim lessons didn't go too well for him. Usually by the end of class he didn't want to get out of the pool, but I would by no means consider him a water-baby & he squealed like a pig when I gave his instructors permission to dunk him (almost every day). He didn't pass level 1 preschool aquatics after 4 weeks! lol

Callie on the other hand loved swim lessons! During the first session she & her friend Emily (Tyler's older sister) had Evelyn for their instructor. Callie repeated level 1 (non-preschool) with instructor Amanda this time around & passed to level 2 after the session. Since we don't do a lot of swimming during the year between summers I wonder how she'll do next year. She thinks she can swim though (even though I wouldn't say that) so I would have to watch her closely & constantly remind her to stay in the shallow part of our friend's pool when we'd go swimming. She loves the water though!

Ellie & I hung out together in the sweltering heat & watched the kids with my friend Cindi (Tyler & Emily's mom). I should have done Mom & Tot with Ellie but when I signed the kids up I chose not too since it was miserable last year with Jack. Silly me - I would have LOVED to be in that water every day & poor Ellie was sad many times that she wasn't getting in her swimsuit with the big kids. Plus Ellie's not afraid to get wet like Jack is. Next year I'll know.

End of the School Year Wrap-up

I've already become one of those mothers & I knew it was going to happen even before the school year ended: I can't wait for school to get out & I can't wait for school to begin again! But enough about me.

Callie had a kindergarten awards assembly. It was lame. The kindergarteners didn't do a special song or anything - they just sat there & waited for their name to be called. Every kid got a certificate, which they should, but it was like, here's this selection of certificates we can give out, should we give Callie citizenship or writing? Hmmmm, writing. (What does that even mean - writing? In third grade it would be like creative writing. Kindergarteners don't really do that. Does it mean handwriting?) I realize my elementary school memories may not be perfect but I'm pretty sure at our awards assembly, besides everyone getting a certificate for just being a cool kid, they also actually recognized special things. Like wow, Jonny really is so kind to all of the other children and always tries to make people happy - let's give Jonny a special citizenship award. Can you tell I substitued Jonny for Callie? It really could have gone either way. No, I'm not bitter that Callie got a writing award instead of a citizenship award - her writing is great. I just think it's a little silly how the awards assembly all went down. Whatev.

Jack had a preschool "graduation" night, although he wasn't actually graduating from preschool. 3 of his classmates were though. It was a totally cute program!

At one point all the kids donned beaks & did the 5 Little Ducks song. They also did another one that was really fun to watch them perform (Mother Goonie Bird). These videos are so totally because our family might want to see them. And sorry for the sideways one. I thought the iPhone was amazing enough that it would turn my video right-side-up when I turned my phone but I was wrong!

Jack got an award for being so nice to his classmates all year. He ALSO got an achievement award just for going to preschool!

For an end-of-the-year teacher gift we made candy bar notes for Callie's & Jack's teachers. I wish I'd thought to take pictures before we gave them away - that way I wouldn't have to come up with a new message when I repeat it in the future! The kids loved helping glue the candy on & they especially loved taking them to their teachers!

These are the monster cupcakes Miss Cami made for the graduation after-party. They were a huge hit with the kids!

Besides Jack's awards, we came home with a cute book of a bunch of stuff like this. This one's my favorite because it is SOOO Jack!

PS- We absolutely LOVE Jack's preschool & are thrilled he gets to go for another year. If you're in ktown & want the preschool info let me know - it's awesome!

PPS- Does it seem like Callie's being neglected in this post? What can I say? Jack's preschool program was just so much better than Callie's kindergarten program. Even if there hadn't been refreshments! :)