As you wish

Max and Emily's conversation in the car last week:

"Max, can we watch Princess Buttercup today?"

Max, in a whispery voice: "As you wish."

New Landscaping

I guess the universe has decided that it is time for us to do some new landscaping in our front yard. This is what our house looked like this morning after about 6 hours of very intense wind. I'd say we woke up to it, but there wasn't much sleeping going on at our house last night as we listened to the wind, occasionally hearing stuff hit our house. (I'm pretty sure we were hearing our neighbor's roof shingles.)

We lost all four of our trees in the front yard, including the enormous pine tree, and our little apple tree in the back yard.

As you can see, the pine tree also took out half the flower bed, a bunch of grass and tore up three sprinkler lines when it went down.

This is how it looked this afternoon after our wonderful neighbors helped us cut up the trees so that we and our next door neighbors could access our garages. We are so grateful that the trees didn't damage our home and that we live in a place were people look out for each other. There was a group of men and teenage boys with chain saws going around our neighborhood helping clear up fallen trees all day long. Our neighborhood looks pretty bad with trees and fences down all over the place and blown off shingles and debris everywhere.

I'm a little sad at how drastically our yard has changed in the last 24 hours. At least I won't have to rake up pine needles any more, and I can plant a tree that I like in place of that big pine tree.

Max: "Mom, have I been through a big change?"

Me: "What are you talking about?"

Max: "You know, metamorphosis."

One down....

...and a whole mouthful to go!

Jane at 15 months

(This picture is actually a few months old, but she looks so cute in it I had to put it up.)

Things Jane loves right now:

Shoes: She loves to have you put them on her feet and she loves to bring you your shoes and then wait for you to put them on. We try to hide them from her, but she's a pretty smart little girl and will bring them to you again if you don't hide them well enough.

Peek-a-Boo: This is her favorite game to play. The more you can startle her the funnier she thinks it is. I just love those deep baby belly laughs!

Her Belly Button: Jane loves to show off her belly button, and loves to have it poked. She'll even help you poke her belly button if she thinks you aren't poking it hard enough or enough times.

Dancing: Jane loves bouncing herself up and down on her legs to the music and "running" around the room while her siblings dance. She also loves it when you dance with her in your arms and will bounce in your arms squealing in delight.

Swinging: This girl loves to swing and can already use a big swing.

Being With the Family: Jane loves to be part of whatever is going on around the house. She loves her big brother and sister, loves to dance with them and to play in the play kitchen with them.

Her Thumb: I don't know what it is with our kids and their thumbs, but all three of them have been thumb suckers. Jane also loves to rub her hair while she sucks her thumb. Maybe she picked it up from Emily, who loves to twirl her hair while she sucks her thumb. (It makes a funny sight in the morning while I'm fixing the girls breakfast.)



One thing Jane still doesn't love is snuggling, but I still try to get her to snuggle with me several times a day. I am determined to turn her into a snuggler. This little girl definitely has her moments of fussiness, but on the whole she is such a sweet and pleasant baby and really just brings so much joy into our home. What did we ever do without our Baby Jane? I am so excited to see her little personality really come out this next year.

15 month stats:
weight - 25 1/2 lbs. (85%)
height - 33 1/2 in. (99%)
head - 18 1/2 in. (87%)

Over the last 7 months........

Jeff, Jane, and I went to Washington DC to visit Jeff's parents before they came home from their mission. (We also got to spend a day walking around New York City.)

We celebrated Easter and Jane just kept getting cuter!

I ran the Dirty Dash with my brother, his fiance, my sister, and my mom.

My brother got married, and we are so excited to be able to officially claim Jessica as family!
(I made four flower girl dresses, and they turned out so beautiful.)

My Dad turned the big 60 and we had a very fun party for him at our house.

Jane turned one year old, and started walking two months later.

Max learned to ride a bike.

We went to Bear Lake with Jeff's family and had so much fun in spite of the mice and bat in our cabin. (Actually, Sherry's reaction to the mice was half of the fun!)

Max started kindergarten and has loved it from day one.
(I guess I didn't need to worry so much last year!)

And we carved pumpkins and celebrated Halloween, which involved more sewing.

Now we are getting excited for the holidays and LOVING the fact that my sister just moved back to Utah and is only minutes away instead of a 12 hour drive. Max is on the verge of loosing his first tooth and I am not so excited that he is growing up so fast! (Too many big milestones in too short of a time!) And I'm hoping that maybe I will finally be able to stick with blogging again, although I don't promise anything. Having three kids has limited what I can get done in a day, although we would take Jane over the extras any day, she brings so much love and joy into our home. I am constantly looking at my little brood of children and feel so happy and content with our little family right now. We are definitely blessed!!

Happy Birthday to Me

I had a nice, quiet birthday this year. Per my request, Jeff made me a lemon cake. I could tell he couldn't understand why anyone would want a cake other than his mom's chocolate cake, but he made it for me anyway. Then he put the kids to bed while I got some alone time. Thanks for a great birthday, Jeff!

Cousin Weekend

The weekend after we got back from California we had my sister's three kids for the weekend. Max and Emily had so much fun playing with Ellie, as always. I love to watch kids running around playing, playing, playing. Dress-ups, barbies, running, etc. We made funny face pancakes and personal pizzas and just had a fun time. The only times that felt kind of crazy were meal times. Three kids in high chairs is a lot of work, especially after the meal is over. One of my favorite parts of the weekend was getting to hold and snuggle Brock and Isaac. Since they came to our family only three months before Jane was born I haven't had a lot of opportunities to hold them. I think you really bond with little ones when you have the chance to take care of them.

The Living Desert

Over the weekend we got date shakes, played outside, went to dinner at Chuck E. Cheese's (which was CRAZY busy), and played games. Monday was our last day of vacation and we decided to go to the Living Desert, which is the local zoo. We've been there before and always really enjoy it.

One of the favorite spots is all the miniature trains they have. They have so many and it's fun to watch them run through all of the different displays.

We always have to take pictures of the kids sitting on the wart hog statues. The statues are not nearly as ugly as the real live wart hog.

Emily loved petting the goats in the petting zoo. She kept talking about how all the goats liked her.

Malia and Max had so much fun playing together and got along so well. It's fun to watch them together and remember when Shannan and I were pregnant with them.

When we got to the camels, Shannan was pointing them out to Emily who responded, "Those aren't camels." Shannan told her that they were indeed camels to which Emily replied, "No they're not. They're dragons." There was no convincing her otherwise. To her they were dragons.

The next morning we left at around 5:30 am, California time, and headed back home. This trip felt faster, but was still pretty long. It is always so fun to get together with cousins and just hang out and play for a week. It was also so nice getting to spend so much time with my dad. It was so great to see all of the kids having so much fun with Grandpa.

Thanks for letting us come out to visit, Shannan. It's always so fun to go hang out in your nice warm weather in the middle of winter!

The Salton Sea

On our second day in California we headed out to the Salton Sea. We had heard about the Salton Sea before, and even though it is only about half an hour away from Shannan's house they had never actually been there before. It was a little stinky, especially by the visitors center, probably because of all the dead fish on the beach. The kids were fascinated and disgusted by all the dead fish and fish skeletons.

Even though it was stinky, it was really pretty. After we walked around the visitor's center/gift shop we found a less stinky spot to eat lunch. After lunch, my dad and Rachael ran down the beach scaring all the birds. It was fun to watch them all take off in the air.

We were hoping to hike along one of the nature trails, but as we were eating lunch we could see dark rain clouds heading our way across the water. The wind was picking up and all the kids were nervous about getting caught in the storm, so we decided to head home and play it safe. I was glad we did since it started raining before we got back to Shannan's house and rained for the rest of the day.

California

In February, the kids and I headed out to California to spend a week hanging out with my sister and her family and enjoying the warm desert weather. The week before we left my dad asked if he could come along with us, so the five of us made the long drive. I didn't realize that I had never made this trip before with a baby, even though this was our fourth trip in the last six years. It took us longer than we planned because every stop seemed to take at least 30 minutes, but we finally made it. I was very glad to have my dad along to help with the kids.

Our first day there we headed to a park to enjoy the nice weather. Meghan, Jay, and Jack came out from LA to join us. It was so nice to be able to play outside in the middle of February. We walked to the park and Emily started out the walk holding hands with Malia and by the time we were half way to the park Max and Kaitlyn had joined in.

Isn't Jack a cutie? Parks are the best entertainment when you have little children.

The SPOT

Emily has been causing quite a stir at our house the last couple of weeks. She keeps sitting in Max's SPOT.

Apparently she doesn't realize that the kids have assigned seating in our house. (Assigned by Max, that is, in spite of all the times I've said, "We DO NOT have SPOTS in our house!")

Apparently she doesn't realize that Max thinks he NEEDS to sit in his SPOT when he eats his breakfast, lunch, snack, etc.

Apparently she doesn't realize how distressing it is to Mr. Routine when she changes things around.

Actually, I'm sure she does realize how distressing it is and thinks if the SPOT is so wonderful, and worth such a fuss, she wants to sit there!

Life is hard when your little sister doesn't go along with your plans all the time.

Kid's Quotes

Max: "I think I'm getting drinky."

Emily: "Mom, I'm starting to starve."

Emily: "Mom, will you unzip my coat? Um, I mean will you in-zip it?"

"High Heels"

Valentine's Day

Birthday Week

Last month we ended January with Emily's 3rd birthday. We didn't do anything big for Emily's birthday this year, but we did have my dad and his wife over. She loved being sung to and loved her new dress, Belle Polly Pocket, her wooden dress up dolls and her new barbie. I can't believe how grown up she has gotten this last year! She definitely has a mind of her own, which can be both great and aggravating. I often wonder where my chubby little toddler went. We love you, Goosey Girl!

Five days later we celebrated Max turning 5. He wanted cupcakes instead of a cake, so we made a number five with the cupcakes. We decided to have his two buddies, Drew and Gage, over for lunch last minute for a healthy meal of hot dogs, chips, and birthday punch followed by cupcakes and ice cream. Max got an aircraft carrier for his Hot Wheel airplanes (He's been asking for it for about 6 months) and a wooden race car that he got to paint and decorate himself. He also got a game, Richard Scarry's Busytown, from Grandpa Marc and Grandma Sharon. It's been a big hit with the whole family.

After lunch we met Jeff's family at the Hill Aerospace Museum and spent the afternoon looking at planes. Max loved the airplanes (as did all of the "boys"). It was fun to finally go after talking about it for the last four years. It was a perfect fun, but low-key birthday. I just can't believe that Max is five years old. When did all of my babies get so big!?! I've decided this is a great age. Lot of questions and curiosity about the world. Max has become such a great helper to me and is a hard worker and great big brother.

*For my birthday this year I got a Silhouette machine, which I used to make birthday banners. Thanks Jeff!! (You don't have to wait until your actual birthday to open and use your presents when your the mom, right?)*

6 Months Old

Jane turned six months old last week. What a sweetie she is with such nice big cheeks! We just love our Baby Jane!! Her new trick is rolling onto her belly ALL THE TIME. She can't remember how to roll off her belly, and is quite a spitty baby, so her belly is not my favorite place for her to be, but if I roll her back over she immediately rolls back onto her belly. Silly girl. She loves to stick out her tongue, especially when we are feeding her baby food or rice cereal, and she loves watching her big brother and sister. Max is always performing for her and she just watches him all the time to see what crazy things he is going to do. She loves her Daddy and is always smiling when she sees Jeff and loves to grab his beard. To be fair she loves to grab everyone's faces. She is getting pretty close to sitting (if only she would understand that she needs to BEND at her waist to sit) and is starting to babble words like "dada". She also loves holding toys and, of course, putting them in her mouth. She is still not consistently sleeping through the night and seems to have an anti-snuggling gene, but she is just so sweet tempered that it makes up for those little things.

6 month stats:
length - 27.5 inches (96%)
weight - 16.4 lbs. (58 %)
head - 17.1 inches (78%)

On a side note: I took Max and Emily for their yearly check-ups at the same time. Max was a little leery of Dr. Kathy. He went second for both his exam and his shots. Emily, on the other hand, was not shy at all. She spent the whole appointment jabbering on to the doctor about everything. I am constantly amazed at how different they are in personality and temperament. When I decided to take all three of them together I planned on it being a little chaotic, but my kids were so well behaved I wondered whose children they were! I actually left feeling like a good mom. ;) I'm sure they'll make up for it some other time.