Quiet Time

Isn't she funny! I love quiet time!

UGH!

Is it EVER going to end??!! I am not a cold weather person. And I think my daughter has taken on my feelings. She LOVES to go outside. And she very happily got into her new winter coat (that is actually for next year).

What a great big brother! Helping her up!

She just doesn't look happy... But neither am I!

Guess what I eat??!!

Poor little L. She is the only girl surrounded by 6 rowdy boys! This has been my week for Joy School and we have been talking about the letter U. That is a tough letter. One of the show and tells for today was Underwear. That is such a boy show and tell. And of course our token female brought a Unicorn. What a sweetheart she is. Although she is pretty good at holding her own!

Today at snack time someone started with "Guess what I eat?" I don't remember what it started with. I think they started with things like underwear and under water animals like sea horses. They were staying with the letter U. Sort of... Then all of a sudden I am hearing all kinds of things to eat - or not - for instance:

• centipedes
• worms
• oil
• dog food
• rattlesnakes
• cat food
• diapers
• poisonous dogs
• potato bugs
• BROCCOLI
• poisonous hot wheels cars (mmmmmmm)

Imagine my surprise when Broccoli was thrown into the mix. I LOVE broccoli!!!! There was of course a slew of other things that I should have written down because I was cracking up! The conversation went on for about 5 minutes of one boy trying to top the other boy in gross. And the funniest part is how hard they laughed at the dumbest things! Poinsonous hot wheel cars???!!!!

These kids are just so much fun to be with! I love what comes out of their little mouths...

Well... sometimes...

Well I'm the boss!

Dallin just came into the kitchen and started pulling out the cooling racks to play around the kitchen with them. Well - my kitchen just is too small to have things all over the counters and floor. So I asked him not to pull them out. He said, of course, "WHY?" Not being in the mood for a big drawn out Why-fest I just said, "Because I am the mom and I said so!"

Dallin says, "Well, I am the boss so I am going to!"

I was quite shocked because he has never said that to me before. So I said, "You do and you will be on your bed till daddy gets home."

That was the end of it. Not very Parenting with Love and Logic... Oh well. I still need to practice that...

Spring Fever!

Spring is in the air! We were outside at the end of Joy School today playing in the backyard, waiting for mom's to come and pick up their kiddies! IT IS BEAUTIFUL out today! My garlic is growing like crazy! I planted it last fall and if it works out well when growing season is over, I think that I might plant the whole bed with garlic next year!

I changed my template today and managed to lose my blog link list. I think that I have everyone except 4 people's blogs, please leave a comment with your blog address for me! (Christine, Trish, James and Amy from Christine, and Asher's adoption page) Thanks guys!

Maggie has a learned how to climb up our swing set and is giving me mini heart attacks constantly.

And she is RUNNING!

And again, and again, and again, and again!!!

So much for having a nice time gardening while the kids are playing outside!!!

Easter Week

We had a great time with Gramma and Grampa from Indiana out here this past week! (Notice Dallin playing with his ear) And then this weekend was full of fun as well!

We went to a Utah Blaze game on Friday night. It was the first time that I had ever been to an AFL game. It was really fun! We were with some good friends and our kids were really good! Maggie was just going from person to person to be held. We didn't get home until about 11:30 and she was still awake when we got home! I was quite surprised that she held up as well as she did! Of course it helped that they threw out these squishy planes that Brian caught and gave to her. She kept making fish faces and sucking on it and then I figured out that she thought it was a fish! The biggest disappointment was when Dallin and Brian went for ice cream and they were closed. Dallin had a bit of a meltdown. But we got past it!

Then on Saturday night we colored Easter eggs for the Easter bunny to hide that night. We were over at Brian and Steff's again. I am surprised they aren't sick of us after this weekend! But we colored lots of eggs. Of course we cracked lots of eggs too! But - hey - what would it be if we didn't have cracked eggs with our family around??!!

Here are Dallin and Maggie's eggs...

Here is Dallin's trick he has started to do with his ear that totally grosses me out. How do I nip this one??

And then while we were coloring eggs, my sis got engaged! Aren't they cute??

Then Easter morning came! Time to search for eggs!

And then finding the baskets!

Here is our family Easter picture...

Maggie decided to start playing in the Easter grass. She didn't like the outcome. And what does mommy do? Take pictures of course!

But Dad - he's the hero! He comes to the rescue!!!

What a dad!!!!! We love him so much!!!

Hair

Hair is such an issue in our home. Maggie just HATES getting her hair done!

This is what we look like in the morning...

This is what we look like getting it done!

This is what we look like after the drama...

Grampa came with us to Karate today. Dallin now knows how to count to 5 in Japanese and learned today how to count to 10. But he doesn't KNOW it yet.

We got new sunglasses today. Each year Dallin gets a new pair. This is Maggie's first year. I figured we ought to get them before we go on our trip! Aren't they just COOL??!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

I hope that no one got pinched too hard!!

We had a fun day! Gramma and Grampa from Indiana are here visiting for the week! Dallin is having a ball!

I'm such a sap!

We are very much a schedule and routine family. If my kids miss a nap or are late to bed, I pay for it dearly the next day. We have sung to Dallin since he was just a tiny baby as we are putting him to bed. Maggie - not so much. She seems to get more irritable when we try to sing to her. Well, at least when I try to sing to her. Scott says she likes it when HE sings... But she loves him more than me anyway!

Today in Sacrament Meeting, the intermediate hymn was "I Am A Child Of God", which is a primary song that Dallin has learned in primary and that we sing every single night before bed. He always has to have "3 child of gods" (meaning all 3 verses). When he heard the song starting to play he instantly perked up and said, "I know this song!" He sat on my lap and belted out all 3 verses as loud as he could. I was teary and sappy the whole song and then at the end it all just spilled over and I was practically blubbering. Scott said that he even teared up. He was so pleased with himself! It is at times like these that I love being a parent!

The lady in front of us turned around after the song and gave Dallin a thumbs up and said, "Good job bud!"

Bruises~

Wednesday this week Dallin, Maggie and I were walking into the movie store. I was a little bit irritated with Dallin that day for being excessively whiny. I went to open the door and thought that it was heavier than it was. SO I pulled pretty hard. I hear this really loud THUNK. All of a sudden Dallin has his hand on his head and is screaming. I realized that I had hit his head with the door. Being already irritable I said to him, "Oh quit your crying. It didn't hurt that bad! Forget it - we aren't getting a movie. Back to the van." When we got to the van he got up in and turned around and I just about dropped a load! He had a knot on his head at least the size of a quarter around and sticking out a good 1/2 inch! It had turned purple and I started to freak out! This picture is really not anything compared to what it was originally. But this was later that night. I knew Scott wouldn't be home for at least 2 hours and I wasn't sure if this was something I wanted to doctor to see right this second. I can just imagine DCFS at my doorstep! So I called a friend of ours who has taken care of medical things in the army. He was asking me this question and that question and if his pupils were doing this or that. I honestly can't remember exactly what he was asking me or what I was supposed to be looking for - I was pretty much losing it. We ended up meeting him and he had a flashlight and looked at his eyes and they did whatever they were supposed to do. We kept him awake for several hours and then he was just fine. Today his big bruise is green. It matches his Yoda shirt he got for his birthday.

Well - continuation of the story... Friday (2 days after this event) Maggie has a temperature. I take her in and she has a 103 temperature and puss on her tonsils. The doctor suspects she has strep throat but we are waiting on a lab. As he is checking her out he looks at Dallin. Then he stops.... I look at the doctor and think frantically, What the heck am I supposed to say to this.

So I said, "So... How do ya like that?"

Dr. S - "How did THAT happen?"

Me - "Oh - that... well, I opened a door on his head."

Dr. S - "WHEN did this happen?"

Me - "Oh - on Wednesday."

Dr. S - silence.

Me - "I had my friend who is a medic look at him. His pupils did whatever they were supposed to do."

Dr. S - Silence.

Me - "We kept him up for many hours before letting him go to sleep."

Dr. S - "Did he throw up at all?"

Me - "No."

Then we just went on back to Maggie. I haven't heard from DCFS yet - SO I guess that he doesn't think I am a HORRIBLE parent.

UGH!!!! What happened to the days when you weren't afraid some freak was going to call you in on any little thing??!!!!???

Clean Up ~ Clean Up...

My kids love Jello. We make jello frequently... The problem with Jello is that it rarely ends up all in the their beautiful little mouths! Well ~ this week I was doing my typical cleaning up of the jello under Maggie's chair (I make Dallin clean up his own) and singing the clean up song and having Maggie help me as much as she can.

"Clean up, Clean up. Everybody clean up!
Clean up, Clean up ~ except it's just mommy cleaning up!"

Dallin promptly told me that is NOT how the song goes.

Can I slap him? Or would that just be over the top?? (I am totally kidding... except for the fact that I knocked him up side the head yesterday with the door at Blockbuster... more on that later)

Haaaaaiiii - YA!

Well, we did it - took the plunge! We put Dallin in Karate today! He was SO DANG CUTE!!!! Today he had a private lesson with Sensei Jeff. I have no idea how to spell Sensei - I just guessed. So if it's wrong - bite me!

ANYWAY! Here is Dallin starting his class out with some exercising...



Here is a jab...

Here is a front kick...

Here is a mountain climber...

He is really excited about this! I am too!!!

Fergie

I do realize that she is not the GREATEST role model... But I just LOVE her song Clumsy that is out. I wanted to look at the words and went to her website and there was a video of the song. I turned it on the laptop and Dallin and Maggie were GLUED to the computer. Dallin keeps replaying it. It is hilarious! If I want them both to come into the kitchen then I just turn on the song. They both come running. Dallin even sings some of the words now.

Maggie was even trying to snap to it!!

I put Maggie's hair in pigtails for the first time ever today. It is definitely not the cutest pigtail job in the world - but hey - It's my first time!!!! I'll get better!

And yes - she has Froot Loop goo on her cheek... and yes - she was watching Fergie in this picture!

Landmark Day for Dallin and Maggie

Yesterday was such a proud day for me!!!

Dallin has been learning to read certain words... "Pizza" for instance... and "No". He can figure out some more... We watch the show Lost. We usually tape it and watch it the next day and Dallin sometimes watches it with me. So he was looking at the back of the Fruit Loops box and saw this...

He said, "Mom - This says Lost!". He had the right letters just in the wrong order!! He was so proud of himself!

Then Miss Maggie ate an entire bowl of Fruit Loops! I had to put the green one in so it would focus. But she ate the entire bowl! And didn't throw ANY on the floor!!! (Both my kids had green poop today - did you know that Fruit Loops turns poop green???) Scott said she just needed a good cereal instead of Cheerios... I really like Cheerios...


She looked pretty happy with herself too!


She turned 18 months yesterday and I guess decided that it was time to start talking. She has learned how to sign quite a few words. And she will sign "All Done" after meals and say, "Ahh Dahh." Well, today she handed me her empty bottle and said - without signing - "Ahh Dahh." She said a few other words too. I guess she just wanted to be a big girl who - BY THE WAY - goes to Nursery and can be little Miss Independent!


Fun days around our home!