Back It On Up...

I have missed posting some of the activities and random day-to-day photos from the last few weeks. So here goes...

A few weeks ago Ryan finally had a couple of days off after a few weeks of loooong shifts and no breaks. I tried to make sure we would use our time together wisely, so I planned a few activities to get us out of the house and do fun things together. On one of the mornings, Ryan and I went to a morning Temple endowment session while Amanda watched the kids. It was so wonderful to be able to go. The next day, we went to a place called Kingdom of Bounce (I think?) and it was fun... not exactly what we were expecting, but Grace definitely had the best time out of all of us. :) I didn't realize until I got there that this place had NO WHERE for Logan to play on. We have been to one in the past that had one little bounce area just for 18 months and under, but no such luck here. We just let Logan wander around and watch Grace and he whined pretty much the whole time, poor kid. The bounce houses in Utah are ten times better than the ones in Las Vegas and Columbus...

Not very happy that he couldn't play too...

 I was unloading the dishwasher one day and realized that Grace would be a natural at putting away the silverware! She was very excited to help and asks to do it often now. :) Don't know why I didn't think of it before.

 I have the greatest visiting teacher: Amy Seaver. She really is a wonderful person and friend, and is always so sincere and aware of me. We had talked about making wreaths for our doors for spring and we actually got together to accomplish it!! It was SO nice to be able to leave my house after the kids were in bed (Ryan was home that night), go to her house, and work on a craft while chatting and laughing and snacking. It was completely therapeutic for me. And I love how my bright, Eastery fabric wreath turned out!

 Last weekend we met my brother and his kids at a local park. Amanda was on a weekend trip so he was a single-dad for a couple days. I gotta be honest - I was pretty impressed with him! The kids were dressed and happy and doing great. Good job, Ben. ;)
Anyway they were being so cute, with the big kids pushing the littles in the swings.

Ryan helped Logan into some dress-ups one day... :/

 Just a cute photo op. Logan and I were wearing our Utah shirts to celebrate that we bought our plane tickets to visit Utah!! May 18th-mid June, with Ryan staying the first week and then me and the kids staying a few weeks longer. We are beyond excited! I can't stop thinking about it. I want the kids (especially Logan) to get to know their extended family members better, and I am so excited to meet my niece and some friends' babies I haven't met yet! Oh and... did I mention Cafe Rio? And Tony Burger? And DownEast? And City Creek? And Temple Square? Oh how I miss Salt Lake!

 Last monday was my turn to teach preschool and we had a really good time! I feel like things are going so much better this time around with me teaching school. It's really not something I'm great at or necessarily love to do... but the subjects I've chosen to do this time and the activities seem to be more fun this time around. I think I needed an attitude check, mostly. I needed to enjoy it more and stop worrying about details or behavior, etc.
For this class we focused on fairy tales. I kind of did things out of order than what I'd planned, but first we read Cinderella, watched a 10 minute shortened version of the Disney movie, decorated paper crowns ("C" for Crowns and Castles), and they "cleaned" like Cinderella (dusted, swept, washed play dishes, ironed - with a cold iron of course).

(I love how Logan is always just hanging around in the background, watching what the big kids are doing)

Then we read the Three Little Pigs and did a craft to show the three types of houses: straw (raffia), sticks (toothpicks), and bricks (foam rectangles). Kids love to glue stuff.

I also put together a sensory tub with castle/princess/3 little pig things.

The last book we read was Princess and the Pea. I found two versions of the book with one being this super neat pop-up book. The kids made me read through it a few times because they loved the pop-up scenes. Then we did a craft with strips of paper (mattresses) that they glued onto coordinating color rectangles I had drawn on the paper. It was easy for them but they still took their time doing it.

They did jewel pattern strips which we spent awhile doing. I had glued squares of felt to card stock in different patterns (ABAB, ABCABC) and they had to place the right colored jewel on the felt squares to make the pattern. I think this would be a great busy-bag activity and I found the packages of jewels on clearance at Hobby Lobby!

At the end we built castles with wooden castle blocks we have had but never pulled out before. 

 We had a good time!

I was asked to take the family photos of a really nice family here in our ward. I think they turned out really well, although I can always see a thousand mistakes once I'm home and looking at the pictures. It was great to try out my new camera in a photo shoot and be able to play more with settings and lenses. (Ryan is already tired of me telling him everyday how much I love my camera, haha) This family was having such a good time with their session that it was overall a really good experience. I was very honored that they trusted me with their photos. p.s. I FINALLY figured out how to put a logo stamp on my pictures. It only took me... forever... until I finally sat down for a few hours, searched for how-to's online, and figured out something that would work for me. At least for now. :) So much of what I do is self-taught so it can be very stressful for me. Thank goodness for the internet and people wiling to share their knowledge.

Biography of a Snowman

Once there was a snowman...

 snowman, snowman.

 Once there was a snowman...

 tall, TALL, TALL!

 In the sun he melted, melted, melted...

 In the sun he melted, small, small, small.

We had a pretty big snow storm last monday and it gave us a few good inches of PERFECT packing snow. It was beautiful! And we enjoyed playing in it, although we hope it's the last time for awhile. hehe. 

Then, of course, since it's spring, it was sunny and warmer within a few days and all the snow melted... except for our large snowman friend who slowly melted away. We had a snow ball fight using pieces of him a few days later, and then by yesterday he was just a stump making our grass turn into mud. Ryan and Grace broke it down and threw it in our garden while Ryan was turning the dirt. 

Goodbye, Snowman. We hope we won't be seeing you again anytime soon. ;)

Logan: 14 Months

Logan does NOT like to have his picture taken. He either won't look at me or he gives me these "unphotogenic" looks which makes it a bit frustrating for me. He has such a sweet and handsome face, and adorable smiles, but he rarely lets me capture them on camera.

Here are a few I took of the kids the other day... The best I could get of him at 14 months.

Logan really loves toy cars. He fights Grace for the Lightning McQueen car, which means we probably will need to buy a matching one soon so they each have one. He also pretends his food is a car on his tray while eating. All boy!

He loves to drink water or milk or anything I'll give him. Same with eating. He eats A TON! Usually he eats more than Grace at each meal or snack time, which is saying something because even Grace eats a lot for a 3 year old!

I have been giving him a carrot stick during lunch with a drop of ranch on his tray and he actually does great! He dips and then takes a little shaving off the end of the carrot with his few front teeth. I can tell he is quite proud of himself. :) 

Logan is walking everywhere now. He prefers it to crawling which was not the case a couple weeks ago. It's crazy how fast babies change!

He is tall enough to peek out the window in Grace's room and likes to watch for cars and listen for airplanes.

Logan is saying quite a few more words! These are just the ones I can remember at the moment:
-eee-ya (Ava)

-buhbuh buhbuh (bubbles)

-mm hmm (yes)

-buh (bath)

-buh (ball)

-beebee or beedee (binky)

-aaa-poh (apple)

-appuh boh-day hoo hoo (happy birthday to you)

-boo (poop)

-no (nose)

-joo (drink or sippy cup - sounds like "juice")

-bee bee (blankey)

-lee or dee or yee (lightning mcqueen)

-eee (ear)

-dada 

-mama or mom (mom)

-deeee (please)

-dee dee (thank you - with the inflection and pats his mouth for the ASL sign)

-aaahhh while waving (ni-night) 

"Stirring" at the kitchen and developing his imagination.

Tricks:

-makes snoring sounds if we are pretending to sleep, or if he sees a picture of someone sleeping in a book

-blows kisses back and forth with Grace at bed time

-blows kisses to me when I lay him in his crib

-plays peek a boo, but only half the time does he cover his eyes... sometimes he covers his mouth or nose instead... close enough!

-climbs up the stairs but doesn't know how to go down yet

-figured out how to climb off the couch without any help

-sings "Happy Birthday", and does actions to "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "Here's a Ball for Baby".

-knows how the velcro strap on his shoes works and tries to do it himself

Logan's favorite things would be FOOD, his binky, bath time, his freedom to roam, and sitting up on the couch. After dinner time, if anyone mentions the word "bath" he will look at me with super big, pleading eyes and say "Buh? Buh!" until I take him upstairs to actually start the water. 

He doesn't like to be in his car seat very much and doesn't like having toys taken out of his hands. He will FIGHT and scream at the top of his lungs when it happens. Same goes for if I redirect him while he is headed somewhere he isn't supposed to go, and when I take him out of the bath.

When he is upset he will have a little tantrum by smashing his face into the ground and rolling around with whining. He gets even more angry if he runs into things while in the process of rolling around. 

I think I've said this before, but Logan is developing some silliness and likes to make me laugh. He will give me these looks like "I'm wrapping you around my little finger right now", which I adore! Because it's so true. 

I am in love with these Elmo pjs on him, which we borrowed from his cuz.

I don't know what it is about Logan, but I am much less weirded out about sharing food with him than I ever was (or am) with Grace. I can't share anything with Grace (like giving her a bite of my cookies, or something off of my spoon). It seems gross to me, and always has been because I'm a bit of a germophobe. But I can do those things with Logan. Weird right? I don't get it either.

He gets extremely excited when Daddy gets home at night! Says "Dada dada dada" until Ryan walks in the garage door and pick up Logan.

Nearly every time he goes down for his naps, he will poop and talk/yell gibberish words really loudly until I come in and see what he's upset about. If I haven't come in after several minutes, he throws his binky, blankey, and even his lion out of the bed which makes him yell for me even more until I come in and fix everything. 

This was post-nap (which was 2.5 hours long that day!) and I couldn't get enough of his puffy, sleepy face.

Logan is actually a good little helper and will follow directions (if he feels like it). ;) He will throw something in the garbage if asked, close the fridge, help clean up small toys, bring me something he has in his hands if I ask, etc. I love this stage when we can communicate with each other.

We have had a couple park days lately and played some in the backyard. It's a typical "spring" these days... where it snows, then melts the next day, then goes to 50 degrees, then snows, and on and on. But we are grateful for the nicer days when we get them!

We sure love our little mean! I literally miss him after he is in bed for a few hours at night, and I look forward to getting him up in the morning. He has a strong hold on our hearts and I don't know what I would do without him in our lives. 

We. Are. Fa-mi-ly!

We were sitting at the table recently, eating dinner, and talking about family members. We quizzed Grace a little with "Mommy's mommy is who? - Nana", and "Logan is Daddy's what? - Son", etc. I asked her "Grace is Mommy's what?" and Grace thought for a few seconds, smiled, and yelled out "Buddy!!"

She also told me the other day that Owen is her husband... and wouldn't allow me to convince her that he is just her cousin and friend. Uh... :/

I would have earned the Mother of the Year award TWICE yesterday. 

First story: Ryan was in the bedroom sleeping off a night shift and I was finishing putting on my makeup quietly in the master bathroom. I heard Grace yelling something to me and running towards our bedroom door and figured she was going to come asking for some juice (which she does all morning until I give in). I grabbed her a little too roughly, shushed her, and walked quickly out of the bedroom (because every day Ryan does night shifts we go over with her to be quiet while he is sleeping). I was just about to start getting after her for almost waking up Ryan when I saw that she was tearing up. I immediately apologized and asked if she just needed some juice, and she nodded. She was ok after that although I know I made her pretty sad. :( An hour later, Grace told me that someone knocked on the door... I hadn't heard anything but checked anyway, and saw our next door neighbors (the Browns) out in their drive way. I asked them if they had knocked earlier and they said yes, and were trying to return our tupperware about an hour before. Oh my goodness, I felt TERRIBLE. Grace had been running in to my room to tell me that someone was at the door! Not asking for juice. I felt so bad. I'm a good mom. 

Second story: Grace was making bad choices all morning (probably because I made her so sad earlier in the morning...). She wasn't doing what I asked and was having tantrums about stupid things. We needed to go to the store for a few things and asked her to get her shoes. Again, she didn't help and was trying to make it impossible for me to put her shoes on. So I made it clear to her that she would get NO SNACKS at the store. It's pretty much an expectation that the kids get a little cup of goldfish if we run an errand and she was upset that I wouldn't give one to her. We went all the way through walmart to get a few things with Grace crying and whining "I want a snack!!" On the way home I needed to grab a book on hold for me at the library, so we went there next. Grace was STILL crying and whining the whole 10 minutes there, and I was trying to hold firm to the lesson I wanted her to learn: Bad behavior does not equal rewards. I pulled into the library and she was still going so I said "If you whine one more time then you are staying in this car by yourself." And of course she whined again. So I pulled Logan out of his seat, shut the door, locked it, and went into the library. Yep. I left Grace in the car... for no more than 90 seconds, I promise. But I did it. Pretty sure it's against the law and someone could have called the cops on me... But I have experienced Grace's meltdowns in the library before and I wasn't going to deal with it today just so I could pick up one book. 

Feels good to confess my wrongs in blog world... ;)

For all the exhaustion and frustration they can cause sometimes, I sure do love my family.

Today after church, Logan was completely dead to the world. I brought him inside and he stayed asleep while I laid him on the floor to take jackets and shoes off. Grace went over to him and laid down like this. Precious. 

Blowing kisses on Grace's bed.

 Bath time is a favorite activity around here. Mostly for Logan, though, especially if he gets to have one all by himself!