The Big 5

My kids haven't discovered that they can have "friend birthday parties" so we got away with another year of celebrating at Grandma & Grandpa's house...

This year's request...a ghost cake

Thumbs up on the cake

Every boy needs his own Transformer, right?

Joshy didn't get left out

Index fingers up on the gift

And I'm not a total scrooge, we did have some cupcakes with our neighborhood friends earlier that week...

In the End, Totally Worth It

There was many a time this school year that I wished I had put Andrew in preschool - I must admit. Now that I have a bit of hindsight, doing a homeschool co-op was the best thing for our sweet little monkey. He thrived this year. How lucky I am that I got to be a part of it. His teachers were loving and taught him so many wonderful things.

BFF's: Isaiah, Fiel, Kaylie, Andrew

Thanks to Annette, Becky & Mandy - for loving my little boy.

Annette made the cute grad hats & diploma. Becky did the photography. Mandy orchestrated the "ceremony." Thanks for making this such a wonderful day!

Should I Be Disturbed?

Andrew will turn 5 this month - his Grandma & Aunt have been asking what he'd like for his birthday. So I asked him. He said that he'd like a "bunny costume that I can wear in the summer." He gave a detailed description as to what it should look like. He asked for one in his prayers tonight. In the car, he told me, "I like kittens, mice more, and bunnies the most."

Seriously, where does this kid come from?

So Aunt Maranda, something like this?.....

Or maybe this is one childhood dream we'll have to forgo.

What Can I Say, I'm a Popular Person

Well, in Josh's eyes I am. The kid can't get enough of me! To prove it, he crawls in bed with me in the middle of the night. He hops out of his bed during naps & bedtime about 15,000 times a day - just to be in the presence of my company. And when I have the audacity to pay attention to something other than him (like making dinner, talking on the phone, etc.), he stands right on my feet and clamors for my undivided attention.

p.s. thankfully, he has an understanding Daddy that takes this little creature off my hands from time to time so I can BREATHE.

And more about the sleep thing...

Locking the bedroom door is just not an option - left to his own devices, Josh would DESTROY his room. I thought about doing the crib tent. I'm not against them by any means, but I figure we'll be needing him to move to the toddler bed eventually, so let's just nip this "Jack-in-the-box" habit in the bud. We started to be consistent and it's working! Yesterday, for naptime, it took about 1 1/2 hours to get him to stay in bed and fall asleep, then bedtime about 1/2 hour. Today's naptime, he went to sleep right away and tonight it was about 15 minutes. Our tactic (which many parenting books suggest) is to put him to bed immediately when he jumps out. No eye contact, no talking, and gently put him back to bed. It's annoying and time-consuming, but hopefully, we'll get back to our pre-hopping-out-of-the-crib days. Wish us luck!

This Child of Mine

Doesn't he look so sweet and cute?

Little do you know that only a few moments before this photo was captured, this sweet little creature of mine was throwing a tantrum over heaven-knows-what. He stormed away from me, slammed his bedroom door, and crawled into brother's bed.

And quickly fell asleep.

Soccor 2009

This picture sums up what Andrew thought of soccer this year.

In our previous attempts at getting Andrew involved in organized sports, it wasn't so pretty - lots of bawling & bribery. But this time, he had his friends on his team (Tyler, Darren, & Isaiah). He was still as clueless as ever....but he had an absolute blast. Hey, we just might try it again in the Fall.

Our Budding Entomologists

I love where we live. We're just a hop, skip & a jump to so many fun-to-do-with-kids places...including the foothills practically in our backyard. This spring has been so lovely and we've been able to squeeze in a few Sunday hikes. Grandma gave the boys butterfly nets, and we have been putting them to good use! I have to admit, I've gotten quite good at capturing flying insects!
One of Andrew's great loves right now is catching bugs. He loves talking about them and reading about them. We spend a good portion of our day catching ladybugs and butterflies, and examining under rocks to find new creatures. Boys are fun...

Grandma Loves

Grandma & Joshy catching up on some zzzz's - Disneyland wears you out!

The Happiest Place on Earth

Disneyland really is THE happiest place on Earth! We had an amazing time. Even as an adult, I felt the Disney magic...we got to spend two days there, but I seriously could have stayed five and would have been perfectly happy.

Randy's memories of going to Disneyland as a kid are of rushing, waiting in long lines, and being hot - definitely not his idea of a vacation. So we left him home! I guess I could have coerced him into going (eventually I always get my way), but I knew my mom and I would have a blast together - and we did!

The rides were short - the longest we waited in line was 20 min. We walked right onto "It's a Small World". That was my favorite ride. Andrew's was the "Buzz Lightyear & Dumbo" rides. Josh, hmmm...anything that involved sitting with Grandma was good enough for him. In the above picture, I stole him from Grandma so that we could get a picture together, thus the distressed look on his face.

How cute is that?!

Grandma spoiled the boys rotten. When we made the trek back to our shuttle each night, Grandma bought them a new light-up toy to keep them entertained.

We were also able to meet up with my dear friends Sarajane & Tanya - love those girls!

Driving alone with two kids is kind of crazy, I admit it. But I felt very safe the whole time. The kids watched DVD's and we made lots of stops to break things up. The boys did really well considering it was a 14-hour trip each way.

"Come What May and Love It"

I wonder if Elder Wirthlin knew this is what we needed to hear most from him before he left this world.

Ft. Douglas Museum

We took our preschool class to the Ft. Douglas Museum - this picture kills me...

Saturday Morning

Isn't this what Saturday mornings are for?

Preschool Experiments

April was my last month to teach preschool - we had fun with a few experiments...

Volcano

You can do a lot with worms. In this experiment, we placed a dry paper towel on one end of a dish and a wet paper towel on the other end...

The worms eventually inched their way to the wet side. We also covered one side with dark paper, and the worms inched their way into the dark side.

Put some baking soda inside a balloon. Fill a plastic bottle with a little vinegar. Fit the balloon over the bottle opening and...voila!...the balloon expands!

Daddies work. Mommies go to meetings.

Dad: Ok, see you guys later.

Andrew: Are you going to work?

Dad: Yep.

Andrew: Does mommy go to work?

Dad: No, mommy gets to stay home with you guys.

Andrew: Yep, mommies just go to meetings.

Andrew is starting to figure out life and how things operate - he cracks me up! I try to avoid talking about my church callings in this blog, but frankly, it's a big part of my family's life. During the past 6 1/2 (consecutive) years of living in student wards, I've been in a presidency of some kind. I just recently got called as Relief Society president. I think it's my bossy-get-it-done-excessively-social personality that keeps me in these positions (I certainly don't campaign for them). Sometimes I wonder at the purpose of it all, why Heavenly Father calls me, and sometimes I'm tired of the meetings and the constant work that goes along with it. But then there are the blessings...my family and I have been blessed beyond measure and I have rubbed shoulders with amazing women that have taught and continue to teach me so much. I am just grateful for Randy and the boys that support me and understand that mommy has to go to meetings.

And, oh mercy, there are a lot of them.

Patience

Andrew wants a baby sister. He asks for one every day. Tonight I told him that we just have to be patient. Then he asked, "What is patient?" I told him patience is when you "wait nicely." As I tucked him into bed, he asked, "How do you get a baby sister in your tummy? Do you have to wait and wait until you're nice?"

Let's hope not.

Bad Things Happen When I Shower

After threatening Andrew's life to not tease his brother, I went to take a quick shower. Ten minutes later, Andrew knocks wildly on the door and says, "Mom! Mom! Josh is making a mess!" I know it's bad when Andrew narks on his little brother. Usually, he relishes in Josh's misdeeds and waits for me to discover it firsthand. I called for Josh, but of course, I got no answer. Andrew showed me the kitchen, and I kid you not, every square inch of the kitchen floor was covered in syrup. Well, at least it wasn't the carpet (see below). I then found the culprit covered in syrup in his bedroom, quiet as a mouse. No pictures - I don't think of taking them when I've been traumatized.

More while-in-the-shower incidents:

• I went to see what the boys were up to and I found Andrew sweeping (with the broom and dust pan) about 8 broken eggs on the kitchen floor. Little brother was standing next to him...um, supervising.
• Honey, HONEY on the living room carpet. Yeah, try getting honey out of carpet.
• And BUTTER, in the hair, clothes, and carpet.

Note to self: Make sure all sticky/messy things are put away before showering. Get a fridge lock. And consider showering at night when children are snug in their beds.

And then there's Andrew..

I think the other moms in our preschool group are impacting Andrew for the better. They're all very health-concious and one mom in particular has chosen to not feed her family sugar but once a week - they eat tons of fruits & veggies and her 5-year-old loves to eat salad! Andrew is now constantly asking me about the foods we eat, "Is this healthy?" It's a constant, everyday thing with him and it's a wake-up call for me because some things that I feed my children are really not healthy (chicken nuggets are a staple in our home). And now Andrew is more willing to eat more veggies when I tell him it's very healthy and it will make him strong. I did tell him, though, that some things aren't healthy, but if you eat them every once in awhile, they're still okay because they make us happy. I mean, I think we'd all agree that a chocolate-chip cookie makes everything better when you're having "a day".

And I don't know which mom (or TV show) taught Andrew this, but he now comes up to me, taps me on my arm, and says, "Um, excuse me please..." when he wants to get my attention.

I don't think Andrew has a mean or deceitful bone in his body - I'm starting to see other kids his age do/say things that just aren't nice, but he seems oblivious to it all. I hope he skips that stage altogether! He does, however, tease his brother relentlessly - nothing makes my blood boil more than when I hear Josh's screaching followed by Andrew's giggling.

We also had a little incident on Friday. We made a quick trip to the store, I was obviously in la-la-land because when I went to buckle Andrew in his seat, I discovered a bag of suckers in his hands! He most definitely had a guilty look on his face so I knew that he knew that he did something wrong. I told him that we had to go back in the store to let them know that he took this candy and didn't pay for it. He didn't want to do it and he was embarrassed, but I told him that he'd be okay and that I'd hold his hand. When we got to the customer service desk, he looked up and handed the candy to the employee and said, "Um, um, um. I didn't pay for this." The employee was perfect, she told him that taking things was wrong, but he was doing the right thing by being honest. Let's hope this will be his first and only offense.

We started the Hooked on Phonics program this school year - I'm really liking it. We're about halfway through (we're taking it very slowly) and his reading is really taking off! He can also do simple math addition & subtraction. Four-year-olds are fun because they have a natural desire to learn anything and everything. Oh, and he's reached the "why" stage. Someone told me that you have to answer every why so that later on, they'll still want to ask you questions.

Andrew has a great sense of humor. Often I'll catch him breaking into a fit of giggles. When I ask him what's so funny, he'll tell me a story about something that happened that day that was so funny to him. Most of the time, I can't understand what the heck he's talking about, but I can't help but giggle with him.

Andrew had swim lessons in January - it was a pretty intense schedule (4 days a week for 4 weeks), but he can now float and he can do a rudimentary form of freestyle. And he loves it! I totally recommend swim lessons in January - it makes the dreariest part of the winter fly by. Here is some video that I took the last day of his lessons:

Bliss

A few weeks ago I started going to a yoga studio. I took classes before I had Andrew and I've done videos, but going to an actual studio devoted to just yoga is amazing. The studio is warm, with lighted candles and soothing/funky music. I go in the evenings and the lights get dimmer throughout the practice. When I went last night, our teacher went around to each student and dabbed some sort of eucalyptus oil on our foreheads when we were in the shavasana pose(mmmmmmm..). And my favorite part - I can breathe from the bottom of my belly to the top of my head after a workout - I am completely relaxed (and yet sore the next day). Yoga is so unique that way - it's a rigorous workout for your body, but it also focuses on the mind and spirit. I needed to do SOMETHING for my naturally-tightly-wound-self. I think I've found my sanity.

Oh Josh

Note Josh's fashion ensemble: Dino Jammies, light-up sneakers, camo pullover.

Josh is two. Two-year-olds are crazy. And funny. I wonder if he'll be an early reader. He is obsessed with words. He points to random words and says, "Whasthasay?" (What's that say?)

He is bound and determined to choose what he wears. Most of the time I give in. Even when he wants to change into pj's. There is a little boy in our neighborhood that is ALWAYS in his pj's - I've always wondered why, well now I know.

He calls applesauce "apple yuck." I'm the only one in this house that likes it, apparently. The other night I made soup, he took one bite and he was done. He had snacks just before dinner so I didn't push him to eat and I let him leave the table. He then ran up and down the hallway and every time he passed us, he'd say, "No soup!"

He's reached a new level of obsession with his grandma. I'm not really sure why, but every time he sees a door to a house (in books, around our neighborhood, etc.), he says "Grandma!"

When he wakes up in the morning (and lately it's been befor 6:30 am), he'll yell, "Andrew! Andrew!" I think he realizes that yelling for mommy will do him no good.

He is SO talented in the art of tantrum throwing. I mean, he throws some good ones. He's a stubborn little thing, but he's still sweet and cuddly, so we let it slide.

" A Sun" ????!!???

Every night for the past 2 weeks Josh has requested me to sing "A Sun." I've tried "Jesus Wants Me For a Sunbeam", "Once There Was A Snowman," "Itsy Bitsy Spider." I haven't gotten it right and Josh is fed up with me. So I'm asking all mothers of toddlers, what do you think he's asking for? (Thanks for your help!)

I asked his nursery leader to give me a list of songs they sing, listed below:

-Book of mormon stories
-Child of God
-Popcorn popping
-Once there was a snowman
-In the leafy treetops
-If you're happy and you know it
-The chapel doors
-Head shoulders knees and toes
-Love to see the Temple
-Sunbeam
-Wheels on the bus
-Twinkle little star


-I feel my saviors love
-Family can be together forever
-Trying to be like Jesus
-Jesus said love everyone
-I know my father lives
-My Heavenly Father loves me
-Happy Family
-Family Prayer
-Away in a manger (christmas)
-Did jesus really live again (easter)
-Love is spoken here
-Reverently Quietly