These girls!!!

So, Grant is not feeling so well yesterday and today and I have been taking his temperature. Emma is very interested in the thermometer (a rectal one). She just came into the room and was holding the thermometer up to Noah's bum. Yup- Noah the Prophet- the Little People version. She had even turned it on and held it there until it beeped. Oh my goodness.

Sometime I would love to be a spectator of my life. You know, a fly on the wall just watching it all instead of an active participant. It must be something to see a Mom trying to take the temperature of her 8 month old with a 2 year old climbing on her back and a 3, almost 4 year old, wanting to take the temperature herself. Then I try and give him Tylenol and Emma insists on doing it and Arianna is now climbing on my head practically kicking Grant in the face. I measured the dose, of course, but Emma did pretty well squirting it into his mouth.

These girls are something, I tell you!

Another place I would love to be a fly on the wall is in my girls' bedroom after we shut the door and say goodnight. What do they talk about? What do they DO? Last night they took about 1/2 hour to go to sleep. And this morning I woke up at 5:45 am and realized both girls were out in the family room already playing. I didn't hear them get up. I made them go back to bed restating the 6 am rule to Emma. (She has a digital clock in her room) There was actually minimal crying and I went back to bed and woke up next at 6:20 and they were back out playing- had gotten themselves dressed and all. (Did they ever go back to sleep? Probably not.) At least I got to!

Life

I can't think of a creative way to encompass all the items I want to include in this post in a title, so that's what you get today. The days pass by so quickly for me. There certainly is never a dull moment around here. It is definitely challenging, but I can honestly say, I wouldn't have it any other way. I love these little ones so much. They are so precious and growing up so fast!

I'll start with Arianna. She makes us laugh. And she is so smart, too!! The other morning she lined all her animals up (above) and sat down right next to them and said, "Mom, this is my family!" and she was so proud and happy!
Yesterday at Joy School (being held here at my house), we were reading a book and I asked the kids (1 3 year old, 2 4 year olds and Arianna-2 years old) what the name of a particular animal was on the page. The older kids were all silent and Arianna blurted out, "Porcupine!" I was so impressed that she remembered that animal!
Arianna is also moving into the realm of potty training. Not that she is anywhere close to being actually potty-trained, but moving in that direction at least. As all you parents of young ones know, there are always interesting moments in this realm. . . I was making dinner the other night and I knew the girls were in the bathroom, but I didn't think much of it. Arianna sometimes follows Emma around, even when she goes to the bathroom. But, a few minutes later I hear, "Arianna!!! You're getting poops on my pillow!" Lovely. I clean off my hands and race back there. Apparently, Emma decided to help Arianna take her diaper off and get rid of what was in there in the toilet and didn't bother to let me know and Arianna raced off to the bedroom with a bare and not-so-fresh bum-bum. Luckily, it wasn't too bad, but still not something I want to hear on a regular basis! A couple days before that Arianna actually did # 2 on the potty. I was so proud of her. I wasn't even in the room that time either; Emma was! Maybe Emma will take care of the potty training for me!! Last night, I asked Arianna on the way out of the bath tub if she wanted to sit on the potty and she did. She even did wetsies in the potty (after making a puddle on the floor in the process!) The funniest thing was, when I praised her and told her she got a treat (an M&M) She said, "I want a yellow one!" After a short pause, however, she said, "Actually, a blue one." It is hilarious to me to hear the word actually coming out of a two-year-old!
Arianna is also sleeping in a toddler bed now!! It took a good 4 days of adjustment, but she is doing really well now. I am just excited to get Grant out of the Pack 'n' Play and into a real crib. Poor baby.
So, onto Emma, just days now until her fourth Birthday, as you know. Wow.
I painted Emma's toenails for the first time the other day. She happened to come in the bathroom when I was painting mine and was very interested and so I decided to do hers, too. (Much to Kenneth's chagrin- I don't think he likes to see his little girls growing up!) At Joy School the next day, Emma pulls off her socks and says to her little friend, Sam, "Look what happened to my toenails!" So cute.
On Sunday, we were all rushing around, getting ready for our 8:30 am Sacrament Meeting (!!!) and Emma came up to me and started asking me something about a pirate. I was only half listening since I was trying to get everyone and myself ready, but I assumed she was talking about my skirt (it was a different pattern and I hadn't worn it in over a year or so, maybe she thought it looked like a pirate?) When I actually paid attention to what she was saying, however, I realized she was asking me about Arianna's dress. She was asking me if she was wearing her 'pirate' dress today. I laughed out loud when I realized she meant 'sailor' dress. Here is a picture of Arianna in said sailor dress:

I can't ever get a really good picture of these little ones on Sunday. Oh well. At least she's not screaming!
One last Emma story: We were driving in the van the other day and I drove over some of those bumpy strips on the side of the highway and Emma giggles and says, "That's a tootsie car!" Apparently, it reminded her on someone having gas!

As for Grant, he is just the sweetest boy. He is growing up so fast. I love his big slobbery kisses and his cute noises and when he puts his little arms around my neck. Here are some recent photos of him:

Grant and the donkey a few days ago.


The handsome little guy- taken today!

Kenneth has only 2 1/2 weeks of this semester yet. We will celebrate when it is over! Then only one more class until he completes his Master's degree. That will be a great day!! Kenneth has submitted his resume to a number of sites, and are now waiting to see where we will move next. We are excited and sad to leave the D.C. area. It has been a wonderful experience, but we know that we wouldn't want to stay here forever- too busy, too much traffic, too expensive!!

A New and DIfferent Way. . .

As you know, Emma LOVES to feed Grant. She loves to spoon feed him at the table, but she also loves to feed him Cheerios. . .whenever she has a chance. This morning, she found a new and different way of doing it. This cracks me up.

Who wouldn't LOVE to have these on their couch?

The girls are watching the T.V., Grant is watching me.

Here are a few more pictures of them:

Only 2 more weeks and 1 more day. . .

No, not until we move. That's still a couple months off. (By the way, we still don't know where we are going next. . .We'll keep you posted) Only 2 more weeks and 1 more day until my sweet Emma is 4 years old. Four just seems so much older than three. I can hardly believe it! She is a wonderful little girl. I wanted to write a little about her and remember some of these funny/endearing/ sweet things that make Emma who she is.

She is very observant: The other day she asked me what all the little fuzzies in the air were. I looked at what she was seeing and realized she was talking about the dust particles in the air. The sunlight was streaming in through the windows just right and making them all visible. She thought that was very interesting.

The last month or so she has been very interested in driving. Not that she is driving, but watching me and asking questions about how one drives a car. She will often ask which pedal I am pressing or how to start the car, etc. She asked the other day when she gets to learn to drive. I told her about 15 years old. She is already planning out where everyone will sit in the car when she is in the drivers seat! She was giddy thinking about it all! I'm sure she will be there before I know it!

She is such a good little mother: I know I talk about this all the time, but it is such a big part of Emma's life and it just cracks me up. Here are the latest shots of this little mother in action:


A lamb's got to eat!

Reading Book of Mormon stories to Elephant.

All the babies tucked in to their beds (right in the middle of my walkway of course!)

This girl can eat!!!! Emma started off slow when it came to solid foods. She never enjoyed baby cereal like my other 2 have and took a long time to get her to eat much of anything. Not so now!! Emma has 3 good meals and day and INSISTS on at least 2 snacks a day. I know she needs them because she still eats well at meals. Arianna, on the other hand hardly eats snacks. She simply is not hungry between meals. If I do give her a snack, it usually interferes with her eating the following meal well. Today, Emma had breakfast, then had more breakfast with the rest of the family, who ate an hour or so after she did. Then had a snack at 10:30 and by 11:30 was whining and complaining that she was STARVING.

She is so smart: She is really starting to get the concept of words. She is getting quite good at writing her alphabet and as I shared in a previous post, she can even say it backwards! She likes to write words, too. Here is a sample of her writing. (Yes, it says Uchtdorf on the bottom. President Uchtdorf is a member of the First Presidency of our Church and she has been randomly saying his name lately and then asked how to spell it. She saw him when we watched General Conference a couple of weeks ago and has also seen him in her Friend Magazine.) Help was actually the first word besides Emma that she learned to write- over 9 months ago. It really was quite humorous to see HELP written everywhere!

Emma also loves to play on the computer. Lately her favorite things to do are: pbskids.org, The Friend Magazine online at lds.org, blogs, Starfall.com and Mormon Messages. She can navigate through all those sites by herself. Her latest thing is that she likes to play on the laptop without the mouse. She has learned how to use the little nubby things and the buttons. She has a ball!

Emma is very into crafts right now. She loves to work on projects with me. We made some paper pulp and formed some ornaments and the girls had so much fun painting them.

You can see the ornaments in the foreground. She is painting a 'caterpillar', i.e. an egg carton.

She's got a fashion sense and likes to choose her own outfits:


She is a responsible little girl: Emma and Arianna were playing with a toy and proceeded to fight over it. Emma decided all on her own that since they couldn't play nicely they needed to put it up high where neither one of them could play with it. She got out the stool and put it up on the high counter.

Emma is so sweet and sensitive: One day when I was having a particularly hard time she said in her prayer at lunchtime: "Please help mommy not to be so sad and frustrated." She has said similar things a few times since then. Arianna has even said something like that. My poor girls- they can tell their mom is going loony.

We just love this little girl and are so proud of her and are glad to have her as part of our family!

The Beauty of Spring

I have been particularly moved by the beauty of Spring this year; partly because we are in an area with so many flowering trees and bushes and probably also partly because I am constantly pointing it out to and enjoying it with my 3 year old and 2 year old. They have been so excited as we have watched the different trees bloom and watched the leaves on the trees burst forth. It is such a testimony to me of the Resurrection and of the New Life offered to us by Christ. Springing forth from what seems to be so dead is the most beautiful and abundant life. The speed at which the leaves burst forth their leaves never ceases to amaze me. As it says in 2 Nephi 11:4: . . .all things which have been given of God from the beginning of the world, unto man, are the typifying of him. It is no coincidence that Jesus Christ chose to be resurrected at this time of the year.

Cherry Blossoms

Easter morning we drove down into D.C. and enjoyed seeing the Cherry Blossoms. What an amazing sight!!! We saw them a couple days after their peak, but they were still quite incredible. Next time I want to see them when they are still WHITE and fluffy like popcorn! The weather was perfect and the girls really enjoyed being outside. We certainly did have crowds to contend with! Although we weren't surprised by the number of people out enjoying the blossoms, we were still amazed by the number of people walking around the Tidal Basin. We are glad we were able to experience this part of D.C.!
The trees line the Tidal Basin. We walked all the way around. Gorgeous!
The breeze was gently blowing petals in the air. It was quite magical.


Everyone and their dog was there! (Literally! Ha Ha)
Washington Monument

Daddy lifted the girls up to touch the blossoms!

New pictures of the little man

Just because he is so adorable, I wanted to share a couple of pictures of my favorite little man. I can't believe he is over 7 months now. He is loving food. He sure lets you know when he needs to eat!

Here's another video of Emma feeding Grant because I think it is so dang cute. Emma is such a good helper. I really appreciate the fact that she can help me feed him. I am not sure how I could get dinner ready without her help. I love you, little Emma!

First Easter Hunt of the Season

Every Friday a group of moms from church get together for playgroup. It' s a toss up as to whether I enjoy it more or the girls. The Friday before Easter we had a little Easter Egg Hunt. The girls were so excited. They had a good time searching and, of course, enjoying the spoils afterward!
One day I will have a great camera and know how to use it. For now, you get to see the Spring beauty of this area and my adorable girls (if I do say so myself) with a run of the mill camera and not so great skills.

Waiting for the Hunt to begin by the beautiful little stream.

Here are some of the other kids waiting- my friend was kind enough to get a shot of me there with Grant in the front carrier.

Trying to point out eggs to Arianna

Silly lady


Look what I got!!


Still filling her basket!

Enjoying the spoils!

How to feed a baby: a tutorial

Step one: Get yourself comfortable on the couch.
Step two: Start feeding the baby. (or in this case, the bear)
Step three: Ask the resident 3 year old kindly to get you your book.
Step four: Enjoy your time with your book and your baby.