A Little Homesick

Hyrum has been a little homesick for Utah lately; especially for his Papa and Grandma B.

The other day I was asking him what movie he wanted to watch. I gave him the option of watching one of his favorites, Toy Story 2. he told me no. He was waiting to watch that movie with papa when he gets to Utah.

One night recently he decided that he wanted to talk to Grandma and Papa B. before he went to bed. He was so upset when we couldn't get a hold of them. He was worried that he lost two of his favorite people in the world.

The other day Hyrum was playing with his mega blocks and made an airplane to fly to Utah on.
Last night, he made Utah with his wooden blocks.
Also, I can't forget to mention that he sleeps with a picture of him, Camille and Papa and a picture of Jesus.

We are going to Texas and Utah the end of June and staying until the end of July. I think Hyrum will have a blast seeing his Grandma and Papa T. and his Grandma and Papa B. Not to mention he will be in heaven playing with his cousins. We are all looking forward to the trip.

Time Out Fun!

If you are in timeout at our house do not worry, it won't be dull. Most likely you'll have a few visitors. Not to mention people (especially a little lady in the household) will come and bring you cheerios or other delicious snacks while you are serving your time. She might even sneak you a few toys. Below Hyrum was the person on timeout and Emmy and Ben came to visit him bringing toys and a drink.

This picture was taken March, 12, 2008

That is how timeouts have been going on at our house. If I put one child in timeout, I am constantly trying to keep the other two away from going over to the timeout area and talking to them. Also, Emmy is always taking food and toys to the person who is on timeout.

Some days we have good days and our timeout spot is vacant. However some days the corner is still warm from the last body there. Even Ben and Emmy know where timeout is and go and sit there when I tell them to.

It is really cute, after any one is done with their timeout they come and tell everyone they are sorry and give them a hug. I only tell them to tell sorry to who they hurt, but they like to give everyone hugs when they come back to join our wild party.

Hyrum's Soccer Party

On May 20th Hyrum had his soccer party. It was a great way to celebrate the end of a fantastic season. There was yummy pizza to eat, certificates given to the kids for participating and pictures taken!

Hyrum was lucky to have a great coach this year.

Of course, there are pictures with Hyrum and Hailey. They were so cute posing together. No prompting either! Can you tell they are really good friends.


Hyrum had a blast this season and was disappointed when we told him soccer season was finished.

Hyrum's Soccer Games

Hyrum had his last soccer game on May 10th. This season has been enormous fun! Soccer has been a hit in this household. Hyrum has loved every minute! He couldn't get enough. We will sign up for soccer next season.

He is quite the little soccer player. When he isn't hugging Hailey or playing in the dirt, he actually gets a couple of nice kicks in the game.

However, after his first soccer game he realized that he was being pushed around a little bit. So in his mind, it is okay to push in soccer. We have been trying to teach him the rules of the game and also to play aggressive.

Here are some video links from some of his games. The first clip is of the team stretching before the game. I love how serious Hyrum is about stretching.

The second clip is Hyrum and Hailey hugging and also of Hailey running around the field asking Hyrum to marry her.

The last clip is an actual soccer game clip of his last game of the season.

Hyrum is the very blond child in the videos. It is quite easy to pick him out. His number is 13 and his little friend Hailey is 33.

Happy Mother's Day!

Sorry for such a late Mother's Day post. For some reason our computer wasn't reading our camera's memory card and I wanted to wait until I could post pictures of my wonderful Mother's Day presents.

I had such a great Mother's Day this year. It all started the Thursday before Mother's Day when gorgeous roses were delivered to my home. The roses were beautiful and smelled awesome! My roses looked like this except they came in a square clear glass vase. On Sunday, my handsome duo Brandon and Hyrum made a delicious breakfast of pancakes and eggs; Brandon's specialty.

At church, the Relief Society gave a great lesson on Mothers. Also, at the end of Relief Society, there was yummy cake! There is a lady in my ward who owns a bakery. Needless to say she is amazing at creating delectable things to eat. There were so many different choices to pick from, Chocolate and Vanilla, Vanilla, Sugar Free, Pistachio, Coconut, Strawberry, and Chocolate Moose.
I ended up picking the Chocolate and Vanilla combo; it did not disappoint me.

I received a book called Fool Me Twice and a beautiful bracelet from my family back in Utah.

I got the best Mother's Day present from Brandon and the kids. Brandon and the kids designed an apron for me. I love it! Brandon helped the kids put their little hand prints on the apron and wrote We love you along with other little hearts. I feel like it is too precious for me to cook in. It was really easy for me to tell their hand prints apart. Of course, Hyrum's hands are the biggest and in purple. Ben's hand prints are the fat, chubby ones and they are in blue. Emmy's hand prints have long, slender, elegant fingers, and are in yellow.
Overall, I had a great mother's day and felt very loved and appreciated. I couldn't have asked for anything more.

Pre-school Party!

On April 30th Hyrum had his pre-school party. As some of you might remember, my friends and I started a little pre-school amongst us back in September. We made it all the way through the alphabet and decided to celebrate and have a party.

The day started off with me teaching the last letter, z. Below the kids are finishing their pictures of the zoo with some very awesome foam animal stickers.

Yes, Hyrum is wearing his soccer shirt. He would wear it all day, every day if I would let him. The other mom's joined us a little later for the party. We read Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom, played a letter matching game (matching upper case letters to lower case letters) as well as matching the magnet pictures to their correct letter( A to apple, M to monkey).

The moms went all out with the food. They made fun fruit kabobs to dip in a delicious fruit dip. Turkey and pizza roll-ups were also a big hit with the kids.
After the wonderful lunch, we ate our alphabet cupcakes. One of the moms made little tiny cupcakes. Each of the cupcakes had one of the letters. We had the kids sing their ABC's and then they each got to pick their favorite letter. Good thing the mom had two H's since one of the little girl's name also starts with the letter H. Hyrum loved the cupcakes and couldn't get enough. Ben and Emmy also were in heaven eating the cupcakes. Excuse Emmy's hair, she had taken out her elastic and bow twice already that day and I decided not to worry about it.We have had such a fun time doing pre-school with these girls. Hyrum always loves going to pre-school. I am always surprised how much he picks up on. Also, doing a pre-school setting like we did helped me to keep improving my teaching skills.

We have been blessed to have such great friends here in Memphis! We will miss them when they are gone.

My Sweet Hyrum!

I must start off by saying how grateful I am for my sweet Hyrum. He is such a sweetheart. I can't believe how big he is getting.

He is talking so much and saying the funniest things. Every time he wakes-up he comes and tells me Good Morning and gives me a big hug and kiss. His favorite word right now is why. Hyrum is very curious; he asks me why about everything.

He tells me that he will eat all of his food so he can grow big and tall like papa.

Papa and Grandma B. sent him stickers in the mail. Within a few minutes. They were all on his shirt.

Shortly after we moved to Memphis, he would tell me not to worry, because he was right there.

The other day when Hyrum and I were getting to play his matching game, he had me hold him to get the game. He then told me that he will swing like a monkey to get the game.
Hyrum and I tell each other that we love each other to the moon and back. I tried to tell him the other day that he was my lucky he star. He corrected me and told me that he is my lucky moon.

He is fascinated with the sun and moon. He tells me all the time when the sun wakes up it is morning and when the moon is out it is night time. The other day he told Brandon that the sun was going to sleep, but not to worry, because tomorrow it will wake up again.

Hyrum also is very good at watching the traffic lights. Every time we go somewhere in the car, he tells me what to do because of what the traffic lights are doing. "Green says go mom, you need to go." "Yellow says slow down mom." "Red says stop." It took awhile to convince him that even though some of the lights were red, if I was turning and the turning light turned green I could turn.

He is very creative when he plays with anything. Always thinking outside of the box of how to use an item to play with.
Hyrum loves doing new crafts. Below is a jello activity he did with Millie when my family came to visit.He still loves to read books. Any thing and everything. He isn't too picky, but he loves books on cars, trains, and dinosaurs.

He is getting really good with his alphabet. He probably knows all but one or two letters. He also knows about half of their sounds. He has been able to name his colors for over a year now. He knows his shapes and has known them for quite awhile. He gets a little confused with square and rectangle.

He loves to sing. He is constantly singing the songs he has learned in primary or other silly kid's songs. Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star is still his favorite.

He still loves to play with his cars every day.
Hyrum loves being outside and goes outside to play multiple times a day. Every time he plays outside, he brings me multiple flower weeds. He tells me that the flowers are for me because he loves me and because I am a princess.

He loves playing with his friends. We will miss the friends who will be moving soon.

Hyrum is a great helper. He does a great job cleaning up his toys. Hyrum also helps me get things that I need for the babies.

Hyrum is a very sensitive to others feelings. He is always concerned if someone is sad or a little upset. He is the defender and the police man for every one. He likes to make sure everything is fair. My mom and dad tell me this is similar to how I was growing up.

Hyrum is an excellent big brother. He loves Ben and Emmy so much. He loves playing with them. He worries about them. The other day when Brandon was leaving church with the boys (I had already left earlier with Emmy), another family was carrying Ben out to the car. Hyrum was so upset because he thought the other family was going to take Ben home. Brandon says that he has never seen Hyrum so bent out of shape. Hyrum also sings to the babies when they start to cry. I don't think the babies could have asked for a better brother.I love his smiles. They brighten my day. He has such a sweet spirit and zest for life. We love our handsome Hyrum.

Nursery Time!

My babies are old enough for nursery! April 20th was the babies first time going to nursery. They did okay. However, I was in the nursery with them so I think that they felt that they could cry any time something went wrong and come to me. On the very first Sunday I could have had without kids during Sunday School and Relief Society the primary asked if I could sub in nursery. I was a little bummed. I was so looking forward to listen to Sunday School and Relief Society without a baby. I am looking forward to many more Sundays being able to listen in Relief Society and Sunday School.

In the past couple weeks the babies have done a lot better in nursery. I think they draw a lot of comfort from having someone else there as they are starting this new chapter in their lives. The pictures are from before church on their big day.

18 month check-up

The babies' had their 18 month well baby check-up on April 14th. Other then Ben having croup when we went in (which I don't think he had), the babies are doing great.

Emmy- 23.2 lbs, 30.5 inches
Ben- 26 lbs, 32.5 inches

The babies also recently had an evaluation done by their occupational therapist. The babies are doing fantastic. They are still a little behind in some areas of development, but not a great amount behind that their therapist is concerned about it. I had of choice of having the therapist still come to see them or not. I decided to still have therapist come...there is still work to be done. I would like to have Ben and Emmy completely caught up before I discontinue the therapist.

Here are some interesting facts about Ben and Emmy:Ben loves being outside. Yesterday, he was out sitting in our back yard playing with the flower weeds. It was so cute. He was so happy to be outside. The other day it started to rain while he was outside. He didn't come in, I had to go and make him come inside. He also LOVES going to the park. He enjoys using his climbing skills to climb on the play grounds (with mom close by). He is in heaven swinging on the swing. Ben is always quite bugged with me when it is time to leave. He fights me tooth and nail.

Ben loves to climb. He has been able to climb up our stairs for a long time (I would say he has been climbing up them a little bit before he turned one). His new trick is to climb on his toys and look out the window.
Also, he has figured out how to climb on the kitchen chairs and then climb on the table. Even when I try to be tricky, he still finds away to get on top of the table. He loves problem solving and has always been very good at it.

Ben loves to talk on the phone. One of his favorite toys right now are toy phones. He especially loves when I give him the real phone to talk to someone. He will jabber a little bit, say bye, and give the phone one of his open mouth kisses. So cute! He gets quite bugged with me again if he doesn't get a chance to talk.

Ben loves to play with cars. His older brother has taught him well. The babies' therapist commented on how early they learned the skill of rolling a car (before they turned one). Ben now drives his cars on the couch just like Hyrum does.

Ben loves to read. He is constantly bringing me books to read to him. After he rubs his little chest to say please, he gives me the book, and turns himself around to walk backwards and find a nice comfortable spot in my lap so I can read him his books. Ben will sit and have book read to him for a very long time. He is a little book worm.Emmy loves playing with our lion puppet. She is so cute. She will bring the puppet to me to have me put it on her. She will stick out her little hand for me to put it on. She then growls. It makes me laugh every time. The below picture was taken back in February. I can't believe how much her hair has grown since then. She loves getting her hair done. She knows that after she gets dress for the day it is off to mom's bathroom to sit in the sink and get her hair done. She hold still pretty well. When she gets mad at me, she gives me this dirty look and then she takes out her little pony tail.

Emmy loves playing with my make-up brushes. She loves it when I put a little blush on her cheeks or a little lip gloss on her lips. Emmy also loves shoes and is always carrying them everywhere. You can find her shoes all over the house.

Emmy loves sitting on the stairs or anywhere else that is little. She really loved sitting in the pink chair when she got her picture taken.
She brings me a bib to put on her when she is ready to eat.

She is also my little raccoon. That girl is always digging around in the trash can. Looking for things that mom threw away prematurely. After Emmy finds her treasure,she chuckles as she runs away with it. She also does the same thing when she takes something away with her brothers.

Emmy loves her stroller and her baby. She loves having giving her baby kisses, putting the baby in the stroller with her blanket and taking the baby for the ride. She holds her dolly by her hair most of the time

Emmy loves wearing her hats. After the snow day in March, she wore her winter hat around for a few days.Emmy also loves talking/playing with phones. She also does sign language for the word please. She is so funny, she will say please for things that she doesn't usually get (like a cookie) but if it is something that she always get ( like a drink) she won't say please.

Both babies love animals; especially dogs. Ben loves to get as close as he can to animals. Emmy on the other hand perfers having a little distance. When they hear a dog bark they love to bark back. Our neighbors have a dog and the babies love watching the dog through the cracks of the fence.

Both babies also love Hyrum. They love playing with him and doing whatever he does.

Both babies say uh-oh, yes, please, thank you, mom, dad, duck, baby. Emmy jabbers all the time. The babies understand quite a bit.

Brandon and I love them both very much and are so blessed to have them in our family.

Ben's First Haircut

After much pleading from Brandon and other family members I realized that it was time to cut off Ben's "rat tail/mullet." I didn't want to get his hair cut because it was one more step to having my sweet Benji Boo grow up.

Before picture

We got Ben's hair cut on April 14th, while my mom was here visiting. I knew I needed extra arms to pin and take pictures. Not mention help watch my other two little monkeys.
My mom and I took Ben to the local Wal-mart to have the cutting done. Since Hyrum needed a hair cut too, he went first to show Ben how to sit and hold still while getting a hair cut.

The hair dresser then worked her magic on Ben's beautiful red mullet. She commented on how what a great color his hair was (maybe they say that to everyone). At the beginning of the hair cut, Ben sat really still. After awhile, he started to get a little restless, so the hair dresser got a toy for him to play with. The toy entertained him for a few minutes, but after that he started getting upset and started to cry. He was finished getting his hair cut.Thank goodness for suckers! The suckers make everything all better.
I was pleased with how the hair cut went. I wanted her to still keep the baby hair cut for a little while longer, but get rid of the rat tail. Don't worry, I kept part of his hair that was cut off to go in his scrapbook. I think I will cut Ben's hair from now on, but wanted a clean point to start from.