Sunday, August 30, 2009

Conquered Territory

This past month Emmy has been busy! I am sure she had some help in this month's adventures, but she did a lot of the damage, mostly by herself. One week in August, we had something disastrous happen every day. You know, the things that take forever to clean up or leave a nice little stain behind.

First off, Emmy loves to get her nails done and is constantly asking me to paint them. She knows that we put a paper towel under our hand so we don't get any nail polish on the floor. However, one time she decided that she wanted to paint her nails "all by herself" ( a favorite phrase lately) and didn't put anything underneath. She got nail polish all over the carpet. Needless to say the nail polish has been moved to a higher location. Don't worry, she has been finding new things to get into. I would say almost every day, at least, once, she is in my make-up trying to find lipstick to put on. If she can't find any, she will use the chapstick.

Shortly after the nail polish incident I found her and Ben getting into my lotion. The got the lotion all over the carpet, on their bodies and in their hair. At least they were moisturized for the day, right? The picture below is her shortly after the lotion incident. Can you see how much lotion was in her hair?I think the next day (or the day after that), Ben and Emmy found the sunscreen, bug spray and I am not sure what else and went to town. I guess they were worried about getting burned and receiving bug bites that day. I sent them out to play why I cleaned up their mess. I soon remembered that it poured the night before and the kiddie pool was filled with water. They, of course, climbed in and got completely drenched. I decided it was time for bath. I cleaned up the last little bit of their mess from earlier and drained the pool only to hear the words, "Emmy pooped in the tub!" So I quickly scooped out Ben and Emmy and had them finish their bath in the other tub. That was a long day and all of those incidents happened from about 3:30 on after nap time.

Also, a recent event that has happened, thanks to the princess, is the fact that she put dish soap in the dish washer. For those of you who haven't had that lucky experience, let me say these two words...bubbles...everywhere. There were more bubbles then what the picture shows. The picture was taken after I already started to clean up.I started the dishwasher and then finished getting ready for bed one night. I soon realized that I forgot to take my medicine and found bubbles everywhere in the kitchen. The bubbles covered almost the whole kitchen floor and were an inch thick. It was such a pain in the neck to clean up. I guess Hyrum thought the bubbles were fun, so he put dish soap in the dishwasher a day or two later and we got to experience the bubbles again!

I know she got into more things, but those are what I can think of right now. I am sure she got in the trash. She still loves to find treasures in the waste basket.

Funny Hyrum

Hyrum has been saying the funniest things lately.

Today on the way to church he noticed that there were some cars parked in the Walmart parking lot. Hyrum then went on to say (somewhere along the lines), "People are over there shopping. They must have thought it was Sunday (I think he meant Monday, which I am surprised he messed up because thanks to Ms. Tami, he has known his days of the week for almost a year now). "They'll go to church when they are done."

Tonight as he was going to bed he said, "Mom, I am going to sleep like a 7." Meaning that his body was in the shape of a seven.

Also, tonight as we were reading scriptures (we read the Children Readers). At the begining of the New Testament reader, it gives a nice summary about the Plan of Happiness. One of the pictures shows the Savior exiting the tomb. When we finished reading the section Hyrum said, "Why is he sneaking out?" Brandon then told Hyrum that he wasn't sneaking out that he was resurrected (which Hyrum knows what ressurection means). Hyrum then went on to say, "No, he is sneaking out." Brandon decided that it was pointless to continue the conversation with him.

I love hearing how is mind works. He loves to ask questions! Every day he asks me so many. For example, we had lots of vegtables and fruits for dinner one night and Hyrum wanted to know where the vegetables and fruits came from. He wanted to know if the fruits and vegtables came from a vine, a tree or in the ground etc. I told him that we should call his Papa since he knows lots about plants. He always asks more then "what is that?" He loves to ask the who, where and why too.

One thing that Hyrum has inherited from his father is his strong sense of smell. He can smell anything anywhere and most of the time asking me what a certain smell is before I can even smell it.

I love how curious he is and hope that I can encourage his curiousity (to an extent) to explore the world around him.

Another 5K

I did another 5K with two friends from my ward on August 1st.

LtoR Heidi, Me, Rachelle

Holy cow that race was hard. There were some HUGE hills! It was probably the hardest race I have done so far. I came in 7th in my age group out of 15 and 99th overall. My time was 34:12. A couple minutes slower than the 5K I did in Utah and a little faster than the one I did in May. I don't think it helped my time that I started closer to the back of the pack of racers.

Here
is a link to the pictures that were taken at the race. I am in pictures 47-50 on the right side wearing a pink shirt. I am number 40. Those pictures were taken at the very beginning of the race. I am also in pictures 301-303; those pictures are of me at the end of the race right before I crossed the finish line. If you look closely and if you look at the pictures after mine you will see my cute cheering section that cheered me on and made me a fun sign ( I think they ended up being in more pictures than myself). I love how they cheer, "Go, Mommy" not only when I do these 5Ks but when they see me to get dressed to go and work out.

I am hoping to do another 5K on September 12th. It will actually be on the same track that I did my first 5K on. Ideally, I would like to come in under 30 minutes, but we will see. I have kept running, but not as often as I would like.

I really like doing these 5Ks because it gives me something to look towards and a goal as I am working out.

Potty Training Update

We have officially been trying to potty train Ben and Emily for a little over a week. So far, they have been doing pretty good. To be honest, sometimes it seems like things aren't going quite so well, but then I remember that we are potty training two kids at once instead of one. Also, most of the accidents have been when I have forgotten to take them to go potty or during the nighttime. We are some of those insane people who do both night and day potty training at once.

The first day we set out underwear, Ben went and put his underwear back and brought me a diaper instead. We even went to the store to pick out special "undies" and he still wanted to wear a diaper. I knew that potty training would be a little harder for him. He has hated (from the beginning) getting his diaper changed. It took a little pep talk from daddy about going in the toilet and wearing big boy underwear to help Ben's mindset. Also, the fact that Emmy got a "nummy" and he didn't was enough motivation to try. He is doing pretty good and has even gone almost a full forty-eight hours without an accident.

Emmy has also done a great job going potty. Ben will sit forever before he goes while Emmy does her business quick and is on to finding other things to get into in our house. She loves being like the big girls. She has told me time and time again that she is like Lexi (who she loves)because she is going potty in the toilet and wearing big girl underwear. She loves to wear her Dora and "Missie Mouse" underwear. She does not want to have anything to do with diapers and will break down in tears if someone even mentions putting her in one. She too has also gone a decent stretch of about forty-eight hours without an accident. Below is a picture of her after a long day of not having a nap. Picture taken with Brandon's phone.All in all, I think they are doing pretty good. Hyrum is still their biggest fan and cheers them on each time they go. Brandon figured out that having them out of diapers alone will save us about $1,000 a year (not including wipes)! That fact alone is encouragement to keep going and also because it will be the first time in five years we don't have a child in diapers.

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Flashback Friday-May 2009

These pictures were taken earlier this year in May 2009. The pictures below are of our first ice cream cones of the season. As you might imagine my kids loved them and ate every last bite. Of course, they thought it was silly when their faces were messy after their tasty cold treat. I thought it was the perfect way to start out the summer.

Friday, August 21, 2009

Got Bad Guys?

Got Bad Guys? Call 1-800-BEN-E-BOO! One day in July, Ben was running around the house with this crown he received from a friend and this toy ax fighting "bad guys". It was so cute! Fighting bad guy was his idea and he played by himself for a while. He was really into fighting the bad guys and made sure that our house was bad guy free.

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Biting the Bullet

I have decided it is time to start potty training Ben and Emmy. Ben and Emily are the same age that Hyrum was (even a little older) when we potty trained him. I think I might be crazy, but I am tired of changing diapers. Plus, Ben is playing soccer this fall and I don't want him to be the only kid out there running around in a diaper.

Hyrum is so excited for Ben and Emmy. It was fun to hear his excitement as he was talking to Ben about everything in regards being a big boy and going potty on the toilet.

Talking about underwear tonight from Hyrum to Ben:
"Don't worry, if all of your underwear are dirty you can wear some of mine." Don't you all wish you had a brother who would share like that? Hearing the tenderness in Hyrum's voice as he said it to Ben was so sweet and funny at the same time.

As we were picking out clothes for tomorrow Emmy had a hard time picking what underwear she wanted to wear tomorrow. I think she changed her mind at least three times. She finally decided she wanted to wear the pink one. Surprised...I think not.

Hyrum wanted to find his Thomas the Train underwear so he could match Ben tomorrow. Too bad Hyrum out grew those underwear about a year ago; otherwise they could have matched.

We start tomorrow. We shall see how it goes.

Monday, August 17, 2009

Last Utah Post

I know have done tons of posts about our trip to Utah. However, I wanted to make sure I covered all the exciting times that we had on our trip. This is the last Utah post until our next trip to the Beehive state.

Some of the highlights were:

Being completely SPOILED by grandma and papa. Each child got many special treats just for them. They loved the CAR and Princess crackers they received.The kids loved the special donuts run that grandma did for them.
Ben fell in love with our neighbor's car and was fascinated and wanted to help Jordan work on it.
The kids loved eating dinner at night since so many of their favorite people were at the table. Ben loved sitting on Papa's lap. Emmy and Hyrum just loved being there with everyone.
Hunting (pretend) for ducks on the deck in the morning on the canal with the awesome "Blanding Gun" was always fun.Speaking of the deck, what a fun place to play. The kids had a great time running around out there chasing each other. Another fun thing the kids did was playing with the fun toys at grandma and papa's house. I think it felt like Christmas with all the "new" to them toys. Below is a picture of them making a castle for a princess.The kids loved each having their own place to sit. Thank goodness grandma remembered where she got the chairs from since one of them broke while we were there. Good thing grandma is keeping the chairs safe so they will be ready the next time we come and visit. If you ask Hyrum, he will tell you we were going to Utah in December for Christmas.The kids loved all the many people to read them books. They are still content to sit and be read to for long periods of time. I am grateful for my family for taking the time to read to them.Another thing the kids loved were the many nap buddies they had. They loved it when they had someone to take a nap with them. I think grandma especially likes that special time to cuddle up and snuggle and read a couple of books before having a nice little nap.I loved being able to visit a little bit with some of my close friends from high school. I have seriously missed those girls and the good times we have had. I wished that I would have stayed in better contact with all of them. They truly are amazing people that I miss so much. They have always made me feel good in my skin and I felt like I could be myself around them. Below is a picture with four of us ten girls. From LtoR Megan, Lindsey (Emme), Me (Emily), Jen (Zack).The kids loved looking for bugs in Utah; especially Emmy.One of my favorite parts of the trip was being able to see a whole bunch of family members on my dad's side. We had a couple of family events where we were able to see everyone.Below are pictures with Grandma and Grandpa Great. Growing up, we used to go over to my grandparents' house every Sunday for dessert, games and socializing. Oh how I have missed that being out here in Memphis without them! I know my kids had a great time every time we went. What is there not to like about yummy treats and having a friend to play with?The boys really loved playing with my cousin Calvin. He is about 18 months older than (notice this word Camille) Hyrum.

I took pictures of both Hyrum and Emmy on our trip one Sunday and didn't want Ben to be left out. He fell asleep in the chair shortly before we went to Church. I think all the playing he did really wore him out.
We had such a great time on our trip. I was excited to go home and spend time with family. The only thing that would have made the trip better would have been if Brandon was there. I have really missed my family lately. Hopefully it won't be too long before we are able to go home again.

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Last Day in Utah

The day before the kids and I flew home to Memphis (June 29), we were able to spend some time with Brandon's family. It just so happened that Brandon's brother Craig and his family were coming to Utah for vacation. Also, Brandon's parents and Alizabeth were coming to Utah for a vacation too at the same time. Brandon's sister Lorri lives in Utah, so we were able to see her and her family too. We were especially excited to see Craig and Nancy and their family since the last time we saw them was before the twins were born.

We gathered at a local park where the kids had such a great time playing together. The kids loved playing on the tennis courts (Grandma and Grandpa T. even took the kids out in the blazing heat to play tennis. Ben was in heaven), playing with water guns, and on the playground equipment. Ben and Emmy loved it when Grandma T. took time to push them in swings (they have loved swings from the very beginning and will sit in swings for a long time).

We had a yummy dinner of sandwiches, chips, and other yummy treats from Brandon's sister Lorri's garden.We had such a great time playing, talking and catching up that I didn't get very many pictures.

Below is a picture of all the grandchildren on Brandon's parents side. I think that that is the first time that all the grandchildren have been together since Brandon and I got married.LtoR bottom row: Alizabeth, Hannah, Ben, Josh, Jacob, Hyrum, Emmy, and Natalie
LtoR top row: Carson, Michael, Grandpa T., Grandma T. and Steven


Ben, Hyrum and Josh

We had such a wonderful time visiting with everyone. I just wished Brandon could have been there to spend time with his family. It was a nice way to end our trip to Utah.