The Little Things-Ashley at 3 months old

• She smiles a lot especially when I am talking to her.
• She is very vocal and makes all sort of fun sounds. Some of the sounds are like a hum.
• She rolls to her side and has rolled over once from her back to her tummy and once from her tummy to her back.She is starting to grab on to her hanging toys and tries to pull them to her mouth.
• She likes to stand up on your lap with support.
  
• She loves her binky.
• She puts her hands in her mouth and chomps.
• She is starting to drool.
• She likes to pull her head up when in her car seat.
• She would rather sit up(w/help) then lean back.
• She likes to be rocked to sleep.
• She will giggle when you tickle her under her neck and sometimes laughs when the kids are jumping around.
  
• She doesn't take very long naps during the day.
• She still wakes up once in the night and then pretty early in the morning.
• She has a cold right now and is having a harder time sleeping.
• She likes to stick her tongue out.
• She likes to wiggle and move.
• She loves to watch Luke and Katelyn play.
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• I Love My Ashley!
  

The Little Things-Katelyn at almost 2

• She has been talking so much more lately. Here are her latest words and phrases...
• "here you go" whenever she gives you something
• "he's sad" when she sees someone crying
• "I sticky" after eating anything that gets her hands dirty
  
• "you wan a kiss"
  
• "you wan a hug"
  
• "i dun know" when you ask her where something might be
• "I wan brush teeth"
  
• "I wan a tookie" (cookie)
• "uh oh she pooed" when Ashley has a stinky diaper
  
• The other day she was singing Ring Around The Rosies by herself and when it got to the part "ashes, ashes" she said "Ashley, Ashley".
• She has been a good big sister and nice to Ashley until today. She decided to hit and poke. She felt bad after when Ashley cried hard and she got a time out. She has been nice since then.
• She is a momma's girl especially when I need to pay attention to Ashley.
• If I sit next to her she always wants my arm around her. If I don't put it around her she lifts my arm and tries to do it herself.
• She loves to sing and dance. She can sing and do the actions to Popcorn Popping, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Wheels on the Bus, and Book of Mormon Stories.
• She also loves to sing I Am A Child of God; Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star; and the ABCs.
• She is starting to figure out the concept of sharing.
• (She was sharing her dolls with her sleeping sister.)
  
• She loves the TV show Hi-5 because there is lots of singing and dancing.
• She could watch Hi-5 all day long and cries for more when it ends.
• She sat and watched Hi-5 and let me french braid her hair in two braids.
• She can count to 10.
• When you ask her the color of something her first response is usually purple then blue.
• She knows the sign language for mommy, daddy, baby, cereal, milk, bath, story, ball, drink, friend, and eat. She learned all of these from the Baby Einstein Sign language DVD.
  
• She likes to mimic me...brushing teeth, putting on makeup, changing a diaper, putting on deodorant.(Here she is using her play doh tool like deodorant.)
  
• She stills sleeps with a binky and her little pink bear blanket. She is only supposed to get it in her crib, but often sneaks upstairs and gets it out of her crib.
• She has the highest pitched scream and usually lets it loose when I am not expecting it. Like in church!
  
• She used to eat everything, but has become more picky these days.
• She likes to be a helper.
• She has just started giving the best hugs.
• She loves to color and has decorated a few of our walls. She wants to use markers and gets upset when I won't let her.
• She loves to make messes.
• She loves to read books and has just started "reading" them to herself.
  

I Love My Katelyn!

The Little Things-Luke at 4 1/2 years old

• I'm not sure what character he will be from day to day. Today he was a Transformer right after breakfast and then decided he wanted to be a "Superhero kid". He could pretend all day long.(I think he may have been a Transformer on the day I took this picture or maybe it was a Superhero.)

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• He wants to do what is right, but sometimes has a hard time controlling himself.
• He loves to play computer games with his dad.
• The other day we both said "yea" at the same time and he thought it was great. He later came up to me and said, "Mom, that was a coincidence (I don't even know how to spell it.) that we both said "yea"."
• He still sleeps with his blue blanket.
• In the past year he likes to have a big pillow next to him when he is sleeping.
• He loves Honey Nut Cheerios for breakfast and "honey nut sandwiches" (peanut butter and honey) for lunch.
• He never likes what I fix for dinner and will usually complain.

(This is the type of face I get when I tell him what we are having for dinner.)

• He LOVES his baby sister and always wants to have a picture taken with her.
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• He is great at entertaining his sisters and is a big help that way.
• He can memorize really well and memorized the theme for primary.
• He wishes he could talk in the microphone every Sunday in primary or have it be his turn ALL the time.
• He loves having books read to him. He will usually pick a long book and will sit through the whole thing.
• He loves playing with friends and hates when it is time to go home.
• He loves to swing and would swing all day on the glider if it wasn't so hot outside.

• He is into Star Wars right now and wants to watch the movies every day. (This makes his dad proud.)
• He likes writing the letters of the alphabet and wants to know how to spell everything.
• All day long I hear "Mom, watch this move. Watch me do this."
• He is curious about everything and asks lots of questions. He listens to my conversations with other people and then wants to know details. I need to be careful what I say around him. :)
• He loves to earn his good boy tickets and gets so excited when he gets 10. Then he can't wait to do something extra fun or pick a new toy under $10. Recently he picked a new Transformer and has played with it a ton and even took it to bed with him.
• He is working on controlling his emotions and not whining and crying when things don't go his way.
  
• He likes to tell people that Katelyn is not a baby, she is a "tot-ler".

I Love My Luke!

Learning from Others

I can't remember how I came across this blog, but I have seen it linked on several other blogs recently. Every time I read it I am so amazed at this mother's faith, strength and the way she expresses herself. I am usually in tears after reading it.
I am learning so much from her about not taking my children for granted and to focus on the little things. In one of her posts she encouraged the readers to record the little things our children are doing right now. So over the next couple of days that is exactly what I want to do. Take the time to write down the little things, not always the cute things, but the little things each of my kids are doing. She also said to "cherish the little things." I want to do just that.

Blessing

Ashley was blessed at my parent's home while we were up in Utah. We decided to bless her in Utah at my family's reunion because all of my brothers would be there to participate. I have five brothers and I am the only girl. I realized that this was probably a once in a lifetime opportunity for all of my brothers to be there since we don't all live close to each other. Kevin's mom and his youngest brother were also able to be there. It was a special experience and Kevin gave Ashley a beautiful blessing.
And of course, I have to post some pictures...



If anyone knows how to get an almost 2 year old to smile, let me know. I do have to give Katelyn the benefit of the doubt because she was tired and sick, but I don't think she smiled in any of the pictures I took while we were in Utah.










The grandparents.







My brothers.












The uncles and grandpa.

Family Reunion in Pictures

The kids were great in the car, both to and from Utah. The older two watched movies and this sweet baby stared and smiled at her toys and slept most of the time.

We went to Hogle Zoo and the weather was in the 60s with a little rainstorm. It was crazy wearing sweatshirts and jeans in June. The kids loved the animals, but I think they loved the playground the most. My brother thought it might be fun to see what a turtle feels like and Katelyn wasn't sure about the twisty slide.
(Plus we ran into a blogging celebrity(my sister-in-law)and her family. It was a great surprise.)

This little one figured out how to suck her thumb (with a little help from grandma). I'm not so sure about this. I am pushing for the binky instead.




We had so much fun playing in grandma and grandpa's backyard. We played baseball, drew pictures with sidewalk chalk, played with bubbles, jumped on the trampoline, ate dry cereal out of a cup (Katelyn thought that was so fun), and played on the swing set. There were also some basketball games and several rounds of horse shoes. Luke and his little cousin would swing on this glider forever. Luke called him "little brother" or "little bro." for short.


We also toured the Sweets Candy Factory in Salt Lake and sported some cool hairnets. I didn't have my camera with me, but if someone in my family wants to email me one, that would be great. :) It was a fun thing to see and we loaded up on the candy, especially the salt water taffy.

The kids had a fun time (even though Katelyn doesn't appear to being having fun in the picture) playing with their cousins. Katelyn is 10 days older than her cousin she is sitting with in the stroller. Luke and his two girl cousins were all born in the same year.

Yo Gabba Gabba and Almost a Smile

Have you heard of this show? Definitely not my favorite, but every now and then we come across it and my kids love to watch it. Well, today we came across it and I let them watch while I was feeding Ashley. (Katelyn actually sat and watched and didn't get into any trouble.) Anyway, there is this green, striped monster thing with really long arms that sings a song about a party in his tummy. When he is done eating his lunch the vegetables are left on his plate crying. (I know, it is a weird show.)
Okay, step away from the show for a minute. I have really been trying to get Luke to eat more fruits and veggies. He will basically only eat bananas(sometimes), carrots, and green beans(sometimes). I always put a little of the veggie on his plate at dinner hoping he will someday like them.
So last night we had peas. I made him eat two hidden in his mashed potatoes. It was torture for him, but he finally did it. But that was it, no more peas were eaten.
Return to the show. After the party in the tummy song I thought maybe I could use this song to my advantage. This is how the conversation with Luke went...
Me: Why are the veggies crying?
Luke: Because they want to go the party in his tummy.
Me: Why do they want to go to the party?
Luke: Because they are healthy and good for us. (He definitely knows the right answer.)
Me: Do you think the peas that you didn't eat last night were sad?
Luke: Yeah
Me: Will you try to eat more veggies next time?
Luke: I don't know.
Me: Why?
Luke: Because they do not have an invitation to the party.
Me: (laughing so hard)
My plan was foiled.

She was smiling at me, but I kept missing it. This was the closest I could get, a little half-smile.