Guess How Much I Love You?

I love you 18 freshly ironed shirts.

(said Big Nutbrown Hare)

Lily Beans

I can't help but post these pictures of Lily. She is seven months old with two teeth and about four more about to break through, blonde hair growing in like crazy, and a sassy personality to boot.

Thank you, Rissa for the adorable skirt.

Preschool Graduation

On the 19th of the this month, Jace graduated from his cute Happy Hearts Preschool. Jace absolutely loved going to preschool and he especially loved his fantastic teacher, Teacher Nisha.

Having a child go to school makes you realize just how fast time passes by. As a student myself, I use to think that the school year dragged on. Now, as a mother, the school year is gone in what seems like a matter of minutes.

It has been fun to see what Jace has learned over the past year. Some of Jace's proudest accomplishments are counting to 100 by 1's, 5's, 10's, counting to 1000 by 100's, and he is now reading.

At his graduation, Bryan and I, and also some of the other parents, got a kick out of watching and listening to him. Their little graduation program consisted of them repeating the sounds of the alphabet, counting to 100, and singing three songs. Let's just say that Jace was definitely the loudest student and he kept everyone on track and led the pack in their sounds and numbers. Bryan called him the little Valedictorian.

Jace, you are such a smart little man and you amaze me at your ability to learn and absorb new information. I am so grateful that you love to learn and I hope you carry that with you throughout the rest of your life. I thoroughly enjoy being your mother and you challenge me every day with your questions and inquisitiveness. I love you.

Cole's Third Birthday

On April 28, Cole celebrated his third birthday. When he woke up and ran out to see what his presents were, he wasn't too excited. He woke up to this:

And as he saw it he asked in a tone of complete disgust, "A bicycle?" It was as if he was saying, "Why the crap did you get me a bicycle?" When I asked him what he wished he would have gotten instead he said, "Where's my dragon cake?"

(You see, the cake was a big decision. Every year for their birthdays I make the boys whatever kind of theme cake they want. This year, since Cole loves to do whatever Jace does, he said he wanted a Yoda cake. If it wasn't going to be a Yoda cake he would change his mind to whatever other kind of cake Jace would suggest. So I finally got him to decide on his own what kind of cake he wanted and he chose a dragon cake because he really loved the "How To Train Your Dragon" movie.)

Well, he eventually warmed up to the bicycle and has loved riding it outside - on the few days it's been warm -and also in the basement.

For a fun activity that day, he chose to go to Kangaroo Zoo and McDonalds for lunch. We then had dinner at home with Grandma Pam and Papa Gene and were able to end the night with the long awaited Dragon Cake.

Cole, you are something else. My feelings for you can go from one end of the spectrum to the other in a matter of seconds: totally in love with you to then wanting to pull my hair out! You can look at me with those deep set eyes framed by those squishy cheeks and curly blonde hair and tell me "Mom, I love you too,"and absolutely melt my heart. Then you have this air of defiance and do things just because you know I don't want you to. Then, when I'm trying to talk to you about not doing those things, you raise your nose in the air and stomp away from me swinging your little bum from side to side. Or another reaction when I catch you doing something naughty is to turn your head to the side, close your eyes, raise your nose in the air, and say "No!" in a snappy little tone.

You have so many sides to you: you are funny and mischeivous; loving and defiant; sweet and sassy; soft spoken and LOUD; cuddly and rough.

You are so completely full of energy and spunk and love to be a rough and tumble little guy. You love to box, sword fight, jump, run, and yell. I don't believe you quite know your own strength and you have a hard time containing it. You are constantly falling but you never let it keep you down for long. You usually laugh and hop right back up and start running again.

You love your brother so much and love to play with him and cry and beg for him when he leaves to play with other friends. You are adventurous and not afraid to try new things. You easily got on that new bicycle of yours and took off in a matter of minutes. You just want to go and do - no matter what it is - and you usually succeed quite easily at any new physical challenge.

I have been amazed at the level of comprehension you have developed just this past month. At scripture time and Family Home Evening I wasn't quite sure you had been listening, but now you want to listen and learn and have come to understand so many new things.

So far I believe you are the one that I feel the need to protect the most. I think it is your trusting nature and your inquisitiveness that makes me nervous. I have a feeling that there are going to be many challenges in your life that you will have to face and I don't want you to have to go through them, so I have this urge to keep you young and safe.

I can see your older brother growing up so fast and changing so much and I don't want that to happen to you yet. I feel like I have already lost these last couple of years with you because you have grown up so quickly with an older sibling to follow and imitate and try to be just as old as. With Jace being the oldest I was always ready for him to go on to the next stage and see what he could do and learn. But with you, I want you to stay young. I don't want to lose that "babyness" in you. I want to always have that little boy that begs me to be his "snuggle bunny" and just to hold him.

I will always be here to be your snuggle bunny when you're having a bad day. Because if your day starts off rough and you're grouchy and just plain having a hard time, that's what we do: we snuggle. And it makes all the difference in the world.

I love you so much,

Mom