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

Why Do I Torture Myself?

Today I had to go out shopping. And I had to take all 3 kids. It was unavoidable because tomorrow is Bryan's birthday and I needed to finish up some birthday shopping. And I was dreading this shopping trip it to say the least.

I have been very spoiled for the last three months, because whenever I really needed to go out shopping I would just go and leave all of the kids home with Bryan. See, unemployment has some benefits to it - NO SHOPPING WITH KIDS

Anyway, we get going and store #1 was fine. No problems and they were pretty well behaved. Just 100 questions or so from Jace.

Store #2 was Old Navy. Things were fine, the boys received suckers from a worker and they were just sitting on the base of a clothing rack, sucking away and being quiet. And then I hear Cole say, "Mom, my thumb's stuck." Old Navy has display racks made from galvanized metal with holes in them that look like the pole of a STOP sign. Get it? Well, Cole decided to stick his thumb in there because of course it's a perfect fit.

I immediately told him not to pull on it because I actually know someone who had a son that did the exact same thing at an Old Navy, and it cut his thumb all up and he had to get stitches. So I grabbed my lotion out of my purse and started rubbing it around his little thumb and pulling gently. It wasn't coming and he started screaming. I tried to remain calm but I was getting slightly panicked because I couldn't get it out. I flagged down a worker for some help and was asking her for any other ideas when luckily his thumb came out. Thank goodness it wasn't cut. Cole was upset and his thumb was red and irritated, but he was fine.Seriously, though?

Okay Old Navy, it's time for some new clothing racks WITHOUT toddler sized finger holes.

Then it was on to store #3 (I know, I'm pushing it at this point). My anxiety and stress level has raised considerably from store two to store three. In store #3 the boys are wandering off, chasing each other around the clothing racks, punching, and wrestling in the store. How many times do I have to ask them to stay by me and to keep their hands to themselves? Ugh.

We then traveled home took some naps and then went back out to one more store because I still didn't find what I needed for Bryan's birthday. At this store of course Jace has to use the bathroom so I sent him into the bathroom and told him to do his thing. Well, about 8 minutes later he's still not done and the toilet is flushing over and over and over. The door is locked and who knows what's going on in there? I end up having to go in there to help him finish up and I stress about that because that then leaves the other two out in the hallway by themselves and we already know what Cole's done today when I wasn't looking.

Blah, blah, blah, right? Shopping with all of the kids is not my idea of fun and it does not show off my best mothering skills. I use to be great at- calm, collected, having fun with the kids -when the boys were younger, but throw in another kiddo and two older boys and things change, and not for the better.

And to cap off the day, at dinner Jace told Bryan, "We got you some awesome shirts, but I'm not going to tell you what they are." Then when we were kneeling down for family prayers Jace prayed, "Grateful that we could buy Dad clothes for his birthday."

Awesome. Thanks, Bud.

6 Months Old

Per requests - and really just because I need to - here is a little update on Baby Lily.

Unbelievable as it may be, she is now 6 months old! It is unfathomable how fast time goes by and how much she has grown. She still remains to be an amazing baby and incredibly easy. Just like she has since she was eight weeks old, she still sleeps 12 hours a night. I can simply lay her in her crib at nap and bedtime and she will turn to her right side, suck her thumb, and put herself to sleep.

The person that makes her laugh the most is Jace. She thinks Jace is the funniest person ever and laughs so easily when he talks to her and sings, "Hi, Happy Girrrrrrl!" She loves to talk and squeal and make herself known. I think she knows she has to remind us that she is part of our family because she is so easy and quiet at times we kind of forget she's around.

I am finally starting to become more consistent in feeding her solids. With the third child I have become lazy and busy with other children that I have not pushed feeding her solids. Nursing her is just so much easier and faster than spoon feeding her a whole jar of food. From what I do feed her, she is a great eater and seems to like everything. Maybe she won't be a picky eater and can be Bryan's little egg-liking buddy.

Lily is now 14.9 lbs (25%) and 25 inches long (50%). She still is a little peanut to me and I have a hard time realizing that she really is 6 months old. She is rolling all over the place and is getting close to sitting up. She has one bottom tooth in and the second one is close to coming through as well. She will lay on the ground playing with toys or sit in her bouncer or saucer and entertain herself until she is tired.

I simply adore Lily and love the joy and happiness she brings into our family's life. She is a ray of sunshine and her gummy smile puts all of us in a better mood. We are so blessed to have her as part of the family.

Daddy's Boy

Cole is a "Daddy's Boy." Plain and simple. He cries and throws incredible fits when Bryan has to leave the house for work or meetings. When he's hurt or upset he runs to dad. If Bryan scolds or disciplines him, that doesn't matter; he turns around and runs right into Bryan's arms. Like I said, a daddy's boy.

However, lately I've been questioning this because there are certain pieces of evidence that make wonder differently.

If he is a daddy's boy, why is it me that he decides to run and puke on - for this has happened on two separate occasions. The first time he was talking to Bryan and told him he didn't feel well and Cole said he wanted me. He came over to me, sat on my lap and puked all over me: down my shirt, in my lap, all over our friend's couch. The second time was last week when Cole had been throwing up in the night. I put him in bed with Bryan so Bryan could run him to the bathroom if needed to throw up, and I slept on the couch because I, myself, was sick. Well, shortly after this arrangement Cole wandered into the family room looking for me and started gagging. As I scooped him up in my arms and ran him to the sink, half of his puke ended up in my hair and on my clothes.

Second piece of evidence: if he's such a daddy's boy then why is it me that he cries out for in the middle of the night when he has wet his bed and he needs to be bathed and cleaned up? Just last night Bryan woke me up and said, "Cole's crying for you." What did I do? I immediately went in to his room to check for a wet bed/pants. Yup, he wet the bed. Lucky me. And how did I know the bed would be wet? Because he only cries out for me in the middle of the night when he has an accident.

So I'm thinking, maybe this whole daddy's boy thing is just a ruse Cole is playing on Bryan to make him feel better. Because in all truth, I know Cole's heart ...puke.... and other bodily fluids....truly belongs to me.

Five Years Old? Already?

I'm having a hard time comprehending that I now have a child that is five years old. Five is big milestone for my little man to hit and I'm not sure I like it. It is so sad to look at past pictures and see how cute and little he was and realize that time has gone so fast. He even looks so much older. Yesterday I registered him for kindergarten and I was having some anxiety. My heart was panicking and it didn't want to send my little boy off to meet the big, bad ugly world. Can't I just keep him in the nice, naive little bubble I've been growing him in forever?

On his actual birthday he went to preschool and then after we celebrated with his cousins at Pirate Island. It is basically a pirate themed Chucky Cheese. It's a cute place and the kids loved it and had a great time. Then we came home and relaxed and Jace got his birthday wish of playing Star Wars Lego with his dad. For his birthday dinner he chose sweet and sour chicken and fried rice. It must be his favorite because I have never seen that boy finish his dinner so fast. Dinner time was a refreshing change.

On Saturday, 20th, we celebrated his birthday with his very first friend party. Any guesses what the theme was? Star Wars, of course! He had 3 friends and two cousins come and it was quite the party.

We started the party off with homemade pizza and breadsticks.

Next we jumped into the games and played Pin the Ears on Yoda

We broke a Darth Vader pinata with light sabers. The darn thing broke on the second kid who gave it the first good whack! Ah well, the kids only care about the candy anyway.

We then moved on to Jedi training with their own light sabers. The light sabers were made out of foam pipe insulators wrapped in colored duct tape.

Next was a few rounds of "Master says..." (Simon says)

We then ended to party with Yoda cake and Jace's favorite, mint chocolate chip ice cream.

I wish I would have done these light saber cupcakes for the party instead of the Yoda cake. I made these for the Sunday birthday dinner at my parents. These cupcakes turned out much cuter.

Just to conclude, here are some facts about Jace as he has turned five.

favorite color: blue

favorite food: pizza and mint chocolate ice cream

favorite book: Peter Pan

things he likes to do: play the wii, play with friends, color,

his friends are: Evan, Pierce, Austin, Rusty

Star Wars is his obsession right now and he is really enjoying learning how to read

Jace, we love you so much and enjoy your zest for life and the humor you bring to our family!

Memorable Missionary Moments

Tonight we had the opportunity to have the missionaries over for dinner. I wondered how the boys would do having the missionaries here and how they would behave. Well, they didn't disappoint. Here are a few of the night's moments.

• When the missionaries arrived the boys decided to "show off" and they started running around the house playing their various games. They ran over to the kitchen and in unison put their hands out and then threw them into the air as they yelled, "Power Rangers to the RESCUE!" (The missionaries were impressed with their impromptu unity.)
• Cole introduced himself as Baby Jaguar (from Go Diego, Go), then he reintroduced himself as Anakin, and then again introduced himself as Darth Vader. Awesome.
• Cole had to go potty during dinner (he is officially potty trained, YIPEE!) and when he was done he came running out of the bathroom leaving his pants in the bathroom and waving his underwear in the air. Double Awesome.
• Jace was pretending to be shy, but when he did decide to talk the only thing Jace would talk about was Star Wars and he decided to quiz the Elders on their Star Wars knowledge. Good thing both of them actually like Star Wars and actually knew what he was talking about.
• And finally....both of Elders were Hispanic and Cole said to Bryan, "Dad, I want the Black Guy and the Brown Guy to stay forever."

So there you have it. You couldn't ask for a more spiritual night with the missionaries in our home.