life

Ethan told me after he went to the bathroom that his prize for going potty was to play in the sink water.  I let him turn the faucet on just a dribble and left to play with Rayen.  After a while, I heard water splashing onto the floor, so I came back to see what he was doing.  He had plugged the sink drain and filled the basin, taken off all his clothes, and sat in the sink, spilling water over the edges.

Ry was playing on the little toy marimba.  She clicked the sticks together, "one, two, three!" and then started playing a song.

We were heading home from my parents' house one night at bedtime.  Ethan said he was hungry, but I told him it was bedtime and we were just driving home.  He was quite for a few minutes, then announced, "Next stop: In-N-Out!"

I noticed Rayen using her plastic Ariel doll's head to dig a hole in the dirt. She did this until she realized Ariel's hard plastic skirt was a better tool.

Ry came up to me and said, "I Ci'rella. (sigh) Prince. Dreams true!"

Rayen is always singing.  Only recently have I been able to understand the words to her songs.  Recently she sang, "Prince sleeping. Dancing, dancing. Ci'rella, where'd you go? I have a dream! Dreams true. Prince dancing. Car wash, car wash."

I overheard Rayen playing with her Cinderella and Ariel dolls, "Hi, Ariel! How you doing? Pretty dress!"

A few days later, this time she's playing with Cinderella and a T-Rex. Cinderella says, "Ah! Di'saur!" The T-Rex says, "Rarrr!" (T-Rex bites Cinderella's head) Cinderella responds, "No! S'op eating me!"

Recently, on our way to church, Ethan told me, "Momma, we better hurry! We're really late and all the kids are going to leave!"

I say a family prayer with the kids every night.  Last week, Ethan said, "Momma, I'm going to say the family prayer tonight. Dear Heavenly Father: Thank you for this beautiful day. Please bless that I had a fun birthday at Rob's and at Daddy's. Please bless us to sleep well. Please bless that we could go to two Monster Jams and see Gravedigger and all the other Monster Trucks. Please bless us to have good dreams and to feel safe in our nice home. Please bless us to be happy. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen."

Rayen was on the potty and I said, "Let's listen for the pee!" She held her little hand up to her ear and called, "Hello, pee? Whereaaoo?"

Rayen said, "Have two Mommas!" I said, "Really? Who's your other Momma?" She stuck out her tummy and matriarchicly patted her own chest, nodding solemnly.

In the bath, Rayen told Ethan, "I eat a whale!" He responded, "No, Rayen; whales are pretty big." She opened her mouth as wide as she could, "Ahhh!" Then apparently she changed her mind. She blew water at me, saying, "I whale!"

Brett buys the kids glow-in-the-dark wands every once in a while.  Rayen calls them "ba-boo" (Bibbity-bobbity-boo, right?)  I noticed her wandering around the house looking and calling, "Ba-boo? Whereaaooo?"

I told Ethan he could play in the puddles in our back yard, as long as he didn't get his clothes wet.  After a few minutes, I noticed him sitting naked in the middle of the biggest puddle.  Sneaky.

Dad gave us bird feeders for Christmas.  Alice (the cat) loves them.  One day I noticed her sitting directly under one of the feeders.

When I came outside a bit later, I noticed her in the tree above the feeders.

I wasn't able to get a picture of the last stage, but when I came out the last time, she was sitting behind the tree, peering around the trunk at the bird feeders.

 

i love my babies

I walked by our shoe shelf and noticed Rayen had placed her Ken doll's shoes neatly next to her own.

Ry was playing with her Cinderella and Prince dolls and they were dancing.  Then Ry has 'Rella (as Rayen calls her) look around and say, "Oh no! My s'ipper! Whereaooo s'ipper?"

We spent a couple days watching the movie Brave over and over.  A few days later, when I was disciplining Ethan, he recited the dialogue from Brave when Merida is telling off her mother, "You walk around telling me what to do, what not to do! Trying to make me be like you!"

Rayen always demands, "Hand!" when she's walking down stairs.  I heard her talking to her Prince doll and as she was coming down the stairs, she told him, "Hand!" and walked down holding the little doll hand.

I took Ethan to Monster Jam recently.  When the announcer yelled "Put your hands together!", Ethan obediently clasped his little hands like he was praying.

After Monster Jam, Ethan came home and told Rayen (about one hundred times), "Rayen, did you hear that Gravedigger was there!?"

One morning, as we were getting ready for church, Ethan protested, "But we're too sick to go to church!" (big fake coughs)

Ethan loves onions on his cheeseburgers.

Warning:  This next quote is another example of how my standards have lowered, as Chris pointed out to me recently.
Rayen let out a little toot and said, "I burp! See?" (sticking out her bottom)

Ethan had a little squirting bath toy.  He tried to squirt Rayen, but ended up squirting himself in the face instead.  I told him that is called a backfire.  He responded "No, it was a bath-fire!" and proceeded to laugh at his joke.

We potty trained this past weekend.  I told Ethan, "We're not going anywhere until we've got the toilet mastered." His response, "But we don't have a toilet master, so let's go to Toys R Us and buy it!"

Ethan working the system: Each time he needed to go to the bathroom, he would pee about one teaspoon, wash his hands and get a prize, then go back and pee another few drops, get another prize, going as many separate times as he could.

I got Ethan a Monster truck DVD as a reward for pooping in the toilet.  After the first viewing, Rayen started yelling the monster trucks' names with Ethan, "'Rave 'Igger!"

We went to In-N-Out and as we left, I put Ethan's fries on top of the car while I put him in his seat.  Rayen yelled, "Hi, Bird!" and I noticed that there were four seagulls on the car, eating Ethan's fries.

Rayen counted to eight last night!

more life

I was on the phone for a short time.  After I hung up, Ethan came and told me "I put soap in the fridge water!"  I hurried down to the kitchen and he had taken the huge Costco sized jug of soap and set it upside-down in the Brita.

Ry came to sit on my lap while I was finishing my lunch.  We bumped heads because she leaned in to eat the same bite I was planning on eating.

We pulled up to Amy's apartment building to pick up Chris.  When Rayen noticed where we were she said, "Amy's house! Hi, J-son, hi Amy, hi Dex."

Ethan asked me recently, "Momma, why do people laugh when I say, 'I would be most grateful!'?"

Ethan had a huge sobbing crisis last week.  I slowly pieced together why he was shrieking: "I'm not a genius anymore because I lost all my powers in the bath because of all the water hitting me with little pokes and I lost all my coolness power too!" The next morning, as he was doing math puzzles he exclaimed, "I saved my life! Now I just have genius powers again!"

We were teasing Rob about his muscly chest, saying he had huge pecs.  Ethan shouted, "Yeah, like Ariel's dad!"

When I picked up the kids from Brett's house today, Ethan was telling me about his day, "The first thing I saw in Daddy's hand was a surprise for me!"

kidisms

Ethan was telling me that his favorite cars are Subarus and that his daddy bought a Subaru because Ethan loves them so much.  I said, "Your daddy loves you so much." Ethan said, "I love him. And I love his Subaru very much!"

We tried potty training again, with Rayen participating this time.  She dumped all the potty award stickers on the floor and peed on them.  Not exactly, Ry.

Ethan and I were discussing a new haircut for him.  He said, "I want no hair like Dave. And Charlie Brown has no hair, too!"

I recently came across Ethan using his toothbrush to clean the wheels of his toy monster trucks.

Ethan was trying to convince me to let him sleep with me by saying, "Mommy, I'm not going to giggle in your bed."

Rayen was having a tantrum and started to bang her head on the floor, but noticed it was too hard where she was, so she scooted over so that her head was on a softer place then continued the tantrum.

During our ward Christmas party, a nativity was performed.  Ethan asked, "Is baby Jesus here?"

Ry found the bath letter 'I' and said, "bug!" (We have an alphabet puzzle that uses 'I' for 'insect'.  Clever connections!)

Ethan fell out of his bunk bed and was complaining about his back.  Ry followed him around, looking for sympathy for herself, lifting her shirt and saying "button hurts."

Ethanisms; Rayenisms

Ethan was doing some weird balancing thing in the hot tub recently.  He asked me, "Do you want to hear the science of it?"  I said yes, and he proceeded to explain where he was placing his feet and hands so that he could do the trick.

Ethan was playing with one of Johnathan's bats and said, "You're the baseball, Ry!"

Rob has been caring for my kids while I'm at work.  The other day when I was home (Rob wasn't with us), Ry broke something and automatically shouted, "Rob! Help!"

Ethan was playing with a necklace, laying it in a loop.  He asked, "Does this look like a car or a banana?"

Rayen gargled her Sacrament water a few weeks ago.  (She hasn't done it since, keeping my fingers crossed that it's not going to be a habit.)

When we were driving to my parents' house, we turned up the hill and Ethan exclaimed, "We're on a footleg!"  (We'd been talking geography and terrain recently and I taught him about foothills.)

Ry came downstairs without her pants, but she had a giant bulge in the front of her onesie. I asked her what she had in her shirt and she said, "No! Nothing!" Every time she squatted down, a little plastic train would fall out of her bottom.

Ry was calling her broccoli something funny at dinner, so I asked "What did you call your broccoli?" Then she held her hand up to her ear and said, "Hewo? Brocci? Hewo?"

Ethan woke up from a nap and said, "Oh! We're going to see some more moose tonight on our new adventure up the canyon!"

We were playing around and Ethan said, "Oh, no! Momma and Rayen are being monsters! What am I going to do about these monsters?!"

Several months ago, Ethan asked me for some graham crackers.  I gave him one and he said, "Nononononono.  I want three (holding up his little fingers) graham crackers.  I need two more."  I gave him another one and he said, "Now one more."

Catchup photos

Christmastime!

I'm trying blogging from my phone.
We started decorating for Christmas today: the outside lights and the kids' room. I ordered a "fresh cut Christmas tree" that we will be able to pick up next week, and I'll finish decorating throughout the week. The kids decorated the little tree in their room. Ethan only threw two of my glass ball ornaments at the wall during the process, shattering them. And Ry only ate one of my ancient (from our first married Christmas) decorative candy canes. I couldn't get mad because I ate all of my mom's ancient candy canes when I was little. However, she ate it Rayen style (meaning she got half of it stuck in her hair).
We love Christmas!

too many social networking opportunities

(Corrected grammar on the title...that's what I get for editing without proofreading.)

I'm figuring out the fastest and easiest ways to keep my friends and family informed about what's going on in our lives. There is so much stuff out there it's easy to get bogged down with posting and blogging, etc.

We've been watching a lot of "Thomas" lately.  That show is my favorite!  The show's values just ring true to my heart.  The highest compliment is to be Really Useful, and the worst thing possible is to cause Confusion and Delay.  Sir Topham Hat even said to one of the engines, "Really Useful Engines don't argue."  Ha.  I love it!

I feel like I haven't expressed any of my own thoughts for a while.  I'm always just thinking about how cute my kids are.  They have more interesting and funny things to say than I do.  Honestly, I'm enjoying not having any really big goals right now.  I feel like I have worked hard to get to this place and now I can just enjoy my life.

I've been thinking a lot about my health lately.  I don't necessarily want to lose weight (although that would be a nice by-product), but I do want to feel more healthy.  My work causes my arms and wrists to ache all the time, I don't eat very healthy and I think that makes me feel more tired and fatigued than I should be.  However, I have a strong tendency to rebel against dieting.  I have all these grand, life-changing ideas, but when I really think about it I feel strongly that I just need to find balance.  Moderation. So that is my big goal in every aspect of my life.

I need to blog like this more often.  Or start writing in my journal again.  It helps me to organize my thoughts.

Now for the babies!  Here are a few recent pictures that I haven't posted on facebook.  I have started doing most of my kid show-and-tell there: pictures, videos, and funny sayings.

Here's Rayen after eating an Oreo.

Race car shoppers!

I was trying to get Ethan to hold still for a photo.  He kept running behind me to look at the picture (that I hadn't had a chance to take, yet).

We got him some puddle hopping Wellingtons. His pants only got a little bit wet and he was doing some big splashes! 

 Rayen eating rocks and dirt, as usual.

I need to get the kids outside more often, especially on these beautiful days.  It's better for everyone.

the sweetest and the best

I've been posting all my pictures straight to facebook since I joined up a week or so ago.  It's so easy to upload photos from my phone camera to facebook and it takes so long to post them to the blog.  When I get the big camera out, I'll post those photos here. For now, I'll just post all the funny/fun things the kids are doing.

Ethan - Something's hurting me. I need some medicine!
Me - Where is it hurting?
Ethan - Um...I'm sick! I need some medicine!

Ethan - (calling down the stairs) Are you doing ok?
Me - Yep, I'm just taking stuff down to the basement to clean up the house.
Ethan - Oh...so that Amy and Jamison can come in the house!

Ethan - Ow! Something's hurting me in my tummy! Maybe it's a hiccup.

Ethan (after a loud high pitched shriek) - What was that!? It was me?

Ethan -  My ears itch! I need Ear-tips!

Recently Brett and I were talking about something.  We weren't arguing, but the conversation was a bit excited.  Ethan ran up between us with a picture of Jesus and yelled, "I LOVE JESUS!"

(I've been noticing Ethan's reaction to other people more often lately.  He is very sensitive to what is going on around him.  I'm realizing that I need to be so careful with my emotions and what I say around him, because it affects him so much.)

Whenever Ethan sees his reflection or his shadow lately, he comments "My hair looks funny like Daddy's!"

He's grown several inches taller in the last month or so.  It's funny to see him running around in his too short pants.

I sing songs to the babies before bed at night.  It feels like neither of them are listening, because they both like to read books while I sing.  But recently I wasn't paying attention to the songs and I sang one wrong word.  Ethan was labeling pictures in his animal book but surprised me by correcting me, without taking his eyes off his book and barely missing a beat in his naming of the animals.  Sweet little bossy multitasker.

Rayen pushes out her tummy when I put a clean diaper on her.  She reminds me of a horse puffing out it's stomach before one tightens the saddle straps. She doesn't want a too tight diaper, I guess!

Rayen has wanted to cuddle sleep the last few nights again.  She cries piteously when I put her in her bed, but as soon as I pick her up she snuggles down on my shoulder and falls asleep instantly.  I notice she tends to be more clingy when I have plans for after she's in bed.  She senses that I'm not focused on bedtime, I'm thinking about what I'm going to do next.  She senses it even if she's asleep, as well.  Once I was nursing her for a nap.  She was done eating and had fallen asleep.  I was shifting my weight to stand up and put her in her bed and she reached up her little hand and grabbed onto my shirt in a death grip. 

I close the gate at the top of the stairs after the bath, so that Rayen won't fall down the stairs.  Recently she was standing next to the gate, banging on it.  Ethan was at the sink brushing his teeth.  He turned out to her and yelled, "Rayen, NO!"  She turned around to look at him and giggled, rattling the gate again. 

Rayen came over to Ethan and sat right next to him, leaning on him to look at his toys.  He said, "I love you too, Rayen. And I love Amy. And I love Johhun and Colette and Rob!"

featuring rayen (and some farm pics)

Last night, Ethan and I were singing the alphabet song (I was signing it too) and Rayen started singing and moving her fingers like she was signing with me.

Her new trick is to wave her little hands and say "bye-bye!" I'll work on getting a video of the waving and the alphabet song, but it's hard to record the babies when they're climbing all over me. Maybe we can get Brett to record it some night.

I've been in some kind of funk the past week (or month--you'll have to ask Brett how long it's actually been). It's so weird because I don't feel sick, but I am so exhausted that all I can do is come home and sit on the couch until nap time, then I pass out on the bed while the kids sleep. I think it's because I'm nursing. It is so interesting to me how much energy nursing requires.

Rayen is a cuddle-bug. She needs a certain amount of snuggle time every day, or she's not happy. And if she doesn't get all the cuddling done during the day, then she's up at night wanting it. That happened last night. She woke up at 12:30 and wouldn't let me put her down in bed again until 2:30. She didn't need to nurse, she just wanted me to hold her and snuggle under the blanket with her. I'm mindfully enjoying those moments (hours) with her. She's such a sweetie.

Ethan, Rayen, Amy, and I went down to the farm to help with the apple pressing. It was a lot of fun! It was nice to see the family. Amy played with the kids while I cut apples. It was nice for both of us--I felt productive and industrious and Amy got to snuggle with Rayen and listen to Ethan's stories!