Talking

Our bunny is doing well... well loved, well fed, well petted, and well talked to. Mhari just loves Rosey! She comes over to her cage (which is inside until the weather is a bit warmer) and says "Hi Rosey!" Well, in baby talk anyway. It was really cute the first time she said it. I wasn't sure that's what she said, but yup it was and she says it all the time. Again, you might not understand her, but that's what she's saying.

 Mhari also discovered how to open the bunny cage today. She enjoyed playing in the food and trying to get Rosey. So fun to see kids learn... somethings.
Rosey loves to be petted and has really done well with the kids.  That's the fun bunny and talking baby update.

Are you smarter than a 5 year old?

The birthday mask puzzle... any parent should be able to assemble a simple party hat/mask right? Well, we tried and did got each separate part done, but could not figure out how to get it to fit together. I figured it was missing something, or we just weren't that smart, but I was going with the first one.




I had put the hat in the recycle so that way my son wouldn't keep bringing it back to be fixed, when that obviously wasn't going to happen.

A few hours later Grant came in wearing the party mask! I was quite shocked. I had him take it off and show me how he did it. I'm still surprised the way it works. I must say I was also curious if he had done it right and what strange way he could get this thing to work.
Nope, he did it right and it looked good on him too. The string is how the two pieces stay together in case you wanted to know (I hadn't thought of that because usually the string goes around the head on things like that). Then it just rests on his ears like glasses would. Such a smart boy!
And the answer is... No, we are not smarter than a 5 year old :).




This was Grant's first Chuck E Cheese birthday party (happy birthday Adam) and Daddy went with him. I think he had a great time and he won enough tickets to bring home little rubber lizards that he shared with his brother and sister. That was the best souvenir... besides the candy, cup, and whistle :).


Such cute boys!

Sickies 'n Stuff

Sunday night Talmage's tummy wasn't feeling very well. He threw up and slept with a bowl by him and had to use it a few times, poor thing.

He was feeling better the next day so that was helpful. It made church interesting taking turns with Jeff attending our classes.

The next day Sandra decided it was her turn. Her sickness lasted a bit longer, but she is recovering well today. She's been in her pajamas for 2 days now. I don't enjoy sick kids, but it makes me appreciate them not being sick so much more!

Here is Sandra with her first pig tails since the hair cutting trauma in Oct. (This is also why her hair is so bad in the previous photo, those pig tails make for bad bed head!) Her hair is recovering well. She is a cutie and loved getting her hair done again! Maybe in a few more months her hair will be normal length again.

That's our life these days . . . getting better :)

Up do's

For mutual last night the YW were learning how to do up do's (when girls put their hair up for fancy occasions). Jeff was around and so he was practiced on. I don't know if they are trying to tell him that his original hairstyle isn't "hip" or if they just had fun doing a guys hair.

You can't tell so well from the photo, but it's like a fro hawk (seriously I don't know how to say these things let spell them) and it's coming strait to the front and sticking out in front. It isn't bad and he looks very "in". Just not the man I married :). We both agreed that it's a bit too punk for him. When he took off his tie and unbuttoned top button I had to take a picture because it fit too well with the hair style.

Just a side comment on the whole hairstyle thing... Jeff's always looked young and continues to get comments on it, but with this hairstyle I swear he could pass for 17! That just leaves me wondering how old I look.

I'm glad he's a good sport and will let the young women use him as a model (he has also had a facial from them in the past)! He's a great husband and father and we are also so proud of him for his hard work in school thus far!

family names

One year during girls camp we painted our names for one of the crafts. I really loved the wood names and how they were personal and cute the way they hung on the wall. I always wanted to do my family names the same way.

This is how I decorated mine :). It has faded a bit with time, but it has hung on my wall ever since and was waiting for my hunny's name to be beside it.

Last year we decided to do the names for our kids and Jeff and then also for the families we had for Christmas (Jeff's brother's family and my sister's family). We modified the pattern and got them cut out. I also had a baby last Dec which made some of our projects harder to accomplish. We got the other names done, but our family names were never finished. Well, it's another Christmas and this was on the list again (finish cutting them out and put together).

Jeff got busy on his time off and finished up the names! We gave them as just wood block letters so the kids could help pick their colors and paint them too.
We finished painting them when we got back into town. Jeff decided to try to hang them sideways instead of up and down like the previous names. They turned out well, but now my name doesn't match. Jeff figured he'll just make me a new name so we can match again :).

This is how they turned out :).



This is what Mhari's looks like on her wall. (The other bedroom has white walls still so it's not nearly as pretty to look at :)).


I like the way they turned out. The kids like their names and they each hang by their bed. It was a good project and I hope they enjoy having their names for as long as I have liked mine! (It will be fun to do my name again too, someday.)

Smart kids wear glasses

Jeff and I both wear glasses/contacts so we were expecting the day to come for our kids to need them, just not this soon. Talmage is in Kindergarten and had been referred by the nurse to get his eyes checked (we suspected prior to this). We went this last week and sure enough he needed glasses. I guess he has a bad astigmatism in both eyes. Poor guy. He didn't want to get glasses either. He did well and liked the ones we decided on though. The store said it would be about a week for the glasses, but two days later they called saying they were ready! Hooray! Friday was his first day at school with glasses. The kids had been told he was getting glasses and everyone was excited for him (and some wanted their own).

He can see things so much better now. It's funny the things he's pointing out that he can see now (like our popcorn ceiling).

When he first put on the one's with his prescription he said he looked like Jonathan (one of his cousins, also has glasses). I thought it was funny.

Maybe this is just a sign that Talmage is just so smart he needed the glasses to go along with his intelligence :). I think he looks great with them!

At the glasses store Grant and Sandra both wanted some (of course they did, what little sibling doesn't want what the older one gets to do). We let them try some on and they both looked pretty good too. I wish I had brought the camera. Sandra was really cute in hers. I'm sure by the time it's their turn they will have figured out it's not such an exciting thing to wear glasses. Oh well.

We get the comments that Talmage and Grant look like twins a lot. Talmage even had classmates mention it. Since then he doesn't like to look like Grant. They got matching pj's for Christmas and Talmage didn't like them because he didn't want to look like a twin. Now with the glasses maybe there will be less confusion. Even they eye doc came out and almost had Grant go back for the reexamination after Talmage's eyes were dilated. Funny.

I know this is getting long, but these are important events :). Mhari has her first piggy tails! I noticed last week that her one pig tail was looking pretty thick and wondered if I could turn it into two. I tried today so I could practice before church tomorrow. I think she's so cute! I know it's hard to see in this photo...

but here it is from the back. At lest I can put one of my girls' hair in pig tails, even if it is the baby. Sandra's hair is growing out well, but will be short for sometime I'm afraid. Maybe I'll start doing baby pig tails for her too :).

The great blog challenge!

So here are the updates I've been neglecting (I'm sure there's more, but this will do).
Here is our new bunny that was part of our Christmas. She was named Biscuit, but with the kids influence we have changed her name to Rosey. She is cute. She was inside so she is adjusting to living outside (in a hutch, the one she was in when inside). She likes to go on walks...

Isn't she cute :)

Jeff is our bunny expert so he has gotten to deal with the scared bunny and help her adjust to us and being outside. He is doing great with her and she will let us pet her too.

Here's Jeff the first night we had her. The kids were trying to keep their distance so they didn't scare her more than she already was.

Inside her hutch. We added towels for bedding and she seems to like her home. She even got tired on her walk today and went back into the hutch on her own. The boys really like walking her! I hope this is a good way to help them learn some responsibility. They really wanted an animal so now it's up to them to take care of her.

Either way I think she's sweet :)

5 at last!

Grant is finally 5. His birthday was while we on vacation so he got to celebrate at Grandma's house. He asked for a pink cake with strawberries. I don't know why my boys like pink cakes, maybe they take after their father (though he just likes the pink frosting).

Before our trip Grant had been out with Jeff and saw this motorcycle at the store and told his Daddy that he liked it. Well, Jeff decided it would be fun to surprise him with it so he bought it (later).

He also really enjoyed the dinosaurs that Grandma and Grandpa gave him as well as the pinball game from Grandma Whitmer.

Such a big boy!

Here he is later that night. He just climbed right up on top of Jeff's shoulders. He is such an agile kid! He loves his daddy too (and his mommy)! We love his creative mind and his silly laughter! He is a blessing to our family!

Vacation Fun!

We had a fun trip and enjoyed seeing family and trying to do fun things. Jeff tried to stay busy with projects for his brothers and dad and I tried to visit and see people. I didn't get to see everyone, but projects got done and visits were made. It seems so short and so long all at the same time. I will share some highlights and some photos that correlate and then there is a slide show, yep, more photos!

I had a great time going back to our old ward. There are lots of new faces, but lots of the same ones too. It is nice to feel welcome even when we haven't lived there in 2 1/2 years. The kids did great going to primary and nursery too.
I also had a great time visiting with the girls in my family. We did a girls night at my sister's house and had a great time just chatting. Games would get in the way of talking right :). It's not often we make time to spend hanging out so I'm glad there were as many of us together as there were.
There were really so many memories for me... teasing Leann, chatting with Tiffany, shopping with Michelle (wish I had bought that cute dress!), temple trip, chatting with Jeff's parents, pom poms, seeing my children have a great time... I could go on, but I'll share some fun photos now :).

Here is Mhari at my Mom's house (with my Mom in the background) on Christmas.


I just love that she is so happy and you can see her second top tooth where it had just broken through a day or two before. She did well meeting new people and enjoying the new toys!


More Mhari, I know... but she's just so cute. I think she looks like Jeff. This is her by a photo of Jeff and his siblings when they were little. Jeff is the one in the bottom left corner. No, they aren't exactly alike, but they have a certain feel that's the same. Either way I think she is beautiful. I know I'm biased, but wouldn't you be?


Then there was the snow... let's just say it wasn't as close as we were led to believe. After a while of driving we found it. Then we played, for a few minutes, before the highway patrol officer asked us to leave (we were on the side of the highway).
Well, besides all the craziness of this little trip, Grant was just too funny. He had decided that he was going to slide on his tummy like a penguin. He found a small, I mean small, hill and slid.



Then Talmage had to try. They were really cute penguins!

I must say that Grant has good form :). They had a great time and were wearing a nice slick patch to slide on too. They didn't do that the whole time, but it was still funny!

Oh, in the slide show there are photos of Mhari getting her hand prints done. She didn't like it, but it worked well with my Mother-in-law helping hold her and paint her hands. We wanted to update a hand print painting we had done a few years back.

It was fun, exhausting, and crazy, but worth the long drive (depending who you ask). We are glad to be home, but now we are back to crazy life stuff.

Christmas, yes it's Christmas

We had three Christmas' this year. Crazy I know. We celebrated at home before our trip. The kids had lots of homemade presents that Jeff and I worked on (wood names, pj pants, snake pillows, pillows, and capes). It was crazy getting ready for it, but the kids had a great time. Talmage figured that if we (mom and dad) filled the stockings (we don't do Santa) then who would fill ours. That's when he decided that the kids should fill ours (parents). It was very sweet. I think he has caught the spirit of giving, hopefully he can keep it! He made very sweet I love you notes for us. Grandma and Grandpa got the kids a basketball hoop for outside and little balls. They had a great time with it!
Then Christmas Eve we get together with Jeff's family for celebrations. All of the siblings exchange family gifts and Grandma and Grandpa give their gifts. It was very fun. We ended up with emergency kits for our 72 hr kits and a new calendar! The kids got personalized blankets, a new animal, and coloring books. There was also a baggie of little treats (cars, jewelry, notebooks, Slinky's, etc). So fun!
Christmas morning we had some other surprises for the kids. They enjoyed getting animal sticker books, notebooks, and other fun toys. That afternoon we went to my mom's where we exchanged gifts. We got a gift card and cars (for the boys), sleeping beauty barbie for Sandra and a toy phone for Mhari! I also got a massager and Jeff got a new hat. It was nice to hang out with some family!
I'm glad it's over, but it is always fun to look forward to. The kids had a great time, but I think their favorite present was the bunny that we got when we got home. A family in the ward was done with her so we inherited a bunny for Christmas. She is cute and doing well with the kids so far.

Lots O Merry Christmas!

Here is the presents for Christmas 2008!

 

Talmage's notes in Mommy and Daddy's stockings ;)

 
Sandra's stash!

 
Talmage

 
Mhari

 
Grant

 
Playing with the new basketball hoop from Grandma and Grandpa!

 

 

 

 
New blankets at Grandma's house! 

 
Building blocks!

 
Coloring Books

 
Stickers

 
Stuffed animals

 
Toys!

 
Games

 
Globe

 
Telescope!

Happy New Year...

and Happy new church schedule! We rotate times every year with the other group that meets in the building and we are back to the 9 am schedule. We love it with the young kids. It doesn't feel like our whole day gets sucked away oh and then there is quiet time. That is a subject all of it's own.
This is how Daddy found us when he came home this afternoon....

Grant was on the floor sleeping. I wouldn't think it was comfortable, but he seemed to manage just fine.

Yes, that's me napping! It was wonderful. That's all I will say :). It is cold today too so bundling up under the blanket was an extra treat!


Sandra napping. She is always happier when she naps, but she usually fights it. Then there are the later nights while she is trying to fall asleep. It was worth it today though.

My only non-napper. Talmage had a great time upstairs with scissors and paper. He made lots of little airplanes and had quite a game going on with them all.

Jeff was even able to catch a nap later (during dinner time though). Overall it was a great Sunday. I look forward to many happy quiet times after church and seeing my hubby more on Sundays. With all the New Year's resolutions this one is one that will stick all year round. Then back to 1 pm again, bummer!