That One Time...

...when our package was discovered to be full of pink packing peanuts...

Behold the degeneration of my previously clean(ish) kitchen:

And Seth wondered why I taped them up in the box and shoved it onto the fridge after I cleaned it all up.

He could not fathom why I would throw such awesome 'cars' away...

(It's been a week and I'm still finding pieces of pink styrofoam)

Family Pictures

Ever since our first family pictures, we've been lucky enough to have all of our pictures taken by our good friend Krystal. But then she had to go and move to Utah on us! 

But how lucky are we to have Tara, another awesome photographer and great friend in our ward! Here's what she took for us last week--I LOVE them!

(note to all Grandparents/Great-Grandparents--don't start printing off pictures! You'll be getting some for Christmas!)

Tara is amazing! 

http://tjlphotos.blogspot.com/

A Seth Story

I think four years old might just be my favorite age so far. He wants to know so much and figures things out so quickly. The other day I caught him counting his magnets. I asked him how many he had. "Twenty-thirteen!" Sure enough, there were 33 magnets on there. Smart kid!

He's also suddenly turned into this sweet little guy. Not too long ago he was pushing me away when I tried to hug or kiss him. Now he'll say things like "Mommy, thank you for making yummy dinner! I love you!" and give me a kiss. Or he'll want to snuggle in bed with me. Or he'll tell me I'm beautiful. Every mommy needs a kid like this running around.

Something also clicked with church stuff.  We went from "please bless that we can do whatever we want" to "please bless that we can be reverent and that we can do what You want us to do." I love it!

Oh, and we adopted a pet:

Jon has rejected the idea of any pets with fur, but he made an exception for Catherine the Teddy Bear Caterpillar. Watching Seth play with/take care of this caterpillar has been hilarious and sweet. He'll take her out every day and let her roam around, plus give her fresh leaves. I was making dinner one night and he came riding in on his bike. "Look, Mom! It's Catherine's first bike ride!" Sure enough, there was the poor caterpillar clinging to the handlebars.

(Of course, there have been several times that he's let her out and then forgotten to check on her. Which, of course, means that there is a teddy bear caterpillar dead or hibernating somewhere in my living room. We're currently on versions 3.1 and 3.2 of Catherine the Caterpillar--they're twins, found while I was clearing out the strawberries). 

Seth also participated in his first Primary Program (I'm the chorister, so I get to be in the picture, too). Our ward is gigantic--about 120 Primary kids. Great for singing, not great for the whole "every kid gets a speaking part" thing. The past two years we've kept things really simple--a few kids have talks, a few special musical numbers, and a lot of singing.  It works great!

So Seth's "part" was singing with Junior Primary. They sang "The Things I Do", "I Am Like a Star" and "Give, Said the Little Stream" all by themselves, plus a few other songs with all the kids.  They sounded fantastic (despite my fears), but Seth had nothing to do with it.  I asked him at lunch if he sang any of the songs for the program. "Nope!"  At least he mostly stood still instead of dangling upside down from the pew or trying to knock Gabe off the platform like he did during rehearsals...

He's also taken to saying random letters out loud and asking us what they say. " AEOWS! What does that spell, Mommy?" I've discovered I can only keep about five letter sounds in memory at one time, especially while driving. But he loves it when he accidentally makes up a real word, like "too". And he'll let us play the game with him. He's gotten pretty good at 3-4 letter words!

Seth is his father's son--he's started making up games for us to play (Jon used to make up very elaborate games for his siblings to play). This evening he hid balloons around the house for me to find. Certain balloons were "creepy" and I had to run and hide from them. 

His favorite thing to play with right now is clay. He'll make little cars using clay and beads for the wheels, then proceed to crash them for hours. My kitchen is a disaster when he's done, but it's worth the 1-2 hours of free time I get!

His favorite snack is "three big marshmallows and two toothpicks, please, Mommy!" He then stacks them up and carves a face on the top one. And, of course, the marshmallow snowman screams in terror when his head is bitten off. Boys are awesome.

What can I say? I love my Seth!

A Catherine Story

Catherine is at one of my very favorite ages right now. It seems like she picks up new words every day!

*she's sort of, kind of, sometimes thinking about potty-training herself. We shall see.

*my mom sent two stuffed cats--one for each kid. But Catherine confiscated both of them and now refuses to go to sleep without her "meow meow"s.  

(note to self--take a picture of Catherine and meow-meows)

*she's only allowed to color with washable dry-erase markers because she colors on EVERYTHING.

Thank heaven for Magic Erasers.

*one day we were in the kitchen and couldn't find Catherine. I looked in the living room and found this:

As soon as I walked in there she looked at me and gave a pathetic, "woof, woof?"

(FYI-this what was was inside my boulder costume, for those who care)

*she LOVES her Daddy. He'll chase her and grab her, saying "I got you!"

Now that's what she says whenever you hug her or pick her up: "I dot doo!"

*If Catherine's awake and it's quiet, you'd better find her immediately. If not, you may get this:

And here I thought she couldn't unscrew my mascara. Foolish mother.

(For the record, she actually did get some on her eyelashes. I was quite impressed).

*she wants to go "ow-side" all the time. Sometimes she'll bring me her shoes as soon as she wakes up in the morning.

*she's quite resourceful and remarkably clever when it comes to getting things she wants. Sometimes I think the only thing saving us from total chaos is her tiny stature. 

*she's very selective in what books she'll let you read. Right now anything with pumpkins, flaps, or singing is a hit. All other books get a "NO!" and a good swat out of my hands.

*she's gotten pretty good at ratting Seth out for picking on her. 

We love you, Princess Boo.

Three Pictures

Because that's all I've taken in the past three weeks.

And so I present September 19th, 2012, in three pictures:

Catherine, stealing the camera cord while I upload pictures to my laptop.

I decided to be a really cool mom and let my kids make sock puppets that afternoon.

It was a much bigger hit than I expected: 

(Seth's is all pink--still his favorite color)

Of course, they haven't touched them since.  Sigh...

And, finally, this one:

The Princess, dancing on the table.

Why?

Because she CAN!

(interpretation: Mom is making dinner and is too busy to stop me! Bwahaha!)

Happy Birthday, Grandpa Bud!

Dear Grandpa,

For your birthday this year we made you some cards (which hopefully we got mailed off in time).

We both put a lot of effort into them.

Seth worked hard on drawing, painting, and stamping for you.

I drew you a lovely blue tornado.

But part of my card was what you'd call "four dimensional":

I worked very hard on getting the details just right for you: 

I was also very thorough--not even the inside of my mouth went unnoticed: 

We love you have hope you have the best birthday ever!  Wish we could be there to party with you!

Love, Catherine

A Little Bit of Seth

First day of Miss Katie's Preschool

I wasn't too thrilled with the idea of sending Seth away to preschool.  I really liked the idea of a Joy School-type preschool where each mom teaches (although let me say right now that I HATED the Joy School curriculum.  Don't waste your money).  But apparently I was the only mom who felt like that--everyone else signed their kids up at various preschools.  So when I found out that all three of his Joy School friends from last year had signed up at an obscenely cheap preschool run by a former kindergarten teacher in another ward, I relented.

I opted to only send him two days a week, so he's getting all of four hours of preschool each week.  (Actually, he hasn't even been to a full week because we keep getting terrible viruses).  But he gets to see his friends and get out of the house.  

On the other days, we do 'school' together.  I'm trying to get myself ready to start 'officially' homeschooling next year, so this year is our trial run.  So far it's been a blast!  Seriously--I don't know why more people don't homeschool during the early years.  There are so many fun activities to help them learn, plus you only have to do it for about an hour a day.  

Seth seems to like preschool, but he would prefer to be at home (and I prefer him at home, too).  But hopefully preschool will help with some social things--like staying in his chair during Primary!

His official stats at age 4 (plus a couple months) are 40.75 inches and 33 lbs. Which means he's grown 3 inches and gained...nothing, according to the doctor.  But she didn't seem concerned, so I'm not either.

Right now he LOVES Legos and playdough.  I also cut out some cars and shapes out craft foam for the tub, and yesterday had to drag him out after 90 minutes.  The Kindle is also a big hit most days--he loves all games with cars, but is also drawn to Jon's strategy games (even if they're WAY over his head).  

He's great at anything with numbers, including simple addition and subtraction.  He's also a pretty good reader, though he doesn't usually enjoy it.  And he's actually a pretty good writer too--provided I do it right. Paper and pens?  Not a chance.  Q-tip and paint? Awesome!  Writing letters on Mom's back? Absolutely.  I love seeing what he enjoys doing.  And I love that he loves doing 'school' with me!

That one time...

...we went to the beach with 20 mph winds:

Let's just say we were desperate--this was our third attempt to get to the beach this year,

and all had been foiled by bad weather.  We were determined.

Just so you know, that is not a good idea.  

You think sand gets everywhere when you go to the beach?

Add wind and it seriously does get EVERYWHERE.  

My diaper bag and purse looked like I dumped a cup of sand inside.

But if we stayed by the water, where the sand was wet, it was a lovely day: 

Seth was in absolute heaven, especially when Daddy built him towers for the water to destroy: 

(the sand in Atlantic City is nasty and black, FYI)

Our family had a blast.

The Oliveras (who came with us) didn't do so well--turns out Emma was coming down with RSV and had a fever (don't worry--Seth, Catherine & I all got it a few days later).  So not much fun for them.

Oh, and did I mention the part where I didn't put sunscreen on anyone because I knew it would just attract blowing sand?  Genius, I tell you.  Luckily Jon, Seth & I kept shirts on, and Catherine somehow won the genetic lottery with naturally tanning skin.  Still--all four of us had some uncomfortable days after we got home.  Not making that mistake again.

Our first and last beach trip of the year--success?

A Little Bit of Both

A brother/sister duet on my keyboard:

(they love finding the weirdest sounds possible)

One last day in the pool before the cooler weather hit: 

A little bit of playdough during our self-imposed quarantine with RSV (notice Catherine's nose): 

(Seth will play for HOURS and still be upset when we eventually make him clean up)

And a little bit of cookie thievery: 

Yes, she dragged that chair over all by herself.

And don't be fooled by Seth's innocent face and bowl of strawberries--he snagged at LEAST five cookies.

Being tall has its advantages.

A Little Bit of Catherine

First of all, some official stats:

*at 18.5 months, Catherine was 19lbs. 9 oz.  Couldn't quite break that 20 pound barrier!

*the official measurement was 32.5 inches tall, but Jon & I are EXTREMELY skeptical.  That would put her at only 8 inches shorter than Seth's official measurement, when they're clearly at least a foot apart in height.

Plus she was throwing a royal fit when they measured her, so accuracy was not the greatest.

It's been a busy month for Catherine.  She's survived both RSV and Hand, Foot & Mouth disease (lovely, huh?).  She's also talking up a storm, adding new words every day.  We even got her first sentence: "Hi, Seth!"  New favorite words are "beh" (bug or bear) and "ah duh" (all done).  Still working on "please"--she doesn't see the need to use it.

And then there's the cheeseball grin:

(while emptying my wallet at Goodwill)

(while emptying my wallet outside a local bakery)

(pretty much anytime she sees the camera)

Her new love is stuffed animals.  We had two bears on shelves in her room, but not anymore!

Now they are constantly being dragged around the house:

Yes, it's probably bigger than she is.

This was my favorite:

That's my Frosty the Snowman--my stuffed animal I slept with my entire life (seriously--until I had Seth).

Sure, she might call him "Boo" because she thinks he's a ghost, but still.  So cute!

Kisses for "Boo".

In other news, with the cooler weather, we pulled out her long pants.

Guess what?  She still fits in the pants she wore last winter. 

At least it's been 6 months so I'm not sick of them like I am her summer outfits!