Playing catch (up)...

We've been rather busy, and I've been focusing on my craft blog lately, so I have a lot to catch up with. I've been trying to update both blogs on Tuesdays; apparently two blogs in one day is not going to happen...

Bryn is cruisin' like crazy, getting into all kinds of trouble. She's a lot of fun, but also the reason I can't get as much done these days.

And apparently I'm not the only one in the family with a big mouth. :)

Drew did a preschool rotation with some of his (girl)friends in the ward. It was so much fun -- I really enjoyed teaching when it was my turn, but also really enjoyed being back to one kid on all the other Mondays. This was the last time it was at our house. We had finished all our lessons, so we just got to play. The kids invented their own game playing some sort of volleyball over the ropes on our little tree, called soft volley ball.

Of course, Ady was our coach and when they weren't playing, they were cheering each other on and eating fish.

Or making faces.

We are loving summer just because there's so many fun things to do. Unfortunately, it's gotten so hot we can't even enjoy our evenings. We're in the triple digits in the foreseeable future...

Drew is daddy's big helper. He loves being out with Brent...

And do I let the baby eat grass? Why yes, yes I do. She likes it, and it means we can enjoy being outside. She doesn't eat too much, though. Hasn't made her sick, so I think we're good.

And check out those baby blues! I keep holding my breath, waiting for them to change, but hooray! Still gorgeously blue. And yes, she's well versed in using a sippy cup already. Anything involved with food, she's a natural at, and she seems to have inherited her daddy's gigantic thirst.

Of course, if her eyes change, I won't be sad for long. I'm in love with Drew's green/hazel eyes, too.

As I mentioned, Bryn is crawling, but it's never the same crawl it seems. Sometimes it's normal, sometimes it's the stink bug, and most of the time, it's this weird drag-the-left-leg crawl. Doesn't matter too much, she'll be walking in no time. She's almost as anxious as her brother to get around.

Drew started teeball three weeks ago, and he's had two games. He's a pro at dropping the bat and running to first, and he knows just how to get around the bases...

... and he's good at fielding; we just have to teach him he doesn't have to get ALL the balls. It's like a little herd of boys every time the ball goes into the field. They flock together after the ball; sometimes there's pushing, usually there's fighting over who gets to throw the ball. But at his first game they actually got three outs in an inning!

Check out that form!

And finally, Drew is in Sunbeams in Primary. He absolutely loves getting to sing with the other kids, and he's been singing "Teach Me About the Temple" almost nonstop. And funnily enough, it hasn't gotten old. Instead, it just touches me so deeply to hear him sing that song. So for a family night a few weeks ago, we took the kids to the temple so Drew could see what the song was about.

I wasn't sure how much he got out of it, only that now he'll know where we go when we say we're going to the temple. But this morning as we were getting ready for church, he came bursting into my room and said, "Mom, I need to go to the temple! I'm 12, I need to go to the temple!" He was totally listening, soaking up everything, even the fact that it was a special place and he could go in when he turned 12. I love seeing him start to understand the things we're trying to teach him...

 

Hope you're all enjoying your summer! Can't wait to see everyone when we come through this summer!

Please note...

Did you see my tiny little update to the info about us??? It's a big deal to us: Brent is now a fourth-year dental student! We are in our FINAL year of dental school. I can't believe it! I'm so proud of my hubby; it's been a lot of hard work, but we are finally getting there!
Woohoo! Brent is now 3/4 dentist. :)

Pucker up, baby cheeks!

Sorry for the absence; I really do intend to update this blog on a weekly basis, but I gave myself some leeway the last couple of weeks. I had an order for FIVE baby gifts (which turned out wonderfully, thank you) on top of four of my own. So I've been a little busy, digging myself out of a pile of yarn, flowers, cardstock, towels, etc. But I think I'm going to stick with this Etsy stuff -- seriously the most fun making all this stuff, especially for babies!

Life continues at a fast and furious pace around here. Of most significance, my husband is now 3/4 dentist. We are officially fourth years, baby! I'm so proud of him for all his hard work!

My little baby is quickly turning into an almost-toddler! And she's exploding with personality! Just look at that cheeser...

She is officially crawling -- real crawling, not army crawling or worming her way across the floor. And she's getting faster everyday; I keep finding her in unexpected places.

She can also pull herself up to standing, sometimes. It's still difficult for her but she loves to stand so she keeps trying.

She laughs, a lot, finally. She's always been very smiley, but I love, love, love to hear her laugh. And she still laughs best for her brother, whom she adores.

And today, she waved for the first time at our wonderful children's librarian while we made a quick stop to drop off/pick up books.

She loves to eat, and she can handle almost anything. Even though she still only has two teeth, she's a pro-chewer. Is it too early to enter her in an all-you-can-eat contest? I think she's got a good shot at winning...

And now for my winning shot, the pucker:

She only did it one day, at one meal. I haven't seen it since, but we were DYING! She was cracking me up! I love this little pucker, and I'm so glad I caught it with the camera because it must have been a one-time-deal kinda thing. It just reminds me of Sebastian in The Little Mermaid: "You gotta bat your eyes, like dis... You gotta pucker your lips, like dis..." Pucker? Check! Engaging blue eyes? Absolutely! Thank goodness we can also check off "extremely intimidating daddy" on the list. :)

And we can't forget to put the little man of the house in our update...

We got to meet Super Why at the zoo back in April, and I had taken a pic with my phone (because I inexplicably forgot to take my camera with me). The picture wasn't very good, very off center, and I just can't live with that. So I took another one, thought I had saved it and went on my way. When I went to text Brent this momentous occasion, the good pic was gone! I was so bummed. Well, a few weeks ago as I was constantly texting my SIL about baby stuff I was working on for her, there it was in my phone again! Mysteriously gone, mysteriously back!! Woohoo -- Drew was soooo excited to meet his super hero in person. So this is old, but I had to share.

Drew started teeball last night, and he has his first game next Tuesday. We signed him up for a summer reading program at the library, and he's already met his first two goals! Smart kid even read some of those books to me... We are also spending lots of time at our water park -- both the kids love to swim and it's been so fun trying to stay cool. :)

Well, the little princess just woke up and is calling for her mother-in-waiting, so I best attend to her demandingness... Happy June!

PT is soooooo hard...

Wait, is she...?

Yep, she is.

How is this little lady not crawling yet? Good question. She is, however, really good at push ups. :) Cracks me up! She wants to crawl sooooo badly, and she's pretty mobile by worming her way across the floor, wiggling and rocking back and forth. She has actually progressed to putting her knees down from this position, and she rocks back and forth on all fours, so I'll probably be saying she's crawling by my next post. Brent keeps laughing that she's better at PT (physical training) than he is. Maybe she can pass his physical test for him... 

RRaaaaaaarrrgggghhhh! I want to crawl!

It's so fun that these two can actually play together now. You should see our bathroom after bath time. Water everywhere...

For Drew's birthday, Keri gave him the best present -- his first Nerf dart gun, a six-shooter. And, of course, the boys had so much fun with it, that we had to buy daddy one, too. Then yesterday, we added a 36-pack of suction darts to our Nerf arsenal. Brent showed Drew how he could stick a dart to his head, becoming "Drewnicorn." However, Drew got it a little mixed up in his head -- he calls himself the "Drewbycorner." Now that we have a bazillion darts around, he became the "quadridrewbicorner." Say that five times fast...

Oh boy, this kids makes me laugh, every single day...

Soccer and motherhood...

Sorry, I'm not going to draw any profound conclusion about how soccer is like motherhood, except now that I think of it, motherhood can sometimes feel like someone kicked you in the shins, hard, but then it gets better and you feel the thrill of victory... Well, moving on. :)

About soccer, our season is drawing to a close. We only have one more practice and one more game with the Cool Cats, so I thought I'd share the team picture I took. All the kids are looking at the camera, so I consider it a success. Just like our little team here -- I think we only made one goal all season (all because Kenz got a throw-in goal -- woohoo!), but the kids all got a lot better! So, success.

Drew went from whining about not wanting to play to being sad when he had to sit out while it was someone else's turn. Still had some tears in the last couple of games when other kids stole the ball and he subsequently tripped, but he stopped crying and got back out there. That's what's important, just like in life when you sometimes fall down.... Hehe, just kidding. No more analogies. Really.

And, of course, thanks to our lovely and talented Coach Keri for crazily volunteering for this gig and making it so much fun for the kids. Thanks Keri!

My little soccer player -- he only looks like that when I'm taking his picture. He actually loves to play...

Go Cool Cats!

And now for the motherhood part you've been anxiously waiting for. Kindly waiting for me to get around to? Sure...

We had a little somethin' this weekend, a little day to appreciate the women in your life, you know... Yes, thank you, I had a nice Mother's Day. But I couldn't help this year thinking about how blessed I am to be a mom. I was feeling kinda bad -- no, not guilt like most women seem to feel, just unhappy about a few things -- and when Drew came and snuggled up in my arms, I realized that even if everything else in my life went wrong, everything would still be ok as long as I have Drew and Bryn (and the hubby too, of course).  And yes, living in tornado alley, I do think about what would happen if we got a big storm...

As long as I get to look into those blue eyes (yep, still blue and still crossing my fingers they stay that way), as long as she flashes that million-watt smile that makes strangers stop to say hello, as long as she makes happing baby noises when she wakes up in the morning..

...as long as I get to hug this little man every morning, and hear him tell me he loves me at night, as long as I get to enjoy as much of his craziness as possible during the day...

... I'll be ok, and I'll come out of things happy. Is it attitude? Because I'm trying to recognize the amazing blessings the Lord gave me? Partly. But also because I'm finally starting to see how important my mundane days are, how much I value getting to stay home with my munchkins, and because they really are the most amazing blessings.

Heavy, but hey, sometimes life is heavy, like an over-inflated soccer ball... ;) Had to throw one more in there, and I'm really just kidding with the analogies. Thought the title implied you'd get one, sorry they're super lame.

Happy Mother's Day!!

My big birthday boy -- AAAARRRGH!

Ahoy mateys! We're all about pirates around here lately, so for Drew's birthday, I decided to make him a pirate outfit (see my craft blog for more about that at nutmegboutique.blogspot.com) and sent him on a treasure hunt for his birthday. He first got this little get-up -- a white shirt, a pirate vest and a red bandana.

I think he really enjoyed it -- he ran from clue to clue, and yelled, "Another present!" when he found his next package. But the last one was my favorite -- we got him a treasure chest and filled it with gold d'bloons (not sure how to spell that), a sword, a spyglass and some more presents. Now he keeps all his birthday stuff in his treasure chest. I love that he likes make believe things now!

Earlier on his birthday, we took him to the amusement park with our friends. He took a bit to warm up, but then he really liked it. Then we did presents and whatnot, and then we went to Keri's for an Easter egg hunt (she has a much more fun backyard than we do).

Drew with all of his friends -- they all had so much fun! Thanks everyone for bringing eggs. The kids definitely weren't wanting, their baskets were all full! Plus, there's just something about keeping it small with your friends in the backyard. I loved it!

Top that off with some cupcakes that we let the kids put their own sprinkles on, and I think it was a success! Drew sure enjoyed his birthday cupcake...

And his second birthday cupcake...

Although, my favorite picture is of Brinks enjoying her third cupcake. I think she hit up different adults to get the paper off so she could keep digging in. Too clever...

Bryn couldn't really get in on the action, but she loved the swing. She was in it for like two hours! And if you look close, I got a good picture of those little toothies coming in on the bottom!

Drew is such a good big brother! Sometimes I'll ask him a question, and he'll say, "I'm a big brother." He's usually so good with her (although now that she's mobile, he's having a hard time sharing his toys with her).

We had a really good Easter, too! Although Drew kept asking where his next present was. Two days of books and movies and clothes and goodies was a lot of fun, he didn't want it to end! The kids got plenty of good stuff, and plenty of candy. Drew got into my stash of peeps, and left behind a bit of carnage -- he only bit off the heads!

Hope you all had a great Easter weekend!

IOU some photos...

Yep, I missed last week, and all you get this week is an IOU for some pics... It's been a little crazy, aka I'm trying to get some craft projects done. I know, I know -- you're totally surprised that I'm up to my eyeballs in fabric and paper, glue and thread. I'm always a happier girl when I'm busy with fun stuff.

A little update: Bryn now has two little chompers on the upside of her gums (Can I get a hallelujah?! No more teething for the time being), and they're growing in quickly! She turned 8 months yesterday, and she wants to crawl so very badly. It won't be long now and she'll be cruising all over the house...

Drew had a big day yesterday -- my little man is FOUR! We did all kinds of fun things -- like headed to the amusement park with our friends, had an egg hunt with lots of friends and had a piratey-good present treasure hunt, complete with a pirate outfit that he didn't take off the rest of the day. Aaaaarrrgh!

Alright, just so you're not totally disappointed, here's a little sumthin'-sumthin' for ya... Drew has been dressing up like a pirate for weeks (he just has the official garb now), so here's his makeshift bandana he's been wearing. He actually wore this bandana to soccer practice the other night, and he didn't look like a pirate -- he looked like a dancer out of an '80s music video.  Man, I love this kid...

It's been so nice around here, that we go out and enjoy the small patch of nice grass in our backyard. This little girl just adores her daddy. In fact, when we were in the car on the way to softball on Friday, she was practicing her newfound babbling. She kept saying, "Dadadadadadada," and I told her that I'm not cool with that. She needs to say "mama" first. Then the baby actually laughed at me. Yeah, serious trouble with this one, I can feel it coming...

Sorry, but that's all you get. I've got a sister-in-law in Ohio who will probably come down and pelt me with buckeyes if I don't get her photos edited this week (sorry I'm slow, Mel! I haven't forgotten you...). So I have some editing to do before I can even download my next batch of pics -- come back for birthday photo fun next week! :)