Baby Sad, Baby Happy

Baby Sad
Cedric has very distinct hair. We call him the dandelion because of the soft fuzzy hair on his head. Although the long stickup hair looks cute, I didn't like how the sides looked. So on a whim I decided to just trim the hair above his ear. I set him on the kitchen counter and grabbed the closest pair of scissors. I'm sure you know where this is going... Slippery counter, wiggly baby, sharp pointy object, inexperienced barber... I cut my baby's ear! I could actually feel me cutting it! Although he didn't even cry, it was bleeding profusely, so I had to do something. I don't know if you've ever tried to put a band-aid on a baby's ear, but it doesn't work very well. Here's the results...










Baby Happy
My friend Rebekah told me about a really cool thing for baby's just learning to eat solid foods. It's a mesh bag that you put any kind of food in and the baby can hold the attached handle and chew and suck whatever food is inside. Because the bag holes are so small, you don't have to worry about the baby choking. So I bought one. Here's Cedric enjoying some Teddy Grahams without any choking fears.

Bowling

The other day we thought it'd be fun to take the kids bowling.


The final scores were as follows...
Jeff 69
Tami 92
Lily 94
Tom 203
Yes, Lily beat me by two points. Yes, that was Tom's best bowling score ever!

Bop it!

Lily has always struggled with staying dry ever since she was potty trained. I finally got her on some medication which has helped a ton! So this was what Lily said in her prayer the other day...
"Please help me to stay dry the rest of the day, the rest of the week, and on holidays."
Well, at least I know I won't have to worry about her getting too excited the next time she sees fireworks, goes trick-or-treating, opens presents or hunts for eggs.

Jefferson is talking all the time. However, he has a hard time pronouncing his words correctly. Usually only Lily and I can understand him. I try to correct him once in a while and have him concentrate on how to pronounce a word. Usually he ends up saying it like this...
Jeff: me neen neenk (translation: I need a drink.)
Me: Jeff, say d-d-drink.
Jeff: d-d-neenk
So the other day I was trying to get him to say "snack" instead of "nack"...
Me: Jeff, say s-s-snack.
Jeff: s-s-snack.
Me: Good job, you said it right!
Jeff: s-s-snack, s-s-oatmeal!
We're still working on it.

Some of my favorite phrases Jeff says with his improper pronunciation are...
"moe day" (no way)
"bop it!" (stop it!)
"bip bops" (flip flops)
"Mario dart Wii, woo-hoo" (Mariokart)
Our names are: Tom- Daddy (he used to call him Aya when he was first learning to talk); Tami- Mommy or Ammy (I think he's trying to say Tami); Lily- Ditty (very confusing with Daddy); Cedric- Gegic or baby (and he thinks Cedric is only his baby and gets mad if Lily talks to him); and Jeff- Me or Big Boy (he refuses to call himself Jeff, but he's always spelling it).

Jeff and I had the following conversation tonight. (in translation form)...
Jeff: I need some chapstick on my lips.
Me: After you are asleep.
Jeff: I am.
Me: No you're not, I can still here you talking.
Jeff (this time in a whisper): I am.
Jeff(After laying quietly for a very long time): I've been sleeping, now can I have some chapstick?
For him, just holding still and being quiet is a big accomplishment, so I let him have some chapstick.

Lily shared the following with me tonight that was very touching...
Lily (crying): Mom, I was just thinking about Jesus and it made me miss Him. Then I just started crying!
I love how strong the spirit is with her. I just hope and pray that she will always stay close to these feelings.

Both Lily and Jeff love Family Home Evening. We have an FHE board that tells who's in charge of what each week. They get so excited and can't wait until Monday. I love that they enjoy it so much. I also love that it gives us an excuse to do things as a family we wouldn't normally do, like Duck-Duck-Goose (or as Jeff calls it Guck-Guck-Doose). One thing we always have to do every Family Home Evening is sing "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam". They love to jump on the sunbeam part. So last FHE I tried to take some pictures of them jumping. It was hilarious. Here are some of the better pictures...



I love my three children. There's never a dull moment when they're around.

Easter 2009

We still haven't nailed down our Easter traditions as far as when to tell the Easter Bunny to come. Some years we've had him come on Saturday (as the tradition was when I was growing up). Some years he's hidden the eggs in the basement so they can conveniently be found at our discretion. But this year we decided to have him come on Sunday (as was the tradition for Tom growing up). Even though we have 9am church our kids get up so stinkin early anyway, that we were able to have time to do a decent egg hunt as well as make it to church on time. We also went to Tom's parent's house for dinner and another egg hunt. I think we got more candy out of this holiday than either Halloween or Christmas.
Here are the kids coloring Easter eggs. We colored almost a dozen hard boiled eggs and had them all eaten by the next day! Apparently our family likes hard boiled eggs.

I decided to get the kids new clothes this year. Lily's skirt is the one we bought in St. George. It wasn't very Eastery, but I fell in love with it. The blouse I found on clearance at Target!

I bought the boys matching shirts. However, I'm disappointed that they have to be ironed now that I've washed them. If wrinkle-free material is in existence, then why do they still make clothes that wrinkle. Especially for kids.

Cedric got a crinkly book and some baby food since he can't have candy. Of course the little bit of candy he did get is being donated to the parents' fund.

I tried to get a picture of all three kids together, but unfortunately none of them turned out very well.
One of the few times Jeff is being gentle with Cedric.

I love this picture because it shows everyone as they are. Lily, the photogenic one, Jeff's blurry because he never holds still, and Cedric's upset because Jeff is bothering him as always.

An aerial view.

An almost decent picture of Jeff, Lily and Cedric on Easter, 2009.

St. George Weekend

Last weekend we went down to St. George as a family (April 2-5).
My wonderful Aunt Nancy and Uncle Brent were nice enough to let us stay at their vacation home. We didn't get there until late Thursday night.
Then Friday we headed off to Vegas. It was in the high 50's and very windy. This was the first time I've ever been cold in Las Vegas!
The kids had a blast playing the arcade games at the Excalibur, visiting M&M World and playing at the giant toy store.
We also enjoyed a buffet dinner despite the two year old who was throwing a fit and screaming at the top of his lungs in the crowded restaurant (oh, wait, that was our two year old). It's bad enough parading three kids through Vegas, but to have a screaming fit in such a public place, lovely.
Here we are playing around at FAO Schwartz.



Some of our pirate friends.

We picked up Krispy Kreme Doughnuts instead of our traditional Conference rolls for Sunday breakfast.


Saturday we took it a little easier. We hung out at the house for a while, just read, watched movies and played air hockey. The big highlight of the day was going to be swimming at the local indoor pool. However, when we got to the clubhouse it said the pool was closed, but we could use the other neighborhood pool. The pool was outside and was nicely heated to a lovely 83 degrees. However, when it's only 50 outside, with a cool breeze blowing, an 83 degree pool does not feel warm.

Lily was the only one daring enough to get all the way in the water.

It was a perfect day though for going on a walk through the beautiful hills. We also went to the outlet malls. I got Lily a new skirt for Easter and a skirt/top ensemble for me. We picked up pizza and enjoyed a night-in back at the house. Sunday we listened to Conference while we cleaned the house, picked up In-N-Out Burgers and headed home.

It was a fun weekend to get away from the everyday and spend time as a family.

April Fools!

I love April Fools Day. Maybe it's because I hardly ever get tricked, but I usually succeed at tricking others. For example, when Lily was about a year old Tom was getting ready for work when she woke up. I put her in the high chair and remembered it was April Fools Day. So I quickly got my makeup and painted a black eye on her face. I ran into Tom with a worried look on my face asking what happened to Lily. He came out and I showed him the black eye. He totally fell for it. In fact, Lily even pointed to her eye and said "eye hurt". So this year I thought it'd be fun to do some tricks on the kids since they are now old enough to take part in the fun. First I stuck all of Lily's Littlest Pet Shop animals all over the front door (there are magnets on their feet). Then I put a bunch of stuffed animals in the fridge and added blue food coloring to the milk. I also put balloons all over the bathroom, and a balloon in Lily's backpack that said "Lily, happy April Fools Day!" on it. I also put a ping pong ball in her shoe. However, the best trick I did that day was when my Activity Day Girls came over for an activity. (I stole this trick from Tom's mom.) Since the girls are always asking for treats I thought I'd make them chocolate covered marshmallows. Only instead of marshmallows, I used cotton balls. The girls totally fell for it! They all started eating them and instantly started getting mad that they weren't real. It was so funny to see them all pulling cotton out of their mouths. The meanest part was I was so busy thinking about the joke that I never actually prepared a good treat for them. I unfortunately didn't pull any good jokes on Tom, but it was a good April Fools Day anyway.
Oh... and did I mention how gross it is to drink blue milk. Lily and I had a hard time with it, but Jeff thought it was great!