Baby Blanket

I did it! I made a blanket for the baby. I wasn't sure I was going to, but I just didn't feel right not making one. I have made one for each of my babies. So, now I am definitely ready for her to come.
Anyway, I just thought I'd share what the blanket looks like. The girls helped me pick out the material (pinks and browns). I made it in two hours, which I think is a record for me.

It's for real this time

Life has gotten busy all of a sudden.
I have five weeks left until my due date. I am so excited!
Aeva is preparing for a solo at a church function as well as a 3-4 minute talk for church conference. She is quite excited about both. She definitely has confidence that I lacked at her age and still due. I am not one for being in front of crowds.
And if that isn't exciting enough, Myles is potty training.....really and truly this time.
Sometimes not having enough money to go buy pull-ups can be a blessing in disguise.
Last Thursday I told him that there were no more pull-ups (except enough for nighttime until Chris got his paycheck). My good friend lent us some, but Myles refused to wear them, which turned out to be a good thing. Anyway, I explained to him the alternative was big boy underwear and having to go in the potty. Well, it is working my friends. This morning, while I was in the shower, Mr. Myles came in, took off his undies, got on the potty, tinkled, got off the potty, used a wet wipe, washed his hands and put his underwear back on all by himself with no prompting from me. I could hardly believe it. His underwear was on backwards but no complaints here.
Unfortunately, we did have a minor set back this afternoon. I went shopping to get the last of what I need before the baby comes. This is the hard part about potty training with each child. You are so excited they are finally doing it, but then there is the "what do I do when we are out and about?" I mean, that is the nice thing about diapers or pull-ups. If they have to go you don't have to search for a bathroom. However, you can't exactly stay cooped up 24/7 when they are potty training and one doesn't want to revert backwards. So, I brought a change of clothes for Myles and his little potty. He had a minor accident at the first store, and we hurried out to the van where I sat him on the potty. That really wasn't working for him, and I can understand why. Sitting in a van on the kiddie potty just isn't the same as being at home. Anyway, I put his fresh clothes on him and proceeded to the second store where we had a major accident. This might have been avoided if the lines had not moved so slowly. Poor thing, his eyes got as big as saucers and there was a major puddle under our cart. Then he started to fall asleep. Anyway, we managed to get him changed again in the car and home before he made a bee line for the bathroom, but he didn't quite make it to the potty in time. I kept thinking, "where is all this coming from?". He hadn't had anything to drink. He has done well since being home though. I am so proud of my big boy.
While at the first store he got to pick out some new underwear since we were going through what we have a bit fast.

And he was so excited to buy himself a kite with the money Oma and Opa sent for Valentine's day. He can hardly wait to go fly it with dad at the playground.

Last week I was talking to Ben and noticed the house had gotten very quiet. I went to check on Myles. I found him in bed. I thought he was asleep and went to get the camera. When I came back and took the picture I saw he was smiling and he was trying to keep his eyes closed, but they were fluttering, which gave him away.

This is where I find Myles most mornings because this is the only time the heater is on. He loves to lay on the heater vent and make noises and play with anything that is nearby. This reminds me of when Ben and Cullen were little, and they used to lay on the heater vents in the morning.

Best wishes for a wonderful week :)

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day to you all.

As I think back to our first Valentine's Day together, I discover that we've come a long way.
Not only has our little family grown from just the two of us to now almost six of us, but I realize that it's not all about flowers, or jewelry or chocolates.
It's the little things that make the day so special. We may not be able to give "things" to each other today, but we've got a lot of love to go around.

Sending lots of love to all our family and friends.

Found: Two Litte Feet

Yesterday evening I found these two little feet......

Dinner turned out to be a bit of a challenge last night. Nothing was finished at the same time. I burned the first round of garlic toast a la Jen. The second round turned out perfecto. And while the second round of pasta was cooking (I think the first round had been mislabeled because it was not strictly the four cheese pasta it claimed to be), I let the kids snack on the garlic toast. While the pasta was busy boiling I was on the phone with my best friend and waiting for Chris to return from his errand. I decided to sit down for a few minutes. I looked over and saw these cute feet. They were awfully still. I looked under the table and saw the body attached to the cute feet.

Poor Myles had finished his toast and was out like a light.

He didn't get much of a cat nap. I picked him up and started talking to him. He was not going to open his eyes or come out of his sweet slumber for pasta. However, I did mention oatmeal (his absolute favorite meal) with diced peaches, and his eyes popped right open. I think we must have played hard yesterday for him to have been so tired. He did enjoy chasing the girls around the house with his toy bucket over his head.......and nothing else on but that toy bucket I might add.

These are the modest pictures.

Gotta love my little man :)

Too Sweet

Friday, while I was helping Rhaevyn finish up her math studies, I looked over to see this sweet sight.
These are my two cuties with very strong personalities. This is not the average seen in our house when it comes to Myles and Aeva.
I just loved that Myles actually sat quietly and very still while he drank up the story Aeva was reading him.

This is the honey, the sweet stuff, in the life of a mother that makes it all worthwhile.

Cookies and the Playground

On Monday Aeva and Myles helped make chocolate chip cookies.
Myles absolutely loves to help bake. He is right there with anything that requires stirring and adding ingredients.
Aeva wanted one huge cookie made. We might have to try that next time.
Myles saw Aeva put on an apron and decided he needed to wear one too.

Who knew it could be so difficult to get butter out of the wrapper?

Time to be taste testers.

We have had some nice sunny weather. Nice as in the sun is out, but it is still chilly. So, we decided to walk to the playground at the school.
Myles can put his shoes on now all by himself. I do love the no shoelace shoes for kids.

Here are some videos from our outing to the playground.

This is Rhaevyn and Chris playing HORSE. Rhaevyn really enjoyed playing this and did pretty good.

A girl after my own heart. The monkey bars and rings used to be my favorite equipment on the playground. I had lots of blisters and calluses to prove it.

Myles loves this playground. It is hard to get him to leave when it is time to go home. He normally loves the slides, but yesterday it was almost impossible to get him off the swing.

After Aeva got tired of kickball Myles wanted a turn. They look like tiny specks out there, but Chris and Myles were running hard after the ball.

When I took this next video poor Myles was all tuckered out. He didn't want to run anymore.

He's a Maniac

I just had to show what I work out with everyday. I can't make it through a workout without laughing. Chris keeps me so entertained. My favorite is when he runs in place really fast and sings the chorus to "she's a maniac" to me, but he changes it to "he's a maniac."

Where is the fun in working out if you aren't tripping over little people at the same time. Myles actually did really well in this next clip. Normally he tries to either crawl under my legs like I am a tunnel or he grabs hold of Christopher's legs while Chris is trying to do knee lifts or kicks. Myles thinks it is quite hysterical.

These next pictures are from the snow we had on Sunday. Chris helped the kids make a snowman. Some one's basketball from the neighborhood wound up in our yard. So, they ended up using that as the head and named the snowman Wilson.

Myles loves to run around in Rhaevyn's cape even though he has his own. When he wears his cape he is "Batman", but when he wears Rhaevyn's he says he is "Raccoon Boy."

Aeva was asked to give a one minute talk about her baptism experience to all those children turning 8 this year in our ward.This picture was taken just before they left for the meeting. I really took this picture because I thought my husband looked so handsome.

Happy weekend to all.

Ka-rot-tay

I just thought I'd do a quick post of Myles doing his karate moves.
I love hearing him say the word. It just cracks me up.

Look What We Woke Up To!

We all woke up bright and early this morning in hopes that this would be the Sunday we would actually be a tad early for church. I started working on breakfast and pulled open the shades in the kitchen to find this snowy scene outside our window.....

Needless to say, church was canceled for today. Those of you who get more snow than this may think it funny, but no joke, people here can't drive in snow.

I tried to be sneaky and hide around corners and outside bedroom doors to get pictures of the kids with surprised looks on their faces. It actually only worked for Rhaevyn. By the time I pushed the button, Myles was running for cover. Aeva was not surprised at all.

It's that time of year again.....learning about elements.
This time it is Aeva's turn. She worked on her clay model of a water molecule this week.
She loves looking at her periodic table of all the elements and laughing at some of the funny names like Einsteinium, Californium, and Mendelevium.

Rhaevyn has added another item to her "what I can cook" list. She just learned how to make scrambled eggs. I have never been successful at getting her to eat eggs, but now that she can make them herself she wants them everyday. She was so proud of her first time making them that she wanted me to post a picture of it.

Chris has started working out with me. It's amazing what old age and a bit of holiday weight gain will do to someone. I started him out on Richard Simmons, but he couldn't hack it. Too many moves for him I think. That, and I don't think he could take it seriously. So, I started him on a walking video which doesn't require a lot of memorization of moves. He does the three mile workout everyday, and the kids have even gotten into it.
I just have to post the Richard Simmons workout though. It was definitely funnier in person.

Myles and Aeva were out helping Chris work on his beast the other day. Myles came in telling and showing me that he had had helped using the ratchet and topped it off with sound effects. It was so funny.
Here is a video of my little man who likes to do "ka-rot-tay" as he says it, throw and kick balls, swing his lightsaber around like he is Darth Vader, wrestle with his sisters (okay mainly Aeva), but also loves this tinkerbell outfit.

Wishing you all a very happy week.