Happy 100001th birthday to Ryan!

Ryan had a birthday in November. His cake has his age in binary. Can you figure out how old he is?

Usually Ryan makes the cakes. I decided I wanted to be ambitious and try making a nice cake from scratch. I made a four-layer chocolate cake with hazelnut cream frosting. I had a couple of tablespoons of sliced almonds in the cupboard, so I decided to sprinkle them over the top. It was delicious and I learned a lot in the process of making it. I'm not sure when I'll try making another one because I'm more of a pie/cookies/chocolate kind of a person, but now I know how to do it.

I got Ryan a new case with a keyboard for the tablet. Then a couple of days before Ryan's birthday it occurred to me that this wasn't as great of a present as I thought it would be because we started using our new smart phones and now we don't use the tablet as much. It will still be useful, just not quite as exciting as I was thinking it would be. Hopefully Ryan had a nice birthday.

Kevin's 6th birthday

As I've mentioned before, Ryan generally makes the birthday cakes. This year he got out the cake decorating tools and made a very cute little two-layer cake.

Kevin had been looking forward to his birthday for weeks and would tell everybody he saw that he was turning six soon. We got him some Kre-o dinobot transformers (they're compatible with legos). He has really enjoyed them. Ryan helped him put them together that night. The other day he wanted to take them all apart and have my help putting them all together again, and I realized I had forgotten how much fun lego sets are.

Heidi's 4th birthday

Heidi was very excited to celebrate her fourth birthday on June 23rd. It was pretty low-key. She requested homemade macaroni and cheese for dinner and then we had presents and cake.

I didn't have time to make the cake, so Ryan made it when he got home from work (he actually is the one who usually makes the birthday cakes) and it was still a little warm when he frosted it. The frosting was sort of melted and runny from the warm cake, so it was quite a messy affair to eat it. Ann Marie did not get any because it was too messy. It was also very sweet. Even Ryan warned me that he wasn't planning to take any for his lunch the next day, and I didn't eat any more than the one piece.

She got some My Little Ponies, Moxie dolls (they're like the Target brand of Barbies, except I think they look more like real people), and books, and she adores the ponies and the dolls. Of course their hair is already a matted mess, but that's doll hair for you.

Ann Marie's first birthday

It feels like a big accomplishment that this child has made it to her first birthday. She has gone from being a mellow, easy-going baby to a very active, determined, opinionated, resourceful one. She seems like a bottomless pit these days when it comes to eating, and she can shove an impressive amount of food into her mouth. She had another tooth start to pop through recently, and it's apparently a sweet tooth because all she wants is fruit and ice cream! (She doesn't generally get much fruit other than bananas because the result is terrible diaper rashes.) Despite all that eating, though, she's still a little thing at about 18 pounds, which is between the 10-25th percentile. She loves exploring cupboards and drawers. She's starting to enjoy reading books. She copies me when she watches me clean up. And she has no interest in walking, even with help.

Getting presents is interesting when you're the third child and it's your first birthday. We have a house full of toys and I didn't want to get more baby toys. So I opted for practical yet slightly frivolous and bought her some adorable new Sunday shoes. She had so much fun trying shoes on at the store. When the shoes were on her feet she grinned and rubbed them against each other as fast as she could.

Here are some highlights from the birthday party. We just had a quiet family party at home, just the way I like it.

My friend Elizabeth said that their tradition is to give their kids their first ice cream cone when they turn one, and I thought that was a great idea, so that was what we did for Ann Marie. Here is a video of her first ice cream cone experience:

At first she was a little surprised and didn't know what to think about it, but pretty soon she thought it was great.

Oh, and I totally forgot to put her bib on.

March photos

On my birthday we went up on the hill and grilled some chicken then had a picnic. Heidi found this stick and was pretending to be an old woman.

Ann Marie was being cute.

Kevin was busy running around, but I did get this picture of him after we came in. Kevin doesn't like other people to clip his fingernails, so we've started letting him do it himself. He does a pretty good job, although he does need us to check and make sure he gets all the dirt out.

This is the mournful look we get to see if Heidi can't get to sleep at night.

But she does actually smile sometimes too.

Here are some short videos of Ann Marie.

http://youtu.be/wLUXvIHIEM0


http://youtu.be/oI6jmNEDy4o

Ann Marie is signing more (by clapping her hands) when she eats now. She will even say, "Mah, mah." So I guess "more" was her first word. :) She will say Mama and Dada, but she doesn't associate them with Ryan and me yet as far as I can tell. She learned the sign for Dad a couple of days ago. She's getting excited at the concept that she can do something with her hands to communicate with us. She is also starting to wave hello and goodbye if you show her how. She is army crawling all over the place and starting to rock back and forth on hands and knees a little bit. We had to pull out the cupboard locks to keep her from getting into the cupboard under the sink. (We had stopped using them because Kevin knows how to open them.) She will also crawl over to the kids' bookshelf and pull off all of the books. She can use chairs or the couch to stand a little bit if we help her get into position.

Heidi is learning to recognize more letters at joy school, which is exciting for her. Last week I taught the letter U and this week I am teaching the letter V, then I get a break for a few weeks. If nothing else I'm glad I didn't decide to be an elementary school teacher. I do enjoy doing activities occasionally with my kids, but even teaching five kids for two hours is a little overwhelming for me. I feel like my lessons last week were pretty effective, so that was good. I heard from one of the moms that her daughter showed her how I taught her to write the letter U. (Yay! Something stuck!) I used the BYU SEEL program's lessons for the letter U and the kids enjoyed it. Today I did my first letter V lesson and it went really well, although it helped that only one other child showed up. We drove cars on a large letter V while saying, "Vroom!", made letter V's by putting violet velvet squares on velcro, and tested the viscosity of several different liquids.

Lately Heidi seems to be sleeping a little better. She's not coming out to sleep on the couch as much.

One of the neighbor boys has been reading the Harry Potter books, and Kevin really wanted to read them too, so I checked out the first book and have started reading it to him. We usually read a couple of chapters at a time. I don't think he's fully grasping what's going on in the story, but he's still enjoying it and so am I. I think it's a good challenge for him to listen to a chapter book. I'm impressed that he will sit and listen for that long.

Kevin will get fixated on certain songs and listen to them over and over again. One of his latest favorites is Summer of '69 by Bryan Adams. He asks for me to play it repeatedly whenever we are driving, and now he's figured out a lot of the words and will sing along. It's so cute. Lately I've also noticed him humming How Firm a Foundation, complete with the introduction that the Tabernacle Choir usually uses.

Kevin saw the picture of Joseph and Potiphar's wife and wanted to have a family home evening about it. I wasn't sure how well that would work, but it went pretty well.

A couple of months before Heidi was born, a family in our ward gave us their old piano because they didn't want to move it. As I've mentioned before, I'm really scared of calling people on the phone, so even though a friend recommended a piano tuner to me, it took me over three years to work up the courage to make the call. Yeah. Okay, so it was also partly that I knew it was going to cost at least a hundred dollars and that still sounds like a lot of money to me. But anyway, last week the piano tuner came and tuned the piano. He had to take three keys back to his shop because they were broken and he wanted to glue and then clamp them, but he brought those back yesterday. So now I have a functional piano again and it doesn't sound awful. It was really, really out of tune, and playing it was kind of depressing because it sounded so bad (and of course the three broken keys also made things difficult). But now I actually enjoy playing it again, so hopefully I'll be more motivated to practice. It was pretty interesting to watch him tune the piano too.

I had a nice birthday on Sunday. The weather was beautiful and we decided at the last minute to grill some chicken and have a picnic dinner. I never get to have picnics for my birthday because it's usually cold, so this was pretty exciting. We also had mashed potatoes and homemade BYU mint brownies. Kevin enjoyed helping Ryan get the fire going and both of the kids enjoyed playing on the grass while we waited for dinner to cook.

Ryan got a three-inch memory foam mattress for my birthday. I was a little nervous that I wouldn't like it, but now that we've been using it for a week I love it. I haven't slept this deeply for over a year. Now the problem is waking up in the morning or if someone needs me. :)

The government was kind enough to take an hour of my life away on my birthday for daylight savings time, but it looks like we might finally get spring weather, so that's good. This winter has felt very long.

Kevin's 4th birthday

Here are some pictures from Kevin's birthday. It was a quiet party with just our family this year. We had pizza for dinner and Ryan made a rainbow chip cake with pink frosting and Valentine's Day sprinkles (thank you, Kroger, for Manager's Specials). Ryan usually makes the cakes. After having cake, Kevin opened his presents. He got a Toy Story garbage truck (we took him to Target and that was what he chose). We also appreciate the very nice gifts and cards that Kevin received from his grandparents and from Grandma and Grandpa Great. Kevin also enjoyed getting a "coupon" in primary that he got to use to go shake the bishop's hand and get a treat.

Kevinisms

Happy fourth birthday to the coolest little boy! It is so amazing to remember the day he was born and see all of the things he has learned since then.

Here are some of our favorite recent Kevinisms:

"I want farmers on cheese." (Parmesan cheese)

"I want to make a sammich, and I want to do the sanataise." (He has moved from calling mayonnaise manatees, and now calls it sanataise.) It's very convenient that Kevin can make his own sandwiches. He also does a good job making his own scrambled eggs.

"I hate it when . . . "

"Ha-yaa!" (This is how he says, "Ta-da!")

"No, Dad, I'm on MOM'S side!" (He is saying this because sometimes when the kids get in trouble from Dad, they come to me to be comforted, and I respond by saying, "I'm on Dad's side.")

"Are you interested in _______ or something?" (Fill in the blank with going to the park, going for a walk, playing with dominoes, etc.)

"A little bit." (By which he means, "a little bit more." Heidi has started saying the same thing after hearing him say it.)

"Can you go out? I just need some privacy."

"CE-BUUUUUUUU!!!" Or, alternatively, "Say PLEEEAAASE!!!!" (Click link if you don't know what a Cebu is.)

"A sewing . . . maCHINE, a sewing . . . maCHINE, Jesus wants me for a SEWING machine!"

"Disgusting!" (If you've seen Spirited Away, think of the scene with the stinky river spirit coming to the bath house, and the way Yubaba cackles and says, "Disgusting!" That's exactly how Kevin says it--and it's probably where he learned the word.)

"I want pop-pop-pop-popcorn."

7/6/13
Ryan had the audacity to break Kevin's breadstick in half because it was long and unwieldy. Kevin gave him a hard time about it through the entire meal. "No, Dad, do NOT break my breadstick. That was very, very bad." And so forth.

7/11
Kevin: Mom, what are you doing?
Me: I'm crying.
Kevin: Why?
Me: Well, for some reason I'm really sad today, and I'm not really sure why.
Kevin: Oh. Well, you should go lie down on your bed and wait for Dad to come home so he can get you.
(This happened around lunchtime. When Ryan came home several hours later, Heidi told him very solemnly, "Dad, Mom crying," except it sounded like she said dying.)

7/16
Kevin: There are monsters in this cave. They're going to get you.
Me: Oh, dear, are they going to eat me?
Kevin: (as if he couldn't believe I would suggest something so ridiculous) No, they will just spit you out.

Kevin is getting better about saying his prayers by himself. He has been capable of doing so for over a year, but most of the time he insisted on us telling him what to say, and he would only repeat it himself occasionally. But recently he realized that if he says his own prayers, he can say whatever he wants to, so now if we start to help him, he says, "Stop. I want to say it myself." Usually in his prayers he will say, "Thank you that we can go to the park, and my web not be broken (in reference to the rope structure at Old Chapel Hill Road Park)."

Other kids know who Kevin is. Even the Asian families at the playground seem to know his name. Ryan substituted in Primary on Sunday, and even though the kids in the class were a few years older than Kevin, when Ryan told them he was Kevin's dad, their faces all lit up and they said, "Oh, we know who Kevin is!" He's very friendly and genuinely likes everybody, and he's also a lot of fun, so maybe that's why. Or maybe he talks a lot in Primary.

He is in a fun stage. Sometimes he still drives me crazy, but he is much less of a handful than he was when he was two or three. He says so many fun things and he has a lot of fun. I enjoy it when he surprises me with something I didn't realize he knew, like when out of the blue he starts singing an entire primary song. Today he started singing "I Like to Look for Rainbows" at the top of his lungs, and let me tell you, it's very gratifying to hear your own child singing, "I want to be the BEST I can, and live with God again." That's what I want for him too.

Heidi Ann, age two

Heidi had her second birthday on June 23rd. To celebrate, we invited Jared and Kristi and their kids and our neighbor Neal over to help us eat a Texas Sheet Cake, which Ryan made. It was very tasty.

Heidi got a baby doll for her birthday. We went to Target to see what she was interested in, and it was a toss-up between a very soft stuffed dog and this doll. After thinking a lot about it we decided the doll would have a little more play value and bought it. Now Kevin wants his own doll and keeps trying to take Heidi's away, so I guess we know what he wants for his birthday next month. Heidi loves her new baby. At night she always wants to help her baby say her prayers ("I want Baby to Heavenly Father thank thee for this day").

Heidi is a sweet and fun little girl. She makes the cutest facial expressions and smiles. If she hurts somebody accidentally and they say ouch, she will kiss them where she hurt them and ask if they are okay. She is active, agile, and fearless, which means she hits her head a lot, but she is also resilient. People often tell me how amazed they are at the things she can do, especially climbing. She says a lot of words and often uses complete sentences. I don't know if other people understand her as well as I do, but she is very good at communicating. Here are some things she has been saying lately:

• "Myself, myself" or "Do it all by my SELF!"
• "Neen-up buddy" is a verb that means to clean up. (It comes from the Barney song--i.e. clean up, everybody everywhere.) She will either sing, "Neen-up buddy, neen-up buddy," or she will say, "I'm going to neen-up buddy."
• " 'Mere!" (Come here!)
• "Go away, Mom!" (For when she's mad at me. I'm not really sure where she picked it up.)

Heidi loves her pink blanket, her duck lovey, and all stuffed animals. In order to sleep, she needs to have a small blanket and a stuffed animal or her duck to hold. Now she also likes sleeping with her new doll. She also likes to have them to help her calm down when she is upset or hurt. Recently she has started coming to me with her blanket and duck and asking for "nungles" (snuggles). She also loves reading books and dancing to music.

Heidi is very interested in the potty, but she is working on overcoming the psychological association that she has with going in her diaper. I try to let her wear underwear at home so she can keep practicing, which has been resulting in a lot of accidents. She has had a couple of successes, though, and I think she will figure it out. Sometimes when she wants to try, she will say, "I want to have a acci-'ent (accident) in the potty." I do not think that word means what she thinks it means, but there's something awfully cute about the way she says it.

Heidi's hair has grown a lot recently. I'm suddenly finding that I have to fix it on a regular basis, which would be much easier if her comb would stick around for more than a day without disappearing. Her hair has a bit of a curl to it. I adore the little ringlet she has in back. If the ringlet wasn't there, I might have cut her hair a long time ago to even it out, but I don't want to lose that sweet curl. Whenever she gets her first haircut, I will probably get that piece and save it forever.