Mesmerizing

Our neighbor cut the tops off some of his elm trees. They look really ugly now, but it's necessary with elms to do this, I understand. And honestly, if those branches got too big and broke, they would fall right on our roof. So I'm good with it. Except for this - when the dude would cut huge chunks off the tree, they would drop onto our property, creating these huge divots. The chunks were so big that I could hear them pounding onto our grass - thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Oh well. Our ground underneath the grass isn't that smooth anyways.

Dylan watched these guys trim the trees forever. And all the neighbors would stop what they were doing and just watch. It really is quite mesmerizing:

It reminds me of when I was teaching school. They replaced one of my accordion walls with an actual wall. (Though they didn't wall it clear up to the ceiling. For some unknown reason, they still left a big open gap at the top of the new wall between my classroom and the classroom next door, so if Paul's classroom got rowdy, we heard it, and if my classroom got rowdy, Paul's class heard it.) Anyways, they had to paint the wall, and they decided to do it during the school day, again, for some unknown reason. So I was trying to teach, and all my kids were staring with their mouths hanging open at these guys painting, up and down, up and down. Finally, I said, "Okay, guys. Look. The painters go up, and they go down. Pretty fascinating. Now can we get back to work??"

The only movie I've seen...

...that has made my kids sit this still is Jurassic Park 2. It was on TV the other night. The kids are usually jumping all over the place and don't pay much attention to the TV. But they sat still the entire time they watched Jurassic Park 2. (It was awesome.)

High Five.

Okay. What character, from what television show, always said that? ("High five.") You only get the ten points if you get both the character and the show. And you only get the ten points when you're the first one to guess correctly. :)

The other night, I was kissing and hugging Dylan and Sadie goodnight. After I kissed and hugged Sadie, she goes, "High five?" So I gave her a goodnight high five, as well. I thought that was a really cute request.

To The Shores of Tripoley

That's the song I always think of when we play Tripoley, though I know that the Tripoley in the song is spelled with an i at the end - "From the halls of Montezuma, to the shores of Tripoli..."

We got together and played that weekend that Lex was here.

Ben:

I think this is quite possibly the funniest picture of Mom that I've ever seen:

Hahaha! I love it!!

Eric and Lex:

Nat, me, and Mom:

Eric, Lex, Nat, and me:

The kids were being insane, as usual:

One Very Cheesy Lady

I invited Nat and my mom to go to General Relief Society Conference last month (boy, am I behind in posting...) at my stake center. I brought my camera, which seems weird, but seriously, every time I don't bring my camera with me, I end up regretting it. Whenever I bring my camera, I am always glad I did.

So here we are, eating dinner in the cultural hall before the broadcast. Mom:

Autumn, who is in my ward:

Tammy, who is in my ward, and her stepmom:

Patster and Natster:

And I've just got to tell you about our Stake Relief Society President. She is an older lady, and she is just soooooooooo happy. And a little cheesy. She spoke to us a little bit before we ate, and she kept referring to us as "special angels," "darling sisters," etc. She was really sincere, but I was having a hard time with the cheesiness. I've never been called an angel before. Or a dream. She called us "dreams" a few times - "Okay, my dreams! It's about time to go into the chapel for the broadcast!"

After we ate, we went into the chapel for the broadcast, and it was alright. After the broadcast, Patty and I went back into the cultural hall to get my bowl (I had signed up to bring muffins), and the Cheesy Lady was right there. She chirped, "My sweet loves, stay right there! We have extra muffins for you to take home to your darling children and loving husbands!!!" And then she rushed off to the kitchen to get us some extra muffins. Patty and I looked at each other for about one second and then booked it to the exit! We had to escape the cheesiness. So we ran for it.

She is a really nice lady; I'm just really uncomfortable with that amount of cheesiness in my vicinity. :)

What do we do? We swim, swim.

Ten points to whomever guesses the movie from my post title!

Our family likes to swim. I feel like I'm always posting pictures from us going swimming. :) Lex came home for the weekend a few weeks ago, and we went up to Green Canyon to swim. I haven't been to Green Canyon in years. It's a good pool for little kids, because the shallow part is really big.

These are probably the worst pictures I've ever taken. I wasn't being very careful about using the flash. I just kind of wanted to take pictures and then get the heck into the pool. :)

Sadie:

Dylan:

Micah isn't a big fan of swimming:

We decided to eat lunch right there at Green Canyon. It took awhile to get our food, but it's all good. Lex and Eric passed the time by playing Bloody Knuckles:

Green Canyon has all of this old porch furniture from the sixties. You can sit there comfortably and watch the swimmers:

My dad told me that, when he was a boy, his scouting troop used to travel to Green Canyon to swim. The people that owned Green Canyon let his troop spend the night there and sleep on those couch thingeys. That's how old they are!!

My favorite memory from Green Canyon is this old trapeze thing they used to have. It was so high up, and it was above the deep end. We would spend hours concocting ways to get up on that trapeze. And then it was like King of the Mountain, with people trying to knock each other off the trapeze. I loved it. They took it down, I guess, which is sad.

Slides:

We shouldn't have.

Sorry my posts are heavy on the Sadie lately - she is at this age where she says the funniest things, and I just really want to write down the things she says while I remember them.

Yesterday, I had just finished changing one of Micah's more potent diapers. Quoth Sadie: "We shouldn't have had a baby. They're too stinky."

Tart Tins and Buttons

Ever since Sadie was teeny, she has loved to organize things. As a one-year-old, her favorite toys were cereal bowls. She would stack them, and unstack them, and put things in them, and move them around, and take things out of them, etc.

When I was cleaning my mom's kitchen a few weeks ago, I unearthed some tart tins that she has never used. I was going to put them in a D.I. bag for her (I didn't offer to take them off her hands - like I have time to make tarts), but she suggested that I take them home for Sadie to play with. They're a hit. I give her my big bag-o-buttons and the tart tins, and she goes to town:

Organizing things is thoroughly satisfying, huh, Sade?

Big Helpers

My kids love to help me cook. I let them help me, because I know it's important for them to learn how to do it, and because I like to spend time with them. Inwardly, I cringe when they flute the pie crust wrong or don't stir things thoroughly enough, but I keep those cringes inward.

Play Date

We went over to my friend Megan's house a few weeks ago for a play date. Ben thinks the term "play date" is funny. Whatev. Megan is an amazing photographer - you can take a look at her handiwork HERE. She takes my family's professional pictures - I won't go to anyone else. :) She also takes gorgeous snapshots - she is a picture-aholic, like me. She took some really great pictures from that day.

I can tell Jonas is really wanting a baby in his family. He kept following Micah around and hugging him. Micah wasn't sure how he felt about that:

Micah loves playing with balls, and Jonas wanted to play with Micah, so I suggested that Jonas and Micah roll a ball back and forth. Of course, Sadie and Brynnan wanted in on the action, too. Micah freaked out if I left him, so I had to sit there behind him:

I like this picture of me, even though I didn't have any makeup on that day, because you can actually see the real color of my eyes. In most pictures, my eyes end up looking brown, but really, they're green:

Jonas actually took the above picture. I can see another future photographer in that family. :)

Megan has this little plum tree that is perfect for climbing. Dyl:

Sade:

Sadie loves Jonas's little driving toy that you push around with her legs. She is wayyyy too big for it:

A beautiful pic of Micah:

Dylan gets into everything. You really have to stay on your toes with him. He just helps himself to whatever. He kept getting things out of Megan's garage. At one point, he brought out a pooper-scooper and was pretending it was a gun:

That is one fancy pooper-scooper. I never had one like that when I had dogs - I just turned plastic bags inside-out and picked up poo that way. This way would have been much nicer. Feeling poop, even with a bag guarding your hand, is really quite gross.

We had a ball, Megs. Let me know when you want to have our ornament-making playdate!! Woot-woot!!

Mees Amerrrrrica! SPEECH! SPEECH!!

Ten points to whomever guesses what movie my title is from. I'm going to start keeping track of points. And let you know who is weeeeening. "Eets a rrrace! I am weening!!" Another ten points to whomever guesses that movie. See? Reading blogs is fun!!

So........ I took Sadie in for her first session of speech therapy a few weeks ago, and when she got there, her new therapist did some little tests to see kind of where she was in her speech, and the therapist came out and excitedly told me that Sadie is all caught up! She says all the sounds she should be saying!! The therapist showed me this chart, with sounds and at what age children should be making each of these sounds. Sadie still doesn't have her r's terribly well, or her l's, but according to the chart, she would only be trouble if she was seven years old and couldn't make those sounds! So we just watch and wait and see if she falls behind. If she falls back behind, we can put her back into therapy. She actually graduated from speech therapy! Therapy works! Who knew??

You MUST

Sadie is a very proper young lady - she always says "must" instead of "have to" - "Mom, you must help me brush my teeth." "Dylan, you must come play in our room with me." It is so funny.

Driving

Micah likes to pretend that a plate is a steering wheel. He is fascinated by anything involving cars or trucks. He often makes the "Vroom, vroom" sound while he plays with his cars. He won't say "Mama," but he'll say "Vroom, vroom." Sheesh. Another new word in his arsenal: "Look!" When he wants me to look at something. It sounds more like "Ook!" But I'm amazed at how strong his final /k/ sound is. Sadie struggled with that until this last spring, but Micah has the /k/ in the bag.

Pears

A few weeks ago, Nat, Mom, and I canned pears. Nat and I were in and out all day, because we had to take different kids to different stuff, but then we got a good, steady rhythm going that evening, and we finished up about nine that night. I took a few pics, of course. :)

Ivy, playing with a doll from my mom's "grandma room":

My mom got the kids doughnuts to eat for breakfast that morning, which made Sadie's day:

Brock:

My mom, measuring sugar into bottles:

Nat, peeling:

Thanks for guiding us, Mom, in our pear-canning quest. Now we have lots of pear yumminess in our basement to eat for the next little while. Canned pears is my kids' favorite.

I Don't Care

Dylie is so funny. Whenever he argues with someone and the person argues back, he says the weirdest thing: "It doesn't care." He says "It doesn't care" instead of "I don't care." For instance:

Me: You need to put shoes on before you go outside to play.
Dylan: But I don't want to.
Me: You'll get your socks all gross.
Dylan: It doesn't care.

For awhile, I wondered where the heck he came up with using "it" instead of "I," and then I realized that his phrase is a mixture between "I don't care" and "It doesn't matter."

Ben says it reminds him of the famous line from Silence of the Lambs: "It rubs the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again." I've never seen that movie and I sure don't want to. :)

Suuuuuuuuuuurgery?

Have you ever seen The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack? Another of my all-time favorite Cartoon Network shows. One of the characters on it is named Doctor Barber. He cuts hair and performs surgery. He's really creepy, always following people around, asking if they want surgery: "Suuuuuuuuuuurgery? Suuuuuuuuuurgery???"

Nat, my sis, just had surgery yesterday - nothing emergency, but something that needed to be done. And she is recovering well. The anesthetic made her pretty nauseated, but when it wore off, she felt a little better. She is experiencing a little bit of pain, but she's got some good drugs helping her out.

Anywho, tonight, I was rubbing Dylan's sinuses. He is sick (so am I - which is why I haven't been able to visit Nat in the hospital - phone calls only) and he was complaining that his face felt like it was going to explode. So I did the sinus rub tonight instead of the normal tickling of the face that he prefers. My old roomie, Carrie, showed me the sinus rub in college when I was sick, and it has been so helpful to me and my family throughout the last 14 years or so. (Thanks, Care.)

So while I was massaging Dylan's sinuses, this conversation ensued:

Dylan: Is Grandma coming over tonight?
Me: Nope.
Dylan: When are we going to see her again?
Me: Probably in a few days. She's been really busy watching Nat's kids.
Dylan: Why?
Me: Nat had surgery.
Dylan [after a pause]: Now we have two Surgery Aunts.

He was referring to Aunt Lex's knee surgery in June. I think that's so funny. Nat and Lex are the "Surgery Aunts." I wonder what aunt Beads is. Or what aunt I am to Nat's kids - the Tired, Greasy Aunt? The Yelling At Her Kids Aunt? :)

Peek-a-Boo

When Sadie plays peek-a-boo with Micah, she can't say it right. She says, "Pink-a-boo!!" I think that is so cute.

She is so weird.

I was told this story by Sadie's primary teacher, Em, and also Sis. M, from the primary presidency:

Sis. M was talking to the kids about how our families can be together forever, if we are sealed in the temple. She said that her parents were dead, and that she was so glad to be sealed to them, so she can be with them in heaven. Apparently, Sadie yelled, "My mom and dad are dead!" Sis. M said, "No, honey, your mom and dad are alive." Sadie: "Nope, they're dead."

What a weirdo.

Therapy

Micah still has a developmental therapist and an occupational therapist. Don't ask me the difference between them - I can't really tell. But I figure the more interaction he has, the better, right? Both ladies are really sweet and have helped Micah come so far. He is walking now, which is wonderful, but he's still not talking much at all. Sometimes he says "wow" and "yeah," but he doesn't say "mommy" or "daddy," which concerns the therapists. Also of concern is that he won't hold his own sippy cup still. So they're working hard with him.

Micah seems to have an issue with certain textures of things, so his OT brought some sticky, squishy things to try to get him used to different textures. She has this crazy thing that fits over his head:

He used to be scared of it, but now he loves it and thinks it's so funny. Which it is.

One day, he was working on a shape sorter thing, and he was concentrating so hard. I noticed that when he's really concentrating on something, he sticks his tongue out:

Dylan does that, too. So cute.

The therapists give us "homework" to do, which I think also helps in Micah's progress. For instance, we need to constantly have him practice pouring water out of a cup while he's in the tub. That will help him realize that he needs to tilt his sippy cup when he drinks out of it, hopefully. The DT also has us try to use some sign language with Micah, things like "more" and "thank you," to get him communicating a little bit better. So we're working on it. They say that, if he turns two and still isn't talking very much, we'll put him into speech therapy, too. We're the therapy family. :)