Picture Updates

Random pictures . . . and facebook updates from the last couple weeks.
I'm seriously becoming quite the blogging slacker.  Sorry.  :-)

April 16th:  Just looked outside to find Annie riding up and down the street on her friend's two-wheeler bike -- so, a major parenting milestone checked off while we weren't even paying attention :-)
(She's been riding her bike as much as humanely possible this Spring -- and Greg raised her training wheels up an inch or so, so she really wasn't using them a ton anyway . . . but she hadn't wanted to take the big step of taking them off until her birthday. But apparently, she got antsy and just went for it anyway! Go Annie!)
Two other friends also learned the same day.  Yay for peer pressure.  :-)
Now if only she could lose a tooth, then she'd feel complete.  :-)

Cousins -- Bailey and Owen are wearing coordinating outfits in the same size!

Gotta love the Tulip Festival!  These three just look like sisters!

Yes, Owen does look just that awesome in those glasses.  He was as happy about them as he looks.

April 18:  Isaac got his cast off.  He's slowly relearning to walk without it.  We also found out Annie got in to the Spanish Dual Immersion program.  We took her out of the ALPS program, and are going for Spanish.

April 20: I was upstairs getting the baby down for a nap for a few minutes, and when I came back downstairs I found Isaac sitting up to the counter with a fork and a jar of peanut butter he'd gotten open. He looked up at me, face and hands covered, held up his fork and exclaimed, "Mmmm! Peanut butter!"

April 23: Family Home Evening was basically all of us trying to hear Greg read a story over Isaac who was yelling, "Let do than Bean again! BEAN! BEANNNNNNNN! Let do it! BEAN!" Note to self . . . save singing 'Jesus Wants Me for a SunBEAM' 'til AFTER the lesson next week . . .

Annie came running in to my room at 9:15PM. "Mom! I forgot, we left some books out on the trampoline! I don't want them to get ruined!" I assured her I would go get the books, and for the love, go to sleep already, you're five years old and it's after 9PM, and you have school tomorrow.
Well, I just made the last of several trips and all SIXTY-SEVEN books are now back inside. SIXTY-SEVEN! My kids are crazy. And I'm apparently a very neglectful mother, as I never noticed SIXTY-SEVEN books making their way out into the backyard . . .

Isaac yelling out my back window, "Sissers! Get off my twamp-oh-leeeeeen!" Nothing sounds cuter than big long words from angry one year olds :-)

April 24:  Toddlers are so random . . . it'd be fun to know what goes on inside their heads. Isaac just marched into the room, exclaimed, "These MY pants Mom! My pants!" while pointing down at his pajama pants. Then he turned to leave, pausing to turn around, emphatically point again at his own pants and add one last dramatic, "MY pants!" Then huffed out of the room.

April 26: Annie's newest list of sight words include: argument, beneficial, arrangement, bargain, category, business, certainly, comparative and calendar -- these lists are getting harder and harder to make 'sentences' from :-) (We typically tell stories from her sight words, like "The 'scary' 'ghost' 'hosted' a 'party' on 'Friday' night," or something like that, just using as many of the words as possible. What now, "The arrangement was beneficial because we struck a business bargain . . . ") :-)

I had my first 'are they twins?' question in public about Ellie and Isaac.  Nope, they're over two years apart.  They're just within 2 pounds and are both wearing size 6 shoes (Isaac grew out of two pair of 5's that he'd only worn once or twice and that I'd just bought last month!  Ellie is ALMOST in 7's)  :-)

April's Been a Busy Month . . .

We've done a lot this month . . . and taken lots of pictures.

(Sorry if you're on facebook -- these are pretty much all repeats)

Cousin Bonding Time

My sister, Talina, and I got the coolest Christmas presents this year from my Mom.  Thanksgiving Point passes for our families.  Now that the babies are a bit bigger, and the weather is nice, we went today to go activate our memberships.  Unfortunately, pseudo-hurricane-force winds kept us from our original plan of going to the Farm area to check out baby animals, but we had a blast going to the Dinosaur Museum with the kiddos.

Bailey cracks me up around Owen -- these two are gonna be SO much fun to watch grow up together!

Here's our Bailey Boo hanging out in our frontroom . . . Annie & Ellie found her this hat, and insisted she wear it.

Letter to Uncle Cody

The girls helped me write an email to my little brother tonight.  Here's what I transcribed:

Ellie, "Adios amigos!  Adios amigos!"  I don't think she knows Spanish well. 

Annie giggles and corrects, "Hola!"  Ellie added, "Hola pato!"  Since we have taken to addressing ducks in Spanish around these parts.  "Hola pato!  Hola pato!  Hola paco!" she says.  Don't know why it suddenly switched to 'paco'.   Annie, "How are you doing?  In Uruguay?"  Now she's jumping up and down and giggling.  Isaac is in bed for the night, and Owen's lying on the bed getting fussy 'cause nobody's holding him.  I'm prodding Annie to talk about Conference.  Annie says, "Hola."  This is working well.  "Hola pato!" hijacks Ellie, "That's like hello or goodbye for ducks."

Annie finally stops giggling long enough to say, "I got Bingo on one of my Conference papers!"  She ROCKED Conference Bingo.  Jelly beans were consumed in mass quantities.  Annie had a friend call to play about an hour into the first session on Saturday, but she could not be torn away from all of her papers and Conference packet stuff for another half hour.  We have pages of decorated ties, tally marks for most popular words, and coloring pages of President Monson. 

Ellie is singing a song to Owen to try to calm him down on the bed.  It went, "You are stinky, stinky, stinky and you cry, cry, cry!"  It did not seem to help.

"He he he.  It did not seem to help," Annie giggles as she reads over my shoulder. She is now dissolved into a pile of giggles on the floor after reading the last sentence about her reading over my shoulder. 
"When is Cody gonna come home?" Ellie whines, "I want to go on a cruise already!"  Yeah Cody, way to hold up the cruise. :-)  Now she's singing you the "Months of the Year" song she learned at Preschool.  Now she's pointing out where she's finding the word 'Ellie' in the email, "Why did you spell Ellie?" she asks, but then is distracted and starts singing the months again.

Annie is still giggling.  "I'm reading along!" she laughs.  [Reads over my shoulder].  More giggling.  More giggling still.  [Reads over my shoulder].  Loud laughter.  But not the kind cautioned against in Conference.  :-)  Both girls are now in a pile on the floor, laughing.  I don't think Ellie knows what Annie's laughing about, but she's joined.  I told them they now have one last chance to say something to Uncle Cody before bedtime, "I love you Cody!" Ellie exclaims.  She's now singing the Months song again.

Annie giggles upon reading that, but had said a few seconds ago, "I watched half of both parts of Conference."  [Reads over my shoulder].  Giggles.  She really did love Conference, and would proudly show you the papers with the words she heard, and a couple notes from talks. ("Helping" was what she got from one talk.  Score . . . Family Home Evening tomorrow is now on Service!)

"Bye Cody!  Bye Cody!" Ellie exclaims while blowing kisses!  Then she looks at the computer screen and says, "Thanks that we can see you!"  Pause.  "Wait?"  Did she just figure out this wasn't Skype like on Christmas?!

"I love you Cody," says Ellie again while Annie's deciding what to say.  "YAY!  ELLIE! E-L-L-I-E!" she exclaims as she sees her name typed.

"Uncle Doh-doh," Annie giggles.

"I Love You, Doh doh!" Ellie loudly laughs.

"And now she's calling you Doh-dy," Annie laughs as Ellie dances around the room singing, "I love Doh-dy, I love Doh-dy." 

"Dad says I used to have imaginary friends called Doh-doo and Iah," Annie says incredulously.  Greg brought them up when they were calling you 'Doh-doh'.  I don't know if she believes him.  Remember Doh-doo?  He drove a car.  And was married to Iah.  I think Annie's my only kid who's had imaginary friends.  Oldest child thing, maybe? 

"Have fun," Annie finally settles on her parting words, "Have a good mission!"  She thinks for a second, "I love you Cody. Bye."

There you have it, a combined family letter. :-)  Enjoy the attached pictures of poor Isaac in his cast, and Owen on his third month birthday.

Annie reads the last sentence, "Does he even know we have an Owen?" Annie asks.  I assure her I've sent you letters and pictures about him, and you're aware of Owen's existence.

Love you Bug!