Emma: 10 Things

Here's 10 things about our Emma girl:

1. I love the way that Emma talks!
"K" sounds turn to "t"
"r" turns to "w"
"v" turns to "b"
"l" turns to "y"
and she has the teensiest, cutest little lisp.
Some of my favorite words are "Yute is so tute!" (Luke is so cute) and words that start with "sq" like "stwishy" (squishy), "stwaywes" (squares) and "stwoit" (squirt). It's even better when she says that something is "bewwy stwishy."

2. The other day she found a nerf gun bullet and a toy screw, put the bullet on top of the screw and said, "Mom, I have a pwesant supwise for you! Blow out the birthday candle!" Then she proceeded to walk around the room holding her "candle" and talking about her "pwesant supwise."



3. In September we signed Emma up for a tot dance class through the community center. She was so excited to do it! She wore her ballet outfit the whole day before, we borrowed some tap shoes from a friend, and she talked about it all the time. But when we got there she didn't want to participate! Every invitation, demand, and bribe were met with flat out refusals and tears. I finally convinced her to dance during the tap portion (the last 10 minutes of class) by standing next to her holding her hand. At the end, she got a sticker, was smiling, and as I took of her shoes she suddenly realized it was over and said, "Oh, Mom! I forgotted to dance!"



Three weeks later she finally participated for most of class because I told her she didn't have to do the running/freestyle dancing parts. When the rest of the class starts going around the room she runs to me with a big smile, waits for them to circle up or sit down or go to the wall again and she runs back to join them when they do. And repeat.



4. Before Luke was born our plan was to put Will and Emma in the same room and let Luke have his own room. We bought a bunk bed, set everything up so their room would also be the playroom and started to attempt to transition Emma from her crib to her new bottom bunk. But every night she would climb up in Will's bed, smack him, wake him up, or just bug him until we had to put her back in the crib. We tried and tried and nothing was working. With sleep being scarce enough as it is with a newborn at home, we decided to give up. Emma needed her own room. We put Luke's crib in Will's room and our only other bed was the one we used for guests so...

 Emma now sleeps in her own queen sized bed and we've hardly had any problems since.

5. For family night every Monday we pretty much spend the whole time watching the kids sing. Emma's favorite song to sing is "I Am a Child of God". Whenever we ask her to sing she says, "I need my styep!" Then she goes to the bathroom, gets her step, brings it back, and sings on top of it while waving her arms like she's a conductor.



6. Emma's favorite thing to say is some variation of, "No you!"
Sometimes it works in your favor:
Dad: "Emma, you're so cute!"
Emma: "No, you're so tute!"



But sometimes it just bugs you:
Mom: "Emma, can you pick up that toy?"
Emma: "No, you!"



Both versions said in the "I'm the cutest thing ever and a totally know it" voice.

7. We think she might be a sleepwalker (or at the very least a sleep crier). Some nights (especially the nights she gets to bed late or is especially tired) she wakes up sobbing and we can't figure out why so we ask her what's wrong and try singing to her or getting her water but usually she just stops eventually, sticks her thumb in her mouth and goes back to sleep. But the other night, Taylor and I were watching a movie and we heard the boys' door open. We called out asking Will what he was doing but didn't get an answer. So I got up to look and Emma was heading back into her room and shutting the door. I opened the door and she was holding a board game so I asked, "Emma! What are you doing?" She looked at me for a second, then suddenly started (like she was just realizing I was there) and started crying. So we're pretty sure she was sleepwalking...

8. Emma is super clumsy. It's possible that she's just average and our frame of reference is off (Will was always a super active and coordinated kid). But she falls all. the. time. for no apparent reason. We went on a hike with friends in Utah and she fell like 8 times.

And as I finished writing that she ran into my chair and fell over.

9. Emma LOVES princess songs and she loves being sung to before bedtime. Her usual requests include "Let It Go", "A Dream Is a Wish", "Part of Your World", and "Once Upon a Dream".





10. And I would be lying if I didn't admit that we are in the throes of terrible twos. Don't get me wrong, when she's happy she's a doll. But when she's not.... yikes. She can be playing, happy, giggling one moment and then one "no" or "not right now" or "after lunch" from me results in sobs, screams, collapsing on the floor, tears, growling and general tantrumming until she either gets her way or gets put on her giant queen bed for time out.

I keep telling myself that if she gets it out now she'll be a dreamy teenager. (That's how it works, right?)

In spite of it, we really do love our sassy, bossy, silly, stubborn, smarty pants little girl.

Will: 10 Things

A while back I decided to write "10 Things" posts about my kids and my Project 365 kind of put those on hold. But I recently did some casual portraits for each of my kids and, although the pictures do speak a thousand words each, I wanted to shared some of my favorite current things about each one.

So here's Will:

1. He's taken a big interest in money and recently started "collecting" money. Yes, he does get most of the loose change we find in the house, but what he really means is "earning" money. He does chores like unloading the dishwasher, throwing dirty diapers in the outside trash, cleaning his room, making his bed, and I even taught him how to wipe down the bathroom sink and counter (but he's only done that once). He also occasionally "babysits" Luke for me when I take a shower or need to get things done around the house (really he just plays in the same room as him, but he likes the responsibility he thinks he has). One time Taylor was throwing around the idea of Will having his own snow cone business (lemonade stand type) but I said, "No. Will has to be able to count out the money himself or I'm going to do all the work." Will thought about it for a second and said, "I pay you!"

2. Since he's been earning money, he really likes to buy things. The first time we went to Target to pick out a Lego set, he was SO excited. He told everyone we saw, "I paided my own Legos today!" Most people thought he said something about painting, but luckily I was there to translate.

3. He mixes up a lot of phrases. For instance, he likes to tell people that he "made up a new friend" when really, he actually made a new friend--a real one, not an imaginary one.

4. He greets everyone (friends and strangers) by holding up four fingers as high as he can until they notice. He doesn't usually say anything, just stands there until they attempt to give him a high five and either he or I clarifies that he is just letting them know that he is 4 years old.

5. For the past six weeks he's been enrolled in a soccer skills class and he LOVES it. He actually did a similar one last year but this year he gets it. They do drills and play games to help them learn new techniques. I think Will's favorite part is the running. He runs, and runs, and runs (with the occasionally skip or jump) the whole time! 

6. Will's favorite game is hide and seek. All day, any day, everyday.

7. For a while when we asked him, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" He would respond, "An In-N-Out chef!" Later that changed to, "An In-N-Out chef during the daytime and I'll ride horses at the rodeo at nighttime." Now his answer is, "An office man." "What kind of office man?" "The kind that works in an office."

8. After having a tantrum, gagging on and spitting out his mandatory "try it" bite into the trash Will told me not to make food that he doesn't like.

Will: "Just make a list of all the foods that I like."

Mom (hoping for a teaching moment): "But Will, remember earlier today at the restaurant you said, 'Mom, I tried it and I liked it!'?"

Will: "Oh yeah. Add that food to my list!"

9. Will is a definite creature of habit. Every morning he wakes up at 7:00am, comes into our room and says, "Dad, I want two pieces of cinnamon sugar toast." (and occasionally) "Please."

10. He loves to sing! (He's pretty tone deaf but) he just loves it! Our church primary program (children's musical program) is next Sunday. It's his first one that he old enough for and he has a SOLO! He's singing a whole song by himself **and sings it almost completely monotone** but he gets all the words right! We've taken pretty much every opportunity for him to practice in front of family and friends so I hope he doesn't get stage fright. We've also on numerous occasions caught him singing to Luke (or anyone younger than him) when he's crying to comfort him.

He is the best big brother, my biggest helper, and stops me randomly a couple times a day just to say, "Mom? I love you." I am so blessed to be his mother.

Emma's first haircut

On September 1st, Emma got her first haircut! It's not that big a deal--it was just a trim. But I still wanted to document it. It made me a little sad, like it was her last "first" milestone as a baby and I'd been putting it off. She was a little nervous about it but sat very still for the whole thing.

Tracking field

Ever since Taylor put sod in our backyard, we have spent most summer evenings eating dinner outside and watching the kids play "tracking field" (thanks to two full weeks of watching the Olympics). They run, race, somersault, and cartwheel (or at least attempt to--Will's actually pretty close now) across the whole lawn and usually end up crashing and sprawling out on the grass. Life is good.

Pictures from August 30, 2016

Blue eyes and half smiles

Pictures from August 29, 2016

Little details

Pictures from August 22, 2016

A week in Anaheim

In August, Taylor went to Germany for a week on business. Luke was only three weeks old and by that time all of our family had left. I was really worried about being left alone with two kids and a newborn for that long so we decided to ask for help. One of the girls from our ward came to our rescue. She (and her mom and sister when they could) came for a few hours each day to help make dinner, entertain the older kids, hold the baby while I showered, watch the kids while I got groceries, brought groceries to me, put the kids to bed, and at the end of the week cleaned my whole house from top to bottom. We paid her (she's saving up to leave on a mission in a few months) but she not only returned the money, she hid it inside a plate of cookies that she brought to our house. There are wonderful people in the world and I'm so grateful to know so many.

The following week, Taylor had a 4-day conference to attend in Anaheim. Instead of leaving me and the kids (again) for 4 days or driving to and from Anaheim every day (yuck), the kids and I just went with him. We rented a house for the week, Taylor went to the conference during the day and came back to us at night. We didn't dare attempt Disneyland (life was crazy enough as it was), but we did go to the Lego Store at Downtown Disney and let the kids pick out a small Lego set each. The house also had a bocce ball set (one of Will's favorite games)
in the backyard that the kids loved to play. It was fun to have a mini vacation of sorts, even if it was mostly the same thing we do at home. :)

Emma was singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and halfway through it morphed into the ABCs.