Monday, May 30, 2016

End of Joy School

The last Joy School that we hosted was about families. Here the kids are with their swaddled up babies, after we rocked them to sleep.

We let them take a nap during free play time.

After free play time they grabbed their "babies" and laid down with them and after a few minutes of resting we observed how much we grew while sleeping.

Those kids, they are wild and crazy, and tender and sweet. It has been so fun getting to know each of them over these past few months.

While Shae was gone at Joy School we got to hang out with some of Belén's little buddies while their mama's taught. Here she is with sweet little Remi.


I took them on a little walk one of the days, you can see that they were thrilled.

Last week we had a BBQ with all the Joy School families to celebrate the end of the semester. The rotation ended with us being next and Shae can't stop talking about how Joy School is at our house after Joshes house and when are his friends coming over. Sad :(. 

Melody took these sweet pictures.

Love love loved doing this with these ladies. We all became such good friends and I am so so so so so sooooo ridiculously sad that the three in the middle are leaving us. Joy School parent meetings were the best excuse for a girl's night. 


Such great kids. So many fun times. Now time to recruit for the fall :).

Thursday, May 26, 2016

Cohort Picnic

We made it through the first year of Darin's PhD! Woo hoo! And it was actually mostly good. The first semester was rough because Darin had an early class so he had to leave the house by 7 a.m. and then had a later class some days and didn't get home until 6:30, long days for all. Second semester was much better in that we got to all start the day together and eat breakfast together before he took off (small thing that made a HUGE difference). The month leading up to the MPSA conference was awful (as in he was gone, just gone, not even around on the weekends). That was no fun...but again, we made it!

Our very favorite AshLee put together a little end of the year picnic together for their cohort last week at Stewart Park. AshLee was the only person from his cohort that we had ever met so it was really nice to meet everyone else. They were all so nice and friendly with the kids.


Chowing down on an Indian fish patty.



Totally out of focus, but you can still tell that Mr. Cool is oh so cool.

 Belén made friends with all the ladies...and puppies...


She had to be in the picture too, which meant that Shae had to do the same. Of course.


Love this girl so much! We're so sad she is transferring to Minnesota but excited for her to do great things. 

Never hurts to try for a good family picture when you have such a beautiful background...maybe not "good" but a family picture nonetheless.


Wednesday, May 25, 2016

And now, some Shae...

Ahem, I mean, Ryder. Meet Ryder:

 He likes to bring his dogs (Zuma, Skye, Chase, Marshall, Rocky, and Rubble) with him everywhere we go.

 He will make it known that he is Ryder if you call him something different.

Those (invisible) dogs have become his bestest friends.

Seriously though, Paw Patrol. He loves it. We watched it like, once at my parents house when we were visiting. It's not on Hulu or Netflix so we never watched it again, but then found a DVD at the library and the obsession began. It was super cute at first, then got ridiculous because he began having melt downs when people wouldn't call him Ryder or one time one of his friends "threw" the dogs off the play equipment and he LOST IT. We're now at a happy place where he can be Ryder at home or in the car, but Ryder and the dogs have to stay in the car when we are with friends, at church, at joy school, etc.... it was just too much for anyone to handle. Now that we are at our happy place, I really do love seeing him in his pretend Paw Patrol world, going on rescue missions with the dogs to save daddy from the big brown chair or to get Belén out of her bed, or whatever other random missions he comes up with.

Shae has really grown out of "toddler" over the past few months and looks and acts so much like a little boy KID to me. (Although the toddler behavior sometimes still shines through).

I can't get enough of him and this backwards hat look.
 

"Look mom, I'm a strong football man."

Like I said in my last post, he's quite the big brother leader. He does it, she follows. "Come on Belén, let's get our squirt bottles and go outside." She silently follows. (She is sssooooo quiet next to him).
 

You take a bath, I take a bath. You play with ladle, I play with ladle. 

Poor girl has no idea what's coming.


You drop your towel and run away from mommy, I drop my towel and run away from mommy.

He made a semi-pretend picnic for us at the library a few weeks back and couldn't have been happier. He even set a plate for daddy and kept on saying that he was waiting for daddy to come (even though he was at school).

Our sweet little baseball loving boy.

He could play at the Science Center ALL DAY.

Shae is mastering the camera skilllssss! Maybe I can be in more pictures!

I know sleeping pictures of Shae are probably only cute to me, but seriously, when he is go go go every second of the waking hours, this really is such an amazing sight to see. Here we are coming back from the library, holding on to his Paw Patrol book, he just couldn't make it. I drove around a bit to see if Belén would take her nap in the car too and she would not, so I parked in front of our apartment, quickly brought her up to her bed, opened the window a crack and sat on the stairs outside so that I could hear/semi-see both of them. What a wild nap day.

And one more sleeping pic, because I couldn't resist! Darin had a random fever sick day last week and was asleep in our room where Belén usually naps, so I ended up putting her in her room. I had a lot of work to do so I still needed Shae to do quiet time. I turned on a Dr. Seuss audio book for him in the livign room with some cars to play with and snuck away to the bathroom so that he wouldn't talk to me. When the book finished I came out to turn it back on and found this! Never thought the day would come where this kid would fall asleep in random places, but he knows when he's tired.

Being three can be so hard some days, on both of us. Take a picture so we can both look back and laugh some day, right? 

Shae is really into this ABC song of Daniel Radcliffe on Jimmy Fallon. He also LOVES the Barbra Ann Jimmy Fallon video and could watch it over and over again.

Makes friends SO easily. When we go to the park he quickly walks over to whoever is there and plays with them. It was so funny to watch him milk his friendship with these two 8 year old girls to get them to help him around the playground when he can totally do it himself..."I can't do it...heeelllpp me...I need you to help me."


Just some little things from the past few months that I want to remember:

Prayer after Mother's Day church where I received a Dove chocolate bar:
"Heavenly Father, I wish I could be a mommy so that I could have a chocolate bar someday."

Pointing out people in our pictures on the wall:
"Daddy, Mommy, Jimmy Fallon!" (pointing to Darin's mission plaque picture)

He started saying "All dem!" (All of them) all the time, for everything.
Me: Do you want some milk?
Shae: Yes, I want all dem!

Me: Let's read some books.
Shae: I want all dem!

While driving in the car:
Me: Shae please stop kicking the back of my chair.
Shae: I can't mom, my feet are in outer space.

While talking about going on the metro in D.C.:
"I can't wait to go on the mattress!"

One day when my glasses fogged up coming in the house:
"Woah mom, why your glasses so soggy?" 

At my parents house:
"I go upstairs and get the toys out of Ammon's garage." (The attic door is in Ammon's bedroom where all the toys are...attic, garage, it's all the same).

Lot's of election talk going on over the past few months:
"Monson and 'Bama are our prophets! They come to visit me in my house. Who is John Kasick again? We have to vote for Monson and 'Bama!"

During FHE while talking about talents.
Me: What are some of daddy's talents?
Shae: Hhhmmm...I know! Daddy is good at counting! And he knows the alphabet!

The month where he had invisible number friends, 1 to 20 to be exact. This kind of led in to the dogs and took over, but the numbers were fun because he would say things like, "Mom, can 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 5 and 6 and 7 and 8 and...come with us." He would way it so fast and go up to 20, every. single. time. It all started when it was 1's birthday and we made him a special lunch to eat with us.

Finding letters on things and saying, "There's an E for me! There's an A for me! There's an S for me! There's and H for me!" Once at Target a guy was wearing a Boston Red Sox shirt and Shae said, "Mom! Where that man going with my S and E!?" 

How he thinks that any of those 4 letters START his name. He says all the time, "H start with Shae! E start with Shae!" Still trying to help him understand the difference between beginning, middle, and end." 
Eppie will say, "I start with E" and Shae will say, "Me too!" hahahahaha, oh man, kind of funny to me.

The way he says piano (pan-eeo) and telescope (skelescope). 


So in love with this little boy. He sure does make life fun!

Wednesday, May 18, 2016

In case you needed a good dose of Belén in your life...

14 months has never been cuter.


Shae would easily choose me over daddy any day, not this girl. She loves that man. The second he walks in the door after school she baby runs from wherever she is to be the first one at the door to give him loves.


Always keeping busy with something. In other words, our house is always covered in stuff.




Following in brother's footsteps. If he does it, she does it.

That belly! (She is shooting right out of her 18 month clothes). 
She's finally learned that drinking milk is good a thing, thank you Shae for the superb example you set in this department, I know it was hard on you.

"Mom, put Belén in the crib too!" He always wants her in his "car" "rocket ship" "train" with him...she only sometimes wants to be in there with him.


Her hair these days seems to be constantly filled with food which makes styling it quite a bit easier. Basically, she lets us know she is done eating and wants to get down by putting her filthy, sticky hands on top of her head. She knows that gets our attention.

A little semi-pretend, semi-real picnic at the library with chef Shae bringing us food from the play kitchen.

Science Center fun. Her reaction time is not the greatest.

The just recently opened the outside area at the Science Center and the kids love it.

Super B!

Mommy-Belén time while Shae is gone at Joy School. She felt so special sitting up at the table with me to color. It's been fun having one on one time with her while Shae is gone. 

Pulled out the ol' plaque for a missionary Family Home Evening a few weeks ago and the kids had fun wearing it around the house. She also kind of looks like she is about to say a prayer in this picture. How fitting.

Last days at the park with her good buddy Maddy before she moves. It's been so fun to see these girls grow up together these past 9 months.

Too cool for school yo.

All she wants to do these days is get that little body of hers out the door. Check out those finger prints on that window. Yowzah. 
 

Independence is her game these days. Won't let us feed her anything. If I try to hold a cup so she can drink out of it, she flips out until I give in and hand her the cup and watch her spill water down her front. It's a messy world we live in, but I guess she has to learn eventually.

At least it's a cute messy world...most days.

The favorite. Sleeping beauty baby. Open mouth drool, butt up in the air, exactly where it should be after a long day of play. Have I mentioned I have a thing for sleeping kids? 


They're the greatest.