Now what

On Sunday Ruth was chosen to pick a song to sing in primary. The chorister said, 'What is your favorite song?' Ruth answered, 'Um, I think probably Star Wars!' I have no idea where she got that idea from. She settled for 'Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam.'

In other Sunday approved activities, Will has gotten good at praying and sings the last word of phrases in the songs he knows. Very cute.

Pregnancy Blunders and Will

I've had two cooking blunders this pregnancy. The first ended in lots of tears. The second just made me laugh:

Several weeks ago I decided to make chicken and rice, the easy kind you just pour rice in the baking dish, covered in cream-of-chicken and topped with frozen chicken and then popped in the oven for a couple hours. EASY-PEASY. Except I put the chicken directly on top of the rice and THEN poured the cream-of-chicken on top. When my timer went off I was so happy that dinner was easy and ready. I went to dish up and realized all of the BROWN rice under the chicken (which was most of it) was nearly raw still and just started bawling. Luckily it was inexpensive and I later used the cooked chicken in really yummy pad thai.

This morning I was making French toast for breakfast-the kids' favorite breakfast. I wasn't paying much attention when I was grabbing spice out of the cupboard to add to the eggs. I realized my blunder once the first piece was cooking and suddenly the kitchen smelled like CUMIN! Ugh. Pregnancy + 8am + cumin = nauseous! I started over and this time made sure I used cinnamon in the eggs. Oh, and it was delicious.

I've realized recently that I haven't been very good at being excited about Will's milestones. Mostly because I'm not shocked by what he can do. With Ruth everything was amazing because I'd never experienced a child's growth and progress. But with Will I know what to expect and have thus been less enthusiastic...and feel bad. So here is some more stuff about Will that we love:

I love that he says, "so-so" for sorry.

I love the way he jumps around and grunts, he's so boyish.

His pouty face makes me laugh.

I love that he and Ruth are different. I have been a little confused because I've been trying to discipline and interact with him the same way I have with Ruth and he doesn't respond the same way. Then I realized it's great, he's his own person! I love that he takes his time when eating treats...he'll seriously take ten minutes to savor 5 fruit snacks.

I love how loving he is; he loves to give kisses.

I love that he loves his sister, he wants to be just like her. Some of the most recent thing he's picked up from her include pretending to be a cat, and saying "1, 2, 3" and naming any letter he sees as "E." Also he calls most colors either blue or green.

He is also amazing at throwing. I told Brad that he'd been throwing everything within sight and Brad said we should just tell him he's not allowed to throw things anymore. The next day Will threw a ball from across the room to Brad. Brad then changed his mind about not allowing throwing because he doesn't want to jeopardize Will's amazing pitching career.

I love that instead of saying "YEE-ha!" like a cowboy he says "hee-HA" like a donkey.

In Ruth news, she saw Sesame Street for the first time today. She has renamed everyone in the family: Brad is Grover, I am Big Bird, Ruth is Cookie Monster, Will is Count Dracula and baby sister is Sesame Street! She's actually called us these names all afternoon, we'll see how long this lasts.

Shadows and Baby Names

I asked Will what we should call baby Sister. He looked at me for a minute then put his hand up to his ear and said, "HI BABY!" like he was calling her on the phone. Made me laugh!

Our new ritual before bed is shadow dancing. Brad moves the arm chair out of the way, then turns the flash light or strobe light (on his phone) on and the kids have a blast dancing and watching their shadows walk across the wall and ceiling.

As of Today

Will found his pockets and is now strutting around like cool guy Jones.

Nesting

I have already had a few nesting spurts. The first one hit me as an organization bug just a few days after we found out baby 3 was a girl. I cleaned out all of our closets, reorganized the kids upcoming summer clothes, and gathered/sorted all of Ruth's old clothes for sister.

The second attack happened a few weeks ago when I got Brad to relocate our basement bedroom up to the main floor, buy new bedding, a dresser and a matching ceiling fan.

Ruth's new favorite game is to create a nest out of all the blankets and pillows from all over the house.

Valentines Day

This is the best Valentine's Day I can remember (except maybe for the one where my dad made a scavenger hunt through the house and at the end we all found Ande's mints, that was fun!).

We started the day with heart shaped (homemade) cinnamon pancakes with heart shaped strawberries and syrup YUUUUM. Ruth and Will were both great helpers getting breakfast on the table and gobbled up their food. This was a special breakfast for two reasons: 1) We never have pancakes, Ruth has had them maybe once (mostly because Brad doesn't really like them). 2) This was the first time we have celebrated a "holiday" with seasonal breakfast (this is the first time Ruth was really aware of the holiday).

In celebration of Valentine's Day we had a family home evening last night about the Savior's love. The kids really liked the activity; they took turns picking puzzle pieces that had scriptures or primary songs about love that then uncovered a picture about Jesus. We asked Ruth how she could show her love to her brother and she said, "By watching shows with him!" So maybe the lesson didn't really sink in, but it was fun and we ended the night with Baskin Robbins.

Recently and Pictures We Missed

Recently, people have been telling me that Ruth has such a huge, fun personality and that she makes them laugh. She has been very interested in dinosaurs ever since visiting Ben over Christmas. She has learned all of the alphabet, upper and lower case letters. We're working on tracing, writing her name, numbers and reading.

Recently, Will has been making tons of messes and jibbering up a storm. These days he LOVES bath time, has perfected his pouty face, and is very interested in dinosaurs and monsters! He knows lots of words, his favorites are "again, please, monsters, and butt (belly button)." He is learning patience, what it means to clean up toys properly and loves trying to count along with Ruth when she's counting.

Both kids are very excited for baby sister to arrive. Names Ruth has come up for sister include, Mario, Luigi, Fancy Nancy, Daisy and Jane.

Brad continues to work at the Days Inn, and we are all looking forward to the Days Inn conference at the beginning of April in Las Vegas. Brad's Hotel will receive a Chairman's award for quality and performance. We're staying at the Luxor so Ruth is constantly talking about the triangle hotel. I'm excited for the warm weather, spending time in the pool and taking kids to the children's museum there. We're also definitely looking forward to the yummy food that is there.

I am doing pretty well. Nausea has subsided. Heartburn has arrived. And the emotional roller-coaster has recommenced. The last week has been rough emotionally, I either cry or scream about everything so that's been fun for my family!

Eating snow with Grandma Paula

Playing in flour

Dad's picture on the merry-go-round during Christmas

lights in the south hills, and yeah there was a camel!

Will enjoying the new ride