February 15, 2012
February 14, 2012
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
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.
February 12, 2012
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
January 18, 2012
Christmas Update
Fixing Grandpa's train, what good lookin' guys!
This was such a pleasant vacation and we got to see the whole Laws family minus the Nevins' (they all got sick on their attempt to get to Santa Fe, SAD!) Ruth had a blast playing with her big girl cousins. Will had a blast playing with all the boy toys like trains and dinosaurs. We all had fun eating out (especially at Los Amigos, seriously the best steak enchiladas EVER), going to movies, shopping, and playing at the children'
s museum. I didn't get pictures of everyone, but here are a bunch of my kids and some of their cousins in random activities throughout the week:
Baby #3
It's a GIRL! Ruth is very excited and wants to name her baby sister Mario.
I was unsure all along about whether this was a boy or a girl because this pregnancy felt different than with Ruth or Will. I decided in the past few weeks that I thought it was a girl. That's mostly because Ruth was dying for a sister and every time I asked Will if he was getting a brother he'd say no. We're all very excited. Now the name game begins!
January 3, 2012
Today
Today Ruth told me she wanted to dress up like the temple for Halloween.
When I told Ruth we were going to have Fanta with lunch she said, Fanta! Fanta is like Santa!
December 15, 2011
SLC trip and Funnies
Brad had his annual budget meeting in SLC a week ago. Highlights from this trip include: going to Ruth's diner (amazing steak special), seeing the lights at temple square, the Christmas show we went to with Brad's company (super fun and funny) (thanks Kelsey for making that possible for us), and visiting with my old roomie Meg. Ruth seriously fell in love with Meg and is still talking about how fun it was to see her at Ikea.
We just bought a used suburban (which we love) and Ruth 1) called it a limosine when we first showed it to her and 2) now says whenever we drive around in it, "Mom, our suburban is totally freakin' awesome!"
December 6, 2011
My Kids, All 3 of Them
Ruth and Will have been playing SO well together, it has been making this pregnancy much easier for me. Today I built them this fort to play in. They climbed in there and I could hear Ruth expounding the mysteries of toddler-dom to Will. They she paused and said, "Ya know buddy, I really love you." Best mommy moment in a while.
Another great mommy moment was about a week ago. Ruth was saying bedtime prayers and said, "Please bless the new baby that won't be here for a long time."
Speaking of the "new baby," it's due date is May 31st, which will officially give us a spring holiday season with Brad and Will's birthdays, along with our anniversary. Baby 3 (or XI as Tia is calling it, since it will be Paula and Asa's eleventh grandchild) is now 15 weeks along and other than all day nausea without puking, has been the easiest pregnancy. XI has definitely had the largest impact on my taste buds, everything tastes weird. Cravings that have come and gone include tuna, bologna (which is very normal for my pregnancies), anything carbonated and eggs. For a couple weeks I was eating about 3 eggs a day and not a whole lot else because of nausea. The past few days I've woken up and felt great so I'm hoping that the whole morning sickness thing is gone with the first trimester.
Last week we had a check up day. Ruth is in the 25% for height and weight and Will is in the 75% for height...which explains why everywhere we go people are asking if they are twins! The doctor said Ruth is clearly very intelligent, based on her use of language. Apparently 3 year olds are only expected to speak in 3 and 4 word sentences and know ONE color. If that's the case we are definitely excelling in that area. She has fallen in love with coloring and is quickly learning the alphabet and their sounds. Will is also working hard on language development. Everyday he tries out new words, but right now my favorite thing he says is "Roosh" (Ruth). He clearly adores his sister and loves being involved in everything she does. He has also started to love reading and we'll sit and read book after book. He's also very affectionate, but be careful. If you ask for a hug he's gonna give you a kiss on the lips!
I love my kiddos and can't wait to have XI here to love too. We find out if XI is a boy or a girl on January 17th, I'll be 21 weeks then so we should know for sure!
December 3, 2011
Thanksgiving Week
We were so happy to have a visit from Asa and Paula during Thanksgiving week. They pretty much spoiled all of us and it was a blast. Here are some pictures of what we did while they were around.
November 18, 2011
Ruthie's 3
Today is Ruth's 3rd b-day. We celebrated by going to Walmart to buy her a bike with training wheels, then we went to Hop-2-It, followed by lunch at a pizza buffet. We all had so much fun.
I must admit I was a little sad at how the cake turned out, but it was exactly what she asked for, "pink and purple with flowers, hearts and stars." And she liked it so that's what really counts.
In true Ruth style she just ate the frosting and sprinkles off the top.
It snowed this morning and the kids were so excited to go outside. They got bundled up and had a blast playing outside. Ruth made little snowmen that she lined up on the table! She's been talking about making snowmen for a long time, and we keep telling her there's not enough snow...what do parents know!
November 3, 2011
Halloween O' Plenty
The pumpkin patch
We got SO much candy this year, I guess it's cause there are two of them. Instead of buying more candy to give away on Halloween night I just handed out candy they got from the ward trunk-or-treat while Ruth was out with Brad getting more candy. Will wasn't very happy about me giving his candy to perfect strangers...but I wasn't very happy that whenever the doorbell rang he'd jump out of the tub and follow me to the front door stark naked!
His costume: black onesie, black snow boots, white tights, green and white felt for belt, cuffs and mask, green fabric and white felt for the cape. Everything was attached with hot glue.
Her costume: pink clothing, pink and purple toole for skirt (with elastic waist), wings: pink toole, purple feather boa, wire frame and lots of hot glue. I made antenna with pipe cleaners and purple fuzzy balls, but we totally forgot them. And then of course she got "lips" and "eyes."
The carvings: The top was Ruth's, she chose the face she wanted on it, it originally had teeth, but two days in the cold turned it into grandpa pumpkin. Brad carved Ruth's and the one under it, which I think the cold made look really cool.
I did both the white girl pumpkin and what used to be an owl sitting on a tree branch. The outdoors definitely took it out on my pumpkin the worst!
October 28, 2011
Vacation
We went to Salt Lake on two occasions, once for a meeting that Brad had for work (and we were lucky enough to tag along and play while he was working) and then again for a family reunion/NF walk for Olivia/Brad doing electrical work for Kurt and Kelsey. We had tons of fun both times and it was really fun to spend so much time with extended family. Here are pictures from our trips:
The next three are at Thanksgiving Point with Kelsey and kids, so fun!
On our way to the dinosaur museum. We stopped here for lunch, good choice! Ben loved it.
The zoo with Brian, Ben, Kristen and her kids
Coolest park, even had a splash pad that the kids loved
I shouldn't have been surprised that she climbed to the top by herself, but I was!
September 12, 2011
YMCA
September 11, 2011
Jammin'
My Music Man
Ruth is very expressive as seen in the picture below, she really gets into the music. It's fun to listen to her making up lyrics. And she's getting better about singing notes that are in the same key as Brad is playing in!
Will has gotten to the point where he just wants to do everything Ruth does. He doesn't ever want to be left out, so he hopped right onto that microphone and sang his little lungs out.
Ruthie's Song