Christmas and Nick

Christmas was great! We had my parents and younger sister in town, so nice to be with family for the holiday!
Zeke's presents were pretty much all toystory and Pantera's were starwars. Yay for a theme lol!

Last night Pantera asked if I would paint her face which lead to a photo shoot. She was so funny "Now pretend I'm a fairy, now pretend a dog is chasing me, now pretend I am scared..." She still loves to dress up. When she was in her room today she asked me "Mom, have you seen my Darth Vader cape? Ugh, I guess I'll just be a ballerina." I laughed pretty hard about the alternative.

I know you are all wondering about this Nicholas character here he is...

I'm always shocked to see how tall Tera is compared to the other kids her age! They had a christmas in Oz play and Pantera was Glenda the good witch. She did great even though she had a cold and was all plugged up!

A little shout out....

I just wanted to give a shout out to all 3 of my kiddos...they all used the potty the past 3 mornings!!! That's old news for Tera and Amari (Amari has been using the toilet about 3 times a day for 2 months now), so I am especially proud of Zeke. I'm not getting my hopes up, butr it is a little progress.

Papa,. Pizza Grandma (my parents), and Samarah are in town and the kids are loving it. Papa even got Amari to roll over several times! If you know Zeke it usually takes him quite a while to get used to anyone, but he picked up right where he left off with his Papa! Ran right to him and gave him a hug, love it!

Amawni

Where to start?!? Pantera insists on wearing this beanie to school everyday, I think it used to belong to my sister. But it messes up her hair and that bothers me a little...trying to let go...
Speaking of hair, here are the 2 tiniest pigtails I have ever made. I can't wait for it to get a little longer.

Pantera thinks I should have an activity waiting for her when she gets home from school. Sometimes I do...

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Then just put the pants on you head.

Zeke has been a crack up lately. He is so sweet with "Amawni" and loves to share his toys with her. As a matter of fact he will only let her play with what he is playing with. I love to hear them giggle as they play together. Zeke is quite the ladies man and is learning some sweet moves from Ken and Spanish Buzz on TS3. He loves to act out the scene where Ken is trying on clothes and I finally got it on video but I can't seem to upload it GRRR!!! But it is HILARIOUS!!! He came up to me on his knees and took my hand, then mumbled many words like Buzz does to Jessie. He is so cute!

8 months old

8 months old today! She is such a sweet and happy baby. Amari you make me smile everyday, I love you little girl!

Breakfast with Santa

Today was breakfast with Santa. Pantera has always loved Santa. Zeke was happy to see him and gave him a high five, followed by a very formal and random handshake. Amari...well the pictures say it all!

Things have been busy around here, but very good. Pantera is reading like you wouldn't believe. She tells me so much about friends at her school "Nathaniel has a hard time practicing self control" or "Mark put up his middle finger, that's like saying every bad word at the same time...even stupid!"

Zeke thinks he is hilarious, ok he is hilarious. He randomly cracks up at himself, he will just be sitting in the car and start laughing at nothing. He calls hats "Yee-Haa"s and if he is wearing one he is even funnier.

Amari rolled over twice in one day. She had to get shots yesterday, she cried for .5 seconds then the lady looked at her and she smiled so big to get more attention. The lady laughed saying "That is the quickest I have ever seen a kid smile after a shot!"

Now that Thanksgiving is over...

Let me be the first to say...

Do you ever wonder why I never have pictures of all 3 of my kids together? This is why.

Catch up...

My dear sweet little Amari. She isn't rolling over, I think her body is to heavy for her to pull it off on a regular basis. Although last night when she was really, really mad and wanted to nurse all of the sudden she got her body almost all the way over, if I hadn't been next to her she would have! So I guess maybe it's lack of motivation???

Zeke has been so "money" lately. He laughs about everything and tells me "Mama, it money!" We had a cute little girl come over and play a couple days this week. Zeke usually doesn't have time for kids his age, but he thought this little girl was pretty cool. He was dancing in front of her and kept hugging her over and over. The only problem was she didn't want anything to do with him. Payback stinks! He would run over to her and hug her, she would get mad, he would run away then run back and do it again. I told him to stop because he was really making her mad and he says "No mama, I money!" This morning as Pantera got on the bus, Zeke was pretending to cry. He hid his head in the stairs and wept loudly. Love that kid.

This week we had our first ever parent teacher conference! Pantera is doing great in school, they will be putting her in 1st grade reading and math and trying to challenge her more. Her teacher told me "I'm not just saying this, in the 21 years I've been teaching, I have never met a kid like Pantera. Whatever she chooses to do, it's going to be huge!" That's my girl!

Pantera is still obsessed with being an American. She insisted on wearing red, white, and blue to school today. She told me "I've never felt this before, this caring for my country. You know mom, the American flag stands for freedom and you can't take THAT away. I just want to be a veteran so bad!" She has also been coming up with new ways to spell her name because "Everybody knows this name and I want it to be different." I'm sorry I didn't name you something unique...oh wait. She was talking about aliens the other day and told me "Aliens are not born, they are just born like tomatoes."

Monkey toes

My kids have always had the most the most expressive feet. I love to watch their little toes grab thing and move when they are excited. Cute little monkey toes!

Veterans Day

Here is a picture of Pantera deep in thought. She had to write the reasons why she loves her family after she asked if I would "Call the adoption people" again. She threw a fit so I took away her Star Wars paraphernalia. This caused her to wail "I can't survive without it, I'll die, I can't live!" over and over for about an hour. Good times. On a cuter note, she got in the car so excited after school yesterday. "Guess what? Uncle Alex might be at my school tomorrow!" I tell her that he is in Afghanistan and he probably will not be there. She replies "You don't know. My school invited Veterans from the Army. Uncle Alex is in the Army so I am gonna sit by him!" Nothing I could tell her could convince her otherwise, I hope she isn't to crushed when he isn't there.

I love his cheesy little face! The other day I layed Amari down for a nap. Zeke found a blanket that he thought she should have so he brought it to me. When he saw she wasn't in my lap he started to panic "Beebee? Beebee a hoo hoo?" (Baby where are you?). Then he found her and woke her up.

Amari turned 7 months yesterday! She makes this face that cracks me up whenever she gets excited. I was thrilled to catch it on camera!

I guess she was done with her photo shoot!

6

Pantera is 6! She is such a sweet girl. We are so lucky to have you in our family Tera!

Happy Halloween!

Ashoka

We had our trunk or treat last night. Pantera was so proud of her costume. She is Ashoka from Clone Wars.

I play...

Stinkin blogger isn't letting me post pics right now so I will only share a little. Today Zeke told me "I poo" and he smelled really bad. I was happy that he told me, thinking we were on our way to recognizing the feeling and potty training. I change his diaper and there is nothing in it. I said "Zeke where is the poop?" He says "I pay poo" (I play poop). I ask again "Zeke where is the poop?" He says "I pay kee poo" (I play kitty poop). I am so thrilled he is putting together sentences! I play kitty poop, I mean how much cuter can you get? SO GROSS ZEKE!

GLorious Maxima

I was going to post the other day, but believe it or not I HAD NO NEW PICTURES!!! Of my kids anyway. I started a photo blog for my other work if you want to check it out.
Yes, I am posting blurry unedited pics tssk, tssk. I love that he jumps with his tongue out. I moved Zeke's bed into Tera's room last weekend. He slept the whole night in there last night! He usually ends up in bed with us and Jess woke up in a panic around 4am when he reached for Zeke and he wasn't there. Zeke's new favorite thing is car toys, he loves to line them up and put them in the VCR and scream that they are stuck when he can't get them back out...so much fun!

Pantera was wearing this green shirt the other day and I told her how it makes her eyes look more green and that it was beautiful. She does a couple slow blinks and says "You can take some pictures of me...if you want." So I went inside and got my camera.

When Jess was tucking her into bed to other night she told him "Nice glorious maxima, do you know what a glorious maxima is Dad? It's a BUTT!" I was trying so hard not to laugh. Then last night I was on the phone with a friend who is due anyday and after I got off, Pantera asked what was wrong with my friend. I told her "She went to the doctor and was hoping the baby was coming soon, but the doctor said not yet. " Pantera shakes her head and says "(Sigh) I know that feels."

6 months

Little Miss Amari is 6 months old today!

Trouble in Paradise

Yesterday Pantera informed me she had some very bad news. "Nicholas colored on my paper and when I told on him, he told the teacher I colored on his paper! He told me if I ever tell on him again, that he will just tell on me and make up lies." I told her to hang out with other kids and she said that she tries to but he wont leave her alone. So I wrote the teacher a little note, poor thing!
I went prop hunting yesterday and came home with this cute zebra tray. My cousin and I were just talking about hot pink and zebra so I couldn't resist. So I took some pics, edited, and had them on my wall before Jess got home. Thank goodness for little Amari always willing to be my model! Can you believe she is sitting up already?!?

The cutest 2 year old I know!

He was taking a picture...

The teenage girls in our ward have pretty much all told me they wish he was older, as in prom date older lol!

Zeke is 2!!! But if you ask him he will tell you "Poe" which is Zeke for 4. Actually if YOU were to ask him, he would most likely bury his head in my legs and try not to look at you. My dear sweet little boy is SO shy! I just love this hilarious little stud muffin. Shy and super cute, just like his Daddy.