Amari 4

 

 Amari turned 4 this week! I can't believe she is this big already. I know everyone says it but it really does seem like she was just born, of course I could be confusing this with the twenty other kids I've birthed over the past few years;) She wouldn't be a four year old if she didn't smile like this...

 Amari has more personality then she knows what to do with. She is constantly cracking us up. She informed me that this year she is turning 4 and on her next birthday she will be 54. I asked her if she thought she should be all the numbers in between and she thought that was a terrible idea. I guess middle age does seem pretty fun. So to sum it up she has 12 years til she retires...I sure hope she outlives her savings.

She loves her big sister so much. She would follow Pantera everywhere if she were allowed.

She also loves to play with Zeke and Katurah. She is just all around easy to get along with. Amari you are such a blessing to our family. You are so fun, funny, and sweet. I hope you are as awesome at 54 as you are at 4! I love you Amari girl!!!

April Fourth

I took all the kids with me to the grocery store earlier this week. While we were waiting in line Pantera got really upset while looking at the magazines on display "Mom, that's pornography!" it was a picture of a lady topless with a black sensor bar over it. So she went about turning all the magazines so the other kids wouldn't see the porn. I'm glad she recognizes when something just isn't appropriate. She made this super cool king pig out of play dough this morning.

 Zeke and Seneca are the best of pals. He is constantly in her face saying silly things to make her laugh. Sometimes when she is really tired and crabby this makes her cry, which in turn makes him cry. "I was just trying to make her smile, but she did not smile." Zeke you make me smile everyday. In other news, miss Seneca got her first tooth in!

 This week we celebrated April Fools day. Because I am such a nice wife I convinced Jess that I was pregnant. I have never heard someone sound so relieved as when I told him I was just pranking him. So when he got home Amari decided to prank him with her own joke "Dad, there's a baby in my tummy. APRIL FOURTH!!!" Yes, April Fourth indeed.

Katurah has been a little pill. She has missed her daddy who has had to work a lot this week. She even lays in his spot in bed and invites me to snuggle under the blanket with her when he is gone. Usually she only snuggles daddy and papa so she must be feeling pretty desperate.

Reps

 Dear little Amari is going through what I love to refer to as the "you have to say" phase. Whenever we play together she has to direct the game and tell me exactly how to play and what to say. Pantera did this all the time when she was younger (ok she still does), and it always made me wonder why I was even involved with the game. Sometimes I can even sneak away and she doesn't notice for quite some time. She got a super pretty dress the other day and while wearing it she asked me to put on her tiger tail because "that would look perfect." So there is my cute little girl in a dress fit for a princess wearing a tiger tail and leopard ears. Then I found her fast asleep in said ears the next night. She told me last night "I am feeling fain! (pause here to swoon a little) so will you catch me?" I sure will cutie.

Katurah is little miss attitude these days. Everything is "No" and "Why!?!" When she gets in trouble she flattens herself out on the ground like a pancake, but she does it so fast it looks hilarious. She loves to put on concerts for me and the other select few she chooses to talk to. Her favorite jams are "When we're helping we're happy." and "Roll your hands." She does a cute little bow at the end of each song in anticipation of the rampant applause she is bound to recieve...I'm glad because due to her speech I would have no other way to tell when the song was over.

 

 I found this bowl at the table one morning and was deeply disturbed by its contents. Isnt that one of the first signs of a sociopath? leaving the marshmallows but eating the mateys? Who 
does that?

Seneca has officially been dubbed "the Happy Falcon." Whenever she is really excited she lets out a high pitched squeal that sounds much like a bird of prey. And she is very likely to peck your head into a nub, just sayin'.

 The life of a model is not easy...

Sometimes you just have to let your hair down...

Amari was kind enough to share her glasses with Ray...I mean Zeke. He was really happy after he put them on and said "Oh wow, now everything's not blurry!" He is doing really well on his reading, but only likes to read from a notebook I wrote sight words in. I bribed him to read from Hop on Pop, but he has most of it memorized. I was trying to get him to slow down and really look at the words and he was, until he got to "Three fish in a tree, how can that be?" He said "Three fish in a tree, how is that even possible?" So cute Zekie!

Pantera is looking over my shoulder as I type so I must be careful. She informed me that "In third grade you have a reputation. It can be a reputation for being mean to everyone like Bridget. Or it could be the kind of reputation where you make people shoot milk out their nose because you're so funny. That seriously happened mom."

 

Fast poke

Amari and Katurah playing "Ring Around the Rosie." Katurah is catching up to Amari in height pretty quick, which doesn't help with the whole "Are they twins?" thing. Luckily Amari doesn't mind yet, and they are both super cute.

Zekiboy is such a little cutie. I love how literal he can be. He was looking very bothered on Thursday and I asked him what was wrong. He said "I didn't know Jessie was the best show ever." I asked who told him it was and he said "The tv said it was." So we learned about opinions and how it is just fine if he doesn't agree that Jessie is the best show ever. He looked like a load of bricks had been lifted from his little shoulders...few that was close!

He asked me last week "Mom, what's a slow poke?" I explained it is someone who goes really slow at something, it's just a silly name that you might call someone. He replied "Oh, I'm a fast poke!" You sure are Zeke.

 Pantera is getting all ready for her state standards testing this week. It's pretty much all she has talked about for the past several days. I guess they aren't allowed to read if they finish testing before the other kids, this really, really bothers me. Why in the heck would you discourage 3rd graders from reading like ever??? There are definitely days I see why people homeschool, but I know I am not nearly disciplined enough for it. She discovered Disney Infinity this week and has been playing this (acting it out) with her sibling at night every night. It always ends with a big brawl on my bed and me somehow missing my pillowcase.

 I made Katurah a treasure box (yay pinterest!) and she loves it. She filled it with her most prized belongings AKA pacifiers. She is going to be so hard to wean off of these things! She always has at least 2 with her and has to sleep with about 10. She just switches between them as she goes about her business. She still steals the baby pacifiers constantly which drives me nuts (I just can't figure out why we are always sick;)

 Amari threw another amazing fit this week. She got so mad at me and said "I, I, I don't like (pause here to think) YOUR MAKEUP! You don't even deserve makeup!" I am so bad and had to egg her on a little bit "Amari what do I deserve?" "Nothing!!! You deserve nothing!" Then later she apologized and said my makeup was pretty and can I please do hers.

Seneca was sick again this week, mostly a cold, but showing pre asthma symptoms. I have been doing breathing treatments with her, which she HATES. I went grocery shopping without her for the first time on Monday. I came home to a very frazzled Jess, I guess she cried pretty much the whole time I was gone. As soon as I took her from him she was all smiles. Little turkey, looks like 6 months is too young for any time away from mom, we'll try again at a year I guess.

Seneca 6 months

Seneca is 6 months old today!!!

PAC

I have been a blog slacker due to our computer slowness. I fixed that problem and am now working on moving some pictures so you will get a post with a bunch of cute pics soon...do not despair! In the meantime here's a little update on our crazy kiddos.

Pantera is doing well in school, but seems to feel a crazy amount of pressure to achieve complete perfection. Her teacher is a nice person but doesn't seem to want them to learn through fun. She was so excited that she had a substitute on Monday who played math and spelling games with them. Learning should be fun! I really feel strongly that be it at school or church it should be enjoyable. So we try to keep things light hearted and fun at our house, hopefully that will keep her from getting and ulcer:) The other day Seneca had really bad gas, so right after she farted, I told Pantera that Seneca's pajamas were scratch n sniff right on the butt. She totally fell for it and inhaled a baby fart. She got me back by leaving a wet towel on my pillow.

Ezekiel made my birthday so very special this year. He went with Jess to pick out the perfect present for me. They walked through 2 stores and Zeke didn't see what he wanted to get me. Finally Jess asked him exactly what he was looking for and he told him a plane. So I got Dusty Crophopper from Zeke for my birthday. He was so excited for me to open this wonderful gift. Planes and Cars make him happy and I didn't even have any! I attached Dusty to my keychain and Zeke was so proud. Thank you for making me feel so loved.

In other news my kids have joined a national movement "Preschoolers Against Cannibalism" or PAC. Zeke informed me "I will never eat people for a meal, never." That is a really good goal. "But if I was a vampire, I would eat people for a meal." Alrighty.

Amari came home from preschool and asked "Am I allergic to chickens?" I told her she is not "Oh I was wrong, I told everybody I'm allergic to chickens. She asked me yesterday if she could have "breakfisk in bed." I agreed to that. So at bedtime she comes down and says "Mom, where's my breakfisk?" I said it's not morning time, she did not like this. So I ended up getting her a bowl of cereal (no milk mind you) and she went to sleep with it beside her.

Katurah saw a robin yesterday. She got really excited and said "A Chicken!" I laughed and it flew away then she said "Funny chicken." She was being a pill the other night and I started laughing at her bad attitude and she said "No lass!" Which made me laugh harder, you're just cute Katurah. She uses anything she can find to pretend to golf. She often steals my ladles and finds a toy and tees off. After she hits her "ball" she does a victory dance and says "OOH YEAH OOOOOOOH YEAH" everytime.

This past week with Seneca has been AWESOME!!! She is eating like a champ again and has been so very happy. She fell asleep 3 times on Jess over the weekend, which means she was letting him hold her! She even went to my dad and wouldn't come back to me! It was AMAZING! She has been so clingy for so long, I think she is finally really feeling better. HAPPY DAY!!!

 

'

stuck on you

It's been a hard few weeks. Little Seneca just cant seem to get better all the way, we have been to the doctor every week for the past month and she has been on a steroid then an antibiotic. The antibiotic makes her have diarrhea and she doesn't want to nurse unless she is laying in bed and even that is a struggle. She seems to be on the tail end of whatever this is, but broke out in a massive rash on Friday. She is such a little trooper, and dealing much better with all of this then I am. We took her to the urologist on Monday for a consultation and will be doing many more tests to get to the bottom of her UTI situation. On a happy note she is rolling over! She also loves the cat SO MUCH and Bluestar is pretty tolerant of her. She always wants to be around her big brother and sisters, they can almost always make her feel better.

Katurah is such a little crack up with her newfound talking ability. We watched Frozen and she has been singing "Wanna Ohman!" her version of "Do you want to build a snowman." She has been carrying a balloon around the house and when she gets sad she slowly lets it slip up to the ceiling while she cries, so drama.

Amari and Zeke missed there preschool valentines party due to illness. I didn't figure it would be a big deal, but Zeke informed me the next day "Mom, I really like valentines parties." So we had our own party that Zeke and Amari planned. It was mostly just decorating cupcakes with as many sprinkles as possible...Amari always does this the best.

Amari loves to get her siblings worked up. She is just a little instigator, kinda like her daddy...ok a lot like her daddy. She and Zeke were playing with some toys and she claimed that hers were alive, when Zeke said his were too she loudly whispered "No your toy is dead! His eyes is an x!" she is too smart for her own good, we were playing doctor and she said "Hold on, I forgot my reflex hammer." What?!? And btw, her boyfriend "Diamond" is real!!! I thought for sure she was making this guy up but I saw a kid wearing a diamond shirt at her preschool last week and she described him perfectly! I was thinking emo hair but it is more like Justin beibers old do. Sorry for doubting you Amari!

Zeke put his hand in the back of our couch and it is really creepy looking. He kept yelling at everyone who walked past him "Hey, come to my booby trap!" When he was feeling affectionate last week he told me "I'm stuck on you valentine." It was incredibly sweet and not anything he read on a card.

When I was having a really bad moment with Seneca, Pantera came into my room and asked what was wrong. I told her that I was just worried and so tired of the baby being sick. She replied "Mom, I got this." and she called Amari into her room to say a prayer. She does have an undeniable in with Heavenly Father, and she knows it:) When Seneca was really happy to see her Pantera said "Her face lit up like a pop up ad, just boom there was that smile!"