General Mills

I bought this amazing lady in the tramp costume 5 years ago when we lived in Colorado. Pantera spent much of her childhood wearing this. When we went to Disneyworld and saw all the other little girls dressed up like princesses she said all disappointed like "Ah man! I shoulda brought my Lady costume!" Anywho, I accidentally put it in storage a couple of years back. Imagine my happy surprise to find this awesome dog costume again for my other girls to enjoy!!! And enjoy it they have!

I can never figure out why Katurah's hair is so sticky after breakfast, not I know. Pantera called her "the general of breakfast" I said we can call her "General Mills" she didn't get it.

 Katurah constantly brings us things and says "I wan dah" which is Katurah for "I want that" and when I repeat what she wants she always says "Um-hmmm!" so sing songy and cute.

Amari is nearly potty trained, no diapers for over a week now and not to many accidents. I love her face when she shows me that she has gone potty "Are you so proud?!?" She is terrified of falling in the toilet "I will fall in and then (pause for dramatic effect) no more Amari!" I told her I would jump in and pull her out, she was very surprised and replied "You will?!? Oh thank you mom!"  She also loves to say "Why yes, yes I will." She is just a doll!

 Pantera asked to see the pictures after I took them yesterday. As she was looking at my camera she was really disappointed and said "I look weird!" Really Pantera? Did you think you were going to look awesomely cool pretending to be a warrior cat in attack mode? She is still obsessed and has even taken her books to school to start a book club with her friends.

 Speaking of school, she brought home another great report card today, way to go Pantera!

 Zeke is currently crazy about the leappad, I have to hide them during the day so he will do other things. He asked if he could stay home from preschool so he could play on the leappad today, the answer was no, but nice try.

 When he was mad at me yesterday (for making him take a nap) he cried, "You called me a loser!" What?!? Where did you even hear that word child? The guilt trip might work if it wasn't so far fetched, he will learn. He is terrified of animals, especially our cat. Our cat lives outside and is harmless, lets the kids do whatever they want to him. I was explaining to Zeke that the cat wont hurt him, unless he does something to hurt the cat like pulling his tail. The next time we are outside, Zeke saw the cat and ran away yelling "I will not pull your tail! I will not pull your tail! Don't hurt me!" Poor guy!

the big 3-0

Jess turned 30 on Saturday! We had a great weekend trying to spoil him as much as possible. He was nice enough to share his special day with me, I got to sneak away to the dentist at 8am to start my fillings...oh so fun! Aside from that it really was a great weekend, we bought a 1/4 of a cow and had some amazing meals with it...roast and chimis. Then we had friends over to watch some football and celebrate Jess' oldness last night. I am a very lucky girl to have such a wonderful husband, he is such a fun person to be around and he really is my best friend in the whole world. I love you Jessiboy!

 Amari using my slave flash as a microphone and looking rather terrified in the process...

Singing to her biggest fan...She knows how to put on a show! She was such a pill in nursery yesterday. When I asked her why she was not good for Sister Lang she said "But I wanted to frustrate her." At least she was successful.

Zeke and Amari had their friend Audrey over to play on Friday. The girls were so cute together, chasing Zeke around the house and he loved it. Audrey and Zeke are 10 days apart, but she is one of those 4 going on 24 little girls, such a crack up. When I dropped her off at her house I noticed a bunch of chickens near there house. I asked her if those were hers and she excitedly said "Yes! And I'm a really good chicken catcher!" Then she bolts over to a HUGE rooster and yells "Black Jack! Come here!" as she is attempting to tackle this creature who is nearly as big as her. I asked her "Is he going to be nice to you when you do catch him?" She replies "No, he always scratches me!" I love kids.

 

The other night, the kids had been in bed for over an hour and Zeke came downstairs. He lays on my lap and says "All this talking is making me tired." Ok, captain random.

 They had dress like your future career day at Pantera's school. After about a million different ideas and shooting down a million of my ideas, Pantera finally came up with being a bird trainer, they are in high demand you know. So I made her a name tag that read "Certified Avian Specialist  Pittsburgh Zoo" just to confuse all the kids. She felt pretty awesome. She was telling me all about a boy in her class who is the quarterback of his little football team. She went on and on about all of his responsibilities and ended with "it must be tough to be Q.B., that means quarterback mom." Thank you for clarifying.

I'm still a little hazy on the child labor laws in our area...If you finish sweeping I will let you wear pants. If only my kids liked to wear clothes. Katurah loves to bring us things and say "I wah da!" Or Katurah for I want that. She also loves to pretend to be a puppy dog these days and barks and pants, so very cute.

 

 

Cleo bathes in the sink every day. Pantera call her the Allosaurus when she gets out, she does look ridiculous.

Painting, blocks, and pretzels

 Paint time! The girls painted while Zeke decided stickers were more up his alley.

 Pantera and Cleo sharing some ice cream, Cleo is a little piggy!

 Pantera has been reading the Warrior series and is completely obsessed. She is constantly running around the house acting like a wild cat. My favorite is when she asks if we are having mouse meat for dinner...probably not. In her classroom they have a king or a queen for each week, picked at random. I guess you get to be line leader and help the teacher etc. She has waited all year for her chance and this week it finally came! She was so excited when she got home and told me on Monday. By Tuesday she said "I can't wait until this queenship is over, I want a normal life already!" Apparently the pressures of second grade class queen are quite intense.

 Speaking of intense, this week definately was. Finally we are on the right track to fully potty trained!!!! Out of nowhere Zeke figured out how to go and has been pretty consistent as long as he is reminded. Considering last week he refused to even try, this is HUGE!!! And Amari is doing just as great. I am so sick of being on potty patrol but I am super excited to have two less kids in diapers...it's about stinkin' time!!!!! 

It's hard to get Zeke to open up about what happens at preschool. When I was prying the other day he told me very sadly at first "Roundy wasn't at preschool today" then much happier "and we had pretzels!" That's all I get, love him. 

The other day I was talking to Amari about babies. I asked her if she remembered when Katurah was in my belly, to which she replied "yes." Then I asked her how I got Katurah out and she said "You just SQUEEEEZED her out!" True. Then I asked, do you remember when you were in my belly? She said "Yes, then you squeezed me out." Insert pathetic sad pouty face here "You really hurt me." Oh Amari, I'm sorry birth wasn't as pleasant for you as it was for me! I did apologize to her and she said "It's ok, you didn't hurt me again." Just that once.

She was claiming to be scared of the bathroom the other day and I told her there is nothing to be afraid of so to be sure she asked "No robots? No pumpkins? No spooky bears?" A little bit later that day she was mad at me and said "Mom, I'm brusterwated at you!" 

 Miss Katurah is all over the place, up and down the stairs on and off the beds, she never is still. She loves stacking blocks and knocking them over right now. She is trying to stay in nursery without me, it's been a little rough going. She LOVES it when Daddy gets home from work and gives him the best reactions ever, hands high in the air yelling "DADADADA!!!" She is going to make a great big sister.

Headless Snowman

Just when I thought this little girl couldn't possibly get any cuter, her front teeth pop through!!! They are so gappy and darling. She is at such a fun age, so happy and fun to be around. She loves microphones right now and is quite the rockstar with her singing and dancing. She is related to Pantera, I expect nothing less. 

 

Speaking of Pantera, I am very proud of that little girl for a couple of reasons. First of all, she has become quite brave with the bird, and although she gets nipped, she has continued to work with her so they are becoming good friends. She is still amazed that the bird doesn't ever bite me, but she is learning the more confident you are with birds the better behaved they will be. The next reason and a much bigger reason is what she told me when she came home from school yesterday. She said "There is a boy in Mrs. Mascara's class who has special needs. We are best friends and he calls me Shane, I don't know why. Today I taught him how to play checkers. It was really fun." I can't even tell you how happy that makes me.

 

My little sister Samarah was kind enough to watch the kids so Jess and I could go see the hobbit last week. I made it about 10 minutes before I snuck out and hit up the mall. I got Amari this sweet crown from claire's so she can be a "wincess." I am being moved from Nursery with Amari to the Sunbeam class with Zeke. As I was explaining and preparing them both for this change this morning, Amari was clearly unhappy and asked "WHY?!?" Which just happens to be her favorite question right now. I explained that Heavenly Father asked me to teach Zeke's class, so I need to listen. She walked over to the picture of the Savior on the wall and says "What you say Jesus?" Then pauses with her hand over her ear as though she is listening, then continues "Mama will stay in Nursery with me, YAY!" She then turns to me and said "Jesus wants you to go to Nursery." Now I don't know who to listen to. Oh man.

Zeke hasn't gone back to preschool yet and I think he is missing it a little. Being cooped up is especially hard on him as he loves to run, all the time. So he is extra wild and has accidentally hurt people over and over and over again the past couple of days. He is lucky he is so darn cute and has me completely wrapped around his finger.

 I loved on his last day of school he looked so forlorn and said "Roundy is gonna miss me."  Last night he folded his arms during the entire prayer, when I pointed it out to him he said "Yeah, I am so proud of you." I was a little confused, but it was cute.  Notice our headless snowman? I worked so hard and Zeke was so excited, then Amari pushed his head off, oh well.

Christmas 2012

Christmas was fantastic at our house this year. Zeke is old enough to be super excited (not quite as excited as me, but pretty excited). When we told him on Christmas Eve that we would get to open our presents in the morning, he suddenly pretends to yawn and stretch then says "I'm so tired, goodnight mom!" It was 7pm. He came down about 10 minutes later and said "That was a good rest, now I get to open my presents!" If only that worked, poor guy still had to wait.

 

They all got spoiled, but the favorite gifts from Santa were the leappad (thanks Caleb and Marie for the games), Pantera's pony toy, all of Zeke's cars, the Plasmacar....amazing, and Cleo. We also got a really fun big dice game from Aunt Ruffy and Uncle Jake that the kids are loving, not to mention all the prizes from the grandmas and the papas! Thank you everyone!!!

Samarah is in town from BYU we had a blast playing Just Dance 4 and laughing, mainly about ducks. Jess had the day off and we just had a great day. The kids slept in until 8 am, which killed me cuz I was up every hour waiting, but Amari and Katurah were sick so I didn't want to wake everyone to early. So I did my hair and makeup, set up proper lighting for pictures without flash and waited like a little kid on Christmas...only I am a big kid and it was Christmas. When they finally woke up it was totally worth the wait. They were all so cute and happy and grateful. I hid Pantera's big present cuz she thought she knew what she was getting, then pulled it out after she thought she had opened everything...yes I am sneaky. Zeke would hug me after every gift and say "Oh thank you mom!" Not Dad who works so hard to pay for the presents, just mom. But at the end of the night he gave us both the biggest hug and kiss and told us "Fank you for all of my presents!"

 

It truly is such a magical time for kids and I just love it SOOOOOO much.

  Amari and katurah on the plasmacar. This thing is so fun, it propels forward as you turn the wheel side to side. I think I like it better then they do.

We remodeled the kitchen/living room last month and I will dedicate a post just to that, but it is beautiful and I finally have a dishwasher! The kids love to help unload the dishes and are very proud afterwards.

 So to make a long post longer, things didn't work out so swell with Yipper. I really love him, but the kids did not. Zeke especially could not stand him as he would always mess with his cars and cause him to have huge meltdowns. This I could handle, but then he started peeing on and ruined my upstairs couch...not a big fan of that. So I put an ad up for him and he found another family, where he is doing great. You can say I told you so whenever or wherever you want, I have tried and tried but not everyone in our house likes animals. After moping around the house for a week or so I convinced Jess to go with me to a pet shop to "just look" at birds. I have loved birds and wanted to get one since I worked at Petco, but they freak Jess out really bad. They had this cute little green cheek conure (not big enough to be scary right?) with the sweetest temperament. One "please Jess" later and we went home with Cleo. The best part is she LOVES Jess the most. Every time she sees him she dances until he picks her up, then she climbs onto his shoulder and talks his ear off. He has really warmed up to her as well, and even asked why we didn't get a bird a long time ago. She is such a doll and seems to be a great fit for our family.

Charlie Brown would be jealous

So I took these cute pics of the little three kids a last week, thinking I would get around to taking Pantera's when she got home from school that day. Unfortunately, she was crazy crabby that day and I have been putting it off since. So for the record Pantera, I tried, I'm sure your posterity will understand (enter sad music here).

 A couple of days ago I heard giggling and horse sounds coming from the bathroom. You know when a 1 and 2 year old are laughing, something great has to be going on. I went in to investigate and I found Katurah with a jumbo size pad stuck to her back and Amari pretending to ride her like a horse...the pad was her saddle, duh!!!

 Zeke had his big Christmas party at preschool on Thursday. He was so excited when he got home about all that went on and all of the great prizes he was given. I guess Santa was there and Zeke asked for Cars...go figure. He put together little gift bags for his friends and was so cute when it came to picking out a little something for each of them. He was given a ring pop and thought that was just awesome. When he showed it to Jess, Jess said "Wow, that's a nice ring pop!" Zeke gives him a huge hug and says "You like my ring pop? Thank you Dad!"

While walking through the store the other day we came across a car that he doesn't have. I wish I had his reaction on tape "Galloping Geargrinder! The latest release from the disney/pixar collection!" I love my little obsessed man.

 Amari loves her potty humor. She is constantly pretending to fart at people, I really have no idea where she learned that, but she thinks it's hilarious and it's hard not to laugh along with her. Jess was talking about how he has never owned a pair of ear muffs the other day. So I made it my mission to find him a pair, unfortunately Amari found them before I could hide them for Christmas and claimed them as her own. Now she insists on sleeping in Dora earmuffs...so cool!

 Pantera has been making fun of the fact that I can't keep a secret when I am excited. I am pretty pathetic, but I just love making people happy. Anyways, I was asked about 2 weeks ago to prepare a game for her class Christmas party that was today. I didn't tell her about it and I just showed up in her class, oh yeah!!! WHo's not sneaky now?!? It's still me.

 Here is our super awesome Christmas tree, I think we might have Charlie Brown beat. I did have it decorated at one point, oh well.

Santa

Amari is our little fashionista. The other day she found the Halloween makeup and helped herself to some "Lips." The way she was strutting her stuff afterwards and holding her mouth so stiff like was hilarious. When she accidentally wiped some onto her hand she said "Oh no, my lips are off. I need a new lips." Then she ran back upstairs and applied another healthy coat of lovely black lipstick.

 These kids have so much fun together. Here they are playing Santa.

 Pantera looks anything but jolly. She has been obsessed with a book her cousin Andrew got her for her birthday called "Warriors" it's about cats. So we all got sweet cat names now such as "Firepaw." I love listening to them play this game especially cuz the names are a little corny and they take it so seriously.

 So this pic melts my heart. I don't know why but her little tippy toes make me want to jump in the picture and just squeeze her!!! She is so little and big at the same time, but tippy toes already?!? I also love that she decided she wanted to finish her lunch out of her highchair.

 So this little boy is just blowing me away these days! I can't believe how much more pleasant he has been lately. I don't know if it is relief from his throat pain or attending preschool, but something has changed. He actually wants to get involved in our games at times. Today he asked if he could play Littlest Pet Shops with Amari and I, he NEVER engages like that. I was thrilled.

Another new thing with Zeke, he has a girlfriend at school! She is 16 or 17, one of his "teachers." He started by calling her "the handsome girl." This cracked me up so of course I had to find out who she was. A few days after we figured out her name is Korey, Zeke was trying to tease me and said while pointing to Jess' stocking "This is for your girlfriend Mom!" I laughed and said "So Dad is my girlfriend?  Do you have a girlfriend Zeke?" He replied "Yes, Korey is my girlfriend." WOO-WOO!

So my little 3 kids are all going through this phase where they don't want to wear clothes...like ever. Seeing as it is freezing outside, sweet foot pajamas are our compromise. Unfortunately they can get them off even easier so it is a very temporary compromise.