February Quotes

Rylan:
(February 7, 2012)
Today at music class Rylan's teacher asked each student to play either a step (from one note to the next), a skip (skipping one note between each note played), or a leap (skipping more than one note between each note played). After they played their notes she would ask them if it was a step, skip, or leap. So Rylan played his bells and his teacher asked "What was that?"
Ry: "That was cool."
Miss Erin: Laughing "That was cool, huh?"
Ry: "Yeah, that was awesome!"

(February 8, 2012)
Asher: "Let's play 'Hop the Tails'!"
Rylan: "How do you play that?"
Asher shows him...
Rylan: "You toss that in the air and catch it? That's called 'Catch'."
It still makes me laugh :)

(February 19, 2012)
After giving him a kiss, Rylan wiped it off with the back of his hand.
Me: *gasp* "Did you just wipe off my kiss?"
Rylan: Looking at his hand "I was just putting it on my hand to save for later."
Ahhhh, he's lucky he's a quick thinker :)

(February 23, 2012)
Rylan was at Oliver's house playing and I got a text from Sarah that said "Rylan told me zombies come from China. Ha ha"

(February 26, 2012)
Rylan was showing me how to make your own course on Jelly Cars 2 on the iPad. He made one that literally took 1 second to play. The first time he pushed play the car rolled backwards and fell into oblivion. So he made an adjustment and pushed play. The car moved forward straight to the finish line flag and Rylan said "Whew!" Like it was such hard work for that 1 second game!


Asher:
(February 7, 2012)
Me: "Asher, do you know mommy loves you?"
Asher: "Why?"
Me: "Because you are a sweet boy and you make mommy laugh, you're nice to your brothers and you make mommy happy."
Asher: "And Jesus and Santa Clause?"
Me: "Yes, you make Jesus and Santa Clause happy, too."
Asher: "Who else?"
Me: "Daddy and grandma"
Asher: "And Tami? And my best friends Brooklyn and Gavin?"
Me: "Yes, you make everyone happy."
And he really does. He's such a sweet boy, always smiling. He'll forever be able to help everyone to be happy.

(February 8, 2012)
Rylan: "Mom, Asher was trying to cut my neck off."
Me: "I don't think that's really what he was doing. Asher, what are you doing?"
Asher: "Trying to cut his neck off."
Ok, that sounds extremely morbid now that I type it out!

(February 21, 2012)
We were sitting in the car listening to primary songs while waiting for Rylan to get out of school. Asher was singing along to 'Nephi's Courage' and after singing "I know the Lord provides a way He wants me to obey" Asher said "Like me and Ry Ry obey? We obey."

(February 27, 2012)
Asher saw a picture of the panda from Kung Fu Panda and said "Look! It's Fruit Panda!"
He is a fan of Fruit Ninja!

9 Months Old

This month Tyce hit his 9 month mark and he's getting more and more fun every day!
Tyce is at the fun stage where he shakes his head 'no' so we're all having a great time asking him lots of questions. It never gets old!
He does a funny thing where he sticks his arm straight out. Usually his hand is up so it looks like he's saying 'stop'.
Tyce has had goopy eyes for several months now. Well, it's usually his right eye. It will mostly go away and then he'll wake up the next morning with major goop. It's so sad and I don't know why he can't completely get rid of it. Poor thing. (Update: His doctor said it could possibly be a clogged tear duct which should correct itself. We'll keep watching it.)
For the last 3, maybe 4 weeks, I've been able to sit him done without fear of him falling over. He'll sit there and play and he's usually content for a good amount of time.
He has his two bottom teeth and he's still a great eater, eating rice cereal or oatmeal with baby food twice a day. I nurse him four or five times a day.

The last couple weeks he's been sleeping about 9 hours at night. Well, I'll wake him up and nurse him before I go to bed and then he'll sleep about 6 or 7 hours after that, waking up anywhere between 5-7:00am.
He's my sanity. If I'm feeling stressed, down, anxious, or just grumpy, a smile from Tyce will change my mood around. Sitting down and playing with him is even better!
He started playing peek-a-boo with me the other day. We were in line at the store where he was in his car seat in the cart. He held up his blanket over his face and then pulled it down with a big smile. As soon as I said "Peek-a-boo!" he giggled and repeated. It was a fun few minutes in line :)
I still wrap him up to go to sleep but he almost immediately pulls out his right arm. By the time he wakes up his left arm is out as well. Actually, he's usually wiggled completely out of his blanket and rolled over to his tummy.


He likes to blow raspberries, say "da da da" or "ma ma ma" (and other little babbles), play patty cake, watch shows with his brothers...really he's just content the majority of the time. When he cries it's usually because he's hungry, tired, or because Asher is laying on top of him!
We all love this little guy!

I Love My Birthday!!

I think everyone should feel special on their birthday. It definitely should not be "just another day" because it's not--IT'S THE DAY YOU WERE BORN!! Celebrate it! Kevin is great at helping me to celebrate and he's all about it being my birth week or even birth month. And today was no different. He made me feel loved and special.
He spent some time planning my birth day and weekend. He emailed me the plan yesterday and I was excited!
This morning Tyce gave me a birthday present by sleeping until 6:00am! After feeding him I went to the gym for a quick workout (4 miles on the treadmill and some shoulders). I came home to a wonderful surprise. As soon as I walked in the door Asher ran up and said "Happy Birthday Mom!" He lead me inside to see a HB sign hanging up with pictures Kevin and the boys had colored for me. Rylan was there and he also gave me some birthday greetings with a big hug. I smothered those two in kisses and I was already satisfied with my birthday :) While Asher was telling me all about their pictures, Rylan ran off. He came back a few minutes later and handed me my birthday present--two dollars! He had a huge grin on his face and he gave me a giant hug. Oh, that boy is so sweet :) He pulled it out of his own piggy bank and later Kevin told me that Rylan came to him with all his money and told him what he was going to do. Kev told him to give me the 2 dollar bills and keep the rest!
After taking Ry to school I took Kevin up to work at the warehouse. I planned on showering when I got home but I had to feed Tyce and help Asher with a few things. Then before I knew it, Mary Kaye was here to do some organizing. She came bearing gifts--a card (with money!) and cupcakes! I showed her the last few things I needed to do in the pantry and how good it looked. Then she got busy on a portion of the kitchen cabinets that needed help. Now they look great, not crowded!!
I showered and got ready, cleaned up a few things, and then decided to lay down on the couch for my birthday nap :) Asher cuddled up next to me and then there was a knock at at the door--Tami was here to pick up Rylan and Asher for the afternoon. She had agreed to take them because Kevin wanted me to go shopping to buy some new clothes. They were more than excited to go!
As soon as Tyce woke up from his nap we left. I stopped at a few places in Spanish Fork and then went to the mall. I ended up with a new shirt--yea! I'm a horrible shopper so I was ready to be home. I had to make a quick stop at Wal-Mart and then I went to Tami's to pick up the boys. Of course they didn't want to leave but I made them :) Oh, I had called Kevin to tell him I was going to pick up the boys and he said "Ok, I'm just cooking dinner". Yeah, can I just say that was one of my favorites parts of my birthday?! Just hearing him say that made me happy!! So when I got home with the boys we had foil chicken with carrots, some mixed veggies, and beans. Oh it was so good!! And to my surprise, Kevin had also made me my favorite cake--Strawberry Danish Dessert--what?! Come to find out, when Mary Kaye left our house, he had her stop at Macey's to buy the ingredients. She delivered them to the warehouse and then later, while I was shopping, Kevin ran the 7 miles home (with his computer and cake ingredients in his backpack!) to make the dessert and dinner and have the kitchen clean before I got home. Wow, am I the luckiest girl or what?!

Tyce is just so cute!! And look how yummy that cake is!

Kevin put a line of 3 candles on the cake and then a single candle. I asked him if he was trying to be nice, letting me celebrate my 31st birthday. Oops! "Oh, I knew it was 32" as he grabbed another candle. Hmmm, try again! I was laughing so hard as I suggested he grab one more candle since this was my 33rd birthday :)
So the boys sang 'Happy Birthday' to me and I was happy! Then I got to open my gift--an iPad!! We've had several discussions lately about getting an iPad. But I was still very surprised! I just don't want it to turn into something I'm having to battle with the boys. But I'm excited :)

This is my "Are you serious?" face. Followed by "Well I guess it is your half birthday!"

After the boys were in bed Kevin and I watched 'One Day' which was just okay and then it was bedtime.
Such a good birthday!
Oh, but wait. The birthday celebration wasn't over yet! On Friday (the next day) we picked up Rylan from school and then went up to Sandy. Mary Kaye and Aubrey agreed to watch our 3 boys while Kevin and I went to the temple. We were hoping pick up Tyce and go see a movie but when we got there, Tyce had been sad and Rylan had a rough time as well. There really wasn't a great movie on anyway so we decided to scratch that idea. I comforted Tyce, Rylan watched tv, Asher was following Aubrey around. We hung out for a few hours until dinner time. Mary Kaye, Dennis, John and Aubrey and fam, Mark, and our family went to dinner at Zupas--so yummy and fun! From there we came home, put the boys to bed, and watched 'Social Network'. Interesting and good!
Saturday morning I got to go to my cycle class. Kev worked in the crawl space digging trenches to help get rid of the water. We cleaned up some, relaxed, and watched another movie :) 'Breaking Dawn' was the movie of choice tonight. It was okay. I thought this last book of the series was disappointing anyway so I didn't expect too much from the movie. I had to watch it though!! And yeah, I'll watch the next one, too.
And I think that concludes my birthday weekend. A great start to a new year!!

Activity Chart

For many months we've said we need to start a chore chart for our kids. Kevin had an idea in his mind of what he wanted it to be so I kind of left it up to him. He brought home a huge magnet from work (huge, as in several feet long!) and at the beginning of the year he got to work on the new chore chart.
Kevin printed out pictures of chores or activities the boys need to do for the day. Once completed, they put a check mark up. At the end of the day they get a marble for each check mark to put in a jar. Once the jar is filled they get their reward (which is determined before we start filling it up, of course.) We've been trying to call it an "Activity Chart" just so it sounds more fun! I still find myself telling the boys to do their 'chores' though.
Activities must be done before they get to watch tv, play on the computer, or play with friends. This has really put a limit on tv watching and friend time. The lack of friend time has been very sad for Rylan...
Daily chores include: putting their dishes in the sink after each meal, making their bed, and reading or looking at books for at least 15 minutes.
Other activities that change daily are: unload the dishwasher, draw or color (yeah, it's sad that I have to bribe my kids to draw and color!), wipe down the toilets, wash walls, pick up toys (this gets put up when the house is out of control. Really, I try and make them pick up their toys every day...)
So far it's worked pretty good! They filled up the jar twice which has taken them to Cold Stone and bowling/Carls' Jr. Rylan is really good at most of his activities. He struggles with a few and gets distracted really easily so most days he is finishing up just before dinner time. Asher struggles a little more, maybe because he's younger and needs more direction. Of course we've had our days of "I hate doing chores" shouted repeatedly but overall I think they're learning some responsibility!
So, when we went bowling I of course had to make a bet with Kevin and I proceeded to bowl 3 strikes and 3 spares in my game which brought me victory. I think I had more fun than the boys :) Kevin gave me a foot massage that night--nice!