Want S'more?

This weekend we decided to take the kiddos up the canyon to do tinfoil dinners and to roast marshmallows over the fire.  It was a lot of fun!  

Kiddos playing in the sand

Our grub.....yum!

Of course Isaac didn't want to eat his....little stinker!  Oh well, more for us :)

YUM!!  They turned out so good

Malea conquered the rock wall!

And Isaac conquered the drinking fountain....

Throwing rocks in the creek

Cute girl scarfing down a s'more :)

The kids randomly started hugging each other.....it was so sweet!  Melted my heart!

Awwww!

Best buddies :)

Isaac pointing at the stars and Malea drawing something in the dirt

Telling stories around the fire

Both kids were filthy!  It cracked me up

Malea

And now for the update on Malea :)  She just seems so grown up these days!  Sometimes I look at her and just can't believe how big she is.  She seems to have gone through a growth spurt lately and all her size 5 clothes that I bought at the end of spring a little big are suddenly fitting her just right and are maybe even getting a little tight.  I just can't seem to wrap my head around the fact that she will be going to Kindergarten! 

With Grandpa Dave and her cousin Cannon on Father's Day

Her card for Daddy :) (I love her handwriting)

 Such a cutie :)

 Malea on the 4th of July

Being silly with her cousin Sienna

Malea came out one morning wearing Isaac's shorts, it was pretty funny! 

 One of her art projects :)

Malea is such a sweet, tender-hearted little girl.  She has so much compassion for people and is especially sweet with animals.  A couple of months ago a baby bird fell out of a nest in a tree at her pre-school and died on the ground.  She was SO sad about it and cried saying how bad she felt for the mommy bird.  This is just an example of how tender-hearted she is.  I hope that part of her never changes!  She is very in tune with emotions, and often comes up and gives me a hug when I'm crying (even if I try to hide the fact that I'm crying).  She can sometimes come across as a little dramatic but I think it's just because she is an emotional person who really feels things.  I feel very strongly that children should be allowed to show their emotions even if they seem to be extreme or dramatic.  I know I catch myself sometimes just wanting to tell her to calm down or ask why she is crying but I've tried to avoid that because I always want my kids to feel like they can express they're feelings.

She is very artistic and loves to give people her little art projects.  Recently the daughter of my close friend fell out of a tree and fractured her skull.  She was at Primary Children's hospital with a traumatic brain injury and it was really scary for a while.  She has since made an amazing recovery (thank goodness).  When Malea found out she first started crying because she was scared for her friend, and the next thing she did was say that she wanted to make her a card.  Malea is very thoughtful that way. 

Malea LOVES stuffed animals.  It seems like any time she has the chance to pick out a new toy, she picks a stuffed animal.  I can't stand them to be honest but she loves them and plays with them all the time.  She will put bows on them and recently put little "collars" (aka pipe cleaners) on a lot of their necks.   

This summer she has been having so much fun playing with neighbor friends.  This is our first summer in this neighborhood so it's been fun for her to have so many new friends.  She spends the most time with her BFF next door, Sarah. She is still in to My Little Pony's but lately she has started getting in to Monster High dolls.  They are a little creepy looking to be honest but she loves them so whatever!  They are like a Barbie but they're based off of monsters.  She also loves playing Monster High and Barbie's at Sarah's house.  One thing she definitely does not like is when I tell her it's time to come home.  Even if I give her a 5 minute warning she usually throws a fit and cries because she doesn't want to stop playing with friends (I think it also ties in to the time of day and the fact that she didn't nap, haha).  Which brings me to the next thing..... 

The last couple of months Malea's naps are hit-and-miss.  She is pretty old to still be napping but she still seems to need them sometimes.  We are in that frustrating in-between phase where she won't need a nap but then 5 or 6 o'clock will hit and she's either SUPER whiney/grumpy or she zonks out in the car if we drive anywhere.  If she does nap then she doesn't go to bed until like 10:00 or 10:30pm.  If she doesn't nap I can barely keep her awake until 8 or 8:30pm.  She has always been an early riser, and I don't know if that will ever change.  However we have gotten to the point where we've trained her that she can't come in to our room in the morning until her clock has a "7" on it (which is actually "8" because we have her clock set back, haha).  She will usually just play in her room or watch Netflix on the Kindle or something.  Isaac sleeps in most days so it works out pretty well.  Keith and I joke all the time about how Malea is a lot like Keith when it comes to sleep (has night terrors, early riser) and Isaac is like me (sound sleeper, doesn't want to get up in the morning).  She still has night terrors but not nearly as bad as she used to.  When she has a night terror we usually just turn on a youtube video of lullabies and she calms right down (took us a while to figure that out, though).

She fell asleep hanging off the couch, lol

Malea at Home Depot one Saturday with Daddy 

(at the kids activities they do the first Saturday of every month)

I am amazed sometimes at what comes out of her mouth.  She is very mature for her age and just seems to get things.  She actually reminds me a lot of me as a child, because I have been told throughout my whole life that I am "wise beyond my years".  I feel that this is the case with Malea as well.

Malea is a big daddy's girl.  She cries sometimes when he's at work because she misses him.   

She has a great imagination which has definitely blossomed lately.  I love just listening to her as she plays.  It makes me laugh to hear the things she comes up with and how she throws things in there that sound an awful lot like me!  Just goes to show how much our children see and hear from us parents!

One of the things we have struggled with Malea for a long time is anytime we are at the store she wants us to buy her something.  It got really bad for a while and she just had such a sense of entitlement.  To help with this we started doing a sticker chart with her.  She earns stickers for different things she does around the house or with Isaac and then once she fills up her sticker chart she can pick out a toy or go on an outing.  This has been very effective and she has been so much better about it.  I still catch her getting that way when we do a lot of fun things in one day.  Like for example we took the kids to see "Monsters University" a couple of weeks ago and then did a couple of other fun things that day and by the end of the day she was starting to get that entitled attitude again.  We have to kind of bring her back down to earth and put her in her place when she gets that way.  She also has a hard time with cleaning up.  She does pretty well if it involves earning a sticker for her chart but I don't really believe that cleaning up her room or cleaning up a mess that she made earns a sticker (its more for extra things she does to help us around the house).  So when it comes to cleaning her room or cleaning up a mess she made, it is like pulling teeth and she usually throws a fit unless we're doing it for helping her. ;)

Cute things Malea has said lately:

• Yesterday after waking up in the afternoon from working the night shift I asked Malea what they had done that morning.  She started to tell me this story about how daddy moved a big rock and how there were like tons of ants under it, like "a hundred and fifty one ants" under the rock. :)  

• The other day she asked me when we were going to have another baby.  She said she wanted me to have a "girl baby next" because "boys are hard" (lol).  I told her that I wasn't sure, that it would have to be at least when I'm done with school because having a baby is a lot of work.  She said "well I will help you with the baby and I will take care of the baby if you need to help Isaac or change his diaper!"  It was so cute and sweet.  I don't doubt that if we had another baby she would be such a helper!
• She loves to sing.  It is fun to hear her sing along to songs on the radio that I didn't even know she knew.  She likes a lot of Pink songs, just liker her mommy. :) 
• Working nights is pretty tough and a lot of times I have moments where I melt down.  One time I was having a rough day, I was super tired and didn't have a lot of patience.  I started crying about something and she gave me a hug and just said "you're having a hard day today, mommy."  I think I might have a future counselor in the works, haha!

Favorite foods:

• Toast with sugar on it
• Costa Vida chicken quesadilla's
• Spaghetti O's with meatballs
• Milk
• Popsicles
• Jelly sandwiches (she doesn't like peanut butter)
• Watermelon

We sure love you Malea!! XOXO

Isaac

I decided to do a little update on each of my kids separately.  I haven't done that for a while and there are lots of things I want to make sure I write down because I know I will forget.  I'm going to be keeping it REAL here, because I want to be able to remember everything about my kids when they're older....the good, the bad, and the ugly!  

So let's start with Isaac....my sweet little rambunctious ball of everlasting energy.  The boy literally doesn't stop until he's asleep!  He is so SO busy. I saw on Pinterest once this little saying that "Mothers of boys don't stop from 'son' up to 'son' down"....I thought that was cute and so true!  

Isaac is a little sweetie.  He gives great hugs and cuddles (on his own terms, of course ;)).  He is and has always been a mama's boy, even since infancy.  He is my little shadow!  He has a great smile and a very infectious laugh.  I know he's going to be the class clown.  He smiled from a very young age and hasn't stopped since.  He is very friendly, and likes to say "hi!" to random people as we walk through the store, the mall, or down the street.  His favorite things right now are Avengers (especially Hulk), Spider Man, Batman, Cars, or Toy Story.  He and his sister fight like cats and dogs but if someone else tries to be mean to her you better watch out!  He is very protective of her (and of me).  When I see him after being gone for a while, he always acts so excited to see me and jumps in to my arms.  He is a boy through-and-through....loves bugs, rocks, dirt, etc. 
   

On any given day I deal with chasing him down to get him in the car, wrestling him to get dressed or to change his diaper, picking food up off the floor or cleaning food that he squished in between his fingers, playing referee to fighting with his sister, etc etc.  He has definitely been the child that we have had the most drama with.  I truly believe that my son has a guardian angel (or multiple ones for that matter!).  I made a list of all the craziness we've dealt with since he was born:

• First ER visit: Fell out of shopping cart at Walmart on to his head at 5 months (its hard to see but he had a big goose egg on his head)

• Got a cut on his finger when he was about 8 or 9 months old and ended up with a Staph infection

• Walked at 10 months

 

• Started climbing out of his crib at 18 months 

• Almost drown by ending up in a pond at a local park, got rescued by a 10 year-old boy who was nearby (SO scary, this is one of the most traumatic ones for me....makes me shudder just thinking about what could have happened!)
• Got lost at Sea World
• Almost got hit by a car
• Likes to draw on anything and everything with crayons, markers, you name it

• Throws toys in the toilet (on numerous occasions)

• Have to climb up in to the toys at McDonald's to get him to come down
• Very picky about food, practically lives off of PB&J's (and only on Grandma Sycamore bread).  Won't drink milk (might be allergic, we're not sure).  Won't really eat meat or anything with sauce (although he does like spaghetti).  He loves candy and always seems to find it in random places (we limit the amount of sugar he eats though, for obvious reasons!)
• Sent me to tears after a trip to Walmart (both my kids have done this though, haha)
• I've been hit, bit, scratched, pinched, head-butted, slapped, had objects thrown at me (a jar of Vicks Vaporub just the other day!)
• He sneaks out the door in just a diaper and ends up two or three houses up the street before we realize it.  Ended up in our neighbor's pool, thankfully she got home right then and rescued him (that was really scary....my neighbor probably thinks I'm a horrible parent!)
• Wanderer, have to keep a very close eye on him all the time!
• Crazy climber from a young age

 

 

• Fell in a rose bush and got covered in scratches
• Likes to cover himself with Vaseline, Lotion, Conditioner, shaving cream, etc when I'm distracted
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Found him on top of our van a few weeks ago, the door was open and he managed to climb up there somehow!
• He picked up a wasp and brought it over to me the other day, I have NO idea how he didn't get stung!  (Update: he finally got stung the other day....on his upper lip no less.  I guess it was just a matter of time!).

You're probably thinking, you need to keep a better eye on your kid!  Well if you ever say that to my face I will punch you (jk...but seriously) because I DO, but that kid is so fast that all it can take is being distracted for a few seconds and the kid is gone!  Some of these are actually kind of funny to look back on now, but they weren't that funny at the time! (lol). The phrase "never trust a quiet toddler" is very true in our case! 

Isaac has also been in an early intervention program since he was 18 months old for a speech delay.  We were in the Provo program until we moved to Springville last August and since then he's been in Kids Who Count.  He has really made a lot of progress but I'm hoping he will qualify to be in the school district pre-school.  He has some testing coming up in the next couple of months before he turns 3 that will determine whether he needs to continue.  He has a speech therapist and a behavioral specialist who each come to the house once a month to work with him.  He also goes to a play group once a week with this program.  They have been awesome!  He is signed up to do a play group once a week at the same pre-school Malea went to, so even if he doesn't get in to the district pre-school he will do that.

Some cute things he's been doing lately:

• He knows most of his colors, has a hard time saying some of them but he recognizes them for the most part.  He says boo-blue, gee-green, yeye-yellow, purpa-purple, etc.
• He likes us to sit in the rocking chair in his room when he goes to sleep at night and sing to him.  A few times he has asked me to sing him a "Hulk" song, which I'm still trying to figure out, haha.
• He LOVES babies, any time he's around one he just wants to be right there with him or her.  Anytime he sees babies, even if its just on tv or a movie, his voice gets really high when he talks about it
• To describe size, he either calls it "big" or "baby" (for small)
• For quite a while now he calls Spider Man "yo" (I have no idea where he got that from, but that's his word for it).  He even calls actual spiders "yo" too.  He has a little Spider Man toy that he calls "baby yo" :)
• Flies or pretty much any flying insect he calls a "bee"
• He calls pretty much any drink he wants "buzz" (for a Buzz Lightyear sippie cup he has).  But if he wants soda pop he calls it "ice"
• His favorite new word lately is "Nnnnnno!" (this one's not so cute, lol)
• He has started making up little songs lately while he is playing
• His new favorite thing lately is talking on the phone.  He puts it to his ear and leans his shoulder against it to hold it hands-free like a grown up. :)  
• He calls his binky his "me-me" (yes he's old to have a binky, don't judge....we'll be weaning him from that soon)

His favorite foods:

• PB&J
• Spaghetti O's with meatballs
• Toast
• Corn
• Apple juice
• Rootbeer
• Pad Thai (from the local Thai place....this is so funny and very random!)
• Costa Vida or Cafe Rio rice
• Goldfish crackers

I love my Isaac and can't imagine life without him!!!