White Dress

Miley insists on wearing a dress everyday. She has started to raid my shoes to. Not just any pair of shoes, but my heels. And hats, she's really big into hats.

These are actually my wedding shoes, which spurred an impromptu photo session with my girls and my wedding dress.

Lola thought I was so weird and she was counting the seconds till she could be done. Miley on the other hand was stripping naked in anticipation of wearing such a puffy dress.

She loved every minute (except a brief moment of claustrophobia when I put it on her.)

I sure love my girls.

Rub a Dub Dub

I got my big girl camera to take some pictures of Miley and Blake in the tub. I got some amazingly awkward shots. (Closing your eyes during pictures is a gift I passed on to my kids.)

But I got some keepers too.

The Pie

Friday night is pizza night. Big, greasy, delicious pizza.

(No pictures of Miley, she wasn't cooperating.)

Blake's Top Three

 

Blake brought home the greatest coloring sheet from primary. In big letters it says Heavenly Father's Plan for Us. It has a large circle for them to color. Blake filled his with grey intense scribbles and one little brown squiggly. His teacher wrote his explanation on the bottom of the paper. And I quote, "This is a picture of me and a horse, and Cinnamon Toast Crunch! These are my favorite things on
earth." (I was teasing him and said that I thought I was his favoritething on Earth. He assured me I was there with him and his horse.)

I sure love that kid.

MLK

Ryder and Lola were discussing Martin Luther King in school.  They
were sharing with Jon all the things they had learned about him. Jon
started to explain the challenges and discrimination that black people
faced then. One of the things he talked about how some restaurants
would only allow white people to eat there. This was kind of shocking
for the kids and Lola said, "What if Cafe Rio was like that. You would
be the only one in our family that could eat there, because you're the
great white man!" (A nickname he earned after a photo of our family
was taken in the pool.)

Later on at dinner we were eating tacos with generous dollops of sour
cream. Lola started smearing sour cream on her face and said, "I look
like a white person!" (In case you are wondering she considers herself
to be beige based on her experience with crayons.)

He Knows if You've Been Bad or Good, So BevGood For Goodness Sake!

Blake moved to the naughty list this week. First offense. Jon and I had wrapped the Christmas eve presents and put them under the tree. Florecita had also visited us and dropped off the cousin presents. Blake and Trey were playing upstairs and I was downstairs with Miley and Ryder. Blake came downstairs crying because he had cut his finger. I got him cleaned up and a bandaid on and then checked to see what he was cutting. He and Trey opened every single present under the tree. He was even wearing a new pair of socks (a purple and green fuzzy pair that I think were for Lola). Trey accidentally snipped his finger with scissors when they were trying to get through the packing tape on Mom and Dad's package. He has informed me he won't open any more packages until Christmas, which isn't really noble considering he opened all available already. And because I'm classy I just took the new socks off his sweaty little feet and put it in the "to wrap" pile.

The second offense. It was close to bedtime and everybody was piled in our bed as we read Christmas books. Blake was trolling around our bathroom not participating. He came out of the bathroom and said, "I'm ready to go to bed now." That is when the first mental alarm went off. The second one went off when I smelled nail polish. I asked Blake if he got into my nail polish. He quickly (too quickly) said no. I took his hand and told him lets go check. My bathroom stank like nail polish, but I couldn't see any spills, until I went into my closet. There in the carpet in wide arching circles was an entire bottle of Carrie Underwood pink polish. Luckily I had carelessly left an oversized sweatshirt that I sleep in on the floor that protected some of the carpet. I tried several internet cleaning tips, but alas they all failed me and we now are proud owners of ruined carpet.

Ryder has also been working on getting on the naughty list. He wasn't sharing with his sister and I warned him that he better share or he was going to end up on the naughty list and not get a present. He informed me that he would still get presents on Christmas. I explained that yes, his Dad and I would still get him presents because we love him, but that he wouldn't get his present he asked from Santa. He insisted that he would and we discussed it for several days. He finally told me he knew I was lying because he read a book in school about a boy and on Christmas he still got a bike even though he was naughty. (It's Christmas, David! By David Shannon, it is a super popular book but for obvious reasons I can't recommend it.) 

I'm a Survivor

We survived another week. Barely. Actually everyone thrived, except Blake who found out why we have the rule of not putting things around our neck. The details are a bit murky since it happened after bed time and the only witnesses were kids. Lola claimed she didn't see Blake jumping and his neck got stuck on a cord she was holding... He is fine but does have a rope burn on his neck, which got him a lot of ninja turtle bandaids and a free pass to sleep in my bed, cuddling his Mama and using his Dad as his personal foot rest.  

Jon left today for another trip so we had FHE tonight. He had a lesson prepared, but we had some slight reverence issues so instead of his planned lesson he talked about why we have FHE. He asked Lola why he thinks we have FHE and while she answered Blake was continuing to be disruptive and generally not listening. Jon asked Blake what Lola just said. To which, he answered, "Boobie!" We committed the parental sin of laughing and suffered random Boobie answers for the rest of the evening.

Later the kids were playing a game on the tramp called Shark. Lola and Ryder had learned this game at a Sports Camp. Its basically tag. The taught it to Blake and of course had him be the shark or it. The game started and Lola started crying because Blake BIT HER. I asked Blake why he bite Lola, he looked me in the eye and calmly told me, "I was the shark."

The kids played outside for a good long while, which is great. I usually just keep the screen door closed so I can hear them. I try to let them work out their problems and I love listening to them play and laugh together. I only come out to intervene when there is wailing. For instance Lola did get injured for a second time this evening. She laid down on the tramp and asked Blake (the kid who just bit her) to try and jump over her. Lets just say his jump wasn't a success. 

Bridal Veil Falls

Bridal Veil Falls according to our iPhones.

 

And if this day couldn't get better an ice cream truck showed up in the parking lot!

Tootsie Roll Patrol

Ryder is still not pooping in the potty. I keep hoping one day I'm going to send an email announcing that he is, but he feels like his pants are as good a place as any. I have informed Ryder that he can not under any circumstance poop in his swim trunks. Water, mesh undies, its just too big of a mess and so far he has complied with that rule. 

The other day Lola and Ryder went to the neighbors house in their swim trunks to pick up a friend that was coming over. Ryder informed me when they came back to the yard that he had pooped on a stone. I was thrilled that he didn't do it in his swim trunks, but also very concerned that he probably just pooped in one of our neighbors' yards. I asked him to show me what stone he pooped on. He pooped at the neighbor/friends front yard stone. I had to have one of those awkward/embarrassing "sorry my kid pooped in your yard" conversations. Luckily they have dogs so it was not as big of a deal :)

Lisa Falls

Lisa Falls according to our iPhones 

Righteous

Sunday is a limited technology day at our house. I pulled out my laptop to write in my journal and upon seeing this Blake demanded the ipad. I told him no and told him I was only on my laptop to write in our journal stories about our family. Lola who was interested in what I was writing said "stories about how we are a righteous people." Haha more like black mail stories when the kids are older

Miley Rose Photo Dump

It's official I have another thumb sucker. Good thing she's cute

Miley you are the sweetest baby.

Self Esteem and Poop

Yesterday I was getting Lola ready for preschool after I was finished
with her hair I asked her to look in the mirror and tell me what she
thought. “Ohhhh! I look like an angel!” I just smiled and thought
about the time she told me, "Mom, I'm just a girl, just a beautiful
girl." Lots of healthy self esteem coming out of this girl.

This morning I was feeding Miley in my room while the kids were eating
breakfast. When I was done I found Ryder standing in the middle of the
contents that were formerly in his cereal bowl. Or in his words he
splashing in a "mud puddle." Apparently I had wronged him in some
way because he also pooped his pants, juicy poop. Awesome. After
cleaning up the milk and cereal and Ryder's bum, I got the great honor
of rinsing out his underwear in the toilet. Totally Awesome. I decided
to flush to help get some of the poo off his undies and that is when I
accidentally flushed his undies down the toilet. Most Awesome.

I am happy to report it all worked out in the end. My toilet didn’t
clog. The poopy undies magically disappeared. And Ryder got to play
outside for a long, long time. :)

O Zion

Our little family went on a spur of the moment trip to Zion National
Park last weekend. Lola said her favorite part was “Everything except
the hiking.”

Ryder on the other hand loves to hike. He literally runs the whole
time. We kept telling him to keep in our eyesight so he would run
ahead and with a big smile sit down and wait while we catch up to him.
One of these times as he was waiting for us Blake took off running
towards Ryder. I thought Blakey was just feeling competitive and
wanted to catch up. As Blake got closer his real intentions became
obvious he was actually attempting a flying kick to Ryder while he was
down. Fortunately for Ryder he stood up in time and Blake got nothing
but air. Jon and I both laughed and Blake just smiled feeling zero
percent guilty of his attempt at violence (enforced by the
inappropriate parental laugh I'm sure).

Out of the Mouth of Babes

I had put the kids to bed and they were not sleeping. Lola came out
arms crossed with an angry face and said, “Ryder is acting like
Satan!”

Ryder had to go to the bathroom and since we are still struggling with
#2 I was with him. Lola was in the doorway just talking up a storm and
being a distraction. I told Lola Ryder needed some privacy and I shut
the door. After I shut the door Ryder said, “Finally some peace and
quiet!”

Me: Lola your fingernails look cool
Lola: Don't say cool to me
Me: Whats wrong with cool?
Lola: I only like fancy words
It's official my 5 year old is too cool for cool.

Comeback

I used to blog and then I got busy and it sort of fell to the wayside. My journaling fell to the wayside too. So I am back hoping to Chronicle these sweet and mostly hilarious moments with my kids because I want to remember and frankly if it's not inked I don't remember.

By the way I had a baby she is almost 2 months old. Welcome to the blog Miley Rose Benson!

You know your kids had enough time in the bouncer when he keels over in exhaustion and takes a nap.

Hats

Ryder is a BIG fan of hair products. The other day I was packing the kids up in the car. Ryder went MIA and I found him in the bathroom. Making himself a "handsome boy."

I might have tried removing the promenade with a wet wipe (I was in a rush) but it didn't work. I ended up sticking his head in the sink. He still looked like a total greaseball, but slightly better. It took 3 really good washing to neutralize all the promenade.

Apparently he learned his lesson because 3 days later he did the same thing...
With Vaseline...
To his brother

For the record vaseline is super hard to get out.

Guilty

I admit it I am guilty, guilty, guilty. I've listened to Christmas music every day this week. I love it. Especially Bing Crosby and Elvis. Yesterday I found out there is a radio station (FM 100.3) that already is playing it 24/7. Just in case you are a freak like me. Hi my name is Dolly and I love Christmas.

My Little Ryder-man

Ryder is two and he isn't terrible.
Sure he is more prone to tantrums, but all in all he's been great--especially when compared to his sister when she was two or maybe that's why he seems so great.

He eats all day. I think that's because he's a boy.
He "gives" me all of his boogers. I think that's because he's a boy.
He thinks toots are ridiculously funny. I think that's because he's a boy.

He is really starting to communicate with us. I love hearing how kids try and figure out how to express themselves.
He says things like "open the door" when he wants help with a lid.
If he wants candy he says "trick or treat" (although he says with a German accent).
He asks to "hold you" when he wants to be held.
He has gummy vitamins (were are a genius invention) and he asks for his yummy bears.

I love that he hugs me and makes a little mmmmm sound while doing so.
I love that he reminds me so much of Jon.
I love that he can rock a mustache.

Love you Ryder-man.