Turkey Pics

Thanks Moo!

Saying "Cheese"

Today Jr2 put the turkey shirt on himself.  He put it on backwards.  We decided it was appropriate, since it looked like the turkey was running away.

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Jr3 now says quite a few words and some phrases including "outside", "shoes on", "socks on" and "puppy".  She is also starting to assert her fashion independence.  She will bring me bows to put in her hair and pick out socks to wear (today she wore two pairs at once).

Jr2 still likes cleaning and driving the car.

Halloween

Jr2 was a cowboy / farmer this year.  Levis, a John Deere shirt, cowboy boot slippers and at the ward party he had a big silver (aluminum foil) belt buckle.  I don't think they sell cowboy hats in this state.

Jr3 was a ballerina (ward party) / elephant in a ballerina tutu (halloween).  So the elephant wasn't finished, but it was enough if we pointed it out you could tell.  I'm going to try and finally finish it in time for Christmas.

The pictures we took were somehow deleted, so I'm going to try and dress them up again sometime soon and take another picture.  (I was going to try for tonight, but Jr3 got the elephant suit dirty and it needs to be decontaminated before she wears it again.)

Belated Halloween

Here is a halloween picture of the cowboy and the elephant ballerina.

Oh man!

For those of you that don't already know, Jr1 took the PACT and scored in the top ten in the nation on the mathematics portion.  He only missed one question!

Jr2 likes to start most comments now with oh man.  He also takes after his great-uncle d and his grandpa.  He loves to take pictures.  If we come across the cord for the camera (not the video recorder, the camera), we will upload some we took at the aquarium.  He is pretty good.  And I dropped the camera twice in the past few years, so the shutter doesn't always close right and the batteries portion is duct taped on, so it is a good camera for him to use.

Jr3 point to a tree and said, "tee" the other day at the park.  She did this a few times, so she knows trees.  She can also climb into the recliner and onto the kitchen chairs now.

Lello

The other night, Jr2 ran across the room with his arm raised and let out a war cry.  "Lello".  I believe it was yellow, his favorite color and not jello.  I also think he might take after his Uncle Coo.  Lately, if he won't eat something, we have started pulling out the BBQ sauce for him to dip it in and he likes it so much better.

Jr3 likes to sit on her brother's lap.  Jr2 does not especially like to have Jr3 sit on his lap.  Maybe because she is about 2/3 of his size.  She is also really good at saying "mo" (more) and "ba" (ball) and "tay too" (thank you).

Friday was their last day at day care, so everyone prepare for the phone calls.

Jr2 now says prayers and has started saying parts of them without assistance.  You can tell what is important in his life.  First he blesses the food, then he blesses the vacuum, then he thanks for the vacuum.  If we forget to bless the vacuum when praying, he will assist us in remembering it.  Today he also added in blessing his puppy, who is sick and has been throwing up.  (His puppy is a stuffed animal.)

Jr3 got new, larger Sunday shoes of which she approves.  She also is still big into all things belly button and is starting to get the hang of trading a toy for a toy.  I also got her a new swimsuit for next year, since they are on sale now (hopefully I got the right size).  Sr was not sure what he thought of it until Jr3 saw it, grabbed it out of the bag, carried it around with her, and would not let Sr even hold it.  Hey -- maybe she will take after Auntie Roo and it can even help potty train her next year.

New Pics

So I have decided that I should sometimes get to do something I enjoy -- and I don't just mean playing games on the computer.  I mean doing something I like more than that.  I have decided to sew a few nights a week.  I have (mostly) completed my first project.  It is a balloon skirt I made for Jr3.  While balloon skirts are always a flop on project runway, they look pretty cute on little girls.  There is a bow to go on it that I have not yet finished.  The clock struck midnight and I didn't want the skirt to turn into a pumpkin.  (Uncle P probably thinks it looks like a pumpkin already.)

Anyway, this inspired me to take a few pictures.  One has Jr2 showing off his new haircut I gave him.  Another one has Jr3 in her new skirt she wore to church today.  Don't worry Auntie Roo, she wore a solid pink shirt with it.  The last one has them both posing with Jr2's favorite item in the house, which is asleep since it is Sunday.

My favorite hairdo of Jr3

I'm not good at doing Jr3's hair, but sometimes the daycare does it up cute.  They did today, so I thought I would take a picture and post it.

Jr3 and her cute hair (ignore the rest of us)

Jr2 decided to jump into the limelight with Jr3

And with the obligatory rabbit ears

Cousins are great!

Thanks to Jr2's cousin that was his buddy on vacation, life is coming along great.  Jr2 has significantly improved in the potty training area due to his cousin's stellar example.  Jr2 saw him going to the bathroom one day and was fascinated that his cousin would do such a thing.  

He has also begun actually closing his eyes and folding his arms during prayers.  Plus he now likes to say the prayers - in a whisper - even if we didn't whisper when we were helping him.  I again attribute the improved praying to his cousin's awesome example.  We have tried to teach him, but I guess this just underlines the importance of having good friends.

I'll post more about Jr3 and her birthday celebrations later.

Only in the South?

Liam likes to dance.  So we turned on the radio to find some music to dance to.  The first channel was a gospel preacher, but the next channel had music.  Polka music!  Wait -- polka music in the south?  I listened a little closer.  Yes, it was southern polka.  It was a polka song all about Jesus.  Only in the south can you dance to a Jesus polka.

Rainy Balls, Driving and Dirt Angels

Today we got to use the rainy ball.  A couple of weeks ago when Jr2 finally noticed umbrellas, he decided to name them himself.  Rainy balls is what he came up with.  It does make sense.

Jr went driving for the first time today.  He said it was not quite as scary as he expected, but harder than he expected.  It was not as much like the video games as he thought it would be.  He did great -- no wrecking!

Jr3 apparently likes to play outdoors as much as Jr2.  Her daycare teacher said that today while they were playing outside, she looked over and Jr3 was making dirt angels.

Sr continues to go to work.

I worked out at the local Baptist Family Life center.  It's free, it's close, and it's shaded.  Working out at this point means I walked one mile.  I'm so out of shape that counts as a workout.

Stairs

Sometimes I wish our house didn't have stairs.  Sr was sweeping the stairs yesterday.  Jr2 saw this and decided he should sweep the stairs as well.  He does pretty well at climbing the stairs on his own (with a parent following right behind), but he is not to the climbing without parental supervision stage yet.  Well, he might think he is, but he isn't.  So to add sweeping to an already iffy skill, jumped our blood pressures just a bit.

Then Jr3 also decided stairs are cool.  So she crawled over to the stairs and crawled up the first one.  Only the first one, since there was a gate on the second one.  However, since her forward momentum was stopped, she decided to go vertical and pulled herself up to standing on that stair.  Yes, the gate was quickly moved down to the first stair.  The joy of stairs.

Also, we got back the pictures from the daycare.  It seems like they are always taking pictures.  They are very cute, thanks to help from Auntie Moo's help with the children's attire.  We'll see if we get any prints or not.  The plan was not.  But the pictures are sooo cute (to my prejudiced mind).  But then there are just too many good ones to choose from, so the budget may be safe yet.

Crawling

Jr3 is now crawling. Jr2 finds this somewhat dismaying, since Jr3 frequently chases after his blanket and other items. Jr3 likes it, because now when Jr2 steals her crackers when we are not looking, she can go after them herself.

Jr2's favorite word of the moment is "Mine." In order to get the opportunity to say it more often, he will hand something of his to Jr3. Then he will take it back while firmly declaring, "Mine!"

New Word

Jr2 is learning all sorts of words and even saying small sentences. Tonight when we asked him if he did something, he responded, "Yes, I did." Later he tried a new word out on us while we were driving in the car. He kept repeating the word "money" and no, it was not "mommy" it was "money". I finally figured this out and asked him, "What do you want the money for?" His response? "Candy." Yep. Definitely a child of mine.

Stuff

Jr2 currently loves his Papa or Bampa, however you want to translate it. He always wants to call him on the phone. Papa has been a good Gramps and talked to him on the phone a couple of times this week. Jr2 has not always got to call Papa when he wants to, either.

He has been home sick. Kind of home and kind of sick. Not at the daycare and mostly sick, but still managing to run wild and crazy through whatever store we might be in. The monkey backpack is going to become his new best friend, again.

He also got a hug for the doctor today when he went and moved our coats from her chair so she could sit down, without even being asked to do it. (He is also the one that put the coats on her chair before she came in, without being asked to do it.) Then when he got a sticker, he picked one out for Mommy as well.

I taught him a new trick that Farm boy would be proud of. Something I won't describe here.

Jr3 is very close to crawling. Much swaying and scooting backwards. She also loves her brother and the fabric I bought for a new dress. She squealed excitedly about it when I picked it out. Of course she did that for a lot of things. She's growing up fast.

Jr2's favorite meal

Jr2 loves sweet and sour meatballs and they are soooo easy to make. He eats 5 - 7 meatballs every time and will even eat them when they are leftovers (He's not a big fan of leftovers). Here's the recipe.

meatballs, about 5 each (we buy them at Sam's club)
1 can whole berry cranberry sauce
1 can pineapple, chunks or rings, with about 2/3 of it's juice
2/3 bottle barbecue sauce (so far Kraft original has worked well)
some green pepper slices (about 1/4 a pepper, but more or less to taste) (we freeze the rest) (optional)
Basmatti rice (optional)

Put the meatballs in a sauce pan. Dump in the rest of the ingredients. Stir. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and cook for 20 - 25 minutes. While it's cooking, we cook the rice in a separate pot (the rice cooker actually).

Jr2 even licks his fingers and makes mmmm noises. Sr says his taste buds might not have fully matured yet. I say they have. Jr3 says she wants some too. Jr2 is willing to share (at least the rice).

I should be sleeping...

I should be sleeping. Everyone else is. Since I'm awake, here is an update on everyone.

I went to weight watchers this last week and weighed in. Only gained 1-2 pounds. Since I haven't been in a month and have been eating whatever I wanted, that is not bad. I have decided to do things in steps. For example, last week I exercised 3 times. This week I am trying to exercise 3 times and drink all the waters I am supposed to every day. In a month or two I will be to the point of starting to track my points. Small steps.

Speaking of steps... no, Jr3 is not walking or even crawling, but I think I will try and enter an official 5k sometime this fall. I guess I better keep up the exercising.

Hubby is working hard and being an excellent help with the kids. He is trying to get in some schooling in those rare spare moments.

Jr1 is enjoying physics and once he even called his dad for help.

Jr 2 is in a new class at the day care. When I asked the other day what he did, he said "Play". He seems to really be enjoying this class. He is also picking up all sorts or new words from his mom and dad, such as "Gross" and "Booger" and "Book". He loves Gordon B. Hinckley's "Stand a Little Taller". I think because it is his Dad's, is just the right size for his hands, and has water-marked pictures in it. He has also been enjoying the "Gobble, Gobble, Moo Tractor Book". Right now all his toy animals like to run, especially over the top of people, with a lot of force. They all seem to say "Moo" as well. Potty training is currently a thing of the past and will have to be revisited at a later date.

Jr3 is also learning new words. She has "Hi Dad" down pretty good. She is now working on "Bubba" and "Bye-bye". She still takes after me when it comes to food. If she's hungry, she's cranky and nothing will change that except for feeding her. Otherwise, she is very good natured and sweet. She and her bubba like to play together some and she is learning to hold her own. She can already pull hair better than her brother, as he has found out a number of times. She loves jumping, especially on her toes like a little ballerina.

Now for a funny story. Since I can't think of one, I guess you all will have to post some of yours instead.