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.

A few photos from VA Beach and Williamsburg

Since I'm home sick today and loo hasn't uploaded any pictures recently, I've decided to take matters into my own hands...

Tom Sawyer, er, Jr2, took his first walk along the beach (at VA beach back in September). So yes you're right, Sr isn't very timely at uploading pictures either!

Jr2 says, "look dad, all the free sand we can eat!"

family at the beach

Jr2 asks, "did you know that the sand gets really, really wet and splashy here mommy?"

reflections

family at williamsburg, of course libby is being camera shy again!

No biting!

Traditions

I know you all want pictures of the kids. Too bad. Today is my anniversary and we celebrated with a new tradition or two.

My favorite is we pulled out the book of our wedding pictures and looked through them and remembered our wedding day together. Then we showed a few pictures to Jr2 who amazingly recognized Mommy and Daddy when they were skinnier and even hugged one of the pictures.

Then Sr bought me some flowers. But not just any flowers. Some flowers similar to what was in the wedding bouquet (but a smaller and cheaper arrangement due to budgetary concerns). So I cleaned off the table and put the beautiful arrangement in the middle for us to enjoy.

Jr2 also made it through the day without biting, so he got to vacuum and eat sherbet. Then he had a tantrum once he had to stop vacuuming. Jr3 enjoyed watching Jr2 vacuum and didn't mind the tantrum. She also enjoyed reading the halloween book Aunt Roo sent. She is quite fascinated by it.

Overall, though, I'd say we had a pretty good day.

Names

So, the name search for the baby continues. We have it narrowed down to four names. We have definitely decided on the last name. O.K. so that was never up for debate so it was easy. As for the other four names, don't be surprised if we can't decide and just end up using them all.

I feel cheated

So, when following everyone's blogs I look at the list at the side and see when they were last updated and their names. If it is one I haven't read yet I go read it. I already knew that just a thought's didn't always update correctly. Now it turns out that North of Nowhere is not updating properly either. I missed out on three posts. Well, o.k. I just read them later than I would have liked to, although I did know a lot of the information from phone calls. However, the phone calls did not contain the lovely photographs.

In other news, Jr1 is now with us for the next 3 weeks. Things are going fairly well other than the fact that he is having to sleep on the couch downstairs since the air conditioning upstairs does not seem to be working and so the upstairs is running around 91. We will need to look into that.

Jr2 still loves brooms. He thinks sweeping is lots of fun. He also thinks throwing things on the floor is lots of fun. Unfortunately he is not yet good enough at sweeping to sweep up the things he has thrown on the floor.

Sr is having fun learning all about his CPAP machine. It is helping him feel more rested, but it does annoy him.

I'm just mostly tired and can only handle Jr2 on my own for 1/2 to 1 hour increments. After that he has me worn out enough that I need help. Fortunately some ward members came over and helped me out this weekend while Sr was off getting Jr.

I think that is all the non-excitement going on. Hopefully things stay non-exciting.