School Pictures

Go RANGERS!, Halloween Costumes & Plays

J.R. came into our room randomly at 11:15 pm last night and wanted to watch the Rangers play in the World Series...no idea how he woke up or knew we were watching it...check out all those silly bands...

 And the pumpkin he slept with before the game and after it was over and we put him back to bed :)

 This year's Halloween costumes at Daddy's fun annual office party...Anna Kate made up her character...a rainbow fairy princess, J.R. wouldn't wear his new costume and insisted on being Batman, and poor sweet Caroline just wore some random stuff we pulled out of the dress-up chest...I love being able to get away with her contentment with Anna Kate's hand-me-downs...wonder how much longer it will last! 

 At the play Oliver with Nancy...it was seriously AMAZING!!!

 Got to get every person's autograph.

Anna Kate was playing school with J.R. and told him to sit "criss-cross-applesauce, hands in your lap, bubble in  your mouth" while she taught him letters...when she got distracted he ran over and hopped in this trash can and popped his head up...such a goof.  He is so sweet with his sisters.  Today in MOPS he made his crown for Caroline so she could be a princess.

In case you are wondering what I've been doing in my "free time" lately, I've been PLANNING my sister's wedding!!!!!!!  SOOOOO fun :)

Love this finding about t.v....

"As reported in The Daily Mail, Time Healthland and MSNBC, a new study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine shows that every hour of TV watched by people age 25 or over equates to a 22-minute reduction in life expectancy.

The findings suggest that too much TV is as detrimental to longevity as smoking and lack of exercise, Time Healthland reports."

MY SISTER'S ENGAGED!!!!

I'M SO EXCITED :)

anna kate is excited abot the wedding (she personally added that)

Playmates...

J.R. and Caroline play SOOOO well together.  They are really sweet to each other and just play and pretend and hang out and talk in perfect contentment for hours and hours together.  I think they bond over getting into Anna Kate's things some while she's at kindergarten (things she would not allow them to get into if she were here to regulate them...notice whose shoes Caroline's wearing).  They love it when Anna Kate is around too, but when she is, Anna Kate kind of tells them what to do...so when she's not around they just tootle around together doing whatever they want :)  And yes, J.R. is still wearing his beloved monster hat...thankfully the weather has gotten a little cooler  :)

The Semi-Annual Blog Posting Bonanza...

It’s been a long time since blogging!  However, we HAVE been busy!! 

• I have been marginally obsessed with Zumba (even getting certified to teach!), running for the first time in my life starting in February and going through August (I got up to 10 miles at a time which is CRAZY for me to imagine myself doing) ...but I'm actually not exercising at all any more now...waaay too pregnant!!!
• and cracking-the-code to the best nutrition for our family…after spending a million years and dollars on it (doctors, books, supplements, holistic nutritionist, etc...), I’m not sure if I have anything figured out or not…I just now know our family has a million food allergies that seemingly came out of nowhere and these foods that we’ve eaten our whole lives and always assumed to be super healthy give me alzheimers and diabetes symptoms make the rest of the family feel FUNKY now…milk, wheat, eggs, peanuts, bananas, the list goes on and on...2 words for this phenomenon = not convenient. 
• And I’ve been nesting with crazy house projects. 
• Oh, and about being pregnant! Yes, Peter Charles is due in November the week of Thanksgiving!!!  And honestly, I have kind of been avoiding blogging on purpose b/c it could easily turn into this rant about the miseries of this pregnancy…which has been pretty indescribably painful and miserable…it just feels like my whole pelvic area is suffering from extreme too-many-pregnancies-in-a-row-fatigue.  Jon has given a whole new meaning to long-suffering as well as he has put up with me with such patience, love and grace...oh it makes me cry to write that...I am so blessed to have him.  But I am baffled as to how women have 10 or more kids…I think my uterus would fall out whenever I stood up (much to my chagrin) and I am not even joking. 

Caroline's comments and life these days...

Caroline is potty-trained - YAY!! Even through the night!! And it was totally her idea...she just busts out with, "I not want to wear diapers. Diapers are for babies," after her first day of preschool. (The part I don't understand is that every one else in her preschool class still wears diapers :)

She really enjoys food.  She likes to have big amounts of food on her plate and not share it even when she is done eating.  The first thing she says when she wakes up is, "I want breakfast daddy."  Then the rest of the day she always says, "I want a lot {of food}"  and "I want a BIG bite" and "I sooooo hungry mommy...I sooo hungry."  One time she said, "I want a BIG bite.  A big STRONG bite."  I nearly died laughing...she of course told me, "it not funny."  She also says things like, "I want the BIGGEST {bite} EVER EVER EVER to up in the air!!!" 

She is also pretty much the chattiest person ever.  I LOVE chatting with her and can't get enough of it...one of my favorite times to chat with her is in the evenings when Jon is reading The Chronicles of Narnia to Anna Kate and J.R. so Caroline and I will just hang out and talk about all sorts of things...
Me: "Baaaaa"
Caroline: "You are a sheep!"
Me: "Yes! What are you?"
Caroline: "A cow."
Me: "What do YOU say?"
Caroline: "Thank you!" (I've obviously done an amazing job teaching cuing my kids' manners ;)
Me: "No, what do you say if you are a cow?"
Caroline: "Mooo" :)

We usually show up places with one child having forgotten their shoes.  It just seems to always happen.  But this week we showed up at church and Caroline had forgotten to put on panties.  It must be hard when you are two, yet you are the 3rd child and therefore you have to be completely responsible for yourself :)

Caroline has an amazing ability to remember things and names and she refers to people by their names…like when I said I was going to the baby doctor, Caroline said, “Dr. Chhutani?”  It nearly blew me away!  Anna Kate and J.R. have never said Dr. Chhutani’s name.  And after church or preschool she tells me all the kids she played with by name and who cried and why (she’s very empathetic). 

I get told by all of her teachers or Y workers that she “doesn’t take any bull.”  It’s funny that it’s always that expression verbatim they use to describe her :)

Earlier in my pregnancy, she’d lift up my dress and say, “I see mommy’s Peter!!!”  (Because the baby’s name is Peter).

Caroline says she is a big girl until it’s time to clean up or she has gotten into my makeup then she looks at me and says, “I just a baby.” 

We say this to eachother a lot...but I change the food to different things :)....

Me:  You are the sweetest little piece of pumpkin pie in the whole world!

Caroline: I not pumpkin pie, I just Taraline.

Caroline calls Central Market "Our Market." Man, I sure wish it was our market...we sure could save a lot of money  ;)

She calls Toys R Us "Toys For Us"

We saw the Rainforest Bugs movie at the Omni Theatre a while ago.  Caroline clutched me the whole time with her little heart just pounding.  She is truly terrified of bugs and always has been.  She still talks about that movie still and says, “That bug movie scare me.” 

She also says, "I want mommy," even when I am right there because she wants me to hold her, and she tells me "Er budiful" and "Er funny." She belts out all kinds of songs and especially loves "Punzel" songs and didn't want a haircut because she thought it would upset Mother Gothel.  She has the cutest wiggle-run I've ever seen and she talks about how much she wants to take ballet (she can't until she turns 3).  She also points out blue things and says, "Blue like my eyes!!"  Oh, if I could just freeze my children when they are little and remember their cute little ways forever!!!

J.R.isms...

J.R.: I’m not scared of anything.

Me: You are scared of the dark.

J.R.: (thinking for a moment) I’m not scared of the dark when my light is on.

Whenever I ask J.R. what he thinks about something he’ll answer, “good,” “a little bit good,” or “not good.”

Whenever he asks for something he says, "Man I please have a....."

J.R.: When I grow up I want to be a daddy.  I will have 29 kids and I want you to be their mommy.

Me:  J.R., that is very sweet but I will be way too old to be a mommy by then.  You will have to find someone your own age to be their mommy. 

J.R.: (thinking for a moment) Then Grace can be their mommy.

J.R.: Let’s go to the Dollar Treat!

Playing the alphabet game…Me: What starts with R?

J.R.: J.R.!!

Caroline: You are my Bruhee. 

J.R.: Bruhee is a stupid name.  My name is J.R.

J.R.: If the baby is a boy, we should name him J.R.

Me: Do you think the baby will be a brother or a sister?

J.R.: I think it will be a boy sister.

Me: J.R., if you could do anything in the whole world what would it be?

J.R.: Go to the stores and buy something for me.

J.R. talks a lot about video games b/c he hears other kids talk about them. I was worried he was starting to be into them at such a young age until he told me Trouble (the board game) is his favorite video game.

He is our only child that refuses to drink or eat after any other person…even in our own immediate family.  He says that is very “ewey.”  I have no idea where he got that notion.

October 2011 So Far...

 Anna Kate's 1st Indian Adventure Princesses Campout with Daddy...we made her vest very "bling." 

Sadly, Jon's been sick all week so he had to go to bed early and couldn't bond with the dads as much as he could have, but it was a really special time they both enjoyed very much.

And trust me, I was really glad to not have to go on a campout, but I do get heebie-jeebies when Jon is gone overnight...thankfully this little guy was left behind to "protect me," he sleeps with snakes...

 and we went shopping (the one thing he wanted to do!) and got this winter garb he picked out and he has not taken it off for the 3 days since we got it except for during church :)

 Jon is reading a lot lately about education philosophies and theories...seems like something we should have done before Anna Kate started kindergarten, but not knowing a lot about what's going on all day while she's gone at school raised some questions we've never had before about what goes in schools these days.  We know we are in the BEST public school and we are so thankful for that...but Jon and I just haven't ever known anything before besides public schools, so now he's reading what other schooling options are like just so we have a better understanding.  Anyway, Jon says that our house is "very Montessori."  I thought that comment was typified by all three kids spontaneously deciding to do an experiment using different sized bowls, water, soap and straws during Anna Kate's day off from school...I couldn't get a pic of every one's creations b/c they were doing this in their underwear :)  I can totally see Anna Kate being a teacher some day...ever since she started school she's given us all numbers at our kitchen table so we sit in the same spots and she's been teaching J.R. when she's at home and she "changes his color" and makes him sit still and "clap twice if you can hear my voice" :)

 We had a fun play date with our good friend Oliver on his 6th birthday!!!!  He is SOOO sweet to Anna Kate. 

Anna Kate at Zac's 7th birthday party...

 

Anna Kate received the Principal's Award at the Pride Rally at school at the end of the 6 weeks for excellent behavior.  We were SOOOO proud of her!!!

And lest you get confused into thinking we've raised an absolutely *perfect* angel, she changed her color for the first time later that day :)  But she has done so well at school :) Her teacher said she is already a peer tutor because she is ahead of her class so she helps out the other kids in her class at their centers.  Her teacher also said that Anna Kate is so helpful in that not only does she behave herself, but she keeps every one else around her in line as well...like a policewoman - ha!  Once a big sister, always a big sister :)

Anna Kate turns 6!!!

 We ate lunch with her at her school...J.R. wore his festive birthday hat.

 We had a party with her kindergarten class and did a birthday card craft - Anna Kate's idea and creation.

 She lost her first tooth on September 28, 2011 and her second tooth a couple of days later...her first tooth came out at school during lunch in a strawberry and she got to go to the nurse and get a minature treasure chest to put the tooth in....her second tooth came out during dinner at Matt's El Rancho in Lakewood in a bean burrito :)

 Whoa! Don't go near the fireplace on that thing :)  I still crack up every time I think about a sweet friend from Anna Kate's class coming over to play one afternoon and the look on her face when she said, "You are allowed to ride scooters and tricycles in the house??"  And silly me, the only thing I had worried about was that the friend would go home and tell her mom our house was messy..... 

 Her "party" was at Cowboy Chicken with the Henrys.  She also got to go to the zoo with daddy.

 Trey and Grace gave her a purple unicorn pillow-pet "she had wanted her WHOLE life."

Celebrating 6...should have been on a Sesame Street episode.

Little blue-eyed playful third children full of fun and giggles... :) (...except when she gets very tired...then we call her "Caro-lion.")

September 2011

 J.R. and Caroline's 1st day of preschool!!

 Something in common with Pooh Bear :)

J.R.'s 1st sports practice...soccer with boys his age from church!!! Getting new soccer clothes was totally his favorite part :) J.R. and Caroline are such my shoppers.

Gabby came up for Grandparent's Day at Anna Kate's school - so special!!!!!

Nesting the heck out of our house...

Whenever I am 6 months pregnant, my nesting instinct hits with a vengeance.  I just get all these great ideas for changes that MUST be made to our house.  Maybe it's b/c I can't decorate a nursery since Peter will be sleeping in a pac-n-play in our closet for his first year (so the whole house becomes the nursery project?), I have no idea, but nesting is very bizarre...especially since I get crazy amounts of energy to paint and decorate that I NEVER have normally...even not pregnant!

This room was originally the beige color everywhere else in the house and I needed it green...the first green you see on the right was too drab and alligtor-skin color, so after painting the WHOLE room, I RE-repainted it this lovely brighter green. 

It may be hard to tell b/c the before picture is from Christmas a few years ago, but we added molding to the bottom of the mantle and it looks much better.

Wall-papered the entry.

Just to prove I'm a little "off," I was walking down the hall and couldn't stand those stickers the kids put on the door for one more second, so I immediately busted out the goo-gone and spent the whole morning scraping them off both their doors.

Painted this couch upstairs green with fabric medium and paint and re-did the whole upstairs...I don't recommend doing this to your couch...the couch makes a pretty significant "crunch" when you sit on it :)  But the color is far-preferable.  I also painted the accent tables turquoise and just redecorated the whole room so that it was not just the room for all our random ugly furniture. 

Before and after...and after again...I got the chair in the first picture and I had it recovered with the red paisley fabric, but it was too dark and clashed with my wood floors, so I had it re-recovered with this fabulous bird fabric and it was perfect.  I have the best husband EVER :)

Now it's an accent wall in the sunroom/playroom.

Added bead-board to the kitchen.

I repainted this bathroom in the same color b/c the original paint I used was flat and it needed a satin finish to look right in the bathroom.

I think I'm done.  I'm very pooped :)