Little Grown Woman

Paige talks like such a little grownup sometimes, and is always dead serious.  It cracks me up.  3 quotes from the last week:

1)  Talking to Neely, who was upset with her mama and crying angrily:  "Oh, come here Honey Dipper.  It's okay.  Come tell me all your issues with mama."

2)  Talking to Daddy, who'd just found Alphie the robot in the living room:  "I could've SWORN I put him in the car."

3) Playing with Cason, with toys:  "I assume YOU'RE the oldest dinosaur?"

All Sorts of Things

I guess I'll have to accept that I can't always blog daily any more.  :(  I don't like it though, I always feel like I'm forgetting to record things they've been doing and saying that I'd like to remember.  

One of Neely's new things is to say "THANK YOU!  HAPPY!" when you give her something.

She's still sleeping with us, but starting to get the bedtime routine a little bit.  She even cozied up with Caso the other night and let him "read" to her a while.

                         We've been spending time outside, on the playset or drawing with chalk.

 

Or wearing helmets and pushing T-Rex in a stroller.

 

Paige and Cason have also been doing jobs to earn money.  Paige saw the new Brave Barbies at Walmart, and one even came with the horse.  She begged for it, and Jess told her if she would work hard all week, doing some little jobs and keeping her room clean, she could get it on Friday.  There was only one left with the horse, and from our experience Walmart is NOT very quick to restock anything.  So Jess snuck back and bought it secretly, and we hid it at Grama's house all week.  Cason wanted to work to buy something too, so all week they helped me with laundry, washed windows, watered plants, etc.

 

 Caso bought a remote control Mario Kart toy on Friday, and Paige got her Brave, and her horse Angus.  She was really excited, and made me take this picture of them.  Ha.

 

She wants Angus to be a girl instead, so she told me she was changing the name to Amos.  I said "That's a boy name too, actually."  She goes "Oh, how about Anus?"  Hahahhaahahaha.  I told her that might not be the best choice, and as usual, she wanted to know why.  Ha.  That was a fun talk.  

I've been trying to get the kids to draw and color with me more, because it's something I could sit and do with them for hours.  Caso usually colors a couple of quick robots and then abandons us.  So the other day I tried having him draw something along with me, in steps.  She he and Paige and I each did a cat, and I love how theirs turned out.

 I just did a little cartoony cat, one step at a time, and he seemed to have more stamina with it broken down into parts.  He did a really cute drawing of a cat too.  I love the little stick front legs.

Neely still loves her Hayao Miyazaki movies, especially Totoro, or "Toe-roe" as she calls it, and Kiki.  When she watches them, she usually has this happy look on her little face:

She really likes cats, and especially the black cat on Kiki's Delivery Service.  His name is Jiji, and she talks about him a lot.  Hello Kitty is cute and all, but my favorite is Chococat.  The other day Jess bought me a little stuffed Chococat at the store.  He went to put it in the cart and he said Neely got excited and grabbed it, saying "JIJI!"

 

Paige started piano lessons two weeks ago, with Nicole's mom.  She loves it so far, and tells me all about C and D and F and how nice Miss Carla is, and how it's hard to remember to use her right hand too, because she always feels like using her left only.  Miss Carla lives in our neighborhood, which is nice.  We can just walk Paige down for her lesson.  After we pack up our stuffed cat and Batman toy.

Neely's hair looks like this each and every morning:

Qui

Quite a while ago Paige asked us why there's no Kids' Day when there's a Mother's Day and Father's Day.  We told her we'd make one up.  We finally did on Friday.  It was nothing big, we just gave them little gifts from the dollar section at Target, some balloons and a yummy breakfast-chocolate muffins and/or cinnamon rolls.

 

They were really happy.  Neely tried to sleep in, but finally the kids woke her up to give her her little gift.  She did that cute baby stretch with the puffy lips...

...then opened her eyes and kind of freaked out when she saw her little pink rubber monster toy.  She slapped it away from her face and said "NO!"  Haha.  She liked it a few minutes later though.

Tunnel of Terror

Today and all evening Paige and Cason were playing especially well together.  They ran around the house together, being really cute and creative.  The last thing they did together tonight was make an "amusement park".  It was really just one ride, a scary one.  The only scary rides they've been on are the ones at Disney Land, so I was seriously impressed by the one they made.  They built a long narrow fort, by putting a quilt over two rows of chairs.  We didn't know what they were doing until it was all ready for us to take the ride, so they did it all completely on their own.

The first time through blew my mind.  They set themselves up kind of inside the blanket, but behind the chairs, Paige on the left side, Cason on the right.  There was a "spider attack"(a black toy on a string, that they dropped near us along with a scary sound), a "scissor attack"(Cason stuck his hand through one of the chairs, scaring you with "scissors" and making a really good sound effect to go along with that), a "ghost attack" (a pillow case on a string that Paige dropped down near me), and at the end, a "dinosaur attack", which was just the head of the Rock'n'Roar Dinosaur being rolled toward me.  Cason also had a little flashlight he flashed on and off at the perfect moments. They both were seriously SO good with the sound effects, it was almost actually kind of scary. 

I wish it had been in the day time, so I'd have been able to get decent pictures or video of it, but the audio is pretty entertaining on it's own.  It was my second time through though, and they knew I was filming, so it wasn't quite the same, and Caso left out the "scissor attack", but oh well, still fun to listen to.  Paige accidentally drops her ghost at the end and is obviously disappointed.  Ha.


I love our creative, hilarious kids.

Climb Climb MONKEY!

Neely has been doing this thing where she stands up against a wall, and moves her arms up and down above her head, saying "Climb, climb, MONKEY!"  It's really cute.  I've never been fast enough to get video of her doing it, but Jess was working on putting in a ceiling fan/light in our living room this weekend(Thank goodness!) and Neely was climbing his ladder.  So I got video of that, and she did her monkey thing.  :)

Mama's Day 2012

I had a fantastic Mother's Day.  I woke up to our tv gone and a piece of paper in it's place that said "For Mother's Day I stole your tv."  I'd been asking him to get rid of it, in an attempt to cut down on the tv watching around here.

Then they gave me chocolate chip muffins they'd made for me, and their cards.  Paige's was so cute.  She could've read it, but (THANKFULLY) she didn't bother to read the card she chose, she just knew I'd love it for the raincloud... 

..and the inside.  Hahaha, like I said, good thing she didn't read it.

 Jess had also put together a little book for me.  It was all cute pictures of our kids with little related Mother's Day notes to me.

I don't know if I've already mentioned how Cason says "toasted"?  Well, it started with Jess telling him he was "toast" when they wrestled.  Cason turned it into "toasted", so when he is fake fighting us, right before he attacks he says "YOU'RE TOASTED!"  Anyway, here's one of my favorite pages from my Mother's Day book:

This one made me laugh too:

These two just made me happy:

 

 There were lots of other good ones, but those are a few of my favorites.

                                                I also got my first of this type of gift:

 

I pretty much knew I was getting it a few days before, because Paige spotted it in the store when I was with her, and she was giving very specific hints as we got close to Mother's Day.  :)

The Last Few Days

Lots of playing outside.  Swings and slide out back.

T-ball out front.

A certain little lady loves to carry around her "Supee book", and try to get me to read it to her.  It's a coloring book, so there's nothing to read.  All I can do is try and name all the Heroes for her.  Cason's been teaching her, so as soon as I opened the page with the Incredible Hulk she pointed and said "WOOK!  Iz a Hoke!"  She calls Dr. Doom "Docdoom".


She also looks super cute post-bath...

 ...and pretty amazing at Paige's t-ball games.


Paige did really well today, the coach decided to start pitching, instead of having them hit off the tee automatically.  Paige hit a lot better with him pitching.  It doesn't surprise me though, we started pitching to them like a year and a half ago, and even Caso, who was 2, was hitting really well off of pitches.  Then we realized it might not be a good idea, since they'd start with a tee.  Oh well I guess.

Paige has had some emotional days.  She decided to run away again already.  She's been packed for a couple of days now, and told me she's leaving Sunday.  She doesn't even have a problem running away on Mother's Day.  Ha.  She started packing, but couldn't quit once her bag was full.  So there's a pile of clothes and memorabilia in her room.  She's bringing clothing, a hat, her t-ball uniform(not to wear, but "just to remember"), her soccer trophy, her scrapbook paper butterfly collection, Hoppy, and her little souvenir from the Dumbo Ride, that Mollie got her at Disney Land.  Not a light packer.

She was all upset at us, and threw kind of a fit right before starting to pack.  Then out of nowhere she just comes over acting all normal, and joins us to watch our movie.  Jess started telling her she needed to apologize instead of acting like nothing happened.  She goes "Daddy, I'm just trying to liven things up."  Ha.  Awesome.  She livened things up, alright.

There was a pigeon walking around our front yard today, and Paige said she wanted to catch it.  A while later she told Jess and me that she had done it.  We both laughed, but then she took Jess over to see, and she completely HAD.   I guess she just slowly lowered the plastic container over it, and it let her!  I don't know if it was hurt or what, but it just stood there and let her.  Then she felt bad because when she put it down to let it go it wouldn't get out.  So I had to get a glove on and pull the thing out.  Don't know if you can even see it in there in the picture, but it's there.  I'm not a huge fan of pigeons, so I hope she's satisfied now that she caught one, and doesn't bother trying again.
The boy is up to his usual, being a boy.  He pulled the head off of his sister's Barbie.  It was only a matter of time. 

"MMMMMMhmmmm!"

Neely hasn't been watching Yo Gabba Gabba for a while, but unfortunately she still really loves her tv.  She just has a new love:  Super Why.  At least it's an educational one, but I still have to work really hard if I want to keep her distracted and away from her shows.  I'm contemplating getting rid of our tv all together.  Because her new thing is to ask for her show, by signing "more" and saying "Mo?  Mo?  Supee?"  Then when I respond with "You want to watch Super Why?" she gives us the cutest little "MMMMMhmmmmm!" on Earth, and it's pretty impossible to say no.  I've wanted to capture it on video for a while, and I finally got one today.  It's often way more drawn out and super cute sounding, but this one I got is still pretty good.  She'd already asked for it a time or two by the time I got the camera, which is why she looks distressed in the video.  She can't handle an extra 10 seconds with out her "Supee".
 
She also really likes Blues Clues once in a while, and I love how she says it:  "KWOOZ KWOOZ".  So have a listen as she enjoys an apple and talks about her shows:

Another Reason I Love Jess

Neely was sleeping on the couch when Jess came home for lunch today.  We were eating and talking, and after a while he suddenly said "I'm gonna go look at Meewee."  And he did. 


Then I took his picture and embarrassed him.

Pandee Express

Paige is getting pretty good at reading.  She read Cason a bed time story the other night, and was pretty proud of herself.

Cason and I went on a date to Panda Express the other night.  I said I wasn't going to take him there on dates anymore because he's so into his food he barely notices I'm there.  But he loves it so much I couldn't deprive him of it.  Actually he DID end up talking to me a lot this time, anyway.

There were little stuffed pandas for sale by the register, and the lucky guy got one.  He named him Pandee.

He deserved it though.  Earlier that day Paige had decided she was running away for the first time.  She was really mad, but Cason wasn't having her run off.  She was trying so hard not to laugh.

  

Neely wasn't worried.

On Saturday I took the older two to the Kids Workshop at Home Depot.  They got their aprons, and wore them for the rest of the day while helping Jess work out front.

Paige kept saying to call 5492 if we needed any Home Depot employees to come and help us.  Of course we "called" them and had them cutting the edges of the grass where the mower wouldn't reach it, with their scissors.  They were working hard.

Paige also made a bird trap this weekend.  Ha.  She had a string tied to this basket, and put what she said were seeds, for bait, beneath it. Then she hid in a sleeping bag holding on to the string, and waiting for a bird.  She was not pleased when no birds came.  She was surprisingly patient for quite a while though.

A while later she asked if she could have her friend Maysen come play.  I called her mom, who said she'd send her down in 15 minutes(She lives about 3 houses away).  Paige and Cason were so excited, and asked to wait for her out front.  It was a pretty cute scene.

 I finally finished Paige's hot air balloon mobile she wanted for her room.

I'd seen something like it online, and started the balloons weeks ago.  I could never get the cloud quite how I wanted it, so I had to settle for this.  She loves it though.  She was lying in her bed, looking up at it, and I heard her planning which My Little Pony should ride in which color hot air balloon.  :)

Our Honeybaby is 18 Months Old

WOAH.  18 months of her making us happy every single day.  She's sweet, smart, and funny.  I always make a big deal out of having a new baby, and I DO love it.  But so far every single stage our kids have gone through is just as amazing.  They are SO funny.  Jess says all the time what a blessing it is having a "baby" in the house, although she's technically a toddler now.  But we'll just keep on calling her our "baby".  Her newest trick is fake sneezing.  "Ah....AH....AH.....DYOO!"  The last couple of days she started saying "Bwess You!" to herself too.  Tonight I realized I hadn't captured it on video, so I fake sneezed at her and thankfully it was enough to get her to do it for me.

Kite: Take 2

Yesterday we got an ice cream with Grama.  When we got home Neely had fallen asleep in the car, and it was nice out, so we just parked in the driveway and I rolled down the windows in the car. 

But then Paige noticed there was a nice breeze, so she asked to get out and try to fly her kite.  So I mostly watched them fly it, from the car, except when I got out to take a few pictures.  It felt like the 1970s, between Cason's shirt and the rainbow kite.

 

 It was a much more successful kite flying experience this time.

BEE!

I love how it feels in the early evening lately.  I wish it would stay like this all summer, instead of getting to where it's like 95 degrees at 9 pm.

Last night Paige was lying on her back in the grass, relaxing and looking up at the sky.  She goes "I feel like the first part of Kiki."  (Kiki's Delivery Service)

She meant the opening scene, where the little girl is lying on a blanket in the middle of a grassy field, pretty much the way Paige was doing, and with a nice breeze, and a radio playing a cute song.  

Then Paige added something about "the bees buzzing."  Then seriously one second later her expression changed to one of terror and she leaned into me and whimpered "BEE!  BEE!  BUG!"  Haha.  It was just a june bug, but it made me laugh how one second she's chirping happily about sunshine and buzzing bees, then she thought there might be a REAL bee near her and she started singing a different tune.  Ha. I may have even gotten a video of this moment, I'll have to check.

Update:  I did, in fact, get it on video.