Happy Post Love Day

Did everyone have a happy love day? I did not. I was stood up. And now they've taken Craig and promise to return him in three weeks. But Craig did buy me Pitch Perfect during one of the two days they let us see him, so at least I got something to distract me. 

Rhyla has been 100% insistent that she is going to wear a dress every day now. If I even try to put her in pants, she stands at the closet and cries until I put her in either a skirt or dress. I think it's both funny and inconvenient. Skirts and dresses aren't very warm after all and it's started snowing again.

Vash has started saying that I "make his heart happy", which I personally think is the cutest thing in the world. Plus his new favorite song is Hall and Oates "I can't go for that", and he'll ask for it periodically throughout the day so he can make the "chet chet chet" noises at the beginning. (Now, he still likes Whip my hair, but now he likes to whip his Tuku. LOL.) 

Our friends, the Anderson's, came to visit this weekend and brought along their little girl Lindley. (You can sort of see her going down the stairs.) I had adorable pictures of them together but Vash got a hold of my phone and erased them. *sniff* We had a good time just relaxing and Saturday night, when Craig was still here, we actually got a chance to try out the Italian restaurant up the street. But its so popular that we had to call and make reservations in advance. We didn't end up eating until eight pm and Rhyla fell asleep before we finished dinner! So it was nice for me to have company the last few days and I'm bummed now that they're back in Ohio. Although I have offers for play dates from several women in the ward so I really need to take them up on it and get out of the house now and then. Anyhow, I look forward to St. Patty Day. I don't drink but I love green so.... gotta love that. 

The Love Boat...

....Will be making another round! All aboard! Of course, I kid. We have no boat or love around here. Okay well, maybe a little love. After all, Valentine's day is coming up soon. Craig is off to Ohio tonight. Might be home tomorrow; might not be. And since he only got home at four am on Sunday morning, I've obviously neglected to write this until now. Wanted to occupy myself while he's gone. 

This is Vash pretending to be a robot man. He and Rhyla are very into dancing right now. Rhyla wants to be a ballerina and Vash wants to learn hip-hop or Street style... I guess you could call it that. (In some area's they call it being a beat boy or something? Not sure.) 

We've enjoyed our new play-dough set. I got it in exchange for the kids giving up their binkies, but they only lasted a day and I couldn't handle the screaming so... we're going to try again this week. Vash has been a little sweetheart this week though. He was upstairs calling me, and because I was finishing up cleaning the kitchen I didn't hear him at first. When I came up, he says, "Oh, there you are! I was worried about you Mommy! Give me a hug." 

I had a hard time convincing Rhyla that the play-dough was not actually ice-cream and that she shouldn't eat it. But she licked it a few times anyway before deciding that it wasn't worth it. She's gotten very good at saying a lot of new words lately, but one that still trips her up is "Pepperoni." She calls is "Pepper money." And she loves to eat that. 

Craig and Rhyla taking a nap after church. Rhyla's also gotten very good at singing. She can sing the  notes and a lot of the words to "Once Upon A Dream," "I See The Light," "Part Of Your World," and the strange song they put in place of "Someday My Prince Will Come," on her Disney Princess castle. (Not sure why they didn't stick with the original. It's one of my favorites and a classic.) 

The weather's been nice, so we got to ride bikes outside the other day. Funny story; Rhyla was trying to carry too many dolls down the stairs and tripped. Of course, I'm horrified as I hear my toddler tumble down the stairs right? So I run to her, pull her into my lap, and I'm like, "Rhyla, are you ok?" And she says, very accusingly, "Yeah... My dolls!" Like she knew it was their fault she fell down. Hilarious and terrifying. 

Always has his "Homework" with him. Here it's on the back of his bike. Another funny story: I made Mac-n-Cheese for dinner the other night. Now, normally this is a favorite of the kids. I didn't notice when I bought it, but instead of the usually elbow macaroni that's typically in Mac-n-Cheese, they put in these twisty, cork screw noodles. Okay, whatever. I make it, set it down in front of the kids and Rhyla eats right up. But Vash looks at it and says, "Cheese is twisted like snakes! Ewe!" It took a while to convince him it would taste the same but he eventually ate a little. 

In other news, my friend Becca got attacked by bed bugs. I didn't know those were real until that happened. Had to document it though so people will know that there are in fact bed bugs, and they will in fact bite you. True story. So... be careful and wash your sheets often! 

Happy upcoming love day to everyone!

Thank you Mr. Groundhog

From what I hear, Phil said we'll have an early spring. And despite how much I love the snow, that's OK with me. Until I have a vehicle that I'm allowed to drive in snow, it's probably better if it just goes away.
So, we got Craig to ourselves for a whole three days before returning him to work for probably two weeks. Sort of wished he'd gotten a little more time off but... you know. Anyway...The kids were in a little bit better of moods so I do in fact have some funny stories.

The kids favorite song right now is Willow Smith's "Whip my hair". I'm not sure why, but they really really really enjoy it. Although, we say "whip my hairs", just to be silly so they think those are the actual words. Anyway, we were dancing around to it one day and Vash says, but "Ugh...My hairs are too short for whipping."

Another day during dinner when Craig was home, Vash told us a story. It went something like: "Once upon a time, there was a spooky spider, (Include hand motions like a walking spider) and he crawled onto my plate and tickled my food, and it was spooky and the end!" It was longer than that but he acted it out and it was the cutest darn thing I'd ever seen.

Another night, I was drinking a V8 (hard-core tomato style) and Vash, who was supposed to be in bed, got a hold of it and took a sip. Spitting it out he says, "What is that? It's so wrong!"

Rhyla's been funny too lately. Her terrible twos have manifested a little stronger recently but she's mostly a sweet girl still. We watched Who Framed Roger Rabbit the other day and after Dumbo flew past the window, she says, "Dumbo talks!" and she was so amazed about that. She's been very into the movies we watch lately. We watched Horton Hears a Who and she was very concerned about the flower and kept asking me if Horton was going to be OK. She likes to repeat what she hears from the movies and anytime anything scary or bad happens she cries out ,"Oh no!" and runs over for a hug.

Rhyla's also started to do the thing where she holds her hands in tiny fists and shakes with fear. Same as Vash used to do. It's pretty cute. 

I'll also have to get a clip of her dancing on here sometime. She doesn't just bounce around anymore. Last night, we watched dance routines on YouTube and she started lifting her leg into the air and trying to do ballet stands. It was so darling. I taught her to point her toes and how to do first and second positions of the arms. Thinking she'll be ready to start dance this summer. And we'll likely put both of them in tumbling since there's a gymnastics place in the town next door.

We did a few fun things while Craig was home. Took the kids to this amazing indoor gym called Sea Base. This picture is only a small portion of what's in there. They've got laser tag, mini golf, food, and a train as well. Plus several other equipment sets. The kids liked it so much that we're going to buy them annual passes and I'm going to take them on Wednesdays when they do crafts and story time.

Craig also took us to dinner Saturday night at the "Red Monster." It's actually a red Lobster, but Vash sees it every week when we pass it on our way to church and he insists that it's a monster. The kids were thrilled to tap on the tank and talk to the monsters while we waited. Vash brought his backpack filled with my books about parenting strong willed children; a woman sitting near us noticed and told me that the tactics in the books worked with her son. I said that's awesome and if I can get the books away from Vash, I'll have to try them. She laughed. 

So... that's our week. We're trying to ween the kids from binkies now so they're not sleeping at all. I guess we'll see how that turns out. Oh, and Rhyla has jumped out of bed and split her lip open twice today so it's not only bleeding but bruised. You think she'd have stopped after the first time.... I love those two. And I miss my husband. Here's to spring.