January and February: A Birthday, a Blessing, and Tons of Fun!

Alright, let's just skip the apology for not writing for nearly two months and get into the fun stuff shall we? It's been a busy two months and we had two major milestone events, a lot of fun indoors because of the several feet of snow we've been bombarded with, and the truth be told; I've done a fair share of baby snuggling and reading and watching movies with my big kids. 

Is this not the cutest face? Fischer has become quite the flirt. Everyone loves him and his chubby cheeks. A few have even mentioned that they just want to eat him up... creepy and cute at the same time, right? 

As cute as he is... he's quite the little gas bomb. I asked his doctor if there was something I could do to help him; I've cut out dairy, the "gassy" vegetables, and I'm careful to burp him completely after feeding... but he keeps right on gassing. Doctor says some babies are just like that. Poor stinky thing.

One of Vash's Lego creations. Usually, when Vash accomplishes things he used to not be able to do, he'll announce, "I'm a big boy to do that."

Smiling at Grandpa behind the binky. He's seriously the most easy-going baby I've had yet. All babies are good, so I don't say he's a good baby. But he is indeed an easy baby.

Craig's parents, Nana and Papa, came out for our big weekend. Yes, we had Rhyla's birthday party and Fischer's baby blessing in the same weekend. Honestly, it was the only way Craig could be there for both occasions. And he had to take vacation time for it! (But more about that later.)

Rhyla's coronation cake. I think it turned out super lovely.

And her pretty in pink cupcakes. She's definitely princess obsessed. But since she's Disney princess obsessed so I'm ok with that. 

Rhyla learned a funny habit from her dad; when she finishes a bottle of water, she promptly crushes it on her chest and throws it away. I laughed so hard the first time I saw it. Just slams it right into her chest. Doesn't even flinch.

Since it was literally freezing outside that weekend, we had Rhyla's birthday at Sea Base. Included in the cost is pizza, drinks, tokens, and a train ride. And everyone we invited this year came! Must improved over last year... you know, when NO one came. LOL. Fischer slept the entire time.

My big boy. The other day he says to me, "Sometimes, Rhyla changes my heart when she doesn't listen and I'm sad because I have to teach her."

Rhyla was reluctant to blow out her pretty candles. So Vash did it for her. Whenever Rhyla hears a song she likes, she'll say, "I like that song before." Or she's say, "That's music to my ears!"

Rhyla went down the slide and hurt herself. She, of course, started to cry but then decided she didn't want to be upset. So she says, "I'm not crying anymore." Then when she went down the slide again, she happily yelled, "Hey! I didn't hurt myself!"

Amberly gave Rhyla some big girl pretties for her birthday. Rhyla loves pretties. One day, I took the kids to the movies and she insisted on wearing clip on earrings, bracelets, her little mermaid shell necklace and crown. And she still won't wear anything but dresses. In fact, it's been so cold and I kept trying to get her to wear pants under the dress, but she'll only wear leggings or tights!

Fischer's blessing was great. Three out of Three of the kids so far have remained absolutely quiet during their blessings. That's a miracle in and of itself. And it was so great to have Papa there to join in the blessing circle.

 Random Funny story: Nana and I were sitting on the couch when Vash runs in holding a box with Rhyla's musical band instruments (Which she got for her birthday) and says, "Nana, you need to play with us! We need amazing people!"

And Rhyla shouts, "It's the power of music!"

Maybe you had to be there, but we thought it was hilarious.

Along with insisting on wearing her pretties, Rhyla has started talking to herself. "I'll get my own juice. Where's you cup? I don't know!" And "Did you eat a penguin cracker? Yes, I did," are just two of the conversations I've heard.

Fischer is smiling here, but when I wear my glasses it startles him. Seriously, he jumps every time.

The stud on his big day; I would like to point out that his tie matches his shoes. Thank you Nana, for the red baby converse. And it's the same suit Vash wore! Oh the memories. 

Vash and Rhyla recently noticed that our door has two tiny, stain glass windows on it. They are now convinced the windows are the doors eyes and often tell me, "The door is looking at me."

And Vash will even talk to himself as the door. EX; "Hi door! (Lower gruff voice) Hi Vash."

This little boy caught a cold and told me; "My nose is bleeding... with boogers."

And Rhyla saw an episode of The Cake Boss with a luau, and after seeing some girls dancing with torches announced, " I was shakin' my bum last night but I can't do it with fire."

Game night with the fam. Vash was helping me get ready for company the other day and states, "I cleaned up the house so hard 'cause I don't want it messy."

The thinker.

This is a story time by Vash segment. Vash: "Mommy, take a picture of me being sad about my broken toy."

Vash: "Now take a picture of me fixing it."

Vash: "Now take a picture of me being happy it's fixed."

This kid is constantly making me laugh. One day he woke up and it was a stormy day so the sun wasn't up yet, and he says, "Maybe I have to kiss the sun to wake it up."

(One too many Disney movies, I guess.)

Rhyla wanted to snuggle with me and says, "You're blanket looks very comfortable."

Then I was coughing and when she asked why, I said because I was sick.

Then Rhyla asks, "Are you very old and sick?"

(I'll Love You Forever, anyone?)

Tummy time. I love that the kids do it with him. Vash put tuku on his head once, like a biblical time head covering and says, "Look, I'm like Jesus." 

I promise he didn't mean it irreverently. He's very into pretend now; like when he announced he had wolverine claws and ran around the house slashing things.

Doing her own makeup. LOL. We were talking about taking a trip to New York and Rhyla misheard and asked if we were going to "You Nork."

His Mona Lisa smirk. He was laughing in his sleep the other night; I would give almost anything to know what he was dreaming about.

Brotherly Love. 

Vash often talks about his brothers and sisters in the sky. I asked him how many there were and he told me, "I have five brothers and two sisters."

Yep.. a grand total of ten... I don't think so, sweetheart.

Thinking hard about something in his sleep. 

This is Hegwig the owl. Why a picture of an owl you ask? Well, this is the second one I knit for cool Aunt Jen. This first was Vash's which he named Nittons. Rhyla got a hold of it and tried dipping it in a glass of milk. Furious, Vash says, "Rhyla, the owl is not a cookie!"

Also, it was my birthday last month! Craig couldn't be there so I took my parents and the kids out for chinese food. I think this is the only picture we took. 

Vash is working on his letters at preschool. Big I and Little I in sticky blocks.

Whenever Vash is about to tattle on someone, he yells, "It's an emergency!"

Rockstar Rhyla.

Want to hear an awkward conversation she and I had the other day?

Rhyla: I will kiss when I get older.

Me; Not until you're eighteen though, ok? Pinky promise.

Rhyla: (Mischievous face) No pinky promise.

Me: (awkward silence)

The Lego King.

Vash asked me the other day if he could have enough Legos to build Legoland. I'm excited to take him there one day and see just how many Legos that would take.

Just love this sleeping face!

What Vash says when he's too tired to do something; That makes me jiggly.

We've been playing inside a lot, since the weather is not permitting otherwise. We found this great place called Snapology. You pay per hour to play with tons of Legos. Vash loves it. 

Rhyla, Vash, and I build a big house. The woman that owns the place, liked it so much she took a picture to put on the website!

Vash got a few legos for home. (Real ones, not the dulpo.) He was so excited when he found some tiny dynamite  sticks and tells me, "It's a red kaboom thing!"

All three of the babies sleeping in my bed. They do not like to be left alone! Funny though, when Craig is home, only Fischer sleeps in our room.

So I brought up the diaper genie finally and put in next to Fischer's changing table. Rhyla saw that it was new and , as she is known to do, wanted to kiss it. I told her not to because it's yucky, but she just says, "Sorry but I already kissed it!"

(Reminded me of Art from Monsters University. "I wanna touch it!")

Vash saw a character get slapped in the movies the other day and says, "He high fived his face."

Playing at Sea Base on a cold day. When it's bed time, Rhyla usually tells me, "It's blanket blanket time."

Did I mention that he found his feet this month? He finds them hilarious. I think, aside from balance, toes exist just to entertain babies.

And this is what Fischer does during church. In fact, he's so seldom awake that when he is, even the missionaries will come up and tell he how cute he is when he's awake. Again, people just love him.

Of course, I do too!

A new Vashism. Hand sanitizer- Hanitizer.

Why do they have to grow up?

Loving her baby brother. We were reading about Lehi's dream the other day and on the iPad, you can actually watch the scripture stories. Rhyla saw the tree of life and said, "It smells like apples!"

Accidental hitler mustache. LOL. Vash heard some pretty music the other day and said, "It sounds like a boy and girl dancing and kissing because they're in love."

(My sweet Prince.)

An indoor pond at the Monroeville mall. Kids liked the fish. Then, when we watched a School House Rock video about taking care of the earth, Vash got all concerned and asked, "Why is there no warer for sharks and fish?"

A cool indoor bounce house we found, also at the mall. We are becoming masters at exhausting the kids without playing outside.

Only bad thing about this month, aside from Craig's prolonged absence, is that Rhyla split her forehead open. She was twirling in the living room, got dizzy, and fell into the entertainment center. There was so much blood I called 911 and so we got our first emergency ride. The EMT guy thought Rhyla was such a cool kid; she wasn't crying, he was super amused that she only wears dresses, and when he asked what she and her brother wanted to be when they grow up, she said Vash wanted to be a ninja and she wants to be Merita.(Her way of saying Merida.)

He didn't know who that was so I said the pixar version of Katniss. ( Side note: She didn't end up with stitches which was a huge blessing.)

Looks like her hair is getting curlier. 

Does he look like a blonde Craig or what? 

Random thing Vash said: "My tuku is a silly talking tuku."

Vash had a Valentine's Day party at preschool. I made him these to hand out. The kids call them "Pinky suckers."

Mr. "I'm too big to nap" taking a nap.

Despite the fact that he won't be old enough for rice mush until the end of next month, Fischer is very interested in our food. He's eyeing up a buger and some fries here.

Craig surprised me with roses for Valentine's Day. I was actually complaining about how all my friends were posting pictures of the many valentine's gift their husbands had got them and talking about all the plans they had made; And since Craig didn't get home until late morning, I thought the day was shot. But he took us to lunch and a movie, and I came home to roses! And chocolates to eat my feelings with once he left again! Beautiful surprise.

Fischer has an odd habit of sleeping with his eyes partially open. I think it's because he's making sure I'm not going to set him down.

Rhyla showing off the beautiful necklace my cousin made. It has the Frozen characters on the pendant so once she had it on, I was NOT allowed to take it off until bedtime.

Lego City. We actually saw The Lego Movie on Valentine's Day. I personally found it hilarious. And Vash remembers a lot from it because he walks in this morning with just a shirt and his underwear and asks, "Where's my pants?" Just the like the show in the movie. Right voice inflection and everything. So funny.

Vash asked if it was too early to wear his Santa hat. I told him it was a long time till Christmas but to go ahead and wear it. Keep the spirit of Christmas all year long right?

Rhyla decided the band that holds my iPad case closed was a headband. Did I mention that the kids call the iPad a big kindle?

Slobberface enjoying a walk with grandpa.

The kids pretending to be kitties in cat beds.

I braided her hair into pigtails recently, like Anna from Frozen, and when one fell out, I offer to braid it in single braid like Elsa. She started crying and asked, "Can't I just be wild hairs?"

So... I'm super blessed to have had so many fun and exciting things to do that I didn't have time to blog about them. I'm grateful for the Priesthood and that my family is blessed with a righteous Priesthood holder to call husband and Father. He blesses our children with special and unique gifts, and he works so hard to provide us with the very best life has to offer. Truly, I am so lucky to have him as my eternal companion and best friend. I'm so blessed to have healthy, beautiful children, and the promise of more to come. I know I get down on myself sometimes, feeling like it's unfair to have to do so much by myself; but then I'm reminded of the sections of D&C where the Lord tells Joseph that if he endures these hard things for "but a small moment" He will exult him on high. I'm bearing my lesser but still difficult trials, but I know that they shall give me experience and be only a small moment in the grand scheme of things. I'm grateful for this knowledge and cling to this promise. I love my life. The Lord had blessed me richly, and I need to do a better job of expressing that. So, here's to counting blessings and ignoring sorrows!