Two Months in Pictures and Funny Stories: March Madness and April Showers

Enough with the excuses; onto the stories.

Fischer loves to be stared at. While he plays, sleeps, and especially when he's nursing. In fact, if I don't stare at him, he'll stop nursing and fuss at me.

Rhyla was beating up on Vash and he yelled, "I'm not a toy drum! I'm a human!"

Vash had his Star Student Day in Preschool. He got to do all the jobs and bring in special toys to share with the class. He looked forward to it for weeks and this is his poster he made to tell the class about himself. I'm so proud that he chose to put a picture of Jesus front and center:) 

Rhyla showing off her Elsa braid. We were driving in the car and Fischer was fussing, so Rhyla gives him a binky and tells me, "I put the binky in so you can't hear the cry." Apparently, she thought he was still crying but the binky just muted the cries.

Vash showing off his Star student certificate. 

Vash on why he can't listen to me: "Sometimes, I love you and other times my heart is kicking around in my chest because I wont listen to you."

We went to the circus with a friend of ours and her son. The kids each got their face painted. Rhyla enjoyed everything so much that she "Woo Hoo-ed" the whole time.

They even got to ride a camel and see a giant snake! (What is it with my kids and exotic/wild animals?) Funny story: Both kids call Fischer Fisch-face or Fishy.

Notice the enraptured look on Vash's face. Rhyla kept asking, "How does she/he do that?" Especially when we got to the part where the woman spun around by just her hair. Eeeek!

A gymnast with a death wish.

Vash was super happy to have a Spiderman face. He loved the circus so much he decided to "build a tiny circus with my big blocks." 

Brotherly bonding. The kids play a game called pudding monsters, but the kids think they're eye balls, so they call it the "Eye Bop" game. And on the Frozen game, they call one of the special items an Onion, although I think it's a golden ball of sorts.

Fischer is getting a little more coordinated, but he pulls his binky out of his mouth and seems surprised.  

Blurry Harriet Potter. Rhyla calls her teddy bear backpack a back tetty.

After I pretended she was a drum once and played her bottom, Rhyla will come up and ask me to play her like bongos.

And she found a tiny ball one day, and says, "See this tiny ball? It spins!" Ah, the days of simple pleasures.

Sucking a finger in his sleep.

Despite the calendar saying it's spring, our weather says otherwise. We tried to go out and build an Olaf but the snow was too powdery to roll. Did I mention the kids say "Inja" instead of ninja?

Peanut all bundled for the snow. It kept getting stuck in his super long eye lashes. 

These two are conspiring together. They told me, "We're making an x trap so Daddy will stay!"

After playing on the floor together, Vash said to me, "Fischer wants to ride on me like a sleigh!"

Vash "dressed" as a turtle. This boy loves to dance around, especially to "Please Don't Stop the Music" and "Happy." 

I call this one, "Manna from Heaven," or alternately, "Blissfully unaware." Did I mention that Rhyla is fully potty trained now? *Victory cheers all around!!!!* She'll run around saying "Potty!" now and asking everyone to look at her poo poos.

Fischer is really getting into his toys. He loves the same doggy ring Vash did, but he has a few new things as well. He likes to wail at them but he's never upset; just talking.

As much as this girl loves her Disney Fairies, she can't keep their names straight. She calls Periwinkle "Fairy Winkle." 

You'd think this was a picture of Vash playing, wouldn't you? But he'd say, "I'm not playing! I'm building."

As the baby, I guess he's bound to be the butt of a few jokes. When put on his tummy, this little guy can roll over now! Still can't go the other way yet, though. All in good time.

Mr. Thoughtful. Vash and Rhyla will always come up to Fischer once he's awake and ask, "Did you have a good sleep well?"

Giggling for Daddy. 

Vash got his first dental check-up outside of Papa's office. He did really well! It was cold in the car on the way there though and Vash said, "I'm gonna be an ice cube when we get there!"

They had this play area for kids off the main waiting area, so Vash made a beautiful design in this ball wall. I guess I'm doing a pretty good job teaching the kids to speak well. Grandma asked Vash if he'd like something over something else, and Vash replied, "I'd prefer it."

 

Rhyla read a book called Ten Little Kisses, and after that, when Vash shared some of his heart candies with her, she called them ten little kisses because they came in a tiny pack and looked like the hearts from the book. "How about ten little kisses?" she'll ask now when she wants heart candies.

Vash keeps hearing people tell me that kids grow up too fast, and he always promises me, "I'll stay a little  boy as long as you want." Oh, I wish!!!!

Vash loved the carpets at the mall for some reason. Speaking of liking, when Vash looks at Facebook over my shoulder, he'll say, "Oh, I like that! Thumbs up!" It's usually when he sees a cartoon or something. 

Fischer burps in his sleep. And he dreams too because he'll make an array of facial expressions if you watch long enough.

This is a dessert cake that looks like a burger slider. It was a special treat for FHE one night that we got from Dellalos. Funny story: Vash farted and said, "Oh no, my gas ran out."

I love this Monster Hat. Love the sleeping boy even more. 

He's seriously just the happiest baby. And he loves his siblings so much!

Random shot of Rhyla's back during allergy testing. But the good news is she's not allergic to peanuts after all! When I was potty training Rhyla and holding her over the toilet, she'd ask me, "Will you hold me? And never let go?"

We were playing at Sea Base one day and my parents came to meet us. Well, my mom tried to grab a ball from the ball pit, where Rhyla was playing, and Rhyla says, "Gramma, don't touch those eggs! They have chickens inside! They're patching!"

(That's right, patching... not hatching, lol.)

Get it Peanut! Get it! This boy grabs at everything. He has pretty good aim too. And of course it all goes straight into the mouth.

Story time: Vash broke a decorative heart at Barnes and Noble, so Craig got a broken decorative heart for Valentine's Day. LOL. Well, Rhyla loves that little heart. Carries it around the house, sleeps holding it, kisses it. Happiest accident ever, I guess. But Craig probably would've liked something else. "Is daddy's heart broken?" she asks all the time.

Sharing a smoothie. These two have gained a lot of interest in any and all musical instruments. No matter where we go, they find a toy instrument and bust out in a two person band. Rhyla says she really wants to learn to play the princess drums.

This is his creepy half awake/ half asleep, "If you set me down I will wake up and scream face." LOL. 

Knight Vash. He loves pretending to be a variety of things when he's playing. His teacher, Mrs. Somers, was telling me an interesting story. I guess one of the little boys in his class is always playing with military toys. So Vash says to him, "Charlie, why is everything merry terry? Merry terry this, merry terry that! Play something else for once!" I really am going to miss his speech thing, when he gets older. 

This moment of cuteness brought to you by gassy baby; Maybe I'm happy, or maybe I'm just stinking things up. 

This was his reaction to his first taste of rice mush. Couldn't decide if he liked it or not, I guess. He loves it now though! Especially with pears or carrots.

My sweet boys. Vash is an amazing big brother. He loves to play with the baby and Rhyla, and he is always thinking of others. He even asked me to make a princess dress for Rhyla because he thought she might like one! He also likes to sit down together for lunch on Sundays and ask, "What did you learn at church today Mommy?" Then he'll always tell me what he learned! Love that he wants to talk about it with me and his siblings.

Fell asleep during "Watch Mama clean the kitchen" duty. Guess I took too long.

Vash is getting good at taking selfies! 

Once the weather finally decided to get nice, we have tried to spend a little bit of time outside each day. The kids are very much into coloring outside now.

And for your viewing pleasure; a clip of Fischer's first eating experience.

Despite not even being five, Vash has gotten a thing about his hair. He wants it spiky, but it has to be just so!!! Want to hear Vash's version of the little monkey song? "Four little monkeys, climbing in a tree. One fell off and got eaten by a crocodile!"

Too cute. That is all.

Vash was helping me to clean one day and he organized the fruit bowl, after wiping it down with pledge spray. Love that kid.

And now the portion of the blog where we hear about Cool Aunt Jen's visit! She got to stay with us for the better part of five days, and Craig even got to see her a day or two of her visit which worked out great!

It was her first time meeting little Fisch-Face.

And as much as Rhyla loves her, for some reason she wouldn't come stand for this picture!

Does she not have the coyest face is this picture? It was so nice to have her for a few days, but alas, we had to return her to Arizona with all it's blasted sunshine. The good news is that we missed out on a lot of fun things because our car broke down and the weather was awful and so she'll be coming out again to see everything she missed! (Yeah, about the car? The kids and I spend an hour in a quickie mart with no benches while we waited for someone to pick us up. I'm only writing about it for future generations to laugh at, because I'll tell ya... I was NOT laughing. On the bright side, at least Jen and Craig were there when it happened or else it might have been even worse. Oh, oh! And some sweet guys who were refilling the Hostess snack cart saw us and felt so badly for me that they gave me a handful of free pies to keep the kids happy! I nearly cried.)

As if it weren't cold enough, we often get sweet Frog's frozen yogurt just to be sure we're chilled to the bone. 

Can you say cheeks?

This is where Rhyla stands when I bathe or shower or anything and so I'm afraid I'm not able to be too modest around her. One day she says, "I like your beautiful bum!" And I laughed... but then she complimented Craig on his "boy part" and now I think we need to get a house with a lock on the bathroom door! 

Vash has great taste in music. He memorizes songs easily, and he had great tonal memory for a four year old. The other day, Craig put on some 90's music because he was feeling sentimental. Vash listened for a minute, then asked, "Why is this music so terrible?"

Ok, so, Craig and Vash have a hard time hearing. And when I say that I mean, they don't always hear what your saying correctly, even when they're listening carefully. I had to explain that so the following conversation makes sense.

Me: I think it's German.

Vash: What is daddy yogurt?

Me: I said, I think it's German!

Vash: Gur man?

A picture that's actually worth more than a thousand words. Those little faces...

Tired girl. When she wants up like that, she'll say, "I want to sit like a snow queen on your shoulder!"

After hearing the song "Call Me Maybe," Rhyla asked, "Why are they calling her 'maybe'?"

I can't get enough of my babies. Look at that face! It's like having a time machine and looking at baby Vash all over again. Very different personalities though. 

Vash started soccer this spring! He's learning quickly and he loves getting muddy and sweaty. Although, back to the listening thing; he calls his shin guards, "shindergardens." 

Rhyla was cheering Vash on as he posed for the pictures. I'd say she'd make a great cheerleader some day but I'm homeschooling so we'll never know for sure, lol. Her cheering will be greatly appreciated at home though. 

Yes, that is a face of terror. Those things just started moving in a circle over his head and he thought they were leaving him!

Fun story about the kindness of other people: We were at Sea Base on a very busy day and had to wait nearly an hour for our lunch. A woman sitting next to us was delving out cake for her granddaughters birthday party and she saw Vash and Rhyla eyeing it. So without hesitation, she walks right up and gives each of them a big piece of cake! She even gave me two slices, saying one was for the baby! It's moments like those that restore my faith in humanity.

I cut my hair recently and it traumatized Rhyla. She cried for weeks and now won't even get her bangs cut... (They're pretty much grown out now.) Well, the other night I woke up because of some noise, I saw the hall light was on, and something was tugging at my hair. I look over and Rhyla has a hairbrush. She's brushing my hair and singing "Four little monkeys, jumping on the bed, one fell off and bumped his head, so mama called the doctor and the doctor said, No more monkeys jumping on the bed," rather loudly. I told her it was bedtime and she says, "Oh ok." Then quietly started singing again, "Three little monkeys..."

Those big sandals are Rhyla's key to getting on big thunder mountain railroad and splash mountain. She was just a 1/4 of an inch too short on her own, and said, "I want to ride big thunder, but I don't want to get taller." The shoes were our compromise.

He might look too cool for school but he hated those glasses. My mom is actually holding his hands to keep him from pulling them off. 

Mr. Peanut. 

Mrs. Peanut? Or ready for a tiny hat tea party?

I think the best caption for this would be, "Are you talkin' to me?"

Vash's imagination has gone wild lately. He builds stick people with Popsicle sticks and pretends they have names and makes houses and beds for them. He colored on this box and pretended it was a car he could drive, or an airplane to fly. It's exciting to watch him create and I love that he doesn't have to be watching a movie or playing with a store bought toy to have fun. 

In case you're wondering, the answer is no. The baby doesn't sleep without being held... and he's rarely set down. LOL. 

Rhyla sleeping in a bed Vash made her between the wall and the couch. Speaking of sleeping; the kids came with me to scouts one night and as we left Rhyla saw the sun had gone down, so she says, "Oh look, it's Rhyla's bedtime.

She speaks pretty clearly but still has a funny way of saying things. One thing she did mishear though, is roller coaster. She thinks it's called a "Roaster Coaster."

A day in paradise:) The kids like to play a game on the iPad with a little jumping crab. For some reason , the crab was wearing a birthday hat one day so Vash and Rhyla decided it was his birthday and sang "Happy birthday to crabby" together.

Another, "I got my eye on you!" picture. I swear, he's 99.99% adorable and just a touch odd when he sleeps. What can I say? He loves to be held!

Can you guess based on this dress I made for Rhyla where we're going for vacation? I made the boys shirts too, but you'll have to stay tuned for those picture later.

What is it with boys and cars?

First day at actual soccer practice. The fields were rained out so they held it inside. Vash is #1! No really, his shirt number is one. But he is a star player to us!

Is the cuteness getting to you yet? And people seriously wonder why I want a ton of kids? Psh...

Rhyla on her nightmares: "I had a bad dream I was a caterpillar stuck in the grass and I get squished."

He's getting so big:) I think we were watching Prince of Egypt here. Both Vash and Rhyla were really bothered about Moses being sent down the river in a basket. In fact, they both burst into tears and it took a long while to convince them he was going to be ok. "Why are they sending him away?" they kept wailing. So hard to explain...

My little musketeers. Could the sibling love be anymore evident here? I feel so blessed to be called Mama by these sweet little angels.

His face when he dreams about a full tummy. Oh, it's hard to believe sometimes I am so richly blessed, when I am so undeserving.

Christmas in April? Rhyla thinks so. She loves to tell me how sweet everything is. 

"You made my bed? That is so sweet mommy!"

"You cooked dinner? That is so sweet!"

"Sister Matthews (Her primary teacher) is so sweet! She gave me a sparkly butterfly!"

I think I passed a lot of quirky onto my kids. And man, does it photograph well.

Practicing soccer with daddy.

Enjoying wearing my baby like a little Joey! And practicing for Disney World!

Do you see it? He's hugging his blanket hippo. Oh blankets. Vash lost Tuku, we think. Can't find him anywhere:( I think I took it harder than he did. I planned on putting him in a box and admiring him years from now when Vash didn't want him anymore. But who knows... maybe he was found by someone who loves him just as much and needed a little comfort. Or maybe Tuku will turn up when we move and we'll see he was shoved in a random spot. Or maybe Heavenly Father will make an exception and even though he's a worldly thing we'll see him in Eternity.

Rhyla fell asleep in the grocery cart when I was getting the Easter basket goodies. Yeah, I'm a bad mom... just piled everything right on top of her. She didn't even wake up until I put her back in the car. Does that make me a walmartian?

No story here. I just wanted to remember these sweet little hands folded for absolutely no reason except to melt my heart.

And now for a segment called, "No matter how good the music is, don't ever let your kids watch Les Mis, even for fifteen edited minutes because chaos will ensue."

Both of my older children can sing a handful of words to the Red/Black song. And they like it enough that they've started to add lyrics, such as "Yellow, the color of angry pants."

Rhyla thinks the main character's name is Jumbo Jon.

When you ask Vash about Fantine: "Is that the lady who sits on people and makes them fall asleep?"

And lastly, a conversation between the two of them:

Vash: "Is that blood?"

Rhyla: "No, blood belongs to angry men."

Too busy admiring my flowers to admire his own adorable face.

Talking to the wall. Not sure why he suddenly noticed or gained interest in it, but I thought it was hilarious.

Bedazzling the front porch.

Caught in the act of preening!

Does my little girl not look exactly like a doll in this picture? I think we made a good choice in making her middle name Belle. She lives up to it's meaning I think! (And yes, Fischer is upset here because I set him down!)

"Reading" a book from memory.

Getting frustrated because he can't catch the little bird.

A shot of them on the real field. The sun is shining, the birds are chirping, and yet... it's 42 degrees outside... hence the sweater.

Rhyla could make a cute Jake...

But I think Fischer's got her beat!

Easter has come and gone too! We went to an egg hunt at a nearby church.

It was very well organized and included not only the hunt, but a coloring station, a game room, meeting a big friendly dog, and free lunch. 

Painting our eggs at home. I had to have my parents bring over more eggs and different dye though because the dye I bought was horrible! Golden eggs my foot. Do you see those eggs? BLACK. Not gold. Liars. Kids had fun though.

Mr.Grabby enjoying a water bottle at a baby shower. He's actually very self entertaining when I need him to be. Such great kids.

Oh, and part of the egg hunt thing was getting to sit in real live service vehicles. This is a fire engine.

"Co- caption to captain, the kids really enjoyed the headsets, over."

Vash, my tender heart, even let Rhyla have the seat on the ATV they had out.

Easter Sunday!

Yes, yes, I did geek out and make Rhyla a dress and the boys matching vests. 

Practicing for dance. (I think I'm getting better at sewing!)

He was rocking that vest.

And Vash with his vest and skinny jeans was just a little hipster. He's showing off his moves here.

Forgot to get a picture but we had lunch with my parents. My mom made amazing chili rellenos and toastadas. I can't be that bad of a Mexican if I eat Mexican food for all my holidays right?

We even had an impromptu Easter party. I guess the original hosts backed out last minute and so the group came to us. We had a picnic dinner out back and did another egg hunt for the kids. It was probably my favorite Easter to date.

Rhyla kicked her shoes off and ran around like the little free spirit she is. Vash stuffed his face and Fischer drooled on everything.

So happy to get a teether for Easter!

Vash and Rhyla got books; Frozen and The Lego Movie, respectively. Plus an Easter activity book about Jesus. Keeping it real yo...

Unloading their spoils.

The other families with kids brought plastic eggs and let our kids have some to. Oh, there was sugar for days... Amberly and I were joking that we hadn't seen the kids eat real food at all that day.

Why yes, he is happy to see me! No eggs or sugar for Peanut!

Fischer learning to give hugs to a very welcoming Vash.

Rhyla swimming in the ball pit. just because she can.

And my little dancer showing off her good form while trying on her pretties for ballet! She doesn't start classes until the middle of May but she's going to be a natural I think. Look at those lines! And she already has a passion for it. I'm glad she and I will be able to talk about our love of dance together. I really tried not to push her because I wanted her to love it for herself, not because I made her love it. So I can't tell you how happy I was when she started asking to learn to dance without any prompting from me! This is a beautiful beginning, I know it!

Rhyla singing the little monkey song to Fischer. 

The long and short of it is; things are on the up and up. We're busy and often I'm too tired to write the blog, but we're happy and learning. Vash can spell not only his name but Rhyla and Fischer's too, along with mommy and daddy. Rhyla can color inside the lines if she chooses and Fischer will likely be crawling by the next time I get the gusto to write. We have a lot of exciting things in our future and a lot of hard work ahead of us. I am so grateful for our many blessings. I am grateful to have captured so many sweet moments not only with my camera, but with my heart. I hope we all feel joy and peace this Easter season with the promised blessings the Lord's atonement and Resurrection have afforded us and that we keep the spirit of love and service with us always. Until next time-