Goldilocks no more

I finally cut Jack's hair. (I hear my Dad yelling Hallelujah all the way from Utah.) I am really proud of myself because I did not cry and I took both of the kids to the salon by myself. Good thing I had a pocket full of candy sticks* to feed him.


BEFORE

During

AFTER

No more ringlets, Grandpa Parry.
The haircut makes him look so much older and his face thinner. But don't worry he is still the same wild and crazy boy just without the wild and crazy hair.



*Candy sticks look just like the candy cigarettes of my childhood but they don't come in cigarette boxes like they did when I was a kid and are now called Candy Sticks. My sister sent them to me as a joke and Jack loves to eat them. We were not allowed to eat these as children because of the appearance of evil so we always wanted to try them. They really don't taste good so I guess it was the idea that we were being bad by eating them that made them so thrilling. Sorry mom, I have since repented.

Sweet Adeline

Adeline really is the sweetest little girl. I can't imagine our family without her. She is peaceful, snuggly, and joyful. She smiles and sometimes we think we even hear her laugh. She is patient with her loving older brother who likes to give nose kisses and remove her socks. She sleeps through the night in her own bed. She eats so well that she has rolls on her fat rolls. She has bright eyes that seem to take in everything. She lets me play dress up with her and makes every new outfit look cute.

Why I am happy today

Warm weather all week means pink blossoms.

My baby girl has slept 9 hours straight the past two nights.

Jack's joyful self.

A picnic in Highland Park and smelling the flowers.

The Farm

We joined the play group at Springdale farm.

Jack's highlights were

the piglets,

a real tractor,

and a digger and tractor play area.

Amy's highlight was being grateful that humans were not meant to suckle 5 kids at a time.

Addy's highlight was snuggling mommy in the Bjorn.

I love the mailman

Look what he brought me.

I love my friend, Cheryl, for sending them to me all the way from Sydney. Tim Tams are part of the reason why I gained 10 pounds the summer I lived in Sydney.

DIGGERS!

Diggers in the morning

Diggers at play

Diggers at lunch time

Diggers all day


Jack is the luckiest boy in the world. For the past several weeks he's watched the construction of a new water main on our street. When he wakes in the morning he asks, "Diggers?". So we go to the window to check on where the diggers are working. The past two days the diggers have been right in front of our house. So, he lined up his diggers and dump trucks in the window and plays for hours. He even fell asleep in his highchair while watching them during lunch. He waves to the construction workers who wave back and smile. They have been quite nice to Jack as he watches them work. His exclamations of "Wow, diggers" and "Wow ook at dis" make the men smile. He's learned to use his diggers and dump trucks together and can be found sorting out toys with his digger and loading them into his trucks. I hope the construction goes on for quite some time.

Sleep is a beautiful thing

5 hours of uniterrupted sleep.
Two nights in a row.

Editor's Note: Jack is not a thug

Lest any of you think that Jack is manhandling the other kids in nursery, I am going to clarify. After speaking to his saintly nursery leader, I learned that Jack's over exuberance during bubble time was too much for the understaffed nursery. So, my visions of him pushing the other kids and stealing their lunch money was a bit of an exaggeration in my mind.

Addy's Premiere at Church

Miss Addy wore a pale pink corduroy wrap dress with pink floral lining and ties. Her blouse was white with an embroidered collar. She looked smashing and all the boy babies were checking her out.

I think I will move to Australia

I had a terrible, horrible, no good very bad day. I think I will move to Australia.

It all started when we woke up late for our first day back to church. We made it on time and even had a little time to spare but I arrived stressed. Jack made it through the sacrament and then started to melt. He and I spent the rest of the time wandering the halls and eventually meeting up with the other kids in the primary room to wait out the meeting. Ryan got to hold the sleeping Addy. I missed Sunday School because I was nursing a baby.

And then the fun really began. As some of you know, I was called to serve in the Relief Society Presidency the Sunday before Addy's birth. (Relief Society is the women's organization for our church.) My primary role is to insure that Sunday meetings go as planned with teachers, lessons and music all set up. I was conducting the meeting today and was able to make it through the announcements. The highlight during my making the announcements was that I could not think of the word youth and announced, "The Young People will have a temple trip on Tuesday." I don't know who fits into the category of young people.

After making the announcements I thought we would have to forgo the practice song to make time for the lesson. So I turned to the pianist who I thought was giving the lesson today and asked if she needed more time for her lesson. The startled stare in response was my first clue that something wasn't right (due to a misunderstanding she thought she was teaching next week and I assumed that everything was all set for today. Totally my fault.) So we decided to sing the hymn while I thought of what to do for a lesson. ( I had read the lesson the night before and it was a difficult one on John the Baptist and there was no way that I was going to be able to teach it on the fly)Fortunately my smart friend Sarah suggested that we have a discussion of Conference and let people share their thoughts. BRILLIANT! So that is what we did and it turned out to be good.

Except for the part when I was standing up in front and saw the door open in the back. There was my friend K1 with my son who was supposed to be in nursery. My same friend Sarah jumped up to go see if Jack needed a diaper change. When she came back with the diaper, I knew it was something else. After I finished the lesson and sat down she informed me that Jack had been kicked out of nursery for pushing. Are you kidding me? Yep, I'm the mother of the child who is pushing in nursery.

So that was our first day back at church. I think I will move to Australia.



But really, even on my bestest days I would love to be back in Sydney. So I guess it wasn't that bad after all.

The Club

My family has a club and I am not a member.

What is this elite club you ask?

The Nose Club

Ryan Jack Addy

As you can see, they ALL have the same nose.

It never bothered me to not be a member until I realized that membership has its privileges.


Jack recently started kissing Addy on her nose. He loves to kiss her and really only kisses her nose. Then the other day while Ryan was laying on the floor Jack leaned down and kissed Ryan's nose. When I complained to Ryan that I had never been kissed by Jack his response was, "You don't have the same nose."


I began to think that the only way for me to get a kiss from my son was to undergo rhinoplasty. Last night Jack gave me one little kiss.
Not on my nose.

Warmer Weather

We've had warmer weather which means we are headed outside to play. However, the lawns are wet and full of mud. Perfect for a two year old who loves water and mud. My friend and I bravely took our toddlers and newborns to the park to play. (see K1) We have no picture of the actual event but imagine two blond boys running and jumping into a muddy puddle. You can imagine their joy. I, of course was thinking, "Who's going to get this muddy boy home." Luckily, Ryan made it to the park before we left and hefted the boy home.

Here is Jack when we got home. If you blow up the picture you can see the mud up to his knees.

See his dirt streaked face? Can he get any happier?

Yes, that is a pizza box he's crawling on. In our defense it was a windy day and the contents of our recycling was spread out over part of our backyard. It has since been cleaned up so that we aren't the trashy neighbors.

All clean.

And what was Addy up to during this adventure?


Sleeping.

Adeline Louise

Ryan took these beautiful pictures of Adeline in her handmade blessing gown for her birth announcement. Look for her announcement in a mailbox near you.

Clean Addy

Check out the rolls on that girl.

I only point this out because I am so proud of her growing body because her only nourishment comes from me. MIRACLE!

All wrapped up and warm in the towel Dorothy made her.
(Notice the hood is around her feet. Not sure why. )

Happy Helper

Jack is really becoming a grown up boy. He likes to do whatever we are doing.
He is helping us rake the leaves in the backyard.

Our leaves fell late and the snow fell early this year so we're cleaning up fall's mess so we can move on to spring planting and fixing up the backyard.

He filled his own paper sack with leaves and sticks too. I guess we need to get him his own yard work tools. I see lots of fun this summer working in the yard. Do they make children's work gloves?

It was just a matter of time

This toothbrush is now in the garbage!
The good news is that Jack's teeth are clean. The bad news is that he used toilet water to rinse his brush.

Jack has been fascinated with tour toilet for a long time. He loves to flush it and watch the water swirl down. Or if you're lucky, he'll walk into the bathroom while you are using the toilet and flush it for you. So helpful. Except for dipping Ryan's watch in the toilet once, he has not put anything in it or played in the water until today.

This morning, I let jack stand at the sink himself to brush his teeth. He wanted some privacy and pushed me out of the bathroom and closed the door. Now, I am smart enough to know that a 2 year-old does not need privacy and is probably up to know good. So I peeked in on him and he was standing at the sink brushing his teeth. So, I went to get his clothes from his dresser. When I returned to the bathroom I saw the toilet lid up and water dripping on the seat. You can guess the rest. Just to prove my hypothesis correct, Jack immediately dipped his toothbrush in the toilet and stuck it in his mouth. After I stopped gagging, I grabbed the toothbrush. Without a toothbrush to dip, Jack immediately put his hand in and gave the water a swirl. Good thing he was headed into the tub.

Bye bye Nemo.

16 hours in a car

We spent 16 hours in the car this past weekend to attend the wedding of a good friend. We drove out of town Friday night with an almost 2 year old and a one month old. What were we thinking?

Jack is a GREAT traveler. He loves cars and trucks and diggers and spent the entire trip to Washington, D.C. pointing them out as we drove while snuggling his favorite puppy.

Addy slept between feedings and only required a few extra stops along our way. Unfortunately, one of our stops for a feeding lead to a drained battery in Lewisburg, PA. The good thing is that we happened to be near a Taco Bell/KFC with a nice manager and 7 boys to help push start our car when the jump start did not work. Thank you boys!

While Ryan, Amy and Tracie (Ryan's sister) were all inside the D.C. Temple, Brother-in-Law Jay was taking one for the team by watching all 4 children back at the hotel. 4 children under the age of 3 with the youngest just 5 weeks old. Yep, he's a saint. Especially when the sealing ran a little long and the youngest baby was SCREAMING for food.

So we're all dressed up at the reception eating a lovely meal without children in tow and this is the only pictures we have of the four of us. Notice no Ryan and no Tracie and just Amy's hair and half of Jay's head. (and the bride and groom are not even aware the picture is being taken). So sad to not have a picture of the four of us looking smashing. It just shows you what a great time we were having that we forgot to take any pictures.

Here is a picture of Mariam and her lovely bouquet.
She did not put it down once it was in her hands.

We would drive the 8 hours again just for the pleasure of cousins spending time together. The added bonus was that Jack got to see his cousins on his birthday.

Mariam helped Jack open his Toby train and she sang him happy birthday.


We got to see, not so little any more, Joshua too.

Ryan and I took the kids to the temple on Sunday before we drove home. Jack would not put his new digger down. (thank you cousins for a great present)


On the way home, Jack got to eat his birthday donut. (Notice that he is still not putting down the digger. The digger and puppy kept him happy the whole way home.)