Two Down,One More to Go!

Well, there is no way to preface what I am going to say...

Lincoln is Potty Trained!

We are so happy to not be buying diapers for two anymore. It's kind of funny the way we actually got him to care about trying. See, before he would tell us that he would be potty trained when he was four. When his birthday came around we told  him that he would need to start potty training. But he told us that no, he would be potty trained when he was five. This kids just didn't want to do it. Our dilemma was how to get this kid to care about it. Hmmmm.....

All electronics privileges! 

He reasoned with us that Nikh was not allowed to play with any electronics (PlayStation, ipod, computer, etc) because she was a baby and babies wear diapers. We all agreed that as long as he was in underwear and trying to go in the potty that he would be allowed to play his electronics, and if he stayed in diapers then he couldn't. That was all it took! Well, that and two weeks of not leaving the house. 

(Man I love being $50 richer every month!)

I am so proud of you BubbaBoo.

Like Father Like Son

My daddy wears this to work out: No picture because Branden wouldn't let me. :(

So I have to wear this to work out:

Look at my muscles!

Lincoln has always liked putting his "exercise clothes" on too when his daddy is working out. Usually that consists of just taking off his shirt and putting on some shorts. But the other day he noticed that his daddy had tennis shoes on. So he immediately went up to his room and put on his "working out shoes!"

My Little Superhero

Back on December 3rd we had a party for Lincoln's 4th birthday. Branden was nice enough to let me pay someone else to do it. We had it at Discovery Gateway. It was so much! And the best part was that I didn't have to entertain anyone at all, and no clean up afterward! Everyone got to go through the museum at their own pace and stay where they wanted until the party started. We had two wonderful superheroes that helped during the actual party. They were awesome! Both came dressed up as superheroes and played with the kids, including a balloon fight! The little superheroes then got to make masks and go through superhero training. Every superhero needs to be able to jump over hot things, crawl through small spaces, and avoid lasers. After getting to the hideout Linc had to be the lookout and peek out to make sure the coast was clear. I hope you had fun my little superhero! We love you.

When I'm Four...

Yesterday, my charming little man turned 4! I can't believe how much he has grown up. He loves cars, swords, guns, superheroes, and having books read to him. Some of his favorite foods include peas, rice, pizza with olives, noodles & tomato juice, peanut butter & jelly sandwiches, and salad with Olive Garden dressing. Yes, my little boy is practically a vegetarian. He is so nice to both his sisters and loves playing with them. They really are his best friends. But probably the funniest (and most frustrating) thing is that for the past year we have tried to potty train him. He is NOT interested. However, he has told Ama and his daddy that "When I'm four I will be potty trained." Funny kid. Except that when we brought it up with him yesterday he now says "When I'm Five I will be potty trained." Like I said-totally and utterly NOT interested. Maybe someday...

I Love you so much and am very grateful that four years ago you came and joined our family.

Happy Birthday My Bubba-Boo!

Primary Program

     So, a couple weeks ago back on November 13th Ember and Lincoln participated in the Primary Program. It was the cutest thing. Both of them had their parts memorized since the beginning of October. Ember new every song and said her part well. "Because of Heavenly Father's plan, Jesus created the earth and animals for me." Linc's favorite song, and the one he sang the loudest, was "Scripture Power." He was so cute. They had all the sunbeams standing on the second pew from the front facing backward toward the audience. He kept looking for us every time we turned or looked at Ember.
     The funniest part had to be when Lincoln got up to do his part. As he was getting up on the stool you could hear him say" I can do it myself" to the Primary leader standing by the microphone. I am not sure if she was going to help him up onto the stool or with saying his part. Then he stood up to the podium, looked out with a big smile on his face and sighed right into the microphone. We are talking REALLY loud! He finished his part without any problems. "My favorite scripture hero is Jesus." I really like how the leaders try to leave blanks for the children to fill in with something that means something to them. Ember filled in animals and Linc filled in Jesus. Both Ember and Lincoln remembered to say their parts slowly and clearly so everyone could understand.

I am so proud you!

A Wonderful 2 Months

Well,  okay. Life has definitely gotten in the way of my blogging. I have been good at taking pictures, but nothing else. Please excuse the two month delay on some of these pictures! It all starts back at the beginning of September with Hunts Gymnastics' Annual Fundraising Picnic.

 Then we move on to the end of September when I got a surprise and Ember was able to participate in Bingham High School's Mini Cheer Clinic. Thanks to my cousin Abbie who texted me about it. I hope you are having so much fun cheering! Ember had so much fun being a little cheerleader. She still sings the cheers around the house!

Next came October and Fall. I don't particularly like the colder weather, but I do enjoy seeing the changing leaves. I really like seeing different colors around me. I decided after a 

VERY rainy week that I wanted to take the kids to a pumpkin patch this year. Let's just say that I think I will wait until the ground is dry to go next year! Thanks Jo and Shelbi for coming with us!

 Just days after going to the Pumpkin Patch we had an accident. Ember was injured on the playground before school. Talk about a lot of blood! My poor little girl was so brave at the hospital as they stitched her up.

October also brings in Halloween. I happen to like this weird holiday. Anyway, right after Halloween last year Ember and Lincoln decided that they were going to be Buzz and Jesse. Which means that Branden would be Woody and I would be Bo Peep. Well, all that fell through when Linc found a SWAT team outfit! It was all good though. Branden ended up having to work that day anyway. 

On Halloween, I took the kids to Jackie and Dennis' house to go trick-or-treating with Isabella and her sisters. So much fun! Let's do it again next year!

All in all, September and October have been pretty good! I hope that as the holiday season rolls in that the fun will continue. I love my little family!

A LONG TIME!!!

I have officially missed the ENTIRE month on June! But in my defense I was in the middle of an intense history class. In class from 8:30-3:30 every day for three weeks! I do not remember college classes being as hard as that. We had about 2-3 hours of homework every night, quizzes every hour in the morning, projects, etc.
So, I think I will post pictures & a short description of the things that did happen during the last month to catch up. In chronological order:

This was a tulip that we planted last fall and had been patiently waiting to come up. However, about a month before the gardeners were edging and decided to edge our flower! We were so upset. But the flower regrew...like this!

Nikh is now able to stand up in her crib all by herself AND crawl. Watch out, she is pretty mobile now. It is kind of funny to watch her crawl. Her poor little legs get tired of holding herself up and she slides to her tummy to commando crawl the rest of the way.

One day as we were barbecuing the sprinklers came on! So the kids decided to get on their swimming suits and run through them. Of course when they turned off they were sad so we turned on the hose with the sprinkler. It was fun!

Branden's Birthday came next. We were treated to Tucano's by Josh and MaKayla. It was so yummy. I had stopped feeding Nikh so I was able to eat anything I wanted! They even sang to Branden. Though Nikh was not excited about that part. He was a really good sport about it too! After that, we went shopping at the Gateway. Branden got many items of clothing. Happy 30th my Sweetheart!

Father's Day was next, and to be completely honest we did not really do anything.

Sweetheart, I know we did not do much, but I do want to say what a wonderful daddy you are to our children. I know that staying at home with them during the day is not all peaches 'n cream, but you are good to them and they are lucky to have you there instead of going to day care. Thank you so much for giving me three absolutely beautiful children! We love you.

Last but not least, Ember went to a pediatric eye specialist. We had a feeling that she would need glasses after we went to her 5 year Dr. appointment and she did poorly on the eye exam part. They told us to wait 6 months, but I refuse to let her start school not being able to see. So, after going up to Primary Children's Opthamology Department we found out that, yes, Ember needs glasses. She is 20/50 in one eye and 20/60 in the other. 

After my long day at class, I took Ember to find some glasses. The short story: we went to 3 stores before finding the right pair. Lenscrafters' kids glasses are always 50% off and they can have them done in an hour! The result:

Well, that is pretty much it. After all of that, I passed my class and got 6 college credit hours for it (yeah in 3 weeks!). On the pretest I got 38%! And I improved up to a 72%! Woo Hoo!

Can you Figure it Out?

Lincoln, I think has had some of the weirdest and funniest names for things. See if you can figure out what he is talking about!

Gigi..................................The name he gave Ember
Poolie...............................Smoothie
Nikh Pooey Poo...............Nikh's nickname
Mana................................Banana
Lincoln Samich................Peanut Butter & Jelly sandwich
Birdie Birdie.....................Big Bird
Pooter...............................Computer
Spickle Me.......................The movie Despicable Me

Mother's Day

It is so fun having my children make little things for me for Mother's day. Ember made me a small frame at school. She even decorated it with jewels and flowers! That is a picture of me on the other side. Spitting image I say!

At church she filled out a questionnaire on what she knew about me. Yes, I look excellent for my age and my weight!

In Lincoln's class he put together a necklace of hearts, flowers, and stars and colored me a picture. I loved it! He actually let me have my gift this year. (Last year, he made me a frame with a picture of himself, but said it was his and wouldn't let me have it the whole day! Stinker.) I wore it to work on Tuesday and all my students thought it was really pretty. They were impressed that my son had made it!

My wonderful husband came shopping with me on Saturday. He let me pick out my gifts. I bought a new wallet, a new purse, some way cute flip flops, and a hat. I am not a hat person, but I have been trying to expand my horizons and he said I looked cute...how could I resist?! Thank you Sweetheart!

Funny things

I really need to start being better at recording the funny things my children say and do. So, now that I have said that I should probably record one or two.

Ember was doing her homework the other day while I was picking up and cleaning a bit. All of the sudden I hear her say:
 "Momma? I am going to miss you when you're dead."
She was totally serious and this was completely out of the blue! I had to remind her that I was not dead yet.

Warning! This next one is funny, but even funnier if you know Spanish.

I was going over the parts of the face with Lincoln. He was having a hard time remembering which part to point to when I would say them so I started pointing to the parts on my own face to help him out. Now, for ojo he has a hard time saying it and instead says oyo.

Me: Ojo (scrach my nose really quick then pointing to my eye)
Linc: Oyo (while having his finger up his nose!)
Me: Well, that is an oyo, but not an ojo!

Now for those of you who don't know Spanish. Ojo is eye and oyo is hole! Love my children!

(P.S. I LOVE Valentine's Day. So don't mind the falling hearts!)

Practicing My Sitting

Nikh has been getting lots of practice sitting lately with her Bumbo seat. (Thanks again Bobbi). It is so fun to watch her sit there and play with her toys. On this particular day, Lincoln came over while I was taking pictures and said that he wanted to have "take his picture with his sister." It was so cute. He really loves her a lot. His newest nickname for her is Nikh-pooey-pooh! I have no idea where he got that one, but he always has been one to get different names for his family. When he was younger he couldn't say Ember's name so he made up the name Gigi for her. Hmmm...interesting.

Look at my ducky Mommy!

Big Spender

Well, I actually forgot to write about this a couple of weeks ago when it actually happened. But maybe my subconscious decided it would be better to wait. One Saturday not so long ago Lincoln began playing with his daddy's ipod touch. There are several games on it that he has fun playing. Anyway, everything was fine until Sunday morning when Branden was checking some stuff on it. He began finding games and apps that were not there before. Long story short, on Saturday when Linc was playing with it he apparently got into the place where you can purchase new apps and ended up buying $12 worth of games AND $55 worth of "jems and "jewels" for one of them!!! Yes, we are now $67 poorer. If anyone would like to contribute even 50 cents each would appreciated! (just kidding) Needless to say, Linc is completely banned from ever playing with the ipod touch.

Happy Birthday Linc

Wow, I am behind. So many things have happened. First, Linc's birthday party was a great success. We kind of waited until the last minute to plan it, so we kept it to just family. His greatest love right now is Toy Story 3. The cake, balloons, and of course the presents all had to revolve around the theme. We even watched the movie in between things. Thanks to all who made this a fun night for him!

 Oops! Daddy forgot to take a picture before he cut the heads off and gave that piece to Linc!