When did they get so big?

They were laying around and actually letting me take some pictures. When did they get so big? Savannah really seems to be getting bigger and older everyday. It's so hard to believe that she'll be starting school here at the end of the summer. I need to make the most of the last couple of months that I have with her.

A Conversation with Savannah

"We need to clean up the front room first."
"You do it."
"I'm not going to do it, I didn't make the mess. We are all going to do it."
"I don't like cleaning!"
"That's too bad, because someday you're going to be a mom and you're going to have to do lots of cleaning. You'll probably have to do it all by yourself because your kids are going to tell you that they don't want clean."
"Then I guess I'll have to put them in time out."

Hmmm, does she make the connection here? Yep, she cleaned up the living room mostly by herself with a little help from Mirian.

More Snow!

It has been snowing everyday now for probably the last 3 weeks. Sometimes it's quite a good storm, and other times just some light stuff. But it doesn't seem to end! We finally got out yesterday and braved the cold. They only lasted a few minutes as usual. I think they go outside just so they can come back inside and have some Hot Chocolate. I've been trying to take more close up portrait shots of the girls for some layouts and had too much fun. These were some cute ones I thought.

"When I grow up....

I want to be a car stopper." Savannah told me as we pulled out of the parking lot on our way to dance class.

"Is that right? What is a car stopper?"

"You know one of those things that changes this way and that way. When it changes this way then the cars can go. When it's arm changes it that way then the cars stop." Yep that's what I want to be when I grow up... a car stopper."

A Rainy Saturday

I've been terrible at keeping up on the blog lately. I admit it! I'm so bad. The terrible part is now I have months of cute pictures, sayings and happenings that I have to re-tell you about. So instead of feeling overwhelmed, I'm going to start with yesterday and then go backwards when I have the chance. So you might want to read a few posts past this one over the next couple of days. (Since I'd still like to keep the happenings in chronological order for my own journal keeping.)

So we woke up with the plan that Beau was going to go run a 5K stake run yesterday pushing the kids in tow. But once he looked outside he showed us what a real man was all about. It was raining and he immediately said. "I'm not running in the rain!" What a wimp. (OK I'm the wimp I wasn't going to run in the first place!) So we spent a relaxing morning indoors eating brown sugar muffins, getting the computer up and running, and playing together as a family.

Beau and the girls started playing a mean game of "underground." (I think I've mentioned this before. It's the girls favorite game that dad invented and it entails climbing under all the blankets on mom and dad's bed. It feels like your in a cave underground. All kinds of things can happen wjo;e upir underground.) Well dad went all out this time. He tied two queen blankets together and made a huge underground that took up the entire living room. Not only did they live underground, they were moles. So all three of them were pretending to be moles, who liked to eat spiders. (I don't think the girls even know what a mole is.) Eventually it was dinnertime and because they were moles, they could and only would eat spiders. (Declared their leader - Dad). So mom had to come up with some spiders. (Not a bad job if I say so myself - Chinese noodles suck in chicken nuggets.) Mirian who hates anything related to spiders, and Savannah were in heaven. They thought it was the coolest thing to be eating spiders.
So we stabilized the blankets on some chairs and the four of us ate our lunch underground. I don't know what I'm laughing at in this picture. Obviously we were having a pretty good time. It's fun to see how excited the kids get when you actually play and make believe with them. Dad is pretty good at that. Earlier he was a dog. Tied up to a leash and the whole works. Boy did he have a mean growl at that too.
For the last couple of days Savannah keeps seeing Bowling signs and insisting that it has been a long time since we have gone bowling. So we decided it was about time, and took the clan down to the local bowling lane for part of the afternoon. They had a great time, and think it's so fun to push that ball down the ramp. It's all they can do to carry the 8 lb ball over there! It was not mom's best night, and dad did fairly well. The girls didn't do too bad, and came up pretty close to mom. I love this picture of Savannah patting Mirian on the back, and hugging her while they wait to see how many pins she'll get.

It was a good Saturday, one just of family which is always nice. When you have them you realize we definitely need to have them more often.

Their Own World

Today I had to snap a picture of them. They were so cute. They were on top of their bunkbeds totally in their own world. Talking as serious as a 2 year old and a 4 year old can talk. They had the old cell phone and they were calling their Grandpa & Grandma Tippetts. Talking to them about coming to visit, and then talking to each other about whether or not they were coming. They were so into themselves, and for once were really playing well together. It was one of those moments where you just had to take a picture.

Savannah Turned Four

Well Savannah turned 4 here at the end of August. She has been so excited for her birthday, as she's wanted to have a princess birthday party. So we invited her friends over, played a game where there were shiny beads hidden in some cornmeal - they had to dig to find the gems, and then made a necklace out of it. They then applied lipstick, were blindfolded and had to kiss the frog prince. We had cake and ice cream, opened presents and had a great time. She was in heaven.

Mirian did pretty well despite that all week we had to remind her that it was Savannah's birthday and not hers. She did well until Savannah got some a new barbie and some clothes. She then thought it was her birthday since she gave her the present, and wanted to play with them. She loves playing with barbies and that present was too good to resist.

Happy Birthday Savannah.

Going Swimming

The other day I heard water running in the bathroom. Something to always set fear in a mom's heart, so I rushed in to see how much soap could possibly be all over the sink and walls, or how much water was now on the floor. This is what I found... with the explanation that "our barbies were going swimming". Of course you couldn't resist getting in the water yourselves either. You were just having too much fun. So I shut off the water, since it was full by then. Got your barbies some beach towels (washclothes) and let you have your fun. You were really good to not make a mess this time, and at dinner you just went off telling your dad about how your barbies went swimming today.

Bear Lake

At the end of July we had a family reunion on Beau's side of the family at Bear Lake, Idaho. We went down and camped a night in our new tent. It was like camping in the Hilton. After 5 years of a 2 man tent with all 5 of us, we now have a 6 man tent with room to spare. The luxory of actually being able to stand up in it, room to move, and plenty of room for the kids to sleep instead of with us!

The next day was spent all day at the beach. These are a few cute shots of the kids. They loved every minute. You couldn't keep Savannah out of the water as she was having the time of her life. One funny incident was when I looked over at Savannah in the water and she was taking her swimsuit off, I rushed over to her to tell her she needed to get her swimsuit back on only to have her inform me that she "needed to use the bathroom and Uncle Stuart told her she could just pee in the lake." "Opps" he said "that wasn't EXACTLY what I meant," when confronted about it later. Someone has to inform these brothers that the need to watch what they tell these kids. They will take it literally based on their limited knowledge of what they think you mean. I thought it was funny though.

After 3 coats of sunscreen, we all returned home absolutely fried. The girls have never really experienced a sunburn before, let alone one like this, one that was severely red and hurt. All they could do for the next couple of days was lay around and moan because they hurt so bad. We had a good time though and they now have a killer tan to show for it.

Another Mommy

This is a sight you will see often in our house. Savannah is our second mommy and you will often find her packing Isaac around just like this, and telling him what he should and should not do. She treats him just like he is her own baby, which sometimes he is great with and other times infuriates him. She definitely has that mothering nature and as she tells me "Someday I'm going to be a mommy and have my own babies to take care of." Yes you will Savannah.. yes you will.

All Fixed Up

Ok this is a terrible picture of me. I can't believe I'm actually posting it, yet it's really funny. This sunday I got a bloody nose. Savannah saw it bleeding and said I needed to get a bandaid to make it all better. She ran off to get one, returned with this one in her hand and was insistent that she take care of it. Well she sure did. After that she felt I needed blindfolded too. I don't know where this little girl got that mind of hers.

Family Vacation - Day Two!

For the second day of our vacation we went to the Hogle Zoo and the Children's Discovery Museum in Salt Lake City. It was a great day and we had so much fun. The kids loved running around the zoo and seeing all the animals. They Mirian and Savannah would walk and run around holding hands and just having the time of their life. Afterwards we to the Children's Discovery Museum and spent a few hours there as well. They were in hog heaven being able to play and run around and do things at the museum. They loved the fact that they could touch everything without being told no! Isaac sat on the earthquake machine, Mirian rode a horse, Savananah played in her own little house, they fore casted the weather and did a fun things. There is so much do do at this place and it's perfect for kids!

A Mother's Adrenaline

All you mothers out there... have you ever had a mother's adrenaline rush. One where your children are in danger or something is happening to them completely out of your control and you feel that surge going through you. We were playing outside and were coming in the house. Savannah ran in ahead of the rest of us with Mirian right behind her. I was gathering things up and coming up slow behind when I heard Mirian screaming hysterically. I looked up to see her four fingers shut in the hinge part of the door where Savannah had closed the door on them. She was screaming, and I had images of the tips of four fingers being cut off as I ran to the door to open it, only to find that Savannah had locked the dead bolt. So there we were on the front porch me holding Isaac, screaming and pounding on the door at Savannah, which she was not responding to, and Mirian screaming hysterically in pain.

I was running through every option in my mind in case Savannah didn't open the door. Pull her finger out - no that could be really bad, run around back and try and get through the back part of the house and hope it wasn't locked. All I could do was scream louder hoping Savannah would understand the immediacy of the situation. I'm sure the whole neighborhood wondered what was going on as well. One lady was walking by and came up to ask if she could help right when Savannah finally unbolted the door and opened it. I was so dazed by everything that was happening, I could hardly respond to her, as she mentioned she saw her fingers stuck, and asked if I was ok. By then I was much better knowing her fingers were out and the door was open. I thanked her and told her we were ok. I had a look at her fingers and were relieved to see they weren't severed. They were smash flat though, indents which I'm not sure if any bones were crushed. Where she's so tiny I think they were probably ok. The tips had a bunch of blood spots, and she was just crying now instead of hysterical.

So after sitting down with her and in the middle of lecturing Savannah it hit, and I just started crying.. The adrenaline let go but the heart was still pounding. 10 minutes later my heart was still going..and my body was trying to release all that adrenaline, I was an emotional basket case, thinking about what could have happened and was grateful it didn't. I wish I could have talked to the lady again and thank her for offering help as in the moment I just wasn't able to respond to her. So it got me thinking about future times when I probably will have greater accidents or things happen to my children, and if I'll be able to remain calm in the moment, which I usually do, but it's the afterwards part that I fall apart. I guess that's what a mother's adrenaline will do though... afterwards she realizes how more attached she was to her children than she thought she was.

Princess

If you have hung out at our house for very long you will understand the importance of a "princess." We have princesses hanging out at our house constantly - usually seeing about 6 or more a day. They come it two different ages usually 4 and 2, with various types of dresses, crowns, necklaces, and of course high heels. Often times it doesn't even matter if the high heels match. We even have princesses from next door over to play, and sometimes if you come and visit our house you might find yourself turned into a princess before you leave. I really enjoy these princesses except for the excessive habit of changing attire 4 or 5 times daily. I enjoy watching them troop up and down the sidewalk when we go outside with the clunk, clunk, clunk of their heels. Their homes are in wood cupboards in the computer room, they eat chicken nuggets whenever they can, and they love singing at the top of their lungs. If you are currently missing out on having a princess at your home, then maybe you should come visit ours.

Easter Weekend

We went back to Wyoming for the Easter weekend and had a great time visiting with family. We spent time at both the Tippetts and Astle homes. Here are a couple of really fun video clips of them playing with the Tippetts grandparents Friday night when we got into town.



Saturday we were able to enjoy the weekend with my family as we had an easter egg hunt with the kids Saturday morning and also had the chance to visit with Jared, Heather, Mom, Dad and Tiffany and her family. Saturday was freezing! We were used to the warm Utah weather and thought that our easter hunt would be beautiful. Instead we were all bundled up in winter gear and hunted for eggs on a cold and windy Wyoming day.




Here's a video of them finding easter eggs in windy Wyoming.

Paint

What do you get when you give toddlers a little bit of paint from each color of the rainbow? One color - Brown.

Typical Responses

Here's a quick video of typical responses from the kids. Miran wanting the camera, Savannah hanging out, and Isaac crying for relief.

An Interview with Savannah

Q: What's your favorite color?
A: It's pink! It's my favorite

Q: What do you like about dad?
A: I like him to play with me. He play games with me. He doesn't take me to school with him.

Q: What's your favorite thing to eat?
A: Taco's

Q: What's your favorite thing to wear?
A: This out fit I'm wearing in this picture. (I (the mom ) would have to say it's princess dresses or her ballerina outfit. But I guess I'm wrong.)

Q: Who is your best friend?
A: Lauralynn. She is my best friend. Cause she is. She likes to play with me.

Q:Where's your favorite place to go?
A: The moseum, the park, grandma and grandpa's house.

Q:What's your favorite book?
A: The lion king.

Q: What did you do today.
A: I was playing with Lauralynn (she hasn't seen lauralynn all day.)

What Can You Do In Less Than 10 Minutes

I don't know about you, but sometimes 10 minutes seems like hardly enough time to get anything done or accomplished. I can barely get a shower taken in 10 minutes. I can't even feed Isaac in 10 minutes. I can hardly get anything accomplishedin 10 minutes... but boy can my girls get ALOT accomplished in 10 minutes. And although they can create a disaster in 10 minutes it sure takes mom more than 10 minutes to pick it all up and put it back together again. Here's a few things my girls have been able to accomplish in less than 10 minutes. (Usually happens when mom is either in the shower, on the phone, in the bathroom or feeding baby Isaac.) Now posting these will put me up for public criticism, with thoughts of "Does this mother watch her children at all." I do, our apartment is not that big, I can sit in one room and see the other side of the house, and yet somehow, when I think I have 10 minutes I can jump in the shower because all seems calm, or sit down and feed Isaac, then I tend to be proved wrong.

1. Take off their clothes, empty out all the cupboards in the bathroom and find mom's prescription sunglasses which are definately off limits - as Mirian is demonstrating above.

2. Get into and help themselves to the bucket of sugar and eat it fist fulls at a time. Now they know this is definately off limits because when they were found out, they willingly walked themselves into their bedroom and climbed on their stools of their own free will to time out. Sitting there licking their fingers must have been completely worth sitting there in time out.

3. When the sugar bucket gets closed really tight.. then they have to find the alternative. Climb the cupboards to find the small sugar container in the cupboard for cooking and dump it all over the top of the cupboard so they can access it freely.

4. Open the fridge, get out the milk, pour them a quart size canning bottle of milk. Go back to the refrigerator and get the chocolate syrup to make themselves their own chocolate milk. I can only imagine how much syrup they thought they needed to finish the job.

5. Somehow get the childproof cap off of the Children's Multi-sympton Cold medicine and help themselves to it. Last time I saw the bottle it was about 3/4 full. After I arrived at the scene when Savannah came to tell me that Mirian had spilled the medicine on the floor, there was maybe a 1/2 teaspoon left in the jar. There was some on the floor but also on their lips. I tried to get all the information out of Savannah that I could. Did Mirian drink it? How much? Did you drink any? How much. After calling Posion control and planning for the worse that Mirian drank it all herself and drank 3/4 of the bottle, we kept a close eye on them all day and saw no side effects...makes me wonder why don't they stick to the nasty tasting medicine. At least that way the kids would never have any desire to get that red candy out and have more than what mom ever gives them.

But then I have to remember there are also those 10 minutes of great fun and good moments where you remember why being a parent is so great.

1. Seeing them share and play in the their make believe world.

2. Clean the bedroom as fast as we can before dad comes home.

3. Sit down with me and say outloud all the story books they have memorized.

4. Sit and give a sermon to her imaginary audience about Jesus, and the gospel and anything else she can remember about what she learned in church on Sunday.

5. Help mom take care of Isaac.

6. Play a good game of hide and seek with dad.

7. Run to Albertsons with dad to get an ingredient for dinner only to return with some flowers they picked out just for mom.

We'll save a few more for another day.