Friday Night Fun

We spent last evening with some of my family. It was great! My mom picked us up and we got to talk to Kelly on the car speaker phone. Pretty cool. She regaled us with all kinds of stories about the kids she teaches in a Title 1 school (low-income, rough neighborhoods) until we got to my cousin Beth's house. Aunt Mary and Aunt Nancy were visiting for the weekend and brought pizza all the way from Chicago. Mitchell was thrilled! He always says pizza is best in Chicago. Jillian and Ally played princess dress-up upstairs and came down to show off their pretty outfits. Bryce was a big hit and loved cuddling with Aunt Mary. Such a little cuddle bug! 

Jilli posing with Aunt Mary, Bryce and Nana

 Bryce can make anyone smile. :)

 Aunt Nancy, Aunt Mary and Nana. Bryce is sleeping on Aunt Mary's shoulder.

 Princess Ally, Princess Jilli and Prince Derek. :)

We were both exhausted at the end of a long fun day

Bathtime with Bryce

I think there is nothing cuter than all those little baby rolls and wrinkles! Bryce loves kicking and splashing in his little whale tub. He's a good sport about washing his hair, too, but he lets me know when he's done. I asked Mitchell to take some pictures while he was home today and we got some great ones! What a sweet little face!

 I love squishing his sweet little face!

I tried spiking his hair to the right (look at all those sweet little rolls!)...

 ...and to the left...

 ...but I just loved it curled right in the middle!

 Wrapping up the baby!

Grrrrr! Monster Boy!

Picasso Derek

I finally got around to painting Derek's room today. It took me three months to help him quit coloring on the walls, but I finally got through to him. Just to remember his "works of art," I made him pose next to them. We can also get a little scale for comparison, too. I only picked the biggest two, but he colored on a grand total of 9 different walls in the apartment. Ugh.

 He used black/blue/red ballpoints, yellow highlighter, permanent marker and the blotchy water marks are actually tongue marks. Gotta give him points for creativity.

This one was behind the door to his bedroom. Mostly permanent marker and crayon.

Here's another burst of creativty. He calls it his tractor hat. What a kid!

Winnie-the-Pooh is Scary

Derek and I discovered something very funny this morning...

The HORRIBLE Haircut

Mitchell decided to cut his hair tonight and we tried to get Derek excited about it. Ususally, a haircut makes Derek screech and hyperventilate (and makes me sick to my stomach) but this time was so much better! Mitchell let Derek play with the clipper attachments and Derek pretended to cut his own hair and dump it in the trash. Then, he tried to shave his stomach. After Mitchell was done, it was Derek's turn to really get a hair cut. He did so well for the first few minutes and then the crying started, but by then Mitchell was already halfway done. Unfortunately, Derek jerked away just as Mitchell was moving the clippers, so Derek ended up with a huge swath of mowed hair on top of his head. Mitchell ended up just shaving his hair all one length. Poor kid looks like a cancer patient. :( 

 Having fun experimenting

Debating which route he wants to go: quick clippers or slow scissors

Shaving his belly

He did fine as long as he could manipulate the clippers. That only lasted so long though.

 Let the tears begin

 Only three years old and he already has a hairy back ;)

 Trauma forgotten with a bath

After the bath, I saw him jumping up and hitting the wall over and over. This mosquito hawk is what he was trying to catch. He caught it alright and put it outside. What a good hunter!

I Can't Get Enough of These Two!

Sweet Brothers

And now the big brother in him comes out!

The Bryce Song

I love you Bryce-E-Bryce-E, oh yes I do-o. I love you Bryce-E-Bryce-E, and it is tru-oo, when you're not with me, I'm blue. Oh, Bryce-E-Bryce-E, I love you!

He's got my eyes for sure. :) Big and beautiful and green(ish brown)!

"I love dinosaurs BIG TIME!"

 My eye shape but Mitchell's beautiful blue!

 What a ham!

 Kisses for Bryce!

FHE with the Carters!

We had the Carter family over for FHE tonight. It was a BLAST! Mitchell read the story of Captain Moroni and the Title of Liberty from the illustrated Book of Mormon series (read it HERE) and then I cut an old receiving blanket in half for each of the kids to paint their own Title of Liberty. Liz: you're genius is rubbing off on me! Derek loves playing with Kennady; it was so cute to see them running around the apartment having a grand old time. They took turns riding on the Thomas the Train sit-and-ride: one would push while the other rode. It was fine when Derek pushed Kennady, but the other way around was hilarious! Kennady isn't quite strong enough to push Derek, so he pushed himself with his legs while Kennady hung on to the handle and was jerked forward with each push. She thought it was hilarious and her laughing made Derek laugh so we were all laughing at the cuteness. What a great evening!

Mitchell telling the story of Captain Moroni

 Kennady took some cues from Derek, but painted a pretty little masterpiece of her own

 This kid loves to paint!

 Thank heaven they stayed clean!

We made pumpkin shaped rice krispies for dessert and let the kids decorate them. Well, I ended up decorating them, but it was fun to watch them get filthy from the black icing I used for the eyes. In the end, they were more interested in eating the unformed rice krispies out of the bowl - which made for these cute pictures!

Here, let me help you with that...

 Scraping the bowl. Doesn't Kennady have gorgeous eyes?!

 Caught ya!

Derek posing with his Title of Liberty the next morning :)

Big Brother of the Year!

Derek is an absolutely fantastic big brother! Not gonna lie, I was really worried when we first brought Bryce home. I thought Derek was going to freak out and be really aggressive with him. I wasn't sure how I was going to handle that. All of that worry (well, most of it) was for nothing. The only thing I worry about is how hard Derek is hugging Bryce or the handful of times he's picked Bryce up to "hold it (Bryce)" when I'm not watching. I kind of feel left out when I watch these two play together. It's as though the only thing in the world is the other brother. I love it! I feel so incredibly blessed to have had so many friends and family members help make this transition to two kids very nearly flawless. Derek has been asking to feed Bryce since we brought him home. Unfortunately, I was the only one who could do that.... until we started supplementing with formula. I made it three months nursing exclusively which was my minimum goal for nursing. I'm still nursing but formula is the only way to make sure Bryce is full now. :( I'm so glad for the time I had nursing, but I'm also glad to be getting my body back. Derek was thrilled when I offered to let him feed Bryce this morning. He had this big grin on his face the whole time...

 He is such a good helper! Always ready to bring me a rag/diaper, turn on/off the light, or entertain Bryce.

 I caught him playing Dinosaur Train today. Surprise! He loves cars and trains and planes, but he always loves the Dinosaur Train set. He has a pretty impressive mastery of various dinosaur names, too.

He's got a great imagination, too. He's constantly telling me is half-eaten sandwich is shaped like a motorcycle, boat or car. I listened to him singing the Dinosaur Train theme song while adding his own authentic train whistles and cries of "Stop the train!" for a good ten minutes before I just had to snap some pictures. He's such a fun kid and I'm so very blessed to be his mom.

Visit to Grandma and Papa's House

We're trying to figure out how to visit Liz and the boys (and Grandma and Papa) as often as we can without spending a lot of money on gas. This week, we decided to try this arrangement: Mitchell went to work at the Cake Stand on Tuesday night and Derek, Bryce and I went home with Grandma. We stayed at Grandma and Papa's house til Mitchell came to work again Thursday night. I think this pattern might work! Not sure if we'll make it out every week but definitely every other week. Woohoo! Derek loves having his cousins to play with and I love having Liz to talk to during the day. We have so much fun together. :) We stuck close to home for the most part because Andrew is potty training but I still managed to find cute things to take pictures of. I love this little Many-Faces-of-Bryce bit though...

 From Jedi Master...

...to Happy Hedgehog Boy...

 ...to Cheerleader Barbie... I mean, Cheerleader Bryce ;)

 Liz and I were courageous enough to pack all five kids into the car and take them to singing time at the library. NOT worth the effort, but kudos to us (particularly Liz) for herding these kittens into the car and around the library for over an hour. Never again.

The boys all love this miniature trampoline. LOOK AT THAT MASSIVE BACKYARD!! See the cows back there? That's Derek's favorite part of waking up at Grandma and Papa's house. Cows are the coolest thing on the planet til he remembers about Dinosaur Train and toy tractors.

Derek loves to bounce off the trampoline and hit the ground running... with his face, sometimes.

 Uncle Colton is addicted to babies. :) Bryce is particularly partial to Uncle Colton as well. I haven't seen anyone beside Derek get as many giggles out of Bryce.

 Eskimo kisses and giggles

 Bryce's cheeks are so kissable!

 Mid-coo. Yes! Check out that awesome superhero blanket. I made it my....well, I just braided the edges of a yard of flannel. Ok, ok, I'm not sure that counts as a made-it-myself kind of thing but it's cool. Technically, it's Derek's blanket since he asked for this one. I already made a fleece dinosaur blanket for Bryce. I'll have to find a picture of that one later.

Already sucking on that lower lip. Rock it, Lipless!! And his hair is getting RED! AHHHH!!! A blue-eyed, red-haired kid! AWESOME! My mom says that's my 100% Irish Great Grandma Jane coming out in my genes. She had the same blue eyes and red hair. I wish she was here to see him.

Liz found this cool homemade volcano idea on Pinterest and threw one together for the boys. The green mound is the green volcano. Liz is putting red food coloring in it to simulate the color of lava. The chemical reaction was the result of the combination of baking powder and vinegar. Totally fun!

 Derek is trying to point to his new "owie." Wrong side, little dude. He fell down the stairs and has a nice little slice on the left side of his chin. 

 "The volcano... SHE AWAKES!"

 Touching the fizzing "lava"

Andrew was a little tentative at first but not to be outdone by his older brother and cousin. He kept asking Liz to make it "more." Lol.