Easter Pictures

One of my goals this Easter was to get a cute picture of all 3 kids together.  How did I do?



Also notice that Ben insisted on wearing his boots to church.  At least they match I guess?

My friend Janetta helped me get these pics though...awesome, right?

Easter Egg Hunting

It was a great day for egg hunting yesterday!  

Libby and Sarah were so excited.  It was a scream fest!  I am sure our neighbors were glad when all the eggs had been located.  We had to go inside to open them because while it was sunny, it wasn't super warm.    The eggs had a variety of things in them.  Libby was most excited by the money eggs.  Ben loved the yogurt covered raisins the best.  Sarah loved all of it.  I was the most excited about the little figurines of the 7 dwarfs that I found to put in the eggs.  Ben opened the first one and said, "HO!" (for HI HO...get it?  It took me a minute.)

This is what they got in their Easter baskets, along with a cute workout outfit.  I am excited to get them started working out with me!

I actually captured Libby jumping for joy!

Sarah hunting eggs.  Both girls really needed to go potty but didn't want to stop hunting.  Sarah waited a bit too long.  I didn't even notice that she came back without her leggings until I later found the evidence inside.  To her credit, she tried to clean it up...

Derek helped Ben...who was so excited about Wreck It Ralph that he didn't even want eggs.  Until he realized what was inside.  Then we was so busy snacking that he didn't get too many eggs.  

Kid Updates

I didn't get a chance to write last week, so while I am up with a raging sore throat, waiting for Ben to go to bed, I might as well blog.  Tomorrow is going to be another crazy Sunday.  Last week I made a big St. Patrick's Day meal.  Corned beef and cabbage, except I forgot to add the cabbage.  Oops.  I also made green bread which turned out PERFECT.  And homemade mint ice cream which was seriously the best homemade ice cream I have ever made.  Derek whipped it a bit with a whisk before I put it into the ice cream maker.  I wonder if that was the secret.  It was so light and fluffy and amazing.
Anyway, so that is my excuse for not blogging earlier.  Then we also put on a Youth Missionary activity for our combined activity.  It took quite a bit of time too....moving on...
I have 2 weeks to cover.  That is  A LOT where Ben is right now.  He went from saying a few words to saying almost everything.  I can't always understand what he wants, and he mostly still talks in one word phrases, but it is FANTASTIC to have him saying what he wants.
Probably every third word is CARS.  He LOVES Cars.  The movie.  Just now he brought me the remote and said, CARS, pointing to the TV.  He has given the Beast a rest and now carries around a Lightning McQueen or Mater all the time.  He wants his Cars pjs, his Cars sippy.  I don't remember the girls being fixated on one thing quite this much.
He also is getting very picky about what he wears.  He LOVES the Avengers t-shirt he has.  He wants to wear it every day and night.  He also had a tantrum today when I put on his shoes.  He was screaming for his boots, but I thought his other shoes would be more practical for what we had scheduled (that we didn't end up doing since I felt too sick).  When I came out from getting ready, he had taken off his shoes and put his boots on himself.  Alright then!  He is just really fun right now.  Except that he takes super long naps (if I forget to wake him) and then I am up late with him.  Urgh.

Ben in the Cars pjs, Avengers shirt, favorite boots, oh yeah, and fairy wings.  That boy!

   I have been having some conversations with Libby's teacher about Libby.  It turns out she is a day dreamer.  What a surprise!  Not.  But we had a conference this week and her teacher is sure that she will be ready for first grade.  We implemented a star sticker chart to reward her for staying on task.  We will see how it goes.  But I wanted to make sure she was ready in the reading department.  So, I created a chart (just like my wonderful mother!) that is the path to Disneyland (we are planning a trip in October).  For every 10 reading lessons she and Sarah (I decided to start with Sarah too) complete, they get to watch a Disney movie.  I wasn't sure how the lessons would go.  But Libby is SUPER excited about them.  In 2 weeks she has whizzed through 35 lessons.  She is going to be just fine.
My favorite Libby quote for the 2 week period:  (explanation) For a Young Women activity last week we had my hairdresser come and teach us some updos.  It was super fun.  I was inspired to try something fun with my hair for our little Bodystep launch.  It was two pigtails on top of my head barrel rolled and pinned into kind of messy curls.  I woke Libby and Sarah up to go.
Libby looks at my hair and says, "Mom, you look scary.  You look like a pig!"

Sarah is also doing the reading lessons and she is doing really well too.  She is already on lesson 30.  Things have started to slow down a bit for her.  She likes to leave out the middle sound when she is sounding things out.  She also LOVES to be silly during the lessons.  She likes to make a mistake and then look at me to see what I will do.  I started making her do 10 jumping jacks and say "uh" "uh" for every one every time she says "i" when she sees the indefinite article (aka the word) "a".  But she like this too much and started saying it wrong even more.  She is so funny.  She is also getting so big!  She ate 2 sloppy joes tonight (Grandma Louise's BBQ), and I think about 1/2 a cucumber.
Her favorite thing to do right now is play "Guess my  ______."  You could fill in that blank with "shape" or "Avenger" or "animal" or "friend" or "movie" pretty much anything.  She is pretty good at playing all of them.  She is a smart little cookie.  I enrolled her in a preschool for next year.  The director said that I could do Tuesday Thursday Pre-K or a class that was more active.  I decided to choose the more active class for Sarah.  I think she will already be reading by then.

Best Friends

We have been so blessed to have some amazing friends here in Seattle.  My friend Emmi and I have gone through 3 pregnancies (each) together.  We have laughed, cried (I do most of the crying), discussed, struggled, and grown together.  They are leaving us for Korea.  We knew it was coming and we actually got 3 years more than we thought we might.  We are soaking up the last few months together.  Libby can say that Reid is moving, but I don't think she really gets it.  It is going to be tough!
Here are some fun pics from an outing last week.

We had another fun family of friends from church along with us too.  Look at the this fun round booth at McDonalds.  Derek got to go with us on this outing, so it was Derek, Emmi, Janna and I.  Some high school kids came in and started filming our group.  I think they thought we were polygamists.  

Outside Pump It UP!  One of our favorite places to play.

Youth Talent Night

I love working with the youth at church.  I especially love when I can help them put together something that challenges them and helps them to feel successful.  We did 2 numbers at the stake talent night, a black light dance (a zumba dance that is AWESOME in black light).  Then they had the idea of doing a LIVE harlem shake.  So fun!
Live Harlem Shake
Black Light Dance

A Couple of Crazy Kids...

Actually 3 of them.
Mine.

This week was crazy with a capital C R A Z Y.  Libby had a fever for 4 days.  The night she seemed to be in agony.  She kept crying out things like "Jesus, heal me!" and  "I am going to DIE!"  She was up about 1/2 the night.  I slept on couch cushions on the floor in the family room because she was more calm (notice I did not say calm, but MORE calm) when there was a Barbie movie on.  Then she sort of moved into a mostly normal with a fever state that lasted until Saturday afternoon...then I just stopped checking.  When she successfully rode her bike all around the neighborhood (first time she left our little circle of our driveway and the neighbor's driveway) I decided she was okay.  She never barfed or anything.  Super weird.  The doctor thought it might have been a flu bug, but because she got a flu shot it was super mild.  Who knows.  I just pray that no one else gets it!
Anyway my favorite Libby quotes from the week...we are playing freeze tag.  I freeze her.  She says, "Look what magic thing I can do!"  and unfreezes herself.  Hmmm...how does that work?  Plus, freeze tag with 2 people is kind of lame.  But Libby managed to keep it exciting and full of SCREAMING.
She also told me this morning during breakfast, "If you would stop being so complicating I would listen to you."  Oh, well then.  I will stop being so complicating.

Sarah's quote of the week is 1 word.  Boring.  She says it about everything, from a book to dance lessons to a story to dinner...you name it, it is boring.  I am not sure that she understands the word, but she knows it is annoying to me when she says it.  So she says it.  Over and Over and OVER.  About everything.  Okay, maybe not about everything, but at least one or two things a day.  I hope the phase goes quickly.

Ben's quote of the week was last night.  I couldn't figure out what he was saying at first.  Then I finally realized when he brought me the remote control that he was saying "couch."  He wanted me to go sit on the couch and watch TV with him.  Hilarious.  He is also working very had to help Derek stay hydrated.  Very often, when Derek is home, Ben brings him a soda from the pantry about every 10 minutes or so.  It is cute to see them all lined up as he prepares to take Derek a drink.  By the way, this is a major concession to my husband.  I love him, and I respect the fact that he works long, hard hours.  So I am allowing in the house (and even buying for him) Coke zero.  And other diet sodas.  Back to Ben, he is so NEAT.  He loves to put his shoes and coat away.  And he wants everyone else to do the same.  But sometimes that leads to hardship.  Tonight he had a pretty big meltdown because he wanted both Kens to take their tuxedo jackets off so they could ride in the Barbie cruiser.  Unfortunately one of the tuxedos has a jacket that is attached.  He just couldn't handle that I couldn't remove the jacket without removing the entire outfit.  Poor guy.

We had a few good weather days this week.  They wanted to have a sword fight of course.

Libby riding all the way through the neighborhood.  We made some new friends on the way.

Freeze tag!  That girl can run.  And scream at the same time.

It was Ben's job to unfreeze us.  He seems a bit unsure about the job, doesn't he?

I loved this lighting...Libby loved this pose.

A Bit of Bragging

I am pretty proud of my husband.  He was on his way to testify in court this week and heard this call come out.  He quickly exited the freeway just in time to see the purse snatcher running...and together with another officer they arrested the criminal!  But then Derek got back in the car and rushed back to court, so his name didn't even appear in the report.  Good pinch Officer Norton!

(article copied from Seattle times)

February 26, 2013 at 2:57 PM

Purse-snatcher may be responsible for 6 attacks in North Seattle

Posted by John de Leon

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Seattle police are investigating whether a suspected purse-snatcher who was arrested this afternoon is responsible for a string of similar thefts in North Seattle.

The man is suspected of cutting a woman’s purse from her arm around 2:20 p.m. today and then fleeing through the yards of several homes near Northeast 71st Street and Roosevelt Way Northeast before he was caught by police.

Police plan to question the man to determine whether he was responsible for five similar purse-snatchings and thefts earlier this month, all of which occurred between 2 and 3 p.m.

The first robbery was reported by a 91-year-old woman, who said a man armed with a knife took her purse as she was walking up to her home near Northeast 75th Street and 39th Avenue Northeast on Feb. 2.

On Feb. 14,  a 77-year-old man told police he was attacked by a man who cut open his back pocket with a knife and stole his wallet near Northeast 60th Street and 35th Avenue Northeast. The robber shoved the man to the ground and fled.

On Feb. 20, a man cut the strap off a woman’s purse near Northeast 72nd Street and Roosevelt Way Northeast. A half-hour later, a man armed with a box cutter sliced the strap on another woman’s purse near Northeast 65th Street  and 35th Avenue Northeast, cutting the woman’s hand in the process. The man in the latter attack was described as in his 20s, 5-foot-9, about 150 pounds, with a thin build.

And yesterday, a man grabbed a woman’s purse right off her shoulder as she was walking near Northeast 75th Street and 35th Avenue Northeast.

Sarahisms

Last Saturday night we had a family karaoke party, finally using the "block rocker" I got for them after Christmas.  It was fun.  Turns out Sarah and Derek are the singers in the family.  Libby just wants to put the mic down and dance.  Sarah will sing all evening!  She is pretty great!

Sarah drew this picture this week. I think Libby wrote the LOVE SARAH, and  Sarah had me label the figures, but they are her original work.  I love how Derek has "spiky" hair (as she put it), and also has all the chest in the family.  How accurate!

Sarah has also (finally) started getting excited about writing and coloring.

Derek has a pretty bad track record with checks.  Just a couple of weeks ago I washed a reimbursement check that the clerk had given him after church.  Anyway, I got a scolding from Sarah yesterday.  She was using my coat as a blanket for a game she and Libby were playing.  She reached into my pocket and found a check that my friend had given me to pay for Ragnar.  She said, "Really Mom, AGAIN?"  and gave me a look as she handed me the check that was the "I am so disappointed"  look. I am guessing Sarah's response all came from my reactions to Derek?

Libbyisms

I gave Libby a pretty serious hair trim this week.  Her hair was getting all ratty on the ends.  It looks great!  I am quite proud.  I did a bit of layering on the ends and made it surround her face.  She loves having me straighten it.  I only do it once every few weeks though.  She gets too vain about it!  And who has time for it?

Last week on Friday the bus driver informed me that Libby had spit at another kid on the bus.  Yikes.  What Libby told Derek, "She was hitting me on the head, so I turned to spit on her.   BUT I MISSED!"  Hard not to laugh.  I believe she had an aunt who got kicked off the bus a time or two or three.  One with red hair?

Libby has also been on a "scared" kick.  For weeks or months she has refused to go into a room alone, not even the bathroom.  (Unless she was heavily involved in playing, then she didn't seem to notice.)  Finally I told her that since a TV show was the cause of her fright, she was on a TV ban until she could go to the bathroom by herself.  Low and behold, she was better the next day.  Amazing.

Little Man Ben

Ben is getting SO big.  (Not so much in a physical way, although he has officially outgrown his 12 month clothes--but 18 month stuff is mostly still too big for him.)  He says LOTS of words.  His favorites are snack, milk, BEAST (a Beauty and the Beast figurine that he is carrying EVERYWHERE), hibby (Libby), ara (Sarah), mom, dad, CARS, etc.  He is getting better at repeating for me when I don't understand.  He is also still pointing to help us figure things out.  He got his top 2 canines through finally!  So now we will just have the agony of the bottom teeth.  I really didn't think he would ever stop being grumpy!  Anyway, this little man is just the apple of my eye!

Notice Belle in one hand and Beast in the other.  He does have trouble when he tries to hold Gaston too.

He can get this horse rockin' all by himself!

Preschool Pentathalon

I am doing a preschool group with some moms from church.  It has been really fun!  We technically use the Mothergoose Time curriculum, but whenever I teach, I usually use about 1/5 of what they give me and add lots of my own fun.  I was pretty proud of my idea this week, even if the implementation wasn't super smooth.
The theme was Food and Fitness.  So, we did a Preschool Pentathalon.  It was fun to see the kids running and lifting a weight over their heads, throwing, kicking etc.  I assigned each athlete had a "coach" (one of the other kids) who was supposed to write down their results.  That didn't go so well because several of them (it turns out) don't know how to write numbers.  So it was a bit slower than I planned.  But overall I think it was a blast.  Then they all got medals at the end.  We had a medal ceremony and I played the Olympic theme and then the Star Spangled banner.  I miss teaching sometimes still, can you tell?
Preschool Pentathalon Scorecard and Signs