All About...

So... I lost my camera battery charger and so the camera has been dead meat for about two months.  And my phone camera is pretty darn pathetic.  And, things are just a little extra busy at the moment... and I have been taking my usual Sunday blogging time to catch up on sleep from the week.  (I can hear my dad's voice saying, you can't catch up on sleep!  It doesn't work like that!  Well it does in my world, dad so get out of my head)

But, no more.  I am caught up.  All of the events over the past two months summarized for each child, plus a new blog background to get me out of my blogging funk and back into it.

I can do it.

A comment or two wouldn't hurt in the "persuading to blog more" department too... just sayin'.

All About Jude

Six months is the perfect baby age.  I love it so much that part of me could just keep them at this age forever. But then I remember how much I love five year olds and somehow forget 3 year olds... 

Anyway, this sweet baby of mine is in that perfect phase of smiling

          sitting, snacking...  and snack sitting...

 laughing, sleeping, and never wandering more than about a foot in any direction.

And then, on top of those perfectly chubby cheeks, sometimes I get to put him in animal themed jackets.

I even think he is cute when he is sad, most of the time.

 Frustrated because he can't reach all the way into the lego bin...

 Jude is the king of solid foods.  I started him on simple stuff at 4 months because he was just begging to eat off our spoons all day long.  If he watched you scoop up food and put it in your mouth without sharing, he would cry.  It has been a happy road of solid food ever since.  There is nothing he won't try and nothing he doesn't want more of.

 Our usual pattern is wake up, play on the floor with some toys for awhile, eat, play on the floor some more, eat again, throw in some jumperoo time or sibling/mommy play time, and then its time for a nap.

 He took a plane ride with us to Seattle where he got to spend the day with Aunt Kristy.  He takes a bottle without a problem so I really thought the day would go pretty well.  But, it turns out this kid really likes nursing.  Not so much for eating as much as a moment of comfort before nap time.  So, he cried for her a lot.

 She forgave him.

 I have started to cart around snacks for him already and he had his first lollipop the other day thanks to his big sister.  We have strict rules about who is allowed to feed the baby, but after trying just a sample lick from Scarlet, he latched onto that sucker and wouldn't let go.  I have really lightened up on the "when to introduce foods to babies" rules...

His first swing!  It was magical for both of us.

 Can you see those two bottom teeth?  They were a bear to get out, but he sure loves his new biting power.

 Once I get my camera working again, the first thing I'm doing is taking some bare skinned shots of this guy.  His baby thighs are dreamy, you will want to squish them through your computer screen.

All About Asher

I have thought this from the beginning and I believe it whole heartedly, two year old are cute for a very specific reason.  So you don't kick them out when they make you want to pull your hair out.

Speaking of hair, Asher's finally got a trim

 Long hair on boys is just not really my thing and my boys just don't really have the hair for it anyway, too thick.  But cutting Asher's hair is always a traumatizing experience for all involved so we avoid it at all costs.

 It involves a lot of kicking and screaming and hair in the mouth, always hair in the mouth, its just bad.  Does he look permanently traumatized to you?

Asher and Rhode are really good buddies right now.  I have a new strategy where I make them do chores first thing in the morning.  I stick on the at the beginning to make sure a few things get done and then, when they start to get antsy, I offer to let them have a little outside time.  But when they come back in, it means they are ready to get back to jobs.  This has led to hours of happy play time in the backyard instead of the begging for shows that Asher usually attempts.  I know, I'm a genius.

After their morning bath one day, they weren't able to get dressed immediately because Jude was asleep in their room.  So they had some "nakee lego time"  Boys are awesome.

Asher can always be found with a sword in his hand.  There are bad guys needing to be taken down at a moment's notice and he is rarely found unprepared.  When Scarlet was about 3, I bought a collection of elastic headbands on clearance, assuming I would get future use out of them.  After sitting in the closet for years, Asher recently uncovered them, dubbed them bow and arrows and has mastered sling shotting them around the house.

"Mom, Asher's face got too close to my painting!"  He is messy a lot of the time, but he has almost completely stopped coloring on my house, which is a major, major win.

He loves to sing, his favorites being Let it Go and Everything is Awesome.  He loves shows and is absolutely silent on all car rides that involve a little tv watching.  He is a lover of fruit and can clean an apple down to the core every time.

He has two best buddies right now, Ivan and Frankie.  They always greet each other with a hug and play so happily together.

 He loves to dress himself right now, which means his pants are backwards every day.  Not 50% of the time, as would make sense.  Every. Single. Day.  Getting him to wear church clothes this morning involved tears, but seriously folks, look at those handsome dudes.  Worth it.

All About Rhode

Rhode is my good buddy these days.  He has preschool three times a week in the mornings and the rest of the time its just mom and Rhode time.  Rhode really had a great preschool this year.  His teacher, Miss Erika, ran preschool out of her home, but she was the queen of organization and fun.  They had such a great time and she was so good at challenging Rhode.  One of the days, they were asked to dress up as community helpers.

What other teacher would let him take full sized tools to school?  :)  Rhode has been so understanding and helpful since my work schedule has gotten busier.  Our normal after lunch/during nap time schedule was read together, play the piano usually together, do his homework, and then get one or two chores done before he got some play time, usually on his computer math games.  But I have had to turn afternoons into work time.  So now, without being asked, he waters the garden, does his piano lesson, reads a few chapters by himself, and then does his homework, which has been free writing for the last few weeks.  After I give him a job, he comes right back when he's done to ask, "Mom, what can I do next?"  He is the best.  He just had his last week of preschool (teacher is having a baby next month) so we get even more time together and I am not dreading it at all, which really is saying something!

Jon challenged Rhode to read ten books by himself to earn a dudes night and Rhode jumped on the challenge, finishing in about a week.  They did not see Captain America...

 They saw the Lego Movie and had Yogurtland afterward.

Look how tall he is!

Rhode and Jude are room buddies right now and it is going surprisingly well.  Rhode doesn't seem even slightly aware when Jude cries at night.  And in the morning, Jude usually wakes him up and Rhode scoops him up and carries him out with a big grin on his face.

Sorry ladies, he's mine.

All About Scarlet

Scarlet the Amazing 6 year old is now Scarlet the Awesome 7 year old!  She celebrated her day by sewing her own build a bear kit rabbit cheerleader.

Crafting is one of her biggest loves in life.  Sewing, coloring, creating, etc. fills all of her spare time.

 For the "experience" portion, Scarlet and I got to go to the BYU Ballet princess party.  Scarlet got a beautiful princess dress from Grammy.

We went all out with her fancy princess hair and makeup...

And joined a theater full of mini princesses for a beautiful ballet performance.  During intermission, Scarlet got to join the other princesses on stage for a dance.  It was a fantastic evening.

They had a coloring table, which was hard to leave to go see the performance.

 They even got to take pictures with the ballerinas.  She doesn't look it in the picture but her friend, Deonna had a good time too.  Scarlet also got $25 from her Grandma Charla that she has been saving for the perfect... something.  She'll know it when she sees it.

Scarlet loves to play boggle and is getting pretty good.  We have a rule that she can write down words that are connected or disconnected, as long as all of the letters are there.  She gets more points for connected words.  Well I was beyond shocked when she found the 7 letter word pirates in this board and it was all connected.

Scarlet loves school and anxiously counted down the days until the school dress up days.  This was dress as your favorite book character day.

  Nancy Drew from Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew.

 And this was her getup for crazy day.  Pirate hat, loud leggings, backwards shirt, two different shoes and a rabbit tied around her wrist.  Definitely weird.

 Dance has been a big part of her year and she had two big performances this past month.  Her tap dance is called Pirate Party.

 And her jazz dance is to Over the Rainbow.  I posted the videos to her competition below.  She did a really good job.  She practiced really hard at watching the audience instead of watching how the girls around her were dancing.  She did a fantastic job looking at the audience and, in her words, "Now I just gotta remember to smile!"

 She is really into accessories and dressing herself lately.  I picked out the t shirt and shorts for her and she accessorized with the rest.  Girls are fun.

 Her first $7 of birthday money was spent on some fabulous velvet art.  They painstakingly colored every inch of their pictures.  And when Asher woke up from his nap and wanted to join in, Scarlet raced upstairs, threw one of her pictures on the copier, printed a copy and raced downstairs so that Asher could have a special picture as well without losing one of her special pictures.  She can be the best sister, when in the right mood!

 Scarlet makes my life easier.  I love having her in my life.