Say What?

Karianna: Mama, the mean lizard is trying to eat the boy!

??????????????????????

Say what? I had no idea what Karianna was talking about! On Saturday we were digging for worms and found a huge lizard hanging out directly under a dead plant which was still getting water through the drip system. Smart guy! However, I do not remember the lizard trying to eat JD or Jordan, so there goes that theory.

Me: Karianna is that from a movie or a book?
Karianna: A moive-the mean lizard is trying to eat the boy!
Me: What movie is that from Karianna?
Karianna: The sword in the stone-it has a mean lizard.

Oh, I got it.

Me: Do you mean "The mean WIZARD is trying to eat the boy"?
Karianna: Yes, the mean WIZARD. She does magic, but she does mean magic and she turns into a dragon. And she tries to eat the boy when he is a bird. His name is Arthur.

So goes the language development of a 3 year old.

Here are some cute pictures that have nothing to do with lizards or wizards, but are really cool looking! We went to see Kung Fu Panda on Saturday, I highly recommend it for adults and children! We snapped these pics right before going in-JD was way too scared of the Hulk to go anywhere closer then this!

JD's a Talker!

JD has by far been my latest talker. It seemed for quite some time that he was stuck in the 15 words or less land, and you could tell he was getting frustrated that no one was understanding JD gibberish. You see, JD talks all the time. And I do mean all the time. It just seemed he wasn't grasping onto actual words. Over the last month or two JD has exploded in terms of language, and is finally putting words together in sentences. So every day, I'll hear JD say something or ask a question that makes me crack up because he is just sounding so much more like a little man as opposed to a little boy. So here are some of the things he's said in the last week or so, which I thought were noteworthy enough to mention!

• Directed to Mom with eyes full of tears: "He hit me-Karianna!"
• Directed to Mom about five second later when he realized what was on the counter: "I need cookie".
• To the movie theater screen at Kung Fu Panda: "Oh no! A bad guy! Panda fall down! Mama! I see monkey! Tiger is sad. No bad guy! Bad guy running!" (He pretty much talked to the screen the entire time. At some point I gave up trying to shush him and figured if an adult is going to go to a kid movie, they should probably expect excited kids).
• In the car after dropping a water bottle and then managing to snag it: "Oh no mama, water bottle fall down....I got it-water bottle".
• To Karianna with any word in the blank: "No Karianna, my __________. Give it back!"
• In church whenever a baby starts crying: "Oh baby crying-oh no. Baby is sad".
• Any time we get into the car: "Oh no mama, car seat is hot".
• During prayer time and without prompting: "Thank you for President Monson-mama, MONSTER!" I am afraid to say that JD thinks President MON-son is a MON-ster....

My Sweet Little Gymnast!

For the last four weeks Karianna has been taking a tumbling class at our rec center; I have completely refrained from posting about it until now since I knew today would reap the best pictures! I got to go in for a mini "recital" where the kids just show off the things they have been working on. I know this class is more focused on getting kids to move around more than actual gymnastics, but I was so proud of Karianna! She was so well behaved, well spoken, and she has progressed so much since the last time she took this class! With the exception of one other child, Karianna is the youngest in this 3-5 year old class, and I was just so proud of her; I am going to be a crier at the big events in my kids life, a fact which was evidenced today as I watched my sweet little gymnast! Take a deep breath, because I had to record as much of it on film (albeit digital) as possible; I would have just recorded it, but I had both little boys to entertain, thus it was easier to reach up and snap pictures before stopping JD from throwing a car and saving Jordan from being the target of said car. Here we go!

This is just too funny!

This totally has nothing to do with my family! But I could not resist posting it, this was just hilarious to me. I heard this on talk radio this morning as we were taking Jared to work, and was just cracking up-even as I'm listening to it now after tracking it down online, I am just cracking up! If you have a few spare minutes, take a listen. It's a voice mail from some guy trying to get a girl to call him after giving her his phone number. They radio DJs will explain it further-there is only one brief phrase I wish they would have bleeped out (no bad language or anything vulgar, just for married couples only), otherwise, it is just so hilarious. I have no idea if it is real, but who cares honestly?!? So funny! Listen all the way to the second voice mail-they'll play that one in its entirety! That's the part that is too comical for words!

http://www.999mixfm.com/player/player?mediapath=&type=mp3&fi=files%2Fsrimedia%2FDIMITRI%20THE%20STUD.mp3&nid=743503&

Built In Bubble Machine

Yesterday we went outside to blow bubbles with our cool bubble fans. JD decided to put the bubble end on his lips, just to see how it would tast. He didn't like it. :) He pulled his mouth away and pursed his lips together really good out of his distaste. When he opened them, out popped a bubble! The simple action of opening and closing his lips with bubble solution on them was enough to produce a bubble! I seriously cracked up! So my wonderful and adorable son has found a new talent to add to his resume-Built In Bubble Machine!

Camping out with my cuties!

Yesterday we decided to build a tent in our family room-it worked out pretty well, and Karianna fashioned a very comfortable flooring arrangment made out of every pillow in the room. For a while we were pirates on a pirate ship....then we were just camping in a forest and we had to eat our dinner before going to bed. Thus we ate a yummy mini lunch of peanut butter and honey before turning in for the night. I love it when my kids get so imaginative, it is the best! Check out our tent and a few other cute pictures:

Just some way cute pictures of Jordan-he's four months old now and as much as Karianna likes holding him, I think Jordan enjoys it just as much if not more! Jordan usually sleeps in bed with me for an extra hour after I feed him at 6, and when Karianna jumps up on the bed after she wakes up, Jordan just lights up with the biggest smile you've ever seen. He sure loves his sister!

Karianna is reading a Winnie The Pooh book to Jordan, who seems completely engaged! See Karianna's mouth? She is in the middle of saying "And this is Tigger, he says HOO-HOO-HOO-HOOOOOOO!". Can you guess which word she is on?

The Last 24 Hours in Kid'Ville

Here's a visual synopsis of our last 24 hours-nothing that exciting honestly, just a regular smattering of events in our household!

Chapter 1: Accident Prone Boys
*I don't know what it is about boys-but JD is just the most accident prone kid ever! On Saturday he was the unfortunate target of a flying dollhouse piloted by Karianna. Today he somehow managed to walk into a wall (seriously) and banged his nose really good. Can you tell how swollen it is? And is it just me or is it a little crooked? Poor kiddo!

Chapter 2: The Imagination of a 3 Year Old
*Karianna spent about half an hour today setting up a very grand race between (from left to right) The fire truck carrying the hurt cars; The putt putt car (reference a Berentain Bears book); The Magic School Bus; Thomas the train; and an airplane constructed of a toy iron, rolling pin, and Elmo attached to the back. The Tower at the very far left is encasing the grand prize which happens to be a toy ring with a blue stone. And the starting line? You guessed it-an old computer mouse.

Chapter 3: Story Time!
*Jordan loves to stare at books. I remember taking a really cute picture of Karianna when she was a baby sitting with a bunch of books, and it was so cute-so we did one with Jordan between books, and I think it turned out pretty darn cute!

Chapter 4: The Plague of the Milky Eyes
*I suppose this would be a reason to invest in a cool camara like Rebecca did! It is so rare to get a picture of all three kids sitting still, looking in the camara, and appearing happy! When I finally do, it is tainted by milky eyes! I still think its cute, but I sure wish the milk would disappear!

Chapter 5: The Primary Promise
*On Sunday Karianna had a lesson in primary about ways to help mom and dad at home. She came home with a certificate that said she was going to help me with the baby (which she is great at anyway). So yesterday after errands, without telling me or asking, she took the liberty of draping a blanket over Jordan in his carseat, and started singing him songs. She was also waving a wand over his carseat, but I couldn't catch that on film. When asked, she told me she was babysitting him like she promised in Primary. The neatest part? Jordan fell asleep. What a great babysitter!

Saturday: Stress turned into a blast!

Saturday started off being pretty stressful! Here's the synopsis: Jared was doing an online chat session for his class, and I was getting ready to take the kids out on errands so he could have some peace and quiet. I heard JD start to cry and Karianna pokes her head into the bathroom to tell me she bonked him on the head. Okay, that happens, no big deal right? I went out to the loft to console JD and to evoke an apology hug from Karianna....when I saw JD, his left eye was dripping with blood! I yelled for Jared to come out and help me-for all I knew, he had completely punctured his eyeball (does that happen?). He typed a quick chat message to his professor, something like, "Family emergency-email later!" He scared everyone pretty good as we later found out! We got JD downstairs, cleaned the excess blood away and found he had a good cut on his eyelid. It looked like someone had shoved a marble under his eyelid directly under the cut...I later determined he looked like Rocky! After icing it for 20 minutes (which rendered the loudest screams from my anti-cold-stuff little boy), the swelling went way down and everything looked okay. So even though the on call nurse at our doctors office told us we needed to go to the ER , we opted to stay home and save ourselves the 4 hour wait, astronomical deductible, and lots of 2 year old tears. So glad we did, as JD was pretty much just fine after a good nap, at which point he was just sporting a lovely bruise and cut on his eyelid.

Are you wondering what really happened? Karianna confessed once the house calmed down-she decided to throw a dollhouse at JD......What do you say to that???? She sure felt bad though and made up for it during the rest of the day! We spent it swimming with Jared's family at what Karianna calls Uncle David's house (which is really an investment house that they bought, are fixing up and will eventually move in, rent, or sell). It was a late birthday celebration for JD since the Lautenschlagers were out of town for the real deal, but it would not have mattered if we had nothing to celebrate-it was so much fun! Karianna and JD just love swimming, and the sentiment grows each time we take a dip-JD continues to amaze me at how good he is at swimming! And Karianna is getting braver and braver with each swim! The water was warm enough for even Jared to get in, and that's saying something! We just had a blast hanging out with everyone, it is always so relaxing spending time with Jared's family, and we really appreciate how supportive and loving they are to our family. Thanks guys, we are so looking forward to doing that again on the 4th of July! Check out our swimming pictures below-it was a great end to a rather stressful morning!

Uncle David the sea monster! Swim Karianna, Swim!

JD learning how to swim to the side and hang on-he's actually trying to figure out how to pull himself out so he can jump in again!

Grandma Lautenschlager hanging out with Karianna!

JD has discovered goggles! Or in his words, "gogo's". Cute kiddo!

Jard just let go of JD in a throw-JD LOVED this, except his floaties popped off a few times when he landed so we had to be careful! He kept his mouth open every time....:)

Karianna jumping off the side-I think Jared is anticipating her splash more than she is!

Jared found an...innovative way of propping Jordan up between swims.

Grandpa Lautenschlager and Jordan!

Aunt Aubrey helping JD swim!

JD just kicking it towards the steps-no help necessary! Next step is getting rid of the floaties. Maybe next summer!

Friday: Mastering Costco!

Just wanted to let everyone know: it is possible to take 3 kids into Costco, bulk up on your food storage, and make it out alive-even with relatively happy kids!!! The kids and I went to Costco on Friday and I was a bit nervous because Jordan was wide awake and kicking-usually he is asleep! Karianna wanted to ride, and that's usually a deal breaker too because it tends to mean she and JD will start arguing within seconds despite their normal good natures. But all was well! I was pretty proud of them! I had a lady with whom I crossed paths multiple times keep telling me she didn't know how I did it with three kids that young. Sometimes I am not sure either, but I do know I love my kids so much, and not only because I can trust them to be pretty good when shopping at Costco (although that is a major perk, I go stir crazy being in the house all day, and Costoc is the equivilant of a scrap of bread to a starving man...just kidding, I'm not that bad, but it is nice to get out! Okay, time to end this parenthesis...).

Here's all the kids packed in the cart pre grocery!

I'm really trying to get a hold of what is in my food storage and what I can actually plan for, so after shopping I took everything out of my pantry and rearranged so official food storage stuff is at the top, piled precariously on top of each other. I was pretty proud of my work-I even faced everything so the expiration date was on the outside. Pretty silly, but I"ll take every little success! And yes I took a picture...

Worth Mentioning

We had such a busy weekend! I've obvoiusly blogged about the Father's Day events, which were great fun! But here's a couple of other things I thought I'd mention just for fun!

On Friday night we decided to invest in a bike trailer. We found this one at Target for 80 bucks, it can turn into a stroller and was pretty easy to attach. Of course, that all doesn't really matter unless it works good. The verdict? This thing is THEE coolest invention on the face of the planet! I love it and the kids potentially love it even more! So on Saturday Karianna and I took the maiden voyage down to the pool-about a 3 mile ride with a swim in between. It was just so fun, this is going to be a several-times-a-week activity!

Even though everyone already knows about our Father's Day, I had to show off one of the things we did for Jared because it was so cool. We got this picture frame from Michaels, it comes with "special" markers that when used on the frames "special" top coat become permanant. So we got to create our own picture from for Jared-I interviewed the kids and just wrote all their comments. It was a lot of fun! If anyone is looking for cute crafts with Michaels, go to www.michaels.com/theknack

And finally, yesterday was a...day. It got progressively harder as the hours passed. In the morning we went to Harkins for the kid movie-Shrek the Third, which I have never seen and didn't particularly like its irreverence, but the kids thought it was hilarious and sat amazingly still! That part of the day was great. Then we had to go to a double doctor appointment for JD and Jordan, which means Karianna has to come. If taking three small children to the doctor isn't bad enough, the appointments were at 1:00-smack dab during naptime. Gross. Hard stuff right there! All the kids wanted to do was fight, say no, and throw the cushions off the chairs. Several shots did not help the situation. Sheez louise, I needed a break. Seems like that became the theme of the day henceforth-"My toy! NO, my toy! Mine! DON'T!" So in order to maintain my own sanity, I finally found an activity for Karianna and JD to do that for some reason diminished the fighting. It involved teacups, spoons, macoroni noodles, and a huge mess, which I graciously let Karianna clean up (she thought it was a fun follow up activity since I gave her a little broom and dustpan. Thank heavens that still works).

So busy day, and busy weekend, but all is well and I love my kids, even on the days when they are very obviously teaching me patience!

Fathers Are So Special!

Yes, I am going to quote the song our primary kids sang in church today:

Fathers are so special with a very special love. They watch us and protect us; they guide us and direct us back to our home above!

I love Father's Day, as I believe fathers have such a special and irreplacable role in the family unit. Jared is just the best dad I could every wish for my children. He is such a busy guy, in between work, his masters program and studying in crazy fashion for his designations right now. However, he is so mindful of his calling as a Father, and just seems to find the time to play tickle monster with the kids, read them scriptures at night, and scramble a couple of eggs for them in the monring. He can render the best baby smiles from Jordan known to man, and Karianna and JD absolutely adore him. What's best though is knowing that I have this man who will support me in this very Christ-like role of parenting, and without him I am just not sure where I would be. So although I do not need a special day to recognize Jared as an amazing father, he is just that and I love him more than words can express! Jared's dad is yet another "dad" in my life-and in OUR life-that is just a wonderful example of a great father who truly loves and cares for his children. I have personally always admired how level and calm he always is and I see so much of him in Jared. We sure do love him and are so thankful for the example he is in our lives, and in that of our children!

In addition (I know, the mind reels that I have more to say!) My dad was just the best Father you could ask for. I have so many wonderful memories of him teaching, loving, and supporting me. He taught me the most important life lessons I have every learned; showed me what it means to love as Christ does; and helped me glimpse the love of a parent. Today I have been contemplating a very poignant memory-though I only remember it through my mom's eyes. She told me on the evening Jared and I got married, after we had left the reception and they had returned home for the night, my dad went into the family room, to "his" couch, and just sat there staring off into space with a slight smile on his face, yet a bit of sadness in his eyes. I was his first child to marry, and upon asking told my mom he missed me in the only way a father could miss his daughter when the role of her protector and provider passed to another. I remember dancing with my dad at my reception. We didn't talk at all, and I could sense that same feeling in him. At the same time, we both had a silent understanding that although I was beginning a new chapter in my life, our relationship would never change, the love would never dwindle. I think back on this night a lot because though our situation has changed drastically, our relationship has not changed; the love of a father and a daughter has never dwindled. I am thankful this is a bond that transcends all things mortal and especially grateful that families are forever. I love my dad, and so grateful for all that he is to me.

Happy Fathers Day to all the dad's out there-what a special place you have! And if you are still with me :) Scroll down for some REALLY cute pictures of a one of a kind Princess Ball!

Princess Ball!

On Saturday night our stake held a special Daddy Daughter date in lieu of Father's Day! I remember when I was little and my dad would take me on Daddy Daughter Dates. Most of the time they were little things just to do together-my favorite was going to the thrifty store (which I think are all closed now) and picking through the many barrels of ice cream they had for our traditional ice cream cones. I think I would invariably pick mint chocolate chip every time, just because we never ever had it. I also remember picking real strawberry ice cream quite a bit too. We would eat, talk, and go home-very simple, but I remember them, and they are sweet memories!

Back to the princess ball-this was the theme of the Daddy Daughter Date! Karianna became Princess for a day, and her Prince Charming was Jared! So cute to see them together ready to head off to the "Ball"! I tell you, there is nothing quite so special for a mom than to see her husband fathering their children! I'm going to go nuts on the pictures so please excuse my need to share how cute this evening was! I had to live vicariously through the camara-what can I say? :)

Here are a bundle of pictures of Karianna as I was getting her ready-she was going as Belle (obviously)! I had to pin her dress a little bit so it was modest, fashioned some hair pieces (I can do it Becca!) and after 20 minutes of curling her hair, she looked so adorable, I had to take about a bazillion pictures while she posed-I was really proud of her hair, hence the hair pictures!

Here's Princess Karianna and Prince Charming! How sweet it is to see Karianna with her Dad, whom she loves so much!

At the Ball, at the Ball! Here's a few shots of Karianna and Jared at the ball-getting a Princess corsage, rocking it out to princess tunes, and giving one final pose before the clock struck midnight! How fun!