It's GONE!

I have never cut the length of Karianna's hair before. Not in her nearly 5 years of life. It has always been so fine-we call it fairy hair! I thought taking off some length would somehow make it even thinner. However, we overcame the fear tonite and gave Karianna her kindergarten haircut-a whole new look for a whole new stage of life! I didn't realize how long Karianna's hair had really gotten because it is usually wavy-we took off about 5 and 1/2 inches. She now has what I would call a bob, and when I was finished with the scissors and finally looked Karianna in the face, I actually screamed-because it was so darn cute!!! I just love the look, and I haven't even styled it yet. So here's the brand new Karianna! I love you cutie!

JD Quirks: Potty Training Rules

We have the potty training date set for Monday-that's the day diapers go down the tube (at least for JD) and underwear makes its debut! I like to talk things up with the kids long before they actually happen, especially big changes like this, so we've been talking for a long time about where bodily excrements go (in the potty, not your underwear). So as I was changing JD tonite, he says the following to me:

JD: "Mama, do you know what Jesus says? Jesus says poo poos go in the potty."

Yea, I think JD gets it! Hopefully this makes potty training go a bit smoother, now that I can use the line, "JD, remember, Jesus says poo poos go in the potty..." Is that blasphemous? I sure hope not!

Warm Fuzzy Mommy Moment!

Now that I am just about 7 months pregnant, it has become hard for me to muster up the energy to go out and do stuff with the kids. The fact that its 110+ degrees most days, and the fact that I am having a lot of fake contractions, doesn't help either! I send myself on a lot of unnecessary guilt trips for using Walt Disney as a babysitter or extending naptimes. It has been my goal for the last week or so to really get some good non-TV time in with each child during the day-even if its just an hour or so. They need that connection, and honestly, so do I.

Yesterday, I pulled out all the dollhouse/animal toys for the kids to play with. I was feeling gross again, so all I could do was lay on the floor with them and just chat with them as they played. I ended up laying there just listening to them play for about an hour because I was having a warm fuzzy mommy moment. You know that feeling that washes over you when someone is washing your hair at a salon? Okay, maybe that's just me, but it is so calming and relaxing, I can't help but want that shampoo to last forever.

This was one of those moments. JD and Karianna were playing so well together-completely engaged in this imaginary game with an apartment complex, an evil horse queen, and a safe clubhouse; the evil horse queen kept turning everyone in the apartment complex into statues, but if they could escape to the clubhouse, they could survive. Kind of a compromise between Chronicles of Narnia and the Magic of Pegasus...maybe with a bit of Caillou thrown in there (it was his clubhouse after all).

It was so calming and relaxing listening to JD and Karianna work out the story line together. Instead of fighting, stealing, and tattling, they were actually compromising. When JD encroached on Karianna's side of the evil horse queen's castle, she stared at him for a minute, and I could see her brain working: "I could yell at JD to move his stinky toys away from my game...hmm, maybe I should just see if he wants to use part of the castle and I can use the other part....yeah, that's what I'll do, I'll just give him the ugly side and that will be just fine."

And that's what she did! And she didn't even use the word ugly! I was just so proud of their playtime together, it took all of my will to move and get the camara so I could record this moment. Seriously. When you get those warm fuzzy mommy moments, you literally don't want to move. I promise I'm not crazy! Thanks to my kiddos for reminding me why parenting is the most rewarding calling in the entire world.

How to Build a Strong and Eternal Family

Karianna decided to implement a three-legged race today with JD. It was one of the funniest conversations I have ever heard with Karianna trying to teach JD what to do, and JD just not getting it! It went something like this:

Karianna: Okay JD, when I say go, you have to run, K?

JD: OK!

Karianna: Ready, set, GO!

Karianna proceeds to run and JD falls flat on his face giggling.

Karianna: JD, did you run?

JD: Nope!

Karianna: JD, you have to run so we can win the race. Okay, lets try again, sit right here, let me tie this on your leg, you have to tie it like this so it doesn't fall off, hold your leg still! I can't do it if you are moving! Okay, I got it nice and tight, now when I say go, run really fast, K?

JD: OK!

Karianna: Ready Set Go!

Karianna again takes off and JD falls flat on his face, giggling.

Karianna: JD, didn't you run?

JD: NOPE!

Karianna: JD! I told you to run when I say go! You need to help me so we can be a strong and eternal family! Now come on, lets try again!

It goes on like this for some ten minutes before Karianna just gets plain exasperated and gives up, but that whole "strong eternal family" was the pinnacle of the activity for me!

Jordan Quirks

Jordan walked into my bedroom. Without saying a word to me, he turned on my TV, picked out a DVD (still in the case) and began to insert it into the VCR. He valiantly tried to fit it in for a few minutes, at which point, he turned to me, pointed to the stuck DVD, and said, "Uh oh, Mama" followed by a stream of baby gibberish. I said, "Keep trying Jordan!" So he turned back to the VCR and-you guessed it-kept trying to shove the DVD in. Finally, when none of his efforts were working, he took the DVD out and threw it on the floor. He looked at it for a few minutes, picked it back up, carefully put it back on the shelf, turned off the TV and walked out of the room-without saying a word to me. On to the next conquest, I guess, which consisted of trying to get himself a drink in the bathroom. He made it up onto the stool, snagged the cup, and was trying to turn the water on when I walked in to help.

When did Jordan get so grown up?

JD Quirks

This morning was stressful-we found out Jared had been selected (congratulations-insert bouquet of flowers and a certificate!) for a random audit from the financial aid department at his school. This is just awful timing because if there are any discrepencies, it can delay his financial aid, which, when you get to the end of summer and start to count down the days till school starts, is very stressful. We are not expecting any problems at all, so we are not expecting any delay, but in the back of my head, I am expecting problems just because it will be a....learning opoprtunity. Can you tell I am trying to be positive? Stupid audits.

In light of all the morning stress and faxing in the appropriate paperwork, I hadn't gotten the kids up by 8:15. JD and Jordan were very obviously playing in their bedroom and every now and then JD would yell out, "Mama, its time to wake up!" I was just impressed that he didn't try to just open his door and come out himself. The part that made me smile though was when I heard JD start singing at the top of his lungs, "The boys are back! The boys are back!" Yes, that is High School Musical 3. I had to laugh, and that one little moment helped me get proactive instead of depressive about the situation. Finances may be what they may be, but my kids are still my life, and boy, they make me smile!

Karianna Quirks

My bed is a mess. Karianna was coming into my room to read bedtime stories with me, and she said, "Mom, your bed looks beautiful!" I said to her, "No it doesn't, my bed is a mess!" Karianna said back to me, "Oh, well, I just said that so I wouldn't be rude." So glad I have a polite daughter who realizes that sometimes mom needs a confidence booster despite the obvious mess of the house!

Flashback to our Phoenix days...Karianna explained the details of preschool relationships to me. As a point of reference, she calls her preschool a school-house because it was an in home preschool and she knows her charter school is an actual school. She said, "Mom, in my Phoenix school-house with Miss Holly, Connor really loved me and wanted to marry me." She says this with a very practical look on her face. She goes on.... "And Kolton wanted to marry Semanee, and Daxton wanted to marry Lily." She then corrected her own relationship: "Oh wait, Connor wanted to marry Savannah because I chose not to love him anymore because he just bugged me-he was always touching me and stuff. I think I will just marry Daxton because he's my best friend and I very much love him and he doesn't bug me very much."

Oh, I love this girlie!

Summer's Flying By...

It doesn't seem like we have been too busy lately, but I find myself wondering where in the world summer went-we only have 3 weeks until Karianna starts school! Wow, its going by so fast and I haven't done half the things I want to with the kids before summer ends! Guess we will be usuing our next 3 weeks wisely (at least I hope so). I have been having fake contractions on and off for the last few days, so I've been a couch potato. Today has been better though, so hopefully we'll get to start fresh tomorrow with some last minute summer fun! In the meantime, here's a few things to note about our family.

1. The Hammerquists came over to visit briefly last week-and when I say brief, I mean brief, ie, 20 minutes or so! I was taking them to the airport so they could avoid a parking fee. Karianna was so excited to see Makayla, they had planned weeks ago to play dress up before they had to separate. I didn't have the heart to tell Karianna that they would only be here for a few minutes at 7ish in the morning! The girls surprised me though, they managed to get in a few good outfits before taking off to the airport-we even got a good pose in! I am so glad my kids are such good friends with their cousins. Sure, playdates can get loud and messy, but who cares when you see the rewards you reap? Priceless!


2. Karianna has been working on responsibility over the last several weeks, and I have been so proud of her growing independence. She has always been responsible for keeping her room and her bathroom clean. However, with her starting Kindergarten, we have been giving her more and more responsibilities and it has been great to see her grow in the process. She gets to keep her light on in her room for about 10 minutes after we tuck her into bed; when I knock on her door, she is in charge of turning off her light and going to sleep. She does great with this! She has recently put herself in charge of (pre) brushing Jordan's teeth and helping him get a drink of water-that one is pretty cute, especially since she initiated it. She has started to take showers instead of baths (she is scared of potential bugs in the tub for some reason), and she washes her own hair and washes her body off on her own. She will frequently go into JD and Jordan's bedroom to make their beds, and several times last week I caught her emptying out the drier to find some clean clothes for herself. There are tons of other little tidbits, I just love seeing what Karianna will take charge of each day.

Just one other Karianna tidbit, she has taken to the idea of promises lately. She'll tell me, "Mom, I need you to make me a promise, k? Will you promise to let me eat oatmeal tomorrow for breakfast?" Today's promise was a good one, "Mom, will you promise me that next time we come to this store I can bring my money to buy this dolly?" Sounds good to me, as long as i don't have to pay!



3. Jordan's continues to be in this months-long phase of ignoring every age-appropriate toy we have in the house in exchange for things he shouldn't be playing with. He's getting smart about it though and tries to disquise his antics for actually helping me. For instance, he loves to put away the silverware from the dishwasher. He does a great job putting the spoons, butter knives, and forks in the correct drawer. However, his hidden agenda is to pull out the very sharp steak knives before I can grab them. He thinks its hilarious. A few days ago Jordan apparently decided to help me clean out the fridge-did an awesome job helping me take everything out so I could clean the shelves. As soon as I flipped my back, he decided the fridge just needed to be rearranged all together. He put all of the door items on the bottom shelf-after removing the gallons of milk! I didn't realize he was so strong!

In other Jordan news, he officially starts nursery in two weeks-and we won't be at church this week, so we are essentially done having to deal with him for all 3 hours of the block! Woohoo! That will give me a 2 1/2 month break before having another baby to watch over during church...sigh. Jordan's favorite thing to do right now is to climb up on a child-sized chair and play with things that are usually too high up for his little body. He'll climb up on the chair and draw on our whiteboard. I love this because it keeps him busy, and he hasn't fallen off the chair yet. Hopefully that lasts! Unfortuneately, his more advanced climbing skills has also led him to climbing all the way up onto the kitchen table....

4. JD has been doing swim lessons for about a week now. I was initially worried that he was going to be a complete daredevil in the water and not listen to his teachers at all. On day one of swimming lessons, I realized very quickly that this wouldn't be a problem quite yet. He spent the entire first lesson very sad because he was having a late fit of stranger danger! He stoood in the hot sun for about 20 minutes with his little head down while each teacher tried in turn to coerce him into getting in the water. Nothing worked! He finally broke down crying and I went to sit with him at the water's edge for the last ten minutes. I didn't know exactly how to proceed, I want him to have this experience, especially since we have a pool. At the same time I don't want to push him and make it a miserable experience. I decided to become that annoying parent who thinks she is qualified to be the swim instructor :) I donned a swim suit for lesson two and just climbed in with him. At first, he didn't want to do anything and cried. However, i sat with him at the edge and every other minute I would scoot with him deeper into the water. Eventually, he started splashing around like the real JD I know. I even got him to go out into the water with the other kids for the last ten minutes. They had a race and played crocodile (whatever that is). He had a blast! Lesson 3 and 4, he actually got in the water right away and we mastered the assisted float (belly and back); he even let the teacher do it with him rather than myself. Great improvement for him, and hopefully at some point this week, he won't need me in the water with him at all. My only hesitancy is most of the kids in this class should be in the next advanced class (they already swim-well. Why the parents insisted on the toddler class, I know not, especially since these kids have to be 4 or 5.). Because of this, they are usually in waters that are too deep for JD's height. Hopefully the next three days will go well and we'll end swim lessons on a very positive note!

JD wants to do everything Karianna does nowadays! For the first time ever he wants to hang out in her bedroom with her. If she is playing candyland, he has to do the same. If she is putting make up on, he needs some too. A few days ago, Karianna was reading her levelled book. JD grabbed one as well, sat right next to her and copied her mannerisms-he pointed to each word on the page and read it. Problem is, he was just copying the words she was reading, so it resulted in major cuteness, but way low accuracy. :) JD has also taught himself how to dive. He will run along the edge of the pool like a lion-on all fours-and with no other notice, he will dive into the pool. I think somewhere in the back of his brain he is recreating a scene in Lion King when Mufasa jumps into the stampede to save Simba. Either way, it is pretty awesome!

5. Just a cute pic of me and the kids-all four of them technically! We took this picture before headimg to the Phoenix Zoo for "Winter in July!" Sounds so fun, right? Well, the kids played in the "snow" for about 5 minutes before becoming bored with it (I really couldn't blame them, it was awful nasty stuff). Karianna then decided to pick up a snowball-rock and launch it at Jared. Too bad her aim wasn't more accurate because it ended up hitting Jordan in the eye, inflicting several small cuts, and essentially ending "Winter in July" for our family. Thankfully, an hour of playing in the splash pad with the cousins remedied all the tears-and no one got sunburnt! I got just as wet as the kids and boy did it feel good in the baking heat!

The Fourth of July Post

Going back in time here :) Our family had a great little fourth of July right here in Mesa! It started out on Friday morning, bright and early, with my brother's Eagle Scout project. Really, it was just Jared who went to help out, but he enjoyed helping Stephen complete a huge accomplishment!

Jared went on some errands afterwards only to have our car overheat on him. That almost ruined the day because we had plans to go to a cool water park with the Mantanonas...thankfully we were able to borrow a car from Jared's family and managed the trek down to Mesquite Groves water park in Chandler. I brought my camara, but it was way too much work to watch all three kids-there was no time to snap some pictures. They don't allow floaties in this pool, and although the water was only 3 feet deep at the deepest, I still worried! The kids did great though, i was so impressed with how free they were in the water!

This water park, by the by, is amazing, SO perfectly suited for little kids with a climber in the middle of the kid pool, a lazy river nearby, and a beach entry (amongst other adult stuff). We really enjoyed hanging out with the Mantanonas. We also enjoyed the reminder of how much we loved living out in Chandler! The scenery is beautiful and the clouds roll in so quickly without introducing much, if any, rain. Of course, the clouds had to prove me wrong and a good storm started up, haboob and all (is that how you spell it?) Luckily, we had pulled the kids out of the pool to eat a picnic dinner right before the lifeguards pulled the plug, so we just chalked it up to good timing! I'm dying to go back, and this time I think I'll have the wits to manage the kids and take a few pictures!

The 4th was a great day too! We started it off at our ward's 4th of July party, and it was awesome! One of the best ward parties we have been too, it has amazed Jared and I to see how effortless organization is in this ward. We had a great breakfast with Grandma Erickson and listened to various speakers talk about the flag, national history, and do the color guard. I was impressed with myself that I knew a lot of the answers to the history "pop quiz"-I won 3 pieces of candy! Woo hoo! I think JD and Jordan got a little bored because they laid on the floor to play with toys. Jordan watched JD intently for a few minutes and then worked hard to get his body in the same position as JD's. Cuteness!

The primary kids sang a few patriotic songs, which is always a parent pleaser! Games followed and it was fun to see Karianna join in the hula hoop contest, the bubble blowing contest, and the 3 legged race with Jared. We figured out pretty quick that Karianna hates to lose, which made for an interesting reaction to the fact that she really can't blow a bubble or hula hoop yet-and even with Jared as her 3 legged race partner, you just can't outrun those senior primary kids! She didn't want to do the jello eating contest becuase she thought she would get dirty and that was unacceptable. We sure did have a lot of fun with Grandma Erickson and with the kiddos!

After having a swim-munchie party at our house we headed to see fireworks at Cooly Park in Mesa with my side of the fam. The fireworks only lasted about 20 minutes, but it was a good show nonetheless topped off with salt water taffy. All the cousins loved running around together with their glowsticks, glownecklaces, glowbracelets-all kinds of "glow" paraphanalia! Once the fireworks started, they were pretty intrigued; Jordan is a true daddy's boy in that Jared wants fireworks at his funeral (a long time from now), and I am willing to bet Jordan will ask for the same thing (an even longer time from now). Karianna hung out with Kaitlynn for most of the fireworks and JD decided to add his own air freshener to the atmosphere...I changed him, in the dark, on my lap, about 2 minutes before the fireworks ended. Darn that peer pressure of family members plugging their noses!

Regardless, we really enjoyed the fireworks, the relaxation factor, and hangng out with family!

What a Good Attitude!

Today Karianna had her normal reading lesson with me and I was so proud her for having such a good attitude! Sometimes Karianna can get a little apathetic when something is hard for her (like starting a new book) and it makes for a difficult lesson. I make sure to boost the excitement factor with the lesson progress, and with the level of books she is reading, but she tends to be a bit leary of even starting.

Today's lesson went so well, and not because she did anything amazing, but because she was so positive the entire time! We started off reviewing her high frequency word flashcards-playing memory with them. She's got them down pat and will be ready to add 2 more words next week. We did a quick math extension by making addition problems on a white board with the flashcards and then did a brief word building activity with the "-un" family, since the book I chose for her concentrates on the short U sound. We did a quick picture walk of the book and then I had her read it to me. We stopped after each page to talk about it. Karianna did a great job sounding out the decodable words and we learned impromptu how to attack the "ck" sound (it was funny, when reading "duck", Karianna said D-U-K-K). We also used picture clues to figure out what the word "buck" meant. Now Karianna wants to start a lemonade stand to "earn a buck", as the story mentions!

After we finished I asked Karianna to do a quick retell of the story and I was impressed with how much she retained! I asked her what she liked to do for fun in our city and she named several things. She decided to draw a picture of going to see a movie with a sentence frame; her spelling for the word "movie" was "mve" first and then when I helped her stretch it out more, she changed it to "moove". Too bad adults can't get away with phonetic spelling, I like her way better than the normal way! The lesson ended with smiles, high fives, claps from the boys, and lots of hugs and kisses. Karianna told me she thought the book was easy.

I have to consider if I did anything differently than previous lessons becuase Karianna was just so proud of herself and her effort, it was a great little moment for her and I. I love doing these lessons with Karianna because it teaches me more than it probably teaches her-how to have patience, how to combine what I know about teaching and learning in a positive and relaxed manner, and how to connect with Karianna individually. Sometimes I think I struggle with wanting to push her farther than she is ready. I have really tried to consider what Karianna needs, both academically and emotionally during these lessons and I can tell I am finding the balance when we have good, positive learning experiences like today. I love making learning fun for her and I love seeing the natural progression that comes with learning the basics. Great job to Karianna, I am SO proud of you pretty girl! Thanks for doing your best!

Playtime and Silliness

I love playtime and silliness in our home. I really like structure during the day, which sometimes doesn't allow for tons of good old giggles and nonsensical play-unless I structure it in, that is. :) In any case, I am working hard to let the kids just be kids more frequently, and I caught a few of those moments on film this week.

As back up for this first moment of pure silliness, Jared has a tendancy to use odd utensils if all the normal utensils are dirty. He's been known to use tablespoons, spatulas, carving knives....totally not kidding either-picture eating a bowl of cereal with a ladle. In Jared's defense, he is wonderful at taking over for me when he gets home and getting the kids dinner so I can relax. Tonite's dinner consisted of PB sandwhiches, corn and raisins. No clean spoons though, so Jared just told them to eat with their fingers (true daddy rhetoric!). A few minutes later, he noticed Karianna had gotten "spoons" out for herself and JD-"spoons" meaning a measuring cups! Talk about taking a page out of her Dad's book! She was nice and gave JD the 1/2 cup and herself the 1/4 cup. So sweet.

Jordan still uses his bumbo at 17 months old. Truth be told, Karianna and JD will still clambor in this thing when they are typing on the computer. I love that this is Jordan's favorite place to sit when he's playing in the toy bins. I don't necessarily like these toy bins where they are, but when I found Jordan sitting in his bumbo playing like this, I decided there was no way I could move anything from that corner!

And this is the ultimate moment of playtime! Jared was busy playing a tickle game with Karianna and JD decided to join in by climing on Jared's back and balancing as precariously as possible-in a diaper no less! The second picture is my favorite-I love how it is leveled with Karianna on the bottom, Jared in the middle, and JD as the crowning glory. Most of all, I love seeing Jared so interactive in play with the kids. They LOVE playing with him!

What Did Jordan Play With?

Karianna tattled on Jordan the other day for playing with something he shouldn't. When I came with her to investigate, I found I had a smurf for a son! Maybe not all the way, but it wouldn't have taken long.
I showed Jordan his very blue hand, and he just stared at it while gasping his little toddler gasp. And then he kept saying "Ew gross", and when he says gross, he just makes this gutteral sound that perfectly matches the word. I'm glad he figured out he did something wrong! At least the blue matched his eyes! Anyone want to guess what he was playing with? I can tell you right now, its not the first thing that popped into your brain (marker).

Milestone Day

I had to post this quick tidbit so I can remember when Karianna first did this independently.

Today marks the day that Karianna swam without floaties on her own-and she did it well! She has gained so much confidence in the last month or so; she is tall enough to feel safer in the water, she is able to swim every day, and she is just more outgoing in general as a 4-almost-5 year old. She has been loving swim lessons for the last week and a half, but with the teacher to child ratio, it's hard to get a ton of time to really see what she can do on her own.

Today when we were swimming as a family, she shed her floaties and was just flipping around on her own with no problem! She showed us her freestyle and backstroke, as well as her personal favorite, bobs. She swam back and forth across the pool on her own several times and kept jumping in from the deck trying to throw her head back like Ariel when she came up. :) She's a momma's girl in that sense! There's definitely room for her to grow in her swimming skills, but it was the first time she was all on her own and confident in her abilities for more than 2 minutes :) She didn't want to get out after 20 minutes of being floatie-less.

I was just so proud to see it all clicking for her. I'm not sure if I am ready to just remove the floaties all the time-that's a little scary to me, although I do think she will need that step in order to progress even more. In any case, Karianna just keeps on growing up too fast and I'm just so lucky to be her mom! As a side note, we took off JD's floaties just to see what he would do. No hesitation there, he leaped right in the pool and promptly sank. Still too young to really understand the art of holding his breath, but he starts swim lessons next week-we'll see what happens!

Random Updates

Just a few pictures I have on the camara that I thought I'd put on here, just because they are cute (well, most of them).

We started swim lessons for Karianna this week. I enrolled her in what I thought was the appropriate class only to find out it was what most might term a "baby class" (that's what Karianna called it at least). Luckily I was able to move her up to a more appropriate class without any problems. Here she is with her teacher, Lindsey. You know Karianna likes you when she starts naming her barbies after you. After the first day of swim lessons, 4 of Karianna's barbies were named "Lindsey", just with different middle names.

A big thanks to my Mom for helping out with the boys and with cars. The boys came with us a few times this week, and each time, it was nearly laughable how red they would get within a relatively short period of time. They were slathered with sunscreen, they are just both so fair-skinned that the heat gets to them quick and they end up with apples for cheeks. They spent quite a bit of time sneaking over to one corner of the grassy area that had a huge spider web...gross. Such boys.

I'm just about 6 months pregnant and have a pregnant belly now-yea! Double yea for the fact that my regular jeans still fit and are still comfortable. Triple yea for having a pool that makes wearing long pants feasible in the Arizona summer. Quadruple boo for having a car that is currently overheating from lack of AC and makes being pregnant in general pretty miserable anytime I have to drive anywhere. In the last week, I have been known to stop at a grocery store just to walk up and down the frozen foods aisle. I don't even pretend to be inspecting various brands of cool whip anymore-just give me the cool breeze, baby.

Karianna has been enjoying helping me out in the kitchen lately, especially with sweeping, mopping, and setting the table for dinner. She helped make a salad a few nights ago and she had a blast giving all the veggies a "bath" and then putting it all together. I am betting her favorite part was samping the bacon bits.

Karianna put this outfit together and then proclaimed that she looked like Dorothy. I wasn't really sure why. But then she told me she had Dorothy hair, and I just think she looks adorable. Nothing special about this pic of JD except he looks good in blue :)

We are just heading into Fourth of July weekend and good times with family! I think the kids love this holiday almost more than any other-those fireworks sure get a kid riled up!