MY BIG KIDS

my little princess with her princesses

ryan's cool dinosaur he drew

i really can't believe how fast ryan and emily are growing up! i know i say that a lot, but seriously it's crazy that ryan is going to be 4 in a few weeks, and em will be 2 in a few months! my little baby girl just wants to grow up too fast. last night when i put her to bed, she said "bed mommy" and pointed to the big bed in her room. i decided to give it a try, and she did great. it's kind of high so i was afraid she might fall out, or get up all night long, but she stayed in her bed all night long. tonight she also went right to bed, and stayed. so far, so good. i really am not ready for her to be so grown up! we took the high chair down a few weeks ago, and darrel has been wanting to take the crib down. i didn't want to ruin a good thing we had with the crib, so i was against it. until last night any way. she just wants to do everything ryan does. she also tells me every time she needs to go potty. i might even try training her in the next few days. she will go potty on the toilet when i let her. i have to admit it will be nice to have the extra space in her bedroom, and to not have to change (or buy) any more diapers. i will leave the crib up for a while just to make sure this whole bed thing is really going to work out.

ryan has been loving his little classes so much! i am so impressed with his drawings. i really don't think i could do much better. maybe he is taking after his uncle john. a few weeks ago they split our ward, and created a brand new ward for us. i am sad to be leaving some of my friends, but excited to make new ones at the same time. this is really hard for ryan because he loves his sunbeam teacher sooooo much! they haven't called anyone to any of the callings yet so people have just been volunteering to teach the different classes. it took me a few minutes to convince ryan to go to primary, but he did and was fine, until i guess the last 5 mins or so. when i went to get him out of class i could tell he had been crying. the teacher said it got kind of crazy -there are probably 8 sunbeams or so and she had them all in her class - so you can just imagine. she didn't know why he got so upset. i asked him what was wrong and he said he just needed something to make him happy, and started crying again. this broke my heart and made me cry. on the way home he kept saying the kids were fighting and they needed to zip up their lips, turn the key, and throw it away. they will definitely need 2 sunbeam classes. the other night i told ryan to come and help me clean up his blocks and he said "no mommy i just need to cheer you on." i know i have never said this to him, but it cracked me up. where do they come up with this stuff?

RYAN AND EMILY

the pictures are a little blurry, and her part is not straight, but i was so excited that i was able to do french braids (and they even stayed in all day). her hair is getting so much thicker. every time i get her dressed she says "bows mommy" and pats her head. she loves her bows, and so do i!

she looks so darn grown up to me. oh and yes kristy these are the same pants from last year. well kinda.... i found them at the gymboree outlet. i loved them so much i bought some in her size now. i already had the matching bows so why not.

if she isn't wearing these shoes around the house she has on my shoes with the highest heals i have. i don't know how she walks in them. i am afraid she is going to break her ankle.

ryan started his classes last week, and he loves them! i was very surprised to see that he really isn't shy. he talks to all the kids, and their moms. in every class, he loves to be right by the teacher. they were doing a little dance in this picture. notice how close he is to the teacher (and how far back the other kids are).

he did this bird house in his drawing class. i think it's pretty darn good. he even decided to draw the wind (the purple and green in the air). so, the other day ryan came up to me and said, "look what i wrote" and then he read it to me. this is what it says:

a ax

is plan

to lom

ton to

mat to

man no.

it doesn't make sense and i am not sure where he got the word "lom" but for a 3 year old (i don't think i know too many 3 year olds who can write their letters let alone spell words and write paragraphs on their own) i think it's awesome! oh after he read it he said, "that's what my imagination told me to write." hmmm maybe it's a poem.

p.s. yesterday we took the kids to see kung fu panda. it was emily's first movie and she did such a good job! i hope it wasn't just a fluke for her. i would love to be able to take them to the free kids movies they have all summer long. yum.... popcorn.

MADISON JEAN

my new little niece. man, you forget how tiny they are! she is a cutie pie. she has zach's mouth, and maybe nose, and her eyes are really blue (right now anyway). emily went crazy seeing a little baby. just kept pointing to her saying baby baby over and over again. hannah is so excited to have a little sister. she is going to be a big help!

MY LITTLE PRINCESS

the other day we went to the splash park for my nephews b-day. it was fun, but the water is sooooo cold. ryan and em really didn't even like to play in it. maybe when it gets hotter here (come on it was only in the upper 90's that day) the water won't feel that cold. emily loves her cousin hannah. and, hannah loves being a little mom to emily. she is so good with her. i was laughing at the picture of her carrying em... she's almost as big as hannah. oh, penny had her baby yesterday. a little girl, 7lbs 4oz and no name yet.

this was right before going to the splash park. she cracks me up when she rides this horse. most of the time it's face is facing emily.
my little independent girl will only drink out of a sippy cup if forced to do so. she has to have water and ice cubes. she will even get her own if we let her. she is pretty good with a cup actually. doesn't she look so grown up?
we go swimming about every other day, and this season emily has not been to keen on the idea of swimming. we put her floaties on, and she just wants to sit on the big ledge. well today was a different story. ryan was practicing his diving and just jumping into the pool, and emily had to do it too. she didn't even want me to hold her hands. my arms are going to be tired tomorrow from lifting them out over and over again. she also figured out how to use the floaties without her face being in the water. it was like a whole new world opened up to her and she didn't want my help at all. she was off swimming all over the pool with ryan. she learned quickly how to kick her legs behind her to get her to go. (sorry about the pic again... i thought i had rotated this one too, but apparently not)

MOZART?

the other day i heard ryan outside, but i couldn't really hear what he was saying. darrel told me to come outside, and this is what we found. ryan had composed a whole song all along the edge of our patio clear down to the sandbox. the title of his song was "i'm going to time out" and he even sang the song to us as he pointed to each note. now i'm sorry, but what 3 year old knows how to write music like this? let alone that each note has a different sound. i'm not even sure where he picked it up. he has written a few more songs since then, and now all of a sudden he sings everything!

my handsome little dude!

today was his first day of classes that i signed him up for through our community center. he had his spanish, and cooking class (i was worried he was going to be the only boy in this class, but actually there were more boys than girls). he had such a great time. thur he has an arts and crafts class, and next mon he will also have a drawing class. every night when he says his prayers he is always so thankful for all of his classes. he is growing up.