I have GOT to write more before I forget all these little details. Pretty soon, they won't want to be around me anymore and I will be crying about the fact that they aren't little anymore!
Kendall (2.5)
- She is a little princess and knows it! She loves to pick her outfits everyday, and usually picks her fanciest Sunday dresses for everyday play.
- She is communicating so well and speaking in full sentences. An example that comes to mind is when I brought her to a lunch date with someone I visit teach and we were at this cute bakery with lots of goodies. Kendall refused to eat the soup I got her, but willing ate a giant sugar cookie. Then she said very matter of factly, "I want another cookie." To which I responded, "No" and then she had a full blown crying tantrum on the floor about it. :)
- Right now, she loves reading. Just give her a stack of books and she is happy for quite awhile. I brought her to a camp meeting with me last month, and brought a stack of books for her to read and also brought "Frozen" for her watch, but was only going to use that as a last resort. She literally sat through an hour and a half meeting and just sat quietly pretend-reading her books. She made us both look SO good that day! And I had them all fooled. ha ha
- We recently got bunk beds in the girls' room, but are also keeping the crib in there until we are done with it. She LOVED the idea of sleeping in the big girl bed on the bottom bunk and we decided to give it a try. She did amazingly and has fully transitioned to the big girl bed at night. I still require naps to be taken in the crib because I don't want to risk anything with losing that precious nap time. The funny thing about her bed, is that she doesn't think she can get out of her bed without permission. Amazing! When she wakes up, she waits in bed chatting and reading until I come and tell her she can get out and she rarely comes out of her room when going to sleep. It is like someone has a magic spell on this child when it comes to sleeping - she is our best sleeper by far!!
- We love it when it says I love ___ ; her version is "I yuve Mickey!" or "I yuve pawties (parties)" / We also love it when she says look = yook "Yook at the moon, mommy!"
- One night during her prayers, without any prompting, she prayed for the BYU Cougars!
- Kendall's best friend is Brooklyn Gunnell who just turned 3 and lives just a few houses down the street. I am surprised at how close they are at this age, but they are starting to do really well with little play dates and they prefer to have each other when playing at the park.
Andrew (4.5)
- Sweet Andrew says "I love you" constantly and is very loving and cuddly. He loves to sit on laps, especially at church, and if he had his wish, he would love to sleep next to someone every night. But he has also informed me that he and his friends do NOT like kissing. He will give me a kiss on the cheek only for special occasions. We had some very serious conversations about whether or not he will have to kiss his wife. I told him that it will be his choice and that he will get to choose. He thought that was a great answer and says that he will not kiss the person he marries. :) I bet he will change his mind about kissing!
- Andrew has some fears and is scared of being alone (particularly in the middle of the night), so we are working through them slowly and trying to be patient with him. Ever since cousin Ellie passed last August, Andrew has had a lot of questions about death. He is very concerned about who in our family will die first and if he will be left alone, and when people will die. I don't blame him, because now the answer, "we will die when we are old" doesn't really cut it anymore. Ellie taught us all invaluable lessons and we still think about her daily. The kids still pray for Ellie in Heaven, and they have the most beautiful testimony about how she is with Jesus and they know that they have to make good choices in order to live with Jesus again.
- A few months ago, Andrew was waking up and bothering us with different issues and asking for people to lay by him about 4 times each night (10p, 12p, 3a, 5a), and it was wearing on us! We set some serious ground rules, and it is finally starting to pay off, but it has been months of training him. First, no one is allowed to lay next to him anymore. We sit outside his door in the hallway while he falls asleep. Then, if he wakes up and can't go back to sleep on his own, then he can come sleep on our floor, but is NOT allowed to wake us up. He ends up on our floor every single night at this point (we think he comes in around 1am). Then, if the clock says 5 or 6, he can get into bed with us, but no sooner!
- Wintertime brought a new wakeup time for Andrew. He was sleeping in until 6:30 or 6:45 for two whole months. Now it's back to 6am. It was fun while it lasted!
- He may not be our best sleeper, but he is our best eater! He eats a ton of fruit and I can almost convince him to try or eat anything. I can't even imagine what it will be like to feed him when he is a teenager.
- We got a phone call from his preschool teacher and he was having some silly moments at school with his friends, Fisher & Maddox. We made some serious threats and lots of pep talks, which thankfully seemed to solve the problem.
- Andrew's best friends are Maddox Tompkinson, Ben Nelson, Emmitt & Fisher Hawks. He asks for play dates daily, and taking away a play date is the most effective punishment to date!
Rachel (6.5)
- Rachel is very thoughtful and loves to write kind notes to everyone. Her teachers (at school and church) love her and she seems to be very friendly to everyone at school. She is the best little kiss-up and following in her mother's footsteps (voted as biggest kiss-up senior year). Seriously though, she knows how to play the game and is very polite to adults especially.
- She recently told us that she would like to sing a solo in Sacrament Meeting. We decided to start a little smaller and arranged for her to sing in Primary. She sang, "If the Savior Stood Beside Me" and I thought it went pretty well, but it's hard to know since I am a little bit bias.
- For as sweet as she is to everyone at school and church, you'd be surprised to know that she is not very kind to Andrew. We are constantly reminding her to "treat her family like she treats her friends". She mothers him, and constantly tries to manipulate the situation. I think she is jealous of the relationship that Andrew & Kendall have, since they are very close and get to play all day while she is at school. Kendall would rather play with Andrew, be comforted by him, hold his hand, etc. When Rachel is home and playing with them, she likes to be the boss! She easily assumes the leadership role in any play setting with younger children and is just plain bossy (also takes after her mother in this way - as the first child, I was also very bossy!). All this causes problems between her and I because I have to stay on her case all afternoon. Between all that and trying to help her become a math master at school, we are sometimes at each others throat by the time daddy walks in the door!
- She taught Andrew her school's song, "Ishikawa Dragons" (tune of "Puff the Magic Dragon") and he knows it word for word and even sung it for his preschool's talent show. Rachel regrets teaching him the song because he sings it all the time now. Everytime he sings it, she covers her ears and gets very upset and runs away! Even after multiple conversations and practicing how to handle this particular situation, for some reason, it always sets her off.
- She is mostly a good sleeper - goes to bed around 8pm and most of the school year, has woken up around 6:45-7am. But she always wakes up extra early on Saturday mornings because she says she is excited that it is her day off! She's usually up by 6am on the weekends - I think that is so funny! I told her that instead of turning on Netflix on Saturday mornings that we should start with chores, so that she sleeps in longer!
- She is an excellent reader, and is reading the Fairy chapter books and Junie B Jones all by herself. She is making some good progress with math, but it does not come as easily as reading has and she's not convinced that she is very good at it, so I will have to keep working to change her mind and build up her confidence. I want to pass on the love of math that mommy and daddy share!!
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| Color Me Mine piggy bank projects with Grandma Nancy at Christmastime |
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| This rarely happens, so when it does, I take a picture! |
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| All ready for bed - oftentimes, she wears shoes and dresses to bed - I pick my battles! |
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| Park play date turned "man" no-shirts party! There are so many little boys in our neighborhood, which makes it so fun for Andrew! |
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| After preschool playdate with Maddox & Fisher |
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| Field trip to the Zoo for Preschool with Emmitt & Fisher |
We got together with our Chicago friends who now live in Arizona. (Chris & Toria Trendler, Josh & Melanie Wallbrecht, Ned & Melissa Resch) The kids and adults had a great time catching up at the train park in Scottsdale.
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| CRAZY clouds on one of my morning runs! |
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| Kendall and Brooklyn supporting me in my half marathon training! The kids have been great running buddies to me! |
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| This was so sweet. She did it all on her own. I love the funny joke at the end! |
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| Andrew & Maddox - Blackmail picture! |
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| Perfect for the future wedding videos! |
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| Big girl bed! |
