Peas

Yesterday we were driving home from Sunday dinner at the Hatch Home, listening to the Articles of Faith songs (the only way we can get Steven to learn them now that he's decided to be stubborn) when Steven asked me, "Does the Holy Ghost have peas in his house?" I was confused at first, not sure what he was asking and then it hit me, "Do you mean peace?" I asked. That was in fact what he meant. We then had a good conversation about who the Holy Ghost is, and what he does. I told Steven about the time I had a feeling that I should stop my car but the light was green and I was going straight and that just seemed silly so I didn't listen. Then a car turned left (they didn't see me) and they hit me. That brought on more questions which I was happy to answer. I love that Steven is starting to understand Gospel Principals and wants to learn more about them. I hope that when Tyler graduates we can be better and have Family Home Evening. But for now I will take these sweet learning experiences as they come. 

AZ Science Center

Sometimes I think I am Super Mom and that I can handle all 3 of my children by myself on a big outing. Usually I am quickly reminded that I am NOT Super Mom. This past Saturday was one such instance.

Thanks to my brother, Mike, I had the opportunity to get me and my kids into the AZ Science center this Saturday for FREE. Although Tyler was busy with school work and work work, I couldn't pass up a free trip to the Science Center so I decided to go. 

I am so grateful that my dad decided to come too because he was a huge help. And I am so grateful for all the help Mike and Mecca gave me. Lucy was an absolute angel up until the end and Ben was actually pretty good too but Steven...Steven was bit of a stinker.

We took the light rail and the short walk from the light rail stop to the science center took an eternity. My kids were slow as molasses. And then once there Steven couldn't be stopped. He was so ADD, bouncing from one exhibit to another and cutting in front of everyone who was waiting patiently in lines. Whenever I pulled him aside to talk to him we were about one second away from a tantrum. He was so frustrating. 

But at the end when Steven said, "I'm really glad we went here. It was fun!" I decided it was all worth it. He did have a good time and Ben had lots of fun hanging out with his poppy. And I enjoyed lots of sweet smiles and squeals from my little girl. So despite the anxiety Steven caused me...it was good times :)

Lucy's new favorite thing to do is to pull her hair flowers down around her neck and chew on them. Such a stinker!

Their sweet cousin Oliver, he was such a good boy!

Ben listening to his heart beat play on a drum

Steven wouldn't do it but Ben was brave and laid down on a bed of nails!

Me and all my kids on the light rail home (and Mike & Oliver sitting next to us). Sometimes I think to myself, oh my gosh! I can't believe I have 3 kids! I am so outnumbered!

April Updates

Lucy modeling all her new hair flowers:

My little Lucy girl continues to roll like crazy and is doing better at rolling herself off her tummy and onto her back. She also loves to squeal and shriek. When she's done nursing she doesn't just pull of, she screams like a banshee. Night time is better but still not perfect. USUALLY she sleeps from 9pm-5am and then she'll go back to bed and wake up somewhere between 7 & 8am. But I still have some nights where she wakes up before 5am and I have to go give her a hug and then let her cry it out. Thankfully she only cries for a little bit before falling back asleep.

Her nursing times have been pretty consistent (although I may have just cursed that fact by saying that). She nurses for 10-15minutes around 8am, 11am, 2pm, 5pm and 8pm. 

Yes, that is underwear on Steven's head. Last week I bought him new Lego Batman underwear while he was in preschool. I put it on his car seat and when I picked him you would've thought that was the best present ever! He went on and on about how he wanted that and how did I know? And did Benny pick it? And can he really keep it? He was SO excited, it was hilarious!

Steven is SO inquisitive, my mom was telling me about a comic strip that had a ghost in it by a mailbox and so Steven asked, "Is there a ghost in your mailbox Grandma?" I told him, "Yes" and suddenly Grandma was bombarded with questions: "Where is the ghost now?" "What does it do?" "Will it come to my mailbox?" "Can I see it?" This kid is going to drive his teachers nuts!

His inquisitiveness also led to nice bruise on his forehead. What happens when I open all 4 drawers of my tall dresser at the same time? It falls on my head!

Do you remember the picture of the "nest" I showed awhile back!? It is basically a bunch of blankets that Steven piled on the floor in his room. Well, since creating his "nest" he has not slept in his own bed. He literally only sleeps in his nest. A little odd, I know.

And the picture below is Steven showing how his new nail polish tastes. I bought some bitter nail polish and painted his thumbs with it and so far it has been a success. I have seen NO thumb sucking! At sacrament Sunday he did put his thumb into his mouth and immediately pulled it out and made that face. He then wanted to take several of the water cups and was not too happy about having to wait to go get a drink.

 And here's my silly Benny! I love this kid but we had a rough start to this week with him regressing on Sunday and having quite a few accidents. But after getting naughty spray twice on Monday (I know I'm evil), he finally stopped having accidents and is back to keeping his underwear dry.

And on that note. Ben is constantly putting his underwear and/or shorts backwards. You would think it would be quite uncomfortable to have your underwear on backwards but for some reason it doesn't bother him. 

Our new chores have been a learning experience for Ben. It has been challenging to get him to figure out how to properly clean a toilet and to teach him NOT to wipe his hands with the Clorox wipe when he's done. It was also a challenge to get him to put his clothing in the proper drawers. But today we had some success- he cleaned all the parts of the toilet without me telling him which ones to wipe. I was so proud!

Ben loves his brother (even if he tortures him constantly) and had to put underwear on his head just like Steven. Don't worry, that pair is clean ;) He also loves to copy his brother. Any story that Steven tells, a second later you can typically count on Ben telling you the same story. 

Money Sense

Last week the weather was beautiful in the mornings so I took the kids for a stroll on the temple grounds. It was so fun to look at all the different flowers that were blooming. Steven especially loved the daffodils. Ben loved the cactus garden and would either comment on how the cactus was "small like me" or "big like Steven and mommy." It was super fun!

Afterwards we walked over to Seagull Bookstore and I got the boys banks that have a slot for savings, tithing and spending. Anytime Steven gets money, all he wants to do is spend it ALL. So when we turned all his pennies in his piggy bank into quarters and all he wanted to do was take them to the mall and sit in one of those cars that shakes...I thought let's teach him some money sense instead!

After divying up his money into the 3 compartments, he took the quarters from the spend compartment to Walmart and put them to a much better use than a shaky car- he got water balloons and bubbles! The boys have been having too much fun throwing the water balloons. Thankfully, they don't try to throw them at each other (which is bound to end in drama with Ben) but instead they just enjoy throwing them at walls, driveways, grass, etc and watching them ExPlOde!

Steven also likes to put the hose attachment to his own mouth and blow up the balloons. It's pretty funny and it gave him a nice looking mustache. Such a goof ball!

And since I want them to learn how to manage money, I've started up a chore chart. They will do 4 chores a day, Monday-Friday. The chores are: put their own laundry away, wipe down kitchen table & bathroom toliets, empty bathroom garbage cans and the 4th chore will change each day (anywhere from helping empty the dishwasher to giving Kevin clean food & water). They will get a nickle for each chore they do so if they do them all, they get $1 a week. I have no idea if this is reasonable or not but we're giving it a try this week to see how it goes. I am super excited to finally enlist child labor in my home!!

And this last post has NOTHING to do with money but instead adorableness. Yesterday, I painted Lucy's toenails bright pink- it matched the flowers on her church dress perfectly! It was so tricky to do but so worth it. We went to Kyle Hatch's baby blessing and his Grandma Hatch and Aunts were full of compliments for her toes :) 

...However, she still likes to eat feet so hopefully she doesn't digest the polish while she's at it... 

Misc. Things

A few weekends ago, the very cute child pictured above and his very cute brother, did something that was less than cute. While I was blogging, they took a whole container of glitter (one my mom had given me with some other craft supplies) and spread it EVERYWHERE. As a teacher, I never liked to use glitter because your classroom would sparkle (and not in a good way) for weeks. Well...here it is a few weeks later and I still see those evil sparkles in my house. Needless to say, they were very lucky that all I did was yell at them.

For Easter, if you recall from previous post, Steven had got some bubble bath. It smelt like bubble gum (go figure) and while I was putting away laundry he decided Lucy girl needed to smell it too. Well....he pushed a bit too hard and poor Lucy's face was covered in soap. It was the saddest thing ever! And the hardest thing ever to get the true story out of him- at first he stated that the bubbles just fell out on her. I guess in his mind that was sort of how it happened...

And lucky Steven has now inherited my old I-Pod. It was actually a few years ago that I got a much better music player and so that one has been hanging around the house since then. And though it was fully functional, somehow it ended up in the toy bin. Recently it resurfaced and since Steven is such a music junkie I decided to put some songs he likes on it and let him have it. Oh goodness do I regret that choice. His favorite thing to do!? Connect to daddy's speakers or turn up the headphones so all can hear and then play the beginning a few of the songs over and over again. He can't just listen to one whole song. Or even all the songs! His favorites: "We will rock you!" by Queen and "Gangnam Style" Not the bestest choices for a 5 year old, I know.

Lucy girls has become a HUGE fan of eating her feet. I absolutely think it's the cutest thing ever! Much cuter than her new habit of rolling on her tummy, crying about it and then repeating that action at least 500 times (only a slight exaggeration ;) ).

I have also been "sleep training" Lucy. Torture! The first night she cried for 40 minutes straight and Tyler's sweet comment "Why are we doing this?" ('cause it's so fun right!?). The second night she cried for 20 minutes. The third night she didn't wake up until 5:45am. And then last night--- she cried for 40 minutes again. Once again Tyler with his great comments "She's not going to sleep, why don't you just go get her" (but I didn't and she did- so ha!)  She is SO inconsistent it makes me cRaZy! I thought on the third night we were done but then last night happened. I love that girl but I just want to sleep through the night again!

Schedule wise she is awake 2-2.5 hours at a time, takes a 1.5-2 hour nap in the morning and early afternoon and about a 1 hour nap in the late afternoon. She does her last nursing session around 8:30pm. At least she has some consistency during the day! 

And on a happy note, a friend's sister-in-law made me these gorgeous headbands for Lucy. The picture is a bit blurry bit I love them!

And here's our family pic from our visit to Boeing....

Easter Sunday

Easter Sunday I was awoken by Steven- "Mom the Easter Bunny came & he left us notes!" He was SO excited to see what the bunny had brought him so after being nagged for about 10 minutes to come downstairs, I finally dragged myself out of bed and went with him to find his basket.

The note read:" You will find your basket where mommy keeps her cooking supplies." After looking through many cupboards, Steven finally found his basket inside one! Inside his basket: a Transformer's toothbrush, bubble bath, bubbles, candy necklaces, bubble gum, a chocolate bunny, a grabber, and a lion that grows grass hair. Yes he was spoiled!

When Ben finally woke up Steven was overjoyed- he couldn't wait to go see what Ben got from the bunny (he was more excited about it than Ben). Ben's note read: "You will find your basket where mommy goes to work." He found his quickly, it was on the floor in my office. Inside his basket: jello-beans (aka jelly beans), chocolate bunny, bubbles, pirate  toothbrush, toothpaste, a small magna doodle. and a monkey that will grow grass hair. Another spoiled boy:

And the last person awake was Lucy. Her note read, "You will find your basket where people wash their hands." Both boys were more than happy to go find the basket for her. It was in the bathroom sink. Inside her basket: purple bunny ears, a ball and a teething necklace.

Tyler & I also got baskets. Mine was hidden in the fireplace and full of candy. Tyler's was hidden in a cupboard in the hallway, his had the shirt he's wearing in the picture below and some candy`. 

Later on it was time for church and I failed to get a family picture. But I did snap a photo of Lucy before she headed out. The dress looks all white in the picture but it is white on top with light blue gingham on the bottom. I love the big bow but Tyler kept saying she looked like Aunt Jemima- so rude!

After church we went to the Hatch home for a delicious Easter dinner and our traditional Easter Egg Hunt. I was of course the lame mom who forgot their Easter baskets so they had to use really pretty grocery bags. This Easter Egg Hunt was a lot more challenging than the Ward one. The eggs were actually hidden and both boys needed help finding their eggs. But with help they each got their eggs and were on a nice sugar high for the rest of the night.