You can see I am a bit anxious to actually be "caught up" again, but it has been so busy around here so I am doing it in spurts again! Well I started this 2 weeks ago so everything has now been updated at the end of the paragraphs!
Our kids are getting big way too quickly, but they are so fun at the same time!! Alli is still loving gymnastics and dance and music. She starts dancing anytime she hears music and has some good moves :). Her preschool will end in a few weeks and she will be kind of sad I think. She has really loved Miss Heather, but she is excited for kindergarten! She is sounding out words reading and sounding them out to write us notes. She still asks if we can get a horse often and even sometimes asks if we can get a dolphin. We try to read a little bit in the scriptures with her at night and she is starting to really like the Book of Mormon. She will ask for an extra section/story some nights which really could just be attempting to stall going to sleep, but sometimes it works and she gets more because how do you turn down a kid asking for extra scriptures??? She prayed one night after reading that the "writers of the Book of Mormon would not fail and could keep going". I think that was when she was asking how they would write, but I am not totally sure what she was meaning by it. Last night she asked if Heaven was far away and where it is at. I feel like I need to "up my game" when it comes to spirituality to teach her the things she wants and needs to know. I know of feel like I have this special window of time to teach her as much as I can before it begins to close... She is persistent, stubborn, sweet, loving, caring, intuitive, and easily distracted by tv shows. But she is really a good listener most of the time and is pretty quick to do her chores in the morning (make her bed and pick up her room). She loves crafts and art projects and makes signs and letters often. I love how often she writes I (heart) u Mom. Update: She made me some super sweet cards yesterday for Mother's Day and I love them!! We planted our garden and some flowers I bought on Saturday and she was loving the garden planting. Now each morning she asks to go water it-maybe everything will live since I am not the sole waterer! This morning we planted more of my massive amount of flowers and she was so cute helping dig the holes and then I started digging holes and laying out the flowers and she would put it in and fill it up so she was the "Assistant Gardener". She made me such a cute card again today that had both of us-me with a ponytail sticking straight up (since you can't see it go back she said) and a flower in my hair. I love seeing her drawings. At her kindergarten checkup last week she was asked to draw a picture of our family and she started with me, added her, added a cousin, added Ilene and Cam and then added Ryan-in the shower in a towel since in her words "I don't know how to draw boy clothes and he wouldn't want to be in a dress" haha it totally made me laugh! She is healthy, still quite tall, super smart according to the questions the doctor asked and how she was able to process through them, has 20/30 vision (which is fine right now) and was pretty brave for her shots even though she cried before them. She was so nervous for them, but after the fact she said they weren't as bad as she thought they would be and was pleasantly surprised at how quickly the stiffness and soreness went away in her leg.
Ilene continues to be goofy and silly and sweet and cute as ever!! She is growing up too fast and is talking way too clearly with way too many words, but I LOVE it. Her little voice is beyond any description in cuteness! Last week Ryan was getting her to sleep and she tooted. He asked her if she tooted and she said she didn't. Then she said "Knock knock who's there daddy toot" and she started laughing like she had told the funniest joke ever. Ryan laughed so then she continued to name off people who had "tooted". She loves doing anything Alli is doing and if Cam is fussy or sad she will start trying to cheer him up. This usually involves singing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. Update: Update: Yesterday after church she came up to me eating a mini candybar and said "I not eating tandy" haha love that she was going to try to hide the completely obvious evidence :). She is usually found doing whatever Alli is doing-coloring, dancing or playing outside in their playhouse if I am outside. But she also loves doing puzzles still. She will get one of her floor puzzles out at least once a day and she is pretty darn good at figuring them out! She loves Cinderella (Alli loves Sleeping Beauty) so anything that is blue (or baby blue as she says it) is a big hit. Other than blue she loves anything pink. She has been wanting us to call her "Mom" or "Jamie" so she will correct us often that "I not Ilener I Mom" etc. but sometimes she will say "I not Mom and I not Jamie, I Ilener" and her little voice just gets me every time-so sweet! She loves gymnastics and music class so much and she is getting great at counting. She can now count to 10 pretty reliably. The funny thing with her is that she is such a sponge and whatever Alli is doing she will be learning as well so that is how she taught herself how to count. She will ask us to do things "3 more times" or "5 times" but she doesn't get the whole concept of how many that actually is for the most part, but it is super cute hearing her say it! When Alli was going to get her shots Ilene would tell us how she got shots when she went to the doctor to get her tooth out, but she said she liked her shots :) and the poor girl obviously didn't like all 5 shots she got in her mouth!
Cam is completely adorable and truly captures hearts everywhere we go. It is funny to see the guys who are working in our basement just melt when he gives his little "4" wave or gives a high five with his darling smile. I could just freeze time and keep him at 10 months forever because he is so fun, but I am so excited to see him grow and change as well. He is a pretty content "little" dude and he loves his food. Update: He eats most vegetables and fruits and has 2 bottom teeth with his top 2 teeth just about to break through-FINALLY!!! These teeth have been in the works for a solid month now. He crawls all over the place, talks quite a bit of baby jabber, and pulls himself up on everything! He LOVES to stand all by himself and has quite impressive balance. He will waver and gets so excited when he can keep himself standing, often times he will stand for about 10 seconds before faceplanting or falling on his chubby bum and is instantly happy the minute he is standing again. Thankfully no steps have been taken or attempted yet :). His big sisters love playing with him so much and he just loves them and loves when they cheer for him when he bounces in his bouncer. It has been a little busy with 3 kids and sometimes I think about how "simple" it was with one or two kids, but I wouldn't want to change a thing about the timing of our kids now. Even though it is sometimes interesting juggling the needs of 3 small kids who may "desperately" NEED things right at the same time they love each other so much (and hit each other depending on the moment!) and there is so much joy and laughter that I feel so blessed.
We are in the process of getting our basement all finished and we are so excited!! This meant that everything we had been storing downstairs needed to find a new home. I sold some stuff we wouldn't use but had been storing and gave away other stuff and the stuff we want to keep is either in our living room (extra couches) or garage on a ceiling rack and shelves Ryan installed. Ryan did pretty much all of the framing and the electrical and then we had an electrician come hook everything up. So far this week the builder we are using has framed a few closets we decided to add and torn down a wall/door, changed the door on the bathroom because our originally builder framed it awkwardly, and added a few boards to make sure the framing is how it needed to be. HVAC guy came and switched some vents and the electrician hooked everything up to the new panel we added and then ran a few things we wanted to change. So now we are to drywall and they delivered it and got it all hung Wednesday, yesterday it got mostly taped and they should be able to finish the taping and first coat etc. today so it can dry all weekend! So we are really excited with how quickly it is going. Everything should be done by the end of May or very beginning of June :).
*Update: now the drywall is done and they are doing the tile in the shower wall, kitchen floor, and bathroom floor! I picked everything out last week and am loving seeing how it is actually in the places! It is getting so real seeing everything and it is so exciting!!!
I posted something on my facebook yesterday (Mother's Day) and it really is how I feel about being a mother so I want to put it here too, but here I can expound just a bit :). I am so grateful to be a mother. I love my 3 little kiddoes more than I thought possible and I love them more every single day-even when they are stinkers! They are so sweet and precious and challenging and loving and I truly can not imagine anything I would rather so with my life than raise these amazing little souls and to hope to shape them into what they can be. Seeing their smiling faces just fills my heart so full of true joy-even if it is stinker Cam trying to play at nap time or Alli telling me a funny joke or Ilene sneaking a treat. Their innocent and trusting faces just melt me and I want to protect them from everything possible and prepare them for what they will face at the same time. I worry about their future and the challenges they will face, but I know they are strong little spirits-I just hope I can help strengthen their goodness to combat the evil that seems ever growing.
I am thankful to a Heavenly Father who entrusted His precious children to me for this time and I am ever so thankful for the example I have of what it means to be a mother in my own mom. She has been a constant source of love and support for me and now for my kids and family. She is so faithful and has always been faithful to her Heavenly Father and that has strengthened my testimony more than any words could. I love how much she loves not only me, but my brothers and their families. Hearing her talk about all 14 of her grandchildren and seeing her face light up makes me happy. She is so proud of all of her children and their spouses and children and loves hearing about their successes and feeling needed and being able to support them however she can. This to me is exactly what motherhood is about. NO matter how old we are, we always need help and she is so willing to help whenever asked regardless of the personal sacrifice. I am thankful for my sisters in law for their examples and love because sometimes you just need to talk and vent and get ideas on what to do! And I love looking at their blogs and seeing the fun and amazing moms they are!
I feel so blessed to be surrounded by so many supportive friends and neighbors who are great inspiring mothers. SO many of my friends are such deliberate mothers who truly make being a great mom who puts her children first "cool". Instead of them feeling like they are giving up their life they truly believe they are gaining something far more important than anything else they could be doing. I have realized that I am the happiest when I am with my kids. I love when they are asleep at night :) but I love hanging out with them during the day too. Honestly I feel like most moms do a lot where I want to play with them but have a hard time carving out time for laundry and dishes and scrubbing the kitchen floor...and many other things just pushed aside all together. I have found that I have to sign myself up for a race or I will just put off working out all together. I have taken a break from teaching spinning and I am soo glad! I kind of miss it, but I love knowing that I don't have a set night that I have to go anywhere and miss bedtimes because those are special times for me when I can snuggle my kids and sing to them. It seems like bedtime is kind of a chance for me to right anything that may have gone wrong during the day (because inevitable I get frustrated at some point during the day!) and let my kids know that I love them and I love the Lord.
Mostly I hope all women realize they are mothers to all children they have influence over and feel truly loved today and everyday! In Sacrament meeting yesterday a speaker shared a quote that said something like not all women who bear children choose to mother them and and women who don't bear children can still mother them (it was much more eloquent from whoever said it), but I love that point. It doesn't matter if you actually bore the child or if you are even the mother, it is a choice to mother and nurture and love a child. I hope that I can remember each day to truly "mother" my children!
And a few more updates: 2 weeks ago Ryan, my mom, and I ran the Provo City Half Marathon. It was really fun, we started up Provo Canyon (it was FREEZING at the start so we were huddled around the fires)
Phil and Kacie ran the 5K so we saw them at the finish line. Here is the whole crew. We have Kacie to blame(thank) for this madness because she is the one who saw the groupon and thought it would be "fun" to do together. Ryan was super speedy at finished at 1:39, my mom was pretty darn speedy herself winning 3rd in her age group with a time just about 1:55 and I brought up the rear at 2:02 :). I am totally fine being the slow one in the group!
Cam trying to grab the camera, he loves to look at himself but is super grabby hands!!
Ilene LOVES doing music class with Alli so here she was being a note right along with the class :).
And just because Cam is so darn cute I couldn't resist one more of him!
