Ouch!

Paige and Phoenix were in their room playing together one morning when all of sudden Paige got hurt. Phoenix comes running into the kitchen to tell me she's hurt. I suggest to Phoenix that he go see if she's all right and quickly hand him a red M&M from a bag of trail mix to take her since I could obviously tell we wouldn't have to rush her to the hospital. Paige comes out of her room holding the red M&M on her forehead on the spot that got bumped by Phoenix telling us that he told her to put it on her bump to make it feel better. Usually when Phoenix hurts himself, since he's really good at running his head into the wall, table or counters, I'll give him some ice to put on the sore spot. I guess Phoenix figured that the M&M can be used just like ice. It worked like a charm since Paige immediately stopped crying when she saw the piece of candy, but I wouldn't recommend doing it on a regular basis.

Lately, Phoenix comes up to me with no tears and points to the spot that's injured and asks me , "Can you kiss this Mom?" I kiss it and he happily goes off to play some more. I find it so much more enjoyable as screaming and crying are not very enjoyable to listen to for long periods of time. At least I'm good for kisses.

Air Show Birthday

Bart had another birthday and we decided to take up our friend's invite to attend the Air Show at the Randolph Air Force Base. This was our first Air Show and we had a really great time looking inside all kinds of different aircrafts and watching some amazing stunts they can do inside the aircraft and jumping out of one. It was pretty loud for the kids though, but nonetheless they handled the noise really well. Bart said he couldn't believe how when an aircraft flies overhead you could just feel the power as your insides are rattling. He wonders what it feels like to ride inside of one. Our friends even had us over for a delicious dinner and of course, birthday cake. I really didn't have any plans for Bart's birthday, and I don't think we'll get this opportunity again for quite awhile since we're moving again, but I'm so grateful we were able to do this for Bart's birthday.

Happy Birthday to my best friend and love! What a great father you are to our children and how much they look up to you and love you. Thank you for making me so happy and taking me on new adventures all the time.

Paigie Pie, our 4 year old

Princess cake made by Grandma!Paige's excitement!!

Yay!! It's Paige's birthday.

Beautiful outfit from Grandma & Grandpa

I love my little Romney Pumpkin!

"Paige, can I please have just one lick?"

Pumpkin Baby, Spiderman and Sleeping Beauty

Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Darth Vader and Spiderman

Mom, Heather and I in our googly glasses for the Halloween Bash

They figured out all the clues.

Spider Cookies

Awesome pumpkin carving!

Scott loves the squishy feeling.

Look at this huge handful Paige got out!

The month of October flew by since we were in Dallas taking care of my brother, Greg's 3 kids, while Greg and Christy went on a 2 week tour in Israel. Bart and I just got back 3 days ago and I feel like I have time to focus on my own 3 kids and see how much they've grown and changed over the past 3 weeks that we spent with our family. Paige, Phoenix and Romney had such a blast getting to play with Scott, Stacey and Daniel everyday for 3 weeks as well as seeing their Grandma "Nut" who came out to help. Aunt Heather even dropped in for a few days to visit and brought Miles and Courtney to play. We had quite the sleepover at Greg and Christy's.

While we were in Dallas, we went to the park quite a bit, went to story-time at the library, jumped on the trampoline in the back yard, watched Scott play hockey with the neighborhood kids in the front yard, ate at Chik Filet twice, went to Bonkers, shopped at Costco to keep the pantry stocked, read books, watched shows, made spider cookies with Grandma, went to the Tubes twice (a huge indoor slide inside a church), went to church, had an awesome Halloween Party with the cousins, played games, trick-or-treated, went to the Pumpkin Patch where there were more bees than pumpkins and celebrated Paige's 4th birthday.

I was so excited for Paige's birthday and what made it even more special was to celebrate it with her cute cousins and Grandma. Gib and Judy also came over as well to Paige's birthday dinner which she requested homemade pizza! We also had salad, deviled eggs, olives (thanks Judy). Grandma made Paige a special princess birthday cake along with cupcakes that Paige and Stacey were tasting to see if the frosting and sprinkles met their expectations. Paige received so many presents from her family and friends. She was one happy little girl! Thank you Grandma, Greg, Christy, Heather, Gib and Judy for helping make such a wonderful birthday for Paige.

By the way, Gib and Judy gave Paige this hamster card that sings the "Happy Birthday" song and Paige is still opening it and singing the song with the hamster. The end of the birthday song where it says, "and many more." Well, Paige has been singing, "and Maggie more."

Romney is 6 Months!

I'm so excited that my baby is 6 months old! Romney has a round, peach-fuzz head. He is a lean baby and is very interactive with his family. He likes to see what's going on all around him and is content when held. Romney is a such an easy-going baby. I love seeing how many times I can get him to laugh and smile at me. It makes everything worth it as a mother!!

Paige absolutely loves holding Romney any chance she can get and can make him smile. She thinks he needs to learn how to walk even though he's still trying to master crawling. Romney can get pretty much anywhere he wants to in our apartment. The wood floors make it especially easy for him to slide himself around as he scoots from place to place. I'm working on helping Phoenix feel a greater love for his brother, Romney because he has had a difficult time letting Romney play with some of "his" toys. Today, I tried out a new approach with him by telling him that Romney is his baby and I needed him to help make sure Romney had toys to play with while I finished making dinner. It seemed to work so far. I'll keep trying.

Life is so much fun with 3 wonderful kids. God has blessed me with more than I deserve and I am so grateful for each one of their uniquely wonderful personalities that keep me on my toes.

Things I Want to Remember

Paige got quite the mosquito attack with about 10 bug bites all over her legs which kept her from sleeping well on Saturday night. Well, on Sunday morning Paige started whining about her bug bites bothering her, which Bart responded with, "Sweetie, your okay. Be tough."
Just a few minutes later, while I was taking Paige downstairs to borrow some Calamine lotion for her bug bites Bart and Phoenix were playing with his animals and tossing them back and forth to each other when suddenly one of the animals Phoenix tossed to Bart landed in a "painful spot." Bart began moaning in pain telling Phoenix he was in pain to which Phoenix responded, "It's okay Dad. Be tough."

Lately, Paige has been singing "I'm so glad when Daddy comes home" as soon as he walks in the door. She is our little performer. Always singing and dancing. I love it! She loves to pull out the Children's Primary song book and sing songs to all of us. Last week, I woke up to her singing in the front room with Phoenix. Also, Paige loves to ride on her razor (scooter) she got last Christmas as of recently. Jonathon, a 5 year old neighbor boy, is really exceptional at riding his razor and so Paige started to ask for her scooter instead of riding her bike with training wheels. So, now we'll have to start working on getting rid of the training wheels. Also, I love how Paige says socks. She pronounces it "scocks."

Romney is becoming quite the little crawler. He is getting pretty fast at scooting across the floor for things he shouldn't be sucking on, like paper. Last night, when we skyped (video phone call on the internet) with Grandma and Grandpa Nut I was showing them how quickly Romney could crawl to the laptop to see them. Romney is a thumb sucker which I'm not excited about. Tonight, when I was putting him to bed I sang him "I Am a Child of God" which is what I usually sing to all the kids at bedtime and then after the song was over I rubbed his back and whispered to him, "I love you Romney Cash." He pulled out his thumb, looked up at me and smiled with a little laugh. It was so adorable and I never want to forget it.

Tonight for Family Home Evening we had a little "tea party" except there was no drink served. Paige is always asking for one lately and she thought we needed to have one today. So, we ended up getting out the circular table cloth that I've been using for our "tea parties" and each of us got 2 big marshmellows with a couple chocolate chips in a bowl for our FHE treat while listening to the lesson. I thought it was so adorable how Paige ran into my room, knew exactly what drawer to find the scarves in (I got them out for us at our last "tea party"), and got out one for her and me to wear for the "tea party." Phoenix was very excited too as he has been excluded from all the previous "tea parties" and especially when he saw that we were serving treats here, not to mention marshmellows.

Sunday Thoughts

I am grateful that we had this morning to eat breakfast together which consisted of pancakes in all sorts of different shapes (Mickey Mouse, #8, airplane, shark) and sizes and strawberries that I especially bought for Paige last night when I was picking up some produce. Strawberries are one of her very favorite fruits, but really she just LOVES fruit!! It is so wonderful to spend time together as a family in the mornings. Even though I've felt like we've been in a transition mode for the last 5 months and haven't hung up any pictures in our home, besides a couple snapshots in my bedroom, I am trying to savor the precious moments and memories we're making as a family.

I am grateful for 3 healthy, sweet children: Paige, Phoenix, and Romney.

I am grateful for a home to live in.

I am grateful for freedoms to worship as I choose to.

I am grateful for prayer in my life. I need it everyday.

Also, I am really looking forward to General Conference coming up next Saturday and Sunday. I know it gets a little more challenging with kids to listen, but thankfully I can listen and read it as many times as I choose to afterward. I feel like I need spiritual strengthening so much right now and am anxious to hear the inspired words spoken by apostles and prophets of Jesus Christ.

Phoenix is Potty Trained!

I felt like when we potty trained Paige, we rushed into it before she was really ready and I didn't want that to happen again with Phoenix. I probably would have held off longer, but Bart has been the one who is anxious to potty train. He actually bought the spiderman underwear that Phoenix had been asking for the last couple months because he thought we had run out of diapers.

Phoenix has done really well and I'm very impressed how much easier potty training was. I've trained him to go to the bathroom standing up and he does a great job of keeping it inside the toilet. Most of the accidents he's had have been when he's sleeping and can't make it to the toilet in time.

Now that Phoenix is wearing underwear, I am seeing my little boy in a different light. He seems much more mature now. I can see how much he enjoys this new found freedom he has to go potty all by himself. He loves to show his new underwear and when we went to visit his cousins in Dallas, he was so excited to show his older cousin, Scott, his big boy underwear. Actually, that reminds me of when Phoenix came running downstairs one day, crying because he got called a baby. His little tears broke my heart and usually when one of the kids come crying to me about something I don't feel as empathetic, but this time I think I could relate to him, probably because as a kid I was always trying to play with the older kids.

I am amazed at how incredibly well Phoenix has been doing this last year with getting a new baby brother, moving across the country, living in a small apartment with his (sometimes crazy) mom, sharing a bedroom with Paige, and all the things he's just had to deal with. I know he is a really great boy with such a wonderful heart. He knows how to melt my heart all the time. Actually, one of the best things he does so well is saying "Thank you" for just about anything from helping him put his pants on to making him dinner. It's the way he'll say after dinner is over and we're outside playing that he'll turn to me and say, "Thank you for making me dinner." I know he learned that from his wonderful dad! His dad is such a great example to him of how to be grateful for everything we have. I love that about him! Another thing that Phoenix does is try to help me when I'm cooking. He'll start dragging a chair, bucket or stool over to where I am and ask if he can help too. I think he'll be a great cook someday.