Since the last post...

Refer to the Early Summer post below...Since "appetizer", Jovie has chosen "damaged", "bartender", and "Shantaram" (a book TB is reading) as words of the day. This morning, we were making egg sandwiches for breakfast. Jovie said, "Can I have mayonnaise?" I said no, and she said,"then I will slap you with my bread." Ikey said, "Now she's making threats."

Early Summer!

These kids are so funny! Ikey is in his room singing TB's favorite Akon song "Sorry, Blame It On Me". Weird choice for TB I know, but there's no explaining taste. Ikey's version goes, "You can put the train on me...on me... You can put the train on me..."

Ikey has added "consequences" to all of his requests. For example, "If you don't give me oatmeal, I'm going to take my clothes off and put them in the fridge." Other classics include, "If you don't let me play in the sandbox, I'm going to wear my new Crocs in my bed." The scariest one is, "If you don't let me stay up, I'm going to take off all my clothes and get in your bed with my dirty bum." Jovie has started saying, "Don't threaten me, Ikey."

Jovie told me about her cousin, "I like Chloe. She's so nice. She has a round head."

Jovie makes up a rhyme for just about everything she says. TB was on his way out the door for an overnight trip and she said, "Do you have to go to work like a jerk jerk?" TB said it was demoralizing.

Ikey told Jovie I was making muffins and she said, "She's quite a baker!"

Jovie's latest joke is to call me Grandfather. She thinks it's hilarious and she just laughs and laughs.

Jovie's favorite word yesterday was "appetizer". She told me she had an appetizer on her arm (just a scrape really) and one on her foot (toenail) and requested appetizers for dinner.

I started doing triathlons again since the babies are bigger and I'm smaller. I did one in May in Kearns and one in June in Daybreak.TB is so nice to "sponsor" me and the kids are great at cheering.

 

Garr Ranch at Antelope Island

The kids and I went to the Cowboy Legends Poetry and Music Festival at Garr Ranch on Antelope Island. This was my first time to the Great Salt Lake in the 30 years I've lived in Utah and I was so impressed at how pretty it was. We saw a bison "stampede" http://youtu.be/0rwZbXj6HkE and ate Dutch oven peach cobbler. It couldn't have been better!

Music critic

Ikey loves music. We were discussing the "Fossil" song from Saint Saens Carnival of Animals which has a little piece of  "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" in the middle of it. A few days later he told me that "Flight of the Bumblebee" has "Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard" in the middle of it.

Spring round up

This is one of Ikey's sick days: sleeping on the deck to get some fresh air.

Jovie requested a "heart cake with rainbows" and Aunt Nikki delivered! This cake had colored sprinkles inside and she served it with rainbow sprinkled ice cream. It was perfect! Unfortunately, the little birthday girl had an eye infection at this Easter/Birthday party, so she looks a little sickly in all the pictures. The Easter egg hunt was epic though. There were over 200 eggs in Grandma & Grandpa's back yard for six little kids and one teenager.

Ikey partied hard at Jovie's birthday party at McDonald's. The kids loved the Playland and the food (!) and cake, and the moms loved walking away from the huge mess.

The little lady had a great birthday. Gummy shoes (jelly shoes?) were the highlight!

This is how you can find the boys in the family every morning. The boys get up before the girls and get dressed up in robes and make coffee and milk. TB tries to read the paper while Ikey holds his ear or climbs on him.

The kids are taking dance class from Miss Kim and they absolutely love it. Miss Kim is a beautiful dancer and a wonderful teacher and the kids are well-behaved and excited and are learning a lot.

The class is full of cute little dancer friends.

We had a super fun Easter Egg hunt at TB's 10th annual Easter breakfast party with his mom and his brother's family.

Running like crazy

The kids have "Make 'Em Laugh" runs which they like to use when they are in trouble with me so I'll just crack up instead of get mad. Check these out!

 Isaac has been sick for a month. Today at the doctor's office for Jovie's 2 year check up, I noticed these huge bumps on his neck. I genuinely freaked out and started crying, and luckily the doctor was there to tell me to calm down quickly. This is just Ikey's immune system working on getting rid of this illness. I've never actually seen lymph nodes swollen, so it was obviously disturbing to me. Ikey was nice enough to pose for these photos to freak you out too.

This is the latest weird sleeping place for Jovie - in the closet on a shelf. What a weirdo!

 

April

Cousin Stormy performed in the Wind Ensemble at the high school and we went to cheer her on. They didn't need quite so much cheering so we wandered around the hall with her and climbed in her locker before the show started.

Jovie is kind of a trouble-maker during nap time. She usually empties all of her drawers and her closet and pulls out all the wipes. In one week, we found her in three crazy situations. The first day, Grandma Rainey was watching the kids during naps. Sounds easy, right? Rainey takes it more seriously than anyone else and actually checked on Jovie and found her sleeping on the changing table with her head cradled by an (empty) wipe box. Rainey sat in the room for about an hour to make sure she didn't fall off until I came home.

The next day, I found Jovie had put five skirts on top of her stretch pants during nap time.

The next day, she slept the whole time on Nikki's rocking chair.

I heard voices from Ikey's room during nap time and I found him asleep on his rocking chair while she was reading him a book.

 Nap time is exhausting for all of us.