Lullabies

When James was first born I started singing I Am A Child of God to him every night and the trend continued until the boys 1) learned more primary songs, 2) learned to make requests. So now they get to pick what song they want. For going on 12 months Matthias has picked Teach Me To Walk In The Light every night. He loves this song and always sings along even when he is half asleep. For a while if we didn't sing it "right" he would get very upset. But he has since accepted that we sing it differently than he does.



James picked I'm Trying To Be Like Jesus for months on end, but now varies it here and there. Still his favorite and most requested is I'm Trying To Be Like Jesus...



Hannah not being able to make requests yet gets I Love To See the Temple every night.

Today at the Park

This is an actual conversation which took place at the park today between my friend, Kim, and a random lady w/ her granddaughter and huge dog at the park.

First of all I'm sitting next to Hannah on a rock watching the boys play with Kim's boy. Kim and I are chatting while her youngest son toddles around (he is a month younger than Hannah).

Large dog enters playground and runs around free and crazy. He was a big dog, probably at least 6 times larger in weight and size than Hannah and Kim's baby. He growls at another dog. Runs around some more.

He then runs up and licks my arm and then he licks Hannah in the mouth and parks himself right between us. I push him away, so he stands directly in front of me.

Kim's baby is delighted to have a dog running around (his grandma who lives down the street has a similar size dog he sees frequently, plus most kids love dogs). He walks up towards the dog and stares at it. Kim reaches down and picks him up...

Lady: Now why do you have to go and make your kids afraid of dogs.
(stunned pause)
Kim: I just don't want him to get licked in the face.
Lady: Well, if that's the worst thing that happens to him.
(another pause)
Kim: No, I just don't know anything about your dog.
Lady: You're at the park and you don't even like dogs.
Kim: I will do what I want with my kids and you can do what you want with yours.
Lady: No one is telling you what to do with your kids. (turns around) Young moms are no fun.

Then they leave.

Uh, what? People are so quick to make assumptions...we don't like dogs, our kids are afraid of them, we're no fun????? What? Kim and I were both just so shocked by the encounter.

During the rest of the duration at the park two people introduced their dogs to our boys and the kids petted them. I honestly was just afraid the large dog of grandma would knock Hannah over. I would have picked up my small child too if he/she walked that close to a big dog just to keep her safe. That doesn't mean I hate dogs or that I'm NO FUN.

Sports Car

James loves sports cars, because they are fast. And because some are convertibles which is extra cool. Our neighbor has a Miata which the boys think is sweet. Today he was out and I was telling him how the boys love his car and he offered them a ride. You should have seen the boys' faces. They were in heaven. He took them out one at a time for a spin around the block. Both thought it was amazing, but James knew it was the best moment of his life. He even remembered to mention how thankful he was in our prayer that evening that Roger could give them a ride in his Miata.

Sleeping

I can't remember if I have yet recorded our happy new sleeping state here. My kids regularly sleep until 7 or 7:30 these days. It is like heaven, I feel so lazy every morning when I roll out of bed. After 3 years of waking up with Matthias at 5 am I feel so rested and fresh. Seriously the change is amazing...maybe that was why I was crying everyday last year and not because I hated where we lived?

James and Hannah are actually both normal sleepers, Matthias has just always been an early bird. But finally he is deciding to sleep longer in the mornings. And they still go to bed between 7:30 or 8, so really I guess he just had to grow out of it or something? Whatever it is I am very thankful and hope it lasts. He started waking at about 6:30 last November and we thought that was wonderful, but it's slowly progressed to 7 most mornings.

Shoes

Hannah loves shoes...what little girl doesn't? She picked out these black shoes of mine my mom saved for me. Don't they look smashing 27 years later?

Thank You Rebecca & Eric!

I stole this from Bec's blog (my amazing BF) who watched our kids half of the time we were in Hawaii. (the other half was w/ g-ma and g-pa Harvey). Looks like they didn't miss me too much! And can I say it's weird for my kids to have memories and experiences that I wasn't involved in? I guess I should get used to it. Thanks Bec!



Dear Kristi and Taylor,

Thank you for the pleasure of watching your children the last three days!! It was wild and crazy, at times chaotic and stressful, but mostly very very fun! Look at these 5 cuties.

Luckily the kids got along great, and Kristi you really do have good kids. Sure your boys can be rowdy, but I love that they are not mean, rude, or defiant. They generally obeyed really well and didn't have a single "freak-out" (my word for what my girls do- basically a tantrum. I really hope this is a "boys vs. girls" difference and not a "my kids vs. other kids" difference!). I really love your kids now that I've taken care of them for a few days.
First, Matthias. What a crazy, adorable kid. I don't know how he survives on an hour less sleep than the other kids, with the energy he has. He is SO CUTE and hilarious. So loving, he was always hugging and kissing Hannah and Whitney, and giving Eric big hugs when he came home from work. Here's Matt and Katelyn holding hands on a walk to the park.
Matt and Whitney have a lot in common I discovered. Second children I guess? Prime example: My neighbor turned on her sprinklers, and Whitney and Matt kept running over and sticking their hands and feet in....
...while Katelyn and James were studying the water running down the sidewalk and a potato bug crawling along. (Matt ran over to be in this picture)
Hannah did REALLY well, she hardly cried. As long as we were outside and/or I was holding her, she was fine. She learned to eat really well with a spoon the last few days, and I did not encourage her to walk at all. :) Whitney loved her but also tried to test the limits with her- picking her up and saying "too heavy!", stealing her blanket, hitting her with a spoon. Classic new baby in the house behavior. Sorry about that! Whitney spent several times in time-out learning to be nice to Hannah! She is SO cute too.
I love how James is an endless source of good and creative and interesting ideas of things to play. He is such a smart, inquisitive, good kid. Here's Matt as a dragon (holding the dragon's tail up) James is a king, and Katelyn is the queen.
Another day James came upstairs like this and I couldn't stop laughing! He and Matt took turns being a butterfly for a while, so funny.
So here were my three favorite things the kids did while they were here.

1. The storytelling Game- One person starts the story and then the next person adds a sentence or two, then the next person and so on. When Katelyn and I usually play, we make up stories about cute animals, magic cars, etc. But with the boys it was a whole different experience! It was absolutely hilarious the things they came up with! James was really good at it, being the oldest and all. Matt kept getting our main character killed- " and then they chopped off his head!" or "then he blasted him with a cannon" Or he would bring knights into a pirate story, or bring some one back who was already dead, and James would be like "no!" Obviously there was a lot of capturing and being attacked in our stories, SO funny. Then one time I ended a story with the guy finding a beautiful princess and getting married, and you should have seen the look James gave me, like "Ugh, what a lame ending!" I was dying laughing.

2. The hospital game- James wanted to be a doctor and Kate and Matt were the nurses. Whitney was napping, but Hannah had just woken up and they decided to "fix" her. They all had notepads and pencils, and as they diagnosed her they were scribbling notes on their papers and drawing pictures of what they talked about. Some of the things I remember that were wrong with her were "too much honey" "too much potatoes" "too much bending down and drinking water out of the toilet bowl" "too much dipping yourself in a big tub of melted butter" !! I wish I could remember all the other hilarious things they said! They would think of something and then laugh and laugh. So creative.

3. Races- They did this for about 45 minutes. James kept winning, and looking at this picture of them at the starting line I might know why! :) That's James out in front.
Coming in to the finish- Whitney got a little off course back there!
Katelyn did win a couple of times, love this picture!
And Matt won once!
Hannah LOVED cheering for them and was delighted each time they all came running in.
Whitney and Hannah also had their own little "race"
Basically my girls had the best three days ever! Whitney was so hyper the WHOLE time, it was just so exciting to have friends here. And the look on Kate's face here sums up her experience. We love you, Harvey kids, and will miss you. Although last night after Grandpa came to get them, Eric and I breathed a sigh of relief that we made it. Having only two kids is a sinch! What an easy life we normally have! :)
Glad you guys are having the best time ever in Hawaii!

Love,

Rebecca

Ta-da!

And she walks! She was just waiting for us to get home. Love this little girl! Very glad with her timing since a couple days ago I took off her capris to discover a perfect "tan line" of dirt from crawling all over the yard.





She can stand up mid floor, she walks people to people, furniture to furniture, stands up and takes off. She's amazing.