Five Years

Today is our anniversary!! I wish I had a wedding picture I could post here, but they are all in hard copy and I haven't made a disk of any digital copies or anything yet, so I won't. It's been five years and it's been a very blissful five years. How are we celebrating, you ask? Well I spent the evening having a movie night with popcorn with the kids, putting Linus to bed early because he's got a fever, and then painting the baby room with my mother in law, who's anniversary is also today. Craig and his dad are both up at scout camp until Saturday, so of course my MIL and I went to work! :-) We'll celebrate when they come home. I did manage to put a bunch of "I love you because..." notes in hidden places in Craig's camping gear before he left this morning. I made the mistake of sticking one in his water bottle, though, which he found before he left as he was filling it up- it was supposed to be a surprise, but I'm sure he'll have fun finding them anyway.
Not to get too sappy or personal (because we all know it's just not in my nature to do that...) but I am pleased to say that I am a 100% more in love with Craig today than I was on this day five years ago. Marriage is a kick in the butt sometimes, but holy cow, I never in my entire life have felt more at home with anyone like I have Craig. He is my home. He is my family! I understand way more what it means to spend eternity happily with someone today than I did when I got married. Sometimes I wish I could go back and experience my wedding day all over again with Craig knowing what I know now. I wish I could look into his eyes at the altar and feel that sense of security and peace and hard working love that I feel now when I am with him. But the greatest part about that is that in many ways, I still get to do that every day. When we look at each other laughing at something one of the kids has done, when we work together on projects in and around the house, when we share insights with each other after our scripture study and share our testimonies and pray together, when we hit the pillow at the end of the day and talk about everything that is going on, good and bad, and apologize for being dumb when we got mad over this or that, and talk about the kids, and talk about our goals and changes we want to make for the better- I get to have him for forever!
At our wedding reception, with shaking hands and weak knees, I sang Craig the song "The Luckiest" by Ben Folds on my guitar. I feel that I truly am the luckiest, mostly because I know Craig feels the same way about me.
So since he's at scout camp, I have time to blog about how much I love him. :-) And paint our baby room, that was pretty exciting too.

Summah-Time

What's the next best thing to going to the pool for a bunch of home-bound suckers such as us for some water-filled, cool-down on a hot day fun?
Sprinklers, of course!
Chloe had a blast.
Linus...ah...didn't.

In fact he was quite disgruntled about the whole experience. He didn't like putting on his swimsuit, he didn't want to put on the shirt, then he didn't want to have no shirt on, he didn't want to put on the sun screen, and watching him finally experience the sprinklers was painful...but admittedly funny.



All was made well when we found his belly button again. Whew!
Chloe took this picture. And was quite proud of it, actually. Apparently the whole face isn't necessary to get a good portrait done...


No bad/good sprinkler experience can't be made better with some otto-pops. We eat a lot of otto-pops around here...good thing they come in huge boxes.


These next few are just some being silly pics around the house. I actually took the camera out to get some pictures of Chloe in the hat I made her (the second one...and probably not the last). This turned into a "lets climb on all the furniture and jump around because it's raining outside and we need to get out some energy!" shoot.
Chloe is very proud of her bruise here. I'm not sure exactly what happened as I was napping at the time, but I know it involved her scooter and a bag of ice afterwards. It was fairly swollen to begin with, and then she got a nice mosquito bite on it later, so her shin is a little lopsided if you look at it from an angle. You always know a kid is having a good summer when their shins are bruised and scraped up and down. :-)


Linus had to get his hat out too. And the rain boots (thanks Angie!!). But only momentarily, as this was the only shot I got with him in them before he found something else to do.


Linus loves to dance.


Green popsicle tongue.


This is the hat, and Chloe loves it. Especially when she wears her "matching blue dress" (skirt) with it.


Not that I'm biased or anything, but sometimes she is just too cute. And sometimes she knows it too.

Other than that, the summer has been rather relaxing. I still try to find a balance everyday of not "over doing" myself, even though I have no clue what over doing myself is. Yesterday I had quite a few contractions...maybe like 7 or 8 total good ones and a handful of "unsures" from about 1:00 p.m. to bed time. That's the most I've had in a while, so I didn't do a whole lot yesterday, mostly because my hips get rather sore when I contract too much which makes moving in any way a task. I've decided that being pregnant over the summer isn't really a good idea. We're not even through June and being uncomfortable at night and tossing and turning combined with sore hips combined with a small bladder combined with the stagnant heat of it all with our bedroom being upstairs is a torturous combo. And theoretically I still have a ways to go. But underneath it all I am happy that I'm still pregnant. I'll be 30 weeks on Monday! I should have like a 30 weeks celebration or something. If anyone has any good suggestions, let me know. :-)
Anyway, Craig let me sleep in this morning and it's 9:30 now and I haven't showered, so I better skidaddle.

Just a few things to remember

I was just thinking that I needed to record a few funny things that the kids do/have said before I forget. These are the type of memories I want to look back on and laugh when they become teenagers and I want to rip my hair out. :-)

Funny words/phrases from Chloe:

• Whap-chip: Chapstick
• Fimbers: Fingers
• "Mmmm, Mommy, this is de-WISH-us" (delicious).
• "When I grow up, I'm going to have a baby just like you! But I need to get married first. I'm going to have a wedding and be a princess just like Lela (her aunt who married Scott over Christmas)"
• Pokey-Hokey: Hokey Pokey
• "When I got scared, I FREAKIN' OUT!"
• After examining anyone with Grandma's doctor kit: "I'm all done. You're just a wittow (little) bit sick". Thank you for the diagnosis, Doctor.
  
• Mom: "Chloe, how many {jelly beans, rocks, sticks, grapes, etc...} are there here?" If it's anything over two, she says "five". Or she'll count them, looking anxiously at me one at a time, saying "wwwwwwwwww....." until she sees my nod of approval "ONE! Ttttttttttttt..." *nod* "TWO! Thhhhhhhh........" *nod* "THREE!" and so on.
  
• "Mom, when I grow up, I'm going to be just like SUSAN (from Monsters Vs. Aliens). And I'll get bigger and bigger and bigger...." Couple of funny stories related to this: my sister is younger than me, but she's taller than me by a couple of inches. She looks taller than she is because she's got long hair and is very slender. When she came to visit for Chloe's birthday, Chloe called her Susan all night because of how tall she was. My sister was less than thrilled when I explained to her that Susan was a 50ft. monster on a show that Chloe has watched. Also, when we got the bunk bed for the kids, Chloe was convinced that the reason we put her on the top bunk was because one day she's going to be as big as Susan and then the bed will fit her juuuuuuuuust right. She still loves Tinkerbell, but honestly I'd rather her imagine her potential as being a 50ft. modestly dressed super-hero who can do anything than a short-tempered, skantily clad fairy who's movies and acccessories cost way too much.
  
• While watching any movie, through pretty much the whole thing: "Oh! Is that a dog? Mommy, is that a dog? Is that a nice dog? Is it a mean one? What's the dog doing? Is it jumping? Why is it jumping? What's it doing now? Where's the doggie? I can't see the doggie!" and any question I answer is usually followed with "What? What!? WHAT?!? Mommy, I can't HEAR YOU!" no matter how clearly I speak at her. Needless to say we aren't watching very many movies this summer.
  

Funny words/phrases from Linus:

• While eating at the table: "Ooooooone! Twwwwoooooooo! Frrrrrreeeeee! Eiiiiiiiiiight! Niiiiiiiiiiine! TEN! Hee-I-come!" Then he holds his hand out and gasps and says "Where's Doh-ee?" to which Chloe replies at the other end of the table "Here I am, Yi-yus!" and Linus gasps again and says "I FOW' YOU!"
• The other night Linus kept repeating over and over (a frequent experience for our listening pleasure) "Kar-sus man comma gemme! Kar-sus man comma gemme!!" I had NO CLUE what he was saying. Chloe would exasperatedly try to interperet for me with "MOM! Yi-yus says the Kar-sus man's gonna get him!!!" Kar-sus man?? Did they watch some superhero show with their uncles? Is Kar-sus some Star-Wars jedi knight I don't know about? Then finally while eating breakfast with Daddy, my bedroom door was open and I was listening to Linus's broken record Kar-sus man chant downstairs when Chloe finally blurts out "Daddy, GARBAGE MAN!! The garbage man is gonna get Yi-yus!!" I later found out that a few days previous, there happened to be several loud garbage trucks coincidentally in our cul-de-sac at the same time and the kids were outside watching the entourage when they came. One garbage truck in the cul-de-sac once a week? Not scary. But THREE? Well certainly garbage day armaggedon was upon them and Linus hasn't been able to stop thinking about it since. :-)
• BREH-SAS: Breakfast
• OH-MEE-OH: Oatmeal (his favorite thing in the world, surprisingly)
• NAAAAAAAAAACK?: Snack (usually repeated several times, even when an answer is given after the first inquiry)
  
• *hankssssss*: thanks- said almost every time in a whisper (hence the lower case letters, as the previous upper case indicate the opposite volume he applies to everything else he says)
• Ever seen Up? You know how the dogs always get distracted when they see a squirrel? Linus is the same way with birds. Doesn't matter what he's doing, when he spots a backyard bird fluttering here or there on the lawn, he drops whatever he's doing, points, and yells "BIRD!!!" and will either chase after the bird until it flies away or he'll jump up and hold his hands apart as though he's about to clap and follows with a resounding "YYYARRRRR!!!" to try to scare it off. On occasion, I've seen him crouch down low and walk slowly towards the bird, making the sign for bird with his hands and saying a little softer "Commere bird! Commere bird!" until the bird notices and flies off. He then responds by throwing his arms up in exasperation and moaning a disappointed "AWWWWW!" I think Chloe must have tried this once to catch a bird or something because I don't know where he came up with it.
  
• Doing everything Chloe is doing, wanting to play with every toy Chloe is playing with, and generally being a neusance to her as much as a little brother can be. Occasionally, in his worst moments, the second he realizes Chloe is bothered by his presence, he will get a wild look in his eye and a mischevious grin and then either hit her or just hold his hand up in threat to hit her (both yeilds the same dramatic result from the offended party). Then he always looks surprised when he sees that I was watching and he now has to sit up in his room.
  
• Chloe for a while loved being another one of Linus's disciplinarians (is she the oldest? Most definitely), but Linus has figured out how to do the same to her. Whenever Chloe is doing something wrong and I start to get after her, Linus will turn around with a "NO! DOH-EE, TIME-OW! OOOOOOOONE! TWOOOOOOOOO! FREE! OKAY, 'PANKIN'!" He even wags his finger at her menacingly, which Chloe dislikes greatly and it takes every ounce of strength I have not to crack a smile when I tell him not to talk to Chloe like that.
• Still sucks on his fingers and uses his shirt as his "blanky" while doing it. We tried getting after him every time he did it, but that just made him do it more and then be cranky about it. I've recently tried some positive reinforcement where I ask him in an excited voice if he can be a big boy and show me how he can take his fingers out of his mouth, then give him a resounding high five when he does it. I then quickly find something else to distract him while his hands are out of his mouth that involves his hands so they won't go back in. That worked for about two days until it became a game, where he would put his fingers in his mouth, take them out, receive the high five, and then put them back in with a giant grin. I proudly showed Craig the first night when it worked, and he promptly laughed in my face the next when it didn't work. I'm fairly sure his two year molars are popping up, so the activity has increased in the last week or so, I'm hoping that once they break through, I can use the reprieve as an opportunity for some more positive reinforcement and kind of leave it alone until he's ready. He is reckognizing that we think it's a bad behavior and seems to respond to it occasionally, so that's a good start I guess.
  
• He loves hugs, snuggles, and giggles. And so do I. We make a good team.