Coloring and a Sunday Afternoon

The kids really enjoy coloring.  They don't feel like doing it every day, but frequently get excited about it and color together.  These pictures were taken a few weeks ago.  Here is Jason's zoo.  You can see his tree, fence, grass and tiger.  Later on you can see how he colored the sky.

 Parker is coloring very neatly on this coloring page.  He had only finished the top half.

 Liesel was coloring lots of little circles that looked like confetti.

 Here Jason colored by number.  He did it quite well for a not-quite-four year old.  You can also see his finished zoo picture.

 If Parker is reminded, he has amazingly good handwriting for being in 1st grade.  Here is an example:

This was a few weeks ago after church.  It's pretty typical, although sometimes I'm not quite so level-headed about their crazy antics.  I love that Parker is humming or singing to the tune of "Keep the Commandments" and that Jason joins in.  Jason's mischief is very characteristic of him.

Silly Kids!

My sister-in-law Jax took photos of the kids while we were in Salt Lake.  These are the "outtakes".  My kids are pretty funny, but it's not exactly what I want hanging up on the living room wall.

Liesel always copies her brothers, so when we wanted her to lie down on her hands and elbows, we asked Jason to do it so she'd copy.  He did it, but facing the wrong way.  Liesel immediately followed suit, ha, ha!

 Impromptu fishy face!

 Parker's little "Oh face" was darling when he was three days old, but not what I want in his portrait.

 Tickling

Liesel didn't want to sit still, so she ran around playing tag and teasing us.

 

Don't my kids' expressions look natural, ha, ha! 

My Test of Patience

Jason has been getting into EVERYTHING lately! I rarely take pictures of his disasters, but I do have a few. Just to give you an idea of what he's gotten into, I'll only mention things from the past week: poster paints, my wedding ring and band, foot powder, band-aids, toothbrushes, etc. Add to all of that potty training and that every couple nights he'll wake everyone in the whole house up screaming for dumb reasons, like to pull up his blanket or let him play with a puzzle. I have been trying to curb it, but since last night he did it seven times between 3:00-5:00 AM, I haven't yet been that successful (sigh). I've been trying to channel all of Jason's energy in positive ways. Jason is such a happy child. He makes us laugh and gives the best hugs. It used to be that he'd do anything if you teased that he shouldn't, but recently backwards psychology hasn't been as effective.

 Update: I actually wrote this post a week ago. He has still been making messes, but it has been so much better. I'm not sure if it's his attitude or mine that has improved, but maybe a little bit of both.  Here's to hoping he gains a little more obedience I gain a lot more patience!

Sunday Entertainment

A few weeks ago our ward held their annual primary program. Parker was hilarious, of course. He sang super loud and clear on all the parts he knew and then looked around the rest of the time. He did a good job with his part, "The temple is special to me, because it's the house of God". He had it memorized for weeks and still knows it. Jason and Liesel were sitting in with me and both sets of grandparents. Apparently even five adults can't keep Jason from escaping up to the stand to sit with Daddy. Honestly it makes me feel better that more than half the time I can keep him with me, ha, ha!

Yesterday we had the missionaries over for dinner. After Jason finished pounding down tons of food out-eating all the adults, he got down from the table, ran around the room, touching everyone saying, "I turned you into a zombie!" The only variation was for Liesel, "I turned you into a baby zombie!" Yeah, we provide food and entertainment at our house!

Seriously, though, the best part was when Brad was dropping off the missionaries. I was rinsing the dishes and I heard Parker say, "Jason, come sit her by me and I'll read you scriptures." He then proceeded reading, "I, Nephi, having been born of goodly parents, ..." Jason sat for a few minutes and Parker kept reading out of the Book of Mormon for five minutes. So precious!

Code Adam

Do any of you know how much frantic worry and embarrassment parents feel when they have to go to customer service at Wal-Mart and ask them to announce your missing child? Well, unfortunately I do.

I should know by now, through MANY bad experiences, that I should never take Jason to Wal-Mart during his nap time. It seems I had not learned and decided to make a trip while Parker was at school. Well, I couldn't find a cart that buckled in both Liesel and Jason and since I was just picking up a few things I figured I could brave not having Jason strapped in. He was actually really good and sat in the back of the cart for almost the whole time. The last thing on my list was bananas. He wanted to climb out and walk. I told him to hold on to the side of the cart while we walked, which he did. He helped me choose a bunch of bananas and then he started running toward the check out. I called to him and followed him with my eyes to see where he was going. He ran through some of the check out stands and over to the drinking fountains by customer service. I hurried over there, but couldn't see him anywhere. I walked back and forth a minute scanning the store. It had only been a minute or two, but I was starting to worry that he had run outside into the parking lot. I still couldn't see any trace of him, so I walked over to customer service. I described my little runaway and heard her announce over the loud speaker, "We have a Code Adam. It is a little 2 1/2 year old boy in a lime green shirt and navy shorts." Less than 30 seconds later, an employee brought him over and said that he had been in the men's bathroom. I am so grateful he was found so quickly! I hugged him tightly and didn't let him out of my arms as I checked out and walked out to the car. I tried to help him understand how worried I had been and that he should never run away from me again. (Sigh)...if only he listens.

Mischievous!

Today at church our high councilman, Brother Craig, gave a wonderful talk about the blessings and challenges of children. The first part of the meeting the kids had been pretty good. Liesel looked through my Gospel Principles manual and pointed to all the pictures of Jesus and then was content to run back and forth on the bench. The boys played (mostly quietly) with the lacing cards and then these awesome cards. So Brother Craig started talking about his 2 year old twin grand daughters. One is well-behaved and the other, well, he's trying to teach her the word "mischievous". He and his wife took them to the zoo. The curious one fell into the monkey enclosure.
As I'm listening I am thinking I have a mischievous child too. I look over at Jason and to my horror I see that he has taken the dry erase pen from said great cards and colored on the chapel walls. It was several lines from the base of the wall clear up as high as he could reach. That means it was clearly visible to all the people around us...and Brad up on the stand. We were mortified! I slid over from my post near the aisle (where I can best keep Jason from escaping) and tried my best to scrub it discreetly with a wipe. It was hardly making a difference. Right then Liesel fell off the bench and started screaming. I picked her up and before I could grab Jason he ran up on the stand to sit with Dad. After she calmed down we came back in, but only to the usual not-so-calmness of my wild kids in sacrament meeting. Brad offered to clean it up during Sunday School. He was able to get most of it, but I'll have to go this week with better supplies and finish the job.
Todays trial is quite small in the grand scheme of things (although still rather embarrassing). I just want us all to be able to laugh at it and hopefully I can learn from it. Oh how I love my sweet children! I am so grateful for the trust that Heavenly Father has in me and Brad to raise them. The challenges help me develop patience, compassion, hard work and other Christlike attributes that I may not learn as well otherwise. Of course like most of you, I don't seek out challenges and avoid them when possible. I only pray that I can overcome my trials with faith and grow closer to God.

Humorously Naughty

Jason is a fire-ball of energy. He is always climbing, running, making messes, singing, laughing. He has a zest for life that is so fun to witness. My favorite thing about Jason is that he often runs up to me the most enthusiastic, "Mommy!" like I am his favorite person in the world. He does the same thing almost daily for Daddy and Parker when they get home from work or off the school bus. Every morning he walks into Liesel with the same style of "Liesel!" I love it!

This cute kid certainly knows how to get into things he shouldn't. The other day I walked into his room to check on him during nap time to find this:

It took me a minute to find him too.

The thing about Jason's mischief is that he is so funny about what he does. The other day he went out in the back and picked a few handfuls of my basil. Then he ran inside and flushed it down the toilet while laughing hysterically. This photo was taken one day of the vent in his room. He had pulled it out and put a bunch of the Cat in the Hat game cards inside the vent cover.This is how he arranged the full box of wipes:

Here he is licking the picture. It's a jack-o-lantern made with Karo syrup. He says it tastes good, which is very well might, but that one was made last year. Yeah, ...kind of gross.

It's pretty hard to get mad even though he's a crazy little rascal!

My Maniac Monkey

Jason has always been my daring climber. He will climb to ridiculous heights without any fear. Before he was two he was scaling the side of the bunk bed. I hadn't realized until this video, but this is what he's been doing lately:

We had just moved that basketball hoop there a couple of days ago, but now I see it was unwise. I quickly moved it away so that he won't break it or break his head, crazy kid!

Angels and Rascals

Little Miss Liesel Grace is truly an angelic baby doll! Up until she was three weeks old, I kept setting my alarm to wake me up to feed her at least every four hours. Most of the time she'd wake me up earlier, but sometimes she'd sleep well enough for me to go wake her up. Even when she did awake, she'd squawk a few times and then stop as if listening for me. I had time to use the restroom and change her before she'd start crying. Parker was certainly not that way. Once he woke up, he wanted to eat and I'd better do it now. If I waited, he'd scream so much that we couldn't get him to calm down, even to eat. So, back to Liesel, she is so calm and mild. After three weeks I called the pediatrician to find out when I could let her try sleeping longer at night. She'd been in the office at four days old and again at 14 days. In that week and a half she'd grown from 6 lbs. 15 oz. to 8 lbs. 3 oz. Since she was certainly growing well, the doctor told me to go ahead and let her sleep if she would. Well, she will. For the past week she's been going at least six hours between night feedings. Once she went eight hours. What?? My 3 1/2 week old baby sleeps that well at night? Yes, like I said, she's an angel!

Having a girl is so much fun! I'm loving dressing her up every day. Maybe after a while I'll get lazy, but for now I love all the headbands and cute shoes! By the way, does anyone know where I can get some really cute long and short sleeve white onesies to use as undershirts? For now I'm using the unisex and I'd love something more feminine.

You would think that with such a good-natured baby that life would be simple, but with two crazy boys, that isn't always the case. The other day I walked into their room to find this:

We've really had to buckly down on the rule that if I have to clean up their toys, I put them away up high and out of reach for a while. We've also had to remove some of the toys for a while. I like to put a bunch away and rotate them out, but I'd been lax. No more. These two little rascals are not very good about falling asleep at bedtime. They've broken the blinds in their room and I'm hesitant to buy new ones. They still have curtains, of course, but they just open those for more light. Now that it's getting dark earlier it's better, but they still run around in the dark playing. The other day I came in to check on them and found this:

Really they're pretty good little boys, but sometimes they give me a run for my money.

Random Catch Up

This is a random catch up of the past few weeks. Normally Parker is a "play by the rules" kind of kid. For example, he likes to play Monopoly and other games the according to the instructions. Sometimes, however, he gets pretty creative. Here he and Jason are launching the Candy Land "guys" over the couch. They were entertained for quite a while!

Because of Baby Liesel, we've had lots of visitors in the last few weeks. I don't have pictures of all of them and I don't want to take the time to post even half the ones we have. I have included a few. Here's one with my dad:Parker loves to wrestle. He and his Daddy wrestle a lot. One of his little friends loves wrestling as well. In this photo it looks like Braxton and Parker are trying to hit each other, but really they're wrestling. Normally wrestling with other kids would make me really nervous, but these two never hurt each other. They'll say, "pause" and then two seconds later, "ready". What crazy kids!I genuinely enjoyed having a family of boys, but I definitely love having a little girl in our family. I was super-fortunate to have my mom come stay with us for a week. She was very helpful and the boys thoroughly enjoyed it. Thanks mom!

A few weeks ago Brad went camping with the Scouts and I came down to a party at my grandma's. We sure love Grandma Cannon!My cousin Brian was a good sport to arm wrestle with my boys.Here's my brother Ben holding Liesel:

Last Sunday our nephew Will was blessed. My brother-in-law Eric gave him such a beautiful blessing. On the way down to Salt Lake for the blessing Jason took off his cast. Since it didn't seem to hurt him and was supposed to come off on Tuesday, I just stuffed it back on.

We love that our kids have cousins near their same age!

Here's a shot with my mother-in-law and Liesel: We took the opportunity of us being dressed up to snap a family photo. It leaves much to be desired, but it's the best we have as a family of five. Love that we're five!

Jason did get his cast off on Tuesday. Even though it was September 28, it was 80 degrees outside. To celebrate Jason getting his cast off, we pulled out the wading pool and invited our neighbor's grandchildren to join us: Ty, Harli and their mom Jessi.

Last Friday we headed down to Springville to introduce Liesel Grace to her great-grandma. We all love visiting Grandma Pratt so much! That evening Brad and I went to his MBA gala with guest speaker Greg Mortenson, but that will get a post to itself.

Over the weekend we enjoyed watching General Conference. That evening for dinner my mom, sisters and kids met up with the Pratt girls at The Spaghetti Factory. I love that it's a tradition to go there every six months during the Priesthood session of Conference. Don't worry, the boys go out to dinner together before or after the Priesthood session and enjoy themselves too.

On Sunday between conference sessions we visited with Grandma and Grandpa Carlson. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture, so this one is from several months ago. My mom and sister Angie fixed a delicious Cafe Rio style dinner. I'll have to post the recipes when I get a copy. Afterwards we headed to Grandma Cannon's for a visit.

Then we went to visit Grandma Ipson.

Our kids are so lucky to have all of their great-grandmothers and one great-grandfather alive. I hope my children are able to remember the happy times we share as a family.

My sister Julie was in town this weekend. Her kids were thrilled to meet their new cousin. Ali had been calling her "my new sister Liesel". Of course they aren't all looking at the camera, but here is Alison, Heidi and Dylan holding Liesel.

I have a few more posts in my head as soon as I get the chance.

My Little Hooligans Playing Around

Now that our little girl is due in only 2 1/2 months, we decided we'd better get serious about transitioning Jason from his crib to his "big boy bed" on the bottom bunk. Tonight makes the second night of him falling asleep in the bed himself. We put him in there by 7:30 and he doesn't fall asleep until nearly nine, but we're hoping he'll get used to it and fall asleep earlier. This picture was taken tonight at about 8:20 when I went in to check on them. It was quite dark, so I couldn't see him well when I shot the picture. Apparently Jason thought it was so funny that he wasn't asleep. He's such a tease!

His older brother Parker is a tease as well. He talks to Jas and leans over to peek at him from the top bunk. It is hard enough for our kids to transition from the crib to the "big boy bed" without someone encouraging them to play.

Really Jason is doing pretty well considering Parker's experience. Parker climbed out of his crib at seventeen months, so we made the transition then. For weeks he'd fall asleep on the floor or in weird positions. At night we'd come in and move him to his bed. He had a particularly hard time for naps. Here are a few shots of his funny positions. Today our neighbor Blaire invited the boys to come swimming in her pool. They all had a grand time playing in the water.I'm glad that Jason has gotten over his terror of the water. The first time he went swimming a month ago and at the ocean he was terrified, but not anymore. We've been swimming in our wading pool several other times, but I have forgotten to take pictures. Oh, well.Jason got over his fear about two weeks ago when I took the boys to the North Shore Aquatic Center by our house. It is the best swim park ever for little kids. Anyway, he was crying when we got there, but once he saw Parker go down this froggy slide, that was it. He wanted to play too and wasn't afraid at all.It's kind of funny that he was so afraid, because now he can't get enough of the water. He loves to play in the water and even likes to be splashed in the face!On an unrelated note: On Sunday Parker gave his second talk in Primary. The other young children who were supposed to participate wouldn't say a word, but Parker wasn't nervous at all. His talk was about how the Holy Ghost testifies of the truth of all things. He said loudly what his dad whispered in his ear and did a fantastic job! In Sunbeams class Parker drew a picture of his family. I love it so much I'm posting it. The back row has Mommy, Jason and Daddy and the front row has Parker and our little Baby Girl. I love our rainbow hair and the glasses on Brad and Parker! We hope you've been having as much fun as we have!