Dash update

I have to do a quick journaling update on my sweet chubby dash. He is getting so big so fast. He will be one in two weeks!! He has been walking since he was 10 months old and is really fast to get places now. He is my "little tornado" and is constantly getting into things he shouldn't! Last week I heard him saying "uh-oh" (his favorite thing to say) over and over from the bathroom. I go in there to see what the problem was and I saw maias piano notebook ripped up and thrown in tht toilet. Awesome. This is what happens on a daily basis. I just follow him around putting out fires I swear! He is getting so much personality. He can sign more, milk, sleep, dog, potty (just started signing this one today:), dad, all done.... He is really quick to pick up on things! He can say uh oh, dada, mama, and he tries to say Jesus and doggie while he makes a noise like he is barking like a dog:) 

He takes two good Naps a day and goes to bed for the night around 7 and wakes up around 630. He loves to play and interact with his older siblings and is getting to be more of an active part of what they are doing. He loves loves loves to be outside. He cries when we come in or when I shut the door to prevent him from going out. He is still my "chubby" as I like to call him, but he is thinning out since he has started walking/running everywhere. He loves his blankies and drinking milk from a sippy cup. He is busy and crazy but an easy going content kid:) we love him so much. He has bumps and bruises all the time because of how active he is! Just part of being a little boy I guess! Church is a huge challenge with him as he will only sit still for 2 mins tops. He does love the singing and will sing right along with it which is really cute. He is a good water and loves avocados, cucumbers, corn, beans, strawberries, raspberries, apples, pears, oranges, blueberries, grapes, carrots... Tonight I made rolls and he wouldn't eat them!! My only child who doesn't like rolls. I have to ration them out with the others! I'm aure thay will change:) anyway he is a sweet boy and we love him so much! 

Dash Update

Dash is such a happy, content, sweet baby. He is chubby and squishy and we can't get enough of him. He babbles and talks and laughs all the time. He is crawling fast everywhere now and is into everything. He wears me out so much sometimes I find myself really really looking forward to nap times and bedtime:) he loves to crawl up the stairs and does really well but doesn't know how to get back down. He pulls himself up to standing on everything and has even started pulling away and balancing for a few seconds. 

          His favorite things are pulling my scrapbook paper off the shelf, digging through the drawer that has kids dishes in it, pulling things off the lowest shelf in the pantry, climbing stairs, splashing in the tub, snuggling his blankies, playing with his siblings, copying is when we click our tongues or breathe in and out of our nose really fast (he is really good at both of these things:), playing with his sit and learn chair... He truly is such a joy. A busy one, but a joy none the less:) he is a pretty good eater for the most part. 

          Some of his favorite foods include: avocados, olives, oranges, peaches, pears, strawberries, blueberries, beans... He's not a fan of carrots, broccoli (although he will eat those in baby food form). He also loves eating a whole graham cracker. 

       He now has 4 teeth with more breaking through. He almost completely weaned himself about a month ago when his top teeth were breaking through and he was biting... The natural reaction from me of course is to gasp and scream out in pain and he took offense;).  He eventually forgave me and went back to nursing.  It was a rough couple days tho in the meantime! 

    A few pictures of our happy chubby boy.  His smile is so infectious! 

Orem Trip

Over the 4th of July David took the girls on a river trip with my family. Sienna and I stayed behind with our two youngest because we wanted to make life a little easier for our hubbies:) so instead of staying in the heat we went up to siennas house in Orem. It was so nice to be able to play outside all day and enjoy the cool evenings at night. 

One of masons most favorite things ever... The Escalade... He is actually quite a good driver! It doesn't hold a charge for very long so we had to plug it in a lot. Mason would get impatient waiting and would constantly ask "is that thing loaded?" Meaning is it charged:) 

Mason scored this pretend knife from his cousins house. He didn't let it leave his side (or pocket really) the whole time! 

We went to a splash pad and I was amazed at how much dash loved it. He crawled all over the place letting the water spray his face and everything! 

Look at this chubby boy. That is my nickname for him... My Chubby... Love baby rolls! 

My sister kept my kids so I could go shopping at Ikea all by myself! It was wonderful. I had tried to go with them the day before and it was a nightmare (hungry, tired kids+Mom forgot snacks=unhappy kids) The kids played outside in the water and had a much more fun time then they would have shopping with me:) 

My little brother babysat the older kids so sienna and I could go shopping with his new wife Lacee. It was so fun. He made a water slide out of the slide in their backyard and it was a big hit! 

It was such a fun few days and went by so fast. I love being close to family and letting my kids have cousin play time. Those relationships are the best! Oh and a quick cute story from the weekend before I forget. This is a conversation I overheard between star and mason. I came in at the end of it so I'm not sure what exactly they were talking about but this is what I heard: 

Mason: "why?"

Star: "because"

Mason "why?" 

Star: (a little louder) "because"

Mason "why?"

Star: (clearly annoyed now) "BECAUSE!!!"

Mason: "wow you're rude." And he walks off. So hilarious. 

Stickers

Dash is just starting the mobile phase and subsequently the "get into everything" phase. I always forget how exhausting it is to constantly be checking on where he is, what he might have in his mouth, etc. This particular day he had gotten into a pack of stickers in the office. I'm not sure how he managed to get them all over himself like this, but what you see is ALL his own doing. We got a good laugh out of it! 

Ryken's wedding

My little brother got married at the end of June. It was a extremely busy and fun weekend. It's hard to believe he is all grown up!! I love spending time with family and it was so fun to see not only my immediate family but also extended family that I haven't seen for a while. I was actually good about taking a few pictures with my real camera for once so the two below are the only ones I captured from my phone (hence the poor quality) 

Does it get any cuter than this face?! Love my baby Dash:) 

BMX bike park

Maia was staying at a cousins house for the week so I wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to spend some one on one time with Elsie.  I feel like she all too often gets lost in the mix of things. She is so easy going and rarely complains but I just had been feeling like she needed some time with just me. She decided she wanted to go to this little bmx bike park here. We got all loaded up to go when mason came out feeling sad because he wasn't coming. I told him he had to ask Elsie if he could come. He did and she said "well okay sure" and he was so excited. He gave her the biggest hug and said "you're the best Elsie!!" It was sweet. So it ended up being a double date;) it was so fun. The kids loved riding aroun and going down the "big hill". Mason is a champ on his strider balance bike. I am amazed at how well he has mastered it. He stands up on it, stops it with the back of his heel while standing, cruises amazingly fast and is just really a master at it! 

    We finished the night off at Ice Box, a little sno cone shack here. Everything was perfect until I didn't want to wait an hour for the kids to eat their GIANT sno cone (we had already been there 20 mins!!) so I said the kids could just ride in the back of the truck and eat it on the way home (it's literally just down the street from our house) they were super excited about that idea... Until they actually did it... We got home and I got out of the truck to find two crying, sad, and really sticky kids haha. The turns and bumps had spilled their sno cones and it was everywhere and they were NOT happy. Mom fail. Oh well the rest of a night was perfect:) 

Mason

I need to journal a few things about mason at this stage or I will forget them. He recebtly turned 3 and is becoming more and more of a rambunctious boy. He can be super stubborn and difficult at times. One particularly hard day he was throwing the biggest fit and I took him aside (we happened to be at Maia's school watching her in a relay race) and put him in a timeout to talk to him about his behavior. In the middle of my frustration, I had the thought to just tell him "I love you mason" and then tell him what we were going to do when we got out of time out. Those little words "I love you" changed him. He responded sooooo well to that love. He calmed down, stopped throwing a fit, and was so much better behaved. That was a few months ago but it has still stuck with him. Anytime he knows I'm starting to get upset he will say in a sweet, quiet voice "I love you mom" and it reminds me to calm down. When he feels himself starting to get upset he will say "I love you mom". Or if he is really angry and frustrated and I say those 3 words to him, he almost immediately changes and through tears says "I love you" back to me. My favorite is when he says "I love you in the whole wide world mom". He really is such a tender hearted and sweet boy. 

Another thing he has been saying a lot lately is "keep an eye on it". Like if he has to leave the room for something he will ask me to "keep an eye" on his food or something like that. It's so funny. "Mom will you keep an eye on that for me?" He will ask. He just wants to make sure no one is going to take his stuff:) 

His favorite scripture and bedtime story as of late is Ammom. What little boy doesn't love that story?! David tells it to him every night before bed. It's really sweet. Well mason found these cardboard tubes and made them into his "sword" and wants to fight David lately. He gives David a sword and then yells "I'm Ammon!!" And starts cutting off David's arms:) I love how he yells out "I'm Ammon!" He is all boy through and through. He needs that rough house interaction daily. Our next door neighbors (who had 2 boys that mason absolutely adored!) just moved and it's been sad for him. He honestly played with them every day and they mean the world to him. They were always playing sports, wrestling on the tramp, riding bikes, you name it. I hope I can find some boys for him to have play dates with because he certainly needs it. He plays well with the girls for a while, but then starts to get to crazy for them and tries to tease and big them (which he succeeds at every time!) and then they end up in a fit. Anyway here is mason playing "Ammon"