Date Night with Number 2

Warner wanted to do the same thing Liv did on her date night, so we loaded up the bike's, dawned our swim suits and headed out. He can ride his bike now without training wheels so it was so cute to see his little legs working as fast as his little bike would move. 

Here is Warner in a nutshell:

His favorite things to do are: Play with Ruby, throw and/or catch anything, play any kind of sport with Dad (but especially baseball), play the sword fighting game on the wii, play pirates with Olivia in the back yard, read with Mom, and color pictures of volcanoes.  

His recent accomplishments over the last year include learning to ride a bike without training wheels, memorizing 6 articles of faith, and three scriptures, learning to swim in all areas of the pool from deep to shallow, learning how to do front flips on the tramp, and learning how to read more independently.   

Warner loves to focus on one activity for a long time. Once he gets set up with something he likes he is very devoted to it. It might be building a tower, or lining up his cars, or playing with his pets, but he will be perfectly content all on his own to play quietly for hours if left undisturbed. It's not so good when I ask him to set the table though, or get ready for school, because he's so focused it's like he really doesn't even hear me. 

If I could describe Warner in three words it would be: Tender, Coordinated, and Playful. 

Something unique about Warner is: He loves scary things like ghosts and spiders and bees. Nothing scares him. It worries me sometimes. 

My favorite thing about Warner is ever since he was about two years old he has always held the door open for me wherever we go. He's such a little gentlemen.  

His favorite color is: Green 

His favorite food is any kind of fruit. Especially pineapple. 

Another funny thing about Warner is he loves to be warm. It's not unusual to see him on a hot summer day wearing a beanie and a sweatshirt, or walking around the house in his robe and his slippers on. He loves to get cozy. 

Warner looking cool during family scripture time

He loves his Ruby

On our date at Seward Park 

Jaron jumping off the tree into Lake Washington on our date with Warner

In his element

Cozy time

I do love him so.

Here's some funny quotes from Warner that I've jotted down over the last year:

January 10, 2014

While listening to the frozen soundtrack impressively attentively, Warner kept asking me questions. Like “What’s uphisticated mean?” . My favorite was in the song Reindeer's are better than People, where the singer sings “Don’t let the frost bite.” Warner looked at me in shock and said “How on EARTH does the frost bite!?” so seriously. It was so cute. 

January 17, 2014

Before running to the window to watch Dad pull out of the driveway, he ran to the garage and reminded Dad “Wave me out the window!” 

February 3, 2014 

Warner heard saying to his friend Hayden during a play date and while listening to the Frozen Soundtrack said 

“Hayden do you know what ‘the one’ means? It means like the person you are going to love forever and get married to in a castle or something”. 

3-18-2014

Warner all of the sudden exclaimed from the backseat “Mom! The people on the bottom of the world are probably upside down!” Then he paused and said “Wait! Are we upside down and they are right side up?” Good questions. 

4-14-2014

My kids have sweet, pure faith. Often times they pray that Jesus will please come down and tell them stories so they can meet him in person. Tonight was no exception, except for with the way Warner worded his prayer he said “And Jesus, I have so so so much faith. Like thousands of faiths. Can you please please come down. I know you can”. So sweet. 

4-25-1014

Reading with dad the book “Do Kangaroo’s have Momma’s” he was trying to impress Jaron with how well he could “read” the book. And by read I mean repeat it, because he had it memorized. Jaron caught on pretty quick that Warner had memorized it and decided to give him the challenge of at least trying to sound out the animal names. When Warner got to ‘dolphin’ he said “da da” now wait is that a silent d? 

5-1-14

Me- Warner if you were an animal what would  you be?

Warner- I’de be a tiger. What would you be?

Me- Probably a dolphin. 

Warner- Mom if you were an animal I think you would be a beautiful butterfly cause your so pwetty. 

Where does he come from?!

5-10-14

Warner runs in the house and says “Mom look at this thing I found. I think it might be a fossil. What is it?!”

Upon close observation I decided it was a bone of some sort. I don’t know where it came from, but it definitely is not a rock. 

So I said “I think it’s a bone, not a rock”

Then he licked it and said “Hmm. It doesn’t taste like a smooth rock”. 

Two thoughts. Eeew child you just licked that unkown object. And secondly, how would you know what a smooth rock tastes like? 

Date Night with Number 1

Olivia was was eagerly anticipating our date night with her. Even before it happened she kept saying "This is the best idea ever. Thanks Mom and Dad"! She was also very concerned that the weeks were going to go too fast and we wouldn't have enough time for our date night with her, but we assured her it was something we wouldn't miss for the world. Liv wanted to do exactly what Buster did only add on a swim. We biked the loop around Seward and Liv and Jaron jumped in and swam. It was gorgeous. And we had a moment on the lake together sitting on the bench that was pitch perfect as we soaked in the beauty.

I feel like I haven't written a blog about Olivia in way too long, which is ironic, because when she was little, if you've been following this blog for that long, you know that at the beginning of this blogs history, and for about the first two years, every single post was about her. I couldn't document her little happenings enough. I loved every little outfit I dressed her in, and literally anytime I had a spare moment I wanted to use it to be editing pictures of her or posting a blog about her cute little changes. It was like my hobby to document her life.  It's funny how life seems to go so fast, because that cute little baby is now a grown up, beautiful, little girl.

So here we go. Olivia. 

Her favorite things to do are art art art. And if it's not art it's reading. And if it's not reading it's exploring. And if it's not exploring it's dressing up with friends or playing just about any game with Warner. She also loves to swim and sing. 

Her recent accomplishments over the last year include a trophy from the suzuki association for passing off a recording of Gossec Gavotte played without any mistakes by memory, and she is just about to perform her book two recital in November. She also worked hard all summer long at trying to get to where she could run one mile straight without stopping and accomplished that goal after only two weeks of running. By the end of summer she could run almost 2 miles straight without stopping. 

She loves to read. She likes it so much that I can hardly keep up with her appetite for it. I will get five books from the library thinking she will read one a week, and then she goes and reads them all in a few days. She often gets in trouble for staying up too late with her little night light on stuck in a book. 

If I could describe Olivia in three words oh this is hard. How do I say inherently good? Hmm. She has a strong desire to just follow the rules and choose the right. Rule follower? I'm not sure how to put that in one word. She has such a sweet testimony of the gospel that I believe just came with her spirit from heaven. She loves keeping the commandments, learning about Jesus, and showing love to others. She already does missionary work, and I hope she goes on a mission one day, because her love of the gospel of Jesus Christ is contagious. That was way more than three words. Ok here: righteous, artistic, and diligent. . 

Something unique about Olivia is that she loves crystals and gems. She has since she was a little girl. She's so interested in geology and loves to find rocks wherever we go. 

My favorite thing about Olivia is that she's always looking for someone who needs a friend or who is having a hard day and then she reaches out to them, includes them in her circle of friends, and tries to make them happy. 

Her favorite color sometimes changes I'm pretty sure it used to be pink, but might be blue now. 

Her favorite food is fajitas. 

Her favorite soundtrack is The Sound of Music or Frozen 

Her favorite book is. . . I don't know I'll have to ask her tomorrow. I'll get back with that.

Here are some cute Liv quotes that I've recorded over the last year:

February 11, 2014
Me- Hey what do you say we start running when we get to that stop sign and run all the way to that green house down the street?

Olivia- Starting to pick up her pace to a run said “Ok, I’ll run to the stop sign too”.
She’s a good example of not putting things off. J

3-18-2014
While Reading the Frog Princess to the kids tonight at the table we were giggling about how the princess kissed a frog and all of the sudden Warner said to Liv who was just to the side of him “Wait, you kissed a frog before.” I laughed and looked at Olivia and said “Is it true?” She smiled her little toothless smile with her tounge sticking through her one lost front tooth and nodded. I said “Were you hoping he would turn into a prince?” She shook her head and then smiled and said “I just wanted to see what would happen”. J

4-6-2014
While researching facts about zebras for her school report Olivia said “Hey Mom you wanna hear something? I just read that the female Zebras produce a baby foal about once every two years, that’s just like you Mom!”.

5-14-14
Olivia invented a new word today:
Proovidents

It means evidence and proof

I love her.

Date Night with Number 3

These pictures were all taken at a date night with Buster where we ate some Mexican food, rode bikes, played at a beach park, and got some ice cream. J and I loved spending the time one on one with this cute little three year old beach baby of ours.

Here's some fun facts about Buster at 3 years old: 

His favorite things are food, swimming, running, bath time, Warner, cutting anything (most recently his hair), making loud noises, riding his bike, singing, playing at parks, throwing rocks over our fence into our neighbors yards, snuggle time, swinging, jumping on anything (preferably not the couch or his bed),and Emmy Pettibone.

His recent accomplishments over the last year are learning how to swim, ride a bike (with training wheels), shapes, colors, and is working on his letters.

He loves to sing twinkle twinkle little star all on his own in front of our family every single Monday night for the opening song. And he holds up his arms like he's leading a choir even though he's the only one singing.

He talks really well, and will often surprise people with sentences like "Hey. Wait. Do you go to my church? Cause actually I think I know you".

If I could describe Buster in three words it would be funny, clever, and energetic. He's always making us laugh. I have a hard time disciplining him, because he'll do something noddy and I'll say "Buster that is not ok, do you want a time out?" and he'll smile and say "Sure Mom. that would be great".

Something unique about Buster is that he is a lefty. Also he gets super tan without even trying, and orange is his very favorite color.

My favorite thing about Buster is that he makes me laugh all the time. He often makes me laugh in situations where I would normally be stressed. Another favorite thing is that he quietly eats all of his food at meal times without making a fuss no matter what I've made.

When he's really upset he usually just needs a big hug. Even when he's having a temper tantrum. He just needs some validation and love and then he calms right down and is very reasonable.

He is adorably OCD about cleanliness and likes to have his room clean and his bedding just so. On our walk home from school he has to walk the same way every time. He also likes to use the same fork and plate every day for dinner and the same bowl and spoon for breakfast. Also if a cupboard is open or a lid slightly ajar he is not settled until it is fixed. I guess he gets it from his Aunt Jenny.

To end, here are some of my favorite cute Buster quotes that I have recorded over the last year.

January 17, 2014 (21/2) 
While roaming around the grocery store quietly sitting as I put stuff in the cart with Ruby strapped to my chest and Buster seated in the cart, he randomly called out excitedly “Oh I love dis song!” to some song that was playing in the background at the store. It was a song that I know neither of us had ever heard before.

Anytime something is not working Buster’s new saying is “It’s outta batawies”. If he can’t quite get his straw back in through the lid hole he says “I can’t do it. It’s outta batawies”. When he saw the big huge fan at the Costco warehouse not spinning he pointed up to the cashier and said asked “Iss not working? Iss outta batawies?”  The other day the best one was when he was getting impatient putting his sock on his squirmy foot. After several attempts he finally screamed “It’s outta batawies!”

January 21, 2014
When Buster wants something that I’m eating he’ll say “Sure I’ll have some bluebewwies” then he’ll pause and if I haven’t gotten the hint yet he’ll say “Tank you for asking”.  I am confident that he could easily acquire all that I possess with this sweet approach.

Whenever he has done something on accident that has caused some sort of mess or brokenness I can hear him say from the other room “Uhhh I just did some ting” or when he's really done something noddy he'll run and find me and say "I wasn't doing something!" That's my clue to go figure out what he's done.

4-4-2014 Always goes to bed with a stack of markers all connected in a line. He doesn't draw on anything he simply calls them his “rollers” and somehow they make him feel safe.

5-10-14
Me- Buster don’t throw your bouncy ball in that empty trash can. It’s dirty inside there.
Buster- Long pause. Then staring at me totally bemused says “and?”

It was pretty mature for a two year old to say.

Like dirt has ever dissuaded any two year old from doing something.

Oh we love him. We do.