4 Kids, Not a Sound!

I'm one of those people that's pretty good at a lot of things, but excellent at nothing, except for one thing - getting babies and toddlers to all nap at the same time. It's my one and only power. On Saturday, I watched Derek and Cristina's kids while Brian helped them move into their new place. It was me and 4 kids, 3 years or under, from 9 AM until about 6 PM. It wasn't bad because we all know and like each other. But around nap time, even I was ready for a break and some peace and quiet. I had to figure out where to put everyone, but I was determined to make it work and get them all to sleep. And so, I did! Dexy went in his crib and like a peach as always, went right to sleep and was happy about it.

I put Ollie in my bed. Because he was getting to sleep in Mommy's bed, he was also happy about it and went right in with his cup and blanket and climbed into bed all by himself.

I put Jude in Ollie's room and then sat on the couch to feed Alice her bottle. She settled in and ate and was also more than happy to go to sleep. The whole time I was feeding her, I kept seeing the bedroom door open for a few seconds, then close, heard Jude making noises, then the door opened for a few seconds and it started again, over and over and over. It was quite funny! Once Alice's bottle was finished, I set a playpen up for her behind our table and she was gone.

By this time, however, Jude was kind of sad. He was crying for his Mommy and Daddy. I went upstairs and as soon as I opened the door, Jude hopped up off the floor and scampered onto the bed. He has been under stress with the whole moving thing, but he settled very quickly once I came in. After laying by him for a whole 3 minutes, he was snoring as well. Triumph! All 4 kids were out and continued to sleep for a couple of hours. It was so nice for the only sound to be the beef broth simmering on the stove for a while.

Empty House Party

When Derek and Cristina found out that their rent was going up $150, they started looking for a new place, as probably all of us would. They found a great deal. It's in a community of duplexs, allows pets, has an attached car port with a storage closet, a community pool, and even a little walled of backyard! We were all so excited to see it that we headed over there on Friday night after they got their keys. It was late, but they have a bathtub, right?! The house was totally empty and the boys loved it. They ran around in circles, tripped on the shag carpet, took pictures (Jude took the Ollie close up) and had the best time running in and out of the coat closet. Then we piled them all in the bathtub and they broke it in by sliding the door open and closed about 100 times and splashing everywhere, which actually isn't that big of a deal when you can just close the door. We were towel-less (the house was empty and I forgot to grab some) so they ran around some more to air dry. It was a grand old time! We're all excited for this new place and it's not even ours!

Dexy

Dexy has fabulous hair. The best part about it is that sometimes he wakes up and it looks perfect. Other times, it looks like this!

He can get the most rock awesome bed head that I have ever seen going on. This was the way it looked after his nap the other day.

Another fabulous thing about my Dexy is that he loves to cuddle with people and he is his Daddy's little buddy.

Whenever Brian is sitting in this chair on the computer, Dexy crawls behind him and snuggles up to him. It's one of my favorite things!

Spring Break

I haven't blogged in forever! What is the matter with me? Part of my problem was that we went up North for spring break. We are crazy to leave St. George and head where it's cold for the kick off of spring, but it was a great chance to see the Bowles clan. It was cold! It was a dangerous week! It was still good times! On our way up, we stopped at a playground to let the boys out and change diapers. Dexy fell and got a big cut right in between his eyes. A chair broke out from underneath Brian's mom and she went crashing down to the hardwood floor and probably had whiplash for a couple of days. Brian was playing with Ollie and Oliver slipped out of his control and cracked his face on a cedar bench. He now needs crowns on at least 2, maybe 3 of his teeth (the pic of Ollie in the upper right corner is at the dentist office when we took him in to make sure the damage wasn't too bad). See? Dangerous! Don't know what was in the air, but something had everyone off. Oh well. Everyone is ok and we still had fun. We went to the whole, extended Bowles family birthdays the first day that we were there and got too see tons of family. The boys love jumping on the tramp, playing in the backyard, and throwing the ball for Hajji. We celebrated Angela's birthday who turned 20 on the 21st. No more teenagers for them! We even had our old friend Brooklyn Bentensen over to play the last day that we were there. It has been basically a year since we last saw her! She's still as cute as ever, but is so tall and such a good talker now! And her hair is so long! We also had lunch with Brian's best friend, Dan and his wife Suzanne. So, although there were several injuries, it was very productive as far as seeing people and making memories goes!

Happy 3rd Birthday Oliver!

Our sweet, big boy, Oliver turned 3 years old yesterday! He is so smart! He remembers much of what he sees and hears. He oftens tells me about something that we did weeks ago, and I'm the one saying, "Oh, ya! You're right, we did do or see that." He's now also getting old enough to use his smarts in witty ways. When we're in his room getting ready for bed, he'll put his Daddy to bed, using all the exact same words that we use when we put him to bed. Ollie is also big enough to operate the computer all by himself and he loves it. He will play on a site we found, called Zoodles, all day long if I'd let him. He knows how to double click the icon to get it started and is great at controlling the mouse. He often sits there and does Zoodles with Dexy while I get stuff done. It's so nice that he's becoming not only independent, but a helper as well. Ollie loves helping me make food. Any time he sees me in the kitchen, he runs over and says, "what are you making?" Then he says, "Oh, I need to get a tsair," and pulls a little chair over to help. He is our rule keeper. He'll remind even Brian and I of things that we need to be doing like, "Be a little bit quiet, Daddy," at bedtime or "oh, we need stickers for sleeping all night long" to me. He won't go to sleep until he's picked up all his toys and books on his bedroom floor and everything is in just the right order. He still has an unending love for blasting tunes and having a dance party. He not only doesn't mind my obsessions, but he often really gets into them with me (think back to the "we should buy some Harry Potter plates" video or the fact that he'll watch silly youtube videos with me over and over and over). And he still loves jumping off of everything he can. He's a sweet big brother and is good to share and take turns. He's just so spectacular! So yesterday for his birthday, we had a little family party for him.

I made his cake during naptime, but I knew he wasn't sleeping. As soon as I turned on the beaters to get it all whipped together, I heard his door open. He had been in his room for about an hour, so I said, "Hey Ollie, do you want to come down here and help me finish making your cake?" He responded with a very enthusiastic, "Ya!" and came running down the stairs. He helped me beat the cake and then got to lick the beaters. Always the best part!

It was so delicious that when some of the batter dropped from the beaters to the counter, he just HAD to lick that stuff up, too! It was made entirely from scratch and tasted pretty darn good if you ask me (not to brag, or anything). Then we got the cake baking and played Zoodles while we waited for it to finish and the party to start.

Grammy and Granpy came and so did Derek's family. All Oliver wanted for his birthday was a Dora and Diego cake, so my mom went above and beyond and bought Diego party plates and party blowers as well as Dora and Diego stickers. It made all the kids so excited. Even Alice looked pretty pleased about the whole thing.

Here is how Ollie's Dora and Diego cake turned out. Wasn't the most fabulous cake ever created, but it looked really cute and tasted really, really good.

No longer does Oliver have a fear of people singing "Happy Birthday." It use to freak him out, but last night when I asked if he was ready for cake he said, "Ya, let's sing Happy Birthday!" He loved every second of it and then blew out his candles one at a time, very meticulously.

For Jude's birthday, Ollie was the only child to use a fork, but last night he threw all care to the wind and just picked his cake up and went for it!

Yummy! Happy Birthday to me!

Everyone really enjoyed it. Dexy downed his piece before striking a cheesy smile for the camera.

He got some great presents. Derek and Cristina got him this phone that he loves and in fact took to bed with him tonight. Then he also wanted a Dora phone from my Mom and Dad when he went to the store with her yesterday to get the party stuff. They also got him a cute play doh set with little letter stamps and lots of colors. And he got a couple of outfits for the warm weather that is coming already. And just because he is really seeming to go tall lately.

We had a grand old time. We love you so much, big boy, and are so glad that you came to our family. You fill our lives with wit, cleverness, order, a little danger, and lots of love!!!

2 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed

On the 25th of February, my boys got into an all out jump-fest on Ollie's bed. His bed was wet, so I went into his room to strip the sheets. They followed me into Ollie's room, so I turned on their kids songs and gathered up the dirty blankets and sheets and took them downstairs. When I came back, my 2 little monkies who were sitting on the bed, really started going. I turned the music up for them and they started rockin' out to nursery rhymes. They were jumping and flopping and singing. When a song when end, they'd stop and clap and say "yay!" And when the next song started they'd yell out, "Dance!" (or DA! if you're Dexy) and then start back into jumping with vigor! Then they were going to the edge of the bed to hold onto the dresser while they jumped extra high. But they both wanted to jump by the dresser and there's only room for one, so I had them take turns. And Dexy started being the turn moniter for us. He'd run up to the dresser, jump a few times, and then raise his hand and say, "ah, Doo!" This meant it was Ollie's turn (for some reason, Dexy calls Ollie "Doo"). Then Dexy would run to the wall and let Ollie have his turn jumping by the dresser. After a few jumps, Dexy would raise his hand and say, "ah, De!" Then he'd take his turn. Then, "ah, Doo!" meant Ollie's turn again. And then, "ah, De!" and he did this over and over. It was so, so, so precious! I recorded a video of him doing it for over 2 minutes because I just couldn't get over how precious it was. And no one worry - I stayed right by them the whole time and they don't jump on the bed without me in the room (probably mostly because they won't play in Ollie's room for very long unless I'm near by). I know it's dangerous. I keep a close eye on them. They were just having so much fun this time around that I didn't want to put an end to it.

Whatever Keeps You Sleeping

I love going into my boys rooms at night to look at them sleeping. Brian often thinks that I'm weird, but I can't help myself when I know that I'll find things like this. They are just so funny about what they find comfortable. If having your Toby the tram engine on your face makes you sleep, then it's fine with me! It looks like we'll have to keep following Toby on his many random adventures.

And if you want to be all askew and you feel comfy that way, then carry on! I still find sleeping children to be so adorable. I have always loved staring at my sleeping babies and I think it's possible that I'm not going to grow out of it. They're just too cute!