Thursday, February 21, 2013

Love these Kids


Seth

It is so fun to watch Seth toddle around.  He is such a silly boy.  Such a delight.  So fun.  So happy.  
He loves to say, "Uh.........ohhhhhhhhhhh.  Uh..........ohhhhh."  He says it often as he throws his
food on the floor and then looks to us - maybe because he knows we are then going to take him
out of the chair.  Sometimes it seems like this discipline method isn't working right now :)  
Seth has 4 teeth and is getting 4 more in.
Seth found a binkie in the couch while driving his train.
Yeah it's upside down.
Seth loves to play outside.  Swinging, eating snow, and riding in his push car are probably his preferred activities right now.  Yesterday I had barely gotten him out of bed, his diaper was poopy, and he hadn't nursed yet (which is the only thing he wants to do right when he wakes up).  As I was carrying him downstairs he tried to dive out of my arms for the door.  He often brings us his hat or sometimes his shoes with a little grunt that means he wants to go outside.

Seth's other favorite activity is throwing things down the stairs.  At least daily he throws our shoes, hats, gloves, etc. down the lower section of stairs.  He also loves to find random objects from any of our bedrooms (nightlight, socks, toys, etc.), head over to the stairs, and throw it down.  Sometimes I will get out the bouncy balls and we will throw them all down the stairs.  He could do that all day, but I can't leave them out because he puts them in his mouth.


As you can see in the picture Seth likes to put on any necklaces or scarfs he comes across, but especially scarfs.  We have a fluffy green scarf that Grandma Hardman let the kids keep, and he has that on all the time.  The library has some little hooks on the wall by the board books.  They rotate different dress-ups for kids to play with.  A couple of months ago they had capes, but lately it has been scarfs.  He will go and pull one or two down and put them on and wander around contentedly.

Thanks to some inspiration from the Bennetts and Lindstroms we tried elimination communication with Seth. The number of times we put him on the potty each day, his success, and everything else related to this has fluctuated significantly.  At times we were rarely putting him on the potty.  Despite this inconsistency, he has been really consistent at going potty before his bath.  Lately we've remembered to put him on more often at other times during the day.  He has also gotten his potty and will sit on it (sometimes with a diaper or clothes on), or will bring it over to us.  Every time he has brought it to me and I put him on, he has gone potty!  It is crazy.  I'm sure we will have more ups and downs with this, but it is fun to see him understand what is going on and be pleased with himself.

I took this picture after writing this post.
Anika was supposed to go upstairs and get
some underwear...
Anika

Anika has recently gotten into Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.  When any of us encounter a problem she will often suggest, "Maybe a mouseketool could help us."  Sometimes when I am not in a good position to help her (often when she climbs behind the chair in our front room and pretends to be stuck), she is totally satisfied when I throw her some random object and say, "Here's a mouseketool."

Anika loves when we pretend that she is our pillow or our teddy bear.  She still just loves to pretend in general.  She often suggests that we go to the cabin or to Grandma and Grandpa's (both).

Anika prefers to wear pajamas.  Sometimes in the morning she will change from one pair to another.  The other day she came out of her room wearing pajamas and told me, "In quiet time I decided which pajamas to wear."

She often says cute things like, "When I woke up I realized that I had my pony tail in all night!"  I love hearing her sing songs or recite nursery rhymes.  She is figuring out how to count past 20 but still gets confused counting to 20.  Yesterday I started counting down from 10 and was surprised when she joined in.  She loves to say the prayer at meals but has lately also started saying, "Mom/Dad, would you like to say the prayer?"

Anika has an amazing memory.  She is funny, loves to be loved, and is so friendly - even to random people.  She'll say, "Hi.  How are YOU today?" or "Happy Valentine's Day."

Here is Anika emerging from, "The best hiding place in the world."

My kids love to play on the couch and with the cushions.  Good thing we decided to keep our trusty $20 couch when we moved instead of getting something nicer or more expensive.







Friday, February 1, 2013

Snow Fun

Nathaniel made this hill in our tiny front yard.

The kids loved it!  There is something about snow-gear that makes kids so adorable :)

"Ready, set, go!"

Slide down and eat some snow.

Anika struggling to stay/get up.

Aww, what cute kids!

Check out this little progression... picture #1 

#2

#3 (I got Seth down and Than climbed up)


#4 



Once there was a snowman, tall, Tall, TALL!!!

Can you believe this?


Well, it's true!




I don't know who did it (except that they are BYU fans) or how it was done,
but it must have taken men and machines.
The mouth is made from huge gift bows.  

 The scarf is made from fleece.

The arms are rakes.
Amazing!

Third Party for the 1st and 3rd Birthday Kids!

I really didn't do three parties to spoil my kids.  Anika didn't have a friend party last year when Seth was born.  We had three neighbor families over for Nemo.  Some of Nathaniel's family came one Sunday, and mine came the next. It just seemed easier having everyone come in small groups.

Anika has a pajama fetish.  She never wants to get out of them in the mornings.
Then she tries to and often does change back into pajamas,
or even sometimes just different pajamas, multiple times each day.
Anyway, that is why she is wearing her new horse pj's. 

We had some of my family come to celebrate with us too.
Here is my Grandma reading Anika's new "Brave" book.
(That was the first movie she saw in a real theater.)

She got some books, dress-ups, a Leap Frog DVD, and some stuff to
"girl up" the boy bike she got for Christmas.

I saw these no-sew tulle skirts and made two for her.  The second one is the
darker purple and blue on the floor behind her that wasn't finished :)

Dancing with Grandpa.


I made panda bear cupcakes to be sentimental :)  My mom made me a
panda bear cake for my 3rd birthday.  Although the 3D cake she made
required more time and skill.

Blowing out the candles.

Grandpa and Seth

More cake for Seth.  


Anika wanting to read her "Brave" book again.

Emily and Ben were good sports to come and celebrate with us.

Ha ha.  Aren't we cute?

Thursday, January 31, 2013

Double Nemo Birthday Party, 2nd Party

Anika has been into Nemo a bit lately, so I thought it might be a good theme for
a combined birthday party with Seth.  He turned 1, and she turned 3-years-old.

Seth likes Nemo too.  I considered buying a talking stuffed animal Nemo at Target one day.
I let him hold it, and he did not let go the entire time we shopped.  I had to pry it out of his hands
and made him cry a fair bit when we were done.  He also would not let go of this balloon.
He loved the balloon so much that he bit it and made a hole... before the party :)

Anika wanted to help me tie balloons onto our gate.

We put blue balloons with helium randomly around the room.  
The balloons also had little orange fish taped to the ribbons.

I printed and cut out two Nemo mobiles...

The table looked nicer later, but we had goldfish, swedish fish and gummy sharks, blue kool-aid with gummy sharks frozen into the ice cubes, orange creamsicle ice cream cups, and cupcakes with printed Nemo pictures alternating with orange gummy fish,.  I am said I didn't get a better picture of the table or a closer picture of the cupcakes, but it wasn't that impressive anyway.

Blue balloons we scattered around the floor to encourage an ocean-y feel.  I hid some orange, printed Nemo's around the room for the kids to "find Nemo."  We also had a little obstacle course where they crawled under jelly fish (streamers), hopped across a line of turtles (green felt pieces), and then threw bean bag into a bowl of blue stuff to win some bubbles!

We also played, "Fish, fish, shark" with a lot of parent involvement.
I knew it would be that way, but still fun.  And it was :)

Bubbles!

At the end of the party the kids took home a Nemo coloring page.  At the beginning of the party the kids got a fish I had cut out from foam paper.  They could choose an eye for it and then decorate it with foam shapes.  That was my idea.  Otherwise I can basically thank pinterest for the party ideas :)

First 1st & 3rd Birthday Party


 This is Seth's first 1st birthday party and cake.  I don't think I got a picture of the cake before :(

Judy has the same birthday as Seth, so we thought it would be fun to invite her, Than's parents, and the Roberts over to celebrate birthdays (including Anika's birthday which is one week later than theirs).

Grandma Hardman was kind enough to make a mini cake for Seth with blue frosting.  

It was just right, and he loved it!

Judy was kind enough to share her scrumptious chocolate cake with us all.
 Somehow I managed to not get a picture of Grandpa Hardman or myself.

Seth is pushing around Anika's "new" and free scooter.
Anika is checking out her new activity book from Grandma and Grandpa.

You can see Seth's "new" and also free yellow dumptruck in the background.  
Grandma and Grandpa gave him some balls and he loves them!

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