Thursday, May 31, 2012

Spring Harvest

Jed gets so excited about harvesting our little garden.  He squeals every time I hand him a new batch of fresh veggies to put in the bucket.

Our harvest today - beets and sauteed greens for dinner, fresh carrots, beans and peas for lunch.  Yum!

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Sleeping Boy with Dolly

I snapped this photo of Zane sleeping cuddled up with his baby doll.  Actually, it's Zoe's baby doll but Zane loves it so much I don't know that she will ever get it back.  When I lay him down for his nap, I give him the baby and he grins and touches the baby's smiling face, fingers its little hair, then hugs it close and drifts off to sleep.  He's going to be a great daddy some day.

Friday, May 18, 2012

This and That

Jed ran to the window after Michael walked out for work a couple days ago.  He said, "I love to watch dad leave for work in his car.  It always makes me cry!"
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I bought Zoe a new tube of training toothpaste the other day.  We made a big deal of it and she was SO excited!  We got the kind of tube that you decorate with stickers (which is the dumbest idea ever since they get sticky and gross in like 2 days, but whatever.)  She spent all afternoon decorating it with about five hundred stickers with Jed helping her.  (And by helping I mean "doing it for her."  But for some reason she doesn't mind...)  Anyway that evening I went to brush her teeth with her brand new toothpaste (oh boy!) and when I went to squeeze the tube, nothing came out.  Did I have the old tube?  No.  Was something wrong?  No.  Well, yes.  "Zoe, what happened to your new toothpaste? It's all gone!"  She looked up at me with innocent eyes.  "Mom, I ate it!"  She ate the whole tube and I caught her the next day trying to milk more out of it, little wretch.  Guess who gets to use mom's spicy toothpaste now?
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As we were driving down the highway one evening, we saw the most awesome tow truck ever.  It was huge, hauling a tanker, and covered with glowing and pulsing lights of every imaginable variety.  "Jed, look at what is ahead of us!"  We pulled up closer.  Jed started going on and on about how cool it was and look at the lights and look at that color and look how big it is etc. etc.  I know Jed well enough to know that when he gets excited about something like this his voice gets higher and higher.  So as we were driving past it, every time I responded to his excitement I would pitch my voice just slightly higher than his.  Then he would respond even higher.  And higher!  And higher! Michael and I were giggling uncontrollably. By the time we got off the freeway and waved goodbye to the truck, the kid was squeaking astronomically high up into the soprano atmosphere. "Bye truck!"!"  Hilarious!
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Here is Jed putting himself and Zoe down for a nap so I could have "some quiet time for yourself, Mom.  Then you can do the things you want to do, you know like do the dishes and clean the house and all those things so you will have fun, right Mom?" Um, right.
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About 6:30 AM the other day Zoe started shrieking wildly in her bedroom.  I stuck my head in and she was thrashing about in her bed screaming "I NEED UNDERPANTS!" again and again.  I could see she was still asleep but she was waking up the other kids. I went up to her bedside.  "Zoe, do you need some fresh underpants? You have some on right here!" I tugged at her undies.  She looked up at me blearily, little tears in her eyes, looked at the underpants and thought for a moment.  "I need 'tar underpants!" she wailed. "OK how about I throw some star undies in the laundry for you and I'll wash them up for today.  She sobbed softly and laid down.  "All right, Mom.  'Tar underpants."  "Love you Zoe."  "Tanks Mom."  And she was back asleep.
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A prayer for breakfast: "And Heavenly Father please bless Mom that she won't have so many boogers in her head.  Amen."

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

First Family Bike Ride of 2012

Jed has been practicing his biking skills and this week he went on his first bike ride with Mom and Dad.We are so professional.

 I think this was Zane's first bike ride ever!  Can you tell he and Zoe had fun?

 Jed feels so awesome, he can even ride backward. I am proud of how much he has learned this year.

Saturday, May 12, 2012

Jed's Bright Ideas


Jed's bright idea for today: Sewing Pound Puppies for all his friends of various sizes and colors.  Here is the last half of his twenty minute monologue regarding his plans.
(Sound problems have been resolved)

Tired, sad, and MAD

I think my babies are so cute when they cry.


Friday, May 11, 2012

Fashion Forward

Fashion first at our place.

 Check out that pose.

Friday, May 4, 2012

May Kids



Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Girls




Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Our Zozy

Here is our little Zoe Ann.
I am terrified to think she is almost three years old.  How did my smiling little elf-girl-baby turn into this clever-eyed, chatting, bouncing little girl?!    Sometimes I have to mutter to myself and remember that I don't have a preschooler, a toddler, and a baby anymore.  I have two preschoolers and an almost-toddler now! 

Yesterday, she informed me that her arms are really long so she can reach things.  I admired them as well.  We walked up to the house in silence and then she looked up at me and stretched her arms wide.  "Mom, my arms is AWESOME!"
Zoe's happy spirit is a ray of sunshine in our family.  Even when she's grouchy, she's making the world a cuter place.  Even when she's sad, she's beautiful.

She's an emphatically independent little woman right now.  Everything, everything, she can "do it myself." Don't you dare wipe her bum or turn on the water for her or put on her pants.  She will screech in protest "DYSELF!" Except eating, she really likes to be fed like a baby.  But hey, who wouldn't love to sing and wiggle and giggle at the table while having someone else do the bother of shoving food into your mouth?

The one exception to her independence is her adoration for big "Yed."  She follows and imitates everything her big brother does.  She eats what he eats, she plays with what he plays, she even insists that her goodnight song before bed must be "Monster Trucks and Race Cars."  Because if it's good enough for big brother, by golly, it must be the best for her.

 She dotes on her baby brother as much now as she did when he was born. Zane's two-thirds her size now, so holding him isn't quite as fun as it was back in the day, but she's still constantly fawning over him, bestowing kisses and caresses with wild abandon as long as he will allow.  See that glow of maternal love?  "Dat's MAH Zany!"  "Dat Zany, he love me, Mom.  Mmm-hmm."
 People often comment on how little Zoe speaks.  What she lacks in verbage she makes up for in singing, dancing, laughing, and communicating with her expressive brown eyes.  She tends to confuse  or drop her initial consonants, resulting in darling phrases like "I wan a dookie!"  and "I need a 'wink!" Other favorites: "It's snug-o time!" and "Winko Winko Wid-o 'Dar!"  (Notice each phrase ends in an exclamation point.  That is accurate.) For a long time, when you asked her what her name was, she would reply, laughing, "Aw, Mom, I Zozy!"

Zoe is our little songbird. I often go looking for her and find her sitting in her room, playing with her legos and singing a lilting little tune to herself.  She knows dozens of Primary songs.  But like her big brother, she is absolutely not a public performer and so you will never know it. But at home she'll always put on a cheerful little show for us.

 Here she is singing a silly prayer song, ready for dinner to begin.
One of my favorite recent developments is she has finally started responding to the phrase, "I love you."  I took a trip to California just for the weekend earlier this year, and when I returned, she told me for the first time ever, "I love you too, Mom!"  I think my heart exploded with joy. I love you, too, my Zozy!