Ivan is 3!

2 and a half months old

3 months old

I cannot believe my little boy is 3 years old already! He is such a big kid, a great big brother, and the best helper ever. He is absolutely hilarious! Ivan is a very fun loving kid. He is also very sensitive and aware of those around him, their emotions, and their actions. He takes being a big brother seriously. Very seriously. He knows that it's his job to protect Charlotte and keep her safe. He is more than willing to stand up to anybody, even Mom and Dad, when he thinks Charlotte is being treated unfairly. He pouts, he whines, he snorts when he laughs, he talks all the time.

10 months old

1 year old

1 year and 3 months old

Ivan's favorite things:

puzzles

strawberries

riding horses

playing soccer

being naked

playing with Charlotte

swinging

being a dinosaur

hot dogs

The Saggy Baggy Elephant

The Hive

raisins

2 years and 4 months old

2 years old

2 years and 6 months old

2 years and 8 months old

I seriously love this kid. Any time I'm in the kitchen, he brings a chair over to me and asks "Do you need any help today?" He loves helping me with the dishes and making cookies. And he's actually helpful, too. He follows the rules, most of the time, and helps Charlotte follow them too. Any time the kids are alone together, he helps Charlotte with whatever she needs. Ivan is very giving and sweet. I am so grateful to have this little guy in my life. He has changed me completely. I can only hope that the more he grows the more he'll help me grow. I love his sweet smile, his kind heart, his absolute desire to be all that is good, and all the love he gives to everyone he sees. One of my most favorite things he does is call people his "friends." Any time we're at the park, the play place, the store, wherever, and Ivan finds someone that talks to him, looks at him, or is a kid he thinks they are his friend. Ivan is crazy and an acrobat and a monkey climber. He is all that joy means. I love you kiddo.

The birthday boy!

Charlotte was a little overwhelmed by all the people and noise. She wanted nothing more than to cuddle with her dad. 

For Ivan's birthday celebration on his birthday, we let him choose what he wanted to do. He wanted to go to the play place for lunch then to the DI. At the DI he got to pick one toy that he could buy with his birthday money. He thought this was so cool! At Arctic Circle, since it has the best play place, they have these little coin machines that give out dinosaurs. As soon as we got inside Ivan said, "I can get one of those dinosaurs because I have my birthday moneys. Ooooo!" Ivan also asked to go to the library. We had perfect timing and got there for the tail end of story time. Everyone here is out of school on harvest break so they did a special story time today with cupcakes! Ivan got to decorate a special crown, color a picture, and have his very own cupcake.

Preschool Orientation

Ivan had preschool orientation right after Michael got done with class. So we all went to the school together. Me and the kids got to play in the wildlife museum on campus.

"Ooo, look at all the little eggs!"

He asked me to take a picture of him with the pelican. 

Charlotte was kinda scared of all the big animal heads. 

Here they are sharing a snack. 

Ivan moved so he could see the other animals and Charlotte followed. 

I signed Ivan up for the preschool lab at BYU-I this semester. The way the class works is that BYU-I students set up all the coursework and teach the class themselves with a few faculty members overseeing the class. This means he gets into the class for pretty cheap and that there are 5 or 6 teachers in there working with the kids at all times. And they have basically access to any teaching materials they can think of. I was so excited when I found out he got in.

I got to meet his teachers at a home visit last week and so far I'm not impressed. Maybe I'm just getting old, but I feel like his teachers are so young! And not that being young means you're stupid, but these girls just didn't seem all there. Hmm.

We had orientation with all the teachers and all the kids in the class. It was a little crazy. We were all in the same room, the parents, the teachers, and the kids. And lots of people had lots of kids and they were all there too. Apparently I'm really not good at situations with small rooms and lots of people. Then came time for the teachers to actually tell us the rules for the class. The rest of the time we'd just been letting the kids play and get used to the classroom. So when they wanted to talk to the parents, all they had were these tiny kid chairs to sit in. Really? You know in advance that adults will be gathering in this room, why not be prepared? For instance, you could have all the kids go to the classroom and have the adults meet in a separate room with real chairs to sit in. Also, the things they talked about at the orientation were the same things they said to us at the home visit that all the teachers did with each kid. Not really sure why we did it twice.

But the kids had a great time! They have a class pet, a gecko. Ivan got to pet it and he thought it was the coolest. They also have a bunch of little potties in there and Ivan was pretty dang excited to use a potty that "fit him just right."

Charlotte liked the big stuffed animals. She was just checking out all the other kids playing. 

24 Hours

Stay at home moms have pretty big jobs. They clean, cook, chauffeur, teach, and spend all of their time, every single day, caring for others. I know in my life that there are days when I can't find time to shower because of all the other things that need to be done first. I keep hearing people say that being a mom is the hardest job you'll ever love. It's true, I absolutely love being at home with my cuties all day. Yet at times, being with them all day is the absolute hardest thing I've ever done. The littles are demanding, hungry, highly active, and attention seeking. They need to be fed at least 3 times a day, clothed, bathed, played with, and the list goes on. Then there's the real hard stuff. Lately dinner time is the worst. I work so hard to make a delicious meal and literally have to fight my kids to eat it. Some nights they barely touch their food and I don't have the energy to do anything else about it, so they go to bed hungry. This wouldn't be so bad, especially since it doesn't really affect our bedtime routine, but it makes them wake up earlier. A couple weeks ago it was bedtime. I'd get the kids ready, brush teeth, read stories, sing songs, then leave them to sleep. It wouldn't take more than a few minutes to hear laughing and playing. Once I found them on top of their 6 foot tall dresser. Another time Ivan had moved his bed into the middle of the room and the kids were jumping from one bed to the next. Charlotte is easily the instigator. She jumps right up out of bed and grabs books off the shelf and takes them to read with Ivan in his bed. This wouldn't be a problem if they left the light off. Charlotte can't reach it, so I know it's Ivan every time. Once Ivan turns on the light, kiss sleep goodbye. They've gotten a lot better, especially since Michael came home. Not only do stay at home moms, well, any moms, have all the daytime stuff to do, they also have the nights. Michael is working nights, so the nights he works I never sleep well. There's something about the possibility of my kids waking up that keeps me from getting the full night's deep sleep that I so need. And my kids have been having nightmares, making it so I'm up with them 2 or more times a night. Ugh. I needed a break.

Michael, being the awesome husband that he is, agreed to let me do a mothers retreat. Laura, my wonderful sister in law, first brought about the idea of a mothers retreat. It's where mom leaves for a night, gets some good rest and relief, and has time to prepare for returning to her family. 

Living space, window with a view of the temple, and to the right is a kitchen area with sink, microwave, fridge, cabinets, table and chairs. 

I wanted to stay at a hotel, the Marriott. I got to stay in the executive suite, holy freaking crap it was incredible! I got a bread bowl pasta from Dominoes, a haircut, and did some thrift shopping. It was so nice to go out by myself and not have a deadline of when to be home. After settling in to the hotel, I did some things I wanted to do. I let myself be my own person and not have to take care of anybody else. I took a bath in a giant bathtub, I watched NCIS, I blogged, and I had a mountain dew without anybody else trying to get it away from me. I ate my dinner without anyone touching me, without getting up and helping anybody else, without arguing with anyone to eat your dinner. I was a person again! Then, after feeling like I had fully served myself with food, entertainment, and shopping, I got to work. 

A view of my beautiful bed for the night. King size really is the best. There's also a sitting area on the left and the balcony is accessible. I'm pretty sure I used all of the pillows on the bed (9 of them) except for the round one in the middle. I didn't get a picture of it, but the bathroom was pretty incredible too. It's divided into 2 rooms, the toilet and sink room then the sink, bathtub, and shower room. 

I am having a baby soon. Yay! I am really really excited to have another baby. I'm honestly excited for labor and delivery. I'm excited for a newborn. I'm the most excited to not be pregnant anymore. What else is there to prepare for that I'm not already looking forward to? Oh yea, I've got 2 other kids at home! So I wanted to help them be as excited for a baby brother as I am. I made workbooks for Ivan and Charlotte. I found this incredible idea on Pinterest, of course, and tailored it to my kids. They will work on name recognition, matching, numbers, shapes, colors, and holding a pencil. I also made some busy bag activities to use as nursing time games. I got so much stuff done. It's incredible what time all to myself, totally uninterrupted can do to my productivity. 

Just maybe the best part of my retreat. Breadbowl pasta, mountain dew, and football. 

I actually started missing my kids! Laura says that an important part of a mothers retreat is teaching your kids that mom leaves and mom comes back. I think it helped Michael a lot too. It's been a long time since he was alone with the kids for that amount of time. Come to think of it, and I think that's the first time he's been with them for that long by himself! Crazy. I got a full night's rest, a delicious giant breakfast, a shower without tiny people peeking in on me, and I accomplished all that I wanted to. It was so incredible to feel like a person again. And after going back home, I'm going to help establish myself as a person with my family as well. All too often I get lost in the busy-ness that is motherhood and forget to put myself first. It's like with the oxygen masks on airplanes, you have to secure your mask first before helping others. I need to make sure I'm taken care of before I can fully mother my children in the way they need me most. All it took for me to find myself again was 24 hours all to myself. I will be doing this again. 

Ivan's Birthday Party

It's birthday time again, and that means a party! Woohoo! I have been so looking forward to this party. I invited a lot less people than I usually do and tried to keep it to just Ivan's friends. Michael's parents were able to make it up for the day as well as his grandparents that live in Provo, Utah. We had a Finding Nemo theme, since that's what Ivan asked for. He absolutely loved his cake!

We had a super fun craft to make. It was little fish aquariums! All the kids got to decorate their fish and stick them in the box. 

Ivan loved using all the stickers he wanted. And he used about 9 googly eyes on just one fish!

Ivan and Sterling, best buds, showing off their tanks. 

The snack buffet! We had Swedish fish in jello cups, rainbow fish cupcakes, goldfish, carrots, cheese cubes, deli spirals and a cupcake pull apart cake. 

This was the first time I had attempted a pull apart cake. I had a clear vision of what I wanted, and with Janet's help, my dream was realized! We found those cute little Nemo figurines the day before the party and made the cake look like an ocean. 

Fishy cupcakes! Ivan thought these were so fun. 

Yum! Ivan was a little scared when everyone was singing him Happy Birthday, but blowing out the candles cheered him right up. 

This is Ivan's big birthday present. He loves his train table! 

We got to barbecue with all the grandparents after the party. And it gave us a chance to play with one of Ivan's new toys. I've been wanting to expand Ivan's sports experiences and this T ball stuff was perfect. He's slowly getting the hang of it, we just have to be careful of where Charlotte is.  

He hit it!

After the party fun, bouncing on the balloons. Haha! This was very fun until dad popped a balloon. Charlotte did not approve. 

The party was so much fun! Almost all of Ivan's friends were able to make it and they all had a blast too. It was great to see all the parents as well. The food was delicious, even if my oven is stupid and baked the cupcakes weird. I got to try some new recipes, dunkaroo dip sure is a keeper, and we all had fun decorating. We had the party a week and a half before Ivan's actually birthday. That was a tough decision. He was born on General Conference weekend, so his birthday falls right around that time every year. Last year we had his party the same weekend as the women's conference, which is a week before general conference, and I was going to do the same thing again this year. I decided to go a week earlier than that so more people could attend and not feel rushed to leave. That's how we got the grandparents there. :] 

Happy Birthday Ivan!

Photo Dump

Because I'm not more creative, I have a lot on my plate right now, and I want to be all caught up on the blog before baby comes, I'm just going to give you a crap ton of pictures of the awesome things we've been doing this month. Here it goes.

After we visited Brenda and Gavin we had the chance to stop by and see Michael's parents. Janet was reading Ivan this story and he was very interested in what was going on. 

I love seeing Charlotte squished between them. 

We got a fish tank! Michael has been wanting one really bad and after our visit with his parents (who bought our old tank from us) he really really wanted another tank. So happy early birthday to you babe. Once we got it all set up with some fish in it, the kids moved their chairs right in front of it and ate their snack there. We often spend time watching the fish like we would watch TV. It's very amusing. 

A new game in the house, totally made up by the kids, is to walk on the cookie sheets. Ok, I know, those are jelly roll pans, whatever. I use them for cookies so they are cookie sheets. Anyway, Ivan and Charlotte will randomly get the cookies sheets out and set them just far enough apart to make walking on them interesting. 

Ivan and I had the chance to go on a mom and son date. He went with me to my doctor's appointment then we headed to Idaho Falls. We walked around the toy section at the store, had lunch, and did some other shopping. Ivan was a great helper and had a blast, most of the time. At the end of our trip to Target, Ivan was running around the aisle while I looked at something. He was staying near me and out of the way of anyone that came by so I didn't mind him running around. That was until he ran right into a shelf. You know how the metal shelves kinda jut out on the side? So Ivan was running straight down the aisle and hit a shelf with his eye. Ouch. That definitely ended out trip. 

I got to choose where we ate, but Ivan was ecstatic about getting to choose what he ate. And he wore that cowboy hat the whole time!

Charlotte modeling her new boots. I found these boots at a yard sale and got them for the new baby boy, but it's the exact size Charlotte is wearing now and she doesn't have any shoes that fit her. Turns out the boots look just as cute on a girl as they would a boy. Ivan loves that they match.

I totally love this outfit! I think it catches some of her sassy personality. 

A couple businesses in Rigby were doing this promotional thing and we got invited by a friend to go. Turns out it was awesome. They had a big bouncy house obstacle course, pony rides, free food and a bunch of raffle stuff. Ivan loved riding the pony. 

We had delicious hot dogs (seriously they were good). I love everything about this picture. He had to wear his tie. He picked out his own clothes. And he wanted bread for his hot dog. This is the only time that has ever happened. He wouldn't even touch his hot dog til he had the bread for it. And I didn't want to get up again, after chasing him and Charlotte all around by myself (Michael is sleeping) I was pretty tired. So he asked our friends at the table with us then finally decided to go to the table where the bread was and ask the lady there to give him one. Once she noticed he was there, Ivan got the bread he wanted. He ate that whole hot dog too.

This is a sick Ivan. He had a high fever for a couple days, didn't eat much, and wasn't playing at all. Poor kid. He also wasn't sleeping well. I tried to get him to sleep in the bed with me and he wouldn't have it. So we moved to the living room at like 5 am and watched a movie. He started the morning by laying on the couch with all his blankets and animals. I fell asleep at some point and this is what Michael came home to at 7. Being sick is so not fun. Thankfully, he was the only one that got sick and he didn't have a runny nose or vomiting. 

This is what Ivan looks like when he wakes up from nap. I decided to cut his hair that day. 

A trip to the store with dad. Charlotte was so happy!

This is how Michael gets Ivan to behave at Walmart. People all around us were laughing, and so was I!

Just picking dandelions in the yard. 

Charlotte told Ivan "please" and he gave her a flower, how cute!

They were trying so hard to blow off the little seeds.