Harper says....

Instead of pancakes or flap jacks she says "flip cakes."
She also calls banana splits, "banana flips."
Her most frequent sayings right now are "but why?" and "I told you..."
Instead of yesterday it's "last day."
Instead of favorite it's "best"....Like, "Look mommy, I am wearing my best fweat pants." And she LOVES her "fweat pants" She likes to be comfy, and not wear jeans. She hates "tags in it." Every tag must go.
Every Sunday in the middle of church she takes a trip down the aisle to see Pa and she tells him she wants "cheese pizza" and wear she wants it from "Dominos or Geno's."
And... when she says or does something new I say "where did you learn that?" She always replies, "my dance cwass." Even though she doesn't go to a dance class.

Chaos

Oh my... we've started home improvements, like we have nothing better to do around here... Josh has removed the drop ceiling in the bedroom. We are waiting for the electrician to show up, move the off-center light fixture hole, put in a ceiling fan, then I will spackle the million holes in the ceiling from the drop ceiling, sand it, prime it, and paint it, then start the bedroom walls... The kitchen is empty, everything from the cabinet is piled up around the house, which makes it hard to cook and get snacks, etc... Josh got it all sanded and I cleaned up all the "dust" and have started priming it all. The laundry is as usual but with a new background color... UGH... didn't look like that on the swatch, will be repainting that room ASAP...And I am still behind on filing... Oh yeah, and our first soccer game is this week and window installers should be coming soon... what else can we add?
The weekend was good, besides the extra work. Saturday morning Harper and I went shopping at Dillards and then to Callie's wedding shower. It wasn't the "party" Harper had hoped for, no toys or fruit chews, so she didn't want to stay too long...
While Josh and I were busy in the kitchen, Pa came over and played with the kids. They mainly all sat on his lap and watched CatMouse togeter. Since the kitchen was in shambles, we had pizza delivered to our house on Saturday night, which Noah thought was the raddest thing ever... He kept talking to the delivery boy about "you bring pizza to our house?" in amazement, telling him to "come on in". We spread a blanket on the living room floor and had a pizza picnic (without the pizza delivery boy), we were all starving and those 2 large Papa John's pizzas didn't last long. We even splurged and all drank "black coko". Yum!
The kids coughed all night and we still had a lot of work to try to finish, so we missed church. At noon thirty we went to Nanna and Pappa's for Jessi's birthday party lunch. We ate and then went outside and played home run derby. Noah would hit it and then chunk the bat and run and tell you to try to tag him, but "only walk", so you wouldn't catch him and he would get a home run every time. Harper helped Nanna pick weeds and loved that, "Harper Helper."
After the party, I went with Kara and tried on a few bridesmaid dresses, that didn't work out at all, and then Josh called saying that Judd woke up crying for me, so I went back home and we relaxed the rest of the night. This morning I got up at 4:30 and have half the kitchen primed... not counting the cabinet doors.

For the love of baseball, soccer and high heels!

Judd has really found a new love... baseball... it's like he is naturally good at it, like Tiger Woods was born ready to play golf... Ok, maybe that's taking it a little too far, but you never now, right? He's favorite phrase is "Hit it, the ball" and he follows you around saying it over and over and over until you throw him a pitch. He's not even 2 and has pretty darn good swinging form! I am really impressed, or just a really proud mom, but you should see him hit it the ball!

Noah started soccer, have I mentioned that Josh and I are the coaches, well, mainly Josh, but I help out. It's crazy!!! We are so excited to have an AWESOME group of parents and kids... I can't stand to see those psycho parents at little league games taking it so seriously and screaming at their kids if they screw up, all of our parents seem so kind and nice and laid back and we are very thankful for that. I don't know if Noah likes soccer or not. He does good at practices, when he focuses and pays attention. Most of the time he wants to play tag and sits in the corner and cries because we got on to him for "using his hands." He seems to like it enough and gets very excited when we tell him we are having soccer practice. He doesn't like to wear his shin guards, and I don't blame him, they don't look that comfy to me either.

Lately, the kids have all been fighting over Harper's pink Barbie high heels! If one kid finds them unoccupied they put them on and clomp around the house in them, which makes all the other kids want them, then they cry and fight over them... guess I need to buy more heels.

Yesterday Judd was sitting in my lap and I was drinking a protein shake with soymilk, peanut butter, bananas, and a little chocolate syrup and he loved it!!! He'd take a big drink and say "ahhhh" and then he said "DELICIOUS!" I couldn't believe he said that and I said "Did you say that was 'delicious'?" and he yelled "YEAH!" Also, I was looking at Gabba Gabba birthday stuff online, and he saw it and said "AWESOME!" Amazing vocabulary this kid.

Harper Janey is doing well too, she's still pooping in her diaper though... not in the frog potty as she promised she would. Last night I asked her what it was going to take for her to poop in the potty and she said, "spank my bottom" and I said, "ok, so... every time you poop in your diaper, I am going to spank you?" She nodded yes. Hmmmm... that girl must really love poopin' in her diaper. Speaking of potty time... Little Juddson is using the potty, not for poop, but he pees in the potty consistently and even dumps and flushes it afterwards!!! YEAH JUDD!!!!

Little Twerpy

Have I mentioned that Harper lovingly calls Juddson "little twerpy"? It's accurate... and funny, I think she gets it from Pa. I was eating dinner (grilled salmon and a baked sweet potato) the other night and Judd crawled up in my lap and wanted bites. I asked him if he wanted fish and he said "No" and I asked him if he wanted potato and he said "No"... I got potato on the fork and touched it to his lips, and I guess he kind of thought it tasted good, so he opened his mouth really big for a bite... which I gave him-- a big ole bite of sweet potato. Wish I had a camera handy for his expression! He promptly spit it out and started scraping his tongue with his fingers, saying "dirty, dirty mommy, dirty." Maybe he didn't like the texture???
Yesterday, our little bitty training potty that DOESN'T GET POOPED IN.... was in the kitchen, don't ask why and Judd was diaperless and sat down on in and peed in it... (This was the 3rd time he's done it in the past few days, so he knows what he is doing) and he got up and put his arms in the air and said "I DID IT!" I went back to the office and was on the computer and I hear this "ploooop" sound and Judd had taken the little potty and dumped his pee in the big potty!!! and ended with another proud "I DID IT!!!" How smart, I was SO IMPRESSED! If I could only get 'em to poop, we'd be rich (not buying Huggies anymore.)
Speaking of Judd saying "I DID IT!!!" Wednesday morning he was throwing up a little bit, I don't know if it was because of the hard falls on his head or because of too much chicken and fry grease, but anyways the poor little thing would tell me "Thow up, mommy" and I would run him to the potty and he'd bend over it and throw up and dry heave and whine and cry-- like I do when I am in that position-- poor thing-- and then as soon as he'd finish he'd stand up, arms over head and yell "I did it!!" Sweet baby... he was so good for being so sick... He's growing TOO FAST and I CAN NOT STAND IT!!!!
Noah found his old X Box yesterday and wanted to play games.... Unfortunately, none of them worked, I don't know if the box was too dusty or the games were too scratched or what, but he was so sad, and let me know how sad it was. He worked so hard to try to fix it and would blow in it and lick and "clean" the games... None of it worked though... I was like, what's wrong with your Wii... and he wouldn't have it... ugh...
Harper hasn't felt good the past couple of days, she's either got a cold coming on or allergies. She's been coughing all night, driving us all crazy, poor thing. Last night Noah fell asleep first and she asked me if she could kiss him, and she did. She is the best sister ever!

Tuesday

The weather was gorgeous and we spent most of the day outside. Late in afternoon the Parker kids came to play for a little while. When Brooks got here, we all had Chick Fil A, then they played a little longer before they had to go home.
Judd took a couple of really hard falls... Hoover knocked him down once (on accident) and once he fell off the swingset- from the top level, to the next level and scared me really bad. Thankfully, he was ok. This morning he rolled off the bed and kept saying "fall off mommy fall off" through his tears...

THANK YOU BILLIE!!!!!

My sister's friend, Billie sent us some ADORABLE clothes for Harper! I am sending a "shout-out" to you Billie... "Thank you so much!" It was so thoughtful for you to think of us and we LOVE LOVE LOVE the clothes! Harper's favorite is the pink "princess" bath robe which she wore all evening and especially loved the fact that it has pockets. Josh loved, of course, the AR cheer leading outfit, and my favorites were probably the cherry & stripes outfit and the brown jumper with the flower tights... but I also love the denim skirt and "poke-it dot" tights too... Kara showed me pics of you and your sweet little Annie on FB and she is so BEAUTIFUL, Kara said she is the sweetest and best behaved little girl she's ever met! Thanks again, I can't wait for HJ to wear them... oh yeah, and the little sailor suit, too CUTE!!! While we were going through the stuff, Harp found the shoes first and I said, those are a little big, but maybe next spring.... She proceeded to put them on anyways, and said "See, I told you they fit." in her sassy little voice. And yes, they are too big, but I am sure they will be perfect for next year.

Noah's vocabulary is expanding every day. I am so thankful how much his speech is improving. He was laying in bed with Josh the other night and said "Daddy, listen, do you hear that owl?" Josh said, "You mean Hoover barking?" Noah said "Oh, yes." He was playing MarioKart and I noticed he was losing, which is rare, and I said, "Noah, are you winning?" and he said...er...uh... screamed "DON'T TALK ABOUT IT, DON'T TALK ABOUT IT, IT'S NOT NICE, DON'T TALK ABOUT IT!" So, I dropped it and continued with my laundry and in a few minutes he walked up to me and grabbed my hand and shook it and said "RADulations!" and I looked up and he'd come back from
8th place to win the race! It was a proud moment. Another time, we were playing Mario Brothers, and Josh has taught him how to trash talk and he was saying "I going up, you going down." and I talked it back and said "No, you are going down, I am going up." He looked right at me and said "That's impossible." He's such a sweetie. At night, he still loves for me to tell him he's beautiful and perfect and he's my baby boy... I have added a new one, I say "you're a great talker" and he says "yes" after I say that one to him! He'll kiss me and say "I am so happy to you." and I say it right back... he's precious. Oh yeah, the other night, Josh had only been home a short time and had to go get something out of his car, and Noah ran after him and J said, "what are you doing?" and N said "missing you" and ran and pushed the door open and said "come on in." The window man came back and measured our windows AGAIN yesterday and Noah had to have his tape and was following him around helping him measure. He's count, just as the man did and push the tape back in, just when he did...little helper.
Juddson, Juddson, Juddson-- what can I say about my little terrible two turner... It's hit a little early. That kid can throw a fit... Josh puts him in chair and calls it the crying chair and tells him he can sit there and cry, but he can't cry anywhere else... and Juddson does, he sits in the chair and cries, and then stops and then comes out fine... until something else happens and he doesn't get his way.
He is going to be athletic... We've been tossing the ball to Noah outside and Noah hits it and runs (the bases)-- kind of... and of course Judd had to get in on the action "My turn, my turn... hit it, hit it." So, I pitched it to him, and he hit it! He's not even two yet, and he's hitting the ball... consistently... One time he hit it and said "Single!" That's pretty smart, I'd say.
Harper Janey.... my little non pooper... We were at Walmart yesterday and we stopped to look at little potties. She picked out the most expensive one OF COURSE and said she'd poop in that one. I refused to get it, with all the pinkness and bells and whistles-- literally... so, she also liked the $12 one, which I could handle... It looks like you are sitting on a little frog... simple and cute... so before buying the frog pot, I told her, "If I buy this frog, you will not wear any more diapers, do you understand?" "I un-stand" "OK...if I buy this frog, you will poop in this frog." "Ok, I poop, I poop." So, the frog is here, un-pooped in as of now, but hopefully it will get "broken-in" soon... I am not backing down on this battle.
While we are playing baseball, Harper digs in the dirt or swings... but she can't "Swing berrrrrry high," so she MEEDS me to push her, constantly; and the girls likes to swing HIGH, as high as the swing will swing.... So, I get her going high, and then go back to pitch some more.
Gotta get 'em up and around...

Pics for now

Weekend and phone pics

This GORGEOUS weekend was spend outside. We played in the backyard and took walks, and Sunday afternoon walked up to the park. We are definitely ready for spring to stay here. (In the ones of Judd: the first one he's really sleeping, the next one, he's fakin'.)
These are pics I uploaded from my phone, taken over the past few months.

Matilda Jane

Yesterday we played outside all day, it was like 75 degrees and beautiful. We took an hour and forty-five minute walk/jog and it may have been a little too much because the kids all came back pink cheeked and pink knee-ed--- I really doubt if that is a word...anyways, when we got home Granny and Grandmom were here waiting to see us with curly fries for the kids. After baths and lunch, we loaded up and went to Alyssia's in Alma. The kids played outside while I shopped at the trunk show.
Check out these outfits, I can't wait for HJ to get into them.


Holy Moly! She is going to have to wear them until she is 6 to get our money's worth out of them... Yikes.
Anyways, the kids cried when we had to leave, Noah said "why why why why?" So we promised them we'd come back and play sometime. From there, we went home and I met a girl and sold the elliptical I had on craigslist. I knew the kids were starving so we went to McDonalds. They were perfect and we had an awesome time sitting at the circle booth, I was so proud of them. After we ate, we stopped by home long enough to pick up Nanna's cake and pick up Daddy and we were off to Cory and Jessi's for Nanna's birthday party. Judd and HJ played with Lexi and Mary and Noah and Luke played Wii. At the end of the night, the kids had only had 10 minute naps and were exhausted and Judd lost it... He had a huge melt down over I don't even know what. Josh loaded Harper first and when he was putting her in her carseat she said "I'm weddy to go home, get in bed, and go to fweep" and Josh started laughing and she said "was the hiwarious?" and he laughed some more. Harp and Judd fell asleep in the car and Noah stayed up and talked video games in bed and then watched Friday Night Lights until he passed out.

Can it get any more hectic

We have been running around like crazy this week, and I feel like I have hardly gotten to see the kids. We've had growing kids sale to get ready for and thank you NANNY SO MUCH for watching the kids while we shopped! We got a lot done and saved a lot of money, but it took FOREVER~ it was packed... Anyways, the only thing really to mention is that I got HJ some pull-ups at Sam's. She was very excited and wanted to put one on right away. I explained to her that they felt like diapers, but weren't diapers, they were more like panties, and she could not pee in them, they were only for accidents... So, that night, she patted her pull-up and said "I wike dees better" and I said, "you like those better than diapers? Great!!" It was only a little later, when I went to her room and found all the used pull-ups in the floor that I realized why she "wiked dem better" it's because it was like a diaper she could change by herself.... she was going through them like crazy, peeing in them, kicking them off and putting on a new one... Ugh... will she ever learn? I bought her a potty at the growing kids sale, one like you saw Jon and Kate's kids learn to go on... She watched that, she knows... maybe this will work!!!!
Judd has definitely learned the art of fit throwing this week, I mean, has perfected it. If one little thing doesn't go his way, it's a big screaming cry with a fall down to the floor with a glance back to make sure he's not going to hit his head too hard, then the head goes back, then the roll over with extra screaming, hands over the face buried in the ground.... Nice.... he's got it down!
Noah has been precious this week, he says "I so happy for you" and I hope that means he's so happy that I am his mom... that's how I translate it at least...and I tell him, I so happy for him too!

Back to the grind

The weekend was spent at home doing nothing for the most part... which was wonderful. We did sign Noah up for soccer and before we left he said he needed his tennis shoes on and soccer ball to go play... poor little thing couldn't understand that we were just going to sign him up, and not to actually play; so this should be interesting. Since Josh used to play soccer, he signed up to coach as well, like he has time to do that, but I DO NOT want Noah to end up on a team with some psycho coach who yells at and threatens kids to win or whatever... you know the type. Anyways, the season will start in the next few weeks. Of course, Harp wants to play soccer too, so now we'll have to find her something to get into, like dance class.

Noah, apparently learns alot in school that he doesn't share with us. Like, this weekend, I was teaching Harper and Judd to count to 10 in Spanish, and Noah just chimed in and started counting in Spanish. He also counted to 30 in English (well, almost, he ended with "twenty ten" but I corrected it, and he said 30, and he knows all the days of the week... Wow, I hadn't even taught him that, he said "Miss Wenda did."

I was holding Juddson, pretending he was a baby and pretending to feed him a bottle and Harper was watching. She pulled her shirt up and tried to feed him her boob....nice, we'd better stick with pretend bottles...

Judd doesn't like his feet to be covered up when he's in bed or when I am rocking him, as he's kicking his feet out he says "toes open, toes open" over and over.

My knee has been sore, and Harper has been holding my hand helping me walk, she says "one more step, just one more step." She is so kind and empathetic and thoughtful, she is going to make an awesome mommy or nurse, I can already tell.

Yesterday we were looking at some old pics and there was a pic of Noah and Harper from a little over a year ago and they were hugging each other and wearing church clothes and Harper said "I wub this one.... is this when my married?"