Lainee is FOUR!!!

Today is August 5, and this girl's 4th birthday! We're on our way to visit family for weddings, so we're in the car ALL day... She's a pretty happy kid nonetheless.

Here's how we celebrated yesterday...

Lainee woke up to some cute pink streamers and yellow balloons. She opened gifts from us at home. She got the one thing she asked for: "a standing up doll" with real hair and eyes that can close. She also got some clothes for her doll, and a backpack for preschool with some coloring supplies. Lucky girl.

(Yes, her hair is in "a bun like Tinkerbell's" once again...)

(The doll's name is supposed to be Celeste but Lainee renamed her Aurora, for obvious reasons.)

We had a pool party at our community pool with a pink and yellow lemonade theme. It was supposed to be thunderstorms that afternoon, but we got lucky and only saw a few sprinkles.

Will, Harrison, Siena, Lainee, Sophie, Jonas, Anna, Lydia, Tessa, plus Quezon, Zion, and Carter (and some of their moms and dads) all came to celebrate and swim with us and Lainee was so excited to have each of them come play!

LAINEE GIRL on her 4th birthday:

Stats---

Height: 40 inches

Weight: 33ish lbs??

Favs---

(According to herself)

-Favorite dinner: rice & chicken gravy

-Favorite dessert: cupcakes and cake and cookies with frosting 

-favorite color: pink and purple

-favorite movie: Frozen

-favorite cartoon: Strawberry Shortcake

-favorite toy: magiclip Elsa and Anna (and my doll of course)

-favorite primary song: snowman song

-favorite song: the one that Elsa sings on the mountain (Let it Go)

-favorite game: duck duck goose, Disney Scene It

-favorite thing to do outside: run around and ride bikes

-favorite thing to do with Dad: swim with him and play with him

-favorite thing to do with Mom: play with her, and like to help bake cookies

-Favorite holiday: Christmas!

-best friends: Sophie

-favorite thing about preschool: uh, doing crafts

-favorite kind of craft: painting

-favorite kind of cereal: kix and milk

-favorite snack: cheesy crackers (Ritz cracker sandwiches)

-favorite thing to do with Jace: dance with him

Other facts---

-Lainee still sleeps with Paisley, the doll.

-She is ALL into Disney princesses. She dresses up like them, plays with the figures, colors and draws them, sings their songs, watches their movies. 

- This girl is a great big sister most of the time! She and Jace are the best of buddies and copy each other's every silly move.

-Lainee enjoys going to primary and Mom is her teacher, but she likes it better when she gets to go all by herself. 

-When she grows up she wants to be a swimmer (that's what she says today but she has also recently said a baseball player, dancer, mom, gymnast, doctor...)

-She went to a co-op preshool group taught by Mom and other moms from the ward the ward, and she knows, recognizes, and writes all her letters, letter sounds, and numbers, can read some short words, and count to 30!

-She makes her own bed, puts away her own laundry, sets the table, brushes her teeth, dresses herself, washes herself in the tub, helps Jace find things and picks up toys when it's time. Sometimes we hear complaining but mostly Lainee is a terrific helper!

-Lainee is challenging Mom with tricky questions like:

     How does a baby get in your tummy?

     How does the baby get out?

     Why can't I see Jesus?

     When am I going to die?

     Why do we have to die?

     What's a crotch? (Or other weird word

     What does ______ mean? 

-She's a really good colorer and draws really well too. 

-Lainee's good at making friends and loves to play and pretend with other kids.

-Lainee got to go to Disneyland with our family last month for Mom and Dad's 5th anniversary, and she loved every little magical second of it. 

SHE IS SO EXCITED BE FOUR AND KEEP GETTING BIGGER AND BIGGER!

Happy birthday to my beautiful, bossy, smart, sweet, sassy, funny, talented, kind little birthday princess. We love her more than any words can express and are proud of her and all the things she's learning.

Half Birthday!

This handsome dude turned one and a half years old today. Here are his favorites and some fun facts about Jace these days:

Height: 33 inches (70 %ile)

Weight: 25.6 lbs (61 %ile)

Favorite food: strawberries, peaches

Favorite toys: cars & trucks!!! (And he has to sleep with his big "Dog dog.")

Favorite movies: Cars, Toy Story 2, Incredibles, Despicable Me

Favorite friend: Brynn Durrant (who else?)

Favorite place: outside

He is always content playing and exploring on his own and doesn't ever have to say much.

Finally did start talking and probably has a about 30 words no one can translate but Mom and Lainee, but at least he says them! (One of the very first was "poop" haha)

Favorite phrases include: where go? I jump! Get it.

Teeth: 6 on top, 6 on bottom, 4 coming

He feeds himself 99 % of the time. Sometimes with his hands, sometimes with utensils.

Jace is not the biggest fan of cold pools but he loooves splashing or jumping to Mom or Dad into the water.

This kid is the king of mess-making but is also a really great helper when it's time to pick up. 

He is getting so much better at sitting still and folding his arms during prayers.

Jace is very much a Mama's boy but also can't get enough of his cool dad. He wants to be just like him and is always throwing balls and discs around. 

Bedtime: 7:30pm 

Wake up: 6:00 ish am

He's a great napper, but just not the sleeper his sister was. Mom doesn't know what to do with 6 am! 

He's still climbing on EVERYTHING!!! 

He runs in away in fright every time someone knocks at the door.

He is a cheeser for pictures and sits still pretty well for any camera. 

Jace loves to dance and sing.

He laughs at/with his sister a lot! He also gets bossed by her a lot and is finally beginning to stick up for himself. He's not normally aggressive toward other kids EVER.

Although, Jace is not aggressive toward kids, he IS aggressive in other ways. He has a dinosaur growl that can knock socks off.

Still doesn't respond to strangers. Sometimes he'll cry but mostly when an unfamiliar person talks to him, he just freezes and stares. BUT if he knows he's safe in the cart or on Mom's hip, he waves and says "HI!" And "bye!" To anyone and everyone.

More of March

More random pictures of our life with our littles...

Lainee and Jace both had blood drawn last week. Lainee's was being checked for food allergies because she had a some kind of huge reaction last summer, and Jace's hemoglobin has bee slightly low so his needs to be checked for a bunch of things. Anywho, Lainee cried like a baby and Jace wasn't even phased. 

When Jace hears the FaceTime ring or a song or video on a device, he hurries to sit next to whoever is watching to join in.

I have this kid one tiny, bite-sized piece of chocolate egg and somehow he did this with it... What the heck?!

Lainee missed out on a chance to ride the train with Jace and her friends at the mall. We've been trying to have more meaningful consequences for her lately, and I think this one may have worked. She's such a sweet, friendly, helpful girl most of the time but, you know, she's three and that's worse than two. ;)

This is a daily occurrence. Something has to be on that shelf... I've rearranged a few times and no matter what is there, he's into it. (This is how my crockpot came to an end.)

Jace just loooves this little girly! She came over for a bit today and the whole hour before she arrived, he was uber excited and kept pointing to the door, waiting. He is at such a fun age right now and I adore him!

Selfie Sesh!

One time, like last week, Jace was being super possessive and protective of his big dog, and he cried every time Lainee came near him or even looked at him...

So, to distract them both, this selfie session happened! Enjoy!

Mid March Update.

This is another one of those "life according to my phone camera" posts... Random fun, doctor visits, my birthday, and more...

When we take walks or play outside, all Jace wants to do is checkout every car in the lot. There is a big yellow truck at the far end that he adores.

Lainee comes running every evening when I say "I need a table-setter!"

Have I mentioned this guy can't stop climbing on stuff? (Luckily this day he forgot to pull the chair out so he didn't make it to the top of the table).

One night Jace noticed that everyone kept closing and opening their eyes (aka blinking) so he spent some time experimenting with his own eyelid abilities.

Lainee had a follow up appt for her previous issues, and while we were there, the doc said she couldn't see much in one ear because of too much earwax, so they drained a huge mass of wax out and it was nasty.

Sometimes Jace uses legs and arms as tracks for his cars.

But mostly he just uses the tv stand.

He is so learning to use his little sporks.

He's so proud of himself!

We are having perfect weather for hanging out on the patio lately. I have to wash it down once a week our so because of all the dust and green pollen but it's worth it.

We had some visitors from Idaho on their way to California and it was soo fun to see them!

Lainee and her buddy, Will.

The crazy crew (minus Sophie).

Lainee's hair-before.

After.

I had a birthday and went on a date for the first time in forEVER! Thanks honey!

On my actual birthday, Garen snuck home during church and finished cleaning the house and left me a surprise!

Last week preschool was at our house so the second day, we did St Patrick's Day stuff... Leprechaun book, word family in a pot o gold, rainbows and the color wheel, lucky charm graphing, green snacks, Irish facts, and river dancing! Fun!

(I have no clue why Lainee struggled to write her name on the paper here, since she's been writing it for over a year now. Haha, funny kid.)

When the kids are out on the patio, Jace likes to knock on the door and window at me.

All the kids' friends have been on this train at the mall so I finally gave in and spent the $6 to let them ride. They loved it.

On occasion, when no one has to be anywhere in the morning, and we need some bonding time, we have family movie nights and sleep out on the air mattress all together. It's been almost a year since the last time, so we had one of these fun parties last Friday. 

Poor Jace had these rips (idk the non-gymnast term for this) on the bottoms of his feet Sunday afternoon and I hadn't noticed before so we weren't sure where they came from. Then I was tidying up and found a thick piece of skin the size of a nickel stuck to the strap on one of his little flip flops. The poor kid never even whined or acted like his feet hurt.  :(

I have never been one to "celebrate" St Patrick's Day because, as far as I know, I'm not Irish. This year was fun to teach the preschool kids some stuff about Ireland, and of course, one of the girls brought up the fact that her older siblings planned to set a trap and catch a leprechaun for St Patrick's Day... So guess who thought that was a great idea and has an easy mom to talk into stuff like that? Ding ding! Lainee! So we set up this oh-so-original trap and then the leprechaun forgot to show up (whoops) but don't worry, he came while we were at the grocery store! He left a note saying thanks for the treats but he was too fast for the trap. Haha.

I hope you all had a LUCKY day!