Things I Don't Want to Forget About 3-year-old Sarah

Today is Sarah's half birthday. Lest I forget, I'm posting some of my favorite things about her.
She sorts the silverware by the forks and spoons she likes and doesn't like.

She needs the Macey's ad to look at while she eats her breakfast.

She won't wear the same pair of pj's two nights in a row.

She has a great need to be understood and to understand.  Ideas have to be repeated until we get it right.

She picks me a fresh bouquet of dandelions every morning.

She'd live at the park if I'd let her.

Time is measured by who's birthday is coming up next. "Then who's birthday is it?"

She climbs on my bed every morning and asks, "Where are we going today?" "I want breastast" (not a typo) "Mom, can you open your eyes?" Usually in that order.

She tells me "bad guy stories" in which she encounters bad guys and fights them off with her kicking and running skills.

She loves to pull weeds. (She gets that from me. I have a compulsion.)

She is a very thorough straightener and organizer when it's her idea and she wants to clean.

We can't break her from saying nilk for milk and nakian for napkin.

But I love that she says Family Home Homing for Family Home Evening

Sussaser is how she says professor.

She says "mostly" when she means "almost" ("It's mostly Henry's birthday.")

She says "about" when she means "without" ("You won't go about me?")

She is Henry's guardian, clown, assistant, best bud. She lives to make him happy.

But if he's got a toy she wants, all bets are off.

We celebrated her "unbirthday" with  pink pancakes for breakfast and will have a picnic in the living room for lunch.

Justin's Graduation

It's the moment we've all been waiting for! Well, at least the moment Justin and I have been waiting for.  No more homework, tests, projects, late nights! It's summer time all the time now.
Lining up with the rest of the graduates for Thursday afternoon commencement.  He looks like a professor huh?

He's somewhere over there.  I didn't bring the kids with me since I was pretty sure I would get bored, there's no way they would have survived.

This picture pretty much sums up Justin's life the last few years. I am so proud of him!

This may be the most documented moment of Justin's life. My mom had a thousand pictures, I took video. Here's just a couple to highlight the moment.

Shaking the hand of some important smart guy. Woohoo!

This is my dad. He is where Henry gets his red hair.  Justin thinks he's a mini Punqwa.

I remember thinking last year that we'll have 2 kids when Justin graduates.  Our baby boy will almost be a year old and I imagined what this day would look like.  Well here's the real thing. Sarah was obsessed with the tassle.

 Like wouldn't leave it alone.

 Seriously.

This is Henry and Gray.  They are best friends.

Justin says he's going fishing, finishing the basement, and cooking dinner every night (I made up that last part).

Justin Dye, MS

It's official.  More details to come.

Henry is 11 months old

11 months and 4 days to be exact.  I am already so excited for his birthday.  1 is so fun. 
His crawling skills improve everyday which means he is getting faster. He figured out he can go where he's never been (like the bathroom and under the kitchen table) so baby-proofing is a continual process. He can pull himself up to stuff and cruise a little but he doesn't know how to sit down so when he's bored, he cries. But mostly his mood is much better because of his new found freedom. He knows where all the doingy door stoppers are in all the rooms.

He still has just 2 teeth.  He loves any food we put in front of him. He can drink from a straw like a champ and he knows exactly what we mean when we ask him if he wants to splash in the tub.  This kid can flood a bathroom.

He loves his big sister.  He gets so excited to see her in the morning.  When she sleeps in, he eats and plays but is always looking around for her.  He even has a special yell when he calls for her.

Easter 2012

Every morning for a week, Sarah asked if it was Easter.  She was a little excited. She even remembered last year's egg hunt.  We had a big hunt with at my mom and dad's house with a bunch of cousins.  They all went home with more than enough candy.

 Henry got in on the action.

 My handsome boys.  That's what I said right after I took the picture.

How cute is Henry! He started crawling that day.  He proved to us all that he can learn to crawl without lying on his stomach....at nearly 11 months old.

 Egg monster.

This is Sarah in her Easter dress Sunday morning before church. She gave her first talk in Primary.  We practiced and practiced all day Saturday. She loved doing it.  She did it for my mom, she did it for the camera so I thought she'd be fine.  But when we got up there, she buried her head into my chest and wouldn't talk.  I read the talk while she stood next to me.  Then she said the last couple of lines and bounced to her seat.  Justin asked her how it went and she said "Good."  That's what matters, right?

 Henry is also pulling himself up to things and cruising around very slowly.  Just a few days of crawling and he's ready to walk!

Found this little gem in the library today. The word "midget" caught my eye, as it always does.

My Kids Are Deceptively Cute

All day long I think, gosh these kids are hard to take care of.  They take turns whining and crying and being hungry and getting dirty so I don't have a moment's peace. 
But at night when they are tucked in their beds and I go through the pictures to decide what to blog, the photos I've taken the last few days tell a different story.  Don't let these pictures fool you.  My kids are pills.

I mean, c'mon.  Look at this face.

The dollar store had some Easter painting things. Best dollar I've spent in long time.  This kept her occupied for hours.  I got her one last year and stressed myself out trying to teach her to rinse her brush before changing colors.  She didn't need help this year but Minnie did turn out all yellow.

Sarah slept over at Justin's parents house because....well I don't know why. She just gets it in her head that that's where she has to be and her Nana is kind enough to accommodate her.  She said she was going to stay for 5 days. I got her to come home at 2 pm the following afternoon only with the promise of making cinnamon rolls.

Anyway, since Henry was an only child for 20 hours, I decided to let him play with Sarah's things that she never shares with him.  Sorry Sarah, I am that kind of mom.

 Giddyup.

Saturday after the morning session of conference, Justin died on the driveway (not for reals).  It was quite the crime scene for Sarah and her sidewalk chalk.

She's learned to climb the porch steps by scaling the outside of the porch railing. She's like 4 feet from the ground. It does wonders for my blood pressure.

 This bag is not a toy.  It's a good distraction while I make dinner though.

I don't know what she's doing here. She danced around with this washcloth on her head for awhile today.

After all that, even I'm beginning to wonder if they're really that tough.  And yet my sore arm and tired eyes and the mess in the kitchen bring me back to reality.