Erica Turns 4

Is there anything bigger to a four-year-old than their birthday? Erica has been counting down for weeks!

Saturday we had a combined birthday party for her and her cousin Maddie who turned 5 that day. They are best cousins. Erica chose pink cupcakes for her party and she did all the sprinkles.


Letting her go to town with the sprinkle jar was the best present ever.

At my mom's house, first thing first: put party hats on babies.

 The birthday girls!

 We played games requested by the girls: Pin the Bow on Minnie, Bingo, and the thimble game.

 Then they opened presents.

 Sarah uses her towel from Rachel as a towel and blanket.

 And then we sang. Sadly I didn't get a picture of Maddie and her cute cake.

Sunday after the Superbowl, I set up her birthday presents before heading to bed.

I had to wake her up the next morning. "Is it my birthday?" She got a little dollhouse.

And a birthday crown quickly made by me in the basement before she found me. It's hard making surprised for the one kid who never naps or leaves the house without me.

Henry gave her a sweet card and some his pokemon he thought she'd like.

I got her a Merida princess doll. I scoured ebay for weeks to find a decent deal. Magiclip dolls are expensive now that they aren't manufacture anymore.

Taking a pause between presents.

Half of her gifts were food including "banana wafers".

I finally got her baby album put together. 3 years late! She loves having her own album on the baby album shelf along with Sarah's and Henry's.

She picked waffles for breakfast and almost finished one. After Justin went to work and the kids went to school, she vegged in her new princess tent while I cleaned her room. (Monday is room day but this was another gift for her.)

Then while James took a nap, I finished her cake. She wanted a Minnie Mouse cake and this is what I came up with. Abstract Minnie, I called it.

Then she got to put in the candles. (Can you see all her food on the table?)

She wanted chips and cheese and chocolate milk for lunch while watching the kindle.

She's so dang easy to please. The only things she asked for was Sour Patch Watermelons, chocolate milk and balloons.

Once James was up, we headed to Macey's to get her some balloons which was the only thing she requested to do the entire day. This is the outfit she put together.

She wore her birthday crown too "so everyone will tell me happy birthday and that I'm four." I think they'd know she was 4 by her outfit.

Birthday ice cream cones!

After school I made Sarah and Henry stay home and play with her. They usually run right out to play with friends after their jobs. Henry was mad but Sarah was nice about it. Her friend Madison from across the street came over to play too. Then it was time to go to dinner but first our traditional photos with her.

She's my buddy. I am so sad that she's growing up because I have enjoyed her so much! Day one I knew she was good for my heart. The only consolation is that if I have loved every age so far, I will continue to think she's the best kid at 4 and 9 and 13 and 16. I think I will always like her. She's just that fun.

Geez I love this picture. These two are so dang funny together. And they're temperaments are so similar. Must be why she and I get along so well.

 Off to Chick-fil-A! Months ago she asked if we could go to Chick-fil-A for her birthday and even though she wavered and considered Brick Oven for a day or two, she stuck with her gut and chose Chick-fil-a and my parents came along. (Funny story: On Wednesday her birthday meal postcard from Brick Oven came in the mail. "How did the mailman know it was my birthday?" 

 Don't even get me started how grossed out I am that Henry took his socks off. It's so he can climb up the slide.

 Say good-bye to this cute outfit. I've accepted that James has outgrown it.

Once we got home, it was time for cake!

And then the kids got goofy with the party hats.

While the kids were getting ready for bed, Justin and I had one more surprise: Glow in the dark dance party! I had some glowsticks I saved from the summer just for this occasion. It's tough having a birthday in the winter on a school day so I wanted to do something extra special for her.





Here are the pictures I took of her today along with some of my favorite things about her.

She is easy going. She's thrown 3 tantrums in 4 years and has been to time out twice (for not cleaning). (She can still be quite the pill, just not the unreasonable kind.) She does not like it when Justin and I get after her and it breaks her heart when we are mad.

She is so giggly! I love her laugh. It is so contagious!

When she grows up, she wants to be a doctor for babies and a mom but never wants to move out.

She is the best sister (if you don't count the fact that she eats their food hidden in their rooms) She is always willing to play what Henry and Sarah want to play and she tries so hard to find things for James to do to make him happy.

I love everything about that cute face. The freckles, the big blue eyes, the "Anna bangs" and cute cheeks. If she gets caught in a fib, she'll squish her mouth or pull down her eyes to disguise her smile.

She talks and talks and talks and talks. Everyone is so impressed and surprised by her vocabulary. Some days I need a break from her chatter, especially by dinner time.

And then she was done with pictures.

Happy Birthday Erica Bear!

January? Done!

Wow January sure went by fast. It's probably because I didn't spend the entire month shoveling snow or searching the inversion sky looking for the sun. I liked it! I wish all Januaries could be so easy to get along with.

James my baby is so funny. It's hard to get a picture of him that isn't blurry because he is always on the move. He's starting to climb onto the couch and I know it's a matter of time before he attempts the kitchen chairs and then the kitchen table. No surface will be safe! He still eats quite a bit but he does this really annoying thing where he grabs the food out of his mouth and drops it instead of just refusing the bite because he's full. "If you're full, don't take the bite!" I say in exasperation as he flings mushy Mini Wheats onto the floor.

 Last week we had our friends Dave and Jill and their two kids over for dinner. They at moving to Minnesota so we wanted to see them one more time before they left.

Erica loved playing with their 2-year-old daughter and leading her around and finding things for her to play with. Erica may have been nearly 2 years older, but she was only a couple of inches taller! We'll miss them.

Saturday night we had each of the kids pick a game for the whole family to play after baths but before bed. This took longer than I expected so only Sarah got to play her game (Casino Yahtzee) that night. Justin and I played Formula D with Henry after church and then we played Erica's choice of Bold Sunday night before bed. It was fun to see what they each chose. Henry played the entire game of Bold dressed like this. Pretty sure he won too.

 Erica loves this game almost as much as she loves eating popcorn.

 Sarah did well too. I did terribly this round for some reason.

Here we are the library. I don't like taking James to the library very often because he likes to shove books to the back of the shelves or pull them onto the floor. Or climb the super tall, steep flight of stairs while my back is turned. When I do take him, we have to hang out in the playroom while Erica picks out her own books.

 He sure is cute though.

 On Tuesday Henry started little hoopsters basketball. He tucked in his shirt just like the players he watches on TV.

 He had a lot of fun although he spent most of the time goofing around in line with his friends.

 55 minutes is a long time to keep these little turkeys occupied.

 We spent most of the time keeping Erica from playing in the curtains and keeping James off the court.

Only 7 more sessions! Between activity days, piano lessons, young women's, and basketball, our Tuesdays and Thursdays are going to be pretty busy in February.

Our Family Motto

There are some really profound and motivational mottos adopted by families and I'd love for our family to have one of them. You know, something like, "Dyes can do hard things." Even something like "Dyes don't whine" would make me feel like our home had direction. But if I'm being honest, judging by what I tell my kids over and over, this is our family motto:

Other contenders are:

"Dyes don't unbuckle until the car is in park."

"Dyes don't ask for anything else until they eat what they asked for."

"Dyes play in the basement while the baby is sleeping."

And my personal favorite, "Dyes look for one more minute before they ask mom to find it."

For some reason we had a Friday off of school a couple of weeks ago. We went to the Bean Museum at BYU because that's what you do around here in the winter.

 James serpentine walked his way around like he owned the place and made growling noises.

 He did great walking in front of groups of people and wandering after strangers.

I wish we could get this close to live animals at the zoo. The museum curators and the zoo keepers should combine forces for a better animal experience.

 Sarah has been here like a dozen times since she was James's age.

 Here she is nearly 8 years ago. (I don't know why I just did that. Now I'm sad she's so big.)

Afterwards we went to the creamery. The kids had never been there. How did we let that happen?

 In true James style, he took over someone's ice cream cone.

 Now I have a knack for catching people with odd expressions but this one was totally posed by Henry.

 I was updating James's growth chart and somehow that ballooned to double-checking all the kids' charts. I started to notice some patterns and making comparisons. The charts go youngest to oldest, Sarah's being the blue one on the right. My babies get progressively taller at birth, James is nearly 3 inches taller than Sarah was at one year and he grew over 3 inches between 4-6 months.

Henry brought home a handwriting journal that he's been working on all year. There were some definite themes to some of his journal entries. 

 Is this a picture of ice cream? Looks like a water cooler with hand weights.

 He draws our house a lot but this it the biggest I've seen it.

 I love how he drew the trampoline legs and the bird. And spelled trampoline.

 Here's a close-up of himself.

He's been pumped about the Patriots lately but I've observed he's a very pragmatic and realistic fan. He doesn't always insist they are going to win just because he loves them so. He has his doubts. On Sunday when he heard that Brady hurt his hand he was discussing who he'll cheer for next if the Patriots lose. Some may say he's a fair-weather fan and they might be right. He's been known to switch his cheering during college games so that he's always cheering for the winning team. I'd like to think he's just being pragmatic and realistic. He's protecting his heart from disappointment. He wore his jersey to school yesterday and we made blondies which he dubbed "Brady bars" in honor of their win Sunday night.

Erica has quite the little routine on school days. She helps me with chores after the kids leave for school and if she gets all her jobs done, she can watch shows on my kindle while I shower or finish up other house projects while James naps. She eventually moves to the table so she can eat while she watches for the next hour or so. Some days she moves from seat to seat as she looks for the next clear spot to put her next plate or cup. It drives me crazy and I make her go back and pick up after herself. She's been getting upset at little things lately and boohooing when I don't do things just right. She's suffering from late-onset terrible 3's. I thought we were in the clear with her since she's shown no signs for the last 11 months. So close. I asked her what she wanted for her birthday and she said "A picture of you so if you die I can remember you."

Sarah is still our reading nerd and piano player. I got her the Chronicles of Narnia for Christmas and she's finished the first two books. (Which reminds me, I need to find a copy of the movie. I told her she could watch it after she finished the book.) She stays up way too late reading and we get after her but it only really bothers me if she's late getting up for school the next day. She has been doing well with her new piano teacher but she misses Sis. Johnson. Sis. Quigg doesn't stress her out as much as JiYoung did but I think she realizes she pushed her because she really cared that she improved week to week. She has a recital in March. She's been having lots of drama with her two friends that live closest to us which has been really hard since Sarah is so tenderhearted. She likes one of them on her own but when the two of them are together, they gang up on Sarah and leave her out just to be mean. I tried not to get too involved because I know how easily kids get over things but it's getting really old having to comfort Sarah nearly every time they play. And I'm beginning to believe "learning to get along" doesn't mean you have to suffer through being mistreated. And it's my responsibility to protect her, even if it's from another child. So I've been encouraging her to play with other girls that live a little farther away that are more mature. It takes a little more planning and effort on both our parts (and some lonely Saturdays for her) but no child should have to put up with another child's crap.

James is a goof-ball and a whiner. His favorite toy is his new toothbrush. He chews on all parts of it while lying on the floor and likes to show it off. He walks around everywhere and gets mad if we don't let him down so he can explore places on his own. Church is a major test of our patience. It's a battle to keep him contained and entertained in sacrament meeting and one of us always has to take him out part way through because his screaming gets too loud. I spend second hour wandering the halls with him while Justin does his clerk thing and then Justin spends third hour following him around while I'm with the young women. The only time he holds still a minute is in his highchair. I toss food to him like he's a duck just to keep him contained for a minute and so I can get something done. He takes a long morning nap and a short (or non-existent) afternoon nap but I think he's going to transition to one nap here pretty soon. That's always a hard transition for me because I have to figure out how to get ready in the morning while he's awake, get everything done in the afternoon while he's asleep and then make dinner, help kids with homework and chores when he's awake again. And yes, he's still grumpy and whiny with greater ability to follow me around. He cries and cries and cries at bedtime if Justin is the one to put him down but goes to sleep pretty quickly if I'm the one to read and rock with him.  Now this makes me feel good that he loves me so much and I really do love our time rocking in the dark while the other kids are being obnoxious about pajamas. But I'd rather he be okay with either parent putting him to bed.

One more week of January! Hooray! February is much more fun with Erica's birthday and Valentine's day.

A Post with No People

James continues to surprise me with his stuff he's shoved in places. I find something new here just about every day.

I love this felt letter board I got for Christmas. I feel like it's great for stating the obvious or making up meaningless headlines for what's going on in our home. Reading stuff on an official-looking board just makes it way funnier than if it was written on a whiteboard or something. This was my message before the kids headed to school after the Christmas break.

And this was what it said after a few days of anxiously watching for snow.

Because this is what our backyard looked like after Justin plucked a goose back there.

See, kids? Almost as good as snow.

Henry loves Zoey (and Jaclyn) and doesn't care who knows it. I'm sharing this so I don't forget it but please please please don't mention it to Henry if you see him in person. He wasn't embarrassed for me to see it and talk about it but I think only because it hasn't occurred to him to be embarrassed about it. He might if he gets too much attention for it.

His best friend Myer is also his wing-man. This note from Myer was in his backpack.

"Henry I am glad you are my friend and I know that Zoey likes you. Spanish Fork. Henry Dye."

Erica asked me today in church who wasn't in our family that she could marry. I named a few boys in our neighborhood or in her church class but she wrinkled her nose at all those suggestions until I suggested Myer and she said, "Okay, I like Myer." Myer is mostly nice to her so it makes sense.

My oldest sister Christena went by Steena or Steenee forever (and sometimes still does) because that's what my little brother Thomas could say when he was tiny. I found this Pokémon card of Henry's. It's the only Pokémon card I like.