August Doings

A few quick pictures from the month of August....

We had lots of visitors! Opa came out from TN and the Molloys came up from AZ. The grandkids loved playing with their Opa. Especially Ruthie. She was quite enthralled with him - it was adorable. Amber, Mike and Henry stayed at our house. We always have a blast hanging out with them. It was so fun to see little Henry getting to be so big! We also had a visit from Jeremy and his boys Colton and Miles. The boys quickly enticed Austin up in to the tree with them. It was a lot of fun to spend quality time with the fam.

Opa and Oma gave Austin a t-ball set for his birthday. Here he is playing a modified game with daddy of "hit the ball, run to the fence, get the ball, throw it at daddy."

Austin is 4!

For Mr. Boy's 4th birthday, way back on August 1st, we had a Dinosaur Train party. I enjoy throwing themed parties. I recently discovered how simple it is to make my own iron-on t-shirts, so instead of goodie bags, I sent all the kids home with Dinosaur Train shirts ($3 from Walmart). We played all sorts of themed games - including bug collectors, pin the tail on Buddy, present "fishing" and of course riding the Dinosaur Train! We borrowed my mom's bouncy house for some added fun.

Austin requested "the same cake Buddy got on his birthday." Being a terrible and impatient cake decorator, I printed a picture of the cake and just put it on top of the one I made! Thankfully Austin was satisfied.

Party guests: Audrey, Ruthie, Ethan, Taylor, Joseph, Austin, Malachi, Inza, David and Nathan (not pictured).

If anyone out there has an opinion - what do you think of throwing parties for your kids every year? I honestly don't mind the work (right now) and I like the celebration, but I worry that other parents might feel burdened by buying my kid gifts year after year. Plus most people around me seem to be in favor of the "party every other year" plan. What do you think?

Now for some "being 4" highlights:

• Soon after turning 4 Austin started writing letters on his own. One day, out of the blue, he just started writing. Moments like that amaze me. What kids can pick up on their own. Since his birthday, his writing has been reinforced by preschool and he's getting pretty good. He still sometimes balks against holding his pen the correct way, but he'll do it if I remind him to "do it the way Miss Shannon tells you." Sometimes he'll ask me how to spell things and write them out. A few weeks ago he surprised me by writing AUSTIN, RUTH and HIDE (my name) all by himself (and he asked for help to write ANTHONY).
• As mentioned, Austin started preschool in August. His teacher praises him often for his smarts. He quickly picks up on new things and is great at counting and memorizing. Did I mention the day he recited the Pledge of Allegiance? I had no idea he was working on it until the whole thing popped out of his mouth one day!
• Austin loves to build. Train tracks, Legos, Playdo, marble run, his airport station - if it can be built he'll be enthralled. Then he'll spend an hour playing a make believe story around his creation. These are good care-free moments for mommy!
• Austin and Ruthie are becoming better and better friends. I'm definitely breaking up squabbles multiple times a day, but they also have moments where they play so well together it delights me. Like tonight, they played "doggie chase" around the couch for 15 minutes before bed and laughed and giggled their heads off.
• Austin also has unpleasant 4-year-old moments. Right after his birthday we started working really hard on "being nice". It seemed like he was physically attacking me or Ruthie 10 to 15 times a day. It was beyond aggravating. So we took a "Power of Positive Parenting" approach - which included a lot of praising for correct behaviors. There are days when I swear the system has worked miracles, and days when I think we're almost back to ground zero. Sigh. I keep hearing "He'll mellow out at 5." Here's hoping.
• Austin's other unpleasant behavior is his screaming. When he's frustrated, he will scream at the TOP of his lungs. Ruthie has started mimicking this behavior lately too (grrr). In fact, one time, he got frustrated with a toy and let out one of his blood curdling screams in the middle of the sacrament at church! Anthony took him out at lightning speed. At other times I tend to let it go since a) I prefer screaming to hitting and b) I hope that ignoring it might eventually kill it. We'll see.
• I was delighted that at Austin's 4-year check up he measured in at 40.25 inches. He hit the magic "big kid" mark just in time for our big family trip to Disneyland!
• Favorites (some old some new): green, raisin bran, The Cat in the Hat tv show, Buzz Lightyear, his Batman playset, playing "chase" around the couch, fruit roll ups, hot chocolate, his cousins.

Lullabies

Those of you who have seen our wedding video know that "our song" is I Will by the Beatles. We've made sure to familiarize our children on this song, so it's a regular in our bedtime lullabies playlist, and a favorite for them. Both Austin and Ruthie know it by heart. OK, Austin knows it by heart, and Ruthie is catching onto the syllable sequence (you never know if she gets the words or just plays them back as she hears them). Case in point, this is from a conversation that Austin had with Heidi a while back:

But mommy, I was so lonely in time out

Then let's make it faster

But mommy, I love you. Do you love me too?

I always, always love you.

Do you love me when we're apart?

That's when I love you the most because I miss you.

And when we're together my song will fill the air. And I need to sing it loud so you can hear me. Like this, "I'm a T-Rex. I'm a tyranosaurus. I'm the biggest carnivore in the cretascious forest." That's my song.

And, finally, a capture of Ruthie singing along with me.

Disneyland 2010

ur second family trip to Disneyland took place Sat Nov 13 to Sat Nov 20. During the trip we celebrated Ruthie's 2nd birthday on the 15th.

Here's a handful of memories from our fun week, roughly left to right:

1-Lambson kids on the teacups. Their family went to Disneyland a month before us.

2-Austin found a map of the future of California Adventure. He spent 20 minutes comparing his map to the one on the wall.

3-The 'A' boys. Anthony and Austin.

4-Austin showing Pluto his remote control "Shiny Pluto" toy.

5-Anthony buried the kids in the sand at the beach. We spent our last day at the beach.

6-Ruthie started out scared of the characters, like she was last year. On the second day we met up with Koda and Kenai. They didn't have a line, so it gave Ruthie a chance to approach at her speed. She spent 20 minutes watching other kids approach while the bears tried to encourage her to come over. Finally she had the courage to give them both hugs. The silent, perma-smile bears clapped and pumped their fists and coddled her. It was so cute.

7-The 'R' girls. Ruth and Heidi Ruth.

8-Ruthie digging the Playhouse Disney show now that she knows what the shows are.

9-Ruthie has recently adapted Donald Duck as her favorite character. My mom, who came with us, got Ruthie a stuffed Donald for her birthday. When asked, "What are you going to name it?" she replied, "Um... Mickey Mouse."

10-Autopia cars. Austin and grandma rode, but we didn't. Every afternoon one or two of the adults took Austin around to play while another one took Ruthie back to the hotel for a nap.

11-At CA Adventure park with Minnie. We tried to get Austin on the Soarin' ride, but he was still too scared to ride some of those 'unknown' rides.

12-Austin with, who else, Buzz Lightyear! That morning we bought Austin a magic trick so he spent a moment showing the trick to Buzz.

13-Partners statue. Is there a story there?

14-What if I'd married a man my own height? Ruthie helped bury Anthony in the sand. It was cold and cloudy on the beach that day. I kept my jacket on and didn't get in the water above my knees. Anthony and the kids were braver.

15-It sure was fun having my mom on the trip with us. Good times, great memories. Plus we got a date night in the park. While mom watched the kids Anthony and I rode some of the best coasters - Space, Screamin', Tower of Terror.

16-The bubbles on the Nemo ride elicited the biggest reaction out of Ruthie last year. But this year it was just so-so, but still a fun ride.

17-A future princess.

18-Our trip family photo. If I was a Christmas card sender, I probably would've used this picture.

19-Lambsons with Mickey.

20-Ruthie and I enjoying yummy treats. Ruthie was absolutely coated in it by the time she was done.

21-Austin on his big afternoon with grandma. They rode so many rides and had such a fun time together.

22-Stuck in Prim Nevada. Our car broke down on the way there. We were set back 4 hours and got to Anaheim around 3am. Grrr! I'm just glad we got it figured out.

23-Lambson's family Christmas card picture.

24-Dinosaurs. Austin can name all of the dinosaurs! He takes after his mother. I used to love naming the dinosaurs when I was 5 and now my little 4-year-old does it. (Thanks Dinosaur Train).

25-Anthony and the kids braved the cold November ocean water for about 30 minutes before they were totally blue and numb.

26-Ruthie at Minnie's house.

27-My triumphant moment of the trip. Austin rode my favorite ride with me - Splash Mountain! It took a bit of convincing, though. We first had to ride the Matterhorn, then bribe him with popcorn on the walk over and even use peer pressure telling him that even Makayla had gone on the ride! His take? It was fun, but wet. He was willing to ride again, but we never got around to it.

28-Darling wiped out kids. We actually spent long days at the park, crashing around 8 or 9 pm. By the end of the week we were a bit back logged on sleep.

29-Austin wrote his name in the sand. He's gotten so good at that this year!

30-Dumbo!

31-Austin's surprise favorite ride of the trip: Alice in Wonderland. He requested this about 3 times a day.

32-Goofing off in Toon Town.

33-Playing in the Brother Bear area.

34-My boy was just barely tall enough to ride some coasters this year. Scraping the 40" sign at 40.25". He loved Thunder and Splash, but wasn't ready for some of the others. That's ok. It's fun to have something to look forward to.

Rona and Other Sundries

• Ruthie has become quite the little miss independence lately, and she won't stop at irrationality to assert her new attitude. Case in point, take our latest bedtime conversation:
  Dad - Ruthie, it's time to put your PJ's on.
  Ruthie - No!!! I want Rudolph (the current alias for Austin).
  Dad - OK, if we get our PJ's on, we can read books with Rudolph.
  Ruthie - No!!!
  Dad - Well what do you want to do then?
  Ruthie - I want my PJ's.
  Dad - Great, let's put them on.
  Ruthie - No!!! I do myself.
  Dad - That's fine, go ahead and put them on yourself.
  Ruthie - No!!!
• The other day Heidi was in her bathroom putting on makeup and Ruthie grabbed the eye shadow from her. Heidi said kindly, "Ruthie, would you like to put on the eye shadow." Ruthie replied "No!!! My shadow!!!"
• As indicated above, Austin's latest obsession has been Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. That's all he wants to watch 24-7. The other day when he got sent to timeout Heidi overheard Austin quietly brooding in his room, "Why am I such a misfit? I am not such a nitwit. Just because my nose glows, why don't I fit in?"
• The Red Nosed Reindeer fad has also rubbed off on Ruthie. Whenever she sees Yukon Cornelius she hollers out "Yuuu-konnnn," mimicking Rudolph and Hermie calling out Yukon's name as he falls off the cliff with the abominable snow monster. Ruthie has also nicknamed the snow monster "Rona." Yes, that's Rona as in Mona with an R. Whenever she sees him in the movie or in our Rudolph book she claims matter-of-factly "That's Rona." Tonight we played the ambiguous wrestling game of kill-or-be-rescued-by-Rona. I'm absolutely lost as to how she picked up that name. TV says: "A-bom-in-a-ble Snow Mon-ster." Ruthie hears: "Ro-na."
• "Cooperate" has been the word of the house for the past couple months. "Now, Ruthie, if you don't cooperate...", "Thanks so much for cooperating...", "Are you ready to cooperate?" And the kids have caught on pretty well. And yet, it just sounds out of place coming from a 2-year-old. "I no co-op-e-wate" sounds like we skipped all the middle chapters and jumped to the back of the handbook on language development.
• A few weeks ago Heidi was in the church bathroom trying to convince Austin that "this is Jesus' house, so we should be reverent and treat it nicely." Austin's reply was "Wow, I didn't know that Jesus had so many potties in his house." And when one failed to flush he added, "And one of his potties is broken."
• Yesterday we went to see Tangled in the theater. When we got back Austin proceeded to turn off all the lights in the house. After singing a little song, he informed us, "See, my hair is glowing!!!" Then he made Ruthie sing (her version: "ladl-adl-adl-adl-adl-adl-adl") "Look Ruthie's hair is glowing!!!" In truth, it was pitch black and Austin's hair was definitely not glowing.
• At church I was sitting on the foyer couch between two others holding Austin for a time out because he screamed at the top of his lungs during the sacrament. Austin was wriggling so I had to hold him down pretty firmly. After struggling for a while he called out "Dad, you're hurting my penis!" Promptly followed by a blush from a Dad and two couch sitters. Yes, he has no qualms about discussing his body parts.
• Last month on our trip to Disneyland we were taking pictures in front of the CALIFORNIA letters at California Adventure. Ruthie got pictures in front of the R while Anthony and Austin got pictures in front of the A. Then Austin climbed up on the A and yelled out "Take a picture of me inside the A-hole."

Page Turners

I don't know why, but I foolishly started reading The Hunger Games last night. I'd been warned it was good. Anthony read book 1 on a flight to Germany, book 2 on the flight home and neglected the kids for an entire Saturday while I was gone so he could finish book 3. It's not like I have that kind of time. So why did I even start? Maybe I thought I was stronger than that. Maybe I haven't read a good page-turner for a few months and I'd forgotten the ocean-tide-like pull. Actually, I just wasn't expecting it to be that addicting. I started last night and was able to put it down for bed when I finished 'Part I'. I woke up this morning and spent the entire rest of the day neglecting the kids and the house till I finished the book around 5:30pm. For some reason the kids were extra extra good today and I managed to get away with it. I'd take a picture of our tornado house but it's all too embarrassing.

But, this has me thinking - what are the best page turners you've read, recently or not? Here's my list, though I'm sure I'm forgetting some.

1. The Hunger Games (I don't think I've ever ever done a 1-day read like this)

2. Angels and Deamons

3. Ender's Game (The first page turner I ever read back in 9th grade)

4. Harry Potter book 1 (The other 6 weren't quite as "new" as that very first for me)

5. Twilight (and Stephanie Meyer's other 4 books, although caveat: I was pregnant when I read them so I was only too happy to indulge in an escape!)

6. The DaVinci Code

7. The Dark Divine

8. Echo (an unpublished book by Brodi Ashton - I can't wait for Everneath to come out next year)

What am I forgetting? What is your top ten?

Happy (Utah) Halloween

Halloween comes early in Utah when it falls on a Sunday. Many trick-or-treaters were out and about tonight - including us. Austin selected our costume theme again this year. About a month ago he got super into the new PBS kids show "The Cat In The Hat" - hence The Cat, The Fish, and Thing 1 and Thing 2. I actually get a big kick out of doing family costumes. It'll be sad someday when they want to do their own separate things.

I discovered tonight that I must be a sugar-indulgent mother because this horde of collected candy meant nothing to my children. Austin got home, dumped his loot on the floor, looked at it and announced, "Here daddy, you can have it." Ruthie, on the other hand, wanted to at least try the candy, but only one bite from every package. "Open this, mommy." Bite. Toss. "Open this, mommy." It's ok though, Anthony and I didn't mind eating it all for them.

The Weepies (I Got Bounced!)

Welcome to "The Weepies"! This has been Anthony's favorite group for about a year now. They did a concert here Saturday night and Anthony got us tickets. I am now totally hooked too! It was a great concert; the only downside being that they only played 10 or so songs and we were well prepared to listen to their entire musical library. If you are reading our blog (not just reading this on an email) you can hear some of their best songs. Click here to check it out. Or watch our concert recording below (if the link is working).

[Us in concert-bought t-shirt and beanie].

Oh, and I got bounced from a club for the first time in my life. (Yes, it was the first time I've ever been to a club in my entire life!) Whenever Anthony and I go out he always drives and pays for everything. I drag along my wallet, hanging conspicuously around my neck like a janitor's keyring. So for once I decided to be free of the burden and leave my wallet at home. Turns out the concert was held at a small music club (with a bar) that held about 300 people. As we approached the front of the line to get in I noticed people showing their IDs. I laughed and said, "Guess I won't be going to the bar tonight! Ha Ha." No ma'am, you won't even be going in. The bouncer dude refused to let us in! Ack! We raced 30 minutes back home, grabbed my stupid wallet, raced 30 minutes back to the concert, missed the opening act and made it 2 minutes before our band took the stage. Phew! Listen up people - never leave your wallet at home!

(Please no commentary on why you should never go without wallet or ID. Believe me, I felt plenty small and stupid about it so just laugh

and don't rub it in.)

Cutest Girl in the World

Many thanks to Amber for the adorable hand-made dress (seriously - is that amazing or what!?).

My Favorite Picture Of Summer

This summer we discovered two things:

1. The kids have more fun playing in our oscillating sprinkler than in their kiddie pool. They even manage to get me to join in the fun!
2. We love cucumbers! My over-ambitious garden was worth it if for only one thing - Austin figured out how to pick ripe cucumbers and eat them straight from the garden. He loves to cut them in half with his bare hands and share with Ruthie. One vegetable they eat gladly. Yay!

Teaching Children

Austin's primary teacher called me yesterday morning about an hour before church asking me to pinch hit for her in teaching his class. This is what I love about teaching 4-year-olds: the lesson took me 5 minutes to prepare - then we had snacks - and played with play-do. It's nice when it's that easy! Alternatively, three weeks ago I was asked to teach the Relief Society lesson. Teaching adults is definitely tougher - that lesson took me 5 hours to prepare.

But I just learned that teaching 4-year-olds and teaching 40-year-olds can have something in common. One thing I love about teaching kids is that the lessons are so basic. In Austin's class we learn very basic principles of religion and morality - like being kind, being honest, loving our family, how to say a prayer, etc. I truly love leaving behind the complex and the complicated that we often get in Sunday School and going back to the simple and sweet that surrounds children. This year the lesson manual for the adults is awesome because it actually goes back to the basics. I am really enjoying revisiting simple religious principles. I actually hope that I'll get to teach some more this year (though not too often since an extra 5 hours can be hard to come by).

We Love Gymnastics!

Summertime was gymnastics time for Austin. He attended the Lehi Rec center program weekly April-June and had a great time learning new ways to move his body. They do a stellar job there - rotating sets of 4 kids through 3 stations with different teachers, sampling each of the major gymnastics events. At the end of each class all the kids put their arms in the center and shouted "We Love Gymnastics!" Austin had a great time with this and I enjoyed 1) watching him try new things and 2) practice taking teacher instructions. Although, after 3 months, he started to resist going so we had to call it quits then.

In May we were treated to a gymnastics "meet" where the parents got to come in the evening and watch these little ones show off their stuff (older kids had a real meet later in the week). In the pic below you can see Austin (L to R) doing tumbling, vaulting, parallel bars, marching in, and balance beam. At the end of the meet each kid was awarded a medal. I included my favorite moment of the night in video - Austin's "Buzz Lightyear" vault.

Happy 4th

This is something I haven't done in a good 6 months - blogged an event right after it transpired! Well I'm all caught up baby! Go me! (Of course, I stopped taking pictures for about 3 months to help with that...)

We started our holiday traditions Friday night with a visit to Provo's Freedom Days. The kids made crafts and Anthony and I grabbed some lamb gyros, which were delightfully reminiscent of German duners. The festival didn't do much for me this year - not sure if we'll attend next year.

Saturday morning (the "official" holiday in Utah) we took the kids swimming in the morning. In the afternoon we dropped Ruthie off at Lisa's (she had a great time) and met up with the rest of the fam to see Toy Story 3. As you can see, Austin was so excited, he wore his Buzz Lightyear costume for 2 straight days. Take on the movie? I loved it. Pixar is great. Toy Story 2 is still my favorite of the trilogy. Poor little Austin was deeply disturbed. At one point the bad guys capture Buzz and tie him to a chair. This is were it started to get hard for Austin. He leaned over to me and asked, "Why does Buzz have to go to time out?" Then the bad guys flipped Buzz's reset switch and turned him into a "bad" guy. Austin crawled into my lap crying and asking, "Why is Buzz being mean?" I kept reassuring him that his friends would save him and to keep watching. He did, ducking his head into my arm several times and at one point telling me, "I just want to see Toy Story 4." He made it through the movie and was happy with the ending, but confessed to everyone after, "That movie was just a little bit scary for me."

Following the movie we dashed off to Debbie's house for some evening nummy BBQ and fireworks.

Anthony overate. I lit my traditional parachutes. Ruthie stayed up till 10pm. And Austin got a girlfriend. A neighbor of Debbie's (whom she doesn't know) hooked up with Austin during the course of the evening. Wherever he led, she followed and he seemed quite content with her company. He didn't know her name (Lacey) and she kept calling him Buzz (which makes me wonder if she was won over by the uniform), but they sure were cute to watch. Her dad ran over to snag pictures of the duo too. Anthony thought we were watching the Austin and Lacey show more than the Stadium of Fire.