Happy 3rd Birthday Ross!

Whew - these kids' birthdays sneak up on me.  Maybe it was because we've been sick the whole week before that made me go a bit into panic mode.  

Born

1

2

3!

This cute guy turned 3 like it was no big deal.  So we had to make one!  I can't believe how this kid is growing...he's going to be in kindergarten before we know it and my heart is going to burst!  He is my cute baby boy.  This should definitely not be allowed.
 

The Invite - I was pretty proud of myself with my very limited designing skills and tools :)

Every time I asked Ross what kind of party he wanted he would repeatedly tell me a Planes party.  So I planned accordingly.  The day of his party I asked him if he was excited for his Planes party and he said, "How about a Monster Truck Party?"  Yeah - too late buddy. :)  
 

Sign I made too!  Woot Woot! 

The dinner spread - yum!

My infamous cake pops ;)  Airplane style!

We had a ton of fun!  We went down to Grandpa and Grandma White's since it was a bit more of a central location.  

We started the party off by having a delicious BBQ dinner - hotdogs and hamburgers.  Ross was all about the hotdogs.  

Afterwards we had a paper airplane throwing contest...which escalated when Uncle Nate's dart airplane took out two balloons.  He definitely earned the title of "Winner" - no one contested for fear of getting taken out by his death dart!
 

Ready for take off

Ross is focused!

Victory!

The three finalists - Dain, Dad, and Nathan

There were once three balloons here...Nathan pretty much destroyed everyone...and intimidated everyone else with his demonstration. :)

Ross did a great job and loved throwing the paper airplanes. :)

Then we played our classic pin the propeller on the plane.  We learned Ross is ready to be blindfolded since he got it right on the money. :)
 

Winner!  His "cheese" face

Ruby was a bit short ;)

Poor thing still had a leftover cold but still had fun!

Present were next.  Grandpa and Grandma Staheli got Ross some airplane rubber band shooters, Sarge and Sheriff from Cars and Mack with a trailer to put all his little cars in.  He went wild for it.  The handle is glued to his hand these days.  Uncle Dallas got him a fun McQueen that goes in the tub which is also always next to Mack.  Great Grandma Staheli got him some great Monster Trucks (which filled the void for no Monster Truck party), a great airplane from Uncle Young, a Toy Story kickball from Uncle Dain and Auntie Rachel - AWESOME, a Machines book that Ross keeps asking me to read to him from Uncle Nathan and Auntie Beka, and an extremely legit fishing pole from Grandma and Grandpa White...Ross keeps telling me to put a string on it so we can catch a fish and put it in a bucket...cause that is apparently why you fish.  :)  He loved ALL his presents.

Ecstatic!

The fishing pole that has been fantasized about for weeks. :)

Next was birthday cake!  Ross was excited to blow his candle out all day long.  When he looked at the plane cake pops he said, "These planes are cute!"  (He's been around me too long obviously - the best is if I get him to say "darling" - it's adorable.)  We sang Happy Birthday - he sang quite vehemently to himself saying "Ross" for every "you".  Then asked for a cake pop instead of his little cake - which I figured.  He ate the three marshmellows, took one bite and then decided he was done and couldn't take waiting to play with his toys any longer. :)  

Ready for the birthday blowing of the candle!

Concentration

Candle blowing complete!

To top off the party we had a glow stick dance party!  It was a hit!  I recommend it to anyone!  Use the Owl City song from Wreck it Ralph - When Can I See you Again - you can't go wrong.  Ross LOVED throwing his glow sticks up in the air and grabbing them again.  Ruby loved bouncing her little bum and waving her arms and trying to eat the glow sticks.  We managed a dance train too.  It was pretty awesome.  We, of course, had to dance to Life is a Highway and Let it Go as well.  All good things...all good things. ;)

Party time!

Ross and Ruby going crazy!

Auntie Beka and Cousin Alex

Party favors included some sweet smarties/lifesavers/stick of gum homemade airplanes, an airplane whistle or kazoo, and the glow sticks for the dance party. ;)  Ross was pretty happy about his party and it was so fun throwing it for him!  

Rubes playing some ball with Uncle Dallas

Auntie Rachel and Uncle Dain came all the way up for the party - woot woot!

Photo bomb!

For his actual birthday he preferred birthday Cheerios over birthday pancakes.  He wasn't feeling too good so got to watch some of his "little shows" and have pizza for dinner!  

He is just growing too fast.  He's 32lbs and 37 inches tall.  55% for weight and 29% for height....I think this boy isn't going to be extremely tall :) He's adorable though so it doesn't matter! He's potty trained - we're just working on the no-diaper-nights.  Soon though.  :)

He LOVES playing trains, flying planes, trying to convince us to take him on an airplane, fish (he spots them in all his books and asks to go fishing right then), doing puzzles, playing hide and seek (all time favorite), climbing ladders, baking (mainly cracking eggs and sampling dough), watching "little shows" - namely Curious George, Planes, Magic Schoolbus, Cars, Monster's Inc, and Wreck it Ralph.  He LOVES books - favorites: Me Too by Mercer Mayer, Llama Llama Red Pajama, Harold and the Purple Crayon, Mike and the Magic Cookies, any machines or truck book, No David, The Gruffalo, and Disney stories.  He loves his blue blanket, monkey, bear from Wales, and pillow with Mater and McQueen on it.  

He is a wonderful big brother and calls Ruby, "Rubes, Pretty Girl, Silly Girl."  She adores him and he still is the funniest person on the planet.  

He knows all his colors and letters and knows most of his letter sounds, can count to 20 and knows the numbers 1-10.  He loves songs and knows most of the ones we sing him by heart - favorites: Life is  Highway, I am a Child of God, I Hope They Call Me on a Mission, Mighty Machines theme song, and Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree.

He always will tell me, "I love you Mommy"  and "You pretty Mommy" which gets him whatever he wants. :)  He likes to climb into our bed in the mornings and "sleep" with us pretty much shoving us out of the bed. 

He lives for when Dad comes home and always has an agenda ready of what they're going to do together which Dad usually follows pretty well.  He is still his dad's number one fan.  He's up for snuggling though which is nice...and he uses it to his advantage when trying to avoid going to bed or getting in our bed.  We know this...but he still wins.

He has the sweetest smile, voice, and fun laugh.  His two cow licks in the front is his signature look.  I hope he'll like them as much as I do.  It makes cutting his hair extremely simple. :)  

Anyway - we love you little guy!  Stop growing up so fast!  Happy Happy Birthday!

Handsome boy!

Things I Don't Want to Forget

My children are adorable and drive me crazy at the same time.  When we put them to bed and they're sleeping Steve and I laugh about all the funny and not-so-funny-at-the-time things that happened that day.  Some recent things that have caught my attention make me want to never forget them.

Ruby has been a bit sick off and on lately and has turned into a multiple personality gal.  She can't just be a mix of anything - it's one or the other and can change on you at the drop of a hat.  One minute she's wailing and inconsolable and the second someone walks in the room she turns around with a chipper, "Hi!" and a smile.  She kills me.

This last week she has suddenly found an obsession with books (Yay!).  In her moodiness and in between screaming, she will find a book, pick it up, waddle on over to me holding it out with her "I'm serious" face, squawk at me pulling on me to sit down.  If I comply, she's turns her little self around, backs up (I can almost hear the beeping) - if she's too far away she forgets how to go backward and does a big u-turn instead before turning back around and plopping down right in my lap with a few little wiggles to find the comfy spot.  I open the book and we both read it to each other.  She's very animated with pointing and poking her finger into the book, jabbering, and then grabbing at the next page.  Her very favorite book at the moment is one called Easter because there are little windows you can slide back and forth as well as her favorite page with the mommy animals and the babies.  I think it's mostly because she can say those words.  Another favorite is No David!  also because she knows the word, "No no!"

Any book that can be sung is even better - at least Ruby thinks so.

We probably spend at least a quarter of our day doing this...

She loves trying lots of words now - Ra - for Ross, Boo - for book, "A bye" for a bite when she wants more or something of yours - also she uses the word "Too!" or "More" also if she wants something.  Potty, Pee, Poop, Ni-Ni for Nite-nite.  She'll also fold him arms for prayer most of the time and loves to say, "Amay" for Amen at the end. She loves to play peek-a-boo and will cover her eyes with her hands and say, "Where are you?" and "Pee-a-boo!"  She loves to play "I'm gonna get you!" and runs away while chanting "I'm ge you!"  She loves the Itsy Bitsy Spider song - which was the only thing that would allow me to feed her without her blocking my spoon or spitting it out.  She likes to put her fingers together for the spider.  She likes to say, "How are ya" and "Hello" "Hey" and "Hi" while pretending to be on the phone - she'll use anything to be a phone.  She's obsessed with my phone - if I ever get a call she's always squawking in the background demanding that I hand over my phone.  Just a heads up if you ever think about calling me.  She still loves Ross's monkey too.  I keep finding it in random places. 

Here's a little gem of a song that's a favorite of Ruby's too. 

She loves blueberries, strawberries, gnawing on carrots and celery, frozen peas, cheese, oranges, pears, bananas (only if you let her eat it out of the peel though), goldfish, pretzels, spaghetti, and cheerios.  She goes through phases of wanting to do all the feeding herself and then letting you do it because it's faster. She's also in a phase of throwing everything off her tray...sigh...that one always seems to last forever.  With her screaming at me more, I decided to attempt the spray-water-in-her-face method I had tried with Ross when he had a weird screaming phase.  The results for each child seem to fit their personality.  With Ross, it seemed to shock him and stop him mid-scream, but after a morning of it, he just kept screaming...and ended up with a dripping wet face and an empty spray bottle.  I tried it once with Ruby which shocked her and then led to an immense amount of tears - she was completely devastated that I would do something like that to her...so I got more screaming instead.  Oh the things you'll try as a parent!

Lately Ruby has been looking so much taller to me, and she has been so sassy!  She's a woman on a mission and is not so in to you messing with her plans.  She'll stop anything though if there's a dance party going on.  She LOVES music and stamps her feet and bounces her little bottom to any tune.  She tends to put her arms out straight in front of her with her hands connected and bounces them while stamping her feet.  It reminds me of Ross's chicken wing dance he would do while turning in a circle.  There really is nothing so cute as little kids groovin' with their bodies.  It just makes it obvious how music really speaks to all of us.

Ruby LOVES dance parties!  With Daddy is even more fun!

Ross's dancing lately must involve this dump truck - he runs around pushing it everywhere.

This girl is WAY into dancing!

You go girl!

Beautiful :)

Camera...spotted.

Too busy dancing to hold still for the camera

Taking a dance break...in the bumbo we're loaning to my nephew.

Stuck

Oh well

Epic dump truck dancing

Ross is always making me laugh.  If he's ever unsure of something or doesn't think it's a good idea he'll say, "No mom, that's too dangerous!"  He never says he "peed" in the potty.  It's, "I tooted!"  He's gotten a recent obsession with Harold and the Purple Crayon, and was star stricken when I told him (after reading it 4 times in a row) that I had a movie of it (thank-you scholastic book orders!).  He also loves the book Me Too by Mercer Mayer which is adorable.  Ruby likes reading it too.  Hop on Pop is one he likes to read with his daddy.  It's called, "Hop Ooooonn Pop" though - you have to say it right.  It's funny if I'm reading to Ross, she'll come up and do her backing up deal and try to plop herself in the middle of it even though there's no room.  Oh it does my heart good that my children love books.

Cutie :)

Ross's cheesy "Cheese!" face :)

We've been reading about the stories of Moses in the scriptures with Ross and I've got him where if I ask him what Moses says he recites, "Let My People Goooo!" and Pharaoh says, "No, no, no!"  Ruby likes to chant that one.  Ross will say the prayers if we tell him he's doing it.  If he's ever asked he points to you and says, "No you pray!"  He always remembers to bless grandmas and grandpas in his prayers without fail - they're keepers in his book. :)

Ross has been a bit more interested in his tricycle lately.  With it getting warmer it's encouraging.  He prefers the slightly downhill paths though, otherwise I find myself just pushing him off and on with my foot.  

Yesterday we were playing outside and took on the task of gathering and breaking up fallen branches, filling a loader, and dumping them in a play truck to take to the garbage.  Ross loved every second.  I'm pretty sure he was imagining being on a Mighty Machines episode while we did it.  He loves climbing up and down ladders these days too - instead of just taking the slide down.  He's never been one for slides really.  
 

Just workin'

Loading the truck

In other news, I went down to Snow College with my mom and sis to see a play, "Seven Bride for Seven Brothers" which was hilarious and adorable and even more endearing when I realized it took place in Oregon.  It's so fun being with the girls, we chatter like crazy, laugh at everything, and love every second.  
 

On our way to the play!

I also got the calling in my ward to be the Primary pianist.  I'm glad - it will make me practice a little more and I get to enjoy the primary kids again.  It's only one of the hours too since our Primary is so small.  Steve is the Elder's Quorum secretary and is doing well there too.

This weekend we somehow managed to squeeze in three dates in a row (the blessing of grandparents who live near their grandchildren).  We were going to go to the temple Friday night, but left too late, so we ended up grabbing dinner and seeing the second Hobbit again which was fun...and a reminder that I'm old. We saw the 10 o'clock showing...three hour movie...we fell asleep through half of it.  The next morning we went early to the Temple and enjoyed the wonderful peace and blessings that come from serving there.  

On the way back home I had gotten my times mixed up for my cousin Ashley's baby shower...so Steve dropped me off - totally not ready - at her place instead of going home and getting ready.  It was so fun to see my aunties and cousins and Ashley's little girl, Ellie.  The shower was perfect timing since she went into labor early the next morning and had a beautiful boy, Benji, at 3:30 that afternoon. 

Organizing the french dips...

Random three generation pic. :)  Me, Mom, and Grams!

The bunch!  Left to right: My mom, me, Ashley, Cara, my Aunt Celia, Aislinn, Aunt Renee, Ashley's neighbor Audrey, my Grams, and Aunt Robin.

We also celebrated my mom's birthday.  Woot woot!  We went down on Sunday and had my dad's delicious hamburgers, strawberry shortcake, played a GREAT game called Rollicks that's a spin off charades making there by only one guesser and the rest the actors for the different words.  The kids only lasted so long though so we cut to presents.  We got my mom tickets to go see Pride and Prejudice at BYU this month. It should be a ton of fun! (Happy Birthday to me too!) ;)  It was so fun to be with family.

 

Happy Birthday Mom!

Party Dad!

Deer in the headlights!

Cutie :)

Sis :)

Dain mid-bite!

Janae - beautiful as usual :)

Ross excited for presents :)

Grams enjoying the great grandkiddies

I have no label for Steve's face.... :)

Random...

Presents!

Ross serenading Grandma with "Happy Birthday"

The boys taking their turn playing Rollick - hilarious.

 And last Sunday was actually quite easy taking care of two kids with 2:30PM for a Sacrament meeting.  This kid was driving a truck on the floor...and completely fell asleep.  He's adorable. :)

Sleepy boy