what he said

Dinner is pretty much ready, I'm just waiting for Mike to get home so heck, I'll throw up another post.

Jack is a pretty good friend. He's got his bestest little buddy Logan Despain and then he also plays so good with Charlie Keel (not Ivan's charlie) and then he's got a few little girls that come to play. This is AndieJane. She and Jack were playing one day and came upstairs wanting  bowl of cereal. All the sudden Jack got so giggly and as they sat down he turns to me and giggles out in a bewildered way, "gosh, I just don't know WHO I'm gonna marry!? It's a good thing I have a long journey ahead of me, right mom?"  He also got a love not from a little girl named Allison in his class and then he asked her to be his valentine and then he came home sad one day and said she was moving. He'll still bring her up and say he misses her because she was the nicest girl.

Then last night Ivan ran over to Micah's to see if he could play. They weren't home but someone had left a display on the door step asking Micah's older sister to the prom. Ivan came home and told me and I said, "oh yeah, one day you guys are going to have to come up with silly ways to ask a girl to the prom and he said, "mom, I don't care what kind of old lady you'll be, but you're the only one I'm asking to the prom." Jack's a lady lover and Ivan's not thinking much about the girls. At the time Jack was telling me he asked Allison to be his Valentine I asked Ivan if there as anyone in his class he would want to ask and he, without hesitation, replies, "duh mom, Sawyer." 

parenting

So I'm definitely not the parent I dreamed I'd be. 

I could make a long list of things that are hard for me or how horrible I am or things that annoy me, but I won't. It's likely I have 10 previous blog posts on that. One thing I will say though is that I'm not the greatest at "playing" with my kiddo's. I've forgotten how to be a kid. My imagination is gone. I can get down and pretend fight them or tickle them or snuggle them, but I no longer know what action figures say to each other. However I do love when I hear them playing. I love the sound of play. One thing I love about my job is when I'm home, puttering around the house, doing laundry or cleaning the kitchen and I can hear sweet little play in the other room. Together is awesome, but I also enjoy it when I can hear them by themselves. I don't get this a ton with Ivan because he is pretty much gone all day. I have Jack and Emery until noon and then It's just me and Emery for a while. I love it when I hear her playing around me. The other day I was mowing the lawn and she was out there with me, but playing off by herself, in her little hand-me-down slip Ellie gave her that she wears as pajama's. 

While I'm at it, another of my Emery favorites right now is when either of the boys have soccer practice she gets in her leotard, skirt, soccer socks, cleats, gets her water bottle, a ball, puts them in a bag, hops on her little bike and follows them over to the park. Next time I'll get a picture.

Our neighborhood does a huge easter egg hunt in the park every year. They do lots of fun things like live bunnies, face painting, a night egg hunt for older kids and we haven't participated in it ONCE in the  8yrs we've lived here.  What is wrong with us? This year we ventured out a tiny bit and did one with Butlers in our back yard.

We colored egg's and had another hunt with Mike's family.  We also did one with my family.

And here are a couple of random pictures. When we are at my mother in laws and I say it's time to go home it's like a trigger sound for a bowl of cereal. Sometimes it drives me batty! Ivan is soooo into Krave cereal right now and she always has it and Jack likes fruit loops. 

the kids playing jail one day. 

 I said strike a funny pose not everyone pick your nose!

Eight and Four

Happy 8th Birthday Ivan

These round cakes are left over from a RS party the previous thur night. I just added the frosting. 

They get a friend party on their 8th bday. Ivan was pretty excited. It was  simple, we played dodgeball and british bulldog in the back yard, had pizza and cake and ice cream. They had a great time

It was a tad windy so he had to step inside to blow out candles

Happy 4th Birthday to Emery

Thank you Ryan and Cam for the gift Idea

 New sleeping bag from Brad, Jan and Brett

All Ivan wants to do is get a good snuggle in with this girl and she is such a stinker and won't let him. Ivan is my little snuggler. He loves to snuggle with me and Mike and he want's to snuggle Emery so bad. One night she let him and later he said to me, "Mom, when I was snuggling Emery I was in another world." He's always telling me how we have the cutest girl ever. He's got such a sweet, sensitive side to him, he makes sure I don't feel bad if he does something with Mike and visa versa, yet  he can also be such a complainer and arguer. Ug! He still love everything about every sport. He goes down stairs w a friend everyday and they spend hours kicking the ball back and forth to each other and trying to guard it before it hits the wall. He LOVES to be playing. He complains about everything else because it gets in the way of his playing. For the past 3 yrs we've really enjoyed reading together in bed at night. Mike usually takes Jack in to his room and Ivan gets in my bed and we read. We've got a long list of books we've read together and I love it. I'm probably the worst parent with Ivan, I think that's why I like the reading relationship we have because it makes me feel like I"m doing one thing right with him.

Emery told me the other day that I needed to go to my room, think about my attitude and then change it. My cousin Ryan asked me once if Emery was sassy and I think I said, "no" but I wanna change my answer. We love us some Emery. She is so fun and so sweet (when she wants to be). She likes dance and wearing dance outfits and filling up purses and playing. She's good to play by herself at times and I love listening to it. She likes having friends and going to her little preschool even if it is only once a week. 

thats all i can think of  right now…..