Friday, October 23, 2009

Blog Clean-up

My Children have Many opportunities for future employment...
Beautician

She looks "just like Mommy!"
Cowboy
 
 Mudwrestler?
 
 Musician
 
Contortionist
 
Magician
 
 Chef
 
 Housewife
 
 Housewife II
 
Note that she is still in her pajamas!
Mascot
 
 ...and the ever popular superhero!
 




Favorite Phrases
"What's tookin' so long to be a grown-up?!" - Carter Isaac Stewart
"HHHHHHi!" - Meleah Susanne Stewart
"My tummy told my mouth that he's REALLY hungry." - Carter Isaac Stewart
"I love my stister! She's my fravrate!" - Lydia DeOn Stewart
"C'mon, we have to go save Jesus! He's stuck on the T!" - Carter Isaac Stewart
"You look so beeautiful Mom." - Lydia DeOn Stewart
"I don't like it. It's too tasty." - Carter Isaac Stewart

"Ma-ma-ma-ma-ma!" - Meleah Susanne Stewart
"Boys like strawberry. Girls like chocolate." - Carter Isaac Stewart
"Do you need some more wipe-wipes Mom?" - Lydia DeOn Stewart

Friday, October 16, 2009

I'm Tired!

This Is The Kid That Never Sleeps
written by: Candice A Stewart
Sung to the melody of This Is The Song That Never Ends

This is the kid that never sleeps.
Yes, he wakes up a lot my peeps.
Sometimes I think he's sleeping
and I give a silent cheer.
But then I hear him crying.
Oh, it can't be what I fear!
This is the kid that never sleeps...



Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Meleah Susannie


Mischievous
Energetic
Laughs like a crazy person

Entertaining
Always falling

Helper


My little Elly Jelly is so much fun.  She definitely has the most diverse personality of any kid I've ever met. On one hand she can be very stubborn, disobedient, and yes I'm going to say it...a little mean.  On the other hand she loves to be my "biggest helper" and spends hours gently rocking, kissing, and putting her babies down for naps.  Meleah has always seemed much older than her actual age to me, most likely because she loves to do everything herself.  Unfortunately, I don't generally want to wait 5 minutes for her to do something I could do in 0.2 seconds, and thus the battles continue... Why can't she just happily be babied like her two older siblings?  Then again, it takes me an hour to convince Carter to dress himself in the morning, so I should probably just be grateful to have a child that actually wants to be independent.  

Favorite Phrases:
"So bad" after everything.
example:  "hurts so bad" or "potty so bad"

"Did it myself"  She's been saying various forms of this for a while, but I just love to hear the excitement and pride in her voice when she says it.

"Mommy home!"  This is another thing she's been saying forever, but I don't think I've ever documented it before.  She gets SO excited when I come home, even if I've only been gone for a few minutes.  She runs up and gives me the biggest hug.  It makes me feel so warm and fuzzy inside.  Ü  Oh yeah, and she generally gets excited when Daddy comes home too...

Quirks - 
- She loves when I put "hair pretties" in her hair.  She then proceeds to tear them out, and come back and ask for more.  Thus, she generally can be seen running around with either hair in her face, or with crazy ponies that are half pulled out.   

 - She isn't incredibly particular about colors.  She usually gets excited about whatever color she's given, but just know that if you give her a different colored spoon/cup than her plate she's going to go get the appropriate color out of the drawer herself. 

- As grown up as Meleah is, she still loves to steal Cameron's "ba-ba," curl up on her bed with a blanket, and twirl her hair.  I know it's not exactly good parenting to let your 2 1/2 year old start drinking bottles again when she's been drinking out of cups for a year and a half, but she looks so cute that I just can't help it.  Besides, I'm a sucker for kids with bad habits because I sucked my thumb and had a "silky" at bedtime until I was in the first grade.  Not to mention that it takes her a good twenty minutes to down a bottle, which equals twenty minutes that I don't have to hear her high-pitched screams from fighting with Lydia or wonder what she's getting into. 

- As you can see from the pictures, Meleah still takes a nap every day.  Carter and Lydia both stopped taking naps when they turned two, but Meleah eventually crashes in odd places if I don't get her down for a nap.

- She loves to carry around big heavy things and say "Mia so STRON!"

- Her favorite foods are tomatoes and cheese (not necessarily together) and she drinks like a fish...especially juice. 


Sometimes I wonder if I should write about my children's less desireable attributes, but I want to remember exactly how they are during these precious years that just keep flying by.  Sure, I could just document all the sweet things they do, but then I may not remember that Meleah can scream so loud that I feel like my head is going to explode, or that I have to tell her EVERY TIME she's done going to the bathroom that I'm going to put her undies on myself (fat chance) just to make her naked bum come running back to me saying "No, my undies!"  My little Meleah's not perfect, but I can definitely say that there's never a dull day around here, thanks to her.  I love to just sit and watch what she's doing.  It's almost like I can see her little brain working.  She brings TONS of laughter into my life and I'm so glad that Heavenly Father blessed us with her.

Saturday, October 3, 2009

Cameron Michael

I've been wanting to do a Stewart family update for a long time, but have been putting it off because I have so stinkin' many kids these days.  It's going to take me hours to write about all of them so I've decided to split them up and hopefully finish a post before someone needs food, a drink, to go potty, or the ever-popular time out.  I'm going to start with the smallest of the family.  Some of the most fun/unique things about Cameron are:

My Little Inch Worm
Cameron is almost nine months old now and he still has not fully mastered crawling.  He appears to know how to crawl on his knees, but he just prefers to propel himself forward using only his arms and feet.  He's the first of my kids to do the army crawl and it's very cute until I see that the entire front of his outfit is black with dirt.  I guess I need to vacuum more! 


Late Night Laughter
He gets the bedtime giggles worse than anyone I've ever met.  (That includes all of my High School girlfriends!)  Even when I'm exhausted and trying SO hard to get him to sleep, I just can't help laughing along with him.  I don't even know what he thinks is so funny!  Do I look weird in the dark or something?



It's the Climb
Maybe I've been listening to that Miley Cyrus song too much lately because all Cameron wants to do is climb.  He's fallen off the bed 5 times, down the stairs once (all 14 of them), and crashed while pulling himself up to the couch innumerable times.  I know what you're thinking...maybe he needs a little more supervision.  Well, you're right!  He is such an active little guy that I have a very hard time keeping up with him!  Fortunately, he's getting a little more steady on his feet lately so the goose eggs are more few and far between.  He also enjoys stealing toys from his older brothers and sisters.  I'm afraid he's going to turn out to be one of those crazy adventure seeker types because he just doesn't seem to be happy unless his life is somehow in danger.


Three's a Crowd
Cameron loves to sleep in bed with Mommy and Daddy.  This isn't completely unheard of with our kids because Carter slept with us until he was almost two.  However, after having two little girls that have always been excellent sleepers...I naturally assumed that I had mastered the mothering technique of getting your kids to sleep through the night in their own bed.  Now not only have I lost my pride, but with my husband sleeping diagonally and my baby in the middle I've very nearly lost my spot in the bed. 


Feeding Frenzy
Cameron LOVES to eat and when he knows it's feeding time, whether it's nursing or table food, he gets super excited.  He does this crazy man's giggle and grabs the food up in handfuls simultaneously shoving it into his mouth.  It's important to have it all cut into bite-sized pieces before I even get near his high chair or his quick little hands will grab it before it's ready and he'll be choking before I even know what just happened. He smacks his lips together loudly to let me know he's ready to eat which is really cute at home, but a little embarrassing during sacrament meeting...


Cameron is such an amazing challenge blessing in my life.  He may make me feel like a crazy person at times, but I love his playful little personality.  One of his favorite things to do lately is "crawl" directly to the top of the stairs because he knows I'll be chasing after him to make sure he doesn't fall.  The little stinker even has the audacity to giggle and crawl faster when he hears me coming.  He looks the most like Randall to me and apparently they not only share their looks, but also their joy of teasing me.  I'm a lucky woman. Ü

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire!

Mom:  How was school?

(This is usually followed by Carter giving a thumbs down sign, saying "not really,"  or holding his pointer finger a millimeter away from his thumb.  On this particular occasion it was the latter.)

Mom:  Why didn't you have a good day?

Carter:  I did a lie to my teacher.

Mom:  You told your teacher a lie?  What did you say?

Carter:  I didn't TELL a lie; I DID a lie!

Mom:  What did you DO? 

Carter:  When my teacher said (using his high-pitched girly voice) "Everyone that likes school...stand up,"  I standed up but I don't like school!



So...I'm trying really hard not to blame Carter's teacher, but I don't understand why he absolutely LOVED preschool and Kindergarten and HATES 1st grade.  I'm totally bummed about it.  He still loves homework (thank goodness!), but I'm hoping that he will get used to first grade and start liking it eventually. 

Last week I finished my biggest homework assignment since I dropped out of college.  Lydia was Star of the Week, and I admittedly went a little crazy.  It's been a long time since I've busted out the scrapbooking supplies, so I had fun with it.  Now I need to figure out what to do with an enormous gaudy poster.   Any ideas?

Monday, September 14, 2009

Bye-Bye Summer!

We've had such a crazy fun summer that I haven't even had time to blog about it.  We went to Lagoon, several family reunions, the cabin, and to Vegas for Labor Day.  We took swimming lessons, camped in Manti, had family bike rides, went to the movies, had a yard sale, and even changed houses. I didn't take pictures at all of these events (dang it!) but here are a few that I did take -




You can't really tell from the picture, but my Mom helped Lydia walk up this crazy steep hill with her walker at the cabin.  She is getting so strong! (Lydia, not my Mom.  Mom has always had notable vigor.)  Ü  It was such an amazing summer that I was sad to see it end, but I've actually been enjoying our return to a schedule and kids in bed by 8:00.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Blueberry Muffins!

Blueberry Bran Muffins

3 cups Fiber One cereal (or All Bran)

3 cups bran flakes

2 cups boiling water

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

3/4 cup applesauce

2 mashed bananas

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

5 cups whole wheat pastry flour

5 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

2 Tablespoons cinnamon

4 cups skim milk, mixed with

4 tablespoons lemon juice

6 egg whites, beaten until fluffy

4 cups blueberries

Pour boiling water over cereal and let stand. Mix together remaining ingredients except for egg whites and blueberries, then add softened cereal. Fold in egg whites and blueberries. Bake in muffin tins sprayed with cooking spray for 15-20 minutes at 400°F.

This recipe makes 60 muffins. They freeze really well, but if you don't want to make this many you can easily cut the recipe in half. I've also made these without the blueberries, and they're still really good. I didn't calculate the calories/weight watchers points, but hopefully they're not too bad.



All Clean!