Carter's Surgery

Carter had his tonsils and adenoids removed and ear tubes placed today.  He's had tubes before, but this was obviously a bit more involved.  Everything went well aside from him puking twice at the center and once in the car (oh, and me blacking out and almost puking myself...but we won't go into that.)  We're finally home and he's happy in his little home-made bed in front of the TV watching Hook.  He's decided that all he wants to eat is whipped cream, but didn't complain when I mixed some yogurt and mashed up bananas into it.  I keep trying to get him to drink his tiger's blood slushee, but he's not interested.  Hopefully he'll start drinking more as the night goes on, but for now I guess I'll just keep his cool whip bowl filled.

 This was taken 2 minutes after he puked all over the waiting room floor.  It was pretty nice of him to attempt a smile (even though it's a small one!)  I wish I would have remembered to take a picture of him in his little Looney Tunes hospital nightgown. 

Apparently he thought losing his tonsils and adenoids wasn't enough for one day, because about 2 hours after we got home...he pulled out a tooth!  What a day! 

Bye-Bye Terrible Two's!

My little Meleah Susannie has finally turned 3!  The terrible two's are over!  No more getting up in the morning to find toothpaste all over the place and my electric toothbrush missing (NEVER to be found again!) No more high-pitched screams, freak-outs, and tantrums!  No more hitting, hair-pulling, or pinching! I'm so excited!  Ü

We celebrated with my family while we were in Vegas for Ryan's baptism and Dylan's baby blessing.  Meleah requested a Snow White cake.  I didn't have a Pampered Chef batter bowl in Vegas, so I had to improvise.  Let me just say...it's MUCH easier with the batter bowl! 

We also threw together a little gathering on her actual Birthday.  She had tons of fun at both parties, and scored a new dress, twin BFC barbies, a doll, a princess bike, and a snow white Barbie.  After watching all her siblings and Dad have Birthdays in the last few months she was ecstatic that it was FINALLY her turn! 

Birthday Menu

Breakfast - "Oatmeal with strawberries"

Lunch - "Squiggley noodles, Dora yogurt, and blackberries"  - She even decided to put the blackberries into her top ramen and peas.  Gross.

Dinner - "um...cheese...bread...and pink!"  I translated this to mean spaghetti and garlic BREAD, topped with parmesan CHEESE and served on a PINK plate.  I also made cinnamon bundt cake for dessert.

FAVORITES:

Color:  "pink"
Show:  "uh...Dora"
Movie:  "uh...Salice and Wonderland"
Food: "uh...jelly"
Book:  "uh..Salice and Wonderland coloring one."
Princess:  "uh...Cinderella"
Toy:  "uh...Snow White"
Animal:  "uh...kitty cat"

Funny Phrases:

"Ac-tu-ly"

"s'okay I have it Camran's ba-ba I so irsty?"- I have to keep a close eye on Cameron's bottle or she'll sneak away with it, curl up in bed with a pillow and down the entire thing.  She always makes sure to cover up the bottle with a blanket so I won't know that she's drinking it.  She doesn't really like to be a big girl, and is always asking me to call her "a little baby."  

"s'okay I can take out my hair pretty?" - every now and then she asks this, but usually she just rips them out whenever she feels like it.  Most of the time it's when I put her down for a nap, because she still likes to twirl her hair when she's falling asleep. 

"umm (tongue click)..."

"I not your cutie pie, I your sweet angel!"

"I want to crap (crack) some eggs!"

"That's isgusting.  I love it!"

"Not on  purple!  It was an askident!"

"I need a get outta here!" - This is usually said at bed time/nap time.  

"You cry me Mom!" - I hear this one about 10 times a day (any time I have the audacity to make her cry).  I usually respond "no, you cry me"  to which she replies "no, you cry me..." and it continues in a very childish manner until I give up. 


It's actually really weird to me that Meleah is just now turning 3.  She's always been so independent and wise beyond her years.  She totally takes charge when she's playing with other kids, and LOVES to be a big helper.  As a matter of fact, if I make the grave mistake of asking someone else to do something for me, she throws a royal fit.

Lately, her favorite thing to do is "play pretend" with Lydia and her cousins.  They pretend to be "mommy, grandma, teacher, baby, kitty, puppy, older kid..."  I can't tell you how many times I've gone in after hearing them call "Mommy!" only to find that they weren't talking to me..."Meleah's the Mommy!"  It's so fun to see her little imagination at work (unless it involves scissors, makeup, permanent markers, or any other potentially damaging item/substance.)  I love to watch her run and get toys for Lydia, or carefully lay out a blanket for Cameron to sit on for their "picnic".

Meleah always does everything full-force.  Walking is apparently for wimps.  She either runs, skips or hops whenever she needs to get from one place to another.  I also wouldn't recommend starting up a friendly wrestle match with her because she will take. you. down.  (Cameron knows this from experience.)

Even though I complain about Meleah's willful personality on occasion, I can't imagine how boring our family would be without her.  Yes, she's very determined and likes to get her own way, but she is also very sweet and considerate of others.  We're so blessed to have her in our family.

On a side note...this guy also had a Birthday this month.

We're blessed to have him in our family too!  (Isn't he SO dreamy?!)

Really?!

Is my calendar broken?  It is May 24th today, is it not?  This Vegas girl has seen enough of all this cold white stuff!  Super excited to help out with field day tomorrow...

The good news is, my kids slept in until 8:30 because it was so dark and dreary outside.  Can't beat that!  

Field Trips!

It's field trip time!

  Lydia and Carter had lots of fun visiting the fire station with their classes.  

The fireman showed us his "key to every house and car in the area."  Ü

 Lydia has loved going to preschool and we couldn't have asked for better teachers than Miss Cheryl, Miss Rhonda, and Miss Gonzalez

I told Carter this better be the only time he's ever in the back of an ambulance!

 Lydia was supposed to go see the farm animals at Thanksgiving Point, but due to freezing temperatures and snow (at the end of April) we went to the Dinosaur museum instead.  She loved the bus ride, but as soon as we walked into the dimly lit star area she totally freaked out.  I was not surprised because she had a similar reaction when we went to Pirate Island for a birthday party a few weeks earlier.  We ended up spending most of our time at the souvenier shop and the restaurant. After lunch we went through the back door to get to the sand area, and she had a great time.  Her favorite part was brushing away sand to find "dinosaur bones!"  Since then she is constantly begging me to take her back to see the dinosaurs, and also Pirate Island for that matter.  We'll see...

When Carter's Away...

Cameron will play!

We call this his "crazy eyes."

Doesn't he look so sneaky?

Brotherly Love

Lydia:  How much do you love me now?
Carter: 

Lydia:  Wow!  That's almost this much! 

Carter:  Yep.

Happy Birthster!

My little Lyddies is 5! We returned to the more laid back, separate family party scenario (which is how it will be until she's old enough to beg me to invite her friends).  We got together with Randall's side on her actual Birthday, and then with my family over Easter weekend a week later.  The only problem with that was, Lydia got a little confused.  She excitedly announced, "I'm six now!" at the second Birthday party.  Time does fly, but not quite that fast! 

Lydia asked for blueberries and cream oatmeal and hot chocolate for breakfast, and "home-made pizza that I make myself" for dinner.  I didn't really give her the option to choose lunch because I had a lot of leftovers to get rid of.  I know, I'm  a horrible mom.  Lydia received some Barbies, a ballerina doll, a dress, and Polly Pockets.  We made chocolate cake for the Stewart gathering and a Princess Belle cake with cupcakes for the Brown side. I highly recommend the Barbie cake.  It was SO much easier than the R2-D2 cake, and everyone LOVED it. 

Favorites

Food - chicken noodle soup (home-made)
Toy - all the stuff I got from my Birthday
TV Show - Dora
Movie - Blue's Clues
Game - I love all of the games!
Color - pink and purple
Hairdo - Sleeping Beauty with lots of curls

Funny Phrases

"Oh no!  It's bruken!"

"I had a very enjoyable day."

"I don't like spicy cause I have spino difida."

"Mom!  I takeded a step!  I'm going to tell Jesus that."

She loves to share little facts about "Sytan" (Satan) all the time, like how he doesn't have a body and he is mean.  She also loves to talk about Jesus.  One day I asked her why she was crying and she said it was because she missed Jesus.

We also had a really great time celebrating Easter with our families.  My Mom, Dad, Ben, Taryn, and their kids were all able to come up.  We had the annual Brown family Easter hunt at Steve's on Saturday and Easter Dinner with the Stewarts on Sunday.  Tara put together a fun little egg hunt that taught us about Christ.  It was a really cute way to remind the kids that Easter is about Jesus, not the Easter Bunny and candy.  Of course there was plenty of that too...

 I don't ever remember Easter and Conference falling on the same weekend before, but I loved it!  No one could speak about Christ's sacrifice and resurrection better than our General Authorities.  The kids were all entertained by their Easter gifts, so I actually got to listen to the majority of it.  They talked a lot about teaching our children in the home and being a good example for them.  All of the talks were great, but a few of them really stood out to me.  Elder Holland is always amazing.  He's such a powerful speaker, and he talked about the harmful effects of pornography on families and relationships.   I also enjoyed Elder Donald Hallstrom's talk about never letting an earthly circumstance destroy you spiritually.  President Uchdorf talked about us acting as Christ's hands.  He said that "true love requires action,"  and reminded us that Christ always talked WITH people, never down to them (even if they're "canned food mormons"). Ü  I could go on and on...  I'm just so grateful to have the church in my life.  I know I could not be truly happy without it.