Change

I recently shared that some of my friends forgo New Year's Resolutions and instead they choose one word to focus on (or try to be) for the new year. In the past, I've not had much luck figuring out a word for the year but this time a word has come to me.

Everly: 4 Years

Age: 4 years

Verity: 2 Years

Age: 2 years

Ransom: 7 Years

(better late than never right?)


Age: 7 years

Weight: 47 1/2 pounds

Height: 46 1/2 inches

Fun facts:  Finished 1st grade. Began taking piano lessons.

Interview with Ransom

Q: What's your favorite food?
A: Hamburgers

Q: What's your favorite subject in school?
A: Science

Q: What is something you are good at?
A: Playing ball.

Q: What's your favorite color?
A: Black...well I mean gold.

Q: What do you want to be when you grow up?
A: A builder...you know like building things like the Millennium Falcon.

Q: What is your favorite book right now?
A: Penguin Club

Q: What are three words that describe you?
A: .... (apparently this was too hard this year)

Q: What snack do you like best?
A: Cherries

Q: What is your favorite movie?
A: The Lego Movie

Q: What is one food that you do not like?
A:  Celery

Q: What is your favorite toy to play with?
A: Legos

Q: What is your favorite game to play?
A: Chess

Q: What makes you laugh the most?
A: Tickling or saying funny words.

Q: What scares you the most?
A: Nothing scares me!

Q: What do you want to do before your next birthday?
A: See How to Train Your Dragon 2 and Rio 2.

Logan: 8 Years

Age: 8 years

Weight: 48 1/2 pounds

Height: 47 inches

Fun facts: Lost 8 teeth by the time he turned 8. Finished 2nd grade. Began taking piano lessons.

Interview with Logan

Q: What's your favorite food?
A: Hamburgers

Q: What's your favorite subject in school?
A: Math

Q: What is something you are good at?
A: Building...like Lego sets and stuff.

Q: What's your favorite color?
A: Teal

Q: What do you want to be when you grow up?
A: A construction builder.

Q: What is your favorite book right now?
A: Treasure Island

Q: What are three words that describe you?
A: Ticklish, happy, funny

Q: What snack do you like best?
A: Craisins

Q: What is your favorite movie?
A: The Lego Movie

Q: What is one food that you do not like?
A:  Broccoli

Q: What is your favorite toy to play with?
A: Legos

Q: What is your favorite game to play?
A: Ticket To Ride

Q: What makes you laugh the most?
A: Being tickled

Q: What scares you the most?
A: Nothing!

Q: What do you want to do next year?
A: Go to a restaurant, see the fireworks on the ferris wheel.


Note: Yes, I realize this is only 2 months late but I finally got around to it just now...

Verity: 18 Months

Age: 18 months

Weight: 22 lbs - 42%

Height: 31 inches - 25%

Eating: Loves to eat. Still working on getting her up to full meal amounts but she's getting there. Loves pretty much everything... minus oatmeal.

Sleeping: Verity gives us good nights and bad. There are more 7 hour stretches but there's also nights were she gives 3-4 hour stretches.

Accomplishments: Verity has almost all her teeth now...maybe missing 2 canines. Can recognize and sing parts of Frozen songs as well as the theme song to Frasier (we've been watching Frasier.) Climbs the boys' bunk bed ladder and goes down the stairs (like a slide). Speaking of slides, she loves to go down those as well... she'll even do the swirl slides all by her self. She's daring this one!


Other Random Stuff: Verity is obsessed with water. She has no fear of it and will go straight into a splash pad or go swimming in a pool. Verity was a flower girl at my sister's wedding in May. Likes to exercise with me by doing squats.

California Wedding

Almost two weeks ago, my sister was married. I now have a big brother.

The wedding took place in California so we loaded up our suitcase, 3 car seats, and double stroller and took an airplane with all four kids. The flight down was great...the flight back was not so great. Let's just say I have no plans to fly in the next decade. (although I'm sure I will fly sooner then that.)

It was a jam packed weekend. We squeezed in a trip to Legoland during the wedding weekend as well. I'm a fan of Legoland. It's not as crowded, we were able to do pretty much every single ride (good luck doing that at Disneyland) and since it's geared for ages 3-10 it's less crowded in general (no teens!)

And of course, there was the wedding itself. It turned out great. All the kids did amazing...granted I had to pick up Verity a few times during the ceremony but there's always one wayward flower girl, right?

Park Day

We have a little park near by. It's only a 10 minute walk and the park is always empty. It's not an elaborate park but the kids like it and it's a nice way to get out of the house.

Verity: 15 Months

Age: 15 months

Weight: 21 lbs - 50%

Height: 29 inches - 25% Looks like Verity is hitting her destiny of being short!

Eating: Verity still doesn't eat mass amounts of food but she does eat now. Her favorites are sunbutter, cream cheese, dairy products in general actually, popcorn tops (so they aren't pokey), carrots, and apples.

Sleeping: We finally started letting Verity cry it out a bit. She's finally not as stubborn so she would eventually given in. She was still sleeping horribly. However, the last few days her naps have been amazing; no crying and sleeping for her full 2 hours. Then last night she gave me a full 7 hours in her own bed! I'm hoping it's not a one time thing!

Accomplishments: Verity walks very well now and fast. She loves to climb and is always climbing on the kids' school chairs and table. Still only says a few words but she's getting there and she's great at saying yes or no to questions. Does a lot of pointing lately... in fact the other day she yelled at Everly and pointed at her to go back in her room (wonder where she got that from...) Verity is a dancer. Her new favorite move is shaking her hips and saying shake, shake, shake. Crazy girl has 10 teeth, 4 of them being her molars!

Other Random Stuff: Verity got to hang out with my parents and grandma while they were here. She warmed up to them nicely. Verity has also transitioned over to the 1 year old class during Bible study and has done great over there! Verity also got her first taste of snow, quite literally... she loves to eat snow! She also officially has enough hair for pig tails!

When Cali Visits WA

Last week, my parents came to visit. What's more they brought my grandma (my kids' great-grandma) with them.

It was definitely a busy weekend. I feel like for one reason or another Justin and I planned pretty much every church event for when they would be here. It wasn't intentional but it's how things turned out and definitely made things a bit more crazy. So on top of hanging out with all three grandparents, we also had a bible college retreat, women's tea, a super bowl party, and a leader's meeting. Like I said, busy.

However, we still had fun...

• Justin and the kids went to lunch with the grandparents while I did the women's tea.

• The grandparents took the kids and me to the Rainforest Cafe during the Super Bowl (yep, we are crazy like that. Ransom got over his fear of the elephants and thunderstorms at the Rainforest Cafe which is good. Everly loved everything about it and Verity was thrilled to have a table by the fishes. 

• We went bowling...and by we I mean Justin, my dad, and the kids bowled. Sorry, no pictures of that... bowling alley pictures never seem to turn out for some reasons.

Lots of talking, craziness, and fun. Kids enjoyed having their Cali grandparents visit so much!

Chickens Love the Birds

Everly is all about singing lately. She's always singing something, usually made up by herself. Here is one of her songs, "Chickens Love the Birds".

Chickens love the birds, in the sky.
When they are cute.
They get to be the ...

I'd give you more of the lyrics but even I have a hard time telling what some of the words are. And whenever I ask Everly, she doesn't make it any clearer.