Harry Potter

I am unable to sleep and so since there is no one to talk to, I write. Skip this if you want.
Ryan loves Harry Potter movies. She will watch all 5 in a day if she can. As far as she is concerned the scarier the better. Recently, she has started quoting the movies. I would like to share these quotes with you and so here I go........
Ryan kept yelling "Fight! Fight Fight!" I immediately assumed Jac was responsible for the new phrase. Turns out she was quoting the 4th H.P. movie when Fred and George get mad at each other for messing up the aging potion.
One day Ryan kept saying "When he does I kill him" (luckily this one was short lived) She wasn't talking to anyone, just wandering around saying it randomly as she played. It took me a while but I figured out that this one was from H.P 3 when Harry finds out Sirius betrayed his parents.
Recently Ryan will randomly yell "Stop, Put me down.........nnnnow." I got this one right away, Hermione says "Grawp, put me down....now" in the 5th movie.
Lastly, Ryan has been grabbing our faces and looking at us and saying "big piggy" or so I thought. This has been going on for 2 -3 weeks now and I did not know where she got it. Today we were watching HP5 and when Harry gets to headquarters, Mrs. Weasley grabs his face, asks how he is and then says "a bit peaky". Ryan did this to me at the same time and the light came on! She has not been calling me a piggy, she has been copying the movie!
Back to Ryan loving that these movies are scary..... Kelly took the girls to the Blockbuster to rent a movie the other day. Ryan stopped at every horror movie and said "OOOOOH! scary! I watch it."
Kelly and I have decided that maybe we should be watching a little more toy story and a little less Scary Potter (as Ryan calls it).
I am worried that everyone is going to think I am a horrible mother, but it is late, I am tired and I do not want to delete everything. Goodnight!

Random thoughts on Nashville

Ryan and I went to Nashville to visit our friends who were in town. It was awesome to see them again and spend some time just hanging out. I have really missed having Angie around, she is such a great friend and so understanding. I am a total geek and she just rolls with it. Hopefully she will always be so understanding of her friend with "special needs". I am so blessed to have met someone so great.
Ryan has really missed Araya and every time she sees an airplane she wants to get into another airplane and go get her, (I guess she thinks Araya is on a never-ending plane ride or that Virginia is in the sky) Ryan and Araya have so much fun together and get into the dumbest fights. I do not want to have girls that close together, ever. Ryan would either break down bawling or start screaming at Araya and Araya would yell back at Ryan and it was like they were not even in the same conversation. Ryan would be talking about going to the pool and Araya would be talking about starting school and they would start yelling "YES I AM" and the other would yell "NO YOU'RE NOT" and it all made very little sense. Luckily they are very easily distracted. All I had to do was bring up ice cream or a carousel and they would be best friends again and making wild plans. Silly girls.
At one point we were walking along and a teenage boy with spiky mohawk hair was walking in front of us. I saw Ryan staring at him and then the confusion in her face. I tried to hang back because I knew an embarrassing comment was coming but I didn't get back far enough. She started yelling "That guy look goofy, he have goofy hair! He look goofy!" over and over. He turned around and said "I like looking goofy" or something. Then Araya noticed him and said loudly "He looks like a Rooster, why is his hair like that?" (luckily the guy turned a corner and was finally gone.) Ryan responded "He not a roofter (not a typo), he goofy!" You can imagine the debate that followed.
Ammon was there too, his happy little self following the big girls everywhere. He is such a cutie-pie. He does appear to get a new bruise every hour of every day. He falls down or runs into something and then just giggles his deep giggle and keeps running. Look up bruiser in the dictionary and you will see his picture. As tough as he is, I think he has got to be one of the sweetest little boys in the world. His smile makes me giggle.
Can you tell I love these guys. They are my Georgia family and always will be! (Sorry, no pictures this time)

Bahama Fun

We decide on Thursday night that we were going to the Bahamas on Friday. We thought we'd try for a good deal on Priceline. Kelly didn't really want to go, and figured he wouldn't have to because we wouldn't find a sweet deal. Luck was on my side! We got this NICE resort for CHEAP! The resort was right on the beach and had 3 awesome pools. So, we got there late Friday night and immediately went out to swim in the pools and check out the beach. The pools, as you can tell by the pictures, had cool waterfalls and various levels and lazy rivers. When we went down to the beach that night Jac asked "but what if there are crabs out there?" (It was very dark on the beach) I reassured her that no crabs would grab us. Ryan overheard our conversation and spent the rest of the time hysterically yelling "the crabbies get my toes!" and "I see crabbie, it get me!" Kelly and Jannica played in the water while I dragged Ryan along saying, no that rock is not a crabbie, no the water is not a crabbie, no that plant is not a crabbie... well, you get the idea.

Kelly and Jac got to do a ton of snorkeling, they really loved it and Jac does great in the deep water. The first time they went out, Jac saw a "shark" screamed and swam away. Kelly, on closer inspection found that the "shark," was actually a harmless flat round blue fish. Jac still isn't sure. Later on they saw a small sting ray and thought it was awesome. What an awesome weekend we had. I don't think that we were out of the water for more than 2 hours on Saturday. We got back to the room around 7:30 pm, the girls watched a couple episodes of iCarly (which incidentally is pretty funny) and were out for the rest of the night til I woke them up the next morning at 9:30.

We all had an awesome vacation and the best part is that is was only a 2 hour flight. One of the biggest reasons that we are in ATL is for these awesome weekend trips. We are again reminded of how lucky we are that Kelly decided to work for Delta.

So, if any of you would like to come to ATL and see all the glorious sites, ride the neato golf carts and take care of two spectacular and well behaved children, while their parents go out of town, you are always welcome. PLEASE. In Kelly's words "the one thing that would have made this trip more fun would be to have no kids with us."

Playgroup Revisited

Okay, so I know I have already posted about playgroup, but the kids are so freakin' cute! This is just a quick pic to show that Ryan is totally at home with the boys. Here is the story behind this pic: The little boy on the far right (Fox) hopped up on the couch and Ryan was eager to be right next to Fox at all times, so she followed right behind. Jake, the one on the far left followed Ryan, but Gavin (the blond) had to sit next to Ryan and Jake so he squeezed in between those two. Everyone sat happily talking to each other and making no sense to me. Life is so fun with these guys!

Potty Training

So Ryan is learning to use the toilet. Things are going pretty well, she can go all day without an accident, sometimes. Then there are other days when she, I think, makes an effort to go pee and poop anywhere but in the toilet. Her friend Gavin is learning to potty train as well. Gavin's mom babysits Ryan so, Ryan has been learning from Gavin. She has now learned to sit backwards on the toilet. As you can see, she looks like she is driving the thing.

Today I was so proud, she marched into the bathroom without me having to coax her. She climbed up and did not want her special toilet seat, she says, "no, I can do it, I not scared." So she grunts and pushes and squats and keeps yelling, "Mom, I poop! It's a big one." I am yelling ans screaming that I am so proud of her and that she is a big girl. I thought the picture of her on the toilet was so funny, that I had to take one. She saw the camera and kinda stood up a little bit and said "get picture of my poop, its big one!" I told her we don't take pictures of poop because that is gross. It might be just as bad to get a picture of someone on the pot, but not one with buns as cute as Ryan's!

Today she did so well with the potty training that I let her wear panties when we went out to eat. She did so good, she told us that she had to go potty and then she went at the restaurant. (Kelly hates to take her because she is so determined to do everything herself that it takes 20 minutes just for her to open the door, pull up and down her panties and wash her hands and dry them). We stopped at Target on the way home and while at the store I ended up having to carry her because she was running and hiding in the racks of clothes. She did not like this and pushed so hard to get out of my arms that she pooped. Not so bad except that I was holding her and she was wearing panties. That kind of warm and mushy is something that I never want to experience again. We then had to track Kelly and Jac down, tell them we were going to the the restroom and spent the next 15 minutes cleaning ourselves up. Ryan telling me the whole time..."I poop in my panties, I not get poop on my dress, ooooh, you get poop on your arm and your shirt? yuck, disgusting, I all clean. You have poop on you?" I told her I was not happy with her and that I was mad at her because she got poop on me. When she got to the golf cart, she told Kelly and Jac, "I get poop on Mom. Mom not happy me, I sorry Mom, I not poop on you anymore." Kelly and Jac seemed to think this was all very funny, and we were all laughing by time we got home. Oh, these are times I will always cherish!

New Toy

I let Kelly get a new laptop on the one condition that we start looking into a graduate school for him. He was completely amenable to the idea and so now he has a new laptop. Ryan is very excited about this new toy, but Daddy has told her that she can't touch it without asking. Well, we left it on the bed and were not paying attention to Ryan (always a risk), I came walking back into our room to this scene. Ryan was contentedly staring at the blank screen talking to the computer telling it that is Daddy's computer. She didn't touch it though, I guess she has some self control.

Playgroup

Ryan has started a new playgroup, and today the playgroup was at our house. The kids were so cute and everyone got along really well. I let them all have a popsicle and did not want them to get their shirts dirty, so I made everyone wear one of Jac's shirts. I thought they were cute, although their mother's will probably not agree. We took a regular picture and then a goofy face one. Adam thought his was the funniest face and Jake and Alex kept looking at each other to see what the silly face next to them looked like. Cute, cute, cute!

Playing with Dolly

Ryan got a doll for Christmas that is just her size. She loves the thing. Ryan does not need any friends when the doll is around. Think about it, her best friend is someone who lets Ryan carry her anywhere, do anything to her, yell at her, throw her on the ground, be bossed around, lets Ryan be her doctor, and never complains at all. What could be better? The other morning I was cleaning up in the kitchen and Ryan wanted a bagel. I gave her one and 10 minutes later went looking for Ryan (it had gotten very quiet and that always makes me nervous). I found Ryan in my room feet propped on the doll, in her new rocking chair, eating a bagel and telling Dolly all about eating breakfast. Later that day Ryan and I were painting when Ryan decided she was done. She walked away for a minute and then dragged two chairs over and said "I want to wewax (relax)". She wanted Dolly on her lap and then she said "you get picture of me?", in her sweetest voice. The kid knows she is cute, and what can I do but keep laughing and taking pictures?

An update on Dolly... Later that evening she had an unfortunate tumble from the coffee table she and Ryan were standing on (I suspect fowl play since I heard Ryan yelling at her right before it happened) She broke her leg and her arm but is on the mend thanks to Sponge Bob Bandaids and Dr. Ryan, who incidentally is also wearing Sponge Bob Bandaids for an unknown reason. Bandaid envy I guess!

Can I stay up late?

Kelly and I had a date night last Wednesday, we got to go to the temple and go out to eat, and we did not have to rush home (a first). Our good friends are doing some babysitting swapping with us, and life is good. Anyway, Jannica and Ryan stayed at our friends house until we got home. Jac had school the next day and all week had been insisting that she should be able to stay up later because she is in 3rd grade now. Jac was sent to bed at 8:15 as usual and
tried to tell Laura (the babysitter) that we let her fall asleep watching TV. (Luckily Laura is smarter than a bag of rocks.) We showed up at 9:30 (Jac was sound asleep and Ryan was wild with adrenaline) and got the kids to the car, Jannica was, as you can see, not at all tired (whatever!). She did not move the whole way home except to snore. She cracks us up. Ryan on the other hand sang "twinkle, twinkle" and "row, row, row" all of the way home. She is like me, when she is tired she starts talking and will not shut up until she falls asleep mid-sentence. We are so blessed to be able to have at least 10 things to laugh about everyday!

Spider-Mama

The other morning I went outside and saw this GIANT spider web. I know that it is kinda lame to blog about, but these kind of silly things fascinate me. Ryan loved it too. She of course touched one of the strings holding it in place and couldn't figure out what the sticky thing was that was on her hand. She couldn't see it but she kept shaking her hand and wiping it on her shirt. Mom came to the rescue and got it all off for her. It's good to be an everyday superhero, it really doesn't take much effort.

Third grade!!

Wow! Today Jannica started the third grade! Early mornings, homework, bedtimes, YUCK! Oh well. She is growing up so fast. It is crazy to think that she was Ryan's age when we got married. Time flies! She is so stinking cute and growing up so fast! Kelly was bummed out this morning when Jannica decided that she wanted to ride the bus to school instead of having us give her a ride. Daddy's little girl is starting to branch out on her own and it is scaring the crap out of us! I don't know how people deal with all of these changes that come with parenting. I guess we will figure it out eventually.

Last bits of summer

Since Jannica has been home she has not been able to get enough video game time in a day (apparently all day every day is not enough!) Luckily, we were able to do a few fun things like go to the zoo and go swimming and have some friends over for a last blast of summer activity days party. Look closely and you will see Jannica being sneaky and getting ready to clamp off the hose to tease the girl that is holding the end. Jannica has learned from Kelly to be a horrible tease, thank you very much daddy. Otherwise Jannica begged to play the Wii and then you could hear her huffing and puffing while she played tennis. Ryan is going to miss her Jac not that she is in school again, but the upside is that Ryan gets to see the School bus every day and there is not much better than that!