Not-So-Newsy Update+Iphone Dump

Some of these pictures are from our trip in Utah--but I just dumped my phone pictures onto my computer finally, so here we go!

I remember my mom reading the BFG to my little brother Ethan and me in our house in Minot, North Dakota. I remember being curled up beside Ethan on his bed and my mom sitting on the floor and leaning against the bed, and Ethan laughing hysterically at every. single. funny word the BFG used. I would have been in about third or fourth grade. I know Ruthie is a little young, but I was just ITCHING to read it to her. I'm not sure it was her favorite, but she definitely asked me to keep reading, so that's a winner! When they came out with the movie, it was extra incentive to finish the book so we could go! She loved it!
We called Sterling on our way home (we went with Grandma when we were in Utah) and she tells him "Everyone was laughing, even I was laughing. Even so hard a tear came out of my eye!" Haha. She was retelling the fizzy drink with the queen scene. She definitely caught the humor of the movie--and it will be a memory I will always cherish, watching her light up with the imagination of the story! 

Ruth asks every single day if we can go back to grandma's house. And I think Molly would say the same thing, if she could. And thinking about the potatoes in that bucket make me want to jump ship right about now, too! I love that Molly followed grandpa around all summer!  

This is from the church history museum when we went to temple square. I really love this quote.

Love her dress-up and her sass.

Back in Miami country, we have some iguanas living in our backyard and the kids LOVE watching for them! 

From when Ruthie lost her THIRD tooth!!

Sometimes, she keeps bows in for more than twenty seconds, and it is the cutest ever.

Ruthie had to make an all about me doll for her first Pre-K assignment. It was so much fun! Of course it had to be pink, have princesses, red hair in a bun, and a LOT of accessorizing!

I took this photo because it has been kind of strange running errands in the morning with only two sidekicks! 

Will is really good at holding Molly's hand while we walk through the parking lot at Ruthie's school. It is my favorite thing! He has also been having a really hard time dropping Ruth off. He wants to stay and play SOOO bad!!! So we just started a sticker chart--he gets a sticker to put on if he leaves with a happy face. He really wants a Spiderman book from the bookstore, so he's pretty motivated about the prize! I hope it keeps working, because today it was golden.

They just put these new signs all over our complex. There are three outside our backyard gate. No worries guys, just chillin' over here in Miami. Haha. 

Sterling let the kids feed the baby ducks once, and now they come RIGHT UP to our back door. It's pretty adorable.

We have a playground in our complex! It's much too too hot to play outside right now (the slides burn the kids' legs and the humidity melts us all) but they had a grand opening last Saturday so the kids got to have their faces painted and eat ice-cream and get balloons. It was pretty awesome. 

Captain America/Spiderman identity crisis!

She asked to be a princess. It was a little much, but she LOVED it! haha.

Sterling reading stories to the kids the other night. They love it because he doesn't say no to the long books, like I do. 

She is the CUTEST EVER! 

I ordered this picture off etsy and just had it framed. I was SEARCHING for a Logan temple picture that I loved, and not really finding much, until this one. I LOVE it! The phone picture looks a bit darker than it really is, I'll have to try to take another shot sometime. 

This girl helping me make waffles. Until our waffle iron decided to bite the dust half way through dinner. Luckily, everyone was well-fed beforehand! It was a wedding present that lasted us almost seven years and LOTS of waffles, so I can't complain too much! 

She is so hilarious and so tiny and so much fun to have around! She also thinks she has to do EVERYTHING by HERSELF. It is so much fun.

Zonked out on the way to pick up Ruthie from school. I just LOVE HER! How did my baby grow up?!?!?!

We had to go up TWO sizes so I think it was about time! Will is SOOO excited to have new basketball shoes--because he starts basketball on Saturday. Haha, that kid!  

Just now I went in to lay Molly down (we are still putting her to sleep in a carseat and then transferring her because she crawls all over) and they were both asleep in Ruth's bed. Sweet things. 

 I feel like I had three babies. Then Ruth started school and suddenly I have no babies. They all look like these big kids! Will does his own thing or plays nicely with Molly when Ruth is at school, when Ruth is home he plays a lot more nicely with her (they must need that break!) and Miss Independent Molly is practically in charge of the entire household, so where did my babies go?!?! Ruth decided she wanted to wear undies at night like her cousin Devaney in Utah, so we gave it a go when school started, and in two weeks she's only had one accident. YAY RUTH! So now I'm starting to think we should start potty training Molly. But she has gone poo in the tub the last three times I've bathed the kids, and that cured me quick. Why?!??! Haha. 

Things seem really mellow at our house lately. We get up early and eat and get dressed and leave the house by 8:15. Drop Ruth off. Run errands, or go to the gym, or go to the library, or come home and go swimming. Then it's back to pick her up. Straight home for lunch and then the kids go down for naps. Ruth usually colors, or watches a tv show, or helps me cook. Then they are all up for just a short time before dinner. Then it's baths and bedtime routine stuff. Throw in two afternoons of piano lessons and some FHE and Parents Night Out at the gym or whatever else might be going on--and it's this chalk full schedule of BIG KID things! I think tonight I was a little bit in mourning over my non-school parenting days. I LOVE everything about Ruth being in school. She's happier, her attitude is happier and the kids get along better. I get more one on one time with the younger two, she gets the friends and social atmosphere with kids her age. She gets to do ART (she just loves those crafty things so much!) and sing lots of songs, I get to feel like a good mom without putting in all of the effort. There are so so so many good things about her getting to go half day. But MAN! Just seconds ago I had Molly and was thick in the 'three kid three and under' stage of life with all three of them in diapers and multiple naps and...now they entertain themselves mostly! And there seems like so many more things are on my to-do list besides kissing and hugging and snuggling and reading stories. So I've been making a concerted effort to not forget those things. Especially with Ruthie. That girl is not allowed to grow up! When I told my sister Andrea, four years ago, that motherhood was lonelier than I expected, she said "give it five years" which did not seem very comforting. She was right. She was also right that I wish I could go back to those lonely days and just enjoy them. But that's all part of the journey, right!? There's too much going on now to be lonely, and it is all good and wonderful things with lots to do and embrace, but I think I'm going to be missing my three babies for a lifetime. Being a mom is the best.

Some snippets from facebook:

"Yesterday Ruthie was singing "TRI-ALS and TRIBU-LATIONS" in this amazing pseudo-gospel-soul-vibrato along with Princess Tiana (Princess and the Frog) and today she comes home from cute little bible pre-k singing just like a pipe organ "GOD WILL BLESS US! GOD WILL BLESS US!" And I'm over here just dying a bit. It think she might have a gospel-singing should trapped in a tiny redhead body and it is just killing me! :) Someday, MoTab, you won't know what hit you!!!

When your kids convince you to make blue kool-aid and then your 2 yr old dumps the entire gallon onto the entire table of prepared food exactly 3 seconds before your dinner guests arrive. Luckily, Kyle and Tricia are amazing and walked in, picked up and bathed the two yr old and occupied the other children while we mopped up the gallon of kool-aid. #thereisnohashtagforthis

That reminds me, Ruthie has a bible verse to memorize every week, along with a color and an alphabet letter. They spend all Wednesday morning at chapel, singing. She picks up on songs SO fast, so it has been super fun to hear what songs she's learning (she corrected our version of the Johnny Appleseed song, grandma). Sterling and I figure "It's always good to teach kids that Jesus loves them, we'll sort out any doctrinal problems down the line!" haha. She LOVES to sing, so I'm really happy they get all Wednesday morning to sing! They also have dress-up-which is what she tells me about almost every day when I ask what she did at school. She also learned the song "Who Stole the Cookie From the Cookie Jar" and for some reason Will thinks its the biggest riot ever, he just breaks up into fits of epic laughter every single time she sings it. Which is so hilarious to me, that I have her sing it often. Haha. Good times, good times.