More house work

Well, if you haven't read enough about the house here is some more for you. We have been working hard and got all the major repairs done. We still are working on the lawn but the house looks dramatically different. Don't you think?

Amazing what a new coat of paint will do. The wall inside has also been finished. It is nice to have the projects done.

Behind the picture frame with two pictures there is a door that can be taken out to grease or adjust the track for the pocket gate. These projects have taken quite a bit of my time but I think they were well worth it.


Tania helped quite a bit on most of the projects. Mostly she was just moral support but she still helped a bunch. Most of the time I would have to work on the projects after I put the kids to bed. If I tried to work on them when they were awake they would either try and use all my tools or beat each other up to where I spent all my time tearing them off each other, and yes I mean they are very aggressive children. Even little Sami can hold her own.

Some times I think it would be nice if they were a little more settled, but then I think of how I want them to always stand up for themselves and for what they believe, and I realize that they are exactly how I want them to be. Don't get me wrong they drive me crazy most of the time, but because of how they act some day they will be great at what they do.

Mitchell will be a great lawyer some day. He still works hard at honing his arguing skills daily. I'm sure he drives his teachers crazy because he is so far ahead of the group. The other day he took some reading test at school and found out on average he reads 150 words per minute. We went to the library on Monday and he got four books that are over a hundred pages each and I believe he finished them all already. He still enjoys math and science as well. He will be finished with second grade here in the next few weeks. I can hardly believe he is getting so big.

Elizabeth has turned in to quite the little dancer. She enjoys playing songs or music and dancing. She insists that she can only dance if she is wearing a dress or skirt. If she is wearing shorts or pants she will change so she can dance. So needless to say we need to buy more skirts. She can sit and watch princess movies all day long.


Sami is our little climber. She is 14 months old now but still is too chicken to walk. She can stand and could probably walk if she would just try. Even though she won't walk she climbs on to everything. She will climb onto a speaker next to the couch then lift her leg up like she is getting on a horse and climb over the arm of the couch. She uses this same method to climb on everything. She loves most of all to climb and get the remotes, and then she will bring them to me as if to say "try again, I could still get it."

I have finished another semester of school and am currently looking for employment. Mostly right now I spend a lot of time working on the house and the rest watching the kids. I still get to spend some time with Tania so that is nice.

Tania is still a wonderful wife and mother, not to mention a wonderful nurse who still works hard so we can have such a nice house and I can afford to go to school. All in all our family is doing pretty good. We are just hoping the snow will stop before it's time for winter again.

Sami

Sami is 6 months old already. I can't even believe how fast time flies. She is such a good, happy baby, and we love her so much. Here are a couple of somewhat recent pictures of her.

This first one is Sami in a horse costume that we used for pajamas. We bought it after halloween last year because it was a horse. And her dad is Josh. Enough said. :)


This next one is just a cute smile. She is sitting with help in this picture, but she is sitting without help now. She can roll both ways and sit up on her own. She is starting to get angry when we eat without her. Getting so grown up.

Sami likes her Johnny Jump Up. She loves to jump. Here is a video of her jumping while Lizzy is taking pictures of her with her Ariel camera. At the end, Lizzy says, "Oh, that's a good picture of Sam!"

Summer Fun- Work Parties

Josh and I both had work parties this summer. It is the first time either of us have had those. They were pretty fun. Both of them were at parks, but Josh's turned out way better than mine.

The day we had mine a huge storm came, and big gusts of wind kept trying to blow the food 0ver. I don't think we got any pictures from that day, but the big news of the day was that Mitchell lost a tooth while we were there.

Josh's party was much more fun, with good weather, face painting, bounce houses, and a fun playground. The food was pretty good too. Here are some pictures of the kids at Josh's party.

Mitchell got a spider web with a spider on one cheek, and a soccer ball on the other cheek.

Lizzy got a cute butterfly on her cheek. She held still for the girl to draw on her face.

Unfortunately, as soon as she was done getting it drawn, she fell off the bench backwards on her head. So her butterfly has tear streaks through it. Poor thing. Don't worry, she recovered just fine with no lasting effects. :)

Here is a video of the two kids going down the slide at the party. They loved this and played on it for hours. Lots of other peoples bigger kids helped Lizzy climb up to the top many times. It was a fun day!

Summer Fun- Dinosaur Park

Well, I need to do a couple of posts about what we have done this summer. I will split them up so there aren't so may pictures in one post.

First, the Dinosaur Park. Our neighborhood does neighborhood field trips once a week through the summer. I only made it to one of them unfortunately, but it was a lot of fun. We went to the Dinosaur Park in Ogden. They have lots of statues of dinosaurs outside, and some robotic ones inside, as well as fossils and cool rocks and gemstones. Lots of fun stuff to see.

Mitchell and Lizzy posing with the dinosaur

Lizzy with her friend, Lizzy. The older Lizzy was so cute with little Lizzy!

Sami thought the whole thing was rather exhausting! :)

Silly kids

I just have to share some funny kid stories. They say the funniest things sometimes! First, the other night Mitch and Lizzy were sitting on the couch together, and Mitchell was getting grumpy with Liz. He told her she was in his bubble. She stuck out her finger and said, “Pop! New bubble!” They both started laughing and that was the end of that!

Mitchell argues about everything. As you can imagine, it drives Josh and I crazy, and I’m sure other people too. Every once in a while though, it makes for a good story. Here are a couple of them.

One day my mom was babysitting the kids while I was at work and she was taking Mitchell to school. I had told her how to get there using the main roads so that it is nearly impossible to get lost. That isn’t the way I normally drive to get there, but it is much easier to explain. So she is driving along, and Mitchell is telling her that she is going the wrong way. She tells him that she is going the way I told her to go, and since he can’t just leave it at that, he keeps arguing. At some point he tells my mom that there are a million ways to get there. Well, his school is about 3 blocks away, so being a logical, reasoning adult, my mom said, “Well there’s probably not quite that many.” But Mitchell, being the argumentative 6 year old that he is always has to try to prove you wrong, so he pipes up with, “Yeah, because you could go to New York on your way!” Okay, smart alec, if you go completely out of your way, you could probably come up with a million different ways to get there. I just had to laugh at that one. Of course, it is much funnier when it is happening to someone other than me…

Another day he was outside our apartment playing with one of his toys, and one of our neighbors (Ratha) commented on how cool his toy was. The following conversation went something like this:

Mitchell: Do you have one?
Ratha: No, I don’t have anything.
Mitchell: Well, do you have a house?
Ratha: Well, yeah, I have one of those.
Mitchell: Do you have a wife?
Ratha: Well, yeah, I have one of those.
Mitchell: Do you have food?
Ratha: Well, yeah, I have one of those.
Mitchell: Do you have clothes?
Ratha: Well, yeah, I have one of those.
Mitchell: Do you have a car?
Ratha: Well, yeah, I have one of those.
Mitchell: Do you have _______?
Ratha: Well, yeah, I have one of those.

This went on until Ratha made it to the third floor and into his apartment. His wife, who was inside during this exchange, and heard most of it, was laughing when he got inside. He said to her, “Well, I guess he told me!” She told us that they decided maybe he should be a lawyer when he grows up. Maybe so…
Once again, much funnier when it happens to someone else!

Kids grow too fast...

Well, all three of our kids are growing way too fast for my liking. I can’t believe how fast the time flies!

Samantha is 3 ½ weeks old, and already seems so much bigger than she was. She sometimes sleeps well at night, but not usually. She usually has one good three hour stretch, and the rest of the time it is one or two hours at a time, if I’m lucky.

Lizzy has grown up so much in the last month since she turned two. She speaks in long, complex sentences now, and has become quite the conversationalist. If she hears you talking about her, she will pipe up with her own opinions. She also has grown quite thick, considering how petite she has always been. One day we were commenting on that, and Josh said something about her being chubby, and Lizzy said, “I’m not chubby, I’m a Lizzy-Bell!” That is one of her nicknames, and apparently she thinks it is something that she is, instead of just a name we call her. She was very adamant about the fact that she was a Lizzy-Bell. Here are some pictures of her on the playground.

Mitchell seems to be thriving in first grade. He is keeping up very well with the school work, and he is a member of the 100 Words Club. There are 100 words that first graders are supposed to know by sight by the end of the year, and when kids pass all of them off, they become a member of the club. When I went to parent/teacher conferences about three weeks after he started first grade, he had already become one of three members in his class. His teacher said that he got them all the first time he tried. She also said he is one of the smartest kids in his class (still) and that he is well behaved in class. He does have trouble with staying on task occasionally, and likes to talk to his neighbors too much, but I think we have all been guilty of that!

We have been to a dance program and a singing program at his school, and he did very well in both. The dance one was only a couple of weeks after he transferred grades, and he still was able to learn the dance well, and was very well behaved when the other grades were doing their dances. He also sang and did all the right actions in his singing program. Tonight the first grade is hosting a luau, so we’ll see what that’s all about.

Yesterday he was being the jokester of his class, and went around telling his classmates that they had a red crayon under their desk, and when they looked, he would say “April fools!” He was very disappointed when we didn’t do any big tricks at home. I am just not big fan of playing jokes on people, or people playing them on me, what can I say?

Mitchell gave a talk in primary a couple of Sundays ago, and everyone was so impressed once again that he could get up and give his whole talk without anyone helping him, and not reading anything. We have him learn a scripture story (this time it was about the three men in the fiery furnace) and he tells it in his own words followed by what we can learn from this story. He does very well, and I am so proud of him!

Things are the same for Josh and I. Josh is still working, and going to school, and I am just trying to keep up with sleep and the three kids. I will be very happy when spring is officially here and I don't have to scrape snow off the van in the morning to take Mitch to school. I am glad I have had such a speedy recovery, and so is Josh. I am already down below my prepregnancy weight. Now I just need to lose the Lizzy pregnancy weight that I never could lose after she was born. Yet another reason I am excited for spring weather, so I can go for more walks...

Announcing... Samantha Ali McEvoy

Announcing the birth of Samantha Ali McEvoy

Sami was born March 9th at 6:34pm. She weighed 7 lbs 1 oz, and was 19 inches long.

Her brother and sister love her, and we are all excited to have her in our home. I am feeling really good, and have had a really fast and fairly easy recovery. Our only real challenge has been getting sleep. Sami seems to have something that bothers her at night, and she spends hours grunting and crying, and nothing we do seems to help much. The good news is that she sleeps great during the day and is very well behaved during the day! :) Unfortunately, that doesn't help Josh much. I would think she just has her days and nights mixed up, but it isn't just that she's awake at night. She really seems uncomfortable or like something is bothering her. Hopefully we can figure it out soon.

We have all been enjoying the warmer weather this last week or two. We go on walks almost every day, and when the girls and I walk to pick up Mitchell from school in the afternoons, we stay and play on the playground for a while. It has been really fun. One of these days I will have to remember my camera and take some pictures. Lizzy loves the playground, especially the slides, and she has no fear. She will try all sorts of new things, and go places she shouldn't go being as small as she is, and I really have to keep track of her so she won't kill herself! She would live at the playground if she could, I think.