A walker...of sorts

A few weeks ago while I was folding laundry Canyon stood up in the middle of the living room and started toddling after his sisters.  Just like that... he finally decided to start walking.  I've been trying to capture his cute, little, awkward, tipsy swagger on camera ever since.  This is what I get....

He thinks he is soooo funny.  Little stink.

You'll just have to trust me on this, it's the cutest dang thing you have ever seen.  Especially because every few steps he takes he starts enthusiastically clapping for himself and looks around with a proud grin on his face to make sure we are all witnessing his great accomplishment. 

Oh, how I love him.

The best thing in the world...

Is when Emma informs me she is never moving out and that she, her husband and kids will always live with me on our house on the mountain.

Is when Ali crawls into my bed at 1:30 in the morning and announces herself by saying, "Ali Miller, here for snuddles."

Is always having Canyon at my feet, on my hip or in my lap wherever I go.

Is the "I Luf you" note hanging in my office that Emma wrote to me while in time out one day.

Is listening to Ali pray, "please let mom and me die at the same time" because she can't stand the thought of being without me for even a minute.

Is Emma curled up beside me begging for just one more chapter each night before bed.

Is sweet, pucker-y muah kisses from my little guy.

Is Ali telling me repeatedly that she loves me "more 'dan anyfing".

Is hearing Canyon demand, cry or ask, "Mama, mama, mama" a thousand and one times a day.

The best thing in the world is being a mom.  Although I am far from a perfect mother, to these little ones, I am enough. It seems every night when I go to bed I am wishing I had been more patient or that I had spent more time on the floor playing or heck, that I had dished out more fruits and veggies and less sugar. But no matter how the day goes the next morning I am always greeted with hugs, kisses and sleepy "good morning mama"s. My monkeys love me easily, sincerely and without question. It's the best feeling in the whole wide world.

Emma + Oz sittin' in a tree

Here's the thing, whether it's because she is in school all day long or because her two younger siblings are little snuggling leeches who are stuck to my lap all day long, I don't get to spend nearly as much quality time with my Emma girl as I would like to. Needless to say, when I came across a killer deal on some front row tickets to see the Wizard of Oz I knew who my date was going to be.

As we waited for the show to start Emma chatted uninterrupted about anything and everything. During the show Emma was completely enthralled. She laughed a lot, she screamed and jumped and she even cried although she claims she was only sniffling because her nose was stuffed.  She impressed me by pointing out how each scene varied from the book. And her favorite parts? The music and Toto of course. As much as I enjoyed the show and I REALLY enjoyed it I enjoyed watching Emma even more. And I absolutely loved when my little non-snuggler would cling to my arm or climb onto my lap every time it got a little bit intense. It was a great night. Totally worth going to bed at 11:30 on a school night.  I think.  

Now, about the picture...did you see the child on that goose egg (click on the picture to see it in it's full glory)?! Compliments of falling off the tramp 2 minutes before leaving home.

Reason #509 why I love our mountain...

The amazing sunsets.

It's official, I've gone crazy.

In my cedar chest I have 3 gallon size baggies.  Each one is designated to hold keepsakes of the baby years for each one of my children.  They hold very similar things...the hospital shirt and hat they were put in right after birth, the little wrist and foot bracelets from the hospital, crocheted shoes from their blessing day, etc. Pretty typical stuff, right?  Surprisingly, each baggie gets bigger.  Poor Emma.  Hers has the bare minimum.  Ali's is a little bit fatter but Canyons?  It's bulging.  BULGING.  I know this time around is the last time around and I am determined to hang onto as much of the fleeting baby stage as I can.  So yes, I have gone a little excessive in what I keep as memorabilia.  And apparently my Emma girl has noticed.  Today I watched as she leaned over something on the carpet, gasped and bent over to quickly retrieve it.  She cupped her hands around it like it was the a rarest of treasures and walked slowly and carefully over to me so as not to drop it.  As she reached me she demanded I put it in Canyon's baby box and opened up her hands to show me the said treasure. I laughed out loud to see a bloody bandaid that had fallen off of Canyon's thigh from his shots.  How could I not keep it?  Really?  It is now nestled right up next to his wispy baby curls I chopped off and several other things I shan't mention for fear of being ridiculed.  Now, if I could only figure out how to save his roley little thighs and soft little baby cheeks. Sigh.

Battle Hymn of The Tiger Mother

After hearing quite a bit about this book, both the good and the bad, I was excited to read it and ended up thoroughly enjoying it. I'd even venture to say it's one of my favorites. The author really puts it all out there and doesn't hold anything back.  As I read I was amused, shocked and sometimes even slightly offended. I obviously didn't agree with her empty threats, yelling, insults and continual belittling of her children but I found myself nodding whole-heartedly in agreement and possibly even taking notes when she stated that we should assume strength and fortitude in our children, not fragility and I truly admired the time she spent "in the trenches" and have vowed to become a more hands on mom myself.  Really, I could talk about this book all day.  In short though, it's a must read.

boy

I've noticed something about my little Canyon man lately. He has started shying away from his sister's my little ponies and doll house people that he has always loved playing with.  Instead, he is either chasing us around with a plastic dinosaur "rawring" at us, trying his hardest to throw his little basketball, or my favorite..pushing Neddie and Freddie, his bedtime friends, around in his jeep making a "vroooom" sound.

Add in the fact that he hardly ever wears pants and constantly has some sort of grease or dirt on his face and I'd say he is becoming quite the little boy.

A little boy who still knows how to melt his mama's heart by crawling up her lap and planting big wet ones on her lips when she is least expecting it. I think I'll keep him. Forever.

Sassafrass

My Ali girl, she turned 4. 

She waltzed out of her room on her birthday morning, stood proudly on her tiptoes and made us admire how tall she was now that she was 4. She chose a family fun day for her birthday...swimming and her choice of lunch out, which ended up being a kid's meal at Mcdonalds (she was pleased as punch that she got her very own meal and didn't have to split something from the dollar meal with her siblings. We're cheap like that).

We ended up finishing up the day with cake at our house with a few close friends.  Emma and I had worked most of the afternoon on her cake--a dark chocolate layered one with a raspberry buttercream and a thick ganache drizzle. It was lovely. And so was Ali as she blew out her candles. Unfortunately, I'm the world's worst mother and didn't capture any of it on camera. Who does that?

Now, how about a few of my favorite Ali quotes from lately?

"Daddy! Don't call people suck!  It's inapplopliate (inappropriate)!"

"Vanilla oreos are more healthier than chocolate oreos"

"Hey mom, I pooped on the floor. Are you mad?"

I woke up one morning to Ali laying in bed next to me stroking my cheeks and whispering, "You are my special thing and I'm going to marry you one day."

Ali has apparently pegged my love for babies because one afternoon when she was angry at me for something or other she put one hand on her hip and pointed a finger at me while hollering, "And you will NEVER watch my child! Never!" Is it bad that I laughed?

Speaking of Angry Ali, she has taken to belting out Taylor Swifts "Mean" song every time she is on timeout.  You know how it goes..."All you're ever going to be is MEEEAAAANNN". 

And speaking of Taylor Swift, Ali is her biggest fan. In fact while we were having family pictures taken she told our photographer Taylor Swift's birthday. The exact date, mind you. She still doesn't know the specific date of her own birthday, just that it's near fall.

I asked Ali whether she would like to take tumbling, dance or ice-skating lessons.  She hunched over, scrunched her face up in an intimidating way and growled "I want to play FOOTBALL!!  I'm going to fight and tackle people!!" The girl is obsessed with football. In fact all she wanted for her birthday was to go to a "go Utes" football game and go on the field and play with them.  Small request, right?

We sure love our Ali girl and the little ball of passion that she is.

LOTOJA

Well he did it...again.  Three states, 206 miles, killer climbs, one day...all on the bike. Little Canyon man, Dave's dad and I made up Dave and his friend, Darrin's, support crew and spent the day driving to different meet up spots to load the boys up with food and water.  It was a looooong day and I am quite looking forward to leaving all the little monkeys with the grandparents and spending a relaxing day driving around and lounging in the sun with a book by myself the next time Dave decides to embark on this grand adventure.  I have to say, Dave was amazing this year!

Last time he did LOTOJA there were a few stops were he was really sick and really hurting and it killed me a little to see him like that and then have to push him back out on the bike. There was only one stop he was struggling at this year and it's nothing a little time off the bike and water didn't cure. My favorite part of the whole day was watching the guys cross the finish line.  It amazes me what Dave can do when he puts his mind to it. He can indeed, do hard things. And I love him for it.

Seasons

Winter on our mountain was nothing short of a winter wonderland, one without water, but a winter wonderland non-the-less. Spring took my breath away with it's lush greens and abundance of wildflowers. Summer was a whirlwind of blues...bright blue sky, bright blue lake.  As amazing as all the seasons have been so far, I have a feeling, Fall is going to take the cake.

Couldn't live without her

I have a confession.  Sundays are hard for me.  Dave works 90% of them which leaves me wrestling the three monkeys at church alone.  Sacrament meeting is last and usually by the time we sit down for it the children are already restless and in Canyon's case, tired and ready for a nap. I have left more meetings than I care to admit halfway through, carrying a screaming child and lugging along two quarrelling ones and a bag that is dropping supplies because it was packed up in a hurry. Yes, embarrassing. You can then understand my hesitance to stay for Sacrament meeting yesterday when I had already been battling with a very tired Canyon and a very rambunctious Ali (I teach her sunbeams class) for the last two hours.  As always though, I remembered my dad sitting with FIVE of us in Sacrament meeting after he had just gotten off of a graveyard shift and knew I had no excuses.  I had to try. I grabbed one of the pews closest to the doors just in case. Ali and Canyon immediately started decking it out for my lap.  Sweet little Emma sensed my frustration and offered to hold Ali.  Let me quickly note that Ali loves snuggles.  You can diffuse any bad mood or wiggles she has by simply snuggling her.  Emma, on the other hand, can't stand snuggles.  She often has nightmares that Ali is trying to snuggle her. Seriously. So I was flabbergasted and very touched that Emma would offer to "hold" Ali.  Throughout the rest of the meeting Emma snuggled Ali, tickled her forehead and even fed Canyon his snacks and sippy cup (he still insists someone hold his cup). She had everything under control. As I watched her I was overwhelmed with love and gratitude.  What an amazing little girl I have. At one point she leaned over to me and with a little smile said, "This is hard.  Do you ever need a break from holding kids?"  I laughed. And hugged her. 

And because it's been a while how about a little update on my Emma girl?

She just started first grade and absolutely loves it. As I was asking about details of her first day I asked what friends she played with at recess.  She looked at me, shook her head and said, "Mom, I'm in FIRST grade now, we don't PLAY at recess. We sit in the shade and talk."  Good to know.

Emma also started dance a few months ago. She had a busy summer performing at seven peaks, the county fair and in a couple of parades.  It's so fun to watch her dance.  You really see the perfectionist in her shine through.

And my favorite thing about Emma lately?  She is often off wandering the mountain, at least our property of it, with a backpack, water bottle, bug net, magnifying glass, cup of oats (for the deer) and notebook and pencil in hand.  She goes exploring and records all her discoveries in her notebook.  When she returns from her excursions she often asks me to research things with her that she has questions about.  She wants to be a scientist when she grows up.

Pretty fabulous kid I have, huh?

You can't have her.

The Big {ONE}

At one Canyon...

Is a shrimp.  Lol, 5th percentile for height, fell off the charts in weight but get this...75th percentile for head. 

Crawls like a mad man, can navigate stairs like an expert and can pull himself up and walk along things but shows no desire to walk on his own. And I am 100%, A-OKAY with that. Remember, he's my baby, baby ;).

Loves fruits and veggies (especially the orange ones...mangoes, cantaloupe, peaches, carrots, squash, etc.). The other night for dinner he had a handful of strawberries, a handful of grapes, a large plum, half of a banana, a huge helping of roasted broccoli, carrots and red peppers and half of my green smoothie.  I have no idea how he fit it all into his little belly. And man, you should see him in the produce isle at the grocery store.  He goes crazy.  He points and grunts and yells and wants everything. It's a riot.

Hates carbs and dairy.  Except ice cream he looooves ice cream. Milk is also slowly starting to grow on him.

Points.  I'm kind of in love with his whole silent, with the occasional grunt, pointing thing he has going on. He points to show us what he wants. He will crawl up to us, hold his arms up so we will pick him up and then will point the way he wants us to go.  We usually end up at the fruit bowl where he will grab the desired piece he wants and yell, "DIS!". He will also point to our laps when he wants to be held or point out the door and windows when he wants to go outside and play with the girls. When Dave and I got back from date night the other night he started pointing silently but frantically at us.  Haha, it melted my heart.

Loves the cat.  They are frequent napping partners.  And the cat, bless his heart, is surprisingly patient and easy-going with Canyon.  He lets Canyon pull and tug on him, kiss him and even sit on him.

refuses to hold his own sippy cup.  Instead he will crawl around until he finds someone, place the cup in their hand and squawk until they hold it for him. Haha, I love it. He reminds me of a little calf.

Has developed a sly, mischievous smile he lets loose right before he does something naughty.  I'm quite in love with it.

Is completely adored and doted on my his mama, big sisters and when no one is looking...the daddy too ;)

"It's not okay to throw dead animals at people"

Those are words I never thought would leave my mouth.

It's like this..my girls and the neighbor girls have a fort. Their tree fort as they like to call it. They had Dave cut down some scrub oak to form a narrow path that ends in a little secret grove.  There they have set up camp, so to speak.  They have their little camp chairs, a blanket, a "kitchen" stocked with what I'm hoping aren't poisonous berries and other miscellaneous treasures.  Apparently while hanging in their fort today they decided it was lacking in decorations.  Their solution?  They stole a dead chipmunk from the cat and after throwing it at each other a few times for fun they tried to hang it in the tree. Let me repeat A. DEAD. CHIPMUNK.

My first impulse was to cry and dowse them all with bleach. Instead, I laughed.  Harder than I have laughed in a very long time.  I then called my neighbor (all the while laughing) to share the story with her and to make sure she had her girls wash their hands thoroughly before eating . She didn't think it was nearly as funny as I did. So I went and found Dave and told him knowing he would laugh with me.  And he did. 

What doesn't kill you only makes you more immune, right?  And hey, people hang dead animals in their houses all the time, right? RIGHT?

And check out little Canyon man. 

He got to accompany me into the "girls only" fort for cleanup duty.  He thought he was preeetty dang special ;)

My favorite part of the day?

Playing couch peek-a-boo of course.

Charmed

Canyon is the only baby in Relief Society, which is quite the change from our last ward.  I have to admit, the first Sunday I walked in with my wiggly baby to see a room full of women (mainly 60 years and older) I panicked and almost headed right back out.  Babies are noisy.  Really noisy.  And I didn't think the ladies would appreciate his constant babbling, growling and yelling as much as I do. Especially considering it is hard enough for most of them to hear the speaker (I'm not being rude, they have quite the set-up to help everyone be able to hear). 

You can imagine my surprise when me and little dude were warmly, and I do mean WARMLY, welcomed.  Canyon was ooohed and aaahhhed over for a good 10 minutes.  He also got his cheeks pinched several times.  Every Sunday it is the same.  As soon as we walk in all attention is turned to him (yes, even when we are late, which we are often). Canyon burped once and the whole lesson was put on hold as everyone started giggling...and then laughing...and then ooohing and aaahing over him again.  Then there was the time he broke away and did his funny little wiggle-worm crawl up the aisle.  Once again, the lesson was put on hold and Canyon was the center of attention.  The little ham ate. it. up.  For most of the lesson Canyon is usually slyly smiling over my shoulder and batting his eyes at the women around us because he knows of the instant adoration that will be liberally sprinkled upon him.  I'm not allowed to come to Relief Society without him. Little fart. He already knows how to woo his way into the ladies' hearts.

So many of the sweet sisters, as they caress his wispy baby hair and rub on his sweet baby cheeks, tell me, no admonish me, not to take this time for granted.  Because they grow up fast.  Really fast.  It actually makes me quite sad to see their melancholy smiles as they tell me about their children who are grown and living their own lives somewhere.  I only hope that when that day comes for me there will be some frazzled young mother who will let me hold and snuggle on her little one for a bit. 

By the way, I think little dude is ready for yet ANOTHER haircut, don't ya think?

They make me laugh...

every. single. day.

The other night Ali came waltzing out of her room just after 11:00 (I had put the girls to bed around 8:00) and leaned up against the wall with a little notebook in hand and a pen hovering over it.  "I is learning about allll different countries.  Tell me about Spain...".  Yeah, she's three.  And yeah, I'm still laughing over that one.

Emma came home from a swimming play date at her friend's house the other day with this story to be told, "So I was getting in the pool and Boston said she had just peed in it cuz you're always supposed to pee in your pool.  So I said, 'EWWWWW, Boston now I'm not getting in!'.  Then Boston started to cry so I said, "fiiiiinnnnneee I'll get in'.  And then we played in the pool for awhile so I probably need a bath now."  Haha, the love of a friend....I can't wait to tell them that story when they are 16 ;).

Book Review: Our Best Bites

One of my amazing friends gave me this cookbook for my birthday.  She even stood in line, for what I like to believe was hours ;), to get it autographed.  Yeah, she's awesome.  And so is the cookbook.  The recipes are fabulous.  They are simple and call for the best and freshest of ingredients.  I made 90% of our Easter feast this year from it...stuffed bleu cheese potatoes, garlic-balsamic asparagus, herb-rosemary focaccia loaves...you get the idea.  I use this cookbook several times a week.  Every page has big, colorful pictures and cooking tips.  It also has a rollover index to help use up ingredients you have on hand.  It's definitely a keeper.

Summer Fun and Emma turns 6!

Well hello. It's been a while, right? You will be happy to know we are all alive. And happy. Quite happy. We have pretty much made having fun our full time job. Haha, or at least tried to fit it in every nook and cranny of our spare time. Our summer has been filled with camping trips, glorious popsicles, 4-wheeler rides, staying up late, Dutch oven dinners and BBQs with friends, star gazing, hiking, sailing excursions, a lot of biking, and jaunts down to the lake where we bask in the sun, splash in the water and cover ourselves with sand all day long. Life is goooood. And I totally understand now while people fork out a hefty amount of mullah to buy a home up here that they only live in during the summer.

Summer also marks the beginning of birthday season (as I like to call it) in our little home. First off...my Emma girl! She turned the grand ol' age of 6! I always give my monkeys the option of a party for their big day or a family fun day. Up until now they have always chose a family fun day. Emma decided to go ahead and break my heart and choose a friend party. Kidding. Although I do love our family fun days. Anyway, cupcake was the theme! Emma helped plan the whole thing from the invitations to the party favors. I was quite pleased with how it turned out.

And also quite pleased my mama came up the night before because she knows I'm a horrible procrastinator and would need a lot of help ;). We dolled the little guests up in aprons and let them at a cupcake decorating station. I found it funny the thing the kiddos got most excited about were the mini bakery boxes I found and stamped their names on to put their creations in. Too funny. There were also a few cupcake themed games and then cake (just a small one because of the surplus of cupcakes)and presents. It was fun watching Emma in her element. I couldn't help but noticing how she went out of her way to make everyone feel included. She sure is growing up. Love that little lady!

Next up on the birthday list...my baby. GULP.

A Good Day

Today was a good day. 

I woke up to Emma's face just inches from mine serenading me with songs about love and spring time and asking me if I was ready to open my mother's day present yet. It was just after 6:00 am.

Dave pampered me with a breakfast of strawberry nutella crepes, my absolute favorite.

Ali, throughout the day, randomly held my face in her chubby little hands and wished me a "happy mudders day" in her breathy little whisper.

Canyon belched in the middle of the relief society lesson and had everyone in fits of giggles.  Oh, how they love him.

We went on a scenic family drive up to Smith and Morehouse, shared a couple of chocolate donuts and watched a moose for awhile.

Bedtime consisted of nuzzling my sweet baby boy close and playing with his soft little curls and then climbing into bed with my girls to read story after story after story.  The girls joined in as I sang them their lullaby tonight. They have the sweetest little voices.

As I was leaving the girls' room tonight Emma asked me if this was the best mothers day ever.  I believe it was. 

I'm thankful for this gift called motherhood.

And Counting

We have a little game we like to play here called count the wildlife (creative title, I know). Take a look at tonight's findings...

• 25 deer 
• 5 elk 
• 1 wild cottontail  
• 2 osprey
• 1 Ali (believe you me, she totally counts lately)

 Just an average night. I love it.

By the way, stay tuned, we have been having one adventure after another up here on our little mountain. Some good, some not so much...adventures just the same though. As soon as I get a break from the craziness that is wedding season I will have to post some of them.

On The Move

Ready....

Set....

GOOOOO

What follows is an odd cross between an inchworm wiggle and an army man crawl.  It's pretty darn adorable. 

With his new-found skill one can usually find Brother Bear stuck under a stool in the dining room where he was foraging for scraps or at the bottom of the stairs yelling at the sisters to bring down their small, choking-hazard toys and come play with him.

It's whats for dinner

On April Fools day anyway.  Can you believe Emma was actually disappointed when she found out it wasn't REAL noodles and REAL peas and carrots on her cupcake?  For reals. She picked all the fake, sugary goodness stuff off. 

Speaking of April Fools day the girls were really into it this year. 

Emma told her teacher she forgot snack.

She also would point repeatedly behind me and yell, "LOOK! A deer!!"  I fell for it. Every. Single. Time.

Ali, not quite understanding, insisted on joining the fun too.  She would randomly yell, "APRIL FOOOOLS" and cackle with glee for no reason at all.

It was quite the fun day.

Invaded

Everywhere I look I find these little guys...

It kind of reminds me of when I was younger and how my dad was always mumbling at us to pick up all the *#@^  *#%^  &;$(#   Legos because he kept stepping on them. 

Except of course I don't use quite the same words as he did.  Ha! What a guy.

Book Review: The BFG

I love anything Roald Dahl.  Always have.  And turns out the monkeys are big fans too!  Every night they were begging for just one more chapter.  In fact, when we finished the book they wanted to start it all over again that same night.  I was able to convince them to move on to another book by telling them of all the other great books Roald Dahl has written. They are currently saving all of their chore money to buy another one of his books. Last I heard they were debating between, James and the Giant Peach and Witches.  It will be fun to see what they choose. Until then...The Wizard of Oz!

iphoto fun: Muddy Trails

This is what my running route looks like lately...

Good practice for the dirty dash I suppose. 

Which, by the way, I'm pretty dang excited for. Bring it on.