Sprout Turns 5

Sprout turned 5. He was looking forward to it for months, and when the day finally he arrived he kept asking, "Am I really 5?" It was so hard for him to believe. He requested an Octonauts party, and I did my best to deliver.

I'm not sure where the 3 came from...but Sprout didn't care. 

Happy birthday to our favorite boy!

Sprout Moments #7 (Sep. - Dec. 2016)

September:

I somehow magically lost cash in between the ATM at one bank, and the ATM at the next, without making any stops. Mr. Mitchell and I have searched high and low and ripped the van apart. We have contacted both banks and literally retraced my steps. No money. Sprout prayed every single night for a month that we would find that money*. Once we did, he said lots of 'thank you' prayers.
*We haven't found that money, but the exact missing amount found us in a different way.

October:
Me: You really, really need your hair cut.
Sprout: No! I don't want my hair cut.
Me: I will leave your hair alone until it starts getting in your eyes, then it's getting cut, no matter what.
Sprout: No. I'll just hold it up out of my eyes like this all day. *Uses his forearm to hold his hair up off of his forehead.*
Me: I think you'd get tired of doing that.
Sprout: No. I'm strong.

"Sitting like this hurts my leg pits."

Said while wearing oven mitts and waving them around his head, "I'm Super Herk! I pull people out of their pants! Aaargghh!"

November:
Sprout: Are we going to stop at Farm McDonald's in Fires?
Me: In Fires? ... ... ... Do you mean Burns? (There's a town called Burns we pass through on our way to visit family in Oregon.)
Sprout: Yeah! Burns!

December:
Sprout's Christmas list he sent to Santa:
lightsaber

glitter ball

music box

toy mommy

bowl

yo-yo

Monopoly

magnets

controller

toy scarecrow

thermos

toy rocket

When Santa at the ward Christmas party asked him what he wanted for Christmas he said, "I already sent you my list!"

General Update

Thanks to life, morning sickness, and the hectic summer, I have fallen very behind on documenting what has been happening with our family. The last thing I posted was a catch-up for March, so, you're in for a whirlwind of a catch-up.

April
Garrison and Gabi got married in St. Louis. Abigail and I flew out for the event and had a wonderful time. I was only able to get phone pictures because adding the camera to the luggage felt like punishment. I guess I also missed getting pictures of the couple on my phone, but I did get some of the travelling.  FYI: It's a little claustrophobic getting to the top of the arch. My sister about had a panic attack.

May
Mr. Mitchell and I celebrated our sixth anniversary with a date night and temple sealings. No photographic evidence available.

We do, however, have evidence of our trip to Zoo Boise with Grandma and Grandpa Holdaway. Sprout was king in his wagon, and Little Lady loved the ocelots.

June
In June we had a visit from Grammy and Grandpa Earls who picked up mommy's morning-sickness slack and made up for daddy being gone so much with the start of fire season. They got us all caught up on yardwork and planted our garden for us.

During the summer we spent one afternoon a week at the lake. This tradition started in June with the warmer weather. Both of the kids LOVE digging in the sand. (Little Lady usually preferred to be sitting in the water up to her armpits to do this.)

July
We spent the 4th of July at home. We went to the parade and festival in Buhl, made fun treats and crafts, and enjoyed fireworks at home.

We spent a day driving the Thousand Springs Scenic route and stopped in to dig up some fossils in the middle of nowhere.

We spent the 24th of July in Mendon so Caleb could experience the holiday. It's a great small-town experience.

August
Mr. Mitchell was gone on a long assignment in August, but he was only a couple of hours away, so we were able to visit him for a day. We played in the river, rode a gondola, saw where Daddy is working, 'flew' the helicopter, played in a fountain/mini-splash pad, ate lots of food, and had a great time with Dad in Ketchup (as Caleb called it).

September
This month we finally got to celebrate the newly weds on our side of the country with a cute open house.

Our Sprout turned 4 years old! We celebrated with a little birthday party with family after the open house, and on his actual birthday we opened presents. He was very insistent for a few hours that he wasn't four years old yet because he still didn't reach the '4' on the measuring stick. We were finally able to convince him that height and years are different and rarely the same.

Hopefully I do better in the future of keeping our long-distance family updated with our doings.

Sprout Moments #6 (May - August 2016)

I was terrible at recording things this time around with my morning sickness. I feel terribly about it because he's always saying priceless things I know I'd love to read again years down the road. Here's what I did catch:

July:
We were driving home from Utah and Littly Lady was upset and crying the entire time. At one point Sprout says, "Let's say a prayer. Heavenly Fadder, Pwease make Abby stop cwying. Amen." Little Lady actually went completely silent. Sprout yelled, "It worked!" He didn't seem at all dismayed when she continued crying about 1 minute later.

"The British are just mean jerks to Americans ALL of the time!"

He went on his first river floating trip with grandparents, uncles, and cousins while I stayed behind with Little Lady. He made himself captain of his raft and had a great time commanding his crew on the 'rapids.'

August:
I asked Sprout how his Sunbeam class went after I picked him up from the room and he responded, "I was a little bit naughty and a little bit good and a little bit naughty and a little bit good."

"I have obedience in my heart today. It makes me obedient. So, can we go to Chick-fil-a?"

Sprout Moments #5 (January - April 2016)

January 2016

"I want a smiley-face chocolate chip pancake because I'm happy I'm here with you and Daddy and baby. If you and Daddy and baby leave then I will have a sad pancake."

"Precious Mommy! I need you!"

Me: We have 20 minutes until dinner. Should we do a puzzle?
Sprout: Let's sit on the couch and look at the red thing* and movies.
Me: Ooookaaayyy...I guess we can go sit on the couch and stare at our movies.
Sprout: Wow! Look at those movies! How cute!
*entertainment center

After pretending to be a bear all day we got to end with this 'gem' of a conversation:
Sprout: This little bear has to poop before bed. Bears LOVE to pee!
Me: (sometime later) It's time to flush now.
Sprout: No. The poop is still rumbling out of this bear.
Mr. Mitchell: Thank you for the graphic visual.


Feburary 2015

Me: Do you think it would make Grandma happy if we sent her a picture?
Sprout: No. Just her best friend named Grandpa makes her happy.

Sprout was painting a Valentine's card for Daddy, and these are snippets from the conversation he had with himself during the process:

• Here's Daddy's head, here's Daddy's leg, and now his toenails. (This is the first time he's done anything that resembles a person.)
• I'm going to paint my mommy and my baby and me. (He painted all four of us - heads and legs - and the correct size for each person.)
• Mommy has a big head.
• Now I'm going to mop them all up because Laman and Lemuel don't like my family. (He slathers paint over everything so nothing is discernible any longer.)

Listening to him count his crayons after reaching 11: oneteen, fiveteen, eighteen...

"This guy Joseph Smith is going to go find Wuthering Heights." He then proceeded to 'bury' Wuthering Heighs and then went back to 'dig it up.'

"That precious baby flinged her blanket right in the eye of me!"


March 2016
comarshmallow - commercial

Insists on being called Captain Jack. I'm Mama Pirate, Little Lady is Baby Pirate, and we're all part of his crew. We end up in the brig on a regular basis.

April 2016

Sprout: Good morning, Uncle!
Uncle Joel: Good morning, nephew!
Sprout (looks concerned): I'm Caleb! I'm a boy!

Aunt Rachel: Are you excited Aunt Liz has a baby in her tummy?
Sprout: I have a baby in my tummy.
Aunt Rachel: You do?
Sprout: Yes. It's baby Jesus.
(Rachel - I know this isn't exactly how the conversation went, but I can't recall your exact retelling of this conversation. I think I hit the highlights.)

Sprout: Here's your chicken!
Me: Delicious! How much do I owe you?
Sprout: 10,000 years.

I think this accurately sums up his attitude right now.

Sprout Moments #4

October 2015

"Mommy, can you start Halloween now?"


November 2015

"I spell you into a princess!"

"No. I the daddy. Only I snore."

After laughing hysterically at a scene from Despicable Me, he stops, looks at me, and says, "Can you laugh about that?"

Sprout: You paint your nails?
Me: I went to a salon and a woman painted them for me.
Sprout: What's she called?
Me: Lacy
Sprout: Let's go to salon and Lacy paint my nails.
Me: Lacy only paints mommy's nails.
Sprout: Let's go to a little boy salon and have them paint my nails. And then we'll go to a daddy salon and they can paint Daddy's nails.

flyswattermelon = flyswatter



December 2015

"No! Dad is Quincy, you are June, Abby is Annie, and I'm Leo! I have to tell you that EVERY night!"

Me: It's time to get your church shirt on.
Sprout: No, thank you. I don't want a shirt. I just be naked.
Me: You always need to wear a shirt to church.
Sprout: No, thank you. Not today.

After me repeatedly asking him to get out of the walkway he asks, "Well, where's the standing way?"

Sprout has recently taken to telling stories. They always start with "Once upon a time," usually include several "One day..."'s, and can be quite creative. My personal favorite was one about a bird named Cheffer that had a bad king trying to take over his bird house.

I woke up at 2 in the morning to a little Sprout voice asking me to come in the room. I went in, very sleepily, to see what was happening and he says, "Look! I snore like Daddy!" He then proceeded to pretend to snore. I was not happy.

Life Moments

I don't find much time for blogging lately, but decided to make time tonight to help calm myself. It's been a very rough toddler day, and I need to create something. This is the best it gets. Let's play catch-up with pictures and as few words as possible. (Ha. Is that possible with me?)

As I look at these I realize these moments are probably pretty meaningless for most, but they're my everything. 

Dierkes Lake

Faces I Love:

Silliness after our eventful river float:

Bedtime sillies:

Mommy's baking elf:

Not pictured: my exploding heart:

I love my Mitchell Munchkins, and I love my Mr. Mitchell. What a lucky girl am I.