Mitchell Reunion in Eagle Crest

Mr. Mitchell's family had a reunion in Eagle Crest the first weekend in April; unfortunately, he was unable to attend due to a work obligation that had him down in St. George. I still went and made the voyage myself since we hadn't seen any of the family in a year and a half (nobody had met our Little Lady except for her grandparents). I feel like a schmuck because I forgot the camera, so, all of these are stolen or taken with my sweet skillzzz on my phone. Not that it would have really mattered: my sweet Little Lady seemed convinced the entire weekend that everybody was going to try and kidnap her. She spent MOST of her time on my lap or freaking out.

First up, the drive:

"Oooohh! Oregon is so beautiful and majestic and blah, blah, blah." These people are liars. Or at least it felt that way when I had been driving through this for eternity.

Most of the group went to Peterson's Rock Garden (I stayed at the rental with a finally sleeping baby). Apparently Sprout loved it and got to pee in a water bottle for the first time. *tear* He's finally becoming a big boy.

With a Wirt cousin.

With the coveted feather.

With a Wirt cousin and an Oregon Mitchell cousin.

There was a pool for guest use that had a little wading pool for little guys. Sprout and Little Lady were both big fans, and we were able to go play with our California Mitchell cousins. (Sorry the pictures are SO blurry.) Little Lady had a massive blow out on the drive over, so, she ended up swimming in just a diaper that Aunt Liz lovingly bought for her since I had brought no money with me.

At the house we had lots of conversation, chalk, bubbles, food, air hockey, walking trails, and a pretty view.

Pajama conversation with Aunt Liz.

All of the Mitchell grandkids.

About two weeks apart, and good buds.

Grandpa with the granddaughters.

All of the grandsons.

The view.

I was very grateful to give my kids the opportunity to see these cousins they hardly know. Hopefully they can all grow up to be good friends!

Gabi's Bridal Shower

My mom enlisted my help for a bridal shower for my new sister-in-law so that Gabi would have the opportunity to meet my mom's friends. It was so much fun to hear all of the stories the women had to share about Garrison - most of them have known him since he was pretty little. Gabi was a sweetheart and helped us get everything set up even though she was the honoree and feeling sick. My mom did a wonderful job of filling everyone's bellies with delicious foods and funding some cute decorations done up by yours truly.

*Disclaimer: I couldn't get the pictures to get into any order that made sense without everything getting wonky. Just go with the non-flow.

Mumsy-in-law

We are missing a few women in here; we are so grateful for everyone that came!

Queen Hostess.

Bride-to-be.

Entryway.

The typewriter was the guest book. It was hilarious.

I had to spotlight my favorite tea cup. I want it.

Little Lady Update

All about our Little Lady:

• Our sweet girl is 15 months today. About a week ago she attempted her first steps and is progressing quickly. The silly thing tries to run already and takes quite a few tumbles. 
• She has eight teeth in (number eight finally broke through a couple of days ago) and it has been rough. Her teeth like to go in and out and cause her (and us) a lot of pain.
• She has got a big personality - she loves to imitate, she loves to do actions to songs (and will frequently demand that we sing them so she can do the actions), she loves to growl, she loves to tackle, she loves to dance, she loves to color, she loves to read books, she loves to pretend to talk on the phone, she loves to actually talk on the phone, she loves to play with whatever her brother is playing with at that exact moment, she loves bath time and will try and hide in the corner when it's time to get out.
• She will eat her weight in oranges and cheese. 
• She is a big time mama's girl, but she always has cuddles ready for brother and daddy, too.
• She is finally starting to grow hair back in on top of her head. She lost it all several months ago and has been rocking a skullet for far too long.
• She can identify most of her body parts and attempts to say them.

Words:

ana - banana

no-no (sometimes accompanied with a wagging finger)

book

cheese

Da - Dad

Mama

Kay - Caleb

wah - water

nigh (with a wave) - night-night

bah (with a wave) - bye-bye

shit* - shirt

up

ucky - yucky

gin - again

dis - this

baff - bath
oss - soft
pear - prayer
gape - grapes

*makes daddy laugh every time

All of the other words I can think of are complete jibberish to try and write, but she knows what she means when she says them, and we can usually understand them.

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.

Little Lady Turns 1

Our Little Lady is officially a one-year-old! This first year of her life flew by in a fury. We celebrated her birthday in Boise at Grandma and Grandpa Holdaway's house, and I forgot my camera. I hate trying to do pictures with phones and blah de blah, so 'official' pictures had to wait until we were home. (At some point I will try and get the birthday party pictures over here.) Then, The Fever, struck. Our poor little girl had a very high fever for days. We took the pictures once it lowered, but she still isn't quite her cheerful self, as you will see.

This girl makes us laugh all of the time and is so cute with her nonstop jibber-jabber. She likes to point at everything and have us label it, to 'wrestle' with her brother (sometimes), any food that anybody else is eating, loud toys, tupperware, music, dancing, and plenty more.

Some favorites that we have picked up on:

Song - Wheels on the Bus
Book - The Very Hungry Caterpillar
Food - applesauce
Dessert - cake (as we learned at her birthday party)
Person - Mommy

We are delighted and honored to have this angel in our family!

Sledding

We took the kids sledding for the first time today, and it was a bust. I'm writing this out because I think when we read it a year from now we'll be laughing.

Sprout was very excited to go sledding after getting a new snow bib and sled with Dad. We got all the snow gear in the car along with some snacks and hot chocolate and headed up the mountain. The kid couldn't wait. He went down a couple of little runs with Mr. Mitchell and then decided they needed to go to the top of a steep one. His dad obliged, and we immediately regretted it. Sprout spent the entire rest of the hour and half of the drive home yelling and crying. "I don't want to sled; I do want to sled; no, I really don't want to sled; I want to go with Mommy on the sled; no, I want Daddy to carry me; I am not going sledding; wait, why are we leaving?! I want to stay!" We're not sure why he was so upset to leave when he clearly wasn't going to have anything to do with sledding after the steep run.

Little Lady was pretty oblivious to the plans but was wailing as soon as we had her bundled in snow gear. She calmed down for a bit and even took a turn on the sled once, but it was short lived. She soon cried piteously when we set her down on the ground even throwing herself backwards into the snow and rolling around like the kid on A Christmas Story.

Daddy felt sad since he had been planning our sledding outing for a couple of weeks and was so excited to take the kids. He was, at least, able to find a bit of humor in both of our children coming unglued while looking like marshmallow babies.

I actually rather enjoyed myself.

The sad tale as told by pictures:

Carrying Sprout up per his request only to have him
 start hollering about how he's not getting on the sled.

Has no clue why we dragged her here.

Dejected.

"I'll be cute for a second before I lose it."

"I'm going to be a contradictory, ornery cuss."

A ruthless mom laughs at her crying child. Not really.
 It was more the situation I was laughing at.

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.