Photo shoot

We had a photoshoot at home after we got home from Rachel's birthday party at Grandma and Grandpa Knight's house.

Love the drool.

And some tunnel fun:

Ryan LOVES the tunnel. He gets so excited he's panting as he crawls through the tunnel at top speed.

Rachel's 5th Birthday

Rachel's birthday was this week. We decided to have friend birthday parties on the even years and family ones the odd years. Since Rachel turned 5 this year we had a family birthday. We had planned on going down to the Children's Museum, but on our way to drop off Ryan at my parents' house we had an almost hour delay and detour because of El Tour de Tucson, and we realized that the children's race started by the Children's Museum and it would be impossible to find parking or even drive down there, so we gave up on that idea.

We played for a while on the trampoline in Grandma and Grandpa's back yard.

We visited the park.

Then we went to Bookman's and Rachel got to use the $10 birthday card she got from them, and a $10 gift certificate from Marie and Justin. She was excited to pick out her own books, and even get a DVD.

After Bookman's we headed back to have presents and cake. Rachel was very excited to open her presents. She got some movies, dresses, jewelry, skates, and maybe a few more exciting things.

 

She requested a pony cake.

Showing off the new skating gear:

Since we did most of the celebrating on Saturday all that was left on her actual birthday was to pick her favorite meals. I made her pancakes for breakfast (that's a puppy and a 5 if you can't tell), and spaghetti for dinner.

 She had her preschool Thanksgiving feast that day, too, so she wore her turkey hat to school for it. She is getting more into fashion and chooses her clothes deliberately every day to match and look "good" together.

Rachel is a blessing in our family. She is a really helpful big sister and knows how to make Annie laugh when she's sad, and how to get Ryan to calm down when he's upset. She has a good sense of humor and likes to make people laugh and is working on her joke-telling skills. She is a fabulous reader. Every night at scripture reading she most often read her whole verse all by herself with little or no help. She can read pretty much any kids' book we own on her own and spends a good bit of time laying on her bed reading. Sometimes she'll even read to Annie. She likes to color and draw and occasionally will illustrate a whole book with a story she's made up herself. Rachel likes to do service, especially as a surprise. She will clean her room or the whole living room all by herself, or at her dad's suggestion all as a surprise for me. But when it's not going to be a surprise or when I ask her to help clean up or help with something else she is not always so eager. :) Rachel likes to be a good example and choose the right (though sometimes she gets jealous and wishes she were younger so she could get potty training treats, or have shorter time-outs). She is a good oldest child and mommy's helper and a great big sister. We're blessed to have her in our family.

Callings

It's time for a new church calling for me. It has brought out some reminiscing over all my previous callings. I think my first calling ever after I graduated was ward music chair. I had no special musical talents to speak of, but luckily that didn't matter much. I enjoyed myself. Over the many years in singles wards I had callings like FHE leader, visiting teaching supervisor, RS teacher, compassionate service leader, ward missionary, and probably a few others I can't remember. Most of those I enjoyed and never really felt intimidated by those callings when they were extended. I grew and learned from all of them. Then I got married and the family ward callings started. Jake and I were ward missionaries in our first ward. We enjoyed going out with the missionaries and it was a good calling for us. When we moved to a new ward we were put in as Wolf Den leaders in cub scouts. Cub scouts was all new to me so it was a bit of a learning experience, but I ended up enjoying myself (and was grateful that kids are born as babies and not 8-year-old boys :).

When our ward split shortly after Rachel was born I was called as 2nd counselor in the Young Women. I was excited, but also was a little nervous and felt the weight of the calling, realizing that I would have to help beehives gain testimonies as they enter the hardest part of growing up. And though I'd been in YW myself as a teenager and had callings as a youth leader, I'd never had to actually run mutual, Sunday lessons, or class presidency meetings without some adult around to help out. I had some great people I worked with and I quickly learned to love my calling. We did some pretty cool things, including planning a big temple trip for the YW to go visit the Las Vegas and St. George temples, going to camp, and lots of good mutual activities.

After two years in that calling I was called to our Stake YW, again as the 2nd counselor. Our presidency quickly got initiated into our new calling, being right in the middle of ward conferences and having a youth conference and camp quickly coming up. It was great fun to get to know all the youth in the stake, their ward leaders, and of course I worked with other great people and we all had lots of fun together planning and carrying out activities. We got to be involved with roadshows, play in a day, Priest/Laurel Conference, 2 youth conferences including one that was an awesome 22 mile walk to the Gila Valley temple, stake sports, lots of YCL meetings and Girls' Camp, a dance festival, lots of stake firesides and dances, including the big New Year's dance. It's been 2 1/2 years and it's a little crazy how much has happened. I found out I was pregnant with Annie the day after I was set apart for that calling. Both Annie and Ryan have joined our family during the course of that calling. And the time has come to be released from that calling. Just in time to save Jacob from some rough Sunday mornings--I was a little worried about how he would get all 3 kids ready and to church by 8am all on his own when the new year starts on those days that we had morning meetings or ward conferences. Things always work out when God is involved.

And now I have a new calling that is probably the most intimidating one I've had. As Jake and I drove to the meeting that had been arranged with the bishopric member where we were pretty sure I was going to get a new calling we made bets. His bet was it would be in Relief Society, I was hoping for something like a Sunday School teacher, though RS teacher was on my list of preferences, too. Of course the last thing I said before we got out of the car was, "As long as it's not Primary." That sealed the deal.

I get to serve as 1st counselor in the Primary presidency. Not that I don't like kids. But in the last 20 years since I graduated from primary I have been to sharing time only once. I substituted maybe 3 times in various primary classes. And now I'm supposed to be in charge of actually doing sharing time every few weeks. I have zero experience in primary and now I get to help run it. It's a little intimidating. But the other people I'll be working with are great, and after getting oriented to my new calling a little yesterday, and getting set apart and having a presidency meeting I'm feeling a whole lot better about my calling. It'll be fun. The one thing I'm really looking forward to is the kids. And getting to hear their funny stories and random comments. :) Good thing the work of the Lord doesn't have any prerequisites to getting a job. It's all on the job training, which is the best way to learn.
Next time I'll try to aspire to a calling like RS president, then maybe I'll get the sunday school teacher calling I really covet. ;)

Growing up

Ryan hit that all-important milestone a week or so ago of being able to pull himself up to standing. He is so proud of himself, but gets so frustrated when he can only get half-way to standing. His favorite place in the whole house is still the bathroom, so any chance he gets he'll crawl to the bathroom, and if he's quick enough before I notice he's in there he'll try pulling himself up on Annie's potty. Gross. If the potty is hidden he goes for the next best thing: the stool the girls use to wash their hands. This is an acceptable alternative, but apparently he's not satisfied with just standing holding on to it because every time he's up on the stool he gets so frustrated that he can't climb all the way up on top of the stool. I'm guessing we will soon have a climber on our hands to rival Annie's death-defying lack of caution. 

 

Rachel decided to start decorating for Christmas with her mega blocks. Then made the other shelves into bunk beds. One of their favorite activities. 

Probably the most impressive/exciting development lately is Annie's sudden potty training. Back in August or September she had a whole week where I didn't change a poopy diaper because she would tell me every time before she went, so she could use her potty. Then again in October the same thing happened, only it lasted two weeks that time. Of course that made me think she might actually be ready for potty training, but I wasn't ready. I think I started a little early with Rachel, which dragged out the process longer than I think it would have lasted if I had waited. I think she was potty trained by about 22 months. So I planned on waiting with Annie a while longer. But I kept thinking maybe this is the window where it would be really easy since she's interested, so on a whim last Sunday night I decided I'd do a potty training trial for one day, then when it didn't work out I would feel justified in waiting until after Christmas to try again. 

So we had a potty party Monday morning, even inviting over the cousins to join in the fun. Annie had a couple of accidents (both while wearing underwear) and a success or two that morning. Then after nap time she went bottom-less for the rest of the day and had no accidents the rest of the day. I didn't even have to remind her to try. She would just come find me and yell, "Yay! I did it! Get a tweat!" She loves her potty treats. :) The rest of the week she had maybe 2 accidents a day, mostly only if she was wearing shorts or panties. If she was commando she was almost 100% accident-free. This week she's even been able to wear loose pants and remember to go with a minimum of accidents. I think yesterday was completely accident-free for her and she was fully clothed the whole day. So much for waiting until after Christmas. I'm sure Annie's love of all things Rachel helped make this easier. Now she gets to be a big girl just like Rachel. 

Next step, throwing away the binky. I am not looking forward to that one. But maybe it'll be a pleasant surprise, like potty training was.

Halloween 2012

Halloween was everything Rachel hoped it would be: candy-filled. 

We (meaning I, while the girls looked on) carved Rachel's white pumpkin on Monday night for FHE. A book of 5 or 6 Mickey Mouse-type stencils came with a movie we recently bought, so of course we used the Minnie Mouse stencil. Rachel took the smaller one to preschool for her Halloween party there and painted it purple, then decorated it with stickers.

Peyton and McKenzie came out to trick or treat with us, but when they got here McKenzie had a fever and didn't feel much like trick or treating, so she stayed back with Grandma while the rest of us went to the church for the trunk or treat. Of course I didn't even manage to get a picture of Peyton dressed up like a princess all cute. After the trunk or treat the cousins headed home to recuperate, and we headed out for a spin around the block (luckily our neighborhood is pretty small, so it was a quick-ish trip). Here are the kiddos all dressed up and ready for some more candy:

 

Annie was a fan of all the candy (shocker, I know). The only problem was she only had one mouth to try to eat three things at once: her lollipop, a box of Nerds she spread all over the floor, and a popcorn ball from the trunk or treat. 

For the next few days after Halloween almost any time Annie would come in to the kitchen she'd say, "Hold mine pumpkin!" (the plastic pumpkin that had all her candy). We have now consolidated the girls' candy into one basket, and hidden it in a cupboard so they aren't reminded of all the candy just waiting for them every time they come into the kitchen and see it sitting there.

The unforeseen after-effects of Halloween included gross, sticky candy hair, especially on Annie, but also to a lesser degree on Rachel. Apparently somewhere between holding a sucker in your hand, and eating it with your mouth it must pass through your hair several times or it's just not as tasty. We have had many baths in the last week (though, admittedly, baths are kind of the go-to soother for Ryan in the late afternoon/early evening, and any time Annie hears the tub running, she rushes to get in too, so not all the baths can be attributed solely to the nasty candy hair.)

And while I'm thinking about it, I'd better record the bath time fun for posterity. One of Annie's favorite things to do is to pour water out. She pours it out of her water bottles, any cup she finds with water in it, and especially a teapot or watering can, both of which we have in the bathtub as tub toys. They are ONLY tub toys or she would figure out how to get water in them and go around the whole house all day pouring water all over everything. Anyway, so, with a teapot she spends most of the time pouring tea for herself, or if Rachel opts to join her for a bath, for Rachel. She pours the water into the bucket we use to wash their hair, or if that isn't available, she just pours the water into the tub (or on the ground outside of the tub if left unattended for any length of time, the little stinker!). As she "serves" the tea she asks in her cute little two-year-old voice, "Moe tea? Moe sooguh (sugar)? Moe ice?" over and over and over. I'm pretty sure she learned this from Rachel, and the only thing I can figure as to where the ice came from is that they must have heard someone somewhere talk about how many cubes (of sugar) with their tea, and of course the only cube Rachel could think of is an ice cube. So I guess we always have iced tea parties at our house. Usually with warm-ish bath water. Yum. Though thankfully Annie has stopped drinking the bath water for the most part these days, so that's something. :)