I’m thankful for my life. I’m grateful for my wonderful husband, crazy kids that keep me on my toes, my desire to constantly try and learn new things, our home, our jobs, that the construction is done for this year on our new deck/pergola/shed/playground in the background, for our health, for our family & friends, vehicles that run, entertainment options, this holiday season, and my Savior.

My kids are all in such fun stages right now. I’m really enjoying them even though they are super busy & it’s not easy to get things done. Here’s some of my favorite things about each of them right now.

Cole – at 3.5 yrs old, he is totally loving preschool. He loves books, sings silly songs (1/2 of which he totally makes up), tells stories, tries to recognize letters, spells his name, counts, colors, draws, plays preschool games on the computer, and loves imaginary play. He tries to get his sisters to play trains, dinosaurs, cars, and my personal favorite he pretends he is a knight saving his princess sisters from a dragon. It is so cute when he calls his sisters “princess” instead of using their names & they look at him like he is the greatest big brother ever! I know this won’t last forever, so I cherish it right now. He loves dinosaurs and knows quite a bit about many of them from watching dinosaur train and his tag reader dinosaur book. He was able to name many of them and point out characteristics and even tell you if they are herbavores or not when we went to the dinosaur museum last week. Cole is in gymnastics again and loving it. He can do cartwheels, forward rolls, backward rolls on the wedge mat, donkey kicks, backbend, walks on the balance beam, pushes up on the bar, and can do scissor kicks hanging from the bar. My favorite words he still says incorrectly are mwanket (blanket), tavle (table), shoop (shoot), & melonade (lemonade)! He is super tall for his age and wears a 5T or 4/5 in big boys. He has been crying lately at certain stores when we leave the store and I don’t buy him the toy he has his heart set on for that moment. I have been trying to explain that it’s too close to Christmas to get new toys & that he needs to ask Santa for the big ones. When that doesn’t work, then I tell him I don’t have enough money, which he responds that he has money at home. He has been saving his money (loose change) in his baseball bank that Brady brought back from his mission. On Saturday, he threw a tantrum that I didn’t buy this knight set (sword, shield, scabbard, breastplate, & helmet), so when we got home he grabbed his bank and asked if we could go back to the store and buy his knight set. I conceded that night and let him spend all his money (and paid the difference) on his knight set. He doesn’t understand the value of money, but at least he realizes that he needs money to buy what he wants. He was so proud that he could buy his knight set & the cashier lady was super cute with him! It was a good moment to be a mom!

Hallie – at 19 months is growing up so fast. She talks non-stop & is picking up new words all the time. Some of my favorite words she says are “mom (repeatedly), Bright (yells it), biper (diaper), pity (pretty), mimi (binkie), tickle, and teetoo (thank you). Her latest word that drives me crazy is “why?”. She is hilarious & knows it. She is so full of life, dramatic, and does everything with gusto. She wears her emotions on her sleeves and is adament about what she wants or doesn’t want. She & Bright love to point out & name body parts, do head sholders knees & toes, running, jumping, dancing, climbing, sommersaults, headstands, tiptoeing, pushing buttons (especially on the computer), & doing shape sorters or other similar like puzzles. Hallie loves the potty. She picks up one leg and tries to put it over the toilet which is too tall for her, but she can sit on it all by herself if she gets the stool. She loves to flush toilet paper, but has yet to actually go in the potty. Hallie has figured out how to turn on and off her pink flower lamp that hangs over her crib. They can both climb out of their cribs, but since I moved the changing table that they were using as a ladder – it hasn’t been as often. Thank goodness, cuz I’m really not ready for toddler beds. Hallie & Brighton both love shoes, especially Cole’s, Tay’s, or mine. Last night she put on my clogs and was walking all around the front room in them. It was hilarious, but we didn’t get the camera.

Brighton – also 19 months is obsessed with buckles & babies. She loves to carry her doll around, covers them with blankets, gives it a bottle, binkie, toy, and rocks it! She can’t see a real baby without hovering and saying “baby” in the sweetest little voice ever. Everytime she sees an empty carseat or booster seat, she HAS to buckle the buckles. It’s funny when we get her down from the table and she turns right around and buckles the buckles in her set and then goes to Hallie’s and buckles hers. Brighton is my little climber – they call her spider monkey at daycare. She is constantly on my counters. I get her off and turn around to find her back up. Some of my favorite words that Brighton says are Hallie & Belly (emphasis on the L’s), Happy (repeatedly), tickle, Candy (she says this way too much though), bebe (binkie), baby, and hold you (hold me). Brighton has been pretending she is a puppy (Hallie was doing this more a couple months ago), crawling & panting with her tongue out. It’s so cute! I also love watching Brighton say things like Drew, shoe, shh, juice, etc cuz she exaggerates the motion of pushing out her lips really far. Love this kid!

One of my kids favorite things to do together is walk, gallop, tiptoe and say “sh” with their finger over their mouths, run, skate, and hop to one of Cole’s preschool songs. I totally need to video it when I get my new camera cuz it’s hilarious!

Other words the twins say: head, shoulders, knees, toes, eyes, ears, mouth, nose, teeth, cheeks, hair,bow, earring, belly button, bum, juice, cookie, shoes, socks, boo, Cole, dad, mom, gramma, papa, ball, saur (dinosaur), car, truck, bock (block), shower, tub, potty, up, down, more, please, thank you, movie, na night, bu-bye, hi, hold you, jump, yeah, no, outside, go, fruit snack, sucker, sorry, swing, slide, rock on, one, two, three, five, tree, book, baby, cheese, chair, ow (ouch), mine, horsey, cow, dog, puppy, bird, duck, light, sky, chicken, burger, drink, fry, etc. I’m sure there is more, but that’s all coming to me right now. The amazing part to me is that they are starting to combine words into phrases and partial sentences.