Life Lately

Today while driving home from church I was crying because my kids are growing up way too fast (I blame the song, Turn Around). I just don't understand how my precious babies can be so old! And they refuse to stop growing no matter how I plead with them. I love the funny moments that I'm able to capture of them. Here's a few that I remembered to write down.

Mariah while playing: "Chet if you want more of this, comment below." We must be watching too many Studio C videos.

I remember writing my name with pretzels as a kid and I loved that she came up with the idea on her own.

After Tanner told Chet and Mariah that my birthday was coming up, they were super excited planning surprises for me. After discussing how they were going to give me my present Mariah said, "Chet's the secreter so he's going to give it to you and I'm the exciteder so I get excited." They worked for several days on my present (with my help...) a couple weeks before my birthday. I kept thinking they would forget about it but the morning of my birthday they brought me the box, complete with doors and windows with scraps of paper glued to the outside and stuffed with papers that each had art work on them. Chet explained each of his drawings to me and it was pretty entertaining because it had been a while since he had drawn them so he was guessing with each picture. It was pretty neat to see their excitement in sharing that gift with me. I can't think of a better present than seeing the joy on their faces when they gave it to me.

After Tanner told Mariah we were going to a restaurant one night:
Mariah: Do you think they have chicken nuggets?
Tanner: I'm sure they do but don't you want something better?
Mariah: Of course I'd like a steak...or a ham.

Mariah has been singing as long as she has been talking. Lately she has been experimenting with her voice. After a day of singing in a high, quivering voice she came to me and asked, " Mom have you noticed my voice is changing?" just begging to be complimented on her amazing voice. The other day she was showing me how high she could sing and then said, "Can you believe I can do that? And it doesn't even make my eyes tear up or hurt my nose!".

She has done so well with homeschool so far. I'm always surprised with how long she can sit while working on things. Chet wants to be working on something the whole time too. And Austin does a great job reorganizing the whole house.

Mariah at times can be a little controlling (shocker, I know). So Chet has come up with some subtle techniques to get his way. One example:
Mariah: The bad guys have dinosaurs so you need to have a dinosaur.
Chet: No, the bad guys called me and said they don't have dinosaurs.

Chet loves superheroes. He especially loves becoming his own unique hero. Some of his made up superheroes: Khaki man and Big Fighting Yittle (little) Man (my personal favorite).

"Mom, I'm a neaky (sneaky) soldier because they think I'm a pirate."

While rocking out to Dixie Chick's Cowboy Take Me Away, at the part when the singer said, "I want to break it in my hands"(talking about dirt) Chet started giggling, "she said, 'I want a cricket in my pants.'!" He got a big kick out of that for a long time after.

Sometimes in the morning I'll ask the kids what they dreamt about. One morning Chet answered, "Mom you were in my dream do you remember it?".

I was looking on Craigslist for a bigger bike for Chet and he saw some motorcycles for sale and decided he would much rather a motorcycle than a bike. I told him that when he had grown up he could buy himself one. He wasn't very happy about that and said, "No mom, when I grow up I won't know what store to buy a motorcycle! Please can we buy the motorcycle?!". The begging went on for a good while.

Ever since then he has been on a big motorcycle kick. Whenever we are on the road he points out all the motorcycles he sees and what his favorite features are. One day while driving he told me, "I want a motorcycle with a back seat on it so my mom can ride on it." After gushing for a while about how sweet he was he frankly informed me that he didn't mean me. After a few more questions I realized that he actually wanted the back seat for his WIFE not me. I tried really hard not to be offended. Tanner got a good laugh out of it.

One day Chet and Mariah were playing make believe and Chet came to me and said, "Mom this is scary so kids can't watch this. They have to turn it off; only adults can." I can't imagine where he's heard that before...

Austin is learning more and more each day. He finally has a few consistent words that he uses, one being"Chet"! He says it all day long. It's pretty cute because he really loves his big brother. Ever since we put them in the same room he has really gotten attached to him.

After hearing Mariah say, "Seriously?!" I looked up to see this. Austin decided he wanted to sit on big sister's lap. Though she wasn't thrilled about it she let him stay. 

Oh how we love these kiddos! I'm not sure whether they're keeping me young or making me old (probably depends on the day) but if it means spending time with them I'll take it!