Jane's 4!

Back in October our darling Jane turned 4! She was very excited because now she could say her age properly. Before she had told people "tree" when they would ask as she hasn't quite mastered the "th" sound. She was pretty self-conscious about it. That fact seemed to be the main reason for her excitement with becoming four.

Here are just a few things I love about Jane...

 She knows how to have fun. The above pictures were taken as we waited almost an extra 30 minutes at the bus stop for Charlie because he had gotten on the wrong bus. She was quite entertained with a small puddle.

 This girl LOVES to dance! She has involuntarily moved to music since she was less than two and she still can't sit still. Now, however, she wants me to pause the music so she can go get her dancing clothes on. This always includes a skirt that twirls well, socks, and occasionally accesories like cat ears, mardi gras mask, a necklace, etc. In the picture above she is giving her friend Gracie twirling lessons.

 She is inquisitive and caring. We found a freshly dead baby garter snack on the walk home one day and we brought it home to examine with the magnifying glass. She was fascinated by the little scales and now wants to bring home most little worms and snakes that we find on our walks, no matter how long they have been there... yuck. She is also passionate about fall leaves. We would go on walks in the fall and I would show her the difference between maple and oak leaves. She picked it up quickly and would run and stuff handfuls of leaves in her little pockets whenever she saw a maple or oak tree. at home she would remove them from her pockets and glue them to colored paper. Nature art, as Charlie and she proudly called it.

 She is an absolute goofball. She loves being flipped upside down, raspberries on her belly, telling jokes that only Charlie and she find funny, and making funny faces in the mirror.

 She is my little big helper.
She loves being outside (as long as she is warm!) playing in mud, jumping on the neighbor's trampoline, swinging, perfecting her balance on "green" her balance bike, and anything Charlie is doing.

 She is really into horses/ponies/unicorns these days so naturally she requested a pony birthday cake. I don't do creative cakes. They intimidate me. So I got on Amazon, bought some unicorn figurines, stuck four on the cake and silently prayed she would be satisfied.

She was. (whew!) And as a bonus she got more additions to her pony/horses/unicorn herd.

Happy birthday my darling.
Ugha mugha.

Utah Camping

Waaay back in June we took a drive to Utah for a two week vacation, one of which was spent camping in the mountains (Granite Flats to be exact). It was wonderful!!!

We had had Molly for about a month at that point so she came along and proved to be a pretty decent camper, which is good considering the family she has come to. She would get pretty cold in the morning so I would stuff her in my jacket as I got breakfast going until a good sunspot showed up.

I am often jealous of dogs that can lay in sunspots to their hearts content without any pressing responsibilities.

We reserved two sites and for the first part of the week our good friends, the Cleggs, joined us. Their first morning there, Becky pulled out a face painting kit and pretty soon the kids were lined up to get painted. Except for Jane. She didn't want that brush anywhere near her.

It did our hearts good to see a second generation of Clegg-Merrill friendships begin forming.

 Piper, the Clegg's dog, was the first dog that Molly interacted with during her time with us. It was amusing to watch her observe Piper play. It has become pretty obvious that wherever it was she came from, she was the only dog.

I have a new appreciation for my dad's patience and sacrifice as he taught his kids to fish. It is a labor of love. Worth it though. Definitely worth it.

About half way through the week we said good-bye to the Cleggs and hello to the Jaggis!

 

Grant, Charlie, and Jane were playing a game where they would take turns "burying" a treasure while the other two covered their eyes and then they would try to find it. Good in theory but as you can tell from the picture, poorly executed.

 

 Jane loved playing/taking care of Hannah. Hannah loved running into the street and Jane was great at bringing her back to the camp. I took a super cute video of them playing ring-around the rosie. They make sure to fall all the way down, very carefully.

 Charlie really wanted to stay up to see the stars so twice we let him stay up late and twice he fell asleep. Both times we would try to rouse him when the stars came out but he was too tired to be interested at that point. Oh well. We tried.

One night during the trip we were startled awake by the voice of an announcer booming off the mountain sides up and down the canyon. Apparently there was some kind of race (with a very early start time) being held down on the road by the reservoir. The announcer kept on reading off raffle ticket numbers, reminders of race rules, and a seemingly never ending countdown to the start of the race. I was tired, cranky, worried that he would wake up the kids, and cursing the people who would need to have their raffle number announced more than once. But mostly I was furious with the announcer and the race organizers for waking me up. I would drift back off to sleep just to be jerked awake again by the announcer repeating a raffle ticket that someone still hadn't claimed. At one point I dreamed that I stormed over to the stage, grabbed the mic stand and hit the announcer over the head with it. Hard.

Only in the morning (the proper, reasonable morning) did I learn the identity of the announcer. It was the "voice of the Cougars" Greg Wrubell, the man who all BYU sports fans loved. Well not me. To me his name is Mud. (Joking, not joking.)

 There was a lovely reservoir below the campground where we went to play one day.

 Hannah and the "puhppy."

 Jane was REALLY excited to see baby ducks and REALLY disapointed when they swam away from her as she tried to go after them.

 The Jaggis also brought their dog Frankie. Despite the big size difference between her and Molly, Frankie was only about 6 months old at the time. Frankie thought Molly was pretty boring, but thanks to Frankie, Molly was introduced to "fetch."

 Alex took a break from his rock climbing adventures to join us for my birthday celebration! Technically my birthday was before our trip but I wanted to celebrate with family and have Keith cook me a Dutch oven shortcake. :)

Charlie and Jane happily helped Alex find the perfect spot for his hammock; right next to our tent. They think Alex is pretty cool. I agree.


 Beautiful sister and handsome nephew.

 
 Charlie and Grant carried large rocks around. Not sure why...


Swinging in the hammock.

 

 Keith was part way through cooking the cake when he realized that he didn't have tongs for the coals. Not to worry. He made his own and the cake turned out great.

 

 Joe and Bonnie, along with pups Roxie and Sadie, joined us for the evening to celebrate with us.

I think I may make camping with family a part of my birthday celebration traditions. Especially the lack of cellphone reception and internet access.
It was a truly wonderful week.

6 Years!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHARLIE!!!

This guys is 6 already! Can you believe it!?!

 For his birthday we went on a Mother-son date to the movie theater. He has always wanted to go! We saw Moana. The movie was fun (spoiler: there is a lava monster that freaked him out a bit) but I think he was a bit underwhelmed by the experience as a whole. Yeah, the screen was huge but he found the chairs uncomfortable and the rest of the place kind of boring. Apparently he had thought it would be cooler in his imagination.

He is totally into bugs, tools, dinosaurs and, most recently, space. He reads up a storm and is always wanting to share what he is reading about with Jane which she finds either neat or annoying depending on what she is doing at the time. He is at that age where he loves jokes but his "jokes" don't have funny punch-lines to anyone but him and Jane. The jokes may not be funny, but the way he gets a kick out of them sure is! I absolutely love his spontaneous hugs and declarations that he is so happy that we are a family. He really is a great little man and I am so blessed to be his mom!

5 Already

Photos by Whitney Hardie Hardie Photography

Our Charlie has turned 5! It is so very odd to realize that Keith and I have been parents for 5 years now. I hope we have become better at it. I know it has changed us. That Charlie has changed us, for the better. Most definitely for the better.

I was picking out pictures for this post and ran across these newborn pictures. He was so new to this world. Barely a week old. Oh the sweet emotions that came flooding back looking at these!

Hardie Photography

When he was born my heart expanded so much I physically felt it. I know it sounds cheesy and over stated but I really had no idea how much love I could have for such a tiny person. Such a tiny person that has become such a delightful little boy.

He likes finding different picture effects on my phone and then taking pictures with it. On occasion he wants me to take one of him as well. This is one of my favorites. It is always humorous to go back and look at the pictures he took.

His current obsessions consist of construction equipment, dinosaurs and orcas. This morning he climbed into bed next to me with the dinosaur book he got from Amma and Papa, the toy stuffed dinosaurs he got from Granny B and Grandpa Joe and his orca light that he got from Aunt Lizzy. He snuggled up and asked me to read some of the book to him. How could I say no to that.

I came to preschool for a parent day before Christmas and Charlie and I made that masterpiece tree magnet right there. As a side note; I can't get enough of his "camera" faces.

He is absolutely loving preschool. I can't say enough positive things about his teachers. They have made his first school experience great for both Charlie and me.

Helping Grandpa Joe shovel snow with a little kid snow shovel that Grandpa bought just for this.

He is still ever my helper, especially if it is a job that his construction machines can help with. His competitive streak is a mile wide and we totally use it to our advantage. We pick teams and race to see who can get ready for bed first. It is a big deal to be the first to get on the teeth brushing stool! Something on his plate that he doesn't want to try? Let's race to see who can eat it first! The one I get the biggest kick out of (and I dread the day he will catch on to it) is the race to see who can pick up the last toy in the room. Oh I love how well that one works! I am going to use it as long as I can.

Yes, I do love dear Charlie. I won't lie, there are plenty of days where he makes us completely exasperated and leaves me feeling like I am really terrible at this whole mom gig, but I absolutely love seeing the world through his eyes. He is learning so much each and every day. It seems like he is always asking some question that is surprisingly thoughtful and mature for his age.

He is a kind hearted, curious, determined, silly little guy and I am ever so glad that he is mine.

Happy birthday Charlie!!!