update

Well it seems that most of January and all of February has passed me by with out updates.  This poor blog is certainly taking a back seat to other things in my life but hopefully I can update it and get 2012 printed out.  Mason, Lily and Danny are currently looking at old blog books and cracking up. I know it is worth the hassle to record our family journal in this way!  

At least one of them was excited to hold hands :)

The other day Danny was watching the kids while I went to girls night.  I got a text about an hour after I had left saying

"One of the kids locked the bedroom doors while the Yeager's were over, so while all inside we couldn't get out when Lily shut the door on us.  First thing Mason suggested was to say another prayer."

I have to confess when I first read this I started giggling and then I called to make sure he got out ok.  In case any of you are wondering a while back we turned the door knobs around so you can lock people into rooms, we did it 1. to lock Lily in her to go to sleep and then 2. because she kept locking herself in and it was getting annoying.  Danny didn't have his cell phone in the room with him but found something in the room that worked to open the door.  I think it is really sweet that the first thing that popped into Mason's head was to say a prayer, what a good kid I have!  

Green smoothie stealer :)  He loves them!

Oliver is as cute as ever.  He loves to climb everything and the other day finally figured out how to climb onto the table, ahhhh.  We solved it by putting all the chairs together in the middle of the kitchen so he could just play on those, and then just 2 days ago he figured out how to push those chairs to where he wants.  He gets really mad because he pushes a chair where he wants then gets on and then I move the chair back to where it was, hahahahaha.  I haven't been very consistent with the signing which I should do better because he is screaming a lot but he is starting to follow directions a little, like if I ask him to give me something, to sit down or lay down to change his diaper so that is cute.  I asked him to go give some garbage to daddy and he did it!  Darling :)  He is still waking up at least 1 time at night to nurse and is nursing still a ton, which is ok with me (besides the nighttime feeding) because I know it is better for him than cows milk, I am hesitant to give him that right now so I am just going to continue to nurse him especially through the winter.  

Yes she is my gorgeous snow flake!

My beautiful Lily is as crazy as ever.  She is learning how to write her name and loves to sing songs.  She has an amazing memory for songs and I am impressed at all the things she sings through out the day.  She loves to play with Mason and Oliver, really anyone who will give her attention.  She still loves to watch princess movies and loves to dress up herself and me and danny.  She often brings over a blanket and puts it across my shoulders and gives me a crown and announces I am the queen.  She likes to say funny prayers or sing songs wrong on purpose to make Mason and I laugh.  Mason always looks at me with this cute little smile shaking his head and saying silly Lily.  

Instagram picture of a picture of my computer screen, maybe one day I will actually get to culling through my personal pictures I take!

Mason loves learning new things things, just the other day he was saying that whenever we are in the car he wants to talk about nature the whole time.  We start talking about different things and he always ends up telling me the stuff he learns on Wild Kratts (a PBS show) so thank you wild Kratts for teaching Mason so many wonderful things.  Currently we are about halfway through the book "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons"  he is doing really well and is able to read short paragraphs by himself now, he still needs to sound out a lot of the words but is starting to recognize some by sight and repetition.  It is exciting teaching him to read and watch him succeed.  We have been reading "Go Dog Go" during rest time a couple pages at a time and he does well with the sounds he as learned!

All my kids have mullets.  This picture is a little old, it is getting curlier by the minute :)  We may have another curly head on our hands!

Danny is a super dad, he has been getting up in the morning with the kids and feeding them breakfast so I can take a quick power nap before I have to start the day after getting up a few times during the night.  Hopefully some day soon we can trade off sleeping in like we used to :)  He also does a really great job playing with the kids when he gets home.  I feel like a bad mom because I am not really great at the sit down and playing.  I like teaching them things, art projects, play doh.  But sitting down in imaginative play is really hard for me.  I guess that means that my kids have something else to learn from me :)  The other day Mason really wanted to do some Yoga so Danny found some pictures on the ipad and they sat and did it for about an hour.  Mason even focused really well on his breathing which was cute.  There are a few pictures down below, it was hilarious because Danny and Mason would be so calm and in the zone and Lily would try it for a second and then climb all over Danny!

Lily and Kaylie are queens out for a stroll on their horses!

Danny is really enjoying serving as the Young Men's president in our ward and is always planning fun stuff.  It is probably the perfect calling for him and I was so worried when he was first call a couple of years ago that he would be gone too much but really it hasn't been bad at all, the only thing that is crazy for me is Sundays because he has so many meetings but Danny is doing better about helping to and from the car so that is good :)  My calling as the nursery leader is getting better I was having a hard time feeling that that was the right calling for me at first because lets face it I have a nursery with me all the time :)  but it has been going very well and that is mostly due to the wonderful other women in there with me!  The kids are are really cute too now that we don't have any more criers :)  The only time I get a little batty is when we try and teach a lesson but that is how it should be right!

Mason during rest time, he set up all these toys just to take a picture :)

Well that is all I can think about right now, so enjoy this little update :)  I hope all my friends and family are doing well and curious if any one even looks at this anymore since I don't update it often any more. Let me know, I may make it private but I don't want it to be hard for my grandparents to check it.  Anyway  here are a few more pictures, I was trying to think of a subject between each pictures but I won't push it, this is already lengthy as it is!  xoxo

Mason and Lily's valentines, I got the idea off of designmom.com 

I made berry oatmeal and she wanted a banana on it but not cut up, ha!

silly boy

Downward dog, including the dog!

Yoga!

Rest time

Here is a little video I put together of clips I took last October, sadly I haven't had time to play with them until now :)  (and sorry to all of you who look at a reader and you have been getting million of updates from me as I back date and fill in the giant 6 month gap!)

Anyway I wanted to play with the video on my big girl camera, so I snuck around while my kids had nap/rest time one day.  Sorry it is a little shaky I am not good at holding the camera still and I am still learning different techniques but it was fun to play with it!  My kids are cute :)

Ramblings about food and the kids

Mason and Lily's lunch

Happy New Year!  Here is a lengthy update!

For the last few months I have been trying really hard to cut out processed foods eat more veggies etc.  The kids and Danny have been doing really well.  Since new years I have really taken it to a different level where the kids and Danny drink a green smoothie everyday and eat a salad at dinner before the "main course." Some days are good and some are bad.  It is frustrating to get my kids to eat the salad but I am not going to give in because I know they can learn to like it (and have liked it somedays).  I tried a really yummy salad tonight but the salad dressing had vinegar and I don't think the kids liked that.  I think I am going to just give them salad without dressing and see if they will eat that since they are so good at eating plain veggies anyway at lunch.  They liked the homemade ranch I did the other day maybe I just need to do more of that.  Besides the salad fiasco they are really great at drinking green smoothies, I am slowly making the ratio to be 50/50 fruits and veggies but I think we are still at about 60/40.  It is crazy how many greens we are going through but I am happy because I can see the benefits already.

Lily and her twin, Mirida from the movie BRAVE

The benefits including Lily's behavior is turning for the better.  Now don't get me wrong she was never too bad but I can tell she is happier, listens more and so playful and excited about everything.  Tantrums have reduced DRAMATICALLY for her.  It really is amazing I keep telling Danny that Lily had such a great day.  It could be a phase but I have to think it has to do with the food. She LOVEs to help me do anything, especially prepare the meals.  And all of the sudden instead of fighting the smoothies she drinks them right up in about 5 minutes it is great.  She is so fun and princessy.  I love watching the new tinkerbell movie with her ( I LOVE the tinkerbell movies!)  Lily is always excited about everything and she comes up to tell me how beautiful I am, ahh I just love her!  Her cousin gave her a cute tea set for Christmas that changes color when you add ice water.  She often comes up to me to "play tea with her" and she brings me a little cup with water in it.  She is doing great at being careful and not spilling.  She loves pouring the "tea" herself it is really cute.  I love the way she says things still, some of my favorites are "mommy I want to hold you" (when she wants me to hold her) "its ok mom we can do it to-later" (I think she got that from tomorrow, it is so cute that she adds the "to" in front of it)  When I ask her to do something or if she wants something she always responds with "sure" example "will you get me a diaper" sure "do you want to eat lunch" sure "will you be nice to Oliver" sure.  When we go shopping everything she sees is "adorable" or "gorgeous" and she says it so girly and sing songy "oh mom look this is adorable" "oh so adorable"  Lily loves her daddy and demands a hug and kiss everyday before he leaves and gets so excited and runs to the door or outside when he comes home.  Her hair is funny in the winter, the dry static air is zapping out the curls.  But it does make it look really long.

Lily getting into my makeup while I was at the store and Danny was "watching" her

 Mason is doing well eating all the stuff I give him mostly because I explain that it is healthy and he wants to be healthy.  Don't get me wrong when preschool parents bring lucky charms or ICE CREAM (what the heck) as a pre-k snack he will gobble it right up!  He is like his daddy and wants to know WHY and he will be good.  He also likes to follow the rules so I told him a new rule at our house is to eat a smoothie everyday and a salad and so he goes with it especially if I remind him about it.

Mason's green smoothie lip and forehead mustache 

Mason is so sweet, the other day he told me that he didn't think that santa had brought the presents that "santa" left for them Christmas morning.  I asked him why he thought that he he whispered to me "remember the other day when Lily and I were fighting, Santa doesn't bring toys if you aren't good so it must not have been him who brought them"  Oh goodness I just wanted to squeeze him tight because he is such a good boy.  I told him that it was ok, I talked to Santa and I know he is good most of the time even if we should try and fight with Lily less.  Part of my wanted to spill the beans right then and there but that would have made him sad.  And even if I don't totally like the idea of Santa I am not ready to make the leap and tell him the truth just yet.  The craziest part was that Danny and I never said "if you aren't good santa won't bring you toys" and we don't do elf on the shelf but I am sure he learned that concept from Christmas songs and Christmas movies.

He is a flying ninja, this is his battle face!

I can always trust Mason to do what I ask and follow the rules it is so great.  Mason has so much fun with Oliver and Oliver LOVEs him.  Auntie Keri got Oliver this little car bike thing that Ollie can push around or sit on it and be pushed.  Mason loves to push him on it.  Mason is so patient with him, I am wondering how long that will last because he certainly not patient with Lily haha.  Lily pushes his buttons so easily it verges on the point of hilarious.  I hope one day he will learn not to react so badly and she would stop but that is not likely to happen.

More flying ninja, notice the change of cloths, he thinks he is funny!

I am teaching Mason to read using this book.  I really like it and I am so glad my good friend told me about it.  Mason has been wanting to learn to read for a while and I had tried a few different things but so far this book has been the best.  I just need something to guide ME as well as him.  We have only been doing it for a couple of weeks and even though he does it begrudgingly somedays I can see him sounding things out and writing words by sound which is cool.  I would love to have him reading well for his age before he goes to kindergarden.  He can now count to 100 all by himself and he does it all the time.  He got a watch from cousin Judah for Christmas he tells me what time it is ALL the time, like every minute.  It can be annoying but he is learning his numbers faster with it so that is good.

Lily likes to get Danny and I "ready" for everything it is very sweet

Oliver that cute little stinker.  He got really sick right before Christmas.  I even ended up taking him to the ER because it was a Saturday night and his fever was high and he kept turning pale with bluish lips.  Everything was fine and the doctor thinks he was have "chills" from the fever since the pale/blue thing would come and go.  It was my first visit to the ER and hopefully the last one for a while, I was there for 3 hours, yikes.  It was funny because he was very sick and snuggly when we first got there but I had given him a dose of tylenol before we left.  About 45 minutes into the event I could tell the fever broke because he was crawling around and being so happy.  Then about 45 minutes after that he got feverish and snuggly again, poor baby.  I think he had roseola because a few days after his fever finally broke he got a rash all over his back and belly.  Either Lily or Mason had that at one point so I am glad to know what it was and didn't freak out because it was Christmas Day haha.

Oliver asleep on me at the ER

Because of being sick and then right after cutting a tooth he was sleeping was terrible (up anywhere from 2-6 times a night!).  He would only go to sleep if I nursed him first, which was fine when he was sick with such a high fever, but it lasted way to long after that.  The funny thing is that he wasn't actually nursing to sleep.  He would nurse then I would give him a binky and lovely in his bed awake and he would go back to sleep.  Well I am over it now that the tooth is cut and he is healthy so he has been crying it out again.  The last few nights have been rough but he is getting better.  He slept 9 straight hours last night.  My goal is 11 which I know is possible because I am pretty sure Mason and Lily were sleeping about 12 hours at this age.

Wide awake at 10pm, when you are sick you get what you want apparently!

Like I said earlier Oliver got that bike thing from aunt Keri and I think it is the best present yet.  He LOVES it, he will push it around everywhere he goes "ride it" and sit on it like a chair.  He loves to sit on things.  He has been taking steps for a while but never really more than 2 or 3 at a time and then he stopped doing it completely.  I was just telling my friend Allison yesterday that he forgot how to walk and then I am not kidding you later that night he started walking around the kitchen.  It was so funny.  I finally got it on video when I bribed him with a cracker.  He now is walking around the house 50% of the time, crawling is still faster so we will see how long it is until he is walking full time.  Oh incase any of you are curious he is 11months old, I can't believe he will be 1 in a few weeks!!!

His favorite toy that car/bike thing.  He is also taking to crawling/walking around with things in his mouth haha

He is so cute and his personality is really starting to show.  He is taking on to signs a little which is fun. He waves hi and bye and is learning to blow kisses but really he just presses his hands to his face and squishes it.  He loves to clap and loves to shake his head back and forth.  Oh goodness I love him even if he doesn't sleep haha.

Alrighty that is a lengthy update, bravo to you if you read all the way through :)

Random January iphone pictures