Showers, Turkeys and Shenanigans

First, some “Kid-isms”… 

Thomas:

As the boys and I were at my mom’s house the day of my baby shower before it had started, Thomas and Kate merrily went skipping downstairs to play.  My mom said to them “Don’t make a mess.” and Thomas turns to her and says: “Don’t worry.  We’re going to play with our imaginations and imaginations don’t’ make messes.”

There is a family Thanksgiving joke that we’ve had for a few years.  One Thanksgiving at my parents house, Thomas asked Matt “Where’s the turkey’s head?” and without a blink of his eye, Matt replied: “Back at the farm dude!”  So turkeys and their heads are always joked about every year.  Well yesterday while I was doing the dishes, Thomas walked into the kitchen and showed me his latest creation.  It was a hand turkey.  And something struck me as odd about this hand turkey.  It only had 4 “feathers”.  Not wanting to hurt his fragile little feelings, I decided it was best not to comment on it, other than to tell him how AWESOME it was!  Then he pipes up: “Want to know why I only used 4 of my fingers?  It’s because the thumb is the head, and this turkey is for us to eat, so I made it without the head!” :)  I guess it beats him originally putting the head on the turkey and then hacking it off later… LOL

Here are more turkeys in his little “hand turkey collection”.

I don’t know about you, but if I were to be served a turkey as cute as those ones, I probably wouldn’t be able to eat them. :)

Riley:

Riley cracks me up.  He is at such a fun stage where he is finally able to communicate.  He is also copying a lot of the things we say.  He is also not lacking in the attitude department one bit!  Some of the latest things he has done that have made me laugh:

In the mornings, he’s the happiest child EVER!  We wake him up at 6:00 and from the moment his little brain is awake, he’s super enthused about everything!!  He will groggily point to his Thomas and Friends pillow and say “Ook! A CHOO-coo!! Chugga Chugga!”  Then he will run to Max and in the happiest voice ever “Hi Maxie!” and give him a hug.  Repeat that with everyone in the house including the cat.  Then on the way to take Matt to work from the back seat we’ll hear “OOok! A SCHOOLBUS!” (he thinks everything is a school bus) and he won’t let up until you show the same enthusiasm as he feels.  His joy is contagious.  I love him for it!

The other night I was trying to get him in bed.  He kept getting out and it makes me mad because he does the funniest things and it’s really hard not to laugh!  So I went to put him in bed and as he was climbing up I playfully swatted his butt and said “Don’t get out of bed again!”  He stopped… And looked at me.  “Muh Butt!!  You spanked it!!”  and then climbed in bed and stayed there the whole night.  I had to look away and laugh because of the look of pure shock on his face.

He has a new word that is his very favorite.  If he trips on something, or knocks something over, or forgets to close the fridge he says “Goodness!!”  and fixes whatever has gone awry.

Riley, being the eternally happy child he is in the mornings or when you come home or when he wakes up from a nap upon seeing you will shout “HUG!” and come running to you with open arms, fling himself around your neck and hug you for as long as you’ll let him.  He’ll even hug Thomas in the car while he’s buckled into his car seat when we pick up Thomas from school  It’s really the sweetest thing ever. 

His favorite thing in the whole world is: “I help you!”.. That kid.. He will help you put your shoes on,  he will help you do the dishes.  He will help you vacuum.  He will help you change his diaper, there LITERALLY is not a single thing he will help you with… Except for bedtime.

He loves “The Itsy Bitsy Spider”, “Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam” and “Winkle Winkle Star” (twinkle twinkle little star)  But the latest song that he sings around the house, (And I’m really not sure where he learned it since we don’t listen to it that often anymore) is Zombie from the Cranberries. LOL  He will sing “In you head, in your head, zombie, ie, ie, in your head…” (Then he will repeat that line as many times as he can before he gets distracted.

Connor:

Oh my goodness.  All I can say is that according to Connor, Thomas has a date with the dumpster.  I know right? … It all started when Thomas wouldn’t help him reach a cup in the kitchen so he could get a drink.  Until then though, Connor just insists that Thomas is grounded from the kitchen. LOL

While we were at my mom’s house waiting for the shower to start Connor came up to me and said; “Mom, you don’t need to worry.. It’s going to be ok.  I will never leave you.  I know that Brian took Harley (My brother adopted my mom’s dog) but I won’t ever ever leave you.”  Then he walked up to my mom and said “I’m never going to leave my mommy.  She likes me.”

Connor is opposed to nicknames.. For himself anyways. He has called Thomas Cocoa since before he could even say “Ma-ma” it seems, and we have no idea where he got it, but it stuck. Connor just doesn’t like nicknames for himself. We’ve called him “Connonator” Nope! We’ve called him “Lepre-Connor” for St. Patricks Day, he cried and cried. We’ve called him Napalm (don’t ask). Uh-uh! But I’m excited to announce that one day out of the blue, Connor has chosen an approved nickname for himself!! “Steen!” Nobody knows where he got it or why, but Steen it is!!! However we have to be careful not to overuse it because when he thinks we call him that too much he tells us “That nickname is closed!”

The other day Matt was trying to tell Connor something but instead it came out “Thomas, Riley.. Ugh.. Whatever your name is!”  And Connor giggled and said “Just call me Steen.” And walked off smirking.

Baby Shower:

This isn’t going to be the official post about my baby shower, but I thought I’d mention it.  My mom threw me the most amazing baby shower ever Saturday afternoon.  It was a blast!! I ended up crying when I opened the first gift.  First of all, it meant a lot to me before I even opened it.  My aunt has MS and has a hard time getting around sometimes, and my uncle, who is her husband was diagnosed with colon cancer and is currently undergoing chemotherapy for it.  I haven’t seen them for too too long, but my uncle came in with a gift because my aunt wasn’t able to get out of the car and come in.  They went through so much trouble to get me this gift when I wasn’t expecting anything from them anyways.  Then I opened it.  It had an outfit and some blankets.  I was so grateful.  Then also… It was pink.  I’m used to blue!!! I have wanted a daughter my whole life.  After Riley I kind of accepted the fact that I wasn’t supposed to have a daughter and tried to just be content with my boys.  When I managed to be content with my boys, God gave me the best gift ever.  And I don’t think it completely sank in until I saw all that pink. :)

Way more people showed up than I ever expected and it was such a blast to see everyone!! We got some very cute stuff.

Then came the tears again.  I was handed a gift from Rae Ann (Whom Kaylee is named after – Makayla Rae) and I opened it.  Inside was the most gorgeous blessing gown I have ever seen in my whole life with a matching bonnet.  I completely lost it and started sobbing! (Tears of joy)  It made me feel better that some of the guests started crying too though. But it might have only been because I was crying. LOL  :)  I have it safely put away now, and I go in sometimes and look at it and just imagine her wearing it while she’s in her daddy’s arms on her blessing day.  I get choked up just thinking about it.  Part of me sometimes wishes she’d come before we get sealed in the temple just so I can see her in it twice, but I’m happy we’ll be sealed before hand. :)

Matt:

Matt’s been having fun.  Last weekend he had a guys night with his friends Ryan, Mike and his little brothers.  He also got Call of Duty “The new one” (I don’t know what it’s called, but he loves it!) He works hard for our family and I am SO thankful that he makes more than enough to support us all while I am able to stay home and raise our children.  I was thinking about how far we have come as a family today and it makes me super excited for the future.

Funny story:  The other day I was cleaning the stove top and I lifted it up and scrubbed underneath the burners and surface and everything!  Not one hour later Matt went in and made us all some soup… Yep! It totally boiled over!  haha! He felt so bad!  All I could do was just laugh because it’s really not a big deal and it’s not like he did it on purpose!!  But as much as I tried to reassure him, he still felt terrible.  I told him that if I didn’t see him smile within 5 seconds to be expecting the worst wedgie of his life.  So he looks at me, and puts on the biggest frown he could possibly muster and then turns himself upside down. haha! :) I love that man.  He makes me happy. haha! Today on the way to drop him off at work, I accidently spilled the change jar all over the floor of the car.  He sighed and said “ugh! I just cleaned out the car!”  I laughed and said “Oh I know how that is” (Implying that I’m always cleaning up after 3 little boys after I had just cleaned already!) And he immediately frowned again and said “oh… the soup…” And pouted. HAHA!! He makes me laugh so hard!!!

We’re all excited for the holidays coming up, and everything that is coming up following them!  We’re also looking forward to this coming weekend with our friends Ryan and Katelyn and their ADORABLE little boy Austin (And guess what! SHE’S HAVING A GIRL TOO!!)  But first, time to deep clean the house and hang Christmas lights on the roof outside for the first time since we’ve been married!!! (We just want to get it done before it snows) Eeeeeeee! This is going to be the best year EVER!