Do NOT break the rules

Tonight we were at a friend's birthday party. You know the game where you roll the dice and if you get doubles you get to try to unwrap a huge candy bar while wearing oven mittens and two knives for utensils? Well, Nathan rolled doubles, but then he flat-out refused, "I'm not supposed to play with knives."

Preschool Dropout

So in the car tonight, Nathan is rocking some fantastic air-guitar when he loudly (and excitedly) announces, "Hey guys! Guess what?!?! I'm not going to go to school OR work! I'm going to play the guitar in a band!"

The things Nathan says

Nathan: We don't eat stars because they are burning gas, but these (pointing to the starburst candy from his halloween bag that he is eating) are good burning gas.

Walking and Hair

TA-DA! Here's the rundown, for her baby book someday:

-1st steps just before 10 months

-Taking 8 or 9 steps at 11 months

-Never even crawls anymore at 11 months 3 weeks (and always so proud of herself when she walks across the room to you!)

Words: moma, dada, bear, boo, bye-bye (waves), meow, that (points), poo-poo, quack

This is what she does when you ask to see her funny face

Just can't get enough of her stink face

This is a little random, but Nathan has been insisting on a mohawk lately...

Scarlett has started keeping her hair in for a good, maybe 20 minutes or so before she pulls it out -- we are making progress!

Halloween

The kitten, spiderman, and turtle before we went out door to door.

Scarlett saw Amelia's dress and instantly fell in love. Weirdly, Amelia wanted to be a cat, so the trade worked out nicely.
Our kids were burning up. The back of their necks were getting all sweaty. It was almost 80 degrees while we were out. And so humid. Yuck.

Of course we had to have boney-finger breadsticks for dinner. I forgot to take a picture of the plate full of fingers, so here is a pic of the last one. I just painted slivered almonds with red food coloring mixed with water for the fingernails. In the past I've taken the time to make them more realistic (ie: actually sculpt knuckles into them). This year I was in a hurry.

The Fair

This is Nathan and Scarlett before the little roller coaster started to go. By the end Scarlett was crying, "I want to get off, I'm all done....WAAAHHH." and Nathan was holding onto Scarlett and screaming. Then when I asked if they wanted to go again Nathan said, "No way!" and Scarlett said, "Yeah! Woo-hoo! That was fun!"

Food, food, food. Can't believe what people eat there. Including my husband. This meat stick makes me a little nauseated just looking at it.

Asheville

So last weekend we went to the mountains. It was SO BEAUTIFUL. All North Carolina friends: if you haven't done this yet, it is a MUST! A few days after we got back home Nathan told me he wanted to pack up his Nintendo Wii and move to the hotel. He loved that he got to watch movies in bed, and I have a sneaking suspicion that he has been dreaming of playing Mario Kart while lying in bed. Can't get much lazier than that.

On another note, I think Brigham looks like a thief of some sort with this hat on. It made me laugh.

Of course, I don't look much different in mine! (It was C-O-L-D while we were there....we had to buy these cheapie hats to keep our heads from freezing off!)
Nathan insisted on reading every sign that we passed on our little hike. Thanks to him, I am a virtual fount of knowledge when it comes to NC trees and shrubbery and I can spot sassafras in a split second.

Nathan in love

This is a picture of my white board right now. Nathan told me, "Write, 'I love Adriana. With a heart. Because the heart is for pumping blood, but it is also for love."

This is Nathan and Adri at a farm on a recent preschool field trip. Luckily, Adriana's mom had her camera, because I forgot to bring mine with me.

Adri is the one in the orange hat. I think Nathan has good taste. She's not only cute (and adorably shy), but she's bilingual, too.
I think we'll have to keep an eye on these two!

My little scar-scar

Today Scarlett wiped her runny nose on her arm.  Then she licked it.  Then she held out her arm to me and asked, "Want some?"

1st Day of Preschool

Nathan and Scarlett were playing in the living room this morning while I was getting ready. I overheard Nathan say, "Scarlett, I'm going to be leaving soon. I'm going to miss you."

Brush and Floss

Phew! I sure am glad I don't have to worry about Dolly's teeth getting cavities....and for those of you who haven't met her yet, this is Scarlett's *favorite* doll, whom we lovingly call, "Dreadlock Dolly" for obvious reasons.

Big week at the Stoker home

Two MAJOR events took place at our house this last week: 

1) Mia started sleeping through the night 

2) Scarlett is potty trained. 

We had to let Mia SCREAM for 1 1/2 hours a couple nights this week. Which is like torture. I sat on the couch and attempted to read as I listened to her agony.  But last night, for the first time ever, she slept from about 9 PM until 7:30 AM (OK, she woke up once or twice but only cried for a few minutes). It's bliss. I feel like a new person. AND, can I just say that potty training girls is SOOOOO much easier than boys? 

HOORRAY!

Not sleeping

Brig got a call from my amused neighbors at 8:30 the other night (Scarlett's bedtime is 7:00), just making sure he knew that Scarlett was standing in her second story bedroom window calling out and waving to anyone who walked by 

If you don't have one, get one

For 3 good reasons to go out and buy one right this second, please refer to the July 4th post re: Scarlett's white shirts

The main reason we should all wear clothes

In Nathan's illustrated scriptures we read about Adam and Eve before bed the other night.   After we were done, he of course wanted to know why they were naked.   Brigham and Nathan had a lengthy discussion which lead to him wanting to know why they eventually put clothes on.   Brigham  did a pretty good job explaining that one too, but after he was done with the explanation, Nathan suggested another feasible alternative: "No, I think they thought the bushes were too tickle-y."

Happy July 4th!

Nathan was so excited to decorate his bike for the little parade we had after breakfast at church. 

Scarlett sporting the 1st of 3 white shirts she wore yesterday....


This is the 1st year we've done fireworks with the kids. They thought pop-its were the best!  You can see Scarlett in shirt #3.  Her 2nd shirt (sorry, no pics) got black ALL OVER it when she crawled underneath the car to try to chase the cat...
Scarlett wasn't too sure about sparklers, but Nathan dug them.  This was right before Nathan almost caught Scarlett's hair on fire.  YIKES!!!
We sat on a big quilt in our front yard to watch fireworks. 
Brigham was saying the prayer before bed last night. As he was praying, Nathan prompted him in a whisper, "and please bless us to do fireworks again because they were so much fun."

Happy Birthday Brigham and Scarlett!

Saturday June 27th: Scarlett's Birthday!

We let Scarlett open her presents first thing in the morning because we didn't have a good way to wrap her new kitchen, and we didn't want to try to hide it all day....I think my kids thought it was just like Christmas!

After breakfast, we took the kids to the pool (an activity we do 3 or 4 times a week right now, due to the heat and humidity). We had a great time! Usually I'm juggling all 3, but it was so nice to have Brig there to help and so fun to spend time with the entire fam.

Nathan has been so afraid to go under the water. He has told me numerous times that he would go under when he was "an adult." Finally, I told Nathan that he could earn his Nintendo Wii Lego Star Wars game if he went under the water....and TA DA! That was all it took! Now he'll dunk himself like a pro (sort of).

Mia absolutely loves the water.  She tries to put her face in and drink it, though. So I have to watch out!
Because Brig's birthday was on Monday (31!! the old man...)  we had some friends come over to our house for Brigham's favorite dinner: ribs, potatoes, asparagus. salad, strawberries...YUM! And of course, we had Texas sheet cake for dessert.  I'm sure this won't be the last time Brigham and Scarlett will share blowing out the birthday candles!

I had the kids get Brigham a body pillow for his birthday.  They were so excited to give him this very large present all wrapped up!

Happy Birthday Scarlett and Brig --- we LOVE you!