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!

Happy Birthdays!

Wednesday June 24:

At playgroup last week, we had a mini party for Scarlett (who turned 2 on Saturday!) and our good friend Benson (who turned 3 that day!).  The kids had so much with the pinata....until we realized they had to walk through a little patch of poison ivy before they could take a swing! We quickly moved the pinata out of the tree and onto the grass.....(and brought all the kids into my bathtub to scrub all their feet and legs!).  

Sarah (Benson's mom) made these adorable frog cupcakes!  I'm sad I didn't get a picture before half of them were gone.


We attempted to play Pin the Bug on the Flower.....the girls got a lady bug and the boys got a beetle.