These kids are joyful

I love my children.  The make me smile, laugh, want to pull my hair out, cry, tired, exhausted, and extremely happy.  They are joyful.  The are wonderful.  They make me physically, mentally, and emotionally grained every night but I absolutely adore them. They are growing up fast and sometimes I am kinda glad about that but usually it just makes me sad.  I wish I could get them all potty trained and then they would just stop growing.  Yep, that would be ideal!

Olivia is still my beautiful, smart, sassy, and independent little girl.  She wanted to be a cowgirl when she grew up until about a week ago and now she wants to be an artist.  There is always paper and crayons and (washable) markers all over her room.  The mess drives me crazy but she has so much fun I can't really tell her no.  

 

She recently graduated preschool (a post on that to come) and is getting all geared up for Kindergarten.  I can't believe she will be in school, real school, next year.  It will be hard to adjust, especially for Callen who follows her around all day, but it will be good for her.

  

Olivia is playing T-ball this year.  Her first game is tomorrow.  If she can get over her shyness of everyone I think she could be really good.  I am going to try to have her start piano this summer too.  She is a very musical little girl, I think she will do well in that.  

She is still funny and says things daily that make us laugh.  A few I remember are:

(After Grandma was saying she didn't want to eat a sandwich because there was only wheat bread) "Grandma, sometimes you just have to suck it up and eat it."

"Oh, that's romantic"

(After Callen was saying he wanted black hair like Papa) "Callen, you get what Heavenly Father gave you and just be happy."

(Dancing on the sod we just laid) I am really getting the hang of this!!!

(After I am asking her what she remembered about a primary lesson I had taught her about baptism) Me: "Do you remember what it is called when we go all the way in the water?"

Olivia: "We are baptized by immersion for the remission of sins." 

Callen is still my crazy, loving, sweet, messy little boy.  We have been do a half approach to potty training lately.  I think he could do it, I just can not get myself geared up to really do it.  It is so much work!!  Callen loves the dirt and tractors and backhoes and combining them all.  He loves to go outside and get so dirty.  Thank goodness we finally got sod yesterday.

He says his name is "Big boy Cal-Man Cowboy Horse Rider."  He is still obsessed with horses and says he is going to be a cowboy when he grows up.  I found him some cowboy boots at DI and he loves them.  He would wear them everyday if I let him.  It is not an uncommon sight around here to see a little boy in only a diaper or underwear and cowboy boots running around.  

He is still a momma's boy. I love it.

He is talking really well now and is so funny.  Some good ones are:

(Jumping back and forth between Grandma's grass and our new grass) I'm in Grandma's yard, I'm in my yard, I'm in Grandma's yard...

Me:  Callen, do you want a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch?

Callen: NO! I want boy cheese! (He thought I was saying girl cheese)

Carson is still our little, sweet, independent, tantrum throwing, into everything little baby boy.  That boy knows what he wants and gets really made when he can't have it.  He can get into EVERYTHING in record timing and I swear he has some sixth sense for when I accidentally leave a drawer or cupboard open.  He thinks it is his job to dump everything out and he is very good at his job.  Callen is our sugar, Olivia our spice, and Carson is our hot-pepper flakes.  (I read that on a friend's blog before about her kids and I thought it was so funny because it applied perfectly for my children as well so I hope she doesn't mind I am using it.)  But my goodness, I could just eat him up all day.

He is such a tease and tormenter.  He loves to go bug his siblings and try to get a rise out of them.  He will come up to me with something he isn't suppose to have, smile and show it to me, and then take off running with it.  He can throw a GREAT tantrum when he doesn't get what he wants or get to stay where he wants.  He is already so stubborn.  He is a little stinker and I know I am going to pull out a lot of hair over this cute little ham. 

Carson loves Casey and his Papa Randy.  This is the first kid that has been a daddy's boy and sometimes it is a little hard for me.  Sometimes it is really nice though, like at bedtime or diaper changing time.  :)  Casey loves it. 

He finally cut 2 teeth, the first one (lower right) on April 12th.  Someday he may get some more.  He is also officially off the bottle.  He was down to one a day for awhile but we finally got rid of it.  His last night with one was May 17th.  He is saying Momma, Dada, and sometimes Papa.  He has also said some Dexter, Kristi, and Grandma one time.