About those kids...

A happy variety of thoughts and pictures about those kids of ours...

Back in August, Liesel gave a talk in Primary (church). She did really well. I was telling...someone (?) about it and she was listening to me say, "...and she wasn't even scared!" She piped up, "Yes, I was. But I didn't make the face." (translation: I didn't show it.)

We'll keep her.

How do you eat your pancakes?

Miss Happy. She gets many, many comments about her cheerfulness. Even, "does she ever get mad?" 

Um, yep. Watch out for those just-woke-up times. ;)

But we still love her and her most-of-the-time happy nature.

Cam spontaneously decided to make his puppy a vest/jacket and Liesel's cat a skirt. I about died for the cuteness. I love that he added that edging on the skirt.

So there's this cat. He's not our cat. But I think he wants to be. He comes around quite frequently. He is super friendly and playful. He comes galloping by you at full speed. Ivy hates that. I think it's hilarious. He often follows us around the neighborhood--to school, on our way to the library, etc. His name is Jack. Ivy used to call him "Jack-a-cat" (=Jack the cat), then it went to "Jack-cat," to "Jackie." We have a lot of fun with him when he comes around.

Thanksgiving 2013

Family, click here to come to the actual blog: http://www.neyenhuisfamily.blogspot.com

 

We missed being with family this year, but we had a great Thanksgiving together. We invited some friends from church and cooked up a storm. 

Cameron's Mayflower and pilgrim

The spread! The turkey took a little long to cook in our oven, but it was delicious! 

The awesome company! These are our friends the Ocanseys and our local Elders came too. Always gotta have the missionaries over. The Ocanseys came to the US from Ghana 3 years ago. This was their first official Thanksgiving, and Shirley (my friend with her arms around her son) was SO EXCITED. She took pictures of the turkey and all the food and sent them to her friends and family in Ghana. It was fun to have them over! 

Solos & Conversations in the car

Family, click here to go to the actual blog: http://neyenhuisfamily.blogspot.com

I can't figure out how to rotate this. Can you just turn your head or your phone/ipad/tablet this once?

She had opened my mini-hymnal and was singing.

This afternoon in the car:

Liesel (4 yrs.) in robot voice: I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you.
Cameron (6 yrs.): I love you all the way to the moon and back. [Quote from a children's book.]
Liesel: I love you allll the way to Europe and back!
Cameron: Um, Europe's on the earth.
Liesel: Oh. I love you all the way to Pluto.     ....is what I meant.
Brian [to me]: I get those two mixed up all the time.

Halloween

Family, click here to come to the blog:  http://neyenhuisfamily.blogspot.com/

Halloween was

fun!

and exhausting!

...I gotta stop signing myself up for so many things.

Cameron was a robot. It was a homemade thing and I thought it did look cool, but I was a little surprised at how COOL everybody else thought it was. Brian was on the production and I was on design. Most of the parts were from Brian's lab. And he found LED lights for the eyes... so yep, they really lit up. Those homemade costumes= extra points.

Liesel was a black cat and Ivy was a mouse. That Ivy...she loves her candy. She was getting mad at me because the ward Halloween party couldn't come soon enough and then trick-or-treating couldn't come soon enough. I believe the words were, "I want trick-or-treating NOW!!" There were some tears.

Brian told me that Cameron thanked Heavenly Father the other night that "mom signed me up for the switch witch."  Glad (and relieved) he approves. In case you don't know, the "Switch Witch" is a lovely idea where kids give away all but a certain number of pieces of candy (our kids keep 10 pieces) to the switch witch and she comes and trades the candy for toys. Ivy received toy boats for the tub, Liesel got a dancing ribbon, and Cameron got a Lego Creator set.

At Liesel's preschool Halloween parade and party. Cam and Ivy were invited too.

Tonight at dinner she said the prayer by herself and said, "Thank you for mouse costume and... trick-or-treating! ...Yes." If you could only have been there to hear it. She has such a little voice and she is always speaking with such enthusiasm. It makes me giggle all day.

One thing I love about having little children is how excited and delighted they are with holidays. So it was fun to have them dress up, go to fun parties, and trick-or-treat. I've been wondering this year, though, is it strange to anyone else that we have this holiday with underlying themes of violence and fear? I've never been able to stomach horror stories or movies, but then I don't really understand why it's "entertainment" in the first place.

Speaking of fear...the other night, we woke up to screaming at 2:30 in the morning. It wasn't the kids; it was coming from outside. It sounded like someone was being murdered or their arm was being cut off! Scared me to death. But then I remembered a similar incident in Boulder. We woke up to a similar bark/yell there in the University Family Housing and I looked out the window and saw a little dachshund dog (wearing a sweater!) trotting along through the courtyard and a fox following behind also at a walk-trot barking/yelling at the dog. Most bizarre thing ever.

Have you ever heard a fox call/bark/scream? I think it is the ugliest animal sound.

The "vixen scream" was what we were hearing.

Little Sack o' Sugar

Ivy is my little sack o' sugar. She is an animated, funny, cheery, outgoing girl. She turned 2 on September 12th.

Randomly, one morning:
To Brian: I push-a yo' button?
[pushes his leg]: beeeep! There [you] go.
[walks off]

Ivy-language:

"my hungee" = I'm hungry
"my tired"
"my sad"
"kib"= crib

On birthday day.

She and Cam playing with a new present the morning after.

She always asks us: "How you doing? Good?" One day while waiting Cameron to come out of school, she waved her little wave to another small child and then said, "How you doing?"
 
When I'd pull up to Liesel's preschool, she'd often shout in her little voice to whomever would hear: "I here! I happy!"

My favorite is when she gets nose-to-nose with you and speaks in her animated way with her eyes wide. 
 

Liesel turned 4

Oh, this poor blog. So neglected. 

In June, Liesel turned 4. It rained on her birthday, so the party was moved indoors. But we could still do bubble snakes out on the porch! It was fun, and I think the kids really liked it. Word to the wise, though: make sure kids are old enough to understand to blow OUT and not suck IN. Poor Liesel had a mouthful of bubbles a couple times. 

Whoopsies.

  

 We had Liesel's favorite snacks. She is sitting by her favorite friend, Lucy (in the pink).

 Liesel was part of a church friends preschool circle this year and all her preschool friends came.

 She requested an ice cream cake. Can do, kiddo. Can do. (Thank you for NOT saying "the rainbow cake.")

Since I'm not likely to catch up, I'll just give a quick update on everybody:
-Ivy is experimenting with potty-ing! No, I am not pushing this, she's just interested. Kinda nice, I think!
-Liesel starts traditional preschool at a co-op near the University. We are so excited! I think she'll really benefit from it. We also signed her up for a Saturday morning fun preschool-y dance class.
-Cameron started 1st grade 2 Mondays ago. He's enjoying it, and I have really liked what I've seen from his teacher so far. But I think he's still adjusting to the sleep schedule (translation: he's been grumpier. Fun times). He decided he wants to do swimming lessons instead of soccer this fall.
-Brian has had some hiccups with his experiment in the lab, but he's working things out. He's also a ward missionary and been pretty busy helping the missionaries teach. It's happy work.
-As for me, I am excited for Janna to come visit the day after tomorrow! Yippee! I'm keeping busy with Relief Society, and will be a class rep and regular co-oper at Liesel's preschool. I am trying to get out and run to do a race Sept. 14th. Originally I intended to sign up for the 10K, but not sure that's gonna happen. I just can't find the time to get in the miles! I am adjusting to the new school schedule too!

Dan shared this with us, and I loved it. Funny, funny.

Easter at Bunnyland

There is a farm/orchard in Germantown, MD that we visited the day before Easter. It was so fun. Giant slides, ongoing egg hunts, ducky derby, hay ride, play houses and ships...

Just  after collecting some eggs. They had empty eggs they hid in divided areas and then after the hunt, they had all the kids dump their eggs back into a big bin and then as families left the farm, they collected their goody Easter basket. 

 Ducky derby. Pump the water to push the duck to the the end of the gutter. I was doing it for Liesel and she didn't like that!

Brian was boosting Ivy up with one hand and Liesel with the other! 

 The kids had fun sliding down the giant slides. The first time I looked down, I admit, my palms got a little sweaty (not a big fan of heights). But I did it. There was an older lady in front of me who was going down by herself. She was getting pretty nervous looking down at the slide. When she finally pushed herself off the top, she hollered and laughed all the way down. Everyone stopped and watched her go down and laughed and smiled too.

 "Can I meet those girls?" It's a happy thing to me that Liesel isn't too people-shy.

 Web climbing at the bottom of the giant slides.

 I love Liesel's face here. She was so excited about that hay ride.

 She's not afraid of animals, which I also love.

Can I share a recipe with you? I found this recipe for Black Bean Burgers and we LOVE them. At least Brian and I do and the kids do eat them. And they're pretty healthy. Just mashed beans, bread crumbs, a little cheese and spices. I wait to put the onions in until after I've made the kids' burgers since they won't tolerate them.

Skinny kid problems

Foreword: Liesel is pretty thin. Her pants never stay up.


Tonight at "whispers" before lights out:
Cameron: Dad, there's a girl at school that's just like Liesel.
Brian: Wha? ...What do you mean?
Cameron: [stands up, turns around, pushes the top of his pants down and shows just a little bum.]
And she doesn't even feel it!
I see in there every day!


I laughed so hard.

In photos:

We go to "the district" sometimes.

 

 The only real snow we got this winter-in March. I was JUST FINE with that. ;-)

"Say hooray!" (Ivy: oh yeah, me too!)

 

 Snowman making. We rushed Cam to school after this. Funny how this day we only had a 2 hour delay and we had school canceled on another day which wasn't nearly so much accumulation.

Valentine's + end of winter pictures

Cameron's class valentines:

 

 Valentine's Day dinner: Veg kabobs, grilled flatbread and grilled asparagus. I don't remember what Cam was doing, but there you go.

 

I framed this one Cam made at school. Love seeing those Cardinals.

I just love her. She is so animated and bubbly.

 A soldier, he said.

 Then he made Liesel a skirt and Ivy a cape.

Christmas

We had a lovely time in Utah for Christmas:

At the Grand America Hotel there are window displays of winter celebrations from around the world.

 Brian helping Cam match the country to its Christmas greeting

 My niece Katie and my Liesel running to catch up with the rest. Liesel was Katie's shadow during our visit. We're grateful she didn't mind too much.

 Liesel really enjoys helping in the kitchen. Helping Grandpa make scalloped potatoes.

 Christmas morning wouldn't be Christmas morning with my family without gag gifts:

 Grandma trying out Cam's crazy eye glasses.