5 Months Old

I hate to admit it, but this boy of ours is growing up so much faster than we ever expected. This month has been filled with milestones. Just shortly after turning five months I thought I'd try sitting Jace up. Amazingly he sat, wobbled a bit, but stayed upright... until he reached for a toy and over he went :) A little more practice and now he is a regular sitter!

We also tested out the walker this month, again Jace surprised us by quickly learning how to push it around to get to his toys!

Jace is a thinker. He doesn't just dive into a new skill, instead you can see him think and then act. He did this at 2 months when he learned to roll over and he is doing it now when he pulls himself into the crawling position and rocks back and forth testing his strength.

Now with his six month mark right around the corner Jace's first tooth has broken through! We are so excited for his milestones but also a little sad that his infant phase seems to be a thing of the past.

Costco Baby

This boy knows what he wants. 

Now if only he knew how to get it!

The Onion Dare

History:
Growing up my dad would often dare Dallin and I to do random things such as, eat a whole jalapeno or sit in an icy stream.  When we wouldn't do his dares "just because" my dad would offer us money.  We quickly caught on that a dare could go up in value if we held out long enough.  As a kid I made some good money off of those dares, but for me now the stories are priceless.

Now Jeremy and I are passing on the tradition to our kids.  Although, to date non of our kids have made any money out of the dares, we make up for that in entertainment value :)

The Dare: 

Take one big bite of an onion, chew, and swallow it.

The Reward: 

$5 + bragging rights!

btw:

Nyah insists that the chocolate took away the bad taste, just couldn't say the same for her breath! 

ha ha

Fall Break

This Fall Break we got a special treat!  My parents drove out from CA to be with us for a few days while the kids were out of school.  We always treasure our time together and as you can probably tell from the photos, we have a lot of fun too.

An impromptu photo session with Poppy Kevin & Grandma Nancee.

Say "cheese"

My dad is known for falling asleep in front of the TV and if you are really lucky, he will fall asleep right in the middle of a conversation with you!

Sleepy grandpas are also great for cuddling.

 Classic

Poppy with his cutest, sweetest grandson.

(Jace is also the only grandson as of now... so I can say that!)

This photo makes me smile.  Don't you just love how they are color coordinated?!

Cute Together

Lastly here are two photos of my mom and Jace.  

I have the most awesome mom, and she is an amazing grandma.  

Jace and My Beautiful Mom

Thanks mom and dad for visiting us, we already miss you like crazy!!!

Growing

Someone is growing up WAY faster than I can handle!  

Our Little Man is already 3 months old and this week he has mastered rolling over!  I'm not talking random front to back rolling, he's been doing that for some time now.  Nope, Jace has figured out how to roll from his back to his front and from his front to his back as often as he pleases.   

All week Jace has been working on rolling over, and you could actually see him thinking about how to do it!  Jace would try a kick or a twist and when it didn't work he would pause, get this deep look of concentration on his face, and then he would try other moves until he was able to roll the way he wanted. It was seriously cute!

Jace is also working on scooting (yikes!).  He gets on his tummy and then pushes up on his legs to inch himself forward.  He has less control with this trick and a few times he has wound up a little to close to the object he was looking at. When this happens Jace lets out a little surprised noise and his sisters come to his rescue.

I am so smitten by our Little Man.  He is such a happy baby, so quick to laugh & smile and so slow to get upset.  When he smiles at me I feel like the luckiest woman in the world and no treasure on earth can compare to the joy I feel when I look into those beautiful eyes.

A Short Story About Cali

Cali and Buttercup, our lizard friend

Syd's comment from my last post, about the girls liking lizards, reminded me of a funny story.  Ok, so the story is not about lizards and has nothing to do with these pictures but these are cute pictures so I'm adding them to this post anyway!

A few weeks back Cali and I found a pincher bug in our house.  Cali walked off for a moment and when she came back she saw that I had just smashed the bug with my shoe.  

Startled by my actions Cali exclaimed, "Mom! Why did you kill it, I wanted to hold it first!"  

Not wanting to be accused of any wrong doing I replied, "I haven't thrown it out yet."  

So what does Cali do, she picks it up with her little hands and carries it to the trash for me!  

As gross as I think it is to touch a dead bug, a part of me is really proud of my girl! 

Buttercup

A 10 Second Update

 So what have we been up to?

We played in the rain,

and found magic in rain drops.

We've explored the wild outdoors,

and we've made some new friends along the way.

We have seen the world from a new perspective,

and marveled at the amazing Arizona sun sets.

Every once in a while we stop to snack.

We primp for picture day,

 but try not to take ourselves too seriously.

 And we see our baby blossom in front of our very eyes.

Fun with Chalk

You can find some interesting photos using chalk on the internet these days.  

I thought I'd add to them with some photos of my own. 

Favorite Things 2012

Cali: puppies

Sade: friends

Nyah: books

Jace: eating

The first photos were so much fun to do that we had to take some more. I made a sea backdrop and let the kids pose how they wanted.  I think they turned out so cute!

Swimming 

Sing It Again Cali

Lets just ignore for a moment the fact that I am very behind on blogging (I know I am) because I have to share a funny song Cali was just singing to me.  It was so cute in fact I actually got up from my chair and ran away from her to insist Jeremy stop everything and type the song so I could remember it  (I was holding Jace and Jeremy does type a little faster than I do).

This is the song Cali was singing to me:

"I love Poppi Gordon very much.  He is the one that calls me cuddle bug.  He loves me, loves me very much.  I see a panda over there.  I love it too.  Poppi calls me cuddle bug.  I love Poppi too…"

Here she started to sing about other things she noticed around the house and where I made my exit. 

Also worth mentioning is the conversation that I had with Cali yesterday.  Cali asked me which Poppi calls her "cuddle bug." She wanted to know if it was her Poppi "Heaven" or Poppi Gordon.  I wasn't sure so we talked until she determined it was Poppi Gordon, but I couldn't stop smiling about the cute nick name my dad, her Poppi Kevin, has received.

First Bath

Little Man had his first bath a week or so ago.  

He loves the heat so we were all excited to see what he thought of warm bath water. He was wide awake before his bath but as soon as that warm water touched his skin he closed his eyes, grinned, and promptly fell asleep.

He continued to sleep through his shampoo...

and the paparazzi :) 

Jace loves warmth, he is an Arizona boy through and through.

Welcome To the World Jace

Jace Zeplin Risser

born May 30th 

Weighing 8.4lds & Measuring 19.5 inches long

Air Balloon Mornings

One beautiful Arizona morning this was the view out our window!  The girls screamed and ran outside.  I grabbed my camera and we all reveled in our up close view of the balloon and it's passengers. Outside you could hear shouts of excitement from other school children enjoying the same sight.  The balloon hovered low for some time while the passengers waved to their adoring little fans :)

It is these simple unexpected joys that make life so sweet!

The girls had Crazy Hair Day at school yesturday.  I braided the girls hair with some colored yarn and pulled the rest into a ponytail.  This was a nice simple hairstyle, one a very pregnant mom could do without much effort :) 

Cali even had a single braid with green yarn. After watching her sisters get their hair done she was not to be left out of the fun!

Cali's Morning Prayer

Every time Cali has said a prayer since the time we shared with her that I am pregnant, Cali has asked Heavenly Father that "Mommy feels better". After making that sweet request she usually needs some help with what else to pray for.
Today Cali said her whole prayer beginning to end on her own.  She said, "Dear Heavenly Father please bless Mommy to feel better.  We thank thee to help the Dr. to get the baby out and please bless the baby to stop kicking Mommy. In the name of Jesus Christ Amen."  I am so touched by her sweet thoughtfulness and her awareness of her family :)
Cali is so ready to be a big sister.  She loves the baby so much already and often sneaks in close to my round tummy to whisper things to her little brother.  Mostly Cali tells him of all the things she will teach him how to do and that she loves him.  She also tells him to "be good and not hurt Mommy".  I am so so so excited to meet our little guy but I am equally as excited to introduce Cali to her little brother!

Nyah's 9th Birthday

For Nyah's birthday she chose to go to Makutu's Island with the family (this is a non-party year for her) .  This place is awesome!  It is an indoor playground with places to clime and slide everywhere!  

Jeremy and the girls went last year while I was at Girls Camp and I'd heard a ton about it all year long.  I have to say it was as impressive as I had heard.  The kids went screaming & running in all directions as soon as we got there. 

 Jeremy kept up with the girls, climbing way up into the tubes a few stories up & sliding down gigantic slides (he's such a fun dad!).   I even went on a slide pregnant and all...well it was a tiny slid, but hey Cali was impressed. 

I mostly spent my time trying to catch pictures of all the fun. To bad

 running kids + low light = poor pictures quality

The birthday girl was the hardest to catch (as usual).  In most pictures she appears as a blurry smudge :) 

Here is the best of the pictures we took!

We had a great time celebrating Nyah's birthday with her!  

Nyah we are so glad you were born to our family!!!

Lovely Mornings

These were the types of mornings I lived for as a child.  Slow, sleepy day beginnings with the sun just peeking up.  Tip toeing downstairs, trying not to wake up my parents.  Early morning cartoons.  Lying across sofa and floor with wild hair and tired eyes.

I love to see my own girls in these early hours.  I can't help but remember how lovely a Saturday morning is to a child.

!yaD slooF lirpA

April Fools Day is always a big deal at our house...though half the time it is forgotten until the last minute.  Such was the case this year.  

Being on a Sunday Jeremy & I teamed up and toilet papered the girls rooms while they ate breakfast.  When the rooms were complete I pulled the frustrated mom routine and said the girls must straiten up their messy rooms right away!  

Nyah insisted her room was picked up so she was surprised at my insistence that it was in fact in disarray.  

Jeremy hid upstairs with the camera to catch the girls reactions to their new decor.  

These are our kids, so of course they loved the surprise :)

After Jeremy & I went downstairs to work up another little trick, the girls took the liberty of toilet papering our room.  They need to work on their sneekyness because it sounded like elephants partying in our room as they jumped and ran about.  

We faked a great surprised face when they revealed what they had done.  They are too cute!

The last of our pranks was cherry jello in cups with straws to look like juice.  This was brought out at dinner time.  The girls flipped out when they couldn't drink from their cups. Then when I attempted to dump Sade's drink over her head... and somehow she stayed dry, the girl burst into screams and giggles.

It was a terrific April Fools Day :)

On-A-Roll

This school year has been a great one for our girls. Sade is in 1st grade and just enjoys every minute of it. She loves to learn and never puts up any resistance to doing her homework. Sade always has good grades, which for a parent is a dream come true! Sade loves to learn so much that playing school with Cali is one of her favorite games. So it came as no real surprise that Jeremy and I got a letter inviting us to the first grade "On-A-Roll" assembly of which Sade would be receiving an award. This is the elementary school's equivalent to the traditional Honor Roll award.

Nyah has also had a great school year. In the past Nyah has struggled in school, in part because of her first three years of school (K-2nd), she attended three schools and had a total of 6 different teachers. In 1st grade alone Nyah had two teachers that job shared a class (taking turns teaching different days and not following any real schedule) and then half way through the school year we moved and Nyah had another teacher at a new school. Needless to say, Nyah's education suffered and after settling her in AZ we quickly realized she had a lot of catching up to do. For our recess loving, social butterfly, extra catch-up work was not welcomed news but Nyah has increased her effort and we have seen the results.

On the day of Sade's award ceremony Jeremy & I were both able to attend. After school Sade walked home the whole way carrying her certificate, totally beaming. Cali & I sat outside waiting for the girls to come home. When the two came around the corner Nyah ran up to me also with some papers in her hand. As it turns out, Nyah earned an On-A-Roll certificate too!!! For some reason her teacher didn't know to invite parents to the ceremony (each grade has their own ceremony). Another surprise came when Nyah also showed off her perfect attendance award! Jeremy & I always joke that the kids who earn that award are the ones that get our kids sick... because their parents haven't the sense to keep their sick kids home. I guess we can't judge the others so harshly anymore because Nyah truly has made it the whole school year (so far) with out getting sick on a school day.

Birthday Girl

  

On March 3rd Cali turned 3

She had a great birthday!  The night before Jeremy blew up balloons and we covered her bedroom floor with them.  Jeremy also picked out one large Minnie Mouse balloon from the party store to surprise the birthday girl when she woke up :)

She LOVED it!

Lucky for Cali her birthday this year fell on a Saturday so she got to be surrounded by her sisters the whole day.  We started celebrating by letting her open her presents.  Cali sat in a chair while her sisters handed her the gifts, I think Cali felt a little like a princess... well a cowgirl princess.

This cowgirl hat was one of Cali's gifts.  This girl loves to play pretend so she was very happy about her new hat.  She also received a TON of clothes and two puppies that walk and bark.

We have lots of birthday traditions in our house and one of them happens to be that you get parties on your even birthdays and outings on the odd ones.  Since Cali turned three that meant she got to pick a family outing.  To her sisters excitement she picked the Phoenix Zoo!

The Phoenix Zoo has a farm area where you can milk a fake cow and pet all kinds of farm animals.  The goats were so sweet, they would see a kid coming toward them with a brush and plop down in the dirt while the kids went to town "making them pretty"!

Cali enjoyed every minute of the zoo and wanted to see and explore everything!

Happy Birthday Cali!

We love you SO much.  You are a little ball of sunshine & we couldn't be any more proud of the sweet, happy girl you are!

Valentines Day 2012

This year for Valentines Day the girls made their own Valentines Day cards to hand out at school!  I found these cute printable cards on Pinterests. The cards feature the basic outline of a face on the front for the kids to customize to their hearts content. 

The picture comes like this

I printed, cut, and scored each card and then the kids took it from there!

Nyah & Sade each colored a picture of each individual student in their classes for a totally custom Valentine Card!  

Cali got into the Valentine making spirit too :)

I can not get over how cute the girls cards turned out! 

These are some of Sade's cards...

& this is the card Nyah made for her teacher! 

We hope you are all having a wonderful 

Valentines Day!