Whats Goin' On

It seems like most of my post revolve around giant over loaded picture catch up posts or big event posts.  So today is just sort of whats going on with the Phillips Pham.  The boys are a blast these days and I wish I could articulate all of the fun, wild, funny, frustrating, hectic things that they are bringing to us every day.  

KANYON:

(wearing his KU jersey for the big game...he kept pointing at the TV and then at his jersey. He was so happy to be wearing it!)

The boy is a chatter box. A full fledged-talk my head off-chatter box.  I really can't believe it.  It just seems like the last few months it has all come together for him.  For the untrained ear, it can still be a little tricky to understand at times, but even that is getting so much better.  Full sentences people! FULL SENTENCES!  I was especially "thankful" for his full sentences a few weeks ago in church when DURING COMMUNION he pointed to the man in the isle that passed the plate (who just so happens to have a larger belly than some) and said, "Mommy, that guy has a baby in his tummy.  Mommy has a baby in her tummy too!" Oh dear! After I gathered myself, I prayed that no one (especially the man) understood what he said.  SHEESH!  

He is also BOSSY.  I have wondered what their "birth order" roles will be like since in some ways Q will have to take on some of the big brother roles because of things he's able to do physically.  But the last few weeks, klp has really staked claim in his position as the OLDEST.  I often hear him giving very strict instructions like, "Bubba, you go take a nap riiiiiiiight now. I take a nap later" He is often heard "backing me up" when I'm getting on to Quinn for something.  klp will either repeat it (in his stern voice of course) or he will say, "Bubba you obey mommy!"  He's not just a disciplinarian though, he's also an encourager.  He raises his voice to "baby talk" to him and will say things like "Did u go tee tee? Good Job Bubba!"  In his sweetest most "motherly" voice.  I guess he wants to make sure q doesn't get separation anxiety because any time he leaves the room he will say, "Bubba, I be riiiiiiiight back, Ok?" He also tattle tales. I will hear him say, "I tell mommy".  Then he does. Oh dear.  Its pretty cute and pretty fun to hear them talking to each other.  

When he "reads" each page starts with "One day....." and the rest of the "reading" may or may not really make much sense.  :)  

Back to the chatter box thing:  he talks to himself A LOT.  Not sure if he's crazy or we are just seeing his little imagination play out, but its funny.  Sometimes he is repeating something that I recognize that happened earlier, other times I have no idea where he got it.  Even in his imaginary talking, he's usually bossing someone around telling them what to do followed by the sweet "OooooKaaaay?"  

He counts 8, 11, 13.  Not sure what happened to 1, 2, 3.  

Still loving basketball and can dribble like nobody's business.  Also loving the baseball thing lately.  He asks to watch a basketball game EVERY DAY.  I think he got spoiled during March Madness.  Too bad we don't have DVR or we could've recorded some games. 

Loves the Price is Right, but our antennae has been messing up lately. Boo.  However, it did work the other day and he was loving it.  Yelling "COME ON DOWN!" and then I asked him what the lady won and he said "hundred dollars" haha! (he usually says "a new car") Speaking of, he saw Jeopardy on TV at school one day when the teacher turned the TV on to use it for something else and the channel just happened to be on the channel where Jeopardy was ending.  He talked about it for 2 days straight.  I didn't believe him when he told me he watched Jeopardy at school, so I finally asked his teacher.  She said he was on the other side of the room when she was messing with the TV and the show was ending so she can't even believe he noticed.  Oh little does she know how long he's loved Jeopardy.  

Our struggles lately (well, not really lately, because they've been going on for over 2 years) are trying to control the emotional ups and downs.....mostly downs and the hitting/crying/loosing it that comes with those.  We are lost to say the least, but working on it.  

Since being pregnant I've rocked him to sleep for his nap everyday. It started out because I was too sick and tired to do the whole "nap time routine". Now I just love it too much to stop. I'll stop soon enough, but I have a feeling I won't regret rocking my 5 year old.  :)  He's THE BEST cuddler in the world.

He says "I run fast" or "I"m running!" when he scoots real fast.  haha 

At least 100 times a day I hear "Daddy fix it when he gets home" or "Daddy fix it later"  I guess I've said that a lot but he's quite a boost to Kory's "Mr. Fix It" ego because according to klp, there's nothing his dad can't fix. 

David and Goliath according to klp (bold is what he says when we let him fill in the blanks)......so David got some ROCKS and he hit Goliath with A GUN!!! He hit Goliath with a rock and..GOLIATH GOT FOULED!!! Oh dear.  Any time he falls over or anyone falls down both of my boys say they got fouled (as in fouled like in basketball).  So when the part in the story comes where Goliath falls, klp just says he gets fouled.  

He's about to leave the nursery at church, but that is another post all on its own.  Alas, he's growing up.

QUINN

(drinking his treasured Sonic drink....water by the way)

The things that come out of his mouth really kill me. I can't remember them all, but he's always making me laugh.  Like today when he asked me for the "writers"....he wanted side walk chalk.  He has taken to the baseball thing too and now that Kory's softball league has started up, he's had fun learning about catching and running bases.  The first game he was so troubled every time a batter dropped the bat to run to the base.  I told him the other day that he sure was a good baseball player and he said, "I only play basketball".  Not true, but I guess thats where his loyalty lies.  

He repeats us but in the form of a question.  For example:  I say, "I better peel the kiwi first." he says, "the kiwi first???" or "We gotta go to the oil change place"...."Oil change place???"  

Daddy is still his #1 choice.  

He likes to be read to.  Particularly his toddler Bible.  Good Mom, right? My kid loves to read the Bible.  Here's the truth: Sometimes I try to talk him out of it because I'M SICK AND TIRED OF READING NOAH OR DAVID AND GOLIATH and that is all he wants.  However, he did say something the other day about "Jofess" in the Bible, so maybe we're on the brink of a switch to Joseph. He can retell David and Goliath great.  Its cute.  

Loves cereal and can eat as much as any adult.  

When he falls he says, "I dropped myself" 

He likes to look for Q's and will say, "There's my Q!"  

A friend of mine from church told me her 5 year old said he wanted to play basketball and she told him he didn't even know how and he said, "yes I do, Quinn taught me!" haha. 

I am enjoying his big-ness.  Its just such a sweet age as the world is opening up bigger and bigger and he is learning and taking it all in.  He is always doing and saying something funny and I just love it so much.  He for sure has the challenges that come with his age, but if you ask me, the FUN and EXCITEMENT of this age far outweighs the difficulty.  Most days.  :)

He still wakes up happy and plays in his bed for a long time (something I will greatly miss when he moves to a bed) but when he's ready to get out he usually yells, "I need to go POOOOOOOP!" I guess he's figured out that when he mentions pooping everyone comes running!

He has a hard time with plurals.  He gets the "s" in the wrong spot.  For example: grapes=grasp
fix=fisk, books=boosk, bugs=busg..... you get the idea.

Q loves a good song.  We have quite the "playlist" at bedtime.  He makes his request and we do our best to oblige (if we can figure out what song he's talking about).  He has favorite songs on our "seeds of worship" CD's and requests for the ones he likes over and over.  He almost always asks for "Jesus" aka Jesus loves me to be his last song.

He doesn't know characters very well. We don't really watch the shows/movies so he has very limited knowledge of things like Disney characters or super heroes.  BUT he knows they are something because he's said stuff about Spiderman before and he has underwear that have Cars characters on them (doesn't know Lightning McQueen, just calls them Race car underwear).  The other day we were at the neighbors house and he saw a Spiderman book and said, "MOM! LOOK! Its Tow-Mater!"  haha.  Slightly confused.  btw the way he says Tow-Mater is one of my favorite words he says.

The boys love to play "Hide".  To say they don't "get it" would be an understatement, but they sure do have fun going to a corner and counting then screaming when they turn around.

My laziness seems to have rubbed off on Q.  Its not uncommon for me to use my feet to pick something up so that I don't have to bend over.  Often times I pick qsp's blanket up with my toes then grab it.  Now he does the same thing.  Pretty funny watching little toddler feet pull that one off.

BABY

I haven't taken any "belly pictures" yet, but here's one of my shadow.  

and here is baby at the 20 week ultrasound 

So far things with baby are going great. I finally don't feel sick to my stomach all the time. The physical strains of it have seem to hit sooner, but that probably has more to do with the 2 I already have! :)  I haven't slept well which is kind of a bummer.  I still don't have a "feeling" as to what the gender is. I kind of don't want to.  Last time i was so sure Q was a boy that when he was, in fact, a boy I wasn't really surprised. I think everyone thinks its a girl but I think thats because everyone WANTS this to be a girl.  I would love a girl, but at the same time, it seems hard to imagine.  We are just excited to meet it whatever it is! :)

Without fail, if you ask the boys what the baby is Q says boy and klp says girl.  hmmmmm.

Just for fun I have asked them what we should name it (knowing they really have no concept of what a name is). Some of the answers I've gotten have been: Me, Baby, The bear, Mommy.  Not sure any of those have made the list, but we'll keep asking.  Speaking of, we haven't made much progress on name choosing.  Especially if its a boy we are in big trouble.

Today when I was rocking klp, he patted my stomach and said, "mommy baby happy!" Which he says all the time. I asked him what he was going to do when the baby got here and he hugged me.  Then I said, "You CAN hug it and maybe you will sing to it. What song would you sing?" and he started singing Happy Birthday to Baby.  haha.

Q says he has a bear in his tummy.  I guess that sounds more exciting to him than a baby.

The baby will force the 2 boys into the same room.  Anxiety doesn't even begin to describe how I feel about this.  And it doesn't help that the quilts I've been eyeing for YEARS that I wanted if I ever had 2 boys in the same room are GONE from Pottery Barn.  I can't even find them on Ebay.  great. I was counting on the quilts bringing me comfort when the inevitable stress of combing rooms hit.

My guilty pleasure has been Coke Icees.  In general, carbonated drinks have been very UNappetizing, but the Icee treat has hit the spot.  So has lemon ice water. And yes I've PAID Sonic for water.  It blows Kory's mind, but its just better.  The cup, the ICE, the lemon. Oh man.  Best 52 cents ever.

I'd say my overriding symptom this time has been that my brain is MUSH.  I remember forgetting things/names/words with the other pregnancies, but this time I can't even complete a thought.  Like I try to think through something and I just CAN'T my brain gets stuck.  I can't follow through on a idea or thought to save my life.  I'm really counting on this NOT sticking around after baby is born!

My belly button isn't gone yet.  Usually it disappears and looks almost like a star shaped scar, but this time its still there and kinda sticking out some.

We are currently taking any and all suggestions for names!!!  :)


There you have it.....lots of typing with not many pics...sorry.

More singing from the Phillips Boys

We were in the car one night and the boys were in a particularly "singy" mood so I got them on video singing a couple of their favorites.

Here is Q singing "My Home's in Montana" Its a cute little song Gram sings to them.  In case you can't quite understand the words he's saying are: My home's in Montana-I wear a bandana- My spurs are of silver- My pony is gray- When riding the ranges, my luck never changes-With feet in the stirrup I gallop away.  




The next two are a mess. They were singing Jesus Loves Me, but between interrupting each other and asking to watch themselves on the camera, its really just a hectic mess of a concert.  I do find it funny that Q starts all over each time klp interrupts him.  haha.  And Q ends his video picking his nose and klp starts his video picking his nose.  Where are these kids' manners??????!! SHEEEESH!

Horse and Rider

The anual open house/fund raiser for Kanyon's hippo therapy place was a couple of weekends ago.  This year was extra fun because it was also their grand opening for the new sensory trail.  Up until now, most of the riding has gone on in the arena, but for about the last year, they have been working really hard setting up an area outside that has lots of different stations and activities appealing to all the senses.  Lots of people are really excited about it, but probably no one loves it as much as Kanyon!  Therefore, he was the choice to be the rider at the grand opening to show the crowd the different things the trail offers.  It was fun and he was in a great mood.  Clapping, cheering, and laughing the whole way.  Here are a few pictures from the afternoon.  

Waiting with Paw Paw for his turn to ride....

Before the ride while they were doing the ribbon cutting...Celia (on the right side of this pic) is his PT that comes to the house and also does his hippotherapy.  She's better than the best.  Debbie is the red head you can barely see and she usually leads klp's horse.  He really loves her.  We didn't even know he knew her name until one day a few months ago he got on the horse and said, "I wanna go, DEBBIE!"  haha! The one leading that day was Julia.  She doesn't work there anymore, but came back to help with the big day.  And of course, his horse is Kandy (bad name for a boy horse if you ask me).  We have lots of love for Kandy.  :) 

klp now rides with stirrups (yes they are tiny and yes they are SUPER short, its pretty cute) so that he can work on standing while riding.  He's doing really really well with it and he even did it going up hill which is way WAY harder.  Awesome!  Standing is only further distorting his perception of "riding horses".  We're pretty sure he's gonna think its normal to ride sideways, backwards and standing up. Maybe he has a future in trick riding.  

Going up the "bump bump" as he calls it.  Its big railroad ties up a hill that the horse has to step over, so it makes for a bumpy ride.  klp LOOOOVES it!  

Standing and reaching to put in/take out of the shapes.  While he's having to work for it they also tell him what color/shape to put it in so that he can learn those things too.  :) 

Celia knows him so well.  This station can have any number of things hanging on it.  She brought a basketball goal from her house because she had a sneaky suspicion klp might like it just a little.  :)  She was right! Basketball+ horse riding= perfection! 

A little family pic.  klp was showing off his medal he got after his ride. 

klp with Celia.  I mean really.  We owe her SOOOOOOO MUCH!  

Our good buddies the Rotzlers came to watch Kan Man ride.  Chandler (their daughter) is one of the boys favorite people and we are pregnant together due at the same time.  Fun stuff with great friends.  :)

A celebratory air lift on the way to the car! 

We really believe in the hippo therapy thing and are so very thankful that we are in an area where he can get this sort of therapy.  

Easter Fun

Saturday night the boys tried their hands at egg dying.....

Kinsey, a girl from our youth group at church, was home from college for the weekend so she came over to visit. It was so fun to have her with us and the boys were SOOOOOOO excited she was there to play with them! :) 

The boys actually liked this and stayed interested longer than I expected. I should've boiled more eggs.  

klp was making sure I saw that his hand was turning colors....

Almost all the eggs ended up a lovely shade of greenish brown by the time the night was over, but these boys sure did have fun dipping and mixing.  Here is q showing off a couple of eggs....and Hulk arms.  

If he could've figured out how to drop them in the cup GENTLY, klp would've been a pro :)

Happy green hands!

oh dear. 

I wrote their names on an egg and wanted their picture with their name eggs.  BUT the concept of holding something up to show me without covering their face is almost IMPOSSIBLE to grasp...ahhhh!!!!

but this little series of pics did kinda make me laugh, so I'm putting them all up.  

Not covering their faces, but not even close to looking at the camera.  

I am only posting this one because klp looks SOOOOOOOOOOO STINKIN' CUTE! 

By the end of the decorating fun, not only were they all brown, but I don't think there was a single one that wasn't cracked.  The boys were just a little rough.  YIKES! Q's name one, literally had egg coming out. sheesh.  

Our final collection.  We ended up boiling a few more eggs, but by the time we got done, it was late and the boys had moved on to something else.  That was ok though because then me, KLP, and Kinsey got to decorate one.  It was fun! :) Notice all the nice, spider webby cracks.  

On Sunday, we woke them up early so they'd have plenty of time to hunt eggs before church.  Nothin' like sleepy face Easter basket pics! :) 

headed out the door! 

klp wasn't all that in to the hunting.  He would gasp when he found one (whether he really saw one or not) but was pretty much done after 5-6 eggs......all he wanted to do was swing.  

so swing he did! :) 

I deleted the picture of Q hunting, but he did good.  He didn't move fast, but he stuck with it and had fun.  

Here they are with their eggs :)

These pictures could be titled: "While the neighbors were calling CPS" I wanted to take picture before church because I wasn't sure what state the boys or their clothes would be in after church.  The boys were NOT COOPERATING.  We were begging, threatening, clapping, yelling, and threatening some more to just get them to LOOK.  They weren't being bad, they just wouldn't LOOK! UGHH!!  But we got a couple. And woke up all the neighbors, And probably scared all the neighbors.  Oh well.  

We were able to take a few after church and they seemed like they were in more of a mood for looking at the camera.  Too bad I hand't wiped klp's lunch off his face as well as I thought I had.  

Though this picture needs to be cropped and I'm awkwardly bent over trying to help klp stand up, I had to post this because of q's pose.  What in the world???!! haha!  Oh yeah, and there's my belly.  Its getting pretty big.

 One last brother pic to end the post.  

March in Review

March is already gone and I missed a lot of blogging, so here is a picture overload month in review.  

Our friend Greg came back to stay with us for a while.  He's a boy from Kory's hometown that is a freshman at Harding.  We get to be his home base when he can't quite make it all the way back to Montana.  During his spring break, he spent a few days with us and the boys LOVED it as usual.  

We went to my grandparents' house one afternoon to fish.  He and Kan man had a great time.  

This hat that klp is wearing is classic.  My grandpa always had lots of caps on hand for everyone to wear.  The same ones we wore still hang by the back door so its fun for the new kids to wear them.  :)

q L-O-V-E-S his Daddy.  He wanted to snuggle with Daddy a little bit one night before bed.  

While the boys were all gone to the state tournament, us moms got to spend lots of time together.  Rachel came to Longview to join the fun.  Here are way too many kids in one tub.  We planned on splitting up bath time, but they would have nothing of that plan.  

Enjoying the nice spring weather creating masterpieces on the sidewalk.  

Spaghetti anyone?

q spends more time painting his arm than he does his paper.  Oh well.  Personal expression, right?

"STICK 'EM UP"

Both boys LOVE to dribble Daddy's basketball.  This day q managed to get Daddy's shoes on too.  He was feeling reeeeeeeeeal big.  

Both boys had on sunglasses in the car one day and it was funny because they put them on themselves so they were sideways and upside down.  I tried to take a picture, but i was driving so I just held up my camera and took it.  I completely missed klp, but caught q jammin'.  

March Maddness is taken very seriously around here.  A game on the TV and a game on the iPad.  We can't miss a MINUTE.  :)  

Chandler wore her boots to church one Sunday so we got this sweet pic of the kids with their boots on.  

klp  had a check up with the Developmental Disabilities Clinic at Scottish Rite.  Its always a LOOOONG day.  This time we were there 2 1/2 hrs and that was our shortest visit yet.  We like it though because lots of people check in with him and we get to talk a lot to the Dr. and we really like him.  We are moving right a long with most things and have a few things to think about/work on, but are thankful for progress and maturity!  Kory went with me so we had a fun day with just Kan Man (while Q was at home with Gay Gay all to himself).  Here is the big boy walking down the hall at the hospital.

...and checking out the fish

We did a little bit of shopping and then ate lunch before heading home.  Days like this make me feel like klp is so big!  He was such a treat all day and we had a great time.  

We left early that morning, so he was zonked out about 5 min. into our trip home.  sweet boy. 

I have made smoothies for klp for breakfast for a couple of years now. I can put lots of stuff that he needs in there all while squeezing 300-400 calories into the smoothie. It never occurred to me to give them to Q (dumb me, I know).  The other day I had made a big batch of smoothies and he kept asking me for "Some Movies"  It took me forever to realize that some movies=smoothies.  Cuteness.  He got his some movies and loved it.  

We went to the park one morning with some buddies.  There was an entire playground and bike riding going on, but q spotted the basketball goals and that is ALL he wanted to do.  So we played pretend bball until I could peel him away from that to join his friends.  :)

We had a tragedy at Christmas....we lost klp's hat.  We have looked all over and can't find it.  So for his birthday I wanted to get him a new one.  We couldn't find any good Montana State ones like he had so my AWESOME sister in law, Sydni got on it and sent us not one, not two, but three MSU hats!! Both boys are SOOOO happy! (and the baby will no doubt be happy with his/hers too!)

klp got a Dr. kit for his bday.  Here they are playing Dr. with some animals.  The first time we played with it, I told q that maybe the elephant needed a shot and so he held up the toy and started making a gun noise.  Oh dear.  Not that kind of shot.  Its still 50/50 whether or not a Dr. shot is going to be more like a gun or an actual injection.  boys boys boys.  

We got klp a little slide/climbing toy thing for outside.  We wanted him to have something outside that he could do 100% on his own.  Kory put it together one night after work and it was dark before he finished but the boys just had to get in a slide or two before bed.  

The next morning we were out on the "slide" ASAP

They didn't even want to leave it to eat their apples, so they ate them right there.  

klp made this sweet hat at school the other day.  

Thats March in a nutshell....a big nutshell.

Sidenote: As I finish typing this, my boys are beside me saying "POO POO!" to each other and DYING LAUGHING! Really???!!  I have a lifetime ahead of me of taming potty humor, I didn't expect it to start this soon.  Sheesh.  :)