The Grand Kanyon is 6!

March 26 was a fun day for Kanyon Luke. This was the first year that he's started to catch on to the birthday thing.  He enjoyed picking out his clothes (red shirt and jeans of course), haircuts at the barber shop, donuts next door from the barber shop, picking his lunch, dinner, and anything else we could think of, even eating outside at the picnic table despite the chilly temps.......also a good time to note that it was a good day for Quinn to learn a little bit about letting someone else have ALL the attention.  Its hard for me to fathom all that was going on this time 6 years ago, but here we are.  This boy reaches to the deepest part of my heart. 

For his birthday, we gave him a new swing.  Its important to me (and him...whether he knows it or not) to have things outside that he can do independently.  He LOVES to swing and always has so I did a little looking around for just the right swing.  This is what we got and it was a HIT!  The super bonus is that lots of kids can pile on it together! klp is blurry in the pictures because he was "flapping" like he does when he's excited....he was so happy! 

I kinda like his baby brother too...

Jaylie June joined the swing party and I had to post the series of pictures..its just too funny.  Oh dear. 

I love the look on jjp's face...

sugar for the baby sister! 

No babies were harmed in the snapping of these pictures.  

Here we are.  

I saved klp's paint paper for a couple of days and then cut out circles from them to make the banner.  

The first thing he opened was a new set of paints. He was pumped!  

He doesn't like cake, but we wanted to do one anyways.  He may not like cake but he does LOVE to paint so I made a cake that looks like his paint.  Here he is with his new paints and his paint cake.....and his version of cake....CHEETOS!  

The "party" was just us and my mom and my aunt and uncle that live in town came over for cake. It was fun and perfect for this little guy.  He loved blowing out the candles...even though Q blew out at least 4 of them before we could stop him.  haha.  

He enjoyed looking at the cake, but when he blew the candles out he looked at Q and said, "Ok Bubba you can eat my cake now. "  (blanket + thumb = mesmerized Quinn)

Back to the swing! 

Unprompted cuddles from Quinn.  Kinda cute. 

Chalk another one up for me and Mom.  We decided life would be pretty perfect if you had someone with you all the time. I was working on the cake, she was sweeping/mopping.  Jaylie woke up, I kept icing the cake, mom went and got her. I fed Jaylie, mom got bags of icing ready.....you know....you can pretty much get it all done together! It was a fun day and I'm glad she could be here with us. 

I'll end with this picture.  klp couldn't get his new paint opened fast enough.  So here he is painting by his half eaten paint cake.  

To say we are thankful for him is an understatement. Its been a year of growth and maturing for him.  He can talk and say anything he wants to and cracks us up every day with what comes out of his mouth. He can take his walker anywhere and is closer and closer to using his crutch to walk. He now really loves to walk.  He will choose to cruise along furniture or a wall instead of sitting down to scoot. He can bounce on a bed on his rear end higher than anyone you've ever seen, He can recognize probably 10-15 letters and some numbers, he is tracing better and better and dominates his iPad learning games.  His daddy and I have decided that he has the best laugh in the whole world and still is quite the people person. I have noticed that as he matures, he gets more nervous, scared, and shy.  He LOVES Peter Pan but has recently started calling Peter Pan "the green guy".  We have no clue where that came from.  He tells me if he got in trouble at school within the first 5 seconds of me asking about his day.  I can't always piece together what happened but he spills the beans pretty quickly.  He is quite bossy and takes an "adult tone" with ease when taking charge of his brother or anyone else.  He and Quinn are quite the pair and usually have a great time together.  Kanyon loves to play with "guys" and gets very carried away in whatever is happening with his guys (any action figure type toy) in his imaginary story.  His play has really developed this year and its been really fun to watch. He can take his own shirt of remember he basically only has one hand....try it sometime. He still loves being with other kids and works hard to keep up.  Its hard sometimes because physically they just get around faster than him but he is happy to tag along the best he can. We look forward to the "language barrier" lessening as he talks better and better and can converse quicker and more easily with other kids.  We are blessed to be surrounded by awesome friends with awesome kids who love Kanyon.  He eats more ketchup than anyone I know and is still a committed carnivore.  He continues to roll with the punches quite well. It seems the bigger the punch the easier he adjusts.  He does like to know what to expect and, in general, is constantly grasping for some sort of control.  For a boy like him, his world is largely controlled by other people.  We try to give him control and independence when we can and help him deal with it when he can't have that.  This year has had its struggles too but I don't really feel like talking about them right now.  The bottom line is we've learned over the last 6 years that there's always gonna be somethin' to deal with.  We "get" one thing and something else is bound to pop up.  But we've also learned that we'll get through it one way or another.  There are times that I feel like everyone around me has it so much easier than me.  I KNOW I'm not the only one and I REALLY KNOW that we have been spared so many things that many people aren't.  But the reality is that for the most part, the people I'm surrounded by don't have to deal with the things I do.  There are times I allow myself to feel sorry for myself and its almost always followed by me feeling sorry for other people......because they don't get to be KANYON'S MOM and I do.  Haha.  Really. I know thats a silly thought, but I sometimes feel like its unfair that I get to be his Mom and no one else does. It's like I'm hogging all of the greatness and I should be sharing it with someone else. I'm just so glad he calls ME mommy. All the other stuff is SOOOOO very very worth it.   Kory and I are SO. PROUD.  We loved celebrating Kanyon Luke Phillips.  We love him so so so much.

Jaylie June 7 months

March 9= Jaylie June is 7 months old! 

This has been a busy month for this little girl....and her mother.  She is BUSY BUSY BUSY! She's still not crawling, but she can squirm all over the place more and more every day.  She loves to chew on dipaers (clean ones) or books.  Neither of which I'm a real fan of, but she often finds her way to one of those things very quickly.  If you look closely in the next picture, you'll see that she got her 2nd tooth. She NEVER sits still.  Nursing her is like trying to nurse a Tasmanian Devil!   

She is still smiley smiley, but has started fussing more.  Like when I leave the room or walk by her and don't pick her up.  She's spent more time in the wrap lately so that I can keep doing what I need to do without the fussing.  I used to "wear" her in the wrap for fun, now its more out of necessity!  She's not doing as good going down for naps as she was and she's still pretty bad at night.  Great, huh?  

I'm trying to do better feeding her food.  She's had avocado, banana, sweet potatoes, and applesauce.  She still isn't all that great at it, but I'm trying to do better about letting her practice. I just forget/don't have it thawed and ready.  She cries at me like its the ultimate betrayal when I put her in her car seat.  Despite the initial crying, she's a great traveler. We drove 4 hours to Houston and 4 hours back in one day and she did great!  She's keeping me on my toes more and more...who knows what the next month holds.  

I'll end this post with an IRRESISTIBLE picture of my 7 month old!

Daffodils

My daffodils are in full bloom in my front flowerbed.  We were outside playing and I decided I should get a picture of Jaylie in front of them.  (should've moved the soaker hose from the flower bed) 

The boys were outside too, so I thought, "why not?"....then was quickly reminded THIS is why not: 

(klp has a mouth full of apples)

This is when jjp started eating grass and I knew it but didn't care because I WAS TRYING TO GET THE BOYS TO SMILE AND LOOK AT ME!!! 

Aren't my daffodils pretty?

Siblings

There's just not much better than watching your kids enjoying each other (and choosing to forget about the arguing and fussing and fighting that goes on.  Maybe I should start taking pictures of those times.)

I know I already posted one like this, but its just cute.  

What says brotherly love more than a living room duel with a shotgun and a tiny arrow shooter? 

You are witnessing a sacrifice from big brother Kanyon.  The boy loves his Lazy Boy and doesn't love to share it.  He's usually willing to share it for a little bit (read: a few seconds, maybe a minute).  Here he is sharing with a SMILE.  (sidenote: I'm realizing as I post several blogs that she wears these pj's a lot....or I only take pictures of her in these pj's)

Takin' a trip in the laundry basket

Headed to a bball game in their jerseys.  

Holding baby Jaylie.  Q had a tough time getting comfortable this time. I think it was because he wasn't willing to put his gun down.  Priorities people.  

Teamwork

I've never met 2 cooler brothers

Working on valentines

We didn't know how the timing of the boys' age/maturity would work, but it has worked out so great.  In a lot of ways, they are at about the same places. In other ways they off set each other and make a pretty good pair.  Even in their pretend play they make a good team.  Q always chooses Batman, klp-superman.  Q-Peter Pan, K-John (the brother with the glasses).   There is usually an argument when it comes to Ninja Turtles because they both want to be red, but I think they're finally grasping the beauty of imaginary play....you can BOTH be the red one.  One of my favorite things is when they're in the bath or just in playing in the same room and q will say, "Hey Kan, talk to me." Their conversations are pretty hilarious.  They have their moments of pushing each others' buttons.  Q will refuse to answer klp or will try to run to beat him to the chair (see....the chair is a major territory for klp) and klp will do the classic pest move and touch Quinn and not stop when Quinn completely overreacts and screams for him to stop.  If q could learn the power of not reacting I think we could end that pestering problem.    

They really are pretty sweet to each other most of the time and I'm so thankful for the lifetime of fun they have ahead of them.  I think its one of the greatest joys of parenting and I can't imagine how great it will be as they get older.  Assuming we keep them liking each other! :)  

All in a Day....

These are just little snapshots of what happens around the house....

Sucker Daddy in to reading a book first thing Saturday morning. 

While I'm putting Q down for a nap, I let klp watch TV.  For a while it was Rachael Ray so he got lots of good cooking tips.  The station has since changed their schedule so now its Family Feud.  He loves it. Add this to the list of game shows he loves! 

Cold dark winter evenings usually mean a little video after naps while Mom cooks dinner.  Grab your blanket and suck your thumb. 

Jaylie might take a little turn in the Bumbo for a while.....

but that wears her out so she has to take a nap.  

klp loves lights of any kind.  This particular evening it was dark in the living room and he had on his head lamp and was holding a little plastic ball up to the light turning the ball bright red.  

Sometimes you gotta take a break in your busy day and read a good book.  

Everyone needs a little fresh air and a nice swing. 

While baby naps again.....

brothers play with their head lamps in my closet.  

After a long day of playing these 3 snuggle in and go to bed.  Or not.  But they do enjoy cuddling together for a bit before real bedtime.  

I find myself wishing I could remember the details of our days.  Kory comes home and I know so many things happened that I wanted to tell him and I just can't remember it all. Our days are quite a whirlwind of good, bad, impatience, sweetness, fits, cuddles, laughing, crying, cuteness, whining, learning, playing, fighting, tattle telling, and perfection.  I'll take it.