Its time for another kids update

I figure before my life gets so hectic again, I wanted to do a kids update since I haven't done that in quite awhile. I can't believe how fast these two are growing. Each day I am amazed at these two little human beings that call me mom. They make me laugh so hard and just treasure being a mom. This is going to be a lengthy post, but its more for me to document and keep track of for my own journaling purposes so I apologize in advance for how long it is.

Ridge is now barely 21 months. He is becoming more and more like his sister in being a little ham. I think he now realizes what his competition is and is constantly doing the funniest things. He loves to walk really low like a sumo wrestler with his arms out. He's got the cutestet most amazing faces. He has this one where he turns his head to the side, yet maintains eye contact with you. In the last week or so, he has started to parrot EVERYTHING anyone says. Sometimes its hard to understand, but he makes the effort. He is saying a lot more (finally), but his favorite word is 'this'. He will comment that he wants 'this' and point and it takes us forever, if ever, to figure out exactly what it is he wants. He has a major love for tractors still. He can spot them from anywhere and that seems to be a fall back on getting our attention too. At night, he has figured out how to get out of bed and come up with some 'reason' to get out of bed. For example, almost without fail, every night he will come out of his room and he will hold his head and start saying 'owe', while he's smiling mind you. We will kiss it and send him back to bed. He will sometimes do this a couple times before we literally have to force him in bed to stay. Its hard not to laugh when he does it. He refuses to sit in his booster chair at the table any longer so half of his food ends up on the floor because he is so short and the distance his utensil has to make to get into his mouth is so great. He finally has more teeth to speak of which is truly exciting. He loves his big sister. They play so well together. Lately they play house where Cambree is the mom and Ridge is the baby and she puts him to sleep all the time. He has the innate ability to find mud no matter what. We will let him outside for two seconds and he will be covered in mud that we didn't even know existed. He loves WATER!! If he sees any kind of water, you won't get him to be quiet about it.

We just gave him his first buzz cut this last weekend. I was nervous about how short it would look, but immediately after I loved it and so did Ridge. He loves to feel it and loves for anyone else to feel his hair. He couldn't stop talking about it on Sunday and would lead with his head so people would touch it. It is so funny. We might just do it more often. He loves to go on golf cart rides with his GG. Cambree and Ridge have switched positions when it comes to this. Cambree doesn't like them anymore, and its hard to keep Ridge off of it. He is finally doing good with nursery. Took us long enough :) The other night he started to say prayers for us. You can't really understand anything but he says it in a high pitch soft voice and we can understand amen. He is so proud of himself for saying his prayers too. So cute. He also reads scriptures with us. He will open pages and 'read' them to us. I recorded the movie 'Dunston checks in' by chance a couple weeks ago, and little did I know how much the kids, especially Ridge would love it. I think we've watched it about a million times. He loves monkeys now because of it. We started doing animal flash-cards with him and his favorite animal is the monkey of course. Besides that, everything is a 'meow' or 'moo'. We're working on it though.

Now for Cambree. Let's see, where to begin. Well she just had her 3rd birthday as everyone knows. But the funny thing is, she is adamant that she is 15. That is what she tells everyone. She also remembers every gift she got for her birthday and if Ridge wants to play with it, she reminds me and Ridge that she got it for her birthday. She loves her 'search and find' books. I am about done with them, but I'm glad she likes them so much. She is a very eager learner. Whenever I get out anything to do or make or anything, she gets so excited. I started letting her get on the computer to do starfall.com by herself (I highly recommend this site to anyone with preschoolers. I use it in preschool to teach the letters and the kids love it). But she can sit there for hours going through the letters and navigating herself. Very weird to see a 3 year old doing that all by herself. Hair styling has become a huge thing for her as well. It was another birthday gift that was definitely worth it. Every day she wants to do my hair, but not just brush it, blow dry, curl and wet it down. I love it when people come over because she gets to do someone else's hair and they aren't tired of it like I am :) She is very curious about everything. Always wants to know what is going on, why things are the way they are. She is also my social bug. She can make friends no matter where we go or for any amount of time. She is very good at articulating what she wants. Cambree is constantly talking about our new baby coming. She will even sometimes tell the baby 'TIME TO GET OUT'. I agree completely!! She's going to be an awesome helper. We had her in dance for a couple weeks but after the two weeks didn't go like planned, we have decided to pull her out and try again in August. I hope it works because she really does enjoy dancing. She has a new found fascination with makeup. Lucky me :) She has found her way a couple times, into my makeup and put it on. She loves her GG so much. She constantly disappears and goes over to her house without saying anything to us. We are telling Grandma that she needs some kind of alarm to sound when she goes over. She knows her way around her house and knows how to get drinks and food there. I can't blame her, who wouldn't love getting spoiled by their great-grandma. Still its frustrating for us. She is the biggest helper. She loves to help me pull weeds, or pick up branches after pruning, or cleaning. I love seeing this side of her come out.

The other day we decided to cut her hair again. I was so excited to see the end result. She looks super cute. I took her picture (above), but its not the best because she was swimming and being a ham for the camera as normal. She was so funny about getting her hair cut. She knew about it for a couple days and was so excited. We get there and it was like the dance situation all over again. She freaked out. Thankfully Rachel Peck, was great with her and eventually got her to calm down and cooperate. She did an amazing job on it. The other week I started taking pictures for different people. First my sister-in-laws family and then a couple other people I know down here. Cambree was around for all of them. She was so funny at how frustrated she was getting that it wasn't HER that I was taking pictures of. She loves the camera, and I have to say, the camera loves her too. Just a couple days ago, Cambree finally figured out how to pedal her little trike. Its taken a long time, but she finally can do it. Sadly last week, her best friend moved away. Before she did, we had her over one last time to play. These little girls are always wanting to play together. They attended school together for only one semester, but grew a neat little bond. Everytime they get together, its hard to pull them apart. We will really miss Kierstin, (and Marci :). We'll have to make sure to get them together when we can.

These two kids have been so fun lately. I have been really trying to come up with things for them to do, so that they aren't bored and are still learning while I want to be lazy :). So we are doing a 'preschool' every morning where we doing our letters and flash-cards, read some books, and practice coloring or writing and then doing some kind of activity. It has helped make the time go by faster, and they really enjoy it. Their favorite thing lately is to jump from the little box in between our couch and chair, to the couch and jump continuously to the other end. Then they push off all the cushions onto the ground and jump onto them. Ridge loves to get up Cambree's bunk bed and play with her up there. Mind you, he can't get down by himself, but he loves to climb. They both love outside and I try to get them out when I can. It has been hard lately though, with how hot and humid its been. They love the rain, and playing in it. They love the thunder too. These are a couple pictures from the first real monsoon rain that we got. They loved it so much. They were soaked by the end of it.

Every day, it has become a ritual for them to give Curtis a hug and kiss before leaving for work. Curtis made the mistake a couple days of leaving without giving them their hugs and kisses and they literally lost it. I had to call him and tell him to swing by home really fast to give them hugs and kisses. They get so upset if they see him leaving without offering a hug. They really love their daddy. They love to watch 'So you think you can dance'. Cambree imitates every dancer and is really quite good. Ridge just does a little jumping move all over and call that dancing.

These two are the best kids ever. I have lost my patience with them a lot lately, but they are great kids. I love them so much and grateful for them. I can't even begin to imagine what one more kid will add to this little family.

If you could all do me a favor, I am trying to record all their little funny stories here for journaling and want anyone that has one, to add them here so that it can be documented for them later on. Thanks :)