A Wild Ride!

Dear Kristi and Taylor,

Thank you for the pleasure of watching your children the last three days!! It was wild and crazy, at times chaotic and stressful, but mostly very very fun! Look at these 5 cuties.

Luckily the kids got along great, and Kristi you really do have good kids. Sure your boys can be rowdy, but I love that they are not mean, rude, or defiant. They generally obeyed really well and didn't have a single "freak-out" (my word for what my girls do- basically a tantrum. I really hope this is a "boys vs. girls" difference and not a "my kids vs. other kids" difference!). I really love your kids now that I've taken care of them for a few days.
First, Matthias. What a crazy, adorable kid. I don't know how he survives on an hour less sleep than the other kids, with the energy he has. He is SO CUTE and hilarious. So loving, he was always hugging and kissing Hannah and Whitney, and giving Eric big hugs when he came home from work. Here's Matt and Katelyn holding hands on a walk to the park.
Matt and Whitney have a lot in common I discovered. Second children I guess? Prime example: My neighbor turned on her sprinklers, and Whitney and Matt kept running over and sticking their hands and feet in....
...while Katelyn and James were studying the water running down the sidewalk and a potato bug crawling along. (Matt ran over to be in this picture)
Hannah did REALLY well, she hardly cried. As long as we were outside and/or I was holding her, she was fine. She learned to eat really well with a spoon the last few days, and I did not encourage her to walk at all. :) Whitney loved her but also tried to test the limits with her- picking her up and saying "too heavy!", stealing her blanket, hitting her with a spoon. Classic new baby in the house behavior. Sorry about that! Whitney spent several times in time-out learning to be nice to Hannah! She is SO cute too.
I love how James is an endless source of good and creative and interesting ideas of things to play. He is such a smart, inquisitive, good kid. Here's Matt as a dragon (holding the dragon's tail up) James is a king, and Katelyn is the queen.
Another day James came upstairs like this and I couldn't stop laughing! He and Matt took turns being a butterfly for a while, so funny.
So here were my three favorite things the kids did while they were here.

1. The storytelling Game- One person starts the story and then the next person adds a sentence or two, then the next person and so on. When Katelyn and I usually play, we make up stories about cute animals, magic cars, etc. But with the boys it was a whole different experience! It was absolutely hilarious the things they came up with! James was really good at it, being the oldest and all. Matt kept getting our main character killed- " and then they chopped off his head!" or "then he blasted him with a cannon" Or he would bring knights into a pirate story, or bring some one back who was already dead, and James would be like "no!" Obviously there was a lot of capturing and being attacked in our stories, SO funny. Then one time I ended a story with the guy finding a beautiful princess and getting married, and you should have seen the look James gave me, like "Ugh, what a lame ending!" I was dying laughing.

2. The hospital game- James wanted to be a doctor and Kate and Matt were the nurses. Whitney was napping, but Hannah had just woken up and they decided to "fix" her. They all had notepads and pencils, and as they diagnosed her they were scribbling notes on their papers and drawing pictures of what they talked about. Some of the things I remember that were wrong with her were "too much honey" "too much potatoes" "too much bending down and drinking water out of the toilet bowl" "too much dipping yourself in a big tub of melted butter" !! I wish I could remember all the other hilarious things they said! They would think of something and then laugh and laugh. So creative.

3. Races- They did this for about 45 minutes. James kept winning, and looking at this picture of them at the starting line I might know why! :) That's James out in front.
Coming in to the finish- Whitney got a little off course back there!
Katelyn did win a couple of times, love this picture!
And Matt won once!
Hannah LOVED cheering for them and was delighted each time they all came running in.
Whitney and Hannah also had their own little "race"
Basically my girls had the best three days ever! Whitney was so hyper the WHOLE time, it was just so exciting to have friends here. And the look on Kate's face here sums up her experience. We love you, Harvey kids, and will miss you. Although last night after Grandpa came to get them, Eric and I breathed a sigh of relief that we made it. Having only two kids is a sinch! What an easy life we normally have! :)
Glad you guys are having the best time ever in Hawaii!

Love,

Rebecca

Easter

The girls made these masks at story time at the library, and Katelyn played Easter bunny all that afternoon. :)

Easter Bunny Day morning! Katelyn was thrilled with her $2 sidewalk chalk.
finding an egg
As you can see, Whitney was also thrilled with the contents of her Easter basket.
A Littlest Pet Shop dog! She had been trying to steal Katelyn's for weeks. :)
At our city Egg Hunt! I was with Whitney so I only got pictures of her. She LOVED staring at all the eggs before it started...
and really enjoyed the leisurely pace of the 2-and-under egg field. She kept picking up toothbrushes and pencils instead of eggs though. :)
Eric said Katelyn SPRINTED out when they started and was all alone picking up eggs for a minute until the other 3-and-4-year-old kids (and Eric!) caught up. Nice work :)

Easter morning I had a nice little sunrise devotional with just Katelyn (at 7:30, when the sun comes up over our mountain), then we got to have a nice relaxing breakfast with Katrina and Phillip and watch conference all day. I just love Conference weekend.

Idaho trip

I have a few posts to catch up on, but since we currently have internet that feels as slow as dial-up, (don't worry, we're switching pronto) I can only do one per night because it takes so long for the pictures to load.

SO, last month we went to Idaho for Eric's cousin Anna's wedding. It was great to see all the extended family and catch up. We got to spend a night at the girls' GREAT-grandma and grandpa Murray's house, attend the sealing in the Idaho Falls temple (thanks to all the cousins who watched the girls!), hang out with Eric's fun cousins Trent and Marlene at the luncheon, ride 4-wheelers and explore great-grandma's awesome yard (I should say LAND) and hang out with more fun cousins again at the reception. A good day.

The girls in front of the temple

An awesome Whitney face, she's saying "cheese!"

Whitney LOVED the 4-wheeler and called it a tractor.

Katelyn now wants a 4-wheeler for her birthday (not happening, sorry! (: )

A Day in the Life of Whitney's Pig

Every morning I wake up with Whitney in her crib. We go down for breakfast and I get a special seat on the table so I don't get messy. Sometimes I sit on the floor so I'm extra far away from sticky hands.

Whitney likes to hold me while she looks at books, or while her mom or sister read to her.
I wait in her room while she takes a bath so I won't get wet.
Whitney gives me lots of kisses.
I wait inside while Whitney plays outside. This used to make her REALLY sad, and a couple of times she even snuck me out with her. But now she accepts that we must be separated so I don't get dirty.

I also wait at home while Whitney goes places. This made her cry for 30-45 minutes two weeks in a row when she couldn't take me to church! But now she's usually okay. Sometimes we're lucky and I get to go for a car ride with her. But then I wait in the car while Whitney goes to stores and parks.
Sometimes Whitney carries me around a lot. Other days not as much.
But I always know she loves me, because if she ever gets upset about something, the first thing she says as she's crying is "Piggy! Piggy!" I comfort her even when she has a blue mouth from eating a blow-pop.
She always wakes up happy from her nap when she sees me.
At the end of the day, sometimes we wrestle.
And sometimes we watch a movie. Even if I don't get to watch because she's using me as a pillow, I love to be with my Whitney.