I'm So Glad When Missionaries Come Home

♪♫ I'm so glad when Grandpa and Grandma come home, glad as I can be; ♪♫

♫♪ Clap my hands and shout for joy, and run to get a hug, ♫♪

♪♫ Put my arms around their necks, and hug them tight like this, ♪♫

♫♪ Pat their cheeks, then give them what? A GREAT BIG KISS!!! ♫♪

The boys are laughing at me right now, telling me that the song doesn't go like that... well, now it does, and the boys sing it this way now...ha ha ha!

We are so happy to have Grandpa and Grandma Zaugg home from their Family History Mission in Guam. Here are some fun pictures from yesterday's airport adventures.

Cody holding his sign, wondering why all the other kids got to run around without him.

(I let him out, and he went and crawled back into his stroller.)

Stephen and Skyler's Signs

Our Family...except Stephen, he was taking the pictures...

Megan and her family's sign

Everyone waiting...

WELCOME HOME!!!

Hugs for everyone!

Fun Things Kids Say and Do...

Last week we were making posters for greeting my parents home from their mission. (♪♫♥ YEPPPERS, that will be TOMORROW ♥♫♪, we are a little more than EXCITED here.) Pictures will come... some day soon.
Stephen says, "I can't wait for the airplane to float them home." So, we made a poster that has an airplane tied to balloons floating them home (like "UP"just an airplane instead of a house because this is what 3 little boys want on MY poster), I was drawing, and then walked away for a moment...I came back to find my airplane finished (Amazing!)...and Stephen declaring it a "Airplane jet rocket, so they hurry home." And Stephen saying "Oops, I drew that thing to make it a rocket, but maybe that is for helicopters?" Oh, well, who knew? He made my poster cute...since I definitely can't draw...no artistic talent here.
Skyler says, "Pa and Ma come home from Guamy, nice!" He draws a huge smiley face on his poster. "I wear Guamy shirt from Ma n' Pa."
Cody scribbles on his poster and oinks like a pig, actually he will do that for anyone and everyone no matter where, (most often during prayer...any suggestions on how to stop this?)
On the way home from church yesterday, Stephen wanted to tell us the Joseph Smith translates the gold plates story... then also tells our guests at dinner "Heavenly Father gave Joseph Smith the gold plates. Joseph Smith looked inside, and all the words were spelled wrong. He poked a tool inside, and fixed it."
Skyler at dinner last night, (guests hearing everything) "Mom, more nade?" (asking for more lemonade, I got him some.) "Mom, too much nade." He runs off and drinks some, then comes back with a worried face "Mom, I drink much nade and pee bed." I just about died laughing, since when is he concerned about that? I reminded him that he still wears diapers to bed. I guess he wants to try staying dry? Ok, I'm cool with that.
Cody introduces himself as "Co Cu" (trying to imitate me calling him Coco I am sure) when people ask him his name. He dances and says, "Bye ee" and blows kisses as our guests drive away." Since when can he walk up and down stairs? Maybe it is just a showoff thing, he never did that before yesterday. I love Cody's laugh, just call him adorable, he points and laughs at you...apparently caught in his web.
Our neighbor came to visit for a moment last night, Stephen says, "You need to see me run like Skyler, he runs like a grapefruit." What does a grapefruit run like, and why does Stephen think Skyler runs like one?
Stephen says his hair is "longer shortish", Skyler says "hair gone", and they describe Cody's hair as "cute boo-boo hair".
Welcome to the Crazy World of Groo... ☺

Yippeee Skyler!!!

I think I forgot to mention the other day...ok, I am certain that I forgot to mention, that my little Skyler has been taking the world by storm, here are a few things he is doing...
...He hasn't been having any potty accidents lately!!! (Nearly earning him a popcorn party.)
...He just reached 29 pounds!!! (Yes it is an accomplishment, he finally reached 5% for his age group. (And he is 10% for height.) They finally are saying he is a well proportioned kid, THANK YOU PEDIASURE!!! (We moved him to 3 pediasures a day to see if it would work better than 2. They like to see a minimum of a pound gained every 3 months I guess, and this boy gained 2lbs 5oz!!!
...He surprised me the other day by counting plates and cups as he unloaded the dishwasher. ("one, two, three, two, three, two, three, four, four, two, three, four, five, six!!!") I have been trying to get this boy to count to 5 for a long time, and he wouldn't. He must have just picked this up at school. (We love school and the great big bus!)
...Our Skyler is nearly bursting with words to say, sometime he has so much to say he has to stop and take a big breath. (Not quite sentences yet, but real words!) Did I mention that we love his school?
...Is it possible that my boy is finally growing out of his 2T clothes, and fits nicely in a 3 and a 4? (Just in time for Cody to need those 2T's, ah yes, Cody is at 50% height and weight, and growing out of the 18 month clothes that I just pulled out for him.)
I wanted to put in Skyler's school picture here...but my scanner isn't working...ok, another day...
HOORAY SKYLER!!!!

A hair raising...crazy day

Ah, yes...on a day like today. I most certainly would like to send my kids off to someone else's house to live. It is days like this that I nearly go insane. Stephen was gone most of the day, and the kids decided to act up. (They seriously got sent to time out a world record amount of times today.) Why wouldn't they listen to me? Cody was the exception...his cute little hugs calm me down. He also started saying "Cracker" today. So cute! (!!!Yes!!! Stephen got the kids dinner, and put them to bed (mostly) so I could "run away". That is right, I ran away, I got as far as the Library...stopped in to pick up a book, ok, two books, and two books on CD... and then headed home. ( I had planned on being gone an hour. That is what I told Stephen as the amount of time it would take to restore my sanity.) So, after being gone slightly over 20 minutes, I drove up to my house, quietly sat on the front steps, and read my book. AHHHH, sigh. It was lovely!


I have decided I need more moments like that!

So, on crazy no minding days I have to remember...

Cody's cute baby talk. His cute hugs, sweet kisses. I LOVE HIS SMILES!!! He loves to love. My Cody can give me a hug that makes my day all better. He loves to be silly. I love the way he dashes away from me when I am changing him into pajamas. He climbs into the window, and blows kisses to the neighbors, (thanks for not thinking I am a weird parent for letting my baby dance in the window in nothing but his diaper. And if you do think I am weird, thanks for not saying anything). This boy loves to dance anytime he hears music. I love all the words you say! I love all the things you can do! I love to watch you learn! Love you baby!

Skyler's quiet patience... but when he has had enough, he has had it, and he doesn't care who hears about it. I love that he is really trying to say words now, sometimes sentences. I love that this boy is really trying most days to be potty trained. (Today was a put a diaper on himself day, because mommy wouldn't give in.) I love his cute personality. He loves fast books, lots of pictures with few words. He would rather laugh at a silly picture and point out what is happening than have the words read. (He will pick up anything though, a flyer, a letter, what ever it is, he hands it to me and says, "What book say?" or "Read book!") I love how he loves to cook, he loves to be told how things work, but mostly he would rather figure thing out on his own. He is a smarty pants! He loves his big bus, and he loves his school. His hugs also make the world a better place. He loves giving hugs and kisses. He can climb and get just about anything...I think he is 90% monkey. I think he would live in a tree if I would let him. But this boy is just like me...not a morning person... it is the hardest thing in the world to get this bug out of bed in the morning to get ready for school. But he is also very much a snuggler. He is possibly moving to a new school next year. They are going to tear down his elementary school when the new one is built. They are moving some of the preschool classes to another elementary for a year while they build the new school. He may keep his same teacher though, so that is exciting!

Stephen is a very loving boy. Sweet, but with selective hearing. He is very smart, independent, and has me wrapped around his little finger most of the time. He is my big helper. he cleans well, picks up toys, helps takes care of his brothers, and loves to make everyone surprises. This boy loves to talk, and write, and test if his brothers know something like a color, or counting, or simple words. He is always the teacher. Always talking to his brothers about something interesting. He loves to take charge of his brothers, (But also encourages them to do rule breaking things like throwing rocks at the tree and into the road.) He loves anything that moves, bikes, cars, trucks, trains, planes, helicopters. He is the most willing to mind if he is alone, but with his brothers, he just can't help himself I guess. He loves school, and is excited to go to Kindergarten this fall. This boy could live in a jungle and never enter another building and be happy to be free forever.

Anyway, thanks for letting me vent...ah, all better. =)

7th Anniversary.

We celebrated our 7th anniversary yesterday!

We had a great day. Aunt Terri watched the kids in the afternoon,

and Grandma B. and Ryan watched them in the evening.

(Thank You, we appreciate it!)

They said they had a lot of fun with you!

Most of our time out we didn't have the camera with us...

sorry, most of the pictures are of the ice castle.

The day started out very grey...

couldn't we have just a little bit of sunshine?

Yippeee!

The sun did come out for a while,

making it warm up enough to go

around Midway without coats.

When we were driving down the street we saw an amazing site. Clearmont Spa had left their fountain on so it could freeze. (Homestead Resort has done that in the past...) but this was huge! We couldn't stop though, Stephen said we had somewhere to be at a certain time.

We pulled into the Homestead Resort, and right up to The Crater. We were scheduled for snorkeling at 3:00, but they were running behind, leaving us time to walk over to the Ice Castle.

They had built a structure out of PVC pipes, and let the water run, it was amazing!

They built paths around and through the towers of ice.

Snorkeling in The Crater was a blast,

We had a group of Scuba students beneath us, sending up pillars of bubbles. Glittering bubbles, awesome!!!

We went to lunch, and dinner

(We had to wait an hour to get a table)

Not everything went as planned, but all things considered,

we had an amazing day.

Birthday Cakes

Here they are... The birthday cakes you have all been waiting for...and it is only the end of Feb...

Here is Stephen's Birthday cake... COOKIE MONSTERStephen and Skyler wanted to make my birthday cake...
Stephen, although it was his first time frosting a cake, patiently taught Skyler...so cute!

Then they added the sledding snowmen. (Already falling off...) And a marshmallow igloo. Thanks boys!

Ok, here are some pictures from Christmas...just for fun...

The boys wanted to make something special...

And decided what to bake right away...

**TAAA-DAAA**

A gingerbread house! Sorry the picture is so dark...this house battled the big bad wolf...and lost...but we rebuilt it, and it stayed together till the "big bad boys" came and blew it down Christmas day...

Ok, that wasn't so bad...We got our new post up pretty quick. We will try for another post soon.

Happy Fluorescent Yellow Food Day 2010

Celebrating year 13...and a baby bean... (Can you believe this is year 13 already?)

Yes, it is that day again...the day we wait for all year long. Feb 20... This year is extra special ...Holiday Co-founder Pamela should be having her baby any day now... (due date today)

We made what we have dreamed about for years for the potluck. A great big bowl of Mac n' cheese...

Ok, ok...it is a cake for the celebration here...(my kids are sick again...so we will not be attending Andrea's potluck, we are very sad.) We hope that you all have a great day, and eat something yellow in celebration.

All right...as long as I am on my blog I should add more pictures just to prove I am not a total slacker.

So ...here we go...

Skyler writing out Valentines...
Stephen signing Valentines...

Cody decorating envelopes to send out Valentines...
Some of the millions of Valentines Day cookie we made. Wahooo, the story of that week will have to be yet another post...I'm still not over it.

For some reason it won't let me add more pictures...So, I will do that in the next post...