Body Art and a Trip Down Memory Lane

Kate loves to draw with markers. (Washable, of course.) She is very good about drawing with one marker at a time, and putting the lid back on the marker before she moves to the next color. On this particular day, I gave her some markers and paper to draw with in the kitchen while I was working on dinner. I looked up to see that she had taken the red marker and colored all over her arm. It was cherry scented, and her arm smelled of cherries even after we washed it off. Mmmmm, cherries.

This little incident reminded me of a similar one that occurred when Rachael was just about Kate's age. -For some reason, Morgan never drew on herself.- Anyway, one day I gave Rachael some paper and a pen to draw with while I did the dishes. After a while I looked over to see that she was drawing on the table. I cleaned it up and we moved on with our day. Later on that night as I was going to put Rachael in her jammies, I discovered that not only had she colored on the table with the pen, she had also covered her little tummy with the pen. Nice Rach. Nice.


*Side Note: It was with Rachael that I learned all about washable markers and Mr. Clean's FABULOUS magic erasers. She was quite the little artist. Walls, floors, furniture, carpet, etc.

The Flying Piglet

Each spring there is a marathon put on here in our city called the Flying Pig. To promote physical health, the 2nd graders at our elementary school train by walking, running, or getting a mile's worth of physical activity a few times a week for the 6-8 weeks leading up to the marathon. On the day before the big race, the children and their families can go and complete the last mile of the race on the actual course. Participants get t-shirts, medals, and get to experience the race scene. It is really cool. As Rachael is in second grade this year, we had the chance to do work on this and do it as a family. It was really fun. The girls and I logged our mileage as we walked, ran and played together, while Chris logged his mileage as he ran from one hospital to the next. It was great because it was something we could do as a family and it promoted physical fitness. Hooray!

*I was telling Chris that they should call this little race 'The Flying Piglet', a name inspired by the name of the actual marathon. I thought I was pretty original, clever and a bit witty. Guess what words were on the medals that the girls received. You got it, 'The Flying Piglet'. Boy, whoever came up with that name was pretty original, clever and a bit witty. Don't ya think?

Chris and the girls before the race. Go team Runyan!

Kate and Daddy being a bit silly before the race.

Morgan and Rachael after the race with their medals. They were so proud, they wore their medals to church the next day. Not your typical neck attire to wear to church, but it was pretty cute anyway.

The Treasure Pot

Kate has discovered the wonderful joy of putting treasures into the toilet. This particular morning I heard Kate exploring under the bathroom sink, but didn't really think anything of it. We don't keep anything harmful under there, and I knew she was okay. A minute or so later when I went in to check on her, this is what I found:
Nice. Just two hours later on the same day, I went into the restroom to find this:
So, first some tampons, next some "pretty rocks" as they are called at our house. What will be next? Only time will tell... As I was making dinner later on that day, I caught Kate walking down the hallway on her way to the bathroom with my favorite measuring cups in her hands. Phew. That would just be too much. Even after some major sanitizing and a trip through the dishwasher, I am not sure if I could bake with my measuring cups knowing that they had been in the "Treasure Pot". Blech.

Spring Break

Chris was able to have time off during the girls' spring break again this year, which was so nice. We wanted to take a little trip somewhat close to home, so we rented a cabin for a few days in Indiana. For the first night, we left the girls with my parents and had our first overnight away since Kate was born. It was such a treat to have some time alone. Then we picked the girls up and had two great nights as a family. The weather was rainy, but we had a blast spending time in the hot tub, playing the wii, watching movies, playing games, and just enjoying one another's company away from all of our usual responsibilities. The last night that we were there, my parents joined us for a little barbecue and mallow roast. It was such a nice little vacation. Sigh.

The hot tub was great. All three of the girls loved it. Chris and I did too.

Morgan and Rachael playing the wii. We all did our fair share of wii playing this trip. The game of choice: Harry Potter Years 1-4. Chris and I may or may not have stayed up late each night playing this game so that we could earn coins, characters and spells 'for the girls'. The sacrifices we make for our children...

Kate in the Wiggles Zone. We brought along the portable DVD player for the drive, along with a few of Kate's favorite Wiggles videos. She loves the Wiggles. -We discovered the Wiggles when Morgan and Rachael were very young. They enjoyed them, but Kate truly loves them. She will sit mesmerized, dance along, and then sit some more. On this trip, Kate learned how to open the DVD player and turn on the Wiggles herself. She is 18 months old. Oh boy.

Roasting mallows. For some reason, this never gets old.

Grandpa, Rachael, Morgan and Daddy in the hot tub.

Just For Fun

One Saturday in March, it was sunny and quite pleasant. The girls decided to eat lunch on the deck. They didn't want to eat at the table, so they moved their chairs together. The fun thing was that Kate just thought she was so grown up, eating out there with Morgan and Rachael. She laughed and babbled with them and had such a great time, I just had to take a picture.

And the Winnder Is...

I really love St. Patrick's Day. I know it is one of the smaller, less significant holidays, but it is still so much fun. Many see it as an excuse to get plastered. As we abstain from alcoholic beverages, we celebrate in other ways. We wear green, eat green food, and even get a visit from the leprechaun who turns our milk green. It is quite fun. This year I purchased green shirts and made green hair bows for the girls. I was pretty excited to snap a picture for the old blog. The only problem was that only 2/3rds of the girls being photographed were in the mood to be photographed. It didn't help that we had to rush to get out the door to a dentist appointment before school...Kate was more interested in her toy phone than looking at the camera. Anyway, I couldn't find that one golden picture to post on the blog, so I thought I would let you choose.

#1
Naw. Kate is not even looking up...

#2
Definitely NOT. Kate is looking up this time... It does sort of look like I am torturing her though.

#3
Not so much... Looks like she still has not forgiven me for taking the previous picture.

#4
Just might be our best option. You can see that they are all in green and nobody is crying or giving the Stink Eye. What do you think?

Happy St. Patty's Day!

The Lip and Girl Power-Type Jammies

The Lip is a little trick that Morgan used to do when she was Kate's age. We would say, Hey Morgan, bring our lower lip over our upper lip, and then she would mimic us. It was really cute. We have a video of it somewhere...I just need to have Chris help me find it. Anyway, out of the blue, Kate just started doing The Lip. It was too funny. There has not been any rhyme or reason to when she will whip out The Lip. Sometimes she will just turn to us with the super cute lip face. Other times, we will try to get her to smile, and she will do The Lip instead. It makes me smile every time. On this particular occasion, I was trying to get her to smile, and out came the lip face.

The Bat-Girl jammies are one of her new favorite pairs of p.j.s to wear. Having all girls, we do not really get too into super heroes around here. I was shopping last week and these were on super-clearance at Old Navy. ($4! I had to get a pair because they were cheap and cute. I may or may not have purchased some pink Super-Girl jammies for the same price...in more than one size.) She LOVES these jammies. Obviously, she doesn't know about batman. (Morgan and Rachael do not even know about batman...) They are just so soft and comfortable. Furthermore, I think she likes the colors. Anyway, if she sees them in her bin of clothes or the dirty laundry basket, she brings them to me to put them on. *Chris also likes the baby pink and blue versions of the super heroes from his youth.*

Gospel Haiku

Recently, Morgan was given an assignment to write a story, a poem, or a play about the gospel. She opted to compose three haiku poems. With her permission, I am posting them for your reading pleasure.

*We helped her brainstorm and/or tweak a word or two to make the syllables match the pattern of the Haiku. However, most of the work was her own.*


Temple
Beautiful building
Our Heavenly Father's home
Eternal families


Baptism
Have faith and repent
Rise from the water perfect
Now I'll follow Christ


Eternal Families
Find Mister Perfect
Sealed for all eternity
Keep our covenants

Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! This year, we celebrated by having heart shaped food. For breakfast, we had pancakes with whipped cream in the shape of a heart on top. At school there were fun parties to be had with plenty of sugar in the shape of hearts. For dinner, I made teriyaki meatballs, rice balls in the shape of hearts, and green beans (since they are good for your heart). For dessert, we had a heart-shaped cake. Unfortunately, we didn't get a picture of said cake before we cut into it. It was a super-yummy butterscotch chocolate chip cake...we just couldn't wait. :) Here are some fun pics for you to enjoy!

Kate in her usual spot in the kitchen. I can't help taking her picture here...I have several on the computer and more than one or two on this here blog.

Morgan and Rachael at dinner.

The rice balls. They were fun. And good. Who doesn't want to eat rice in the shape of a heart?

Bookmarks

A few years ago when Rachael was in preschool, she colored a skinny slip of paper and proudly brought it home to me. I gushed over the simple art work, told her how much I loved it, and told her that it would make a perfect bookmark. For some reason, this idea of mom loving bookmarks stuck. She made me dozens upon dozens of bookmarks. I could not throw them away because if she saw them in the trash she would have been hurt. I began tucking them away in my top drawer because I could not think of a better place to keep them. I also made sure that she knew I was using one of her bookmarks whenever I was reading. She made me so many that I eventually had to start slipping some of the older ones deep into the recesses of the trash can so that she would not see.

As she has gotten older, she still occasionally brings me a bookmark she has made. The librarian at her school has a supply of bookmarks that she makes from old cards and thicker paper. The children are welcome to take a bookmark home with them if they like, and Rachael will often look through the pile and find one that she thinks I will like and bring it home to me. This simple gesture is one of the sweetest things that Rachael does for me. One way that Rachael shows love is to give a gift or trinket to someone. I know that when she brings me a bookmark, she is really saying, I love you mom.

One day last summer, Rachael made a bookmark holder for me out of envelopes. What a great idea! The envelopes make perfect pockets to store slips of paper inside. In addition to making said holder, she hung it up on an existing nail in the wall in my room, and she filled it full of the bookmarks that I have collected over the years.

As we celebrate love in February, I thought it fitting to post a picture my bookmark holder since the bookmarks were tokens of a sweet little girl's affection for her mother. This is truly one of my most treasured gifts.

Morgan's 10th Birthday

Morgan's birthday was 'A great decade birthday.' (Her words, not mine.) I woke her up for the traditional breakfast in bed. This year, she chose baked oatmeal with raspberries, scrambled eggs, and orange juice. After breakfast, it was off to school. (It was a good thing that she had school that day...it gave me time to finish getting ready for the festivities of the evening. In my defense, I would have been more on the ball if I had not had sick children for most of the week...) While the girls were at school, I tidied, wrapped presents and prepared food. That night, my parents and grandmother came into town for the party. Morgan chose cheese fondue for dinner and chocolate fondue for dessert. It was delicious. Thanks to the Blackham Family for the great recipes.

Good Morning Mary-Sunshine! Here is Morgan with her breakfast in bed. -This was about the 6th picture I took that morning. Every other one had varying degrees of eye closure. When I commented that she kept closing her eyes, she said, "Sorry. It's hard to open my eyes right after I wake up." True. I had literally just woken her up and shoved the camera in her face. I wonder how many more years I will be able to get away with that...

So, it's not all about the presents, but on your birthday, it kinda is. Especially when you are a kid. I had fun wrapping them this year. 10 was the year of polka-dots.

Morgan showing off a gift that came in the mail from AZ. It arrived that afternoon as I was wrapping the presents. I had to wrap it to match the others...Thanks Aunt Amy, Uncle Brian, Hailey, Ian, Jenny and Bridget for thinking of Morgan on her big day! I especially like this picture because Morgan is clearly so excited about her birthday and her presents, and everyone else is totally into the fondue. It was really yummy...

Rachael and Grandpa. Too cute. Had to include it.

Here is Morgan with her main gift for her birthday. It is an American Girl Doll Bitty Baby. Yes, she did just turn 10. I LOVE that she asked for a baby doll. I think it means that she is not growing up too fast. I know that the requests for gifts are going to change to older things all too soon. Anyway, she has another lovely American Girl doll, Elizabeth. However, she and Rachael are constantly playing house with babies. Morgan got her baby doll when she was 2, so she really wanted a new one. We figured that since she was older, we should get her a really nice one. Notice Kate's expression. When Morgan opened this doll, Kate squealed with delight and crawled across the room at full speed. Kate received a baby doll for Christmas, but not a doll like this one...Anyway, as soon as Morgan opened her doll, Kate had to hold it. She now wants nothing to do with her doll whenever this doll is around. Rachael has asked for a doll like this for her birthday. I think that Kate will need one too. Better yet, Rachael and Morgan need for Kate to have one so that they can play with their dolls... (If you had seen Kate's expression and delight with this doll, you would agree with me 100%, and would not think that I am spoiling her in the least. Honest.)

Tennessee and Flat Hailey

My brother recently moved to Tennessee, making him within a reasonable driving distance for a weekend visit. It is really great to have him live relatively close after having him live in Korea for 4 years. The girls adore their Uncle Clint, and love any chance we get to see him. Chris had a free weekend, so we decided to take a quick trip to go check out his new house. We had a wonderful visit.

A new angle that made our trip extra special was the addition of Flat Hailey. My niece Hailey is currently doing a Flat Stanley unit in her class at school. -If you are not familiar with Flat Stanley, you can learn about him here.- For a different spin on this story, Hailey's teacher had the students make flat themselves to send off in the mail. Flat Hailey arrived the morning of our trip, so we just took her along with us for an adventure in Tennessee. It really was a lot of fun coming up with different pictures to take with Flat Hailey. Even though it was just a piece of paper, it was sort of like having a bit of the actual Hailey with us on our trip. Thanks for visiting us Flat Hailey!

Road Trippin'! Kate did quite well in the car despite the 5 hour drive. It is amazing what a difference having two helpers in the back makes...Morgan and Rachael both took turns playing with Kate for me, freeing me up to visit with Chris. They were still able to relax and watch a movie too. Pretty much the best of both worlds...

Flat Hailey in front of the Tennessee welcome sign.

Rachael showing off her Magna-Doodle skills.

Kate rocking out on one of Uncle Clint's drum sets. I say one of because he has three set up in his basement. The girls all had fun playing with his drums. It was really sweet of him to let them play them.

Of course Flat Hailey had to have a turn on the drums as well...

Rachael drummin'. The picture is kind of blurry, but it is the only one that I have that shows the sheer size of this drum set. It is difficult to tell, but the set is made out of maple and is really quite beautiful.

Uncle Clint with Flat Hailey in front of a speed limit sign. Speed Limit 24 mph? What?!? Have you ever seen that before? We sure hadn't...

Morgan and Flat Hailey at the Grand Ole Opry House.

Couldn't resist the Flat Hailey sized guitar. How cool is that?

On our way home, we made a few historical stops in Kentucky. First, we stopped by the monument to Jefferson Davis. He was the president of the Confederate States during the Civil War. -This one we came upon by accident. We missed an exit and ended up on a state road in the middle of nowhere Kentucky. We noticed signs indicating an upcoming historical site in honor of Jefferson Davis. Neither of us recognized the name, so we didn't think much of it. The next thing we knew, we saw a rather large obelisk right in front of us. 351 ft. tall, right there in the middle of nowhere. Of course then we had to google this guy to find out who he was. (Oh, that Jefferson Davis...) It turns out he was born the same year as Abraham Lincoln, in the same state, just about 100 miles away. Go figure.

Flat Hailey needed her picture taken in front of this monument for sure. It is not every day you happen upon a 351 ft. obelisk in the middle of nowhere Kentucky.

Our last stop on the way home was at the Birthplace of Abraham Lincoln. This was actually really cool. We watched a 15 minute little video about the young Abe and checked out a replica cabin to the one he was born in. The monument is located on the spot where the original cabin once resided, and there are 56 steps leading up to the monument; one for each year of his life. It is a beautiful monument.

Rachael and Morgan at our last stop. They have learned about Abraham Lincoln in school, so this was a neat stop for them to make. Completely worth the time it added to our trip home.

Flat Hailey in front of the monument. Rachael and Morgan are in the background, having just climbed the 56 steps for the picture.

It's From the 90's!

Each night at dinner, we all take turns talking about what we did that day. Tonight as Morgan was telling us about her day at school, she said the following:

Morgan: "Guess what? Today, we watched this old cartoon movie about Paul Bunyon. My teacher said it was from when she was young...it's from the 90's!"

Nice. I am from the late 70's. What does that make me?

MLK Day + No School= Breakfast in Bed

Chris happened to be off on Martin Luther King day this year. How cool is that? After we put the girls to bed last night, they secretly stayed up late making these menus. They then surprised us this morning by coming into our room and presenting them to us. We placed our order, ended up having scrambled eggs with sausage, blueberries, and orange juice. It was a very sweet surprise. Thanks girls!

Sledding

We have lived in a place where it snows in the winter for almost 10 years, and have not purchased sleds. Can you believe that? Figuring it was time to remedy that situation, we ventured out and picked up some pretty cool sleds this weekend. Chris and the older girls had to go test them out on a pretty great hill not too far from our house. Here are some pictures from the excursion. *A few of the 'in motion' pictures are blurry, but the look on the girls' faces is too fun to not post.

Morgan heading down the hill.

Rachael heading down the hill.

Taking a break in the snow.

31 Trash Bags and 1 Step Ladder

Like most other 15-month-old babes, Kate is into everything. Our house is baby-proofed, so I let her get into anything on her level. Some of her favorite places to explore include the Tupperware drawer, the pots and pans drawer, the towel drawer, and the cupboard under the kitchen sink. Today, she was exploring under the kitchen sink and discovered that you can pull plastic bags out of a box under said sink. They just keep on comin' as this is a Costco sized box of 200 trash bags. The funny thing is that not 5 minutes before this picture was taken, I noticed where she was playing and thought, At least she's not taking out the trash bags...I wonder when that will happen. Final count of trash bags pulled out before I redirected her attention: 31.

This step ladder is currently Kate's favorite place to be. I spend a lot of time in the kitchen, and consequently, so does Kate. She will crawl over to where it is kept and try to pull it out. I set it up at her counter and she explores drawers, plays with magnets on the fridge, or plays with toys set on the counter. I have to admit that it is quite fun to have a little helper with me in the kitchen again.

Just Clownin' Around

Chris got off work early today! It is always such a bonus to have him at home when the sun is still up. Sad you may say, that this is such a rarity, but this is just the reality at the Runyan house right now. He is one busy man. (Thankfully, he will not always be this busy.) He and the girls celebrated by working on their balancing skills...

Morgan. She is touching the ceiling. When did she get so tall?

Rachael. Not touching the ceiling. Way to balance girl.

Kate. She is not quite ready to balance on her feet yet...

Where Have I Been?

So, I have been here, just not here. -On the blog that is.- Things got a little crazy with 3 family birthdays in October. From there is was the holidays. Add to that a husband who is a second year surgery resident and insanely busy. Three lovely daughters to raise and a house to run. I am not superwoman, and something had to give. So, give the blog did and that is that. Life is finally settling down enough for me to catch up. Here goes. My goal is to do a month at a time. So, in just a few days I will be all caught up...

*I am going to tweak the post dates on my update posts so that they will still be in chronological order. That way when I print the posts one day, they will be in order of occurrence.*