Random

I still need to post a spotlight on Ella, but just haven't had a moment to do so properly yet. But here's a few photos from our shoot at Target a few weeks ago. We finally got a professional photo of Michael at 9 months. Poor kid. He's officially the 3rd kid with no baby book, hand-me-down clothes dotted with stains and tears, and the like. But blast he's a cute kid! He just started crawling--look out world!

Oh, and I just started reading a book that is a riot: The Rosie Project. It's making me laugh non-stop, but is clever as well. Highly recommend. Any movies recommendations from you guys? You always have the best suggestions. We could use a fun flick. :)

A few thoughts

I'm giving myself a break from the kids and taking a minute to post something (finally!). I don't have time right now to spotlight Madwell, but I did want to comment on the last two posts.

It was wonderful getting to spend a little time with your family! Thank you so much for making time for us and for the photos and video you posted! LOVE them! I liked this one too. Can't remember if I sent it to you or not:

He has the art of relaxing down. I need to take some pointers from him. Speaking of Christopher, I loved the post about him. What a cute kid! Those videos were great. I actually recognized the song he was singing pretty quickly. Emma loved that song when she was 2.

Ok, I will try to get around to posting more in the near future!

Good Times

We loved getting to visit with Sarah, Emma and Madeline! We miss you too much.

Tophie Tofu

So, I'm good to go now on Christopher's spotlight. He's finally over his illness and back to taking naps which makes him a much easier person to be around.

First up, Ella's nickname for Christopher is Tophie and/or Tofu, and Christopher doesn't seem to mind being called by them one bit. Although when he refers to himself, he says "I'm Christopher." And he has no problem making introductions. He often walks up to strangers and tells them his name, and usually introduces me as well. He is very extroverted which is both charming and frightening. A few weeks ago while riding in the cart at Costco in the crowded freezer section an elderly woman accidentally bumped our cart ever so slightly. Christopher responded to this affront by yelling, "Hey! You don't bump me!". That was completely embarrassing.  

Whatever Christopher is feeling comes oozing out (and he feels things in extremes!) so he is either the sweetest boy in existence or a total beast depending on the day or hour. But those sweet-boy moments melt my heart. He expresses a lot of love especially to his family, and Michael in particular. So far, Christopher has yet to lose his patience with Michael. Even when Michael is screaming and demanding, and the rest of us have totally had it, Christopher will talk to him in a gentle voice and try to calm him down. I've never seen anything like it; I may need to take lessons from him.

Here's a video of Christopher talking and playing with Michael:

Christopher is a runner. It's probably his favorite past time. He runs laps around our tiny apartment and through my parents house a few times each day. He likes to be active and "play sports," as he calls it. We're enrolled in tumbling at the rec. center and he eats it up. I think I'm going to have a busy 15+ years keeping up with him.

Another thing Christopher loves is singing. He's memorized loads of songs and sings them over and over again. Here's one:

The real version is here, if you're interested:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZ9WiuJPnNA

A few more random tidbits about Christopher is that he's obsessed with bugs, gingerbread cookies and the movie My Neighbor Totoro. He's a very motivated boy and wants to learn and grow up as fast as he can. On his good days, He makes us look like awesome parents by teaching himself all the colors, sign language, memorizing books and more. On bad days, well, he makes us look really, really bad.

I listened to this a little while back and couldn't help but think of Christopher (although the opening story made me feel really grateful for my life and my kids!).

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/521/bad-baby

It's funny to me how I can have two sons and they are so opposite. Michael is our zen baby and Christopher is total chaos. But the cool thing is that they adore each other, and that makes me so happy for them and me. Kids really are awesome!

Spotlight on Emma

I've been wanting to blog lately, but things have been craazy busy. If someone were to ask me what I did all day, I would have a hard time knowing what to say. I guess cleaning up poop would be on the top of the list. And making macaroni. Yes, it seems that the fun never stops. And a big part of that fun is Emma.

Jakers and I have described Emma as the "will and the energy" in our family. She is very social, lively, opinionated, and isn't scared to tell the world what she thinks. We hope that will be a good thing as she gets older, but we often find ourselves at a loss as to how to respond to her when she "dominates".  She does, however, have a very sweet, funny and loving side too.

Emma really loves her baby sister.  Often when I go get Madwell up from a nap, Emma has her surrounded with blankets and stuffed animals. She really loves hugging and snuggling up to Madwell. A few weeks ago Emma hugged one of my legs and said, "I like your legs, Mom. They're squishy like Madwell's." Aside from off days, Emma's been really helpful with Madwell. When I ask her to get me a diaper or something like that, she'll respond with "of course, Mommy" and help me out.

Emma also really loves helping me in the kitchen. She likes making cookies, but recently discovered her love of peeling carrots (pictured below: she peeled half of the carrot off and took a bite in the middle).

I think one of my favorite things about parenting Emma has been witnessing her spirited personality. One woman in our ward told me that Emma glows, and I'd have to agree with her (I'm her mom, so of course I'm biased). She really takes in life and connects with people, or, as well as a 3 1/2 year old can :-)

And I guess that's all I have to say about Emma for now.

P.S. LOVE the Easter pictures. Did you have those professionally taken? They are adorable.

ALSO-- still really annoyed that I can't figure out how to comment. But I wanted to thank you for the Happy Easter wish and say that we hope you had a good one as well! We love you too, Hughes family. And we totally get having to hold off on blogging about Christopher. Timing is everything when writing about our kids :-) We look forward to reading about him though in the future.

Easter

I'm not going to sugar coat it folks, Christopher's been a little hellion this week, and so for the sake of your eyes and ears I've put off writing his spotlight. The only adjectives and nouns that are coming to mind are cuss words, so I'll just leave it your imaginations to fill in the dots.

However, since it's Easter and I thought I'd at least post a couple pics we managed to take after church today. Here ya go:

The weather here, as you can see, has been stunning and we are drinking it in. I feel like we are awakening from a very deep and deary sleep! Easter felt simply magical, and my heart has been filled with a lot of gratitude for new beginnings and reset buttons. That's what Easter has meant to me this year.

We love you awesome Goddards! Happy Easter.

A Short Post

I am having a moment that almost never happens during the day-- both kids are napping at the same time! So I thought I'd write for however many glorious minutes this lasts.

I LOVED reading the spotlight on Mikey. He is so adorable and I can start to see a little more of Christy and Dan in him.

Thank you, Christy, for sharing those "crack induced" moments. As strange as it sounds to say and write, I have had some experiences as well where I feel that, through a tender mercy, the veil is very thin.  Those experiences leave me saying to myself, "did I just experience that?" which I conclude that I did because I wouldn't be asking myself that question if I had not.

I also love your idea to spotlight each of your kids. I can't wait to read more about your kids. I may have to copy your idea and spotlight both of mine as well.  But that will have to be in a future post as I'm already hearing crying coming from downstairs!

P.S. We can't wait to see you guys in May! We will have to get together and do something uber fun.

And P.S. again. Have you guys ever watched the Twilight Honest Trailer? Jacob showed it to me and it's quite funny :)