our little graduates

Graduation season is such an emotional one for so many families. their little ones all grown and ready to attack the world.

 

well, we had two graduations in two weeks so you can only imagine the waterworks this produced for chris.

 

first we went to topher's pre-k graduation where he sang some songs and played a little whistle/horn. it was the cutest little production I have ever seen. topher went to a precious little preschool called Heritage Lutheran Preschool, and it's located on Ray road between Gilbert and Lindsay. it's right in front of our church- Sun Valley. the lead teacher is Miss Chrissy and her assistant is Miss Allison and they are both rays of sunshine. they love their students and are the happiest women I have ever seen around a ton of little kids! I could not have asked for a more positive first step into topher's career as a student.

 

here are some pics from topher's big day:

 

our handsome graduate and chris and Maurice

topher, cooper, and miss Allison

topher, cooper, and miss chrissy

playing his little horn second from the right :)

 

this is pretty much my favorite thing that topher has ever made. look at how topher captured Maurice! and green is my favorite color- even the shade of green that topher used to draw me. he's so smart!

 I am pretty sure I have mentioned this whole 'topher thinks chris is batman' thing before, right? topher knows chris is a crime fighter- much akin to batman. so he kind of made that connection himself. chris' dad knew this and then told toph that he used to be batman, but now chris is batman, which obviously means one day it will be topher's turn to be batman. see how impressionable young kids are?? they will believe almost anything they are told. so, we shouldn't lie to kids. ever. BUT if you are going to lie to a kid- make it a good one.

 

 

then the following week, we headed over to lily's kindergarten graduation. she was also a part of a wonderfully adorable graduation ceremony. she even had a line in one of the little skits that was presented and she NAILED it! :) they learned about penguins this year and lily's line was: "I like the macaroni!" I didn't know there was a penguin group called macaroni. so happy that lily already knows more than I do.. (about penguins at least!)

 

here's our family. we are so stinkin proud of her!!!! she learned how to read and write this year which was so incredible to witness.

here are Charles and Grace. they came out to support our lovely lily because they are awesome and we love them.

barb came out to support her granddaughter too. she brought her mini-me's- gabe, corban, and emma.

so great to have a supportive family.

 

our graduate!

 

this is one of my favorite things lily did this year. her spelling is off- but still amazing.

in case you can't see what she wrote (and there is a piece you can't see cause it didn't make it in the picture):

frogs can eat

frogs can clime

frogs can ribit

but, frogs can't JRIVE a car

name Lily.

 

 

 

 

Super Mia the little mermaid

mia is almost 19 months old.
it's been a long time since I have had a post dedicated to her, so here it is.

here's what a typical day looks like for my precious baby:
anywhere between 6:15am-7:10am: wakes me up by crying, or screaming in her crib. even if she is calling for daddy, i get her. unless it's my birthday or mother's day.
then she gets her diaper changed and we watch a show together. sometimes mickey mouse, or little einsteins, or the pioneer woman. she seems to enjoy all three equally.
then she eats breakfast. sometimes a lot. sometimes a little. she likes to keep me guessing.
then we play. sometimes we run errands early to beat the heat. but now that would require us to be out and about and back in the safety of our air conditioned home by about 9 am.

anywhere between 10:30am and 1pm she takes a nap. it depends on what our day looks like. and what she looks like. some magical days, she will wake up kind of early, nap early, and then nap again at around 3. those days are rare, but when they appear, they are welcomed with open arms.

lunch is consumed at some point either before or after nap. she shares a good portion of every meal with pug. that's pretty annoying. except for pug. he loves her so much. it's hard to tell how much food mia actually consumes at any given time because of the dog. but my girl is still chubby in all the right spots, so she is definitely not wasting away.
she plays really well and loves to read books. lily and topher never wanted to be read to as much as mia does. she has memorized a few of her faves and it is so cute to see her 'read' (OBVIOUSLY I know she is not reading. i'm not crazy people.) she also loves playing in our little baby pool in the backyard. I think she thinks that she is a mermaid.
she is no longer a major danger to herself on the stairs, so I give her a little more space to roam around and explore the world (the house.) sometimes that's good, sometimes it's bad. like the other day when I walked in on her putting my toothbrush in the toilet. I'm glad I caught her, so I could throw out my toothbrush. but it did make me wonder if she had done that before and I didn't have the good fortune of catching her in the act...

then we eat dinner/make a giant mess. we get cleaned up. then I put mia's jammies on her, we brush her teeth (which she is not a huge fan of. which lily and topher actually loved), then mia likes to give hugs to everyone, and then goes to bed.

simple enough. some days are so chillaxing and wonderful. and some days are less so. but man oh man does she make my heart melt something fierce!

she was saying more than 30 words before her 18 month well-check. I wrote them all down so that I could be sure of the number cause I knew my pediatrician was going to ask. I would definitely consider 'puppy' to be her first real word spoken. she calls lily 'nunni', which is funny cause as a girl who has an older sister, she is supposed to call lily 'unni'. but topher calls lily 'noona' cause he is a boy, so mia has combined the two to make 'nunni'. it's my favorite! and then she calls topher 'appa', which is actually 'dad' in Korean, but it's very close to 'oppa', which is what a little girl is supposed to call her big brother. so close! and she says 'ko' for nose, which is actually correct. that is the extent of her Korean knowledge. no, I lied. she also says 'umma', which is 'mom'. it's good to know how to call your mom in as many languages as possible.

another hilarious thing that she says is 'sit down'. and usually that is followed up with a pat on the chair/couch/spot next to her. it is the cutest! i'm so happy that she does it cause it often reminds me to actually take a seat and enjoy being with her, and her siblings. she is so wise for a toddler! ;)

and actually, yesterday was an amazing day, cause she chose to serve her siblings for the first time. she got them each a cup of water in their respective transformer and hello kitty cups. it was really sweet to witness cause she did it from the goodness of her heart- not cause she was told to or anything. sweet, sweet girl.

another hilarious thing that mia did the other day is that she turned on chris' iTunes on his phone, and the first song that turned on was from Les Mis. as soon as she heard it she started doing the moves for 'gangnam style'.we couldn't get it on video cause we were too in awe of what was happening before our eyes. she is so entertaining!!!!!

so, that's pretty much mia in a nut shell. I am all kinds of sad that she is growing up as fast as she is. almost makes a person want to have another one. muahahaha. no. not that sad!

this is from today! it was 'wear a cape to church day' so I cut out mine and chris' Disney shirts. mia picked up the scrap part that had the sleeve on it and wanted to wear it. she won't wear hair bows, but she will wear t-shirt scraps.

 

here's mia and her cousin Corban. they kinda look like they have similar hair color. or maybe it's just her scalp.

here's mia with her cousin's dog. it's either princess or max. I still can't tell the dogs apart even though I have 'known' them for about 8 years. I think she is praying for the dog. notice her hands are clasped together.

the laying on of hands. she is so spiritual.

you can't look as good as she does without getting some beauty rest.

beating the heat

my little mermaid

sisters in matching skinnies