The Savage's

Thursday, May 22, 2014

All Camryn

I usually try to be judicious when choosing photos to upload to a post, but not today. Today I am just throwing all of Camryn out there! I love every one of these pictures and how they show her in so many different ways, although they don't come close to capturing all the faces and personality traits of this little wonder. What would I do without this girl? She is such a highlight of every day. I can't wait to see her in the morning and she makes me laugh all day long! I love when my kids turn 1. It was only a couple of months ago that I felt her wriggle to get out of my arms for the first time--before that she was content to sit in my arms all day long! Now she constantly wants to get down and go. She loves going outside. She walks around the yard, plays in the mud, climbs up the bottom of the slide, shakes the chain link fence, and she does it all in the cutest stances! She usually gets her little arms up at her sides-palms facing forward- and charges ahead at full speed, looking like she's going to face plant at any moment! I'm obsessed with her. She's so serious most of the time, but then has these hilarious outbursts. I feel like we have so many inside jokes and many more to come. All I have to do is give her a certain look and she'll turn and start running. Her latest feat is climbing. She climbs onto tables, chairs, benches, couches, beds, anything she can manage. But the funny thing is, she usually can't get down. She can from a bed or a couch, but if it's a chair, no matter how close to the ground it is, she won't try to climb down herself. She sits there patiently and whines every few seconds. I often can't tell she needs something until I go check on her and realize she's been stuck on a chair for several minutes. She's still very shy with strangers, but getting more independent every day and is getting more comfortable with others. She loves our neighbor girls, Charlotte, Lizzy and Emily, and loves Michael and Madison. They are so close. Today Michael and Madison were playing a racing game and as they turned the corner at full speed, I saw Camryn only a few steps behind, screaming and running after them. She loves having a big brother and sister and follows them around whenever she's not getting into her own mischief. Their favorite recent hangout is Madison's bed, which Camryn can climb onto.
I love this girl and can't wait to see her personality blossom!

Friday, March 14, 2014

March Rundown of the kids

I keep feeling like I need to write... but where? I guess here works.

I learned something about cleaning this week: clean the floor first. A lot of places say clean the counters and tables first because things can fall onto the floor, but I disagree. When you have little children who can spread a mess on the floor very quickly, I think you should clean the floor first, and fast. I now put it before the dishes after a meal.

The Lord commanded us to study Isaiah. It's something I've been meaning to do for years. I have the book Isaiah: Prophet, Seer and Poet. I just started reading it after owning it for over 6 years. I love it already and I can't wait to learn more about Isaiah. Right now my plan is to share things with the kids at bedtime as I learn them and hope some of it sinks in. Even though I took a class on Isaiah from Ann.... that one guy's wife.... I still don't feel like I know much about Isaiah.

I'm realizing my time rocking Camryn is very important. It's really my only quiet time to myself during the day--other than 'quiet time' which doesn't always happen. I'd like to set up her room as a learning place for myself, with a corkboard of things I'm learning or studying. I usually do my scripture study during that time, I just wish I could write while I'm holding her! I can't figure out a good way to get my feelings down. Technology needs to catch up to this.

Camryn is very sick. She's had goopy eyes for a few days now. When she wakes up they are so crusty she can hardly open them. I've given her at least 2 baths a day for the past few days because that's the only way to clean them out. The whites of her eyes are still white, but the eyelids and below her eyes are swollen and red. Poor thing. She loves reading books. She's not near as fidgety at this age as the other kids. She has this cute thing she does when she wants to point something out, she just holds out her arm in the direction of the interesting thing. A lot of people think she's trying to get them to eat something or for them to hold her, but it's just her showing off what she has. She reaches so far, it's adorable. She dances and bounces her little legs when she hears music. She loves mama. I hold her a lot, but she's getting more and more adventurous. She took her first steps on March 3rd, but hasn't stepped since. She has the biggest toothy grin, I love it! She likes to make spitting noises back and forth or other funny sounds.

Madison is sick, too. Josh stayed up in the cities last night to get trained by a doctor in men's sexual health. This is all so he can do better at men's fertility. Madison came into bed with me twice. She's either a nightmare or a dream at night. Really. She either will not be consoled or she's an angel and says nice things "mommy, I love you so much. Mommy, you're so beautiful. Thank you for this, mommy, thank you for that." Sometimes she's both. She'll be an inconsolable nightmare and then switch to an angel. When she's inconsolable I sit by her bed and try to calm her down. I pat her hair, but she yells at me, I fix her blankets and she screams. I ask her what she wants and she just lays there and cries. But if I leave she throws a fit loud enough to wake everyone up. Being a kid must be tough. Sometimes I wish I could remember how tough it is. Earlier this winter when it was crazy cold outside--like -40 or something--I remember I had the worst night with her ever. After trying forever to get her back to sleep, I marched into my bedroom and said "Josh, if you don't take over with Madison, I'm putting her outside." I don't know why I still think that's funny. She always wakes up an angel in the morning. Love that girl.

Michael is very matter of fact. He loves to play superheroes every day all the time. He also loves competitions. He likes to see who can run the fastest where, who is going to finish that first, who is the strongest superhero, all of that. His favorite superhero right now is one he made up himself--Super. Not Superman, just Super. He likes bedtime stories with Super and all the others, but Super always wins, has the most powers, and saves the day. He is still a daddy's boy, although he is starting to like me again after about a month when he didn't care for me at all :) He even suggested I switch families. Funny kid. I'm glad we're on good terms again. I let him sleep with me last night. He's a completely different boy at bedtime than at any other time during the day. At bedtime when the other kids are asleep, he is so cuddly, cheesy, cute and sweet. He says things he'd never say at other times. He even tells me he loves me! He holds us close when we say it's time to leave. He still stays awake every night until about 10. We put him to bed around 8:00. He lays there and rolls around, pretends he's blowing something up, looks at books now and then, all kinds of things. He just can't fall asleep. He is reading now--just short bob books, but what a blast! The first time he really got it a couple of weeks ago, Josh and I both just sat there in shock. It's a weird feeling! He loves doing crafts and learning new things, when he's in the mood. He's very rule oriented. He loves technology like most kids. Loves the wii, loves the ipad, loves the computer. I'm so thankful we're buds again!

Being a mom is the best. I'm so excited for so many things and the time is flying by. I wish I could keep perspective and enjoy all these moments for what they are. I think I'm getting better at that.

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

A Springy Day

It got up to 38 degrees today! It was blissful. I felt so happy inside. For a long time I just haven't felt like leaving the house, every time is a drudgery. It has been so cold that it hurts me and the kids every time we walk to and from the car. So today I felt like singing that song in Bambi "drip drip drop little april showers!" with the water running everywhere... that's how it was. We got a lot of snow yesterday--it is as high as our picnic table in the backyard, so a lot of that melted into these tiny streams in the street. So fun.

Today Michael said he's not having as much trouble with Easton at preschool. I asked him what happened that was different and he said "well I learned that if I'm on the same team as Easton he doesn't get angry." or something like that. It was very satisfying to see Michael come up with a solution to a problem like that.
I forgot to mention that on Sunday I had another very satisfying moment watching Michael in primary. We were playing a quiz game with the songs we're learning. The chorister picked his name out of the jar and he went to the front of the room. All of the kids had needed a lot of help getting the answers to her questions, so I was expecting a blank look on his face, especially after this question: "Fill in the blank: He sent his son to blank for us and blank with living blank." He was so shy and kept looking down at the ground and folding his hands together. I was so glad she stayed quiet for a moment to let him talk, because he won't talk over someone when he's embarrassed like that. But then he just looked up and said "He sent his son to die for us and rise with living breath." Everyone in the room was so impressed. I didn't even realize he knew the words to that song! I shouldn't be so surprised, he sits on the front row and still pays perfect attention to anyone presenting. I'm so proud of him. Several people smiled at me when he said that and I couldn't hide my beaming smile. He's such a cute kid.

Madison went home teaching with Josh tonight to the Hokansen's. She LOVES going places with daddy. She talks incessantly. Tonight dinner was comical, as it is on most nights. She loves micromanaging everyone around her and being so helpful that it's just plain frustrating. And then whenever she sees that we're getting frustrated, she asks for a kiss, which Josh thinks is cute and I think is manipulative :) She put her hands into my full cup of clean water. She put way too much pepper on all of her food. She always asks to have everyone else's food even though it is the same as hers. She talked the entire meal, with that look on her face that what she's saying is of utmost importance. Her eyebrows go way up and she gets so serious while she talks about everything. I love that girl.

Camryn had a rough day. Michael stepped on her fingers 3 times! He never meant to and felt so bad every time it happened. It breaks my heart to see that look on her face. Always before she cries she looks around to the culprit who hurt her and makes eye contact before her face contorts to undeserved pain. Then she leaves her little mouth open so wide while she cries and cries. It's so cute and sad at the same time! She recovers quickly, though. She succeeded in throwing something new in the toilet today. It was the baggy of wax-covered yarn that Josh's mom sent. it's too bad, they were fun to play with. i didn't bother washing them, I just tossed them. Yesterday it was the tub strainer. The day before that it was Michael's toothbrush. A few days before that it was a pen and a few days before that it was Madison's hairties. She just gets such a kick out of seeing them float around! I always know when I peek in and see her staring into the toilet that she's going to have that proud look on her face. She thinks she's so funny, and she is.

Josh and I worked hard cleaning tonight, we are having the Seger's over for dinner and a wii game night tomorrow night. The kids are so excited! It will be busy, I have to put a huge Epilepsy Foundation donation on the curb by 7:30 (I'm SOOO excited to get rid of all this stuff!), then we have dance at 9:30, soccer at 10:30, have to stop by the store to pick up things for activity days, which is from 4-5, then the Seger's come at 5:30. I hope I can somehow exercise tomorrow. It's been a week, the longest I've gone without exercise since October! I'm going to have to get in gear to meet my goal. I'm really proud of what I've done so far, and I've been doing a good job on my eating, too. I'd guess I'm eating 300 calories less a day than I was before... it feels good to have this kind of self control.

Goodnight!

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Monday, May 13, 2013

Weekend with Grandpa

Grandpa came for a visit at the end of March and I didn't get a chance to post the pics, so here they are! The moment he got here they began wrestling and playing on the floor. I'm pretty sure he was on the floor being attacked for a solid two hours that first night, which must be a record at our place!