I just wanted to record some small little things about my kids at this time in our lives that I know I will forget a year from now. Just small things they do and say right now that make me happy that I get to watch them grow up and become their own unique little selves.
PS-the photos in this post were taken a month or two ago by the talented Crystal from
livilou photography. I highly recommend her!
BEN, age 22 months
Ben is really starting to voice his
thoughts now. He talks all day to himself and to me, and I am finally starting to understand some of it now!
*Every time he changes his diaper, he has to line up on the same wall, then say "ready set GO" and he runs and slides (like into a first base) into diaper changing position. Today, he told me "thank you mommy" after I wiped him. I am pretty sure none of my kids have EVER thanked me for changing their diaper. That was a nice
surprise!
*Jake went out of town this last week, and Ben was confused about why he wasn't home in the mornings. I told him that daddy was on an airplane, so all I heard the whole week was "daddy...airlplane....daddy....airplane". Then he would get all whiny and say "daddy hold you! daddy hold you!" (like all my kids, he says "hold you" instead of "hold me") He missed his daddy.
*One of his first words was milk, but it was just "mil". Then it changed to "milt". But this week he finally discovered the "k" sound. He's gone a little overboard with it and sounds like a German boy....
His "K" is deep in his throat. It's pretty funny. He's also got a little
British in him too when he says "
dauddy".
*I know I have said this before, but this kid is obsessed with throwing and kicking balls. All day he says "catch mommy" and within 1 second, I know need to get my hands up, or I'll get hit with something.
Hopefully it's a ball and not silverware or scissors (which he has thrown). The good thing about this is that he will instantly be your friend and love you forever if you play pass with him.
*He's a little
OCD, like someone else I know in the house. If a lid is off, he will say "oh-oh" until it is replaced. If a toy or a bike is not where it should be, he will be very
concerned until it is fixed.
*He gets so excited to see his sisters wake up in the morning. Ben will wake up at around 6:40 every morning, but his sisters don't wake up until almost 8:00. It is so hard for him to wait for them, and when they do come out, he runs as fast as he can to hug them and yells SEE-SEE! (that's the name he's given both of them) The girls wake up feeling pretty special.
SOPHIE, age 4
*Sophie is all about hugs and snuggles and kisses and winks. She loves to have her hair stroked while I sing her her bedtime song. She will just melt and
bat her eyelashes and give me the sweetest smile. She has always been our little
snugly bunny.
*Sophie started ballet this month, and I think her favorite part is the part where she goes into the ballet dressing room, gets to go inside a special curtain to change her clothes, then come out and put her ballet bag into her cubby. She's always loved dress ups, and now she gets to do it for a reason! She is a very cute little dancer, and mostly dances with her eyes closed. I think she does this because the is imagining how fast and high she is dancing and spinning.
*Sophie HATES having her cereal get soggy. She used to cry about it, but we are finally over that. Now, she just pours and pours and pours until her bowl is full to the top of cereal, but she will only eat the top of the bowl that isn't soggy. I am often super busy doing my routine in the mornings and usually forget to monitor her cereal consumption, so we go through a lot of cereal.
*Sophie somehow knows all the songs on the radio, even though I don't listen to the radio all that often. She'll ask me who sings each song after it's over. (like I know!) Pretty funny.
*Often when Sophie gets mad at me, she tells me "Fine! Then I'm going to take all your earrings!" I try not to laugh. I guess my earrings are the best things I've got!:)
*She has this line that she repeats when she is trying to describe something extra special. It's "super-duper-alley-ooper-with ice cream and a strawberry on top".
*When we bought new "cowgirl boots" for the girls, and Sophie exclaimed "now I can be in a real radio!" (I think she meant rodeo) She is quite in love with these boots.
*Her favorite toys are her stuffed animals. She sleeps with so many that there isn't much room left for her in her bed. The other day she told our home teachers that she thinks Nephi packed his favorite stuffed animal on the ship to sail to the promised land. We let her think that happened:) She also told me the other day the her stuffed dog "marshmallow" wakes her up in the middle of the night and tells her to go downstairs and play dress-ups. Does she really do that!?!
GRACIE, age 7
*Gracie LOVES nature. She's not a full on a tree hugger, but she finds so much joy in anything creepy and crawly or furry and soft. She spent the summer creating large collections of bugs, having no issues with having them crawl all over her hand. She also loves learning about the world and science. She has started working on her own "nature book" where she takes pictures of anything cool in nature. I think there is a very strong nature-loving gene floating around in her (but where did it come from?). And yes, she still wants a dog. I love that she loves something so much.
*She also begs me to teach her songs on the piano. I told her she has to be 8 to take piano, and I am trying to hold her off as long as possible. My mom did the same with me, and it seemed to work. My mom taught me "Fur Elise" just by memorizing note by note to occupy my while I waited to start piano lessons, so I tried to do the same with her. Gracie seems to have already passed me up, because the other day she was trying to play it backwards! (FYI-I have opted NOT to teach her myself, although she sits and listens through lots my piano student's lessons)
*Gracie cracked me up the other day. She was reading a new library book to Sophie and when the word "coffee" came up on the page. She changed it into "hot chocolate". All their lives I have usually changed the word coffee to hot chocolate in books that we read. Not that I think reading about coffee will cause them to go out and drink it. I just did it. Anyways, I had no idea she knew I was doing it. Funny.
*Gracie has played soccer again this season and LOVES playing goalie. In fact, she loves it so much that she chooses to stand right in front of the other team's goal even when her coach puts her in another a field position. We are working on that.
*Gracie has just discovered Hannah Montana. Not sure how I feel about this one. I guess it was bound to happen.
*She is also great reader....she would stay up all night reading if we let her.
*Gracie is starting to be a great babysitter. She is showing more and more signs of becoming a resposible child, and Jake and I can't wait for her to watch the kids for our date nights!
Even though it's a huge pain to pack all our bikes for the trip, we're always glad we went though all the effort. With Ben getting older, we can go on some longer rides now. Here we are finishing up our bike trip down Snow Canyon. It was so fun. Of course, we also had to find our 'Garlock Rock' we visit every year. I've always hoped we would be a bike riding family. My dreams are coming true! They did awesome.
A little picnic in Snow Canyon. Ben was freaked out of the rock formations at first. He kept saying "I scared of monsters!".
I think we swam all four days we were there. Our family's favorite pool is the 'waterfall pool'. All three of the kids made great strides in the swimming skills over the week.
My two favorite dudes scoping out the pool scene.
Gracie and Sophie are so funny. They are just the best of friends and have all these intricate and fanciful adventures together. Here they are exploring the 'jungle' together. I've always been grateful that they have each other to play with on our trips.
My three kiddos warming up their toes in the hot tub.
Gracie kept finding little times to steal away and read on this trip. I love this about her.
Of course, being Garlocks, a great majority of our St. George traditions revolve around food. Here we are pigging out at iceberg.
We always love to visit the St. George temple, too. Ben thought that we would see Jesus there, since we always say it's His house. It was so sweet to see him so sad that he couldn't go inside to see Jesus. But we did get so see His statue at the visitor's center.
After a family night lesson on pride and loving those who are different from us, Gracie proudly 
