all hail the chicken watch

James has a chicken watch. A watch shaped like the body of a chicken. And it speaks to him. It tells him wonderful and awful things. Only he can hear the chicken, but he shares the chicken's thoughts with me regularly.

James: Mom, my Chicken Watch said some great news!
Me: Oh really? What's that?
James: It says we have to go to St. George and play with Grandma Holly.
Me: It did?
James: Yep. I guess we'll have to go to St. George. I guess we will. 'Cause the chicken said we did.

the girl who likes dinosaurs

James: Mom, what if there was a girl who liked dinosaurs?
Me: Well, then I think you'd have to marry her.
James: Hmm, I think Haley likes dinosaurs. But she only likes the nice ones.
Me: Oh, then do you think you'd like to marry Haley?
James: Yeah, I think prob-ly.

James loves playing with Haley, an older woman (she's 4!). She puts up with his dinosaur antics quite well. And her curly red hair is to die for!

courage

Extreme Makeover: Toddler EditionHere's Addy's before shot--hot and sweaty, but so cute!


This is James before. Okay, so the mullet is not so cute.

It was time. The monks were looking like shaggy dogs, and every time Adam woke up from a nap, his hair would be wet with sweat. I kept James in a hat most of the time to hide his, but when he took it off the hat-head was even worse! So the boys have been shorn for the summer. This way I don't have to pay for a haircut for another two months! They were both pretty nervous about the whole thing. James went first, and he was so brave. He flinched when she turned on the clippers, but he sat still. I told him that took courage and he said, "Yeah, I'm pretty brave." When he saw Addy (who cried the whole time) he said, "Mom, Addy looks funny!" "Well," I said, "you look just like him!" He reached up and touched the top of his head and said, "Oh."
We spent the better part of the day at Greenlake today where they have a fun wading pool for the little guys. James was in the water all day, but Addy spent most of his time practicing walking off the edge. He's getting so close to a real jump! He even says "ump" when he does it. I was so surprised to see him get up again and again after falling on his little knees. It hardly fazed him.

I've been trying so hard to be domestic, but almost every batch of rolls I've made has failed. I've wanted to try bread, but with my track record, I hated the thought of wasting the ingredients! So I finally wrote my grandma and asked for her white bread recipe and some tips. She worked in a bakery for years and makes the best bread and cake. I bought the same yeast she uses and followed the recipe EXACTLY. And voila! I can bake bread! Here is a picture of my first real loaf. It was so yummy. We ate most of it with butter and Grandma Ruth's strawberry jam, but we also had BLTs on it. It was D! (That's a shout out to my mom:) Tonight I tried my hand at angel food cake for a fondue party the Ortho Girls are having. Well see tomorrow if that one turned out or not. It sure smells good!

my three little smarties

Sybrowsky Quote of the Week: "I'm not arrogant--I'm just passionate about being correct."
~Christian, who is (annoyingly) always right
P.S. He passed his latest board exams! Woo hoo!

My three boys. What handsome dudes. I can't believe I got all three of them looking at the camera at the same time! This picture was taken on Sunday as we strolled along the boardwalk near our house and had Otter Pops. Yum!

"Happiness in family life is mostly likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ." ~Proclamation, paragraph 7

And the Gold goes to. . . James! He gave the scripture in Primary yesterday and was absolutely amazing! He memorized the whole thing, but I thought for sure he would get too shy when he got up to the microphone. I was so happy that after a reminder of the first word, he said the whole thing! His favorite part, he says, was when he got to tell all the kids to "please stand," and they did it. What power that microphone holds. He was also the VIP in Sharing Time last week, and that medal has been on his neck practically ever since. You'd think he was the winner of an actual Olympic event.

Addy is getting an 'A' in anatomy lately. Here he is pointing out his nose, ear, and tongue. He also knows where to find his patella and clavicle. I'm not sure they'll let him into medical school if he keeps wearing womens headbands though. . .

i feel pretty. . .

Three-year-olds always tell the truth, right? Today James told me that I am "the prettiest girl in the wrorld" (that's no typo--that's really how he says "world"). Wow, really? Lucky me! What am I doing in this kitchen making quesadillas day after day then? He followed it up with, "Everyone likes you so much!" Talk about self-esteem booster. He wasn't even trying to butter me up for anything (that I know of). However, just 20 minutes earlier he was telling me he was going to "throw everything at my face" because I wouldn't let him have fruit snacks before dinner. Basically he's in the "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" phase, but I'll take the compliments all the same. He can be such a sweetie.

Addy is still picking up new words every day. He's our little parrot. Today I overheard James teaching him "volcano" and "intestine." He repeated them quite clearly. I tell you, they're their fathers' sons for sure. What toddlers are discussing magma and internal medicine? I mean, this is an everyday conversation with these two. Addy is mostly just trying to keep up with James for now. After James told me I was pretty, Addy said, "Mom! Mom! Pretty!" Awwww. Too bad he has no idea what he said. Lately he's been somewhat of an enigma. One minute he is Mr. Independent--wants to walk everywhere himself, says "don't" when you hand him something that he wants to hold himself, and won't eat anything unless he puts it in his own mouth. The next minute he is begging to be held (usually while I'm trying to cook dinner) or crying hysterically because I laid him down in his crib for the night (he cries until I pick him up, then he says, "sweet dreams" and "bankie" until I wrap him in his blanket and sing the "Sweet Dreams" song from Sounds Like Fun). The last week he has cried for almost an hour before falling asleep at night. I don't know what happened to his normal, easy bedtime routine. Hopefully it's just another phase. But you cannot beat that smile. It's golden. I'll take a lifetime of bedtime crying for one cheesy grin from Adam.

Yep, they're pretty darn cute. Love you, Boys.

tent poles and autonomy

You'll never believe what I did this weekend (I hardly do). I took the kids to the ward campout BY MYSELF. Christian was planning on joining us, but he called me Friday afternoon to tell me he had to work (unexpectedly) on Saturday. By then I was mostly packed up, and the boys were so excited, so I decided to go. A friend and I caravaned (her husband was out of town) and helped each other set up tents, cook dinner, etc. It was a blast. The boys played in the river, roasted marshmallows, nearly fell in the fire (several times), searched for spiders, and of course got very dirty. Cree did join us for a few hours Friday night to help me get the kids to sleep and sit around the campfire with our friends, but he had to be at the hospital at 5:30 the next morning. I was definitely exhausted by the end, but I'm so glad I went. I'm starting to realize through this whole residency experience that if I don't learn do things by myself, I will end up sitting home with the kids doing nothing a lot of the time. So this was a great way to celebrate my newfound independence! P.S. LOVE our ward. Love, love, love.

monkeys one and two

Welcome to the first post of the Sybrowsky family's blog! We needed a way to share the photos and anecdotes of our two little monkeys--or as Our Dad refers to them, Monkeys One and Two, One and Two--with our family and friends. I'm just not that good at e-mailing everyone on a regular basis. Plus this way I can also record our family memories for me to scrapbook later (maybe much later, like when the kids are all married off). There's no way I can remember all this funny stuff that long! So really I have pretty selfish motives, but hopefully some of you will enjoy seeing our boys grow up, even if you're far away!