Package of Perfection

FOUR months have come and gone so quickly, it's hard to believe.  Also hard to believe is that we ever lived for one minute without Mayzie in our world.  She truly is the greatest blessing, and for lack of a better term: A Package of PERFECTION!!

She had her big checkup the other day and of course passed with flying colors.  She is a big ol' healthy girl.

Mayzie

4 mos.

26"

15 lbs.

Glorious chub everywhere

She absolutely LOVES her feet.  Many times we will go in thinking she's still asleep, only to find her wide awake, sucking on her toes and cooing to her invisible friends.  She's awesome.

Her 2 month stats were literally IDENTICAL to Maggies. Same weight, height everything.  But apparently Maggie got stunted between 2 and 4 and Mayzie went on a wild growth spree.  She's a full 2 lbs. and 2 inches bigger than Maggie at that age.  I KNEW she seemed fuller.  I only remember maggie being scrawny always.

Anywho...what can I say? 


My dearest, darlingest Mayzie, 

You are a gift.  A gift of joy, sweetness, happiness and love that we feel SO LUCKY to have.  You do nothing but exude peace, laughter, giggles, coos and wonder.  Your brother and sister can NEVER get enough loves, kisses and squeezes with you.  There are always "fights" over who gets to hold you.  You are so patient and let them drag you all around the house with hardly a squeak.  You also very patiently wait for bottles when it's time to eat.  You rarely cry, and if you do, it's for good reasons like people have the audacity to ignore you for 2 seconds, or put you down, or you're really hungry or tired.

Your face lights up whenever anyone enters the room and talks to you.  You have a ready smile and spectacular, sparkly eyes.  Anyone who meets you leaves feeling happier than when they came in.

You are rolling all around and rocking back and forth on your knees.  I fear that you will be crawling far sooner than i'm ready for.  Your feet and arms are in constant motion.  You reach for and grab onto things and can almost hold your bottle up by yourself.  All this movement has interrupted your perfect sleep patterns a bit, as you seem to wake up when you find yourself unexpectedly on your back. 

Thankfully, you're a VERY good sleeper.  I can put you down wide awake and you will "talk" yourself to sleep, or sometimes cry, but never very long.  You nap twice a day usually for 1 1/2 hours in the morning and 3 to 4 in the afternoon.  You have NO idea how much this simplifies my life.  THANKS!

Thank you for choosing us.  Thank you for coming to live in our house, in our family and for bringing so much joy with you.  You truly are our package of perfection.

Love always,

Mom

Firsts. When did THIS happen?

Somehow....my kids went and grew up on me and I was caught unawares!

Seriously, one day they're teeny babies and then the next, they're off to school, and rolling over.

This week was a banner week at MVP house.  Mayzie started rolling all over town (also known as the house), Max started preschool and Maggie started Kindegarten.  CRAZY!!

So, because you've all been just knocking down my door for pictures (snort) I will pleasure your eyeballs with our "firsts."

MAX

Preschool

Age 3 (4 in October)

44" Tall

49.2 lbs.

Favorite food: Pizza

Favorite Show:  Power Rangers

He's pretty pleased with his SpongeBob backpack, 'cause "It's funny."

This is what he looked like on day one at 2:00 p.m.

Apparently that first day of preschool, plus a swim with Auntie Julie was enough to wear him right out.  But please do note that he still has complete control over BOTH remotes.  My kids have a wierd obsession over who gets the remotes.

This is her go to spot and pose.

Killing me here.  What is she 20?

Maggie

Kindegarten

Age 5

46" tall

56 lbs.

Favorite Food:  Salad and Pizza

Favorite show: All things Nickalodean

Though this pic was not taken on Maxs first day, he insisted on grabbing his backpac and being part of the pic.  Love these kids.

On Monday we took the kids to In n Out for a back to school dinner.  'Cause we're healthy like that. YO!  It was fun to just sit and eat with them and enjoy their random thoughts.  I even let Maggie splurge and get rootbeer.  It should be known I do NOT believe in the soda drinking.  They have literally had soda like 3 times in their life, and that was only at a birthday or something.  But, this rootbeer was a BIG hit with them both.

See...another FIRST.

"Mom, this rootbeer is DEE-LISH"

Apparently fries mean NOTHING to her!

So, we are officially a school family.  It's wierd.  Why do I still feel like I'm 18, and yet there are these little people who think I have it all together and are depending on me.  Did my parents feel this way?  I just can't imagine they ever did.  OY!  Being a grown up is scarey.  I wish I could have the innocence of these 3 sweet kiddos, unaware that school lasts FOREVER and kinda sucks, And that those french fries and rootbeer aren't free, and that life isn't just play dates and swim parties.  hahaha

Anyway..........

Happy School Year to you all.

Allyson

Accidentally

I'm noticing a pattern around here, and frankly, I'm growing a bit suspicious.  And by "growing" I mean, I don't buy it for one second.

Ya see......this guy:

Max likes to use the phrase:  "Mom I accidentally......."  you just fill in the blank.

It's usually something he knows he's not s'posed to do.  Somehow he believes that by preceding his crime with "I accidentally" that that will make it ok.

Hmmmmmmmmmm, nice try buckaroo, but it's just not gonna fly.

His favorite as of late is..."Mom, I ACCIDENTALLY didn't know I needed to go potty and I peed in my underwear."   This statement could come in the middle of the night, 5 a.m. or Noon, just whenever.  Accidentally didn't know, my ass.  Now, keep in mind, to him, wetting his pants means a droplet of pee has escaped and made contact with his unders.  I have a sneaking suspicion that he just wants to change his underwear for some unknown reason and thinks this is the only way to do it.  "Wet my pants, get new ones."  But, me, being the MEAN Mom that I am, I make him keep those underwear on because please, one or two drops of pee pee does not a new pair of panties warrant.

Another popular one....."Max, why did you hit your sister?"  "It was an ACCIDENT!"  Mmmm Hmmm, as I thought.

Then today as I was cruising through the kitchen, arms full of dirty laundry.  A charming Max, sitting at the island, eating his lunch said:

Mom, my cheeto ACCIDENTALLY said BUTT!

Well then, clearly I've got to keep my eye on those cheetos.  They can't be trusted.  And neither can you, you little wordy conniver, neither can you!

I guess the next time he busts out a forbidden word and I have to put soap in his mouth....I'll tell him it was all an "Accident."

Cheeto butts and accidental soaping,

Allyson

Car convos and Precious prayers.....

Sometimes there are just SUCH genuine moments of hysterical genius, you couldn't make it up.  I LOVE those times.  Those precious, precious times when your young children say things that catch you so off guard that all you can do is laugh hysterically at with them.

Last night, whilst praying (and for the record, the kids generally each say a prayer, and there may be fighting involved as to who gets to say it first) his turn at prayer, Max had this to say:

Dear Heavenly Father...thankful for this day.  Please bless Maggie to have sweet, sweet butterfly dreams, and bless me dreams of power rangers.  In the name of Jesus Christ...Amen.

I swallowed hard and kept my composure.  But seriously?  "sweet sweet butterfly dreams, and POWER RANGER dreams?"  HA!!!

Truth of the matter is, my kids are OBSESSED with talking to God about their dreams.  ALL prayers center around them having good dreams, no bad or scary dreams.  I try (albeit failingly apparently) to explain that we need to always thank God for what we have as well as ask for blessings on family, friends, etc.  Sometimes they sorta get it, but most of the time....it's a flat out request for good dreams and an amen.  Apparently it works most of the time, so I shant complain.

Then this one:

Self picture taken by Maggie

On our way home from a cousins house tonight Maggie asked:

"Is today the last day of summer?

"No, you have one more day."

Big sigh

"Boo!  The GREATEST thing about summer is the swimming."

"The WORST part of summer is......it's BALLS hot."

HA! Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha Snort, snort, hahaha!

I would be lying if I said that Jere and I did not bust out laughing so hard we were crying.  I think Jere nearly drove the car off the road.

I'm sorry, but when a five year old busts a line like that out, how could you NOT die?  Those moments of just totally random, and totally genuine child comments are SO worth the rest of the "crappy" times.

Saucy and silly,

Allyson

Blessing an "Amazing" Mayzie

As you may or may not know...we here in the Mormon church bless our children in church.  Usually it's done when they are a month or 2 old.  They are given and name and a blessing, and it's one of my favorite things.  Mayzie had to wait a little longer than most because we were figuring some logistics out.

Ya see, Jere picked up a pretty serious social anxiety disorder after all the trauma of a year ago.  I know it seems ridiculous, because he's Jere, and he's loud and crazy and can act in front of 100's of people and he's super social.  And yet, if put in a situation where he feels like he's being watched  or "judged" and he has to be himself, as opposed to an acting character, he gets completely overwhelmed.  SO, he decided he wanted to bless Mayzie while we were in Greer, so it was just with our family.  Unfortunately, that is not allowed.  So next we moved on to the thought that we'd just do it at home with our family present.  That takes special permission too.  So, it came down to doing it in church, which sent him into literal anxiety spasms.  In the end, he decided that my Dad would give her the blessing and he would just be in the circle with them. In a way, it's pretty special that my Dad did it, because she is most likely the last of the Grandkids, AND he's leaving for a year and a half to Argentina.

This morning was an insane whirlwind that was not helped by the fact that i woke up an hour late.  Our church is rather unfortunately at NINE A.M. and it's hard enough on a normal week to make it on time.  But, we closed our show last night, got home late, Maggie was up and crying and croupy coughing at 11:30, had to wash Jeres church clothes, etc.  Needless to say, got in bed very late, and then my kids kindly DIDN'T wake me up as they usually do at 6:30.  So, at 7:30 I woke up with a start and said CRAP!  I had to make some gooey bread (ask me for the recipe from pinterest, totally yummy), make sure the rice pudding was done, set up stuff for the brunch after the blessing, get all the kids ready and still get myself ready.  Needless to say.....Jere took all the kids and got to church just before it started, and I arrived 10 minutes AFTER it started.  My entire family was there on time, and I couldn't even get there on time.  LAME!

A few minutes after I got there it was time for her blessing.  Mayzie was of course absolutely perfect.  She was calm and full of her usual smiles, chatter and happiness.  She will definitely be my sunshine and lollipops child, for sure.

It was neat to have all of my family in the circle, minus poor Shane who had to be in charge at his ward, Bryson who is in IL, Jamyn in Mexico.  Otherwise, every male old enough was there.  We also had our good friend Blaine in the circle too.

My Dad gave a simple but sweet blessing.  He blessed her with good health throughout her life, and that she would grow up to be an example in the gospel, among other things.

After sacrament meeting we had everyone over for a brunch, and well, it was delicious, if I do say so myself.  Gramma Peggy made some tasty individual omlettes, biscuits and gravy in a muffin size, a chicken and noodle casserole, and some mini chocolate cupcakey things.  I made ham and egg cups (pinterest), gooey bread (pinterest), rice pudding, waffles and bran muffins.  All was rounded out by fruit and orange juice, oh and one thing of delicious bacon.  Everyone ate until they might burst and then hung around to visit.  I really, really love my family.  Then much later, our friends Blaine and Noelle and their kids, and our friend Ivan showed up for a round of food.  It's awesome, I don't have a huge amount of leftovers. YAY!

And now, I'm annoyed with this post, because I'm just rambling and noone cares.  So, I'll just show you a few little pics, including some comparisons to the other kids on their blessing days, 'cause it's interesting.

Unfortunately, by the time we got to picture taking the other two kids had changed into their grungies, and Max was back in his bedroom getting mauled by his cousin.

FAVORITE picture i've taken of her so far.  I happened to capture it just right.

Proof of Maxs battle wounds.  His cousin tends to lash out when he's not happy.  It's a pretty hefty scratch.  But, Max really loves himself a band aid, so see, not all is lost.

What?  Why yes, yes that IS the same dress I am wearing in todays blessing pic. FIVE years and I'm still wearing the same clothes.

AWESOME!

Maggie at 3 mos.

She was just really way more teeny as a baby

Hmmm, seems we were a bit heftier after Max came around

Max at 2 1/2 months.

He definitely changed the most from his baby phase.  It hardly even looks like him to me.

So there you have it.  A perfect day at Casa MVP.  Friends, family and baby blessings.

If you must know, right now Jere is playing old school Atari on the TV, 'cause apparently THAT wild hair hit him.

Happy Sabbath,

Allyson

Just a little more...

What?  You weren't dying for more Greer pictures?  Ah well, Ima gonna show you a few more anyway.  YOU GUYS, this IS me scaling back.  I'm proud of how FEW I put in the last post.

Today we just hit random moments.

But first........

I forgot to post this pic of the "originals"

 How could I NOT post this? I love all my silly nieces and nephews.  And REALLY, look at Maggie.  Killing me here.

I just love this pic of Eric going down the kiddy slide.

Jody "foolishly" taught all the girls "Miss Suzie had a steamboat".  And let me tell you, that is ALL we heard for a week straight.  All these girls standing in our faces doing that game.

I should write a whole post about Jere and his needle pointing.

He took it up and is now all obsessed.  He ended up teaching Quin and Conner and one night, those nerdy boys sat downstairs, Jere, Quin and Conner and just needlepointed until midnight.  HILARIOUS!

What can I say....the boy loves him some chocolate ice cream

Jayce was just reading all the kids interesting facts about frogs, or whatever other animal he felt like looking up on the ipad.  It was quite cute to watch.

All ready for family picture day

Just had to show this.  Poor Breckyn (the oldest girl there).  She says she feels so dumb in the grandaughter pics because she looks like she could be their Mom.  And to several of these, she could be their Mom.  She was the ONLY girl for many, many years.  But I love the pic of all our "queens".

Troy said: "Hey Allyson, check this out."

And there was my THREE MONTH old daughter standing straight as a board and balancing in his hands.  It was quite amazing to watch.

The "Out-Laws"

This year they opted to get in bed with Shane for the pic, since he wasn't up to standing for pics.

The bed nearly broke, 'cause apparently it wasn't made for 6 adults.

Whatever

Maya was leading the kids off on a "hike".

She discovered an "abandoned theatre" and the kids would go there everyday to explore.  None of us ever went to see just what it was they discovered, but it kept them happy.

Mayzie could seriously rock the Calvin Klein.

Jayce was protecting Maggie from the scariness of the red swing.

This was all of them "helping" to push the swing.

Max and Maggie getting ready for their big potato sack race.

It was fun to actually have them fully participate in the events this year.

Max:  Can somebody come and help me monkey on the monkey bars?
I of course obliged him, because really, how can I not help a kid "monkey".

Alright then, that will be enough for the day.  And like I said, this is soooo paired down. I'm not even gonna bore you with karaoke, because sadly, this year it was sort of a bust.

Tomorrow, Sunrise and the closing ceremonies of our Olympics.

Green trees and blue skies,

Allyson

Greer Happens

Miss me?  Yes, yes, of course you did.  Well, I was off enjoying the AWESOME of Greer for a week.

I must say, as I do EVERY year....it is glorious.  It is the BEST week of the year, by far.  My kids ask for it all year long, they beg for it.  And once its over, they cry about it.  The weather was cold, cool, rainy and stunning.  The company was fantastic.

This year we did an Olympic theme, because we're clever like that YO!  Each family created their own family flag.  We had a parade of families, to the Olympic song, a torch lighting, etc.  Then we had different events throughout the week for points. Suffice it to say, we here at the Casa de VP are completely aware of our NON sportiness and were happily resigned to never winning the "golden shoe."  Let's just say, we have skillz elsewhere. hahahaha

Anyway, it was such a fun and fantastic week.  I hate that I have to choose just a few pictures, so as to not snooze you all to death.  There are just so many good ones to choose from.

The Shum clan in all our glory

just missing Danas 2 boys Bryson and Jamyn, B's wife Tierra and Dixies husband Shane who was laying in bed in agony.

My sassy family

Parading our flag in during the opening ceremonies

Our flag was completely designed and created by my totally talented and creative husband Jeer.

The tagline at the bottom says:

Making "Shum-erica" better one MVP at a time.

He also freehanded my sister Danas flag and my parents. Sometimes I forget that he's so artistically creative as well.

This kid had the time of his life, running, playing, climbing and just BEING>

And we "wonder" why we don't win? hahahah

That freaking thirstbuster is never out of his hands.

Porter and Troy are INSANE jump ropers.  Make it look so easy. I think they did like 180 in one minute.  OY!

Maggie volunteered for the situps.  She worked hard and did so great.  I was proud of her.

The water fight AFTER the balloon toss.  I always make sure to remove myself completely from this proceeding.  I no likey to get wet.

We'll just call this "The Posse"

these boys LURVE Jer, and he's found a captive audience in them.

I shall bore please you with more pics tomorrow.  For now, I leave you with this stunner taken by my 6 yr old Nephew.

I could NOT love a child more if I tried.

She was THE hit of Greer. Literal lineups every morning of who got to hold Mayzie.  She was the human dolly for all the kids as they carried her around the cabin, the grounds, played house with her etc.  And the most amazing part...she never cried.  She never batted an eye.  She just smiled and let them pass her from person to person to person.  She is PERFECT!!!

Greer forever,

Allyson