Little Marius has been having fun hiding in the curtains. So adorable.

Little Marius. Oh what a challenge you have been lately. He throws serious tantrums. It is very difficult carrying him upstairs to his nap because he flails his body so much, sometimes I almost drop him. They are finally starting to get under control. He still has them constantly- but now he hates time outs and will actually stop (or try to) when time outs happen. I thought that day would never come- he's almost 2!

Marius is very concerned about what he is wearing. I will pick out an outfit and he will tell me no and pick out a different one. Since he soaks himself daily, playing with water- he picks out a few outfits a day and we go through all his clothes pretty fast- good thing we have a lot. 

He has strangely become very concerned about messes. If he drops ONE BEAN on the floor- he cries until I pick it up and give it to him to eat. If a grain of rice drops on his shorts while he's eating, same thing. If there is a mess on his chair- he can't eat on it. If his hands have food on them, I must wipe them clean- WITH EVERY BITE. Feeding him has become quite the annoying event! He has become  VERY PICKY with what he eats. He really likes to feed me and just won't take no for an answer. He is a very determined little boy. He never gives up and is very stubborn. He likes to open his mouth and show me his food. And, as always- he is constantly chewing up his food, only to spit it out on the floor. It is so gross and we dislike it so much. I can't count how many times we're sitting at church and he's about to spit out his snack and I put my hand there and he spits his chewed up food and saliva into my hand and I never have anywhere to put it. It is THE WORST. He can chow down blue cheese. He just picks up huge chunks and eats away. It's pretty impressive. He loves white rice. He's always eating our helper's rice when she has lunch and he chows down when we go out to eat. He's making me debate whether to start making white rice instead of brown. I don't want to at all- but he eats so much when it's white! He's really into chewing up food, opening his mouth and showing it to me, lately.

A month ago, he would sit on the toilet every time Brighton did and he actually peed in the toilet a couple times! He even got up there after a shower all by himself and peed and the kids came running to tell me. It was so incredible! He TRIES to poop in the toilet. I will hold him there and can feel his abs flexing and pushing. It's pretty impressive. 

Marius is so physically capable. He rock climbed at the park all by himself. He goes down the big slides, no problem. The first time he went down a BIG slide, no one was even there to egg him on. He just climbed up there and did it- all by himself. I saw him do it across the park, talking to my friend. I was blown away and sort of sad I wasn't there with him, but super impressed that it was just no big deal to him. He blows us away daily with the things he can accomplish physically. He LOVES doing parkour with Daddy. It's pretty mind blowing what he tries to do (walking up the wall backwards into a handstand). He can jump crazy far. As wild and daring as he can be- he knows his limits (which is WONDERFUL!!!) I never need to worry he's going to jump off something that would kill him.

He loves to play with the kids. They are starting to not like it because he "ruins there fun!" He knocks down there blocks, etc and doesn't follow along there plans while playing. I feel kinda bad for him, but it's given us some one on one time that's been nice. He loves airplanes. He has a particular talent for stacking blocks REALLY HIGH. It's really impressive. He just puts the blocks on top of each other without taking much care and can go as high as he can reach- it is crazy! He's gotten really into puzzles and likes to be read to. He really likes Goodnight Gorilla these days. He LOVES princess shoes and wears them A LOT. He also loves to wear Scarlet's sticker earings. 

He sings and does motions to songs very well! I'm so impressed with him singing the songs with me. His favorite is Slippery Fish. He's really good at it. He's now starting to say the words to books. The thing that is so impressive is I've hardly read or sung to him! I swear he picks it all up after a couple times. I really think it's one of his talents! He's REALLY expressive! During Pete the Cat, there are certain pages where I gasp and say "oh no!" and he gasps SO LOUD. It's so adorable!!!!

Every time I see little babies, I realize he isn't a baby anymore- but I treat him like one. I smother his cheeks with kisses and think of him as my baby and I'm just fine with that. I think he will always be my baby!

He loves to play outside and loves playing with water. He finally likes to swim! This is a great accomplishment! It means we've been able to go to the pool almost daily.

I love how he says "Gawa" for Scarlet and "Bituh" for Brighton. It's so adorable and he says them constantly as he's getting there attention to show them something. My absolute favorite word- it melts me every time- it "oh". He says it constantly. He asks "what's that?" and I tell him and he immediately responds "oh" and every time he says "oh" it is SO CUTE!!!! I love it. He is CONSTANTLY asking "what's that" and "why"- even to things that he knows. 

He is talking all the time these days, but it is really hard to understand him and he just YELLS and YELLS and my ears are losing their patience. Yesterday I got earplugs and put them in my ears because I just couldn't take it anymore. When he finally quieted down, I took them out- but had to put them in again an hour later. It can get SO LOUD in my house.

One by one, we had to keep throwing away his pacifiers, because they had holes, until he had JUST ONE and we would have to search for it constantly. It was the never ending quest each time he had a nap and until one day . . . we couldn't find it. We looked EVERYWHERE for a LONG TIME until we finally told Marius it was lost- and he witnessed the whole thing. Watching and waiting for us to find it. So we put him to bed without it and he didn't make a peep. 5 minutes later I FOUND IT- but hid it immediately and he's never had it since! I'm going to tell everyone to "lose" the paci when it's time to take it away. It was the smoothest transition ever! And I'm so grateful. He was QUITE addicted to his.

All the kids love playing on our treadmill. They walk on it and run their cars on it and stand or sit on it until it runs them off onto the floor. They think it's the best. But Marius was always sticking his feet into this spot where it would just rub on his feet and one day he did it so bad it rubbed A LOT of his skin off. His poor foot just had this line of RAW FLESH. It was terrible to look at and took a few days for him to not be bothered by it. It's still healing.

He's really cute at copy catting. He'll sit by Greg and look down and see Greg's ankles are crossed, so Marius will cross his. He does things like this all the time and I just love it. 

As much as he's a lot to handle- we love him. He has the sweetest smile and is very cute.

Scarlet has been super creative these days, finding new interests and things to do each week. She's impressing Greg and I constantly. For a few months she was constantly putting our keyboard on DEMO mode, where it would just play music on it's own. It was constantly on. She really likes classical music- and I like that she likes it. It reminds me of me. Then she wanted to learn to lead music. She would ask me constantly to teach her. She would set up Greg's music stand, stand on a stool and "lead the music" to the piano playing. She would do this for a long time!!! She loved it. It was really cute to watch. 

She LOVES Zumba. She loves to do it with me and told me not to go to the gym anymore, because then she can't do Zumba with me. I felt bad, but I have to get out of the house to exercise! She has really mastered Itunes on my phone and "taught" me zumba classes for a few days. She was very organized about it. Telling me when, and how long we would do it. The first song was always a warm up. She would pick very specific songs and stand in front of me and our helper and show us what to do. She was really good at it! And explained it very well! She even changed motions at the right times so it didn't get too boring. Scarlet can go on point like a ballerina and it is totally crazy. I feel like we are doing a disservice to her not putting her in lessons, but that's the last thing I want to do right now- unless she WANTED to. 

She has gotten really good at drawing lately. So much more detail, staying in the lines when she colors and paints. She's really improving quickly and getting very creative. She can read but she LOVES to WRITE. We sorta have to make her read- but she write constantly. She's always asking us how to spell words- like all day. She's always leaving us notes that say "Mom love" with a heart or something similar. She's just started making books and I LOVE IT. I did it everyday when I was her age and suddenly that's what she's doing. She's really creative! She drew and wrote a book about a monster family and drew people with blue and green faces. I loved it. I keep encouraging her to try to spell on her own, but she does NOT like to make mistakes. She is a serious perfectionist. If she makes a mistake on something she's been working really hard on- she will scribble the whole page or crumple it up! It's so sad, because sometimes she'll have worked A LONG TIME on it. I keep trying to help her be ok with mistakes, but I think that will take awhile for her to understand.

She loves the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle movie from the 80's. She's always wanting to write cards for her cousins. She makes them and then I never get to sending them. She always wants to FaceTime her cousins too. She FaceTimes Grandma Jentzsch atleast once a week. Pat and Randy are great about Scarlet calling. If they're on the road or shopping, they'll pull over, sit down, stop what they're doing and talk as long as Scarlet wants. It's so sweet. They are good to her. 

In Cambodia she learned to swim and is progressing really quickly! She can swim all the way to the bottom of the deep end. She can hold her breath and swim across the pool when Greg pushes her along. She can snorkel REALLY WELL. She loves to swim to the bottom, grab the leaves or mangoes and bring them to the top. She is just constantly exploring and pushing her limits in the water. I'm so impressed with her. She is gonna be just like her Daddy- a fish. 

The same week she learned how to ride her bike without training wheels! When that happened, my emotions went a little nuts, like- what's happening to my baby! She's all grown up! Just like that! But I love to see her grow. It's so exciting. She just seems so much older these days. I have been mourning all year her going to school next year. I've thought about it way too much and suddenly, I'm ok with it. I think she's ready and I think I'm ready. She will do so well there! She loves to learn and she understands so well! She's very inquisitive. The only question is her adjusting to being away from home so long. She'll take a 40 minute bus ride there and back and then school itself is nearly 8 hours. That's a BIG JUMP from being home with Mamma and her brothers all day. I hope Brighton adjusts too. He LOVES Scarlet and plays with her all day long.

This was us after a nature walk. We walked around the neighborhood and collected leaves and flowers. It was really fun! Then we came back and made crafts with them.

Brighton has really come in to his own. I keep seeing new strengths and talents within him. For instance- he sings really well!!!! He knows words, he sings in tune- he's really got a strong voice! He is really silly. He has been making up words lately. He likes Primary- his teachers LOVE him because he's very quiet and still- but that's just because he's so shy. He's gotten really into puzzles- he has a Spiderman and a Dinosaur puzzle he can do on his own now which is really cool! He LOVES Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!!!! Pat sent Greg's old figurines to us and the kids play with them all the time. I love that they were Greg's! 

Brighton was having the MOST difficult problems- with emotions, being without me, among many other things. He has gotten SO MUCH BETTER!!!! He can be without me! He eats! He goes to bed! He brushes his teeth, gets dressed, PLAYS, does all the things a 3 year old needs to be doing!!! It's really saved me. But I'm most happy that HE'S HAPPY. He was sad so much and it was such a struggle for the whole family, but things have improved SO MUCH. He still struggles- usually in the morning- but I handle it A LOT BETTER now and the situation doesn't escalate so much or last so long. I can usually get him to calm down in a few minutes where last time it was all through out the day, it would last forever- it was nonstop. It was so wearing on me and I'm pretty convinced he was in  his own personal hell himself. But now it seems to be calmed and I have a lot of faith that it's going to continue this way. I'm just gonna keep doing what I'm doing and I have hope things will just keep getting better and better. That's the goal anyway :)

Scarlet and Marius being statues.

Painting rocks from our backyard.

Of course, it didn't take long for me to get super tense with paint and the kids happening.

The other day the kids found this fly and we thought it was a baby butterfly. It was so small and colorful. We stared at it all excited and when we showed Greg he said it wasn't a butterfly. It did sort of look like a bee with butterfly wings. Then we were a little freaked out, not knowing what it was, so we flushed it. Too bad.

Scarlet's been in the wonderful habit of being thoughtful and making people food. She will bring you a plate of nuts and dates and carrot pieces and you pretty much never want it. Now her latest is mashing up bananas with water and who knows what else and happily bringing it to you.

Greg has been really getting into his Parkour lately. Trying bigger and more difficult moves, as other ones have become really easy for him. It's gotten him in REALLY GOOD SHAPE. I've never seen his chest so muscley. And it's wild to think it's just going to get bigger and more defined. The kids love to do it with him and I love watching them all together. It's really fun. 

Works been going great for him. I don't know if I mentioned before, but Greg and I were seriously considering a career change earlier this year! Mostly because I was super stressed about everything that comes along with living abroad and moving every 2 years- but all that stress has basically evaporated and now I'm on board again, so we're stayin' put. And it feels good. Greg loves his job and we love seeing the world and getting new experiences and seeing new things. We really feel like we're in the right spot. He is the Scout Master. Is that what it's called? He's in charge of Scouts at church.

I cannot describe how my life has changed the last month. First off, I got rid of my old helper and got a new helper. And she's full time! And it's been AMAZING. If you asked me a year ago if I'd ever get a full time helper I would've said NEVER. First off- I wanted privacy, but it really hasn't been a problem at all. Also . . . I still wanted CLAIM on certain household tasks- like I wanted to be the one to do things- like make dinner and keep the house clean. I'm the Mom- that's my job! Who am I if I'm not doing these things? It was really hard for me to let go of this one. I could see the beauty of taking the hard things away- but then what was left of me? What was my definition? It took time for me to realize that cleaning and cooking- when it all comes down to it- does not count towards my personal righteousness or my personal identity. This was the hardest one to let go of.  The other two things I was worried about was that the kids would like her better than me or somehow I would just check out of the picture completely. That hasn't happened at all. Not even CLOSE. She's my favorite babysitter that is ready at a second's notice. It's great! And when I'm back, she leaves. And the kids love her, but I'm still the absolute preferred. I'm the Mom! 

I was a little worried I'd have nothing to do, but I've been surprised how full my days usually are. It makes sense now why I was so stressed all the time and could never seem to get dinner made. It's made life SO MUCH more peaceful and happy. The house is always clean now. It's WONDERFUL. We eat a healthy meal everyday now! That was my kicker to get a full timer- I was getting worse and worse at making dinner. It just was never happening anymore and we were eating worse and worse. Now she preps everything and I do just a little bit- like make the dressing, or get it started and tell her how to finish. It's been wonderful. Even when Greg goes out of town- now I eat a healthy meal instead of not making anything. Since she's here everyday- now I work out EVERYDAY. EVERYDAY!!!!! This has helped my depression SO MUCH. It's been WONDERFUL!!!!! It is pretty much impossible to exercise at home, the kids just crawl on my or turn off the computer or TV while I'm using it. It's really hard. I've gotten into a good groove where I walk to the gym during Marius's nap, come home shower and hang with the kids. It's been great. And the kicker is- it's only costing us $20 more a month than our old helper that SUCKED and was here WAY LESS. It's been wonderful, I have no regrets and it's made my life (and therefor everyone else's) so much better. I'm never going back. At least not while the kids are little. 

With all of that, I have been a lot better. When General Conference happened, I realized I needed to be doing a LOT more. More reading my scriptures and studying to be particular. I've been reading, but it's been pretty minimal and I always let myself off the hook thinking, "Heavenly Father understands. My kids are so little, having focus and time is so difficult." And I do think that's how it was for awhile. I really did feel like what I was doing was enough. But somewhere between there- things are different now and I can be doing a lot more. So right there, just a few talks in I committed to dedicating more of myself to Heavenly Father and that very night the kids slept in their beds- ALL NIGHT LONG. Now I can't describe to you what a miracle this is. Miracle doesn't even describe it. Our kids NEVER SLEEP IN THEIR BEDS. To the point where we just put them to bed in OUR BED a lot of time, hoping they'll stay upstairs or sleep a little longer that way. And they usually come down agin and again and AGAIN, before they FINALLY stay up there and then it's usually our bed time. It is so robbing and horrible and I have hated it so much for years- but THIS YEAR has been the upmost terrible. And ever since that night- it hasn't changed. And I KNOW it's because I committed and started studying my scriptures and read all the conference talks I wasn't able to watch. I KNOW IT!!!! That's why it happened. God gave it to me.

And since then, the more I read, the more Spirit I feel and the more I commit MORE of myself in other ways and then- OVERNIGHT AGAIN some miracle will happen with the kids. They play now! They play all day! They play with each other! They play without me and are creative, and kid like and happy and busy and building so many happy memories ALL ON THEIR OWN. I can't describe what THIS miracle is for me. The kids NEVER played on their own. Everyday was a constant battle for the tv. They complained all the time, they fought all the time- everything was just HARD. I felt like I had to give up on all the "dreams" I had of our kids eating food, and sleeping and playing like normal kids. Everything was so hard and difficult and it'd been nearly a year now so I was starting to think this was just my life and I should stop trying to make it different because here we are- a year later- worse off than when we began. And now everything is so much better. SO MUCH. 

It's reconfirmed my testimony ONCE AGAIN of everything I already know- like following the commandments and giving your all and that Heavenly Father is aware of us and the things that matter to US. So everytime I think of NOT doing something now (like go to the temple) I stop and think, "Wait a minute! Everytime you dedicate yourself to the Lord, an incredible thing happens in your life! Why would you withhold yourself on this! You will be glad you did it!"

So all that has been good too. Well, I am exhausted. I am sick and we're leaving for Hong Kong tomorrow!!!!! I still need to pack- I haven't even started, but I'm going to take a nap instead. Hopefully I'm feeling better tomorrow.