May Part 3

The Webelos have been working like CRAZY this past month or two, trying to make sure and earn the arrow of light before we move.  I am so grateful that they care so much, but at the same time I feel kind of guilty about it.   We have such great people in our ward and are so grateful for them.

Kaden's snail he found during Noah's piano practice...

We went on a hike with the scouts at Sandy Bottom Nature Park....another spontaneous everyone go out of your way kinda thing to get these badges completed...

                                                       A is a monkey.  He loves to climb.

May Part 2

 For Mother's Day A's kindgergarten invited the Mom's to lunch and put on a program for them.  As he was giong out the door in the morning he was really concerned about what I had packed him for lunch that day, because he had "TWO surprises" for me that he would show me when I got to lunch with him.  I pictured some great dessert or something but the first thing he showed me when I walked in was his two loose teeth in front.  They were so loose that they were bleeding as he stood and sang songs with his class.  But not loose enough that I could pull them out right there...

 At the beginning of the year he did an "All about Me" book, and in that book he said I was 10 years old and Travis was 9 years old.  It seems this year has aged me a LOT...

Finally well after this boy was supposed to be asleep he came down with one of his teeth which he had been working so hard to get out all day long.  He was so excited.  A few minutes later he came downstairs sobbing....He had pulled the other one out in the bathroom and it flew out of his hand and down the drain. It was seriously the end of the world.  Luckily we have a nice and amazing toothfairy and after a nice note to her she was able to fetch the tooth from the drain during the night.

 This is my favorite thing A has done at school all year.  It's a self portrait done from ripped paper, complete with the patch of white hair in the back of his head (in the second picture).  How creative!

May Part 1

 It seems we had a busy month.  I have to break May into a few posts and only post the bare minimum of pictures.  The about is Noah's picture as we were on the ferry on the way to Surry to pick strawberries.  We tried to coordinate with so many people who wanted to go but in the end just had to go on the day that worked.  I pulled the kids out of school a little early and we went with the Mazzenos.  Then I lost Taryn's shoe on the ferry (oh look, at this point in the picture below, it was already lost.  Hmmm).  Then we got to the strawberry patch and I could not find my camera to take more pictures.  So I did not get picture of Taryn picking and eating like a MILLION strawberries.  I could not stop the girl.   At one point she stopped and I strapped her in the baby carrier and she just layed on me and was very very quiet.  I worried the whole way home she was going to throw up because she obviously wasn't feeling well, but she held it together.  It has been almost a month since we went, though, and this girl (who eats everything) just stares at strawberries if I give them to her to eat.  She doesn't want them.  I really hope this did not taint her for life.  But for the rest of us, it was a blast.  We picked 4 gallons, and worried it would be too much to use up before we moved.  We should not have worried.....

 N and K and A are all in gymnastics together right now.  It's a boys 6-10 class and it's so nice to get them all done at once.  The favorite part is running down the hill a few times after gymnastics every week. 

 All the kiddos at a squadron get together...well, some of the kiddos.  Our kids usually make up more than half of the kids at functions like this.  This night we actually had 6 because our little friend J was staying with us while his parents were in CA. 

 J and M at Kaden's soccer game.  M was in heaven having a friend stay with us for 4 days.  It spoiled him, because now when his friends have to go home after say, 4 hours at our house, he acts like it is complete injustice, and a few times has said, "But J stayed a loooong time!"

 I keep not getting many picture of K playing soccer...

April Happenings...

We have had all kinds of random things going on this month. Pictures really help me remember, so I'm lost when I found out I didn't take any. A was a scientist for career day at school. Once the costumes were out, M spent a week in his lion costume and the boys started dressing T up whenever they could.

A and M spent almost an hour while we were out in the backyard one day, picking beautiful flowers to put in my "beautiful" hair.

While listening to conference Saturday morning I let the boys use watercolors and markers to color a few eggs, as long as they tried to listen a little and decorate them according to what they heard. This is what K came up with and I was pretty impressed.

A also drew a church.

And a watermelon....I'm sure this must correlate with being fed and nourished spiritually, right?

During snack time on Sunday I suddenly realized that it was April fools day so I gave every hard boiled eggs for a snack, except for N and K. I gave them raw eggs. They loved it and went and friend them up on a pan to eat. Little did I know that A would be very sad and offended that I didn't play a joke on him, too.

I LOVE general conference. This year Travis wasn't here with us and I imagined pure chaos and frustration. But everyone was so good, and Noah sat down in front of the the computer with me and listened to EVERY word. It was so amazing....I don't think he has even listened to one entire talk in the past (well maybe one). But he was so riveted and laughed and remembered all kinds of things I didn't even remember. And he was so sad when there were only two speakers left and it was almost over. It was such a great feeling to see the fire light a little.

T on Easter Sunday and I cannot believe I didn't take a better picture of her than this. I will have to dress her up again soon and redo...

The day after Easter we had a little neighborhood Easter egg hunt at our friends' house down the street. I love having wonderful and fun neighbors.....please please let us live by someone nice when we move!

Everyone who has seen Kaden running around in the past month has wondered about his mother for sure. The bottom of his shoe has been flapping and we DO have another pair of shoes but he just kept putting these ones back on and I never noticed until we are out and about. They finally got so bad that his feet actually poked out so I threw them in the garbage so he would not have a choice to put them back on...

T loves to stand on things, especially anything unsteady and dangerous. She is crazy. And tipsy to start with. In fact on this very picture I can see a small mark on her left cheek that is road rash caused from this very problem. She loves to step on and off the curb over and over and over, but she is NOT good at it. Sigh.

But this box we got in the mail for M's bday was the best thing ever for her. Set it in the middle of the living room and it was hours of entertainment and joy for her without the road rash and constant vigilance on our part....

And the big day finally arrived for little man Micah. He seriously has asked almost daily for the past year, how much longer it would be until his birthday. He came into our room in the morning and I hugged him and said "Micah! Happy Birthday!" And his face little up and he went running into the kitchen announcing to the others that it was his birthday. A few minutes later he came back and I said "Did you know you are 4 years old now?" and his face and smile got even bigger as he gasped and said "What?!" And then went running into the kitchen to announce to everyone that he was 4 now. I'm waiting for him to start the count down all over again, but it's been like 5 days, and he hasn't asked about his next birthday yet. This kid has been so much fun for us. Someone from church was telling me the other day that the only one of our family he was going to miss was Micah...he was just being mean and sarcastic of course, but even in his meanness he had to admit he would miss Micah. Somehow he just makes people happy.

When Micah says he wants a birthday, he mostly is talking about the cake (mostly things are about treats and food with him). Since he planned this cake for a year, he has gone from wanting a volcano to a dragon, to a castle, to a few other things, and at the last minute decided he wanted a flower cake with pink and purple on it. I thought that was hilarious. I think his choice was influenced by Easter a few days before and by T's bday cake last month. But it was a fun cake and the flower cookies were a huge hit with everyone.

Happy Birthday to my big boy. And please don't get any bigger....

The rest of March....

I'm pretty much not a blogger at all am I? I notice all the time how many wonderful pictures and memories we have made that I have not recorded anywhere. And if I ever blog, it's strictly a mass catch up session. I do it anyway, just because it really it how some people know what's up with us, and because my journal writing is even worse! Anyway, for Christmas Trav got me tickets to go see "Wicked" with my friend Rebecca. I have not ever been to anything like that at all and it was AMAZING. I love love loved it. What a wonderful husband to spend money on something he deems as silly and crazy, just to make me happy.
Every since these 3 babes were born (in our ward) I have been thinking we need to line them up and take their pics together. I final did it at our last playgroup, and saw why maybe we hadn't bothered to before. It took forever to get anyone to sit still for even a picture this awful. But at least I can see them all and remember them...

This is at our last pack meeting, Noah getting his Webelo...

And Kaden getting his Wolf...

And Taryn being a little fairy princess...

My friend picked up this swimsuit for T and we weren't even going swimming but it's so cute I had to put it on her just to see her in it for awhile...

I got avocados at Costco awhile ago and could not find them anywhere and thought maybe I had left them in the cart or something. But a few days late I found them in the freezer chest. I was pretty sure it's not recommended to freeze whole avocados and that they were ruined, which is the worst thing ever. I hate wasting food! But I made a huge load of guacamole and it actually worked great. Hurray!

Uh, this is right after dinner with a big full belly. T eats a lot...