Big Strides

Here are a few things I wanted to include before time got too far away from me.

Last month, N was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was a special day for him and we were especially grateful that T was able to baptize him and confirm him. After the service we had ice cream sundaes at the house. Yum!

This is by far the girliest non-church outfit I have put on V. I still have a hard time dressing her in girl clothes after having three boys. Her bald head doesn’t help things, either. I put it on her almost as a joke because it is so different from how I usually dress her, but I figured she ought to wear it at least once. I’m going to try not to impose my blasé sense of style on her as she grows, but it might be inevitable. 

Here is a video my mom took at her house of V walking, falling, and walking again as Papa P and I look on...

That was taken about two weeks ago, and she gets better and better every day.

Finally, here is photographic proof of J trying ketchup… and surviving! If you know J you know that this is a big deal, especially since his brother N is the self-proclaimed “King of Ketchup.” He didn’t decide that he likes it, but at least he knows that it’s not poisonous. Now to get them to try ranch…

Back Again

It's been a while since I added a post and am determined to put one up today, even if it only says that I am determined to put one up today. I feel a need to give a shout-out (Am I allowed to do that as a thirty-something, white, incredibly unhip stay-at-home mom? Probably not.) to those of you who are so good about posting on your blogs and letting the rest of us peek into your worlds - and you know who you are (SK!).

I'll include the recent pictures of V since she is the one who changes the most. A couple of weeks ago I realized I hadn't heard or seen from her in a few minutes. I was sitting on the couch to the left in the picture and couldn't see from there that she had fallen asleep half-hidden under the rocking chair. Yes, I did take the bottle out of her mouth after the picture. I don't want her teeth rotting out either.

Here she is in her goldfish robe fresh from the bath. I got this robe as a present at my baby shower for E back when we thought he was going to be girl and held on to it till I had a cute girl to put it on! Totally worth the wait.

Finally, here she is doing her weekly chores. It's about time she started pulling her weight around here! She actually was doing a good job of pushing the broom around until it got stuck under the stove. I would be embarrassed about all the stuff on the floor, but those are things she pulled out as she did her daily rearranging of my cabinets. In the last picture she is saying that she is done with the kitchen and will be moving on to the bathrooms. It's so nice to have help around the house.

N's Birthday

N turned 8 at the end of August. For something different, we decided to take some friends to the bowling alley. I got pretty ambitious (for me) and made bowling-themed invites, matching T-shirts for all the kids, and a bowling ball-shaped cake. We played one game, had a pizza, then went back to our house for cake and presents. It was a good time! E's ball rolled so slowly that we weren't always sure if it was going to make it all the way, but it did every time. Thanks to cousin C for helping us out. 

The next night we celebrated with cousins at the Butlers' house. I have to post this first picture of N with cousins E and J because it makes me laugh every time I see it. It's just one of those odd moments that happened to get captured forever. The next picture is pretty good, though, and makes up for the absurdity of the first.

Happy birthday, N. We love you!!!

J's Birthday

J celebrated his 10th birthday at the end of June with cousins and by going to see Wall-E. This year he decided on a Bionicle cake.

J's present from us was for me to take him to Mesa to see Eoin Colfer, the author of the Artemis Fowl series - a GREAT set of books, by the way. T and I love them as much as J does, and I was as excited to go as he was. Eoin (pronounced "Owen") was doing a tour to promote the latest book in the series and did a presentation at the Mesa Arts Center. He showed pictures from his childhood and told anecdotes about growing up with brothers and how his family influenced the characters he created.  He is a talented public speaker and his stories were hilarious. He was a teacher for many years and really knows how to relate to youth. Plus he has a beautiful Irish accent which was lovely to listen to. At the end of the presentation he did a book signing, so J was able to talk to him for a minute and get his own personalized copy of The Time Paradox. After the show we went to dinner at Chevys (yummy) where J and I shared this dessert. Olé!

The next day we went to the Visitor Center at the Arizona Mesa Temple, then drove to Phoenix and spent a few hours at the Arizona Science Center where they have hands-on exhibits and were featuring a Chronicles of Narnia display with props and costumes from the movies and interactive features (they didn't allow photos in there :( ).

My favorite display had to be the Dancing Iron Dust Trees by TechnoFrolics. Magnets and iron are choreographed to different songs - I could have watched it all day. It would be fun to have one for a party!

Summer recap, part 2

Okay- I think I have the picture thing down, and I figured out how to add animated gifs (in a roundabout way), which allows us to have a little more fun with the pictures. I know some of you are light years ahead of me with this stuff, and others don't have a clue what I'm talking about, but we'll just take it from here.

We spent 4th of July at the T's parents' house swimming. Here's N doing the classic swim dance, well, his version anyway.

E finally decided to try jumping off the board.

And here are a few shots of V and Daddy trying out the crab boat.

Finally, here is V decked out in her patriotic garb. She wasn't happy about sitting in the grass, so I was lucky to get any with her smiling.

Summer Recap, part 1

Even though the kids have been in school for a couple of weeks, and even though the hot weather will be sticking around for a while, Labor Day still seems like the end of summer to me. So I thought I would catch up on what kept us busy this summer.


Once again we kicked off the summer with swim lessons. E likes to swim like Grandma B's dog with his tongue wagging.


J had to be... persuaded to jump off the diving board for the first time.

N, however, went willingly off the board.
V got to sit in her stroller while the boys were in the pool.

Okay, so putting together this post took a LOT longer than I expected - I didn't realize working with pictures was such a pain in a blog. Why don't they go where I want them? Anyway, I'm going to figure out what I'm doing and then finish the summer summary.

Meet the Players

Here is a quick rundown of our family. In a half-hearted attempt at privacy, I only use nicknames or initials for the kids online, so if you have a burning desire to know their full names, email me.

First off is the hubby. We'll call him... T-bone. He is a computer guy.

Then there is me. I am a stay-at-home mom, part-time photographer, part-time Heritage Makers consultant, part-time lots of other things and also currently the children's music leader at church.

Our oldest is J - he is 10 and in the 5th grade. A voracious reader and a big fan of Star Wars and the Muppets.

Next is N - he turned 8 yesterday and is in 2nd grade. Loves military stuff, Star Wars, and Legos.

The youngest boy is E - he is 4 and has one more year of preschool before kindergarten. He is a lovable goof and loves anything his older brothers love, including...

V - our non-boy. She is creeping up on 10 months. Creeping, crawling, standing, and taking wobbly steps are some of her current hobbies.

Good. So now you know who we are. Maybe for the next post I'll throw in some pictures.