I bet your kids never...

Let's play a fun game called "I bet your kids never..."
Let me go first:

I bet your kids never: run naked through the house. Or, for that matter, through your front yard.

I bet your kids never: poke a fork at your lovingly prepared dinner and dubiously say "Have we ever had this before?"

I bet your kids never: come up to you at 9:00 p.m. on Thursday night and say "Oh, my teacher said we need to bring five of {insert any random object} to school on Friday."

I bet your kids never: put a finger on your lips and say "Don't sing" when you feel moved to join in on your favorite song on the radio.

I bet your kids never: play ninja sword with the toy train tracks. Or random sticks. Or socks.

I bet your kids never: walk across entire rooms without putting a single foot on the floor (ok, I admit it, I did this when I was a kid, too)

I bet your kids never: brake windows by throwing a measuring tape at one, all because they are trying to get their younger brother out of the window well on the other side of the glass (Oh, that might just be my kid. It'a a long story).

And I bet your kids never, ever: go through a whole box of Raisin Bran and eat all the raisins, leaving behind all the bran.

'Cause my kids never do any of these things. Yeah.
Now that I've had my sarcasm fix, I can move on.

And by the way, I love these kids even with their hair-raising or sometimes just eyebrow-raising antics.

He's THREE!!

Our sweet, crazy, tricky, sugar lovin', sometimes mean, but with the best I'm sorry hugs ever, and the longest eyelashes in the world little boy (whew) just turned three!

This year he's grown and changed so much. Some of my favorite things about him are:
--He still likes to stay up later than the other kids but now he tells all kinds of stories to us while he doesn't have any competition. His favorite stories involve spiders, bad guys, cars, and dinosaurs.
--He loves his brothers and sisters and is still a huge snuggler.
--His favorite toys are (surprise) balls, cars (any kind of vehicle, actually, especially tractors) and dinosaurs. And every dinosaur is a T-Rex. Don't argue, he's always right!
--His favorite routine is grabbing me and saying "I've got you!" and then I have to grab him back and say "No, I've got you!" and then we go back and forth for awhile. I know, sugary sweet, but it makes my day.
--When he gives kisses, it's a major thing, he kisses forehead, chin, both cheeks and nose. Then he gives one of his huge grins, what a cutie.
--He can dazzle anyone with that big grin and blinking those long dark eyelashes up and down.
--He says "When I grow up, I want to be like Daddy." I think that's wonderful...but not too soon, ok, little boy? Let me get in a few more kisses and snuggles before you get too big for it.

Here's some pictures from this last year:

Helping Daddy hang our new magnet board.

Seth wasn't too sure about this squiggling little bundle Dad put on his lap. He sure loves his sister now, and is always pouncing on her to say hi. Or goodbye. Or just to yell "baby Abigail!"

Posing in front of the Idaho Falls Temple (for Sam and Kolleen's wedding) in a slightly un-temple like way. I really like this picture though!

His "do not disturb me, I'm reading" look.

Another shot at the I.F. Temple. He rocks the bow tie look.

Building snowmen. We put food coloring in spray bottles and colored the snowmen ( I got the idea from "I am momma, hear me roar") He loves playing outside, rain, shine or snow.

We love our little Seth!

Abigail pictures

Here's some shots from Abigail's photo shoot--so cute! Thanks a ton, Christy!

Seth points to this picture "that's Angel Abigail." Then he points to Abigail sleeping peacefully in my arms, "That's not Angel Abigail." He does truly adore her, I guess the clothes make the man...err..baby...err...angel.

What is cuter than baby toes?

This is her fashionista picture!

Our sweet Abigail.

Love, love, love this black and white, completely adorable.

Flu shots and baby shoot (and other stuff)

Life was busy again this week, but I'm learning that that's life with five kids, whew. Monday and Tuesday was filled with finishing Abigail's blessing dress, and then Wednesday we took off running for the rest of the week! Here's only some pieces of what went on:

Part of Wednesday was getting Abby's baby pictures from our wonderful friend Christy at Cheapshots! Photography. Despite being around 28 weeks pregnant and recovering from a bike accident (fractured sternum among other things, ouch) Christy did an amazing job. I'll share more of the pictures later, but here's her baby announcement (I blurred out our last name, it doesn't really look so goofy down there):

How adorable is that!?! And Abigail did so great during the shoot. We had her in three different outfits (including those angel wings) and even changed her diaper once and she slept the entire time. Maybe I'll do a photo shoot the next time she decides to stay awake until 2:00.

In other baby news, she has started smiling this week. Big beautiful grins! I haven't caught one on camera yet, but it's only a matter of time. This week she turned six weeks old, enjoyed her first trip to the Farmer's Market (we were asked which booth was selling babies), and is growing like those weeds I haven't gotten to since she was born.

After the photos I picked up the older kids from school with only vague answers to where we were going and met Farris at his work...where they were giving flu shots. Caleb and Felicity took theirs stoically, but after Joseph saw the nurse dart that needle into Farris' arm, it was a battle to get him done. That poor nursing student got a real life medical experience. He only stopped crying (about ten minutes after the shot) when we told him he would only get the promised ice cream if he stopped his howling. Seth's crying lasted until they gave him a sucker, he's easy to distract. I nursed my woes into a Wendy's frosty ;).

Friday was busy with Caleb and Joseph going on field trips: Caleb to Kennicot Copper Mine (you can see it from space, but Caleb was most impressed about the huge tires on the trucks that work down there) and Joseph to an apple orchard. Seth, Abby, and I tagged along with Joseph. It was his first ride on a school bus, monumental! He did say it was loud. Yes, sixty five year olds on one bus? I would assume so. As we were turning on to main street, we saw a sheep patiently waiting at the crosswalk. Yup. That's how our city rolls sometimes. A police officer was watching closely, but didn't seem too impressed. The sheep ran out of patience before the light turned and crossed in front of us, luckily not onto main street, which was busy. After we pulled out, the sheep was apprehended but was not harmed. I wouldn't have been so sure about that on the Rez, it would've been mutton stew ;) The orchard was beautiful and so fall-ish I was happy, it was the perfect way to start the fall season.

(Love Joseph's posing. Turn a camera on, and all the world's his stage.)

When we were done I checked Joseph out of school and we went to visit Tarilynn. She needs her baby fix and we're happy to provide. So glad they're down here now!

Saturday was slower. We did move furniture around in our bedroom so Abby Stuff fits in better. We were going to do that before she was born, but two weeks early caught us off guard. Saturday was also the Relief Society broadcast. I love to listen to those incredible women and their testimonies and this year President Uchtdorf spoke, too. His talks are always wonderful, filled with the Spirit and with love beaming out to where ever you're listening, and an airplane story usually thrown in, too. This talk was right up my horticulture lovin' alley, he used flowers: five-petaled forget-me-nots to tell us to never forget these five things:

(this graphic is from A Feathered Nest, right here:
http://projectsforyournest.blogspot.com/2011/09/forget-me-not.html )

I think nurseries, around here especially, better stock up on forget-me-nots this next spring, I know I want to plant some as a sweet reminder. After chatting around some chocolate cream pie with some lovely ladies, I went home refreshed. Maybe I can remember these things? With plans for spring planting, I'll try!

New pictures of Abigail

My mom wanted to see if Abby has changed since she last saw her...I think she has!

A little slower

This week was a little slower than last week, whew! Here's the highlights:

On Labor Day we went to my brother's house. So glad they live close now! Abby was passed around, and often stalled at her Aunt Tarilynn. Rylee and Felicity played, played, played. Farris threw balls at the kids, which is pretty normal, but this time it was from the upper deck into the backyard. I relaxed and spent time chatting with Tarilynn. All in all a great day!

Caleb's soccer team played twice this week (Wednesday: win 2-1, Friday: lose 1-2). Friday was fun because Nicki came to watch and it was picture day. 7 year old boys get rowdy when waiting in lines for their team's turn. Lots of Ninja going on.

Sunday was Abigail's 1 month birthday. I was still trying to get our camera to upload to the computer when a thought hit me: Maybe it was the memory card and not the camera? I have two that I switch back and forth. So I switched cards, took a picture of Abby, and...it worked!

So now that I know what's going on, I should be able to get more pictures on here, yea!

Abby is growing, growing, growing. She's also nursing a lot, I guess that goes hand in hand! Unfortunately, sleeping doesn't. But it's college football season, so Farris gets to catch up on the games he's missed on ESPN online, so he's ok with it. Maybe by basketball season she'll be sleeping better and he'll have to think of a different excuse!

Kindergarten, soccer, and underwear...oh, my

It's been a busy, but good week! Joseph started kindergarten on Monday. Yes, I took pictures, but again my camera and computer aren't talking to each other. Grrrrr. I took the cutest pictures of him, too! I'll spend some more time with it all tomorrow, and see what I can get. But most important, he loved his first day. No worries, kiss me good bye and jump right in. Farris asked him that night if the teacher had to tell him to sit down and be quiet alot. I wasn't there, but I can sooooo picture his face when he said "welllllllll, not all the time." Yes, that worries me some. Parent/teacher conference should be fun this year.

Also on Monday, my amazing Aunt Ellen and her amazing girls Tricia, Valerie, Amy (all the way from D.C.!) and Danece and some of their kids, and my amazing sis-in law Tarilynn came to visit. We had lots of fun visiting while the kids ran around playing. I'm very lucky to have such a great extended family. Amy's just a year younger than me and we spent a lot of time doing silly things with each other. Like jumping on the trampoline while we had sleeping bags over our heads...yea, that wasn't always a good thing. Since she lives in the D.C. area now, I don't get to see her very often, it was fun to catch up a little. Without a sleeping bag. Maybe next time?

On Tuesday Abigail had her first doctor appointment. She's gained almost a pound! I always worry how well the baby is doing before that first appointment. You know, she looks like she's grown, but what if she hasn't, what if I'm not feeding her enough? But somethings working 'cause she's getting big. And our great doctor says she's perfect. And she was glad that Baby Girl Child has a name now.

Wednesday started soccer season for Caleb. This is our first chance to be a soccer family. Caleb LOVED it (his team lost 1-0, but he never even mentioned that, he just went on about all the kicks he made and how he wanted to hit that ball with his head. Ummm. ok.), Joseph immediately wanted to sign up for next year, Seth was enthralled, and Felicity was bored before half time (she brought two books for the next game on Friday). Farris and I decided that Caleb needs shin guards for those skinny little legs of his. It's fun to watch these little boys playing, they can get so intense while they are diving for the ball. Caleb's going to love the next few weeks of playing.

Earlier Wednesday, I went to buy socks for Caleb (He goes through socks like no other) and Shopko had little boy underwear on sale, too. Seth was excited and started putting some in our cart. We'd been trying to get him excited about the toilet, and he did earn some candy a couple times (I'm trying to make this post about potty training not a gross out, I'm sure you understand what "earning some candy" means, right?) so I thought, why not? and let him pick out a couple packages. The next morning started out good, but kind of dwindled. Then on Friday it got really bad. He was being stubborn and I was nursing Abby a lot and I didn't stick through the whole day. So we might put a pause on the potty training for a little while. A least until I'm not nursing quite so much. And I have a new theory. When the kids do a good job with the potty training, they get candy. But when they have an accident, who has to clean it up? And do we get a treat? I think moms deserve candy every time there's an accident. Or maybe a Wendy's frosty. With french fries. Maybe we'd enjoy potty training a little more then.

Friday we had Caleb's second game, and he even had shin guards this time. His team won 2-1 because his teammate, Jared, made two goals. When Caleb blessed the food for dinner that night he said "and thank you that Jared was on our team." He was pretty excited about the score this time.

Friday was also Joseph's last day of swimming lessons, he's had lessons every weekday the last two weeks, so it will be nice not to have to run to the pool every day after school. He loves the water, he reminds me of a puppy splashing around. All the kids want to spend more time at the pool, next year we'll have to figure something out. I'd love to do a mommy and me with Abby. I'm glad this summer is winding down and that fall is almost here, but next summer will be great, too!