Whoa! He's bald!

I have to blog about this today, just because I'll sleep better getting this off my chest. Have any of you ever had one of those days when your husband walks in the door you feel like crying with relief? Because of those sweet innocent little boys you have? Look at these two, so good. Joseph was trying to read a story to Seth. He wasn't exactly sitting still, but I thought it was adorable anyway. Oh, by the way, get a good look at Joseph's hair.

All innocence this morning.

Huh. Yeah, not so innocent now. This is the second time in about half an hour that Seth decided to throw flour all about. I cleaned up the first one, walked into another room to deal with another crisis and, pow, he was back at it. So I took a picture.

So you wanted to know what the other crisis was? I was getting out my clippers. To finish a haircut. That wasn't started by me. Even though it was my SEWING SCISSORS THAT STARTED IT (sorry, just my mom's past admonishing: Don't cut ANYTHING but fabric with your sewing scissors. Huh. Maybe Grandma needs to talk to her innocent little grandson.) Don't you like how he started right in the middle of his forehead. Front and center.

I showed him a mirror and told him (I wasn't even yelling at this point-- that was before-- but I was being good now) we were going to have to cut all his hair off. He didn't really like that idea, but it had to be done. I love the expression in this picture. Very expressive.

Such a stinker.

I had to chase him around to get a picture, he was a little embarrassed. Funny the same kid who streaked in our yard is embarrassed about an (almost) naked head.

The other kids reactions were great:

Felicity: Wow, that doesn't look very good.

Caleb: Whoa! He's bald!

Seth: (pointing) Wow! hee-hee! Wow!

The rest of the night whenever Seth saw Joseph, he would laugh and say Wow! I didn't think he was old enough to really notice, but he thought it was hilarious. He even kept trying to rub Joseph's head. I've had people tell me that if you shave a baby's head they will have thicker hair when it grows back in. Hmmmm, maybe it's too late at age three, but we'll see. What a stinker. At least Seth is entertained.

Party!

It's Christmas Party time! BYU had their family party last weekend. The kids love going to play games, make crafts, eat doughnuts and especially see Cosmo the Cougar!

Posing with their crafts. Felicity made a sparkly wand, Caleb decorated a chalkboard, and Joseph decorated a football ornament.

Caleb and Joseph posing with the cougar. We always skip seeing Santa here because the line is so long, but the boys love Cosmo even when we wait for ten minutes in line. Felicity refused to be in the picture this year, I think she thinks she is too big. Cosmo also signed the back of Joseph's football ornament, he was so excited.

This Santa picture is from our ward party. We didn't say anything to the kids about the Santa's identity, but on the way home Caleb said very matter-or-factly, "that wasn't the real Santa. that was our old Bishop." Can't fool that kid. Our "old" Bishop did a great job, and thanks Nikki for sending the pictures so fast to us.
I've been busy sewing and crafting and trying to hide presents from the kids. Joseph went with Farris to get a present for Caleb, and he proudly showed it to Caleb one day: "Look what we got for you Caleb!" Felicity came with me to a fabric store yesterday, I remeber going to stores with my mom and looking at all the buttons and fabric, now I get to share it with my daughter. Awww, nostalga. And then Felicity declared she was bored, and then I remembered being bored shopping with my mom, too. Luckily I had Nicki and Robert to play hide and seek with and generally drive my mom crazy. Which is what would have happened if Joseph and Caleb had come along.
Seth is walking more and more all the time. He also has a new favorite word: wow. At this time of year there is a lot to say wow about. He loved watching the snow fall right in front of his face. Whenever a snowflake came particualry close to his face he'd jump back, point, and yell "WOW!" It's amazing seeing everything through his eyes. But even though I am excited, I am restraining myself from tipping over the tree, which is more than Seth and Caleb can say. Right now our tree is crooked because we're tired of trying to keep it straight. Maybe Santa will straighten it for us on Christmas Eve.

Africa and other stories

I hardly know where to begin, it's been a couple crazy weeks...maybe I should start with a Joseph story, always a good place to start. I told this story to one person (Farris) and he wrote it in his journal, ha-ha, very funny, then I told my sister and she made me tell my whole family, and now I'm thinking that maybe I'll share it with everyone, just if you need a good laugh today. So I'm wiping Joseph's bum (this is where my sister says "All the best stories start this way..."). He says, "My bum is big, huh, mom!" He's all excited about it because he's three and likes to be a BIG KID. Then I turn around to get something. Yup, you can guess where this is leading. He gasps, "MOM! Your bum is big! Your bum is AFRICA BIG!" Yes, I wasn't as excited about that comment as he meant me to be and yes, we are stopping all geography lessons until he learns some tact.

So then we went to Thanksgiving at my parents house in Idaho. Loads of fun with crazy kids and some crazy adults, too =)

Here's my nephew Tanner catching up on World News (ok, just the comics) with Seth. Seth is apparently reading the classifieds, looking for a good deal. Despite all of us looking through the ads, we didn't do too much shopping on Black Friday. Tasha and I went to Joanne's at 6:00 a.m. and then headed home and then Mom, Nicki, Tasha, Rob, and Farris and I went back later to hit a couple more stores in the afternoon.

This is my brother Robert taking the kids around for horsey rides and getting squashed flat when five of them jump on at once. Don't worry, he's still breathing.

On the Saturday after Thanksgiving my family always goes Christmas Tree Hunting up above Sun Valley in the Sawtooth Mountains. Joseph had fun because he got passed around by at least three of us the whole time he was out there. We found a cute little tree pretty quick, which was good because it was getting cold and we were getting hungry! Joseph discovered his favorite new condiment, Mustard. We had made ham or turkey sandwiches with mustard on them, and Joseph has now tried to put mustard on enchiladas and peanut butter sandwiches. I didn't let him. Can you imagine what his missionary companion would write home to his family in 18 years? I'm hoping he won't tell his companion he has a big bum, either.

On the Monday after Thanksgiving we traditionally put up and decorate our tree. This year we vetoed anything breakable, and that has been mostly successful. Seth has only broke one of the unbreakable ornaments. And he has not yet been able to tip the tree over, we'll see if that lasts.

These are the stockings I made for our variation of an advent calendar. I made 25 little stockings and then put scriptures in for each day. I'm thinking about putting treats in the occasional one, too, just to surprise the kids on some of the days. This year I hung them on branches from our tree, next year I might try a garland or even a Charlie Brown Christmas tree. If you want scriptures for each day of December leading to Christmas, try this web site: http://redhatmandan.wordpress.com/2008/12/04/lds-christmas-scripture-study/

It had a good mixture of BOM, Bible, and D&C scriptures. There is also a Christmas Storybook there that you can download that sounds great.

Family Pictures, 2009

We got our family pictures back! and I finally took the time to put them on here, AND they are great, (time for the plug!) Christy at Cheapshots! Photography is amazing and if you need pictures for you family she's good and you won't have to give her one of your children to pay for the pictures. Or their college fund. I have a link in my "fun sites to see" area right to her web site. And if you have to travel, we can accommodate you at Hotel Our House! Yup, that includes a 7:00 wake up call from our little alarm clocks on two (very loud) feet.

We went up a nearby canyon right when the fall colors were wonderful. Christy says that our kids have a lot of personality. We're still trying to decide if that's a nice way of saying that she feels sorry for their primary teachers. It can be kind of hard to reign them in when they are needed to sit still for pictures. And why do kids think they need to have a huge fake smile for pictures? It cracks me up some of the expressions they came up with. Caleb and Joseph smiled so big their cheeks cover their eyes. It's a good thing they have ginormous eyelashes, or we wouldn't see them at all. We were also visited by a small herd of deer that ran right past us when we were done. A perfect fall day, all we needed was pumpkin pie, but that's coming this week!

Christy very nicely also put Seth's model shoot pictures with our family pictures. Sticheroos, an online store for very cute kids clothes and accessories (yup, plug#2, see link down there by Christy's link) needed models for some of their products, and who better than Seth to model cute first birthday shirt and boxers? Sticheroos has some adorable stuff including those baptism towels, scripture bags, fluffy tutus, and lots of shirts that's can be personalized.

Cute smile for the camera. See, Christy knows how to get cute smiles...candy.

Awwww, our own little underwear model!

More Conversations with Felicity

Tonight on the radio we heard that Christmas song about how the guy give the girl his heart for Christmas and she gave it back the very next day, blah-blah-blah, can't remember the name. Anyway, Felicity was confused. I told her that the singer told this girl he loved her, but she didn't love him back. Felicity thought about it, sighed and said, "I know what that feels like."

Felicity's surrounded

Here's a conversation I had with Felicity at dinner the other night.
Caleb was..well, being a boy, and burping. After I made him excuse himself, Felicity sighed and said, "There's a lot of boys in my class that do that."
"So do you tell them they need to say excuse me?"
"No," (waving her hand in front of her facee) "I just tell them it's gross."
"You know, " said her world wise mother "boys are going to be doing gross things your whole life."
Felicity: (sigh, putting head on hands) "If I ever find a boy that doesn't do gross things, I'm going to marry him."

Just thought I'd write this down for Future Reference.

October Busy-ness

Woooow! I can't believe October is already over, it's been a little more crazy than usual around here so I haven't had much time for blogging, but today I'm going to catch up with the Picture is Worth a Thousand Words method and only comment a little:On Seth's birthday, for FHE, we took the kids to the temple and talked about the "steps to the temple" from Sister Lant's talk in the Ensign. August's I think? Anyway, it was gorgeous there and (I hope) the kids felt the spirit. They were also excited to touch the temple, like President Monson invited them to do. You can see Farris and my shadows, we're trying to coax all of them to look at the same time. Not easy.

Our garden managed to grow some pumpkins this year, hurrah! So even though we had lots of fun at Grandma's Annual Pumpkin Party (which I didn't get pictures of, whoops, anybody have any to send me?) we had to carve some at home, too.

Caleb had picked out his pumpkin a long time ago and watched it grow.

Felicity loved cleaning out the guts of the pumpkin. Joseph, however, loved eating the pulp or even the top of his pumpkin.

Caleb's finished product (he did have his Dad help him).

Joseph's finished product (I helped him).

This is Farris' pumpkin. The dog stuffed animal was Felicity's. As those of you who know Felicity can imagine, she was not too hip on the idea.

The neighborhood kids like to play in our yard. One day we came home to find they had buried on of the girls completely in leaves. That set off lots more buryings, plus leaf fights and general silliness. I managed to catch this shot while they all threw armfuls of leaves into the air. I love how Caleb is standing there looking out from all the leaves raining past him.

Seth joined in the fun, throwing lots of leaves up in the air, too.

AND THEN...

yup, it snowed just a couple days later (and then melted the next day). When Caleb got home from kindergarten we dug out mittens and hats and boots and they played and played and played.

Seth got into it, too. But when his mitten fell off and he touched the snow, he was done.
Hot chocolate time!

One day Caleb came running in the house, telling me to get my camera. He told me all excitedly, "Joseph's doing something cute!" So of course I did.

Seth and his friend. While I was taking these pictures, Seth kept pulling Dominic's tail. He's a cute little bully, though.

The Brave Knight saving the Beautiful Princess from the Terrifying Dragon. And then we had a Really Cute Giraffe, as you saw in the last picture. We had a fun Halloween, with trunk or treating, trick or treating, and the best time, letting mom and dad "check the candy to make sure it's safe." I know we're not the only ones who do it.

Whew, now it's come on, Thanksgiving!

The belly button song

My kids were singing this song at dinner time. I love VeggieTales!






While we were looking for the Belly Button Song, we found another Silly Song that made us laugh:

A thought for the day

As I was folding clothes and listening to the washer and dryer chugging away today, I had a thought come to me. Women can understand the concept of eternity being one eternal round because so is laundry.

Seth's birthday pictures

Happy Birthday Seth! He loved the balloons, almost better than the cake and ice cream.

Happiness is a new puppy (toy)!

Denying the new pants, he just wants that puppy.

I made a barnyard cake with a gingerbread barn.

My sister, Nicki, gave me the idea to put our family's brand on the roof.

Approaching with caution...

Digging in!

After we pulled the barn off there was a bare spot on the cake.

Nicki put the animals there and titled it "Overgrazing."

Happy first, Seth!

Our little happy baby is a year old today! Although we (ok, just Felicity and me) were a little nervous about another boy joining our family, Seth Gavid has been a blessing from the beginning. He's almost always happy, sweet and cuddly, and has a huge curiousity that starting to make me a little nervous! He loves his brothers and sister, even forgiving them when they get a little too rambunctious or force their own ideas of sharing on him. It's been a fun year and we're looking forward to the rest of his life.

Not quite what we meant...

So today at dinner for some reason the kids (and Farris) were trying to touch their noses with their tongues. Boys, boys, boys, boys, and Felicity. Anyway, When Joseph asked me: "Can you touch your nose with your tongue?" I told him I couldn't and showed him, so he said "I can!" Then he started toward me with his tongue out. For the record, Joseph cannot touch his own nose with his own tongue, but he can touch my nose with his tongue.

Praying Mantis egg

Yesterday as it WAS SNOWING (sorry, just had to get that out of my system) I was trying to cover our tomato plants and saw something really yucky looking on a tomato:

EWWWW. But then I recognized it, it's a praying mantis egg sack. The gardening store I worked at in Logan actually sold these for use as a natural pesticide, praying mantis are wonderful at eating all kinds of the bad garden bugs. So I thought I'd post this in case any of you find something gross in your garden: Don't smash it or throw it away! I'm not sure yet if I'll bring it in the house until spring or if it's better to leave it outside all winter. Anybody have any ideas?

Exotic destinations, sort of

Well, it's time to upload pictures from my camera again, so here is what we've been up to:

No, we haven't been traveling, this is the local Krishna temple (yup , here in Utah!). Our ward's play group met to feed the llamas. Squeaker squeakin! That means "Demon Llama!" in squirrel. They also had little brahma bull calves, which was pretty cool, ok, I'm a farm nerd, but they were funny little things with their humps.

Seth loves animals so he was pretty happy squealing and kicking and trying to pat their noses. I don't think the llamas appreciated it. He did not want to leave.

We also went to our town's fall celebration, every year they have free kids activities in the park, art projects and balloon animals were the favorites this year. And the suckers, of course.
The concert this year was Nancy Hansen and Peter Brienholt, yea! Farris and I went to as many of their concerts as we could in Logan. It was fun seeing our kids dance to "You Wore Flowers" and "Birken Street" while we sang along. I loved hearing their music live again.

On Thursday, Caleb had his first ever Class Field Trip, with A Bus (yes, capitol letters are needed here, just talk to any kindergartner about a Ride in a School Bus, and their voices capitalize it). They went to an apple orchard and we decided to tag along.

Yum! Natalie and Caleb enjoying their Freshly Picked Apples (capitalized again).

Here's Abbie, I think she was a little surprised to see Sister Child, but hey, I came for the free apples.

Joseph and Hyrum enjoyed their apples, too. But the favorite part was the doughnuts, they even had SPRINKLES!

There wasn't any school on Friday so Farris stayed home from work and we decided to check out Strawberry Reservoir. So we did. And it was really cold and windy, so after eating sandwiches in the van, watching other people fish, we turned around and went down a couple thousand feet in elevation to another lake and then we played.
Seth loves water, even though when you crawl in water your belly gets wet before your bum does. And it did, and he was very!

I love pictures of feet in the water and his toes are very cute and little.

Before we took off, we rented a canoe from BYU, how much fun is that. The kids loved it, but Caleb did comment that daddy took them out faster than I did. But, hey, I didn't do too shabby, thank you Cindy and Julie =) We all got wet, Joseph got stripped down to his underwear, Caleb found lots of, ummm, cool rocks and sticks (you'd think he got enough of that in Arizona, but no), and Felicity formed a new Club (with Joseph and me as members) complete with a special tree to meet at. Fun was had by all.