Julia's Mom Song

I was having so much fun watching old videos, and with Mother's Day coming up fast I couldn't resist posting this one too. This was May of 2006. We were still in Utah and Jules was a month shy of 5. All I can say is. . .silliness! Enjoy!

Emmy's Program

Reading time

I try to have the big kids read every night. This night Ryan decided that he wanted to read to Hadley, and Julia, of course, could not be left out of the fun.

The big kid and the superstars

Here are Julia, Amanda and Ryan waiting for the program to start. We will miss our beloved friends the Anways!
Here is Allison right before they started to sing.
Here is Emma before the singing.

David and Ben-ben

Here are David and Ben waiting for Emily and Allison's preschool program to start! They were horrifically BORED! They each insisted on having a picture taken. Then I decided I wanted one of them together since the Anway's will soon be moving to HOUSTON. Woa is me!

Snuggles

Hadley definitely loves to be held. Although, this first picture is, of course, of her sleeping. I found her sleeping on her tummy. Silly kid!
I love watching Hadley with her Daddy. They are SO cute!
Emma wanted to give Haddie her bottle.

Hadley's valiant attempt

I bought these shorts for Hadley the other day. She looked so cute in them that I snapped a pic. The next three pictures are of Hadley attempting to crawl. It always makes me frustrated to watch them try to crawl. I can't even imagine how frustrated they must feel to be so trapped by their little bodies. I always start to feel like they will never catchc on. Oh, well, if tradition holds, she will eventually figure it out.

Look who's five months old!

My friend Kristi let me borrow her bumbo, or whatever it's called. Hadley's not the best sitter yet, and she really doesn't like being in this thing, can you tell? I'm hoping that it will help her strengthen her stomach muscles without breaking my back. We'll see how it goes. I can't believe she's already five months! Oh, how time flies!

I did it!

I finally went and cut my hair. I love it! Scott not so much. What do ya'll think?

Handipoints

Looking for a new idea to help motivate your kids to do their chores? I know I ALWAYS am! My friend Kristi told me about a cool website: handipoints.com. It's a lot like Webkinz, for those of you who are familiar with that. You set up a chore chart for each child, they even have an option to make your own chores in case there are some you want your kids to do that aren't listed (but their list seems pretty comprehensive). Anyway, your kids get points when they do their chores and then they can buy things for their animated cats, or they can save up points to earn rewards from mom and dad. It is free (except obviously you would pay for the rewards your kids earn from you)! If a "fun" chore chart is something you've been searching for, you should go check it out!

Rice cereal

I love the pictures I got this morning of Haddie trying her first "solids". Too me, rice cereal doesn't seem all that solid. The first picture captures her initial disgust. The second, her enjoyment of chewing on the spoon (she's cutting two bottom teeth). The third, with her darling little eyebrow raised, looks as if to say, "What in the world is my mother thinking?"

Alert! Crabby baby ahead

Poor baby wasn't feeling well for most of Saturday. She and I did not sleep for longer than 15 minutes through the night. She was running a 102 degree fever and tylenol was not bringing it down. Finally, when she was screaming from 4-5 am, Scott and I decided she better go to the ER.
She and I got there just after 6. And of course, by the time we got there her fever had gone down and she was sleeping peacefully. They looked at me like, "You are smacked out of your mind! There is nothing wrong with your baby." We waited and waited, after the doctor came in and checked her out he diagnosed her with, "a nasty double ear infection."
We were at Wal-Mart around 8 am waiting for her prescription when a lady came down our aisle. She had some white stuff on her nose, and I debated for awhile, but finally decided to point it out to her so she wouldn't walk around like that all day. After thanking me and wiping it off she looked at Haddie and said, "Aren't you the sleepy baby."
I said, "She has a nasty double ear infection."
She grabbed Haddie's foot and in a voice you would use to talk baby talk she said, "May God grant you healing in the sweet name of Jesus."
WOW! I was taken completely aback. A Wal-Mart aisle is a very weird place to issue a blessing of healing. On the other hand I was stunned by her childlike faith in the healing power of the Savior. Only down here in the bible belt with all the born again Christians I guess. Who knows, maybe it was her blessing and not the antibiotics that are helping her feel better. Lol!
A couple of days of antibiotics, tylenol, probiotic and drops for ear pain later she is feeling MUCH better. In fact, right now she is in the study with the big kids jabbering away.

Big Soccer Nilk Ben

Okay, the title doesn't make any sense to those of you who did not spend the week with us when my dad was here. The big kids were all telling knock knock jokes, and Ben wanted to get in on the action. He turned to grandpa and said, "gnock, gnock."
Granpa said, "Who's there?"
Ben said, "Ben."
Grandpa said, "Ben who?"
Ben sat there for awhile and finally said, "Big soccer Ben."
It makes no sense, it's not even funny, but everyone at the table cracked up at Ben's first try at a knock-knock joke. So Ben, seeing the great reaction his first joke got tried again, but instead of Big soccer Ben, this time he said, "Nilk Ben." "Nilk" is what it sounds like when Ben says "milk." We all cracked up again.
I caught Ben outside on Sunday playing some soccer with ferver. I thought the pictures turned out really cute. He was outside all by himself and perfectly content to play a rousing game alone.

I'm a Big Girl Now!

Emily lost her first tooth on Monday. She turned five the 8th of March. My kids get their teeth early (between five and six months) and they lose their teeth early. Needless to say, the tooth fairy came and there was an elated Emily in my bedroom at seven in the morning showing of her brand new 1 dollar bill.

Popularity

Friday was a silly night. We had made arrangements for a babysitter for Friday night on Tuesday night. When Scott got to her house on Friday night nobody was home. I had been looking forward to going out with Scott all day, so I frantically started calling people. Problem was, it's youth conference weekend in our stake. Everybody 14 and older was busy. Julia's teacher has a fourteen year old daughter who has babysat for us a couple of times before. They don't go to our church, so I called to see if she was available. Julia's teacher answered and proceeded to tell me that Julia had had a difficult day that day. The reason? Everyone was fighting over her! She's SO loved in her class that everyone wants her to be in their group. They fight over sitting by her. She told her teacher that she just wanted everyone to leave her alone. Mrs. Molhoek (ma-luke) said, "It's hard work being popular." Too funny!
She also told me that Julia pretty much taught the class on Friday. She read a story to the other kids and even stopped on occasion to ask thought provoking questions. Mrs. Molhoek told me to make sure to tell my mom (she's met her and knows that my mom is a second grade teacher) that Julia is going to be a GREAT teacher one of these days!

Hey dad. . .

We didn't have to buy a wheel-barrow to build the garden. I just remembered, we already had one! LOL!

Look what I found!

Hadley has discovered her feet! She thinks they are the greatest things EVER! She even tells them stories. Yes, feet are the most amazing things!

It's always fun. . .

for EVERYONE when Granpa comes! We played in the stagnant mold, germ and bug infested water that always collects in the gutter about three houses down. Luckily, no one has gotten sick, yet! (knock on wood)
We went to Spring Creek Barbeque. Grandpa's favorite place to eat in town.
Got hugs, kisses and holding time from Grandpa.
And he and I spent half of Wednesday constructing an above ground garden, which withstood the torrential rainstorm last night that wiped out the power for three hours in the early morning. He is such an awesome grandpa. We had SO much fun and miss him already! Thanks Grandpa (and Grandma for sharing him for the week)!

Growing

like a weed! That is definitely what Haddie is all about these days! It also seems that she is destined to be Benjamin part II. By that I mean that she is already sure she can walk and frequently tries to dive off of laps to prove her hasty hypothesis! Heaven help us!
I also wanted to apologize if I scared anyone with my previous post and thank you all for your prayers on Gracie's behalf. She's still fighting and still needs your prayers!