9 Months!

I can't believe our sweet Baby Emmett is already 9 months old!  Time goes by way to fast.  He is still such a joy and blessing in our family.  The boys adore him and I can't get enough of his rolls and cuddles.  He's still sleeping like an angel at night and is pretty much perfect:)

Rest and Play

Owen and Emmett have such a special bond.  They love each other so much.  They still lay together on the floor to relax during the day.  Owen will get his blankie and pillow and than demand, "Baby down, lay piwoa me!"  I love all the love! 

Today we went to the park. 

When we got back I told the boys they needed to clean out the van.  They asked if they could enlist some help.  Eight kids in this clown car, one hand-vac, lots of wipes, and a small handful of skittles to everyone that helped.  Good day:)

Day to day. . .

I've been spending nearly all of my free time at night working on summer school curriculum. It's been a lot of fun and also challenging.  During the day we're still having fun and enjoying the increased temperatures.  Owen has been really funny lately.  He loves copying what his brothers do.  Sometimes after they talk he'll just repeat exactly what they say and even use the same body language.  He loves his big brothers so much!  Last week he and Noah were playing hide and seek.  when I looked up I found him in our bookcase.  He's SO funny!

Saint Patricks Day was so fun for the kids.  We made a Leprechaun trap.  

A few weeks ago we had some fun making oobleck.  It's one of the boys' favorite science experiements.

I got a new lens for our camera, so I've been having fun experimenting with it:

 Noah has a friend that lives on our street.  They are best buds and it's always fun watching them play.  They say they are brothers.  Notice that instead of taking turns, they decided to each just take one rollerblade and they helped each other skate.

Birthday Boy

Noah is FIVE!!!  Noah is such a blessing in our family.  He is caring, kind, compassionate, loving, sensitive, and so smart.  He is the emotional force in our home with mostly boys, which is wonderful (and sometimes drives us crazy too:).  He is a wonderful big brother and younger brother.  Noah is happy and loved by EVERYONE he comes in contact with.  We love him SO much!  

For Noah's birthday he had a few requests: Reeses Puffs for breakfast, video games ALL day, balloons, Chuck E Cheese, corndogs, a chocolate cake with cookie ice cream and oreos AND sprinkles AND a big 5 on top, and last but not least a bubble bath.  This boy knows what he likes and what he wants, so we tried to deliver the best we could.  Brett had to work late, but was able to go into work a little late and come home for cake just before bed time. Since it was a school night and we knew Brett would be working a lot we decided to go to Chuck E Cheese on Presidents Day as a family to fulfill that wish.  We were able to fulfill each of his wishes (so glad he didn't wish for anything to crazy!), although he didn't really play video games all day.  We opened presents after Reeses Puff cereal in the morning and than Noah got to play video games with Brett before he went into work.  After lunch I played video games with him while the baby took his nap.  We had corn dogs for dinner and than cake and bath time.  It was a fun day and Noah was very happy.  Here is some photo documentation:

Valentines Day

We had a lot going on the week of Valentines, but I still wanted to make it a special time for the boys.  Last year the boys picked out the cheep $3 cards from WalMart and they spent several hours over several days writing their names and the kids in the classes names on every single card.  I insist on the boys helping with projects even though it makes things take longer.  This year I knew we wouldn't have time for several hours of writing names so I went online to look for some ideas.  I found a few cute ideas and let the boys pick one out that they could both agree on and be happy with.  Then they picked out the colors of the fonts when I made the tags on the computer.  Hyrum helped me cut them out and than we made an assembly line to fill, fold, and staple the bags shut.  The whole process only took a couple of hours for over 50 valentines, each with their names printed out on the back.  Voila!  Sometimes homemade is so much easier than bought. 

In the morning the boys woke up to pink and sprinkled doughnuts, pink milk, and a few little valentines prizes for them to play with.   

The thing I was most excited aboutwas helping in Hyrum's class. For their Valentines Day party I was in charge of a craft.  I cut out a million felt hearts with two holes in each and we made necklaces.  It was really fun and more importantly Hyrum was so happy to have me in his class.  I haven't been able to help nearly as much in his class as I did last year, so I was ecstatic to be there.  I love seeing him around friends and his amazing teacher.  

The First Tooth!

Hyrum is very aware of everyone that looses their teeth in his class.  He has been wanting to loose a tooth for a over a year now because a lot of his friends have already lost more than a few.  Last Monday after school he told me that his bottom front tooth was loose.  He was so excited about his loose tooth, he kept asking me questions about the Tooth Fairy and how to pull his tooth out.  I wiggled his tooth and tried to calm his excitement because it really wasn't that loose.  It wiggled back and forth a little, but it could easily stay in for another week before it was ready to pull/fall out.  Hyrum asked me to pack an apple for him in his lunch the next day because he REALLY wanted to loose his tooth at school so that he could go to the principals office to get a 'tooth container' the office gives out.  When Tuesday came I completely forgot to put an apple in his lunch.  Just before he left for the bus he pleaded with me to PLEASE punch him in the mouth so his tooth would pop out easier at school.  I declined and sent him off.  He was glowing when he got home as he showed me his tooth container with his tiny tooth inside.  There was a little bit of dried blood on his hand and some on his face that looks like it wasn't wiped off very well.  I asked him how he got it out, because it wasn't ready yet.  He said that he pulled and pulled and wiggled and wiggled a lot until it finally came out.  He also said it kind of hurt to pull it out, but he really wanted to loose the tooth before school got out.  Hyrum inherited his bull-headed determination from his Dad.  When they want something they will do WHATEVER it takes to get it.  This is a great quality to have, most of the time.:)   The Tooth Fairy did pay him a visit.  She gave him a tooth receipt with a map of his teeth and a note detailing the event and condition of his tooth.  The Tooth Fairy, unfortunately was not planning on him loosing his tooth this fast, so she snuck a quarter out of his bank to pay him.  So, he was basically going to be his own Tooth Fairy, but luckily Brett managed to find a quarter just before we went to bed.  I love watching his excitement and joy to experience this new passage of development.  

Random Goodness

I decided to empty out my phone pictures again.  The planned events and fun activities are awesome, but a lot of the smiles in my life come from the little unplanned things that just happen.  The pictures aren't great, but they are memorable.  

Emmett has such chunky legs that he doesn't roll over all that well, but he still manages to get around.  It's pretty funny to watch.  He scoots around all over the floor on his back.  The only problem is because he stares at the ceiling he never knows where he's going and I find him in odd places.  

I love the relationship my boys have with each other.  Sometimes they fight but they really do have a lot of love.  We had quite a few sick days this month and several times I found my boys snuggled up together watching a movie.   

When they were feeling good they would also chase each other around the house in capes.  Capes are always a hit in our house.  Owen is adding more and more words to his vocabulary.  Some of his words are a little harder to understand, but I've learned that "My-a" is what he says when referring to pretty much any superhero.  When he puts on a cape he yells is really loud as he runs around.   

Here's another cute picture of my sleepy boys.  I went to run a quick errand so of course Noah grabbed a container full of cars and Owen grabbed a head-lamp and his sippy cup.  They were out in less than five minutes of being in the car.  I sat in the parking lot of the store for about ten minutes before I had to wake them up to come in with me.  I really wish I could have left them to sleep.  

Here's another cute sick sleeping boy.  I was putting the other boys to bed and when I went downstairs to work on homework with Hyrum he had put himself to sleep next to his heater in the doorway.  I carried him to bed and he slept for over twelve hours.  

Have I mentioned how happy Emmett is?  I've started pureeing our regular foods to give to Emmett and he is loving pretty much everything. 

Once all of the sick bugs were gone I took the boys to Scheels to ride the Ferris Wheel.  They loved it. Hyrum was super excited that he was tall enough to ride all by himself.