March Middlings

Greetings from Graygoland!

First things first, our new phone number is: 435-214-0743. This is the number to contact any and all of us!

So, I know there has been silence from our shade on the slope, so I figured now was as good a time as any to break out in song...or whatever.

Jonathan turned 6! Yay. Had fun spending time with family and friends (Thanks everyone for the presents and fun!). His big present was a bicycle, which took him by complete surprise. I guess it would if you didn't ask for one. Oh well. Last year I bought him a bigwheel, but our Jon-Jon is somewhat vertically challenged, and if he sat in the seat of the bigwheel, his midget legs couldn't reach the pedals. If he scooted forward and put his feet on the pedals, then he was sitting on the bar of the bigwheel. Very uncomfortable. So he never rode the thing. He sure does love the bike though!




He also received a huge lego project. It is a big coast guard boat and tower. When he unwrapped the box and gave his first gasp of delight, he turned around and held up the box (almost as big as he is) and said "Oh cool! A shark!!" I have included a picture of the box, so you can see the shark.


Did you find it?





Jonah had a big school project this week. He had to research and write a 5 minute oral presentation with multi-media displays (pictures on posterboard) about an American figure in history. Jonah did his report on Paul Revere, and did a smashing job! "One if by land, Two if by sea..." Afterward, he and the other students presented their subjects in a "wax" museum, example below. It's hard to be "wax" with annoyingly pesky little brothers...


The boys have been inspired by their cousins to take karate. Originally, we signed them up in a kung fu class (Kung Fu Panda), but the instructor had a family emergency and the boys were stuck with karate instead. It scared Dacia's pants right off when she watched our little shrimps spar with much older, larger, heavier, experienced, and more physical students.


Dacia has had a very busy month. In addition to the runnings around and school projects mentioned above, she performed a solo in a stake production called "Woman at the Well," in which she sang some sappy, poppy LDS song as a nephite/lamanite woman who met the Savior during His visit to America. When the bishop asked her to sing the song as a musical number in sacrament meeting, she turned him down flat. "Not appropriate" or something like that. I just chalk that down to pregnancy hormones. Oh yeah, if you hadn't heard, she is pregnant. Again.


Dacia is the choir director for our ward, and we sang two songs on two different Sundays this month. She is also madly preparing our choir for Easter Sunday. She was asked to have the boys sing a prelude for Sacrament Meeting a couple weeks ago. And she greatly enjoyed singing with BYU Singers for a reunion concert last week.


Ordinary, boring routine really. Except for Spencer. He is a bit like Jonah, in that he will have entire conversations, without speaking a lick of English. The doctor thinks his progress is slow, and he should be speaking a lot more. Ha. Here are some examples. We are trying to get him to say "One, Two, Three!"








He really likes to hit things/people, with whatever he has in hand. A wand, a sword, a 5-pound pooh talking/singing Pooh Bear. None of us has escaped his fisticuffs. He likes to wait until you are least expecting it. He'll be sitting and watching some movie, and when Jonah sits down, Spencer turns around, stands up, and proceeds to whack Jonah on the head with a huge grin on his face. Jonathan will be completely absorbed in a Wii game and get clobbered on the head from behind. Dacia and I both get it when taking naps on the couch. Such violence!

Random Pics

Here's a few random pictures from before we left for California.

Jackson and Douglas were watching a movie together

Once again Mom decided to do the dishes. I really thought they were up high enough this time.

The boys decided they wanted to be Darth Vader, but we don't have a dress up Darth Vader. So they made their own. They even have buttons on their chest. So cute and creative. :)

St. Patty's Day

So we're (the kids and I) in Cali right now, but I thought I should post about our St. Patrick's Day dinner before I start in on all the fun times here in warm and sunny California.

The boys were super excited for St. Patrick's day and we had to make sure that everyone had on enough green to prevent pinching. Cooper and I made cupcakes while Jackson was at school, and Mom made an attempt to make homemade chocolate shamrocks for the top. Our dinner was a traditional corned beef and cabbage with carrots. And of course the green mashed potatoes. Super yummy!!!

Happy Clover Day!

Last night as I was at the gym contemplating all of the cleaning that I had to do when I went home I cannot lie, it was depressing me.  In my dreary thoughts it occurred to me that leprechauns could come to my rescue.  So, "Our Leprechaun" stayed up until 2:00 am cleaning and tidying the house, plus preparing a few surprises for the boys.  I know, leprechauns usually wreak havoc on a house, but our leprechaun wrote us a note stating that since our house was already pretty disorganized he decided to help us out and tidy up.  What a gem!  So, this morning Caleb was in his usual state of refusing to get up for school and did not want to get dressed.  I told him to come downstairs and see what the leprechaun had done.  In record time Caleb was dressed and headed downstairs.  The leprechaun had left clovers all over the house to show what he had done to tidy up and also where he left surprises for the boys.  They loved it.  Peter loved taking all the clovers off and keeping them and Caleb was excited to see what the leprechaun had done.  That tricky guy.  

The leprechaun left us these cute paper leprechauns that you choose and color the clothes/hat/shoes/hair and then put them all together.  Caleb and I had fun doing these together while the other two slept.

The leprechaun also left them some coloring pages and the boys all had fun with that.
Hey, our basil seeds (that I was sure Caleb had drowned out) even decided to sprout.  How cool to do it all on Clover Day.
Peter and I made a banner to welcome Clover Day and he was pretty excited that I actually said he could stand on the couch.

Our leprechaun had gotten out all of our green toys and played with them a bit.  The green army guys, cowboys and Indians and all the green cars and trucks.  Unfortunately he forgot about the green legos and green train set.  OOPS!

Then we had our clover hunt where if the boys find one of the lucky four leaf clovers they get a pot of gold.  

Peter found his and as you can see we doctor up his pot of gold (aka a cupcake with sprinkles).  He only eats the frosting and no cake so I put some M&Ms on there just to make the hunt worth it.
And Caleb found his clover plus the other two.  These boys had fun today and I must say that so did I.  I love planning and celebrating stuff.  It makes life fun to look forward to stuff.  Oh my goodness, I almost forgot about one of the most excited things the leprechaun did for the boys.  He hid a large amount of gold coins (plastic gold coins) all over the front and back yard.  The boys were in heaven running around the yard looking for the shining gold coins.  Peter was especially fun to watch because when he found one all by himself he was so proud and then he would give it to Caleb.  Happy Clover Day!

Thankful

Sometimes I just need a good smack in the head to remind me of all I have.  I am posting this merely to document my feelings right now, more for me and less for anyone else.  For the past hour I have been feeling sorry for myself.  Baby is sick and crying for the last hour and a half.  Other two are patiently waiting for me to read to them and at the same time having fights every now and then.  House is a disaster with dishes up the wazoo and laundry out the ear.  Rob is always telling me he feels like he can never do anything right, and I have been looking at my life knowing I have not done much of anything right.  Then a friend from the ward calls with word that a missionary from the ward has been in a serious car accident and they do not know how serious it is or how he will do through the night.  SMACK IN THE HEAD!  We are being asked to pray for the Elder and his family that all will be okay.  Oh Diedre, how selfish and short sighted you are!  I have all three kids with me, my husband works harder than I could ever have asked him to, I have clothes, food, and a body that works.  I am thankful for small things.

Sleepover fun

We decided to have a sleepover with Jonah and Jonathon in celebration of Jonathon's birthday tomorrow.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JON JON!!!

The boys did their typical thing, chased each other, tickled, laughed hysterically....  It was a good time.  Some highlights:  First it was tag-your-it which is quite hard to do indoors.  So, they moved to going on their bellies super-speed down the stairs and that was a hit.  I must put a plug in for William at this point, he so wanted to be a part of all the action.  He really tried hard but I thought it best for his life that he say in my arms.  Oh and sorry Spencer, we did not have you along for the ride (best for your life too).

After dinner we had planned to have cupcakes, specially sprinkled by Caleb, in honor of Jon Jon's special day.  But the man of the hour was more excited about the gum we gave him and turned us down on the cupcakes. :)

A couple of pics.

The boys got a band together and were loving it.  Jonah was part of the band, I think he was just trying to have a solo but the other three were just too roudy.

Peter was really getting into the groove of his music.  He did this for a good 5 or so minutes.   I must also put a plug in for Peter, he does a good job of keeping up with the other boys.  When they were going down the stairs he was right there with them.  He was chasing Jonah all over the house and Jonah was such a good sport to play along with Peter.  Then at the end of the night when they were playing their funny "sprite" game Peter was there as the "killing sprite."  Why my Peter is always killing some sort of bad guy I will never know but he was there in the game, with all the lights out, glow sticks flinging through the air and he was having a ball.

These two love each other so much!  

Kid update!

Here goes the update, from oldest to youngest with cute pictures included to let you know these boys are awesome!  

Caleb celebrated his 100th day of Kindergarten and each of the students had to make some sort of project that included 100 objects.  Caleb did a battle scene with 100 army guys.  Rob came up with the textured paper look and the mountain scene.  Caleb and I glued rocks down for rock wall forts and then Caleb told me who to glue where and who was alive and who was dead.  He even had a guy be smashed by a rock slide. :)  Rob and I heard him talking to his friends afterward and Caleb was heard saying, "You wanna know where to get them?  The dollar store." So cool.  Caleb had PTC last night and we walked out of there with two proud, beaming parents and one smart kid.  He is doing awesome!

And as for tooth central, another one has bit the dust.  I guess all of these first few teeth losings is kind of memorable and dramatic but I must say Caleb took the cake tonight.  I decided to take Caleb, Peter and William swimming at the pool just to have fun.  So, we signed Caleb up for T-Ball, paid for swimming (they even made me pay for William!  Hello!  All he does is sit on my lap!)  Anyway, there Caleb was, going down the super fast slide; having a blast.  I was hanging out with Peter and Will when I saw Caleb walking toward me with blood dripping from his mouth.  I figured it was probably the tooth and when he came to me he was clueless that he was bleeding.  I asked him to open his mouth and the little tooth was hanging by a thread.  But when Caleb saw the blood he sort of got worried.  He would not let me touch the tooth but instead the next time he opened his mouth the tooth popped out and I had no idea where it was.  I still remember scrambling to get the tiny speck of a tooth off the bottom of the swimming pool floor before it was swept away by some other kid.  Luckily I grabbed that tiny thing and we headed for the lifeguard to see if she had something to help the bleeding stop.  Caleb went into the lifeguard room and she put some gauze on the blood.  Caleb was doing fine so the lifeguard put his tooth in this cool Bio hazard bag and we got to bring that home as a souvenir from the pool.  Very nice.

Now Peter, he is doing good.  Still has his middle child moments but he is an awesome kid.  He is loving the warmer weather and has enjoyed the days when he does not have to wear a coat.  Yesterday it snowed and he came downstairs, looked outside and said that he hated the snow because it was so cold and he did not like being cold.  How true that is. :)  Caleb had Guess and Tell for the letter P this last week and so he took Peter for his Guess and Tell.  We combed Peter's hair very nicely, dressed him well, and he was excited to be Caleb's Guess and Tell.  But the minute he got in front of the class it was Mr. Shy Boy.  He would not look at anyone and he was all too happy to get out of that class.   

As for my Willy B, he is adorable!  He absolutely loves to be outside, crawling and being with his brothers!  Where ever they are he crawls for them, or an open door, or the bathroom, or the stairs, or if it is time to eat he crawls for the kitchen.

I think that he might just try to walk before he is one.  He loves to stand, as most kids do but he is so good at getting around things and pulling himself up onto nothing.  It is fun to watch.

And yes, we have reached that milestone where he is crawling up the stairs and loving it.  One day last week Peter asked me where Will was, I told him he was in the brown room and went about my business in the kitchen.  Well, I decided to go check on the little guy and this is what I found.  Half way up the stairs with no problems.  Oh, and he loves it.  Crawls for the stairs whenever the gate is not up and talks/laughs his way up each step.  Only problem is when he gets to the top he does not keep crawling, he immediately turns around.  Humm, we need to work on that. :)

Oh, and Rob and I are doing good.  Rob is busying studying for his last two tests.  Hoping that he passes each of them then he is done!  I am busying trying to help Caleb in school, keep the house from being a wreck and planning parties.  We love you all!

'Sub'zero Fun

This last Saturday, we decided that staying home because of all this cold weather was getting old. So we ventured out to do something fun for the boys. At first we thought we'd go up to Boston, but realized that the weather wasn't the best for wandering around a strange city. It's been very cold here, and so going somewhere that was indoors was a better fit. Up in Groton, CT there is a submarine museum which we thought the boys would get a kick out of. And it's free, which mom and dad got a kick out of. We packed a lunch, had a picnic in the parking lot (in the car of course) and then got out to see what these submarines were all about. Not only is there a museum with old pictures and memorabilia, but there's an actual submarine, still in the water, that you can take a tour of. The boys thought it was the greatest!

Here we are in front of the submarine

Standing on top of the sub

Through out the sub there were these scary mannequins. This guy was by far the weirdest of all, but in submarine world he's pretty big stuff! He's got a sink and desk in his very own room. As opposed to whoever sleeps....

...here. For some perspective, I couldn't walk through that doorway without having to turn sideways. And even though you can't see it very well, there is a third bunk up on top. So 6 guys in that small space! Yeah, do not take this tour if you're claustrophobic.

The hallways are super narrow, the stairs super steep, the holes/doorways to the different chambers of the submarine are all very small. I should of taken a photo of Jonathan trying to get through one while holding the baby.
This was one of the more open areas. These 'guys' help 'drive' the sub.

Just some cute pics of the kids while we were walking back to the main museum building

There were periscopes that actually came out on top of the building, so you could check out the parking lot, the water, etc.

Not quite tall enough

I just thought this was a cute picture of Jackson

My boys taking charge

Playing on the replicas out front

Circumference of two submarines, crazy huh?

Get rid of that energy!!! You can just barely make out Douglas in the distance. He's a runner. Away from us that is. Yes that beautiful stage where running away from mom and dad is just so funny (for him).

Propellers from a submarine