Happy 5th birthday, Matt!

Matt is now very happy to tell everyone he is one hand old. This loquacious, happy, superhero loving boy takes this very seriously. While playing "Halloween World" on Minecraft  yesterday (something that scared him the day before) he kept saying, "I can do this, I am brave now." Matt currently has career aspirations to be a food scientist on the Food Network by day and a ninja by night.  He also enjoys making "creations" with his legos all day long. He likes to pretend he is all grown up and dispenses his advice and opinions on things quite readily. You are welcome to ask his opinion on Trump, Hamilton, or any superhero and he will have a slew of strong opinions waiting to spew forth. He is a sweet boy who loves being with his friends and family and who keeps begging for another ocean trip. He reads, but it is not his favorite thing to do as it requires him to sit still and not talk for longer than ten seconds. He adores his older siblings and dotes on his baby sister though wonders why mom has outlawed wrestling the baby. Happy birthday little buddy. 

No official birthday party this year but we did have some friends over
for an awesome play date and ice cream. 

This boy was so excited to blow out his candles he did it the second
they were lit. So we had to try again. 

The birthday was filled with super heroes, a perfect day. 

End of school craziness!

The first day of summer vacation seems like the perfect day to pay tribute to the crazy month of May and it's end of school extravaganzas. With four kids in school now our schedule was crazy but we had fun honoring our kids and celebrating their accomplishments. 

First off was Laine, she was honored at awards night! We were super happy for her and though we have no pictures I do have a picture of her "award- winning" pancakes, turns out the hours we have spent watching the Food Network as a family has taught her a few things.

I was lucky enough to get to attend Matt's first field trip! We took a visit to Wheeler Farm where Matt and his friends enjoyed the morning running around feeding ducks, checking out the animals and taking a hay ride! 

Eve participated in a school play where she stole the show as the funniest girl on stage. She just blossomed and came out of her shell, even the kids in James' class thought she was the best part. S

Matt decided that he was ready to graduate from preschool, I'm not sure if I was ready for that one though. He had a part where he spoke about the pledge then got to hold the flag while they said the pledge- he was super excited about that. 

James had an afternoon of singing patriotic songs....

...he was not happy that he had to sing or that grandmas and mom were there to support him. 

One highlight of our last week is that I won free meals at our favorite burger joint for a week.  

Everyone got a good burger and time with mom we had a lot of fun celebrating their accomplishments and planning what we were going to do with our summer vacation!

Easter 2016

It was a busy spring break. Not only did we go to Comic Con  but we also got to celebrate Easter with family. 

We started the week before Easter and celebrated with our Bellamy Family, we had a traditional Easter dinner (with one too many pans of funeral potatoes) and the traditional egg hunt. 

Look what I found! 

Eve trying to figure out where her parents hid the eggs
this year

Bellamy cousins! 

The next morning the kids woke up to find their baskets. They were all quickly found and everyone seemed happy. They had informed their parents this year that they now all only eat "good" chocolate. Meaning, they perfer to eat the Lindt or Ghiradelli stuff. So they were all super happy that those choices found their way into their baskets this year along with some new Disney Infinity characters.

"Hey, did any of you leave this little pink thing here"

"No takers, I guess I will claim it." 

We tried creating our own dyes this year with food coloring. The kids loved creating their own colors and I loved the way that they turned out.

The kids all got to pick out new church clothes for Easter, not a moment too soon because we had dresses that were getting too small, pants that had holes in the knees, and ties that were unraveling.
They each got to pick what they would wear, well not Abby. We got Abby's dress over a year ago.  And each of the outfits shows who they are, I love it.

Sisters

Brothers

These boys can't not goof off for more than one minute

So happy Easter from us to you!

February Happenings

For being the shortest month of the year February has been crazy busy. I guess I should be happy that it is only 29 days this year and not any longer, I'm not sure we could pack any more fun than we already have. 

There was a lot of sickness in the house this month, I think all of us had something during any given week. When Abby was sick that meant snuggles for the rest of us. 

We attempted to visit the Provo City Center temple open house. I was so excited for this and had gotten tickets weeks in advance. We made the trek down to Provo through inversion laden skies and felt a bit bad about adding to the problem but super excited to get to see this building together. I should have figured there would be problems when our assigned parking garage was full, we found street parking and made our way to the staring point- only to find there was a two hour wait with tickets. Knowing that we could not wait the two hours we called it good and just walked around the outside and took a few pictures. 

To make up for not getting to see the temple we got ice cream instead. The kids seemed okay with that trade off. 

The older kids' mom was in town over President's Day weekend and they went off on skiing adventures with her. While they did that Matt and Abby got to see Marvel Universe Live! Matt thought it was the best thing ever and continues to talk about it. Abby was not impressed but did manage to get a nap in between explosions and strobe lights. 

Matt's preschool is a co-op so I have opportunities to go and help in his class. I have been in their weekly for the last six weeks or so and was able to catch a picture of this not so happy boy. He wasn't happy with his George Washington hair, he was also unimpressed that Washington did not have a middle name. 

Matt also got to come with me to a cub scout meeting, while waiting for me to leave he and his buddy found something fun to do-

Probably our biggest news of the month is Laine now is sporting braces. She was a trooper earlier in the month when she had four molars pulled in the same day. She did enjoy the ice cream, pudding, and soup diet she got to live on for a few days. 

She was also happy that she could get green elastics put on her braces to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. She was also happy with the ice cream dinner that she got that night. 

Kung fu soccer

My kids have never been much into sports. They have tried most of them but unlike most families we don't spend our spring and fall Saturday mornings on the soccer field. However Matt is old enough to play and so we spent the last month of Saturdays (and Tuesday nights) watching Matt do something...I'm pretty sure it wasn't soccer. 

See what usually happened was something like this:

during warm ups he would actually play and do what he was supposed to do. 

Slowly the game would progress and instead of paying attention to anything he would start posing and occasionally do some made up karate/kung fu moves. 

This would continue the entire time he was on the field.

Until he noticed I had my camera out. At this point he would tell everyone it was time to stop and take pictures...yes this did happen while the game was in progress.

After about ten minutes of watching the ball pass him by and all the other kids run around while he was walking around with his arms in his sleeves imitating a raptor , he would decide he was tired tell the coach he was ready to be done. 

So that was our soccer experience, it cracked me up every time he played.  But he seemed to enjoy it and keeps asking when his next ball sport is. 

Matt's preschool adventure!

For about two years now Matt has been asking to go to school, each year he has watched as his siblings went to school and he would just wish he could go with them:

Well that little super hero has grown up now and it was time to send him off to school.  This kid was excited. So excited we made a paper chain to count down the days when the older kids went back to school ten days before he did. He is in a class with two of his friends and he is finding things to talk about like: Paw Patrol, super heroes, cooking shows, and Dragon Ball Z. All topics very important to this four year old. 

One big change was that he decided that he was no longer Matty but Matt. It breaks my heart a little and there are times that I keep forgetting the name change, but he is quick to correct when I mess it up. 

So off he goes on a lifetime of adventure! He's just glad there are snacks. 

Raising them right

Last spring Christian and I went to our first Comic Con event here in Salt Lake and then decided that we should take the kids this fall. Knowing how many people that were going to be there over the three days I went back and forth on this decision but September came and we were headed to the Salt Palace for the second Salt Lake Comic Con. 

First thing, I know many people complained about the lines to get tickets that first day. We were not one of them. It took us twenty minutes to find parking but we were able to walk right in, thanks preregistration.  I really liked being there on Thursday, inside lines were short and we were able to see everything we wanted to with minimal wait!

Our first stop was the free picture we got inside the Tardis. The kids thought that was a hoot. 

Matty spent most of the convention on on of our shoulders. So much better than bringing his stroller, we moved quicker and easier. It was also really cute.

 The kids were most excited to meet some of their favorite authors, They got to meet and talk to Brandon Mull (Fablehaven books), Jessica Day George (Tuesdays at the Tower), Shannon Hale (Princess Academy), Richard Paul Evans (Michael Vey) and Brandon Sanderson (Alcatraz Verses the Evil Librarians and countless others). They had fun learning about what it takes to write a book and some spoilers for upcoming books.

 We spent time over at the Kid Con area where Matty was very upset to find out that he could not open this Tardis, it really was almost the end of the world for him.

 The kids also did some super hero training, Matty took this very seriously and when aske what we wanted to be when he grows up he said, "the Doctor" notice not a doctor but The Doctor.

I laughed Saturday after we took this picture, we walked right up with no line. Saturday at 10 am the line was at least ten groups deep. Yay for Thursday at the con! 

We did finally find the big Tardis with the doors that opened so Matty was happy! 

There were also some weeping angels near by, we weren't too afraid though because we had - ice cream!

 My kids didn't want a lot of pictures with the cosplay people but Eve race across the floor to get pictures with this Anna and Elsa. She was super excited, I wonder if we can skip them at Disneyland next year...

The next day we were totally awesome parents and pulled our kids out a whole half an hour early from school and headed down to the con. We got to meet and speak with John Barrowman (Doctor Who) and even got to skip most the line because we had a small child (thanks Matt!) and then we went and talked with Paul McGann (Doctor Who). 

We also got to meet Eve Myles who is incredibly sweet and kind. She talked to us for a bit and even commented about Matty's tooth gap. She was just pleasant and completely awesome. 

Only two of my kids wanted a picture with the big snakes. They were super brave and I was surprised that they could even stand hold two giant snakes. 

Eve may not have stood for a picture with snakes but she was happy to stand with Gollum, 

Our last day there we spent most the time in panels as the floor was just crazy but our kids had a great time. Matty had such a good time that he doesn't want me to cut off his admission bracelet.  

Thanks Salt Lake Comic Con, we will be back!