Double Digits

I can't believe this guy is 10 years old already! Every birthday brings back the fond memories of H's birth. The labor and delivery were a breeze compared to the other two. I'll never forget the first words out of the nurse's mouth, "He has a full head of hair and a dimple". Ah yes, we were in love!

H brings much fun and laughter to our home. He is a joyful boy, carefree, and quick to forgive.

As of late, H has been the one who can get Crew calmed down at bedtime. Often I am too exhausted (and there is still so much to do by nightfall) that I am unable to spend the time getting Crew to sleep. H will take Crew into the bedroom and go through a nighttime ritual where they talk to Mickey Mouse and wrestle before laying down to sleep. I don't know how he does it but its working for him.


All H really wanted this year was to have a sleepover with his 3 best friends. These 4 boys play together all the time so it is really no big deal to have them over. They watched "Twilight" and "Bedtime Stories", jumped on the tramp and had cake and icecream. I love low key parties, yes I do!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HAMMER!

101 POUNDS & THEN SOME...

Isn't cub scouts awesome!

H built this tower out of popsicle sticks. They were allowed up to 100 popsicle sticks and limited to only Elmers glue. His tower held the most weight! We stacked up all the weights they had... 101 POUNDS and it was still standing strong.

I think I see an engineer in the works!

Questions for H

I stole this from Tori's blog. It's always fun to find out whats in your little ones head. H is 9 years old... here are his answers.

1. What is something mom always says to you? Uh, that's a hard one. Do your homework before playing with friends.

2. What makes mom happy? when I do my homework

3. What makes mom sad? going to friends without asking

4. How does your mom make you laugh? blows in my face (I did this today when he implied that I had bad breath)

5. What was your mom like as a child? I don't know.

6. How old is your mom? 34

7. How tall is your mom? I would say 6 1/2 feet.

8. What is her favorite thing to do? play on the computer and eat in front of the kids

9. What does your mom do when you're not around? Go to Ogden and get Cafe Rio.

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for? her job (I work for an OB/Gyn so I'm not so sure its going to get me anywhere!)

11. What is your mom really good at? (we had to come back to this one)- Playing Bejeweled on the computer. (That's right I am the ultimate champion)

12. What is your mom not very good at? solving the Rubiks cube

13. What does your mom do for her job? works on the computer

14. What is your mom's favorite food? Cafe Rio (I had this today... do you see a trend?)

15. What makes you proud of your mom? Voting for John McCain (I love this kid!)

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be? Mickey Mouse-- NO-- Mickey Mouse's wife

17. What do you and your mom do together? Uno and Monopoly

18. How are you and your mom the same? we belong to the same family

19. How are you and your mom different? My moms bigger than me... For now... because she's older.

20. How do you know your mom loves you? This is easy! She makes dinner for me every night and helps me get ready for school.

What I've learned from this: I spend to much time on the computer, I eat too often, games are important and my growing son values a good cooked meal. Also, H knows a good education is important to me ... someday it will be important to him too!

Birthday Boy

H's 9th Birthday Bash was celebrated at the pool, the bowling alley, and his favorite KFC picnic lunch. The birthday was pretty low-key, spent with family.

My kids are growing up and the cute funny things they say are less frequent as they get older but we had a funny here last week. H received his first Webkinz for his birthday and spent the better part of a day playing the Webkinz computer games. Next day, S and H got on the computer and the Webkinz site said it was unavailable until 2AM Eastern time. S read the screen out loud to H and they abandoned the computer for the rest of the day. Later that night we were talking about his new toy and he burst into tears and said, "I ONLY GOT TO PLAY WITH MY WEBKINZ FOR ONE DAY". I explained that he could play it "tomorrow" and he replied, "No, the Webkinz site is down until EASTER!" Once we figured out that he misunderstood Eastern with Easter we all had a really good laugh.

We love you H!

H's Baptism

Yesterday H was baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He has been anticipating this day for a long time and was so excited. Their were 13 kids baptized and the chapel and overflow section was filled.

H had lots of support from family and friends. After the baptism we were able to move into a separate room for the confirmation. As we were waiting for Carl and H to get dressed into dry clothes I had family members write their thoughts about the day on stationary so H will have something to remember how we all felt on this special occasion. Then he was also confirmed and received the Gift of the Holy Ghost.

Afterwards we all came over to the house for lunch. I love these little family get togethers. Two of my brothers and their families were there, my three sisters and kids, my three SIL's and children and grandparents from both sides. It makes for quite a houseful and I'm not really set up for that many people so I was so grateful that the weather was warm and the kids could go outside.

Last night we took the boys to FARR Icecream where we purchased 5 Quarts of one of our favorites, PLAYDOUGH Icecream. If you've never tried it I come on over I'm sure we have at least 4 quarts left;)

School, Scouts and SignLanguage

Well H had his first day of school on Monday! H loves his new teacher and said she is the nicest teacher ever.... even more nice than his 1st and 2nd grade teachers and thats really saying something:) Unfortunately, he feels like he's in a class with all the mean boys in school. I asked him if he wanted me to move him to another class and he said, "No, because he loves his teacher!". Well hopefully he'll make some new friends and he plans to catch up with his old pals at recess.

It looks like my three kids will each have their own separate "FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL". S has missed the first two days because he is sick. He is so bummed. Nobody wants to miss the first day of class! He still has a cough but his fever is gone so I don't think he is contagious. We will try it tomorrow. Wednesday is our short day anyway!

Tomorrow night is back to school night for my little preschooler. I'm crossing my fingers and hoping that this year will be a good experience for him.... AND FOR ME!

Tonight we had our first pack meeting in over 3 months. H earned his Bobcat and S earned his Webelos badge and his swimming and citizenship belt loops. I'm frustrated because some of the leaders don't consider Scouting a priority and don't plan to put their own boys through the program. WHAT???

At Pack Meeting the boys were shooting model helicopters up into the sky and Crew and I were watching and he looked up in the sky and signed "AIRPLANE". The Signing Time videos are paying off:)

A Special Day

H was lucky enough to spend his birthday with all his cousins, aunts & uncles, and grandparents on my side of family. After spending a couple days at the homestead we returned to town late and I was able to find the perfect cake.









Here H is demonstrating some really cool magnet tricks with one of his latest birthday gifts:)











Aunt B was kind enought to coordinate a game of kickball. I'll tell you its been years since I played kickball. It's a good thing we were playing with 3 year olds so I could keep up:)










This beauty is my new little niece on her blessing day. H was lucky enough to share this day with her. I wish I had thought to get a picture of the birthday boy holding baby S.



It's not often that we can all get together as a family since I have 2 brothers that live out of state. I think the last group photo we have is missing 6 or 7 grandchildren. The first photo is at the homestead and the second in my bro's backyard.

Reminiscing- A Birth Story

My pregnancy with H was basically uneventful in a good way. I spent the first 4 months laying on the couch in a daze. I remember laying there so tired and so sick that I’m ashamed to say I did very little with S aside from tossing him cheerios and refilling his sippy with milk. Those middle months weren’t too bad and come summer time I looked like a balloon and felt like one too. I retain water anyway but having a baby in August is just plain miserable.

At about 20 weeks I was elated to find out we were having another boy. Everything looked great and while I never really worried about the baby I was terrified of labor and delivery. About 6 or 7 weeks before my due date I flew to Oklahoma for an Usborne convention (with my doctors permission of course:) The first night that I was there I had some bleeding. I was able to snag a ride with one of the other consultants and she took me to the hospital where they performed an ultrasound to see if the baby was okay. The baby checked out fine and I’ll never forget when the sonographer smiled and said, "He has a full head of hair"!

Eight days before my due date I awoke about 1:30 in the morning with contractions. The contractions were steady throughout the night and I woke Carl at 6:30. At 7:00 am we called my sister to come over. She arrived about 15 minutes later and as I was climbing into our SUV Carl said, "Are you sure your in labor". Duh! We arrived at UVRMC a few minutes later and they took us to our room. They checked me and asked if I wanted an epidural. I was surprised that I could get one so soon because the contractions weren’t too bad. I decided against it. Carl went to get some food and when he came back I was dilated to an eight. At 9:15 am little H was born red faced and mad.... and oh yes with a full head of hair:) It was love at first sight even before the nurse stated, "He has a dimple". He weighed seven pounds twelve ounces and measured twenty inches long.

At two weeks old, H had his first haircut. Even with his new cut I would get comments like, "Aren’t you tempted to put bows in that hair", or "Oh, She’s so beautiful with all that hair". Duh, blue blanket, blue clothes, Its' a BOY!

H was an easy baby and by six months old he weighed 18 pounds. He was very tolerant of S and his jealous streak and I would often find S wrestling H. He hardly ever cried and was such a cuddlebug. By eighteen months old, H could be found on top of the table, on top of the counter, or standing on a chair. You get the picture. He didn’t make a lot of noise. The silent terror.

H is a yellow. He’s the happy, playful, roll with the punches kind of kid. H was sent to this family to teach us all to chill. H likes it when people are having fun, cracking jokes, and getting along. H would give you the shirt off his back if it would please you. I’m so thankful we have this kid in our family.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HAMMER!

Full-Body Shiver

We've all experienced it at one time or another.... the full body shiver. You know, the involuntary body shudder. It's just a moment in time when your body convulses in an almost fear-like representation of something you didn't experience, something that bypassed your consciousness and went straight into your nervous system. Sometimes referred to as the heebie jeebies.

Today, I slapped myself on the hand and promised myself that today I would consciously make an effort to feed something nutritious to the boys. No cheese quesadillas today. No more ramen noodles.

We are producing tons of zucchini in the garden. I've made zucchini bread and tin-foil dinners with zucchini. The bread was a hit! Today for lunch, more zucchini. H is the one that takes after his mother. A fan of cookies, candy, chocolate, potato chips.... you get the idea. H also loves playing with friends. At lunch I dished up his lasagna and zucchini and made the announcement that friends would not be allowed unless the zucchini was eaten.

After polishing off the lasagna, H looked at the zucchini and experienced the "full-body shiver". I started laughing and reminded him of his friends. So he scooped up the zucchini and shoveled it in, chewed it up and spit it in the garbage. "That doesn't count", I told him. In tears he made his second attempt to eat a piece of zucchini turned around and vomited all over the kitchen floor.

Isn't motherhood rewarding!

Rocktricity

The conversation went like this:





H (age 7): Mom, I forgot about ROCKTRICITY.





Mom: It's called ELECTRICITY, H.





S (age 10): Mom, I don't think this is really a discussion about speech.





H then pulls me into his room and shows me this!!!

After a discussion on safety and the importance of not sticking stuff (especially metal dog tags) into the outlets, I ask S to go get my camera so I can blog which was very upsetting to H.

And H responds, "But mom, what if the police blog too!"

3 Active Gizmo's

I feel so blessed that Crew is responsive to physical therapy. We started with Shaun once again after our previous therapist moved. This week we talked about goals and decided to work on rolling. As strange as it seems, Crew skipped the whole rolling issue and now its time to go back and learn it. Rolling is a crucial step towards those necessary transitions such as pushing up into a crawling position.

The key to successful therapy isn't just a great therapist but also following through with the homework. That is the hard part for me. I'm trying to get Crew's brothers involved so that the responsibility doesn't fall solely on my shoulders. Yesterday we played a game where Crew lays on his back and rolls from side to side picking up dominoes from his left and placing them in a bowl on his right side. I wish you could see how hard he works. It takes major effort on his part and Crew is an inspiration to us all as we watch him work through it with a smile on his face. He laughs at himself as he struggles to pick up the dominoes. Just watching him work through it with such a positive attitude is really really neat!

H is loving soccer this year! Two years ago he really struggled with the game and its amazing how far he has come. I love watching him play and learn the game. These little kiddos are so cute.

Towards the end of the game I started feeling really bad for the Red team as our team was able to score goal after goal. I feel like these kids are young enough that its just to devastating for them to go home losing 0-8. Everybody should get a turn to score but that's not how it works and as they get older it becomes more and more competitive. Such is life!

S and I ran a 5K on saturday with very little training. I'm not a fan of posting pictures of myself and the sun is extremely bright (thus the squinting) but DS#1 deserves to have some recognition. He is a great runner and I'm thinking that this is the last year I will be able to keep up with him. I got 1st in my age group and S got 2nd! I guess that tells you there weren't many runners there! Ha! Right towards the end I let S go ahead of me to pass a boy about his size and just as S passed him this boy turned and took a shortcut across someones yard, barely jumping in front of S and beating him by 5 seconds. I was behind him and saw the whole thing. I was so mad! Big cheater!

The weather here is great and I'm looking forward to getting some gardening done. Yeah!

Weekend in Review

It's been a low-key weekend. DH and I caught a movie on Friday night and stayed home saturday listening to conference. H had his first soccer game. I have to say I was impressed. He has come a long way in the past two years. He had a lot of fun and even scored a goal.

Crew is getting stronger using his walker. He likes walking around the cul-de-sac and like any 3-year old usually throws a tantrum when its time to go back in the house. Three months ago he was still using a bottle and now he drinks from an open cup:)

The preschool teacher isn't very happy with me and I with her. I currently don't feel like repeating the story. I'm tired of being disappointed with this school district and the special education program. Sadly, Crew may be having Absence Seizures again. The bus aide has reported several and I think I witnessed one or two today:(

S is a kind hearted boy! On several occasions I've found him alone kneeling in prayer. I'm touched by his faith and yet I wonder what worries a boy of only 9 years.

My 3 boys are everything to me! I worry about each of them. I'm thankful for this General Conference weekend and the inspiring talks. I was deeply touched and motivated to be a better person.

Late Night Party

The weather has been so nice lately so when S asked if he could have a "late night" party I said why not! We've decided that Sleepovers are out which is a topic for a whole other post. So if the boys want to have friends over we call it a late night party and send them home at 10:00pm.

We didn't want H to feel left out so we told him to invite one friend.

I ordered pizza and we built a fire in our backyard firepit. We invited 4 boys and ended up with 9 extra kids. How does that happen? I think I've decided that If you plan a party you may as well invite the whole neighborhood or someone is going to get their feelings hurt.

The night was spent hanging out around the firepit, watching movies, and playing night games. The boys were all really well behaved and I think S had a good time.







S and his friends goofing off!












The neighbor girls who didn't have anything better to do.

Media crazed!

H asked for two things from Santa; an MP3 Player and a new video game. Okay, I don't even own an MP3, but H does! This picture was taken moments before H decided to take it upon himself to "DOWNLOAD" music from my computer.

As I was putting the Ham in the oven, Independent H crashed my computer! Yes, I found him sitting at the computer, MP3 plugged in, screen frozen and completely locked up. I was a bit stressed out for a portion of the day until I was able to get it going again. 

A date with H.

H was feeling sad because S was invited to go play raquetball with a friend and H wasn't invited. In H's eyes, this friend is equally his. I suggested that H and I go out for Hot Chocolate. He thought that would be great, especially since he is basically banned from chocolate. I suggested 7-11. He was game.

We drove downtown together. H and I, out for a treat. It was fun. I wish I could do things like this with my boys more often. We ended up buying a box of donuts to go with the Hot Chocolate. H picked out a Chocolate Chocolate donut... big surprise. He requested two straws for his drink but I don't think he realized how hot it would be. Not exactly a guzzling opportunity. However, we added a couple ice cubes at home. H is happy.

Okay, I know it sounds like we go out every night for treats but rest assured, its been an unusual week. Oh, and last night I googled McDonalds Hot Fudge Sundae and found out it has more than 350 calories. I don't think its worth it! Do you?

I wish I was a JELLYBEAN!

I chose not to take the boys with me to SEP's tonight. This is the first time that I have gone alone. I wanted to talk to H's teacher privately. I've had some concerns. First off, the teacher shared with me an experience that they had in the classroom.

Somebody has been stealing stuff. One of the little girls earned a Starburst and within minutes it came up missing. The teacher, Mrs. B, gets up in front of the class to talk about how stealing is wrong. She said she was trying really hard to be serious because of the situation. She talked to the kids and it was kind of tense. H, who sits front and center, raises his hand and says "I wish I was a Jellybean!"

She was laughing and I was laughing too! Where does he come up with this stuff? She said that she was happy that H is letting his personality show and that she thinks it was his attempt to lighten up a very tense situation. It's a good thing we all have our individual personalities!

Soccer Firsts

Having fun? This is an important question coming from my yellow yellow H. And the answer this season is YES, YES, YES! Wow! What a season it has been. Major improvements and lots of fun. H was able to play for the U6 level this year. Saturday was a beautiful sunny day and almost a little too hot. At this age level they play the short field version with 4 on 4. Since their are only 4 players on his team they all get to play the whole game. The smaller field gives each child many opportunities to kick the ball and score. Also, many many chances for "throw ins". This has become one of H's favorite things. One particular game he made such a point to retrieve the ball EVERY time it went out of bounds. It didn't matter if his team had the throw in or not, H would chase after the ball often times tackling another player to get to it first. I was a little embarrassed that my child was getting so physical and we had to have a talk. But I couldn't be too hard on him-- after all.... he is just HAVING FUN which is a nice change from last year.

This season was H's first for MAKING GOALS! It really clicked for him this year and he was able to score several goals almost every game. What a great opportunity for building self esteem! Yeah!

H's, best friend, J was also on the team. This is great! These two little guys are so much fun together. They are funny little kids and after one game H made this comment "Since J is so good at making goals I just pass the ball to him". WAY TO GO TEAM!