Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Nathan's Our New Toy



We recently got a little bit of unexpected money, so after doing some responsible things with it we decided to use some of it to get an iPad (Sean's had the itch for a while now). It has quickly become a new favorite toy for everyone in the family. Even Nathan loves it - actually he is almost a little obsessed with it. The kids only get a 20 minute turn every couple of days, and Nathan wants his turn just like everyone else. He drags his fingers here and there and gets just to where he wants to go (it's crazy how fast these kids pick up on things like this). It is actually the first thing he asks Sean when he walks in the door, "my turn iPack?" We LOVE that he calls it an "iPack," and it's kind of rubbed off on the rest of us.

Play Ball

Ben had his first tee-ball game on Saturday. Very entertaining to watch. In tee-ball there is no score, there are no outs, there are no strikes. Everyone gets to hit and run. They love it....and they love the cheering. Ben whacked his ball a couple of times. Our favorite part is watching him run the bases: he gets his arms pumping and everything.



Caelan also had her first baseball game on Saturday. She made contact with the ball once, but it fouled. Her team got slightly slaughtered, but she had a fun time anyway.

Day at the Museum

On the last day of Spring Break I took all the kids and we went with Megan's preschool class to the Albuquerque Natural History and Dinosaur Museum. It was fun to see all of the dinosaur replicas and to learn about volcanoes and the earth millions of years ago. The kids loved the room with all of the living animals: turtles, fish, snakes, spiders, etc. We ended the trip with a stop at the park and then we ate lunch at a yummy pizza place in town, Dion's. Fun day.





The attitudes portrayed in this picture just crack me up. They really did have a fun time....HE HE HE.

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Birthday Boy Ben!


Ben turned 6. He has been asking about his birthday for the past three weeks. He's has repeatedly asked me when "President Conference" is (General Conference) because he knew that his birthday was two days after it. He has been so excited. He woke up and said, "It's my birthday. Am I 6 right now?" He chose to have hotdogs and chips and fruit for his birthday dinner. We had waffles that morning (another of his favorites). I asked him if he wanted to have a party or go somewhere fun. He wanted to go to Hoots (this little jumping place in Albuquerque - Megan's preschool class went a few months ago and I thought it would be fun for the other kids). He got to bring one friend with him (plus the family), Aaron Buck, and they had a blast sliding down the huge slide, playing in the jungle gym, racing through the blow-up obstacle course and laughing themselves silly. He wanted a Mario cake (it's so fun to hear him say "Mario" with the rolled R - I love it), so we had fun concocting that. He got a Toothless dragon, a pirate sword, a set of walkie-talkies and a couple other little things. It was a fun little celebration.

Some Fun Things About Ben at Age 6:
Favorite color: blue
Favorite movie: The Chronicles of Narnia (all of them)
Favorite Food: fruit (strawberries, watermelon, blueberries, apples), waffles
Food he doesn't like: He is probably our pickiest eater, but he will still eat most things put before him. Onions, peppers, tomatoes, mashed potatoes (most of the time - so weird)
Favorite treat: Kit Kat and ice cream
Favorite animal: penguin
He loves to play with Dad's new I-Pad (especially the Minion maker and the racing game). He likes to play on the Wii, but usually only stays interested for 20 minutes or so. You will almost always see this little boy with some kind of small toy in his hand. We have tons of little characters and he is usually carting around a handful of them at any given time. He likes to explore the backyard. He recently started tee-ball and is loving that. He is a really good student - he got awesome scores on the last bit of testing they did at school and his teacher really likes him. He LOVES babies (always has). He's so sweet to get right down on the floor with his face close to a babies face and stroke its face. He loves all things BOY: swords, guns - we only have Nerf style guns at our house(one day he made the crusts from his sandwich into a gun), knights, pirates, super heroes (of all kinds), cars, etc. He is a very sweet boy. He still asks me if he can "get cozy" with me while we are watching a movie on the couch, and then he snuggles up in my "boat" or right next to me. He started the "tucking in" routine at our house. He had about 4 blankets that he has to have spread over him every night along with a hug and kiss. He loves the water: the beach, the jacuzzi, swimming pools, etc, and he can take the fastest shower in the whole house (hands down). He is a good little singer and has started piano lessons. He is thoughtful of other people anywhere we go (family members, kids at school, friends, etc) and he is great friend to both his sisters and his little brother. He is an easy, mellow, very happy kid and we love him to pieces.

One Little Monkey Sleeping in the Bed


This little boy has found our bed. All of our kids have gone through a little stage of waking up in the night and then coming to our bed to sleep (except for Megan). In fact we were talking about this very thing one time and I turned to Megan and said, "You are the only one who hasn't come to sleep in our bed, right Megan?" She thought for second and said, "You don't let me sleep in your bed." She's right. She is our craziest sleeper and so the couple of times that she did come into our bed either Sean or I promptly helped her back to her own bed (because there was no way we could sleep with that little girl in bed with us). So her stage was SUPER short. None of the kids had found their way to our room since we've moved. I think it has something to do with the fact that you have to walk across the entire downstairs, then up the stairs and then back across the upstairs to get to our bedroom, and none of our kids want to brave that long of a walk in the dark and quiet of night. But one night (a few weeks ago) Nathan made his first journey to our bedroom (and bed) in the wee hours of the morning. He climbed into bed with us....and that's where it began. It was like a light switched on, "Oh, Mom and Dad will let me sleep with them if I go there in the middle of the night" (because, frankly the "walk" is too much for us to walk him back to his bed in the middle of the night....HE HE HE). He figured it out real quick. In fact a week after the first trip he asked is he could sleep in our bed. I said, "Nope, you have to sleep in your own bed." Then so sweetly he said, "Sleep own bed. Wake up and sleep upstairs." Pretty bright little dude! So we've had a little visitor in our bed at least three times a week for the past three weeks. The nice thing is that he usually comes in just shortly before it's time to get up for the morning (5:00 AM or so). We don't mind this little phase - we know it won't last forever (partly because they grow out of it...and if they didn't we would "help" them to outgrow it...HE HE HE), so for the next few weeks we'll enjoy this extra little body next to us for an hour or two in the morning.