Such a Great Daddy!

My husband is going to kill me for this, but I have to tell you what a great daddy and husband he is. On Tuesday night, Gracie came into our room at 11:00 because she "wanted to sleep with daddy". So he was brushing his teeth and she climbed into his spot in the bed. She proceeded to pee, and leave a nice wet spot for daddy, which he discovered as he picked her up to take her back to bed. Being a nice daddy like he is, he changed her clothes and her sheets, too (because she had peed there first), put her back to bed, and then camped out on our floor. I told him he could go sleep on the couch where it was more comfy, but he said he wanted to still be close to me! Isn't he awesome? And, yes, in case you're wondering, I still slept in the bed next to the pee spot. We have a giant bed, and I have 5 kids - sleeping next to pee doesn't bother me one little bit. I think Ben got up with her two or three more times that night, and once with Joey (which is rare - our kids usually sleep through the night). What a nice husband!

Day at the "Zoo"

We just love our little "zoo". I don't know if you can really call it that, it's more like a really great nature walk - with a tiger, a bear, two wolves, and a barn. It does have a great park though, and some nice trails. We go there all the time, and today was 71 degrees! So that's where we headed. Grace and Joey said they wanted to walk, so I just brought a small stroller for Matthew. They did pretty good, and didn't start complaining until the very end. All three of them fell asleep for naps too! We started at the barn, where we fed the chickens, ducks, and peacocks. Grace was trying to coax them over to her. I was really proud, because usually she's to scared of them to think straight, let alone enjoy the experience.

Matthew just sat in his stroller swinging his legs. As long as there was something to see, he was happy.

Joey really likes Jake the horse, but only if he doesn't get too close.

This is the showdown. Joey loved this little pygmy goat. This was the daddy, and the mommy looked like she was going to burst any minute with little baby pygmies.

This is Grace trying to explain to me why the ducks want me to buy them more food.

When we left the barn, we found this little creature. I don't know what it is, but it's not a squirrel, it's not a chipmunk, it's not a prairie dog. All I know is they're splattered all over the road by our house. Joey was trying to claim it for a pet, but it wasn't in the mood. I think he just wanted a snack.

We took turns pushing the stroller. This was Grace's turn. We went really really slow.

Then it was Joey's turn. We went really really fast.

Here we are on the way to the wolf enclosure. This was a favorite today, because the kids have been asking me to tell the story of Peter and the Wolf over and over again. It started out a couple days ago as a lesson in lying, and they just love the story. If somebody is making something up, they say, "Don't be a Peter!" I think the wolves turned out to be not as scary as they were picturing when I told the story. Oh well.

"Bear!"

We had to take a little rest on the rocks. They were just too tempting.

Then off to the park. We stopped at the wobbly toys first. Matthew had that thing rocking! He was just glad to get out of the stroller.

Here's Joey singing a song on the wobbly toy. I'm not sure what kind of creatures they're supposed to be, but he decided it was a snake.

It was a very fun day, but I've gotta go. Grace has no shirt on and she's asking for "basagna". She means business.

Barbeque

We had a beautiful weekend here, and guess what? We didn't do a lick of yard work. But we had a good excuse. Haley and Ben spent Saturday morning planting trees as a service project with the YM/YW. Then we had the missionaries over, and then we had a barbeque with the YM presidency from church. We had a great time, had good food, and got to play outside. Here's the party (with my handsome husband there in the blue).

One of the couples had a little one-year-old boy, Taveon. He is soooo cute with those big blue eyes. He had a great time on the tramp, and loved to give Matthew hugs. They are friends from nursery.

Joey wanted me to put the picture on. He said it looks like he's holding a light saber, and Star Wars is our FAVORITE thing around here!

PS - I'm so excited because Matthew finally learned how to go down the stairs all by himself. Now we can put the gate away. Yay!

Matthew

I'm finally getting to Matthew! I've done posts on all the other kids, but when you're the fifth one, sometimes you have to wait. Matthew is getting to be such a big boy. I can't believe he's going to be 1 this month. It makes me so sad that he's not a baby anymore, but he's such a fun little kid. We are having a blast with him. He is such a happy boy, always smiling and trying to catch up to the other kids. He desperately wants to play like a big boy, but sometimes falls a little behind. He's still smiling though. We're so glad he's here with us. Before he was born, when we were contemplating one more, I told Ben that I just knew there was this little boy with dark hair named Matthew wanting to be a part of our family. I just couldn't leave him behind! And here he is, and I think he makes the sun shine.

Here's Matthew as a newborn. He had a full head of black hair with a clump of it right on the top of his head. For awhile he looked like he had on a toupee.

We had a little fun one day when daddy was at work. We made that little toupee into a little ponytail.

Matthew really loves his feet. It becomes a challenge to change his diapers.

Matthew is famous around here for his open mouth. We're not sure what it's all about, but I have a lot of pictures like this:

Matthew is one of the busiest boys I've ever met. He is constantly into everything, but he's happy doing it. When he's not getting into something, he's quietly contemplating what to do next. He sure keeps me on my toes.

Matthew is one fun little boy. He completes our family, and we're so excited to see where life takes us!

Rainy Thursday

It rained - AGAIN! It was cold - AGAIN! We're still waiting for spring up here. It was 40 degrees again, so we were stuck inside trying to find something useful to do. So we decided to paint with straws. We mixed up some paint and had a quick lesson on mixing colors. I had red, blue, and yellow, and Joey guessed right every time I asked him which color would appear when we mixed two of them together. He's one smart cookie! When we got it all mixed up, we dropped some paint on the paper and blew it around with straws. They had a pretty great time.

Grace wanted to use glue (what is it that's so fun about glue? I don't remember...). So I had this big bag of fuzzies that she glued to paper. By the time she was finished, it looked like a bunch of fuzzy stars in the sky. I lost count, but she had well over 50 fuzzies on one page.

Matthew just had a great time eating raisins.

Friday there is no school, and it should be a little warmer. Yay! Maybe we'll get to the park...

Wacky Wednesdays

Wednedays are a little crazy around here. The younger kids go with Grandpa for Grandpa day and I run errands with Matt. Then the real trouble starts at 2:30. We leave to get Andrew and get back at 2:45. Andrew does his homework and gets a snack, sometimes does his piano. Then we leave at 3:15 to get Haley and her friend Kalin. We drop off Kalin and take Haley to Tae Kwon Do. We get back at 4:00 and I teach a violin lesson from 4:15 to 4:45. We leave at 5:15 to go to scouts until 6:30, then at 6:45 we have a soccer game and at 7:00 Haley and Dad have YW/YM. While they're gone I bathe 4 kids. Yikes. No wonder I had a headache last night! That's 8 things to do in 4 1/2 hours. So here are some of the highlights from yesterday's Wacky Wednesday:

Andrew had a great time decorating cookies at scouts. I think he did a great job!

Joey couldn't have the cookies because they had eggs in them, but he really enjoyed half a cup of frosting.

Matthew just caused all kinds of trouble. He was taking (well, more like ripping) things down from the wall, and getting in to everybody's stuff. Haley had it all under control.

Here's Andrew warming up before his soccer game. They've lost three in a row, but those little boys sure have fun and have a great attitude! They've all really improved over the last few weeks, too.

Well, we survived another Wednesday. Things are looking good.

He DOES Listen!

I was pretty impressed with Joey yesterday. He decided to explain Adam and Eve to me. He said "There was good food and bad food, and Eve ate the bad food. Then she told Adam she ate it and he said, 'Why did you eat it? That's the bad food!' Then Adam ate the bad food and they were kicked out." He seemed really mad at Eve for disobeying, so I asked him about that. He said, "Yeah! She wasn't even supposed to eat that bad food and she got kicked out!" He then told me about Jesus. He said, "Jesus died for us. He got put up on the thing, and they put nails in His hands and then He was alive again on Easter, and He showed everyone his hands and there were just scabs on them." So contrary to my prior belief, he actually does pay attention at church!

I must be crazy

What does a two-year-old plus a four-year-old plus a baby plus a whole lot of playdough add up to? You guessed it. A big mess. Let me also mention that I have already swept the kitchen floor today, but what's a big mess in the name of fun? We choose fun at our house. I thought about putting the kabosh on the bowling of the playdough balls down the hallway, but that's their favorite part. Besides, the reward of playdough was all I had on my side when we were trying to get through school today. Strangely enough, Grace was the one who actually wanted to pay attention and do her learning today. Joey kept having to go to his room to muster up spirts of energy to get his cutting and pasting done. Generally this is one of his favorite things to do. Must be a full moon. Here's the pics.

Grace and her teeny tiny playdough strings:

Joey's aresnal of playdough bowling balls:

Matthew playing in the high chair (because I wasn't ready for that mess), doing his silent open mouth face:

The bowling of the playdough:

So we have picked up and swept the floor - and have regained peace in the house. They are no longer fighting, but playing Star Wars in Matt's bedroom. I can hear them discussing who will be Darth Vader, Amidala, and Anakin. They're making some pretty sweet sound effects, too. And it's almost nap time! Yay!

Boring stuff

I hate to bore you all with the very uninteresting happenings of my day, but I figure this is a great way to journal. I have an actual journal, but I only seem to be able to write in it every 3 months or so. A friend told me that blogger will print and bind your blog, so I thought this would just be a good way to journal. So please humor me.

Last night as I was doing something in the kitchen (can't remember what now, not that it matters), I heard Matthew's "I'm unhappy somebody come help me" screech that he is so famous for. In fact, he's doing it right now, but he's supposed to be taking a nap so I'm leaving him to it. Anyway, where was I? Oh - so I turned around and there he was, stuck as a bug under a rug. Only he was under a chair and couldn't find a way out. So I decided to prolong his agony and snap a picture before I rescued him.



He was fine, just a little frustrated.

So a few weeks ago I got called as the Enrichment leader in our ward. I just about pooped my pants because I don't even go to RS - I'm the nursery leader (still am, btw). I don't know if I can think of stuff to entertain women who are 18 to 88 years old, but I guess I'll try. Let me know if you guys have done anything lately for Enrichment meetings that you thought was fun. I'd be glad for any ideas! So anyway, getting to the point. On Saturday I made this fruit bouquet (with dummy directions from the internet - I'm no Martha Stewart), and brought it to church the next day to show the ladies what we'll be doing for our next meeting in June. I thought it would look pretty ratty with me putting it together, but it turned out pretty cute, I think!



I'm hoping it will be a hit, but we'll see:)

The Coolest baseball moment this season

Okay, you guys. So I love the Red Sox and I have this game taped, but you have to watch this. It's not every day you see somebody steal home! And it was a straight steal - there was no wild pitch or anything. Just copy and paste this - you'll be glad you did! This boy can fly....watch closely - it's over quickly.

http://videos.espn.com/m/video/22163349/ellsbury-steals-home-in-boston-s-win.htm?col=en-vid-espnvideo_1-ep&q=%22red+sox%22

Enjoy!