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!

Saturday Work Day

Saturday was work day at our house. We're trying to get all this outside stuff done so we can take the kids on some camping/hiking/fishing trips on Saturdays soon. We'd really rather play than work, but I have noticed how the work just doesn't seem to do itself. So on Saturday I decided that since the weather wasn't too warm that we'd focus on the garage, which was disgusting. But now I can park my car in there again without wondering if something is lurking in the corners. It was cold but dry, so Ben was able to mow (Joey was very excited - lawn mowers are his favorite thing in the world, next to girls). The kids didn't help much, but they were busy with their adventures.


Last weekend we bought this old-style pool (they're the best - no holes!), and I found that it made a really good playpen for Matthew. We threw him in there with some toys and he was happy for an hour.


I taught Haley how to trim the bushes. They were in pretty bad shape, because apparently I didn't feel like doing it last fall.


I have no idea what the boys were doing here, but they were busy with something in between their visits to the neighbor (to drive him nuts). They had poor Mr. Cory taking them for bike rides down the street, checking in the back yard for his dog (they didn't believe him that his dog died, so they went to see for themselves), and even had him sword fighting for awhile. He's such a good sport!


I decided to do my best to embarrass my husband, so I had him pull out the shop vac and I proceeded to vacuum rocks for 2 1/2 hours. Mind you, I did not think it would take that long, but I had to turn over every dumb rock to vacuum out the leaves. We have much more river rock than I had figured. About half way through I didn't want to do it anymore, but I kept on going. Every part of me ached, especially my fingers because I kept smashing them in between rocks. But we have clean rock beds now, and I even sucked up about 10 spider egg sacks. The boys thought they were pretty cool. Ben went inside because he thought all the neighbors would think I was crazy, out there vacuuming rocks. I'm just glad it's done!


Happy yard work, everyone!

Art Day

Yesterday was such a beautiful day! I think the temperature got up to 85 degrees. So I had Matt in just his diaper for his nap because we haven't turned on the AC yet, and Ben is in Whitefish for a medical convention and I have no idea how to turn on the unit outside. I just love little babies in their diapers! I had to take this picture of him sleeping. Too bad it woke him up.



And, of course, since we live here, today is much colder. I think it's going to be 40 degrees tomorrow. I've been trying to think of what Joey might be deprived of at our home-school preschool, and I decided that in addition to teaching him things like how to line up and recite the Pledge of Allegiance, we should probably be doing some art projects. The problem is, I have absolutely no craft talent whatsoever. I am not artistic. I still draw a dog the same way I did in 2nd grade. I try to come up with ideas, but it just gives me a brain fart. So I went to the school supply store and got a couple of books. This is what we came up with:

We put a tablecloth on the kitchen table (yes, it's only about a foot off the floor - we like to eat Asian style), and had the kids trace their names and some shapes with dot paint:



Joey got the hang of it pretty quick.





After a little bit of a fit, Grace got it too.





We kept Matt in his high chair eating his favorite lunch, a cheese sandwich. He was a little sick of the camera, I think.



We also made some strawberry glasses. It was a quick (thank goodness) little project that the kids were able to do almost all by themselves. We used foam and pipe cleaners. Here they are admiring their work in the mirror:



Last night Matt took his first bubble bath. His digestive track is now squeaky clean!



Quote of the day, courtesy of Gracie: "What you problem is?"

Grace

Now to tell you about our little Gracie. She was so tiny when she was born! Our girls were two whole pounds smaller than the boys at birth. We were so surprised when she was born! I was kind of expecting a girl, because I could tell the baby was smaller than the two previous boys, but the surprise was that she came out with blond hair and blue eyes! I had come to accept the fact that I would never have a blond haired blue eyed kid, but here she is! And she is still that way today. She is all spit and fire, though. I think she will probably rule the world, or at least a big portion of it someday.



We have tried to teach Grace her middle name, Elizabeth, but it always comes out of her mouth, "Grace Invisible", which I think is pretty cute. At least it's cuter than what she used to say. Haley had her convinced that her whole name was Gracie Poopoo Pants. That's what she called herself for a long time.

Ben always says, "Well, you're the one who said you wanted a princess!" I guess I'm guilty. I just didn't know that I would be summoned by the princess at all hours of the day to fetch her things. Like her blanket that is lying two feet away from her, but she doesn't feel like getting it, so she calls me down two flights of stairs to hand it to her. I think she does that because there is nothing in the world Grace likes more than to be comfortable. I think it's so adorable how she carries around her stuffed kitty, blanket, and pillow to make beds wherever she can - on the couch, in my bed, on the kitchen floor - wherever the mood strikes her. And there she lies, with her finger in her mouth, rubbing the tag of her blanket between her other fingers. That is Gracie in a nutshell.



She's also a daddy's girl. He's the first person she wants to see when she wakes up and the last person she wants to see at night. All throughout the day, every day, she asks, "Where's my daddy?", even though she knows he's at work. She'll proclaim, "My daddy's nice." She's got him wrapped around her little finger, and he loves it.



But most of Grace's day is spent following her big brothers around. She thinks she's a Clone Trooper, or a Jedi, or Princess Leia. She pretends to have a blaster, a sword, or whatever weapon of choice it is that day. She makes boy sound effects and flies a Star Fighter around all day with a little Princess Leia doll in it. She loves everything the boys do, except bugs. She even tries to convince us that she is a boy. Here she is with Andrew's backpack on. She wanted to go to school just like him:



Grace is also a little artist. Sometimes she uses paper, sometimes she finds other things to draw on:



I often find her places she is not supposed to be (like the medicine cabinet). And one of her very favorite things to do is wake up her brother, Matthew:



Her other best friend is Shoji. She puts that poor dog in a headlock, lays on top of her, rides her like a horse, and just loves that dog way too much. Good thing she's such a patient dog:



We can't get over how much she and Emma (Lindsey's little girl) are so much like Lindsey and I as children. Grace looks just like me, and Emma looks just like Lindsey. Emma is 11 months older than Grace, and Lindsey is 15 months older than me. It's like deja vu!



We think Grace is such a funny girl. She can be so soft and cuddly at times, but she can keep up step for step with those boys. She loves to take care of her baby dolls, have tea parties, and play doll house, and she loves to karate chop the boys, play with cars and hammers, and play ball. She's our beautiful little cuddle bug who keeps us laughing, and will keep us hopping for many years to come!