So, I complain and complain that I don't like a beard, and that he can't grow one because then I can't kiss him. I really don't like the scratchy. But I have to admit...this is what he looked like when I met him. He was really hot then,and he's really, really HOT now, even with the beard. I guess what I mean is...I don't mind it that much.
Mara loves back packs and has spent the entire day loading and unloading the leapster backpack with "special rock" dolls, clothes and any other odd assortments that she can find. It has been so fun to see what she finds to put in it. 
Sam is turning into quite the strapling young man. He is so fun to have. We love to tease him, and he dishes it right back out. He is so determined to do right I can't believe it. He is a great older brother, and plays with the younger kids and helps babysit them. He is in fifth grade and playing the french horn at school. He likes it, but doesn't like dragging the french horn to school on the bus every wednesday and friday. He is taking piano lessons, and is getting pretty good. He loves to play wild men and is always checking out books from the library that show african or indian tribes and their huts so that he can make better hut. Last winter he started limping, and he is still struggling with a hurt leg. We've had x-rays done, and there is no bone growth problem,or tumor, but his pelvis is slightly tilted, so we are doing exercises to try to help, but to no avail. I am hoping that it is just a growing thing(since he is growing so fast) and that he won't be in pain when he runs for the rest of his life. He doesn't let it slow him down too much, but it is annoying.
Noah is my reader. He is alway reading. I have to hide his books sometimes to get him to do his chores. He love to play wild men as well, and is always getting old squash and beets and other things from the garden and cutting them up to make "stew" he loves his pocket knife, and is hardly ever without it. He is our "chicken man" and takes care of the chickens. He is really attached to them, and has names for most of them. He loves to gather eggs, and is always so excited when there are a lot. He has a very tender heart and it makes him feel really bad when we lose a chicken, or something is hurt, but he is so tough at the same time. He is always making us laugh, and nothing brightens a room more than his great smile and funny laugh.
Caleb is our "goat man" he takes care of the goats, and loves animals. He is always getting books at the library about animals and their habitats. He loves to read about insects, snakes, lizards and spiders. He has discovered reading and is taking to it like a fish to water. He can easily entertain himself with a good book, I love it when they discover that. He is our tenderheart, I have to remember not to raise my voice with him, because he takes everything so personally. I am afraid he has inherited from me the desire to be perfect, and beating yourself up when your not. He is so funny, and can remember lines from movies so randomly and just quote them at the perfect time and make me laugh and laugh. (really all the boys do that) Caleb is in first grade, but is begging me to teach him at home. I am truly considering it since I teach Max and most of the time Caleb is given "busy work" at school to keep him busy because he finishes so fast. Besides I really like my kids around me.
Max is learning to read, and turning out to be a great kid. I was really worried for quite a while because I struggled with him so much. He and I just butted heads so bad, but now he is great. He is so eager to please, and is loving having me teach him to read. He always says..."mom we have to do school." He still loves horses, knights, and has informed me that he is a master ninja... Caleb taught him. He was a vampire for Halloween last year, and is still intrigued with them and can't decide if he should be a ninja or a vampire this year. He is so smiley and has the quickest whit of all my kids. He is always saying things that crack me up.
Mara has discovered her independance and I am trying to think this is a good thing. She wants to do everything by herself. She wants to pick out her clothes(sigh..) Choose her hairstyle(bigger sigh...) and be the mother to everyone. She loves to wipe things up and sweep the floor. She doesn't want to go to bed or to the bathroom by herself though, the only things I would like her to be independent on. She has discovered singing, and it is so sweet to hear her cute little voice. She loves to play with Max and has found a baby that she has to feed everytime I feed Emma. She is definately a little mother. I love it! She has her daddy wrapped right around her little finger, and usually gets her way with him. She is so fun to have, and so diffrent. She is such a good worker and wants to do everything that I do. She's a great little companion.
Emma has two teeth and is loving food. She just watches her brothers eat and you can see in her eyes that if she could, she'd just reach out and grab their food. She is starting to crawl, but doesn't need to too bad because she just rolls anywhere she wants to go. She thinks that 5:30am is a great time to get up and won't have anything to do with going back to sleep. She is so sweet though that it is hard to get too annoyed. I have truly enjoyed her, I love it all. The early mornings, the needing me all the time, the crying for me everytime I enter the room she's in, and the permanent attachment she is to me. She is so ticklish, and Caleb can make her laugh just by looking at her. She is totally loved by all in the family. 
Take six saltine crackers, and eat them all chewed and swallowed in one minute.
Bet you can't do it!
Ryan, Sam, Noah and Caleb spent Wednesday after school putting up a zip-line between our trees. It's up pretty high, and the kids have to get a ladder to get up to it. Sam decided he would be the first to try it, so he got all padded up, and put on his helmet and goggles. He looked so funny. He attached the rope to his belt, and away he went. He got a major wedgie, and crashed into the tree, falling right on his bahookie. 
There's room for two! Mara said it as a statement, like it was the most obvious thing to everyone.
We finally arrived, the kids were great! They all slept for 3 hours, and then read and watched a movie and we were there. I should say they were perfect until we got to Brigham City. That is always where the meltdown occurs. Emma and Mara are done everytime we get to Brigham City. They were both screaming because we wouldn't get them out of their seats, and the boys were standing up trying to get some circulation back into their leg. We ended up turning on silly songs and that distracted them until Layton, and then it was a scream fest all the rest of the way to my parents house.
Boy oh Boy were the kids so excited to see grandma! Caleb said "when I get there I'm running into the kitchen because I know that's where grandma is going to be" They all ran, and I slowly made my way to the couch were I stayed the rest of the day and most of Saturday! It is no fun to be sick on vacation. We watched conference, and I loved it. Saturday afternoon, Rondi, Cami and Chloe and I went to the Body Worlds exhibit in SLC. That is a whole nother topic. Let's just say that I had a few moral issues with it, but it was interesting. On sunday Ryan went up to Park City after conference to attend his Mosquito Convention--yes they have those, funny huh!- I went up on monday with the "girls" in Ryan's family and Emma to shop. Emma and I stayed overnight and went to the banquet with Ryan and then Tuesday I dropped Ryan off at the airport to go to Seattle for another meeting. The boys stayed at my mom's and had a grand old time--of course-- Greyson got to stay home from school to play with them. "Lucky" is what my boys told him he was--forgetting that they were missing a whole week and a day of school.
Emma slept wedged between pillows at Park City. She rolls all over the place when she sleeps, but can't sleep next to me, or she constantly wakes up and needs to be fed to go back to sleep.
Here's us just before the banquet. We had a great time! It was fun to see old friends that Ryan used to work with.
When I got to my mom's on Tuesday, Joy and her mother in law came over, and the boys all wanted to go home with her. They all jammed into her car. You can barely see Sam peeking through, Mara was buckled with Lucy up front. They had a great time with their old friends. Mara and Lucy played so good. I had a conference for school Tuesday night, and all day Wednesday and Thursday. It was pretty interesting. I had to do my first venupuncture(collect blood for testing) I was fine doing it to someone else, I got it the first time, but I don't do needles in me. I totally had a stress about someone poking me--yuck! I jumped! So sorry to my partner!
Jamie and Brian blessed their baby on sunday, and we were going to go home after the blessing, but the roads were closed, so we ended up staying one more day and leaving on Monday.
Sophie and Max are exactly one year and two days apart and I think they look the most alike of all the cousins. I think they look like brother and sister, but maybe it's just me. I would love to have a child with curly locks!
We were so full on the way home with all that we had to take back, that Emma was kinda an after thought. She was totally surrounded with stuff. Good thing she slept most of the way!
What a great trip! We were so glad to be able to be there for Cale's blessing, and to be around family. It was great to get back home, and start a fire and snuggle up downstairs. That was of course after all the work of unpacking and putting away was done. That is definately the worst part of vacation. Putting away after.
This face sums up how we all felt about going to Utah! What a great trip we had!
So happy happy happy to my dad! He is 70! I can't believe it, he still can work me into the ground. He is going to retire the beginning of next year, and then he says he can finish all the projects he's left undone around the house (okay so my mom says that's what he'll do ;)!) He was always so rough and gruff when I was growing up, and it is so fun to see him with his grandkids. He is just a big push over! He coos and spoils and give the grandkids anything they want... he never did that for me! What gives? It is so cute to see him with them. I love it. What a great example he is to me of hard work, dedication, honesty, thrift, integrity, and forgiveness. I truly am who I am in large part because of his example and "solid as a rock faith" He's the best and I love him greatly.
I was cutting corn off the cob so that I could freeze it today, and Emma would have nothing to do with me putting her on the floor, so she had to sit on the counter right next to me. I'd say it was annoying, but I actually quite like that she has to be by me all the time. At least I know that she likes me. She got into the tomatoes though, and had them squished all over herself. There were seeds in her hair and all over her face and shirt.
I decided that since she had just had a bath, and I didn't want to fill the tub again, I would just put her in the kitchen sink. She loved it! I got the rest of my corn bagged and the kitchen all cleaned up and she was having a marvelous time in the water and I could watch her. We might just have to remember that for the next time I have a big project in the kitchen to do! Mara thought it was quite fun, and being the little mother that she is, had those tomatoes seeds off Emma in a flash.
