Isaac’s Blessing and more

Neil loves to wear his BYU hat.  When he puts it on himself this is how it looks.  He puts it on so far forward and pulls it down that to see anything he has to tip his head way back.  It’s so funny.

Here’s some cute baby pictures.

Abbie was helping me take that last set of Isaac pictures and when we were done she and Neil played “Goliath” on my bed.  As kids we called this game “timber.”  I’m not sure how it got renamed in my family, but it’s an appropriate name, if you recall Goliath’s ending.While my mom was here visiting I didn’t get too many pictures. I hate it when I do that.  Taking pictures is the only way I remember things!  Mom was kind enough to help us start packing for our up coming move.  The first thing we did was take down all the silk flowers, baskets and blown eggs I had above my cupboards. I’m not even going to describe how much dust had collected on them in the last 4 or 5 years.  We took them to the backyard and filled a bucket with some soap and a little bleach and another with rinse water and then tossed them onto a clean sheet to dry in the sun.  Part way through Neil woke up from his nap and joined us.  He was a fabulous helper.  When Grandma was done washing them, he would swish them in the rinse water and chuck them onto the sheet.  This throwing was rather vigorous and quite entertaining.  By the end his pants were completely soaked.Spencer’s third tooth to come out was pulled out by Mark after school before they rode home.  That way Spencer could go to the office and get a tooth necklace to store his tooth in and an “I lost a tooth” sticker.  What an exciting day.While my mom was here she and I and the two little boys went and bought snapdragons and a few other flowers for the front flower beds.  While we were there we saw three turtles they have roaming around in between the green houses.  That was just cool!Neil “helped” me make a balloon wreath for a friend’s birthday.  We was supposed to be handing me balloons, but instead he just tried blowing all of them up.Abbie and Spencer made some mud pie for us – or maybe it was a mud cake.  I can’t tell from the picture.  :-)Abbie is a great big sister and often watches Neil play outside while I fix dinner.  She does a great job too and I’m so thankful that she is responsible enough to do that and that she has so much fun playing with him too.Jessie finished up this stitching project from Activity Days.  She sure does great work.For Sports Day at school we had three soccer players.Another BBQ.  Boy are we getting good use out of the grill Ken’s dad gave us.  It’s so much fun.  Rachel also got us some pineapple to grill and made us a Waldorf Salad to boot.  What a fun night.  Oh and having fresh lilacs on the table is just divine!

As it so happens one of my cousins was passing through Provo on her way to Idaho and we all met at Rachel’s apartment for lots of dessert, a game of Apples to Apples and visiting.  It was so fun to see Cami and her new baby and meet her husband.  Good luck with the summer! (David was there too, he’s just taking the picture.)For Isaac’s blessing Mom carved up a baby basinet out of the watermelon.  She did a super job, but I forgot to get a picture of the finished product.  :-(Isaac's blessing was really nice.  Thanks to all the family and friends that joined us.  You guys are great.

Just in case Aunt Chris is reading this – I think you have the coolest son ever!  Abbie became Robert’s little buddy on Sunday and she had a blast with him.  Robert was ready to help finish getting lunch on, but there wasn’t much to do, so jokingly I said he could wash dishes afterwards.  Then to my surprise after he and Abbie had finished eating they washed up all the forks from lunch together.  We wish him luck on his summer plans in Japan.

Spencer brought home a book from school called Dinosaur verses Bedtime!  He had so much enthusiasm and personality when he read it that it was an instant hit with Neil – “Die-saur vus BEDTIME!”Nothing like some bunny ears to make picture taking fun.

To Blog or Not to Blog….that’s a very good question.

This post starts off with Sunday morning.  Neil wanted to wear a tie and so Mark let him pick out one of his.  He tied it for him and everything.  But as cute as it is, I didn’t think it would help us be very reverent at church.  Luckily Neil was happy to pick out a different one that fit him.We went to visit Grandma Jennie and take baby Isaac for her to see.  We also got to meet her “neighbor”; who was very kind and could hear WAY better than most of the people there.  It was almost funny not to have to speak so slowly with your voice raised.  I love this picture of Grandma Jennie and Isaac.That was a full Sunday.  Rachel had also invited us up to her apartment for dinner – twice baked potatoes!  Yum! and apple pie with ice cream for dessert.  It seems that no matter how early we try and get together with Rachel the time always passes far too quickly and we have to get kids in bed.  We love being with Rachel!Our friends had the kids over for a late-over after Isaac was born.  They had a blast with French Bread Pizzas for dinner and fun crafts to do.  The girls and Spencer made these fun flip-flops for the summer, and the girls got glitter toes to boot.  Mark got to start on a little contraption that when you hit the button a light will light up.  It will be a great addition to our game closet.  Thanks so much you guys!!At bedtime we have been reading the Little House series again.  We read them with Mark and Jessie when they were little, but Abbie and Spencer haven’t heard them yet.  Here Ken and Abbie are reading On the Banks of Plum Creek.  We have since finished that one and are reading By the Shores of Silver Lake.  Abbie likes to sneak out of bed and help Ken read.  She’s also such a sweetie and always has a pillow for Ken to borrow to put behind his back.Here are some holding Isaac pictures. Neil calls him, “baby I, I”. It’s pretty cute how he repeats the first syllables of lots of words.  Isaac looks so small with Mark and I can hardly believe that Mark was ever close to that small.  Time really does slip away too quickly!

Mark went out to surprise Ken and get the lawn mowed for the first time this spring.  He had a little tag along that just couldn’t wait to help.  Neil wants to help with EVERYTHING!!!!  “Me help!”  They did a great job too.It was Mark’s turn to participate in Hope of America this year.  We were close enough to see him quite easily and you could tell he was giving it his all.  I circled him down there on the front row.  (Trying to find a place to park was nearly impossible.  We drove around for 10 minutes looking for a spot, then ended up parking at a church on the other side of 9th East.  It was a little bit of a walk, probably close to 3/4 of a mile and it was raining!  What a night to remember.  But there was this incredibly nice man who helped us carry Isaac’s stroller down two long flight of stairs and that was so nice!  Ken wasn’t able to come, because he was going to the doctor to see if he had bronchitis.)

Spencer came back to my room crying one morning before school.  It seems that Neil had stolen the peanut-butter toast he was having for breakfast.  I asked Abbie to put another piece in for him while I got out of bed.  When I got to the kitchen I was met with a pretty messy Neil.Neil loves getting face paintings from Jessie. This time he got a balloon on each cheek.Ken was giving the sprinklers a trial run so that when we planted flowers the next week we’d be all ready.  Neil was ready right then.  Totally soaked!  This is one of his favorite shirts, “B, U, coug, coug.” (for BYU cougars.)Abbie had two friends over and they were convinced that 70 degrees was “burning hot!”  So they set up the clown to run through in the backyard.  Neil loved the clown, but didn’t want to run though it.  So Abbie picked him up to take him (with his hat still on), even though he really didn’t want to.  He stayed out there with them, putting his hand out to catch the mist coming off the clown and shivering.  With his current love of water I still can’t believe that all of his baths until 17 months were complete and utter torture.On Sunday afternoon Spencer asked Ken to join him out front for a nap under the tree.  Ken suggested they go in the back yard, but Spencer was convinced that the bees pollinating the apple tree would be after them.  I’m not sure if it started out as a nap for both of them, but soon Spencer was done napping and got some books to read to Ken to who trying to find an easy way to shade his eyes from the sunlight filtering through the tree (the tie worked great).  Spencer had a good time although he had to wake Ken up in between each page.  :-)Since my mom had flown out to visit 2 days before, and since we had stake conference and Ken didn’t have any extra meetings that afternoon we had a photographer to help us try and take a family picture.  Thanks for the help mom.  We only had to remind Mark a couple of times that the more pictures he had smiles in the fewer we would have to take.  Neil wouldn’t smile in any of the first group we took.  Silly boy.  By the time we got to just a kid picture Neil and Isaac were done taking pictures.Sunday dinner with Ken’s parents.  It’s so nice to be close to family.

Spring Break

Spencer lost his second tooth at church.  Ken pulled it out in the bathroom for him before we came home since he had to stay and count tithing.  Spencer was so excited!  I told him that now he had a “holy hole” in his mouth.  As soon as we got home he put the tooth in a plastic bag so it wouldn’t get lost like the last but he didn’t put it under his pillow like I suggested.  He just had to have it out incase someone stopped by so he could show it to them…that is until he misplaced the bag.  Oops!  That’s two teeth gone.  The tooth fairy is not liking us!Isaac got his first bath at 5:30 in the morning.  I was changing his diaper and he wasn’t done yet.  Ken was so great to wake up and give it to him since it still hurts my back to bend over the tub.  It wasn’t Isaac’s favorite activity but hopefully it will be soon.One spring break activity was going to the park.  The weather was perfect and is was so nice to be out of the house.  A friend and her son joined us.  The big kids love playing tag on the toys and Neil really loved the slide, but for most of them he still wanted someone to slide with him.Rachel came and spent the night.  The next day was not warm at all…hence the coats.  She and Neil blew bubbles for Spencer to pop while Ken, the girls and Mark practiced some double dutch.

Isaac and I went out for a bit to be with everyone.  Since I didn’t have a hat for him we just shared with Neil and rolled up the edges.When it was time for lunch we came inside and emptied the fridge of all the leftovers.  Neil was too hungry to wait to warm anything up and just grabbed a piece of pizza and started eating.The last fun thing we did over spring break was that Mark built us a “poor man’s golf” game.  He did such a great job!  I was the supervisor, but he did all the measuring, cutting, etc.  Grandpa helped him drill the holes in the golf balls and everyone was excited to help him try it out.

I love spring break!  I love having the kids home and I love the change in schedule and finding fun projects to work on.  I just can’t wait for summer.  (Man, I sound like my kids!)