More Summer

The only movie Neil will sit through is Signing Time.  He just loves it!  “My Neighborhood” is his current favorite, so much so that singing one of the songs from that episode is part of his nightly routine.  Quinn came over to play and they ended up watching some together at the computer.Neil’s birthday presents were not only a hit was him, but with the other kids too.  Especially the cash register.  Mark and Neil started out playing store together, but it was Spencer and Neil that I got a picture of.  So convenient that for Christmas last year he got the shopping cart. :-)

Jessie had a late-over with some friends from Spanish and they made us a treat too. Yummy! (Along with writing notes in the powdered sugar on the side of the bowl.)Spencer asked Jessie to paint on his dragon sunglasses.  I’m thinking she did a pretty impressive job!Rachel invited Jessie and Mark to go to a BYU Men’s Soccer game with her.  They were thrilled. These were the only Blue and White shirts they could find on short notice.  And since Neil is Rachel’s best buddy he joined in the picture too.  Do you love that he is wearing Spencer’s shoes so that he can abide by the rule that you have to have shoes on to go outside?I finally got Isaac’s dimple on film.  To bad it was just with my ipod’s camera.  It’s still cuter than a bugs ear and carries on the tradition that all my boys got a least one of my dimples, Neil has two.I just love this picture.

Fat Cats Bowling Alley had $1 summer – a buck for a game and a buck for a shoes.  And boy did we take advantage of it.  We went almost once a week all summer.  Let the bowling begin!Abbie loves to give fives and cheer everyone on.  Jessie is not the biggest fan of going bowling, but by the end of the summer, I think she enjoyed it a bit more.Neil loved to roll the balls back into the ball return.

After our first game of bowling we went back to Rachel’s for lunch.  She fixed us Jessie’s favorite: Chicken Alfredo.  While she was cooking Neil stacked and restacked all the candles on her end table, luckily the one in the glass jar didn’t break when it fell after being on the top of the stack.

After lunch Rachel shared some purple yam ice cream she had gotten as leftovers at her ward’s cultural night activity.  It was was tasty and had a bit of a coconut flavor, even though there wasn’t any coconut in it.  So fun!

The beginning of Summer

This was Mark’s year to go to summer camp at Shadow Mountain.  A couple of his good friends signed up to go to the same session as him, which was really nice because we were moving during the session for our old school.  So they all went to the multi-school one.  He had a great time, but forgot to take very many pictures.  When he brought the camera home there were about 8 pictures of the bonfire and 5 of the leaders during the polar bear swim, which Mark said was a truly FREEZING way to end the 7 mile hike, and a couple of other random ones.  So I guess you figured out that Mark loves fire…

Mark brought us back some cool mountain stream water to try.  Well, it was cool again after we put it in the fridge :-)!  And we sent him right on up the stairs to the shower.  You can read more about his adventures here on his blog: http://mkpayne.blogspot.com/2012/07/shadow-mountain.html

The kids were trying to make a tent to play in, but we couldn’t find any clips to hold the blankets up.  For Neil’s birthday I had been looking for instructions for a PVC pipe tent that I could easily make, but for once my google search left me somewhat wanting.  Anyway, so I made up some plans myself and we made a tent for Neil for FHE.  Neil, Spencer and Abbie ate their ice cream in the tent when it was done.  The one super lucky thing about this tent was that we had a reversible sheet that was finished at both ends with a wide seam and so I just sniped the edges of the sheet open and it happened to fit perfectly over the PVC pipe.  A little blessing from heaven.

We kept the tent in the living room and front room for about a month, and it just made me all happy inside to find Neil sitting in it reading one of his favorite books (The book I made for Spencer last Christmas “What Do You Love?”)  So sweet.A couple of cute smilers.  I was trying to get a picture of Isaac's first smiles and of course Neil had to show me his for a picture too.

We did a little shoe shopping and while I was trying on some shoes all the kids found the highest heels they could and came to show me.  It was simply hilarious watching them try and walk in those shoes!  Neil’s pair dumped him out right as I took the picture.A few park pictures.  I’m sure you’ll come to recognize this park very well as it is only a 6 minute walk from our house.

Abbie has been trying to grow her hair out to donate it to Locks of Love like Jessie.  And she is so close…..but not close enough for mom.  So she agreed to let me cut it anyway and now I think it looks so much better…less tanglely and stringy and looks a little thicker. 

I wanted to take before and after pictures of moving so we could be encouraged by the progress we were making.  Yeah all the food storage put away!!And these are the kids latest invention:  shoe box skies for the carpet…only there weren’t quite enough boxes or lids for everyone, so some people had a “scooter” version.

More and more birthday celebrations

The layout of our new house is three levels.  The basement has a guest room and bathroom, the food storage room and two family rooms with a small kitchen area.  The middle level includes a front room and a living room, a dining room and kitchen and the laundry room.  The top level has all the bedrooms.  Four on one end and a master bedroom on the other end.  One surprise from our new house is that our queen size box springs would not fit up the stairs…we tried this way, and that way and another way and  a stand on our head way and it just wouldn’t fit.  So Ken and I slept on the bottom bunk, which is a full size bed, in the girls room with Isaac his basinet for the first two weeks.  But the kids loved sharing our mattress on the floor….especially if that meant Rachel was spending the night!Mark was exploring the neighborhood on his rip stick and didn’t quite make the turn at the bottom of the hill.  He slid across the road on his side and his elbow.  We got him some ice so he wouldn’t be so bruised and he laid on the couch waiting for a friend that was coming over to play.  Mark was still a little sore from the fall so he and his friend decided to play Stratego only Mark couldn’t really move so his sweet sister stepped in and helped him set up his pieces and make his moves for him. 

Jessie had some friends over for a birthday party the first Saturday after we moved.  We played a round of dodge ball and did a treasure hunt for cupcake decorating stuff, which dad made for her,

Some of the girls were a little more involved with the party and some were more teenager-ish than I’m used too.  We also played missionary tag and Hobbes ball, and I was sort of glad when it was time to start sending people home.  Here are some of the cupcakes…After the party a couple of the fun girls stayed and all the kids had a blast playing hide-and-seek-tag in the new house and other spy games.  So it turned out to be a fun day after all.  And Neil loved the cupcakes.Here’s a cute baby picture.

On Sunday the family came over for a “reverent” BBQ.  Ken and I got everything all prepped the night before and so all we did on Sunday was cook the burgers, and boy were they tasty, just ask Mark and Rachel…Our friends were not able to come to the party because their little boy was sick, but they dropped off a present anyway.  Neil was so excited to have a cape and wand, just like all the other kids!We set up an extra table in the kitchen and served from the bar.  It worked out great.I just love this picturesof Ken’s dad with Isaac.Mark was the self-proclaimed official candle lighter.

Right now Neil’s FAVORITE song is “The people in my neighborhood” from Signing Time. It’s about the firefighters, police offices etc.  We sing it multiple times every night when he’s in bed.  So for his cake we made a firetruck.  He had a hard time blowing out the candles because he didn’t want to get to close. but he kept puffing away until Ken lifted him up to get a better shot at them.Then he clapped and clapped for himself.  It was just too darn cute!And a little snitch of the frosting didn’t hurt either. :-)Happy BIRTHDAY NEIL!

Opening presents was a lot of fun. Little kids are just so focused and so excited!  His first gift was the hammer/nail set and he was so excited we didn’t even get the plastic off the hammer.  And he didn’t care that there were more gifts--he was ready to play.

So we let him play for a bit and then convinced him to open another present…same thing.  It was all just so fun. 

Now Neil only recently started liking baths…I think it was in November.  The kids were all so excited to try out the jetted tub in the basement bathroom and so we decided all the boys could take a bath together.  Well, Neil did NOT like it.  He wouldn’t sit down for anything and the kids hadn’t even turned the jets on.  So I washed him with Mark’s help while he tried to get out as fast as he could.  After he was out he was fine and the water looked like fun.  He even turned the jets on for the other kids….and the bubbles from the jets were even more fun…as long as he was on the outside of the tub.  What a funny kid.  Pretty soon he was covered in bubbles.  Too bad he didn’t realize that we’d have to wash them off of him somehow!