Here we come May

The three little ones and I joined Abbie for her Track meet.  Abbie opted to run the two longest races, the 400 and 800.  Neil was an awesome cheerleader.  We got to sit in the stands with her and her friends (which we knew quite a few of from doing spelling, that was fun), and run around on the grass, up and down a tiny hill, while we waited for her next race.  It was SO chilly that morning when I got the boys dressed, but by 11:30 when we got to the races shorts would have been nice.  Oh well – that’s spring.  Ken took this one of Jessie and Spencer with Squirmy the snake that lives under our water spigot in the front flower bed.

While the boys are at Fathers and Sons and Jessie is camping with her aunts Abbie and I made cards for her teacher's birthday. Fun, fun, fun!  Ken took the boys for Fathers and Sons.  Everyone had a great time and tasty food.  Neil wouldn’t take a nap when they got home (but REALLY needed one).  Later that afternoon he crashed watching Life.We saw a couple of deer in the neighborhood one day.  This one was in the neighbors yard.  Man can they jump and run fast.  So cool to see them up close! Abbie found this poor butterfly with a deformed wing.  The bottom wing had grown on top of the top wing so it couldn’t fly properly or lay its wing down.  She cared for it for a couple of hours then left it on our flowers.

Isaac was so kind as to fill a shoe with oatmeal for us...Neil and Isaac could NOT resist playing in the bucket of oatmeal that got brought up to refill the can in the cupboard for making oatmeal cookies.  Over and over I had to ask them to stop playing in the oatmeal…….just take a picture and smile about it later. Scott’s birthday BBQ.  This had several date changes due to the passing of Ken’s dear cousin.  She had battled breast cancer for several years.  It was a rather solemn week for us.  And we continue to pray for her family.

Here is Neil at the BBQ searching his pocket for “Phil the Pill.”  A pill bug he found at our house before we left that took a ride in his pocket to Grandma’s house.  Fortunate or not Phil got dropped in the grass later and was not findable.  At least he didn’t cry about that.

Scott is so good to my kids and had to have help to blow out his candles (that never actually got lit because the ceiling fan blew out the match).  That was funny! When we got home from the BBQ we discovered Grandpa’s mitt had been packed up with ours.  That mitt looks well loved.We exchanged grandpa’s mitt the next day for Mark’s horn mouth piece he had taken and left at Grandma’s.

Neil unloaded the silverware from the dishwasher 15 times to get a slinky out of the prize box.  Way to go!!

Mark took Isaac by the hand to help him go get jammies on….well, Isaac didn’t want to go get jammies on and so he made himself go limp.  Mark was still holding his hand through all this and as his body went slouching down his wrist popped.  Aaaahhh….he wouldn’t move it and so Jessie and Ken took him to the instacare that was still open and they x-rayed it and wrapped it up.  They said they didn’t see any break, but to come back in a week to x-ray it again to see if they could see any spots where the bone had started healing.  That was a night.  Isaac didn’t like the bandage the second day, but after that he didn’t even notice it anymore and when we went back to get it rechecked they didn’t even end up dong another x-ray after they examined it.  What a scary week.  Glad that all turned out well.  (Rachel brought him balloons to cheer him up the next day.  Thanks Rachel!) Heading back to the races.  We watched Spencer run the 400.  He did a great job and was so sweet to go back and congratulate the other runners.  Nice job! We enjoyed Mark’s band concert.  It’s almost funny to listen to the whole band perform the song you’ve been hearing only the French Horn part for….it’s almost a new song altogether.  So fun! One random day my kids came home from school all wearing Ken’s credit union shirts.  Totally unplanned and spontaneous.  (I think we must have just finished folding the red laundry the night before and it was the top shirt in everyone’s drawer….who knows.) Ken went with Rachel car shopping so she wouldn’t have to do it alone.  This was her face as she sat in the drivers seat of the one she picked out.  I think it’s a winner. Talk about a bad hair day.  This was Isaac when I pulled the hooded towel off his head after his shower. 

Emma’s four month visit.  Her head went from the 11% at two months to the 63%???!!!!???  CRAZY!! And she’s just shy of 12 pounds. Neil helped me fill a five gallon bucket with pancake mix in preparation for Ken’s CU annual meeting breakfast.  I also ended up making about 5 batches of waffles with it for our Activity Day Mother Daughter activity.  (Which I then remade more mix for Ken.)  I’ve decided it is easiest to mix that much stuff with your bare hands….and Neil didn’t mind helping!

Our first broken bone

Jessie was playing around with the settings on the little camera and found a color replacement setting.  Totally weird and impractical, but perfect to entertain kids.  So here’s Abbie with “her pants on fire.”  We got Jessie’s new sheets from Christmas washed and on her bed.  Reversible dots and strips. 

Abbie and Spencer made their beds into tents by tucking in a bunch of blankets.  Neil and Isaac thought this was just too cool.  Neil snuck into Abbie’s bed – he’s not supposed to do that on school nights because he talks too much.

Neil got a new game for Christmas, Zimbbos.  (Who gets to name these games, anyway???)  You stack up the elephants and try not to make them fall.  He and I play with slightly modified rules, but it’s a pretty fun game.  Anywho, Mark found them one Sunday and was totally intrigued.  He put them together all sorts of ways.

Neil love to play “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.”  But only if he gets to use Spencer’s book.  It’s so cute to listen to him sing while he hits all these random notes on the keyboard.

Mark started his science fair experiment nice and early this year.  But we still ended up putting together his poster last minute the morning it was due.  Someday we’ll get it all together……I hope.  He was testing centripetal force.  He put a marble in between layers of jello and swung it over his head in hopes to see where the marble would move to.  Unfortunately, the jello was just too thick, even after microwaving it, and the marble stayed put.  Even though his experiment didn’t prove much he still related it to real life and went on to district.  Yeah Mark.

Made some more butterfly cards.  I just love these things.  :-)Jessie spent an afternoon trying to catch some birds at the bird feeder Mark got her for Christmas.  I think she was entering the pictures in the “winter” category for her photography class.  Too bad the neighbors house was right behind the feeder.

Neil has bragging rights on being our first kid to break a bone.  He was sitting on a stool reaching for the can of hot chocolate mix and just wasn’t close enough.  He went crashing to the floor.  We picked him up and went up for scriptures, but he just wouldn’t stop crying.  Too bad for us… it was just after 8 o’clock and the instacare had just closed, so Ken took him to the ER.  He was so good and charmed all the nurses and came home with a pile of stickers, an x-ray of his broken collar bone, and a cute little sling.  The sling was mostly a “watch out, don’t touch me” tool – and it’s a good thing because keeping his arm in it was nearly impossible.  Luckily children’s collar bones heal all by themselves and rarely need anything done to them, as long as they don’t fall again.  Because he wouldn’t be able to catch himself with that arm.  Neil is very good at repeating, “the doctor said no running or jumping.”  Here is the picture he sent me from Ken’s phone when they got to the ER and were waiting for the x-ray to come back.

Playing the piano with a baby on your lap is really fun, but hard too.

Jessie is getting really good at the Hokey Pokey and the kids all love to sing along with her.

Addie made these awesome colored noodles for Neil to make a necklace on our Missouri drive.  He loved using the extras as claws.  I had to go buy Neil 4 new shirts that buttoned up the front because he couldn’t raise his arm up.  Do you know how hard it is to find button up shirts for a two year old?  Almost impossible!!

After a big fiasco at the scout office the Klondike was cancelled.  Our bishop was really frustrated with the whole thing and told the stake president he’d put one on for the boys.  Ken got to help with one of the stations and said it was the best Klondike he had ever been too.  Mark was so excited because the date was changed to his birthday and he got to go.  Here the boys were learning to make knots with bread dough.  After they mastered the knot they cooked it and ate their knot scone.  I’ll try to get Mark to post something about it on his blog.  I don’t know who the boy in the second picture is, but he finished his knot.

When Ken went to set up his snow shoeing course he found cougar tracks along the edge of the clearing he was in.

Megan came over for a late over and the girls all learned how to make Gone to Heaven Chocolate Pie.  What a yummy evening.

Gone to Heaven Chocolate Pie

1 (9-inch) pie shell

2/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup cornstarch

1/2 tsp. salt

4 egg yolks

3 cups milk

2 Tbsp. butter

1 Tbsp. vanilla

2 cups chocolate chips, we used semi-sweet and extra dark

whipped cream, opt

Bake pie shell and cool.

Stir together sugar, cornstarch, and salt in a 2 quart saucepan. Combine egg yolks and milk in a container with a pouring spout. Gradually blend milk mixture into sugar mixture. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture comes to a boil. Boil and stir for 1 minute. Remove from heat and stir in butter and vanilla.

Add chocolate chips and stir until chips are melted and mixture is well blended. Pour into pie shell; press plastic wrap onto filling. Cool. Refrigerate several hours or until chilled and firm. Garnish with whipped cream.

The snow starts

Isaac wasn’t too sure about the hat Spencer was trying to put on his head.  So dad tried to put it on.

Neil came with me to vote.  Lucky us -  there wasn’t a line at all.  And of course his cute smile charmed all the poll workers and and they gave him a sticker to wear.

Sometimes the pictures I get to scroll through on the camera are……YUCKY!!!  This was Jessie’s science fair project this year.  Growing mold on applesauce.

I think I have to put in a few cute baby pictures each time.  I’m sure something amazing was happening….but it was so long ago I can’t remember.

Rachel surprised Mark with two tickets to a BYU football game.  He was more than excited!  Which was a good thing because it was FREEZING that night and you had to do something to stay warm.

Do you love Neil’s shoe selection?

The snow starts….on the same weekend that we were all meeting Ken in Park City for more Credit Union meetings. The drive up wasn’t too bad and we eventually even found the hotel we were staying in.  (Honestly, I think Park City is one of the most confusing cities I have ever been to!!!)  We enjoyed the pool while Ken had meetings and we watched it snow outside.  That’s kind of a weird feeling….to be swimming and warm and watch the snow fall outside.

Sweet little Isaac fell asleep while the kids swam.  And all was good until Neil took his floaties off.  He was just sitting on the steps (some other kids had joined us) and they were having blast throwing a ball to Neil and having him throw it back and then suddenly he went for a ball the wasn’t quite thrown far enough.  Luckily he was really close to the edge and I jumped up, holding a sleeping baby, and grabbed his arm to pull him out.  I hope I’m not that scared ever again!!

When we got home from that weekend there were 8 to 10 inches of snow at our house…and as luck would have it we got locked out of the house.  So we opened one of the windows that has a broken latch and managed to squeeze a kid through to unlock the doors.  Wow.  What a weekend!

Unlike Neil, Isaac LOVES taking baths.  Yeah for me!  And Neil loves to help him get all clean.  Neil had the soap on his hands all ready to wash Isaac’s hair just after I put him in the tub.