Here's Hoping . . .

. . . that your New Year is

happy!

(at Cabela's last week)

Bentley's Wedding Registry

"Mom, if I still like Bionicles when I get married,

I hope I get lots of them for wedding presents."

Why We Went to Scipio - Part II

I finally got around to ordering our prints,
and some of them arrived yesterday.
I can't walk by without stopping to look at these photos!

For more about our trip to Scipio, go here and here.

What's a boy to wear?

This morning, Jonah had a difficult time deciding what to wear.

Not to bed that night.

But what to wear all day.

He brought his choices to Maxwell,

who laid them out on the kitchen floor so they could

compare options and make the best choice.

Evidently, that decision was much too difficult,
because Jonah ran around in just a pull-up for the next few hours
before selecting red pants and a red shirt out of his dresser.

King of the Castle

It sounds like pillow forts are all the rage lately.
My kids have been making their own in our living room.

Jonah often ends up the odd man out, but the other day,

John helped him build a fort while the big boys were downstairs.

Jonah was pretty excited to have it all to himself,

and climbed onto his thrown to celebrate being king.

Looks comfortable, doesn't it? :)

Dog Sledding

Christmas evening we went to Brianna and Spencer's place
to see the puppies and to let Brady pull the boys around in a sled.

We walked over to the church parking lot by their home

just as the sun was setting. It was beautiful . . . and bitter cold!

Aunt Mindy and Ruby
Jonah wiped out his first try on the sled.

But a few minutes later, he was back to try again.
This time he stayed on the sled and had a great time.

Maxwell was reluctant, but ended up having fun, too.
You can watch him here.

Bentley didn't hesitate at all. He rode several times, and loved it!

Here's on of his rides.

Christmas Day

The stockings before the kids got ahold of them.
Ruby was NOT interested in her first doll; however,

she was interested in what her brothers were doing,
and in the bike they got from Santa.

The boys took on their Dad with their new swords.*
(John used Ruby's sword and shield to defend himself - she didn't mind.)
Three Spidermen are ready to save the day!
(The boys found these costumes in their stockings.)

*(Thanks Leslie for the sword and shield idea. The boys love them!)

Cookies and Ruby

Tonight, the boys decorated cookies for Santa.
Before he went to bed, Bentley set them out, along
with some milk and two notes:

"St. Nick - cookies" and "St. Nick - milk"
(He wanted to make sure Santa knew which ones were his.)

While her brothers were in bed (hopefully sleeping),
Ruby was wide awake, and showing off her
dare-devil skills:

This is not good, folks. Not good.
(If she's going to be like this, lets at least hope she
has better luck that her brother, Max.
That poor guy has a talent for splitting his head open.)

Christmas Pictures

Today we took our annual family Christmas photo,
as well as a few others. (Who can stop at just one picture, really?)

above: the whole gang
below: four silly kids

Jonah is holding a tootsie roll in hia left hand -
his "reward" for agreeing to be in the pictures at all.

our sweet Ruby (with her power ranger's cell phone
- a girl should never be without her phone!)

and the 3 amigos
(The smile from Jonah was extra!
The tootsie roll merely covered his presence in the pictures.
Isn't he generous?)

One Day Short

Bentley started this Santa "countdown to Christmas" at school,

and brought it home yesterday to finish.

He was a little bothered because there is no "25, "

so he made the following note on his paper:

Here's the translation for those of you who need it:
Bentley's Santa
Christmas is the 25th. That is not on her,
but it dus hav Chistmas ev
and that is the 24th.

Lights! (and a few thoughts)

Yesterday afternoon, we took the kids to Salt Lake City.

While we were there, we went to Discovery Gateway.

Then we walked over to Temple Square to see the lights.

The boys had another one of their "best days ever!"
- and I was reminded of the last time our family visited
Temple Square at Christmas time:
SEVEN YEARS and FOUR KIDS ago.

It also made me think about some other things:
1. We need to get out more.
2. Our family grew really fast.
3. Maybe the reason we don't get out
more is because our family has
been busy growing really fast.

Regardless, yesterday's little trip was a lot of fun.
Although I'm not sure it was "the best day ever."

Giggle Worm in Action

Maxwell's Giggle Worm Show Day was Tuesday morning.

He had been feeling fine since early Monday, so we

went to the Show Day despite fears that we'd have to miss it.

He did an awesome job!

You can watch his routines on Vimeo:

Floor Routine here

Bar Routine here

Beam Routine here

Maxwell with his medal (above),
and with his teachers (below).

Jonah was so excited to get to play, too.

Ruby crawled around for a while, but
tried to escape the gym, so we corralled her.

Although she looks unhappy in this picture,
she didn't really mind. HONEST.

Wishful Thinking

Ruby's Grandma and Grandpa H* gave her

this shirt for her birthday.

A "silent night" would really be nice tonight.
I thought we were in the clear because none of the
kids had been sick since Jonah was sick last week.
But last night, Maxwell woke up very sick.
Poor kid. He was worse off than Jonah,
but also seemed fine this morning and has been fine all day.

I hope everyone will sleep well tonight, and that we
can somehow avoid the other two kids coming down with it.
Whatever "it" is.

Wish us luck! :)

Her Day in Pictures

1 Year Old!

It's Super Ruby's first birthday!

Hurray!

Little Ones

How do you get the dishes done when you have a fussy little one?

Why, give her a candy cane, of course.

Good news (knock on wood)!
No one else has gotten sick, and Jonah seems fine!
Hurray!

Something that isn't as fine is his latest thing.
When we ask him to do something, anything, he yells,
"Hang on!"

Like when we ask him to get his shoes on for the
Ward Christmas Party, and he's busy reading a book.
It goes something like this:
John: "Jonah, get your shoes on!"
Jonah: "Hang On!"
Because he's busy reading right now,
thank you very much!

24 Hours (more or less)

*Ok, so this is a really long post, but it's been a really long 24 hours.

The last 24 hours have been full of markers,
projects, and a sick kid.

Here's Jonah. He looks sweet, right?
But check out the mess he made:

Marker on his hands, legs, and in his hair.

Nice.

Thankfully, I don't have pictures of the next 12 hours or so.
Jonah woke up sick around midnight.
Then again a few more times before morning.
Yuck.
Poor kid. He seemed fine this morning.
We didn't have preschool, just in case.
I hope it was some weird fluke and that
the rest of us won't get sick.
(what are the odds, right?)

I was supposed to teach preschool today, and since
Jonah was feeling fine, the boys and I had our own little preschool.

Letter "K" - for King and Karate
(we kept it simple)

Ruby watched. :)

(That's for Elise. Hi Elise.)

Maxwell and Jonah model their King costumes:

Then, Jonah crashed on the heater vent.
He was out for at least 3 hours.
I guess staying up most of the night takes its toll on a person.
Not that John and I know anything about that.
How would it be to just sleep for 3 hours in the middle of the day,
AND not have the house fall down around you?
Lucky Jonah. :)
Ok - not so lucky. It's yucky to be sick. But I'm envious of the nap.

While Jonah recovered from his long night,
his older brothers made mysterious disguises.

Bentley gave me explicit instructions regarding the
caption for his disguise picture,
unfortunately, I can't remember what he said.

And here's Maxwell in his disguise.
Wait, maybe I shouldn't have revealed their identities.
Whoops.

Anyway, here's hoping for a better night's sleep,
and no sick kids (or grown ups).

Outside/Inside

Outside:

Inside:

We're staying inside to stay warm.

Poor Bentley had to go out in the cold to school - but
the didn't go out for recess so he probably didn't freeze. :)