Close Call

This morning, Bentley was running when he slipped and fell, crashing into the wall.

(This kind of thing happens fairly often at our house. Usually the boys don't get seriously damaged. I hope they stop doing it before they're big enough to do serious damage to the walls.)
When Bentley fell today, he smashed his hand between his body and the wall. It looked like it really hurt, poor kid. But he didn't cry, he shook it off and said, "It's okay Mom, it wasn't my

mouse hand."

Three Amigos

Today was one of those wonderful days (at least part of it anyway), when the three boys got along (not all day, but part of it - I'll take what I can get).

They started the day off choosing to wear matching shirts

(a good sign);

here they are at the park, where they played together some of the time, and didn't fight;

(Ruby stayed home with her poor father who was home from work again because he's sick)

when we got home, they checked out the tulips in our front yard;
after lunch, they sat together in the backyard and ate their Popsicles.
I love days when they love each other. :)

Kenna and Ruby

These two sweet girls had to endure picture after picture after picture, poor things. But they're too cute not to take pictures of. :)

Warren and Becky were here to see Becky's brother Kyle go into the MTC today.

Happy Birthday Greg!

Today, my youngest brother, Greg, turns 17!!!

here he is at age 3

Greg (age 5) with me the summer before he
started kindergarten, and I started college

Greg and Spencer (I wonder if our parents have seen this one before)
Somehow Greg survived his siblings' love and care to become a wonderful young man. He's handsome, kind, smart, talented, and funny. My boys love to play with him when he comes to visit us - partly because they can hit him as hard as they want to and he can take it. :)

We love you, Greg! Happy Birthday!

Tuesday

Spencer and Ruby
the elusive Jonah stopped moving long enough for me to take his picture
In Joy School, we're talking about Confidence and Uniqueness. The crowns say "I am Special."
Jonah didn't like his crown.
During freeplay time, the girls wanted to be princesses and the boys wanted to be superheroes. They all wanted to play together, so one of the little girls came up with a plan - the superheroes would fall in love with the princesses! The other little girl opted to "just watch," and the falling in love never took place. When I called the kids in from freeplay time, Bentley said, "But Mom, I didn't have time to fall in love with Annika!" (phew)
Later, Bentley came to complain about the girls: "They never want to see my computer games! They only want to do what they want to do. And they just cry and cry until they get their way!"

Take 2

Today the kids got dressed up in the new clothes they wore on Easter Sunday. On Easter, I tried to take a picture of the four of them. It didn't work very well (You can see it here). Today it didn't work well either. Ruby smiled nicely for her picture, but when I asked the boys to sit by her, Jonah refused (again). So here's the quick picture of 3 of our kids.
maybe next time I'll get all 4 . . .

HMQS

My wonderful mother-in-law, Carla, and I went to the

Home Machine Quilting Show today.

We saw many beautiful quilts at the show,

but I think the cutest thing there was this sweet girl -

4 months - 4 "pokes"

This happy girl had her 4 month well check today.

She weighs 14 lbs 15.5 oz!

She also got four shots (or pokes as the boys call them).

In other news . . .

it SNOWED again today.

It's like we live in Indiana or something. :)

whoops

Today, I took the seat out of the walker so I could wash it.

(both the walker and the seat needed it badly)

When I came back to clean the rest of the walker, I found this:

Milestones

Yesterday we got out our walker and let Ruby take a spin in it.

(the instructions say 4 months+ and we take that literally around here - now she can watch me make dinner!)
She joins her brothers in the "walker club." Here they are:

Ruby

Jonah

(I think he was about 6 months old in this picture, not 4)

Maxwell
and back when the walker was new - Bentley
for some reason, the older kids always like the walker as much or more than the little one who is supposed to play with it - but I don't think Ruby minds sharing

Four Months Old!

Ruby is four months old today!

To celebrate, she got dressed up and came to Primary for the first time!

The purple on her face has mostly faded, so most people didn't say anything about it. (Or maybe the kids were just too impressed with her spitting up abilities to notice anything else.)

Face Transformer

Elliott linked this site the other day. Here are our results:

old John

old Jenny

Botticelli John

Botticelli Jenny
(the others were really scary, so this is all I'm going to post)

BYU Kids' Clinic

Last year we took all three boys to the BYU Kids' Clinic. Today just Bentley and I went.

(poor Maxwell is sick, Jonah is too little, and Ruby is purple)

For those of you who have never been, it's crazy! Tons of kids running around, and lots of parents (most of the dads look starstruck and are trying to get autographs "for their kids"), long lines, and a bunch of football players running drills. The quarterback drill went something like this: wait in line for 10 minutes, throw the football to a BYU quarterback, go get in another line. It's a lot of waiting, but the kids seem to have a great time. Bentley did.

These pictures are from the tight end/wide receiver drill. Bentley ran out and hit the pads, then turned to try to catch the ball. I would have been nervous with all the kids and parents in line, as well as a bunch of football players watching, but Bentley didn't seem fazed.

I think his favorite drill was a defensive/offensive line drill, because he got to knock the dummy over. You can watch it here.

After a while, we got tired of waiting in lines, so Spencer got a football out and played with Bentley. It takes a lot of concentration to kick the ball. Check out his face in both pictures.

Mikey took a turn playing catch with Bentley, too.
We didn't stay for the Legends game or the Blue and White scrimmage, but I think Bentley decided that the clinic was worth missing the last hour of KidsWB (Saturday morning cartoons).

Charles!!!

Last month, I asked Charles to come see us so we could get a more recent photo of him.

And he did!!!

Charles, thanks for stopping by. It was great to see you. Bentley's sorry that he thought you were Lyle (although that is a compliment - Lyle is the all-knowing-comic-book-Uncle after all). Maxwell liked showing you how fast he could run. Jonah and Ruby (I'm sure) were glad to meet you. Come see us again some time, and

good luck at school this term!

Love, Us

Charles was brave enough to hold our purple Ruby, and we got to see Elizabeth, too!

John and Charles

(aren't the men in this family handsome?)

The Politics Test

Elizabeth told us about this political test.
I'm not sure that it's very accurate, but here are my results.

What are you?

You are a Social Moderate (41% permissive) and an... Economic Liberal (30% permissive) You are best described as a: Totalitarian Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid Also: The OkCupid Dating Persona Test

Bathtime Joe

What would you do if your older brothers were at Joy School and you had free reign at home?

Jonah decided to take a bath!

It's his favorite activity lately. Sometimes he tries to give us subtle hints that he'd like a bath. We don't always pick up on his meaning, so we often find him sitting naked in an empty bathtub. Once in a while he'll get in the tub, close the shower curtain, and plays quietly. It's a great hiding place and he doesn't do it often enough for me to remember to check there first. So I rush around the house looking for the little guy, only to find him sitting in the tub, smiling.

Ben 10

Right now life at our house revolves around a cartoon called Ben 10. For those of you who are blissfully unaware of Ben 10, it's about a boy named Ben, his cousin Gwen, and their Grandpa Max. Grandpa Max is taking the kids around in his RV for the summer. At the beginning of their trip, an alien watch (the omnitrix) attaches itself to Ben's arm - it won't come off. Using the watch, he can transform into 10 different aliens and becomes a hero.

The boys discovered Ben 10 online. Aunt Mindy gets Cartoon Network, so she recorded some episodes for the boys to watch. For Easter, the boys got the first season on DVD from their Idaho Grandparents. Each of them got an alien toy from the Easter Bunny. So right now we are breathing Ben 10.

Bentley and Maxwell absolutley love the theme song. The music is pretty catchy, but they have a hard time deciphering the lyrics. You might think that could be a problem, but it's not. They just sing sounds instead of words. They sing the drum beats, too.

To hear the real song go here.
For Maxwell's version click here.
And you can hear Bentley's here.

My favorite part is the beginning of Max and Bentley's songs where they do the music intro.

Gentian Violet

Yes, Ruby's face is purple.

No, she didn't get into the egg dye.

She and I have thrush, and this

gentian violet stuff is supposed to cure us.

Unfortunately, Ruby will be stained purple

for a week or two. That's why we waited

until after church to try it. She might still

be a little purple next week, but at least

she didn't make her debut like this. :)

As for the adorable dress, I've been drooling

over it for a couple of weeks. I found it at Babygap,

but couldn't bring myself (or more to the point, John)

to pay $40 for it. Yesterday, one of my friends

had her 6 month old in this dress.

I told her that I loved it.

Today,she brought me one for Ruby!!!

(I hope it was on sale.)

Ruby won't be getting any closer to the dress

until she's no longer purple.

Easter Sunday

Our Easter began with some treats left by a big bunny.

The boys got to hunt for eggs after breakfast.

(still in their pjs - except Jonah- because it's not worth it to get them dressed twice,

and the church clothes can't go on till we're almost out the door)

I tried to get a picture of the kids in their cute Easter outfits just before we went out the door, but Jonah did NOT want to be in a picture. :(

I wish I could say that church was a wonderful, uplifting experience. I'm glad we were there, but , and I'd forgotten how hard it is with our kids. What I heard of the talks was great, but I didn't hear a lot.

Max decided he would rather sit with me in Primary than with his class. He said "I love you too much to do what you say." Great.

A girl in Bentley's class got the hook of her sweater caught on her retainer. She cried a lot, four of us tried unsuccessfully to get the thing unhooked, I looked all over the church for her mom, who had gone home, so we went to her house, and finally got the sweater detached from her retainer. It was pretty traumatic for her.

When I returned to the church, another little girl needed help finding her mom because she felt sick. Turns out most of the class was "feeling sick" because they'd watched a video about the Atonement. Bentley didn't get sick this time. :)

After church, Elizabeth came over for dinner, and she brought chocolate!

Thanks Elizabeth. Also, thanks for eating our less-than-specatular dinner. :)

(this is Elizabeth with Ruby last week)