Primary Program

Today was our Primary Program.

Both Bentley and Maxwell had parts,

and they both memorized them and

recited them without hesitation.

What brave boys!

To hear their parts, go here.

Jonah went to church, screamed and whined,
came home early with his Dad and Ruby,
put his pj's back on, and took a nap.
(wish I could have done that.) :)

Ruby won't actually WEAR the boots for any length of time,
but they're sure cute. Funny girl.

John dear,

Thanks for taking us all to Scipio yesterday.

I'm pretty sure you knew the pictures I wanted of the kids weren't going to be pain-free for you. But I don't think either of us would have guessed that these photos would take us to Scipio. What's in Scipio??? (besides grumpy, nosy old ladies?)

You've been through "pictures" with me before, so in the beginning, you could imagine the stress you'd hear about as I decided on clothes for all the kids. You could have guessed that I'd want the clothes to be new (translation - additional expense). You knew the sitting would cost you some cash. And you're probably still not looking forward to paying for the actual photos. You might have wondered if you'd have to go with me to the photo shoot (and hopefully you were relieved that I chose not to have the two of us in these pictures).














(Bentley, Maxwell, me, Ruby, and Jonah at DQ after pictures)
You were patient and understanding as I agonized over delays and rescheduling, naptimes (or the lack of naptimes), baby cowgirl boots for Ruby, denim jackets, coordinating vs. matching outfits for the boys, the weather, traffic, and endless other odd things.

When I told you we'd be going to a cute little farm in Salem for the pictures, I know that seemed a little out of the way. But when that farm fell through, and Nichole and I decided to take the kids to Scipio you hardly batted an eye. You agreed to drive us there and back. You left work early. You ate fast food, TWICE IN ONE DAY. You explored old barns with the boys, talked to a local about his souped up Jeep, and convinced Jonah to pose for just one more picture.

Thanks for being so great throughout this whole ordeal.
I love you,
Jenny

ps - do you think we should go to Scipio again next year? :)

The Attempted Bribe

Last night, after a day or so of pleading (yes, I give in easily),

I took Bentley to the store so he could use

HIS OWN MONEY

to buy chocolate. Smith's was having a sale, so he was able

to purchase THREE Hershey's bars for $0.78.

He is generously sharing his chocolate with all of us,

rationing it out piece by piece throughout the day.

This afternoon, Bentley got in trouble.
(we won't go into details)
I asked him to proceed to the naughty corner, but
before he obeyed, he tried to negotiate.
His proposal???
One piece of chocolate for me
in exchange for no time in the naughty corner for him.
I declined his offer (talk about backbone), and sent him on his way.

Once his 5 minutes were up, he gave me the chocolate anyway.

What a sweet kid.

But really, did he think he could buy his way out of trouble,
with chocolate?

(kind of embarassing, huh?)

Quilters???

Anyone up for a doll quilt swap?

Sweater Weather

. . . or maybe coat-wearing-weather today.
Can you see the snow on the mountain tops?
Snow.

Last week, Bentley wanted to take his teacher an apple,

so we let him pick one from our tree.

I told him "that is enough for a while."

Yesterday, he had trouble putting his sweater on,

because he had one hand up his shirt, clutching an apple.

He had picked it, hidden it, and planned to take it to

his teacher. I said, "Ok, just one more time."

This morning I found another apple in his backpack.

Poor Mrs. B* was spared that apple.

John and I made him leave it at home.

(His teacher always seems to have piles of apples on her desk,

and we don't have many on our tree to begin with, so I don't

feel bad about forbidding more apples.

After all, I'd like enough to bake a pie for our family to enjoy.)

Moose and Hawsmo

For those of you, like me, who missed the BYU game last Saturday, Brianna gives a great rundown of the game on her blog.


In other news, Mikey emailed today, following a super long bus ride to a conference.

3 'H' Post

Housework:

Lately Bentley likes to sweep the kitchen floor.
Fine by me. :)

Hair:

Ruby has grown enough hair (barely) for a clip!

Halloween:

Bentley and Maxwell look for costume inspiration.
Their top ideas: skeleton or knight.

Jonah has already decided on his costume.
He wants to be a red power ranger.
Again.

Ruby's Sunday

It's cold, so Ruby got a new dress!

Her summer dress just isn't warm enough for fall weather.

The new dress came with shoes,

so she was all dolled up for church today. :)

And she managed her naps mostly around our meetings

so she actually attended some of church today.

This evening, Ruby got to spend some time
with her beautiful Aunt Elizabeth.

What a fun Sunday.

Daylight

This morning, our entire family was up early enough to get donuts!!!

Daylight Donuts opens at 6am, and if you sleep late,

the donuts will be gone before you get there.

(which is part of the reason we only make it there once or twice a year)

We arrived around 8:30am and managed to get a

few of my favorites - the pink ones. Yum.

By 9am the place was packed and the donuts

were disappearing fast.

This beautiful blue sky should be cloudy by game time.

Waiting for donuts.

This is the Pez collection in the Daylight window.

Impressive, huh?

Jonah is holding one of the pink donuts.
So good.
Ruby got a donut hole, and wasn't sure what to do with it.
Please don't report us to child services for giving our 9 month old a donut hole.

She's ok, really. Does she look like she likes it?

Hope for the Best

20 minutes till game time.

Here's hoping that it's better than last week.

Farm Country

This afternoon we took the kids to Farm Country.

The boys agreed on their two favorite parts.

Favorite part #1 - riding ponies

Favorite Part #2 - the Jail

whoops

This is a picture of Ruby and Maxwell

together this afternoon.

For a minute, Maxwell had forgotten that

he is really angry with Ruby.

Maxwell got this really cool superhero book for his birthday.
Today, Ruby ruined the book.

Which is why Maxwell is really angry

I think this is the first time one of the boys has really
been upset with their sweet little sister.
It probably won't be the last.

Ultimatum

Our kids like to play fight.

A lot.

But it often leads to real fighting.

So last night they got an ultimatum:

The real fighting stops

or

no more fighting video games,

movies, or stories.

(which would mean no more super heroes, etc.)

So far today, so good.

Pink

Once upon a time, Bentley liked pink.

These days, he doesn't usually like to remember that.

However, today was "pink day" for kindergarten,
(likely not a problem for Mabel)
and Bentley was happy to have something pink to wear.

During Bentley's pink phase, Grandpa Homely
bought Bentley a gray pin-striped suit with a pink shirt.
In the past, he wore the suit to church (with a white shirt)
- today was probably the first time he wore the pink shirt in public.
(By the way, the hair standing up was intentional.)
I think Bentley makes pink look good . .

. . . although Sophie might not agree.

Playdate

I'm lousy at scheduling playdates for my kids.

Luckily, my friend Meredith is willing to bring her

boys to our home when she's in the neighborhood.

Today Connor and Bronson came to play.

It's kind of amazing to me that my 3 boys

can't play together without many, many fights,

but the 5 boys played together for a couple of

hours with only one major fight.

Amazing.

While the boys were outside playing . . .

. . . Ruby worked on her biter biscuit
and watched me make dinner.
Hey Meredith, thanks for a headache free afternoon. :)

Talent Show

Bentley and Maxwell performed their gymnastics show

routine at the Primary Talent Show today.

You can see it here.

Crawling Update

About a month ago, I posted Ruby's first attempts at crawling.

She's a master now - although her method is a little

unconventional. You can see her in action here.

on the fridge

Preschool was at our house this morning,

and we learned about the letter 'B.'

For part of the lesson, we colored/traced

some letter 'B' worksheets.

I was helping the other kids with their

worksheets, when I noticed Jonah was missing.

I found him at the fridge, putting his

worksheets up for everyone to see.

I love that, because I'm not sure he's had too many
of his projects make it to the fridge -
(not because I don't like his projects, but because he hasn't had many projects).

I love that he was excited to participate,
and that he knew right where to put his papers
for all of us to see.

huh?

I was in charge of treats for Family Home Evening tonight,

so this afternoon, I made some little cheesecake things.

While I was mixing, Bentley came in to help,

and after a few minutes asked,

"Mom, why do you think martians

don't like cheesecake?"

Huh?

He was serious.

I wasn't sure where to start with that one.

He claims his Dad told him that martians don't like

cheesecake, but John doesn't remember the conversation.

Maybe he dreamed it?

In other Monday news, the boys sat outside and

ate popsicles this afternoon. Days like this are

definitely numbered. It was pretty chilly this morning.

Inside Look

Spencer gives another inside look at BYU football on his blog.
He checks out the UCLA locker rooms here.

Look at me!

Ruby likes people to look at her.

Usually, she stares at someone until she gets their

attention, then she smiles and acts shy or looks away

and starts to work on the next person.

At church last week, she got the attention of the

woman sitting behind us in Sacrament Meeting.

Then, she moved onto the daughter.

Once eye contact had been established, she

tried to get the father to look at her.

She tried staring, big happy faces, shy looks,

a little peek-a-boo, and a few noises.

Nothing.

I got the feeling that Ruby was frustrated.

No matter what she did, that man just

would not look at her.

He's a nice guy, and no doubt would have smiled

if he'd know she wanted him to.

But he's blind, so he probably had

no idea that our Ruby was trying to get his attention.

Eventually she gave up,

but it was kind of funny while it lasted.