Goodbye High Chair

For the last month or so, Ruby has refused to stay

in her high chair. She would always stand up.

To get through meals, John or I would hold her while we ate.

Yesterday we finally set up a booster chair for her.

Now Ruby can sit at the table with the rest of us,
and we're all happy.

Happy Birthday Warren!

Today my younger brother Warren is 27 years old!!!

(It's hard to imagine how he got so old when I still feel 23.)
Warren put up with a lot as kid.

His two older sisters teased him terribly, and sometimes

made him play dolls with them. Despite their efforts, he survived

and became a wonderful, kind, funny, intellient man.

Here he is at the airport, ready for his mission:

And on the top of the Cerro de la Silla
in Monterrey Mexico as a missionary:

With Spencer, soon after Warren got home from his mission:
Warren and Becky, right after they got married:
Warren and his sweet Kenna, at the Mini dealership in SLC:
(the mini is Warren's dream car)
Happy Birthday Warren !

I hope you have a wonderful day!

Love ya!

BYU Basketball Game - Cosmo update

At the game last Friday, Max got to high-5 Cosmo!

(thanks mom and dad for the pictures)

McFun

Last month, Leah and I tried Chuck E. Cheese as a

distraction for our kids so we could talk.

Today, we met at a McDonald's with a really fun playland.

Jonah, Bentley, and Maxwell

Ashley and Ruby

Ashley and Jonah

ok -WHAT is Jonah doing?
I think he's trying to do a Power Ranger pose,
but it looks to me like he's channeling Elvis.

Even Ruby got to play for a minute!

(these are the really cool toys. for some reason, all my pictures were of the little kid toy)
(leah - i didn't get any pictures of josh!)

Artistic Expression

This morning, we were able to spend a little time with

Grandma Carla and Uncle Roger.

Uncle Roger drew the boys an amazing picture of a ship
with all of them on it.
They thought it was pretty cool.
Then -
Jonah cut it into little pieces.
Uncle Roger sat at the table with the boys
and helped them create monsters and other fearsome things.
The boys had a great time, and made a GREAT BIG MESS.

While her brothers' preferred medium these days
consists of paper and crayons,
Ruby prefers to express herself through fashion.

She loves to stand on the stool in the bathroom,
and to brush her hair.
Can't you just hear her, "How do I look, Mom?"

BYU Basketball Game - Part 2

Over Thanksgiving Break last year, we took the kids

to a BYU Men's Basketball game. The men were on the road

this year (beating #6 Louisville in Vegas),

so we went to a BYU Women's Basketball game.

It was a lot easier to get seats for the Women's game,
but Jonah wasn't impressed.

He hung out on the floor for part of the time.

The boys (and Ruby) lasted the entire game!
Bentley was so happy that BYU beat Seton Hall.

Ruby's ready to play basketball folks.
When we got home from the game, she grabbed Jonah's shoes.
Grandpa Homely helped her put them on.
Don't you think it's appropriate that her first BYU
sporting event happened to be Women's Basketball? :)

Family

Just a few shots of the family at our home yesterday.

Grandma Joyce, Jonah, Maxwell, and Greg

Bentley, John, Ruby, Grandpa Homely, Mindy

Spencer and Brianna
Max and a puppy
Mia and the eight puppies (dad Brady had to stay home)
the eight puppies
(I love that one of the boys has his arm around a sister)

Happy Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

My parents, Mindy, Greg, Spencer, and Brianna

were all able to be here for dinner.

The boys helped Mindy make marshmallow turkeys.

The turkey's were cute, but didn't last long. :)

Greg searched the house for the best TV reception,

pulled up a chair, and watched the game on a little TV.

Hey Greg, maybe next year we'll have a big screen television.

And cable (or something).

(but don't hold your breath) :)

Puppies

Brady and Mia (Brianna and Spencer's dogs) had puppies today!

The first puppy was born just before 4 am.

By 11 am, four puppies had arrived, but things were stalled,

so the vet had Brianna take the dogs to his office.
Four more puppies eventually made it, but three didn't.

The vet did a c-section late last night and found that

three puppies had died. So sad, but we're glad for the

eight healthy puppies ( 6 girls, 2 boys),

and hope that Mia recovers quickly.

I took the kids to the vet where we were able to see
Mia and five of the puppies. Bentley was thrilled.(LOVE his face)

Four of the eight puppies.

Brianna has more pictures on her blog .

Busy

Things have been super busy lately, but this weekend we did get

to spend a little time with Warren, Becky, and Kenna.

Ruby was fascinated by Kenna and followed her all over the house.

It's so fun to see these little cousins together!

You can see more of them together here, here, or here.
(The last link is my favorite.)

Mind Your P's

The boys' latest obsession is paper Power Rangers.

We've gone through at least half a pack of paper printing

off one coloring page after another.

After they color the Power Rangers, they cut them out
(or make me do it) and use them as action figures.

It's like little boy paper dolls!

At school today, Bentley saw a pumpkin pie in a movie.
So of course he came home from school craving something pumpkin.
(Which until today he was sure he really didn't like.)

Lucky for him, I just happened to have stuff on hand
for an easy new pumpkin cookie recipe I heard about last week.
This is all you need:

one small can of pumpkin, and a spice cake mix.
Oh, and some chocolate chips. :)
You mix the pumpkin and the cake mix together -

-drop them on a cookie sheet,
and bake them for 10-12 minutes at 350 degrees.

Then, you eat them.

Yum.

Book Report II - Maxwell's Current Favorite

Back in August, I blogged about Maxwell's "then-favorite" books.

Now, I'm back with his "now favorite" book.

He calls it "The Nacho Libre Book."

The author, Xavier Garza, calls it
"Lucha Libre: The Man in the Silver Mask."

It's a bilingual book, with all of the text in Spanish and English.
The story is about a little boy who goes to his
first lucha libre match with his father.
Our boys like it because it's about wrestling.
Since it's the little boy's first match,
his father tells him a lot about lucha libre,
making it pretty informative as well as a fun story.

Ruby's tastes are a bit more advanced.
Her current read is "A Concise History of the Middle East"
by Arthor Goldschmidt, Jr.

Okay, it's John's current read,
but doesn't Ruby look excited about it?

Jonah firmly believes . . .

. . . that socks should NEVER match.

Hear Ye, Hear Ye!

Today 11 noble knights gathered to help

Sir Bentley with his birthday quest.

Every knight needs a horse.
Our knights found tails for their horses.

Nice job, Bentley.

The next task was jousting some evil knights
(aka Power Ranger bop bags)
who are blocking the good knights' path.

Then, there was a dangerous bridge to cross:

Our noble knights gallantly rescued some princesses
who had been trapped by the dragon in an enchanted lake.

Once the princesses were free,
the knights were off to battle the dragon.

In the end, our brave knights defeated the dragon
and claimed his treasure.

Parties are usually my thing, but Sir John
was responsible for most the of the cool things in this party.
Thanks, John!

Bentley is 6!!!

Happy Birthday Bentley!

(wearing his birthday hat from school today)
For breakfast, he picked pink pancakes;
he chose hostess cupcakes to share with his classmates;
for lunch he got to eat "Thanksgiving Dinner" in the school cafeteria,
and for dinner, he's still deciding between hot dogs or hamburgers. :)

To see more pictures of Bentley, go here.
For his birth story go here.