Pampering or Atonement?

A week or two ago, Milo somehow got hurt.

I tried to comfort him, and then Ruby decided to help.

She set him up on the couch with her pillow pet,

one of her blankets, a necklace, a notebook, and a pencil.

Then she sat next to him to make sure he

was okay and that he didn't need anything else.

I just wish I could remember whether or not it was Ruby

who caused the "hurt" in the first place . . .

A Day in the Life . . .

. . . of Ruby.

Part 1: Eating popcorn on the couch while

wearing a swimming suit and socks.

Part 2: Going with Jonah to play at a friend's house.

(Her friend is Bentley's age, and is so nice to Ruby.)

Part 3: Wrapping her hair in a towel like Mom,

and then pretending like the towel IS her hair.

She really, really wants long hair.

She also fit in playing with Milo,

tormenting Maxwell,

watching Super Why,

pretending to take a nap,

and a few other activities.

What a busy, glamorous, wonderful life.

Final Score

Bentley - 1

Parents - 0

(watching stats/listening to commentary)

With a little help from the BYU Men's Basketball team,

Bentley was able to dodge his bedtime for 90 minutes.

How do you send him to bed when The Game is on???

His day started with his principal playing the Cougar

Fight Song over the PA system before announcements.

His day ended with 2 wins - BYU over the Aztecs

and Bentley over Mom and Dad.

Back in Business

Life can return to normal!

Our new camera came in the mail yesterday.

At family prayer last night, Bentley expressed

thanks that the camera came.

(Is he sick of hearing me whine about no camera,

or he is really excited to have it, too?)

Anyway, his prayer gave me a great idea.

Photo shoot before bed!

The kids each picked a pose, and we threw them

together on the couch for a group shot.

Happy Tuesday everybody!

Dear Mom,

We had a party for Mikey last night. He came over

after church and stayed for dinner. Elizabeth came

over, too. I made this for dinner, and this cookie cake.

Mike's incredible mind remembered that a year and

a half ago I couldn't talk any of the kids into

letting me make the cookie cake for their birthdays,

and he was willing to be my guinea pig.

The cake was rich, but it was good.

We put 18 candles on it (I asked Mikey how many

he wanted, and that's what he said. He later told

me that he was joking, but I was just glad to

have one fewer decision to make).

After the cake, he opened a few presents, hung out till he

was sure that Ward Prayer (at his house every week now)

was over, and went home for the night.

Thanks for lending us your 3rd son.

We like having him around.

Love, Jenny

My Little Brother's Birthday

Mikey turned 23 today!

We celebrated by watching him play in the band

at the BYU Women's basketball game.

BYU won and the band sounded great.

Mindy has a nice post about Mike on her blog.

Mindy, nice, and Mikey don't normally go together,

(they specialize in driving each other batty)

but this post might be a sort of an olive branch.

Happy Birthday Mikey!

. . .

We're just kicking back here,

waiting for our new camera to arrive.

I think they are walking it here from New York.

Anyway, Milo doesn't mind because we

forgot to give Elizabeth back her camera

(sorry Liz) so he can still mug for pictures.

Friendship Found

John had to go in to work today, so Ruby and Jonah

were left to their own devices while I put Milo

down for his nap this afternoon. I was worried that

they would do a lot of fighting, but they did this instead.

Hurray!!!

Better Late Than Never

Yesterday Ruby finally got her "friend party."

It was exactly one month after her birthday.

I think this might be a good idea from now on.

It's so hard to have a party right before Christmas.

Anyway . . . I'm not sure what the theme was.

It was a tea party/rainbow/princess/flower party.

It was a RUBY party.

Here are some statistics from her party:

- 1 Birthday Girl

- 6 friends

- 1 wardrobe change (birthday girl)

- 1 craft FAIL

- 4 banished brothers

(her plan was to tell her friends that

there were monsters in the basement)

- 1 plate of cup cakes

- 1 bowl of strawberries (eaten)

- 1 bowl of chocolate hearts (eaten)

- 2 girls who tried the cider

- 5 girls who wanted milk instead

- countless rounds of Simon Says

where Simon ALWAYS Says

- 1 Mom who is glad that we have no

birthday parties to plan for February

11/12

Today is the 11th anniversary of our first date together!

It's also the 1st anniversary of Hugh and Emily's first

date together. January 15th is one awesome day.

Good things happen when you have a 1st date today.

One year ago today, I realized that I had very few photos

of John and me, so I decided to remedy that with my Project 12.

This photo is from the day of the big snow.

The whole family shoveled before lunch and got soaked

from the super wet snow (both on the ground and

falling heavily from the sky).

After a nice visit with our family,

John, Ruby, and I went back out to finish the shoveling.

At first the weather was pleasant

- not too cold, no snow or wind.

Then it began to rain a little; it turned to a light snow;

the snow started coming down heavier;

the wind picked up;

it was hard to tell if we were getting snow or hail;

it became blizzard like;

Ruby couldn't fight the wind to get

back to our house; I had to carry her through the storm;

John and I gave up, came in, and took a picture.

Anyway, we usually have apple pie, but we

celebrated Ruby's birthday today and had cake.

So pie is on the schedule for tomorrow. Yum.

I'm so glad John asked me on that first date.

(And that Liz lives nearby and is willing to babysit

so that John and I can celebrate each year.)

2007

2008

2009

2010

Sledding into a New Year

We try to take the kids sledding at least once a year.

This year, my crazy husband wanted to go on

January 1st, when the forecast was for single digit temps.

I thought it was a BAD idea, but someone had to go

to take pictures, so we all bundled up and headed out.

The park was crowded, but we still found space to sled.

The snow was hard packed and basically ice,

but the kids and John managed to have a great time

sledding without anyone breaking anything.

Milo absolutely loved it, and had a difficult time

waiting for his turn. Several times he started down

the hill on his stomach and without a sled.

Ruby's preferred method when she was by herself

was to put her feet on the sled with her bottom

trailing behind - it slowed her down a little. :)

Maxwell always ended in the same spot,

no matter where he started out.

Bentley and Jonah had a few wipe outs,

but no serious injuries. Bentley put a video on

his blog if you'd like to see the boys in action.

Grandpa and Grandma R sent the kids a new sled

for Christmas, and one of the highlights was trying it out.

The sled was a big success!

John says that the padding was especially nice

with the hard snow and all the bumps.

The good news is that we have met our sledding quota

for the year. The bad news is that our experience

wasn't as terrible as I'd predicted, which means

John was right.

Posts from past sledding adventures:

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

The Visit That Almost Wasn't

John's sister, Ginger, was in Utah for the holidays

with her husband, Elliott's family.

We'd been looking forward to spending some time

with them while they were in our neck of the woods,

but they were attacked by some super virus

and almost didn't get to come see us.

We were thrilled when we learned that they

were braving the snow and coming our way

for a little bit one afternoon (with HENRY)!

We took turns loving Henry, the kids had a small war

(boys vs. girls of course), Andrew and Bentley played

chess, Jonah and Sophie played Connect 4,

Maxwell and Ethan played video games,

Ruby and the girls played dress up, and the grown ups

talked in between refereeing the kids.

We were sad to see them go, and once again

wished that Indiana wasn't so far away.

Drink Break - Don't Mess with Milo

This is one of the last photos from my old camera.

Milo is suited up and ready to try out Bentley's Yo Baby Board.

Last Friday I taught preschool.

Milo had a cold, so he spent most of the time

downstairs from John, and away from the other kids.

Just before class ended, Milo slipped away from

his Dad and came up to see what was going on.

He sat down next to another little boy

and started to play. The other little guy took one

look at Milo's snotty face and said, "Gross!"

Milo turned to look at him, punched him,

and went back to playing.

The other kids cried for a while, then scooted

way over when I told Milo to say "sorry"

and to hug his friend. A snotty hug is probably

worse than a punch from a 1 year old, huh?

Reindeer Rap

I think I have my camera choices narrowed down

to two, but I'm still thinking about it . . .

Maxwell's 2nd Grade program was the day after

the piano recital, and the same day as

Ruby's birthday (also the same day that

our family arrived from California).

I remember now why I didn't get around

to posting these things sooner . . .

Anyway, the three second grade classes sang together.

They worked really hard to prepare,

and the concert was a lot of fun.

I'm glad that our school does things like this.

Here's Maxwell just after the performance.

And during the performance

(he's the 5th one over on the front row).

For some reason I thought his favorite song was

the Reindeer Rap, so I recorded it.

Turns out I was wrong. Whoops.

I did manage to get part of his favorite song recorded.

Video of his fake favorite.

Video of his real favorite.

Something notable about attending this show -

it was the first time this year that I have taken

Jonah to the school for an "extra activity"

and NOT lost him at some point.

More Lemonade, Please

I'm still researching cameras and changing my

mind about which one to buy ever couple of hours,

so in the mean time, you get more catch-up!

Bentley, Maxwell, and Jonah had their piano recital.

They each played a solo, and Bentley and Maxewell

also played duets with their partners.

Maxwell and his partner were really well prepared.

Bentley and his partner hadn't successfully played

their piece together the day before the recital.

After an emergency practice session the day of

the recital, they did a really nice job.

The program only lasts about an hour, but it

was still a little long for Jonah, and he got to

sit on his teacher's lap for part of the recital.

For video of the solo performances, follow the links below -

Jonah, Maxwell, and Bentley

(The sound on Bentley's video is fine, but the video

is out of focus. Or rather, my camera chose to focus on the

bald head of the guy sitting in front of us instead of Bentley,

and I didn't want to miss any of the performance to fix it.)

After the recital, we made our first visit to Elizabeth's

"new" place and got to see some of her fish!

She sent us home with fudge!!!

Fish (that didn't come home) for the kids

and chocolate (that did come home) for me. Perfect.

One of my favorite parts of the night is the card that

the boys gave to their piano teacher.

Jonah and Maxwell wrote nice little notes

and signed their names.

Bentley's sentiment was an original.

"Dear Mrs. Hopkin,

I thought that piano was a girl instrument,

but I found out that David Bryan from

Bon Jovi played piano so thanks for

teaching me. Bentley"

Lemonade

December was packed full of events that

I never thought I would get around to blogging.

Then early last week, our camera broke.

(Milo may or may not have had something to do with that.)

Today I decided that this would be a good

opportunity to record some of the fun

things that we did to wind up the year 2010.

One fun thing was getting to see the kids'

"Idaho Cousins."

The 3 girls organized an impromptu sleepover,

and Milo was kicked out of his room and

in with Mom and Dad.

Bentley, Maxwell, and Jonah were introduced to

a new game via their Uncle Warren.

After Warren left, Maxwell accusingly asked me

why I'd never told them about War Hammer or Hero Clix,

even though I knew about them when I

lived at home with Warren.

Anyway, here are a few photos from the visit. :)

New Year, New Do - Take 2

Evidently this isn't the first time the boys

have started the new year with new hair cuts.

As I titled this post, I thought that it

sounded a bit familiar, and sure enough,

four years ago I posted New Year, New Do.

So today, we have Take 2.

First up, Bentley.

He decided to bring back his summer do - a mohawk.

He blogged about his hair transition HERE.

Maxwell is following in his older brother's footsteps

and got his first mohawk. He has really thick

hair, and he says he chose the hawk

so his head wouldn't be so hot under all that hair.

Jonah wanted his hair to look like his mii's hair,

which should have looked like him to begin with,

but whatever. We started to buzz his hair,

the clippers died, and I tried to even things

up with the scissors. He's happy, so I'm done.

Ruby wishes that her hair was brown

like everybody else (Milo must not count), so she

keeps getting her hair wet to make it look darker.

I told her that people pay a lot of money to get

blond hair like her, but she doesn't care.

I am NOT going to dye my four year olds

beautiful blond hair brown, so she had to come

up with some other way to shake things up.

She chose to recreate the style that Mindy

created for her last week - Ruby Lou Who.

And then there's Milo.

I've been thinking about cutting his crazy hair

since last July (so he'd look nice for The Wedding),

but his Alfalfa-like hair was so endearing

that I couldn't bring myself to do it.

Plus, kids always look so much older after their

first hair cut. After watching his brothers and Dad

get their hair done, Milo was sure he wanted his turn.

I decided that it wasn't going to get any easier for

his old mother, so I carefully clipped away

his sweet, goofy, wild hair.

Maxwell asked how Milo managed

to grow so much in one day.

I told him, "that's what a hair cut will do to you."