Hearts 2014

Our February tradition is to decorate hearts,

and this year we almost didn't get it done.

I had just about given up on the hearts and was

ready to put them in storage till next February,

but last night we had a few minutes before the little

kids had to be in bed and we went for it!

Here are the Hearts version 2014 -

Maxwell likes Ancient Greece.

Jonah likes Ancient Egypt.

Ruby likes the colors black and white.

Alton likes eating stuff, and wanted to taste his heart.

Milo likes the Aztecs (thanks Civ V).

Bentley just likes Ramen.

And Ruby made a heart for John and me - our first ever.

We like each other. :)

Here are previous years of hearts:

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

Crawling!

John's been trying to get a good video of Alton 

crawling for a while now. Here he is right after 

waking up from a nap the other day.

Sunday

Alton has new church clothes!

He doesn't care what he's wearing,

so I get to pick out things that I really like.

What a handsome guy, huh?

with kids numbers 2, 4, and 6 before church

blond fuzz on the back of his head

off goes the sock - this why he wears feetie pjs all day long-
I don't want his feet to freeze!

Moving on Up

On Monday, we put Alton's infant car seat

away. He's moved on to the bigger one!

He has grown so much - here's a shot of 

newborn Alton (probably trying to find his

thumb - it took about 6 weeks), and 10 month

old Alton (thumb sucking pro).

Valentine Report

We bought most of our Valentines on Amazon this year.

It was nice and easy. Except for Maxwell's.

He wanted Dr. Who, so we found some online

and had them printed at the copy store.

Bentley chose baseball Valentines, and decorated

his box (not required) with a baseball field.

When I told him how creative he was, he shrugged

and said, "I looked on Pinterest." Ha!

He saw a football field box and thought he could 

make a baseball box the same way. It looked great.

Jonah really wanted ancient Egyptian Valentines,

but even Amazon didn't have those. He settled

for dinosaur tattoo Valentines. His class made

heart envelopes for their Valentines, but he really

wanted an Egyptian pyramid. Our efforts stalled the

night before Valentines Day, and he decided to go

with Plan B. The Egyptian god Ra's sun boat

floating through the sky.

Ruby's Tardis won the "most law-abiding award"

in her class. She picked vintage Valentines

(I was thrilled - they were my favorites and 

she chose them on her own!).

Maxwell's Dr. Who Valentines turned out pretty cool.

He didn't put names on his so he could very

quickly hand them out (and so he didn't have to

write names on the Valentines).

Milo's Valentines were Jake and the Neverland Pirates,

but I forgot to take pictures! He is kind of "over"

Jake, so he wasn't super excited about his Valentines

by the time he actually got to hand them out.

Here he is (bruised face and all) delivering Valentines.

Valentines on the piano waiting for morning.

I helped with Maxwell's class party and was in
charge of the craft. I chose a couple kinds of heart
bookmarks for the kids to sew. A leather looking one,
and a felt one. I let the kids choose which one they
wanted to make (some made both).  They all did great
- even the ones who had never sewn anything before.

I had a third craft, just in case we had extra time -
a ring with a Hershey's kiss. Ruby made me a necklace
out of hearts, but I haven't been able to wear it
(she asked daily last week if I'd worn it) because
I was afraid Alton would rip it. I wore the necklace
to Maxwell's party and had John take a picture (proof).
When I got home, I picked Alton up and he ripped it.

Sly Guy Milo

This morning, as I was thinking about getting

out of bed, I heard Milo in the bathroom

(singing "Daylight" by Maroon 5).

Then, I heard him leave the bathroom without

flushing the toilet or washing his hands.

Soon after he left the bathroom, I heard John

send him back in to flush and wash his hands.

But instead of hearing water running in the

bathroom, I heard Milo making loud "shushing"

noises and then leaving the bathroom again.

The "shushing" noises didn't fool us,

so he was sent back AGAIN to do it correctly.

Third times the charm, and this time he

actually flushed the toilet and washed his hands.

Milo's very, very smart, but this time he

didn't outsmart his Mom and Dad.

photos by Raquel and selected by Milo for this post

Ten Months

Our Alton is 10 months old today!

He thinks he's a big guy, 

and doesn't usually like to eat his baby food. 

He prefers whatever we're having.

He also likes to eat whatever is on the floor.

He has two teeth now - both on the bottom.

He likes to stand up and is getting pretty good

at sitting down again without getting hurt.

He climbs the stairs, but can't go back down again.

He likes to undo things:

he takes toys out of the toy box,

blocks out of the block box, 

shoes off of the shoe rack,

books off of the bookshelf,

pans out of the cupboard, etc.

And he's really cute while he's doing it.

He says, "huh!" as an affirmative answer

when we ask him a question.

He babbles dadada, and mamama.

He likes to point at things with his left pointer finger.

Often, that means he wants to touch something -

Bentley's hair, Dad, stuff at Target, whatever.

He's a happy and a busy little guy and we love him.

On the Nose (or Poor Milo)

Here's Milo before church yesterday.

He has grown into Bentley's suit (from Pa)

but decided to wear it with a white shirt

instead of the pink one that it came with.

Milo's day today started out pretty good.

He slept in, went to Joy School with his friends,

and got to have two of them over for a play date.

On the way home from Joy School, we picked up

a pizza and Milo got to order (he added an order

of bread sticks without running it by me first).

When we got home from Little Caesar's, 

the boys were excited to eat their pizza AND

the cookies that they got with their meal.

As Milo jumped out of the minivan after his friends,

his foot caught (or something???) and he fell.

I heard a loud smack and quickly scooped him up,

expecting to see a huge goose-egg on his forehead,

or maybe a split forehead. But he'd landed mostly on his

little nose! It swelled up very quickly, and started to

bruise and to bleed just a little. I'm sure it was 

really painful. Poor guy. We gave him some pain medicine

and an ice pack, and he let me take a picture.

He was too miserable too eat any of

his special lunch with his friends. And while they played

with his new blocks, he sat on the couch and watched

Ninjago. I had called our pediatrician's office to see if 

there was anything special that I need to do or to watch for,

and they asked me to bring him in. The doctor wanted to check 

for a concussion. Milo's play date had an early end, and he

went to the doctor with Alton and me. As far as the doctor

can tell, Milo is fine. We have a list of things to watch for

over the next few days, and he says his nose doesn't hurt.

The swelling has already gone down a lot,

and he might not end up with two black eyes.

Before Joy School this morning, I'd promised Milo that

we could try to make doughnuts with this friends. We didn't 

get to do that, but I did try making some for FHE tonight.

Luckily, Milo felt up to eating his doughnut.

I told him I thought that he'd had a pretty exciting day,

but he didn't agree. He thinks it was sad, and a little happy.

I'm glad there was a little happy in there for him.

Pinewood Derby 2014

Four years ago I titled my Pinewood Derby post

"1 Down, 9 to Go." 

And now, five Derby's later,

we have 5 down, 8 to go. 

We are not making a lot of progress here. 

Anyway, Jonah raced last night in his very first Pinewood

Derby, and Maxwell raced his last.

Jonah's car was a lightning bolt, and Maxwell built a Tardis.

Here are the boys just before the races started.

The spectators, just before flag ceremony.

The cars this year - including a UPS truck,
a time traveling Delorean, and a minivan.

Max and Jonah sat together to watch the races;

Milo and Ruby got to do banana car races between

the heats; Bentley was given the job of watching Milo,

but Milo somehow ended up on the stage with Ruby

(right by the Cub Master in the forbidden zone); 

and Alton finally woke up from his nap so that 

John could come over to catch the last two heats. 

We were finished in 90 minutes - maybe a record finish!

The races were all really close this year.

For most of them, I don't think we'd have been able to tell 

which car came in first without the electric sensor thingy.

Here are some of our boys' races.

Maxwell and Jonah collected their cars and certificates

after the races, and we gave the VIP award to our

Cub Master and her husband - they host a workshop

in his wood shop and help many of the boys get their

cars cut out (and they often help finish them up, too).

When we got home, Jonah and Max tried racing their
cars on the kitchen table (bad idea), and then set up
their own race track in the living room (better idea).

All in all, I think it was a successful year for Derby-ing.

Previous years:

2010

2011

2012

2013

Just Because

I love this little guy.

Winter Camp

On Friday night, Bentley went on his first winter camp.

Luckily their troop forgoes the Klondike (coldest

camp out ever) and opts for a cabin at the Heber

Valley Camp (an LDS girls' camp). They slept in cabins

and the Bishop reported that the inside temperature was

around 50 degrees. Not warm, but much better than 0!

He took two sleeping bags and a jean quilt, so he

was prepared for the cold. Bentley got to plan

and prepare much of the food for camp because he's

working on his First Class. It snowed almost the

entire time they were there, but it sounds like he had fun.

They got to spend a lot of time sledding - around camp

and on a luge-type course at the camp. Sounds pretty cool.

Here's the picture one of his scout leaders shared on facebook.
He missed his basketball game, but doesn't seem to mind.
I was really happy to have him home safe and sound.

A Little Bit of Today

We registered this guy for kindergarten!

We took Ruby to lunch - 

she read every day for three weeks!!!

Ruby chose Terra Mia (one of my favorites!).

After lunch I took all of the kids to the dentist.

Alton didn't get to sit in the chair to watch a movie

and have his tooth cleaned - but the rest of the kids

had their 6 month check up. The dentist doesn't

need to see any of them for another six months - 

no cavities and no teeth that need to be pulled right now.

I'm so glad!!!