Daddy's Picks

I just had to chuckle in the clothes that Ben picked for Emmerlyn. The top selection are the ones he bought for her and the bottom one is the one I picked. I love them both though. She is really growing and so we got her some summer clothes in the 12 month size.

Its Over!

Tax season is finally done and we are so happy. Ben will still be working a few extra hours because he has a lot of audits that he is working to finish up but his time will still be less and it will be more flexible. We are happy to have him back. We got away for a couple days and went to Havre MT to go to the store. We shopped and stayed in a hotel so the kids could swim and we had a lot of fun. It was good to relax as a family.

 This is William with his new watch (I can't get this picture to stay rotated) he has to be a big boy and be reverent in church to keep it. It seems to be working because he was very good in church on Sunday. He loves it and likes to show it to everybody who crosses his path.

 It has been super warm the last few days, yesterday it got up to 90 degrees (I think it is going to be a hot summer). This is the boys playing golf in the yard. Can you see Charley's form. Its a work in progress I guess. He prefers to hit the soccer ball with the golf club instead of the golf ball its a guaranteed hit that way.

This is my new prized possession. If you can't tell it is a dishwasher. I know that it is not a necessity but it saves me at LEAST 20 minutes each meal and it was worth every penny. I can fit 2 meals of dishes comfortably in it and it is not permanent so we didn't have worry about installing it it can be permanent if we got permission to install it. The one down side is that it wont fit in the cabinet with the shelf in there so it has to sit on top but the dish drainer took up that whole space anyway so we aren't out anything anyway.

This is our sweet little dolly watching her brothers play golf. She is getting better about sleeping through the night until at least 4am and we are still working on her naps. She was a social little girl on Sunday she smiled at everybody in the ward that walked past her and then she went to the Young Women's class and entertained the girls there (she was supposed to be asleep). She can roll all over the living room floor and is starting to be able to pull her knees up into a crawling position so it is only a matter of time before this little girl is mobile.

Found It!

We found my missing cell phone battery today. It was behind the fridge. Why didn't I think to move the fridge out from its spot to find the battery that my 2 year old slide between the counter and the side of the fridge? I will check there next time I guess.

Church Day

We made cupcakes on Saturday to go with our BBQ and we only made 12 and we only ate 6 on Saturday. On Sunday during the madness of getting everyone ready and out the door for church with Ben's meetings thrown in there the other 6 cupcakes disappeared. The culprit? Our sweet little energetic 2 year old. By the time we got to church Charley had enough sugar in his system to power a town and was going a mile a minute before we even had the opening prayer we were pulling him back into our pew because he had run into the pew in front of us. Needless to say we ended up out in the foyer just after the Sacrament and Charley seriously held my hand and ran in circles around me for the rest of the meeting. I was exhausted by the end of it and I didn't even want to ask the nursery leaders about how he did. He crashed hard when we got home and took a good 3 hour nap. During the time before the Sacrament he was playing with a Noah's Ark magnetic set and he found a deer and held it against him and loudly annouced "I lub deers" then he found a skunk and announced "look stunks, pee-eww stinky stunks" haha, that gave us all a little chuckle. Before Sacrament meeting started I leaned over the the gentleman sitting next to us and said that it was going to be a long meeting he said "that's OK at least we will know when the water is coming!" Charley always gets excited when it is time for the water and everybody in the ward laughs about him asking each time if the water is coming. He keeps us young and on our toes that's for sure.

What we've been up to

Today is the last day of Tax Season and we are ready for it. It has been good but kind of a long four months and we were all coming a little unglued this last week or so but we are coasting in. This week has been pretty laid back and we have just kind of had a go with the flow attitude.

 This is Charley while he was taking his nap. He naps on the couch with a movie going and I let him because I never have to fight him to go down and stay in his bed so we will go with it. The other day he was so tired and he was dead asleep about 30 minutes into his nap and he fell off the couch. as you can see it didn't even phase him.

 We have been trying to get Emmerlyn to eat rice cereal and she hasn't really been interested in actually swallowing it she just pushes it around and out with her tongue. I was beginning to wonder if she was too young for for solid food it was either that or she really hated the rice cereal (she wouldn't eat it but William and Charley loved to eat bites of it to each their own I guess). I decided to try some sweet potatoes (because seriously what baby doesn't like those) to see which one is was. As you can see from her face it was the flavor of the cereal she ate the whole jar of potatoes and loved every bite. We are moving forward with bananas today. We have also continued to work with her to sleep better and she was doing better at night but not napping more than 30 minutes at a time (makes for a super tired baby and a mom who can't get anything done). I think she is trying to cut a tooth and so she is waking up a little more at night again because she is uncomfortable I think but hopefully it will get better once the tooth comes in. A miracle happened today though and she took a 2 hour nap and let me tell you, it was wonderful for everybody.

 This is some yummy pecan caramel bars that I made for Ben because we miss him and we know he is busy at work and sometimes you just need a sweet pick-me-up. They were super easy and he loved them.

 Saturday was a beautiful spring day and so when Ben got off work that night we broke out the grill and made some yummy food and the boys rode their bikes and got in a little T-ball practice. Note Emmerlyn in her Bumbo chair that I have wanted since we had William and finally bought. She loves it, so worth the money I should have bought it 5 years ago. We also got to go to the town Easter Egg hunt that was on Saturday (they moved it because last weekend it was chilly and supposed to snow and when you are the only town for miles you can change holidays if you want to.) The boys had a lot of fun it was pretty low key and the boys each got some eggs with yummy treats.

This is the final shot for the week and this is what I walked out to last night about 8:00pm after fighting Emmerlyn to go to sleep in her bed. That is an empty sugar shaker on the table and in his hands are the spoons of butter that he was using to "make some cookies" yes so I had to dedicate some time last night to cleaning up sugar with globs of butter in from the table, chairs, and floor of my kitchen. I was more then a little frustrated but we made so yummy cookies for him. Deep down I have to wonder if he was eating the sugar butter?

Cell Phones

My little bit of frustration this last week was that William brought me my cell phone on Friday morning saying that Charley had it. It wasn't on so I plugged it in. A little while later I tried to turn it on again but it still wouldn't turn on. My phone sometimes acts up a little bit so I went to take out the battery so it could reset and when I opened the back of the phone the battery was gone. Seriously? My sweet 2 year old had removed the battery from the phone and put the back of it back on. (He later proved that he could do this when I asked him to because we were wondering if it he had been framed by his brother.) We searched the house high and low but never found the battery (I got all my spring cleaning done so I guess that is a plus.) We ordered a new one so it should be here on Friday. It just goes to show that you never know what they are going to do next.

6 Months

Wow, that went fast. It was 6 months ago today that I got in the car with my 3 day old baby, my two little boys, and my husband and drove 10 hours to a whole new world. At least that is what it feels like. We are adjusting. This is starting to feel like home. We are getting used to the water, the smell, the weather. I guess we are really quite adaptable. The kids are liking the area I think. William really loves his school and the kids in his primary class. Charley actually stayed through the whole class of nursery without any bathroom breaks (that was amazing). Emmerlyn is growing like a weed she has really hit a growth spurt lately it seems like she is growing out of all of her clothes and will be ready for a whole batch of summer clothes in the 12 month size. Ben is liking his job still even thought he is working about 60 hours a week right now so we don't see a lot of him right now and we are really missing the  interaction but he will be done next week and we are so excited. I can't believe how fast 6 months has gone by. It is almost a blur. This week we have been trying to celebrate a little Easter and just relax a little. The boys had a lot of fun dying the Easter Eggs and then they set the little wrappers on them and William said they were they party hats, They kept looking in the fridge to see how the egg party was going. We got a lot of good laughs out of that. The Easter Bunny did stop at our house and dropped off lots of yummy treats for the boys and a little note in one egg that said that William gets to pick out a new bike when we go over to Havre in a couple weeks. That is just what he needed he has grown out of his old one. We made some yummy sugar cookies and the boys helped me make them and frost them and as you can see they didn't get much on their cookies but that's OK at least they had fun.

 Emmerlyn at 6 months old.  What a cute little doll.

 Emmerlyn playing with her toys in her high chair laughing at the boys.

If you look hard in this picture you can see that he has a large bruise on his cheek. He received this bruise when he was supposed to be asleep in his bed but he and William refused to go to sleep and Charley feel and bonked his cheek on William's bed. They said they had not been out of their beds but then they explained how it happened and the logic just doesn't add up does it? Poor kid I feel bad even though it wasn't my fault.

Kindergarten Shots

 It is that time already and I can't believe it. Ben and I were talking last night on how we could not believe that we had a kid big enough to be going into school. I'm too young for that! I think? I may not be ready but he sure is. He talks about kindergarten everyday (it is going to be a long summer). We had to go get his shots today and he was super pumped and he did great he didn't even cry! They told him to count to 10 and he did it while they gave him the shot. He was pretty pumped to show off his Angry Birds band-aid that they gave him. They also gave him some coloring books, flash cards, candy, and crayons and a little bracelet so he was pretty excited. Tomorrow we get to go get his screenings done and get him all registered. He can't wait!

 This little ray of sunshine is working on some things this week as well. She is testing out some rice cereal and is not really sure what she wants to do with it. She just sticks out her tongue as soon as you put it in her mouth so it ends up pretty messy and pretty comical but she will get better I am sure. We are also trying to get her to sleep in her own bed and sleep for more than 30 minutes at a time. I can't really say whether it is going good or going bad at this point, (we are about 3 days into really wrking on it hard) we are all pretty tired so hopefully thinks start going in the right direction soon. she is a cute little bug though so we will zombie through all of it.

Goobies is still resisting going to bed but he is working on it. He is as sweet as ever and very excited for William in getting ready for kindergarten. He is sitting on the potty occasionally and actually goes in there sometimes. I think  when I can get a full nights sleep, or at least 5 or so hours in a row, we will kick potty training into high gear. 

We have 2 weeks left of tax season, and Ben is feeling it. He has been asked to work as many hours as he possible can this week and next so they can get all of their stuff done so we are not seeing much of him. General Conference was wonderful and it was nice to be able to spend a whole day together as a family without having to go anywhere, we haven't had that in awhile.

A quick shout out to Grandma Allen who had her birthday yesterday and a little disclaimer. William picked out the shirt that we sent to you. He said that was your very favorite shirt and you ONLY wear shirts with Daisys on them and you had to have that one. He pulled it off the rack and put it in the cart and would not even consider any other possibilities. So there you have it, a shirt hand picked by the slightly un-stylish William. But we love you and hope that you had a wonderful birthday!