9 Years. . . .

Crazy how time is going so fast. We are celebrating by Ben being out of town and the kids being sick and not sleeping. I guess we are living the real deal :). I don't think that we have ever been happier! I am so glad that we picked a beautiful sunny April day 9 years ago to get married, here's to the future! And maybe a date?. . . 

Canvas Converse

Yep they fit. He is number 4 to be wearing these same shoes. He looked so great in them and he actually didn't seem to mind having them on his feet (up to this point he hasn't been a huge fan of shoes). He is getting a little braver with his standing and step taking. Emmerlyn was yelling to me today look mom he's walking, and I looked and I thought he was but then I saw Charley giving him a little help from behind :). 

They wanted to be in the picture too. For some reason they are all into the squinty eyes thing I couldn't get a single shot with their eyes open.

Last week we went to Pack Night for William and they did their rain gutter rigatta. William's boat didn't fair so well and he was pretty bummed. I think part of it was due to the fact that he had a really bad cold so getting big breaths of air to blow was pretty difficult. It was fun though and the other kids had fun playing at the park. Except for Brevick, he hates the grass. He had his chubby hands clasped tightly together and wouldn't go anywhere because he didn't want to touch it. 

After pack night  Ben had a meeting at our house so I was trying to get everybody ready for bed and the boys were downstairs changing and out of nowhere Charley came streaking up to the bathroom. That was awesome. When he came back downstairs (this time wrapped in a towel) William took one look at him and was like "Charley where are your pants!?????!!!" It was a little funny, Emmerlyn also streaked to the bathroom but she went to our bathroom so nobody saw her. I think we have a huge nudity problem. It was crazy because I don't know when the last time was that Charley did something like that but of course he did it when there were people here! 

Ben is out of town this week and Emmerlyn is sick. Brevick has been waking up at about 5:00am and it is going to kill me. He is so tired all the time but if I keep him up later then he wakes up a lot of times in the night so I am not sure how we are going to fix this. 

Have a great week!

the Calm

I am hoping this is the calm AFTER the storm not before but our lives for these last few days have been basically than, calm. Ben finished tax season and had a couple days off which were filled with fishing (no bites for him) a little home and lawn care and a little drive. It has been so nice to have a break.

The kids wanted me to take a picture of Brevick because he was so cute drinking his bottle in his highchair. He is currently boycotting all baby-foods that aren't fruits. His other favorites are toast, graham crackers, and chicken nuggets (yeah I'm that parent) he is kind of a stinker but has been working on doing a little more standing and trying some steps, he laughs and laughs a good deep belly laugh each time he takes a step.

 After fishing the other day we had a little fire and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. 

The kids did pretty good fishing, Emmerlyn got a bunch of bites but couldn't ever keep a fish on and the boys each caught a couple. We saw some turtles so that was fun too!

The Baby B

I just wanted to document that today Brevick took his first 2 steps! What a busy boy.

The Last Day

Thank goodness Tax Season ends today!!!!!! I think April 15th is my favorite day of the year. This last week was a little crazy it seemed. I felt like we just couldn't get a grip on it. 

We got out this little walking toy for Brevick, he likes it but isn't as enamored with it as I thought he would be. I think that he feel like it is a little un-sturdy for him he would rather push around a chair or a box or something he can put his weight into. 

 Last Wednesday William got out of school early and they wanted to go ride their bikes. I said that it was too windy and they argued with me then went out to play. They got their bikes out "just to look at them". After they kept begging me I said fine. Well after about 20 minutes I heard a crash and William was trying to untangle himself from his bike and was crying. I brought him in and he had a big gash on his side, he kept telling me that he didn't know what happened (the wind :). I was getting him cleaned up and everything when I heard Emmerlyn crying and coming closer. I looked up as she walked through the door and William was saying "oh my gosh, Emmerlyn has blood pooring down her face!!!) She did. I picked her up and took her into the kitchen to get her cleaned up leaving William to finish bandaging himself. Once we got her all cleaned up I had to debate whether or not she needed stitches. I taped it together but since it is on her face and she is oh so expressive it kept coming apart. Well Wednesdays are piano days and since she wasn't going to bleed to death I just kept an eye on it in between lessons. It was still kind of bleeding so I decided it needed to be stitched (it was super deep just not very long) On Ben's dinner break he took her to a friend of ours and they glued it shut. She was a trooper and didn't cry.

 Thankfully Charley was uninjured and he was irate that he had to come in from riding his bike!

 This is a view from our window on Saturday, the haze that you see is smoke, you can also see the fire-hose in the middle of the street. A house down the way had a fire and it burned a good majority of it. The kids were pretty stressed about it (especially William) but they were able to see the flames and watch the fireman work. We feel so bad for the family.

That same night we had the ward lipsync it was lots of fun we all participated in various numbers with our organizations. Ben did lollypop with the Young Men, I did Girls Just wanna have Fun with the Young Women. William did Happy, Charley was a turkey, and Emmerlyn was a cow in Old McDonald. It turned out to be lots of fun!

Emmerlyn was helping to feed her brother, She did a great job, considering he is almost as big as she is!!

Growing Pains

I think we have been having a little of that going on these past couple weeks. William woke up the other morning and said that he arms hurt, then after walking around for awhile he said that his legs hurt and that he had been awake in the night and that his legs had hurt during the night. He has also been eating like a horse. He has been busy with school and piano and scouts and he has been anxious for the weather to stay nice so he can play outside. He is a great kid, I am just trying to figure out how to raise him so he can tap into all of the potential that he has. I think I am having growing pains too. 

Charley has been just cruising on autopilot it seems lately. I think we need to do something to get him out of his little funk he is in. He is doing great in school and loves playing with Brevick. He also likes to stay up and read.

Emmerlyn has been going to bed really well (knock on wood) I can see that she is merging away from toddlerhood into a full fledged little girl and my heart breaks a little bit. She still likes to be in charge and had a scowl ever ready when things don't go her way.

Brevick is growing a little too. He feels heavier in my arms the last couple days and he is so long. He is starting to let go of things and balance for a second before he falls and I can see his mind turning to walking. He has also been pushing his highchair around the kitchen and walking behind it. Charley was laughing tonight because he was trying to put the step-up-stool away and Brevick had a hold of it and was walking with him everywhere (so naturally instead of putting it away Charley wandered around the kitchen a few times laughing a Brevick the whole while until Brevick was laughing so hard that he fell down. :)

Ben is doing taxes.

I am doing laundry.

We had a great conference weekend and I am so grateful for it because we gets some very much needed family time during a very busy time of year for us. We also celebrated Easter by doing an Easter Egg hunt with some dear friends where the kids got way too much candy and Brevick desperately wanted to get down and play in the dirt. The kids did great watching quite a bit of conference, they enjoyed studying the people and learning about families it makes me happy that they are excited for things like that, (maybe it was for the snacks though. . . ) It was a such a welcomed weekend!

Doesn't he look so sweet and peaceful sleeping there with his snuggle puff :) he has a cold now so of course I am all on edge but I think he will be fine!

Getting Ready

Also, since I forgot to put it earlier this week we got to go do all of Charley's registration for school this fall. I can't believe he is going to start kindergarten!?! Where did these 5 years go. He is so ready. He did great on all of his testing, I think he only missed about three things during all of it. One of which was where his ankle was :) Emmerlyn missed the same body part so we will have to work on that! After he came out of the room where they were testing his basic concept understanding the teacher told me "yeah he's ready for kindergarten, he can write his first and last name, knows all his letters, can count front and back from 20, I have nothing to tell you to even work on this summer just send him in the fall." I guess we will just keep doing what we are doing. He also got his shots, he did so great and didn't even cry, he was pretty impressed with himself and wore his bandaids for 2 days just so he could keep reliving the experience. 

Emmerlyn did the testing too, (just because she can and might as well :). She did great for being just 3 1/2 so we will keep going and she is looking forward to her "homeschool" preschool this fall. 

Excuses

My excuse this week is that we had water leak in our basement on Tuesday which then threw-off my laundry doing routine and therefore I was unable to blog. There is always an excuse. . . 

This last week we were busy doing just the same old stuff. William and Emmerlyn got really bad colds with fevers so the were home this weekend being sick. They had a primary party and Charley was the only one that got to go so the others were pretty bummed. Ben has been working lots of hours (not surprising) and also making time to go help out with scouts. William is still working hard with cub scouts and piano lessons which he now says he hates (wow, that happened sooner than I thought it would :). Charley is at school today enjoying his Easter party that they are doing at the retirement home. Emmerlyn is still trying to recover from her could and she is doing it by waking up really early in the morning and then being cranky all day. Brevick has been super fussy and cranky but yesterday he cut his first tooth on the bottom, we are SO excited! He has also started to let go of things and stand for a second on his own. He still has a ways to go before he walks but I can see the little wheels turning in his mind!

We are getting excited for General Conference this weekend and also for Easter. Here I have my minions hard at work.

 For the first time in my life I think, I played an April Fools joke. Unfortunately I forgot about it until after mutual so the kids were a little tired.

 

They thought it was ice cream and it wasn't really until they got to the cone and were eating a muffin in there that they really said anything. Then William said he knew all along it was a joke. Of course he did. . . .