Jefferson's 6th Birthday

I can't believe my little 8lb 2oz baby boy is now 6 years old!

 Tuesday, May 22nd was Jefferson's birthday.  The Saturday before we had a pirate party for him.

Eight of his friends came and we had a fun afternoon.  The weather was perfect too.

First we made treasure maps.

 Then they did an obstacle course.  First they had to 'walk the plank' 

 Then they had to disarm the cannon balls (they had to jump on black balloons and pop them).

Then they had to hook the pretzels with a pirate hook and eat it.

 And last they had to pin the peg leg on the pirate.

 After the obstacle coarse we went on a treasure hunt.  We had a map with different points we had to go to, but each point had a clue to where the next one was.  The X ended up being in the sandbox.  Everyone had their shovels and started digging for the treasure.

 They found the treasure chest and it was filled with gold coins (chocolate ones of course).

 After the treasure hunt we had cake and ice cream.  Originally I was going to make a treasure chest cake and was quite worried about my decorative cake skills, but luckily he switched to cupcakes with skulls on them at the last minute.  I was more than happy to switch to cupcakes!

 Then we opened presents!  He got so many neat things.  K'Nex, Pokemon, water guns, etc.  He was one happy kid!

On his real birthday he had a field trip at school to the zoo.  Tom surprised him and went on the field trip with him and his class.  That afternoon we gave him our present, a K'Nex MarioKart racing track.  That night he went with Grandpa Kent on his birthday date, Artic Circle and a trip to Target to buy more Pokemon cards.  That night he stayed up late with Tom putting together his Mario Kart track.

Jefferson is an amazing kid!  He is very smart, loves school, prefers to be around people and is always asking to play with friends.  He loves doing structured things such as board games, Legos or Pokemon challenges.  Jeff loves, to ride his bike, to sing, and loves babies (particularly Sophie).  He's a tough kid with a soft heart.  I'm so grateful Jeff is a part of our family.

Happy Birthday Buddy!

Mother's Day and other Potpourri

I have been so busy lately that I've hardly had time to blog.  Therefore I have another potpourri of events all put into one post.

Fun Outings with Cousins

This past week Jeff has been out of school because of Kindergarten testing.  My cousin, Shelley's boys have been off track, so we planned a few field trips together.

One day we went to the Gale History Museum.  It is a cute little, hands-on place where kids can learn everything from our bodies, to mining, to fishing and schools.  We had the whole museum to our selves, but the old ladies that run the place were sure paranoid about the messes, kids, etc.  Afterwards we walked over to McDonald's for lunch and some more play time.

On another day we went up to the Kennecott Copper Mine because it's free this month.  The boys had fun exploring in the museum.

Then we went out and looked at the big pit.  They said that there would be a blast happening soon, so we waited a long time to see it.

When the blast finally happened it was not as exciting as we thought.  Being two miles away we couldn't even hear it, and it just looked like some dust rising.  I'm sure up close it would've been amazing.

Of course it's not a trip to the copper mine without a picture in front of the big tire.

Afterwards we went to Copperton park for lunch and to play.

This park had a perfect playground for boys, complete with a giant brick mountain with tunnels and slides.

It was such a beautiful day too!

Mother's Day

 This past Sunday was Mother's Day.  Since it would be our first Mother's Day without our mother, my sister decided to do something the weekend before.  I liked the idea of grieving over our loss of a mom one weekend so I could enjoy Mother's Day from the perspective of being a mom the next weekend.  So two Saturday's ago Aimee held a mother's luncheon.  She invited anyone who had lost their mom's to join.  We ate some great food, then went around in a circle talking about our mom's and showing pictures.  Here we all are with a picture of our moms.

Then the following Sunday we went and visited  Mom's grave.  Aimee and I put flowers on her headstone.  Aimee left a note.  I had also written a long, tearful letter to my mom, but decided to keep it.

We all sat around and talked about the things we miss about Mom.

On the real Mother's Day I actually had a very good day.  I thought of my mom a lot and had a lump in my throat most of the day, but I tried to keep any tears from coming out.  I wanted it to be a happy day.

For one of my gifts the kids did my hair (this was after church, of course).  I love having my hair played with, and the kids had fun designing different looks with bows, clips and ponytails.

Here I am enjoying my new gift from Tom.  If you know what this is, than you know I'm a spoiled, lucky girl!  Of course, the price of being a mom is worth such a gift :)

That night we had Tom's family over for dinner.  We have a tradition to do a barbecue on Mother's Day because the guys are in charge of cooking, and that's what they do best.

Here's a picture of Tom with his mom.  Ever since I've lost my own mom, pictures like this are so much more special.  She is a wonderful mother-in-law and grandma (or nana) too.  

Tom's sister, Maren decided to put together a quilt where we each decorate a square.  Here's 'Mom' looking at the quilt.  It turned out quite nice.

There was also a little surprise on the quilt.  Maren and Tim announced they are expecting their first baby in November! (We had also found out the day before that my brother, Isaac and wife, Candalyn are expecting a girl in October!)

Mother's day ended up being a great day.  We finished it off by watching the season finally of 'Survivor'.

Swim Lessons

The kids started swim lessons the end of April, and love them.  I, on the other hand, feel like my life has just gotten ten times more complicated  We are usually at the pool for an hour and a half, Monday, Wednesday and Friday.  The boys have lessons at 6:00, but Lily's isn't until 7:00.  There aren't many people at the pool and the kids (I say kids because I swear they are half my age) that run things don't seem to mind that Lily swims while she's waiting for her lesson.

Lily has really done well this year.  She was the only one the second session in her class so she got private lessons for the same price as a regular lesson.

Here's Jeff with his teacher, he's a little intimidated to put his face in the water, but he's doing better.

Cedric is just the cutest little fish I've every seen.  He loves the water and always has a smile on his face.

Sophie has fun just watching everyone swim.  She giggles when she sees the kids swimming or when the boys are in the shower rinsing off.  

It's hard to get dinner done before we go and to hall all four kids to the pool.  But usually Tom comes straight over after work, picks up Sophie and the boys and I can just sit and relax while Lily does her lesson.  We plan on doing one more session, which will take us to the end of the month, but I will not miss it when June comes.

Five Months Old

On Thursday Sophie turned five months old!  I can't believe how fast time has gone.  She is at such a fun age right now.

Sophie loves her siblings.  The boys and I tried her in the Johnny-Jump-Up the other day.  She didn't get how to jump, but enjoyed just hanging there.

Lily is getting to be a great babysitter.  I've even been teaching her how to change diapers.  It's nice to have a little mommy around to help.

Cedric loves playing with Sophie and can easily make her giggle.  It's so cute to see them play.

Sophie is reaching for everything now, including the camera :)

She's not quite sitting on her own yet, so we make up places for her to sit.  One of the best ones is the corner of the bassinet.  I also hooked a toy across that she loves to bat at.  She's also discovered her tongue and loves to stick it out or blow raspberries.

Sophie loves playing in the mirror.  She always looks at herself and smiles, then looks at me in the mirror and smiles and kicks her legs.

I took some pictures of her for her five month birthday.  She's getting so big!  I can't get enough of her!

Purple feet, black eyes, red beets, an announcement, money and costumes

It's been a while since I've blogged, so this is quite the potpourri of stories.  First of all, we finally got around to adding Sophie's foot prints to my preschool wall.  I wanted to do green, but the paint didn't turn out right. I liked the purple and it was more girly, so we went with that.  It was tricky getting a slippery, wiggly foot to print just right.

Last week Cedric was sitting on the bench at our kitchen table, lost his balance, fell backwards, then the bench tipped over and landed on his head!  It left him with two nasty bruises, one of which was right by his eye.  He had already gotten another bruise on his cheek from falling up the stairs, then he got another bonk at his friends house.  Pour guy, looks like he's been in a war zone.

 Tom decided to get us a Bountiful Basket to try for the first time.  I've heard good things about them, but I was hesitant to get a whole bunch of fruits and vegetables that I may not recognize, know what to do with, or like.  Luckily we got a lot of good stuff, bananas, pineapple, green beans, broccoli, etc.  I was way excited!  I pulled out our old steamer that I probably haven't used in ten years and steamed us fresh veggies every night.  If nothing else, it taught me how easy and yummy fresh veggies can be.  The only thing we got that I didn't know what to do with were beets.  I don't think I've ever eaten a beet.  Well, Tom found a website that showed how to cook them, we added a little olive oil and lemon juice to them, and the whole family tried them.  Tom and Lily loved them!  She said they tasted like red carrots.  I don't know if I'll cook beets anytime in the near future, but it was fun to try something new and different.

 I have a big announcement... My dad is getting married!  He proposed to his girlfriend, Lori over the weekend and they plan on getting married July 7th!  I'm actually really excited for them.  I like Lori, she seems perfect for my dad.  She seems to really fit in well with our family too.  My brother, Mike is going to perform the ceremony.  They are both sealed to their first love, so they are happy to just be married civilly.  When I told the kids they were getting married by Mike, because he's the mayor Jeff said "I get it, mayor-y (marry)".  I'm excited the kids will have one more grandma to love.  

Here's a really cute picture of Lori.  Lily thinks she looks a lot like Grandma Sherri.  

The kids have been really into jobs lately.  I've been slacking a lot in having them do jobs, because I am so bad at keeping track and paying them.  (They don't get paid for things they're supposed to do anyway, like pick up toys, just for the stuff they do that helps ease my burden).  I finally figured I'd just pay them right when they do a job.  We have a jar full of change that I use. If they earn enough coins to equal a dollar and want to trade it in for a dollar bill later, they can, but at least I don't forget to pay them.  They love it.  I'll say "who wants to unload the dishwasher for money" and the jump to the task.  I don't pay them much, anywhere from a penny to a quarter, but it adds up quick.  Here are the boys bringing in the milk delivery.  

Cedric's been into dressing up lately.  Here he is as "Lady and the Jones" as he calls him.

 We ran across this cute costume when we went through clothes boxes the other day.  Cedric asked if we could put it on Sophie today.  She's starting to sit unsupported for a couple of seconds now too.

 Then Cedric ran and put on a pumpkin costume that we also found.  It's too bad Halloween is still six months away and neither one will fit in these costumes by then. At least they got some use today.