Happenings

Life has been busy like always. Here are some random pictures for your viewing pleasure.

Landon loves to walk around with things in his mouth. He had a bowl from the "food bucket" in his mouth, covering his eyes while he walked. He tripped and fell flat on his face. He had a bruise in the shape of a circle (from the rim of the bowl) for a few days.Connor got a bunk bed! He's been sleeping on a mattress on the floor for the last 2 or 3 years. Eventually he'll move to the top and Landon will sleep on the bottom.

For now though Landon is still caged up.

Of course we had to build a fort with the bunk bed boxes. Landon the Destroyer was extremely upset that he was banned from the playroom that day.

Savannah lost her top tooth the night before school pictures. She was really sad and cried about the hole in her mouth. Until I showed her the pictures of me at age 6, after I had cut all my hair off and had a huge black scab from a fat lip that I got from a softball. I had it for my 6th birthday pictures. She felt better.

Jacob was on the morning news at school all of last week. He's had to leave at 7:05am to ride his bike and be there early. But he loved it. I went in one morning to watch. He gets to help with other aspects (camera, reporting, directing, etc.) for the next 3 weeks.

Connor is LOVING preschool and comes home with the cutest stuff. Last week was "D" dinosaur week. They made footprints in homemade play-doh and put dinosaur bones (spaghetti noodles) on their dinosaurs.

Connor had been pretty exhausted by dinnertime lately, since he always comes out when the big kids start getting ready at 6:15am. Yesterday I was making dinner and turned around to find this. He was right in front of the sink and dishwasher.

And Landon has an awesome belly laugh. This is even when he was running out of steam...

14 months old

Landon is 14 months old today.
He is sweet and cuddly and quick to smile.
He can also throw huge tantrums when he's upset. We hope that's just teething.
He has 12 teeth and is working on 4 more.
He wears 24 month & 2T clothes and size 6 shoes.
He is down to two pretty consistent naps the last couple of weeks. Sundays are hard because he won't sleep at church...at all.
He's a huge flirt and loves other women. He will often have a huge tantrum when one of my friends comes to visits and then leaves.
He loves to get into stuff in the bedrooms. He has a sixth sense and always knows when a door is open. He will quietly make a mess. Or bring you something from that room that he knows belongs to you. This picture is of a shoe & pajama mountain he made with stuff by Dallin's side of the bed.
He tries and run and jump, but just falls flat on his face.
He is always covered in bumps and bruises.
He loves his blanket.
He still has very chunky thighs and walks bow-legged.
His favorite food is bread - any kind. Oh, and yogurt.
He also loves anything sweet.
He loves to be outside, but hates the sun. He saw the kids playing the other day and stood by his bedroom door until I opened it. He walked over and tried to get his shoes, so I put them on him. Then he banged on the back door until I took him out. He doesn't say any words consistently, but he can definitely let you know what he wants sometimes.
He has his own language and talks to himself all day long.

Out with the old...

...and in with the new.
We got a new sofa!!! When we got married my grandpa was moving out of his apartment and my dad gave us his sofas. Those hand-me-down sofas lasted us almost 12 years. But we were also starting to outgrow them with 7 people in our family. Our new sofa seats everyone great, plus extra. And hopefully this one will last a good long while. It's hard to tell with the lighting, but they are dark brown leather. The blinds are open and up halfway, to keep out of Landon's reach. Next we need some sort of curtains I guess.The kids' favorite part are the recliners (or "reclimbers" in Connor language). But they're not allowed to use them unless one of us is sitting with them. I could just see them breaking or getting Landon caught under them in less than a week.

And just because he's so cute, here is a picture of Connor helping me make homeade laundry detergent. He loves to play with the soap shavings and be the "mixer."

Hook 'Em

Dallin and the boys went to the UT vs. BYU football game on Saturday. There were tons of visitors that had come from out of town for the game at church on Sunday too. Dallin wasn't planning to go, until I got an email from the cub scout area council with a link for half price tickets. Here are the boys in front of the UT clock tower.After a very long walk from their parking spot they were told that they couldn't have backpacks or drinks. So Dallin threw away his old college backpack (not a huge loss), threw away their gatorade, and emptied their water bottles. Then they walked inside and filled them up again in the drinking fountain.

Zach with the Austin skyline.

Hook 'em Horns!

They ended up leaving at half time because Zach was pretty whiny about the sun and not loving it. That was sad because the second of the game was apparently great and UT came back and won by one point at the very end. Oh well, hopefully the boys will look back on it as fun memories.

Dallin told me this about Jacob after they got home...

Jacob at the game tonight: Why couldn't we get seats over on the other side in the shade? (we were on the east side of the stadium in the direct sun)
Me: Those tickets cost a lot of money.
Jacob: Oh.
(later)
Jacob: Why is everything on the field upside down to us and only right for those on the other side?
Me: Because those on the other side paid lots of money for their tickets.
Jacob: Oh.
(after we left and made the long trek back to our car)
Jacob: Daddy, there were lots of parking places closer to the game, why didn't we park there?
Me: Those are only reserved for the people on the side of the stadium who paid lots of money for their tickets.
Jacob: Oh. That's not fair!
Me: (smile)

Life

Savannah loves reading to her little brothers for her "reading time" every day. It always makes me smile.

This little man figured out how to climb on the sofa and get into the remotes. We're getting a new sofa today (Saturday), so we'll see if he still can by tonight.

Jacob had a little science project due on Friday, and he actually finished it 4 days early on Labor Day. He was supposed to choose a scientist and be creative displaying them. He chose Neil Armstrong. He got this cool book of paper models of space machines for his birthday. He made the moon out of homeade play-doh and put the Eagle Lunar Lander on it. He said "everyone thought it was AWESOME."

This morning (Saturday) at 8:00am all the neighborhood dogs started barking hysterically, Lucy included. These two hot air balloons are frequently flying past our house, but they've never landed this close. The kids loved watching them land and were mad that I wouldn't walk them over to see, but I was still in my pajamas. Landon even said "wow."

Preschool

Today was Connor's first day of preschool! He has been counting the days since the older kids started school, and now he finally got to take HIS picture on the porch with his backpack.He of course picked his Diamondbacks "rattlesnake" shirt to wear.

He had a super fun time with "Ms. Stephanie" and loved telling me all about it. She is my amazing friend who organized it all. They even made apple bread for the letter A. We are doing a co-op with some other moms, so next week preschool will be at our house. I'll only have to teach like 4 times during the whole school year. We love preschool!

Busssssssssy Day

We had a super busy, but fun day yesterday. The older kids and I started out by a little shopping at Walmart and playing at a friends' house. They have 3 pet snakes. Connor was in heaven, of course. But the amazing thing was that he actually wanted to touch and hold the snakes! He has always freaked out in the past whenever they're not behind glass. I think it was because they were a lot smaller. Here Connor & Zach are petting some type of king snake.This is a baby ball python. I couldn't believe how brave Savannah was. We all touched and held the snakes, except Jacob. He wanted nothing to do with them.They also had a bunch of different turtles. Zach liked those the best. Here he is holding "Big Joe."

After our play date Jacob and I went to the furniture store. We ordered a new couch!!! I am so excited. I'll post pictures after it's here. We also ordered a bunk bed for the little boys' room. Dallin and I went on a date the night before to the furniture stores, but we wanted to measure our family room and the space before we actually ordered anything.

Later that afternoon we went to a birthday party at our neighbor's house, for their little girl turning 4. Her older brother is Jacob's best friend. They had a water slide and the hot tub, so the kids had lots of fun. It was hot outside watching them though, being that the heat broke records yesterday. Here are Zach & Savannah with the birthday girl.

We left the party early and went to a BBQ with some friends in our ward. Their pool was completely in the shade of their house, so even Landon loved being in the water. We had a great time swimming, talking and eating. It was fun to get to know those families a little better. Thanks for the fun time!
And here's the cutest little shark you've ever seen...

Back to School

The kids were excited to start school this morning! They all went right to their classes like it was nothing new.

I cannot believe that Jacob is in his last year of elementary school. He was in kindergarten when we moved here! For 5th grade he has Miss Corbett this year and his team teacher is Mrs. Korfanta. We met them last night and they both seem great.

Zach and Savannah met their teachers on Friday. Zach has Mrs. Files this year. He will also be participating in an after school program called the Junior Master Gardeners that starts in October. He's very excited about that.

Savannah is in 1st grade and has Mrs. Patterson. When we got there her teacher wasn't in the room yet. I asked if she wanted me to wait with her and she said "No, I'm good. See ya Mommy!" This girl LOVES school and has been counting the days.

Connor will be doing a co-op preschool this year. He was so bummed that he couldn't go to school today also. Luckily we start next week and he doesn't have to wait too much longer.