Beach Vacation

We arrived in Galveston around 4:00pm on Tuesday, March 26.  After Jacob opened his birthday presents the kids wanted to go out to the beach.  It was a little chilly, but I didn't think they'd really get wet.

 These 3 boys didn't care though, and got plenty wet.  Jacob & Connor loved the water the most.  Landon loved it, but was a little scared of the waves.  He mostly liked splashing in the puddles left behind.

 Dallin digging for crabs (not successfully)

 Zach's #1 favorite thing to do at the beach is feed the seagulls, which is kind of ironic since he's always had phobias of other flying things.  I guess he just doesn't like small flying things.  Connor was terrified of the seagulls.

 Connor was hilarious dancing around and squealing in the waves.  I could have watched him all day.

 Our beach condo

 These pictures aren't from the first day, but show some of the inside of our condo.

 

It was so nice having separate rooms for the little kids and older boys.  I also loved having the bedrooms on a separate floor from the rest of the living space so that Dallin and I didn't have to be super quiet.  (The last beach condo we stayed at just had a partition for the kids' room off of the living room, so we had to be really quiet at night.)

 

Jacob is 12!

Jacob had a pretty awesome birthday this year.  A few days before his birthday he got to attend mutual for the first time (a youth activity every week for our church).  They had a combined activity for Easter with the young women and had an Easter egg hunt.  Jacob loves candy, so he thought it was great!  Then on the Friday before his birthday he was able to attend his first Boy Scout Encampment, with like 500 other boys from our area and church.  It was from Friday after school until Sunday morning.  They had church at the campsite before coming home.  He seemed to have a great time and came home completely exhausted.  Hopefully I can get pictures from his leader and add them on here later.

We just happened to leave on our family vacation the day of Jacob's birthday.  He wanted a cookies and cream cake though, so we had his cake a couple of days before his birthday.  It would have been really hard to bring it with us.  I found this recipe on pinterest and everyone loved it!

 Monday the 25th I brought Jacob his customary McDonald's lunch to school.  That is by far his favorite birthday tradition.  On Tuesday (his actual birthday) I got all of the kids out of school right before lunch.  We came home for lunch and then left for the beach!  We stayed in a condo on Galveston Island near Jamaica Beach (almost 4 hours from our house).  We went to the beach about 5 years ago and the kids have been begging to go back ever since.  Right after we got there we let Jacob open his presents, and he had a great view out the window!

 Jacob still loves all things lego, and got a new lego set and a cool lego ideas book.

 He also got new scriptures (a quad) with his name on it and a new scripture case.  From the grandparents he got a CD about the priesthood that he would soon be receiving and some cash and a giftcard to Barnes & Noble.

(Side note:  Jacob just sold his Kindle Fire to Zach and was saving for a Kindle Fire HD, which he just ordered.  He is anxiously waiting for it to come.)

 After presents we took a little walk on the beach.  Jacob loves the water more than any of our kids and was soon drenched to his waist, despite wearing sweatpants.  But it was his birthday, so whatever.

Kid Update

I haven't done an update on the kids themselves in a while, so this is for journaling purposes.

Jacob (12 this week):

*went to his first mutual activity and is on his first priesthood campout right now for 2 nights - He's so excited to join the Young Men program at church.

*plays the viola and does choir at school, but will not be doing orchestra next year so he can take some technology classes

*is a yellow belt in judo and is loving it

*does very well in school and especially enjoys social studies and reading

*has a little shadow named Landon that follows him everywhere - Jacob is such a good and patient big brother.

*still loves all things lego; wants to be a lego designer when he grows up

Zachary (10)

*loves the computer

*has a coin collection and loves learning about and finding rare coins

*loves to build with legos

*excellent at math and doesn't understand why he still has to learn to write well if he's so good at math

*always ready to share most of his things with his siblings - I hope they all follow that example.

*loves animals, especially dogs

*likes doing experiments and building things at cub scouts, although he doesn't want to go to day camp this year - he says it's way too hot

*very particular about lots of things, but we still love him

*changes every day what he wants to be when he grows up, but the top seem to be stuff with geology or working in the ocean

Savannah (8 in a couple of weeks)

*loves, loves, loves school and has beautiful handwriting

*loves to play with her friends

*loves to be Landon's 2nd mommy

*wants to ride her bike every single day, and also loves to jump rope

*wants to start playing the piano again this summer

*still loves her stuffed animals

*great artist and is always drawing something

*wants to be a mom and a teacher when she grows up

Connor (6)

*has the best smile of any kid I know

*is super excited to find his first wiggly tooth this morning

*loves to play Mom's Kindle, especially Minecraft

*his favorite shows are National Geographic documentaries, especially Deadly Dozen and Nature's Deadliest

*can tell you everything you don't want to know about snakes

*can name crazy countries, animals and landmarks all over the world that you never knew existed

*loves to ride his bike (still with training wheels)

*loves to go to primary

*reads at a 3rd grade level

*is skin and bones and barely weighs more than Landon - we really do feed him, I promise

*will probably work for National Geographic when he grows up, just my guess

Landon (2 1/2)

*is a big tease and loves to test his limits

*is finally talking more and communicating what he wants so much better

*likes superheroes, Dora, Max & Ruby, and Curious George

*loves cars, balls, and "guys"

*would play outside all day if I let him

*LOVES to collect sticks and bring them all home

*does not like to sit still or be quiet

*loves Grandmas & Grandpas

*adores Jacob and wants to be like him in every way - he even tried to do his homework last week when Jacob left the table for a minute

*favorite books are "Fly Guy" books and anything with cars or trucks

*loves to play legos, but not toddler legos - only big kids legos

*loves to collect small things and carry them everywhere; for example - dice, lego wheels, hexbugs, tiny balls, whatever - luckily he doesn't put them in his mouth

*weighs 34 lbs., wears 4t and 5t clothes and size 9 shoes

*my favorite words he says cute:  "wook!" - look; ""Cuh-buh" - Jacob (we all call Jacob Cuhbuh now), "botit" - robot

Spring Break: Friday - Sunday

On Friday we met some friends at a fun new park near Dallin's work.  It had some different toys that the kids enjoyed.

 

 

In the afternoon I took the little kids to a St. Patrick's Day party that a friend put on.  She had some fun props to take pictures with, but Landon would have none of that.  He just wanted food.

 Cutest. Kid. Ever.

But don't call him cute or he'll get really mad at you.

Connor loved doing the little crafts that were set up, like stamping shamrocks with your thumbprints and drawing rainbows. 

 Then we had a treasure hunt to look for the clues that the leprechaun left, and there was candy treasure at the end!  

My friend Emily took this pretty picture of Savannah.

Friday night Dallin and I went on a date with a couple in our ward to get pizza and play miniature golf.

On Saturday we played with some friends and then Dallin and I went to an adult party in the evening.  I'm pretty sure that is the first time ever we've had 2 dates in 24 hours.  It is so nice having a babysitter at home!

By Saturday afternoon I was starting to getting pretty hoarse from my cough.  By Sunday morning my voice was pretty shot, but I had to give a talk in church (at 8:00am).  It was about the Blessings of Church Attendance.  I croaked it out and it was fine.  I was also released from my calling in the Relief Society Presidency that I've had for 2 years.  I will miss serving with the presidency, but will not miss the business.

By Sunday evening I was not feeling so well again, and Landon started coughing and having a nasty runny nose.  He and I have pretty much been sick all this week.  I am seriously sick of being sick.  I am congested all day long and cough all night long.  Dallin bought a humidifier and it's been helping some at night.  I finally got a good sleep last night (Friday).  I am now on Day 16 of being sick.  AHHHH!

Spring Break - Monday to Thursday

Monday:  I was still very sick, so my awesome friend Erin took the 3 older kids to the movies and her house for the afternoon.  They were so happy to get out of the house.

Tuesday:  I was feeling a little better, so we met some other friends at the big Play for All park.  We will NEVER again go during Spring Break.  It was insanely crowded.

Wednesday:  I was feeling even better and ran errands all morning while Jacob babysat.  We had friends over all afternoon.  I was exhausted by the end of the day.

Thursday:  I took Savannah, her best friend M, Connor, and Landon to Zilker Park for the morning.  Jacob & Zach had their friend E over and had the house all to themselves.  (We swapped Wii games with some friends for the week and it was the best.  We will definitely do it again in the summer.)

We played a little on the playground and then rode the train.  Landon loved the train ride, and especially loved seeing the hundreds of kites trapped in the trees from the Kite Festival a few weeks ago.

 

 

 Connor was so calm on the train ride and hardly said a word.  He just sat back and relaxed.

 Then we went to the dino pit for a couple of hours and had a picnic.  We lucked out and had a few other families from our ward there at the same time.  Landon was so happy to "DIG!"

Thursday afternoon Jacob had an appointment to get a physical and a few immunizations.  He'd had a funny rash all week that we thought was some kind of allergies.  It turns out he's had a viral infection, probably the same one I have but just manifested differently.  Because he was sick he now has to go back at a later time to get his shots.  Fun times.

Spring Break Begins

Spring Break began after school on Friday, March 8.  I started feeling pretty sick during the evening on Friday, March 8.  I had a nasty hacking cough and was really congested.  Saturday I couldn't even hardly get out of bed.  (Side note:  I was up coughing like crazy at 6:00am on Saturday and woke up all the kids to come watch a movie.  The next morning was daylight savings and we have 8:00 church, which would feel like 7:00 church.  It worked great, they were all tired and went to bed an hour early Saturday night.  You wouldn't even have known it was daylight savings.)  By Sunday the kids were already getting bored, but then they decided to build forts, and were busy the rest of the day.

Zach & Savannah also made a "carnival" complete with games and prizes.

 We rearranged Savannah's room so that Connor could have a "sleepover" with her.  Her room looked like this for all of Spring Break.

  I love that the kids are good friends (most of the time) and enjoy hanging out together.

Rocket Derby

On Saturday, March 2 we attended Zach's cub scout pack meeting and Rocket Derby.  First he received his  Bear badge and a few things from his previous Bear den leaders. 

Then he received his first pin from his new Webelos leaders.

We had some dinner and then the derby began.  All of the kids loved watching the rockets except for Zach.  He was much more interested in the food.

He did at least watch his own rocket race a couple of times, and even won one of his heats!

Zach was pretty excited when they opened this box to make cookie ice cream sandwiches.

President's Day

We had a fun break from school on President's Day.  We took our friends to the park with us at 8:15am.  The weather was overcast and perfect and we had the whole park to ourselves for almost an hour.  It started to rain just as we were leaving.  Jacob and Zach loved climbing the trees this time.

 

 

 

 

After the park we had some different friends over for a movie picnic on the family room floor.  Then we had MORE friend time all afternoon.  It was a fun day with good friends.