Playing in the Rain

Last week we had a really warm day and then a thunderstorm in the early evening. The rain was brief and warm and I let the kids run around in the rain and splash in the puddles. They had a blast!

Micah wasn't too sure at first. He hates to get his head wet, so when he first felt the rain drops hitting him he would duck his head down and freeze. Then he would try to cover his head with his hands. Then he would slowly make his way over to our porch. But then when he saw his brothers running around having fun he had to try again. He finally got so that he would just run through the grass while the rain hit him, although he always kept his head down. In the pictures below it had stopped raining and the kids were just running through the puddles.

You can tell it was warm since no one is wearing shoes.

Alan got out his umbrella and that was a huge hit.

So much fun to run in the rain!

Snowman of the Year

This year we haven't had much snow. We finally got 3 inches of soft, wet snow and the boys hurried to make the most of it. They made 2 big snowmen and I made a little one for Micah to knock down, because he kept attacking the other snowmen and his brothers were getting mad.

Micah stabbing Conner's snowman with a carrot. Conner was not pleased.

I have been saving milk caps to use for buttons and I was happy to finally put them to use. Conner posing with his snowman:

It was pretty bright out that day but my camera seems to have amplified the whiteness, making it hard to see the snowman. Anyway, Alan and Alex made a cool snowman with a hat and arms and they were going to make a skateboard but they got tired.

1st Tooth Fairy visit

A week and a half ago Alan came home from school complaining that his loose tooth was hurting. When Reed came home he looked at it and said it was really loose and needed to come out. Alan agreed so Reed pulled it out. Alan was quite fascinated with the tooth and he was super excited that the tooth fairy would be coming that night. He doesn't really have a hole in his mouth since his adult tooth grew up right behind the baby tooth and was almost as big as the baby tooth. After his tooth came out Alan told everyone that he couldn't be the shark man anymore. Someone told him that he looked like a shark because sharks have rows of teeth and since then he was kind of proud to be a "shark man".
That evening Alan had A LOT of questions about the tooth fairy. He wanted to know how much money he would get. We told him we weren't sure, but that when we were little we each got a quarter for our teeth. Alan thought that over and then asked "Could I give the tooth fairy something?" Alan decided that he would leave some cookies and milk out for the tooth fairy so that maybe the tooth fairy would give him more money. The next morning he was equally excited to see that he had 4 quarters under his pillow and that the cookies were mostly gone and that the tooth fairy had left a small thank you note. I can see many more tooth fairy visits in our future!

Date night and family fun

One of our friends offered to have our kids over for a sleep over for a night so that we could go somewhere or just stay out late and then sleep in the next morning. We didn't really have anywhere to go so we decided to stay in a hotel here in town. We dropped the kids off Friday night at their friends' house and went and checked in. Then we did some shopping for us - it was so nice to do that. Then we went out for dessert and checked out the pool. It was so nice to sleep in the next morning and enjoy an uninterrupted breakfast that I didn't have to make or clean up. It was so nice to have a night to ourselves even if we didn't leave town. Then we went and picked up our kids. Our friend said they did pretty good, although Micah woke up a couple of times. We took them back to the hotel and took them swimming.

The water was kind of cold so Conner and Micah didn't last long but Alan and I stayed in and played for quite a while.

There was a bouncy house on the side of the pool deck. The boys loved it!

It took Micah a little while to get used to walking in it but then he started running all over. He would run as fast as he could and fall or crash into the wall and fall over and then he would just get up and take off again. He was so pleased with himself.

It was so fun to spend some time together having fun as a family.

Our family is growing!

Our family is going to get a little bigger this summer. I am expecting baby #4 to make an appearance in July and we are very excited! I am 21 weeks now so we had our ultrasound last week. And the baby is a ....................... SURPRISE! We decided not to find out the baby's sex. We have with our last 3 and we decided that we wanted to do something different this time around. It was kind of hard to not look at the screen when the ultrasound person was checking but we held strong. So another 4 months of suspense before we find out. So, if you notice that I refer to the baby as a "he" it is just because I don't like to use "it" and because I am so used to that pronoun that is comes naturally, not because we know it is a boy.

A nice profile of the baby's face. You can also see one of his hands, which he kept curled up by his head most of the time.

The baby spent most of the time curled up in a ball but they got a picture of him playing with his toes.

The day before Thanksgiving I started to feel sick occasionally and a couple days later we found out I was pregnant. I am grateful to be past the first trimester since I was sick for Thanksgiving, Christmas and my birthday. I have found that my energy levels have had a hard time catching up - I still seem to be tired a lot. We waited to tell the boys until I was about 14 or 15 weeks because that is when we told some members of our ward and I wanted the boys to hear the news from us. Maybe I should have waited because I don't think they believed me. When we told them they just looked at me with a blank expression and then smiled and nodded. I don't think it seems real to them since I am not showing and it is so hard for them to understand that the baby won't come for several more months. We tried to explain that the baby was going to come when the weather is hot and after Alan got out of school. Well, at this explanation Alan perked up and wanted to know how long he would be out of school. I don't think anyone had ever told him about summer vacation and he was quite excited about the idea when we explained it. Way more excited for that than for a new baby sibling. Oh well, maybe when the time gets closer we will try again.

All about Alan

Some facts about Alan:
- He likes to surprise people with acts of service.

He wanted to make a salad for his babysitter back in September so he picked some shriveled up peas, some chives and tomatoes and mixed them up in a bowl.

- He loves to write notes to people.

A note to his friend Alex

It says "Please can I come over to your house. Please, please if I can I will say hurray please please."

- He is an early riser. He normally gets up between 6 and 6:30 am, everyday.

- He hasn't lost any teeth yet but a couple of weeks ago in church he suddenly leaned over to me and said "What is in my mouth?" I looked and one of his adult teeth was coming up behind his baby tooth. When I told him he was pretty excited. The tooth in front of it is finally getting loose.- He does well in school. The school sent a note home saying Alan would receive an award at their award assembly. I guess he made the kindergarten honor roll (I was kind of surprised that they had an honor roll for such a young age). When I told him he was going to get an award he got really excited but when I explained that it was a piece of paper telling him he did a good job he was really disappointed.

Alan standing with the other kindergarteners who received the award (the 2 girls to the left of him are in his class and the 3 boys to the right are in the other class)

- He has a kind and empathetic nature:
A few weeks ago Reed was having a stressful day and he had to make an important phone call. We knelt for a family prayer and briefly explained to the kids that we had some big decisions to make. After that Reed went upstairs to make his phone call. Alan immediately got to work on writing a note. He put a rainbow on the front and then on the inside he wrote "I love you Dad" and at the bottom he wrote "I know how it is". We thought that was so cute and grown up.

One night Reed and I were both in the boys' room putting them to bed. Reed was tucking Alan in and I was trying to help Conner. Conner didn't want my help, he wanted his dad. I was trying to convince him to let me put him to bed and then dad would come give him a kiss goodnight. At this suggestion Conner's lower lip started to tremble and he said in a shaky little voice "But dad is my best friend". I gave in after that and went over to Alan's bed to say good night while Reed went to tuck Conner in. As I sat on Alan's bed this was our conversation:
(Alan reaching out his arms to give me a hug)"Its okay mom, I love you"
"Thanks Alan"
"And Conner loves you too"
"Yeah, I kn--"
"But I think he loves Dad a little bit more" (holding his fingers about a half inch apart to show how much)
(Me smiling)"Maybe a little"

height: 49.25 inches
weight: 56 lbs.

favorite color: rainbow
favorite movie: Cars 2
favorite song: Praise to the Man
friends: Alex, Mara, Roman, Henry, Tate, Zachary
favorite thing to do: Watch t.v and color
favorite book: llama, llama stories
what makes you happy: playing with my friend Alex
what makes you sad: when I don't get to go somewhere fun and people make fun of me because I can't go. Like out in public (Alan is sick right now so he can't go out in public).
favorite food: Peanut butter and honey or jam sandwiches and macaroni and cheese
What are you going to be when you grow up: I want to work at a bank, because I think banks might let their workers have 1 sucker from their dish, if they work really hard.
Where are you going to live: in a house

Party Time

I decided to do a friend party for Alan this year. He wanted a Wild Kratts birthday so I thought of some animal games they could do so that they could earn creature power disks.

The first game was to get their butterfly disk. The kids took turns wrapping up the "caterpillar" with toilet paper to make a cocoon. Then the caterpillars broke free and became butterflies.

Alex, all wrapped up

Then we talked about how lightning bugs communicate by flashing their lights. The kids took turns being the lead lightning bug and playing "lightning bug says". Below Alan is leading the group.

I was hoping to do cheetah races outside but it was cold and snowy so we had to move it indoors. I divided the kids into two teams and they had a relay race. I made two big circles out of paper and the kids had to move across the room, only stepping on the circles. Then they went back and tagged a team mate and it was their turn. I didn't get any pictures but it was fun to watch. We also talked about squirrels and the kids earned their badges by finding their hidden treat bags.
Alan helped me make cupcakes and we decorated them with blue and green frosting and M&M's. We tried to make paw prints with the M&M's and it kind of worked.

Make a wish! (kids l-r: Conner, Alex, Alan, Henry, and Mara. Tate was also there but not in the picture.)

Then we got out our pinata. We blindfolded the kids for their first turn and then after that we let them take turns whacking it.

The kids had a lot of fun with it.

Then we opened presents and let the kids play for a little while, and then it was time to go home. Birthday parties are a lot of work but Alan said at the end of the day that it was the best day ever so that made it worthwhile.