Better Late Than Never

Valentines Day

Nate's had a stop sign on the top, which read Nate's Stop.

Mitchell's was a fire truck!

Paige's was a hit in her class. 

We had a fun filled valentines day. The Paige, Mitch, Nate and I had a blast brainstorming over the weekend to come up with functional, yet creative valentine boxes. I had girls first, so years before I've done the pink, red and white hearts all over a shoe box. Paige's class was having a contest, so ya know....we had to make it more exciting than years before. Here is what we came up with!

i pood

This is Sam's new shirt he got from one of his uncles. Where does he find these. They are awesome!

Primary Program

Now, you may accuse me of picking on Nate a little, but he is the most hilarious child I have. The funny thing is he never tries to be, he just is. (disclaimer again) All of my children are hilarious in their own right. I just have one who is different in how things appear to be funny. Surprisingly enough, he did do better than expected. I watched Mitch fold his arms and sing. He was my perfect angel child up there. I watched as he studiously followed the note cards the chorister held up and Dad and Mom gave him a few "good job" smiles. He was very obedient as most always.
Paige was beaming up there too, other than the few moments we caught her rolling her eyes as she was watching her other brother. (she had a clear shot of him the whole time.) She tried to ignore him and keep her self composed, but she slipped a couple of red faced smiles in here and there. They all said their parts just perfect. Of course, there's always the littlest child that draws the parental aawwws! That was little Mr. Cook. I looked over and his mom and dad were happily smiling at him and the cute response.
I teared up a couple of times while the whole primary was singing, and especially when they had all the children who had turned 8 during the year sing "When I am Baptized". The tear jerker was they were all dressed in white. So beautiful.

Now you can't very well have a primary program that doesn't include that one child. You know what I'm talking about. I am proud to say that he would be my child. Harmless in his antics and not purposely trying to get attention, but they just can't sit still and you know his mind is going a mile a minute. Rather than explain, I drew some crappy pictures for illustration. 

T -Square

Nice smile Mitch

Someone was scared of Jesus. He was very big up close.

This will be short. We went to temple square a few weeks ago. The kids had their first experience with the church history museum. The little ones especially loved the interactive floor where they could try on clothes and TOUCH everything. Tori loved the paintings. Especially one in particular. It was very moving. There's a cool small scale temple that shows what the inside looks like. They all thought that was cool. it even faces the temple, so you can visualize where it's all at. I am looking forward to taking Laylie and Sam at Christmas time! That should be fun for them.

Love the Hair & ISU

Sam's hair will not stay down. It may calm down when he gets older, but for now it's just too cute sticking up. I plastered it yesterday to his head with very low hopes it would stay just how I combed it. That lasted about five minutes. Where I parted it was still visible, kind of. He's too cute.
ISU had their homecoming parade was last weekend. We took the kids. Paige's dance group was in it. Fun for her, but a long walk and mostly up hill. It ended up at Holt Arena. With all the masses of people (parade and football fans) up there when we arrived it was hard to find her. Did I mention I walked (purposely) right through the middle of all the tailgate cookers. MMMM! I love the smells! It was heavenly, and after we found her and went home, I made myself an awesome peanut butter and jam sandwich.

 She ate all her candy.

The boys watching the parade.

He's so serious. (This is my hair flat against my head.)

Top view. Notice the back pieces already not conforming.

He does not look like the child I see every day.

10 minutes later....his hair is up!

Sam and his hair enjoying the parade.

Blabber

K! So the school year has started, blah, blah, blah......I probably should post the pics I took, but I'll get to that later. The fair was last week and like a totally sane person, I decided to take them all by my self. Yeah for insanity!
This is how it went. We came through the gate closest to the animals. This of course took an hour because Laylie had to swoon over everyone there was. She was petrified of the Clydesdale's though. From afar they were cool. but an offer to pet them on the nose resulted in a wide terror filled look and and the beginning of watery eyes. We did happen to pass by a miniature pony though (a baby horse in her eyes of course). She went straight up to one and wrapped her arms around it's belly while rubbing her face all over him. The kids tents with their interactive displays and hands on stuff was perfect. They especially loved the funny distorted mirrors. We went on some rides and I took some great pictures of the kids with Maddie's camera. I'd post  those too, but Maddie managed to accidentally erase all of the photo's she had on there.We did end up with one though at the very end with Laylie curled up in the bottom of the stroller. You know the bottom compartment usually reserved for you diaper bag, or other items.
Now the reason for her I will sleep anywhere skill is because of her behavior almost the entire time. We were there for about five hours.  Have you ever seen a first time *leasher*? I know that's not a word, but you know what I mean.....the first experience you have with your dog when you try a leash. They realize they are confined and they flip, contort, writhe, lay on the ground, sit down, pull backwards fight, shake their head, and end up with the leash wrapped around them selves in almost impossible ways. Your thinking, if you just held still, it's not that bad. That was her.
We tried a little backpack with the "leash" attached, which, by the way saved my bacon. I tried making a super big deal about how she was going to get to wear her very own backpack. It was a cute bear. She was all excited until she realized it was a straight jacked for children. (Oh and by the way, we saw another mom with the very same one, only her child was behaving.) She looked at mine and I looked at hers and a brief, I FEEL YOUR PAIN nod was exchanged as we passed each other in the trenches.
My arms ached from carrying her so much. My feet were tired. The other kids were tired, but were happy. I got cotton candy mashed all over my shirt, hair and neck. My make-up and that "Yes, I've got it together" look were long gone. I think I pulled a neck muscle and my brain was sprained from constantly counting to five. My number six was safe in his stroller. BUT, will I do it all over again next year and for consecutive years to come? Heck Yes I Will! Because, my kids come away from it having had fun, and memorable family experiences. Here's to hoping Tori gets to come next year though.