Scooting Around

Liza is starting to get the hang of this crawling thing. She still gets frustrated, but she's learning & I fear in a few days there'll be no stopping her.

Dinner Time

I sent the kids upstairs to get their rooms cleaned before dinner. They worked for a little while but it wasn't long before they got a little distracted. They decided to get all fancy for dinner. It was adorable that they got dressed up so nicely for pizza. We enjoyed a delightful dinner together!

We've Been Trying To Stop It

Our sweet little Lizabug has been trying so hard lately to crawl.

She's been rocking on all fours for awhile now.

About a week ago she started trying the bear crawl approach.

She really likes that plank (or as Rick likes to call it 'push up') position & will sometimes stay there for awhile. Just getting stronger. This afternoon she didn't quite have it. But tonight she's getting the hang of it a lot better & would go after the pen that Lexie & Joseph were putting out for her to get. I think she'll be a crawling machine in a few days. Maybe, unless we can stop her...

She likes to take breaks to play trains with Andrew.

This little girl is so loved!

The older kids love doing all types of swings/flips/jumps with Rick.

Lizabug absolutely adores Andrew! At church she was just hugging him & giggling & smiling! (When they are being so cute & happy it's always hard shhhh'ing them.)

Anything & everything he does makes her smile! (Except for this morning when he climbed in her crib with her & tried to hurry & get out before I got in the room & used her head as a step stool-she didn't love that!)

She even gets a little anxious & hopeful that he's not really done playing with her.

We're so grateful the kids all get along so well with each other & love each other & look for ways to help everyone be happy! They are good kiddos.

Number Crunching

Yesterday I was preparing Andrew for the dentist. Last time he freaked out about getting into the chair & wouldn't let them clean his teeth. Finally, we coaxed him into letting one of the hygienists count his teeth. So, I started with that idea, reminding him that he'll get to have his teeth counted. He got this bright look on his face and said, "I'm gonna take my calcudalator so they can count my teeth!" And promptly runs out of the room to get it & put it in his pocket. And sure enough, today he jumped right up into the chair & let them work on his teeth. The hygienist was awesome. She had him help count. She had him punch in 10 for the top then push the plus sign & counted 10 for the bottom & then hit equal for: tada 20! (They were amazed that he could push all of the numbers himself & knew what to push for that matter.)

Here's a little video of after the appointment to record how he says calculator. I love it! And this little boy sure loves math & calculators. (He gets that from his dad & brother & mom & sister. Alright, we all love crunching numbers.)

After the kids all got their teeth cleaned it was Rick's turn & they got to help. They had a blast squirting Mr. Thirsty into his mouth & sucking the water back out.

And sometimes taking a drink as well.

I think we have some little dentists in the making around here.

And gratefully, we all made it with not only super clean teeth, but a clean bill of health (no cavities)! Hooray! Lexie & Joseph started whining that they have to wait 6 whole months until we can go back again! We love our dentist!

Camping Out

On Monday the kids begged for Rick to put up the tent in the living room so they could go camping. It's been up all week & they have loved "camping out" each night. (The faces we get when people come to our house are fairly amusing, though.)

Lexie's favorite part about camping is sleeping in the tent.

Joseph's favorite part about camping is staying up late & listening to stories.

Andrew's favorite part about camping is sleeping outside camping.

Eliza's favorite part is playing in the tent with everyone.

During the day they play pioneers, house, camping, read, color...basically everything in that tent. They do pull themselves away to run around in the backyard, too. But if they aren't playing outside you can bet they are in the tent.

One of these days I'll reclaim the living room, but for now I love that they are having a blast!

10 Years Ago

I cannot believe that it was 10 years ago that I came home from my mission! How nutty is that? I'm seriously getting old. It was awesome to serve in this & other beautiful cities.

Here are a few shots from back then.

I found this one of Rick back in Feburary of 2000, seeing me off at the airport. He looks the same. Infact, I think he still has that shirt.

Here I am in Hamburg HBhf with my Mission President, President Kuehne & his wonderful wife.

We stopped at the Frankfurt Germany Temple on the way home to do a session & stayed the night there before flying out the next day. It was a really awesome experience to do that at the end of my mission.

Then here I am at the airport being greeted by everyone.

Time sure flies. I'm so grateful I got to serve a mission & for the wonderful blessings it's brought to my life. It was an awesome experience & I learned so much about myself, others, & the gospel. I'm excited to see my children choose to serve a mission & know that they will be awesome missionaries.

When I Grow Up

Yesterday I was talking with Andrew & asked him what he wanted to be when he grows up & he thought about it for a minute & then said he wanted to be a baseball player. That surprised me because we don't watch baseball at our house much (or rather at all) & he's never played it.

This morning when he climbed into bed this morning I asked him again so he could tell Rick (I thought he'd be surprised by his answer). Andrew thought for a minute & then Rick chimed in with "happy" & Andrew agreed. So I asked him again & he answered, "Respectable." Yes, that is definitely something we want you to be!

Then we asked him where he learned that word & he said, "Joseph." I'm grateful that he has a good big brother, whom we also want to grow up to be very respectable, but who also teaches him well by his example.

Eight Months

Our sweet little Liza Sue is 8 months old! She is such a sweet baby & is getting so strong. She is getting so close to crawling but I'm okay with her still taking her time there. She loves her siblings so much! We love watching their friendships develop. And she especially loves it when Daddy comes home & she gets to eat some yummy food. She has loved every fruit & veggie she's tried. Although, she is doing this thing lately when Rick puts food in her mouth she blows hard & splatters it everywhere then smiles & starts eating what's left in her mouth. She is a joker already. She is definitely one of our kiddos.

Perspective

There are some good things about having sections of the fence down. Like you have this super big yard to play in! It's nice that the house next to us is empty so the kids can really have a blast playing in both yards.

The down side is that we haven't had bunnies in our back yard for years & now we have them every so often. The kids love chasing them away & we moved some rocks around the other fence & haven't seen them for a day or so now. So, I guess it's still a plus-big yard!

The Play

The kids put on a play for me this morning. After performing it once they decided to do it for Family Home Evening as well. It's called "Jesus Blesses a Family with Food" & they had a blast making it.

The tree with food growing on it.

The garden they planted with the seeds they got from the whale.

The cute actors.

Hmmm, yeah.

One would think that after I caught this lovely artwork under the table & Lexie's wonderful artwork on her bed that the kids would learn that coloring on anything but paper is not okay.

Apparently not. Behold, the back of the boy's door. My favorite part: "Oh, Andrew did it." Sure he did, he can write your name in cursive. Awesome.

I think I prefer the coloring under the table. No one sees it then.

Happy Birthday, Rick!

We started out the day going for a run while Rick started digging out the posts.

Then we put up Rick's art gallery on what the kids have declared, "The Birthday Wall."
We went out for lunch & then after dinner it was time for presents.

I think we can all agree the best part was the balloon fight after presents were opened.

Oh, the goofiness!


Then it was time for cake!

The pieces were huge.

Here's what was left of Andrew's. Rick was the only one to finish his piece. The rest of us will have to try again tomorrow.