B-day Fiesta

Last week was my mom's birthday so we all decided to go simple and we sent some doughnuts with my sis to her work for everyone and then took her to her restaurant of choice. We actually don't go out to eat much so it was a fun treat for all.

And a big happy birthday to my mother, I am so lucky she's my mom and that she is the grandmother to my kiddos. I couldn't have asked for anyone better!

(She is helping Levi with a little math problem he had on his kids menu if you were wondering)

Show Time

I don't watch a lot of movies or TV unless I'm doing something or working so I usually end up watching and listening to things in bits and pieces, that is unless it's something REALLY good then I'll sit and watch but I am just not into much of it all.

But I can tell you there are some things I love to watch my boys watch. I love to see them laugh at the funny parts and even, yes, get a little scared when things get climatic. For me it is so much more entertaining than watching most anything. Look at those faces!

I wish I could remember what it was but I'm sure it was awesome.

After School

Pretty much every day if it's not raining the boys will play outside on the playground for a good 45 minutes or longer. Or until everyone else leaves.

There is always a lot of freeze tag, pretending to be superheros, chase. This time it was rolling down the hill and having people jump over you. I'm not sure if there's a name for that.....

Max decided not to roll down the hill. He doesn't roll like that. (yes, I am this hilarious in real life)

He did however want to show everyone his new Nikes.

Taekwondo!

So Levi has been doing taekwondo after school for a month once a week and really loving it. Yesterday was his last day and while he was a little sad not to do it anymore, he's excited because he want's to try out gymnastics which we will probably try out in the fall or in the summer if I can find a class that works.

Just so you know it was very cute to watch him and all those little people.

Max hanging out, drawing on the walls.

Tae-kwon-do!

TV Time

I got a new lens for my camera and I've been having fun playing around with it. I had a 85mm which I love but it really is better for outdoors or from a good distance indoors which isn't really easy  considering we live in a pretty tiny house and I was having to stand in the very farthest possible distance to get a shot and even then it was too close. So suffice it to say it will be more of my outdoor lens.

This one is a 50mm which works so much better when taking pictures indoors and I don't have to be quite so far. My first test subject: Mr. Max watching the Magic School Bus while Levi was at school. I love his face so much!

Up until fairly recently he has been perfectly fine and even happy to have his picture taken but after he snapped out of his zombie like tv watching trance he decided he didn't like it one bit and tried to pout as much as he could while still watching.

Then he gave up being mad and went back to watching. Mrs. Frizzle is definitely more captivating than I am.

On a side note he is eating chocolate maltball egg things he finagled out of Gram downstairs. He is quite the charmer. 

To Mom

Max decided he wanted to write me a note so he asked me how to spell mom. I almost cried when I read it (it says 'mom' on top and 'max' on the bottom). Love that boy!

Play Ball!

So after a bit of debate Levi is doing t-ball. He wanted to play but I asked around and pretty much everyone and their uncle told me to do the level A baseball but after talking about it with Jason, because I have pretty much zero experience in organized sports, we decided t-ball would be better to ease his way into things.

He's loving it so far and learning all the basics. It is quite hilarious to see him play, he is such a wiggly guy and so excited about pretty much everything. He loves to chat away to whoever will listen and if there's no one he talks to himself. I love that boy.

Clean Up

I'm doing some cleanup (kind of....) and found these we made from last summer. Soil babies! They were really fun to watch grow and the boys loved it.

A Hunting We Will Go

I think we kept this Easter pretty simple. I got all the stuff a month or so in advance which helped a lot because I didn't have to think much about it after that just putting things together.

This year we did all the funner traditions like Easter baskets and egg hunts on Saturday and did more of the spiritual stuff on Sunday and I really liked it, plus it wouldn't have worked out well to do it all on Sunday since we have chuch first thing.

I (think) I kept the baskets pretty simple and went with more fun things and less candy. Is it me or is everyone sickend by the amount of candy by this time of year? You start with Halloween, then Christmas, then Valentines Day, then Saint Patricks Day....ugh. It's tiring sometimes. Luckily after this there is a nice break.

Anyways I got a number of things from the dollar store (yea!) little army guys, which they love and I put in the eggs, a few legos, puzzles, sidewalk chalk, playdoh. They loved it all.

And this year for the first time ever we actually got to have our own easter egg hunt! Usually a different friend of family member does one and we call it good because do they really need that much candy? Again, getting tired it and I LOVE candy.

We even had some of the best Easter weekend weather I've seen in a long time and got to have it in the backyard. They both had a blast and we played around most of the morning.

Can I just say how much I love Max's hair and how it kind of comes to a point at the neck. It always has. I should probably trim it though, it's getting long and I definitely don't think he can pull off a rat tail.

Happy Easter!

#3

So I don't know how to rotate it but officially here is baby #3's first picture.

Hilarious Max

 These are about a year old, so imagine a  3 year old Max.

I was trying to mix something and I said it was hard to do. Max, "You not strong, dad strong, like 'ouperman!"

I LOVE that he calls me 'Mama' instead of mom at least most of the time.

When he and Levi is with Nese they always listen to an acapella cd with primary songs. His absolute favorite one is 'Once there was a Snoman' which is sung in different genres. One of his favs, is a James Brown style 'Yeaooowwww I feel cold!'. He LOVES it.

Me: Give me a kiss!
Max: give me a blow kisses, a shoulder kiss, an arm kiss, a finger kiss...
Me:  I want a lip kiss! (pout/cry)
Max: Babies cry. You not a baby.

While we were camping at Lake Merwin things got a little crazy and the boys started to entertain doing different dances. They did a pizza dance, a spider dance....basically whatever we came up with. Then on his own he decided to 'Dance like a worm!'. To which he proceeded to do his best 3 year old version of the worm. We now call it the 'bunky worm'. This kid cracks me up.

His new favorite joke, which he tells multiple times a day.
Q: What do you call a hot dog with nothing inside it?
A: A Halloweenie!

This is an older almost 4 year old Max.

It was bedtime and Max was supposed to be in bed but decided jumping from the toy box to the lovesac was funner. When I told him to go to bed, "But I am an owl. Owls hunt and night. They sleep in the day." Duh mom.

Because Levi was off with grandpa I was nice and let Max pick out a set of mini dinosaurs to ease the pain. He decided to go down and show them off to Nese who was trying to help him with the names. She didn't know what one of the names was so she said "We can just google it.". To which Max replied, "No, it is NOT a googleit." Now that dinosaur is called a 'googleit'. Silly boy.

So during bed time as I was leaning in to kiss Levi he promptly jerked his head up to kiss me resulting in me having a very smashed nose and crying. I don't really do that in front of the boys so they were gravely concerned. They told me to breathe, it would be ok, and it wasn't that bad. "See watch, I'll punch MY face." then they both proceeded to show me and punch themselves in the face multiple times. I love little boys.

He now pretty much says something's 'potty talk' when he doesn't agree with it.  Oh how very Max.

I love that he has a little baby clown which used to be named baby but since he met someone in our ward whose nickname is peanut has decided his baby is named peanut. He is quite fontd of the little guy.

"Bats are Batman's pets." Makes sense.

We were eating dinnner and with Mr. Picky Pants it can be a bit of a struggle. As I was trying to coax him into eating anything of his plate he looks at me and says, "Mom, you are pretty. And you have long hair like Tarzan."

Speaking of hair. We were watching something and a shampoo commercial with this beautiful girl which featured her glorious long, curly hair waving in the wind. Max takes a minute and looks at me. "You didn't do your hair." Sad thing is I actually HAD done it that day but I can't really do much but straighten my hair so we had a fun conversation about how people are different. Some have long hair, some short, some straight, some wavy and that's just how we are. It was very funny and I tried my best to keep from laughing.

Max is always such a helper especially when dad has a project outside. This time their task was shoveling and moving pea gravel. When Jason told him what it was Max asked, "Is it cause you pee in it?"

I love his little voice and that all his l's are w's so it's Webi (Levi), Grampa Warry (Larry), a wadder (ladder), wunch (lunch), wittle (little). It's extremely cute.

Hilarious Levi

While our neighbor was over she had told Levi that bees and wasps will lay eggs in your skin. Later when I tried to explain that she was wrong and they didn't he was upset and thus responded, "But I feel it in my heart." How can you dispute that?

One night while he was saying prayer on one of the nights where my brother Isaac was over to help Gram and spend the night, Levi prayed, "Bless he wakes up early like normal people." I'm pretty sure that was because he likes to play his ipod first chance he gets.

"Mom, my room is significantly cleaner!"

One day I asked Levi after school I asked him how his day went. "Well, Eden is in love with me maybe, but then Nicole and Eden said 'I am not in love with Levi' but Nicole said 'yes you are' while they were putting their backpacks away. They were taking to each other and I heard it. I was quiet as a mouse. And that was all." He has funny stories about all that.

(This was from August) It was Levi's birthday sunday meaning he got a pack of bubble gum which he promptly opened and shoved in 3 pieces right away because we always have mint never flavored (this was fruity). While I was up there conducting I saw this huge wad in his mouth and had to take him to the garbage can and hand over the gum. He was super wiggly that whole day. During music time he kept rolling up his pant legs, sleeves and tie to which Sister Thomas, while trying to sing, attempted to have him pull it down because he was a little distracting but that didn't work. She just smiled at me. He then did telescope eyes and decided to keep putting his hands over his ears. It was just a very wiggly day. Then it was sharing time and the story of moses was being told and as it was beginning I was sure he was going to do some crazy wiggly things but he was spellbound the whole time, I was very impressed and surprised. He really likes to hear stories.

It was late, so I told the boys it was bed time and time to get ready. I mentioned how I was going to clean up a bit and vaccume after they went to bed "How about we stay up and help you clean?"

Levi: I wonder if trees feel sad when dogs pee on them.

Me:Levi, clean up the lego's, baby Abby (1yr) will be over later and we wouldn't want her to put one in her mouth.
Levi: Yeah, babies are pretty killable.
Me (trying to keep from laughing): We probably shouldn't use that word, let's just say fragile.

After going to visit the pediatrician I decided to review stranger danger. When I asked who should you go to if you're lost "You go to moms.....but NOT anyone with a black striped shirt. They could be a thief."

Mom was showing Levi a quilt for our newest girl cousin. She told Levi that Aunt Kara doesn't want pink so she asked if the quilt would be ok because it had some pink. Levi, "It has greens and blues.....(pauses) and WHITE! She'll love it! Get it? White!?!"  Their last name is White and Levi thinks he is quite the comedian which I would have to agree with.

At school Levi got his name on the board, which means 1 minute less for recess. When I asked him why he said it was partly someone distracting him and partly his imagination. "Sometimes an imagination is a good thing but sometimes it a bad thing. But you know Einstein said that imagination is better than knowing stuff". (Einstein actually did say imagination is more important than knowledge). Boy he cracks me up.

We were being silly and I said the word butt. Levi and Max immediately yell "No potty talk! How dare you break one if your own rules!" Being scolded by my kids is awesome. 

"Mom, is today the autumn solstice?" What a funny duck.

While we were walking to the school bus he says "Wow, this bus is as big as a mama sperm whale."

Later that day after I found out from a friend that the bus driver had to stop the bus because everyone was being too loud. When I asked him about it at dinner he said, "We weren't talking talking forte, just mezzo forte." 

 Levi went with Jason to get some gravel at Uncle Monte's house who also happens to house the missionaries. When I asked him about it, "We found some missionaries from England. Yeah, and he mostly understood all the words we said!"

 

Chasing Wishes

While we were at Seth's farewell we actually had a bit of wait time before he got there because the car broke down but we all just hung out and had a dandy time. I pulled out my camera while the boys played around in their massive yard.

At first Levi was not amused about me taking his picture....

 

 But I pretty much just let them do their thing while I played around on my camera.

 

Max hollered at me "I have something for you mom!" It was very thoughtful, he is such a sweet little guy.

Then there was just a whole bunch of chasing. Tag, freeze tag, chase....you name it. Also Jason you have awesome calves.

 

I sure love all those boys.