the black eye

I hope it will be the only one he gets in his life, but for some reason, I don't think it will be.  Saturday's flag football game was a good one.  Christian is passionate about the game.  Before and after the games, he talks strategy and plays with Mike.  Here, I am guessing, he is telling his teammate something about scoring and not letting the other team score, or pulling flags, or kicking their butt.

They set up a play--something about a reverse.  (I don't necessarily understand all of the plays.)  Christian and another boy on his team collided.  Christian went down.  Now, Mike has encouraged me to stay on the sidelines.  He says that it could be embarrassing for the kids if Mommy comes running out every time they get a boo-boo.  Well, I waited for a few seconds, and when he started rolling around, holding his face and screaming, I ran out.  My sister Camille came out too.  She assessed that his eye looked fine, but that he would have a big bruise.

A big bruise he has.

We were going to get his baptism picture taken yesterday.  I waited one day too many.

be...

Today I read a little from President Hinkley's book Way to Be and I was reminded of this poster I made for Bev's room.  I need to be more of all of these...

birthday girl

My girl is now eleven.  I will write more about her later, but for now, here are the pics from her birthday. 

She wanted braids and a tie dye cake (found on Pinterest, of course.)

On Saturday, we babysat Henry.  I asked her to take him for a nap.  I went to check on them, and they looked perfectly adorable.  When I went back to take a picture, he opened his eyes.  We adore that kid.

The girls helped me color the cake batter.  Against my better judgement, and experience, I followed the instructions and used a cake mix.  It fell apart.  So, while the girl took her nap, I mixed up another cake.

Bev decorated the top.

We had the Huff's over for a Mexican feast because Mexican is Bev's favorite.

She got some cute clothes (that she picked out) and some money and this adorable apron with cooking utensils.

Christian got that little old 2 megapixel hand-me-down camera from Grandma Huff, and he uses it a lot.  He took some pics of Bev modeling her new clothes.  (As usual, Christian could have used a few more clothes.)

Checking out the results.

Mike was exhausted after the party on Saturday.  He had gone in to work early on Friday, left work early to take Drew on his scout hike and over-nighter, hiked out early to get to Drew's basketball game and to coach Christian's flag football game on Saturday, headed to work for a few hours, did Grandma and Grandpa's yard, then helped the kids do our yard.  Then we had Bev's party.  He was plum tuckered out when Drew asked him to wrestle.  Mike sighed and then got up and wrestled for several minutes.  Then Christian joined in.  Then the girls.  This is a regular occurrence at our house--all four kids against Dad.  It is quite entertaining to watch.

Sunday was the Jones party.  Bev got some cash and the American Girl books she wanted.  Grandma Jones and Grandma Peel always make the cutest personalized cards.  

We always celebrate Bev's birthday with Grandma Peel's.  It is pretty special because Beverly Gwen is named after Grandma.

Julie made Grandma's favorite--German Chocolate Cake, and we had yet another tie dye cake for Bev.

She got breakfast in bed.  Of course, when we went in to sing to her, Tiger was right in the middle of it all.

I took her and her two best friends to the park for lunch.

Bev chose Tios for her birthday dinner.  We had been there before, and Mike and I both tried talking her out of it, but she was set on it.  The restaurant was understaffed and packed.  It was obvious that all the patrons had been waiting for quite a while.  We sat down and waited.  I started looking up other Mexican restaurants, but Bev wanted to stick it out.  We did, and we ended up having fun and the kids learned a lot about customer service and what it takes to makes a restaurant run.

first backpacking trip

Mike got home from work friday and left with Andrew on his first backpacking overnighter with Boy Scouts.  Mike helped Drew get his pack ready.  I helped him get the pack on, and he almost lost his balance.  Sweet little Jessi helped him with his shoes.

He has always loved scouting and camping.  This was no exception.

I am so grateful that Mike enjoys going with him and helping him learn the ropes.  

They had to leave early the next morning to get to basketball and flag football, but he got to play scum with the other boys, eat his freeze-dried dinner and sleep in the two-man tent with Dad.  He said that the trip was "pretty great."

Grandparent's Day

I'm catching up here a little bit. Jessi's first grade invited grandparents to a darling program and tour of their classroom. I feel blessed to have our parents so close, and so involved with our kids. During the performance, Jessica looked right at her grandparents, singing to them. She loved them coming.

It was just a year ago that Christian had his Grandparent's Day.

one year ago . . .

I was organizing photos and this picture was taken one year ago today. Having those little sweeeties was seriously one of the best/chaotic/amazing experiences the kids and I have had. (It was an experience that Mike tolerated.)

organizing kids' schoolwork

I keep most of their work, notes, art for the year in a file in the kitchen desk. Basically, I am a hoarder of my kids' creations. There is now no more room in this year's files, so I have to deal with them. Whenever we actually get to sit down for an episode of Survivor, Idol, Biggest Loser or Modern Family, I pull out one of the kid's files and start purging and organizing their stuff.

I keep some of the original artwork, but large or bulky items I photograph to put in their school scrapbook. I just took a few pictures, including this calendar Christian made.

every child should have a cat

This is the scene almost every night. When Bev is getting ready for bed, Tiger hops up and makes herself comfortable. About once a week, Christian gets Tiger up on his bed before bedtime and then Bev tells me how I need to get Christian his own cat. Most mornings Bev wakes up to Tiger sleeping near her.

She is not visible, but Mama Cat is under those covers. A few nights a week, Andrew takes her to bed. She is a big time scaredy cat, but he is trying to socialize her.

Before we got Tiger, I couldn't imagine letting animals sleep in my kids' beds. Now, I can't imagine not.

Easter 2012

Having 9:00 church means that Easter begins a little early. The night before was a late one for me. On Friday, I finally got around to buying fabric to make the girls' dresses. They were really simple, but took me into the early hours Sunday morning. I channeled my mom, who spent many a late night sewing costumes, clogging dresses or prom dresses.

I had everyone get ready before we did Easter baskets. The kids got hula hoops, pool toys, baseball stuff and a few Skylanders. I went light on the candy, knowing they would get more later in the day.

When we arrived at Grandma and Grandpa's, the eggs, money and candy were waiting for the kids. We did the traditional line-up. Grandma lets the three littlest go first, then the middle three, then the oldest three.

Drew still gets as excited about the hunt as he did when he was little.

So does Bev.

Christian asked me to "watch his pile" because his basket was too small to hold all of his loot.

Cute Jessi would see a piece of candy, pick it up and see if it was something she liked. If it was a Reese's for example, she would set it back down. I had to give her the hint that she should still pick them up for trading later.

Henry would pick up an egg and then give it to someone.

Max just started eating some of his candy as soon as he found it.

The baby of the bunch got a little help from his dad. Mason liked to observe all the big kids, but with Ryan's help, walked around to fill his basket.

I love Easter--the fresh weather, the cute church clothes, the bunnies and new baby animals. I am also grateful to celebrate, and teach my kids, the reason for Easter--our Savior. I am grateful for his atonement and resurrection and example.

Conference Sunday

Melanie and Natalie came to town, so all the siblings were here. The cousins had a sleepover at Grandma's. When we got there, this is what we saw:

and this:
and this:
These two practiced Bad Romance on the piano.
We got to spend time with the three little baby boys.
Isaac giving kisses to Mason.
We had all 14 cousins get together for a photo. They are best viewed as a series.





It was a good time together, and there were some great talks. This was one of my favorites: