February 2018 Kiddos

Taking a break from loading wood

Oh, the cuteness!! When Ezra was 6-7 months old, we tried feeding him. He wanted nothing to do with it. However, when we game him food he could eat himself he started eating like a champ! He is quite possibly my best eater ever...so long as he can feed himself.

I bought the entire family (except Ruthie and Ezra) tickets to go see the Chinese Acrobats perform. I even got a babysitter for the littles! Stephen picked Maggie up, but was so exhausted after a long day at work that I ended up leaving him with the babies and taking Maggie with us! Sammy also invited his best buddy, Sebastian. An awful picture, but a fun evening!

"Take my picture, Mom!"

He still doesn't get that there is a dot on his forehead. The kids have been trying since he was 4 months old...

The tradition of giving Dad a heart attack on Valentine's Day continues! The kids also put hearts and candy on most of the other management professors' doors, making them the darlings of the day. 

Trevor has the best tooth-losing story of all: he lost a tooth by getting smacked in the face with a snow shovel!

In the snow-shovel-wielding person's defense, the tooth was barely hanging on. Sammy accidentally stepped on the show shovel (they were out playing in the snow) and the handle flipped up and whacked Trevor in the mouth. The tooth, sadly, was lost in the snow.

Trevor made a poster for our 4-H club's carnival booth

Lincoln did, too. Our theme was Decades: the Future. One of the club members made a catapult, and we catapulted rubber duckies into a rocket ship.

And then there were 2 gone! His second tooth was also barely hanging on, so he had me tie floss onto it and a door and slam the door. It was great fun!

Stephen, Mason, Ezra and I went to the temple. Stephen needed an answer as to whether or not we should move to Washington. We'll be moving this summer sometime.

Ezra started taking steps! He's not walking, just taking random steps every now and then.

Ruba-a-dub-dub, three babes in a tub

We all love our new wood stove

Ruthie is a nurturer, and she's better with throw up than Stephen!

October 2016

For FHE one night, we recreated the Nephite empire with blocks and beanie babies. 

Trevor turned 5!

We canned lots and lots of applesauce to go with the peaches, pears and corn.

Picking out a pumpkin. At Walmart. Because we are that awesome.

God's gift to women (he just went along with what I said he should be), a ghost, half evil/half beauty queen, lion, knight. Money spent: $0.

His school Halloween costume. Isn't he cute?!

Our rooster, Rusty, proved his worth yet again. His loyalty saved the rest of the flock, and we will sorely miss him. We have two  cockerels in our younger flock who will hopefully grow into wonderful protectors. RIP Rusty, we'll miss you.

(Side note: I finally got the 22 unlocked, but took no pleasure in killing the fox.)

I learned how to make apple cider vinegar! It's come in super handy in the care of animals.

bonus video from Dad's visit

How could I forget one of the best parts of Papa's visit?!?! Pillow talk!

Papa's Thanksgiving visit

My dad came out to visit over Thanksgiving this year--the first time he'd ever seen our place here! We had lots of fun--he had lots of time to play with the kids, we talked and watched all 6 Star Wars movies, he took us out to dinner (oh, how I love to not prepare and clean up dinner!)...and of course we had a great big Thanksgiving feast (with 30 other friends who had nowhere to go for the big day).

 

How Trevor watched Star Wars. Every time a fighting scene came up he pulled out his light saber

Don't go, Papa! We'll eat you up, we love you so!

Halloween candy trading rules

The kids always come up with extravagant rules for...most everything they do. Halloween candy trading is no exception!

Happy Halloween!

Let me be right up front and say that I am the Scrooge of Halloween. It's just so much work! Carving pumpkins, carving pumpkins, carving pumpkins and coming up with costumes? Bleh. BUT. I can be a fun mom, a silly mom, and even, yes, a put-your-arm-in-the-pumpkin-and-scoop-out-pumpkin-guts mom. (And a shout-out to Stephen and Elise...without them I would have gone pumpkin crazy.)

Photo dump--July

Dad came to visit on July 4th--marking the first time he's come just to visit for more than a stopover. 

Cousins! My cousin, Darci, lives in WI, about an hour away from our MN house. She brought her daughters, Ayrica and Bailee, and my Auntie Margaret for a goodbye visit. We'll miss being close to them! 

A picture of me that I like. :)

Just home from Bolshoi--so happy to have her middle splits down!

I was talking with Aunt Lisa and Lincoln really needed something. I guess we talked a bit longer than he was expecting!

Funny the things I can do with the little boys that I never have time for when the older kids are around! We made this name alphabet when the older kids were off doing other things. Doing this started me thinking about how I need to do more pre-schooly things with these two--it's in this year's homeschool plan!

Yes, she is this cute all the time.

Quality Daddy-daughter time (she didn't even spit up on him!)

Luke, the best cat probably ever.

4th of July bike ride! Sammy really wanted to go, and I did to, so we made it happen. We went about 11.5 miles--this is us on the Coon Rapids Dam.

Ruthie with our dear friend Martha.

Just cute. That is all.

Our traditional $30 4th of July fireworks display in the road in front of our house. We go all out...

Spectators of the amazing-ness that is our fireworks display! This year marked the first year that our across-the-street neighbors didn't join us--their precious 5 1/2-year-old daughter, Persephonee, passed away suddenly in February, and life has (obviously) been hard for them since then.

While Dad was here he took the boys on some adventures--to Fort Snelling, Como Zoo and Conservatory, and then to Stillwater (with Stephen, Ruth and I). Here at the Teddy Bear Park.

No trip to Stillwater is complete without stopping by Nelson's--the ice cream place that gives you waaaaaaaaaay too much ice cream. This time I came prepared with containers, ice packs and a cooler. I was eating my ice cream for days afterwards!

So maybe his hair is getting a bit long...

...but just look at those curls!

I told Sammy he should probably wash his face before going anywhere. He asked me "how come?"