Little road trip

The boys and I took off on a road trip (all by ourselves!) the week before last. We headed up to St. Louis to visit my friend Natalie and her cute kids. We left Dave home to work, and Nat's husband John was at a training that week, so it was just us girls and the kids.

We were only there for a couple of days, but we fit in as much as we could! We went shopping at their fun outlet mall where they had a playground and a carousel, which the kids loved. I got a ton of cute stuff (and GREAT deals) for the new baby, which was the main goal :)

At the first store, Braden was picking out sunglasses and Chris insisted that he needed some too (even though he already had some) so I let him get them, hoping it would give me some leverage with his behavior. It worked some of the time, but not completely. I would tell him I was going to put his sunglasses away if he didn't listen. Haha. Alas, we spend a good part of each day waiting for Chris to catch up or decide to stop pouting.... but he looked pretty cool. Since then he has taken to wearing them a lot, and just struts around. It's funny.

The second day, our big outing was the zoo, which was very cool. We took a train ride, which was a little disappointing- you didn't see that many animals. But it was cool to be on a train ride :) The kids all loved it.

Overall, it was a fun (hot) day!

Each day that we were there, Nat would walk the big girls to and from school. We all went a couple of times, but Chris and Jon gave me so much trouble that I gave up on that idea, but Ben LOVED it. He went faithfully every time. Nat snapped this cute picture the last morning before we left. 

These two (Ben and Blaire) are just the cutest little friends. They pick up right where they left off, and even though they play with everyone else, they are always together, and you often see them holding hands :)

Now this little stinker, was another story. He was no one's friend. He's been in this terrible phase lately where he throws fits, and will NOT let me out of his sight- it totally freaks him out. I thought by the end of our visit, he would warm up, but nope. A few times, he played okay with the other kids, but as soon as he saw Nat, he would flip out and start calling "Mom? Mom!" He warmed up to her a little, as long as I was around, he liked her, but he was a big stinker overall. It was exhausting! But he's so cute, it's hard to be mad :)

The last night, we thought it would be fun to do something fun for all the kids (the bigger girls were bummed that they were in school all day and missed all our fun) so Nat decided to throw a little early birthday party for Ben. He LOVED it. Thank you so much friends, that was the best!

Whenever we were at the house, the kids spent a lot of time playing in the backyard, while we moms (and poor Brooklyn!) sniffled through because it was crazy allergy week! The weather was beautiful that week, though, and they had lots of fun playing together. They have such a beautiful backyard and a great new playset.

We were sad to go, but we had such a great time there.

Thank you friends, for a great time! 

The burning question....

Last week (at 22 weeks) we got to see the little one again:

Then I spent some time shopping with a friend at a really great outlet mall and bought a few little things:

Yay! :) We are excited!

Happy 5th Birthday Ben!

It's hard to believe that we have been parents for five years! It doesn't seem like that long, though life has been busy, that's for sure!

Our tiniest baby at 6 lbs. 11 oz.

Blessing day:

Baby Ben:

One year old (2006)

Two years old (2007)

Three years old (2008)

Four years old (2009)

Five years old today (2010):

Ben is my big helper. He's such a good kid, always (okay usually) ready to help me clean up or cheer up his brothers. He wants to be just like his daddy in a lot of ways. Ben prefers to wear long sleeves and pants, with socks and shoes (not his mom's kid!) so with the warmer weather, we have had to do a lot of talking about dressing for the temperature!  He also has his daddy's ear for music, and will sit down at the piano and  quickly figure out how to plunk out whatever tune he has in his head. He's going to start piano lessons with Daddy this week! One of his gifts (shhhh) is his first piano book.  

He is really excited to be going to Kindergarten in the fall and loves to write- he gets better and better all the time. He is excited to be reading more and more and loves to practice that, he's getting much more patient with it and just can't get enough. He also loves to draw, and often draws his "inventions". Such a creative kid! We are always impressed with how quickly he catches onto new things and remembers them.

Yesterday in church, he had his first Primary assignment to give the scripture and closing prayer in church. He practiced hard with Daddy until he was ready to say the first part of the 6th Article of Faith, big words and all, and he got it perfectly! He also said the prayer and did a great job! We had talked about how prayers at church are different than prayers at home and he did great! 

Not sure if this will show up, but I'm trying to add the video we took when we got home of him saying his Article of Faith:

(I will try to add this video later, I'm not sure why it's so hard to get a 30 second video up on the web!)

We are so proud of Ben and what a great kid he is. He amazes us every day. We love you Ben, Happy Birthday!!!!

Tractor rides!

It's that time again- finally we are mowing again and that means time for tractor rides! The boys love it when we pull them around the yard in the trailer. This was the first ride of the year, and they had a blast!

(Excuse the crappy iPhone pics)

Easter!

We had a fun Easter. The boys were excited to see what the Easter bunny had brought them and then we all went to hunt for eggs in the backyard (in our jammies).

Jon was very carefully walking with his basket, but didn't care that much about the eggs once he had one and found that something was rattling inside!

The bigger boys were really nice about helping each other find the same amount of eggs. The Easter bunny was pretty tricky with hiding places, they loved it!

The best part of their loot: the bubble "shooters"!

We watched a little conference, did a little baking, and had dinner with the family at Grandma and Grandpa's that night. It was a fun day!

Redecorating for Spring!

Even though Spring seems to have come and gone in a week around these parts, we did enjoy the beautiful blossoms on our trees while they lasted. I took these new pictures of the boys in their new Easter duds outside in our yard. Of course, that means it's the perfect time to get rid of the winter/snow blog header and freshen things up a bit!

(I did actually post as well as changing the look, there are two new posts below if you missed them!)

"Field trip" to the fire station!

For playgroup a couple of weeks ago, we got to tour the fire station down the road. The boys LOVED it, every bit of it. We watched a fire safety video (with rockin’ music that Jon and Chris liked), and got to see where the firefighters lived and check out all of the equipment and the big fire truck. It was all very exciting.

This was a morning where we got a bizzard, hence the coats and hats...

(Thanks to Karen for this "real" pic! I forgot my camera and the others were taken with my iPhone)

The most exciting part, the fire truck!

Learning about the truck, the tools, and the fireman gear. Jon was even loving it :)

They got to walk through the cab of the truck and out the other side. Jon even let the fireman lift him in and out without crying about it!

Firehats for everyone!!!

 It was a great time. Thanks Bianca for putting that together!

Under and (so) over the weather...

The last month has brought us weird weather- lovely days intermixed with gray rainy days and sometimes snow days. We also were a little "under the weather" for a week or so when a nasty stomach bug came our way.....

Once everyone felt better, we were able to enjoy the days when it was nice. The boys have been outside a LOT on the good days.

Thankfully everyone is feeling good now, and this week, we are now enjoying some 80 degree weather and waiting for it to the pool to warm up a little so we can swim!