Copy-cat

Conversation between Mike and Benson...
M: Ben, what do you want to drink?
B: I want apple juice with ice because I am so not a fan of warm apple juice.

I love it when my kids pick up things I say all the time...except when it's bad and then I don't. :)

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For any interested parties, it is significantly harder to get a decent picture of 4 kids than it was with 3...but still totally worth it.

(all 207 pictures weren't of all 4 of them, but most of them were...and this was the ONE that looks semi-decent..and that was with the help of "happy pills" aka jelly beans and a father who is willing to look like this)

**yes I did have on a purple shirt and we already wore our new Easter clothes since next Sunday is General Conference, we know it's still a week away.

Memories

I took a picture of Mike and Jillian the Sunday before last that I love. I love it because I think Mike looks so handsome in it and because Jilly looks so old and so adorable. I love it because I remember the feelings that I had when I was taking it and they come back every time I look at it. I love that I can remember what was happening in the background at the time.


As I was sitting down to post it, I realized that I can think of one picture of each of our children with their Dad that makes me feel the same way. Every time I look at these pictures I remember so well how I felt at the time.






I love these kids a lot, but I REALLY love their daddy. And that is how it should be.

66Six66

Benson turns 6 years old today. Actually he technically won't be 6 until 8:50pm PST, which is especially confusing since it's already daylight savings time, but it won't be until sometime later this evening. I realized tonight as I was laying next to Benson telling him the story of the day he was born that he was born on a Monday. Sunday, March 14th, 2004, was my official due date and I remember being not very happy that I had to go to church STILL pregnant on that Sunday. That night Mike and I went on a very long walk, hoping that that would help something happen. And it did. I woke up around midnight having contractions that got progressively more painful and closer together. It was a long day of laboring and I was SO relieved when he was finally born. I told him tonight that I don't think he really cried at all when he was born. Maybe just a few short wails, and then he just looked around with his eyes wide open taking in the world. I spent so much time that night just touching his little face because I couldn't believe that he was really here and really ours.

Benson is such a special kid. He has been blessed with so many strengths and talents. He loves learning and has such an incredible capacity to retain all of the information he takes in. Everything he says sounds smart. Just the other day he came out to breakfast and I asked him how he was feeling and after he snorted some major mucus he said "I just sucked the boogers up this nasal passage." Yum. He is a sweet and protective older brother and loves to be his dad's buddy. He has reminded us the last several days that he came first and is the oldest in our family. Oh how we love our Benson boy!


We have already had several celebrations for his birthday. Since this week is Spring Break and Friday was an Early Release Day, Grace and I brought cupcakes and Capri Sun's to Benson's class on Thursday afternoon. His latest interest is Space and the Solar System so I frosted the cupcakes black and put white stars all over them. I also made some Solar System Bingo cards and brought them for his class to play with m&m's as markers since we aren't doing a party this year. He loved it which made the crazy morning I had trying to get everything all ready while tending several other children worth it.



On Friday afternoon after school, Benson helped me make his Solar System Birthday cake. Then around dinner Grandpa Jeff, Grandma Stacey, and Aunt Sarah arrived to spend the night on their way out to Utah. We had sloppy joes and tater tots for dinner (Benson's request) and cake and ice cream. He opened his presents from Grace and Sabrina, Aunt Jenny, and Grandma and Grandpa gave him his new bike. His present from us this year is a trip to Kansas City to do some fun things. Actually we are going on little overnight trips for each of the kid's birthdays this year; we are hoping the memories will last longer than toys!
1 - Ben opening Grace and Sabrina's presents, 2 - The new bike, 3 - Shirts from Aunt Jenny (Thanks!), 4-6 - Grandpa and Benson playing with the Noise Putty the girls got for him. Notice in the first picture Benson is trying to get it from Grandpa but Grandpa's not giving it up. They had lots of fun making disgusting noises together.


And yes, we did include Pluto on our Solar System cake. We know it's not a planet anymore, but as Benson said "It's still a part of our Solar System." I couldn't argue with that.

Happy Birthday to our favorite 6 year old!

Sabrina's New Mission in Life

is to get Jillian to laugh. Which makes everyone laugh.

Growing Up Too Fast

I've noticed over the years that there are times when I look at my kids and think that they look so much older all of a sudden. It especially happens when we have a new baby, the previous baby grows up over night. Well, lately every time I look at Grace I think she looks older.

Grace seriously adds so much spice to our lives. She loves to be silly and crazy and make everyone laugh. If you are familiar with "The Five Love Languages" book, Grace is a big time words of affirmation kid. All we have to do to get Grace to repeat any behavior is tell her how much we appreciate what she's doing or how proud we are of her. She is eager to please. She is our only kid we can effectively punish by sending her to her room. Lately when she is sent there, I can hear her in there yelling "I hate the bed, I hate the door, I hate the blanket" or whatever else crosses her mind. It is hard not to laugh because I so remember feeling and probably acting that way as a little kid/preteen/teenager. Girls are SO emotional from a very young age.

These pictures were taken while we were playing outside the other day. At ballet they have been doing Freeze Dance where they dance until the music stops and they have to freeze. So here are some examples of Grace's Freeze Dance poses. Except there was no music outside, and nobody told her to dance. Crazy girl!

Grace and I fight about her hair on an almost daily basis. I threaten that we are going to cut it off all the time and she always cries and says no way! She is so picky about how it is done and it is just so long, I have to put so much effort into making it look nice. I think we really will cut it off for the summer, but I'm hoping I can convince her that it's a good idea because I don't want to force her.

Here's a little interview I did with Grace around Valentine's Day.

Tender Heart

I used to describe Sabrina as shy, but recently I've decided that describing her as tender hearted is a much more accurate description. Some examples:

Sabrina is now a Sunbeam at church and loves to be in Primary with Benson, Grace, and I each Sunday. Last month, Sabrina had the opportunity to give a talk. We had practiced with her and she was ready. Mike was going to help her but when they got over to the podium she started to get a little teary and say that she wanted Mommy to help her. By the time I got to the podium and handed Jillian to Mike so that I could help Sabrina she was bawling. I held her for a minute and tried to convince her that she could give the talk, but she insisted all she could do was hold the pictures. So I started giving the talk with her holding the pictures. A few pictures in I started whispering her the words and she was able to finish the talk and did a great job!

Sabrina is such a good helper with Jillian and loves her SO much! One Saturday recently I was at the grocery store with Grace and Benson, Sabrina, and Jilly were home with Mike. I had been gone for a while and Jillian was getting hungry. Mike gave Jilly to Sabrina to hold while he went to use the bathroom. By the time he got back to the girls, Jillian was screaming and Sabrina was inconsolable because Jillian was so upset and she couldn't help her. So sweet.

Sabrina is such a good helper. Her favorite chore to help with is folding laundry or "packing" as she likes to call it. Here she is with a stack of towels that she folded all by herself. She is always willing to run get whatever I might need for Jillian.

Sabrina's imagination and pretend play is constant and so fun to watch and participate in. Her most favorite thing to do recently is make food for me and have picnics. Here she is with one all set up, wearing the bunny ears and fairy wings.

We love Sabrina's sweet little voice; she has quite the vocabulary and it's especially fun to listen to her talk when she gets really excited because she can't seem to get the words out fast enough.

Right after Jillian was born, Sabrina had ear infections in both ears. We assumed the medicine she was given cleared them up but when I took her to the doctor again the second week of February she also had ear infections in both ears. I attributed her grouchiness and just being difficult from December - February to adjusting to the new baby, but I'm pretty sure her first round of ear infections never cleared up all the way. Poor thing. Since her second round of antibiotics she has seemed much happier, and for that we are grateful!

Sweet baby Jilly

Jillian turned 3 months old on March 1st. She's growing like a weed and getting cuter every day. Here are some of her new tricks.

Her smiles are getting bigger and more frequent.

She has discovered that she has hands and likes to look at them, cross-eyed mostly.

She can put her hands together and bring them up to her mouth and suck on them.


Her neck strength is improving. She can lift her head up while she is laying on her tummy for short periods of time.


She is becoming quite the talented spit bubble blower.


A few days ago I might have said that she is starting to spit up less, but after the last few days I take that back. Right now she has her first yucky cold. We have had to suck out her nose numerous times today which she of course is not a fan of. She has been sleeping through the night for almost a month. She goes down around 9 or 9:30pm and doesn't usually get up until around 6am. She is NOT a fan of the bottle, but when I'm gone and she gets really hungry, Mike can keep her happy as long as he holds her. She also loves her binky which helps when she has to wait for a little while to eat. We love, love, love this sweet baby girl! Here are a few more pictures that I like from the last few weeks.


Mommy and baby

Sisters (Grace and Sabrina love to wear their Big Sister shirts!)