Spencer does some things I love.
He puts both hands in his mouth – at the same time:
He puts both hand in his mouth, at the same time – while swaddled:
He plays with his feet:
He smiles and coos:
And yesterday I think he was giving kisses. Huge, slobbery, open-mouthed kisses. Adorable.
Adorable, yes.
Sleeping through the night? Still no. UGH!
I’ve been trying to teach Brooke about rhyming words. This has proved a hard concept to grasp. She fixates on the beginning sounds of the words and fails to notice the similarity between the ending sounds. Example:
Me: “Cat, hat. They rhyme. Cat, hat.”
Brooke: “Cat, cake. They rhyme.”
Me: “No, they have the same beginning sound, but rhyming words have the same ending sound.”
Repeat, repeat, repeat.
Then, the other day, we were reading a book. The character’s name was Coop. Brooke stopped me midsentence and said, “Mom! That rhymes! Coop, POOP!”
Did I learn nothing as a first grade teacher? I should have known the key to understanding would be relating the lesson to bodily functions.
Every evening I try to clean up the day’s clutter and go to bed with a reasonably clean house.
Some mornings my efforts at cleanliness are already wasted before I have even woken up for the day. I’m talking about the mornings when Brooke and Caroline decide to scatter toys, art supplies, and food everywhere before I’ve taken the time to fully open my eyes, get out of bed, and face the day. On those days, I wake up to this:
It’s sort of hard to fully appreciate the magnitude of the mess just from these pictures. In the pictures, you can’t tell that all the tiny pieces to checkers, Chinese checkers, chess, and mancala are scattered all over the living room. You also can’t see the crumbs from the goldfish, the crackers, and the EIGHT granola bars ground into the counter, floor, and couch. Also realize that although the girls have made messes that were much worse, they did all of this damage in less than thirty minutes. They work fast. When they’re making messes, that is. Cleaning up is a completely different story.
However, strangely enough, I prefer waking up to the above mess than to this:
Yes, you can see a wonderfully clean living room, but do you know what you can’t see?
Brooke.
You also can’t see the front door that was wide open on this particular morning. I had an escapee on my hands.
Luckily, after a few minutes of searching I found Brooke passing the time at a neighbor’s house playing with his toys. He was moving that day, and I think Brooke heard all the commotion and decided to investigate. When she found her friend’s door wide open with toys in sight, she couldn’t resist.
And I couldn’t resist giving her a stern talking to and placing a child safety door knob cover on our front door. Luckily she hasn’t figured out how to work those things yet, but have no fear – I’m sure it will make another exciting story for the blog when she does.
I was born in Utah, but when I was young my family moved away. When we would come back to visit my grandparents, they would always take us in the mountains for a cookout. We LOVED going up in the mountains, climbing on rocks, getting filthy, throwing things in the fire, and roasting marshmallows.
Since all my brothers were in town for Ben’s homecoming, we decided to give our children the experience of cooking out in the mountains. It was a blast. Here’s proof:
I think Luke looks adorable in this picture (click to enlarge, if needed):
It proved a little difficult to get the fire going…
…so the girls passed the time eating Cheetos:
Spencer preferred to sleep through the commotion:
I forgot what was making Brooke giggle in this next picture, but I’m pretty sure it had to do with Abe threatening to torture her in some way:
Brooke and Luke making leaf masks:
Emma dared Ben to eat a strawberry nestled between two pieces of hot dog. Why not? He just got back from Malaysia; he’s eaten much worse.
Caroline – ever the diligent mother to her baby – took time out from her playing to change her baby’s diaper:
My favorite picture of the outing:
In order to get to that huge rock, all the kids had to climb up this big hill:
When it was time to leave, the kids huddled at the top trying to decide how to get down. Brooke showed them her preferred method of descent:
Three out of four kids agree – sliding down on your bum is the way to go!
Happy times!
My brother’s mission homecoming, in pictures. Here we go!
Eli and Caroline sharing a stroller:
My brothers, Jacob and Abe:
My Dad holding the posters which were supposed to say “Welcome home!” and “Watch out ladies – Ben’s home!” but apparently the meaning got lost in translation. Oops.
Brooke and Natalie’s welcome home posters:
The whole group:
Apparently meeting his uncle for the first time wasn’t enough motivation to keep Spencer awake:
The kids occupied themselves during the wait by playing with the escalator. The story varies, but one reliable source says she saw Brooke push Caroline onto the moving stairs. This resulted in Caroline screaming and trembling in fear as she began ascending to the heavens while everything she knew and loved stayed behind. After a quick rescue effort, all was once again right in her world.
My aunt Nani, my Mom, and my Grandma:
My Mom and Dad (this picture is showing the tears already in their eyes though their son had yet to make his grand appearance):
Caroline wearing a poster as a dress:
And there he is!
Ben telling us never to trust Google translate again:
Ah, someone finally decided to wake up!
Yes, dirty, disgusting baby had to be at the airport to greet Ben. After all, she is a member of the family according to Caroline:
All the siblings reunited at last:
Welcome home, Ben!
