Aspirations...

Jonas provided some much needed comic relief after one of the most stressful afternoons of my life...

As we're eating dinner we're talking about Jonas going or not going to Pre-K.  Bryant said he would have "a lot of fun and sometimes he'd even get his own bus ride."  To which Jonas replied,

"Ya, I'm going to be a bus driver when I grow up... 

and a knight... 

I'm going to 

ride the bus to the castle."

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Bryant had his yearly physical check-up this week too!  I got a sitter for the little boys and picked Bryant up early from school and away we went.  We got to the appointment and somehow he wasn't on the schedule, but he had been on it last week!  I was so frustrated.  I fully, 100% believe that I was right and the appointment line messed up, but that doesn't matter.    I was being nice, but assertive, basically asking what they could do for me that didn't involve rescheduling and coming back in 2 weeks.  I went to a lot of work to get there and I wanted to be seen if at all possible.  So, this extremely nice gal that was checking in at the same time said I could have her daughter's time.  What a sweet lady!  I didn't want to make her miss her appointment, but the lady at the check-in desk said she would ask the doctor what he could do for us.  She said that he would see both of us!  Win-win!  90 minutes later, we finally got called back.  

The big 6 year old isn't so big... He only outweighs Jonas by 2.6 pounds!  Weighing in at 42.6 pounds he is in the 28th percentile.  Can you say, he's his Daddy's boy!?!?  What a cutie (he gets that from his dad, too).He is 45.3 inches tall, putting him in the 45th percentile.  He's been pretty consistently around the 50th percentile for his height for awhile now.  I guess that means he's pretty average height for his age.  I always wonder how these kids will grow up... how tall they'll all end up being... if they will differ much or all be pretty similar in size... Ethan's brothers are all within lie 2 inches of each other, I think.  Mine vary a bit more, with 4-5 inches between the tallest and the shortest.  But my parents are a foot apart in height, maybe that has something to do with it.  Sorry, I'm rambling.He is doing great, aside from some poor sleep habits.  He suffers from insomnia and will lie awake in bed for a couple hours nearly every night.  The doctor suggested feeding him food high in tryptophan for dinner to try to help out, we'll see how it goes.  I don't think it will too big a deal in a month when school is out.  He is just really tired getting up to catch the bus at 7:25 am every morning.

I don't know which picture I like the best to print for his portrait, what do you think?  For some reason he doesn't show his teeth when he smiles, but I have to admit, I'll take that over the fake/forced smile he was doing for awhile. :)

He also had an exam last week.  I've been noticing more and more symptoms of not being able to see clearly, so I finally made Ethan check him out.  Ethan was a bit worried about putting him glasses so young, but after the exam he felt like it would be more beneficial than harmful, so Bryant is the proud owner of these lookers.  Isn't he cute?  He's actually very excited to have them.  He walked around the house for 10 minutes looking at things through his glasses and then without them and commenting on how much clearer things were.  It was pretty cute.  

Guess who's growing up?

We had a photo shoot in our yard with the big boys (for their yearly portrait) and ended up trying to get a good one of all the kids together.  We didn't get any great shots, but a couple decent ones.  I need to figure out how to do photo editing so I can cut and copy between pictures. These are the closest shots to Eliza's 9 month mark.

Eliza is 9 months old already and time is just whizzing by.  She is growing up so much.  In the last month she started hand/knee crawling, feeding herself finger foods, waving, and just in the last week pulling herself up to stand by furniture.  Yesterday she even pulled herself up two stairs before I saw her and had her rescued.  She is getting fast!  She will say "mama" but not specifically.  She loves to play peek-a-boo and especially loves the boys... I'm sure we'll be in trouble as she gets older.  She adores her daddy and her brothers and they all adore her just as much.  She brings lots of smiles to our faces.  

We went in for her 9 month check-up and she is still growing well.  She weighs 20 pounds 9 ounces, putting her in the 75th percentile.  And she is about 28 inches tall, putting her in the 65th percentile.  She seems taller than chubby to me, so I was a little surprised, but she seems to be well proportioned.  She charmed the doctor during her visit just like she charms all of us!

I finally got Jonas in to the doctor for his 4 year well-child check up and he is doing great.  He is off the charts for his height at 44.5 inches and in the 75th percentile for his weight at 40 pounds.  

Jonas' 4 year old portrait

The doctor was impressed with his social maturity and said he seems to be very emotionally secure (or something like that).  They asked if Jonas could draw a person with 3 parts and I had no idea if he could or not.  My kids do not like to draw or color.  Therefore, we don't do it much and I don't have much chance to determine what he can and can't draw.  Though, I know he can draw a J, O, and A as we've been practicing (on the driveway with chalk... about the only way I can get him to enjoy it).  The N and the S in his name are proving to be a bit more tricky, but he'll get there.  

This is SO Jonas.  He is always pulling the silliest faces and making us laugh!

They gave me a list of developmental achievements and he seems to be doing well.  He recently started actually pedaling his trike.  He definitely uses full sentences and sings songs.  He counts, knows his colors and most letters with sounds- though he totally resists "learning" we have to be a lot more creative to get him working on the alphabet.  He washes and dries his hands.  He loves playing with other kids and I guess he's right on track as this is actually one of the checkpoints: "Enjoys make-believe play and dressing-up play.  Imaginative and very curious."  He's got that one down just right.  

We are wondering if we should enroll Jonas is Pre-K next fall.  It is through the school district and free which is great... but it is all day, every day.  I'm torn.  What do you suggest?  Vote in my poll on the sidebar and leave me a comment.  Thanks!

Ethan and I are so lucky to have such fabulous kids!  I am so thankful for the joy they bring into our lives!  They are all so different and each bring something so special to our family.  

Here's your sign...

Looking for a super fun and super cheap date?  Well, have we got one for you... all you need is a car and a camera (a date helps too).  Jump in the car and snap pictures of any signs you encounter that make you laugh.  That's what we did a couple weeks ago and it was a BLAST!!!  

Here are a couple of our gems... keep in  mind, we live in an extremely Christian town.  Its been called the Belt Buckle of the Bible Belt.  The churches (there are TONS) usually have some great ones, but unfortunately we missed our opportunity to capture the sign that said, "Hey Teens!  Is Church WHACK?!"  Does it get much better than that?  You be the judge...

Is Blue Bell making water now? I'll bet its real good.

And stay out!

It's time for Granny's monthly bath.  A one piece and some goggles and she's good to go.

The American Dream.

For the serious Christian...

We like to call him "Fertility Phil."

Prrrr...

Just think... you could sleep in a different room every night for 82 days!

After the sermon, we'll be having a meet and greet with the Verizon rep.

Don't forget the rummage sale this Saturday.

Right next door to our church...

My favorite flavor: Lemone Chickone. Ah Garontee.

No mullets allowed!  That means you, Billy Ray.

Next time you're there, can you pick me up some human hair?

Get your teeth cleaned and your back waxed all in one stop!

In the land of Dairy Queen, we treat you right?

I just want to add that since I am totally not funny, Ethan came up with most of the captions, its just posted under my name because I'm on a blogging spree!

Slacker...

...not you, me.  I have been such a blog slacker lately.  I have been trying to catch us up, but I'm putting the posts in chronological order, so if you want to see our St. Patrick's Day festivities or Bryant's Birthday or our "almost alone" trip to San Antonio click on their respective links or just keep on scrolling down, down, down.

Eeww....bleck!

For another "activity time" we made oobleck from Skip to My Lou.  It is amazing stuff!  The description on her website says that its hard if you come at fast and hard, but liquidy if you move it slowly.  I wasn't sure I believed her... it was fascinating to play with.  Both Levi and Jonas got tired of playing in it before I did. :)

Here is a picture of it oozing more like a liquid...

When you move it really fast you can get it to hold a form, but don't let it sit on your hand too long or it will start to slide down your wrist like slime...

Quick passes between his hands and you'd think he was holding a ball...

Seriously, you should try this stuff... even if you don't have kids. :)

General Conference

I love General Conference!!!  It is such a delight to hear the words of our Father in Heaven from His chosen leaders of His church!  There were so many sweet moments.  As a newly called primary president, I really appreciated the sister from the Primary talking about reverence and respect.  Of course, Elder Holland's words spoke peace to my soul, as they did again when I watched the recent Easter film put out by the church.  I had another confirmation from the spirit that Thomas S. Monson is truly God's chosen prophet on the earth today.  

To get us ready for Conference, we played a game called "pin the mouth on the prophet."  Because the prophet is the mouthpiece of the Lord.  It was pretty fun.  Here are our results.

For our treat, we went with the mouth theme and had face cookies... the kids loved this!

I just love Eliza.  She is so much fun!  She sat quietly like the good girl she is and peaked around her highchair.  Such a sweetie!

The kids weren't too interested in listening come Sunday morning (they did do pretty well on Saturday).  They were more interested in dressing up and getting Dad in on the action.

Later, they were content to "read" books while we finished the last session. Jonas and Levi will both just sit with a book for the longest time and look at all the pictures.  The current book is Spiderwick Chronicles. 

We did have some Conference related activities for them, like BINGO and a wordsearch and some coloring activities.  However, they are ACTIVE little boys and 8 hours of Conference just isn't as exciting to them as it is to me... 

Happy Anniversary!

To my wonderful husband,

Thanks for making the last 8 years the most wonderful in my life!  I love you and am so excited to spend the rest of forever with you!  You are the best!

Love,

Kim