halloween 2013

Playing the nose picking game at a Halloween carnival.

 Pratt's pumpkin started with several colors visible.  It ended up with just one. 

 In their element.

 Next year she can have the single color pumpkin!

 There is nothing that Google and Chad can't do together, including paint a pumpkin.

 I love this family photo for sooo many reasons!  Mostly because it captures a snippet of each of their personalities.

tidbits

Since Aimee created the stick on party hat on my last birthday, it has become a fashion statement around here.  Pratt makes a great model for it.

 People here are so panicky about the weather.  After a good snow storm, school was canceled and the boys got to have Aimee home to play in the snow with!

 The kiddos have figured out how to use the camera on my phone.  I guess May wasn't a fan of being pestered for pictures by her big sis.

 Chad caught Aimee's stomach flu bug.  He came home from work early and spent the evening with a "puke bowl."  The next morning he went to work as usual.  Being the conscientious girl that she is, Aimee prepared a bed for him, complete with pillow night stand and reading material, so that if he had to come home sick again he would have a nice place to rest.

 My dad sometimes used to let one of us kids drive the last mile home from church.  It was a straight road out in the sticks where there wasn't a lot of chance to have any problems.  Chad was the cool dad, and let Porter do a little driving of his own.  Porter pretty much thought he was the coolest kid alive!

I love being the primary chorister in my ward!  The only draw back is that when the primary sings, I can't just oogle over my own kids.  I made Chad take a little snippet at our ward Christmas party of my babies vocalizing. 

sleepover

Call us lame, but we have decided that our kiddos won't do sleep-overs with friends.  We have our reasons.  They do however, love having sleep-overs with each other.  I think Porter still misses sharing a room with his best friend, Aimee.  We finally had to make a rule that if they had a sleep over and got too chatty they would have to go back to their own rooms.  I guess be near each other is enough because it worked, and they go right to bed.  We also had to just narrow it down to Friday nights.  I think they would do it every other night if we let them, but it can really throw the mornings off.

 

Usually we just through a thick blanket on the ground as a short mattress.  They hit the big time last time and got to all share the air mattress.  Pratt fell off several times, and didn't wake up there the next morning, but it must not have been too bad because they were all bummed when we put it away.

may moments

This beautiful beefy baby of mine makes me smile every single day.  From her wrist rolls to her dimple bum and all of her other squishes, I adore her!  My biggest complaint is just that she is too big!  Don't get me wrong, I am loving everything about having a chubby baby, except that because she is so much bigger than her siblings, I feel like I am loosing my tiny baby faster.  Here are just a few moments I've caught glimpses of in the last month.

May is now playing/eating toys.

Pretty much anything will do as a pacifier

 Has the best open mouth smile of all time!

 This was taken during breakfast.  May usually sits in her bumbo while we eat.  I don't know how much longer she will be content with that...

 Going through these pictures of May, you might notice a trend.  Aimee.  Aim can't get enough of her little sister!  Now that May is a little bigger, Aimee is loving that she can cart her around and use her as a doll.  She even told me she doesn't need dolls anymore because she has her Maymay (this is what Aimee calls her).  Aimee is giver her a ride on the rocking horse while they watch a movie.

 Saturday morning means Aimee can be my big helper with May while I start of chores.

 

 May has started eating rice cereal.  She loves it!  She grabs my hand that is holding the spoon and pulls it toward her mouth.  This particular day, all that hard work put her to sleep part way through.

 I snapped this one before I tamed her hair for the day, and glued her bow in.  This doesn't even begin to show how funny her hair can be.

Nothing beats a cuddle with some favorite people!

 I love this picture with all of my heart!  After a blowout I put May in the sink to contain the poo during the clean-up phase.  It shows off her chub that I am in love with!

 I was testing out May's Pebbles hair do for Halloween.  Not a bad little fountain on top of her  fuzzy head if I do say so!

 While Aimee was "babysitting" for me, she constructed a bed for May so that she could watch her little show in comfort.

 Aimee and her sister doll never get old!

meditation

Chad basically gets the kids wound up as tight as a drum every night before bedtime.  I guess they have worn themselves out enough during the day that they still manage to go the sleep?  One night I told Chad that he needed to help everyone settle down before bedtime.  He decided to reach deep inside himself and expose his inner monk.  Meditation!

They tried really hard to follow his lead, but in the end, it only lasted a few minutes, then they went right back to playing ninjas, wrestling, and chase.  Maybe Chad needs to reach a little deeper.

young's dairy 2013

This year we looked forward to our new found tradition of visiting Young's Dairy.  Knowing what to expect and how to plan made it even more enjoyable than the previous year.  We got there early, so that we could eat lunch and get the most out of the day before babies got tired or grouchy.  One of Chad's fellow ortho residents was there with his blond little toddler.  His wife had to work, and he was flying solo.  I think he watched Chad and I as we portioned out plates from a large "community plate" dished at the buffet line, took turns making several return trips for more food, napkins or drinks, and rolled sleeves, and wiped hands and mouths, he thought we were nuts.  We recognize that according to the standards of some, our family of six, with four kids five and under, is crazy.  We love it!

This year we tried our hands at mini golf.  We quickly learned a few things.  First, I was awesome, and Chad struggled.  Second, our kids are still too little to worry about trying to follow rules or keep score.  Third, it takes a long time for kiddos determined to get the ball in the hole themselves.

We also spent quite a bit of time in the Kids Corner.  Here they have a great bounce house, slides, tunnels, a corn box (like a sand box but with corn), and a small climbing wall.

Taking a short hay rack ride works out by merging our old tradition of Vala's Pumpkin Patch with our new one here at Young's Dairy.

We searched and searched to find just the right pumpkin.  Maybe it was a tad mean, but it was fun to watch Pratt pull our pumpkin wagon on the muddy, bumpy trail, around other pumpkins and over vines.  When we found our winner, Aimee did the honors of clipping the stem.  Porter helped me scout out our pumpkin.

It took us a few attempts to get a turn on the barrel train ride.  There was a bit of stormy weather, and for some crazy reason they didn't run it when it was raining!  

When we decided we'd had our fill, we hit up the picnic one last time to get some of the left over Young's Dairy ice cream to take home.  That was not the best decision for our health, but I just have such a hard time turning up free!  Either way, it was a great end to a fun family day!

biker girl

Chad put off teaching Aimee to ride a bike for a long time.  He was afraid of the scraped knees, and bloody elbows that inevitably follow.  Not because of the blood, but because of whose blood.  When I was a kid I remember my dad running up and down the road a few times with me until I figured out the balance, helping me turn a couple of times, and then cheering me on as I braved it alone.  Chad had a really hard time with the cheering part, and to be honest, so did Aimee.  She was ready to quit when she had had just one solo stretch where Chad never left her side.  I walked up and down the sidewalk with the boys and may