More iPad Photos

Porter's been playing a little B-ball and loving it.  He's pretty timid on the court but he really enjoys playing and since we started bribing him with quarters he's gotten a little more aggressive.  He even managed to make the first basket of the ONLY game they won!  He was pretty stoked, as were his parents.  Porter also turned 9 this week (party pictures to follow)! 

Bennett has been keeping us in stitches.  He has such a funny personality.  The night these pictures were taken he wanted to look "cool" so he kept coming up to us with different accessories of coolness until I just had to snap a picture of the epitome of "cool".  Bennett is also super interested in Power Rangers as of late (much to my dismay).  I keep trying to convince him to watch Curious George or Kipper but all he wants is Power Rangers.  He also loves to ask me "why do we have to listen to parents" "why does Jesus want us to listen to parents" "why can't we just do what we want to do".  Tough concepts for a 4 year old.

Maya's new nick name is Jinx-e-cat.  She loves to get you to sing a song with her and then yell JINX when you say the same words as her (I personally think that is cheating but what do I know).  She also has a fondness for the game Ticket to Ride.  We downloaded the iPad app and we are all hooked.  The digital version is so much easier than the board game because 1-the computer does all the math for you and 2-little brothers can demolish a board game in on swoop.

Miles has been up to his same mischievous ways.  Talk about terrible twos!  It's a good think he's so stinking cute because he can sure be a stinker.  A few weeks after Christmas he broke his Night Fury DVD trying to get it out of the DVD case (he's strictly forbidden from touching the DVD's) so last week I decided he'd learned his lesson and bought him another copy only to have him break it again this morning Arrr. 

Ender got his ear tubes and still seems to be unable to kick the crummies.  I really hope that come summer all his worries will be forgotten.  He just keeps getting little colds and now that he has the ear tubes he gets some pretty wicked drainage coming from his ears (sorry if that's too graphic for some audiences).  He has his follow up appointment this week so we'll see what they have to say.  We all love having this little guy around.  This morning Porter was telling me that he let Ender play with his littlest basketball he said "Ender was just chewing and chewing on it, he's so cute I can't hardly stand it!"  I would have to say Ender's favorite hobby right now is playing in the trash.  He also loves being carried around all the time.  Luckily he's a little guy and fairly easy to lug around. 

Broken camera and a few random stories...

 I swear I have more camera problems than anyone I know.  Once again our camera is being quirky but my hubby decided to spoil me rotten for my birthday and got me an iPAD!!!  So these pictures are all courtsey of the iPad.  A few weeks ago I was at a presidency meeting for primary and someone commented on my Ugg boots and I said "Oh, my dad got them for me.  He's the only one who spoiles me."  Now I guess I have to take it back because Casey has been totally pampering me.  He also got me a new purse and lots of fun stuff to fill it, a new watch (this is a BIG DEAL), and he made me a cake (also a big deal because I've been dieting for like a month), he also had the kids make me coupons (Porter's was to clean the toy room every day for a week (WOW), Maya's was to "not touch my iPad without asking" and  Bennett's was for "One really good snuggle").  I have to admit when I first learned about iPads I though they were a pretty silly invention but I'm totally hooked. 

 Typically when Miles wakes up in the morning he knocks on the door and calls for Daddy.  This morning he was crying so I went in to check on him and he was in his bed with his head covered just crying.  I walked over and pulled the cover down and when he saw me he pointed to a pair of pants on the floor and said "LOOK".  I looked and said "What is it?".  Then he said "It's a monkey!"  I told him it wasn't a monkey it was pants then I asked him if he was scared and he said he was so I tuned on the light and showed him it was just a pair of pants.  Then he wanted his curious George stuffed animal so Maya got it for him and he cuddled it for a minute then he asked for his George warmie and his George blanket.  It was so funny because he was scared about a monkey but he wanted his Curious George stuff to comfort him, and he is usually not scared of anything.  What a little goofball.

 Maya is the roller skating lunatic.  She has her roller skates on non stop.  I think we need a basement with a concrete floor in our next house.  She also a bit of a book worm.  I love finding her curled up with a book just reading.  I've even caught her reading when the TV is turned on which is saying something because Maya LOVES TV. 

 Porter is in Basketball right now and really seems to be loving it.  His team has yet to win a game, but that doesn't dampen his spirits (one of his goals this year is to win a basketball game).  Funny story about Porter...at the first basketball practice the coach had the boys practice lay-ups and Porter (having never done a lay-up) had in his mind that you should toss the ball into the air and then pump you knee into the air and with your knee bump the ball into the basket.  I'm sure you can imagine what a hilarious sight it was to see him attempt this maneuver.  He was a great sport about it.  One of his teammates was just cracking up and Porter laughed right along with him, but after the practice he said "I didn't know basketball was so hard, I don't think I want to do the practices anymore".  Luckily for us he kept at it and now loves going to the practices and games (even though he still feels confused some of the time).

 Poor Ender has been sick for over two months now.  He just keeps getting one ear infection after another.  He was on 4 different antibiotics (and got a bad diaper rash with each) then the doctor said the only other thing they could do was to give him antibiotic injections every day for three days.  So we went into the office every day and he got a shot in each of his little chubby baby legs three days in a row.  He seemed to get better but she set up an appointment for him to see the ENT just in case and by the time we went in for that appointment his ears were infected again so he is scheduled to get ear tubes next week.  I was really nervous about the ear tubes.  I had a lot of bad information and was pretty adamant he would grow out of it, but after talking with other moms and the doctors I feel much more hopeful.  I'm just tired of seeing the little guy so miserable.  Lucky for me he is such a good baby, even when he's sick. 

Bennett loves piles of laundry (clean or dirty).  Anytime there is a pile of laundry on the floor he burrows in it like a little hamster.  After we got back from Christmas we had a large pile of laundry on our bedroom floor and Bennett kept calling it his 'Island', and he was really upset when we got around to putting all the clothes away.

Christmas Time

 The Holidays always make it harder to get back into the swing of things.  That is especially true with blogging and I always get frustrated because those are the times there are so many thing I want to document.  By the time I get around to actually blogging about it I'm afraid I've forgotten a lot, but at least I have a few pictures to spark my memory. 

 Casey and I started dieting after Thanksgiving and had a goal to continue until Christmas, which took some of the fun out of cookie making, but the kids enjoyed it none the less.

 As a bonus we were spared that question of "I wondered if anyone drooled in these cookies" since we did not eat any.

 For Christmas we went to my parents house and had a great time seeing everyone.  We have a tradition of visiting a local candy shop where they do demonstrations of candy making, but when we arrived on Christmas eve we were informed they no longer do demonstrations on Christmas eve.  It was a little disappointing but Nana and Grampy bought each kid a candy and all our troubles were forgotten!

 Bennett saw a box of Hello Kitty Jelly Beans when we first walked in and was super glad he got to take them home.  Silly little guy.

Hanny and Ender...Look at those BEAUTIFUL smiles!

Sarah and I got together and decided to make the kids some Christmas jammies when we found flannel super cheep on Black Friday.  I hurriedly volunteered to make the boys pants and she was stuck making the girls these impossibly adorable night gowns.  They were super precious.  I'm glad Sarah did it because I'm sure mine wouldn't have turned out near as nice.  As it was 3 of the boys pants (that I know of) ripped out in the crotch.  Following are a few of the group photos.  None of them turned out well but of course I've included them for posterity sake.  Bennett please notice your face in photo #1, Ella please notice that even with the bell we let you play with you were still a stinker, Ender see what a cheesy angry face you have? who could possibly take you seriously? Miles the only reason you were not caught on film being mischievous is because you were so so tired (too tired to act up, and that's saying something).  Big kids see what great sports you were holding the little squirmys while your parents tortured you with photo after photo after photo...

Once the wee ones are all snug in their new jammies and tucked in their beds the real fun starts.  Fancy dinner.  LOVE IT!  All the adults get to enjoy a delicious dinner and fabulous conversation in peace.  The only change I would make would be to have it EVERY NIGHT!  I was going to try to recap some of the memorable moments of fancy dinner but I thought Hanny wouldn't appreciate me discussing her little melt down, and talking about how amazing the salad was would only make me hungry, so I'll skit the recap.

Christmas morning, waiting to go down the stairs to see what Santa brought is torture.  Somehow Ender found a candy cane to make his wait a little more bearable.

You can see Landon is positively bursting with excitement.

Hanny and Miles who look like they are equally eager to sprint down the stairs and slash open the packages...or catch a few more Z's.

Maya got a hat loom (which I think I enjoy more than her) and MAKE UP!!!  She loves the make up and makes me think "This must have been what Lady GaGa was like as a child".  Yikes!  She also got roller skates (santa), an owl blankie, rice warmer, and the dreaded make up (nana and grampy), clothes (grammy and poppy), and a remote control little petshop car (siblings).

Miles got a night fury plushie that I lovingly stitched and have not taken the time to lovingly repair as it's legs dangle dangerously close to dismemberment.  He also got Trio blocks (santa), clothes & books (grammy and poppy), a curious George blankie, rice warmer, and curious George stuffed animal (nana and grampy),

Porter was the lucky recipient of a buckeyes jersey (which he would wear every second if I'd let him), receiving gloves, roller skates (santa), a model airplane and paints (dad), an Ohio state blanket, warmie, and pillow pet (nana and grampy), an xbox (grammy and poppy got this for the whole family) and video games for the xbox (uncle will and aunt nicole).

 

Bennett got trio blocks (santa), church clothes(mom), wooden cars (will and nicole), books, straws and juice boxes(the kid loves to drink), and a robot blanket warmie and remote control robot (nana and grampy).

The roller skates were a huge success.  We even went to goodwill and bought all the skates we could find so all the kids could roller skate at the church together.  They had a great time!  It's great to have cousins.

Some kids got a little worn out...

But they quickly pepped back up!

Christmas Makes You CRAZY!

Pre-dawn jitters and uncontained excitement tend to cause jubilant and extreme euphoric conditions amongst a few of the children.

Whirlwind

 The time between Thanksgiving and Christmas always seems like a whirlwind, but typically I feel like I'm just going going going non-stop, but this year I feel like I'm just spinning my wheels.  We have gotten a few things done.  Such as...

 Casey wanted a new TV for Christmas so we purchased and installed that (with a little help from Miles).  Then we promptly felt guilty for spending so much money on a TV and returned it for a much less expensive model.  It may not have all the bells and whistles but we enjoy it none the less.  (in the above picture please note: the adorable wreath (my sister in law Jessica organized the wreath making craft at thanksgiving and I've loved having it), Our newest Christmas tradition "Wilson the Elf" who is resting in the wreath (my mother-in-law sent this little guy to us and it's been a blast having him even though Bennett insists "That guy's not magic"), my adorable advent calendar (Sarah organized the advent calendar craft at thanksgiving and it's been so fun, each day we do a different activity).)

 We got a new (used) tree on Craigslist!  It was super exciting.  Casey picked it up after the kids had gone to bed and we got it all set up and the light put on while they were sleeping so when they woke up they were so excited.  Then they helped us decorate it (one of our advent activities).  (please don't note the cluttered room and shifty tree skirt in the above picture)

 We also attended our ward Christmas party where our wonderful Relief Society president took it upon herself to take family Christmas pictures.  I wish I would have realized what a special treat this was and coordinated outfits.  Maybe next year...

 Porter and Maya joined a choir group at school and they had their performances.  The first performance was at the zoo and we froze our little toes off but they did a great job.  As we walked in Maya got all huffy with Casey because he made her wear her coat and by the end of the evening she was crying because she was so cold.  Daddy knows best. 

As a special treat Porter and I got to go to a Hockey game last night.  Casey got two tickets at work and Porter and I got to go to the game together.  It was so fun and now Porter is totally in love with Hockey.  He's really wanting Hockey gear for Christmas (unfortunately it's a bit late to be making requests).  I hate that I forgot to take the camera to the game.  Porter was so excited and cute!

I think Christmas time is always a little difficult to manage with all the planning, extra activities, buying of gifts, travel plans, and then there is still all the regular stuff.  Every year I think "I really should have done this differently", but I'm learning and maybe by the time I grow up I'll be a pro.