Our fifth son!

We now are the proud host parents of a foreign exchange student from Brazil! He came to us on September 15th, around 2pm, at a tall 6'2"-ish, and 16 years old. His name is Leo.

How did we end up hosting an exchange student, you ask? Well, a woman in our neighborhood works for a organization that places exchange students, and she asked me if we were interested- not once, not twice, but three times! The first two times, I pretty quickly said "no" thinking it would just be too difficult with 4 kids of our own and a foreign exchange student shoved into 2 bedrooms, plus I figured Nate wouldn't be interested (which he initially wasn't). But, the third time's the charm, and we agreed (Nate was surprisingly easy to convince). Initially, we were going to host a student that needed to be relocated due to being in a bad situation, but that had some issues that took some time to resolve, so we were sent a list of other students that needed new host families asap. When I saw that there was a boy from Brazil on the list, I knew Nate would want him to be the one to join our family for the next year, so I let Kristene know (our neighborhood friend), filled out all the paperwork and the rest all happened pretty quick- only about a week from agreeing to host to Leo's arrival.

Here's Leo:


We love having Leo living with us! The boys love having an older brother and Leo said that his favorite thing about being here is having brothers (he only has a 3-year-old sister).

So, do you want to host a foreign exchange student? There's always more kids that need a Host Family.

School Pictures Are Here!!!

Overall, I can't complain about how the boys' pictures turned out. Jefferson's hair didn't stay put, Jackson's freckles kind-of make his face look dirty, and Mason was quite a challenge- just getting him to stand in front of the camera was difficult, and he was doing everything he could to not look at the camera or smile, so the fact that the photographer somehow managed to get a picture of him looking towards the camera without his eyes scrunched shut and his mouth in a frown was a miracle!

He's crawling! Well, kinda...

I had to use my shoes as bait for the video, since he was more interested in them than his toys. He's a big fan of shoes so we have to be good about putting them away so he doesn't chew on them.

Summer Adventures

We did have some fun this summer, but I don't have a lot of pictures to show for it since I kinda broke our camera. It still takes pictures, but it's now more like a film camera since I can't preview the picture anymore thanks to my clutziness that led to dropping the camera for the hundredth time (dropping it 99 times is okay, 100? Not good.) and breaking the LCD screen. Since the LCD screen on our camera is also the viewfinder, taking pictures isn't particularly easy, therefore causing me to just not bother taking pictures. Hopefully I'll be able to get a new camera soon (Nate: hint, hint!). Anyway, here are the few pictures I did take and a brief description of what we did:

(Click on picture to see it bigger!)

To start off, Jackson and Mason got some haircuts-
Befores:


After:


We took a trip to California to visit family, and during one of our pit stops the kids enjoyed watching a train pass by:


While in California we went to the California Science Center (a free museum!) and the kids enjoyed looking at some planes, among other things (and I dropped and broke our camera), while Jenson hung out in his carseat:


We also celebrated some birthdays, while in California:
First Mason's


Then Mason's and Jackson's together later in the week:


We also went to the Los Angeles Zoo (but sadly, did not find any of the wax animal dispensing machines :( ):


We swung by Travel Town in Griffith Park for a train ride:

We also went to the Griffith Park Observatory, but I guess I didn't take any pictures there.

We had some fun at a park in Ventura (and since I can't see what I'm taking a picture of, I can't always do a good job of centering the subjects):


On our way home from California, we got a flat tire:


In pretty much the middle of nowhere:


It was an adventure that caused us a six-hour delay in reaching our destination of St. George for the night. Which led to us taking another trip back to St. George a couple weeks later, in which we did some sightseeing and hiking, and swimming:

Yeah, just the one pic.

We also had a fun free day at this place called Libery Land:


We celebrated birthdays some more-
Jackson's actual birthday:


And Jefferson's:


The Primary had a bike parade:


Jenson tried some baby food for the first time:


Mason took some self-portraits:


And Jefferson started playing soccer this year:


I also managed to get a picture of the boys in which they are all looking at the camera, just not all smiling:

And here's one of just Jefferson and Jenson:


The End
(that's not all we did, but pretty much all I have pictures of...)

The First Day of School

Jefferson's first day of second grade:



Jackson and Mason on their first day of preschool:



Getting on the bus and getting strapped in:

Following in his brothers' footsteps

No big surprise here- Jenson is a fan of trucks!

Sorry folks, "Busy Season" (end of January through the beginning of April) keeps Nate away from home 70+ hours a week (more like 80 this year) and makes me a very busy and tired person at home, especially with the addition of a newborn. Therefore, updates* have not been as often as I had hoped once Jenson was born. Only a couple more weeks of busy season to go, so here's a few pictures of the kids to keep you happy until then:

*Not that I had updated the blog much for the several months prior to busy season, but back then I was pregnant and completely zapped of energy.

Hooray, I'm Clean! (Right after his first full-on bath)


Fascinated By Their New Little Brother


Spiky Hair!


I love those Eyes!


3 - 4 Weeks


Silly Boys



Mason: "Take some pictures! All done."


7 - 8 Weeks


Before and After:

Who Does Jenson Look Like?

By request, I've added a poll --->

Here is Jenson's newborn portrait:


Who do you think he looks most like? Below are all of our newborn pictures.


Nate:


Jennifer:


Jefferson:


Jackson:


Mason:

Coming Soon...

Jenson's hospital portrait, along with Jennifer's, Nate's, Jefferson's, Jackson's, and Mason's for comparison. You can decide who you think Jenson looks most like.

While waiting, you can enjoy some more pictures of Jenson:

A Love of Reading

Nate and I are big readers. I've already finished reading 2 books and started on a 3rd, that I only read while feeding Jenson. Nate can usually be found reading when he has free time. Hopefully this love of reading has been passed on to our children. If this picture is any indication, it has:



Jefferson has to read (or be read to) at least 50 minutes a day for the "Jazz-read-a-thon" that his school is participating it. If his school is one of the top 10 schools they win a visit from a Utah Jazz player. Last year they won and Carlos Boozer was the Jazz player that visited. Lucky for me, Jefferson does love to read and is already becoming very proficient at it. He is already above the level he should be by the end of the school year. We are also participating in the "Beat the Bishopric" challenge of reading the D&C and Pearl of Great Price, so we spend 20 minutes on scriptures and then Jefferson reads 30 minutes or more on his own.