Misc. Summer Fun

Here's a catch-up post covering some of the things we did this past summer.

We saw a firetruck and ambulance at the State Emergency Preparedness Fair:



We also got to see a firetruck at a local firehouse when we went to their "Reading with a Fireman" day and got a demo from a fireman:



We saw a demonstration of some Native American dancing outside a local museum:



We watched some fireworks on two different occasions in July (the 4th and 24th-aka Pioneer Day), and did some running around:



And we even played on some riding lawnmowers at Lowe's:



That's just a small snippet of some of the things we did this past summer. I'll post more about a couple of our other activities later. So even though I've been too tired and lazy to update the blog lately, we weren't completely lazy this summer.

Curls, Curls, Curls (and nipples)

We've let Mason's hair get a little long because we just can't bare to cut off his curls:



And Mason loves pointing out his nipples. It's something all of our kids have had fun doing (along with their belly buttons, or "belly belly" as Mason says).

A Reverent Moment

Mason is by far the most active of our children. We thought Jefferson was a non-stop toddler, but Mason has put him to shame. But the biggest surprises with Mason are the obedient and reverent moments he has. He is always quick to be "helpful" and has learned the earliest of the three to fold his arms when it's time for a prayer (even if he doesn't make it through the whole prayer). We've been making a big effort to have family prayer every night before the kids go to bed and Mason (and Jackson) often does better than Jefferson. Such a sweetheart. A couple of weeks ago we got home from somewhere past the kid's bedtime and were rushing to get them to bed. We were about to forego having family prayer just because Nate and I were exhausted, but Mason wouldn't have it. He said as best as he could "prayer" and sat down on the floor with his arms folded. Sure, we could say that he was just trying to prolong going to bed, but I think he's also helping us remember the importance of having family prayer.

A picture of the moment captured by my cell phone camera:

Halloween Time!

We had lots of fun for Halloween this year. We started off the season the week before Halloween by finally going to the pumpkin patch.



Then, the Saturday before we went to our local rec center for their halloween party. The boys got to go "trick-or-treating" around the track and then go through a hay bale maze. Mason took no time figuring out what was going on and quickly raced to the next person handing out candy as we went around the track. Afterwards, we headed to a diner for dinner. I was a little embarrassed as we walked in and found the place to be full of junior high and high school cheerleaders, since I was dressed like this:



Our Halloween festivities continued when we carved our pumpkins the evening before Halloween. Jefferson was big into doing as much as he could, Mason liked getting his hands in the innards, and Jackson just liked watching the process (he was done touching the pumpkins after sticking his hand inside once, as seen on his face in the picture below).



A sister in my ward has been doing a few sewing classes the last couple of months and at the beginning of October she did one to make "Trick-or-Treat" bags. I went and made these (yes, there are five- I only had intended to make 4, but I had enough leftover fabric to make one more, so I figured I might as well make another):



Halloween came and Jefferson and Jackson went off to school in their costumes (or costume #1 for Jackson):



That evening we all got ready for trick-or-treating (now Jackson is in costume #2):



The kids collected lots of candy and had lots of fun. Jackson and Mason were both nervous to go up to the houses that had "scary" decorations, but the lure of candy was enough for Mason that he still made it to the door, despite fussing a little all the way up and back. The weather forecast had said it would be a nice night, and it was, except for the rain that had been left out of the forecast. It was still warmer than last year, even with being slightly wet, so all was good. After dropping Jackson and Mason off (I was tired of pushing the stroller around), Jefferson and I went back out to hit a few more homes.

School Pictures!

School Pictures are here! I had to hold off on posting Jefferson's (which I got last week) until Jackson's arrived (today). I couldn't be happier with Jackson's, and Jefferson's is near perfect (just one thing that bugs me- see if you can guess).

Jefferson, 1st Grade (age 6):


Jackson, Pre-K (age 3):

First Day of School- Jackson

Jackson started preschool on August 26th! We were most nervous about how he would do riding the school bus by himself- especially after finding out he would be the first or second kid picked up, meaning he would be on the bus for about an hour each way, but everything went well and riding the bus seems to be his favorite thing. He wasn't scared at all to get on the bus and when he got home he climbed off the bus smiling (while wearing his ginormous backpack).






Mason, on the other hand, was not too happy about Jackson leaving on the bus and proceeded to have a mini tantrum as the bus drove away. That unhappiness was short-lived, though, after discovering what Jackson leaving meant- mommy all to himself for 5 hours (well, 3 when you subtract nap time)! The next day, when I told Jackson he bus would be here soon, Mason ran and grabbed Jackson's backpack and gave it to him- already ready for Jackson to be gone!

First Day of School- Jefferson

Jefferson went back to school on August 18th. He is now a 1st Grader! He was excited to go back- especially after seeing his "girlfriend" Maggie, from his Kindergarten class, at Back to School night, and finding out that she is also in his First Grade class!



We decided to celebrate the day by going swimming for Family Home Evening that night. It was a great plan, and the kids were super excited (I had neglected getting around to taking them swimming all summer- with exception to our vacation in St. George and Jackson's KOTM swim class). Unfortunately, we pulled up to the rec center only to see the pool being closed down for the day and a sign on the door saying that the pool was closed until tomorrow. Turns out there was an "accident" in the pool (i.e. poop) which means the pool has to be closed for a minimum or 30 minutes (and up to 24 hours)to allow the chlorine and other chemicals or treatment methods in the water to get rid of parasites that may cause illness. The rec center chose to close it down for the rest of the day (which would allow at least a 12 hour chemical cleansing time). Now I'm not really complaining about the closure. I really wouldn't want to go swimming right after some kid pooped in the pool, but it was hard to explain to the kids why we couldn't go swimming. They were very disappointed. So to make up for it we went to Sonic and got ice cream. That seemed to lift their spirits some. We then made it back to the pool 2 days later and have turned swimming into a regular Wednesday night activity for our family.

Planes on the Brain?

A couple pictures of Jefferson's designs with cardboard and blocks:

Summer Rewind...

I am going to be working on posting about some of the things that we did/happened this summer over the next few days. They probably won't be in chronological order- FYI.

Oh, and I've updated the minivan post to include pictures.

Names

Okay, so Mason was hard enough for us to name. We came up with a bunch of okay names and narrowed them down to three and then when he was born it just didn't feel like any of them were right and ended up picking Mason, a name that had been on the list months before and somehow dropped off the list unintentionally. We weren't even looking for a "son" name- it just happened. So now we have this theme going and the dilemma of deciding whether to stick to it or not-

hence the poll ------>

The advantage to the theme is that we have a starting point for picking a name, since we are really at a loss (and Nate wanted a boy because it would just be easier- we already have a girl's name!). So we'll probably start with the "son" names and then if we come across a non-son name we'll add it to the list. Wish us luck!

The Results Are In...

No, your eyes are not deceiving you. I am FINALLY updating the blog. I know it's been awhile. There are lots of reasons I've been a slacker in updating, but I won't bore you by going into those.

I had some plans for this post that were going to be AWESOME but that was solely dependent on a specific outcome, and since that didn't work out I'll get straight to the point.

It's a BOY!

Yep, baby #4 is on the way. We've been slow to tell people this time around because I really wanted to avoid the "so are you hoping this one is a girl or do you want all boys?" question. I knew that it really didn't matter what I wanted because I had no control over it. Am I disappointed? Yes. More so than I thought I would be. When I opened the envelope (Nate's out of town on a last minute family thing) to tell Nate the results on the phone, the pregnancy hormones kicked in and made me suddenly feel so nauseous I almost threw up. I really had felt like there was a good chance this baby could be a girl because this pregnancy has been a bit different from my previous 3. For example, I started showing at least 2 months earlier than my previous pregnancies, and while I've never experienced horrible morning sickness, I have had mild nausea the entire time- longer than in the past. I also have had a lot more back pain earlier on and trouble sleeping (although there are additional factors that may be causing that). I'm also a little mad because now Nate gets to gloat about getting what he wanted (all boys) while everyone else that knew about this pregnancy and had an opinion is disappointed. I haven't told Jefferson that he's getting another brother yet because he's had his heart set on a sister. I'm leaving that up to Nate when he gets home.

We've Joined The Club

The minivan club, that is. With our fourth child on the way it was eminent that we would have to get a larger vehicle. We researched what we wanted for months (before even knowing that I was pregnant since we knew that day would eventually come) and finally settled on the Honda Odyssey as being our favorite (despite the popularity in Utah). I still kept some of the 7-8 passenger SUV's in the back of my mind being hesitant to really get a minivan, but the minivan won out.

So now we are the proud owners of a 2005 Charcoal Gray Honda Odyssey. It has all of the features we were looking for- leather seats (once you go leather, it's hard to go back), built-in DVD player, decent gas mileage (it's got Variable Cylinder Management!), low miles, and my first color choice. And a bunch we didn't know we were looking for and love- the in-floor lazy susan, a removable 8th seat, 6 CD in-dash changer, seemingly endless amounts of storage space, etc.. I'm still a little weirded out about driving a minivan around (I am a solid sedan girl) but it's great having the space for the kids to spread out so they aren't fighting as much in the car.