Abby

Abby is like a little bird; she tries to steal bites of everything we eat. 

 Once I had the camera out, I realized I had a good chance to catch her sweet little face.

More Miscellaneous

This picture is old, but it was the first time I took Abby out to play in the snow.  She HATED it.  She laid face down in the snow and threw a fit! 

Almost two weeks ago, the weather warmed up and the snow started melting.  The kids couldn't wait to go outside, and they've spent hours and hours outdoors since.

Hours later the same day, they were still out there.  I'm not sure what they were doing, but it was very creative.

Cute Abby.

I mustered up the will to sort our baby and children's clothing storage last week.  To this point, I've had almost everything stored in diaper boxes and wanted to switch it all to plastic tubs.

Mid sort, our hallway was an obstacle course of empty boxes and containers.

I spread out all over the boys' room to do my sorting.

Hours later, I'd sorted 25 tubs of baby items and clothes (not all pictured), and trimmed out a few things we no longer needed.  Phew!  That felt GOOD!

Another day last week, a couple of packages arrived from my mom.  She'd happened upon a big $1 clearance for children's clothes, so she sent us all sorts of stuff.  The kids were so excited to go through their new items.

The boys wanted to show their matching shirts.

Wolf Cub

Logan had his first Blue and Gold banquet a couple of weeks ago.  All of the boys presented what they've accomplished this year.  Logan did a great job! 

He was super excited for this night because he was awarded his Wolf badge that he's been working towards since September.

March Miscellaneous

I've started feeling a bit better during this second trimester, so I've had more motivation lately.  One of my recent projects was organizing paper work and cleaning up the office.

Before

Before

After, and it felt SO good!

Logan built an awesome Lego temple recently.

Abby's cuteness requires lots of pictures.

 
She LOVES calling Daddy while he's at work.

She also loves posing for pictures anytime she sees the camera.

Annie lost a top tooth.

Everyone else decided to pose after Annie did.

Abby is so sweet.  She likes to help us sweep.

Kids Say

Alex, "Mom, I lost both of my slippers except for one!"

Me, "Alex, you should change your socks every day."  Alex, "Why?"  Me, "Because they're dirty."  Alex, "But not until you can see the dirtiness!"  The bottoms of those socks were dark blue...

Alex, "Someday I'm going to work at Wendy's when I'm a farmer...to help them pick up garbage."

Alex, matter of fact, "Grandma and Grandpa lost their pet crocodile."  No doubt Grandpa told him this...ha ha!

We were planning a family party and Annie suggested a game, "We should play 'spin the bottle'!"

The worst name our angry 8 year old bookworm (Logan) could think of to call his little brother, "Villain!!"

Annie, "You know what I want to talk my husband into?  I want to talk him into not giving our children treats because if they never have sweet things they won't know what they taste like and won't be sad when they don't get them."

Annie, "I want to work at a gas station before I have children and be a nurse."

Logan, "Mom, you're looking more pregnant than fat now.  In fact, you don't look fat at all."

Back to Life

The best thing about January was getting back to normal routines, especially school (see my other blog for those posts...we've had a lot of great activities).  Between holidays, car craziness, pregnancy issues, and my ridiculous virus I had been functioning at a minimum for over a month.  Yuck!  Once I was finally healthy again, I felt like I could tackle life again!  Yeah!

Abby loves letting her siblings pull her around the house like this.  It is hilarious!

She's my sweetie.

Flash on!  She is such a girl.

Much to my surprise, Abby joined her siblings for this picture (which was taken for a totally different purpose).  I think this is the BEST picture I have of my four kids together; it's too bad Annie's hair is so wild...ha!

Abby likes sitting in her doll accessories and making phone calls on the calculator.

My mom gave the girls 'Dolly and Me' outfits for Christmas, so I attempted to take pictures of Abby the first time she wore hers.  This was my best shot.

My attempt with her matching doll didn't go well.

I have no idea why I took this picture.  She washes the breakfast dishes every day; maybe I was just feeling pleased with her on this particular morning?  She is a great little helper around here, though.  I don't know how I'd keep up without my kids' help.

Showing off her 'Dolly and Me' outfit.

Annie has been practicing her tap and ballet dances at home during the last couple of weeks.  One day I looked over to see that she'd tied toilet paper around her ankles.  When asked what for, she said it was so she could practice with tap ribbons!  Funny girl.

We wore Abby out one day last week.

My children were born with the innate talent to evenly distribute their messes all throughout the house.

It's amazing the mess they can make in one morning!  

I love these calm moments.

On days when we don't go anywhere, Annie is responsible for fixing her own hair.  It's one of her require morning activities so she can learn how.  She's made a lot of improvement when it comes to ponytails, so I guess her confidence was high yesterday when she decided to give herself pigtails.  The best part is that she was constantly preening in front of the mirror; she felt BEAUTIFUL!

It looked better BEFORE she fixed it.  Jim and I were amazed when she reappeared.  Ha ha!

Kids Say

Alex, "If we have to go to Zion I have a idea!  Lock all the doors!!  Then we won't have to leave all the stuff behind!"

Alex came in from playing outside, "I'm scared that pirates will come out of the woods!"  After reassuring him he asked, "Are monsters real?"  Again, I reassured him.  Then, "Is any bad stuff real?  Tigers?  Giraffes?"  After assuring him there were no tigers or giraffes in our yard, he decided it was safe to go back outside.

Alex was passing some awful gas, so I asked him if he needed to go potty.  Alex, "Those aren't poop farts...or pee."

I asked Alex how he is going to find a wife.  Alex, "By calling.  And if she says no, I'll find someone else to call."

Alex as we pulled into a parking spot, "I got dizzy from the way you were driving the car."

Logan with a cheerful face, "I'm mad enough I could eat tacks!"

Abby is starting to talk.  Some of her latest words are 'Sunbeam', 'cookie', 'Jesus', 'Daddy', 'baby', 'kitty', 'bottle', 'water', and 'poo poo'.

Alex, "My Holy Ghost has helped me figure out to go potty!"

Logan, "If Great Britain gets back our country, they will probably be surprised to see that it has more land than it used to!"

Alex was upset because Jim made him get dressed for church, "Dad broke my day!"  Then he didn't want to eat breakfast because he was mad, "My tummy is tired and my tummy is mad at Daddy too!"

Logan's Gift to Jesus

Logan made a goal to read the Book of Mormon almost two years ago.  He made good progress during the first few months and then pretty much set it aside for a long time.  At some point in the past year he renewed his goal, and by December was nearing the end.  So he decided that he would finish it as a Christmas gift to Jesus.  He even timed it so that he would read the final chapter on Christmas Day.  We've seen huge changes in him as he's diligently studied the scriptures this year.  We're so pleased with our boy!