for Ben A

so i can't believe that it has been so long since i have written.  where does the time go?  so much has gone on with our sweet little family.  i will give you the highlights.....

brandons birthday was in november.  it is always fun when his birthday comes around because he celebrates it throughout the entire month.  next we had thanksgiving and what more is there to say about that?  we ate well.

christmas rolls around, and brand and i decide the kids need 4 wheelers.  then we decided that we might need one to so we can ride around with them.  very fun.  they were quite suprised.  i couldn't sleep the whole night.

new years is always a blast considering we cannot stay up past 10;00.  lame....

valentines day we were in cancun.  now that was a fun trip.  the kids really loved it there.  i wasnt quite sure if we were going to like it, but it ended up being so great.  the water there is amazing. i think it is better than hawaii.  the kids want to move there.   we are thinking about it.

right now it is march madness, so we haven't done anything but watch t.v. and eat a bunch of nachos lately...

the kids are growing faster than i can keep up with their jeans.  they are all so fun.  connor is a busy first grader with homework that at times stumps brand and i (scary). max is all boy and has some great one-liners.  i will share a few...

-all the kids got balloons from red robin the other day..connor accidently let his go and was a bit sad, so brand tells max to let his go that it is cool..he thinks about it then finally kisses the balloon and tells Jesus he is sending him a balloon.

-he puts brandons deoderant on everyday so he "can get hair under his armpit too'

-gave gage a blessing when he hurt his leg and it was all better

-i gave ellie some lemonade at costco and told her that is was special..max proceeded to tell me that lemonade isn't special, our Savior is special

he keeps us laughing...

gage is just a little sweetheart.  he hates primary and begs to go back to nursery...who wouldnt want to go back to nursery.  i feel your pain buddy.  he loves his little sister.  he is such a big dude.  he might very well be the biggest of them all.  he loves his mama and dad.  he loves playing sports with brand.  

ellie is just a little princess who gets anything she wants.  it is scary.  she is such a cutie.  she loves here daddy and her favorite word is "bye bye".  o she loves food.  you can get her to do anything for food.  it is hard for me to see her grow so fast.  she is already so independent.  it is tempting to have #5, but then not.

life is good and all is well.  i hope to keep up with this little blurp of our family better...

Our baby isn't a baby anymore.......

So we celebrated Ellies b-day on the 11th of sept. ughhhh. why cant babies stay babies? she is so big..and will be walking anyday now. it is a sad time when you realize that your done having babies...i go back and forth with Brand on if we are done yet, but im just not sure...no great epiphany has come to me in the matter. so i guess we just see.
the boys are doing great . connor loves school and has recently started flag football. how funny it is to watch him in action. we try to explain it is not tackle. but funny to see him drag them by their jerseys. he is one tough kid, yet sensitive too. always worried about others.
max is in preschool. he is really liking it. every morning though he tells me that he doesnt want to go...then about 10 mins before we are ready to leave he is beggin me to walk out the door so he is not late. i think it all boils down to this little blond girl there who is not very nice. the girl with the pretty hair was yelling like a crazy person today he will tell me. or how much time she spent in the corner. she is very naughty and it drives him crazy. he is one funny kid. he says the funniest things at the most random times....here are a few ex.
-gage needed to go poop on the way home from slc the other day....we were close to being home and i told him hold it..hold your poop buddy-so max pipes up and says "sick you want him to hold his poop mom? put poop in hand..disgusting
-and then the other night brand and i were watching "babys mama". the kids were downstairs, but were in and out of the room. so there is a part where the lady is being pushed down the hall because she is going to have the baby, and she is in heavy labor and yelling and she is yelling some crazy obscenity's....which are a bit hard to hear if you are not paying attention..but she says "it feels like im sh--ting knives. so a few days ago max comes up to me and asks when i had baby ellie if i sh-t knives.... to which i quickly responded.... no.
-and when the boys were playing army guys, connor had said his main guys name was john- so max said his guy was john the baptist.....
you gotta love him.
gage is as big as max. in fact when i am doing laundry, i get their clothes mixed up. he cant wait to be big like his brothers and go to school. he loves his sister. he is a funny dude too. he is a big helper and loves being outside. he tells me im gorgeous when he wants something.
he loves to swim and is a snuggler. lately he has been trying to write his name and is putting his own shoes on. please stop trying to grow up so fast i will tell him.
brandon is doing great and has takin up running again. i assume it is some sort of competition with me. we recently ran a marathon where you have 5 teammates and you each run 5.2 miles- it was fun. brand cruised. we have been doing some 5ks and the boys do the mile. it is pretty cute....brandon that is....

summer over..what ??????

I thought I would begin this blog with a word our six year old shared with me yesterday as we sat outside at the playgroud. I tried to show this kid how to "hump" at recess today mom...What did you try to show him I quickly tuned in with intense interest? I was trying to show him how to hump on the swingset so he could go high like me....OOOOOO I think you mean "pump" Connor, pump your legs. NO he quickly replied "hump". Sweetie it is pump not hump. Problem solved...There willl be no humping at recess in first grade.....
Other than that he is loving first grade. A bit too much if you ask me . It is quite the shock going from a mere 21/2 hours of kindergarten, to getting home off the bus at 3:50. The whole day is gone and Ive spent none of it with my sweet 6 year old. I miss his guts. It is amazing the peace he brings into our family during the day and the dragon lady that has come out of the mother since he has been g0ne. Max and gage are out to destroy eachother. It is all out WWF some days and Ellie and I just need a retreat. I suppose it is the age, but come on.
Lets just say I have "pulled this car over" many times in the last week.....
So when Connor does get home they are so excited to see him and they play great. In fact the other day they were playing army guys and Connor had a guy named Jon, and Max called his little guy JOhn the Baptist....he kept saying come on John the Baptist, get up and fight. Hmmmmm.
I had a primary meeting the other day and the 3 youngest always come with me. They were in the hall playing and I heard someone throw something. SO I leaned curiously out the hall and I hear and see Max telling a big picture of Jesus..."You didn't catch that Jesus"...you have to love these little suckers.
SUmmer has been quite fun around here. We have stayed busy. We hung out at Lagoon a couple of times and went boating for the first time with the kids..hilarious. Our children are so stinkin funny. SO I jump out to ski and the boys just start screeming...."please daddy let her back in ..dont leave mommy...mommy mommy...grab the rope. " They are completely sobbing. I am yelling back.."mommy is having fun..Im o.k. I am having fun" So Brand guns the boat to get me up on my ski and the kids go nuts...they are screaming and crying so loud other boats are now watching us. Please daddy stop she's drowning (which at one point I was dragged trying so hard to get up I felt I was drowning). They were scared to death that Brandon was leaving me for fish food. It was just a foriegn concept to them for some reason. Even after I got in the boat and tried to console them...they still were ready to go home. Not yet my sweeties, your dad wants to ski...and so it began again, but now Ellie was awake and I was driving the boat....o my heck how was I suppose to watch Ellie, watch the flag, drive the boat and not kill my sweetheart. SO I gun it for Brand and yes..he is up, but in all my excitement I never let off the full throttle...I have never seen someone skiing so fast..it looked as if he was not even touching the water...in fact the fishing boat next to us swears he wasnt...they wandered if he was trying out for the olympics...Poor Brandon....At the end of the day after a few french fries and soda, we decided we would take some help next time and I probably would not be driving again...We had traumatized our children.
The summer has also been consumed with our yard. One could never understand just how big an acre is until they have tried to landscape it. But we are almost done, and I still have trouble running a wheelbarrel, it more runs me. We have some fun pics of the kids playing on the tractors with their dad as he conquered the yard. It is rewarding to see the transformation. Also we decided to purchase a playground ...o my that is one of our best investments yet.....i highly recommend it. It has become a backyard intertainer....love it!
Tonya and ALan and Shantel and Mike came to visit a couple weeks ago. It is always to nice to see our sweet Indiana friends. None else can compare. Best of all I love seeing those kiddos- they grow so fast.
Brandon stays busy and is trying to get a golf day in every week. His golf outings are nothing like they were in 4th year and it is pretty hard on him . ......
Ellie belly is growing so huge....literally..that girl can put away a Mcd's hambuger and then half a thing of fries....o my gosh...she will be a year old next month. it kills me to see her get so big, I jsut want her to stay a baby forever. She is a dream little girl, and the most smily kid....she wakes up with a smile and goes to bed with one. But she is a bit of a mammas girl- Right now it doesnt bother me in the least...I love it!!!!!I also love dressing her. WHo would of thought I would be in to bows......?

Summer almost gone????

It is the end of July and next month I will have to send my oldest to 1rst grade....ughghh I'm not looking forward to that. Either is Connor. He is excited however to eat lunch at school. What does that mean?? Do I not make good lunches. It will be a difficult first few weeks without my little helper around. He is such a big boy.
Max and Gage will miss COnnor too. THey love him to death. SUre they fight, but in the end they miss his guts when he is not around.
Ellie is growing so fast. SHe is already 10 months old. I want her to stop growing. She is at such a fun age. She has alot to say.
THey all are so dang funny. Max in sacrament last Sunday leaned over to Brand becasuse this man was asleep in front of us. He had his little girl with him and he was just sleeping away. SO Max told Brand "Daddy I feel sad for that girl, she will not get to go to primary because her daddy is too tired and is sleeping through church. He is so concerned about everyone.
Brand is doing great. Busy and enjoying it.
Hope this finds you all well.

On to the summer

Hello friends- Today I heard that I was the "best mom ever" from COnnor through Max....and within the next 5 minutes I was a "mean lady" from Max echoed by Gage. He echos everything, good or bad.
We had to speak in sacrament last Sunday and my topic was on temple attendance, so I decided to have the boys all sing "I love to see the Temple". We had it rehearsed perfectly at home of course. Then the big day came...So they are standing at the podium and Max starts it out alone. A few words later Connor pipes in, then Gage echos the boys- mid way through MAx is flicking Gage in the forehead and trying to hold the microphone like he is Led Zepplin or something. All I can say is that Im sure there was not a dry eye in the meeting from all the laughs.....they are pretty sweet and love thier little sister. She is quite a hit. And she loves all of the attention- must get that from her father.
All is well here in FREEZING Utah....
It is so fun to see everyones sweet little chitlins- they have all grown so dang much-

Here I go....After much persuasion from my sweet friends and family, I am trying this "blogging" gig. Don't expect much ladies.....

So after much persuasion from my sweet friends and family, I am going to try this "bloggging" gig..Don't expect much ladies.....