A day in the life of...

A day in the life of C

C started soccer this week. His first game was last night. He now plays with the "big kids" where the games are actually refereed, players play positions, and in general follow the rules of the game.

C at his Soccer Game

Here he is with his game face. He was pretending to kick an imaginary ball.

C at his soccer game

C did pretty well. He got to play a variety of positions, and most liked playing the goalie. He managed to make a few saves despite missing only one that went high over his head.

A day in the life of S

S has been adjusting to having his older brother gone most of the day. I love having lunch with him and chatting with him--he's pretty funny. Today, he had some watermelon as part of his lunch. He seems to really like watermelon. What do you think?

S digging into his watermelon

I love this one with watermelon juices running down his chin.

S loving his watermelon

A day in the life of MK

MK has had her nap schedule interupted by C's school schedule. This is her right before I had to wake her so we could go pick up C from school today. Let's hope she'll go to bed early tonight and not be a grump.

MK napping

Quilting

So, we all know what an amazing quilter my mom is. She makes beautiful quilts for the grandkids (skipped right over us kids to spoil the grandkids), for charities, for fundraisers (the quilt she made for Lady A's High School Choir raised around $4,500.00 and she just made another incredible quilt for this year, too), and of course for herself. Well, when my parents moved back from Saudi Arabia, I told her I'd like to have quilting lessons. We did this regularly before my dad decided he wanted to go back to Saudi. Then, we had to take a hiatus. Well, while my mom has been in the States this summer, I again invited myself (and kids in tow) to her house to quilt.

They have been fun evenings spent with my mom. We don't always get a lot of quilting done, but some. The evenings are usually spent playing with the kids, quilting for a bit, having dinner, and a walk to the neighborhood park. The kids love to go, but have told me that it's only fun to go to grandma's house when grandma or boppi are there. (While Mom & Dad are away, I usually stop by their house every so often to check up on things, pick up things for them, etc.)

Anyways, I've finally made progress with a quilt that I want to make for one of the boys. I picked out 2 patterns I liked and will use similar fabrics, but this way they each have a unique quilt. I've spent hours cutting and sewing different pieces. Yesterday, I thought I had an hour to quilt, so I pulled out my things and placed everything down to finally make a block. I was quite excited to finally have a "finished product."

Stars of Glory Quilt Block

Between all the sewing, pressing, moving MK, ripping and resewing, moving MK, back to sewing it took me 2 hours to sew it all together! I showed R and said, "Only 39 more to go." He quickly replied it would only take me another 78 hours. Sweet.

1st Day of School

Today, C started 1st grade. He has been SO excited. He has been most excited about 2 recesses and having lunch at school. Here he is just before school. He was squinty-eyed from the light outside.

C's first day of 1st Grade

While I was loading MK into the car, C took his bike for a ride. We'll walk/bike to school most mornings before the snow flies, but I didn't want to do it on the first morning. I had several errands to run once I dropped him off.

C's first day of 1st Grade

We walked C into his new classroom and got him all settled. We found his desk and cubby. He gets to sit by one of his good friends, too.

C's first day of 1st Grade

I had to laugh when my friend who's son sits next to C told me at the classroom door that she already warned the teacher that those two are used to playing together and can easily get out of hand. (Good thing they sit right in front of the classroom.) This has been the story of C's life since we moved here and found 3 other boys his age. They've been making life interesting for Nursery Leaders, Primary teachers, and School Teachers ever since.

I have to admit, it was pretty quite this morning while C was away. S enjoyed being able to sit next to MK in the car and to play the wii by himself. I think I'm going to enjoy this, especially once S starts preschool again. =)

9th Anniversary

R and I had our 9th Wedding Anniversary on Saturday. Can you believe it? 9 years! Crazy. We actually celebrated the weekend before by leaving the kids with a sitter and running off with the circus....well, we did go see Cirque du Soleil. It was an amazing show, and I did like the nod to all things French.

I started to think about what we did or where we were for our other anniversaries.
1--I graduated from BYU on the 16th of August
2--Dinner and a movie
3--Had a baby 2 weeks before
4--1st date leaving baby C at home
5--Had another baby 2 weeks before, then signed the papers on our 1st home on our actual anniversary
6--Dinner and a movie
7--Dinner and a movie
8--Had a baby 10 days before
9--Went to Cirque du Soleil

We're already planning on a big trip next year to celebrate 10 years that doesn't involve "dinner and a movie" nor "had a baby 2 weeks before."

Let them eat cake!

....because I am so tired of it. After 3 birthdays and 2 birthday parties in one week, I'm a little over eating cake everyday. I'm also 10 pounds heavier. No wonder the French revolted when Marie Antoinette said that.

Happy Birthday MK!

Today MK turned 1 year-old! I still can't believe it. What happened? Time seems to have flown by. But, it's true--she's now 1 year-old instead of "zero" like the boys have said all year. She was never 6 months-old nor 9 months-old, she was always zero.

We had chocolate cake with pink frosting after dinner tonight. MK was just memorized by the candle on her cake. Here's a before picture:

MK's 1st Birthday

Here is an after picture:

MK's 1st Birthday

We opened presents before the cake...thought it would be easier. She was concentrating pretty hard to get her new doll out of the wrapping paper.

MK's 1st Birthday

And she loved her new doll right away. Here she is giving her doll a kiss.

MK's 1st Birthday

It was a fun evening. She was entertained and entertaining.

We love having MK as part of our family. She's now walking, waving, clapping, giving kisses, and more. She gives great hugs and has such a sweet smile. She can go up and down the stairs all by herself. When she wants to be held, she'll crawl up to you, turn around, back into your legs, then sit at your feet. She loves her brothers and is loved by them. She loves to explore, including the pulling things out of cupboards like towels, pots, Tupperware, cereal, etc.

Happy Birthday to our little girl! We love you!

A Birthday Party for S

Can you believe it? We had another Birthday Party today. Today we had a pool party for S and his friends. If the pictures are looking familiar, it's because we had a familiar party with just different participants and different birthday boy. Today was S' turn in the spot light. It was the first time we did a birthday party for him, and he's been SO excited. He had 5 friends come and play today. They played in the pool, rode scooters and bikes, played with all the toys in the house, and had a great time.

Here are my two birthday boys. They are great friends to each other....most of the time.

Birthday Party

Here are all the lucky party go-ers. Only one wasn't in the picture because he showed up later.

 Birthday Party

We had barbecued hot dogs for lunch then chocolate cupcakes with orange frosting.

S at the birthday party

He LOVED being sung to again. After cupcakes, he opened presents. It was quite funny--just about every one of his friends would tell S what they got him and help him open the present. He didn't mind the help. They all played for a bit more before the moms came to claim their kids. One of presents he received was a Thomas train set. He LOVES playing with trains, and we promptly set it up for him.

S and his train

We had a lot of fun this morning. The boys all got along great, and everyone had fun. About an hour after his friends all left, S came up to me and asked me if he could have a friend come over and play. I told him I was all friended out for the day, but maybe tomorrow.

One more birthday to go.

A little side note--I lathered up the boys with sunscreen SPF 50 this morning. Poor kids have no chance with 2 pasty-white parents. Hence, the swim shirts. Anyways, R noticed this evening that S has a sunburn on his back.....a thin sunburned line along his plumbers crack. Oops. I hadn't put any sunscreen there. And this is after reading my sister's blog about how her 5 year-old got sunburned along his "crack-a-lackage."

Happy Birthday S!

Happy 4th Birthday S!

Today we celebrated S' 4th birthday! Hooray. We had a family dinner with cake and presents today. Tomorrow, will be his birthday party with his little friends. So, more Birthday fun to come. (Well, and more birthday fun to come with MK's birthday on the 5th.)

We went to church in the morning. The primary sang 'Happy Birthday' to both S and C. S was very happy to have been given a sucker. He told me it was chocolate and offered to let me have some so I would know it was chocolate, but I passed. I told him I believed him. S is so easy going that we were able to keep our normal Sunday routine. We came home from church, had lunch, and had some quite time. Love quite time.

My mom came over for dinner and cake. She has some friends from Saudi who were staying with her for the week and came along. They are on their way from Saudi to work at the Embassy in Cuba and were able to stop for a week in Utah with my Mom. It was fun to have them as well as my Mom. We had a yummy dinner and some delicious chocolate cake.

Here is S enjoying the Birthday Song followed by our Danish Birthday Song that is a Haws Family tradition. I love the look of anticipation on his face.

S blowing out the candles

S blowing out the candles

He blew out 3 of the 4 right away, but had a hard time getting that 4th one out. Mom joked that he was still 3. Once he blew out that 4th one she said, "Now he's 4!"
He opened presents before dinner.

Birthday Boy

S loves puzzles and got 2 new ones from Auntie J and Uncle Neal. He was most excited about this "cool Hot Wheels one."

Birthday Boy

We got him a new scooter for his birthday. He left his last scooter behind my van. Can you guess what happened to it? Yup. I didn't see it and ran over it. It mangled up the rear wheel axle and couldn't be fixed. He's been without a scooter for a good part of the summer. But, he'd always start or end his lament about his old scooter by saying that he left it behind my car and didn't put it away. We're hoping that means he learned his lesson. His last scooter was a 3-wheeled scooter. We got him a 2-wheeled scooter. Here is S trying it out.

Birthday Boy

We are so happy to have S as part of our family. He is such a character! He keeps us laughing with all his crazy antics and goofiness. He's easy-going. He's a gadget guy (our little engineer.) He gives great hugs and kisses. He's fearless. And he's loving. What would we do without you, S?