Newport

We got the great idea to sneak away for two days before Isaac starts teaching again and gets even busier preparing to defend his prospectus. We went to nearby Newport, which Kason called New York City the whole time. We stayed in my parent's timeshare, which was wonderful. It was a townhouse style and had so much space. We felt like we were living in an actual house and had to come back home to the hotel sized apartment. The first thing the kids wanted to do was play hide and seek.

Waking up - they are all looking at the camera and semi-smiling!

We knew it would be raining this time of year and it did...alot the whole time we were there. But, we were prepared.

The water was pretty stormy. It was low tide when we went out and so we went out pretty far. We didn't get too close to the water line, but some kind of sneaker wave came crashing in. Kason managed to outrun it, but I scooped Asher up, who was shrieking, and the water came up to the back of my thighs! It was slightly cold the rest of the time.

We went to old Newport, which is one of our favorite places to go.

Kids ate free at Mo's!!

And there was a pool-heaven for the boys.

As we were packing up Asher got into our vitamin D and unscrewed the childproof caps (he can do that so easily) and ate a good third of the bottle. We ended up calling poison control just to be safe...he was fine.

We came home to what had been 6 inches of snow - a rare thing for Eugene!

Campfire Party

We occasionally get a little tent out for the boys. This time when we pulled it out I felt like we had an "If you Give A Mouse a Cookie" book moment. The boys got soo excited and so our campfire night was born.

This was the invitation Kason wrote that we emailed to Isaac

We had tin foil dinners around our candle "campfire" and turned on a campfire from youtube on the laptop.

Then we had to roast marshmallows over the stove.

Those eyes...

Emry was very patient through it all

And then we had to cuddle up with blankets in the tent and watch a family video.

It was a fun way to make a weeknight a little different!

March Smorgasbord

This post is about random things that have happened this month that I want to remember!

A Sunday Morning

I can't help but post this picture. Asher is potty trained, he really is! Sometimes, though, it is too hard to pull the underwear up so he walks around with his underwear at his knees and taking quick little steps.

Emry's new favorite way of sitting. I think it's because she can survey everything that is going on around her and she feels like everyone is looking at her.

Squeeze!!!

Naps, unfortunately, are gone. But, we just worked out a system that has been helping. The boys go into a room of their choosing and read books or lay down for awhile until they hear the timer beep. It's still new enough that they are excited about it.

Another picture I could just squeeze.

Rainy days bring out craziness, creativity, and messes. Here is the boys' campfire that they are roasting marshmallows over. Look what the marshmallow is - Emry's wet, rolled up diaper. Kind of gross, but I have to give it to Kason for creativity.

Funny sayings:

-Kason's prayer: "Please bless the people in my bracket to win"..."Please give Emry the power to lift her head"

-Kason earned $3 by doing a taste test survey at the mall. He was very excited to pay his tithing at church, but we forgot it on the counter. He was devastated for the first 15 minutes of church. He made sure to remember it the next week.

-Asher sings the Mamma Mia song like this: "Mamma Mia, Here I go again.

My mom, How can I resist you."

-Asher was belting out Nephi's courage in the laundry room. I don't think the other man in there knew what in the world he was singing about.

5

Kason turned 5!!

He was pretty excited. After feeding Emry I went in to check on the boys at 5 am. Kason woke up and wanted to get up then because he said he was so excited.

Isaac had to get to school, but they started Kason's day off with an early, quick trip to Albertson's for Kason to pick out whatever kind of cereal he wanted for breakfast. He picked out Captain Crunch mixed berries - quite the treat.

One of the boys favorite songs is "I'll Make a Man Out of You" from Mulan. They've never seen the movie though, we just watched the song on Youtube. So, we rented Mulan from the library and they were so excited to watch it.

This picture makes me laugh. Kason is sitting very crossed legged, Asher can't even sit that way. Asher has one sock on, one off...a normal thing. And we are trying potty training again with Asher, so far it's going great.

This year we had a friend party. Kason wrote some of the invitations and was very serious about handing them out. When his friends answered the door he would hand the invitation to them and say seriously, "You are invited to my birthday party". The theme was fighter jets. We played yarn spider webs (not so fighter jet-ish) and pin the fighter jet on the refueler plane. Then we had cake and ice cream. I felt like the cake was...struggling, but Kason loved it.

Then all 14 kids just ran around and got some energy out.

Asher and his buddy Myer.

A typical Asher face

It was a busy (everything takes 10 times longer to do when you have an infant) but fun day.

Some things about Kason:

-Words I would use to describe him: mature, sensitive, sweet, sometimes shy, emotional, competitive, detail oriented, and responsible.

-He really likes to draw

-He makes noises all. day. long. Like gun/fighting/plane/spitting/loud noises while he is holding an alligator, or tiger, or gun or whatever. Sometimes I feel like the noise is just reverberating around in my head and I have to really get his attention to snap him out of whatever intense game is going on in his head.

-He is such a good helper and such a good big brother. One time I was putting Asher down for nap (which really isn't nap anymore, just pile lots of toys on his bed time) and Emry was crying. I usually tell Asher a story and sing him a song before nap/bed. Kason patted my back and said, "I got this mom, you go take care of Whippy". (Yes, he still calls her that). It was very sweet.

-This birthday Isaac had quite the joke going with Kason that all his presents were going to be cleaning things. He even went as far as to wrap a roll of paper towels up and give it to him as his first present. Kason was pretty good natured about it. The other day, though, Kason got his paper towels out and started cleaning all the doorknobs! That's my boy!

-We love our Kason!

Stats and Snow

All dressed up for church - I think purple is her color

Emry had a 2 month check up, though she was 11 weeks at the time.

Her stats:

Height: 24 " (80%)

Weight: 13 lbs 4 oz (80%)

Head: 15.25" (40%)

She is doing well and is usually a pretty happy and content baby. She spits up waaaay less than the boys and that difference is wonderful! She doesn't like to be cradled, she likes to either be held looking over my shoulder or looking out. She smiles and I've gotten a little laugh out of her once.

I love these next two pictures!

We have had snow a couple times this year!! It lasts on the ground all of 10 minutes at most, but it is so much better to see snow coming down out the window than rain. I think I was more excited than the boys when we saw the snow on this morning.