28 June 2010

oooo - the claw

Happy Birthday Boys!

Gabriel & Benjamin celebrate their birthdays just days apart. We celebrated their birthday with (some) family and friends. There was a bounce house, getting wet in the hot tube, and, of course, Toy Story themed cakes.

I think both boys were happy with the day.






From Gabriel's & Benjamin's Birthday

25 June 2010

Gilbert & Casey

We've got kittens.

The kids, especially Abigail & Collette, have been begging for pets for awhile. Since we're in a new house, they figured it was a done deal. They were right. I finally caved and let them have kittens.

Of course, I'm horrified that they have them in their beds. But, I wasn't around when these pictures were taken.


Collette & Gilbert


Abigail & Casey

24 June 2010

He totally gets it

Ok, so here is a video showcasing Gabe's ability and enjoyment of harassing his brother. There are so many funny parts to this video but be forewarned it is long. Maybe not for grandparents or my sister, who I know will get plenty of enjoyment out of this, but for the rest of you, try to hang in there. For me, it's 4 minutes of funny.

I particularly love how Gabe shakes every toy he takes from Ben. I love how the gazillion toys that are on the ground are of no good to Gabe. Trash. I love how when he can't get to the toys anymore, he tries to overtake the entire train from Ben. And I love at the end how he just keeps his hands on the train to listen to the pain he is causing Ben. And I think it's hilarious how Gabe starts yelling at Ben. About how knows what....but clearly Ben has done something to insult Gabriel.

No, I didn't intervene on this. Do I look like a bad mother? Maybe. But Ben was kinda being ridiculous which helped me not intervene. And I wanted to capture, in true form, Gabriel's ability to really get to his siblings. You can sometimes hear me laughing in the background, though I tried to keep my entertainment contained because that would have only made Ben more upset. And really, that would just be mean.

Ladies and Gentlement, enjoy the show:

23 June 2010

Changes

So many changes in our house lately. Each one of our children has had something big happen in the last week (or more in some cases)

I'll start with Abigail. She finished first grade. This started out a tough year for Abigail as her kindergarten class did not prepare her for what was expected of her in first grade. But she has done SO WELL this last year. She improved her reading enormously as well as so many other skills. I am sad she has to change schools again and make all new friends. She really bonded with three other girls in her class. But, knowing Abigail, she'll do great and it will be even better (for me, at least) knowing that Collette is at the same school with her. Here are a couple pictures from her last day of school. You ROCK, Abigail!!

Her class


These girls were the best of friends this year. I love the diversity in this foursome!


And Abigail and her teacher, Ms Sample


Collette "graduated" from preschool this year. She will start kinder in the fall. She has also done amazing this year. She worked really hard at school and can do so much. She can write anything I spell to her and quite a few things on her own (specifically, "I love you, Mom") Her school prepared her well for Kinder and I am excited to see her start. Here are a couple pictures from her last day:

Her teacher Miss Vivian. Ms. Vivian has amazing patience with all these kids!


Here she is during the singing portion of the ceremony


And "officially" graduated!


I don't have a picture for Ben, though I guess I could get one, but he is officially potty trained and has been for about a month, now. I'm pretty excited about this since I didn't really have a lot of energy pent up to get prepared for this but it just kinda happened. I'm not one of those Moms that has the energy to do big things for potty training. I just kinda expect them to do it. Some M&M's and I'm good. Luckily, three for three, this has worked so far!

Go Ben!


We also attempted to take Ben's pacifier's away, which had some really good days but in the end, he's still sleeping with it but it's out of the car and out of his mouth almost all day long AND he just never really asks for it anymore, except at bedtime, which is a HUGE improvement!

And Gabe is just not a baby anymore! He's much more of a toddler. He's walking 99% of the time and is trying hard to get some words out, though nothing clear comes out yet, except for Mama. That one he's got down pretty well!! With many teeth in now and eating all regular food and trying to keep up with his siblings, he's just not my "baby" anymore!

Another post to come about Gabe. He's hilarious in how he already knows just how to bug his brother and sisters. As child #4 you catch on quickly!

07 June 2010

See Jane Run part 2

So yes, I recently ran my first 5K. It might not sound like that big of a deal, it's not really, but it was for me because I really don't like running very much. I like exercising in many different ways, but I have never been a fan of running. So I wanted to see if I did a race, if it would encourage me to have a bigger goal for myself in the running area. And it has. I would like to try for a bigger goal and run a 10K next and see how that goes. I actually really enjoyed the race but I felt like it didn't push me to really really feel like I accomplished something big. So, I think in July, I will try for a 10K. And I think it would be fun if Joel would join me on a race for a lot of reasons....but he especially likes free stuff so I think he would appreciate all the fun free stuff at the end of a race! Here are a couple pics of before, during (the end is in sight!) and after. Turns out I came in 63rd for my age class (out of 231) and 283 out of more than 2000 for the whole race. I'll take it considering it was a race for women, full of women.

A big thanks to Joel and my sister for encouraging me to do this when I didn't want to. Well, I wanted to race but I didn't want to race alone and they encouraged me anyway. So, thanks!

We saw a couple of our friends during registration. Here's Rachel and Elaine (who I went up with) me, and Lindsay H from the Sunnyvale Ward.


Here's a quick photo op right before the we started running


I took a quick picture (while running) of the finish area. I was excited to get there to see all the fun stuff that happens after the race


And here is Elaine, Rachel, and me after the race showing off our new shirts! Thanks girls for going up together and making the race sooo much more enjoyable!

05 June 2010

Laura runs in See Jane Run

Laura did first formal race running a 5K. She did great. When she walked in the door she said she didn't feel challenged enough.

I had told her she could do the half Marathon. It sounds like she's going to keep doing this. She thinks I should join the torture because of all the free stuff. I'm not sure that's going to happen.