Birthday Weekend

This year Benjamin's birthday fell on a Sunday which means instead of a birth"day" he gets a birthday weekend. The festivities started on Friday since that was the day they sang to him at school. Here's a picture of him with the pencils and little erasers he took in for his classmates (his class has a no food rule for birthdays). He was very excited to go to school!

Friday night a woman from the Primary presidency (Children's organization at our church) delivered a cake for him. He couldn't wait to dig in. And lucky for the rest of us he was happy to share ... it was delicious!

Saturday was the day we planned to do the main celebrations. The morning started with him opening his presents. Here is the before ...

Here he is with some of his presents. He LOVED the Nerf gun and I got such a good price on the robes that we decided to get all 3 of the older boys one. We didn't want to wait to give them on their birthdays (what good is a robe in warmer weather) so I wrapped them all together and Bry and Grayson got an early present. Benjamin's main present was a race track, but we kept that for him to open on his actual birthday ... and I just realized I never got a picture with that! Oops!

While Connor took a nap, the boys got to play Lego Star Wars and then we headed out for the afternoon/evening. First stop was Toys R Us for the boys to use the gift cards their grandparents had given them for Christmas. They all had a blast picking out stuff and Benjamin didn't mind at all that his brothers were also getting stuff on his birthday. (It meant they left his stuff alone!) Then it was onto Build-A-Bear at the Mall of America. He got a coupon in the mail during the week for $5 off so for $5 he got a new animal ... meet Scooter the holiday Moose. He loves him and says he choose him because he is so soft.

Then we headed across the street to Chevy's for dinner. This was Benjamin's request because he wanted to get the song, sombrero and free treat. We didn't complain becuase we like the food. Here is a shot while they were singing to him ... he looks a little nervous!

Here he is with his dad ... see, he really was excited to get all the attention.

Afterwards, we headed home and since it was getting late we had to put off the Indiana Jones movie until the next night. He was a happy birthday boy and we all had fun celebrating with him.

Lesson in Listening (and Acting)

You would think by the title of this blog, and knowing that we have 4 young boys, that this post would be about a lesson for the boys. But no ... this one was for the parents.

As most LDS people know, this time of year means Tithing Settlement with the Bishop and today was our appointed time to go in with Rehn right after church. Rehn went through the usual questions and message, slightly abbreviated since our kids weren't paying a ton of attention, and as we were finishing up Grayson tells us he needs to use the bathroom. But since we are done, Rehn asks if we can have a prayer first before we leave. As he finishes the prayer, we look up and there is a puddle forming under Grayson's chair! And did I mention that Grayson was sitting behind the desk in the Bishop's chair?! Not much to do but laugh ... and hurry to find something to clean it up. I think the next time Grayson says he needs to go we will be a little faster at getting him to the bathroom. Lesson definitely learned!! And I can honestly say that today I'm glad Rehn is the Bishop!

Just like our home

Sorry, I had to do it. Since Thanksgiving weekend, we have had chirstmas music playing ... sometimes the entire day. So I thought it would be fun to add it on here. Now you can feel like you are in our home!! You just don't get the joy of hearing my kids sing along or seeing Connor bee-boop to the music. I had the boys help me pick out which songs to add (some are my favorites) ... you are lucky they aren't all Chipmunks songs! Rehn and I are about sick of hearing "Christmas, Christmas time is here ..." we at least made them learn the words. And it is better than "Jingle bells, Batman smells" which I haven't heard so far ... yay! Hope you enjoy the music and are enjoying this holiday season!!

The life of a 6 month old

Here are some of the things Connor did when he was 6 months old ...
Went from the baby bath tub to the bath ring. We were all excited about this since it is much easier to store and he loves sitting up to splash and play.

This one is for my parents. My dad got him this outfit. He does look pretty cute in it ... but I think he looks cute in anything!

This is Benjamin singing him the Tigger song on Halloween night. Sorry it is so dark ... I think you can still see Connor's face. He loved it!

Buddies!

Rehn called this his circle of trust. He was pretty good at sitting up, but I needed to cook dinner so the pillows were just in case ... and you never know which way they will fall! He loves being able to sit and play ... and I love that he can entertain himself while I get things done. This is a GREAT age!!

And finally here is a video of Bryant and Connor. He will laugh at about anything his brothers do and the boys love to make him laugh. I love watching them together.

I am so grateful that all of the boys adjusted easily when Connor joined our family. They instantly loved him and that has only grown over the last 6 months. Connor is such a sweet baby. He is a quiet baby (unless he needs something!) and very fun to have around. It is hard to remember what life was like before him. We love having him around and watching him grow and learn new things every day.

Just about 6 months

As he was about to turn 6 months, I finally got out the high chair. Actually, I just put Grayson into a regular chair without the booster and added the tray for Connor. Both were happy with the new arrangement and I like that it doesn't take up as much space as a regular high chair.

Sticking out the tongue ... again. I told you he was happy to have his own chair!

Grayson decided to entertain him while I was trying to get some dishes done. Of course I had to stop doing the dishes to get this video but the dishes will wait and this won't! If you listen you can hear Connor grunting ... that is the main way he talks/babbles.

I left him laying on this blanket while I went to do something and when I came back into the room, this is what I found. He doesn't do a lot of babbling, but he doesn't lack for personality!

Getting ready for church in his cute outfit from Uncle Ethan and Aunt Lindsay. You can't see it, but the tie and socks match. I love it!!

Once again I took advantage of his cute church outfit and took his 6 month pictures. This is actually the day he turned 6 months. This was my favorite "photo shoot" with him so far ... lots of fun shots to choose from. These are a few of the highlights ...

Catching up on Connor ... 5 months

I've realized that I have not been very good at keeping this blog up to date, especially with pictures of Connor. After all he is the one that changes the most. So I'm going to try and do a quick update on him ... and hopefully I'll get to the other boys soon. (It's good to have high hopes!)
These pictures were all taken when he was 5 months. Here he is in the exersaucer.

And here we are enjoying an early fall day at the park. We had some great weather all the way into November and we tried to take advantage of it. He loved swinging during this last month and it was great to have something to do with him besides sitting in the stroller or carrying him around.

Here he is with one of the many faces he likes to make. He did this tuck in the lower lip for several weeks. I always miss them when he stops.

Practicing sitting up. He was still pretty wobbly at this point so it took a good bit of propping, but he liked it. Much easier to enjoy a good book when you can sit up.

Swinging again and another silly face. This was one of my favorites. He loved to play with his tongue and whenever he was happy he would stick it out. Sadly, he hasn't done it much in the last month.

Since digital cameras, I haven't taken my kids in to get professional pictures taken very often, but I try to do some on my own to mark their stages. Here are a couple of the 5 month shots ...

Halloween ... before Thanksgiving

Okay, I realize that I'm really cutting it close, but I told myself I had to have the Halloween pics up before Thanksgiving. So here I am at 11pm Wed night, but hey ... I made my goal! The kids didn't have school on Halloween, so we had fun at home all day. We even went over to Cold Stone Creamery where they had $.31 cones for the day.
This first picture is on our way to get dinner on Halloween night. On the 31st, after 6pm, Chipotle restaurant, gives away free burritos to anyone who comes in dressed as a burrito (in other words ... is wearing foil). So here are the guys with foil on their heads and around their arms. I had a foil headband and bracelets. If you haven't seen their burritos before, they are huge and cost $6 each so it was a really good deal. The line wasn't too long and moved quickly and we got $30 of burritos for free!

After dinner we got dressed to go trick-or-treating. The older boys all wanted to be Ninjas this year. I wasn't sure what I was going to have them wear, but then I found 2 karate uniforms at a thrift store that were the perfect size for Benjamin and Bryant. I was so excited! Grayson used our Batman jumpsuit and we covered the Batman symbol. I quickly made some hats and baklavas out of fleece, added some sashes and swords and voila ... NINJAS! (If they were reading this, I would be corrected ... they were Shadow Ninjas.)

Connor was Tigger. He was so good while we were out. He just sat in the stroller watching everyone and didn't fuss once!

Benjamin and Tigger.

Checking out all the loot.

Benjamin was very happy about all the candy!
After trick-or-treating, and candy inspection, we jumped into our pjs and watched Ichabod Crane. All in all it was a fun Halloween.