Rubba Dub Dub, Thanks for the grub...

This is my sweet baby taking some first bites of yummy rice cereal (actually I tasted it, and its pretty bad- imagine cardboard)

He's pretty excited about it though, now he gets to participate in family dinner

Whats up next? The goulash in the background... oh I mean mushy fruit

Amen

Marbles

Grandma saw on the box that the game was for 4+, close enough,

Gabe will be there in a matter of days. He's so excited.

Its Gabe's new favorite game, they call it "marbles"

He has a very suspicious number of wins to his credit.

5K

On Saturday our Stake (church) had a Day of Service. The main event was a 5k run that you were encouraged to donate either 10 cans or 10$ to run. Cheeks and I entered the fun while my other 3 bigger boys stayed at home and worked in the garden. Between starting from home late, getting lost, and making it a priority to use the restroom before starting, I started the race 11 minutes late. Hence I had to time myself on my cell phone- not too precise. My goal was not to walk which I accomplished. Approximate time- 33 minutes. I figured it wasn't too bad since when I ran my only other 5k in college without a double stroller and baby it was 28 minutes. The only people I caught were all of the walkers. Cheeks was good the whole time, he didn't make a peep while enjoying the scenic ride. All in all, a day to feel good about.

Sometimes it Sinks in . . . and Sometimes it Doesn't

This is Zach. Alana's taking a brief sabbatical in our bed.

Sometimes when I listen to our children I think, "Yes! Family Home Evening works!" For instance, two weeks ago, I was sitting on the porch with David and Gabe when the G-man noticed a plane high in the sky leaving a contrail behind:

Gabe, being the bright sort of doobie who listens when we read the Book of Mormon and who often tries to imitate its language, exclaimed, "Look, Dad! That plane is blazing a path to heaven!"

I said, "Oh, do you think a plane can fly all the way to heaven?"

He cocked his head to one side, as though trying to understand my objection and responded, "Well, yeah. I mean, all the bad guys will fall off and go to hell, though, 'cause they can't go to heaven."

Whatever faith I might have had in my ability to impart scriptural wisdom to my children was soon dashed, however. The next Monday night at Family Home Evening, we had an obstacle course through which each member of the family proceeded with a blindfold on and nothing but the voice of the "Holy Ghost"--another family member--to guide them. This seemed to be a successful object lesson right up until the end.

When I asked the boys, "So what did we learn about the Holy Ghost?" David quickly responded, "Holy Ghost bad."

Ooops. I guess there were a few too many stumbles on the obstacle course. Oh well. Sometimes it sinks in . . . and sometimes it doesn't.

And many more to come...

Zachary, Zachary, he is so tall
Without his specs' he can't see at all

He is so wise and he is so sweet
Being married to him is quite a treat

His students at school call him doc

His boys at home say, "you rock!"

Almost always it is marital bliss,

Sealed by God's Spirit of Promise

He holds my heart as he holds my hand,

These past 6 years have been grand!

Happy Anniversary Hun!

This is how we Tame the Mane

The nice thing about having boys is if their hair gets too unruly we just cut it off. Teach his hair to get out of control- Ha!

Getting ready to be good

You think David' hair is getting ready to be good?

The other week we took one of Gabe's friends home from preschool for a couple hours to play(we'll call him "John" since I didn't get permission from his parents to include him in this blog). I asked all three boys (David, Gabe, and John) to get in their seats in the van so we could buckle up and go home. The Afore mentioned friend got in his seat first and I commented, "Oh, how good "John" is being, he is already in his seat." To which Gabe quickly responded, "But I'm getting READY to be good, " and he scrambled up into his chair. (David, who couldn't care less if John was being better than him, continued to play, seeing as how that is much more important to a 2 year old than being obedient.)

Gabe is usually (not always) a very obedient boy. We went through a phase there where we were both pushing eachother's buttons but for the most part we're over that and have a good working relationship now. What he said just struck me as something I say to myself sometimes- "I'm getting ready to be good". Sometimes I feel like that when I induldge in my favorite little sins. (isn't that an oxymoron- "little sin") Afterwards I have all the good intentions in the world of changing my habits- until it happens again. So I guess, I'm getting ready to be good- At least the desire is there. Hopefully I'll be able to scramble up into my seat soon.

Lately at prayer time David Hyrum has been consistantly praying all on his own, "bless mommy to be good." It was cute the first few times, now I wonder if he's not sending me some sort of message. Either that or he has misheard the phrase "bless the food to be good". Oh well, I need all the Devine help I can get to "be good." I'll let you know how his prayer works.

One more week till planting day

Gabe proudly displaying his and DH's "testimony seeds". A few weeks ago, the boys planted testimony seeds during Family Home Evening, and they are doing quite nicely. Zach gave a good lesson on getting the "rocks" out that distract us from building our testimonies. for rocks read= fighting, not paying attention at church, playing when we should be praying or reading scriptures etc.











Here's Cheeks testing out the kid swing in the front yard. Giving Dad a big smile. He has nothing to do with planting except for being our littlest sprout.







And last but not least, our seedlings just growing away. I got a late start on them but they're going in the ground next Saturday anyway. Make'em tough. (Aren't you northerners jealous? insert:: sneaky laugh::) Happy gardening.

Happy Easter

A nice day to reflect on the real reason for Easter. It seems it would be a very sobering holiday, thinking of the atonement, if it weren't for the resurrection.

Great grandma and youngest great grandchild- Amber's baby Scarlett

READY, SET, GO! We did our egg hunt yesterday as to not confuse a reverent sabbath with candy hunting

He can only count to 3 so this is a very tricky job

"Just Hatched"

I think I'll start calling him "cheeks", it seems that all the cream rose to the top on this glass of milk.

Aren't they lovely? Tulips are one of my favorite flowers. Gabe calls them fake roses.






















Here we are putting in a few more seeds.

A happy conference and a Happy Easter to all!

De ja vou

Remember this cute boy? Always moving and prone to injury. A few weeks ago he got this shiner falling down some stairs at Zach's sister's home during spring vacation. If you point to the residual mark he still says "Aunt Jenny's house." Although it was no fault of his own, Uncle Roger felt a pang of sorrow for little David Hyrum since it happened on his watch. He paid penance in the form of twizzlers. When a box came from afore mentioned Aunt Jenny's house with a second set of twizzlers inside David imediately exclaimed-"Uncle Roger's candy". Don't worry, all is forgiven Rog.



Well looked what happened on our watch- again. As some of you may remember DH broke his arm falling down the stairs when he was 10 months old while I was trying to help Gabe clean something up. This time he fractured his forearm while trying to ride his older brother's bicycle in the drive way. Him vs. the cement- the cement won. Its his other arm this time thankfully, his non-dominant left arm. He stopped crying after about 5 minutes, but then again, he stopped as a baby too. Only, after he stopped crying it looked a little bent. Zach took him in to an excellent and speedy urgent care center and all was bandaged up in a few hours. They say it will heal straight in about a month. My hats off to modern medicine. Poor thing, he's only asked us a few times if we can take it off. We've gotta get some more milk down this kid or some more weight baring exercise. Sheesh!