Persistance

        Back at the beginning of March we completed the Book of Mormon as a family for the very first time. In case you are unfamiliar with this book of scripture, it is over 500 pages long and has similar language to the Bible only set in the new world. Guess how long it took us to read it? almost 5 1/2 years!!! That's right folks. We started when Gabe was only 18 months and he would repeat the words we told him to. He will be 7 in May. That is how long it takes if you are only reading 5 verses a night 5 times a week. Since our start we have added three more children to our family and three little voices that can parrot. (well 2 more I guess, since Ruthie technically doesn't participate yet.) Gabe now reads verses solo but the rest still need help. We celebrated by taking them all to Chuck 'e Cheese. This time around we are reading 10 verses a night to speed things up a bit. I think they can probably handle it if we stop to explain the things we are reading. Wahoo! Good job little family. First of many times to come. 

Photo of the 'crazies' courtesy of Zach

David's Birthday Update

My little's 

EXACT same cake design that Gabe had for his 5th birthday, by request. Colors and all. 

Icing beard from the 'Birthday Bite'

Team Work

We have a saying in our house, " Team work doesn't seem work". I like to say this quite frequently. I've probably even blogged about it before.  No one in our family is a more ardent believer than my five year old David. He always wants a buddy to help him in his chores, even if it is our little 1 year old Ruthie. One is a wonderful age because helping is still a game and they are eager to do it. I love it. David is actually quite a good worker himself when he puts his mind to something.(And don't worry, no dishes or children were harmed in the production of this post. )I love those kidos!

Celebration

I bought some glow sticks at the dollar store last week so we could have something fun to do on Monday night while Zach was gone at Kansas State for his campus visit. Since he was offered the position at Colorado State he didn't have to make that last trip so we celebrated and used them early. It was a special bath night for all the kids. We ran two baths so they could all enjoy the neon fun. They all LOVED it! (Congratulations Zach on getting a job! We are off on our next adventure.)

Pintrest and the Dollar store, making it possible. Definitely a match made in heaven for those of us that lack our own creative ideas. 

"The Land I Love"

Neighbor and good friend with a son in the program.
She is like the neighborhood big sister, always a helpful hand and some sound advice. 

Boys speaking part

His teacher Ms. Mills. He loves her

A few weeks ago Gabe participated in his first grade patriotic program held right before president's day, and I thought it was just wonderful. It was obvious that the teachers and students had put a lot of hours into preparing. All the students had a speaking part, had memorized a patriotic poem, the preamble, the pledge of allegiance and a number of patriotic songs. They made and displayed patriotic artwork and even had a slide show at the end. I loved it. I thought it was adorable. You could tell Gabe was dragging there at the end since it was over an hour, but over all he was very enthusiastic. When he preformed his part and songs at home you could just see the sun shine on his precious six year old face. He was proud of himself for memorizing and I was proud of him for trying so hard. Six, it's a good age. Especially for this little guy.

Sleeping Beauty

For a long time I would hold Ruthie for a few minutes while she went to sleep and she would play with my hair to help her drift off. She was getting too big though and pulling too hard so we had to stop that little habit before it got too ingrained. Instead, I introduced 'dogie' here who she got for Christmas from her grandparents and it has worked like a charm. She loves dogie and he's so soft that she didn't have much trouble switching over. Her hair is growing in too which she will also tug on from time to time. Grateful for easy baby #4. 

Lunch

Last night at dinner I remarked out loud that, "hu, daddy has been gone so much lately I haven't had to make him a lunch in over a week." To which David promptly replied, "Boy, he must be hungry." 

Ha!Good one little friend