it's the thought that counts

ever since she was 2 she's told me that she wants to

take the train to the city

and get some lunch.

so we decided that for her birthday we would take her down,

get some lunch and she could get a doll.

soooooo,

4 months later,

we made the trip.

we took the train.

her feet were tired-immediately

-it's gonna be a loooonnnggg day.

we made our way to Stand!
and got ourselves what we'd been dreaming of (and some lunch)-

the Toasted Marshmallow Shake!

every bit as good as we expected.

this is a shake worthy of a midnight run!

Yummy, Yummy, Yummy!

to the doll store where she made her purchase.

then to the park to play...

ride the carousel...

climb the rocks -the boys will be jealous, this is their favorite thing to do in the park...

splash in the water...
and swing on the swings

what a day!
she said it was the best day,

she wants to do it every year!

then, she crashed
and while the sister was sleeping, he found his opportunity to get his hands on that beautiful little doll with lots of beautiful hair like he loves!

he-he-he!

happy belated birthday little girl!

4 years old!

happy birthday sweet girl!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

yesterday was thing 1's birthday!

my baby is 9!

he's a good kid.

a happy kid.

he came out smiling.

he came out loving everyone.

as a baby he was always hugging and kissing everyone. mom and dad and all of his friends-especially the girls! he still loves everyone and has a really big heart. he is kind to people and really enjoys being with people.

he is responsible. i can trust him to watch the other kids. he keeps track of his things. as a baby he really loved animals and had a gazillion toy animals, he still does. every week or so he chose 2 that he carried around everywhere and played with all week. he only ever lost 1. it fell out of the cart in walmart and we never found it again!

thing 1 has a special talent for the scriptures. he reads and understands and remembers. when we read as a family he seems like he's not listening but when we stop and ask what we've read he can always tell us. he'll summarize the chapter for us. i have a hard time paying attention and following the story when someone else is reading them.

this is a blessing that i hope he treasures and uses well.

he is my first born. he's watched 3 others join our family and be loved and treasured.

i hope that he knows that he is loved and treasured. that he was adored just as much as the rest.

i hope he knows that we admire him and love him.

i hope he knows that we like him.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

yesterday was thing 2's birthday. 7 years old.

he was so excited. he's been counting down for a long time now. it used to be months then last month he began the daily countdown. last weeks daily sign- ins from school reflected that, starting 10 days out-"there are 10 days till my birthday." "there are 9 days till my birthday." you get the idea.

we celebrated as a family with a yummy ice cream cake and the dad drove in with a new bike strapped to the roof sending thing 2 whooping and hollering around the yard. just
what he wanted.

he is my little sweetheart who loves and adores his baby brother. he will come in from playing just to see him and spend 5 minutes with him. he'll take the baby from me and when he gets fussy he'll rock him to sleep for me.

he's a boy with a special enthusiasm for life. he wants to try everything and has no fear as he does just that.

he's my sneaky little boy who hides his vegetables in the bathroom garbage or flushes them down the toilet!! and who, when he was just 2 years old, was caught telling his brother "just don't tell mom" after thing 1 had told him they weren't allowed to do something.

he can be as stubborn as all get out when he wants to. when he's feeling stubborn i don't even know how to deal with him. he digs his heals in and won't budge.

he's a pretty cool kid!

did you notice thing one in the first picture with puckered lips like he's trying to blow out the candles?

yesterday was jarfaces(my brother) birthday. he doesn't read my blog but happy birthday to him anyway!

yesterday

the birthday treats!

i woke to a 5:30 am wake up call, courtesy of thing 4. usually the dad takes that call but he had returned thing 3 to her bed just a couple hours before and fell asleep hanging off the edge of her bed. i had full intentions of passing the boy off to the dad so i could get just a little bit more sleep, but, when i saw him curled up under one of thing 3's half sized blankets i just couldn't wake him. so, i took the kid and conceded to the fact that

i was up.

we headed to the kitchen where thing 4 sat cooing in his swing while i baked some banana bread. -we had some over ripe bananas and the day before i had thought of one of our old neighbors and decided we needed to visit them. then later that same day thing 2 started asking about them and asked if we could go see them. so, i decided we needed to visit them. i was baking bread so i had some kind of offering.

while the bread baked, thing 4 and i snuggled on the couch and greeted the rest of the family as they slowly woke. soon everyone was curled up in the living room waiting for the bread to be ready. while we waited the dad organized everyone in a round of happy birthday.

it was my birthday!

once the bread was done we inhaled 1 of the loaves-quickly!

nothing like banana bread right out of the oven!

the dad headed off to work

i passed thing 4 off to the boys, told them they could watch a show,

i just needed to rest.

i headed upstairs, the dad had made our bed (very nice of him) so i crawled into thing 1's bed. (very comfy i must say!) just as i was dozing off into that feel good sleep, the phone rang! i'm not surprised. it always does. i let the answering machine get it. it was the dad. somehow he always calls just as i'm about to take a little nap. it's pretty much a never fail thing. he was calling to tell me that our blockbuster is shut down!-interesting. before i could get back to that feel good off to sleep state, thing 4 started howling. he was hungry. i fed him and unexpectedly, he fell asleep so, i carried him up and snuggled into thing 1's bed with him. we snoozed. i'm not sure how long. but soon we got up and got dressed and headed off with our loaf of bread to visit our old neighbor.

on our way there we were surprised by my friend passing us. we quickly pulled over to see why she was headed our direction.

she was coming with birthday treats!

i had forgotten it was my birthday.

we visited on the side of the road. her boy was howling, he wanted out. my kids were running across the road to see him.

it was a nice surprise.

we visited our old neighbor. i'm still not sure why we needed to visit them. i thought maybe the reason they were on our minds would be apparent when we got there, but it wasn't. life seemed to be normal there. it was a nice visit.

we then went grocery shopping.-yup, my fridge was empty!

when we got home i fed thing 4 and put him down for another nap. i laid down on the couch to read. i didn't get more than 2 pages read before my eyes were shut.

i talked to my friend on the phone.

when i got off with her i realized i needed to feed the boys. i fed the boys and hurried them out the door to practice.

(the neighbor was driving them)

as they walked out, the dad walked in. i told him and thing 3 to hurry and eat their dinner so we could sneak out and get an ice cream while the boys were gone.

we hurried out to one of our favorite spots-we LOVE ice cream so we have many favorites! as we were leaving the dad realized he couldn't find a set of his keys. this is something that drives him crazy and if he didn't figure out where they were he would be up at 3am and off to work to find them. so instead of going through that, we drove down to his office (after ice cream, of course) and found his keys. they were right there, on his desk. not dropped in the driveway getting run over as he had feared!

we got home just a couple minutes before the boys walked in.

before they could even get their cleats off the neighbor kids were at the door. they have been playing ghost just about every night.

so out they went.

i put thing 4 to bed while watching tru tv-our new favorite channel.

called the kids in at about 9:30 for bed and the dad and i followed soon after-

very soon after.

i am now 34!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LAINAKAY!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

today my sweet little first born turns 8. hard to believe! he is the happiest little kid(most of the time)! he was born smiling! as a baby and still today he has a big beautiful smile for everyone! he was the baby that was always hugging and kissing all of his friends. one time, when he was 2, he and a couple other friends were playing together and we tossed them all in a crib. while the other 2 boys were jumping around thing 1 was in the corner kissing the little girl!

he was a perfect little baby, so easy going and just happy to be loved! i feel like as he gets older i don't hug and kiss him as much-he's always in a hurry to get outside to play with his friends! but i know that he still loves a good hug and though he scrunches up his face and makes ucky noises, i know he still loves to be kissed!

we love you! you are a great big brother and son! keep smiling!