Kinda Josh Week - Bonus Surprise Activities, Too

We were treated to a surprise visit from my mom - she was on the way up to Idaho, but since we live near the airport we picked her up and went to Josh's school to eat lunch together. Pretty exciting for us all!

Josh spent the entire ride home from school telling his friends about how he got to eat lunch with his grandma.

The last weeks of school meant lots of action with school, including Josh's class program. It was very adorable, of course, and I had tears in my eyes when they sang along with Raffi. It was the same CD we checked out from the Provo library when Joshy was a baby, and now he's done with first grade! They did a slide show, too, which was only upbeat, so I was able to smile and enjoy.

I thought this picture was funny because every kid turned to look at Josh while I was taking his picture.

The glorious kazoo part.

Lissy was a squirmy, crazy girl until the show started, then she was transfixed.

When it was time for the slide show, Lissy sat in Josh's lap. First grade graduate, AND a great brother.

Classic "they don't know where to look because there's too many cameras." Friends from Josh's class - Devon, Taycen, Ben, Josh

Josh with his sweet teacher, Miss Harms.

Josh turned the big 7 on Thursday, and obviously he was excited. So excited he woke up early, and took advantage of his birthday-free-reign to play computer games while I made him his requested blueberry breakfast cake. We had planned all of his birthday meals the week before, but he was elusive about what he wanted to bring for his class treats. He said he'd "tell me later." When I dropped him off at school he said, "Airheads," and jumped out of the car. Funny boy, did he think I'd say no? Between that and the fact he changed his mind about eating school lunch, (I am such a sucker! I can't force my child to eat pork and gravy on his birthday, when he asks me so sweetly if I can bring him a quesadilla. Which would have been fine except that I was running late and couldn't find the overdue library books and Andrew ate the first quesadilla I made . . .thank heavens for friends to save my hide.) yeah, so, anyway, I ended up at Josh's school twice.

Another fun surprise - we got to meet my family at Chuck E. Cheese for Josh's birthday. It was unplanned, but we all wanted to see each other, so dreams I had not planned to fulfill came true. The kids were in the level above heaven, and us adults had a great time, too. I arrived with a pounding headache, but with a little ibuprofen and a lot of great company, I was pumped up in no time.

These little boys killed me. Look at their feet. They were jumping around excitedly forever with this one. Throughout the night they were usually together, and usually with Andrew on the left and Beckett on the right.

Kristen is so awesome. She has her own cute baby, but she still loves giving babies loves. Lissy enjoyed it, for sure.

Cindy's favorite locale, the ticket muncher. You could find her there often during the evening.

Kristen and Dylan, having a great time.

They were obsessed with this gun thing for a long time. Once again, chose something with two, same formation.

Sophie and Noah were sooo excited.

I was amused by this picture taken as I was talking.

It's Lissy and her mom riding in a car. Lissy was crazy about this.

Josh spent a huge portion of his time doing this.

Same relative position, new game. So cute.

It was so cute to see Sophie helping Lissy.

I tried to take a picture of how good Braden is at helping Beckett, but they were a little out of position by the time it actually took.

Like son, like father. . .

Dylan was excited about Kristen's Skee-ball skills.

I have nearly the same picture of me with Noah at that age. Aww, my babies .

I love the look on Andrew's face here - it's pretty much the look he has when he's doing anything he's enjoying.

Josh wanted this cake, but also expected it to be decorated, as per tradition.  Here we have a Beyblade cake. A hit.

It's official, he's 7!

Tate's not too old to get a big, um, mouse hug from Chuck E.

When these kids  come over, one of the favorite things for the kids to do is have a Pandora dance party. I don't know how it happened, but I can't get these pictures separated. I love the look on Tate's face as he looks at Josh in the upper one, and we'll discuss this lower one later.

The kids were told they could get tickets by dancing with Chuck E., so dance they did.

The kids discovered the blue screen, and danced away. Lissy was shy to jump in, but she was transfixed.

Sophie brought Lissy into the action.

Lissy was very pleased to  finally be on the dance floor, and dance she did. I had a hard time getting her away.

Josh opened his presents too fast for me to  get a picture, but here he is reading a card from Gary's parents. He counted it on his list of presents.

I think I say every year that Josh has a great sense of humor - because he's not stopping, he's hilarious. You should see this boy laughing at jokes. He still loves sports, and can play and play all day. He's grown over an inch and a half in the last 5 months, and can really eat a ton now. Gary said when he was his primary teacher it was nice to see how kind he was to the other kids. That makes my heart happy.

Josh got a flag football set for his birthday, and also a tennis racket and some balls from grandmas, oh yes, and the new Beyblades, so he was pretty pumped to play with those things right away. How pumped, you ask? Well, due to the Chuck E. Cheese party, he went to bed at 11:15. I had plans to allow him to sleep in past the time school started. However, he woke up at 6:45 to play with his new stuff. I was playing one on one football in the front yard at 7:30 a.m. Woo-hoo. The kids all had a great time.

Later that morning (yeah, 9 a.m. was later) some kids came over that we switch baby-sitting with a lot. They always love to have dance parties, but his time Andrew's hat combined with his moves pushed me over the cuteness edge, and I filmed it. Too bad Lissy was sleeping, we didn't get any of her moves this time.

Josh's first grade mini-marathon was on Friday, too. He was really hoping to get somewhere between 1st and 6th place so he could get a ribbon, and had hope because he's been coming in 2nd in his class. He started out like a bullet, and ran in 3rd for quite a while, but at the end he got 8th. I still think 8th out of almost 70 is pretty great, and his not-enough-sleep-for-an-adult may have played a factor. He has a great attitude, and had a fun time. It was adorable watching the boys cheer for the girls and vice versa. PLUS my little kids got a fun walk to the track and a show.

Friends from Josh's class - Kaylee, Josh, Joshua, Brenley, and Kaige. Josh wrote in his journal that Kaylee loves him. I don't blame her.

There he is, the comin home. My friend has a picture on her blog of him starting out the first 100 meters in  3rd, but not me.

Josh and Ben finished really close to each  other, and I caught a good-bye through the fence on my way out. Those are running beads they earned, by the way.

Here is the picture of my boys at Fathers and Sons. Yeah, Gary said none of the men were taking pictures, so he didn't. It was raining, but the boys were soooo excited and Gary is a great sport. Apparently other people in the ward thought so, too, and they had a really great time. For some reason Andrew kept saying he wanted to go camping even when he was in the tent, and afterwards said he didn't go camping. Was he expecting a Bear Grylls experience? Lissy and I went to Cafe Rio together, then watched mindless T.V. Okay, the last part was just me. Hoo-rah for Fathers and Sons!

Here is the other picture of our friends coming over for a barbeque. Okay, I'm the one who forgot to take pictures this time. We hadn't seen the T-fam for months, so it was fantastic to see them. Nice to have a fire lit under us to clean up the house after how tired we were, and then so fun to end off the week by relaxing with friends. Gary was pretty excited to grill up some wings, and I have to admit it was awesome. At one point Andrew was asleep on the couch and wet his pants in front of everyone, but apparently that's a great way to treat leather? Only the finest around here.

And here at the bottom, but no less awesome, was Mother's Day at our house! The week before we'd had family events, so Gary asked if it would be okay to do stuff the next week instead. Um, yes, please! What a man. I woke up to breakfast, and this on the table.

What I woke up to on Mother's Day!

They like a plump mama. Love it.

Climbing Walls, Sowing Seeds, Saying Farewell

Right now Lissy is force-feeding Gary a roll. She opens his mouth, puts the roll in there, and then slams his mouth shut again. What a relief to know we'll have someone to take care of us when we're too old to feed ourselves.

There was definitely stuff on the schedule this week (the usual variety of baseball, soccer, community council and whatnot), but since there was less than there has been it felt so luxurious. On Monday I watched two sets of kids, and it was awesome. My kids had a blast playing outside, and I made a freezer meal and jam. Wins. Then during preschool on Tuesday and Thursday I didn't have any appointments for once, and was able to visit a friend one day and go to the park another. Playing with my kids and talking to friends - weird, right? So nice.

In the middle of my shower one day, suddenly I saw a little hand reach in and pull the water over to the very hottest setting. Nice shock - good thing we follow the guidelines for water temperature settings for houses with young children, and thank you, Elisabeth.

Noah has been talking a ton lately about kindergarten. He's mentioned how awesome it will be to get Pizza Hut coupons, among other things. He licks his lips when he talks about it. We were in the car together when we had this conversation:
Noah: So . . .what grade did you teach again? Kindergarten or first grade?
Me: A little first grade, but mostly kindergarten
Noah: Why don't you do it anymore?
Me: If I taught kindergarten, who would take care of you guys?
Noah: Andrew and Lissy could get a baby sitter.
Me: Oh . . . are you asking this because you want me to be your teacher?
He nodded shyly. I agreed that it would be a lot of fun. He said I'm the best, and I have to tell you, that makes me feel pretty awesome.

My worst offense at school-slacking-mom occurred this week. Josh was given a blank book, and was supposed to author something great. Due Monday, and assigned three weeks ago. Josh brought me the book the day after it was assigned, and he'd written crookedly in pen on the cover, "ABC Sports book." Ack, publishing is supposed to be best work! So I hid it from him until the point I would work on it with him. Except we've been living la vida loca (not proud of it, that's just the way it's been), and I never got it out. Last Saturday we got back from the baptism way later than I thought, and oops! Sorry, Josh. He worked on it early Monday morning, Monday after school, before bed, and then woke up on Tuesday morning at 6:00 a.m. to finish. Even then, I didn't get him to school until 10:30. Yeah, a day overdue and late for school. Also, sleep deprived. Ummm . . . yeah. Josh actually had a pretty great attitude for most of it, he did a cute job, and it did create quite the Stepford vision for Gary when he came home on Monday and all 4 kids were writing at the table. My favorite page in the book was I - I is for Italy, a team in the Olympics.

This little friend and Lissy worked so hard to get all of these balls onto the trampoline to play with, and then they played up there for about 15 minutes. FOREVER for toddlers! I had to take a picture, what are they doing playing for real?

The kids played playdough for a very long time with some kids that were over. Noah decided if he put floam on his hands and feet he could climb the wall like Spiderman. I don't know why I thought taking a picture was the best course of action. Also, Noah put a platter of playdough creations in the oven. It wasn't on, no big deal. Until a few days later when I preheated the oven. Interestingly, playdough containers don't melt until several minutes at extreme heat. Good to know.

Andrew became a gecko with floam on his hands.

During our trip to Walmart this week, Noah really wanted to buy seeds. He was asking if he could grow "fresh cucumbers" and "fresh beans." Can't really say no to that. So far we only planed a few seeds, but we'll do more soon. Don't know if it will work, but the kids are really excited. Noah licks his lips when he thinks about it.

The second Josh got home the kids' root observer thing was opened. Poor Josh's face was cut out of this photo, but he was the one who actually read the instructions.

Is there something more awesome than stirring a bucket full of dirt?

Lissy was having a grand time picking and blowing on dandelions - had to get a picture. Even though I couldn't really capture the moment, I can still look and remember her little lips all puckered up to try to blow the seeds away.

On Friday morning I woke up too early. The kids still weren't going to be awake for a little bit, but I couldn't fall back to sleep, so I started reading. After a little while I thought I heard Lissy wake up. Then I thought I heard Andrew getting her out of her crib. I expected to see their cute little faces any minute, but I never did, and I didn't hear anything else, so I kept reading. I figured it must have been them stirring in their sleep. However, a full half an hour later, I suddenly got worried. What if it was them and they're not making noises because they're hurt? I got up to investigate. When I opened the door, I saw this:

They were reading books quietly on Andrew's bed for at least 30 minutes, and who knows how long they would have kept going!

This one is pretty much the same, but I couldn't stand the cuteness.

Noah made me this at preschool for Mother's Day. He was pretty proud, and it actually is beautiful!

It started getting kind of hot in the house on Friday, so even though I'd made pizza dough and chopped the toppings, I couldn't handle turning on the oven. So, Gary grilled the pizza, and he discovered a new thing. He used the griddle on the side of the grill to cook the toppings while the first side cooked, so then the finished product was fully cooked and AMAZING. I'm not kidding, it was ridiculous. What a man. After that we headed off to Coldstone to redeem Josh's birthday ice cream, and Gary let him get a huge one. Josh said he was sick at the end, but he'd do it again. The kids were having a dance party in the store, and with Andrew's Chris Farley jumps and Noah's booty shaking, it was quite the thing. Lissy has some moves, too.

The oldest cousin, Brent, is headed to Tampa, Florida on his mission this Wednesday, so we got to go to the temple with him and Gary's family on Saturday night and to his farewell today. It's always so nice to be in the temple. I was reflecting that after 5 1/2 years of living here, the Salt Lake temple has so many great memories for me now. Last night with family now included!

I was so glad today at the farewell to see that Josh was really interested to listen to Brent give his talk. We really appreciate great examples around here. I can still remember so many things from my childhood I saw other people do that affected me. Also, hooray for getting to see Gary's parents and family again! This time I did bring my camera, but the battery was dead, so Gary's phone saves the day again.

Dallin and Martha's back yard is a dream come true for kids. Andrew really wanted a picture of him with these sticks.

I think it's funny that every time I try to take a picture of Lissy  she tries to approach the camera. So, mostly I have pictures like these.

But, every now and then she finds a brick to sit on, and I get a cute shot.  I think Andrew is handsome, too.

I found some of the other boys playing in this amazing hideout.

Get in the hideout, and this is what I find. Luke, a second cousin, and Noah. I love Luke's expression.

The reason for the whole occasion - our last chance to see Brent for two years!

Happy Mother's Day to any mother out there who has gotten to this point in the post. Hooray for you!

Growth

The top half of Andrew's face grew redder and redder as he struggled to free the bottom half of his face from his wet shirt that had become awkwardly stuck. He had wet his pants while taking a nap, and woke up fighting mad - just getting him to the bathtub was a struggle, and then he wouldn't let me touch him. I offered in many ways to help. Hugs, nice words, time to cool off. No, I was not allowed to help. Finally, he started doing it himself, and it was difficult. Between him being so worked up and the wet clothes catching him in various  places, he was nearly strangled in several different ways. The whole time I thought, "This would be so much easier if you'd let me help! I'm right  here, I want to help!"
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There are so many ways I want to be better, so many qualities I want to have. On Sunday in church all the ways I fall short came momentarily crashing down on me. "Dear Father," I cried in my heart, "Please help me to be all of the things I want to be!"

He answered me right away. "I'm trying," He said. "But sometimes you don't like it."

Duck Egg, Buying Our Own ENT, and Uniforms Everywhere

You can quit worrying, I figured out what to do for the lunch room door. My plan was to cut out some letters that said, "What's on our plate is really great, thank you!" I brought paper plates to school and had the kids in Josh's class write on them what their favorite thing in the lunch room is. They wrote some adorable things to the "lunch lattys" (my favorite spelling), and since so many participated I had no room for huge letters. So, I decided to print the slogan out and glue it on a plate for the middle of the door . . . but, no computer at that moment, so I wrote it with some markers. I think mine was the only door in the school with no die-cuts, cricut, vinyl, or professional sign-makers involved, so that's embarrassing, but hopefully the lunch ladies felt the love from the kids. Or if nothing else, my kid got some writing practice, so there's that.

I liked this image. To be honest - the reading was required before he could play, but it was so cute to me.

It's #8 up to bat! Josh gets really serious about trying to do the right stance in all situations - batting, fielding. When he's in the game, he's IN the game.

 Monday was a gorgeous day for a baseball game! So nice after the frost-bite we were getting before. I love watching Josh and how into the game he is, but since there is no score, and the outs aren't counted, the games don't have a ton of action. When Josh isn't playing it's like watching other people's kids do batting practice. That's fine, but interesting because I always liked baseball better than soccer until now. Anyway . . . Noah came up to me at the game on Monday and showed me this egg he'd been keeping in the pocket of his cargo shorts. It was a little cracked, and I figured it was an abandoned duck egg since there is a pond nearby. Noah was pretty proud of his find, and it was pretty cool, so I took a picture of him with it. After that he slipped it into his pocket and walked away. 20 minutes later one of my friends came up to me with her son that Noah had been playing with. One side of his denim shorts was all wet and gooey. "Noah tried to put an egg in Ephraim's pocket," I was told. Oh, my! I felt terrible, the kid's shorts looked so yucky. I found Noah hiding under a picnic table and he didn't want to talk about eggs at all.

Noah, proud of his awesome find, pre-incident.

One afternoon this week Noah and Andrew made cozy beds under the trampoline. They invited me to get under there with them, so I did, and we talked about the sun and the planets and the perfection of the moment.

 I got allergy testing on Wednesday morning. I was afraid my grass allergies had come back, but quite awesome-ly, I am no longer allergic to it, hooray! Tumbleweed allergy gone, too. I have developed an allergy to cats - which I already suspected - and also a slight allergy to lambs-quarters, which is a weed I only knew by sight before looking it up. Yeah, we have those, all over our yard. So, the allergies are nothing to go nuts over. The doctor was curious as to why I'm still feeling so congested and tight, and after looking up my nose for one second he knew the answer. My turbinates are huge. Last time they were small because I had taken so much Prednisone, but now they need to be operated on - June 6. Shouldn't be a big deal; they are doing much less than what they did to Gary. Now that I know I'm not congested and there is an actual blockage in my nose, it's way more annoying.

After the doctor I went to Winco with the 3 not-in-school kids, and really I know it's not of note, but I enjoyed being with my kiddos. They were so cute and good. Not every grocery trip goes that way . . . Meanwhile, back at the ENT, Gary had another follow-up to deal with his scar tissue. Poor guy basically had an in-office surgery. The doctor numbed him up, and then cut stuff, reinforced stuff, and stitched some stuff up. When I saw Gary again he had more packing, a drippy nose, and the ends of his stitches taped to the sides of his face. They look like cat whiskers, though Gary feels the look is reminiscent of a French maitre d'.

Andrew got invited to the first birthday party where only he was invited (and not brothers). Why was his excitement so darn adorable? And why was Noah so jealous when he just went to one a few weeks prior? Let's stick with the adorable narrative.

Gary kept his drippy nose at home on Thursday, but worked the whole day. That was pretty interesting - Gary was here, but pretty much unavailable. But, he was here, and I'd love him to do that a whole lot more often. I took Lissy to her well-child check, and it went great, besides the fact we had to switch doctors andI forgot to transfer the medical records. Oops. That girl weighs 25 pounds now, she's really gained in the last little while! I guess that just puts her in the 75th percentile, along with her height, so she's proportional. And adorable. The doctor asked if she's started climbing . . . oh, my, yes. My brother in law Taylor said I should have replied, "Yeah, she asked for carabiners for her birthday." You should see that girl climbing up really tall slides, it's cause for concern. Sunday was her first day in the nursery. She walked in - then turned around and walked out. It was a new situation for sure, so I took a little bit to show her the big fuzzy purse, and she was good. She is one of only two girls in there, even the teachers are men. But, that's pretty much her life anyway, and the teacher said after I left she was a pro.

Overheard Andrew talking to his brothers: I wish I had a launcher to fly us into the sky, that would be pretty awesome.

Josh and Noah have been spending a lot of time on walmart.com trying to figure out what they can buy if they pool their money. Josh downgraded his iPad dream to going in on a Kindle with Noah, and now they might just pool their money for some legos. We shall see.

Special treat for me on Thursday - my college roommate Anna and I got together in Salt Lake to catch up on life sans kiddos. We ate at the Blue Lemon - I highly recommend, I bought new bras (Dumb? Maybe, but I never get to buy necessary things, so I was very happy), ate cheesecake, and talked and talked. Conversations that started out, then went other directions, then never got finished because there were too many other things to cover. This kind of treat rarely ever happens, so I felt very spoiled. Don't worry chillins, I made dinner for my fam before I left, I wasn't going to leave my nose patient with everything to do.

On Friday I was really due for a workout, so even though I'd stayed up late with some medical issues a few nights in a row, I tackled the step class. It was great fun, and I was really into it, until one of my weary legs didn't kick high enough, and I went sprawling face down onto the step. Surprisingly not painful - maybe because of embarrassment? The risers and step spilled all over everywhere. Smooth. I was able to stay on my feet for almost another hour after that, though, so that's an accomplishment.

Noah started out our Saturday for us by scoring 7 goals in his soccer game (he was on fire!), then we rushed to get to Heber for my nephew's baptism. I love baptisms, I always feel like what's important in life is so front and center. I love for my kids to see them, too. I forgot my camera, so I didn't get any pictures, but then later on this scene was so adorable, I grabbed Gary's phone:

Yeah, Lissy loved swinging with Grandma!

So, you see why I had to get a picture. I'd told Josh to pack something to wear after the baptism, and so he put an outfit in a bag. He dresses himself every day, so I figured he could handle it. I didn't check what he packed, I just threw stuff on top. When it came time to change, I saw what he brought - his baseball uniform, and that's it. Awesome. Noah decided he wanted Grandma to see what he looked like in his soccer uniform, so he put that on, and my kids were the sporty ones, I guess, albeit unnecessarily. We all had a great time eating and chatting, as usual, and the kids loved playing with cousins.

Noah and Luke were pirates.

Luke, Noah in his pirate-pose, and Tessa

Josh got to be the catcher in one of his first games. He loved it, and all that gear sure is cute.

Lissy sat down and folded her arms with everybody else for family prayer. Gary thought it was cute for some reason.

And that's a week, folks! Gary got his cat whiskers removed today, so on to a free-breathing chapter of life. Oh, yes, and on Sunday, a new family in the neighborhood invited us over for dinner. I felt sooo bad, because we had been thinking to invite them over, but had been too busy as of yet to get things ready to have people over. Even though they had to take matters into their own hands, we had a great time, and were glad they called. That's what I'll have to do when I move, though I don't see myself unpacked that quickly. Sigh. How about this - on Tuesday we had no car, so I played with the kids all day, and we had fun. Happy note, for sure.