Special Award, Soccer, and Standing - Go Kids!

Josh came home on Friday with a special award - he got student of the month from his class, and the certificate says because he excelled in "respect." I will remind him of this. Seriously, though, I am so grateful he is treating the teacher and the other kids nice in school, because that is more important to me than any scholastic thing. Cute Joshy . . . He is a normal kid and things bother him, but he really is so cool to go with the flow so often. On Friday he had P.E., and his size 12 shoes had given him really bad blisters the week before. We hadn't had a chance to buy him new size 13 shoes, so his only option was a pair of size 2 shoes his cousin had given him. I put socks in the toes, and he totally wore them to school. Smiling, even.

Some stuff came in a giant box. So of course the boys had to put a flashlight and some books and toys in there, then get in and have someone else duct tape the box. They then set a timer, enjoyed the entertainment until they heard the beep, then busted out! At one point all 3 boys were in there, and Josh was reading them a Transformers book. He got too sleepy to read anymore, and when they busted out, they were all drenched in sweat. Good decision to bust out.

Noah made a crane out of Trios, and it actually looked pretty good. Andrew said he made a crane, too, but Noah told him it was a gun. Hmm. I'm glad these two are getting more of a chance to play together since Josh is gone most of the day. Things aren't totally smooth with the two of them yet, but they've got all year.

With our first games on Saturday, soccer season has officially begun! Josh didn't get to go to his game since we headed down to BYU football, but Noah was in his jersey at 7 a.m. for a 10 a.m. game. Gary made his big coaching debut, and it was an hilarious comedy of errors, as preschool soccer usually is. Andrew was PROUD to be out there finally getting his chance to play soccer, and Noah did some fist pumps when he finally got a chance to get in the game. The team did great, and Noah scored 4 or 5 goals. Dreams came true.

See that cute little guy, it's Andrew!

Andrew saw this picture and said, "I'm soccering!"

Insight into the role of a U5 coach

Right after Noah's goal, I took a picture of him - and he stopped to smile proudly.

Noah in action.

After the game, Noah really wanted to take a picture of himself. 

And the rest of the week is just random snippets. We had regional conference this weekend, and both our stake president at the adult session and Elder L. Tom Perry at the general session talked a lot about America, it's history and founding, and our duty to protect and defend it. Elder Perry said that Satan knows that a weakened America is a threat to peace worldwide. Very interesting to me that both chose independently to talk about that. Also, a lot was said about strengthening and fortifying our families. I made a list of things Gary and I should talk about. Elder Perry said he heard one mother say she tries to pick her battles to fight with the kids, and decided modesty wasn't worth the fight. He said that was a poor choice, and it is a battle worth fighting, our kids are worth it. Yep, Gary and I will talk, these kids are worth it. A lot was said about how much good one righteous young person can do. So good to hear.

I did a good job this week at forcing myself to do things I didn't feel like - making dinner and exercising. Not usually a big deal, but this week, I'm calling a victory.

On Friday night there was a football game at the high school, and my kids were out in the back yard playing. The announcer can clearly be heard from our house. Andrew came in saying, "There's a really big dad talking out there!"

Oh, yes, and Lissy can stand up by herself! In the middle of the room, with nothing to pull up on. She's not the steadiest yet, but it's adorable, of course.

Open House Opportunity and Fishing Fun

My dad and sisters Hannah and Kayla took a whirlwind trip from Texas to Idaho last week that may or may not have been centered around the BYU football home opener. Lucky for us, we got to see them. First, we met up in Brigham City to see the temple open house. Then, onward to Idaho to see the crew there and enjoy dinner out. Afterward, we roasted marshmallows around a fire and pondered such things as the Sasquatch and Cindy's and my history of dancing inside spandex bags. Saturday was all Grandpa-treat. He made us pancakes, then busted out the fishing gear he brought all the way from Texas. My kids (notably Josh) have been excited to fish with Grandpa for a while, so this was a treat. And then gone that night . . . a whirlwind.

The temple in Brigham City is gorgeous, and I felt very grateful to have a chance to bring my kids to it. I still remember going through an open house in Dallas when I was very little, and hope that the rare chance to actually go inside a temple will leave an impression upon my children.

Water is a kid-magnet.

Josh and Noah were VERY excited to sit by Aunt Hannah and Aunt Kayla on the bus. After  sitting by them on the way there, they made big plans for the way back. Apparently Josh told Hannah that his mom only lets him wear cool underwear, and attempted to show her. On the bus to the temple. Sweet.

The whole crew in front of the temple.

This picture cracks me up because it illustrates the beauty of taking pictures with kids.

Aunt Hannah bought the kids ice cream cones on the way to the fire. Amazing night.

Andrew's excitement at finally getting one is adorable. Just today he told a friend that he got "ice cream and marshmallows in a fire."

You can barely see the roaster Josh is holding, but you can tell he's having a great time.

Matching monkey-outfit boys all ready to fish . . . or to walk around the reservoir for a couple of hours.

Josh was one of the first to start fishing. He was SO excited to go, and it started out pretty relaxing for him.

Andrew was super proud of the "cup" he found.

Beckett and Andrew said they were "making dinner" as they played around in the dirt. 

Kristen and Lissy love eachother

Noah is an adoring big brother

Josh was still going strong an hour later - but sunk to his knees in mud.

Sophie caught a fish . . .

Noah caught a fish and Sophie offered to hold it for the picture . . .

Check out Braden's boots. Yeah, they're down there.

Noah caught another fish . . .

After messing around for a few hours, Andrew decided he'd try his hand at fishing. He caught one right away.

 . . . then he caught another one right after that.

At this point, my dad and Josh had been fishing for about 3 hours. Josh had been fishing almost the entire time, and was the only one who hadn't caught anything. Hannah, Lissy, and I were sitting in the dirt feeling a bit hungry, but we didn't want to leave until Josh caught a fish . . . We held our breath with each cast. He got many, many bites, and eventually . . .

Josh caught a fish! He was extremely excited. The next day he was in the shower and I heard him singing, "I caught a fish, yeah, I caught a fish, yeah . . ." THANK YOU, Grandpa!

josh and noah (Used Their New Schoolin' To Title This Post Themselves)

New start a couple of weeks ago - Gary dug out our huge, out of control snowball bush, and planted a flowering lilac tree on Labor Day. Phew. In other news, it seems that school has started. After I brought Josh to school on the first day, I came home, gave my little kids some puppets to play with, and checked my email. My mom asked about Josh's first day of school. Fresh off the experience, I obliged her with the story. It's charming:

Josh has been pumped, indeed, for first grade. He's been counting down. 

"Only eleven more days!"

"Good job, Josh, you made it to only 3 more days!"

Taking him to buy his lunch box was one of the proudest moments of his life, even if deciding between metal and soft was difficult (sculpted metal muscles for the Avengers or more insulation for food?). He memorized his lunch number as soon as he heard it.

I, however, have been dreading it. I cried on said lunchbox purchase day. Don't make fun of me, I know kids grow up. It's just that his tiny-ness is not coming back, you know, and I need a day or two per year to be sad. So, I planned to do what mom's do. Make him pancakes for breakfast and walk him to his class. I packed his lunch and school supplies last night, and planned for a great day.

First problem, I woke up at 4:30 with horrible cramps. Okay, take the meds, bla bla, couldn't fall back to sleep until around 6:30. During my brief consciousness at 7, I decided an hour of sleep was more important than pancakes. At 8 I walked downstairs, to find a VERY excited Josh. I let him pick out a cereal and told him I would walk him to class. He said, "Why? I can go there myself." Well, I was always walked to class, and even if this is my last year, I wanted to do it for my boy. Plus, I never met the teacher. That's important.

Josh got dressed and was so nice to Noah when he wore almost the same outfit. They stood on the bathroom sink so they could look in the mirror and make up songs about twins. I got myself and Lissy dressed. I also got out two outfit options for Andrew, including Batman superhero underwear, his favorite. At 8:43 (school starts at 9), we were all ready but Andrew. I exhorted him to get ready for the millionth time (he doesn't let me help unless he wants me to), and went to take a first day of school picture of Josh. Couldn't find the camera. Looked everywhere, called Gary in a panic . . . no go. So, at 8:47, I took pictures of Josh with my iPod. Whatever, it will do. Andrew still not dressed.

So, I put everyone in the car and start it - this finally gets Andrew going/screaming to be ready. So, I have to come inside and help him. We finally get in front of the school at 8:55. At that point Josh could have jumped out of the car and been to class himself on time. There were a million people at the school, and I had to pass the school and then some to park, but I thought that since so many people were walking kids in that I'd arrive about the time as other people. I thought the kids would be doing some paper while the teacher talked to parents and kids got settled. I taught school, that's what always happened . . . so I parked. I had given Andrew his slip-on shoes to put on in the car, and I thought he had. I negotiated through the nightmare of crossing the street (the Sheriff had to tell Josh to get out of the road while I got the other kids), and got to the sidewalk, on to find Andrew red and screaming at the top of his lungs that he needed his shoes. Oops, too late. I thought once he got in the school, he would calm down.

Nope. I drug Andrew screaming all the way through the entire school, to the back where Josh's first grade classroom is. We arrived at his class around 9:02. No other parents were there talking to the teacher. All of the kids were seated, and the teacher was up in front of the class. When I opened the door to let Josh in, all the kids turned to look at him. Sorry, Josh, I love you, buddy.

I walked out the back of the school crying. (Let's clarify - Not bawling. A few tears. Then I saw a friend and we chatted and it was okay. Just one of those moments that we all have - not many people would have gone skipping away singing zippity doo dah.)

So, a crazy first moment, but, as I knew we would, we made it past that point, and Josh is loving first grade. He said today, "Mom, I know all the kids want to have Miss Harms. We sing the funnest songs." Noah asked, "Mom, can you sign me up for Miss Harms?" We still haven't gotten into a routine that feels normal with the rest of the kids, but we will. Hooray for happy first graders!

Despite any chaos around him, Josh was cute and excited.

What's this doing here? It was on my iPod with the other pics. I like.

These boys love wearing these shirts at the same time. Josh is pumped for when it's green day at school so  they can both wear the shirts again.

Mr. Noah has become my BIG helper ever since Josh went to school. He loaded my groceries onto the belt, into the car, and into the house. When I taught preschool he said, "What do you need me to do, mom?" and he did it. Today when I mowed the lawn, he walked in front of me, also holding the mower. What a kid.

So, Noah went back to school, as well . . . to our house for the first week, but he'll be rotating. We had fun learning the five senses with Mr. Potato head and a watermelon, and lots of other things. Andrew was also very into it, and I was excited to see he can be a preschooler, too. Sadly, he isn't really, but he thought he was. Yesterday I dropped Noah off at another house for the first time, and Andrew wanted to go SO BAD. He said, "My friends, I need to go with them!" It's okay, though, I took him to the park, and plan to have lots of fun with him and little Lissy-Lou. Happily, Noah had a great time at the other house, and practiced writing R's the entire day. He was pleased with his results.

Noah's first day of preschool - I think he looks dang cute, even with a naked Mr. Potato Head behind him.

Using our sense of touch to explore a watermelon - they made lots of observations. Didn't have time to take pictures the rest of the week, but it's because we were having fun.

It's Baby Girl

Last week Lissy turned 10 months, so it's probably time for her 9 month update. And wow, she is a different kid . . .

Lissy became a mobile little woman just before 9 months. She approached it differently than the boys. Instead of going from a creep to a crawl, she stretched out her sitting more and more until she did an effective bum scoot, and now a crawl. At her well child check (9.5 months) she weighed 18 lbs 11 oz, was 27.5 inches long,  and was well. Well except that her iron is way low, so we'll see how these delicious drops do as far as helping.

Elisabeth gets around fast, and has now added climbing up the stairs to her skillz. She's so little and our stairs are so steep, it's scary. She loves dancing, and when some music comes on she will start bobbing her head and waving her arms. She even knows if she crawls over to the stereo and bangs around on it, she will get music. It's hard to stop her from doing that during the prayer. She has 8 teeth, and it looks like numbers 9 through 12 are getting ready to pop through. She waves night-night and good-bye, and babbles mom-mom a whole lot. Coincidence? Hard to tell. She pulls herself up on stuff, and when she pulls herself up in her crib only her eyes stick out at the top. Gary says that's why he doesn't take her seriously. He also ran upstairs to buy a new charger for our Flip camcorder when he watched Lissy trying to walk (while holding my hands). She actually balanced on her two feet by herself for the first time a few weeks ago . . . AAAH, she wants to be big! Cute, but come on girl, you are my baby . . .

This is Lissy at just about 7 months, right before the camera went wacky. When we  found the camera, I found a few pictures . . .

Yes, the camera went nuts, but see how excited she was to be in this pillow palace . . .

Right before 9 months, making her first mess! 

I tried to get some good shots of Lissy around 8 1/2 months. I took a lot of pictures, and I am showing restraint by only showing these . . . I know there are a lot, but they each show different little facets of Lissy.

The kids in the neighborhood were very interested in me taking pictures of Lissy, and wanted to be a part of it. Good. We never get pictures of these kids who are always running around outside our house with my boys.

This is a good shot of how she approached crawling. No army  crawls or belly scoots like the boys.

And finally some more recent photos showcasing the skills. 9 and a half to 10 months.

She's officially a real kid - she loves to get into the dishwasher. And so proud, too . . .

Just in the middle of pulling herself up . . .

From Gary's cell phone - on her way up the stairs . . . we're scared, but she loves it.

Celebrating the summit.

We love this little girl! I was a bit scared to have a girl, if you recall, and was totally fine with all boys. Obviously, Lissy changed that. She squeaks and squeals like a girl and hugs a fuzzy, pink baby doll. She is also much smaller than the boys at this age. The other day I was cooking dinner, and had on some music. A slow song came on, so I thought I should do some ballet with/for her. I was just being silly, but she LOVED it, and did some movement of her own. She was just standing there so petite and cute . . . IT'S A GIRL!

Unrelated to any of the rest of this post, let's end with Andrew since this picture was with the stair crawling. He didn't want us to forget him! He calls this, "Spiky fingers."