Let the Games Begin

Another season of fun outdoor games is rolling around!  I love the warm weather and Spring/Summer and sunshine and being outside!!  We’ve picked up soccer practices again and the boys had their first soccer games this week!  Jared’s team actually won!  This seldom happened last season so we were thrilled!  Great way to begin a new season!  Jared and Gavin had practices that overlap, so the boys get to play on the outdoor play equipment while they are waiting for each other to finish!  Love, love, love being outdoors!

Allen Side March Birthdays

After scheduling and re-scheduling to celebrate everyone on my side’s March Birthdays, it finally happened!  I brought my camera to take pictures of everyone, just so I could have periodic pictures in this book for you to have.  We celebrated Kirt, Kenna, Jared & Derek.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

		Allen Side Birthdays 2012 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Look At The Big Boy!

Little Scoots finally did it!  He took off today for the first time on his bike, without training wheels!  I’m so proud of him!  I saw another little boy in our neighborhood riding and it dawned on me; Scott’s big enough to try….so, I put him on the bike and he took off!  I was worried he might struggle to do things physically…. on time, because of his gross motor delay. But, he did!  My other boys didn’t try riding a bike without training wheels until they were somewhere around 5, so he’s doing great!

Ninjago

This is the latest craze at our house.  I think Jared got just about every possible collectible for his birthday and he loves them too!  Jared and Gavin live, breathe and eat these guys!  Gavin was so inspired (my builder), that he made his very own paper nunchucks!  Here, he’s demo-ing them for us!

He Wears His Sunglasses At Night

This is just a quick picture of my cutie, Scott.  Scott was born in the wrong era; he was supposed to be born in the 80’s!  Every time we are listening to the radio, he yells to turn it up if an 80’s song is on.  He particularly picked up on what is probably the lamest song of that era;  “I Wear My Sunglasses At Night."  When he saw I had extra sunglasses, he requested to wear them and he does…….everywhere!  And he always accompanies it with that song!  This is a picture of when I caught him putting on his show in the backyard!

And That’s How We Roll

Many a day are spent where Michael and I feel like we’d be just as well off beating our heads against a wall, than try to get our kids to listen.  It’s interesting how kids seem to be born with the innate ability to completely ignore anything you say to them.  We tell them over and over again what needs to be done and we could say it straight to their faces and they would not process a word we said.  So, in Michael’s frustration, he tried this technique, which I second!  He taped Gavin’s chore list to his shirt and told him that he had to check off each one as he did it and that he had to keep his list on him until we checked it all when he was finished!  Loved it!  Pictured above…..one very un-amused Gavin.  Sometimes, the hardest part about parenting, is keeping a straight face! 

Upon further examination of this picture, I realized that this happens to be the lovely occasion we had a little bit ago where Gavin said in frustration to me that he wondered what it would be like to not have a Mom.  So, his wish was my command.  At that point he was told if he didn’t have a Mom, he would be folding his own clothes, scrubbing his own bathroom, making his own dinner…..you get the point.  So, this particular chore list included those type of things, to get our point across.  He did apologize and I haven’t heard talk like that since…..

Knowing Is Half The Battle

Today Jared competed in his first school district annual “Knowledge Bowl.”  Each year the district assigns a category of miscellaneous information for the kids to study, from which a series of questions (a grade level higher than they currently are in) are drawn.  This year’s category was Science.   This is new to me, since Jared is our oldest.  So, what happens is there are teams from various elementary schools in the district that meet at one school in four different classrooms, and challenge one another.  There is a moderator and formal parental  judges; one from each team.  It was a big deal, and in hind sight, I wish I had helped Jared more. 

The questions were difficult.  Each kid sat at a table with a buzzer and buzzed in; Jeopardy style.The kids were nervous.  You could see on their faces, at times, that they knew the answers, but were intimidated.    From our school there were two teams; one which seemed a bit more prepared than the other.  Jared belonged to the latter.  They did put up a good fight though and Jared by far scored the most points for his team, of all the members!  Overall, I think, he had a fun time.  The hardest thing in life is to not give up when we face challenges and I felt bad that by the middle of the fourth round, Jared’s team pretty much felt defeated.  He wanted to mope and give up.  I do wish our two teams were a bit better balanced, but its made me resolved to help him get ready for next year’s competition, which category is a little more in my ballpark……Art!

I have to admit feeling a bit guilty I didn’t spend time with him studying for this.  Part of me feels like I let him down.  Honestly, he’s been struggling a bit with his regular assignments in math and by the time I spend my afternoon going through homework and some days, piano with both older boys, along with Scott’s review of the alphabet, I’m a bit overwhelmed.  I kept trying to get him to prioritize the more important; his math, but he’s definitely had the Knowledge Bowl on his mind and took it upon himself to cut up his flashcards and study.  So, what he had to show for himself today was all him!  We are proud of our boy! 

Lots of Laughs

Honestly, I could probably put in entries every other day with the funny things this kid says!  Truly, these little blurbs may not amuse any of you who are reading this, but it does me and I’m mainly typing this so I can remember raising my kids…..  So, somehow or another, this little Scoots has learned to schmooze.  It’s trouble!  The other day (and ever since then in different variations), Scott said to me, “Mom, can I play a game on your new phone because you’re pretty?”  To which he accompanies it with a huge grin and bats his beautiful green eyes!  Then, a few days later, I had to run to the bank, and the teller asked if she could give us suckers for the kids.  As I am passing them out, Scott then says, “That lady at the bank is hot.”  I’m thinking, oh boy, this because she gives him something….so, I ask “What do you mean?”  To which he replies with a giggle and somewhat inquisitively, “She’s really warm?”  I think someone’s been listening to other people say things and he doesn’t fully get what he is saying!  So funny!

Scott has a buddy on our street named Luke.  He recently made another friend with the same name that lives up the street the other direction, which he has affectionately renamed “New Luke.”  Well, Scott and New Luke seem to have hit it off and they are sweet and have held hands or hugged.  They are only 4!  Gavin comes in, furrowed brow and hands flailing in reaction saying to me, “Mom, they’re hugging a lot!  It’s starting to get annoying!”  I had to explain to Gavs how Scott is still so sweet and little and that this is what little people do; that it’s innocent.  Gavin was quick to jump in after that explanation with, “Well, it’s annoying.” 

Last but not least, in the car, as we were running errands, Scott randomly says to me as he tries to make a tune, “Mom, do you know that song Sweet Home Obama?”  Such a laugh!  I said, “Do you mean ‘Sweet Home Alabama?”  To which Scott giggles and says “No, Sweet Home Obama!”  After that processed a few minutes, he started up again out of the blue and asked, “Mom, where’s my princess?”  I have always told my boys that when they get older they will marry a Princess in the temple forever.  So, this is what he was referencing.  Having learned from previous experience, seldom can I come up with an answer that will satisfy them.  Knowing this, my kids will keep bugging me until I give them the answer they are looking for, so I bypassed it with, “Oh, I don’t know.  Where do you think she is?”  He sat there a minute processing it and said, “I think she is in a castle far away with a good knight.”  I then told him, “That’s the trick Scott.  You have to grow up big and strong and be a good boy so you can go try to find her and get married.”  I said, “Maybe you’re the good knight?”  He smiled, and quickly I jumped in with “Nah, I think you’re the Prince!”  He just smiled and  thought about that.

I love my boys.

Sweet Daddy

Scott asked Michael  to read his “5 Little Monkeys” book to him, and he stopped what he was doing to read with him.  It made Scott’s day.  And, of course, I had to take a picture of it.  It was too sweet not to!

Art Classes

For Jared’s Birthday, we gave him art classes.  This little boy has been asking for these for …..years!!  We finally signed him up for them over at the local Art Institute.  On Saturday, he had his first class and came home with a world-class looking map!  They also did a great activity with the kids where they assigned them a random shape and they had to make something from it.  I was really impressed with my son!  The shape they gave him was a simple curve and he said some kids came up with dragons, but my kid….came up with a funny looking leprechaun that has a big nose!  It looks awesome!

Air “Mikey”

So, this year both Michael and I have decided to take control of our weight and start eating healthier.  We’ve made a lot of changes in how we eat since the beginning of the year and so far, he has lost 23 pounds and I have lost 18.  We’ve both managed to get more active than we were, too and we both started playing Stake Basketball through our church.  It’s been lots of fun!  Most of his games, unfortunately have been in the evenings when the kids are already in bed, so I haven’t been able to watch him.  Well, luckily my Mom was able to help us this week, and watched the kids for me so I could go watch!  I think he thinks I was silly, but I wanted him to know I support him and I’m proud of him!  I have a feeling once he saw me break out the camera, he thought I was crazy!

Disney On Ice

It was another family adventure today!  We were able to take the boys to see the Toys Story 3 Disney On Ice performance at the Energy Solutions Center today.  They had a pretty good time.  The irony is…..I think Jared enjoyed it the most!  Although, I don’t know if he would admit it….  He’s funny.  He’s getting to an age where he’s starting to be aware of other peoples’ opinions, but he still genuinely loves things that aren’t necessarily “cool.”  Gavin went into it saying that he hoped our surprise wasn’t Disney on Ice….which made me SO excited to surprise him, after that comment.  Gavin, however was up and dancing around by the time it ended and although we endured one fist fight between he and Scott, we made it through and everyone came out smiling.  Michael and I try to smile through grit teeth as we remind each other that “we’re making memories.”

Look Who’s 10!

Gosh, it’s so hard to believe how fast time flies by!  It sounds so cliché….but it’s so true!  This year Jared chose, once again, to take a few friends to the movie for his birthday party.  There was a new Dr. Seuss movie out called “The Lorax,” which he requested.  They’ve been studying a lot about Dr. Seuss at school….especially as of late, because his birthday is in March too!

There is a reason this Mommy doesn’t make many fancy cakes; it’s totally time consuming!  I spent half a day alone working on the cake pops that sat on top of this cake…..don’t think that will happen again.  I was curious; I’d never made or had cake pops and they were totally delish and cute!  You make a regular cake mix up and after the cake is baked, you crumble it up and add about 3/4 of a package of frosting and stir it in.  Then you mold them into shapes and freeze them.  The hardest part is having to dip them in melting chips and all the detail work that goes along with decorating them.  It’s  a real art; working with all those layers and smoothing them just right.  So…..this is what we ended up with.  I was pretty proud!

 

On Saturday, we did the “friend” party.  We had friends come and  have some pizza, cake and ice cream.  Then we hurried and opened gifts.  Fortunately, my parents were able to borrow my sister’s car so we could have a way to transport all these kiddos to the movie theater.  After we saw “The Lorax,” we took the kids home.  I think he had a great time.

 

 

 

 

 

His real birthday was Monday.  We did the family thing that day, as the festivities continued.  He was thrilled to find a mailbox full of letters from his grandparents, Michael’s Aunt (who is always so thoughtful and sends cards always), and…..my sister Kim in the Philippines!  She couldn’t have timed it better!  Things usually take close to a month to get through the mail!  We asked him what he wanted for his birthday dinner and he chose….drum roll……Del Taco!  Yippee! (Sarcasm in the air)  He also told me he didn’t want birthday cake, but wanted to go somewhere to get ice cream, so we took him to USwirl.  It’s the first time I’ve had a kiddo big enough to request an alternative to the traditional homemade cake and ice cream…..weird not putting candles on something.  Instead, we sang to him over the ice cream.  His brothers gave him more Ninjago Lego gear ( his latest collection) and we gave him art lessons for his gift; something he’s been asking for, for years.  They start Saturday. 

Here’s a slideshow for Grandma and Grandpa Brown to see:

Jared's 10th Birthday VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Blankey Baby

Sweet little Mason.  I have just soaked up this little baby boy.  Sweet little Mason sometimes gets bored when the big brothers all go outside to run around and he’s left all alone with Mom in the house.  He LOVES this fuzzy velour green blanket and goes to his room to find it and will yank it out of his crib.  Then he follows me around the kitchen and sometimes sets it on the floor and just lays on it at my feet.  He’s so adorable!  His latest trick is to run around the kitchen making puckering kiss sounds like a little fish; his way of asking for a kiss!  And…..I’m happy to oblige.

More Cute Scotty Moments

So, the “Pec Pops” still have yet to die down.  We celebrated Jared’s birthday with his friends and Scott turns to me and says, “Mom, when it’s my birthday, can we take my friends to see the Pec Pops movie and will you make me a big Pec Pops cake?”  Too funny!

Today, Michael had to help out in primary so they could do a special Relief Society lesson in church.  I guess Scott was supposed to say the closing prayer and Michael let him go up front, assuming he would know what to do…..but he didn’t!  Michael said he went up front and stood up at the podium and began to nervously introduce himself.  “Hi, my name is Scott.”  Michael says he quickly went up front to assist him and then all went well!

Warm Fuzzies & Peck Pops….Again!

This is just a couple of random things that have happened lately.  Jared came home from school just the other day, jacket not on (as per usual), hanging by its hood on his head, backpack slung over shoulder, and says randomly, something like, “Mom, its nice in here.  I like how it feels."  It made me stop for a minute and think, hey, this is a great time to chat about having “The Spirit” in our home.  So, I went on to tell him that it’s the people that help make it feel that way, and how our actions are what invites  the Spirit, to which he added, “ Um, hum like our love.”  It was sweet and I immediately reflected on my Patriarchal Blessing which mentions something about my children recognizing that.  It was pretty special.

I had to take Scott in to get him an antibiotic…..I was pretty sure strep hit us again and yep sure enough, it did.  While we were there, somehow it came up that he wanted to have pecs like “The Rock.”  I think I previously wrote about this.  It was hilarious!  So, the Dr. humored him and checked out his pecs and told him that sure enough, they’re really strong and to keep working on them!  So funny!