Family Picture

The latest family picture--taken by R--'s brother in Arizona. It was cold. That is all I will say.

He's 1!

(I can almost reach it.)

(Mmm, tasty.)

"Happy birthday to you,

Happy birthday to you,

Happy birthday dear A--

Happy birthday to you!"

We had a leisurely birthday party for little A-- this past week. I can hardly believe he is one. It still seems like he should be waking up multiple times a night to eat--wait, he still does. (But then all my boys did at this point, and I'm okay with it, really.) This year has flown by.

A-- really is part baby and part big kid. He loves nursing (though he really only nurses in snatches). He wants to control his own movement and feed himself. He loves his chupete (pacifier). He wants to play with his older brothers, and sometimes they let him. He has started cruising around on the furniture and has taken up to seven steps in a row (this is at least two months earlier than both his older brothers). But he is still "Baby A--" to his older brother F--.

He tried the cake and ice cream, but didn't devour his whole piece like his older brothers did when they were his age. Maybe this means he won't have my sweet-tooth. We love him and are so glad he is part of the family.

Finished

So after long hours quilting around clouds (remind me never to do that again!), A-- has his quilt. He likes it, even if he doesn't look like it here. A few days after I finished it, we took it to Arizona over Thanksgiving. On the ride home, S--got sick from all the snacks he ate on the plane and threw up in the car, right on top of this quilt. So it was promptly washed and put back into circulation.

Happy 3rd Birthday

My parents drove across the country for a retirement vacation and to visit grandchildren. On their return trip, we decided to celebrate F's birthday, so that he could have family there. (My dear husband would be out of town on his birthday.)F-- had requested tigers, Lightning McQueen and ghosts be on his birthday cake, with my mom's help (meaning she did it while I worked on dinner), he got tigers--three of them crawling up his birthday cake.

F-- gave blowing out his candles a noble effort. He got the first two, but couldn't get the third. He blew harder and harder, but all he succeeded in doing was spraying part of the cake with spit. I helped him get his last candle out (and scraped the spitty parts off the cake). And we ate. It was great.

For the next week or so, as we'd drive in the car, F-- would be singing in the back seat.

Happy birthday to you

Happy birthday to you

Happy birthday dear F--

Happy birthday to you.

And then he would blow out his imaginary candles.

On his actual birthday, we invited some friends we met at the library for the Halloween parade over to the house for cupcakes. F-- tried the candles again, same thing happened (though with less spitting).

Now my little guy is 3, though if you ask him, he will tell you he is 6.

Haunting Halloween

With Halloween on a Sunday this year, we debated the level of involvement we were going to have with trick or treating. After all, we are trying to teach our children to honor the Sabbath day; however, we are also trying to instill in them a sense of community. So we decided to participate in the ward's trunk or treat, one of the local trick or treat at businesses, and a very limited trick of treat of our neighborhood (with our neighbors).

The boys had a ball. They picked their own costumes (A-- didn't get much of a choice).

S-- as Peter Pan (The Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson variety, complete with Tink sitting in her next in his hair. Of course, since he hasn't seen what that Peter looked like, him idea of Peter Pan was influenced by Disney.)

F-- as a ghost (he loved shouting "Boo" at people).

A-- as a really cute frog (you might recognize the costume from years past)

Me in my wonderful Nigerian Bride costume that my dear husband brought back from Spain.

All of us trick or treating at the businesses. It was touch and go for a while because F-- couldn't find his shoes (thus the stroller) and S-- was scared silly of the whole thing. He wouldn't walk by the strangers, ask them for candy or say thank you.
Until . . .

Spiderman came along and showed S-- that he didn't need to be scared. From this point on, S-- was on board with the whole trick or treating.

A Bucket Bike

I want me one of these. I'm always wishing I could take the boys for a bike ride, but since we don't really have bikes, it is just a wish.

Of course, the story behind the wish involve's S--'s preschool. There is a mother there (who is cool enough to share my name) AND she usually rides a bike. She pulls a trailer for her 4-year-old, which isn't too odd, but she has a rickshaw so that she can ferry all three of her children around. If she needs to pick up the older children, she will pick up her youngest with the rickshaw, buckle her in (it is a make-shift buckle), and then take off.

Of course, I wouldn't look like this well-dressed woman if I were to be riding. In the first place, I don't have her awesome coat, and I would probably peg my pants while riding, and I would want a killer bike basket (kindof like the one I have downstairs in the basement.) Nor would I look like the other me (I don't have the figure for that). But it would definitely be a lot of fun.

Now that I know they make these, I may have to save up for it (instead of a bike and a trailer). Of course, since the bike and trailer are cheaper (especially since I can get them used), I will probably have to go that course.

Utah Visit

We went to Utah for one week this summer. R was supposed to have been in Europe, so I was planning on taking the boys myself, but he ended up getting done sooner, so he was able to join us. It was great fun. Only my parents had met A, and no one had seen F since he was two months old, so it was like meeting a whole bunch of new people.

Since I know no one wants to see all 200+ pictures, I've created a highlights album on Picassa. Check it out if you like.