Evan 5 months

Evan is our super happy baby.  Every time I even look his way he gives me the best smiles.  Even if things are crazy I can't help but smile when I look at him.  He sure is a joy to have around. I love the stage that he is in.  He is so playful, and just a little rolly polly little guy.  Anytime I lie him down on his back he grabs his toes and will just roll from side to side. I have taken many pictures of him grabbing his feet because I think it is super cute.

If I put him on his tummy then he just stays on his had and knees and sways back and forth.  He is not crawling yet but he can get around pretty good and the way he is always up on his hands and knees it probably won't be long until he is.

Here are a couple pictures of his sweet little smile! Basically he smiles like this anytime any of us look his way and give him a smile.  Also when he hears the bath going he not only smiles but starts kicking with excitement.

Evan is a big boy.  He is in 9 month clothes .  This is him with Benson who is still wearing 18 month clothes.  Little Evan is trying to catch up with his big brother!

My boys

I just wanted to write and say how grateful I am to be surrounded by such wonderful Boys! I love being the Mom of boys.  Each one is so different and brings smiles to my face every day.
Above is a letter with money from Alden I received one day out of random.  Every now and again when I go to bed I will find a letter from him.  I received this one after a long day of potty training, homeschooling, teaching preschool...I had put the kids to bed then went down stairs to clean up, it was late when I finally got to bed and it was a joy to find this sitting on my pillow when I did.

These are some weaving projects Alden and Calvin have done. They have both done a great job at it!

All of my boys together.  For a long while Michael was working 6 days out of the week, only having Sunday's off where he was busy with calling things.  He now is back to working just the normal 5 days a week, and we have been loving it! So nice to be able to have some relaxing days to go do things with him home!

All of these sweet boys make me one happy mom! :)

Potty training

 Benson has had no desire to go to potty in the toilet. Michael and I were starting to wonder if we would ever be able to get him to. We decided to try the weekend of Labor Day because I would have a couple of extra days because of there not being preschool on Monday. At first it was the same as before just a struggle. At one frustrating moment I started racking my brain what would help Benson have a desire to go to the potty in the toilet. It hit me, Benson loves the ocean we made in preschool, he carries it everywhere. The little beads are the fish, so I let him have some more beads (fish) that he got to put in his toilet and then I had him supply the water for his fish. It worked and he almost hasn't had any wet accidents since that time!

 For going potty in the toilet we celebrated with Benson's favorite meal corn bread and chili!

Temple trip

 I love our monthly temple trips. It's nice spending a couple of hours with my boys at the visitor center.

Fun card from Grandma in the mail!

Alden's birthday!

Alden had a great birthday! He got many things that he had been wanting for a long time.  One was a cash register, he's wanted one for a long time and finally got one and loves it.  The other big thing he got was a scooter.  His brothers had fun putting together presents for him as well.  Calvin wrapped up a number of things for him.

His birthday was on a Sunday so he made sure to get in a bunch of fun things the week prior or after his birthday. He got time to play on the computer and we went to peter piper pizza where they played games. On his birthday he had sausage gravy for breakfast, cereal, mac n cheese, and pizza.

His cake was chocolate of course.  He always wants chocolate with chocolate frosting and sometimes chocolate pieces on it! He wanted it to be gluten free so that Benson and I could eat it as well. The last few birthday's everyone has said how they would like us to be able to eat their cake as well. It has been fun for both me and especially Benson to be able to enjoy cake with everyone.

Alden at age 7.  Alden is a great listener, all I have to do is whisper his name and he comes.  He is almost always ready and willing to do whatever I ask him.  I am amazed at how quickly he can get things done.  I will give him a chore and usually find it done by the time I finish feeding Evan or finishing doing whatever I am doing when I ask him to do it.  He can clean up the living room, vacuum it, sweep, mop and a whole bunch of other things. He is a smart boy and a big helper.  I am grateful for his sweet and helpful spirit. What a blessing this big boy is in my life! I learn a lot from him and his example to me, each and every day.

Evan was about 5 months on Alden's birthday.  I love him in blue because his blue eyes show up more! He is our happy smiley sweet boy, he loved Alden's birthday as well, even without eating any cake! :)

Alden's birthday!

Alden had a great birthday! He got many things that he had been wanting for a long time.  One was a cash register, he's wanted one for a long time and finally got one and loves it.  The other big thing he got was a scooter.  His brothers had fun putting together presents for him as well.  Calvin wrapped up a number of things for him.

His birthday was on a Sunday so he made sure to get in a bunch of fun things the week prior or after his birthday. He got time to play on the computer and we went to peter piper pizza where they played games. On his birthday he had sausage gravy for breakfast, cereal, mac n cheese, and pizza.

His cake was chocolate of course.  He always wants chocolate with chocolate frosting and sometimes chocolate pieces on it! He wanted it to be gluten free so that Benson and I could eat it as well. The last few birthday's everyone has said how they would like us to be able to eat their cake as well. It has been fun for both me and especially Benson to be able to enjoy cake with everyone.

Alden at age 7.  Alden is a great listener, all I have to do is whisper his name and he comes.  He is almost always ready and willing to do whatever I ask him.  I am amazed at how quickly he can get things done.  I will give him a chore and usually find it done by the time I finish feeding Evan or finishing doing whatever I am doing when I ask him to do it.  He can clean up the living room, vacuum it, sweep, mop and a whole bunch of other things. He is a smart boy and a big helper.  I am grateful for his sweet and helpful spirit. What a blessing this big boy is in my life! I learn a lot from him and his example to me, each and every day.

Evan was about 5 months on Alden's birthday.  I love him in blue because his blue eyes show up more! He is our happy smiley sweet boy, he loved Alden's birthday as well, even without eating any cake! :)

Pirate birthday party!

The Saturday in-between the boys birthday's we did a Pirate birthday party.  It all started with all of the pirate birthday party things going on sale at the dollar store...I then started thinking and we came up with a great party idea!

I like having their parties together where we have kids of all ages come, and I don't like having a bunch of gifts because we have enough things as it is.  Last year we simply said no gifts but this year we had everyone bring one treasure item...it could be an old toy or something from the dollar store.  When they got to the party I had them hide it and then mark it on a treasure map, at the end of the party everyone exchanged maps and found their hidden treasure.  It was perfect everyone left with a new special treasure!

Besides our treasure hunt we had the kids stand in teams on ships (kitchen chairs pushed together) and then bomb each other with balls, when a chair got hit, it was taken out and they had to squish until all the chairs were gone.  We also played pin the boat on the treasure...pictured below. (Kindof like pin the tail on the donkey.)  The last activity other then cake of course was everyone made a paper ship and we saw how many rocks their ships could hold until it sunk. It seemed as though everyone had a great time and we all learned a lot about pirates through it all too!

Evan was an angel which was nice.  I was a little worried about doing the party all by myself especially because we had a good amount who came, but it all worked out great!