Wednesday, March 5, 2014

February

February has been a good but different month. Almost everyone we know had been sick and we were amazed that we hadn't gotten anything but finally this month it hit. First Alden got it, then Calvin and I got it, and last of all Benson and Michael got it.  It was influenza type A at least that is what everyone else had and we had the same symptoms. Everyone took it really well but someone was sick during the entire month of February at our house.  It was still a great month full of lots of baseball and enjoying the beautiful weather here.

 Playing with marbles! The boys love playing with their marbles.  Church is a little later now so the boys have time to play in the morning before we go to church. Not sure why the sad faces...probably a debate over who has more marbles.
Another Sunday morning with my boys!


 Our sweet 4 month old!! We all love his smiles, his laughs, and his babbles.  It is fun to see him interacting a little more.  He loves to talk to his older brothers and watch them dance around the house.

 Valentines day- We had a simple but wonderful Valentines day.  It was fun to see how excited the boys got over the simplest things...like the cards I made for them... the different meals..story time..baseball.  In the morning Alden just kept jumping up and down with excitement! Holidays with kids is the best!!


 My 29th birthday-  Couldn't have been any better.  Michael had the day off and treated me like a queen.  I had some amazing meals and just had a great time with family.  We also went on a hike where we got some family pictures. It was a great day and so wonderful to spend it with my favorite boys!!




Friday, February 7, 2014

January

 January started off with aunt Becca visiting us.  It was wonderful having her here.  She recently returned from her mission in Kirtland, OH.  We were lucky enough to get her to come visit us before she started back at school.  This was Friday night.  Becca watched the boys and sent Michael and I out on a date.  They had movie and popcorn together.

 Painting with some new paints.  I love painting..but I heave a hard time finding a good time to get it out, because I have to be there the whole time supervising.  I was glad that we finally got the paints out!

Baseball!! We have been playing a lot of baseball lately.  We have practice every Tues. and every Friday and then games on Saturday.  Between practices and playing baseball every second we have at home that about sums up the rest of the month of January.
The boys love baseball, and play it all of the time. Calvin has even gotten good at hitting the ball.  During practices and games he has his own practice/ game on the side lines.  He holds the ball for himself, hits it, throws his bat down and runs the bases.  I think he gets a home run each time!  Alden is playing with the 5-7 year olds and is definatley the youngest on the team but is doing really well.


 The boys love playing outside on the swing set, moving rocks and running around.

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

December

Benson at 2 months-  Is a joy to have around.  It is nice to have a little one to hold and snuggle. We love having his smiles now too. Everyone in the house loves to hold Benson and are always asking if they can hold him.

 Family Vacation to Out of Africa- 

Christmas was the first time Michael has had two consecutive days off since he started working.  We decided to take advantage of it and do a little vacation.  We went to out of Africa.  It was neat seeing all of the animals up so close.


 Calvin feeding the giraffe
 Here I am feeding the giraffe
 Alden feeding the giraffe
 Lunch break with our favorite food.  Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.


 We wanted to get one of Benson. This is how he was the entire day, he was a perfect sleeper the whole time.

 Christmas-

This is a wall I am proud of. This was the first year that everyone had a stocking completely done! (In the past I had never made one for me and I just had a couple of things to finish off on a couple of the other stockings.)
 First Christmas in his little Christmas pj's.


 This picture below was from earlier on in the month.  Some of our good friends from school who live out here in Tucson invited us over to make gingerbread houses.  The boys loved it! They loved making the houses, playing with friends and then eating them later!

Sunday, December 15, 2013

November



Alden has really been into building things especially during this month.  Every morning I would hear him going down stairs and would wonder what I would find when I went down, some things were quite elaborate using almost every toy, cushion, blanket, etc he could find while others were more simple. Most often he would say he built a house of some kind and would show me where all of the different rooms to the house.  Some of the other things included bridges, roads, tunnels, doors, jungle gyms, exercise things, beds, kitchens, buildings, homes for animals, boats, and just about anything he could think of.  (And more things then I could think of.) This is one of the days and part of his creation of a little town.  As you can see he was using the trains, blocks, and just got out the car things to add to it all.  The cushions had been used earlier and later became part of the town.
One of the weekends in November it rained for 2 straight days.  We hardly ever get rain let-a-lone for two days in a row.  Alden loved it! Even though it was fairly cold outside he stayed out basically all day.  Behind him you can see the chocolate ice cream he was working on.  He let all of our visitors that were coming later in the month that he had made them some ice cream for when they came. Calvin was the only one who actually ate the ice cream, or mud mush, and had a hard time understanding why we would not let him eat it after we caught him.  With how badly Calvin wanted to eat it, maybe it has some flavor after all. :)




This month also included lots of soccer games.  It was fun to see Alden get so involved and really start getting into the game.  Before he was more of a follower of the ball but would keep his distance, but in the last couple games he really got in there and hit the ball.  The picture above was right after one of his games we went to a Mormon Heritage Festival.  It was a lot of fun and educational for the boys to learn more about our heritage.


Visitors!!- 

For Thanksgiving we were greatly blessed to have some wonderful visitors.  We were all excited for weeks to have so much family in town.  The boys were especially excited to have not only their uncles Austen and Andrew whom they have become close to after our stay in Utah, but their Nevada cousins as well! It was a real treat to have everyone in our home. 
Playing duck duck goose with Austen and Andrew!

 Benson's baby blessing.  Everyone was able to stay through Sunday so they were here for Benson's blessing.  It was nice to have all of them here.

Singing some of our favorite songs with the cousins

Playing Sneaky Snacky Squirrel game

Playing outside on the swing set

While everyone was here we also took a trip to San Xaviors church.  There was a beautiful sunset that night.
Daddy reading stories at night.  Since I am often feeding or helping Benson, most nights the boys get Daddy as the person of pick to read them stories.

Baby Benson at one month

All of our boys in their shirts made by their Aunt Tara

Calvin is always asking to "hold baby".  

One of the nights in November Michael did a camp out in the back yard with the boys.  Alden absolutely loved it! Calvin didn't last long outside and ended up staying inside with Mommy and Benson.

Benson's first time swinging.  The boys love it when Benson comes outside with them and love it even more when they get to swing with him in the saucer swing.








Saturday, November 16, 2013

October

Snapping some family pictures

Blowing bubbles with Grandma!  It was nice that we had so much help after Benson's arrival.  My mom came out for a few days and then Michael's parents came back out after that.  We all loved having them.  The boys especially loved all of the attention and all of the fun things they were able to do together.


 
Us at our ward Halloween night.  Michael was cowboy, I was an Indian, Alden the train engineer, and Calvin the conductor.

Below is the boys with all of their candy...I think we have enough candy to last us until next Halloween.
 Halloween:  Alden had been counting down the days and was ready to go trick or treating first thing in the morning.  He was excited about the whole experience he especially loved being able to give out some candy when he got home.  This is the first time we have gotten trick or treaters. ...Calvin enjoyed it but was ready for bed by the end.


Soccer-  Alden started Soccer in the end of September.  The games started in October and go through the end of November.  He has loved every minute of it and could play forever if you let him.  He is always asking for someone to play either soccer or baseball with him.

Benson has been a wonderful baby, here are a couple of pictures of him from this month! We all love having him in our home. Both Alden and Calvin have been so good with Benson and have been great helpers, which has been nice.