Wedding Pictures!

Last week we had the opportunity to go up to Seattle for Mari's wedding. Quickly, as I take a short break from the boxes and packing tape, here are a few pictures of the wedding, Willie's early birthday celebration, and the Betancourt homerun ball that we got during the Mariners game!

Fun Stories

This morning Emmeline got sent to her room. When she got there, she proceeded to call Luke and asked, "Do you know why I'm in my room?" Luke said, "No, I don't." EmJ said, "Neither do I!"

Last night we went to a magic show. The kids LOVED it...they have been making things "disappear" all day. Benjamin even got into it. When the magician pulled a the silver dollar out of his (Benjamin's) ear he got a huge grin and started laughing and clapping. It was so cute and right on cue! Joshua and Emmeline both got called up, but Joshua was too shy, and another girl ran up there before EmJ could. (Grrr!) Another little volunteer was so nervous that she wet her pants! I enjoyed watching the kids watching the magic show, but didn't really enjoy the show. I work so hard trying to catch the illusion that I miss all the fun. Anyway, that's it! We had a great week.

Happy Easter!!

They were so cute I had to post them all!

Kirstin is 25!?!

Just a quick note: When you read the next post I want you all to notice that Benjamin is wearing a Yankee t-shirt. We shot the video on opening day!

Alright, alright! A quick post about my birthday. It started Thursday with a trip to the temple. The picture of Benjamin's bruised and scraped face his his temple fountain war wound. I think the fountain won. Then on Friday, we all went to my volleyball game. After the game, Willie ran up to me and said, "Come open my present my got you. It's in the car. It's some baseball gum." Followed by Emmeline's, "You're not supposed to tell her. You can't look in the trunk, Mom." Followed by Luke's, "You're not supposed to tell her not to look in the trunk!" So, hence the picture of Willie, me, and my baseball gum--which he picked out all by himself and is so proud of. Finally, there is a picture of my gorgeous Twinkie Cake. YUMMMMM! It was fabulous!

Tonight, we went out to dinner at a new restaurant near our house. It is a basketball themed restaurant, with tables set up on a basketball court, lots of memorabilia, and trading cards for the kids. It was really nice, and if it was a baseball themed eartery it'd be perfect!

P.S. Willie doesn't like Twinkies. sigh...

Cute Video!

A few weeks ago, Luke asked, "Who wants to say prayers?" Benjamin's hand shot into the air along with the other two kids. Now whenever we ask a "who wants to...", he raises his hand. So here's a fun video of it for your viewing pleasure. The sound is about four seconds behind the video, but because it's just a question/answer type thing, it still makes sense!

The Newest Member...

of our family! That is an Emmeline exclamation point, not a Kirstin exclamation point. As you all know, I am anti-animal, however, Aunt Traci gave EmJ this beautiful beta for her birthday.



EmJ is upset that he he a boy. She started crying because she wanted to give it a princess name and said that, "Girls can be red, too!" I suggested a name like Prince Charming, and she said, "Oooh, I want to name him 'Thero Mance'!" (Aside: In the Cinderella preview it says, "The magic, the mystery, the romance!" As it says, "the ro-MANCE", it shows a picture of the prince. So in her five year old head, the prince in Cinderella is named Thero Mance.) It was hysterical, but she gave up on the prince thing and just named the fish LUKE!

Emmeline's Birthday, Part Two

Here are just a few quick pictures from Emmeline's actual birthday. I can't post any from her party because there are other kids in the pictures, so the pictures are as follows: Opening presents from Puppy Grandma, sitting in the "I'm 5" chair at McDonalds (we went out to breakfast on her birthday), and all dolled up waiting for the party to start. Her cupcake is the pink one!

She had a blast with her friends at the party. Not one of the girls stayed in the princess dress that they came it, which was pretty cute. The girls beaded bracelets, played dress up, ate pizza, and devoured cupcakes. It was really fun, but I was super tired when it ended!



Just a note: Our home has become a free-for-all. I'm trying to be friendly, but at times I just shut the blinds and lock the door! A few weeks ago, Luke brought home a zillion doughnuts from work. He passed them out to all the kids that were playing outside. That night, there were random children knocking on our door until 10 p.m. More showed up the next morning to see if there were more doughnuts. Then, after Emmeline's birthday party, the uninvited playground kids made themselves at home and finished up our pizza. One little girl even said, "Mmmm, I love pizza. And when I'm done I'm gonna finish off that orange soda, and I'll have THAT cupcake right there." Needless to say, I hid my orange soda!

Emmeline's Birthday

I just wanted to quickly post a few pictures of Emmeline's birthday celebration last night! Quickly: Benjamin found his belly button. Emmeline relished in all the princess gifts. And I am the next Martha Stewart...I know my cousin Melissa wishes she could make a cake like me!

Update!

Oh my! It's been a while since we posted. I figured I'd better take a minute and get on here today before I start getting calls and emails requesting blog updates. It's funny, periodically during the day I think of things or things happen that I should include in a post, however, when I finally get a chance to write it all leaves my brain.

So, let's just do a quick overview.

Emmeline is getting ready for her 5th birthday. I can't believe she is almost five years old. Wow! We are celebrating on Monday, with a picnic in the park, per her request. Then, on Friday, she is having a small party with ONLY GIRLS ALLOWED--also by request. We're ready, with the princess napkins and the whole shebang.

Willie went to a birthday party today. Actually, we all went, but it was for Joshua's friend. He was chomping at the bit to give his gift. (SUPRISE! A MONSTER JAM!) He was totally excited when his friend opened it and said, "Cool!," then totally crushed when he went on to the next gift without actually opening and playing with Willie's toy. I think Willie just wanted to play with it. It was sad, but cute anyway!

Benjamin is walking all over the place now. He requests that his shoes be put on every morning, first thing. He thinks that if he has his shoes on he can go outside, and then sits by the door sobbing because we won't let him out. Seriously, that kid would be content all day if we'd just let him be outdoors. He wouldn't need to eat, sleep, or anything. He loves to go out with a ball and play fetch with himself. He's very low maintenance, which provides me a lot of sunny-outdoor-reading time!

Luke and I pulled out our mitts and played catch yesterday afternoon. The weather has been fabulous and we've been taking advantage of the slowness at work. We also went swimming a couple times last week, and cleaned out the garage! (I know, I'm the only person in the world who finds cleaning fun!) I played my first church volleyball game (and won!!) and enjoyed a girls' night out. Luke celebrated the release of Rocky Balboa on DVD by watching it 700 times this week, while I sat and scrapbooked and pretended to watch. I'm almost caught up on the scrapbook--YAY--as well as all the baby books, finally! I've also worked through almost all my usable scraps--just in time for me to restock my supplies (Happy Birthday to me!)

First Swim!

Ah, here they are...pictures from our first pool day on 2007! Yes, I am aware that in another month I'll be complaining about the awful heat and about how much I hate being hot, but right now I'm enjoying being outside and sleeping with the windows open!

I love the picture of the boys decked out with their sandals. I can't believe how big Benjamin is...literally and figuratively!

EmJ, catching some rays before getting into the pool. I was so proud of her...she got right in this year. She can "touch" now in the shallow end, and thinks that is pretty cool.

Joshua hasn't changed a bit! If you remember, last year for his birthday he received that lovely life jacket, put it on, and took a flying leap into the deep end. I thought that this year his brains would have caught up and that he might be a little bit scared. NOPE! He sat on the steps for a minute and splashed, and then I put the camera away and threw him in. He thought it was fabulous.

Benjamin was content to just sit on my lap and watch the kids play. He splashed his feet a little, but wasn't interested in swimming. He can try again when it's warmer.

It was a wonderful day!

Benjamin Walking!

At long last...an official TODDLER!!

The Gimp!

As many of you know, Joshua had surgery on Monday. Everything went well. I had to document this "moment of stillness" for posterity. He spent Monday laying on the couch, surrounded by his monster trucks and monster truck coloring books. Suprisingly, he was pretty low-key on Tuesday as well, but by Wednesday I had to strap him into the car/stroller/cart/etc to keep him immobile...and that was sometimes even difficult! So much for three weeks of limited activity!

Pictures!

At long last, here are some photos from Benjamin's birthday. Here he his eating his special birthday breakfast, enjoying his new hammer, eating candy, and about to stab himself with scissors--which he found much more interesting than any of the gifts, incidentally! He refused to smile for any pictures that day!

The last picture--sorry it's sideways--is of Willie with his monster trucks. He is wearing his monster truck shirt. He lives in that blue t-shirt!

Just a note...

HOORAY FOR TAX RETURNS!!!!!

Playground *Skilz*

Let's see if this works this time! I think it will. Okay, to retype...We have had great weather this week. I love watching Benjamin explore the park and try new things. He's been methodically climbing a few feet UP the slides, then sliding down ever so slowly. Well, he must have decided that the slide was safe because today he took off up the stairs, butt-scooted his way to the edge of the slide, and went down--undoubtedly faster than he had anticipated! While I ran in to get the camera, he got right back up there. So this is his second time down the slide, and no babies were harmed in the filming of this movie! Enjoy!

We have lift off...

Have you ever done a handstand pirouette? When you attempt one, you can be in the most balanced handstand and yet when you lift that hand off the ground you often lose everything. Instead of controlled motions you often spin around too fast and, um, fall!

That is how I can best describe Benjamin's attempts at walking. He will stand, perfectly, for ten or fifteen seconds. Then when he lifts up a foot, instead of taking a step forward, he spins around about 180 degrees and crashes. It's hilarious. It's even more hilarious because when he stands on his own he puts his hands straight up in the air...so his free falling spins look almost purposeful and choreographed!

He did take one step today, though! His first one! Yay! I predict a walker by the end of the month!

And finally, Happy 13th Birthday, Alivia!

Willie's Report on Monster Jam (in his own words)

My saw Monster Mutt and Grave Digger, right! He's jump over the cars. It's so loud and daddy covered my ears. My saw the blue guy and the green one. The green guy spinned around in the dirt. That's my "fravorite!" My got a blue monster jam shirt and a big Grave Digger. Trucks jump over the cars my say, "Yeah, baby!"

Tonight a miracle occurred. I made dinner, and everybody ate it. They even liked it. No complaining, no whining, no force feeding, and only a little bit on the floor. Miracle!

On the subject of eating...Joshua has hit an enormous growth spurt. I'm so happy for him, but he's hard to keep up with. For breakfast he'll have three bowls of cereal or four pancakes, three sandwiches for lunch, two apples and two bananas for snacks, not to mention the bag of goldfish and gallon of milk that he's polished off in the last two days. He's a monster.

Finally, I should report on Benjamin's birthday! Shame on me, I forgot to bring the camera to his party...thank goodness for camera phones, but nonetheless I have no cakeface pictures to post. We celebrated last Sunday at Grandma's house. Benjamin DEVOURED his cake and made a wonerful mess. He is enjoying his new toys and I'm grateful for the new summer clothes that he got! (Emmeline and Joshua are likewise enjoying Benjamin's new toys!) Benjamin weighed in at 22 lbs. and 30 inches on his birthday. (He has grown, but gained no weight since 9 months). I can't believe he's already one! I also can't believe birthday season is here in our house. It's a fun, but busy time!

That's it for today!

The week in review...

Benjamin said his first "real" word yesterday. Ball--"baw", "da baw" if he wants one, "ge baw" if he has it in his hands! Yay! He's had quite the language explosion the last couple of days, but that's the first real word that I could tell meant something. He's also developed this nasty habit of pointing at people while babbling. He sounds like he's scolding everyone!

I should also note, that Benjamin's birthday present was a bunch of new batteries for all the broken toys. Hence the video of him dancing with tons and tons of noise in the background! We're excited for his first birthday next week!

Joshua and Luke are going to Monster Jam tomorrow. We got to go to UTI to meet Bulldozer yesterday. Grave Digger was supposed to be there, too, and Joshua is still upset that he didn't show. He informed me that he wants to have his birthday party at UTI...hmmm...I wasn't planning on throwing one, but we'll see! He got a model Grave Digger monster truck from UTI as well, which he is sleeping with tonight, ate dinner with, took in the car with us, etc, etc, etc.

Those are the highlights. Let me sum up the rest of the week by saying this. Puke. Barf. Puke. Barf. Barf. Barf. Puke puke. Barf. Smelly.

(Has anyone seen Nacho Libre? "Kiss, hug, big kiss, little kiss, little kiss..." Ha ha! Sorry, that's what my pukey sentence reminded me of...I'm probably not as funny as I think!)

One more!

Here's another video...taken about six months ago.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoUnj5u43OI

Benjamin's Video

I hope this works. Click on the link...I think...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfSWcoBuxnI

Update: I just watched the video myself. First of all, the sound is about three seconds behind the video, so Benjamin's moves aren't quite on! Secondly, please try to ignore my obnoxious "silent" laugh. I hate it. I'm so annoying. Third, Emmeline comes out and asks, "Are you crying or laughing?" Fourth, I don't know how to edit the video, so I'm sorry about the boring parts. Okay that's it. Enjoy!

Ta Da!

We did it! We finally got a couch! Do you love it?! The set is much to big for our tiny living room, but I DON'T CARE. I have a couch! I have a place to sit and read or watch a movie or watch the kids playing outside from the comfort of my house! Woohoo! Thank you, again, Melissa for helping on Saturday. She's buffer and smarter than me. I'd have probably left the couches in the road until Luke got home!
Here's Luke enjoying his hot chocolate, watching a movie, sitting on the new couch!
In other news, I'm on a mission. It's a mission to clean out and/or use up all of my random scrapbooking supplies. I started by giving Emmeline all of the stuff that I'm never going to use--"It's time to let go!" She has been "scrapbooking" non-stop since Saturday. It cracks me up because she can only spell a few words, so those words are used over and over again as her titles. Her color choices are pretty scary, but her placement is decently good. I'll have to post some of her stuff. I was sick yesterday, and she woke me up to give me an adorable page that she had made for me. She told me that it said, "I hope you can feel better." It actually said, "Cole." Here's a picture of my mission...
Joshua has been asking me to iron all of his clothes. I'm not sure if it's because Luke irons his every day (for work) or if he's turning OCD, but it's really funny. That kid suprises me every day with the crazy things he says, the demands he makes, etc. And finally, I shot a video of Benjamin "dancing" the other day. I'm trying to figure out how to link it here for you all to see, but it may take a while for me to figure it out. It's hilarious, though.

All right, I think that's it. I'd better go make dinner for the savages....then we're going to have Family Home Evening and I will not even have to sit on the floor! Ta Da!

A Smile for You!

Here's what I worked on today...Emmeline helped. We're trying to bulk up my dwindling card supply!
And here's a smile for you!

Fighting

Are Emmeline and Joshua going to be fighting for the rest of my life? Currently they love to fight over whose make-believe is the right make-believe. For example, this morning Joshua was in the closet, trying to pull Emmeline in. He said she should go on the roller coaster and she kept hollering that the roller coaster was in the living room. Yesterday, they were playing a simplified version of "LIFE." At one point I heard them shouting:

Joshua: No my stuck in the mud!
Emmeline: Yes, you are on the (insert made up word here). That means you are stuck in the mud. I get two turns now.
Joshua: No my lose my turns. No my stuck in the mud.
Emmeline: YES YOU ARE AND I GET TWO TURNS!!!!
Both: (Screaming and sobbing ensues).

It was hilariously annoying!

In other news, Benjamin the one-tooth-wonder has decided that balls--soccer, basketball, nerf, anything--are the great love of his life. He stops playing catch with himself only to eat and sleep. Unless I'm playing catch with him, he wants nothing to do with me. (Which is coming in handy in the middle of the night. He only wants dad!)

We spent all day yesterday rearranging Luke's office, and moving my desk into the office. So, now I have internet access. Finally! Hopefully this means I'll be posting more and including more pictures.

Well, I've got to go. Someone is screaming about something...

Christmas Pictures!

I just thought I'd log on and post a few pictures from Christmas! First, a family portrait that we took at Peter's wedding (Luke's brother)...Emmeline was smashing in her flower girl dress and has asked to wear it every day since. There is also a photo of Luke and I about to begin our scavenger hunt on Christmas. My parents made a little treasure hunt for us to find our gift. With some cheating and eventually help from my mom, we put together a puzzle and learned that our gift was a trip to NEW YORK CITY to see the Yankees play the Mariners!!!!!! Woohoo! I am so excited!

Anyway, that's it, enjoy the pictures. We had a fabulous Christmas, but are excited to be back in our own beds, back to our own routine, etc. I'm off now to make a paper chain counting down the days until I get to see Yankee Stadium...

Scrapbook Photos

Alright, at long last here are a few scrapbook photos! I love the family crazies page--it shows many of the pictures we've tried to get as a family, but unsucessfully. Those of you who got our Christmas letter have seen another example of how pathetic our family is at trying to get a portrait! Look at the soccer page closely. If you can tell behind the glare, Emmeline is the kid in the picture who is crying and practically falling off the bench because she is nervous about getting her picture taken or something. It was hysterical! And the "linked together" layout is photos of Emmeline and Joshua holding hands! It's pricelessly cute!

A Few Pictures!

Here are some recent pictures of Benjamin--I love the "blank-stare-because-I'm-sitting-on-a-strange-red-man's-lap" photo. There's also a typical after dinner picture, and a random picture of him playing with Emmeline's dress up stuff...Yikes! Finally, there is a picture of my grandma with all the great-grandkids! How fun!

I'm also going to upload a few photos of things I've scrapbooked lately. I finished 100 12x12 pages this year, but have somehow managed to NOT be caught up. I think that the ease of taking MILLIONS of digital pictures is kind of a curse for us scrapbookers. I feel like I'm doing some kind of gross injustice if I don't scrap every single photo--a road block that I'll have to overcome if I'm ever going to be caught up again!

Anyway, here are the pictures! Merry Christmas!

Two posts in one day?!

I just left the computer to find EmJ and Willie tarzaning down the stairs using a jump rope tied to the upstairs railing. How do they come up with this stuff? And for once, I don't think that it was Willie's idea!

Ha ha! The jump rope just broke. Gotta run...

This is for Alivia!

I KNOW! I KNOW I don't post enough. Sorry! We're not very exciting though, seriously!

Some news, though, Benjamin has gotten over the "grumpy flu" as grandma likes to call it. He was grouchy for a good two weeks for no apparent reason. Very obnoxious. Then a few days ago he just decided he was tired of being grumpy and turned back into his old self. Thank goodness! He is pleasing us with lots of new tricks--pulling himself up, climbing the stairs, making kissy faces, and playing, actually playing with Emmeline and Joshua. It's adorable to see them all playing together. I can't help but think that we're entering a new phase. One where I can actually have a few minutes to myself during the day while my kids entertain themselves! Hallelujah! (Ooh, think of spring, when they can all play at the park while I sit on a blanket and read...quietly...hmmm).

Last week I finished the last of the Christmas preparations, got the last of the cards sent out, delivered goodies to all our friends...oh, wait, what friends? Anyway, I'm hoping to have a relaxing few days before we head out on vacation. I'm trying to get the scrapbook caught up before Christmas and Birthday Season, so that's my project for the next few days (once I finish writing my talk for Sunday, which I should be working on instead of typing this blog, right!?) Anyway, if I indeed do get a few minutes next week, I'll try and post some pictures of what I've been working on so that you (Alivia!) can see some new pictures of the kidlets!

That's it! Or as Joshua would say, "That was easy!"