quick visit from uncle E

Cori's littlest brother, Ethan, graduated from BYU's MBA program. He and his cute family have taken a job with Chevron. Happily, work brought Uncle E out to Texas for a weekend. He went up with the boys for the father and son's campout and we sure loved having him around for a bit. Though, I have to confess that I get him and Cori mixed up quite a lot when we are all together. They have several mannerisms and physical traits in common. I've called him "babe" on several occasions...

End of March

We Love YW

I just love serving in the Young Women's program. I get to work with some of the best ladies there are. These are just a couple of the pictures that have been smattered across social media in the last 6 months: New Beginnings - we went all OZ (I drew the short stick on the old costume line up!); Baked potato murder mystery dinner for 120; Photo booth the Mia Maids put together for our camp fundraiser family movie night; A quick ice cream run with some of my favorite ladies.

Jeffers

Oh this little dude. Everyone was so busy and he was just dragged along all day. I tried my best to keep our daytimes at home quiet. I was completely devoted to his nap time - though I was regularly yanking him out of bed so we could pick up Eden from school. When we are not running around for everyone else's schedule, I feel like I am running around after him during his waking hours. It is hard to describe because he isn't naughty or angrily destructive. He is just so darn busy. It is hard for him to sit still. Furthermore, he wants to be doing what EXACTLY what everyone else is doing. For example, all our other children at this age would love being with me in the kitchen while I was cooking. I could give them bowls and spoons and they would contentedly play at my feet, acting out the things I was doing. Not Jeffery. He wants a bowl with food in it to mix. He wants to cut with the big knife. He wants to stand over the stove to stir the pot.

This is how Jeffery feels about sitting through gymnastics. Every. Single. Time. It breaks his heart to not be out playing with Eden.

In general though, he is the happiest kid. He loves when the family is together. He loves being outside. He loves running, not walking, from here to there. He loves climbing to the tippy top of fill in the blank...

I have 5,678 photos on my phone that look like this. Tech savvy babies are a double edged sword. Jeffers doesn't speak much at all. We have been working on it. His pediatrician is on the verge of sending us to speech therapy. My mommy gut feeling is that 1.) he is a boy and 2.) he is the forth child in a very vocal pack. Poor kid doesn't really HAVE to say very much. Pointing and grunting is working out just fine for him at this point. His gross motor and fine motor skills are ahead of the curve. And he has no problem figuring digital devices out quickly. So we are hanging tight.

Fever face. Even when he doesn't feel well he is a pleasant kid. Though I don't like him being sick, I love these days with him when he will sit contentedly on my lap and I don't have to clean up 52 messes.

Most nights, this is the scene in behind the driver's seat. He is tuckered out and has fallen asleep on our way home from Church/sports/music/something. His face is smeared with sweets that (usually) someone else has given him. Or it is messy with dinner that we have eaten along the way. We are so grateful for this cute little caboose on our crazy train!

Eden

Little saucy spitfire. She hates going to the dentist, but forces a smile anyway! This is pretty much life with Eden. She speaks her mind. When she is happy, we know it. When she is not happy, there's no hiding it. She will tell you just how it is. Our little force of nature...

We have been so happy with Eden's preschool experience. She goes to Little Lambs, a preschool run through a local Christian church, two days a week. She has two teachers Ms. Marsha and Ms. Phoebe, who have become family friends. Edes shows great academic acumen, but struggles in some of the social areas. We are learning that hers is not a matter of ability though. It is more a matter of willingness. Her teachers have lovingly helped her along. They gave a Spring concert. Eden didn't really sing any of the songs. But she loved the actions. I'm double grateful for her positive preschool experience as this will be her only year. Her birthday is late in August which makes her eligible for kindergarten next year (though she will not have turned 5 by the time school starts). I had debated having her do preschool one more year. But her teachers convinced me that she would be bored. And with baby no 5 on board we felt it best to prepare to send her off with the big kids next year. *sniff sniff*

Once swim team starts, we are 4 nights at the pool every week. Grant was busy with his other sports and so usually I am at the park with Eden and Jeffery while Grace was swimming. Eden loves it. She and Jeffery spend an hour running around the splash pad.

I had a goal to get Eden floaty free by summer so that I wouldn't be quite so outnumbered in our pool with the kids. She has always been fearless and particularly so in the water. We hooked up with a great teacher who gave lessons in a friend/neighbors pool. After just a few weeks Eden was out of her floaties and all over the pool.

This picture kills me. I was snapping a quick one of the trees to send along to Cori. We were working hard on getting our back yard finished up. Eden began crying from the cart that she wanted to be in the picture and so I pulled her out. It is such a fun little portrait of her at 4 years old: Hair that she would not let me pull back, a favorite, too-small for her shirt that she refuses to quit (It quotes Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream, "And though she be but little, she is fierce"), leopard legging that have a hole in the knee, pink cowboy boots, and below her teary blue eyes her little Cindy Lou Who smile. Of course, at the time I was taking this picture, I was not as amused. But I'm  glad we have it now!

As preschool is only a couple days a week, we have had other weekdays free for her to choose an extra curricular. I all but forced her to try ballet (girlfriend has perfect feet and ankles for it, it just kills me!). Sadly for me, she could care less about dance. All she wanted was gymnastics. And so we began! Chalky bums and summersaults everywhere for days. She loves it.

Eden is still a puzzle fan. We keep adding to the collection and she continues to make good use of the stash. She will sit with a pile of puzzles for over an hour at a time.

"Ready to go to the store, Mom!" Yeah, I just go with it. There is no use putting up a fight.

Grantigus

First grade has been good for Grant. He is gaining confidence and has had several opportunities to stand up and stand out. I have received texts from two separate moms who were thanking Grant for being a good friend. He has stood up for kids that were being picked on or excluded at recess. This is a big deal for this boy who struggles to stand up for himself sometimes.

Grant was selected to play the part of the Beast in his class reader's theater production of Beauty and the Beast. He got to stay after class with his teacher to help build props and was uncharacteristically enthusiastic about the prospect of performing. It was a cute and simple production and I was filled with so much gratitude for wonderful teachers who go the extra mile.

We crowned February the month of Grant. He was taking swim lessons at the same indoor swim center that Grace was doing her conditioning for swim team. He was also finishing up Winter Basketball. And we signed him up in a different soccer league for the spring that began in the middle of the month. So he was swimming one night. At basketball practice one night. At soccer practice TWO nights. And then we had basketball and soccer games on Fridays and Saturdays. Piano lesson night was in there somewhere as well. With the end of the month (when we went on our cruise) basketball and swim lessons were over. I remember there were nights that I got Eden and Jeffery into their PJs and let them choose a movie for the car. We then spent 2 hours just driving back and forth across town getting Grace and (mostly) Grant here and there. I don't recommend it!

Basketball was a good experience for Grant. He is so timid by nature. The boys he played with and against were pretty aggressive and Grant rose to the challenge.

His sweet teacher came to a couple of his games.

The first grade hosted a lovely mother's day event. They gave us a little presentation in the classroom and we did a craft together. Then we moved into the cafeteria where all the first graders serenaded the room of teary-eyed mamas.

Grant is a lover/connoisseur of cheeseburgers. There is a famous hamburger joint in Cypress called The Shack just a few miles from our house. We lived there for over a year before trying it. The place is amazing. The menu has hamburgers in just about every imaginable incarnation. Mac n cheese on your cheeseburger. A pizza on your cheeseburger. Two grilled cheese sandwiches for the bun of your cheeseburger... they pull it all off. Cori and Grant tried out the "six napkin." Grant's face below says it all.

Grace

I feel like an annoying broken record saying it again, but the late winter and spring found me struggling to keep up. I was sick, grouchy and tired! But I think it was a happy busy time for the kids. Grace told us that she would be committing to swim team in the Spring. So we got her started at an indoor swim team in Tomball in January. She was placed in a conditioning class that met twice a week with a crowd of kids most of whom were at least 2 years older than she. It was a good challenge and she was in good shape by the time our community swim team was kicking off.

Swim team was a good though different experience for her this year. Where last year, she excelled in back stroke and butterfly, this year she pulled ahead with breast stroke and freestyle. She almost qualified for an invitational in breast- she was thrilled. I was most proud of her for how she handled her shortcomings. This is the first year that the competition got under her skin a little. Her best friends in her age group are all fast, fast, fast. And there was a lot of talk in the tent between heats about times and ranks. Grace has had a pretty easy time rising to the top of anything she is involved in. Despite her hard work this year, she was in the dead center of the pack, and it discouraged her a bit. But she continued to try her best and loved cheering all her friends on. It will come as no surprise that her favorite swim meet pass time was keeping her nose lodged in a book.

The third grade had a volcano eruption day. Grace dove into this project with her usual gusto. We researched materials and recipes for lava that would yield a nice slow and foamy release (add ketchup, pop rocks, and dish soap!). I went online to procure some figurines for her display when we had the following conversation:
Me: Do you want dinosaurs for a more prehistoric event, or woodland creatures?
Grace: Can you find small human figurines?
Me: Ah, going for a Pompeii scene, are we?
Grace: Well, humans and woodland creatures. Not Pompeii.
Me: Oh, ok.
Grace: Could you find humans who are running?
Me: I'm not sure... searching on computer
Grace: And at least one with a baby in their arms?
Me: staring blankly
Grace: smiling and wagging her eyebrows I read it in a book.

We didn't find the figurines she was hoping for. But she was able to create a certain amount of drama with what we found. (After she reconciled herself to the fact that the animals would not be to scale)

She had a nice red, foamy eruption that lasted for full minutes after her turn was over. 

Brag alert. School is totally Grace's thing. She is curious to the point of constant distraction. Her brain is a happy trap for all kinds of things. Grace still memorizes quickly and easily. And she is remarkably confident. She scored in the 99th percentile in both rounds of the AIMS and IOWA tests she took through the course of the school year. And she hasn't been given a test to completely determine her reading level. She has simply tested to the top of every test she has been administered. I think the cap for the 3rd grade test was a 7th grade reading level. Grace adores projects of any kind. She completed a research project and presentation on snow leapords for her language arts class. She was then selected to give her presentation at the school district's Science and Technology Festival. 

We jokingly call her Hermoine on a regular basis. She is a bit of a know-it-all and obsesses over rules, school, and books. But she is golden to her core, more responsible than she should have to be, and almost always smiling.