Fun Day Part 2! Art!

Today was our Fun Day part 2! We used paints and got a little messy. It was a lot of fun! We had six friends over -so eight boys in total. Boys are so fun. Carter got to spend the morning getting spoiled and playing with grandma at the water park. He came home very happy. Thanks mom!

We started with fun painted drinks....sprite with Kool-aid ice cubes! The ice will melt and color the sprite. Fun and tasty. :) And, when do the kids get this stuff, if not at a party. Awesome! 

Both boys chose Batman -it couldn't have been anything else. :)

Kade found The Hulk.

 Our first project was finding hidden pictures with homemade watercolor paint! I had drawn pictures of a few of the boys' favorite characters (Batman, Hulk,  Superman, Mario and Luigi, Phineas and Ferb, and Capt. America) with white crayon. Once the boys added color to their paper, their pictures appeared.

 Next the boys painted with regular gel watercolor paints and then used spray bottles to "see what happens". It was fun to see each of the boys' different pictures and what they thought to paint. I'm very surprised that with all these boys none of them squirted anyone else. :) Pretty good boys!

 Our third project was Paint filled Balloon Popping! It was SO fun! The boys each picked a balloon, and told me where they wanted me to hang it. Once every one's balloons were up, they started POPPING! Do I even need to write that they LOVED it?! They loved it! I loved it. We did four rounds of balloons. It was the prettiest mess I'd ever seen. :)

I used this recipe to make paint -well, it turned out not so much like paint. But! It made a perfect gooey, colorful concoction that was perfect for filling eggs! Whoo! And, yes, since joining Pinterest, I've become a mom that saves egg shells. -What?! (just for this specific day, I won't be saving them anymore)... as well milk jugs and other random things to use for project. (notice the milk carton full of goo?)  But, I like that I'm looking at things to find other uses for them.

  The bombing commences! The boys showered the backyard patio (as well as the dogs) with the goo filled eggs, and then washed it all away by bombing water balloons all over the mess. (Did you notice how I basically had them clean up their mess and they didn't know it? He he he. ) The only thing left for me is to sweep up balloon parts -but I'm not feeling too motivated to it just yet.

 After everything was done and moms were on their way, we ate these tasty colorful cookies. The boys enjoyed them, and the treat was helpful to encourage sitting and waiting. But they only waited five minutes or so.

Kade and Ben both had paint randomly splattered across their body or face. Kade was by far the messiest of all the boys. It has a lot to do with his keen ability to seek out and enjoy a good mess. It was proof to me that he had a great time. :)

I sent the boys home with their masterpieces and these fun papers, so they can keep painting at home. I am glad the kids had a fun time. They are all incredible and well behaved kids! It's amazing!  I totally wouldn't do these big messy things if it wasn't serving more then one purpose. Having more kids involved justifies the mess for me, so I don't mind it. (plus my cleaning basically  consisted of me hosing the entire patio -EASY.) Plus my boys get to be with friends and the kids do something they wouldn't normally be allowed to do. Get messy. I, also, get to give other moms a break. And, I make these days as low stress as possible by doing a little prep here and there when I have the time over a few days, or weeks. ;) All in all it was another fun day. NOW, what can I do for next time?!

Big Boy Bed

Well, my luck finally ran out. Carter has been so good to go to bed, wide wake, read for a few minutes and then go to sleep. We just put him in there and leave -no crying or anything. He just wants a book in there with him, and he's happy. With training in a big boy bed, it involves at least a week of training to reach the point where a kid will just go in there, wide awake, and stay there. I loved being spoiled with this great little guy, who, other than sleeping in a crib, went to bed just like the older boys did -wide awake, no fuss, and EASY. However, in the back of our minds, we knew the day would come when our little climber boy would probably climb out of his crib.

Well, the little guy didn't just climb out, he fell out and hit his head REALLY hard on his toy box. This left him with an egg sized bump on the top of his head and a bruise on his cheek. So sad!  Joe took the crib down immediately. That was it! No more falling/climbing out for this guy! (The big boy bed was moved out of the boys' room into Carter's room.) So, Saturday night was our first "Big Boy Bed" training night. It went better than I thought.

Nap time Sunday didn't go as easily. It started out pretty normal. I went in and laid him in his bed with a book. He seemed to say, "Okay, I'll go to bed." So, I left the room and shut the door. It was quiet, but I couldn't think of anything he could get into that wasn't "okay". After awhile Ben told me he looked under the door and could see Carter's feet, running around. I went to see. I could see Carter's feet too, as well as a big billowing cloud of baby powder falling to the floor. I burst in the door to stop him, which only made Carter squeeze out one more huge puff of powder.

When facing these situations, you can get upset or grab a camera. I grabbed the camera and counted to ten. After doing a quick, hardly thorough job, I started over with the training. This time staying in the room for awhile. It was better than I thought.

So, hopefully the training will go quickly! Wish me luck.

Carter is no doubt fine with the mess he's made. I love this picture, because he seems to be thinking, "What's all the fuss about? There's just powder all over." At least his room smells good. Oh, and his room was still unorganized from the quick changing out of beds, so excuse the other out of place craziness.

"Come to Jesus"

There is a song I regularly play in the car among the mix of church music as well as the two local christian radio stations. It is titled "Come to Jesus." It has quickly become one of the boys' and my very favorites. They request it often! Every time this song comes on, the car gets instantly quiet. It's the coolest thing; it just requires reverence. We all sing along. The older boys know every word, and Carter, so far, just listens. (You can listen too HERE!)

 It's not rare -at all- for me to cry when I hear beautiful songs, or sing along with them, and I always get choked up hearing my boys sing the words that I know they understand. I make sure to thoroughly explained each phrase to them -they take things so literally, and so I teach them what is really be meant. This song has invoked many questions, and I have gotten to teach the boys a lot of important truths about our Savior.

While driving around town with Joe and my mom, the boys and I sang this particular song, so she could hear them sing so sweetly. At the end of the song, Ben simply and knowingly said, "The Holy Ghost is right here." as he pointed to the center of the car. I told him he was absolutely right. The car was filled!  I was grateful Ben recognized the Spirit and thought to mention it's presence. Later at home, I asked he what the Holy Ghost felt like to him, he said, "It's like something is pressing on me." I am more than thankful for personal revelation that led me years ago to change my music from good to best. I am grateful my boys are hearing what they are hearing and more importantly feeling what they are feeling. I am so grateful for all the beautiful music I have to enjoy and share with my boys.

Drawing Help

     Ben often comes to me to teach him how to draw something. He is great little drawer, and once he practices a few times he can master drawing whichever superhero he's wanting too. Yesterday, he wanted to draw Wolverine. So, as always, the first thing I taught him was to "see the shapes in the picture; break it down to draw the whole." I drew first to break it down. Ben tried a couple times, but just couldn't quite get it to where he was happy. He was frustrated almost to tears. I reminded him how hard it was for him to draw other things too, till he practiced. But, nothing I said made him feel any better. He was just frustrated and disheartened. I told him to not worry about the picture till he calmed down and could focus. He did.

This morning I noticed a Wolverine picture being colored. Coloring only happens once Ben feels his picture is right. So, I said, "Hey, you drew Wolverine!" Then, as happens so many times, Ben's reply blew me away.

He said, "Yeah, I prayed."

I asked, "You prayed for help to draw it and not be frustrated?"

He said, "Yeah."

He said it in an "I knew it would help. I should have done that yesterday." sort of way. I LOVE IT!

Joe and I have always asked the boys if they think they should pray over this thing or that thing. But Ben prays all the time -on his own- when he's facing challenges. Then he mentions that he does this in the most casual way. He isn't proud or trying to impress me when he tells me -because he sees it as  just something you should do. I'm proud of him and grateful. He's really applied prayer into his life and, most importantly, SEES the help and KNOWS they're answered.

(Ben said his picture "Isn't finished yet" But you all get the idea.)

Conversations with Carter

I'd be a wealthy woman if I had a dollar for ever time Carter and I had this conversation:
"Mom?"
"What?"
"Um......"
This will happen a million times a day. The "Um" is then followed by words I can't understand, but he sure does try to communicate. :)

Carter will regularly say something that sounds like, "I want this." or "What's this?" Most of his sentences ends with something that sounds like "this". His little voice is the cutest sound ever.

And, every single morning, my Carter alarm wakes me up with a quick succession of, "Mom! Mom? Mooooooom. Mom? Ma-om. Mom? Mom! Mom." followed a brief pause only to repeat again and again. :) It's cute, but I wonder where I can switch it over to "Dad! Dad? Daaaaaaad." He's done it before, so I know there's a Dad button on him somewhere. :)

The Lost Post

I was zooming back through my blog and noticed that these pics of Carter were never added anywhere. They are from forever ago.And, they are just too cute not to have in a blog book someday. They were taken after Carter noticed leftover cupcakes on the counter. This very well could have been the start of his climbing obsession. Hmmmmm.

Yeah, he was pretty proud of himself and ate the whole cupcake before Joe found him and called me to see. Where were the other four of us? Who knows? :) I guess he deserved it.  

Kade's Teeth Sadness

Monday, mid-morning, Kade mentioned his tooth hurt. But throughout the day, he didn't bring it up again and acted pretty normal. However, by dinner time, he wouldn't eat much and kept complaining about his tooth hurting. We flossed it and looked in his mouth and nothing was stuck, and we couldn't see anything. It was far too late to see a dentist by this point. Once we went to bed, Kade was in and out of our bed saying his tooth hurt, and he never wanted to have loose teeth, because they hurt.

The next morning we woke up to this face.The picture doesn't make the swelling look that bad, but it was pretty alarming, and at 7am I called our dentist praying the whole time that they could get us in SOON! They had an appointment open at 9:45. RELIEF! The poor kiddo. He was more than miserable, and crying. I went directly to the store for some Anbesol "maximum strength" to rush home to our poor suffering son.

 The dentist informed us a tooth had abscessed. The infection was what was causing the swelling -and it was spreading! It wasn't from "not brushing or flossing or anything we did or didn't do." (That was nice to hear.) Sometimes "these things just happen". SAD! The tooth would have to go. Double SAD! I secured a babysitter for the other two boys and ran Kade back for  the horrible appointment. I always prep the boys for what is coming. I told him the dentist would have to stick a needle in his mouth, and that it would hurt. But, I told him I knew he could do this hard thing. I told him I knew how strong he was, "not just his muscles, but his strong will and mind". He was so brave, and although he was very nervous, he was the toughest kid I've ever seen. They used laughing gas to help relax him, and when the needle was finally stabbing his mouth he didn't cry AT ALL- not a single tear! I told him he was stronger than Captain America -which he really appreciated. They also fitted him with a metal spacer. After it all, I asked him, "Do you still like the dentist." to which he very quickly and without hesitation nodded yes. That's my boy!

The rest of the day he didn't eat a thing; he was totally drained, and just plain miserable. He went to bed early and slept all night. This picture was of Kade the morning after the extraction. The infection was now leaving (thanks to antibiotics) but since his tooth had just been ripped out he was obviously all the more swollen. POOR KADE! It was really hard to see him this way all day. He literally couldn't smile, the swelling was to big. Ben said he looked like Two-Face (a Batman bad guy), because only one side of his face would show any emotion. Needless to say he was miserable. Thank heaven for pain medicine and Anbesol, as well as Otter pops, yogurt, pancakes and ice cream. I said he could eat anything he wanted and have as many cold treats as he wanted. He totally took advantage of this -which I totally understand.

This was two days after the extraction -still quite a bit of swelling, but better. You can even see a slight little upturn to the left side of his face. :)  (I didn't get any more pictures after this.) But, each day got a little better, and he eats a lot of regular foods and turns me down if I offer Tylenol or Anbesol. I have talked about Kade's mental toughness a lot as I journal. I could have had them put him under. He would have slept the whole time, but he might have had to wait till the next morning, he would have been drugged up all day, he would have been miserable anyway. On top of that, we'd have spent so much more. There was no doubt, of all my boys, that Kade could stay awake through this -at FOUR- and be totally okay with it all, and not leave scared to ever come back. He proved me right. I am grateful that this was resolved quickly and that Kade is on the up and up. I'll be adding "please never let another tooth abscess" to my prayers every night. ;) I'm glad it's already behind us.

Fun Science Day with Friends

Today was our first FUN day with friends. We did more science themed activities, and they were so exciting! We first started with homemade Root beer made with dry ice -of course. I didn't get any pictures, but the boys loved the "steam", "smoke", "gas" bubbling all over. They thought it was cool to get to drink this "experiment". Then I prepped them for what all we'd be doing. One of the cute little friends asked, "Are we going to do "Arts and Craps?" I'm pretty sure I laughed out loud, and then said, "Yep!"

 Onto SOAP CLOUDS!! This is an easy, but very fascinating thing to watch. The soap grows and puffs and forms huge funny clouds within minutes. We made six clouds (we had six boys) and they were still saying "Whoa!", "Cool!", "Look!"  by the sixth one. Carter would cheer and laugh watching the big boys. They were his entertainment. This was really fun. We then took our "clouds" and broke them up into little pieces; I mixed the soap (with an electric beater) using a little coloring and water. This made a moist clay type of dough which they then pressed into cookie cutters to create their own fun shaped soaps. (I didn't take pics of this either -dang it.)

 Afterwards, they all took a much needed hand washing and root beer drinking break. They reminded me of men surrounding the water cooler at work just chatting away. They were all great boys, and everyone was so well behaved and interested in what we were doing. We had a blast.

 Onto volcanoes! The boys were each allowed to scoop as much baking soda as they wanted into their jar, and each picked a color for their foamy lava. I handed them a measuring cup of vinegar, which they added to their jars. I think the boys were expecting "explosions", but they were still pleasantly surprised and more than happy with the fast rising bubbles flowing all over the place.

 SLIME!!! This was the one thing the boys were anticipating the most. They were excited they could finally have slime. I split them into pairs and had them share the duties of creating the slime. One boy dumped the glue into the bowl (what kid hasn't dreamed of dumping all the glue out? A dream come true!) Then the other boy stirred in the water and coloring. Then they added the cup I had prepared for them -of water and Borax- and, instantly slime was starting to form!  Both then worked the slime from wet goo into the more solid slime that is HEAVEN to all boys! We finished ten minutes before moms arrived, which was plenty of time to wash up, get organized and find shoes. A perfect two hour fun time!

Carter was a STAR. He was so good. He sat well in his highchair and played/experimented with measuring spoons, baking soda and root beer. He was so good. When we were done with slime, and I let him out,  he got right into the thick of things. In just five minutes he was a mess and undressed. He was sad when I was finished cleaning up. One day Carter, one day. :)

This was a great time. I really enjoyed myself. I knew a mess would be inevitable, so it wasn't an issue. It didn't bother me at all. I also really wanted to have my boys do these fun things and make this fun mess. But, I knew other boys might LOVE doing these things too and that sharing this fun time with other kids would give other moms a break -even if for just two hours. My thinking was, "if all of this is going to happen anyway, why not share the fun, and give a fellow mom a break?" I'm really glad I did this and plan to do it again through summer months. Maybe next time, a COOKING day? or ART day?

FHE Memories

This last Monday, the boys wanted to go to the temple for family home evening. We obliged. We walked around the entire temple; at different times I was able to be side by side the boys individually. We were able to talk about all things related to the temple. It was so nice. I talked with Ben about the sealing ordinances of the temple and how being sealed in the temple seals us to our families forever. Kade told me, "Mom, I'm filled with the Lord." and "I love all the parts of the temple." So amazing.

When we visited the statue of the Savior, the boys sat with group of people and listened to the recording. Joe and I sat in the back row with climbing Carter. I'm not sure if the family there were LDS or not. When asked questions by the sis. missionary, no one in the family/group responded with more then smiles. But, when the sister missionary asked her questions, like "How do we know the Savior loves us?" Ben and Kade both raised their hands. She called on both of them. They said, "He died for us." and "He took on all our sins." "He created the world and everything." "everything obey Him because He built everything." I wish I could remember some of their other answers to the other questions, but the sister was impressed and said, "Are these your kids?" Joe and I both nodded and smiled. She asked, "Do they come to the temple everyday?" We all laughed.

It is my goal and dream to thoroughly teach my boys the gospel. They have been blessed with the the desire to want to talk to everybody.I see this as a gift from ou Father in Heaven. They'll really need to be comfortable talking with others, especially about the gospel when it comes time to defend the church and serve their missions. I hope they always keep this "gift of gab". :) I am grateful for how much the boys know about our Savior Jesus Christ. I breath a little sigh of relief and do a little "whoohoo" inside, and then re-resolve myself to keep this going. I can't stop teaching or feel like I've taught them enough. We've all got a long way to go yet.

Kade's Graduation

Kade graduated from preschool -AGAIN! He's grown so much and did such a great job. He sang every song, and did all the moves to each song. I was very proud of his maturity. He really was a "big preschool graduate." It was sweet to see him walk in proud and happy and ready. He couldn't have been cuter. We all love our Kade. He is a funny, snugly, energetic kid. He is determined and has mental toughness like I've never seen before. He is a great little and big brother, and has a lot of fun with Ben and Carter. He can write beautifully and has the desire to start learning how to read. He is a smart and incredible boy, and I am grateful I get to witness this boy in action everyday.

Mother's Day and Cute Brothers

 

 I love that my boys love each other...even bright and early in the morning.

 There has never been a more "Holly Jr." , "Joe Jr." picture then this! These boys are our minis!

 This was my favorite part of Mother's Day this year. I love looking at this cute row of faces.

These boys are the greatest blessing I could have been given. I love being their mom. They picked out some cute jewelry for my mother's day. I love that Joe really let's them pick out my gift. They bought me a necklace and bracelet that were both beautiful and thoughtful. Joe bought flowers and a card too. I am one blessed girl. Having a great mother's day only reminded me what a great dad Joe is to the boys. I love my little growing family. I had a great day and felt like the star of the show. Happy Mother's Day!

Our Kissy, Climby Boy

Carter has been very kissy these days. Joe can't get out the door for work without giving Carter an additional fifty kisses. Carter stands at the door with his head tilted back and puckered lips. I guess if there is any reason to be late for work, giving the endless amount of kisses asked for by your cute little guy is a good one.
Every time Ben would get out of the car for school, he'd kiss me, Kade, and Carter goodbye. Kade does the same thing to the boys before I walk him in to school. Well, tonight Carter picked up Kade's backpack and asked me to put it on. I did. Then he puckered up his lips and kissed me. I knew what he was getting at and quickly said the words we always say to Joe and the boys. "Love you, bye.", "See you later.", "Have a good day at work/school". He turned around did a lap around the living room and came back to do everything again. He even went up to Ben and Kade to give them their "goodbye" kisses. What a cute little guy, our Carter. He watches everything we do and mimics things the best he can. I love it. This is one of the great things about this age.
(the picture isn't his kissy face, but it's recent so I added it.)

However, Carter has only gotten better and better at climbing everything. He is always climbing up something. I've been meaning to journal these pictures. He's crazy! But awesome!

Kindergarten Graduate!

Today Ben graduated from Kindergarten! It was a very sweet and fun program. The kids did a precious job of preforming. They song the cutest songs to show how much they've learned this year. Ben was up front and very "on" and attentive. After every song he'd look over at me or Joe and smile. So sweet. Joe took some time out of work and grandma Lana took the day off to be here. We all really enjoyed the hour.
Ben has grown a lot and learned so much. He has thrived in his class and has loved and been loved by his teachers. He wrote them "thank you notes" and even signed them with the nicknames they call him. This year he made a great friend Zane who he talks about constantly. And, after visiting with his mom and dad, we know Zane talks a lot about Ben at their house.We've already had a play date, adn have planned to get the boys together throughout the summer. I was glad to get a picture with both boys. They shook hands before leaving today -I loved that.
I can't believe we're down another year and onto 1st grade! Ben is just growing so fast and is just so goodhearted and happy. We love his great heart and desire to learn. It was a great day to celebrate this milestone for our Ben-Ben. We love this big kid and will remember this day forever.