He's not a puppy anymore

Dillon's front tooth has been loose since...honestly? I think since before Christmas.  

In first grade terms, it's like an entire lifetime.  

I told him I wasn't ready for him to lose any front teeth, and he'd just have to wait.

On Sunday, it wouldn't wait anymore. I made him pose for before and after pics, 

and as you can see he was pretty happy when it was all over.  

I was not.

But I do love his messy hair and freckles.

And the sunshine that comes from his eyes.

No matter how big he gets, he'll always be my Dilly-willy-doodle-all-the-day.

Art Night

Earlier this week we attended art night at the school, where they boys performed songs with their classes, and displayed their artwork/stories.  

Dillon is well known as an "artist" among the first grade.

Caleb's class had to draw pictures of soil layers, and we have teased him a bit for his "cup of dirt" at the art fair.  :o)  Really, he did a good job.  I would have no idea how to draw different soils.

Brayden's ocean art is the one with the orange fish.

In the past two weeks...

In the past two weeks:

My oldest, greatest papa turned 80!

He brought Burger King crowns for all the kids to wear at the party :o)

Someone cut the butter with the apple slicer.  Someone also forgot to remove a foil-wrapped chocolate Easter egg from their pocket before their pants went through the wash.  Luckily, when it came out it was still in the foil and intact.  Thank you Hersheys.  

A bike fell on my foot on the dock at DI.  I had a bump the size of an egg on top of my left foot.  After icing it for a couple days, the bruising appeared. When I took Justin to the pediatrician later that week, I asked him if he thought I should have my foot "looked at" and he said that if it's broken, it's broken on top (since I can walk on it with no problem) and the treatment is a good lace-up shoe.  I think I can handle that.

Brayden learned to mow the lawn.

(it's kind of nice that our boys are getting old enough to be "useful")

While I was making dinner for a neighbor who just had a baby, Justin stole the measuring cup out of the flour bin, scooped water out of the toilet, and put it in his potty.  When I found him he was soaked so I put him in the tub and asked Caleb to sit with him while I hurried to get dinner in the oven.  While playing with "Bub-bub" Justin stood up, and then slipped and hit the faucet with his eyebrow.  It popped open.  I didn't think he needed a stitch, but wasn't sure so I called the urgent care clinic to ask their opinion.  They suggested I bring him in, but luckily as the swelling went down, the cut closed up on it's own and he didn't need any stitches. (Both Brayden and Dillon have the same injury, only they each needed 6 stitches in their eyebrows)

I've waited my whole life to trap my kids in a bottle of soap (or at least the past few weeks).  I took their pictures in crazy positions, used Photoshop to take the background out, and had their pictures printed on a transparency at a copy shop.  Then we rolled 'em up and stuck 'em in the soap. It makes me smile.

Todd's mom came to visit and took me and the boys shoe shopping.  Brayden's new shoes are 1 1/2 sizes bigger than his old ones, and they fit ME.

We also had our first school track meet, Brayden and Caleb got awards at school, Grandma came to visit a second time, our friends Travis and Cami stopped by on their way through, we finally planted our tomatoes after getting our sprinkling system fixed, and we took a day trip to Vegas to have my quilting machine serviced and visit a 120,000 gallon aquarium with a Mermaid show.  Whew!  It's been a busy couple of weeks!  I'll blog about this other stuff soon...

Easter weekend

We had a wonderful Easter weekend at our house.

It was filled with church, ham, Reeses PB cups, egg dying and hunting, naps (for the adults), 

and plenty of family time.

It took Justin a while to get into the egg hunting thing...until he realized there was candy inside!

Dillon chose to hunt for eggs in his pirate hat.

We color-coded the hunt to make it more fair.  Each child was assigned a color (or in Justin's case, a character).  They had to leave the yellow, green, blue, and Elmo eggs for the assigned person.

The pink, orange, and purple were free for all.

The golden egg had a coupon, "eggs"changeable for a Wii rental from Redbox.

Other "prizes" included coupons for extra computer time, ice cream, and getting out of dinner chores.

Todd took a spin on Caleb's bike

Our camera batteries died, so I didn't get any pictures of our egg dying activity.  A neighbor girl joined us on our patio, and after every egg had been dyed 2 or 3 times, it got dark so we turned on a light and set up cones for the kids to rollerblade/ripstik/ride scooters around.

Todd and I secretly wish we could ride the ripstik. 

We watched in awe as the kids wove through the cones.

We finished our celebration by watching Easter Bible Videos on Sunday night, 

with the air conditioning on, since it was at least 80 degrees in our house.

If you like books with happy middles...

I've decided that in the next life I'd like to be a first grade teacher.

This is Dillon's first book report.  I love his decorative lettering.

Translation:
Lenny Lion and Molly Mouse is a great book. I really like it. My favorite part is when Molly helps Lenny get out of the net and when Lenny meets Molly.  If you like books with happy middles, you will like Lenny Lion and Molly Mouse.

Seven

Seven years ago I met my Dilly Rob.

My Dilly-Willy-Doodle-all-the-Day.

Oh, how I love my Dillon.

Here he is with his new Ninjago Earth Dragon and Ninjago shirt.

I took a few minutes today to browse through his pictures (at least the ones on this computer).  

What a cutie :o)  Sunshine comes out of his eyes, you know.

Happy Birthday, Dillon.

Pirates of the Caribbean Party

 Dillon chose a "Pirates of the Caribbean" theme for his birthday this year.  It was perfect timing, because last week I walked into Walmart and found a Jack Sparrow costume, and two action figures on clearance.

I usually don't like making birthday cakes, but I have to admit that this one was kind of fun.

 I used one cake mix and made a 9" round, 6 cupcakes, and 1 mini-loaf.  I cut the round cake in half, stacked it (with frosting between) and stuck it in the freezer while I worked on the skeleton cupcakes.  The ribs are white chocolate covered pretzels, and I used a black sharpie to make the faces on the marshmallows (the kids have strict instructions not to eat the heads). The mini-loaf became a treasure chest with mini M&M's for the gold.

I knew these sword picks would come in handy someday :o).  Dillon wanted either pizza or Ramen noodles for dinner. I had Brayden and Caleb make these kabobs to go with our pizza.  We also ate apples and had "rum" (cream soda) for our drink.

I bought a skein of brown flecked yarn, dug my sewing machine out of the garage and used this tutorial to make Jack Sparrow hair to go with Dillon's costume.  I left the chocolate on his chin for this picture since it looked like a goatee :o).  The hat is super cheap and chintzy, so I will be making another one for sure.  His costume also came with the sword, a map, some pirate gold, and several rings.

Does anyone out there speak Ninjago?

Dillon's birthday is coming up, and I asked him to make me a wish list.  I didn't realize I would need a translator.  It's not the handwriting or the misspelled words that get me...it's the toys.  What is "Zane normal with spinjitzu"?  

I'm pretty sure we already have a "Zane DX" so why do we need a "Zane ZX"?  

Why do the  Earth, Ice, and Fire Dragons cost between $70-$120?  Will they sneak upstairs and do my taxes in the night?? That's the only way I'm paying that kind of money.  

Why does a seven year old need a "skull truck" and what would he do with it?

The list is continued on the back, but the only thing it says is:
zoozoo armr

I'm pretty sure that means zhu zhu armor.  They have armor for toy hamsters??

I need a girl...

Who would've thought?

Who would've thought that this little troublemaker...

...would someday turn into this?

Dillon has only been in school here for a month, and he was already chosen for a "Super Citizen" award.  When his teacher called to invite me to the assembly, she mentioned that he is always holding doors open for people and showing respect.  Way to go Dillon!

Maybe there's some hope for this one...

"One little hot dog frying in a pan..."

Merry Christmas from sunny Southern Utah!

(Thou shalt not covet thy neighbors weather...)

We are slowly getting settled, and so far we are loving our new house, neighbrhood, and ward.  

I managed to get the kitchen, living room, and dining room unpacked (and decorated), but in the bathrooms and bedrooms we are still living out of boxes.  Hopefully I'll be able to post pictures soon.

This picture makes me laugh. It may take awhile to "grow into" our new house.
(We have our projector downstairs for movies and Wii, but our only TV is a 17"-er)

We are enjoying our holiday (and break from unpacking) immensely.  This morning (before church) we went through our stockings and saw what Santa brought us, then we attended a wonderful sacrament meeting (I love Christmas on Sunday). Now we're relaxing and waiting to skype with Grandma before opening the rest of our gifts.

Dillon has mentioned over and over (and over) how badly he needed a red scooter now that we have such a scooter-friendly yard.  Taking turns with Caleb's blue scooter was such an inconvenience.  He was thrilled  (and very lucky) that Santa got the message on such late notice!

Caleb got a ripstick.  These pictures give the false impression that he actually knows how to ride it.

He doesn't...but I have a feeling that it won't be too long before he's "rippin'" it up out there.

Santa brought Brayden a new bike.  It has hand brakes and 21 speeds.  With this gift, his brothers each got a "new-to-them" bike handed down, and now they can all ride bikes together.  They haven't been able to do that ever since "nobody" rode Dillon's bike into the middle of the driveway and parked it behind Dad's truck...

Justin got new sand toys, and some sidewalk chalk.  We haven't tried the chalk yet, but the sandbox has been a raging success since the minute we arrived in the moving truck.

Christmas with a 16 mos. old has been one adventure after another.  We re-decorate the tree daily, and we are dilligently trying to teach Justin to take the candy OUT of the wrapper before he eats it.

After Brayden rode his bike for awhile, I caught him out on the lawn trying to figure out his new maze game, "Perplexus".  

Have I mentioned that I love the weather here?

This helicopter arrived from Amazon a few weeks ago (to Todd; from Todd) and I wrapped it up before he had a chance to see it.  After a mad search for batteries this morning, he was finally able to get it off the ground.

I don't have a picture of it, but Todd surprised me with an ipod touch!  Someone (who already had an iphone) won it at Todd's Christmas work party and gave him a deal.  Now if I can just figure out how to use it...

I can't even begin to name all the blessings we've had this year, especially in the last couple months, but I hope to somehow convey my gratitude in a future post.  It's just too hard to think right now with all the unpacking/Christmas chaos/kids out of school.

I didn't get Christmas cards out this year (again), but we've loved hearing from many of you, and wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a blessed new year.

Random happenings

Today is crazy hair day at school.  I had to run to the grocery store at 7:30 AM to get orange hairspray so Caleb could be a jack-o-lantern like Dillon (who had to be bribed to wear his jack-o-lantern hair).  Brayden was much too cool for crazy hair.

Caleb wore a spider in his orange hair

Last week I sent Brayden and Caleb to the store (alone) for the first time ever (we live a block and a half away).  Their assignment was to get a chocolate bar so we could make chocolate curls for the pie Brayden made.

They were gone for quite awhile and I was starting to get nervous when I finally saw them walking home.  It turns out that after their purchase, Brayden realized that the cashier had given them 6 cents too much change...so they turned around and went back to return the money. I was one proud mama!

Too cold for a popsicle?  No way.
Dillon just ate his otter-pop with gloves.
(I should have given him a bib)

I had a gallbladder attack last week, and I don't have a gallbladder.

When I took the kids to the clinic the next day for their flu shots, I asked the Dr. about it.  He said that sometimes there is a stone in the common bile duct between the gallbladder and liver.  He looked up my surgery info on the computer and said that the surgeon had tried to check the common bile duct, but the opening was too small and he couldn't get the instrument inside.

Lovely.

 If I continue to have problems, I'll have to have some kind of a scope done that will irritate my pancreas.  This is the first time anything like this has happened since my surgery, so I'm hoping it's just a weird fluke.

The sale of our house is final.  We made a whopping $3.28 on the deal, and I feel pretty darn lucky just to get out of it.  I told Todd we'd have to be sure to put the money in savings to go towards our next house, or we'll get heavily taxed on it  :o)

My friend suggested we go to the local restaurant and celebrate with baby ice cream cones.

I love a baby in new dinosaur jammies...

Justin is walking/running everywhere these days.  He took his first courageous walk across the living room on Conference Sunday, about 10 minutes before Todd left to go back to the trailer.  I can't even tell you how glad Todd was that he was here to see it.

Now, a couple weeks later, he's getting more brave and starting to climb to get wherever he "needs" to go.  He has four teeth and one more on the way and loves to eat off the floor. He'll throw his food down from his high chair and eat it off the floor as soon as we let him out.  Hopefully he's building immunity...


In other news, we found the perfect house and got all excited about it just in time for it to go into foreclosure and be sold on auction last Thursday.  Unfortunately, we can't compete with people who have cash to buy a house.

We made an offer on another one this weekend.  I don't care for the look of the outside (it was built in the 80's) but the inside meets our needs perfectly.  We will spend the next few days haggling over the price and I'll be sure to post pictures if it works out.

First day of school

I'm not sure how it happened, but somehow I drove to school today with a 5th grader, a 4th grader, and a 1st grader in tow.  I walked Dillon into his classroom, but the older boys took off on their own.  Apparently they didn't need want my assistance.

Don't worry, Mom.
The spots on Brayden and Caleb's shirts are just water from brushing their teeth.

After taking a 45 minute walk with my cousin, Erin, I went to Walmart. It was nice to go with just one child, who sits in the cart and doesn't touch anything.  He didn't need to go to the bathroom while we were in the middle of the store.  He didn't ask for a toy. He didn't complain about his feet hurting.  He didn't whine that he was hungry. He just grinned and babbled.  And on the way to and from the store?  He slept.

But, even as pleasant as my shopping trip turned out, I have to admit I missed my boys. I was excited to hear about their first day of school. Dillon had the only homework, but when he was talking to Todd on the phone, he said, "It was so easy, it was like kindergarten work!".

I've got one with brown eyes, one with blue/gray eyes, and one with green eyes!
Looking at these pictures, I'm feeling the need to start saving for braces.  Sigh...they grow too fast.

The return of the tooth fairy

Dillon lost his first tooth this week!

 I was tempted to tell him the truth about the tooth fairy until we found this note on his bed:

It's been so much easier since we told Brayden and Caleb...

They just send us a bill at the end of the month.

Three drowned rats

Even though it rained almost the entire day, I took the kids to the new splash pad at the park while visiting Todd this week.  To say they absolutely loved it would be an understatement.
We will definitely do this again (preferably on a sunny day, with swim trunks)!

I don't think Caleb's shoes have dried out yet.

 Boys will be boys...

Dillon's Mario Party

When we moved here he was 17 mos. old.

Now he can read.

He grew too fast.

Dillon chose a Dinosaur party for his birthday this year, 

and then two weeks ago he changed his mind and asked for a Mario party.  

I bought yellow wrapping paper and turned his presents into "mystery boxes".

Since I wrapped all the presents from the grandparents, everything matched ;o)

I made a stencil and used powdered sugar to do the same thing to our French toast this morning.

I sent the boys on a treasure hunt  to rescue the princess (details in the following post).

I looked everywhere for brown balloons to make goomba's, but had to settle for orange.

The boys had to jump on the "guys" just like in the video game.

The cupcakes are supposed to be 1-up mushrooms.

I printed out Mario labels for the Kool-aid bottles, and painted polka dots on hard boiled "Yoshi" eggs.

Dillon chose ravioli for dinner.  He would eat ravioli every day if we let him.

Oh, how I love this boy.

Sometimes he signs his name, "dilrob"  (short for Dillon Robert).

When I drop him off at kindergarten every day, he turns around and signs "I love you" with his hand.

Sunshine comes out of his eyes.

He is the best big brother EVER.  

A couple weeks ago we moved the baby into his crib in Dillon's room.  After a few nights, we noticed that Dillon was sleeping with three pillows under his head, so that he was almost sitting up to sleep.  I figured it was a "boy thing" and just went into his room before I went to bed every night to remove the extra pillows.  Todd finally asked him why he was using so many pillows, and he replied:

"So Justin could see me from his crib and not cry."