March in Pictures

It's been a busy March!  But maybe it's just the fact that I have five kids...

Dallin has had an epic battle with trying to get one of his top front teeth out... 

I finally took matters into my own hands and got it out... after about a month of him trying.

 Her new outfits never cease to amaze me.  And that hair.  This is her f.a.v.o.r.i.t.e. pj shirt with a froggy on it that says 'toadally adorable' - she wears it any chance she can get.  And she's wearing Eli's shoes.

A big empty box.  Need I say more??

Lots and lots and lots of exploring...

My pretty pretty princess- I think snow white may be her favorite... I should probably get her the movie...

 Let's see if I can accurately describe this ensemble... PJ's, upside down lifejacket, princess skirt, two different shoes (both Eli's)...

Eli and Megan went for an ice cream date...

He's so happy in the mornings, but is pretty much over snuggling anymore...

 Wearing Eli's karate ghee top with a princess skirt- she's a force to be reckoned with for sure.

 And we had another bout with the stomach flu... 

this one hit my three older boys especially bad.  all over my carpet.  in the middle of the night.  not fun.  and it came back and reared it's ugly head a few days after everyone was 'better'.  Yuck.

What the?

I don't know the last time that we've been able to don shorts in March... certainly not since we've lived in Washington!  But spring is starting to appear and we'll take it!  And while I am not in shorts yet, I've been loving the warm sunny days and getting outside.

(she is well aware of how cute she is)

And for my next feat...

Stairs!

He's figuring out stairs, so naturally, he's constantly drawn to them.  The moment he's put down he heads for the stairs.  When Bryson and Dallin were learning to do stairs, we lived in Kentucky and only had the 2 steps into the family room.  Eli and Hailee had the full stairway in this house but always had a very healthy respect for the top of the stairs.  Not so with Jace, he'd barrel down the whole way on his face if I wasn't vigilant about being right there with him.

How I singlehandedly x-rated Dallins first grade program

A few weeks back, Dallin brought home a letter about his upcoming school program. They were doing a 'Mini Seussical Jr.' and we were supposed to come up with a costume based on a Dr. Seuss book character.  We could choose ANY character from a Dr. Seuss book... oh, except the Cat in the Hat, Thing 1 & Thing 2 and pretty much any other of the obvious characters.  Mmmmmk.  So I pulled out our Dr. Suess books and finally decided on him being the kid from the cover of "There's a Wocket in My Pocket":

Easy enough, right?  Just wear approximately the same clothes, spike his hair and make some sort of a 'wocket' to put in his pocket... I figured it would be lost on most people, but whatever, I'm still a creative genius.

For the wocket, I pulled a barbies hair through some green fabric and drew a face... nothing too exciting, I've got 5 kids.

He totally rocked the hair:

I was sufficiently satisfied, but the wocket, (being a barbie deep down inside), was too tall to stand up in his shallow pockets... so we decided he could just stick it in the waistband of his pants on the side...  and that's exactly where it was when he went backstage to join his class, in his SIDE(!!) waistband.

But something terrible happened before he came out on stage.  The wocket migrated... front and center... aaaaaaaand it didn't exactly look like a wocket anymore...

{collective gasp}

I.just.died.

No amount of me gesturing from the back of the gym could possibly make his understand that he needed to shift the wocket... or maybe even just loose it altogether.  And then, to make it worse, every once in a while, he would reach down and stroke its hair... it was beyond painful to watch.

I {obviously} had to explain to several parents afterwards just exactly what he was supposed to be...

Rub a Dub Dub

The only reason why Hailee relented to being so close to Jace for long was that this was HIS bath and she wanted in...

She pretty much ignored him unless he happened to touch anything that she'd looked at in the last 6 months

 Jace didn't seem to mind!

He loves bath time!

Techy

I love my kids imagination.  I really think that often, their imaginative creations are better than the real thing to them.  Bryson recently made himself a bluetooth earpiece, cell phone and tablet.

Indiana Jace

He's got the fedora, now he just needs a whip!

1st Blue and Gold

Bryson had his first Cub Scout Blue and Gold Banquet this week- Nathan was out of town and I didn't find out that the boys were supposed to make and decorate their own cake until about 2 1/2 hours before... mmmmkay! 

He helped make the cake from scratch- and then did a royal icing transfer of a cub scout wolf (since that's his rank):

 Frosted the cake...

 Voila!

 (I couldn't believe we pulled it together!)

Bryson called the colorguard:

 And earned his Bobcat!

And just like that....

While on his tummy, Jace has been pulling a leg up and under him for a few days... as if he was going to start crawling.  I figured he was still a ways off from really getting it though because he doesn't army crawl at all... but on Thursday afternoon, at 8 months, while Nathan was out of town, he just took off with the cutest little crawl ever!  A perfect, up-on-all-fours, very deliberate with lots of falling forward because his knees go faster than his hands do, crawl.  And all of a sudden he's into e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g.  I can't believe how big he is (and all my kids are) getting!