Gross

I kept telling him to stop doing this because it was gross, but he kept saying "mmm".  He found a straw and was drinking water out of a dirty dish (yuck).  I guess the strainer helps somehow, or at least makes it more funny.

My morning

Just to show Matt that I do kill bugs on my own.  Lucy wanted to pick him up.

 Jo climbs on the fireplace.

 Walks across it and falls on the ottoman.

 Stands up, walks across the ottoman, dives onto the couch and proceeds across the couch, end table and another couch.

Matt's birthday present

Matt got a belated birthday present from my sister Tiffney.  She got him a white t shirt and drew roads and fun buildings on it.  Now when Matt lays down to take a nap, the kids can still play "with" him.

Cheese

This little girl is so much fun and so much trouble!

 She does a great job just sitting back and watching how the big kids do things, then does them herself.

 This big guy started school (phonology class) last week.  Last year he went for 6 classes and HATED it.  This year he LOVES it.  What a difference a summer makes and growing up a few more months.

4 crazy kids

I was trying to get a good picture of the silly kids and this is what they gave me.

Aunt Kate made the girls matching dresses.

 This is the best one I got.

 When I wasn't bribing them, this is what happened.

Happy 5th birthday Cosette!

We started our day with Matt and I leaving early Friday morning to go to the temple.  Ally walked to school with the neighbor kids.  My mom watched the 3 crazies.  It was nice to get to go to the temple and be as close as we could to Cosette on her birthday.  She's been gone almost 4 years and it's still tough to deal with.  Ben had lots of questions, especially when he learned that Cosette wasn't going to be at the cemetary for him to see.  He understands, I think, that she is his sister and he knows that she died and lives in Heaven.  What he doesn't get is why Jesus won't let her come see him.  So we talked about the second coming and what we believe is going to happen on that day.  It's always nice to have a reason to talk to the kids about the gospel and for them to be in the position to want to listen and really know. 

Washing the car???

Matt took Wednesday, Thursday and Friday off work.

Wednesday Ally met with a cardiologist.  Nothing to worry about right now.  We asked her if she wanted to go back to school and she said "NO".  She's definetly our kid!

Today my mom turns 50.  We washed both of the cars with the little kids.  Somehow the cars both ended up cleaner than our kids.

Josephine

She turned 13 months on the 18th.  She is such a happy baby.  LOVES to give kisses and initiates most of them.  It might be hard to tell, but she's starting to thin out, probably from all the running she has to do to either keep up or get away from her siblings.

Bad day

we were still having shoe issues come monday.  she agreed to wear this cute dress and was more than willing to wear the frilly socks, but WOULD NOT wear the adorable shoes.  we had to get ally to school, so she started walking in her socks because she refused all other shoes (she has at least 15 different options).  then ally informed her that if her socks got dirty i would throw them in the trash, she promptly jumped in the stroller without another word.  when we got home she asked if i could wash them for her, which i did.  later that day she walked to school barefoot.  she yelled at the principal that day as well.  somehow i think school might be rough on her!

Aren't those just the cutest shoes?  I love them.  She hates them.

Silly kids

They thought it was quite funny to give "screen kisses". 

 A group "screen kiss".

 This is normally what things look like at our house.  Someone is trying to be affectionate, while the other is trying to tolerate it.

 Miss Lucy has had such terrible shoe issues.  She has a love/hate relationship with shoes right now.  One day last week we HAD to get Ally to school, Lucy was throwing a fit about shoes, so I ended up carrying her and our awesome neighbor pushed the stroller, just so we could get Ally to school.



Josey Jo Jo

Aunt Tara made Jo this cute shirt and got her these fun pants for her birthday.  It was finally cool enough outside to have her wear the pants.  She is such a fun girl.  Lucy and Jo are definetly shoe girls.  They love picking out their shoes and know whose shoes are whose.  Jo can take all of her shoes off by herself, even the ones that tie.  She is in that stage where she repeats things until she has it perfected.  She will climb up and down the porch steps, just to make sure she has it just right.  She likes to climb onto the hearth and fall onto the ottoman, sit down on the edge of the ottoman and scoot herself off and land on her feet.  She's such a funny girl to watch.  She has lots of funny faces, expressions, voices, laughs and she loves to talk.  She is working on the kids names- yaya or aa (Ally), Be (Ben) and Ces (Lucy).  She has quite a few signs she uses.  She has realized that Lucy's scream is very effective, so she now does that too. 

Lucy Loves Ally

From the time we drop Ally off at the door to her school to the time we pick her up at that same door, I hear "I miss my Ally, where's my Ally, I want my Ally, me sad I want my Ally".  It's quite sweet.  Then when we get home Lucy glues herself to Ally for about 30 minutes and then wants nothing to do with her.  Ally takes it in stride and eats it up while she can.  Ben, Lucy and even Josey really miss playing with her during the day.  When she gets home from school, Ben starts rattling off ideas of things to do together. 

Sunday dresses

Matt stayed home with Mr. Ben and Jo, while I took the older girls to church.  We weren't sure if Ben was getting sick or had bruised his vocal cords, so we played it safe and had him stay home.  Ben and Lucy both wanted to do a "running race" and got rope burn on their necks from a jump rope.  Since the incident we've talked about how if we do another running race we need to put our hands up to catch the rope or use something else.

 Ally was convinced she was going to be cold at church, so she had to button her cardigan all the way.

 Lucy being Lucy.

Ally's first day of 1st grade

My crazy monkeys.

 Last night before bed she was emotional, nervous, scared.

She woke up this morning at 2:30/3:00 asking if she could get ready. 

Thankfully she didn't argue when I told her to get in bed with me and go to sleep.

 Most of the morning Lucy walked around saying "me miss my Ally", "I love my Ally, miss her".  It was quite cute.  She will be very excited to see Ally.

2012 State Fair- 2nd visit

We had been planning on coming on this Monday for awhile.  On Saturday by the time we made it to the DNR Pond it was closed.  The kids were bummed.  Luckily we could say, hey we'll be here on Monday and do it first thing.  So that's what we did.  Unfortunately the fish were not biting and no one was catching any fish. 

 BP had some fun activites.  Track, wheelchair races, xbox olympic games.

We saw the animals we didn't see on Saturday. 

We went to some buildings we don't normally do.  We all got some food.  We finished off our state fair money, so there is no chance of returning until next year.  The kids had fun.  Lucy was still being 2, but wasn't as bad.  Jo was FABULOUS both days.  She sat in the stroller the whole time and was happy. 

When we got home, Matt packed and drove the 6 hours to Saginaw for a conference.