Self feeding...Ugh

I knew it had to happen sometime, but this is not my favorite stage-when babies start feeding themselves. Baby M helped herself to the yogurt on the counter tonight. She made a huge mess, but had a great time. She thought it was pretty funny when her brothers and sister laughed at her. I couldn't pick just one picture. They were all pretty good.












In other news, we had a fun weekend. Saturday night we celebrated Jeff's birthday and went to the Turkey banquet in Nephi. Little Princess won a bike! It's a 20" bike. It's bigger than her 7-year old brother's bike. It may be a while before she uses it. She was SO excited.

Our ward split last week. We've heard rumors of it happening since before we moved in. The ward we were in was HUGE. It was pretty much split in half. We're in the newly formed ward. No assignments have been made for callings yet, so we only had sacrament meeting (last week and this week). It will be fun to see if we get new callings.

The last big news of our weekend is that we're new pet owners. You're probably thinking of something little, cute and furry-NOPE. We have a horse. I will have to post pictures later. It doesn't have a name. It's been called 'buckskin' or 'no name'. Hopefully that will change. It lives 4 blocks away at our friend's horse property. Jeff and the kids spent the whole afternoon over there today.

This weekend is my baby's first birthday. I can't believe she's already a year. I spent some time tonight looking through old pictures. She was so cute and little when she was born. It's been a crazy and eventful year. Look for that upcoming post with birthday pictures later this weekend. As I was looking through my pictures, I realized what a lucky mom I am. I have the cutest kids. It was fun to look at pictures of them when they were so little. It's crazy how fast they grow up.

Dr. Seuss Dress Up Day

Not bad for throwing something together in 20 minutes.

Our Petting Zoo...

I knew that country life would be different, but I didn't know what I was in for. Yesterday while cleaning the toy room in the basement, we saw that we had a new resident-a fluffy gray mouse had made himself at home. Since that window doesn't have a screen, I think he'd fallen and couldn't get out. Once the boys knew he was down there they decided to spend their afternoon throwing rocks at it. Somehow it survived.

Today we met our newest guest, a muskrat (according to the in-house animal expert). It too fell and couldn't get out. It shredded the screen in it's attempts at freedom.





I wonder what tomorrow will bring... We do have 4 more window wells.

Big Man's Lego Creations

This is for Grandma so she can see the latest creation.

The Men I Love...

Little Man has had a loose tooth for a few weeks now. He's been so excited about it. Jeff helped loosen up the last little bit and Little Man popped it out himself. It was fun to see how all of the kids got excited for Little Man. He's waited a long time to do some of the things his big brother has already done. He's been very patient about it, but now that it's his turn, he's having a good time. He couldn't stop smiling all night.

The tooth fairy was caught off guard since, but thanks to some good neighbors she rustled up a dollar bill. When she went down to find the tooth, it was in a death grip in his hand. The next morning, he'd forgotten all about it, and had to go back down to see what he got. What a nut.



Today is Jeff's birthday. We are no longer different ages. For four months out of the year, I am extremely older than him. Now we are equal again. The planning started yesterday with Big Man calling Jeff to find out what he wanted for breakfast on his birthday. Jeff told him that he could pick. At 6:30 this morning, Big Man was out in the kitchen preparing the birthday breakfast. I think we'd done breakfast in bed for him on previous birthdays and he'd remembered. So I guess it's tradition. (I didn't get breakfast in bed for my birthday) I could hear Big Man slowly making his way down the hall with a tray. When he gave it to Jeff, he said "That took 7 minutes. One minute to walk in here." That cracked me up.

The awesome birthday breakfast consisted of a glass of ice water (the best breakfast drink) and a bowl of Peanut Butter Crunch. There's a towel over the tray. It was very fancy. I love my men. They are the best.

Sleddin...

What do a 4-wheeler, a big backyard, and snow all have in common? Good sledding fun. The kids have a blast doing this. With our second good snow storm, they've been entertained for hours.

Gotta Love 'em...

My kids are so unique. It's kind of fun to see how their personalities, interests, and talents emerge as they get older. Little Man is naturally athletic. He excels in sports. It comes naturally to him. When Jeff brought home these little bow-and-arrow sets from the Hunting Expo. last weekend, Little Man practiced at it for about 10 minutes before he was knocking over the target every time. It's not quite that easy for Big Man. He has to practice much longer and harder for these type of things. He's better at being creative and artistic. These things come naturally to him. They both still had a good time shooting their bows.





It's always a fun game to go peek at the kids after they're in bed. You never know what you will find. Usually Little Princess is upside down on her bed with no covers on. Tonight this is what we found. This is the first time she has ever fallen asleep with one of her brothers. I'm not quite sure whose idea it was for this little sleepover. I guess I'll find out in the morning. It was cute though and warranted a photo opportunity. Every time I see their sweet peaceful faces while they're sleeping, my heart melts. They are the cutest things (even if they're extremely naughty at times). I am a lucky mom.