As of Late...

Peter is really enjoying working with his dad.  He has even taken Dallin with him to work a couple of times.  What a nice Daddy!  Peter cut his finger open pretty badly last week with a drill, so he has to constantly re-dress the wound.  He couldn't have stitches because of the location and the way it cut so it is a slow healing process. Work keeps him busy along with many many things on his to do list at home.  He has been busy with refinancing our home, painting and carpeting the basement, rolling over his retirement from his last job and a lot of little home maintenance jobs.  Peters hours are all over the place, but likes the flexibility of being able to take time off when there is a family need.  Peter and his dad are very close, so they enjoy each other a lot.  What a wonderful, unique opportunity!

I am working hard at home as well.  Life is super busy with the kids.  I am still having some health issues that make things more difficult but I sure love my job!  I have been working on the Accountable Kids program with the kids and enjoying some more creative projects to beautify our home.  Peter and I have noticed that the kids seem to play with eachother all the time now and we are kind of chop liver.  They certainly don't need us for entertainment anymore. I love watching them play together and it makes me so happy that they have each other. We bought a used TV for the basement that is huge for $100, and some times Peter and I sneak downstairs to watch a movie after the kids go to bed.  It is so fun, like our secret getaway.  We also play rockband now so with all the basement fun, we don't feel the need to go out for dates much.  I  stole borrowed Lucy's Dance Dance Revolution game and have been getting some good excercise with it!  It really makes me break a sweat.

Dallin loves school now and is doing great!  He has been on spring break this whole week though, and has loved that too.  He is such a leader with his siblings and a good example to them.  I love that!  He is building, building, building.  He doesn't play with toys much.  He prefers wood scraps and bricks and anything else he can make a structure with.  I get a little crazy when he dumps all the laundry baskets and other containers for his projects, but I do like his creativity.  Going to work with Peter is such a huge treat and he works hard with his Dad and Grandpa and comes home exhausted.  He LOVES to work! Dallins new goal is to read a page a day of the Book of Mormon as a family so that by the time he is 8 he will have read the whole thing when he gets baptised.  We take turns reading now and I am amazed at how his reading has improved since we started doing this.  He prays about this goal and last night I overheard him asking for help to do this so he can be a prophet some day.  So sweet, he wants to be like Lehi and Nephi.

Eden is as sweet as they come.  She takes care of her brothers in a more nurturing way, but can also be a little tomboy with them.  She especially loves to play with Tanner and give him orders. She is starting to read a lot more and can't get enough of her lessons.  I am not too good at remembering to do them with her, otherwise she would probably be done with the whole lesson book.  She helps me cook all the time and continues to draw and color whatever comes to her imagination.  Lately she has been collecting little "treasures" from around the house and she keeps them in one of her little purses.  It is cute, I remember doing stuff like that when I was her age. 

Tanner is always making us laugh as you can imagine.  Lately he has picked up on that and become a little more sensitive about it.  If he says something funny like "Mom, if you drink red juice, you will turn into a llama!" (he watched the Emperors New Groove a few weeks ago), and I start to laugh, he says "Hey, thats not funny!"  Tanner still loves his Thomas trains.  I seriously don't know why we even have any other toys, that is all my boys need.  Dallin and Eden really love to play computer games on the internet so he enjoys watching it while they play.

Carter is talking more and more all the time.  He says full sentences, but I still only get about half of what he says.  He knows what he wants though, and makes it very clear through his actions.  He is always following the pack of siblings, but isn't quite big enough to do everything they do.  He learns a lot from them though and tries to be a big boy.  One year olds are so fun as they learn to talk and soak in so much of the world around them and I love observing kids at this age.  Lately he is obsessed with shoes insists on wearing  them all the time.  He even sleeps with them on sometimes.  He also insists on taking his vitamins so we never forget those anymore.  He thinks they are candy and begs for them.  The kids get a dinosaur multi, 2 fish oil gummies, and 2 chewable D3 so he loves his handful of goodies. 

Lily is so stinkin cute!  She always sleeps through the night now, 10-12 hours.  She watches all the action around the house and seems to be pretty content.  She doesn't cry very often anymore, she has a little wimper instead.  She almost sounds like a little puppy dog sometimes.  It is very different than my other babies.  Her little voice is really femenine and cute. Lately she has been examining her hands a lot.  She stares at them while she practices moving them.  You can just see how interesting it is as she discovers opening and closing her fingers.   She is definitely a very easy baby and I just love to hold her and cuddle her.

As a family, we are enjoying all the socializing with relatives and friends.  Dallin's school had a fundraiser from school selling movie theater tickets.  It was like $9 for 10 family movies and adults come for free, so we have been enjoying an extra outing together each week. I like going out with them because they learn how to behave in public and to stay seated so it is a little extra practice and fun at the same time.  Some of them like the popcorn more than the movies!