March 2010

I am posting a lot of just pictures today. It seems the kids grow up so fast and when I visit all of your blogs I love to see pictures of the kids and see how they are doing.

Philip is beginning to follow Jacob's example of reading. Jacob reads all the time! I never thought I would here myself say, "Please put your book away, reading time is over," so much in my world. I try not to say it too much though, we believe in reading.

Benjamin and Emma just being silly.

Philip is so very gentle with Jane. He loves to hug her. She loves being hugged. I caught him in the act here. This is not a posed shot!

Robin's sister and her family came to visit. The kids had soooooo much fun. Emma was especially excited to be with her girl cousin Emily, but all the boys did well just being boys.

This is Benjamin doing his impersonation of a tornado. Has he seen one? No but, we have an awareness of these here. We have spent a couple evenings shut in our laundry room while the sirens go off outside. Now he waves his arms kind of like a magician and in a real low voice says, "I'm a tornado!" It is funny coming out of the mouth of a 3 year old and what can I say, you kind of have to be there.

We took our cousins to "Dig for Diamonds" at a National Park in Arkansas. No one found any diamonds, but we had fun digging in the dirt.

A couple of times the kids got upset about being dirty and we kept reassuring them that this time it would be okay we were here to get dirty.

We brought extra clothes with us to change into afterword.

I guess Robin has taught them too well about keeping clean while playing outside.

It was fun to have so many people around to play and enjoy all the aspects of life. Here is Aunt Becki cooking with Philip and her little girl Erin.

Here is Philip on a day out at the local science museum.

Jacob and Emily, "Building a House."

Jacob - How is he this big?

The boys and Uncle Ethan building a dam.

Benjamin trying out some kind of science thing.

Nato always wanted to be an astronaut. Doesn't he look happy!

Philip also decided this month to get past the picky toddler stage and just eat!

No, he does not always wait for the table.

Jane is loving life from a new perspective.

Robin is loving the fact that Jane is still light enough to hold and do the dishes.

Philip and Benjamin.

22 months ago Nato embarked on the journey of the MBA. It equated out to be a lot of long nights and weekends with an occasional break for Christmas and family trips. Most of the children do not remember the time before Nato started his journey and they are all very excited to have a daddy to play with after work and on weekends.
To celebrate this momentous occasion the kids posted signs of congratulations around the house and Robin made a chocolate tassel hat cake. It was a lot of fun to surprise Nato and show him our love and excitement on a job well done!
Congrats Nato and welcome back to the living and breathing!

February 2010

We have had one of the most exciting months.

Jane started eating solid foods and although this is messy, it is a lot of fun to see her getting bigger every day!

Philip is literally wearing himself out trying to keep up with Nato and Robin. Whether he is meticulously trying to straighten blankets, towels and laundry,

or finding the best way to be like Dad

or beside Dad, he keeps moving,

until he has nothing left.

All the kids do a great job helping Jane and playing their own games with her and she is always willing to pay them with smiles and coos.

Mid-February is Robin's birthday and on that morning we all awoke to find it snowing.

Now in Louisiana snow will SOMETIMES fall, but it doesn't stay. It is usually just flurries.

Considering we have never lived where it snows since having kids, we were all very excited for flurries on Robin's special day. She has really been dreaming of snow this year.

To our great surprise the flurries fell all day long

and into the night. That evening we looked out to find that they were no longer flurries,

but SNOW! Snow on the ground and the roofs and the cars.

Nato was called and informed that he would have delayed reporting the next morning because of the snow and he was to stay home until 10.

The next morning we found a few inches on the ground!

Beautiful, soft snow great for snowballs

and snowmen and fun!

Everyone played for a few hours in the morning and by evening everything was gone except the snowmen. It was back to Louisiana weather for all of us, but it was so much fun to have a special treat even for just one day!

Greetings from Louisiana!

Here is just a short update and a few pics. We find that with five kids having an extra hand to get photos is no easy task.

Emma is now our little reader. She begs for reading time and we are continually searching for books she would like to read. We find this humorous considering we used the book "How to Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons," and she kicked and screamed unto we got to lesson 93. That is when she decided she wanted to read and, "Mom we need to do my reading lesson!" became a frequent sound each morning.

Benjamin LOVES Jane. While waiting for flu vaccines a lady became smitten with Benjamin. She was adoring him and asked him if he had a girlfriend. When he replied, "Yes!" Robin about fell out of her seat. Then the Lady asked what his girlfriend's name was and he answered, "Jane!"

When he talks to Jane he calls her, "Jane-Jane" and no matter what mood he is in, she will always be able to produce a smile on his face.

Philip is now talking. Strangely enough we have learned that talking is what he has been doing all along. His screeches and yelps sound pretty much the same, but he is now adding consonants to the beginning and end of these sounds and now we understand a lot of his little words. We are happy to know what he needs and he is happy to finally be heard.

Jacob has finally lost his first top front tooth! He was so excited to lose it; it has been almost a year since his bottom fronts fell out. Once it was time for bed, though, he couldn't part with it. Being all boy he wanted to keep the tooth so he could look at it under his microscope and such. Lucky for him the tooth fairy left it behind but still paid him for it.

He was one happy kid the next morning.

Jane has become pretty good at playing on her tummy. We think she likes the ability to see more of the things going on around her. We like that this may be the end to the lovely bald spot she has on the back of her head.

That is IF she can ever keep herself up to play instead of rolling over.

Once there was a (Popcorn Popping) Snowman

Snow is not a commodity here, but that doesn't mean we can't have any winter fun! Nato created this with the kids. It was a perfect combination of the two best primary songs ever!

Happy New Year!

We have never really celebrated New Year's Day before, but this year everyone was excited to have 2010 come. That is because we all got to drive to San Antonio to see a couple of families we love and miss there.

Here are Emma and Jacob with there dearest friends Megan and Josh. These kids actually made it to midnight too. I was deeply amazed! When they lived down the street from us we never did the sleep over thing, so it was a special treat to stay with them and enjoy there company 24 hours each day.

Once we arrived we were given such a warm reception it was hard to leave. Philip and Claire played so well together they almost left us completely alone for the three days we were there. Although we are pretty sure Claire showed Philip what was in every drawer of the new pad. If she didn't Benjamin and Elijah sure did!

In short we all had a great time. In fact we couldn't separate the kids without promising another trip there soon. It is amazing how short a 7 hour drive is when you take into consideration best friends and a temple with kind volunteers to babysit. Thank you to the Coles and Hoopes for the great food, excellent company and immaculate accommodations.