11 Months

Time is marching right along and my sweet baby is 11 months old!  He cracks me up.  He melts my heart. 

This month he is officially entering toddlerhood.  He pulled toilet paper off the roll, ripped a night light out of the socket, got into my wallet, drinks from a straw and a sippy cup, splashed in the toilet, ate Lego's, and climbed all the way up the stairs.  My life just got a lot more crazy.  Bathroom doors have to be closed.  Stairs?  Well I'm trying the no gate approach and just go down with him every time to teach him how to do it. Wish me luck!

Other than typical toddler mischief, Beckett is a sweetheart.  He sleeps well (still all night plus two day time naps).  He is happy and plays with his brothers and sister in the basement.  His all time favorite thing in the world is the remote.  Unfortunately he can't have it.  He threw his first tantrum when, due to an oversight, he got his hands on it and I took it away.  He rolled around on the floor crying for a good 5 minutes.  Poor guy.

I can't believe he will be one this month!  My baby is getting big.  Oh, and just to leave you with a little humor, here is a video I took of Beckett the day Weston went to school and I was hanging with the small ones.

And one I took of Talia that day.  She is super into Ladderball. :)

2nd Grade!

Weston started school on August 20th.  He is in 2nd grade this year!  Wow!  He was very excited to go back to school and see all of his friends and ride the bus.  We are now a few weeks in and he has referred to school as prison a few times, but it always sounds like he only says that because he hears other kids say it.  I think he really is having a great time.  

He got to the bus stop pretty early, so there was plenty of time to play around before it was time to leave.  Off to school on the bus!  Can I just say again how much I LOVE that my kids take the bus?!? It's so incredibly convenient for me and they love riding to school with their friends and without seat belts.  :)

I had a fun day playing with the little ones at home, but we were all excited when Weston finally got home (at 3:55pm because he's a later gator this year).  I'd say it was a success based on how fast he hopped off that bus and ran home.  Here's to another fantastic school year for my big kid!

Last Hurrah

School started on a Tuesday, so on Monday we had a last fun summer outing to the dinosaur museum with our buddies the English's!  We sure miss having them living right next door!  It was super fun to get together and let the kids run and play while Heather and I caught up.  This year we have kids in 3rd, 2nd, 1st, Kindergarten, and preschool.  Pretty fun. 

That night it was early to bed with clothes all laid out for Weston's first day of school!

Children's Museum

Back at the beginning of the summer we had a Family Home Evening where we told the kids about their job charts and went over the list of activities we could do.  We asked the kids if there was anything specific they really wanted to do.  Davin's one thing was going to the Discovery Gateway Children's Museum.  I had a free admission coupon so I figured we could swing going once.  Well, the summer got busy and we hadn't gone.  Luckily we were able to squeeze it in right before school started.  The kids had an amazing time.  It wasn't too crowded and they all played and played and never wanted to leave.

We started in the ball room.  We probably could have stayed there for 2 hours.  I had to tear Beckett away.  We spent a good chunk of time in the Kid's Eye View room.  The boys played on their own at all the different stations.  Davin's favorite was water and construction.  Weston loved being the cashier at the store.  Talia had fun in the play house, the toddler area, and the water table.  Beckett tagged along with Talia, but especially loved the water.

Finally we headed upstairs.  The boys dressed up for a stage play.  Davin was SO funny in his costume.  I have no idea what it was, but he was walking around with this weird look on his face and I was laughing so hard.  Talia just wanted to hide in the curtains.

Everyone found fun things to do in the experimentation room.  Magnets, gears, earthquake towers, etc.  Beckett was such a good baby.  He played with everything and didn't fuss when we moved on to the next thing.  He was happy the whole time even though he was exhausted.

In the back room there usually isn't anything, but this time they had a bunch of the huge, soft blocks.  Davin built himself a little chair and a smiley guy.  Weston built himself a throne and pretended to be king, but it didn't last long since his baby brother and little sister kept messing up his throne room.  Luckily he was a benevolent king.

Finally we headed outside to the patio where the helicopter is.  We had it to ourselves the whole time we were out there!  That has never happened before.  It was awesome because all the kids got to "drive" for as long as they wanted.  Talia really wasn't a big fan of the helicopter because it was so loud.  I made Weston give her a turn at the controls and he was being pouty about it for some reason.  I just thought he looked so ridiculous. :)

We ended the outing by sending messages across the pulley system and letting everyone have a few last minutes in the water table.  There were a few whines when it was time to leave, but I would definitely say it was a huge success.  I'm glad we were able to do what Davin wanted.  Sometimes that poor middle child gets the shaft, but I'm pretty sure it was all he dreamed of.  They are still talking about it weeks later.

Late Summer Days

We did need a couple of days at home to recover and catch up on housework after our trip, but the boys spent them playing with friends, so they couldn't complain.  They are loving building with their Zoobs they got at the toy store in Edmonds.  They made this awesome dinosaur the other day (sorry for the bad lighting).  

Talia and Beckett played, napped, and followed me around.  Talia likes to help with cleaning the toilets.  She loves the blue toilet bowl cleaner.  She thinks it smells good and practically puts her entire head in the toilet bowl to smell it.  She helps use the toilet brush to scrub it clean then likes to be the one to flush.  "Bye bye blue!" she says when the blue cleaner goes down.  Beckett can't get enough of the vacuum.  I leave it out to keep him entertained.

Talia was helping me water the plants out front one night when we found this huge preying mantis!  Weston tried to hold him and dropped him.  He disappeared after that, but he was fun to watch while it lasted.

I think Talia is starting to be kind of a daddy's girl.  She was snuggling up and scratching his back one morning and decided a car would be a good back scratcher. Daddy wasn't complaining!  I am always happy to see her being sweet and loving with everyone in our family.  She has a good heart, but can be kind of whiny and stubborn a lot of the time, so we really cherish the sweet moments. :)

Walking in an afternoon rainstorm with Weston

I got to go out for a girls night with my neighbor who moved away.  I'm not actually in the picture, but this is the group that came for one last hurrah with our friend, Marcella.  I will really miss her.  She was my visiting teacher and had kids all of my kids' age.  Our kiddos got along so well and she was my favorite kid swapping friend (like for grocery shopping or whatever).  Luckily she only moved about 5 miles east and her son is on Weston's soccer team this fall so we will still see each other.

One evening I took Davin out to do some back to school shopping.  He didn't really need a new backpack since his was still in good shape, but it was the Cars one he picked out 2 1/2 years ago, so I decided he could get a new one for Kindergarten.  :)  We went to Kohl's and he picked out a Lego Chima backpack, which he was SO excited about and we got a new shirt for his first day of school.  We got some lunch at Chick Fil A together and had a really fun time talking.  He is such a funny, adorable little boy.  He helped me get all the school supplies at Target too.  Davin couldn't wait to start school!

Seven Peaks

The week that we got back from our trip was the last week of summer before school started, so we had to make the most of it.  Ian had Monday off from work, so we decided to brave the Seven Peaks water park for the first and last time of the summer.  Not the last time because we didn't have a blast, but just because it was the end of the season and we didn't have another chance to go as a family before it closed.  Next summer we will go more often for sure.  

We went pretty early and set up shop.  We rented a single and a double tube. We all had such a great time!  The weather was perfect.  Nice and hot and sunny most of the time.  I figured we would last a couple of hours, but we ended up staying for over 4 hours.  Talia especially loved it.  She was the big surprise of the day.  She happily wore her life jacket the whole day.  She loved the big water slides.  She still talks about all the slides she went down and how they were fast and fun.

Talia gets credit for part of the success of the day, and the other credit goes to Beckett for taking an hour long nap in his stroller.  He was such a good baby being hauled around and in and out of water all day long.

Weston loved the water slides too, but his favorite thing was swimming the lazy river.  Davin was nervous about the water so he didn't do as many slides as the other kids, but he seemed content to play in the wave pool and the kiddie area.  Ian and I took turns taking the kids on slides and staying with Beckett, so it was a good balance with that too.  We all had a really fun day.

By the time we left we were starving since we didn't bring any food (I really didn't think we would stay that long).  We decided to go to our favorite place in Provo, Burger Supreme.  It did not disappoint.  I was worried that going out to lunch would be a disaster with four kids who were tired from hours of sun and water, but they all did really well.  It was the nicest family meal we had had in awhile.  Plus they were starving so they ate all of the food!

I am so glad that we decided to go and that everyone had such a fun day.  We will definitely have to go again next summer when everyone is a little older and slightly more independent in the water.  I might even brave taking the kids by myself! :)