Things to remember about right now

• Seth calls anything that could possibly be a sword, a "die". He's heard his brothers say die, apparently when they are playing with light sabers. Pens, spatulas, sticks, they are all called "die"
• Ruby takes all her naps in our bathroom in her carseat with the vent fan going because she loves white noise. She sleeps in our bed at night.
  
• Rachel loves her Nintendo DSi she got for Christmas and plays it almost every day.
• Aaron loves Ruby--and all babies, really. He always asks if he can be the one to go get Ruby as soon as she wakes up from a nap. He loves to talk to her and he asks to hold her on most days.
• Danny, Rachel and Aaron are all major pack rats and keep tons of stuff--books, trinkets, toys, pictures--on their beds at all times. I try to fight it, but they really don't have any other place to put all their treasures, so I let it go. In our next house, that practice will be over.
• The kids all want either bagels with cream cheese or toast for breakfast. They don't eat cereal much when I buy it, so I haven't bought it in months.
• Bob recently took over the duty of making the kids' lunches in the morning and I love it.
• Rachel is becoming quite an artist and loves to draw girls and horses. She's taught many kids in her class how to draw realistic horses.
• I can't convince Aaron to dress warm in winter. Several times every week, I have to tell him to wear long sleeves or shoes instead of sandals or put on a jacket. And every time he says, "Why?! I'm not cold".
• Danny is really responsible about getting himself ready and taking his own showers. I never have to remind him of anything in the mornings. He's more concerned with how he looks and gels his hair every morning, but then doesn't want it that way when he gets home so he wets it and smoothes it down.
• Aaron's hands are so dry his knuckles are always cracked and bleeding. But he never complains about it. The only time he complains is when I make him sit still long enough for me to rub lotion on his hands.
• Because Ruby spits up so much, (it is much better now than it was a month ago, though) I try to keep her vertical as much as I can. So, when I put her to sleep she lets me hug her until she falls asleep on my shoulder instead of holding her like a baby until she falls asleep like I did with the other kids. I love it.
• Rachel's big trends for this school year: headbands and skirts with leggings. She also loves her tall black boots.
• Rachel loves her tennis lessons on Saturday mornings
• Danny is a big leader in our house. He loves to plan projects or activities and get the rest of us organized to complete his plan.
• Seth loves letters and learned all of them on his own. He points them out when we go anywhere on signs or in books.
  
• The boys plug in their mp3 players to the speakers every night and all three of them dance until bedtime.
  

Seth turned 2!

Seth had a birthday this week.  It's sad and happy for us that our sweet, beautiful boy isn't really a baby anymore.  (Although he actually lost that title a few months ago when Ruby was born.) He is such a fun boy.  He has his own personality and even though he's surrounded by three older siblings telling him what to do, Seth is his own boy. He only does things in his way and when he's ready.  He's quick to smile and he's so loving.  He has always loved books. He loves to find a book and "read" it to himself or bring it to us to read.  He loves fruit snacks and squeeze yogurts and could live on those if he had to.

This year Seth found a show on PBS called "Super Why".  That show started his obsession with letters.  He has learned the whole alphabet, his favorite toys are sets of foam letters and magnet letters on our fridge.  He loves the book "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom". And he loves it when we sing the alphabet to him. Our favorite letter for him to say is W because he says is "bub-a-you" and Rachel always points out that she's the one who taught him that letter.

Seth has light blue eyes and long, dark lashes, and perfect eyebrows. We get comments on what a beautiful boy he is.  His curly hair has relaxed and now it's just a little wavy. And I love that he still has a slight dimple in is left cheek when he smiles.

He's a good big brother.  He's always concerned when Ruby cries and is the first to try to go get her. And then he pats her gently on the stomach and says, "niiiiice". Danny, Rachel and Aaron love to play with him too.  They all compete to see who can get the most hugs from him.

Freedom & Yuck

Some funny things said in our house this past week. Fortunately my memory worked well enough to remember to post them.

Yuck!

Jean took some of the kids out on a date to get them McDonald's Happy Meals. They're featuring Avatar toys currently. The kids got a little action figure of the character Jake Sully. It's the male version of this:

Seth was examining his new toy and ended up turning it around to see its backside.  He noticed the long protrusion (tail) and exclaimed the following:  "Awwwww, poop!  It's yuck!" 

We continue to work on Seth's anatomy lessons.  He's got a heavy load this semester (English 101, Civics, Anatomy, PE, etc), but he might pass if he studies a little harder. 

It's Freedom!

Aaron and Rachel were playing an afternoon game of baseball on the Wii.  It's kind of an accepted rule that you don't throw an 'AB pitch' (splitter) because they're too difficult/impossible to hit.  Rachel was the recipient of several splitters that were being thrown by Aaron before lodging a complaint:

Rachel:  Aaron, it's not fair.  You're not supposed to throw AB pitches!
Aaron:  It's freedom.  Rachel it's called freedom!

Awesome.  Aaron's equivalent of "it's a free country and I can do what I want."  It was hilarious.  He stated it as a matter of fact, as though everybody knew that his actions were justified by freedom. 

That's my excuse for why I haven't posted much on here the past couple of months.  It's called freedom!

Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas. The two weeks were great with the kids home. We went to the park one day and to the library one day. It was rainy all week, so one day the kids played in the puddles in the backyard. I made two kinds of fudge to give away this year and we all delivered it one night; the kids had a lot of fun taking treats to their friends and teachers.

Grandma Zonda and Gpa Cliff and Kristal and Dustin got here on Christmas Eve. All but Kristal, Ruby, Seth and I went up to Mt. Charleston to go sledding. They had a great time. That night we acted out the nativity. Danny was our narrator with Grandpa's help. And Seth was a shepherd with a lightsaber. Then the kids opened the presents they got for each other.

Christmas morning we got up at 6:50 am. Rachel got her Nintendo DSI that she wanted and Aaron and Danny got an ATV powerwheels. Seth got a blow-up trampoline for in the house. And I got our family to be sickness-free for the whole week before Christmas, which I had really wanted! It was a really nice Christmas.
I asked each of the kids their favorite gift and tradition:
Danny: ATV and sleeping under the Christmas tree as a family
Rachel: Nintendo DSI and getting chocolates and seeing the lights at the Chocolate factory
Aaron: ATV and Driving through the Christmas lights display at the speedway
Seth: a bubble blower and letter magnets for the fridge. He really loved seeing the christmas lights at night when we drove anywhere.
Ruby: I think her favorite part of Christmas was sleeping on Grandma all day long.
We went to Ryan and Venessa's new house in California for New Year's. We had fun being with everyone. The boys went paintballing, we went to the park, the girls went shopping. We watched movies and football and just hung out at Ryan's new big house. We had a good time.

Shaky Seth

Seth has some energy.  He's working on harnessing it:

Thanksgiving and Ruby's blessing

This year Grandma Zonda, Grandpa Cliff, Kristal, Casey and Kami came for Thanksgiving. We had a great meal and went to see the movie "Megamind" on Thanksgiving and we had a nice time being together. Saturday night we went to see the Cactus garden at the Chocolate Factory. Our kids look forward to that every year.

Then Sunday, Ruby was blessed at church. It was a wonderful blessing and nice to have family there with us. Ruby looked beautiful.

A Dream Come True!

Some nice ladies from church brought us dinner tonight - BBQ Chicken.  Little did they know that Rachel lives for drumsticks.  She repeated "This is a dream come true!" at least two or three times.  I had to take a picture to document her giddiness:

Seeing that picture got me thinking about some things.  One thought was that in about 15 years time some lucky man will look over the table at a KFC somewhere, stare into Rachel's blue eyes and say "This is a dream come true!" 

Let's say 25 years instead - I'm in no rush for that dream to come true. . . .