1st day of school! 1st day of school!

"Now, Billy Joe McGuffrey
Was a really clumsy kid.
On the first day of first grade
I'll tell you what he did.
He tripped over a pencil box,
Flew up in the air,
Landed on a kangaroo
Who pulled out all his hair.
He needed first aid in the first grade,
First aid in the first grade,
First aid in the first grade.
You could buy a zoo with all the doctor bills he paid."
-Veggie Tales

Here is my beautiful little girl already for her first day of first grade.

This is her cute friend Neva. She just moved in down the street from us and I am so happy that she did.

These are all of the kids at Gracie's bus stop (well all except one who showed up after this picture was taken).

Love you Gracie girl. I hope you have a fantastic first day of school!

You can't beat a dead bird...

I found a dead bird in my car today. Yes, it was quite literally in my car. On the dash board. I wasn't very excited. In fact I had to call for my sleep deprived husband to come and save me... it... whatever. Yesterday evening Sammy found a wounded/sick baby robin. It couldn't fly. It couldn't even stand. When I saw it laying on the ground I assumed it was dead and told my kids to stay away from it. Of course they didn't. And Sammy kept saying it was alive. David went to check it out and sure enough it was alive. He picked it up and we gave it some water. I think the kids even tried to feed it some bugs. Then David found a good place for it to be safe from the kids and left it alone. I have some guilt over that. I wish there was something more we could have done for the sweet little bird. Anyway, this morning as we were heading out the door to go to church Benson went out to get in the car a few minutes before we did. He loves to go out and get in the van and lock all of the doors. But this morning he remembered that poor sad bird and went out to find it. I don't know if the bird was still living when Benson found it, or if Benson helped it get to heaven just a little bit, but he put that poor sad bird on the dashboard of my car this morning. Ick! Sammy keeps asking me about the bird. He doesn't actually know that it died. "I hope the bird is okay mom," and a few minutes later, "Do you think the bird is okay? I can see it and I think it is okay." I told him that the bird was sick and couldn't fly. I told him it was Heavenly Father's bird and that Heavenly Father took it back to live with him. His responce was that the bird couldn't go to the temple because it couldn't fly because it had a broken leg. "And you know mom, the temple is the house of God." Because if the temple is the house of God and the bird went back to live with Heavenly Father then of course the bird would be living in the temple right? I just love Sammy's reasoning, and I love being a mom...

It's a good thing there is a doctor in the house!

Benson fell yesterday in the tub while he was holding a plastic cup. I thought a plastic cup was a safe toy to play with. Boy was I wrong! You can't really tell that he was sad about it from most of these pictures. He was smiling just a few minutes after it happened.

Dr. Daddy glued it shut. We were worried that we would have to take him to the ER for stitches but David had some medical glue and took care of it from home.

This is the only way we could make him happy during the glueing process. Even then he cried a LOT! But ipods are powerful things!

Then he wanted a Lightening McQueen bandaid. Bandaid's make everything better too.

Memorial Day Picnic

We went to a really fun ward picnic on Memorial Day. This is my favorite picture that we took all day. I love seeing my cute boys all smiling together and wearing matching shirts. :D

Here is Gracie and her cute friend Hunter.

The kids played water games.

They rode horses.

We rode in a covered wagon.

David was tired because he was working at the hospital all night, but he still got to get in on the fun.

Our friend from David's residency, Theresa, came with us. She is the girl in the green shirt.

We had a lot of fun and can't wait for next years picnic. :D

Rub a dub dub, two boys in the tub.

... actually it was the sink, but they still had a grand old time!

They sat a played in the sink while I made bread. They are so cute and funny, except Benson kept dumping water on Brigham's head which he really didn't like. Brigham has a rash in these pictures. He was sick with a high fever over the weekend and then yesterday afternoon got a rash so his skin looks pretty pink. But he is fine other than that. Just a little grumpy. Playing in the water seemed to make him feel better. I can see that this is something I will probably let him do more often while I am working in the kitchen.

Fuzzy little caterpillars!

While we in Utah last week we played outside a lot. It was nice to have such good weather. My parents have a great big cotton tree in their back yard and the cotton blows all over and looks like snow. This year it had more than just cotton in it though. There were thousands of caterpillars in my parents yard and they all came from these huge nests in the cotton tree. It was really kind of disgusting, but the kids thought it was awesome! They spent hours just playing with these bugs in the back yard, stepping on them, carrying them around, arranging them into families, I wouldn't be surprised if someone actually ate one, but I hope not.

Who is that mysterious felleh?

It's Sammy! We went to David's sister's wedding last week. They had rigged up a fun photo booth and the kids had a great time snitching the props from it and wearing them around the wedding. Sam was adorable in this hat and mask. It sure was fun!

So sleepy!

"Your like me... I could always sleep anywhere."

"And believe me... she has."

Name that movie. I found Benson asleep like this a while ago and never blogged about it. I am trying to go through some of my old pictures and get this old blog of mine updated. I thought this was so funny. He fell asleep leaning against a laundry basket. Love him!

An update on the munchkins...

Gracie is such a little teenager. She may only be 6 years old, but she sounds like she is turning 16. A few weeks ago she told me she didn't like my music and that she wanted to listen to rock and roll. She is loving kindergarten and is a great little reader. She love playing with her barbies, making "books," and doing anything creative really. She loves to tell jokes and the funny part about them is how unfunny they are. She and I are BFF's and we have to stick together because we live in a house full of boys! I sure do love my little girl!

Brigham Duke is 6 months old now. Has he really been a part of our family for half a year!?! He seems to be a pretty mellow fellow. I adore his smile and he always has one for his mom. He has started eating baby food and so far carrots are his favorite. He tried applesause today and gagged on and spit out every bite. His favorite time of day is in the evening when his siblings have gone to bed and he gets his parents full attention all to himself. That is when I get the most giggles out of him. He is a little charmer and flirts with anyone who makes eye contact with him at church. He is in the 94th percentile for weight and 95th for height and is the cutest little butterball ever!

Sammy is a little ham and I can't get a serious picture out of him for anything. We registered him for preschool this week. I know he is going to love it, but I will admit I felt sick while I was turning in the registration papers. He is still my baby. He is definitely a momma's boy and loves to snuggle and cuddle with me. He also loves to do silly things that make his baby brother laugh. He still introduces his baby brother to anyone who will listen as Baby-Brigham-Punkin-Duke-(insert last name here) as if it is all one name. He is my big helper most days while his sister is in school and loves to help me cook. He is four years old and is very tall and skinny. Thank goodness for adjustable waist pants because nothing else will stay up! He dresses himself and some of his outfits are pretty colorful. He came down the other night dressed for bed wearing a pair of 3-6 month pants that Brigham has grown out of and wore them to bed that night and the next night too. I laughed and laughed that he he could even get them on! But he insisted upon wearing them.

Benson is so funny and sweet. He acts like he wants to be as big as his brother and sister and sometimes I have to remind myself that he is only two. He LOVES Lightening McQueen and makes the greatest car sounds ever. He loves to eat and will eat almost anything I feed him (except vegetables). He is such a happy boy unless he is hungry in which case he turns into a huge monster! He loves to tease everyone especially his mom and his brothers... even Brigham doesn't escape the teasing which sometimes he tolerates and sometimes he doesn't. I couldn't believe it when I took Benson to the doctors office earlier this month and found out he is only in the 25% for height! This is so crazy because I am 5'10" and David is 6'3" and he is the first one of our kids not to be in the 90th percentile or above! He loves to sing songs and do the actions to them. He shares a room with his baby brother and loves to climb into Brighams's bed and fall asleep in it during nap time.

I love being a mom to these 4 kids. I frequently wonder how I got to be so lucky to be their mom!

Love on my mind...

I was helping Gracie with her Valentines for school yesterday night. She has been wanting to make her Valentines all week. She even started writing her own. We found some cute ones here and were writing the kids in her class names on them. She has been desperately in love with one specific little boy since school started. She tells me about how they are getting married and how he kissed her on the cheek at lunch one day. Brennen. His name is Brennen and she "can't get her heart off of him."

A few days ago Gracie came home from school and told me that her friend Amy loves Justin Bieber. She wanted to hear his songs on the computer. We looked him up and immediately she decided she wants to marry him. Fickle little thing isn't she.

So yeah, we were working on her Valentines and we got to Brennen's name. I had been telling her she couldn't give the "love" Valentine to any boys. I thought she would want to give Brennen that one. But she picked out the "friends 4 ever" one for him. I said, "I thought you were in love with Brennen?"
Gracie's response? "He just isn't on my mind anymore." She is in love with only Justin Bieber now. And I have to say, I would rather have her be in love with a pop star than a boy in her class that she wants to grow up and marry any day!

Did someone say cheese?

Brigham hasn't been feeling very good lately. David brought home a nasty sinus infection and Brigham got it. But I think yesterday he started feeling better. He seriously didn't stop smiling all afternoon, all the way until bed time. Oh yeah and I had to throw in the picture of him trying to suck on both fists at the same time. Haha love it!