Bound to Happen, but so Soon!?

Our one and only "fun day" for Spring break was spent in Idaho Falls at Dentist and Orthodontist appointments. Fun huh. The three boys all had a cavity filled and Tallon found out that he needs braces... yes braces. He is 8 1/2. He has one tooth that I thought was just a little "off". Come to find out it is a lot "off" and needs to be moved so that his other permanent teeth will have room. So our journey of Orthodontics is off and running. Tallon is so excited to get braces. Poor kid has no idea what he is going to go through. one of the many self portraits i find on the camera. love them.

There May Be Some Talent Here

Check out the drawing that Orrin pulled out of his hat today

I hoped that one of our children would have a bit of artist in them. There may be some potential here.

Birthday Surprise

We all gathered early this morning at Courtny's. It is Sherri's :)st Birthday and boy was she in for a surprise. Courtny was the mastermind behind everything. Finding the gift and arranging for all of us to be there. The look of confusion on her face was she pulled up and said her hello's to everyone was great.

Then Dirt opened the garage door and she got even more confused. What in the world was she supposed to be looking at.

Tyler finally helped her "mom do you know what that is?... It's yours... Mom, it's a MG."

What is a MG you ask.

It's only her dream car from when she was in High School

Happy Birthday Grandma!

Dress Up

Surprisingly it is something that happens in a house of little boys. The twins have wore nothing for the past few weeks except old Halloween costumes. Orrin is always Spider-Man, always.

Vivin goes from Batman to Zorro to Superman. Today choice was Zorro, how cute he is.

This is a new thing for our home. Tallon always dressed up as a cowboy. He was adorable. But I admit, this Super Hero bit is a blast!

Van at 10 months

What an amazing month this has been for our little man. He has changed into a whole new baby. He is conquering all the things I posted for 9 1/2 months. Crawling faster, pulling himself up more, sleeping wonderful, and my favorite: playing with his brothers. He finds them. He arches his back and slides down my legs, listens, and off he goes.

He loves to tease and chase with them. To torment them and wreck the things they are playing with. I love that they are kind to him. They encourage him. They delight in his company.

He is content to just be in the same room with them. He simply adores them!

Poor babe is starting to get sick. What a way to celebrate. Hopefully he is on the mend.

The one thing that amazes me is how much less he is wanting his binki! It has been attached to him for 9 months and lately he bats it away or throws it on the floor. Yeah!!!

What a blessed 10 months

The Landing Place

We have the best neighborhood. No traffic, every home has 2-4 kids, everyone is caring. Everyone. We watch out for each other. We had only lived here for 3 months or so and one of the neighbors called. She was wondering if I had noticed a strange car drive up and down our street a few too many times. I laughed and told her that I had. I don't know what happened but the car didn't drive by again. We live on that safe of a street. Our children ride their bikes up and down the street and our neighbors watch for them. They have been carried home by more than one neighbor when a bike has broke or some one has been hurt. We are loved by the best people. They throw candy our their car windows and yell "Hello boys!", they hang little presents on our doorknob, they deliver balloons after they watched a sad little boy walk home and noticed his balloon was floating away, and they always watch out their window and wave as they go by.
With that said, I think we provide the entertainment. At any given time you will find children in my front yard. Some are mine some are not. My home has 4 little ones and next door there are 3 little boys, other than that we have only teenagers on the street. And even they find a spot at some time during the day in our yard. Someone will ask were they can find our house. I laugh and tell them to turn on 7th and they won't be able to miss us. A few mins. later they are on my door step just laughing, "your not hard to miss. I just looked for the house with all the toys". I love that the children seem to land at our house. In the winter you will find sleds and snowboards. Spring time brings with it more bikes than kids most days (i always wonder how that happens)and a mix of snow toys. In the Summer our yard looks like WW3 with all the bikes, pool toys, sandbox toys, swings, forts and little ones running everywhere. Fall is no different except for maybe the adults that have come to see if hunting was a success.
Today was just another day at our home. I looked out the front window and there they were. Every kid under the age of 9 was on our snow hill.

As the older kids came home from school they all yelled out to the kids or threw a friendly snowball.

Twice while I was watching people drove by and either gave a little honk or wave. Some even stopped to tease before going home.

Moms slowly started calling for dinner, they seemed to know right where to look. Our yard looked like... it had been played in. At dinner Tallon made the comment of how he liked how everyone comes to play after school.

Yes, our home is where "they" seem to land. You know what,...I wouldn't have it any other way.

Tallon's Turn

It hasn't been quite a year since we promised Tallon a new bed. When Van was soon to arrived we did a mass rearranging of our home. Tallon gave up his bedroom upstairs for Van and moved downstairs into a crowded room with a piano. His bed, the piano, and a closet left for very little floor space and no room to play. We found a loft bed that we liked, except for the price, and decided to go with something along those line for Tallon. Tyler and his dad made some plans off of the picture and Saturday they went to work. I didn't get any pics of the building, but you get the idea.

Sad, almost April and still that much snow. Orrin had to shovel out under the swing to even get it to work.

Tallon and his best friend Brixton showing off Tallon's new bed

It is awesome. I wish the pictures did it justice. Tyler and Granddad put a lot of love and work into for Tallon. It makes a world of difference in his room. We really wish we hadn't put it off so long. Tallon has been so patient. Better late than never!

In His Own Words

I think his pictures are my favorite part

Van's Smile

It is something everyone agrees on... it is adorable.

It starts with a sheepish grin, goes to a smile, then the mouth goes wide open, the eyes close and out pops the best laugh.
Truly a piece of heaven

Personality?

We were at Tallon's Blue and Gold tonight and the boys were being... themselves

our good friend Andy starts laughing

"Their full of personality, aren't they?"

Guess that's what you call it.

On the Move

Van's version of Crawling

It is way too cute.

9 1/2 Months

Van has changed sooo much in the past few weeks. It truly is amazing how babies can grow and develop at the rate they do!

Mister Van has
*Started his version of crawling
*Sleep through the night for 9 nights in a row!!!
*Said "Ma Ma Ma" for the first time today!
*Army crawls when his form of scooting doesn't work
*Found that he can get most anywhere in the house

*Found that his 'fake cry' will get him anything
*Discovered his brothers and the wonderful play mates they can be
*Become very curious about everything
*Started eating baby food and loves it!
*Learned to pull himself up on things and sit back down
*Started waving!! I love this one. He only uses his thumb and pointer finger. So stinkin' cute

What an awesome age 9 months is. They grow and learn so much so fast. We went to his 9 month appointment and his stats are 15lbs 3oz and 28 inches. What a perfect little monster he is!

Bunk Beds

Blessings from service!!! Tyler was helping a family move a few weeks back and for his time and service we inherited bunk beds!! Big Whoo Hoo for the twins. We went to Idaho Falls and bought new mattresses, now our little ones are no longer little.

Spy the little pics on the wall there, that's the twins 2 days old. Amazing how time flies. Tallon is a wee bit jealous, thankfully the twins have been kind and let him share in the excitement. They have bed swapped for the past few nights. It has been a lot of fun listening to the 3 of them doing something fun together. Maybe there is hope for brotherly friendship.

The boys love the top bed the best, which is kinda a no brainer. They sleep together, cute right?!

As we were finishing setting up the beds, Tyler comes in carrying this HUGE box. His smile told me something was up. He handed it to me and told me Happy Birthday. Inside were these beauties.

Our pots and pans were in really rough shape. He did a little shopping online and these came in the mail. I love them!! And to return some love, the first thing I cooked (and burned) in them was some oh so yummy fudge!!

Sometimes just a little bit of change, even if it is small, brings some big smiles!