Happy Birthday Hunter

Today our baby boy turned 5. We love this sweet little guy!

We had birthday songs and cinnamon rolls for breakfast,
and a trip to Rain Forest Cafe for dinner,
where Charity was shocked that they let gorillas in a restaurant,but Hunter was impressed with a giant volcano cake!

The middle of the day was filled with a trip to the Lego store and passing out treats to friends at PE class. A fun, yet simple, birthday celebration!

Happy Birthday Hunter, We love you!

A Blessing and a Birthday

We blessed Charity on Sunday at church. It was nice to have most of our family there. Ladd gave a beautiful blessing and Charity was an angel the whole time. She was awake and happily staring up at the lights during the entire blessing. She is such a sweet baby and words cannot describe how much love I have for her!

Charity looked so cute in her special blessing dress. Ladd's Aunt Virginia was visiting from Missouri this month and overheard a conversation I had with my sister in laws about borrowing a dress for Charity. The next time I saw her, she had handmade this beautiful dress for Charity. She said Charity deserved her own dress. This will certainly be something I save for Charity's daughter-it is beautiful! She is laying on the blessing blanket my mom knitted for her. All of my kids have their own blessing blanket. I am so glad people who love my kids are crafty and kind enough to do these labors of love that will be passed down!


I was so grateful that my sister drove down. She could only stay through sacrament meeting and then had to head back up to Pepperdine. Her MBA program keeps her busy, but we love to see Aunt Monica!

After church, our family came over for dinner. Since Hunter's birthday is this Thursday, I had to take advantage of this family gathering and make it a blessing/birthday dinner. We had cake and ice cream, and Hunter got some presents too! Fun and crazy times with all those cousins running around our house!

Hunter requested a Lego guy cake

and all he wanted for his birthday were "new Lego sets"! He was not disappointed!

Can't believe he is almost 5!

Our Happy Family

California Regions: An Hour from Everything!

Our second unit for the year has been learning about the four major geographical regions of California: Coast, Desert, Mountians, and Central Valley. I told the boys we call this unit "An Hour from Everything", because from where we live, we are pretty much an hour from all the geographical regions of our state.

I took the kids to the California Science Center, next to the Coliseum at USC, becuase they have an awesome exhibit about Ecosystems, that covered part of what we were studying. This is a great museum, and it's free! There are lots of hands on things to do and see. We had a really good day.

The boys loved this Air Force jet right outside the museum.
This little one really enjoyed her first field trip too!
As part of our mountain study, we learned how mountains are made, which leads to Earthquakes. The boys were very interested in this subject. They got to make a marshmallow/toothpick structure and see if it would stand during an Earthquake. Jell-o works very well as the Earth's crust. The boys had a good time trying out varying strengths of Earthquakes. I think their structures lasted until the 10.0 earthquake.
As you can see by the picture, Hunter also had a good time eating marshmallows!

Ladd took the boys, along with their cousins and uncle, on a hike in the mountains nearby. He also took Tanner to the beach while we were studying the coast. I am so glad I have a husband who loves to spend time with his boys and give them some of these hands on experiences. There are certain things I try to avoid with a little baby, like sunny beaches and bumpy mountain hikes.

The boys also started their PE class. This month is soccer. It is fun that Hunter is old enough to join in on some of the classes now!

Adjusting to 3

Everyone says adjusting to the third child is the hardest. There are now more kids than parents, more kids than you have hands, etc. Well, I say the third has definitely been the easiest. I was very prayerful about whether to continue homeschooling this year with a newborn, knowing that the last two times I had a newborn in the house I had a hard time adjusting. But, I felt strongly that homeschooling was still the right thing for our family. Charity has not altered our school day too much. Yes, it takes a little longer to accomplish things, and no, we don't just get up and go quite as easily, but for the most part life is pretty smooth around here. I am more tired than usual and my house isn't quite as clean as I would like it to be, but I kind of got used to that while I was pregnant. I also feel that each child is getting enough individual attention and that nobody is neglected. They do need to be patient at times, but that is a virtue that needs to be learned (and practiced, a lot) anyways! So, I feel very blessed to have three wonderful children who get to learn and grow together each day.

So , here is Charity at three months:
Charity is perfect, aside from the frequent spitting up. I cannot say how much I love this little one. She sleeps through the night most nights and is mostly happy during the day. She has an internal alarm clock that is set for every two hours. Every two hours during the day, on the dot, she wants to eat. I don't mind it as long as she keeps sleeping through the night! Cooing and smiling have become part of her regular routine. Today, she just started blowing raspberries which kept her entertained for quite awhile! She weighs 10 pounds and 10 ounces. We love our little muffin!

Go BYU!

Charity was so excited that BYU won their first game on Saturday, she had to wear her blue and white dress to church on Sunday to show her school pride! Go Cougars!

Quotes and Question

Here are a few kids quotes I wanted to remember:
"You are more precious than diamonds and sweeter than honey." -Tanner talking to Charity
"Is that the same baby or did you get a new one?" -6 year old nephew Braydon after not seeing Charity for a week
"Charity is cuter than Phoebe (my mom's dog), but Phoebe is more fun." -Hunter

And here is the question:
I was just asked to be the Cub Scouts den leader for the wolves. Anyone done this before? I would love any suggestions for fun activities, resources, and organization techniques for keeping all the boy's achievements organized. Thanks!