Stickers

All my girls love to play with stickers and it shows by how they decorate everything with them! I really do mean everything. Their beds, dressers, walls, books, my coffee table, the floor, their playhouse outside, etc, etc, etc. I have decided that the battle is just not one worth fighting and since most of what they have decorated is not in plain sight and hand-me-downs anyway, I have let them loose. I think I might have to put my foot down at this next one though.....





Poor Gideon - I don't think he stands a chance in a house full of girls!

MARDI GRAS!!

We had an awesome Mardi Gras party here last night! We had thought about having a party a couple of years ago, but that was the month Sarah was born, so we didn't. Then last year I was sick, so this was the year! We had an awesome friend that found a website that would ship in crawfish straight from Louisiana, so we had a big crawfish boil right here in good old Canada! We had some great friends come and join us for this too! Our little house was a bit crowded for a bit, but it sure was a lot of fun! Keith made his awesome jambalaya and I made sweet potato pie and pralines too. It was such a fun evening that I think this will have to be the first of many to come!

I just stole this picture off of Tracey's blog - I didn't get one with my camera!

Frozen crawfish ready to boil

Into the pot with you!

Watching them boil

Matt demonstrated how to eat a crawfish

Pinch the tail, suck the head!

Chow time!

The aftermath!

Cute Amber!!

The boys played Catan afterwards.

Keith and Jamie just chillin'

Our kids were excited that there were some leftovers this morning!

Even Gideon got in on the action!!

Happy Mardi Gras!!

Gideon's first time swimming

It has been a really fun, but really busy couple of weeks. Last weekend we had a ward swimming party. I am always a little worried about how much work it is to go swimming with all my kids, but this was a lot of fun and everything went really well. Matt doesn't swim at all, so he spent the time in the small kids pool with Gideon and Sarah, while I took Grace, Anna and Rebecca into the bigger wave pool. Rebecca actually enjoyed the smaller pool because it was warmer, but she did play in the big one too. The ward put on a little dinner afterward in a big playroom that was upstairs in the rec center. It was a really fun evening and Gideon really loved the water! It was fun to see him experiencing that for the first time!

Fun FHE

We had such a fun Family Home Evening tonight I just had to write it down. Then there will be proof that we actually had a fun, informative and interactive FHE! We decided to learn about the word of wisdom tonight and talk about our bodies and how to take care of them.

Opening Song: Early to Bed and Early to Rise (pg 280 in the children's songbook)
Scriptures: D&C 88:124, D&C 89, and 1 Corinthians 3:16-17
Story: The Body Is Sacred - Pres. Gordon B. Hinckley, New Era, November 2006
Activity: Memory Game with food

Ok, so we started off and talked a bit about our bodies, what to eat, what not to eat, etc, etc. We actually ended with Pres. Hinckley's talk and that was great, but the really fun part was our activity. We played a memory game with the kids and put a whole bunch of different foods under a blanket. They got to look at them for one minute and then we covered them up again and they had to try and remember all the food items that were there. There was a banana, apple, carrot, celery, grapes, strawberry, pear, orange, chocolate pudding, popcorn, poptarts, granola bar, wafer sticks, popcorn salt, rice krispie square, and Matt put a pocket warmer in there too! Brendan and Grace were able to write down what they remembered and Matt and I wrote down what Anna and Becky remembered. Sarah just tried to eat all the food before we were finished and Gideon just sat there and tried to eat his hands and feet! The kids all had the pudding as the first item they remembered and then they started remembering all the better foods to eat. Then we let them eat all the good things for their bedtime snack. I actually think they might remember this lesson - I sure will.

We were also able to have a good talk with Brendan after the little girls had gone to bed about his eating habits. Brendan is a growing boy and I know how much growing boys can eat, but Brendan has OCD and doesn't know when to stop eating - especially in the middle of the night. We are trying a few different things such as setting out his "midnight snack" before he goes to bed so he knows what he is allowed to eat and hopefully go back to bed and stop wandering trying to find more food. We have also tried to communicate very clearly that his eating habits are getting a bit expensive for our budget. We have moved all the snacks for lunches out of the kitchen and into the store room which is by our bedroom, and I have stopped buying cereal. Hopefully we can get a handle on this and not have Brendan literally eating us out of house and home!

All in all it was a really fun night!

Sarah's Birthday

Tomorrow is Sarah's 2nd birthday! We celebrated yesterday with family and Sarah had a great time blowing out her candles, eating her cake, and opening her presents.

Sarah is such a fun little girl. She may be small but she packs a big punch. Some of her favorite things to do are:

*eat paper - any kind, size, shape, color, you name it - she eats it!

*climb - this tiny girl can climb up on anything!

*run - her balance is horrible and it is not uncommon to see her bouncing off the walls, but she just keeps on truckin'!

*find trouble - I don't know how she knows what will get her in the biggest trouble, but she is great at finding it!

*smile and laugh - Sarah has an infectious giggle

Sarah is starting to get better at being nice to other kids her age. She had a problem with grabbing and pushing, but is starting to grow out of that now. Sarah is starting to say a few words. My favourites are "C'mon Mommy!" and "Bye Daddy! Have a good day!" She gives the best and tightest hugs ever and loves to give kisses. Sarah absolutely adores her baby brother and is very concerned every time we walk out the door that he is coming with us too. Sarah definitely makes life interesting around our home, but we love her to bits and wouldn't know what to do without her! We love you Sarah!!!

Gideon at 4 1/2 months

Gideon is now 4 1/2 months old and we love him to bits!! He is such a sweet little baby and is very even tempered and easy going. Gideon used to love to sit in his car seat and look out the window, but now he is getting so that he likes to move around a bit more. I had him on the floor the other day and was just a bit concerned when I turned around and found Sarah standing on his chest......... he didn't make a peep and just smiled at her. Granted she is only 20lbs and it was only for about 2 seconds, but I don't let him down where she can get to him anymore!! Gideon is starting to try and roll over, but hasn't quite gotten it yet. He sure is trying though. Here are a few pictures for you!

Gideon loves to look up!

One of his favorite toys

Trying to roll over

All tuckered out!

Gideon loves having a bath too! Here's a little footage for you!

All for one and one for all!

It seems, more often than not, that when one child gets something, everybody else wants the same thing. I started out yesterday morning with Anna wanting braids in her hair for church. So I did that for her.

Then Becky decided that she wanted braids too!

So then I thought, I wonder if I can get Sarah to hold still long enough to braid her hair - and she did quite well! I was impressed. Not bad for a 2yr old!!

Grace really didn't want braids in her hair, but by that time it was me that convinced her that she needed them. She consented and we had four beautiful little girls at church yesterday. We were almost late.......... but we were there in all our braided glory!

I was surprised that I got it done as I am not a quick braider, and I definitely didn't have the time or the stamina to try to get a picture of them all together! I love having girls though - I hope that they will have good memories of their mom doing their hair and won't remember the frazzled mom quite so much!!