matches and scratches

Surprise!  The boys woke up early one morning to show me their matching clothes.  Recently, they've come up with two outfits.  It's cute that they love each other enough to voluntarily match at school.

Ruth had her first visit to the dentist.  No cavities!  No luck for me, however.  According to dentist, I've had two untreated cavities since jan 2013 (unknown to me).  Now those two little cavities are 4 cavities, affecting four teeth.  I am so mad!

 

We celebrated Pilot's birthday for FHE.  Lot's of tummy rubs and canned sardines.  He probably wondered what the sudden attention was all about.

World's worst sippy cup

Emmy doesn't seem to mind.

More October

I've been organizing our family videos (not the simple protect that I thought it would be), so it's made me more conscious of documenting the kids.  They grow up so fast!  It's sad to think that 4 year old David or 1 year old Ruth are only vague memories.

This is the perk of living in California:  bonfires at the beach.  I especially love having an earlier sunset at this time of year.

David worked for four months to buy this Lego set.  He earned the final $12 right before general conference, so this became his conference activity.  Of course, once one person is happy with Legos, everyone want to get involved... our family room was covered with Legos the whole weekend! Recognize this vehicle?  (Hint: Lego movie)

This is what happens when church gets out at 3:00 pm: a very tired and hungry baby.  Looks like sleep trumped appetite.

 

Big person, little person.  I'm not sure what's more impressive: Emmy's tiny legs, or David's humongous feet?

October update

October is clipping by at an amazing rate.  The kids seem to be happy and that is good.  David and I recently went to the Oso creek clean up project for cubscouts.  It's crazy to think of how much junk, left unnoticed, will find it's way to the ocean.  This is David with his friend, Ethan.  Ethan is very athletic and a jokester... quite opposite from David... yet, they are good friends.  

Jame is at that heavenly kindergarten age.  He is just so adorable and very happy.  He's been on an Emmy kick.  He piles his laundry basket with blankets and takes Emmy all around the house.  She sure loves him for it.

Ruth remains our "sweet little mudda" (a pet name for people that she loves).  Ruth has a talent for falling asleep wherever and whenever.  All the general conference goodies induced this nap on daddy.  Fortunately, she woke up much more cooperative and happy.

Emmy is going on 15 months.  She is crawling and cruising around, but still not confident about walking.  She is obsessed with babies and frequently repeats our words.  She has also developed a cute belly laugh...mostly in reaction to Ruth's antics.

I am afraid that I've overscheduled myself this fall... or perhaps I'm just wimpy.  Sometimes (usually Mondays)  I cry over the silliest things and then remember that it is probably due to fatigue. Joseph has also been busy with his calling as ward executive secretary.  We don't see him at all on Sundays  The bonus is that he's gone from knowing nothing to knowing everything and everyone.  He recently reminded me of the birthday of a gal that I visit teach!  

Emmy

In the midst of our busy school schedule, Emmy seems to be growing up.  She is now 14 months old.  She cruises around the furniture, drinks from a sippy cup, and is a nonstop motor mouth!  Her favorite words are baby (she LOVES baby dolls) and doggy, but she can also say lots of other things like neenee (blankey), nana (banana), shoe, eye, door, car, hot, daddy, etc.  The other day, she was quiet for a long period of time, so I finally went to check on her.  What a surprise when I found that she had climbed up onto this chair, and was relishing in her success.  

Since we are limited in bedroom space, Emmy is sharing the boys room.  So far, it has worked out quite well.  But for some reason, this past week she has been taking terribly short naps and waking up at night.... so, she is back to sleeping in the portable crib in the family room at night.

The nice thing about being the second girl is that you have access to oodles of girlish delights!  Ruth is so sweet to share all her loot with Emmy, and Emmy loves the girl time!  When the girls get dressed up, we love to dance to the Frozen soundtrack.  Emmy always bobs her head and then dramatically sweeps her arms behind her back.  Such a girl!

School Days

The kids are well into school.  I have to admit that the structure is refreshing after summertime.  The kids also seem to enjoy each other more at the end of the school day.  Fortunately, morning dropoff has been pretty smooth this year.  No more hiking in with 6 kids at my heels (carpool). I drop off all four boys at the curb and David walks James to his kindergarten classroom.  This is a picture of the school.  I was trying to describe the layout to my sisters.  Where we live, the classrooms are in about 8 small buildings which all exit to the outdoors where there are small courtyards with grass and trees.  It's nice that the kids can see so much sunlight during the day, but does seem like a security nightmare!

Happy kindergartener... Mrs. Ingraham is a second generation Kindergarten teacher.  She is tall with blond hair and always dresses in bright colors with modest cuts.  So far, I really like her.  

David's 3rd grade teacher, Mrs. Castiglia, is a bit more unknown to me.  David seems to like her, especially when she shoots wads of paper from across the room into the trash can.  He is in a mixed 3rd and 4th grade class, which should be interesting.  I was also in a mixed grade class in elementary, and I don't remember caring one way or the other.

Now we come to Ruth, who had been waiting for weeks while the boys went to school for preschool to begin. It is finally her turn and she is HAPPY!  I am happy too.  Ruth is the third child to enroll in this preschool.  It is run from the home of a woman in our stake who just does the most amazing job.   The other bonus is that we have a carpool!  Yeah!!!  Ruth is also taking dance lessons again.  I wasn't planning on it, but we just happened to find a class during the boys' piano lessons... and they are only a few minutes away from each other.  Seems like more than a coincidence to me.

Ruth with Mrs. Sims

James begins piano lessons!

James had been dreading this day for months, but we decided to go ahead and start.  I was glad to see this scene at pickup: a happy, interested boy.  (both James and David get to play on a Steinway every week...when can I sign up?)