Arriving in Maryland

Wednesday morning, we packed up our stuff and headed to Maryland. The boys were so excited to go on a trip and to come and visit the Petersens.

They waited very impatiently at the airport.

 Wyatt didn't seem to have any idea what was going on, but was super excited to see airplanes and get to watch plenty of Toy Story with headphones.

 All of my boys in their row of the plane. Of course, the flight was completely full, so our just less than two year old infant had to spend the 4 hour flight on someone's lap. His super pregnant mother couldn't manage to balance him very long, so he spent most of the flight being held by his great dad.

Gavin and Henry immediately busted out their in-flight magazines and the passenger info safety card to browse while we waited to take off.

 We arrived to find Maggie very excited to see us, and especially ready to play with Henry, who spent the first while pretty much ignoring her. Soon they were coloring and having fun though. She doesn't like to leave his side much, except to run around and play with Wyatt.

Gavin decided that Will needs to become his new best friend, and Will seems to agree. He enjoys all of Gavin's attention and affection... so far. And I enjoy Gavin picking up some skills with a new baby, so he will be ready to help me out in a couple of months.

the Solar Eclipse

Yesterday evening, we headed to the lawns of the State Capital to try and get a glimpse of the solar eclipse. Caleb had made a pin-hole shadow box for us to be able to see the progress, and had read a few other tips for being about to view the eclipse.

We obviously didn't have the needed filters to photograph it, but thought this was a cool image anyway.

 

One of the best ways we found was using a pair of binoculars to project the image. It worked well and was easy for everyone to see the progress.

 

There were a lot of people at the Capital for the same reason we were and a nice older man was walking around where we were sitting with a pair of "eclipse glasses" that allowed you to look directly at the sun and see the eclipse. It was pretty impressive. The boys enjoyed the chance to have permission to stare straight at the sun, something they kept insisting it was fine to do. Those glasses might be something we need to invest in to use 5 or 10 years from now.It was pretty funny how impressed several people were with Caleb's pinhole, shadow box. One man was very amazed when he asked Caleb if he made it... keeping in mind it was a granola bar box with a hole cut in the side and masking tape on it... I would have thought he would be more surprised if we had said we purchased it somewhere.

The boys also had a great time using up all of their energy running around and rolling down hills on the Capital lawn. Here are a few funny shots of them.

Wyatt refused to pose with his brothers. He wanted his own "Cheese."

Mother's Day

I have such good kids. The boys are so kind and get really excited about the chance to do something nice. Gavin is really the ring-leader and he even called a meeting with Henry and Caleb to set the plan for Mother's Day. He then got up at 6:30 to come and wake Caleb for help in the kitchen. They made me a great breakfast.

Both of the boys made Mother's Day gifts at school.

Gavin painted this portrait of me (Henry says I must have a ponytail in this, since it looks like I don't have much hair... we all know that is not true of me.)

 Henry made these very nice hand-print tulips at preschool.

Even though we had to speak in church on Mother's Day, which was not a treat, we had a really great and relaxing day. I am so blessed to be the Mom of such a great bunch of boys. And blessed to have a husband who is a good cook and always doing things that make my life easier and more happy.

A warm day in the front yard

 Can you tell Henry was very excited about it being warm enough to play in the water?

Wyatt was also very excited. I think this was the first time that he tried to run through the sprinklers... yes, he was wearing his clothes. He didn't get quite as wet as it looks like he wanted to.

 They had a great time and are really looking forward to summer now that they got a taste of it.

Beautiful Flowers and Cute Boys

A few weeks ago, the boys are I happened to be down at Temple Square on a beautiful day. We stopped to take a few photos.

I seriously love these guys, and most of the time they seem to love each other too.

(Wyatt was off climbing on something he wasn't supposed to during this shot.)

Wyatt seems to add a little extra goofiness to the bunch.

Spring Soccer

We just finished up the boys Spring Soccer season. They had a really great time this year and they both improved by leap and bounds, especially over last year. Nice to see some coordination and skills developing, it reminded me that I need to keep them involved in things even when life gets crazy.

Henry was amazing this year. Since a year ago, he never wanted to leave the sidelines and seldom did, we were amazed to see him jump up ready to play. He even seemed to know where the ball was a lot of the time. It was very fun for him.

Here he is in action, proof that he was actually running the field.

Ready for a kick off.

He didn't spend a lot of time watching Gavin's games when he wasn't playing, though he was off making friends with other little brothers on the sideline, and just generally being silly.

 Gavin's team was pretty amazing. There were a lot of kids from his school on the team and even several from first grade that were in his kindergarten class. He had a great time playing and practicing with them. This team was like night and day from their first game to their last. They all really seemed to learn a lot and become a lot more competitive. 

 Harder to get an action shot, since they played on the large field and were seldom close enough (good excuse to buy a nice zoom lens). He had some serious hustle and became a great defender. He loves to play goalie and volunteered for part of every game. He had quite a few stopped goals and nothing ever ended up getting past him. He even ended up figuring out the art of the drop-kick. He did score one goal this year as well. Hopefully we can keep him excited enough to practice outside of the scheduled games now.

 Here is his team shot. It was a really good group and a couple of great parents were his volunteer coaches.

Two Front Teeth

Today Gavin lost both of his top front teeth. It didn't happen in the traditional way of spending days wiggling until they finally worked themselves out. Nope, we went to the dentist and he has his first ever dental procedure and they pulled both. Don't worry, no cavities. Here is how it went down.

When Gavin was about 4 we had noticed that one of his front teeth looked a bit off color. At his next dental cleaning I asked the dentist to take a look at it and he told me it was bruised. Probably from a fall in the months or year before, but nothing to worry about since it was a baby tooth and would eventually fall out. They watched it the last couple of years at his exams and still nothing to worry about, Until...

Last week Gav tripped running up the porch stairs and smacked his mouth on the top cement stairs. Plenty of crying, plenty of blood, fat lip, and suddenly the bruised tooth started to look a much darker color and like perhaps it was chipped. I waited a few days and made an appt. Turns out that the bruised tooth had been damaged in the fall and was starting an infection. So the dentist pulled it.

The tooth next to the damaged one was in good shape, but since the x-ray showed that its root was pretty much gone and both the big teeth are in good shape and ready to come in, they decided to pull both so that the new ones will come in straight and at the same time as they are apparently intended to do. Gav was such a brave trooper, he didn't complain or whine at all when they numbed him up. He barely flinch with the giant needle poking him in the mouth.

They gave him it cutest little wooden tooth shaped box to keep the teeth in so he has written a note to the Tooth Fairy asking to keep the teeth and the box and all are now safely under his pillow.

This is the photo he wanted me to take- His vampire look. :-) Too bad you can't really see the missing teeth in the photo, but it is cute anyway.

Happy Easter

We had a great Easter with plenty of chocolate and eggs and family time. Just the way we like it. We even cooked up a delicious dinner. It was a great day.

Spring break with some Cardons

We also had the fun of having Grandma and Papa Cardon come to Utah during spring break. Rachel and Tatum came too. It was our first time meeting Tatum, and she is sure cute. Unfortunately when we were around, I am not sure she got as much rest as she would have liked. Wyatt and Jaren kept trying to wake her up, or sometimes just running around being themselves and coming close to disturbing her sleep then too. Hopefully she will forgive us.

I was also very bad about remembering the camera when we got together, and only took it with me one night. Here are a few fun shots from our fun.

Jaren and Wyatt spent most of their time trying to get Papa to wrestle with them or just generally rough house and be crazy. He was a great participant for them and hopefully he didn't end up too beat up in the process.

Grandma and Rachel played plenty of games with the kids and of course set up the regular Grandma treasure hunts that the boys always look forward to.

Wyatt and Papa having some puppy chow after a crazy wrestling match.

There was also a super fun glow-in-the-dark Easter egg hunt one night and Papa and Grandma came to babysit at our house while Caleb and I were both working one night. I didn't get any great shots of either of these, because I was either at work, or hadn't remembered the camera. Apparently I need to get refocused on capturing out photo memories, but I am always grateful for the fun we have together and the memories the kids are making with their cousins and all of the extended family. It was fun spring break.

Spring Break with the Turleys

For the first weekend of spring break, the Turleys came up from Las Vegas to hang out with us. We had a lot of fun playing and hanging out. They even enjoy a nice spring snow storm on Sunday. Monday we headed out to Temple Square. It was actually quite freezing that day, even though it looked beautiful.

A group of smiley cousins. These four were good enough to pose for me. (This obviously wasn't everyone that came, but I wasn't the best about remembering the camera for most things.)

We spent most of our morning at the Church Art and History Museum. There was plenty to see and when Wyatt started to get too crazy for other people to enjoy themselves, we headed to the awesome Children's Exhibit.

Cheyenne, Morgan and Miran with an Angel Moroni statue that used to be at the Washington DC visitors center. (Miran wasn't actually unhappy to be there, she just tries her best to look that way when a camera comes out.)

Henry and Wyatt driving off their cargo.

Miran trying out the cultural dance scene in the childrens exhibit.

Looks like it would be rough for these 3 to get the handcart across the plains alone. Especially considering that these bags were only full of fluff and not actual cargo.

The little kids in the ship bunk beds, Miran has on her sad pioneer stuck on a boat face.

We had a really fun visit and hope that even though it was chilly, the Turleys now realize that they won't freeze to death when they come to visit us.

Spring Time

We have been having lots of spring time fun around here.

Gavin's grass-head man from school. I was pretty impressed with the detail of his face, and the awesome hair do certainly helps out. Things are starting to grow. Hooray.

We have been spending plenty of time outside, which is easily Wyatt's favorite place to be. Nothing like spreading out a blanket and having a crunchy apple.

This guy is just getting so big, it is crazy to watch.

And speaking of growing, my belly seems to be doing quite a bit of it too. Just a couple of shots of everyone looking good before church last week.

What a great looking bunch.