Pep Boy Turns 5!

Say what?! 5?! How in the world did this happen? As usual... its breaking my heart but I have to admit that I absolutely adore the little man he is turning in to. He is funny. Like super funny. He is a tease. He loves being outside and jumping on the tramp. He is a hard little worker and is almost always willing to do whatever you ask of him. He loves to ride his bike and is just about jumping out of his skin to go fishing now that its warming up. He is particular and unique in the way he does and says things. Its refreshing to see him stand outside the "norm" and be completely confident in it. I simply adore him, even on our hard days.
For his cake this year, he asked for a "Halo" (video game) cake. He wanted it round and chocolate with strawberries in the middle and "with blue".  There was no way in this world that I was going to be able to make this cake completely edible and so I did what I do best... I stuck an action figure on top.

He asked for a bike and a fishing pole for his birthday. He got both but his bike is a little big still so for the time being he is stuck using AnDee's old one. He's a champ though and isn't complaining.

To kick his birthday off Grandma Naugle got us all tickets to ride the Heber Creeper with our Naugle side of the family. Unfortunately Peps favorite cousin Wyatt got pink eye that day so their family couldn't come. But we enjoyed the company of Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Jake and Aunt Raquel and Uncle Stevie. Uncle Stevie is definitely the favorite Uncle on that side of the family so guess who Pep spent the entire evening with?

We hardly even got any pictures. Pep was not interested in hanging out with us because Stevie is much much cooler.

I think the highlight of his birthday was the fact that he got to go out to lunch with just mom and dad AND to a movie (Batman vs. Superman) with just dad. The poor kid hardly ever gets any one on one time and it was so so good for him to be the center of attention for once.
Man I love this little kid! He makes me a better person.

Last Day

Its the last day of March and guess what? Im writing my 3rd post of the month. So they were all written in the same week. Don't judge me.
I have a few pics from Andrews phone that needed to be added to this months blog posts. So here you go.

Ike's hair is officially long enough to pull back in to a pony. His grandparents LOVE it when his hair is in a ponytail and never make any comments about him needing a haircut. Ever. (that was extreme sarcasm if you didn't catch it.)

The girl and the dog hug a lot. Im not sure how I feel about it but they seem to enjoy it so..

This kid constantly loses one shoe. In fact, he lost one in the field yesterday and we still haven't found it. He just comes wandering in with a shoe missing on a regular basis.

The kids have gone crazy with archery lately. (yes, real life bows and arrows cause we are good parents) Im super impressed with both of them (Pep and Buggy). I had my Activity Days girls (8 and 9 years old) try to shoot with the same bows and not a single one of them could even draw them.

Sometimes when you spend the day shooting bows and chasing down your arrows you get real tired and fall asleep at 7 p.m. like this...

We hiked the G. For those of you that have done this hike you already know how awesome it is that ALL of my kids hiked every step of this journey. We never carried or helped any of them. For those of you that haven't done it, I assure you, you should be really impressed.

Before we went to St. George the boys got knew hats. They both love them. Its hard work to get Pep to take his off.

This a a pic of our kids watching E.T. on the way home from St. George. They are completely obsessed. Watching them watch the movie was way more entertaining than actually watching the movie itself

Ok.... this time Im really done. March is over and I accomplished my goals. See ya next month.

Thats a Wrap

Im going to go ahead and do my typical throw-all-my-pics-in-one-post to wrap up March before March is over and I have to worry about April.

Some days I love that AnDee has long wavy/curly hair. Some days I hate it. We have been trying to make the best of things lately and have been experimenting. Some times we succeed, and some times we fail. We don't document the failures...

This dude learned how to ride a bike in about 30 seconds. Seriously, his very first try and he was off.

We have spent some time up in the foothills exploring. These kids are awesome little hikers.

Pep got hit in the eye with a board while they were working on their fort. All in all he came out pretty lucky. No real damage and hardly even any bruising.

We got to spend some (more) time in St. George (yes, again. Don't judge us. We like it down there) This time we got to go with Aunt Amy and the boys!

I hired a sherpa... actually he worked for free. It only took us about 2 hours to travel approximately 1 mile. We did get to see some silk worms in action though as well as some Indian ruins, so I feel like it was successful.

We spent lots of time playing in the water. 68 degrees seems like water playing weather when you are coming out of winter... and Im a good mom so I just let them go for it.

We also spent a lot of time digging??? in the sand.

When we got back, the weather wasn't quite as nice at home as we would have liked but the cold wind made for some good kite flying!

All in all its been a good month. We have taken full advantage of being outside on the warm days and have made lots of beautiful pieces of art on the cold ones.

 Easter was a blast. I have approximately zero pictures of it but we got to do an Easter egg hunt with Gayle on Saturday (they came back with FOUR dozen boiled eggs. Yay??) and had Easter dinners with both sides of the family on Sunday so it was an awesome day full of cousins and candy! What more could you ask for?

Isaac Renzo... not a baby anymore?

Remember how I said I was going to blog twice a month? Remember how it is March 24th and this is my firs post this month? Pathetic, I know. I do have an excuse though. You see Andrew is starting a new job and this job requires that he has a computer... we only have one computer... I think you get the idea.
Any-who... there is lots to tell about this month but for now Im just going to start with the most important. Ike's birthday. In reality his birthday was in February so it wasn't "this month" but either way it needs to be talked about.
The little Isaac Renzo turned 3 last month.
Everyone thinks Im joking when I talk about crying and having a hard time when my kids have birthdays. Im not. Its completely sincere. I cry EVERY time one of my kids has a birthday. I do it in private so no one knows but its completely true. It terrifies me to think that they are getting independent and need me a little less every day. Birthdays are just a huge reminder of that.

This kid is so easy to please. All he asked for was a Sonic the Hedgehog cake. I was going to go all out with it, but then I remembered how hard that is. So all the kids helped me make a simple round cake and we stuck a Sonic toy (with only one leg.... its a loved toy) on top. The best part is that Ike couldn't have been more happy about it AND we got to eat cake batter for breakfast!

He didn't ask for any gifts or anything so we just took a shot in the dark and got him a HUGE box of Duplos and this neat kit that you can drill little colorful screws into a board and make designs with them. He seemed to enjoy both of them so I guess it was a win?

Nana and Papa got him a Minions Big wheel (which AnDee assembled.. mostly)  and Grandma and Grandpa got him a TON of "lego guys" (The lego figurines)

I can't even express what this little dude means to me and to everyone in this family. He is just happy. We always joke about how he is either the happiest kid ever or a complete terror (AKA: Larry) But when he is a terror it is almost always very short lived and generally well deserved. He is so patient and fun loving. However I am a little concerned because he is starting to get bullied by other kids because of his endless patience. Its a little surprising cause he is a really big and really solid kid. If he wanted to take someone out, it wouldn't be a problem for him. The other day I had him with me while I was playing volleyball. He was minding his own business (like he always does) and playing with a couple of toys. He was squatting at the top a small flight of stairs when a little girl walked straight up to him and shoved him (with both hands) down the stairs. He didn't even really cry. He very quietly came to me and told me what had happened and showed me the marks on his arms. I told him to push the little booger back. The best parenting technique??? Maybe not, but this story is not an unusual one for this kid. I think because he plays by himself so often, it makes him an easy target for other kids. I hope he can start standing up for himself.
Isaac loves anything his siblings love. He is the perfect little brother in that he goes along with whatever they say, exactly how they say. He especially loves Minions and "Lego guys"
Right now one of the things he says that cracks me up is "my" instead of "I" for example, yesterday this is what I overheard
Ike (to andrew) : "My didn't do it!"
Andrew: "Yes my did!" (maybe mocking him a little?)
Ike: "NO! ME didn't do it!"
He hasn't even figured out the word "I" yet... and Im in no hurry to introduce it to him.

He eats CONSTANTLY and it drives me crazy! But I guess it means he is healthy. He loves apple juice and bubble gum (which he got stuck in his hair this morning... badly)
He comes to my side of the bed almost every morning when he wakes up and hugs my head and says "love you mama"
He melts me... and he is totally spoiled but I can't help it.

Walks with Ike

Walks with Ike are the best. The sun was shining a few days ago. The big kids had gone to do something fun with their dad and Ikey was stuck with me. He had been sick so I didn't want him running around but It was too nice out to not be outside. I stuck him in the stroller and we went for a little walk. We spent most of our time picking up rocks off the side of the trail (me) and then throwing them in to any tiny bit of water we could find (Ike) It was nice to be out but what I cherished most about this walk with my youngest was the conversation.

Ike: "Mom, I see the sun."
Me: "You do? Me too!"
Ike: "Yeah... its right in my face!"
Me: "Yeah..."
Ike: "So.... could you move it?"

and a few minutes later he explained to me why his dad can't eat flour (I thought it was because he has a gluten allergy but I guess I was wrong.)

Ike: Walking down the sidewalk and jumping over all of the cracks
Me: "Don't step on a crack or you'll fall and break your back!"
Ike: "Yeah, like dad. He just step on a crack and break his back. Now he got a hurt and he can't eat flour anymore."

The logic is sound.

February

 So far this month we have visited St. George and enjoyed weather that was at least warm enough to play outside in with nothing more than jackets.

We fed a few ducks/swans

  We were lucky enough to visit the Prove City Center temple. The boys just saw a big fancy building that they couldn't run around in but AnDee was mesmerized and is super proud that she can now officially say the she has been inside a temple.

We also spent the day at the STEM Fest. It was SO DANG COOL.

 They got to freely build and create for hours.

 And they got to hang out with the Star Wars crew.

Buggy got her hair trimmed and we discovered that it is officially past her bum (when wet)

Beefcake and Bernie took a nap like this...

We had a few other adventures that weren't documented and we hope there is more to come this month. We are praying that the snow will melt. We are missing grass and sunshine and air that we can breath without getting lung cancer.

Also... Andrew passed his Securities Test so he can actually start making a little money!!! WOOT WOOT! This is a big deal... this test was huge and scary. So glad its finally over. And so proud of him!

To end todays post I would like to share my favorite conversation with my kids this week.
Me (after AnDee had a bit of a melt down over something very silly): "AnDee... maybe you need to start thinking about someone besides yourself."
Pep: "I think about my family!!!"
Ike: "I think about poop."
That pretty much sums up Ike right now. The kid kills me.