Did you say SIX??

Where have the days gone? It seems like just yesterday that we were hauling you home from the hospital. I say haul because you were a whopping 10 pounds when you were born! I guess some things haven’t changed-you are still our little giant. I’ll never forget the day we were accused of putting our “7 year old” on the 4 year old soccer team. I never understood why someone would “want” to put a 7 y.o. on a 4 y.o. team but either way the other team thought I was definitely doing something wrong with my “little giant”. I guess they missed the part where you were aimlessly running around like all the other 4 y.o. that day.

You are definitely a big teddy bear, as long as nobody makes you mad. Sometimes I wonder how many hugs and kisses can you give you before you will tire of it. I guess for now I will just be grateful that you love to give them.

I guess you are a typical younger brother. You want to be where the action is or in other words, you want to be with your big brother and sister. At times, this drives your big brother crazy but your sister just loves having you around. The two of you are either the best of friends or the worst of friends. I love to see the two of you play "library" together. You were so excited to "read" your first chapter book after "checking" it out from the "library". Oh the imagination of you and your sister!

Some days I wonder if you will make it to birthday #15. You are my daredevil. I hate it and you love it. It scares me to death when you come flying down the neighbors driveway on your bike but you think it’s the best thing on earth. It does not make sense to you that I would worry about a car hitting you or that just maybe, just maybe you might CRASH!! You continue to tell me you know what you are doing. I just don’t let you do anything now that you are SIX YEARS OLD!!

You make me laugh, cry, wonder where the time has gone. You make me re-focus my energy, you make me read. all. the. time. You make me happy, grateful and best of all you make me love you!! Like I’ve said before and I’ll say it again, you will always be my baby!!

Good Advice

I rec'd this text today from my older brother. Not only did I laugh my head off but I also found myself really thinking about what he wrote.

Little Heidi-san,
Remember, "Either karate yes, or karate no. If you go in middle, you get squished like grape". That is all.

Now is that not the best advice??? Granted I don't think he made it up himself, hence the quotation marks. Plus he is the movie quoter of all time but that is not the point here.

I find myself being way too much in the middle of everything I do. I need to either be yes or no!! A lot of times I stay in the middle so I don't have to hurt someones feelings or I don't want to commit. I would say that is my big downfall, I am a non-committer(I dont think that's a word but now it is). I will wait until the last possible second to commit to anything I do.

I don't like being committed. Is this terrible or what??? I struggle with making simple decisions in life because it might commit me to something.

So I will move forward today and remind myself daily, "you don't want to be squished like a grape!" That is all!

CRAZY!!

Did I mention it was crazy hair day? I didn't think so, see for yourself.

I think he's in LOVE!!

With who you ask??? WALMART!!

Today, Ted won 75 packs of gum from the new "local" Wal-mart. So if anyone out there is needing a stick of gum I just might be able to help you out, as long as you don't tell Ted I'm stealing his stash. He's keeping track you know-he counted them all tonight!!!

Celebrate!

I can't believe my oldest is 10 years old!! Alas, he is and so it's time to celebrate it. I never thought the day would come that he would be this old. I still remember when he was about 2 y.o., I told my Mom something to the effect of, these days will never end!! She laughed and told me to just wait, before I knew it they would be leaving the house!! Well, today we are over halfway there- AAAAAHHHH!

I have to say C is an amazing boy. One time when we were reading the scriptures and he was about 3 y.o. he said, "Mom, someday I hope I can be a prophet". Oh, the innocence of childhood.

He has always been my obedient one. If I ask him to do something he will get right on it. There have been a few times where he might complain a little but I would say that is rare. He is respectful. He loves to tease his younger sister. He is one to read his scriptures every.single.night.

He is also my video game nut. One time I told him I was going to let him choose what he did for an entire day. I figured he would play video games all day. He assured me he was not going to do this and he was "old" enough to manage his time wisely. So the day started and around 9:00a.m. he decided to start playing video games. He didn't stop until around 5:30 p.m.-he even missed lunch that day. It was torture for me, I am the anti-video game queen. When he finally did come up he sat down at the island and just started bawling!!! I was surprised because I thought the day would have been a dream come true for him. He felt so terrible for playing video games all day. He said he just didn't feel good about what he did. We agreed that moms are here for a reason-to help us manage our time.

This is his face after opening a video game. Is that happy or what??

I could go on and on about C but I wont. Here are just a few more things about him. He loves sports or anything outside. He loves swimming. He is very competitive, especially if it's his little sister. He loves to read. I hope this upcoming year is as good as the last!

Enjoying the cake.

Our cute neighbor joined us!!

St Patricks Day Fun

Today C had a couple of neighbor boys over to celebrate his bday. We made cupcakes, played some games and had some fun. What more could you ask for in a St Patricks Day???

Our "green" attire.

Our little cheeser

Here is the birthday spread before the cupcakes were frosted! I even

made jello jigglers, so tasty.

Attempting to blow out the candles!

Our little flower.

Saturday fun!

Back when I was a kid my parents would take me and my brothers to a bookstore in Salt Lake City called Sam Wellers Bookstore. My entire family is avid readers, except for me. I have grown to enjoy reading and actually read a lot now but back then I was not so hip on it. My mom would force me to read, which I am grateful for now but back then she was not on my good list!! Today, I thank her because I am a good reader all to her.

Anyway, my mom decided to take a trip downtown to re-visit the bookstore because it is having a big sale to reduce inventory. She asked me and the kids if we wanted to go. Of course we did, my kids are crazy readers!!! Sometimes I have to get mad at them because they try and bring their book reading to the dinner table and I can't stand it!! I suppose it is fitting that they all love to read because when they were little I would read to them at least 30 minutes a day. There were days I did not want to do this but I figured if it would help them enjoy reading more than me it was worth it. So now I reap my rewards, even if my rewards do make me angry some days!!!

We road trax down.

These next three pictures are to show the rooms and rows of books in this store. Just when you think there couldn't possibly be another row of books, there is!! And this was just in the basement, forget the two floors above us!! INSANE.

My three read books the entire time we were there. They did not want to leave when it was time. #2 child actually read an entire chapter book.