The Legg Family

Lady Halle Antebellum

2012-01-05T21:05:00.001-05:00

Halle loves to sing. She also loves to listen to the radio in the car. A few months ago I caught her singing along to the Lady Antebellum song "Just a Kiss." I was surprised at how she knew all the words. I finally caught it on video. :) The quality isn't that great, but hopefully you can see well enough.

Gingerbread Train

2011-12-24T14:10:00.000-05:00

Here's a snapshot of our annual gingerbread train. It's hard to believe it's been a tradition for five years now. It's especially fun now that the kids are getting older and can have fun decorating. Though the person who had the most fun this year, I think, was big Russell. :-)

2011-12-22T13:15:00.000-05:00

Update

2011-12-12T20:42:00.000-05:00

Wow, it has been a while. I'm not sure if anyone still checks this! Nevertheless, it's still nice to record a few things that have been going on around here.

One of the biggest things is we'll be adding to our family, sometime in the middle of May. That makes me almost half way (Yea!) and also means we'll be finding out what we are having next week. (Double Yea!!) This go around has been the hardest on me by far, and I'm just beginning to feel "normal" again. Meaning I'm feeling like I can cook and do laundry and exercise and function... I've been pleasantly surprised about the lack of hurtful comments I've received so far, as many people think we are crazy. But I think maybe that's because most people don't know yet. Anyway, we're excited, the kids are excited, and it will be a very busy May-July 2012 for us. Which brings me to our next big thing...

Russell is out on the interview trail for the next (and final step...HOORAY!) in his education, residency. So far he's had a couple in Ohio, one in Michigan, one in Utah, one in Pennsylvania, and one in Arizona. Today he is in West Virginia, and coming up he has another in Michgan, a couple here in Columbus, another in Pennsylvania, and the last one is in Alabama. Phew! We feel so blessed that he has been invited to these interviews. We will find out in March where we "match." And will begin the first week in July (I think...). The boys are quick to tell us when they find out where dad is off to next whether they want to live there or not. :) So baby followed by move will be Cuh-Razy!

That's about all the big stuff that's going on right now, but that's enough for me! Here's a recent pic of the kids holding some tree ornaments I made. I got the idea to do the silhouette ornaments off of a blog I follow, and I was so pleased with how easy, cheap and fast they were! It will definitely be fun in years to come to look back on their cute profiles. :)

Going Private

2011-06-07T10:53:00.000-04:00

We are going to try going private.

If you want to keep reading the blog, comment on this post with your email address or send me an email to rj_legg@netzero.net for an invite. Hopefully it's not too big of a pain!

Thanks!!

One mega mish-mash, hodge-podge

2011-05-29T20:50:00.002-04:00

I am so, so, SO behind. So in an attempt to be caught up, I am doing one gigantic post. So let's see if we can wade through these...

PINEWOOD DERBY!!

Russell had his very first pinewood derby in scouts last month. He loved making the car with dad and was so excited to race it. He decided to model his car after Speed Racer's mach 5. He was extra excited to come away with a first place prize. I think next year we'll have a little less of daddy making the car and a little more of Russell making the car...

EASTER!

A big, gigantic thank you so much to Grammi for being our easter bunny this year. The kids were so spoiled and loved every minute of it! It's sad they can't know who everything really came from since they're all still believers around here!!

I think I'm probably asking the kids for no splashing of the egg dye...

This year we hit the jackpot with the easter egg hunt we went to. We'll be regulars there for sure! Before the hunt they had a helicopter come and drop the eggs on the field. It was cool to watch! And there were 40,000 eggs, so there was no mad rush to get eggs... plenty for everyone. Extra even!

A CASUALTY

Last month we had our first broken bone. Although I am shocked that it has taken this long, really. There is no exciting story behind it...only wrestling in the front room, which is a regular occurrence!

OUR RACE!

This year for my half-marathon my sis came to run it with me! It was so fun to do something so rewarding with her. And as always, we LOVE having Aunt Ginny come. We seriously love her visits.

Here's part of our fan club. (Little Russell was at his soccer game, and big Russell was the photographer.)

The night after the race, we got to Skype with Abigail. Here's Gin and I sporting our twin shirts and talking with Ab. (P.S. to the rest of my fam out there, I would love to skype with any of you, too!)

I thought I'd give Gin and myself an incentive to race for. So we had a delicious dinner of lasagna, asparagus, and rolls and this death by chocolate cake. I had this fantastic idea to have a moist chocolate cake with chocolate truffle and whole Lindt white chocolate truffle filling, frosted with chocolate frosting and ganache, and coated with mini chocolate chips. It turned out to be a little on the rich side (haha). Who knew I could actually make something TOO rich, even for me? It was still good and worth running for!!

I love how the kids know and love their Auntie. I wish they could know all of Russell's and my family. Hopefully that time will be coming!!

UTAH VISIT!

Thanks to my sweet sister who flew me out to Utah, I was so lucky to be able to go to six of my beautiful nieces' dance recital. I could not have imagined up a more perfect visit. I loved every minute of it!

Miss Emeline

Miss Addison

Miss Anamalia

Miss Elenoa Lose

Miss Lesieli

Miss Evaloni

Cousins and sisters: Emeline, Addison, and Anamalia

The paparazzi

I LOVED spending time with my mom and sisters. (We missed you Connie and Cassie!!)

The dance moms and kids (plus sweet Tori and Mr. Covelli). I couldn't get enough of baby Covelli. He is seriously too much! And if I'm ever around Tori, Candy and James, you better watch out. Because all she has to do is look at me, and I want to give her anything she wants!!

My favorite hobby is baking/cooking. And I had such fun making cookie bouquets for each of the dancers.

KEYAN'S BIRTHDAY!

I cannot do a Keyan birthday post without posting this picture. I will always be grateful to these paramedics for making it to the house so quickly and helping Keyan to be born safely!

Keyan chose Chuck E. Cheese for his birthday outing.

Keyan asked for binoculars (??? no idea where that came from) for his birthday. Thank you, Grammi!!

He also asked for a spiderman cake.

He is keeping close watch over his brand new Millenium Falcon while blowing out his candles. :-)

A COUPLE RANDOMS

A cake I made for a dinner at a friend's house.

Sweet Halle-girl

Halle-girl

2011-02-20T22:25:00.001-05:00

We were so lucky to be able to celebrate two wonderful years with Halle-girl last week. She is such a sweet, funny, stubborn, tough, knows-what-she-wants kinda girl. We love her so, so much. The day we celebrated her birthday was the first of a long, long week of sick days for her. (Thus the jammies and fro hair in the birthday pictures.) :-) She is just starting to feel better, but it has been rough for all involved!

{Halle: 1 day old}

{Birthday girl on her last birthday}

{We gave her a cute little purple and sparkly stuffed horse. The very first thing she did after opening it was to run over to the toy box to find a transformer to ride on the horse...}

{We also gave her pink sparkly princess shoes. After not being successful in putting them on her new horse, she figured she could at least get them on her dad's feet!}

{At each child's birthday, I love creating a cake for them. I have fun planning it and then actually preparing it. For Halle's I spent a lot of time and enjoyed my time (I won't say how long, but it was pretty long!) making her pink and zebra print cake. (Yes, I realize that it's not actually for her but for me as she wouldn't care what it looks like!) I was happy with the final product, covered it with the lid, and put it on the table behind me so I could clean the counter. Not two minutes later, I turned around to see it on the floor. Halle had tried to pick it up, and it had fallen upside down. These pictures do not show adequately how smooshed and damaged it really was. It was pretty awful! Someday I hope I look back and think it's funny! I'm still waiting... :-)}

{Here's the sweet, rascal girl with her birthday cake. She didn't care that it was smashed up and was still excited to blow out her candles. It did taste good, though!! It was chocolate cake with caramel filling and white chocolate buttercream frosting. YUM!}

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, sweet baby! We love you, girl!!

January 2011

2011-02-07T16:18:00.004-05:00

This is pretty much going to be the longest post in history, so you better go grab a snack before you read...

Are you back? Okay, here we go. January brought us Russell's 8th birthday. Eight? I can't believe he's 8!! Eight is a very special birthday for us, because in our church that is the year you can get baptized. We are so proud of Russell for deciding that he wanted to be baptized!! It was a big decision. Before I get to that part, though, first we celebrated his birthday. This year I was able to convince him to go to Chuck E. Cheese instead of having a friend party. It wasn't that hard to get him to come around, but it was so much nicer to not have to plan a party and have all the kiddos running around our house!! He was allowed to pick one friend to come with our family. He chose his good friend, Joshua Forsgren, who lives a couple blocks away from us and also goes to the same church. All of the kids were so thrilled to go to that magic place. I, on the other hand, have somehow managed to avoid going there my whole 30 years. :-) We went on a Saturday afternoon, his exact birthday. It was CRAZY busy, but the kids all managed to enjoy themselves. Halle was able to fall asleep (sitting on dad's shoulders) in spite of the craziness that is Chuck E. Cheese. Somehow, we did not get pictures of the birthday boy while we were there. Maybe it had something to do with him running around to all of the games... I'm not sure. We did get a couple of pics of the the three others...

{Keyan was in love with this bus and managed to spend most of his tokens on it.}

{Halle and Trey}

{I let the kids pick how they'd like their birthday cake decorated. Lately Russell has been thinking that Boise State is all that. I'm not sure why or where it came from, but sure enough he requested a Boise State cake. So here's how it turned out. I used royal icing to make the footballs and the Boise State logo.}

{Grandpa, Grandma, and Uncle Tim came out to attend Russell's baptism and to hang out for a few days. It was such a FANTASTIC visit. We were not ready for them to leave! Tim entertained the boys every day with his Wii skills. We also hung out, ate good food, had a Costco trip, went out to eat at Bonefish Grill (with an anonymously gifted gift card from Christmas, and it was TO DIE FOR, plus the company could not be beat...is this the longest parentheses ever?), watched little Russell's basketball game, went to the baptism, went to church, and had a grand, grand time together. Keyan's favorite thing to request of Grandpa or Grandma was that they play light sabers with him, and they were so nice to indulge him every time he asked. :-) P.S. I know you are all so jealous of my mad photography skills. No seriously, don't judge!!}

{The day before the baptism was dedicated to preparing treats for everyone who attended the baptism. Anyone who knows me knows that it wasn't a day slaving, but a day of relaxing and was quite enjoyable. It was actually one of my favorite parts of the visit, because while I was baking, dad sat at the kitchen table on his laptop keeping me company. And anyone who knows dad knows that he can keep himself busy on his laptop for many hours since he is the king of ebay and bargain shopping! I so enjoyed that time with him. It was so nice for me! For one of the treats, I enlisted all the Wii players and spectators to take a break and unwrap several bags of Hershey kisses and hugs for me. Dad caught this little one "helping" and when I say helping, I really mean unwrapping and stuffing them in her mouth as fast as she could...}

{Apparently these two are similar in their needs to get through boring basketball games! P.S. Thanks, dad, for being our photographer!!}

{The Russells before the baptism}

{Grandpa captured this pic of the Russells right after they came out of the water.}

{Mom was so helpful in making everything look perfect!}

{Grandpa said this was the best picture he could get of Halle since she wouldn't stand still long enough!}

{After the baptism, we gave Russell a couple of presents. This one is actually a leftover birthday present from Grammi. It is a turtle that shines stars and the moon on the ceiling at night. It is very cool, and everyone wanted a turn with it!}

{Russell and I gave little Russell his very own scriptures and scripture case to celebrate his baptism.}

{Contrary to what you may think, this little girl did not stick her finger in a light socket. This is just the product of having her hair pulled back in ponytails all day. :-)}

{And finally just a few random January pictures... Here's Keyan proud of his treasures after seeing the dentist.}

{Halle has a certain way all her babies have to be at naptime or bedtime. Here she is putting them in place so she can go to sleep.}

{And all the fam, minus me, sporting their ties Grammi made them for Christmas.}

December 2010

2011-01-10T09:39:00.001-05:00

Early in December we were lucky to have a visit from Aunt Gin. We love her! It was so much fun. We ate good food, looked at Christmas lights, watched movies, made treats, and lots of other stuff. One of the nights she was here, Keyan had soccer. It is a 1/2 hour per week class at our YMCA. It was his very first time doing a sport, and he thought it was fantastic and was excited every week to go to his "soccer games." Gin took a few pics for us.

{The class was for ages 3-5, and he was one of the youngest ones there. When they were playing an actual game, he was happily oblivious and content to just run around and chase the group (who was chasing the ball). He was so happy, though, and had a constant smile and giggle.

{See what I mean? Happy!}

{Killing time while we wait for the class to finish. She's always happy to say "CHEESE!" and pose for a picture.}

{We went for yummy Graeter's ice cream afterwards.}

{They were not fooled by this Santa...Tennis shoes?? But they were quick to explain that away. :-) }

{Months and months ago Russell found a picture of exactly what he wanted in a magazine. He folded it up and kept it in a very safe place until he could present it to Santa.}

{I LOVE Christmas jammies!! For Christmas eve, the kids got to open up their Christmas jammies. We had our big Christmas dinner, read The Grinch and The Nutcracker, sang Christmas songs, and dad told the Christmas story using the Little People nativity set. We tracked Santa all day online, and the kids were so ready for him to come. One of my very favorite things is preparing everything on Christmas eve after the kids fall asleep!}

{We had such a magical and special Christmas this year. One that we will never forget. So many people reached out to us, and we were amazed with others' generosity. We hope to be able to pay it forward in years to come. Here are the kids with their Santa gifts: Halle and her stroller and baby. P.S. Try to ignore the date and time stamp RIGHT over her face.}

{Keyan and his remote control Thomas}

{Trey and his telescope}

{Russell and his castle}

{This picture illustrates our Christmas break pretty well. Russell had the same two weeks off as the kids, so most days we stayed at home in our jammies. We had fires, movies, video games, light saber and nerf gun wars, naps, etc. It was fantastic. :-) }

Wordless Wednesday

2011-01-05T18:39:00.000-05:00

(Maybe just a few words: What we've been finding randomly around the house since the dart guns arrived at Christmas...)

A little Christmas

2010-12-22T08:00:00.001-05:00

{I'm sure the man we bought the tree from was very appreciative of Russell and Trey's help...}

ANNUAL GINGERBREAD TRAIN DECORATING PARTY

{Halle was a great train decorating helper. As you can see she took her job very seriously.}

{Keyan and I decorated the engine together. He showed me where he wanted to put something, I applied the "glue," and he stuck stuff on. It used to be really hard for me to let the kids put random things on here and there and not have it decorated perfectly. I'm sure this comes as a HUGE surprise to those who know me. HAHAHAHA! But I've come a long way, and this year it was fun to let Keyan (and the other boys who aren't pictured) do it all on their own. And I ignored the little voice in my head that protested when Keyan wanted to put things in weird places on the train... I did give very gentle suggestions once in a while... I actually think the engine turned out pretty cute. :-) The boys really got into it, and we had a great time. P.S. Somehow we missed pictures of dad, Russell, and Trey during the whole process.}

{Keyan felt it necessary to analyze his work through his magnifying glass every few minutes. :-)}

A few pictures...

2010-12-19T22:16:00.000-05:00

{Russell took these three on a tour of a local chocolate making factory. (Note chocolate lips on the pink one.) Our church's temple was nearby, so they stopped to see it. Little Russell was at school when they went, which is why he isn't in this picture.}

{Halle is our little parrot. Around here she mimics what everyone else says. Gin was here last week and said that she always knew what Halle was saying because of whatever someone else had just said. She apparently mimics their actions as well. We were having a movie night, and they were all ready to relax.}

{Sibling love. P.S. Notice Trey's silly bands go halfway up his arm. He wears SO many. After many kids have moved on from them already, including Russell, he is still going strong and always is wearing a TON of them.}

{This picture is very typical Russell. He loves taking any object that has many identical pieces and making them have a war or making them have a game of football. He has been known to use these clothespins, the game pieces for our Sorry game, goldfish or cheez-its he is having for a snack, his mini football players, the game pieces of our Star Wars Risk game, etc. His current ones are the pieces to our Bingo game. It is his own thing, and we love it!}

2010-12-16T12:22:00.000-05:00

So I came home after a routine day to see these Christmas cookies spread out on the table and counter. My first thought was, I know what she did! She went to some fancy store and bought these cookies, then to impress her husband, she laid them out on wax paper, dirtied up dome decorating supplies and laid them strategically close by. As far as I could tell, that could be the only explanation for such perfectly wonderful Christmas cookies. Satisfied with my detective skills I walked out of the kitchen, then the next thought hit me, why would Jackie try (or want to) impress me when we've been together for over 10 years and she's never once done that?. Forced to acknowledge that this realization was perhaps more likely, I fancied another look, and simply thought, man does my wife have talent! Although I was a bit disappointed that the Christmas cookies were not about impressing me but were actually to give as a gift to the kids' teachers, I felt a sense of pride for my wife's capability to make our home a happy place through baking. I enjoyed seeing how impressed the kids were as well and I know that they will grow up to be old men and reminisce about their mom's cooking. I will likely be on the other side by then, which brings me to my next thought. . . . Will Jackie by able to cook for me in Heaven? Hmmm. Maybe I better cash in on the talents of this wonderful woman I married. They say the way to a man's heart is through his stomach - I wont argue :).

Nine years today...

2010-11-24T12:33:00.002-05:00

We've come a long way. I love that our anniversary falls on or around Thanksgiving, because I am so, so thankful for him. (Apparently the scanner has some dust and smudges... Oops!)

Halle-girl

2010-11-13T15:07:00.000-05:00

More about Halle Grace:

*Halle is a talker. She learned how to talk much earlier than any of the boys and keeps us laughing with how cute she is with all her words and sentences. She is constantly surprising us with things she says.

*Halle has learned to hold her own. I'm not sure if it's her birth order or who she is, maybe a combination, but she is a very strong willed little girl. I'm sure that will end up being a positive thing for her.

*Halle loves to sit down with a book. She loves flipping through, looking at pictures, and reading out loud to herself.

*Halle has been the chubbiest baby of all four kiddos. She has always had the cutest belly. She also has very chubby baby feet. I find it difficult to fit her feet in the correct size of shoe because of the chubby factor.

*Speaking of shoes, Halle loves shoes and always wants to be wearing some. It makes no difference what they are; slippers, boots, sneakers, flip flops, etc.

*Halle's favorites are goldfish and milk. Milk will solve anything and make anything better for that little girl. Every single time she has a cup of milk, she always holds it the same way; one hand holding it up on the bottom of the cup, the other hand playing with her hair.

*Halle is very tough. She is able to get right back into the mix of things after getting hurt. She loves wrestling with dad just as much as the boys. She is fearless and will try anything.

*Halle loves babies, real ones and play ones. When she is in nursery at church or at the child watch at the YMCA she'll always go for the baby doll. (Hmmm, I think we need to let Santa in on this one...) She also is fascinated with real babies and wants to be near them and help them any way she can when we are babysitting.

*Halle has crazy, big, beautiful hair. (Big if I let it to it's own devices...) It is crazy curly and is actually quite long. It just curls so tightly that it sticks to her head. Here are a bunch of pics to illustrate:

{Post-bath}

{Relatively tame bed-head}

*Halle is a HUGE daddy's girl. She can always be found where he is (when he's home), unless there's a baby around. :-)

*Halle and Keyan have a serious love/hate relationship. They love being together most of the time. However, they irritate each other to no end a lot of the time. I can't explain it, but hopefully they will continue to want to be with each other.

*Halle has us all wrapped around her finger. We LOVE having her in our family!!

Election day dinner 2010

2010-11-09T19:44:00.000-05:00

The Sunday before election day we all put in our nominations for election day dinner. Each of the kids and mom and dad put in a nomination for main dish, fruit, vegetable, drink and dessert. Monday we all filled out our ballots, and Tuesday night we enjoyed the winners of the vote for dinner. The winners were pizza, strawberries, carrots, apple cider and Dibs ice cream bites. Yum!

P.S. Pardon Trey's outfit. He likes to wear a tshirt of mom's or dad's for pajamas. Although, I'm not sure who's shirt that is since neither Russell or I have a neck that large... Also, we had taken several pictures previous to this one. In each one, Trey's eyes were closed. I told him to try to keep his eyes open, which explains the bright eyes.

Jack-o-lanterns

2010-11-07T15:30:00.000-05:00

Props to Sam's Club for having ginormous pumpkins for very cheap. We had a fun time carving our pumpkins into jack-o-lanterns on Saturday. The kids were all into it, with the exception of Keyan. You can see from his face that he was not having anything to do with sticking his hand inside that pumpkin...or being around it for that matter. He chose to be far away from them and play outside instead, up until we lit the candles and sang the jack-o-lantern song. Then he loved them and asked to sing the song over again the whole weekend. :-)

{Please pardon Halle's new age hairstyle. Her post-nap hair is usually pretty hopeless. :-)}

{Trey designing his jack-o-lantern's face}

{With the candles lit and the lights off, we were ready to sing the jack-o-lantern song my mom always sang when I was growing up. Where did that song come from, mom? The boys love it.}

{Trey's design on the left, Russell's on the right. This picture is a pretty accurate representation, since I feel like I've been picking up halloween candy wrappers all weekend. Never fear, the boys left their candy out on the porch last night for the "candy witch" to take and leave some surprises in it's place. Russell figured out that the "witch" is mom and dad and got to help trade the candy. Trey, on the other hand, swore he saw the witch flying in the sky as he watched out the window before bed. No more candy wrappers to pick up. :-)}

Halloween 2010

2010-11-04T15:27:00.000-04:00

Halloween was so much fun this year. Russell declared months ago that he wanted to be Harry Potter. As is normal around here, the younger boys thought what Russell was doing sounded pretty cool, so they were Harry Potter also. Halle has pretty crazy hair and if left on it's own becomes pretty poofey and frizzy and Annie-esque. So we thought she'd make a pretty good Annie. She let me put in the two little braids in the back like Annie's. It looks pretty tame in this picture, but you'll see in future pics just how crazy it gets if I don't put some curl cream or gel in it.

{We do have three wands around here someplace. But of course, when it came time to actually use them, we could only locate two. So Russell was such a good big brother and let the two younger boys use the wands for their costume.}

{Halle had no reservations about getting right in there. She loved it.}

{AAAHHH, HAIR!! Just kidding. Halle made it for about 45 minutes then did not argue when I covered her up in the stroller. It was very cold and windy. The boys made it another 30 minutes or so.}

After we got home there was about 45 minutes left of trick or treating in our neighborhood. The kids loved waiting at the door for trick or treaters to come by the house.

For Halloween I love doing a "gross" dinner to celebrate. This year we had (starting at the top left and going clockwise) hot dog spiders (hot dogs with spaghetti threaded through), smiling jack bbq chicken sandwiches, rotting goblin mouths (apple slices with peanut butter and mini marshmallows), apple cider, goblin snot with scabs and pumpkin roots (green tinted cream cheese/marshmallow fluff mixture with m&ms and candy corn), witches fingers to dip in the goblin snot (apples), crescent roll spiders, and roasted sweet pumpkin seeds. It was a hit!

Busy, Busy

2010-11-02T15:49:00.000-04:00

A couple of weeks ago, I took a trip on my own to Utah and Idaho. The kids were with dad the entire time, with the exception of the very last day I was gone. He is so fun and kept them busy, busy doing fun things while I was gone. I'd like to say that it was because they were trying to stay busy so they wouldn't miss me so much, but I know that it is actually because that's the kind of dad he is. :-) While I was gone, it was so fun to receive pictures and text updates as they were doing so many fun things. The kids were definitely in good hands!!

{Feeding the ducks}

{Building an extension for our swing set for Halle's baby swing. I mentioned to Russell that Halle's dirty, muddy slippers in this pic were an indication that the kids were home with dad. I was just teasing as I know that they are so well taken care of when they are with him, that playing outside in slippers doesn't matter. :-)}

{Playing on the ropes course dad created}

{Snacks on the tramp}

{Multiple playtimes at the park}

{Swimming at the YMCA. These pics are of the shower following the swimming. I'm not sure Keyan understand the "Peek out of the shower curtain for a picture" instruction since he streaked out across the locker room, instead. I had to cut off the bottom of this picture to make it blog-appropriate! :-)}

{Playing and reading at the library}

{Going to church. I was so impressed that he even attempted doing Halle's hair. :-)}

{Toy Story 3 at the movie theatre}

{Picking ice cream at Kroger}

Marty McFly wisdom

2010-10-28T08:37:00.000-04:00

Sometimes little Russell has a small issue with being silly and making poor choices when he's with his friends at church or school. A few Sundays ago, his teacher at church noticed that he was being exceptionally well behaved and calm. She brought this to his attention and asked what he was doing differently. He responded with "If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything." Any Back to the Future fans out there will recognize this as a direct quote from Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox's character). Russell is a new fan of the movie, apparently, which he watched for the first time recently. :-)

Camping

2010-10-12T15:21:00.000-04:00

Not too long ago the boys went on a Fathers/Sons campout with other members of our church. They LOVE camping. It involves exploring, getting REALLY dirty, staying up late, and of course having treats. I love when they have campouts, too! It means a quiet night at home for me. :-) While they were gone, I gave Halle a pedicure, and we went to a baby shower together. She pooped out on the way home from the shower, so I spent the evening watching movies and eating chocolate. It's a win-win!!

{Exploring}

{Tent building}

{Glow stick hats}

{Watching a move in the tent. This is the boys' good friend, Joshua.}

{Pretty toesies}

Come Support Naki's Girls

2010-10-05T11:24:00.000-04:00

If you are going to be anywhere around American Fork, UT next weekend, come to this benefit concert for Naki's Girls. See you there!!

Lately...

2010-10-03T11:01:00.002-04:00

{Ignore the red people in the picture below...}

{Trey's turn going to a game was all about the popcorn.}

First day of school - 2010-11 School Year

2010-09-26T14:29:00.001-04:00

This year we've got a 2nd grader and a kindergartner. They were so excited to start school again. They love being in the same building and right down the hall from each other.

This year I got an idea from another blog (Shade clothing's blog) that I wanted to start with the kids. Basically the idea is when the kids have something they have to do that makes them nervous or afraid, they get a few "confidence pills" (Mike & Ike's, in our case) to help them be brave and confident. They realize that the pills are candy and aren't real, but I think it does help them feel better. I think they also like that we acknowledge their nerves and fears. We've used them for Russell and Trey's first meetings with their teachers, their first day of school, and also for when they stand up in front of people to give a talk at church.

Here's Trey showing his confidence pill:

Here's a short interview of Trey while we were waiting for the bus. It is sideways, because I always forget that you can't turn our camera sideways while filming video. Hopefully you don't all get a crick in your neck! You can blame me. :-) (If you are reading this on facebook and want to see the video, go to leggfam.blogspot.com to see it.)

Library Time

2010-09-20T17:17:00.004-04:00

In the evenings Russell goes to our local library to get some extra studying done. He takes one of the boys with him each night. They love watching movies on the portable DVD player, reading books, or playing games on Russell's iPhone. Keyan recently was introduced into the rotation. He TREASURES his library nights, and he is so good there, that he gets to keep going.

If there is one available, they go into a small group study room. Here Keyan is playing with his Tie Fighter and some tiny action figures. A while back Russell and I were in a thrift store and found the Star Wars version of the RISK game. The boys have taken all of the mini pieces and play star wars and war with them. There are little vehicles, droids, etc.

Here's a little video of Keyan at the library with dad. He's very good at his quiet, library voice. (The video is tall and thin, I think because it was taken on Russell's phone.)

2010-07-20T07:47:00.000-04:00

Happy Birthday Jackie!

We were so happy to be with mom on her birthday. Like so many of you moms she has dedicated her life to God and her family. She is a loyal, devout and very supporting spouse as well as a nurturing, guiding and fun mom! She recognizes the importance of taking care of herself and keeps that a priority. If this sounds like a description of the perfect wife and mother, then we’re sending the proper message. At least that’s how we feel about her. Her performance in her various roles was rewarded today by a lot of love from her kids that was so natural to give back. The boys were so excited yesterday when mom left for her Relief Society meeting so we could get started on making her surprise cake.

As many readers may know, Jackie lets us each pick what kind of cake we want – then she makes it happen. Well we thought it only appropriate to return the favor. Since it was all the boys making the cake, it didn’t have the same luster as the rest of the birthday cakes around here. When choosing what kind of cake to make, we decided on a “box of chocolates” theme – something mommy loves.

Okay, okay, so it’s not the best cake ever – if looks are what counts. However, if it’s the thought that counts then this cake is to die for. It was so sweet seeing Russ and Trey take such an active role. “Mom’s going to love this!” “This will make mom happy for sure!” And it did!

The gifts mom got this year are actually a nice little snapshot of what some of Jackie’s current interests are. . . . .

She continues to develop her talent for cooking and baking. It’s always something new and gourmet for dinner. It was probably a good move having 3 boys, we’re going to need 3 ovens in the future.

Jackie still reads about 1 book per week.

Lately one of Jackie and my favorite things to do is play tennis. We trade babysitting with some friends so we get to play every week.

Here some additional pics of the boys and mom. You can get a little feeling for how cherished she is.

We are blessed to have Jackie in our lives and to benefit from being in the home she makes for us. I often reflect on my own stroke of luck for having met her and to now have her as a companion. She is truly my best friend and gives 110% in all of her roles. She is a calming and quiet influence for good for her family. Her consistency and love is like an anchor for our family.

I’ll end with some of the answers the kids gave when I asked them questions about their mom.

Keyan:

What is your mom really good at? “making dinner”

What do you and your mom do together? “make eggs”

What is your mom's favorite food? “cake”

Trey:

What makes mom happy? “When we clean the house”

How does your mom make you laugh? “When she tickles me.”

What is your mom really good at? “Baking dinner”

How do you know your mom loves you? Cause she’s bakes me a cake on my birthday

Russell:

What is something mom always says to you? “Honey”

If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for? “Cooking”

What is your mom really good at? “Bravery for the marathons”

What makes you proud of your mom? “I really like the cooking”

Dad:

How does she make you laugh? “When she tries to copy my phrases.”

What is mom really good at? “listening, cooking, baking, raising kids”

What makes you proud of mom? “Intelligent, keeps herself cute”

Happy Birthday Mom! We’re so lucky to have you!

Operation Front Teeth: COMPLETE

2010-07-15T21:35:00.001-04:00

Keyan has knocked his two front teeth one too many times. (Two times to be exact...) About a month ago was the second time, and he hit them pretty hard. They turned a pretty dark shade, and one of them was very loose. We thought it was going to fall out on it's own before the dentist had a chance to take it out. (It didn't, miraculously.) After he smacked them the second time last month (the first time was a year and a half ago), they were hurting him and bothering him quite a bit. I told him that we were going to see the dentist so that the dentist could make his teeth better. After going in for the first appointment, we were told that he had to have them pulled and he would need to be sedated for that. The reasoning behind that is because the front gums are a very difficult spot to numb, even for adults, so sedation helps quite a bit with that. The sedation also affects what can be remembered from the procedure. The office we go to (which I LOVE) did not have any sedation appointments available for a month out, so we had to hang tight for a little while with some hurt little teeth. For the next couple weeks, I had to cut up all of Keyan's food so he could stick it into the back of his mouth to use his back teeth. Quite often he would remind me, "But Moooomm! We didn't fix my teef!" It may be a coincidence, but around the time he fell and hit his teeth, he became quite the ornery little guy. It was so noticeable, because it was so different from his usual temperament. I don't really know, but I assume that his teeth were just a constant bother to him. Poor guy! Well, Monday was THE day, and it couldn't have come soon enough!

{Pre-procedure: No clue what he's doing!}

{He won a prize by finishing his "juice" (AKA versed) before I finished my "juice" (AKA koolaid).}

{Hanging out waiting for the meds to kick in. He got to watch Cars.}

{Getting all buckled in. He was so compliant. As soon as he laid down, he kept his mouth wide open, even though they were just getting him strapped in. He had no problem being in a straight jacket. :-) }

{They kept a monitor on his toe.}

{Snug as a bug. Mouth still open.}

{The procedure was SO short. He was in that chair for less than ten minutes. The only difficult part was when they gave him shots in his gums to get him numb. After that, he was perfect. I'm sure it didn't hurt that he was watching Cars on the TV hanging from the ceiling. Here he's still pretty loopy.}

{Finally ready to go home. We had to stay until he was able to stand on his own. When we left, he still really couldn't but thought he could, so I had to stay close by for a few hours afterwards.}

{Don't worry, I really did do her hair, but post-nap there is no hope...}

Trey's #5

2010-06-20T22:11:00.003-04:00

Wow, Trey is 5! For our Family Home Evening the week of his birthday we watched the video of when he was born. His face was priceless as he watched himself as a little, tiny baby. He couldn't stop smiling and would have watched all night if we had let him. It was so much fun to remember those days. It was also so fun to see and remember Russell as a 2 1/2 year old. As we were watching, Keyan was totally convinced that the Russell on the screen was him. No amount of reassurance that it was in fact Russell would convince him. It was too cute.

Trey is just plain adorable, and we LOVE having him in our family. Sometimes it scares me how much he is like me! But it is really fun to see him in situations that would have been intimidating for me at that age, as they are for him, and to see him overcome his fears and challenges. We have been so proud of him as he has come out of his shell. Recently he's had many opportunities, from school, to church, to sports, to do things on his own that he was scared to do. He has been so brave and done things that were frightening and hard for him, and he has seen and learned that he can do it! He's gained such self-confidence, and we love seeing him be so proud of himself. He adds something VERY special to our family, and we are so lucky to have him.

This year for a few months before his birthday, he gained a fascination for Superman. I don't know where it came from as we have never had anything Superman or watched the movie, but I suspect it came from someone at school. So, of course, when I asked him what kind of cake and party he wanted this year, it was Superman. I'm not sure who or what he thought Superman was, but about a week before his birthday we checked the old Superman movie with Christopher Reeve out of the library, and it only fueled the fire. :-)

P.S. On a side note, it seems like we have been receiving an extraordinary amount of rain this year. Typically having an outside water party for Trey's June birthday doesn't present a problem. But of course this year, there was an 80% chance of thunderstorms the whole day with many of them predicted as being "severe." We REALLY didn't want to bring all of the kids into the house, so I prayed a lot that the weather would cooperate with our party plans. :-) It ended up raining not at all that day, and actually being sunny for the two hours we were all outside. So, everyone in Columbus, you can thank me for the beautiful day we had. :-)

{His crown fitting}

{The best part of the day: PRESENTS! Please excuse the St. Patrick's Day socks. We give the kids themed socks at many of the holidays, and they LOVE them.}

{I scored big time on his Superman presents this year, thanks to eBay. I found a Superman learning laptop for $10, a Superman puzzle for $4, and a Superman costume for $7. Here he is opening up the costume.}

{He had to ditch his clothes immediately in exchange for his new costume. P.S. Please excuse the displaced mirror in the background. It belongs on top of a dresser that we had just purchased from some friends and hadn't put in it's place yet.}

{The very first thing he wanted to do was fly like Superman, of course. He goes around singing the Superman theme song. Too cute. :-) }

{I have recently been practicing my cookie making and am always looking for an excuse to try something new. So I experimented with these cookies and gave them to the kids as party favors to take home. The downside? I practically turned into a smurf while making them from the blue frosting that liked to stain anything it touched. I'm sure the parents of the kids who took them home with them loved me so much as their kids turned into smurfs as well after eating them...}

{We bbq-ed hotdogs and had other munchies for the kiddos to eat while at the birthday/water party. Here's Keyan and Austin, one of the guests, staying clear of all the water as they hid out in the fort part of the swingset. You can't quite tell in this picture, but Keyan's two front teeth have turned an even darker shade after he smacked them again a couple of weeks ago. One of them is pretty loose, too, so after an examination, the pediatric dentist determined that it would be best to take them out. I guess he'll be wishing for his two front teeth for quite a few Christmases to come since he only just turned three.}

{Halle LOVED the party and blended right in with everyone else. She spent her time enjoying the Cheetos and any dirt/mud that she could find.}

{Make a wish!!}

{The party crew}

Teacher Appreciation

2010-06-12T21:32:00.001-04:00

This year for Russell and Trey's teachers' end of the year appreciation gifts, I got the cutest idea from Bridget at Bake at 350. I love her website, and I have learned so much about baking, cookie decorating, etc. from her.

Anyway, I made these cookies with white royal icing and let the kids decorate them with food markers. We all thought it was so fun to color on the cookies. You can use these food markers on any food, not just cookies. They are so fun! And we had the best teachers ever this year, so I thought they deserved to get something yummy and fun.

{An empty canvas}

{Some of our artwork}

{Ready to gift}

Funny story: I sent Russell to school last Monday with his bucket of cookies to give to his teacher. When I picked him up from school, his backpack looked kind of full.

I asked him, "Russell, what's in your backpack?"

He said, "Oh, I brought that can home."

Me: "What can, Russell?"

Russell: "Oh, you know, the one with the cookies in it."

M: "Russell, why did you take the bucket back from Mrs. Schlaegel?"

R: "Oh, I didn't give it to her. I just took the cookies out and gave them to her."

M: "What? Russell! Why did you think I put the cookies in that bucket? What did you think it was for?"

R: "Well, I just thought it was for me to carry the cookies in."

M: "Well, what did you do with all that paper filler?"

R: "Oh, well, I just threw that away."

BOYS!!! Now I've learned that I cannot take it for granted that he will know that the decorative container that I send a gift in is to be given with whatever is inside the container. I guess I'll need to let him know that from now on...

Family pics 2010

2010-05-18T15:33:00.000-04:00

My mom's aunt made a baby dress for her to wear around her first birthday for a portrait. It was made out of fabric from a world war II parachute. Since then, my mom had portraits of my seven sisters and me taken around our first birthday in the parachute dress. Now that my sisters and I are having daughters, the granddaughters have their portrait taken in the parachute dress also. Halle turned one in February, so it was her turn to wear the dress and my first time with the dress. We called our friend to take her pictures and thought it would be a good time to do pictures of the rest of us as well.

{This is the parachute dress.}

{In this picture, dad and all of the boys were way up in a little tree house type thing. She really wanted to find a way up to where they were.}

Happy 3rd!

2010-05-16T21:32:00.002-04:00

Keyan turned three today. I think three is a really fun age, because this is the first year, at least for Keyan, he actually understands the fun of a birthday. The fun of looking forward to it, the fun of the decorations, presents, picking his cake, etc. He has been looking forward to his birthday, and we tried to help him feel extra special today.

Keyan is an extra-special little guy. He has inherited his dad's natural ability to see the world and everything around him in a good, positive way. It is a rare moment when Keyan is not smiling. I've often wondered to myself if his cheeks ever get tired. It doesn't really matter what he's doing, he's happy. (The woman at the front desk at the YMCA has nicknamed him "Smiley". I also get comments at the grocery store, etc, like "Wow, he is REALLY happy!) That tends to rub off on those around him after a while, and so it is VERY fun to have Keyan around. He is such a caring brother, and is always watching out for little Halle. He always tries to help her when she is distressed about something. And he loves tagging along with the two older boys in whatever they are doing.

Thank heavens for Keyan. We love him so much!!

P.S. - Please don't comment about my poor quality pictures! I know I need to take a photography class or get a better camera or something. They stink! Oh well!

{About an hour after Keyan was born: 5/16/07 10:30 pm}

{Keyan's (or I guess maybe my) favorite guys. If it wasn't for them, I would have delivered Keyan myself.}

{Keyan's 1 year pics in Grandpa's cute outfit}

{Keyan's first birthday}

{Keyan's second birthday}

{Keyan today. This gift was picked out by little Russell. It's a dollar store water shooter thingy. It was a favorite.}

{There is something about this kid and candy. We knew what he would really love for presents. CANDY! I told him to show me his present for the picture, and this is what I got.}

{More candy. Don't worry, we hid it all away when he wasn't looking. He'll get a little of it, though. It reminded me of the year Aunt Abby and Uncle Naki gave little Russell a giant box of Cheez-its for his birthday because they knew of his love and addiction for Cheez-its!}

{It came as no surprise to me when I asked Keyan what he wanted on his cake this year that his answer was, of course, candy. I was thinking Lightning McQueen, Bolt, Star Wars, but no, it was candy.}

{Sorry, really bad picture, but cute smile!}

Poor, sweet Halle-girl

2010-05-09T20:10:00.002-04:00

Last Thursday I was sitting on the couch folding laundry while the kiddos were all playing around me and in the bedrooms. Keyan and Halle were back by the boys' bedroom. I heard a door slam, heard Halle crying, and ran over as fast as I could. Her poor middle finger on her left hand was shut in the hinge-side of the bedroom door. Keyan opened the door back up freeing her finger, and I grabbed sweet Halle, who was hysterical. At first I was just trying to cuddle and comfort her and calm her down. After about a minute, I noticed there was blood all over my front, so I quickly wrapped her teeny hand in a rag. I had the boys call Russell and tell him to rush home because from the small looks Halle would allow me to get, I could tell this was definitely an ER visit. The front tip of her little finger right about at the bottom of her fingernail was torn off about half way. It looked so sad! Russell ran her over to the Children's urgent care, where they took good care of her, including blowing bubbles and such to keep her occupied. Russell said the only hard part was when she screamed at him because he had to hold her down while they fixed up her finger. :-( She ended up having her fingernail taken off, 10 stitches put in that tiny finger, and then the fingernail reattached to act as a shield for the injured finger. She is so tough and has been such a trooper!!!

{Here she is after returning from the ER.}

{Showing us her hurt little paw}

{Watching as dad rebandages}

{On a sidenote: This was earlier in the day as we shopped for groceries. She was so stinkin' tired, that she fell asleep in the cart.}

{I told Trey that he could let her lay on his shoulder, so he put his arm around her to help her be more comfortable. It actually made things worse for her, but she didn't seem to mind.}

{On another sidenote: It seems to be tradition for whoever the current baby is to assist dad in the lawnmowing and, of course, getting to wear the ginormous ear muff thingys. This picture does not do justice to her baby cheeks that were squeezed out from between those ginormous ear muff thingys.}

You did it MOM!

2010-05-02T15:32:00.001-04:00

A few months ago I came home for the day to hear Jackie say that she was toying with the idea of doing a half marathon. While Jackie has been really active these past few years, I told her I was surprised to hear this! She mentioned that she was just as surprised, but thought it might be a good way to challenge herself. It wasn't long after that she was registered for Capital City Half Marathon, which took place yesterday.

To prepare for the race Jackie (as she does with everything) did her research to find out how to make this a good experience. She downloaded and filled out a training schedule, downloaded a program that changes the tempo of the song (without changing the pitch) so she could use the music to pace herself, got all the official racing gear (waist pack, arch supports, energy chews, etc.), and synced her schedule with mine for her once a week "long" runs. Throughout the process Jackie has become educated about stretching, injury prevention, and lots of racing "tips" (including tips from her sister Abby). Jackie's favorite tip was when she learned that 90% of runners run the first half of the race faster than the second half, when they should flip that and to run the first half of the race by pace and the second half by feel.

After returning home from one of the scheduled long runs and I asked her how it went, she replied, "good, I was feeling good at 11 miles so I decided to just run the whole thing" (she actually ran the 13.1 miles several times before the actual race).

Here are the boys lining the track (these people had just finished the 5K).

Prior to the race we made signs and shirts to show our support! In addition to the signs and shirts each of us also voice recorded 30-60 second clips of our voices encouraging mom, there doesn't seem to be a way to upload them - sorry!

While we were waiting for mom we did a bit of exploring as well as snacking and watching DVD's (The Magic School Bus was the movie of choice).

Among other tents set up (you can see them in the background) the Nestle Quik bunny was handing out chocolate milk. Before this picture I had called to Keyan 3 times; he didn't move. I don't think he had ever seen anything like this.

We were rained on quite a bit. In this picture Trey and Keyan are seeking refuge. Trey is set with The Magic School Bus (you can't see the DVD player) and Keyan is set with the doughnut holes.

5 minutes into the car ride home the younger 3 kids were out - I guess all that cheering really took it out of them.

We are so proud of Mom! Here she is holding up her medal. She was very pleased with how the race turned out; she beat her goal time by 4 minutes. What was her time? Well, it's not important. What is important is that Mom challenged herself and overcame! I remember hearing her early on in the training saying things like, "it was so tough today, I don't know how I'll do 4 more miles." At times like that, she decided that rather than give up, she would roll up her sleeves and continue.

For me personally, this race was about much more than 13 miles. The biggest joy for me was to see my girl take on a challenge and learn something about herself as a result of it. The self confidence that was developed as a result will carry over into other areas of her life. I have a feeling that this was the first of many half marathons. But I still find myself wondering if this was the spring board for the next challenge. . . Any of you readers think she oughta go for the big 26???

Leftover March...

2010-04-18T20:05:00.003-04:00

I forgot about this pic, so here you go. Happy St. Patrick's day, a month late...

More Easter

2010-04-09T08:37:00.002-04:00

Easter Sunday we had an Easter egg hunt in our backyard. We made the kids wait until a respectable hour to hunt the eggs so as not to wake all our poor neighbors. They watched out the sunroom windows longingly at all the eggs until it was time. :-)

{Getting ready}

{Great expectations}

{This year we decided against filling all the eggs with candy. Instead we found little toys at the dollar store and Target. Things like bouncy balls, whistles, cars, playdough, dollar store watches, etc. We did put candy in a few of the eggs, though. Keyan is all about the candy and was disappointed when he got an egg without candy. The older boys loved the little toys. In this picture, Keyan was opening an egg that had a whistle in it, and it was so funny to see him hold it up after opening it and reading the thoughts on his little face as he was thinking "what the heck is this, isn't there supposed to be candy in here?"}

{Dollar store Spiderman watch}

{The boys all received Harry Potter wands and glasses in their baskets since they have been OBSESSED with Harry Potter as of late. Here are the two older boys wearing their glasses while watching our church's General Conference.}

{Four kiddos}

{Russell and I got chocolate bunnies from the Easter bunny (Thanks, Grammi!), but our bunnies weren't the cheap-o kind from the grocery store, like the kids'. Dad gave Halle a little bite off of his and then put the rest back in the packaging. When he wasn't looking, she grabbed his bunny and took it out of the packaging and ran off with it. She knows her chocolate!}

{Trey and Halle with some of the spoils.}

Easter egg hunt

2010-04-06T20:46:00.001-04:00

Our easter weekend began on Friday night with an Easter egg hunt at our YMCA. It was P-E-R-F-E-C-T weather. An absolutely gorgeous evening. There weren't that many kids there, and quite a lot of eggs, so it was the perfect place for us. This past week we were so excited to have Grammi (Russell's mom) here for a week long visit. It was so fun to have her here for the holiday. It was wonderful to have two extra hands to help with kids at the hunt! (and an extra camera) :-)

We took a few pics before heading out...

{Halle has a thing with sticking her tongue out lately, but she only sticks it out on her left side.}

{belly shot}

{Could not resist the leg(g) rolls :-) }

{So grown up!}

{At the hunt. She was not into gathering eggs this year.}

{These two are buddies and love each other so much.}

{She WAS into eating the eggs, however.}

{He always has a great smile for the camera.}

{Getting his face painted. He was getting a pink nose and bunny whiskers.}

{Finished product. P.S. It was a 10 year old girl doing the painting, but the kids didn't care!}

Coming soon: More Easter weekend!

Celebration

2010-02-23T22:26:00.001-05:00

We had such fun celebrating Halle's birthday. Of course, the boys love any excuse to celebrate with decorations, punch balls, cake, and presents. (The pictures are pretty poor quality since they were taken with cell phones.)

I had fun making Halle's cake, just because it was PINK! It was also fun to make her own personal cake. It was my first time making daisies out of frosting, and they turned out really well.

She was definitely into eating her little cake but not into being messy. She would just pick up a little bit at a time with her little fingers and put into her mouth very ladylike.

Halle got a new dress and a my little pony for her birthday.

Of course, here in this picture, you can see her new pony sitting on the floor abandoned behind her while she is completely enthralled with the empty box and wrapping paper garbage... :-) (Just in case you are curious, that is Russell in his storm trooper costume in the background!)

Happy birthday, sweet baby girl

2010-02-10T13:12:00.000-05:00

Oh my goodness, where did the last year go? I can't believe that we are celebrating one whole year of having sweet Halle in our family. She is so much fun. We LOVE sticking our noses into her chubby cheeks and neck and giving a great big *inhale*, and then kissing the heck out of her. She is loved and spoiled by everyone in the family... we better get that in check BEFORE she realizes what is happening and takes advantage of us! We are so, so, SO blessed to have Halle in our family.

LOVE YOU SO MUCH, BABY GIRL!

One Year Ago - Halle's birthday

One Month

Two Months

Three Months

Four Months

Five Months

Six Months

Seven Months

Eight Months

Nine Months

Ten Months

Eleven Months

One Year!!

Future conductors

2010-01-31T20:28:00.001-05:00

For family home evening each week, we sing a song together. Different kids get to take turns leading the song for us. Here are videos of Keyan and then Halle taking a turn:

Mommy mart purchase

2010-01-27T22:58:00.000-05:00

A very popular item at the mommy mart is "going to school with dad" which costs 10 daddy dollars. This only works when the boys have a day off and dad still goes. This past week, Monday was a holiday and Friday was a teacher day, so Trey bought "going to school with dad" on Monday, and they both bought it for Friday. Poor dad didn't get much done during that time, I'm sure, but the boys LOVE going. :-)

Here are the two boys watching their movies and eating oatmeal at dad's school.

They especially love going because they get a bonus...eating at Wendy's, which is in the basement of the hospital. The next few pics are from Trey's visit to dad's school on Monday.

Seven, are you kidding?

2010-01-24T15:23:00.007-05:00

I cannot believe this guy is SEVEN!!! Talk about crazy. He is the most helpful, responsible, fun kid. He is an incredibly fast learner, partially because of smarts but also because he really WANTS to learn. He is such a great older brother. He is caring, compassionate, and a riot! We are so lucky to have him in our family.

Here's Russell with his birthday dinner of choice: homemade pizza, dino chicken nuggets, french fries, and chocolate milk. (all on the special plate, thanks Brousseaus!!)

Here's Russell enduring the special family home evening lesson about him. Dad asked questions about Russell, and we all got to guess the answers. (favorite sport, favorite movie, etc.)

Since we weren't having his birthday cake until his party, Russell asked for brownie bites to go with his birthday dinner.

Present time: (The boys like to wear dad's shirts for jammies, and Russell then proceeds to chew on it, thus the stretched out collar look.)

Russell asked for an x-wing fighter:

a scooter from grandpa and grandma davis:

Making Russell's birthday cake:

Russell asked for a Speed Racer cake this year: (The morning of the party, a certain two year old poked his chubby little finger into the cake. That's why there is a hole in the sky on the right side...)

Part of Russell's party was watching Speed Racer, so we of course had a variety of pocorns to eat during the movie. (au natural, caramel, and white chocolate with pretzels and m&ms)

Three boys anxiously awaiting the guests:

Playing on our home basketball court (aka sunroom) while waiting to eat pizza:

Everyone say "pizza"!

At the movies:

Happy Birthday, Russell! We love you so much!

Eight Years

2010-01-21T20:36:00.000-05:00

Since this blog is essentially our journal, and we publish it in book form to keep, I wanted to include these pictures from our anniversary a couple of months ago.

We trade babysitting with a family from church. The Friday night before our anniversary was our turn to go out. Russell told me that we were going to a school bowling function. As we were driving away after dropping off the kids (Thank you, Forsgrens!!), he asked me to get the directions to the bowling alley out of the glove compartment. As I opened them up, I saw that they were not directions to go bowling, but they were in fact information sheets about the cabin we were going to stay in. It was in a beautiful place an hour and a half away. I was so shocked, as I had absolutely no clue he had been planning this. He packed all of my things, all of Halle's things (she came with us), and made sure the babysitters had all of the boys' things. He made us a dinner of stuffed shells that was delicious. The cabin was a three bedroom, two bathroom cabin with a pool table, hot tub, fireplace, and cable (yeah!!). He really surprised me with how prepared he was and everything that he remembered to bring.

(We are a tad bit far away in this picture only because we had to set up the timer on a table across the porch.)

Oh, oh, pick me!

2010-01-17T16:02:00.003-05:00

Today during sacrament meeting, the speaker was talking about how to make good choices. She was talking about how when she was younger she had had her own mother to help guide her. Then she asked (not expecting an answer since this meeting is not interactive like other classes we have later in the day at church), "Who else can we go to for help in making good choices?" Immediately Russell's hand shot in the air with that sharp intake you make when you REALLY want to be called on. He so wanted to answer her question, then he looked sheepishly around, realizing that he was not in his primary class but was in fact in sacrament meeting. Since we were in the front row, the speaker kindly acknowledged Russell and that she couldn't call on him, though he had already realized that. He, of course, was not phased in the least bit. Had it been me, I would have wanted to crawl under a rock. :-)

What will I do with these boys??

2010-01-14T20:22:00.000-05:00

Question: What do you get when you mix two little boys (who are supposed to be cleaning up a bunch of puzzles), said puzzles and puzzle pieces, several loads of clean laundry, shoes, and a full bag of wheat flour?

Answer: An empty bag of flour, a couple hours of clean-up, and...

This poor child probably did not dump flour all over his own head...

Notice they even covered the floor of the shower in flour. Why?????

P.S. I'm not sure how I missed getting a picture of the second little boy involved in the above disaster. He probably had (very wisely) disappeared...

Attention blogging world:

2010-01-09T09:40:00.002-05:00

What are your favorite songs to exercise to? I'm looking for some music that is great to run to.

My Girl

2010-01-06T11:05:00.006-05:00

Halle is just getting to point in her development where she can repeat some of the sounds she hears. One of first sounds we could successfully persuade her to repeat was a kissing sound (can you imagine it, two little baby lips creating a bit of suction then coming apart?). Most nights when it’s time to put Halle to sleep I reserve the right to turn on her music, give her a bottle, then pat little drum beats on her back while I rock her. When I attempted to do this with the boys when they were babies, it usually turned into my chin digging into them in an effort to tickle and play. But for some unknown reason I haven’t felt the urge to do that as much with Halle. Maybe it’s because I treat her different since she’s a girl, or maybe it’s because she does something none of the boys did. . . when I lay her on my chest and stomach then cover us both with her blanket, she tucks her little hands under her tummy, turns her head sideways and lays on my chest. She next makes the cutest breathing sounds while soaking up her father’s affection.

My reward is to feel her chest rise and fall and take in the smell of her blanket which has many nights of “Halle scent” absorbed into it. It’s so great that I don’t want to ruin it by playing (that and she'll be asking for money to buy a new dress for some other guy to take her to the prom next year - that's whay it'll seem like anyway). I know you’re not supposed to rock babies all the way to sleep because they need to learn how to go to sleep on their own. I confess that on most nights, by the time I get out of the rocking chair to put her in bed she is far off into baby dream land (no doubt dreaming about how she’s taking care of her dad when he’s older).

Anyway, the other night after our routine, I put her in her crib and like always leaned over the rail told her I loved her and gave her a kiss – gestures that are mostly for my benefit since she’s already asleep. Well on this particular night as I was walking out of her room I heard the little kissing sound that she had recently learned to duplicate.

What happened next was a bit like what happened to the Grinch who stole Christmas. Have you seen that movie? Towards the end when he’s just saved little Cindy-Lou Who his heart grows 3 sizes. He then gets a funny look on his face because he realizes he’s feeling something he’s never felt before. I can relate to the Grinch. While having three sons has given me joys and feelings that can only come from little dudes, I had never before felt those vulnerable, weak, soft, squishy and even spiritual feelings that came when I heard my daughter make that sound. Silly? Maybe. I’m not really concerned about why those feeling came. Rather, I’m glad they did and I think it took having a daughter to be blessed with them.

A few years ago while working at UPS a friend of mine (Will Aquoi, who has 2 daughters) and I were talking about the joys of being a dad. I’m sure I was bragging about my great splendid of donating a Y chromosome and how much I loved having boys. I said to him, “Still, I wonder what it would be like to have a daughter”, to which his reply was to smile at me and say, “yea, that’ll soften you up”. Ha! Me? Soft? Me, who loves fixing things and wrestling with my sons? Me, who loves sports, bench’s 375 (ok, maybe a little less) and working with dangerous power tools? I thought to myself, really what’s going on here is that he’s soft and is using the fact that he has a daughter to hide his weakness. Certainly I’ll never stoop to such disgraceful depths.
So this experience I had with my girl the other night, is that what you were talking about Will? Hmm. . . maybe I need to redefine my schema of what it means to be a “macho macho man”.

Junior's Song

2009-12-29T21:56:00.002-05:00

Hey everyone! Check out Junior's new single, Persuade. It's available on iTunes, and all proceeds from this single will go to the Naki Family Foundation.

Christmas 2009

2009-12-25T19:00:00.007-05:00

On our way to cut down our christmas tree:

We were so lucky to have Gin visit us for Thanksgiving. We decided to cut down our tree the day after Thanksgiving so she could come with us.

Santa and Mrs. Clause were at the Christmas tree farm, so the kids got to visit with them... Well, some of the kids.

Trey is hiding from Santa behind daddy's legs.

Our annual gingerbread train

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care... (P.S. Notice the fireplace mantel Russell built a couple of months ago.)

This picture embodies what we love about holidays: spending downtime together with absolutely nowhere to be.

Since Trey was too chicken to talk to Santa, he elected to write him a letter instead. (Dear Santa, For Christmas I would like a buckeye helmet. I have been good. Thank you, Trey)

Keyan with his gift from Santa

Russell and Trey wearing their gifts from Santa

Not a great picture, but the only one I have with her Santa gift, a toy you can attach to her high chair with suction cups.

Christmas threads

2009-12-25T18:45:00.004-05:00

Halle was given a very pretty Christmas dress from Grammi, so last week before church we tried to take a few pictures. The boys don't have "christmas clothes", but we thought we'd take the opportunity to take all of their pictures anyway.

Here are the three boys in their superhero poses.

All four kiddos:

Miss Halle

Halle with mom

Here are the kids right after opening their Christmas jammies on Christmas eve.

The three boys:

Blood, Sweat and Tears

2009-12-13T21:22:00.004-05:00

Jackie thinks I'm taking too long to get through school and she wanted to see the inside of the hospital for herself. So while dwelling on this thought over making dinner she sliced her hand on the top of the cheddar cheese soup can. I offered to stitch it up for her right on the spot, but I didn't have any anesthesia on hand and Jackie felt like she needed it. I tried telling her it would be nothing compared to having a baby on our couch, but she insisted on going to the ER. I of course was fascinated (so was Jackie actually. After her finger was numb, she was intently watching the procedure. The Dr. even asked, "are you a nurse? You seem really interested." - never mind the med student taking pictures and film with his phone :))
WARNING: Graphing post ahead!

OK Jackie, get your game face on!

Since she cut her finger on metal, here is the tetanus shot.

Get that finger good and numb!

Here's the finished product.

It's been a little inconvenient, but she'll be back in full swing in a couple weeks.

Little boy's dream come true

2009-11-16T21:14:00.003-05:00

Saturday Russell was my date for the Buckeye game. It was his dream come true to go to a game. He plays football around the house all day long, and always says that he is "on the Buckeyes." We got decked out and took off for the afternoon/evening, and had a blast. (Plus, it was such a fantastic game!!)

We got there early to be sure we had good parking. (Thank you, Russell, for your parking pass!) Good thing the hospital has a Wendy's inside it, because Ice Cream + Russell = a very happy boy. And we were able to kill time before the game.

Russell was SO excited to see a "real" football game. He was bothered by all the pregame stuff, and kept asking when they were actually going to play. He LOVED joining in with all the chants, cheers, the Buckeye bounce, etc. Although when I asked him on the way home what his favorite part about the day was, he said (in true Russell form) it was eating his hot dog. :-)

Halloween

2009-11-09T21:26:00.006-05:00

Halloween was such fun this year. It is so fun to see the kiddos having such a fun time. They loved picking out pumpkings, carving them, dressing up, trick-or-treating, eating candy, etc! This year we had a King Peter of Narnia, a Zorro, a Dash, and a Princess Leia. (All of these pictures are cell phone pictures, so they are a tad bit fuzzy.)

At the pumpkin patch

Carving jack-o-lanterns. Halle got right in there and wanted to dig in and see what the hype was about. She tried to eat it, too, and learned pretty quickly not to do that again! (Gin, do you recognize this blanket? I don't know how I ended up with it!)

Battle cries

Halle's first sucker, the trick-or-treat spoils!

Picture Update

2009-11-04T22:01:00.004-05:00

This is me being a baby jungle-gym. Here are four of the six baby girls born into our fam in the last year. (Halle, Abby, Harley, and Emma. Missing from this pic: Ane and Annie)

Halle couldn't handle another minute of WalMart shopping. Poor girl. :-)

Halle and cute cousin Abby

The boys before the last soccer game of the season. Russell and Trey were able to play on the same team this year, coached by dad. They had such fun. It was Trey's first team sport, and he was so thrilled to finally be able to participate instead of watch from the sidelines. (Please disregard the unfinished fireplace behind the boys. It's in progress!)

Russell and our dear friend, Alex.

Here is proof that Alex is finally taller than Russell. Still growing, too!

Instead of selling our tickets, Russell and I decided to use them for this last game. So fun!!

From Abby

2009-10-27T13:49:00.001-04:00

Inadequate Thanks

I've been trying to figure out how to form the words that will adequately describe how I've been feeling towards all those whose love for Naki, myself, and our girls has been showered on us, and "there has not been room enough to receive it". I am astounded and incredibly humbled as I've watched all of you give tirelessly of your time, your money, your thoughtfulness, your prayers, your food, your talents, your patience, your understanding, your faith, and your love to my little family. I know that Naki is so incredibly touched as well...he loves you all and has served you the best way he knows how; by loving you. And I know that he is so proud to be able to call you all friends as he's watched you lift up and love all of his girlies. Line, Malia, Lose, Eli, Eva, Ane, and myself only hope to be able to carry on that legacy of love that he and now all of you have taught us. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you...Love, Abby

For all of you that read this and know of someone who has served our family but won't get the chance to read this, could you please forward our message of thanks on to them? I want to make sure everyone who has given of themselves knows what it means to us.

An Amazing Man

2009-10-16T18:09:00.005-04:00

Early this morning my sister's husband - Naki Maile - suddenly passed away during the night. He was 32. He leaves behind 6 georgeous little girls and an adoring wife.Their family blog sixmailechix, shows what a great father and husband he was and evidence he will be greatly missed. He was an amazing man and was a big brother to me. There is also information on the blog for the memorial fund that has been set up.

Randoms

2009-10-03T07:20:00.003-04:00

Here we are on our way to pick up Russell from school: (Yes, Keyan's two front teeth are gray from when he fell on his face back in December...)

Keyan has picked up a habit of collecting random things and carrying them around the house in equally as random containers. In this picture he is using an old chicken nugget box. Inside is an assortment of cars, k'nex pieces, spiderman discs (from the disc shooter), puzzle pieces, etc. You get the idea. The current container to date is a large, orange, clear pumpkin trick-or-treat bag with crayons and empty gatorade bottles inside. (????) I don't get it, but he has to bring it with us when we go places and carries it around the house with him, too.

Keyan has picked up the word "scared" and often says he is scared at night. He figured out that he feels better when he is with his brother. So he often crawls off of his bed, onto Russell's. It's so cute to find him there.

Random pic of Halle. She's growing so fast and has started crawling. She, of course, has everyone wrapped around her finger, especially dad! (Pay no attention to the leftover dinner on her face. Thus the bath!)

It took six and a half years...

2009-09-17T21:28:00.005-04:00

...but it finally happened. (And it's a miracle that it took this long!) We had an incident this week involving one of our children, the ER, and stitches. Sweet little Keyan was trying to escape the daddy monster and hit his head just right on the dresser corner. Just looking at it, we knew a visit to the ER was necessary. He was a little champ though, and after the initial crying, acted like nothing was wrong, especially considering he had a bleeding, two inch gash on the top of his head. I'm sure he must have had quite the headache! Russell took him in, and three hours later he had his stitches on the back/top of his head. These two videos were taken in the waiting room while they were waiting for the anesthetic to take effect. In the first one he is eating chocolate chips while he is talking that Russell brought along, because chocolate makes everything better, right?

School Boys

2009-09-13T20:48:00.004-04:00

Here are the customary first day of school pictures. Russell, of course, is not given to being nervous about ANYTHING and was so excited to start and meet all the kids in his class. I hate having him gone for the whole day now! I hate that the majority of his day is not mine anymore!

Trey, on the other hand, shocked me quite a bit. A couple of days before school started, we went in for the orientation. He was so shy, he hid in my leg or played and read books on his own the whole time. He would not speak to his teacher or any of the other kids. (That's not the part that shocked me...) I was dreading the drop-off on the first day, thinking for sure there would be tears. When we walked up to the door, he ran in on his own and threw his arms around his teacher. No looking back. I was thinking to myself, "Who is this child?" I was shocked and so pleasantly surprised!!

It has been so strange to only have two little ones home during the morning hours. But it has been so adorable to watch Keyan and Halle's relationship blossom. They so love playing together, and Keyan is such entertainment for Halle. He does the craziest stuff to make her laugh. No one can make Halle laugh and smile like Keyan!

Sneak Peek

2009-09-09T12:20:00.003-04:00

Saturday Halle got to have her pictures taken by a fellow OSU student/friend of Russell's. It was supposed to be a favor to the photographer as she is trying to build up her portfolio in the area, but I think we got the good end of the deal. The pictures turned out great! You can check out the few that she's put up so far here: amysuzannephotographic.com/apps/blog/

Fun date

2009-09-03T22:46:00.003-04:00

Russell and I got to have a date this weekend. We went on a couple hour long bike ride, then picked up the kids, put them to bed, and had pizza and a movie. It was so great to spend the time together. Here we are on our bike ride.
(P.S. We did NOT match our clothes on purpose. I didn't realize that we did match until looking at the pics. We are NERDS!!)

New Currency

2009-08-26T08:43:00.006-04:00

In our house school starts tomorrow. In order to help out with the morning routine (meaning actually get the boys to move at a pace that actually gets us to school on time with the chores and breakfast done), we've implemented a new program. In the morning when I wake up, I put three "daddy dollars" on the counter for each of the boys.

They each have to do all of their chores (which consists of morning prayers, making beds, getting dressed, brushing teeth, and collecting laundry or trash) by 7:40. At 7:40 I take the daddy dollars off the counter and put them away, and they can try again the next morning. If they finish on time, they can come get their money. They each get to keep their money in their own envelope. Then they can make purchases from the Mommy Mart whenever they choose. We chose things for our Mommy Mart that they always are asking for so it would be motivating for them. Last night Russell bought staying up late for 10 minutes and is saving the rest for going to school with dad. Trey is saving for going out for ice cream with the family, but I bet he will end up blowing it all on jelly beans. :-)

1 Gogurt……………………………….................$1
1 Cheese Stick……………………………….....$1
15 Jelly Beans………………………………......$1
Stay up 10 minutes late……………………$1
30 minutes of games on computer…$5
Choose dinner……………………………….......$5
Have a smoothie for a snack…………..$5
Bike ride………………………………................$5
Go to a park of your choice…………….$5
Swimming at the YMCA……………………$10
Family movie night…………………………….$10
Watch a movie after school……………$10
Invite a friend over to play…………….$10
Go to school with dad……………………….$15
Camp out in the basement……………….$15
Movie at the movie theater…………….$15
Go to the Zoo……………………………….......$15
Go out for ice cream w/ family………$20
Eat dinner at McDonald’s…………………$30

What else would work for the Mommy Mart? Have any ideas?

P.S. No way am I creative enough to come up with something like this. I found this idea in the latest Family Fun magazine. Here's the website if you want to make your own money: festisite.com/money.

So proud and excited...

2009-08-13T10:43:00.004-04:00

to have such a beautiful, amazing, kind, wonderful new sister (and three new nephews and one new niece)! In June we were so lucky to attend the wedding of my brother, Matt, to his new bride, Kami. It was beautiful, personal, simple and just perfect.

Look how cute they all are, looking on, as Matt and Kami kiss at the end of the wedding.

The new family

Halle and I at the wedding. Please ignore my triple chin. Thank you.

Keyan especially enjoyed the cake. So much that he felt the need to use to forks. I don't blame him. It was SO good!

Cousins

2009-08-03T12:13:00.002-04:00

One highlight from our recent trip to Idaho...

Meeting all the new cousins! Five of my sisters also had baby girls within the last year. It was so fun to put them all together and get some cute pictures. The two last pictures were taken by Randi, Cassie's sister-in-law, who is an AWESOME photographer.

MOM...MOM...MOM...

2009-07-28T15:37:00.002-04:00

Keyan has gotten into the habit of yelling at Russell or me when he wants our attention. Even if you are sitting right next to him, he'll yell Dad, Dad, Dad, Dad over and over until you respond vocally. It is so funny to hear his low, raspy voice yelling at you. There is just something about the tone of voice he uses when yelling at us that makes us crack up every time. He is constantly making us laugh.

This sequence of pictures is of him trying to get my attention in this way. I was just trying to get regular picture, so I'd snap the picture right after he yelled "MOM!" Sure enough he would yell it again right after, and I never did get a picture of him not yelling at me.

Wordless Wednesday-Is today Wednesday? I never know anymore...

2009-07-22T18:47:00.001-04:00

2009-07-19T21:24:00.010-04:00

As many of you know, today (July 19) is Jackie’s birthday! Although Jackie is the one who maintains this blog she rarely writes about herself. Since we use this blog as a type of family journal, I thought it would be appropriate to write a post about her. Jackie does not enjoy having attention drawn to her, so I’ll keep this short, using only enough space to mention some of Jackie’s talents and interests.

Those privileged enough to be around Jackie will know that she has a royal air about her; just being in her presence has a calming, peaceful effect on you.

Jackie has really developed a talent for cooking. It seems that any food she touches comes out perfect! Our family has greatly benefited from being together at meal times and enjoying various holiday dishes.

She is such a great mother and honors her role. She has fun with the boys and loves having a girl to dress up.

Jackie is the ideal wife! She is so enjoyable to come home to. She is interested in my daily life and always has fun stories of her day to share with me. Jackie and I have the practice of putting the kids to bed at 7:30 and then spending the next hour and a half with each other. I love talking and laughing with her; she is my best friend.

Finally, here are some past pictures of Jackie.

Finally, some real food!

2009-07-17T20:50:00.005-04:00

Halle's first solid food experience:

Wondering what's going on and why everyone is sitting around watching her... (Notice her cute "Boston" t-shirt, Gin?)

Everytime we get the camera out, she stares at it...just like this.

Wondering what the heck her brothers are doing over there, and why she can't have pretzels like them...

I have a bunch of pictures from our fun trip to Washington/Idaho that I will start posting soon in installments so as not to overwhelm anyone. Today Trey was reliving his trip through all of the pictures and asked if we could go on our trip again except this time stay for 100 days. Sounds good to me!

The 4th and More

2009-07-08T21:01:00.005-04:00

The 4th of July is my favorite holiday. I am a huge sucker for American history, and I am pretty patriotic. Plus I love having a day with family going to parades, barbecues, fireworks, etc. Love it! I've only got pictures from the parade though. I was kicking myself because I forgot my camera for the fireworks. The kids were so into them, too, at least for the first few minutes...

Here's Halle getting ready for the parade. Russell gave her a flag to play with.

Getting ready for the parade to start

These kids scored big time with a bucket load of candy. They don't mess around at these parades! Good thing the kids didn't notice it was gone when we got rid of all of it!!

This has to be one of my favorite moments: the jets flying over.

Okay, the rest of these pictures have nothing to do with the 4th. Just randoms...

These poor football guys. This player is getting his head chewed on. But it's okay, because at least the ref called a touchdown...

Our two Sidewinders:

Halle has become the dinner table centerpiece since Aunt Cassie gave her a Bumbo. Thanks, Auntie!

2009-07-05T18:31:00.004-04:00

Here's a clip from Russell's kindergarten program. It was surprisingly fun to watch, but the songs have been stuck in my head for the last month!

Birthdays

2009-06-29T15:01:00.007-04:00

Trey has been so excited to finally be 4. To him it seems that now that he is 4, he is all grown up!

Here he is with his crown and sitting in his specially decorated chair. When someone in our family has a birthday, the lesson in family home evening that week is a special lesson about that person. In this picture, dad is giving the lesson about Trey. He is sharing things with us from Trey's baby book.

Trey asked for weights for his birthday. When he first asked for them about a month before his birthday, I thought for sure by the time his birthday rolled around, he would want something different. Sure enough, he didn't change his mind.

He wanted a batman birthday, which went perfectly with the present we had gotten him a few months before his birthday and stashed away. It is a batman figure with wings that pop in and out. A huge hit, as you can see!

Halle was such a good helper while I made Trey's birthday cake.

Trey wanted a barbecue for his party. The kids had a blast with the pool, water balloons, and swing set.

PLEASE no one report me to cake wrecks. This cake turned out to be a disaster from the very beginning. I am embarrassed to show it, but wanted to remember it for journal purposes. At least Trey was happy with it, which was the point of the whole thing. It's okay, though, because I made up for it with Russell's butterfinger/peanut butter cake later in the week, which turned out perfectly.

His bbq ended on a perfect note... with a war, of course.

This is Russell giving the family home evening lesson about dad.

Here are the notes Russell made for his lesson.
In case you can't read them:
Color: Black
Sport: Basketball
Thing to do: Wrestle
Food: Pizza
Movie: Incredibles
Place to go: Church
Thing to make for us: Eggs
(Russell came up with the questions.)