Brothers

Recently Ben and Hyrum have been playing quite a bit together. I think a reason why they are starting to get a long so well is the fact that they are both growing up. Ben understands the rules of the "games" a bit better, Hyrum is willing to have more patience with Ben, communications skills for both boys have dramatically increase etc. Also, another reason why I think they are starting to get a long better with one another is the fact that they are both boys. They have very similar interest.

They love to play cars together. They love getting their Mack Car Transporter they got for Christmas and drive their cars around. They also love to drive their cars on the couch. They each get a side of the couch to drive on. Another thing they enjoy doing together is watch the movie CARS.

Ben and Hyrum love trains. They like to drive their engines side by side and love it if by chance we see a train as we are driving in the car.

Also, they enjoy playing with sports balls together. They love throwing the football back and forth to each other (they both have a good arm, Ben throws left, Hyrum throws right). They also love to kick the soccer ball back and forth.

Another big hit recently is that Ben and Hyrum love playing with their toy airplanes together.

Emmy had to find a helicopter and get in on the action.
They love sharing a room together and most nights you can hear them talking to each other, giggling and being silly.

It is so cute to see them play together. Of course, they still fight occasionally, but for the most part it is quite evident how much they love and care for one another.

Adoption

Instead of doing Flashback Friday today. I thought that I would take the time to spotlight some of our dear friends who live out here in Memphis.

After going through years of infertility after the birth of their second daughter they have decided to adopt.

Carl and Starla are some of the nicest and friendliest people that I have ever met. Just to give you a little back ground...
STARLA
On that first scary Sunday that I was new to the ward, Starla was the only person that came up and said hi to me. She was so friendly and outgoing, invited us over to her house for a party etc. She was the person who gave me hope that maybe my time in Memphis wouldn't be so bad.

She is seriously one of the best mothers I know. She is so loving, caring, watchful and protective of her children. She does a great job of correcting a problem(discipline) with her kids in respectful way with her kids.

She is always so kind and caring with my children. Always quick to say hi to them. She watches out for them and has literally saved one of my child's life.

She was one of the friends who really helped me out and calmed me down on the scary day with Emmy when she hit her head.

I am so grateful to have Starla in my life. She has been a great example to me.

CARL
On that day when Emmy hit her head, he left work and came and met me at the hospital and stayed there until Brandon arrived. I was so grateful for his help that day.

Also, like Starla he is so nice and friendly. I have never heard him (or Starla) be mean to anyone. I don't think they have a mean bone in their body.

Carl is also so great with kids. He is so cute with his girls. You can tell that he loves them and they love him so much!

Carl also takes time to say hi to all the kids he comes in contact with. Like Starla, he is so sweet with my kids and quick to say hello and chat with them for a few minutes.
GIRLS
Carl and Starla's little girls are about are so cute! They both are great friends to Hyrum and watch out for our Emmy and Ben.

If anyone is or know someone who is going through the process of putting a child up for adoption I would suggest to strongly look at Carl and Starla. They would be and are awesome parents and have a lot of love to pass around to another child.

They have an adoption blog set-up which you can find here. Also, they have a profile set up with LDS Family Services which you can find here.

Drive-Thru

We have had beautiful weather during the day recently (during the night we have been having lots of rainstorms). We have been opening our windows and letting the wonderful spring breeze drift through the house. Earlier this week, I sent the kids out to the back yard to play while I did some quick cleaning(you can see the backyard from the kitchen and living room windows). I soon noticed that they were pretending to play drive-thru. It was so cute. They would each take turns and one kid would stand inside the house while the other two would drive their bikes up to the window and place their orders. I heard Hyrum request two chicken nuggets at the window. I think this game was very creative for them to think of. Who would have known they could have so much fun with a window!

Reading Books

One of my favorite things to do with my kids is read to them. I have always been a big fan a books and consider myself to be an avid reader. One of the things I hope for is to instill a love for learning and reading within my children.

I was read books with Ben and Emmy yesterday while Hyrum was at school. We read one of Hyrum's favorite books titled Down by the Station. I don't know how many times I have read this book to my children. However, as I was reading this book to Ben and Emmy, I was shocked to have them point out a balloon on each page. This wasn't a book with all balloons, but a book with one same balloon on each page that drifts farther away in the sky as you read this story. I haven't remember noticing the balloon before when I have read this book, but I was surprised when Ben and Emmy were very observant and kept pointing it out.

Another book we read had a baby in it. The baby wasn't the main character in the book, but was still on quite a few pages of the story. Each page Emmy would look for that baby and give it a kiss and stroke the picture. It was so cute and so funny.

I think I take for granted often how much my kids observe and soak in. I am constantly amazed at them.

Dates With Dad

Brandon had his Spring Break the first week in March this year. The one thing that he said he wanted to do was to take each child out on their own personal date. I thought this was a great idea and supported him as he took each child out for some quality daddy time.

Emmy had her date first. For her date they went to ride the carousel at the mall. She was so thrilled to go with daddy all by herself. Brandon said she was so excited when she saw where they were going. She picked out the "neigh" she wanted to ride. Brandon and Emmy rode the carousel a couple of times and then went to eat at McDonald's. Emmy even got to have ice cream afterwards. When she came home she was seriously the happiest I have ever seen her. She was running everywhere laughing and giggling and being silly. I think it did her little heart some good to spend time with her daddy.Hyrum went on his date with daddy next. He was so excited for his turn. He watched Emmy go out on her date and knew that his turn would be soon. For his date he was so pleased to go with his dad out to eat at McDonald's and then to see the movie Bolt at the theater. He talked about his date with dad and the movie for days. He also was so happy that he got to spend some quality time with his dad.Finally, it was Ben's turn for his date. He also went to the Carousel with dad and found a "neigh" to ride on. He rode the carousel and headed off with dad to McDonald's for a fun lunch and some ice cream. After lunch, Brandon thought it would be fun to take him to see some real horses since Ben's favorite animal is a horse and he loves real animals. However, the horses by our house weren't very close to the fence that day so Brandon took Ben to a near by park. Of course, Ben was in heaven! He loves to be outdoors! Going to the park is one of his favorite things to do. He was so happy to spend some time with his dad. He had a great time on his date. I am so grateful for a husband who takes the time to make each of our kids feel special and important. Also, I am grateful for the time that Brandon puts in to be the best dad he can be.

It's Back!

The Spring 2009 soccer season has officially started! Last night was Hyrum's first practice of the season. Brandon and I had been talking with him about soccer and how his season is going to start soon. He was so excited when he found out that on Wednesday was his first soccer practice of the season. He kept asking me all day if it was time to go to practice yet. On the way to soccer practice we went over the rules and what we could and couldn't do in soccer. He was really excited to see who was on his team. I thought he would have a hard time with the fact that some of his friends are on the other team. However, when we explained why the kids were on the other team (the kids are now five), he was fine with it.

While we were waiting for practice to start, Hyrum and Ben kicked the ball back and forth. Hyrum did a great job at practice! Hyrum had pretty good control as he did the drill of kicking the ball into the goal. He also did the snake drilling (kicking the ball around the cones) pretty well. The kids finally got a chance to do a scrimmage and everyone had a good time.
Of course the practice wouldn't be complete without the cheer at the end of practice. If you look closely at the picture, you will see a little red headed boy who is in the team circle doing the cheer. That would be our Ben Boo. I think we are going to have a hard time keeping him off the field. Since there were quite a few tears at practice, we went and bought Ben his own ball. He is pretty excited to have his own soccer ball.

We are very excited for the new soccer season to start in this household.

St. Patrick's Day!

We had a great St. Patrick's Day this year. To start the morning off we green french toast with orange juice. Hyrum thought that having green food was silly.

After breakfast, we went off to Ben and Emily's playschool. A group of ladies and myself do a playschool together and we rotate who teaches each week. This week it was my turn to help, so I stayed and helped the lady who was teaching. Also, Hyrum is still having a little break with his school so he was able to join in on the fun.

When playschool was finished we headed off to the park with some friends and had a picnic. The kids had so much fun. It was great for them to get out some of their energy. The weather was beautiful! . My kids are in heaven when we are at the park. They love to go! All of them are content to be pushed in the swing for a good 20 minutes or so.

Ben and Emily are really getting good at climbing up all the different parts of the playground. Ben literally has no fear and scares me quite often. I really think that he thinks it is a game to see how he can ruffle my feathers.Emmy is not quite as daring, but she still does well at moving around the playground on her own. She loves the climbed the chain link wall. Brandon taught her how and she can now master the feat.Hyrum loves to play at the park and runs a hundred miles a minute. There is this one part of the playground that the kids use to play store where they pretend to buy things or pretend the spot is a concession stand before you go into the movies.If his friends aren't at the park, he very easily finds some other kids to play with and have a good time. Hyrum dressed himself that day, I didn't realize until half-way through the day that he put his shirt on backwards.

As we were leaving the park, some friends invited us to go to The Pink Palace Museum in Memphis with them.L to R Boo, Emma, Skye, Hyrum, Delanie, Maggie, Ben and EmmyI started out with Ben and Emmy in the stroller, but eventually got them out since they were fussing and wanted to be out of the stroller. The stroller worked out nice as the older kids would hop in and out of the stroller as we walked around and looked at the exhibits.

The museum had a really cool exhibit about pooh. The kids thought it was great. We put all the kids on the scale, minus Ben and Emmy, and the scale said it would take an elephant 14 hours to pooh them out. The kids thought that was hilarious.

The museum also had bones and other information about dinosaurs which Hyrum thought was awesome. He is a big dinosaur fan.

The kids as well as myself were fascinated with the history part of the museum where it showed different clothes, toys and other items a person would find a hundred plus years ago. My camera died after the first couple pictures. It wasn't until we were getting ready to leave that I realized that I could use the camera on my phone.

To end the day, we met daddy at his school and had dinner with him. The kids were so excited to see him. They love their daddy! Having dinner with Brandon at his school was the perfect way to end the day!