Micah turns 6!!!!!!

From cute big baby (a couple of ounces shy of 10 pounds at birth)...

("Why is that sweet baby in the hospital? Oh, he was just born! He looks like he's 2 months old!")

To cute 6 year old...

What a cutie! I mean, what an awesome dude! Here are some of his birthday party pictures.

Walking

Next up, running... climbing...

Reuben's 1st Birthday

Oh the cuteness! You won't be able to stand it!

Pictures from his first year that are some of my many favorites...

We went to a museum (along with millions of other small children) since it was their "free" day. Grandma, Grandpa, and lots of cousins joined us for the fun-filled two hours. Lots of pictures were taken, but I'm only including Reuben's because... because it IS his birthday!

He has been learning to do so many cute 1 year old things. He says "DaDa" whenever he is around the computer (thanks to skype!). He pushes his head on the ground and crawls when he is tired. He has taken 13 steps at a time, so we know that running is coming soon. He climbs on everything he can (yay, another climber...). He knows how to blow zurberts on bellies and will glance up beforehand to make sure we're ready to laugh. He waves goodbye. He doesn't suck his fingers anymore, he gave that up about a month ago for no good reason that I can think of besides a small boo-boo on his finger. That was the most painless un-finger-sucking experience we've ever had with our kids. He sleeps almost all the way through the night, feeds at 5:30 or so and goes back to sleep... (This comes after a month of fervent prayers and fasting from the other children in the family). He climbs stairs, and backs down. He eats everything I offer him, and some things that I don't. He loved his cake tonight, a frozen raspberry yogurt pie with graham cracker crust. Mmmm. To summarize, we love this cute baby/big boy!

Happy Birthday Reuben!!!

Hogwarts Train & More

This week we had lunch on our homemade Hogwarts Express. I was the lunch lady (aren't I always??!?!) and went up and down the aisle asking if anyone wanted "anything from the trolley?" The kids paid in counterfeit knuts, sickles, and galleons.

I forgot to mention that we went to Diagon Industries (or Deseret Industries, Utah's version of Diagon Alley) to have each child buy a magical pet. Most chose frogs since they were in abundance in the toy alley, but two children picked cats. They have fun names: Phillip Johnny Bob, Vib, Lily, Snape, Squeaker, and I can't remember Evelyn's pet's name...

Our school shelves

We also had our first Herbology project about flowers. Each house "picked" six flowers to learn about and presented them to the family tonight. Leslie and Micah were very creative as they cut out water droplets with facts on them, watered the matching flowers, and then had us drink chocolate mud milkshakes out of the "flower pots". Maybe I'm biased towards chocolate, but they did a great job! Jonas presented pictures and information on the computer. Troy and Owen made a larger than life presentation of a seed growing up and through Mamma's table (don't worry Mamma!) and told us some facts from their flowers.

And Micah's face? He scraped it when he fell from running at the park. We wish he had a cooler story like he was playing Mario Kart in real life and skinned his cheek off, but we'll have to stick to the truth this time.

For our "Helaman"

Pardon our "a capella-ness", we really should have recorded this with our pianist and Mamma so we could get some harmony in. Oh well. Dad, we love you!!!

Temple Square

I have always loved visiting Temple Square. The kids caught my enthusiasm, and lovedvisiting awesome buildings they've only seen from Conference. Troy was super thrilled to see the Tabernacle and the doorknobs of the temple (which say Holiness to the Lord). Our reverence tapered off after a few hours (note Evelyn's face in the last picture). We'll have to go back to the Conference Center for a full tour - the kids are too excited! To end our day, we stopped at a favorite of ours from our early dating days: McDonald's, for an ice cream cone on the way home.

Hogwarts Correspondence School

For school the next few months we are doing Hogwarts School! Letters came from the staff, and we are enjoying classes like Defense Against the Dark Arts (scripture study and journal), Divination (studying prophecies from our prophets), Arithmancy (math), Herbology (growing plants and taking care of seeds), Magical Me (personal history), and Quidditch (swimming). We are having a blast. All I've had to do is "Potter-ize" our school system and write fun letters to come by owl post. We can use the Floo Network (internet searches) and o-mail to share with Dad. We've carved magical wands (cool to see the kids do chores with them!) and made quills. The kids were sorted into houses (Jonas and Evelyn are in Ravenclaw, Leslie and Micah are in Hufflepuff, and Owen and Troy are in Gryffindor). I found a corresponding scripture for each child and used that as the explanation for their sorting.

Here are some pictures of our fantastic first week!

Each week we'll have a Hogwarts Question... This week our answers were serious and hilarious.

What would I see in the Mirror of Erised?

J: I would see lots of things. First off, I would see my dad with his arm around me. We would both be smiling. You would be able to see the love in our faces. We would be talking and joking and laughing. He would be proud of me. Then we would hug and the image would fade, and then be replaced by my mom, hugging me and helping me, smiling and listening. Then that image would fade and then I would see all three of us, together, forever. I love my parents.

L: If I could see in the mirror of Erised, I would see myself on the back of a horse. I want that because my favorite animal is a horse and I would like to have one. It would be fun to have and ride! My favorite animal is a horse because they are graceful, yet fast. I really love horses!

O: I would see myself in heaven. I would be playing with David. I would also be with my family. That is what I would see in the mirror of Erised.

T: I wish for Dad to be here. I like to be with Dad. He is fun. I love my dad. My dad is my hero.

M: The Incredible Hulk.

E: A pink tail.

Ogden Treehouse Museum

Another free activity! If you are a military family, definitely check out the free museum offers across the nation! Awesome.

I wish I had this museum. I wanted to play here, but instead just watched my kids. And took pictures. Super fun...

(The train picture is from Ogden's Union Station - we just did the free climbing trains on the outside of the museum.)

This is the Place Memorial Park

We had a great time! We helped oil some horse bridles and then enjoyed a free day at the park! The kids loved the train(s), panning for gold, petting animals, and riding some slow ponies in a circle.