Keeping Up With the Joneses

On Easter Sunday Mason all of a sudden asked Aunt Jessica if she would like to come to his kindergarten class sometime. His teacher likes people to come in and teach the kids something special, and Jessica and I were at a loss for what she could teach and then Mason said "she could teach sign language of course!" Duh. He went on to say that he wanted his friends to learn sign language so that they could talk to Uncle Daniel. Jessica said "you know there are other people in the world who are deaf, right?" and Mason said "yeah, like composers a long time ago who wrote music. Like Beethoven." Jessica and I were amazed. So on Friday Jessica came to Mason's kindergarten class and taught the kids a few signs. Mason was so proud of her and loved being in front of the class. Thanks Aunt Jessica!

On Thursday Myles had his 4-Year check up with our favorite Dr. Lauret . He weighed in at 31.08 lbs (10.46 th percentile), was 40 inches tall (44.12 nd percentile), and his BMI was 13.66 which was the 1.71st percentile. The doctor has seen all three kids for 5 years and now knows not to worry about their low weight. He didn't bother doing the blood count because even though he thought Myles looked pale, he remembered that all our kids are like this and it turns out fine. We talked about Myles' asthma and got a plan established for keeping it under control. It is the very worst when he gets excited and the night after his birthday he had the worst attack he has had. Developmentally, Myles was right at or ahead of target and is doing great. I had told him he didn't have to get any shots but they had just come out with a new vaccine that the doctor wanted him to have so he ended up having one poke but was very brave about it. I love that kid.

Today we had my sister Jessica, Daniel, and Logan over for Easter dinner (and of course another party for Myles). We had a yummy ham dinner with TONS of leftovers. After dinner Mason and Myles wanted to hide some eggs for the babies to find and the kids had a lot of fun. We tried to get a few good shots of the kids but they don't hold still for very long! Max thought it was pretty funny that everyone was looking at them. Happy boy cousins! And my sister's beautiful family. Oh, and anyone who knows me well knows that I'm not a very creative cook. I make the basics alright, but I'm not very creative, so I don't often share recipes on here. But I have a really easy one that is great with that leftover ham and rolls from Easter. Put a dab of butter and mustard in the rolls, add a slice of cheese and a slice of ham and wrap in tin foil. Freeze or refridgerate and when you are ready to eat them throw them in the oven for a little while and then you have a really yummy h...

Myles woke up around 6 AM this morning and we had a great time chatting about his birthday and Easter. When he remembered it was his birthday he looked at his legs and said "but my legs aren't any longer. I thought my legs would be longer when I was 4!" After about 30 minutes he woke up his brothers and we headed downstairs to see what the Easter Bunny brought. Max was especially excited about the chocolate. Whenever we tried to take it away he would say "no! Chocolate." The kids had a fun morning and we high on sugar by the time we went to church at 9 AM. They were alright in church and Myles was thrilled that they sang happy birthday to him in Primary. But about 5 minutes after Primary started, he fell right asleep on his teacher's lap. There is just so much excitement when your birthday is on Easter! And just a bonus pic of us decorating eggs a few weeks ago.

We signed Mason up for Spring soccer this year and the weather has been very uncooperative. There have been 6 games total, two were rained out, and 2 of them were played in the freezing hail and snow. TERRIBLE. The other two were still played with temperatures in the 40s. Despite the cold weather, Mason has been enjoying soccer. Marshall took his camera to the game on Saturday and captured Mason's full range of activity.

On Saturday morning we had a birthday party for Myles with most of his cousins from Marshall's side. My kids just adore their cousins and it was so fun to have them over. We started with an Easter Egg hunt. Here are all the kids getting ready to go out. Max got the hang of it and did a great job finding eggs. The best thing about the whole day in my opinion was how great the older cousins were. Liz, Megan, and William were much more interested in helping the little kids find eggs then finding some themselves. I am just so impressed with these kids and their thoughtfulness and love for their cousins. Max was so attached to his eggs he wouldn't even let go of them while swinging. But he let Grandma hold them while he climbed the rock wall. He is a little monkey! After the Easter Egg hunt we headed downstairs to decorate Easter Eggs. Fortunately it was a lot less messy than I was expecting and they seemed to have a lot of fun. Then we had a family Easter dinner of Prime Rib a...

Myles is an amazing boy. And now he is 4! He believes that when you turn 4 you get 4 birthday parties, which really is what I planned anyway. His first was at Preschool. I came for his birthday time and brought cupcakes to share after. He was so excited for me to meet his friends, especially Holly who he says he is going to marry. Yes, his toenails are painted pink. See this link . At Preschool he got to wear the birthday hat while his friends sang to him. Getting his Birthday Squeezes from Miss Julie. The cupcakes he shared with his friends. He wanted green cupcakes and his Grandma found these great Easter Egg Hunt sprinkles. Myles was incredibly thrilled with his little preschool party.