Keeping Up With the Joneses

On Friday Marshall took Mason and Myles to the 2nd Annual Comic Con in Salt Lake. He checked the boys out of school early and they had a great time. Mason insisted on wearing his batman hoodie under a regular hoodie so no one would guess his "secret identity" They got to shoot star wars guys with nerf guns.  Mason holding a tarantula. Ew.  They had some very life-like R2D2 robots. Not sure what is up with Mason's silly face. 

We had a pretty good harvest from our fruit trees this year. We had a bumper crop of plums and nectarines. The pears didn't fair as well as usual, and we made some mistakes with the raspberries which will be corrected next year. But as always, we had plenty of fruit to give away, and did what we could with the rest of it. Marshall dehydrated some nectarines. He loves his dehydrator! This is about 1/4 of the plums this year. They are a little tart but the kids eat 10-15 a day. The nectarines were delicious and are always a hit at our workplaces. McKay loved eating the fruit whole. We just had to catch him before he ate the pits! Jessica and I canned 24 jars of salsa!

On Saturday I was making sandwiches for lunch and Max begged me to make one for his old Preschool teacher Miss Julie.  I suggested that maybe she would prefer the cookies Max made yesterday and Max agreed. After lunch, he and McKay drove his truck car across the street with the cookies in the back. I love how excited McKay is here.

Max started kindergarten a week after his brothers started school, and he could hardly wait! He was so excited to get dressed this morning and was all smiles. When I picked him up after school he had to show me the class pet (a spider), his cubby, all the places he found his name, and then talked non-stop all the way home. His teacher emailed me this picture of him playing at recess. His teacher also emailed this picture to me.  When we went in the classroom he couldn't stop smiling. He found his spot, sat down, and just grinned at me.  He has a hard time staying still for pictures.  So excited I can't believe my baby boy is growing up. 

Max had his kindergarten check-up today and did great for the most part. He had to have 3 shots and was VERY MAD. He has been limping the whole afternoon and evening and I can tell he is pretty sore. He had a great check-up with perfect health. He has gone from the 3rd percentile to the 19th percentile which we were very happy with (36 lbs) and is considered in the normal range again. He is 43 inches tall (47th percentile) and his BMI is 14 (7th percentile). Developmentally he is a little behind with his fine motor skills, but we knew that and he is working on it He takes after his mom and dad with pretty poor handwriting. Max is just the happiest kid and is so excited to start BYU Kindergarten next week (he will probably do kindergarten again the next year). We were thrilled to find out that he can receive 50 minutes of speech therapy twice a week (compared to the 10 minutes a week he could receive through the school district)! We've met a few friends in his class and I think he...

My babycakes is 9 months old! He had his 9-month well-child check today and was perfectly healthy. He weighs more than any of his brothers did at this age. He weights 18.3 lbs (22nd percentile), 27.25 inches (6th percentile), and his head circumference was 17.75 inches (47th percentile). He's meeting all his developmental milestones. He crawls everywhere, pulls up and stands, waves hello and goodbye, shakes his head no, and says mama and dada. He absolutely loves his brothers and is such a fun kid. He loves to laugh and play with his brothers and just follows them around the house. He can crawl up the stairs but hasn't mastered going downstairs and so we have to keep a close eye on him. He eats mostly table foods and loves bananas, mac and cheese, and oatmeal. He goes to bed around 8 and sleeps until about 8 AM.  His favorite thing in the world seems to be baths. As soon as he sees the bathtub he starts screaming and trying to climb in. We are so happy to have our baby ca...

I have to admit, I am really not ready for school to start. Sure I have all their clothes, backpacks, and school supplies ready, but emotionally--not even close! I feel like the summer went by way to fast. While during the school year, Mason has stomach aches from worrying and Myles in insanely anxious, they were so wonderfully relaxed and happy this summer. It feels awful sending them back to school. If I were a different kind of mom with a better temperament, I would consider homeschooling. But I really think I would kill my children if I homeschooled. Literally. So with a lot of anxiety of my own, I sent them to school this morning. More details in the picture captions. Mason started 4th grade today. He has been looking forward to school starting all summer because he misses his friends. When we walked into his school last night to meet his teachers, he said to me "just to warn you, I'm probably the most popular kid in school. People love me." Indeed they did! Peopl...