Running

Greg has always run, for years. He always gets up early and runs a few miles. Then last fall he ran a little more during the weeks and ate less. Slowly the pounds came off. He has lost 25lbs. so far. Wahoo for him! You should see his baggy clothes. We need to go shopping. I keep begging him. I'm excited. He claims he wants to wait until he gets down 30 lbs. - Whatever. 

And this February he started up training for a marathon. He is devoted. He is great at it. He does his big runs every Saturday. 2 weeks ago he did the biggest one. 20 miles. Yes, that's 20! And he ran the whole time! No walking, just running. All of his runs he just runs. He says his body just adapts. I can't fathom doing that. I know there are a lot of "real runners" out there, but I am not one of them.  

So for the big 20 miler I took the boys and we did a few drive by's so they could see their daddy and cheer him on. Since I know they won't be able to during the actual marathon. And then we waited above the zoo and gave him some water to send him back to his route. He felt good and said he wishes he could have just done the other 6 miles and been done. It's getting a little old to take all of his Saturdays for months of training. And getting to bed early so he can get up a little earlier to run. Only a few weeks left until the big day. We are all excited around here.

Go Greg!

more phone captures

 These two boys... They are little rascals together. They've been good sports and keeping busy at their brothers school while I volunteered with the Presidential Fitness program for several days the last 2 weeks. And they had fun being buddies at the park last week for a play group. I loved that they held hands while going down the slide together. And just this morning Rafe asking for the old farm house toy to come out and play "house" together for an hour. They even took their animals for potty breaks in the barn.

After a long morning at Target, Bodie said he was tired and wanted to sleep. So he hung a bag and rested his head in it. Ha! I thought it was so funny. Don't worry, I checked on him and made sure he was breathing. He could easily put his head up and take it out of the bag. In fact he got mad at me every time I checked on him or made him answer me.

 And every year I tell Greg we need to trim back our Lilac bushes. You think they are just a little overgrown?  But man oh man. We open our back door and get a big whiff and the whole yard smells of the fragrant Lilacs. I wish they'd last longer.

What else... Creed heard a scary story on Friday and then for the first time he woke us up (me multiple times) because of a nightmare and was actually crying and sobbing he was so scared. Poor guy. And then Saturday night he had a slight loose tooth. I didn't even know about it.  And by Sunday afternoon he had messed with it enough and pulled it out. 

Jaxon is driving us crazy with the latest thing he wants to buy. He asks 30 times a day to look it up on the computer again. This week it's some silly lego thing. 

Greg finally took the high chair out of the kitchen and down to the storage room. I've been preparing myself for it and haven't even been using it. And Rafe actually cried a sad little cry when he saw his daddy removing it. It was so cute. His lower lip sticking out and quivering. So sad was he. Me too.

And Greg is out of town and I'm not in the mood to do it ALL alone this week. At all. The calendar is full. Ugh.

Bad Day

Rafe the Terrible! Oh my word. This boy of ours. I've often spoken of how he can be a grump or a screamer and mean. But also sweet and cute. So yesterday was all mean. Seriously. It never ended. Just kept going and going. First, after I asked him not to and asked him to put it away, he chucked my toothbrush holder in the toilet.

After one of his many times in time-out in his room he decided to rip off the big Lightning McQueen sticker/decal off of his bed. So now it's just a red race car. 

He cried and screamed and wouldn't come out of his room for like an hour. He also tried fixing his bed because I think he was sad - I made him feel guilty for ruining it. So the sticker is wrinkled and smashed on the side.

He hit/slapped me on my face 2-3 times. It stung. He refused to get in or out of the car. That was a wrestle and scream fest. He also hit poor Canon who we car pool with as he was getting in the car. His tantrum and refusal to eat lunch or cooperate with anything in any way also made us miss a neighbors picnic we wanted to go to. 

I feel my blood boil when he acts that way. Half the time I don't even know what to do with him or how to handle it. I've tried being sweet, ignoring it, a little reverse psychology, letting him know I'm mad, being firm, trying to bring humor. If I can calm myself enough the humor almost always works. Patience that I don't have most the time.

And today... is different. He is being nice again. And cute. He actually played being a doggy and crawled all the way over through the kitchen to me wanting me to pet him while asking for a snack. Then crawled back to the couch while I brought him something to eat. Panting and hanging his tongue out like dogs do. Asked to watch "Baby Rafe" - home movies that he can't get enough of.

He was willing to get in the car and run to three different places with me. It's been nice. He's only screamed a couple times but not like normal. 

 We've got our work cut out for us!

Eggstravaganza

Getting ready for Easter... I'll just talk about the pictures and that should cover it all. First the boys frosted my mom's sugar cookies for FHE. Then on Saturday night we colored eggs. And when we were done Greg was playing some music and for some reason the boys got their hats on and put them backwards and put their jackets on and thought they were being all gangster rap or something. So the picture of their egg dying artwork is a bunch of homeboys or something? Ha!

We got the boys up bright and early on Easter Sunday so that we'd have time to still get ready for 9 o'clock church. Rafe didn't hunt for eggs much or really bother to look for his basket. He started unwrapping candy and never stopped. Creed escorted him around and "helped" him find his basket. Creed found his under the desk in the office. Then Jax and Creed helped Bodie find his basket in the shower. And the very last and hardest one to find was Jax's. It was down in the old apt. extra dryer.

 The older boys actually left the Easter bunny a note asking for items. Geesh, it's not like he's Santa Claus. We told them that's not going to work. But they did get lots of yummy chocolate, a snack, drink, a little nano cars, some ties for the older boys, a shirt for Bo, socks for Rafe, and beach towels.

 A very fast and quick photo shoot moments before church. I had to capture all of them in ties. First time Rafe has worn one. And 2nd time for Bo. He's actually wearing Creed's shirt because we can't find shirts for him big enough for his thick neck to button up. And Jax was so happy, he's been asking for a tie like dads, no clip on or zip.

 I'm proud of my editing in the picture of them. I removed a big ugly man-hole cover, a dirty drain, and a fire hydrant. I wanted to get our neighbors pink tree in the picture. I was so focused on getting them to smile and look at me I forgot to make sure I angled it right to capture the blossoms too. Oh well. The Lorenzon house and mountians are in the back ground. Handsome boys!

 In the next collage: Boys in the car on the way to church, I took 3 yr. old b-day pics of Rafe after church. Bodie gave him a little love. So cute! And Creed took some pics of Greg and I. And this whole last week leading up to Easter Sunday I had the boys watching video's from YouTube and Mormon Channel every night about Christ, the last week of his life & the Resurrection. Here they are watching the last one. And I love that they are LOVING and enthralled watching them. I know when I was a child growing up if I would have been able to see and visualize what they see in these incredible video's it would have helped me. I only had my imagination of what it was like for Christ.

After a few naps we headed up to my parents in Bountiful. We ate ham and yummy dessert and played with cousins and visited.

I love this picture of the kids having a running race in the backyard. I love all their faces. So fun!

 Here's the Williamsen cousins with the Lorenzon boys. The group watching the activities and me swinging with Bodie - while trying to teach him again how to pump on a swing.

It was a very beautiful day, great weather, good company, incredible message for Easter! -Because of Him.

 Yay for spring!

bro

 Here's some random pics. Creed will get baptized at the end of this year so we were at a preview for all the kids turning 8. They got to go see the font and I just liked the stained glass window and the light coming through and Jax and Creed there looking and talking about it. Bodie is off to the side there on the right. It was cute, Jax was sharing a little info about it with the other kids, because he's done it. He is excited for Creed. But it is a long ways away.

***

Here's a short and sweet little poem.

Brothers -

Brothers are family,
And brothers are friends,
Brothers stick together,
BROTHERS have no end...

Brandon Sigourney

Rafe and Bodie having a fun little battle. They play together all day long, they sit by each other in the car, they share a bedroom together, they eat lunch together, they can be so good to each other, and they can be bad together.

 Flash Back Picture - Here is Jax and Creed reading a book together at bedtime. This was May 2011.

This is a good brother moment of them together. They play together, they fight, they've always shared a bedroom, and they sit by each other in the car, they go to the same school, they can be so good to one another, and they can be bad. But they are great brothers.

Rafe's 3rd

 Rafe had his 3rd Birthday. And he was so happy about it. Finally it was his turn to open the presents, his presents. His older brothers have been great this last year in always letting Rafe help them open their presents. And now that it was Rafe's b-day it was all we could do to get Jax and Creed out of bed in the morning before breakfast to open his presents. As you can see they are laying on the couches while he did it. But Bodie was his helper and so excited about the robot he got.

Rafe on the other hand, not so excited about the robot he got. I told Greg the robot would scare him and he won't want it. Sure enough, I am always right. :)  I don't have a picture of the many times Rafe cries and screams being terrified of the loud scary robot. But he was and still is. Greg was trying to get him to touch it and he finally got close to it at the end of the day. But still wouldn't touch it. And a week later he still wont turn it on or let anyone else. If it is on, he is far away hiding on his bed or in another room. But he did love the rest of his presents. He loved choosing his balloons and the train on his cake.

 It took him 3 breaths to blow out his 3 candles one by one. And his tongue out of his mouth during every picture of him opening more presents that evening while we had G-ma and G-pa Williamsen and Amy and Karl over to celebrate. (G-ma Lorenzon already came the day before and saw Rafe)

It wasn't until his brothers got their robots out as well and were playing all together that Rafe got close to "watch". He says his is too loud and to scary. He'll get mad and yell no to anyone wanting to turn it on.

This is my new favorite picture. Going to bed and saying goodnight with a big group hug. It doesn't happen very often and I snapped a picture of them being so cute. 

 

We love you Rafe. We love when you are so cute and we love your bellowing laugh, we love your big old man sneeze, we love even more when you don't scream at us or hit us or cry and cry. He is almost all potty trained, he'll eat anything we feed him, he loves watching Mickey Mouse and Thomas the Train. He always takes off his shoes and socks at home or at the store. I have to watch him because he'll just drop them, sometimes he'll tell me sometimes he won't as we push him along in the cart. I have to really work my magic to get him in the car sometimes so I can run errands. Let's just say he's made me late a lot. And he loves to come sit on my lap while I'm at the computer. He loves his bedtime stories and loves getting into his brothers things. They don't really love that. :)

And my baby is now a 3 year old. What?! Man I can't believe how fast these years are going by. It makes my heart ache.

Spring break so far.

Ta Da! Singing away while doing his business on the toilet. We've been doing lots of this during spring break. This kid is finally figuring out how this potty stuff works. I was wondering if Rafe would ever actually do anything in the toilet. And alas- he did it! We were so happy, he got a new truck and then when he went number 2 he got a treat at the store. He chose donuts.

He has been as excited as we are. But nobody is more excited then Greg who is loving not buying anymore diapers. It certainly will be nice not to have to change diapers anymore after all these years. Hmm, I think I'm realizing how freak'n excited I AM!!

What else have we done over spring break...

We had a cousins sleepover one night. We went to a matinee movie with some friends one of the days. We've played lots of video games and watched movies at home. Jax had 2 basketball games. Oh and we will celebrate Rafe's B-day and watch some Gen. Conference.

Rafe and I enjoyed our wait at the pediatricians office one evening. This is my favorite room. Lots to see on the walls and keep Rafe busy pointing it all out. We just took him in because he seems to be having pain in the back of his head/neck when he screams and cries. He is always holding it because it hurts. And he happens to still have fluid in his ear from his last ear infection. But all seems normal and we'll have to see how this pain thing goes. Maybe one day an x-ray will have to be done?

And one day we went bowling with our neighbor friends. I captured a little of Rafe's 1st time bowling. 1st picture he just pushed the ball down the lane. The 2nd pic he is cheering with arms up, and the 3rd, he's falling into Jax for a hug/love he was so happy.

Bodie has been asking forever to go bowling. So we finally did it. And he was the one asking if we were done yet because he wanted to go home. I guess watching all the balls inch down the lane got too boring. Heck, half of them never made it to the end. We had a pile up quite often. It was... great.

 Here is the group of excellent bowlers, us and the Ungurens. I also like how their 4 kids are the same ages as our 4 kids. And the 3 oldest are all in the same classes at school.

And after 9 days of a spring break - Good grief. We didn't have anywhere to go this year and we had the longest break ever. And the worst weather. Snow and rain and more snow all melty and kinda cold outside. So we weren't able to enjoy parks, bikes or the outdoors much. So basically I am very done and ready to send my boys back to school. 

I am really glad for a little break I got today to go for most the day to one of my BFF's wedding! Jolene got married! Here we are outside the temple. Greg had to go back to work between and I didn't get a pic with him. Oh well. And then I had to share this one of her looking in the window just before her luncheon. She was actually trying to get some of her family to go back outside for some pictures. And of course checking herself in the reflection. I also love the cake and the flowers in the picture too. Yay for Jolene and Tony. I'm so happy for her.

J-Ball

 Jax loves himself some basketball. He has been patiently waiting for spring to come so he can play. We are both a little disappointed though. The team is for 3rd and 4th graders. And he is in 3rd and most of his team is as well. And let's just say that by 4th grade, the kids are much better at the game. So he's not having as much fun always getting creamed by the other teams (of 4th graders) and not being able to do as well. Hopefully he'll still love the game and want to do it again next year. He's pretty good, and is good at always double dribbling and traveling ;). This last game he got quite a few shots up but just didn't quite make it in the net. His team was cursed I tell ya.

 He has such concentration. I enjoyed basketball growing up so I'm glad he's into it too.

And this is what else happens during his games. Rafe is so afraid of the loud whistles and ridiculously loud buzzer. So he hides and won't move, just wants to be held. As you can see he's cuddled into Greg's side. He kept his coat on and was hotter than Hades for wearing it the whole time. Bodie and Creed found other things to do. Like roll around and get dirty. There are a couple friends on the team so we can have people to hang out with and cheer them on.

Too many

Cars, trucks, planes, trains, all things that go. (Boats, skateboards, helicopters, 4 wheelers, space ships, etc.) Rafe and I had a free half hour today. So we emptied the containers and lined up all the vehicles in the house. I quickly snapped a picture before Rafe bull dozed through the nice organization. Gosh, back when we just had Jax we had just a few cars and trucks. And 9 years and 4 boys later, this is what you get. Of course I forgot to include the remote control cars, race tracks and many many broken and thrown out vehicles over the years.

Are we done with the collection yet? Probably not, especially since Rafe's b-day is coming up. I wonder what it would be like to have half as many cars and the other half of our toy collection being pink, dolls, and princess stuff? 

Too much boy stuff at our house. What do you get year after year, boy after boy? We have too many toys. I'm outta ideas.

This Kid

This kid has way out grown this high chair. We only use it maybe 25% of the time anymore. He actually likes it. (I love that he's eating and pointing his toes and looking up at Greg while I snapped the picture) I can't part with it. And Greg keeps begging to toss it out. It's one of the last remaining baby items. I don't know how to say good bye. All 4 of my boys used this. For 9 years it's had it's place in our kitchen. It's held up great. It doesn't look so great. But it's lasted. I know the end is near. I just wanted to say how I have loved you high chair. You were a big big part of the Lorenzon boys life. Tears will be shed. Not so much for the chair I suppose, but for knowing it is the last of the baby items still around.

And this kid... Greg chopped the boys hair and got rid of the long dark locks on Rafe. Now it shows his purty blonde again.

One minute he is happy and laughing, the next he is a grouch. He gets mad and says mean things, screams a scream Greg can't stand. But happy or sad or mad, his brothers get a kick out of him.

This face below I see all too often. He scowls and starts telling me to "be quiet" or even "shut up" and talking back to me and is a real pill. The two's have been bad. I hope his three's are better!

With my older boys I would say "terrible twos - no way, it's terrible three's" but he had the two's. So I'm crossing my fingers. Every morning he is mad at yells at me. For no reason other than he woke up on the wrong side of the bed. I'm trying to be patient. Trying to be loving, but oh man it is hard.