october ending

October ends this week. The boys have their costumes figured out and we are doing fall stuff.

Like...

Bodie playing baseball (coach pitch T-ball). He has a very powerful swing. Talk about a power house. But, now we just need him to hit the ball when it's pitched to him. :)  He has fun playing with his little buddy Canon.

Everywhere I look on social media people are showing pics of their cuteness at a pumpkin patch and all the fun that is offered. Not us, this is how we do a pumpkin patch! Smith's, close to home and the boys had a fun time finding their perfect pumpkin. And even helped a few other people reach for one in the back.

 Red Ribbon week is always a fun one at school. It was crazy hair day again, and the one year mark from when my dad passed away last year. I can't believe it's been a whole year. We reminisced of the funeral week from a year before. That evening we visited the cemetery with our ninja and 2 crazy hair boys. Rafe would have no part of his weird brothers.

Greg's cousin had a cousin's Halloween party. We borrowed our costumes from our neighbors and had a good time. Even if Greg removed his hot Hulk costume after 20 minutes. :) I am from the Avengers also, as Black Widow in case you are wondering. Too bad I couldn't find a red wig.

And on Sunday it was the Primary Program. For the first time I had all 4 of my boys up on the stand. Rafe with the little Sunbeams. Greg and I and his parents were childless while watching. I snapped a picture just before they were to go up to the stand. Rafe getting his playing done. Notice the other 3 boys messing around during the beginning. Always commotion on our bench. :)

Happenings

 Here is a picture overview of what we've been up to.

I had a sisters b-day lunch with my sis-in-laws from Greg's family. The short hair in front is not a sister, forgot her name (then there's Laura, Alisa, Anna, me, & Andrea). It was a fun afternoon. Then Bodie decides to lay on me while I was trying "close my eyes and rest" for a bit. If it's not him, it'll be Rafe. The next pic, eBay had a family food truck party. So we tried out a few different ones and enjoyed our evening in Draper in the pic is Rafe and Bo eating away. And we like going out to eat on the weekends, so there we are having Mexican at Lone Star Taqueria, yum.

I took this picture of a old picture of Bodie as a baby and put it on instagram and in a few hours we had 30 likes. It was a fast record for me. I told Bodie it's because he was so cute. It fell out of our bedtime story book, it was a nice surprise. And Greg was on business in San Jose and went to Santa Cruz one evening and sent me the beach picture of himself to make me jealous. The last picture was from when we were driving to the airport to pick up Greg and the sky was on fire!

I'm daring to put this on here, one day Jax will find out and might be mad. But I'm taking a chance with how cute it is and for a little journal for him, since he never uses his. He's had a crush on a girl all last year, and then it still continued this year. She is in our ward, they walk in the group to school together, are in the same class and have obviously liked each other and admitted it to each other recently. Then I saw this on his ipod. We jokingly called her his girl friend. But he immediately corrected us. She is not, just a friend who he "really crushes on". And she likes him too apparently. She started using the heart emoticons first. But they are too young anyway, it was just fun to see the childhood crushes talking or texting together. The blue is Jax. The whole feed is great entertainment to read though. :)

And Greg took Jax and our camper and joined the hunting posse for the annual Elk hunt in the Uinta's. They didn't get one. But they sure had fun while we watched Gen. Conference at home. And it was great, I was the lucky one to clean off all the mud from boots and clothes when they got home.

UEA Fall Break has started. So yesterday we went downtown with my mom to check out the newly redone Church History Museum. It was fun, crowded, and a lot of technology interaction at the museum. Made me wonder where all the artifacts are? A yummy lunch of Lion House Rolls and pie for dessert. Healthy, ay? And then we also did a tour of the Conference Center. My boys have never been. It was really neat. They seemed to like it too. A lot of wow! We were on our feet for hours and were tired and watched a movie at home while Greg worked late at the duplexes getting them winterized. Now we have no idea what on earth to do the rest of the fall break.

 

Rock Climbed

We have been meaning to take our boys rock climbing for a long time, it's been a few years. So we had a free Saturday, the weather was like summer in October so we did it. And it was only 2 minutes from our house. We went past the Iron Curtain rock wall at the mouth of Parley's Canyon and were at a place called the Balcony. It was a cliff hanging hike to get there. We think we found a safer route for next time. And then we did our climbing.

Jax loved it, and did it a couple times. Wanting to time himself. And I can't believe both my older boys were able to fit into my climbing shoes. How are they that big?

 \

It was so so nice to be the in shade the whole time.

In the 3 lower pictures in the collage is our adventure when we were done climbing.

We were headed back to the car, we thought we'd go down instead of up. But as we moved west and had to head up a steep hill and it was causing a rock slide, Greg went up with Jax to the car while the rest of us slid down. Literally slid down on our bums. And while we slid, I slid with Rafe on my lap and a motion of rock slide moving with me. Kinda scary and freaky. It was steep so I was really worried about the safety of my children of course. Cars were driving by pointing at us. I'm sure wondering what on earth we were doing. Ha! I said a few silent prayers and we made it one by one. Greg came along the highway in the car and we all jumped in. The boys thought it was an adventure. Greg and I were glad to get out of a sticky situation. 

No fear, we will do it again. We'll just make sure we plan a little safer. :)

Rafe's school

 Take two! Rafe's second first day of preschool. So this was taken the beginning of October at the first day of starting his new preschool. Good grief what a month of September preschool we had! 

Happy Day!

Here's our story...

We put him in Granite School District - Upland Terrace Preschool, just like his brothers have all done. I have loved it when they are 4 years old. 4 days a week, 3 hrs. a day. And the teachers and classroom have been a great learning environment and helped my children socially and to learn and grow. But this time, with my shy sweet baby of the family. It was a little different. We even had neighborhood friends we signed him up with. Then after 2 weeks in, one of them, his favorite up and left back to our old preschool (felt it wasn't right for them). I was so sad, our carpool was gone, his favorite friend Lucy was gone. She was the only way he would go to school. In fact everyday was a HUGE battle to get Rafe to please get dressed, please get shoes on, lets get in the car... Sometimes I would call Greg and have him tell Rafe he has to because he wouldn't do what I asked and I would get mad. I seriously was late EVERY time I had to drive car pool. It was killing me. Talk about a long month. I was dreading the whole year. I was thinking it was a phase and would change. He just hated it and didn't want to go to school.
 I volunteered a couple times in September and his teacher wanted to talk to me about him. He wouldn't ever play with the other kids, and he wouldn't do what he was asked. What?! My child. That was weird behavior and concerned me. And then we discover a bully in class. This bully was violent, scratched our other friend a blood scratch across her forehead and eye/eye lid. Yikes, then while I was there he full on bit another boy. And the stories of stuff he had done was a list that was growing. We talked with the teacher and district, they were trying to find a solution. In the mean time I was blessed with an opportunity to go back to our old preschool with Miss Jenn from last year. That, Rafe loved and kept talking about. And she even let the other little neighbor girls in also.  I felt like crying when we all got in. So beginning of October we switched schools and now we are back to our 3 kid neighborhood carpool. Rafe likes school and is glad when he goes again.  It has been wonderful.  For whatever reasons, Upland Terrace wasn't a good fit for Rafe and we had an opportunity and switched him.  And I'm not looking back.  Yeah!  Wonderful for him, and for us.  It is a relief.

Rafe is a little turkey. He is always asking for me to take his picture. The scratch on is forehead was from fighting with his brother. Always wanting to play Clumsy Ninja on my phone, I find pictures of Rafe's self portraits all too often, we are still trying to master him putting on his shoes. I know, we are bad and always just do it for him so we need to get the baby of the family to be a little more independent. And then a silly Rafe who likes to hide under a blanket after his cold bowl of cereal in the mornings. And he was walking around with it on his head. Just being silly the way Rafe is silly.

Kitchen Remodel Saga

Can't Even 

The whole process of gutting your kitchen and bathroom, living in a renovation, the hours of physical labor, the emotional drain, never any downtime - always stuff to be done, the many many and big decisions, I'm so thankful for all that Greg did to make this possible and for all the help Abe did. Can't Even!

Before:

The previous owners hand made the cabinets in their wood shop in the 1980's or something. And after all this time they were falling apart. They were laminate and I hated them. Greg said they were beginning to be awful. At least they were white and not some ugly color. We also did not like the layout. We had to zig-zag through the kitchen, the over hanging cabinets blocked views and the cooler air flow. We just really wanted something nice and new. After 12 years we were done, it was either move or remodel. 

You can't really tell in the pictures, but they were uneven, missing knobs, peeling apart, chipping, and need I even mention the mauve/pinkish beige counter tops.

Plenty of pictures for posterity and to jog some laughs remembering. And the white tile! Ugh! What a pain to keep clean. But what a cute baby Rafe modeling for me years ago. Just ignore the piles and clutter it was the last week of school - enough said with all the crap the boys bring home.

And the outdated bathroom. Salmon color grout, peach/tan/brownish tile, cream counter with a sea shell shaped sink. Bone color toilet and original cast iron tub. It was long over due for a remodel.

Again, cute little models, but I'm trying to show the tile, grout, etc.

After:

Here it is, almost all done. Minor details left. Like a window sill, pencil trim, and some decor, etc.

We love it! We love having a kitchen again, I am so happy. It makes it seem like a whole new home. We rearranged the layout and the appliances. Now we just need to get new appliances... in time.

A close up and our bathroom almost finished too. Just some curtains and decor for in there.

This is my dream kitchen below. I am showing it for fun, so I can remember and maybe have a laugh at the style one day. I think is great right now, nice and modern. Perhaps one day it will be ghastly? But, I LOVE IT! It is my inspiration. And I talked Greg into doing the bold floor. But we had a difficult time finding it and getting in done in our time table.

Anyways, so now we are to the demolition....  We did it right after school got out in June (literally the next day). And Greg wanted to get it all done before he started his new job at ebay. So the night before we were packing our kitchen up and stashed the many boxes and things in the living room and office down stairs. I wish I had a good picture of our crowded living room, full of the fridge, dishwasher, stove, and boxes all summer long in chaos.

 Then week after week... we worked on the floors, the walls, the electrical. And the hours of running all over the valley looking at cabinets, counter tops, paint, tile, tile, tile, hours spent on line, shopping, the countless times running to Home Depot. It was a full-time gig I tell ya!

So glad I meticulously taped plastic up to block out all the dust. And I love Bodie's tongue sticking out while hard at work with a screw driver. The boys loved hammering at things, and at different times some of them were really good helpers and other times others would be. But they all enjoyed helping. It was great to have them haul debris to the dumpster in the drive-way.

Chiseling tile, no problem. Hauling away a 300 lb. tub, no problem. Ha!

What a beast of a job. Our kitchen is not only 60 years old, but the floor, walls, ceiling showed it. All different heights and uneven everything. Greg and I worried about some things, but in the end it all came together. We enlisted our bro-in-law Abe to help with demo, and drywall, and laying our kitchen floor. What a task! He came, and worked and worked with us, we used his tools, he came back again and again until it was done and he was ready to curse the uneven floor! Ha!  "Abe, you're my hero" - that's what I said to him every day he was there. In my Ferris Bueller's Day Off movie voice. :) And in the very end I looked at my hubby and said most lovingly, "Greg, you're my hero"! He's the man and I'm so glad he is capable to go and do and so glad he is persuaded by his wife to go along with my ideas.

After we got our floor half done, everything takes way longer than expected. So it wasn't all finished when we were scheduled for the cabinets to be installed. So after the cabinets were in, then the kitchen floor was finished! 

And that's me, grouting. Yes, I grouted our whole kitchen and bathroom floor. And I NEVER want to do it again. :) I had Jax to help me empty the water bucket and refresh it for me. And when I panicked about the drying, wiping, and cleaning before it dries I had Greg help sponge for me. I did the bathroom in one afternoon. It was ok. But the kitchen, oh boy. That was a lot of floor. My body died.

And then weeks later, after I painted the walls, after our counter tops were installed, Greg and I installed our back splash (ok mostly Greg). I helped and grouted with Greg. Team work is nice. And there's Abe laying the last piece of tile. I could shed tears of joy that it was finished and we were close to the finished product!

I chose dark brown tile floor, because we didn't want wood or faux wood. Everyone has dark wood floor, so we figured the dark tile will go well and be easy maintenance. I wanted Gray cabinets (like from my dream pic), and changed it up a little by adding white upper cabinets. I love marble back splash, so we did a glass polished that looks like marble. And the lighting was fun to add some bling. Our neighbor is an electrician and he helped install and move wires and things for us.

Picking a light gray paint color was ridiculous! We picked several, went through quite a few samples, and even painted full walls. Everything was too purple, blue, tan. How hard is it to mix black and white to get some gray? The last one we chose, we painted several samples on different walls and called it good. Then I painted and by the next day or evening I felt it was too minty greenish of a gray! Ahh! But I'm not painting over it. I'll just live with it for now. Everyone says it looks gray to them. So that's good enough. It's amazing how the certain time of the day lighting, evening, changes it constantly.

So many people live through building and remodeling. It is crazy, I don't want to do it again - at least for a long long time. Well after I've forgotten the toll it takes. Have I mentioned how much time Greg spent laboring on our remodel? How much time I spent? The poor boys were probably a little neglected this summer. But they survived and are enjoying our new kitchen with us. The End!

The details in case I need to remember...

Fashion Cabinets made here in SLC
We ordered tile and counters in the kitchen from Prosource

Aspen Countertops did Hanstone Quartz in Aurora Snow

Daltile, Concrete Connection glazed tile in East Side Brown, grout color Sable Brown

Kitchen back splash is from Arizona Tile the Baroque Carrara

Bathroom tile is Jadidi Back to Basics, polished Charcoal with grout color Truffle

bathroom countertop is Cambria Quartz in Dovetale (?) -we found a remnant

bathroom back splash is from Arizona Tile the Skylights Glass Subway tile in white &

the dark back splash boarder is from Lowes the Allen & Roth Shimmering Lights Glass Mosaic

vanity color is Benjamin Moore in San Antonio Gray

Wall paint color is Ralph Lauren in Silversmith

Kitchen sink is Blanco Siligranite II in Metallic Gray  (which I love!)

Delta Trask kitchen faucet.

1st days

 School started the 19th of August. Yes, that's a mid number of the month, in the teens. Our summer came to a screeching halt. But it was secretly quite nice after all. Nice to have the boys gone, out of the house, away from each other and a break from fighting. Having them home all summer was getting to us. 

Jax is ready to rule the school. Forget sixth grade, he thinks he can now. Both of his classes (French/English) are outside in the portables. So he's not "in" the school that much. That's going to get old in the winter or when I need to get him or run to his classroom. Stink!

And I begged for him to cut his hair. He wouldn't... until he came home after the first day and begged Greg to in fact cut it. His friends teased him and basically said he looked funny with long shaggy dog hair. (rude kids) So he gave into pressure and wanting to look like his normal self and Greg cut it on Thursday night. Phew!

 And Creed, same thing about the hair. But he only cut his to be like Jax. That makes Jax mad. :)

Both he and Jax have 1 male teacher this year. And the other teacher of Creed was NOT a good teacher for Jax. We call her evil. But Creed has a good attitude and says he's going to be on her good side. So far, so good.

 And our Bodie. He is in Kindergarten again. This time at the same school as Jax and Creed. We told him if he wants to go to their school he can go and do KG and then next year he can be in the French like his brothers. He is fine and happy about that. And so excited to walk to school with his brothers and the herd of kids going too. He is a giant, but he was last year too.

So, with our August birthday boy... It was a VERY hard decision to have him repeat KG. It has been on my mind for years and especially months. The pros and cons and the feeling we felt to do what is best for Bodie. A lot of motherly prayers have gone into this and I knew what conclusion would be best. I could make this a long story. But I will try and keep it short. Ultimately it came down to if he is ready to go into 1st grade French Immersion. And we truly felt he needs more time and will be better off to do that next year. He certainly doesn't need to repeat kindergarten really, but he certainly would have a struggle with being the youngest and behind - year after year through elementary school.  He's been a little behind with things when he was young like not crawling, walking, jumping, and now writing, he is in speech,  and he's done really well with reading last year. But at the end of year assessment with his great Kindergarten teacher at Oakridge, he was still one of the "lower" ones in his class and can still work on a lot of things.

I am happy that he will not be the young baby of his class, but now he can be the oldest and thrive better. He is at the top of his class right now after his assessment last week. It will help his self esteem and bring him confidence he recognizes he doesn't have. He hated how behind he was with his peers and how he would get their help a lot. He could see it and feel it. Now we told him he can be the one to help the kids in his class. He fits in with either year of kids, but now he will have a better chance of achieving instead of struggling so much and being happy and confident instead of sad and calling himself stupid. Makes me sad. And he won't be with his best friend in first grade, but that's ok, I suppose he can make new friends to have all through school - that are "his" age. 

If he reads this one day or wonders why we had him wait to start 1st grade. It's because we love him and knew in our hearts what would be best for him. We gave him a gift. To have another year of childhood, and to become the strong smart boy we know he is. 

Now to just get through this "silly" repeat of a year with a not impressive teacher. We got this!

 ***

Ok, back to 1st days...

Rafe finally started preschool. Several weeks after his brothers started school. Geesh that was a long wait. But he is happy as can be. I will volunteer in his class every-once-in-a-while so that will be fun. And we go with a few little girls from our neighborhood to carpool with too. 4 days a week leaves me with 4 DAYS A WEEK! I am just a little excited about that fact. All the kids gone in the mornings. It is so nice.

Here's a few close ups. Bodie's eyes hurting in the morning after I made him open them for so long for pictures on his first day. And then after school on the first day, he had a good one and was happy. And I had to share the picture of his scraggly tooth. He kept hurting it, I tried pulling it, but got too grossed out and realized it would need some yanking, so Greg did it, phew! And then one of Rafe and his scratch below his eye from fighting with his brother. Of course.

end of sum

Here's some pics of the last of our summer from my phone - that don't involve our kitchen remodel. I'll get to posting about that when I get to it.

 Bodie lost his first tooth in July! The first pic he is in shock of having Greg just pull it out. Then he laughed after he realized he was worried for nothing. By the time his second tooth came out in August, he was scared and cried and waiting all day for Greg to pull it out. And we watched 7 Brides for 7 Brothers and the boys loved it, and loved dancing around too. And Greg's big burger. We haven't BBQ'd much at all this summer. We were too busy with the kitchen to do our normal summer stuff. :(

And... Rafe is just getting up after steam rolling his brothers while camping up at East Canyon. Then a quick race with the Davies at the track, we only did that a handful of times this summer too. :( 

Then we did a tour of Fox 13 news with cousins. Then squished in the back seat on the way to church. Not much longer will they be able to sit hip to hip and fit all 4 of them.

  

Greg took a quick time out from laying our back splash to change our tire to our spare because we got a screw in the tire! And Rafe being half naked all afternoon, just because that's what boys do. With one sock too. Whatever. And Rafe hiding under pillows and nobody can see him.

All the rest of our summer will be on a lengthy post on our remodel. I'm so excited to write that up. Not!

Our EU trip

Greg went to Amsterdam to work with his boss training some of the eBay offices on stuff. Luckily about a week before he left he finally got his passport, that took forever to arrive. And about 2 weeks before we checked our points and we booked me a ticket and I arranged for our mom's and my sister to babysit and cleared my full calendar and joined him for part of the trip. Because of the remodel my mom helped me unpack and move back into our kitchen just before we left. It was crazy timing but I am so glad I went. So glad we could be there together and have a little vacation with just the 2 of us. I was a little worried, because I had no time to plan and prepare what I was going to do and see. All my spare time before we left was all on the remodel stuff. So I felt quite unprepared. But I quickly found a quick to do and see list. And read up on what I was going to see the night before. Thank goodness for wifi in our hotel!

On Tuesday we left. Bodie's birthday too :( But we got him another video game in the morning so he didn't care, he was happy. We had direct flights from SLC which was nice. Nice for Greg since he was 1st class for work, and they wouldn't let us switch seats during the flight. But I did get a spacious exit row, which was great. Everyday we Skyped to chat with our boys. This is our view of them and their crazy-ness.

 Jet lag is the worst, but a price to pay to enjoy travel to neat places in the world. Here are some of our dinners out in Amsterdam every evening. Schnitzel, Africian (Ethiopian?) very delish but messy, Pannenkoek (Dutch Pancakes) -which are just large Crepe's unrolled but so yummy, and we tried Stupenwaffel (Dutch Waffle w/ caramel sauce). Amsterdam is quite a world cultural place. There is the Dutch, and then so so many more ethnicity and religions. And therefore lots of different areas and restaurants. Did I explain that right?

Dinner's were my favorite, not just because we got to eat food, but because I was with Greg and enjoying a date night every night!

 For the first 2 1/2 days I was on my own while Greg worked. So I became very familiar with Amsterdam. I can tell you anything, what places are good, pretty, easy to get to, too far to walk, and how to avoid the famous Red Light District, etc. ha ha. The hop on/off bus and canal tour was what I did. And am very glad I did. It was fun. All buildings in Amsterdam are 5 stories high, more canal space than in Venice, I saw the Anne Frank House, the museum's, the Central Station, the big main canal, I enjoyed it all. All by myself. Great sightseeing.

And I have to mention the bicycles. Amsterdam is all BIKES! Truly, they are what everyone uses. I put a picture of a parking garage. Full of not cars, but bikes. There are over 2 million bikes in the city, people own more than one, so they can leave them at different spots. So walking around crossing streets was crazy, only because not only do you watch for cars, you watch for zooming bikes! They have a car lane, bike lanes, and then sidewalks for walking. I'd have to stop like 4-5 times to cross the busy streets. But it's all part of the fun adventure. 

 Here's some more pretty highlights of my canal tour.

 The one museum I picked to go in was the Van Gogh. It was neat, I didn't realize he did so many self portraits, and the "Sunflowers" painting is actually really pretty and shimmery in person. I wish I could have seen Starry Night, it is my favorite - but it's not at that museum. I wandered some of the many out door markets, did lots of walking in my flip flops. And nobody in Europe wears flip flops. ha! Just me. :) 


I also was going to mention how I noticed that European's aren't addicted to their smart phones like we are here. At parks and cafe's and the youth I saw, nobody was ever using their phones. Maybe that's just American's. Gosh, and then the smoking. Everyone and their dog smokes. That is all.

The next day Greg and I rented a car and first thing in the morning we drove a few minutes to north Holland up to Zaanse Schans to see us some real life big original Holland Windmills. I picked a good spot, it was pretty neat. Then we headed down to Den Haag (The Hague) I just had a good time calling it Den Haag. It was not like an old EU city. All new and modern. While we were there we did a quick stop at the North Sea. Quick because we can't read Dutch and figure out the parking meters, so we parked and ran w/o paying for a few minutes. He he. Then we drove a ways over to see the Amsterdam Temple. Before heading south to Belgium.

 My favorite selfie picture of the whole trip. Only because we had to take many and were laughing, the sun was in our eyes before we moved to shade and we were cracking up. Then I got a decent one, voila!

The roads in the Netherlands were nice, new, and modern and cool. (America/Utah should get ideas) Even the graffiti was cool, it was definitely Graffiti Art. More like murals everywhere. Then Belgium, older, not good maintenance and no more Windmills to spot. But, we arrived in Brussels, and parked our car, and wandered the incredible and beautiful city. It is hilly, so all the cobblestone streets were winding up and down and all around. And the Grand Place (main square) was so ornate and gold leafing all over. Very pretty. When I googled what to do or see in Brussels the top thing was a little famous statue. So we found it, being photographed by hundreds. The Manneken Pis. The little boy peeing fountain. I only knew it from the movie the Money Pit w/ Tom Hanks. But that was fun to see. It's from the 1400's. And of course while there we had to have a real Belgium Waffle, with chocolate and strawberries. Yum!

 We thought of going to Bruges on the coast but Greg really wanted to say he's been to France, so we jumped in the car and headed down to Lille, France. We loved the old city. Small cobble stone streets, it was unreal, we got lost and were loving the quaint streets we came across. We headed to the Grand Place (main square) saw the statue of Charles de Gualle and the old ornate buildings, and had a dinner with real french fries, Ha! Then we literally ran to our car to get back on the road to race back to Amsterdam to get our car rental back by 11:30pm. We made it back at 11:20pm. Only 3 1/2 hours back.(and 3 countries - crazy!) I also included a picture of the Belgium countryside. I spotted a hot air balloon and loved all the lush farms. They speak French in Belgium (some Flemish, and Dutch) and of course French in France so I kinda wished our boys were with us so they could see and hear and experience the language they are learning. Someday maybe.

Our last day we walked 10 years to go to church. It's always neat to attend church in other places. We had yummy Italian dinner in the Jewish district (random) and some down time and lots of conversations with my hubby that we've been missing out on all summer by always working on the kitchen/bathroom or discussing the house project. It was a week we really needed to have and didn't know it. What a blessing to be able to go to Europe. 

Then on Monday morning I got on the plane back to SLC almost 11 hours. I saw lots of movies. And Greg headed to London and then Copenhagen before ending his week back in Amsterdam to come home. I made him go out and see "stuff", any stuff. And even texted him 2 things to see in Copenhagen. I'm sure he's glad he obeyed his wife.

(You know, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, The Little Mermaid Statue, Nyhavn, and some fountain at twilight) 

Till next time Europe.

Bo is 6

 Bodie had a birthday! He is happy to be 6! He asked for an Oreo cake and wanted a video game and a big dart machine gun. He was so happy to get them and more. We actually celebrated his b-day the day before because Greg and I were leaving for our trip in the afternoon of his actual day. We were sad to do that. At least we got to celebrate with him.

Blowing out his candles was... tricky and silly. He first tried blowing, and got one candle, then did it again. Then laughed because he would miss the flame, then he would blow some more, then stop and laugh, and then blow, then laugh and laugh and then finally after about 6 times he finally got the last of the candles. He cracked himself up by not being able to blow them out. And that triggered the silly crazy Bodie...

And the lame person from the store who decorated his cake put the writing on some plastic and rested it on top of the cake. Seriously. But, he ended up taking the candles out and then put the plastic covered in frosting in his mouth and eventually forehead too and started laughing at how silly he thought he was being. And then he laughed more. Not just any laugh, but a crazy, loud, silly, bellowing giggle laugh. And he couldn't stop. And then he started crying he was laughing so hard. I love it - tears of joy! That's the best to laugh and not be able to stop.

He finally calmed down, we ate cake and ice cream and then did his presents all with G-ma April and Amy & Karl. And the next morning, his actual Birthday, we gave him one more present to open before we left on our trip. Another video game to keep him occupied for the babysitters (his grandma's). And Bodie is posing for me in his pj's after we sang to him that morning. He is truly a silly turkey.

 I love our Bodie boy. He can be such a delight. I mean, look how cute he is. He is 2 1/2 in the picture and I cannot believe he is already 6!

I love his little voice. He tries so hard to say things and people struggle to understand what he's saying sometimes. We are always correcting him and recently we all tease him with a phrase he said this summer. "The beh in the eh oveh theh" i.e. - the bear in the air over there. His correct speech will come in time. I love his hands and his little chub. He beat the habit of biting his nails so short after we used the medicine on his nails. I'll keep it on hand in-case we need it again. Greg and I get a kick out of the way he runs. He swings his arms and scurries his legs along. So cute. He has 2 or 3 cowlicks in his hair, so we keep it buzzed. And it's cuter that way I think because then you can really see his adorable face and not the poof hair. He is a mini hoarder. He loves to keep everything and has quite a stash. Lately Jax and Creed play and call him their teddy bear. He loves it. He loves to play video games, eat popcorn, ice cream, apples, Cheerios, playing anything with his brothers, snuggling with his dad, and always asks for a massage or back scratch in church or if I'm sitting near him on the couch. He is a fun kiddo. I think we'll keep him. :)