New Equations

Over the past few days we have discovered some new equations. For example:

Andrew + Kallie + beautiful day + hose = SOAKING WET ANDREW

Daddy + Andrew + lawnmower = SUPER CUTE DADDY ANDREW PICTURE

And my favorite,

Andrew + face cream + my toothbrush = NEW TOOTHBRUSH FOR ME! (and adorable pictures, and time for me to get some packing done...all in all I think a pretty good trade!)

Andrew's Birthday Week

A year ago this amazing little man was born into our family. It started out so calm and surreal, and quickly changed to ...

Nerve racking, intense, scary, unreal. Andrew spent 10 scary days in the NICU before we were able to bring him home. How quickly he went from this....

to this!
Now he is everywhere! He is the fastest little crawler I have ever seen and can get into anything by the time I turn my back. Needless to say he keeps us on our toes!

In our family we don't believe in a birth "day". We believe more in the birth "week". So we naturally celebrated Andrew's birthday all week. On his actual birth date we started out with our gifts on the table, donuts in the sky tradition...

Andrew was simply amazed by this

He really could care less about the gifts and the donuts. I really should have just stuck to my plan of balloons all over the house and saved a bit, but he got into donuts as soon as he saw that we could actually eat those hanging things. Presents soon followed when Ben and Kallie just couldn't take it anymore and opened them for Andrew. He was very appreciative.

We even remembered to squeeze in a family shot! (this is big for us)

After a much needed nap we put on our swim suits and headed over to swim in an indoor swimming pool. Since Andrew loved swimming so much while we were in California I thought he would really like to do that for his birthday. We were there for about 4-5 hours and he didn't want to get out once! He did try a few times to crawl thru water that was a little too deep for him, but he is a quick learner :) We were lucky enough that our friends came and joined us there. Andrew and J-- are only 16 days apart (she is the older of the two) and they had fun watching each other. Ben and Kallie had fun playing with J--'s big brothers and J--'s mom and I had fun not being there alone with 7 kids! We had a blast! (Yes that green 'eyed' girl is Kallie :)

Andrew with his future wife and mother-in-law....

The next birthday celebration was at Grandma and Grandpa's for pizza and swimming! It really didn't matter it was only in the 60's. The spa was pretty warm for the kids and gave Andrew a shot to try out his new water toy! He even got in a little practice stealing Ava's Binky. Good thing Grandma is quick!

K, I love this picture of Ava and Alex because they have the same expression! I just had to add it...Alex if you really want I could add the swimwear picture too...just let me know

A cute girlie with her handsome daddy

Love this shot of Amy and her model pose...you are so cute!

Andrew trying to get to my camera

Realizing how much he LOVES strata!

His sign of approval...a clap and a laugh

The happy yell

Realizing that not only was it strata, it was a built in toy! He loved this paper plate!

This is the cake I made him for his next birthday celebration at my aunt Jan's house. The little cake was for him to eat. (if you can't tell it's a racetrack...he's fast so I thought it fit his personality...and he loves to eat cars!)

He also has graduated into a new car seat! I love this forward facing one!

Blowing out his candle.

While we were at Jan's we had our Ellsworth side Easter dinner and egg hunt (I'll post pictures of that later...not going to try my luck with blogger again) Andrew was also able to meet their new colt Cisco, who also shares his April 17th birthday! This little guy is only 2 days old!All in all I think Andrew had an awesome birthday. He has taken such great naps for me ever since :) We love him and just can't believe how fast a year can fly! He makes our home so fun and exciting. Andrew is always up for anything and is just such an amazing little man. I can't wait for all the fun birthday's to come!

Draper Temple Open House

We went to see the Draper Temple's open house the other day as a family. Dad took some time out of work, Mom put away her projects, and the kids couldn't wait to see Heavenly Father's "House". Kallie was particularly interested. "Are we going to see Heavenly Father's bed?" she asked. Right before we went, she was speculating on whether Jesus would let us take a picture with him or not. We tried to explain to her as best as we could that they weren't going to be there, but in the end I think she was still confused as to where everybody sleeps in that house.

The inside of the temple was gorgeous. And while we had a small problem with Ben getting ahead of us, we were pretty sure it wasn't because he wanted to play hide and seek. In fact, he was very dissapointed that all of the windows were either colored or frosted.

Another downside: the temple grounds weren't yet open so there was no easy access for taking a picture outside the temple. Of course, with people this nice, a smile and a nod and the parking lot guard let us get close enough to take some decent shots. Although at that point we were out of people to take a family shot of us.

Wii Play Too Much...

What makes you think we play Wii too much? For the record, this is the spot I always sit in to play MarioKart. I had placed Andrew in the family room and gone to do something in the kitchen. By the time I had returned, he had retrieved a controller, settled into the couch, and was waving the wiimote around like he was driving a car. Too much Wii? I don't know what you're talking about...

Not to Mention...

In support of Kallie's prowess in the area of "food management", I submit the following story. A few short days after the "muffin" story, Katie had promised Ben that she would make him his new favorite dessert: something with ice and milk and xagave and rootbeer extract in a blender. The kicker? She didn't know how to make it. It gets better too. Somehow she strung this poor kid along all day long promising that he could have his favorite dessert when she didn't even have all the ingredients for it. Ahhhhhh, why is it that as parents we guiltlessly promise our kids the weirdest things we can't deliver and know that it will somehow turn out?

In this case, Ben decided to for a 2 mile bike ride along side me as I walked the dogs that night. Not only did it put us home past bed time, but just a few blocks away from home he took a "jump" off of a curb with too little momentum and conservation of energy put him over the handle bars. You would think that at this point he would want and deserve his favorite dessert more than ever, but somehow we convinced him to choose something else.
"I want ice cream," he anounced. Katie and I looked at each other; how do you tell a bloodied kid who you just convinced to give up his favorite dessert that you don't have his second choice either?
"We don't have any," I said. Laying it out straight is the only way I know how. But barely had the words left my mouth than a very stern angelic voice chimed in.
"YES WE DO!" stated Kallie. "We have mint chocolate and vanilla!" Surely, this little girl could not possibly know the contents of our 6 ft tall freezer compartment better than me. Oh no, surely she could. Her words of hope inspired Ben who immediately ran, pulled out his step stool, and started sorting through the freezer's contents.
"HEY! We have mint chocolate and vanilla!" he shouted back to us in the family room. Well, I'll be. Katie and I just started at each other dumbfounded. I halfway wonder if Kallie had purchased and placed the ice cream there herself.

Sharing

Last Sunday we were all sick so we missed out on most of church. I still had to go, however, because I had agreed to be King Benjamin in a primary class. Well, lucky for King Benjamin that his appearance earned him a cupcake! A cupcake that someone could smell before I even opened the door back home.

"What's that in your hand dad?" asked Kallie.
"A cupcake!" I said.
"OOOOOoooooohhhh, I LOVE cupcakes!! Dad, you have to share your muffin!" (For some reason the words "cupcake" and "muffin" are interchangeable to our children).
"Don't take such a big bite that there is nothing left to share Dad," Kallie warned me.

Now to be fair to Kallie, she is my MOST sharing child. She would give anyone anything if she thought that they wanted it, even if it isn't her's to give (we're working on that). She is also my sugar monster. I've hidden some pretty clever things in this house over the years (including an entire king size bed frame that my wife didn't find!), but no one has EVER hidden candy in this house without Kallie finding it. I can hide an oreo cookie between the plates of a waffle iron on the highest shelf of the pantry at 2 am, and Kallie will ask me to get it down for her the next morning along with a glass of milk. If the world were to end, I somehow think we would always be able to find food with Kallie around. With that in mind, this morning's events should not have been a surprise.

Ben woke up a little earlier than usual and found me downstairs in the kitchen. He noticed that the cupcake was still sitting untouched on the counter from yesterday. After drooling over it for about 5 minutes he started asking me questions about it. Finally, I told him that he and Kallie could share it after their breakfast. No sooner had the words left my lips than from the far upstairs corner of the house I heard a bed spring pop and a small voice yelled, "WHAT?!?!?!?!? WHAT DID YOU JUST TELL BEN, DAD!!?!?!?!?!?!" I could not stop laughing long enough to answer her. "WHAT DID YOU TELL BEN ABOUT THE MUFFIN?!?!?!" and then the very anxious pitter patter of little feet brought my angel rushing down the hall and stairs. "What did you say, Dad? You have to share your muffin!" It was a little while before I could turn to her with a straight face and tell her the deal. Needless to say, it made her day.