ten months

Our cutie-pie has hit the double digits! Liv has two teeth now, moves very fast, and is good at feeding herself bits of cheese, bread, and cereal. She is eating a ton and still sleeps like a champ (12-13 hours straight every night). She loves playing with toys and really likes getting her hands on the remote, the phone, and ripping any paper she finds... I got a shocker this week when I went to get her out of her crib from her afternoon nap and found her happily (and quietly) playing on the floor of her room! I had never even seen her pull herself up in the slightest bit! Needless to say, the crib was dropped the rest of the way down right then. She didn't have one mark or bruise anywhere on her (THANK HEAVEN), and I am still baffled because I never heard a "thud" or a cry or anything. Here are a few photos I took this morning:

I love her little face in this last one...like she isn't sure of what is going on around her (lots of noisy brothers, no doubt). I took her to the doctor last week and her head is 35%, and she is 20% for weight (17.8 pounds), and only 10% for height. Still pretty little, and pretty perfect!

pre-show jitters

I am feeling very nervous. Our "Play in a Day" (Youth Conference) is tomorrow as well as my directing debut (ha, ha). I think that all of the pieces are coming together... I'm really at the "let's just get this over with" stage. To get me in the mood for this little production, I went to the Young Ambassadors show with some of the young women and our YW president last night. As I've probably mentioned a hundred times, I feel quite a disconnect from that world, but it was fun to go and I enjoyed the show quite a bit (better than I thought it would be, and only a couple of "too cheesy" moments for my taste). This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Young Ambassadors, and the show was a tribute of sorts. They showed all sorts of old video clips and photos from former casts and years. I didn't see myself in any photos, but recognized several old friends. I visited briefly with the director (Randy) and musical director (Ron) afterward. Rob and I have to give credit to Ron Simpson for the reason we met and eventually got together. Rob was in Ron's songwriting class at BYU, and he recruited Rob to play the piano in the YA band. Rob and I actually went on our mini-tour to Arizona (of all places) 13 years ago this month. We were hardly even friends at that point, and not interested in each other in the slightest bit. For history's sake, I dug out some old photos and thought I'd share them. After searching through photos I realized that I don't have a photo with Rob and me together from our Arizona tour.

Rob at the Mesa temple:

Me with several of the girls. I am second from the right
(and yes, our tour clothes were horrible!)

Me at a "host family" home in Mesa. The un-tucked shirt is a much better look...

Rob with the band. Why is Rob's baseball cap attached to his belt? Not sure.

After one of the shows with our sweet host family (that's a mic, not a hairnet I'm wearing). Notice that one of the little girls is holding a program and pen for autographs.

Isn't that cute? I was such a *star* back then! :-)

in like a lion (well, not really)

It's March! We've had lots of clouds and rain this week. We sure get more rain here than I thought we would. It's nice.

We had more visitors this week which was great. I got a call on Friday from my cousin Bob telling me that he and my Aunt Pat were down from Vegas for the day. They stopped by and visited for a while and then my aunt stayed and joined us for lunch while Bob ran to a work meeting. Bob has a dog (Carmella) that my boys LOVE. They love running around with the dog, and Bob and Aunt Pat ALWAYS bring some sort of toy or treat for the boys. I had a great time visiting with my aunt. She has always seemed more like a Grandma to me (she is 50 years my senior) and sends thoughtful cards and funny letters, and has given each of my children a beautiful handmade quilt. I love her and our visits.

Friday evening we were fortunate to have Rob's brother John and his wife Julie over! Rob and John were able to go golfing on Friday afternoon and we stayed up way too late visiting that night. We sort of took it easy on Saturday. John helped Rob with a little yard work (trimming branches off of one of our big front trees) and Julie was an awesome aunt and played football with the boys while we were outside (thanks Julie!). It really has been a blessing that we've had so many visitors down here. KEEP COMING! We love it.

Burke finally lost his other front tooth. The tooth fairy left a note under his pillow giving him a clue as to where to find a full-size candy bar (and a reminder to brush his teeth after eating it). The tooth fairy somehow knew that this would be more of a treat for Burke than money...and Burke thought that was pretty great.

Hewitt starts a tumbling class tomorrow! I don't know which one of us is more excited (probably me). I *showed* Hewitt how to do a cartwheel last night and couldn't believe how old it made me feel. Rob said that he could hear my back cracking from across the room. Of course, Rob had to give it a try and did a nice cartwheel with straight legs. Can't I do anything better than this guy anymore?

One of the aides in Hewitt's preschool class stopped me today (when I was there picking him up) and told me how awesome he is (and he really is. I love age five!). There are mostly girls in his class and I guess that they all "love" Hewitt. He offers to play the "Dad" when they play pretend and the girls love being the "Mom" and will want to hold Hewitt's hand. This is a new one for us. I think that Burke would rather eat dirt than touch a girl. Hewitt is starting to pick Liv up and carry her around. It still makes me a little nervous, but he is so careful with her and she just adores him.

Tosh, Liv and I have all been a little sick this weekend. The kids with runny noses and me with Laryngitis, itchy nose,throat and eyes, and sneezing constantly. I'm guessing that my problem is allergies, because I really feel fine otherwise--just tired.

Liv took her first bath in the big bath tub this week (time to get rid of our baby tub!). She loved it and didn't mind a little splashing from Tosh. I'm hoping that her next pool experience will be much happier than her first. Her little "rolls" are so cute, aren't they? And can you see her little tooth in the second pic?
She is starting to do some silly things like spit out food and blow raspberries after taking a bite (she only does this with the veggies though...). I am seriously going to have to start wearing an apron to feed her because she is getting so messy. Her "crawl" is getting faster and I have her wearing a sock on her hand most of the day now because she got a sore between the fingers she sucks on. It seems to be working okay (until she figures out how to pull it off).

Our computer is acting up so I can't get to a few good photos that I wanted to post today. I'm on the home stretch of Youth Conference prep. It's this Saturday and I'm getting excited for it, but will be relieved when it is over for sure. I signed up for another round of tennis lessons. I was pretty embarrassed on Saturday when I *served* the ball and hit my doubles partner (a nice guy with a thick Middle Eastern accent) in the back. Our teacher was trying hard to hide his laughter and I apologized about three different times. I'm still not much of an athlete, but I think I entertain the class with my witty comments and effort...or at least I think I'm funny anyway. Yep. I think that wraps it up! Have a great week.

watch out!

Liv is on the move! She is "army" crawling and tries to follow her brothers around. She is getting her second tooth (and a runny nose to go with) and seems to be taking a special interest in balls lately (her favorite toy?).

Here is a video clip I took on the day she really started "moving." Life just got a little crazier for me now that she is mobile. Also, am I mistaken, or did I happen to catch one of her first words on tape too?:

Things feel super busy right now. Rob and I were asked to be directors of a play that the youth are doing for our stake youth conference that is in two weeks. I feel like I am spending most of my time making preparations for this (music, script, choreography, set, costumes...), and losing sleep over it too. Things are coming together pretty well, but I'll be glad when it's over. I keep waiting for things to slow down in general, but I'm realizing that life is probably just going to get busier and busier from now on.

We've had a stressful week house-wise. I won't bore you with all the details, but I feel like we are spending money left and right on really annoying things. The two biggest stressers are that our spa/pool is losing water (possible leak in one of the pipes going to our pool?!?) and we discovered that one of our huge shade trees was damaged in the storm we had in January (the roots are half out of the ground). We had an expert come out to see if they could save the tree and they said no. They also quoted us $1100 to remove it and to stabilize one of the large trees in our front yard. Seriously? Rob will be recruiting some friends with chainsaws to remove the one in our backyard. We need to do it before the next storm or it will most likely fall on our house or break through our fence. The list goes on and on with other things like this, but I don't want to sound like I am complaining so I'll stop...

Hewitt and Tosh decided that it was warm enough this week to put their feet in our pool. For the record, I think that the pool is still "freezing." It all started with just the feet and ended up in some skinny dipping (on Tosh's part).

He'll forgive me for this photos when he's older right? Besides, he'll take comfort in the fact that it's only our closest family and friends that read this blog anyway :-). Rob said that this last shot reminds him of Big Foot walking (or something like that anyway).

Well, there's probably more to say that I'm forgetting, but I need to get back to it. Adios!

happy valentine's day

I can't remember the last time that Valentine's Day was on a Sunday. Rob and I went to the temple last night and then out to eat with some friends. It was the first time we've had a babysitter put Liv to bed. I expected her to wake up at some point during the night to eat (since she went to bed sans nursing), but she slept until 8:15 this morning. Happy Valentines to me!

The biggest event of the week was that my dad had a triple bypass on Friday! He is doing and sounding great and I am so grateful that all went well. Otherwise, it was fairly "normal" around here. Rob's songwriting partner was here visiting and spent the night on Monday, and Rob's cousin Venn was in town on Friday evening. We had dinner and watched the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics. I can't say that I thought that the show itself was very entertaining, but watching it with Rob and Venn was.

I've written a lot about Liv already this week, but she is changing so much right now. On top of looking like she is doing Yoga moves all the time, she is starting to "ham it up" and laugh a lot to get our attention. She loves to be tickled and is using her voice more and more. Just now I saw her waving (backwards wave) to herself and she totally started laughing at her hand. Rob held her up for me to get a photo of her as we were walking out the door for church today. She thinks her Dad is pretty funny.

Rob and I are very entertained by watching Liv figure out how to crawl. She sticks her bum up in the air and then digs her toes in to launch forward. So funny and cute (and I LOVE those thighs)!

Before reading the Book of Mormon one night, Rob asked Burke to summarize what we had read the night before (from Alma chapter 43). Burke gave a great recap which included, "Captain Moroni sent spies to see what the Lamanites were doing and then they left to go to Miami..." We told him that it was "Manti" and not "Miami" although I thought that was pretty clever. We think (hope) our reading/family study is sinking in, at least a little.

When I told Hewitt that his Grandpa would be having heart surgery, he said, "Why is Grandpa going surfing?" I guess he heard me wrong.

On Wednesday Tosh asked, "Is it Sunday or Friday?" When I told him what day it was he exclaimed, "Oh. I LOVE Wednesday!"

Tonight at dinner we went around and around the table taking turns naming things that we love. We sure all love our family and friends! Happy Valentine's Day from us. We love and miss you!

nine months

Liv is nine months old today! As of today, she is officially too long for her infant car seat. I had to move Burke to a convertible rear facing car seat at five months, so she is still pretty "bitty" compared to her brothers (she weighed 17 pounds at the doctor last week).

Her first tooth is very visible now and she is moving like crazy and so close (too close) to crawling!

See Liv get from here...

...to here!

We love our sweet Liv!

the good, the bad, and the are you kidding me?

Per the title of this post, this week was a mixed bag. Definitely a few "out of the ordinary" things. There's sort of lots to say, so I'll get started.

I got an idea while looking at this cute cross-stitch that my SIL made me, for a new "theme" for our Family Home Evenings:


These virtues are exactly what I want our family to be working on. We are going to focus on one per week, and I chose to start with "Be Positive." I spent a couple of hours on Monday afternoon preparing for our "Bee" kick-off. Tosh and I printed and cut out a bee representing each virtue and the older boys helped create our beehive:

I also made a "last-minute" cake because as everyone knows, the treat is always the favorite part of Family Night.

In addition to our lesson plans, we thought we'd try to get in a little family activity before dinner. Since Burke, Hewitt and I are taking tennis lessons, we went over to the Jr. High to use the tennis courts there. We had parked between the courts and the baseball field (where there was a boys' baseball game going on). As we were loading up to return home, I was focused on keeping Tosh from running out into the street and got hit by a foul baseball! I was sandwiched between our van and another car and it caught me completely off guard. The ball hit me on my left shoulder and I fell to the ground. A few people ran over to see if I was okay (including a woman in nursing school that I visit teach) and it was quite embarrassing, really. I was so grateful that it did not hit Hewitt or Tosh (standing on either side if me) and that I wasn't hit in the face/head. My arm went numb after the initial contact, but I got very sore that evening and I could hardly move my shoulder or arm on Tuesday. It's only bothering me a little now; I'm glad it was my non-dominant arm.

Hewitt, Tosh and Liv have all been sick this week with colds and coughs. Nothing too terrible, but we've had to do some nebulizer (Albuterol) treatments for Hewitt. He has been taking medicine (an inhaler treatment) daily for his Asthma since August and he has been so much healthier this winter. His cough doesn't sound that great, but it hasn't slowed him down at all. He is constantly doing somersaults (forward and backward) and flips on the tramp. I am looking into tumbling classes as I think it would be perfect for him!

I have felt a wave of "Spring Fever" this week. I can feel the weather getting warmer and it's been in the 70's during the day and I love it. The kids have been playing outside a lot and Tosh and Hewitt love exploring in our "jungle" as they call it.

We have some friends (Susan and Dennis) in our ward that love our kids and save the bench in front of them every Sunday for us to sit in. They are so nice to our kids and love Tosh especially. In fact, they brought us some homemade hot fudge sauce for Christmas and also a book set for our kids! Anyway, the other day in the car Tosh asked, "Where does Grandpa live?" When I asked which Grandpa he said, "Grandpa Moustache!" He was talking about Dennis and it really made me laugh.

Tosh was watching his brothers play soccer in the backyard and said, "The name of my soccer team is Jack in the Box!"

Liv has been a trooper this week. She is cutting her first tooth (bottom left) and is still so happy even with her constant runny nose, cough and an ear infection. I was so glad that I followed my instinct to take her to the doctor on Friday as I had no idea that her ear was hurting (I was worried about her lungs). That night she went to bed at 6pm, and woke up crying about a half hour later. I just rocked her for a few minutes and then she went back to sleep and slept (without waking) until 7:30am! I was anticipating a really bad night.

Liv is rolling all over the place and fast. She gets up on her knees like she is going to crawl, but just rocks back and forth before dropping back to her stomach. I am on constant "Lego patrol" making sure that the floor is clear.

Her hair is really coming in in the back and the top is getting a little longer. After her bath last night I amused the boys by attaching this Ziplock-type bow to her hair that was sticking up.

Hewitt really likes there to be something in Liv's hair and will tell me, "now people will know she's a girl!"

Burke still hasn't lost his other front tooth, although it is ready to go. He thought it was cool when I told him he could drink his smoothie through the hole in his teeth.

The most "eventful" part of our week happened on Thursday. Rob came home a little early to work from home so he could be here to talk to our pool guy (we have to replace the filter pump and motor--$$$ ouch!). I took Tosh to run some errands since Rob was here and the baby was asleep. I've been letting Burke walk home from the bus stop the last few weeks with some neighbors in our ward (a boy in Burke's Primary class, and his older brother and 11 yr-old sister). When I returned home, I learned that while Burke was walking home, his friend told him to throw a rock at a truck going by. Burke did it (gasp) and it shattered the driver's side window! Burke ran in the door crying and started to tell Rob what happened just as the doorbell rang. It was our neighbor, of course. Luckily the glass did not fall in on him and he wasn't hurt. He was so cool about the whole thing (THANK HEAVEN!). I can not tell you how shocked and disappointed Rob and I were about this incident. Burke is such a good kid. A little moody lately, yes, but an excellent student, never in trouble at school, etc. The window cost $200 to replace. On top of losing several privileges for a month, Burke will be doing extra work to earn the money to pay us back. Now that a few days have passed since this incident, I am still very sad and upset about what happened, but am able to see that maybe it will be good for Burke to learn this expensive lesson while really young. Maybe he will think twice when faced with peer pressure in the future. The other positive outcome is that Burke could stand to learn to work a little harder than he's used to. Yesterday, he cleaned out and vacuumed both of our cars on top of some other housework. We couldn't help but notice that he was in a much better mood after completing all of his work and was kinder to the entire family. I should mention that when we were discusssing how Burke was going to earn the $200, he told me, "I think you should give me $11 an hour!" Tough luck. I think it will be more like $1 per hour. I will also be picking Burke up from the bus stop again (and am feeling guilty about the fact that if I had picked him up on Thursday, this entire thing would not have happened... What is parenthood without some guilt, right?). This week for Family Home Evening, our focus will be, "Be SMART!"

I love this cute hoodlum:

Other notes from the week: After complaining for years about how uncomfortable our bed is, we finally upgraded (to a king) and I love it.

We also got a new large sectional for our family room and I told Rob's sister that I would post some photos so here they are (they helped us decide on both items while they were here visiting for Christmas). We moved our old couches upstairs into our loft and it is great to have some furniture up there in addition to our exercise equipment (It's a perfect place for me to fold laundry now).