H turns 7!

I can't believe it. I can't believe H in seven. I really don't think it's quite fair that time speeds up every year.


H got a gameboy for his birthday, much to his surprise and delight. Hurray for ebay! He's had to be told to stop a few times when he's been planted on the couch for a little too long, but his attitude has been pretty good overall. The problem is the little green monster haunting T, but he'll get over it. Builds character, right? And H really is pretty good to share with T.

H asked for these strawberry shortcake snakes for his birthday cake. They were truly a labor of love. They are pretty simple, really, but I needed to make eight of them and it just took an inordinately long time, and the cakes kept threatening to crumble, and I have no desire to make them ever again. They are sloppier than in the magazine photo, but pretty cute, right? Right?

Here are Auntie E and Grandpa B saying good bye at the end of a nice birthday!

B loves the swing!

Just a week or so after Valentine's Day, the snow melted and it started to look like spring might actually show up! H wanted to go outside and play, and he asked if he could take B with him. It was still pretty damp out, so we compromised by putting B in the outside swing and letting H play with him there. B loved it! H really dotes on him; it is quite adorable. L got in on the act as well!

I'm dreaming of a white... Valentine's Day

This has been the snowiest Provo winter I have ever seen. On Valentine's Day we got another fresh blanket of snow. The kids were excited, and they all wanted to go out in the snow. They all had fun, too...

except for N...

Turns out, poor N was getting sick. He spent the next couple of days very much not himself. Can someone please explain why my kids always throw up when they're sick? I mean, they don't get sick all that much, but when they do, it's the vomiting. Every time. Sigh.

B falls asleep at dinner

T wins the 3rd grade Spelling Bee!

Here is T displaying his certificates: one for winning the spelling bee in his class, and the other for winning the spelling bee for the whole third grade. Only fourth graders and up go on to the school spelling bee, so he went as far as he could go!

He was pretty thrilled. He told me, "This is the second best day of my life!" When I asked what the first best day was, he said, "My baptism of course!"

For some reason I keep remembering a little five or six-year-old T, presenting me with flowers and saying, "Here's a 'boo-ket' for you!" "Thank you!" I said, "What a nice bouquet!" "Mom, it's 'boo-ket'-- there's a t on the end." So I explained to him that "bouquet" came from French so it didn't follow English rules. At first he was pretty disgusted with that renegade word, but for the next little while I remember he would finds words like "ballet" and say, "That's because it's French... right?"

Random memory!

L and her baby brother B

I love this picture.

T's first pinewood derby.

It was chaos. Masses of over-excited young boys running around, eager to try out their cars, not to mention the younger siblings playing impromptu games of tag, or that special, nondescript running-and-screaming game. Absolute bedlam. But T loved it! He even won one of his heats, and he was very happy about that. And yes, this happened at least two months ago.

The microphone was malfunctioning, and J stepped in as announcer. His ability to make himself heard over the din was quite impressive. Of course, the next day we heard hardly anything from him, as he was suffering from strained vocal chords!

T waits to race!

N's just here for the rootbeer floats!

T and his car-- they had a good run