Update

I just sat down and should have warned everyone that this is kind of a permanent situation.  I won’t be moving for several hours.  Sundays are exhausting, aren’t they?  I can’t seem to figure out that whole day of rest thing.  We currently have church from 2 to 5 pm.  You know it’s going to be bad when you feel like it’s been the longest day of your life before you even get to church and therefore before you’ve had the pleasure of playing Sacrament meeting whack-a-mole.  5 heads bobbing up and down, 5 mouths talking too loudly and Brennan and I just sitting there waiting with our figurative clubs ready to bat the wiggles or noise back down.  Joshua just has no concept of quiet, none.   The good news is Sunday School felt like a date night and Relief Society was a dream because Joshy went to nursery!  Anyway, after church we came home and the girls (who had fasted) tore into anything they could get in their mouths while the boys took off their shirts and put mittens on for a few rounds of boxing (always a great Sabbath activity).  Joshua was still bitter about being dumped into nursery and decided he needed to be held by me and only me for the next hour while I also made dinner.  He also strongly disagreed with my stand on things like touching hot burners and putting hands in boiling water.    He wasn’t shy about expressing his opposing views.  We love Sundays.

Anna’s a good kid, and I’m really enjoying watching her grow up.   For young women’s the other night her leaders arranged to have 8 grandmas in the ward come speak to them.  They ate dinner with them and then each of the older women shared some of their wisdom with these 12 and 13 year old girls.  It really had an impact on Anna.  She let me read her journal entry about it and I was kind of blown away by her insights.   She was with 2 of her friends the other night and they were talking about 2 of their other friends who had been a little offish.  She suggested they invite them over too.  That makes me so happy.  We love Anna.

Abigail has really become determined that she will be a poet when she grows up.  Her friend’s grandpa is a poet and he came to talk to their class.  He suggested that they start reading as much poetry as they can if they want to write it.  She checked out a poetry book at school and devoured it.   Abby is so similar to me in so many ways that it always surprises me how much follow through she has.  I hope to be like her someday.  She sets her mind to something and there’s no stopping her.  I set my mind to something and there’s no need to stop me.   Anyway, everyday when she comes home from school she can’t wait to see Josh and can’t stop telling me how he’s the absolute cutest baby in the world.  We love Abby.

Here’s a little bedhead action from Nate.  It might be time for a haircut.  Nate keeps busy shooting baskets, playing his sports video games, and begging me to let him ride his bike in the street.  He likes to be busy and loves it when friends call him.  He is taking karate currently and loves it and just earned his yellow striped belt.  He has been working on an animal report for school, his animal is the bobact.  I cannot believe how long he can read about animals and how many of the facts he can retain and recall.   We love Nathan and his hair.

Benny takes full advantage of any good weather we get.  He’s always running around with our cute little neighbor kids, riding bikes, jumping on their tramp.   Friday night all three big kids had a late night at their friend’s houses so he was wondering what he was going to do.  I told him he got to have a late night with Brennan and me.  He wasn’t convinced he was getting a very good deal until I told him he could choose something to do with Brennan and something to do with me.  Brennan played a video game with him and I played one of his favorite little board games with him.  He was so thrilled.   We love Benjamin.

Doesn’t he look sweet?  He really is as long as no one gets any ideas that they might be running things.  If one of us challenges his authority, this is what he looks like:

Or he flops onto the floor, or he puts his arms on that little table and buries his head in them.

He’s been climbing up on chairs for awhile now and so we quickly learned not to have anything on the table.  Now he figured out how to move the chairs.  We’re in so much trouble.  He’s already dumped a whole thing of Benadryl out (thank goodness he chose to dump it rather than drink it!!!!), fish some forks out of the drawer and use them to dig the deodorant he found out of it’s container (again, thanks to his binkie he refrained from tasting it), and in his spare time do a little browsing in the pantry.

It’s a good thing we all happen to find him completely irresistible.  He’s talking more and more, but still relies quite a bit on his favorites, “Nooooo!” and “Goooo!”.  He can say “Dos-sey” (Joshy) and it’s cuter that I could ever describe.   We love Joshua.