Name that Baby!!

Here's a fun game!

Guess who's who!

(click on the image to see a larger version)

Clark rolls over!

Look who performs so well for the camera! So willing to take direction and deliver!

Academy Award material?

Clark is almost 5 months old!

Little Clark is almost 5 months old now. He is still such a sweetie! He's quite a flirt, always smiling at the ladies. Is it just me or is his hair getting lighter? All the new hair is coming in white! We've never had such a light-haired kiddo. Maybe it'll be red!

He's about 19 pounds, and 25 inches. What a beast! (But Zander was bigger!)

He figured out how to roll over this week, and he likes to sing with me. It's so cute the way he keeps up a conversation. He'll listen while you talk, and then when you stop, he starts jabbering. What advanced communication skills! I'll try to get some video of him rolling over or talking.

Mother's Day craft time!

Grandma Annie and Grandpa Vance were in town over Mother's Day, so I made sure the kids made her a card. I actually took out the camera and took a picture of the fun! Too bad I didn't have the camera out at any other time during their visit!

It was great to have them here. Dad had a business convention about 30 minutes away, and Mom got to come with him. I went to pick her up in the mornings, we played all day, and we took her home at night. We got to see Dad a little bit too. For Mother's Day, we got a babysitter, and Dad treated the grown-ups to dinner at Pappadeaux, one of my favorite restaurants ever! Crawfish bisque.... mmm..... It was really great to have them over, and I didn't even make Dad do any home improvements! He really has gotten this place in good shape over the years. It is always fun when my parents visit, and I can't wait to see them again.

Killer Whales

Abby's first science project is about Killer Whales. In first grade, they keep things very simple. Pick an animal, answer a few research questions, write one paragraph, and make something visual to show the class. I helped Abby... (or Abby helped me!) make a diorama for her visual project. I love making dioramas! I think I did do too much of the work, but it was too much fun!! She planned it with me, chose the background images to print, chose the whale images to print, and she did almost ALL of the glue and glitter! She really did do a lot of it now that I think of it. I'm just stressing that the teacher's going to get mad that it looks like mommy did all of the work. Oh well. It's just first grade, right?

She's so proud of our little ocean box, and so am I! I can't believe there's only five more days of school, and my little girl will be going into second grade! Time really flies by...

Scripture-Reading Kids

Here's a good topic for Sunday night: My kids love to read scriptures before bed. It's just so cute! Who would have thought that some little mini-humans would be such good examples to their parents. Although it might just be a bedtime postponing ploy, every night these kids demand to read scriptures before bed. They each got their own copy of the Book of Mormon for Easter, and we take turns reading a verse or two each night. Abby, my first-grader, has actually really shown great improvement in her reading skills since we started a few months ago. She started out having trouble staying with the lines, with the rather narrow columns and tiny print. But now she can get through her verses with very little help. I'm impressed with how she has learned words like Israel, brethren, and commandments. She gets them right every time now. Plus Zander seems to realize the importance of reading them. Whenever I say that it's too late to read tonight, he chimes in with the admonition that Jesus wants us to read. Then of course we have to! I know we are blessed when we read scriptures as a family, and I'm so grateful that my children are, for now, so willing to be obedient.

Sneaky Toes

Check out these little toes peeking through the blanket.
They're so cute! Hehe!

Early Mother's Day Present

I just got my Mother's Day present early:
My very own Viking Mixer! Woohoo!



















Dan's work got a new mixer, so we got their not-so-old one!
To put it to the test, Dan made my favorite Lemon Pound Cake, and then he and the kids made pizza. The pizza dough was made and kneaded in the Viking Mixer, of course, don't try that in your ordinary mixer! The kids love helping their daddy cook. Check out Jason's new haircut too.

Life with 4 kids is wild!

Here's some pictures to update you!

Wanna know what makes my day? When someone asks me if Clark is my first baby, and I say "Nope, he's my fourth." The looks I get are priceless! Most look really surprised, even shocked or bewildered. My favorite is when the person's face goes blank for a minute, while they quickly repress their initial reaction and think of something nice to say to the crazy lady with four kids.

Every one's doing very well here. Clark is still a sweet little guy. He's finally sleeping in 3-4 hour stretches at night, so momma is getting a little energy back. No sleep = no blog. Have you noticed? The big siblings still ignore him, which is all I can ask for. They don't seem to mind him at all. Daddy's a big help, especially with changing diapers and delivering a hungry baby to me in the middle of the night.

Abby had her first piano recital at school last week. Her elementary school us a fine arts school, so she gets to pick two arts electives every semester. This time she chose Piano and Puppetry. For her piano recital she played "Merrily We Roll Along." It was so cute! Abby stood up, told us what she was going to play, then got started. No stage fright here! She played very slowly, but steadily, and she was whispering the note's names as she pressed them. "E, C, D..." Way too cute! But of course I forgot the camera! I did remember the baby, the diaper bag, the stroller, and what time the piano recital was at though! But no pictures :(