Just pictures

 This guy is an eater. He's envious of anybody that has a bowl of food and luckily his brothers are generous with him.

 When I saw this at a clearance store, I was so excited. Ephraim is so thrilled with his Spiderman underwear that he likes to tell people about them and show them off so I thought it would be nice to get him something Spiderman that he didn't have to pull down his pants to show off.

 He even liked the tag

 This was Benny's creation during conference. The boys were surprisingly good and I was able to listen to most of the talks

 The boys even sat and listened to some talks too

 Sharing a smoothie together

 I don't let him wield a spoon very often yet but when I do, he thoroughly enjoys himself.

 Pumpkin painting! I love this time of year because of all the fun holidays. I think Halloween is the funnest holiday by far for kids. This year both Benny and Ephraim want to be Spiderman and Asher will be a skeleton again.

Benny and the Police

A couple of days ago, Benny gave me a little scare. We were all inside and I was laying on the couch because I was feeling dizzy. Benny really is a good brother but that day he was struggling and was picking on Asher. I finally told him to go outside if he couldn't think of anything better to do. So being a little hurt and angry, he announced that I would never see him again and then walked outside. This is typical. He thinks I don't love him anymore and threatens to run away but he really just wants me to chase after him and bring him back home. I do this, but first I give him a couple of minutes to cool down before I come after him. I waited for about 5 minutes and then I went outside to look for him. He usually just wanders around the complex near by but this time I couldn't find him. I kept looking for 20 minutes and then started to think that maybe he really did run away. I started to panic and decided to call the police. They arrived very quickly and got a description of him and then asked if they could search the house just to make sure he wasn't hiding anywhere. I said yes and silently wished I had picked up a bit. Toys were everywhere, beds weren't made and it looked very disheveled but, oh well. It wasn't really important. I continued to look outside and then the officers came out and told me to start knocking on all the neighbors doors to see if any of them had seen Benny. I started at one end but decided to skip over to #7. There was a young couple there who had a baby girl and a tank of fish that Benny loved to look at and ask questions about. He loved going over there to chat with them but it hadn't crossed my mind to look there in the first place. When I knocked Benny came to the door and then I started to bawl uncontrollably. I hate it when that happens. I was embarrassed crying in front of the neighbors. It was obvious that he had totally forgotten that he was going to run away and was just enjoying a nice social call. I had told the neighbors that it was okay with me if Benny visited them if it was okay with them and I had told Benny the same thing. The neighbors apologized and felt bad of course and I tried to tell them it wasn't their fault, Benny just hadn't told me where he was going. Benny was very confused. He didn't get the big fuss. He always went to visit the neighbors, why was this visit any different? I told the police that I had found him and then one of them bent down and looking him in the eye, told him he had to tell mommy where he was going. This intimidated Benny quite a bit and he said nothing. When the police officers left and we where inside, he asked with his head hanging down, "Am I going to jail"?
I'm grateful for the police. They were so nice and comforting and I didn't feel the least bit judged by them for having a messy house or being a obnoxious mom who didn't look for the obvious before calling them. I didn't have to worry about them being corrupt or slow to respond. They were just nice people.

home sweet home

It’s been awhile since I wrote so just for an “in a nutshell” description, we headed down to home for the summer. Nathan was able to find work doing renovating and building jobs for my family. He remodeled my parent’s bathroom and built some shelves for my mom and then he put dry wall and bead board in my Uncle Doug’s bathroom and waxed my grandma’s floors. He amazes me with his skills. He’s learned so much about how to do home remodel stuff that I’m excited for when we have a house. He’s my dream fix-it man. I’m really glad he took some construction classes even though he switched majors because he still learned a lot from them. I, on the other hand, was excited to go home because oddly enough home has an amazing effect on me when I’m pregnant. It cures my nausea and odor sensitivities. Every time. I was super sick with Benny in Chicago till we moved back to Kennewick and I was instantly cured the day we got in the car and drove toward home. I was pregnant with Ephraim while we were in Kennewick and I don’t remember smells bothering me or being really nauseous. With Asher I felt better when we left Rexburg to go to Arizona and eventually to Kennewick. And now it worked again with Levi (that’s his name). I felt better the day we left to head down to Kennewick for the summer. So from past experience I was anxious to go home and start feeling better again. We stayed for about 6 weeks and it was the perfect amount of time. I didn’t feel like going back home till the last couple of days so the timing was just right. While we were there, we went on a week long trip with Julie, Corey, and Ben to the San Juan Islands and to Bellingham. We didn’t take the kids on this one because we needed the break and I don’t think they were old enough for it yet. Our tent spots were walk-in sites and with Asher still crawling, he would have been in constant danger of choking and used up all his clean clothes the first day. We did however go on a more kid friendly camping trip just for a night with the whole family (on my side) which was perfect for the boys. I love camping with the family. We all nerded it up big time with a nice star trek trivia game. With our combined knowledge we were hot. Then we lazily swam and hung about by the river. Good times. Oh, by the way, my parents watched the boys for us while Nathan and I escaped on the San Juan trip. What troopers my parents are. They did an amazing job. How lucky I am to have parents who are willing to do that for me just so I can go and have a little fun.

Now after all that, we are back in Rexburg. It was so nice returning back to our little home. I love our little space here. I was complaining about it before we left but I think that was because I was just feeling sick all the time. We’ve stayed here the longest of any apartment (except at my parents which I don’t count) and now we will have had two of our children here by the time we leave. Just a little note on that. I’m pretty sure everyone that reads this blog knows we are pregnant and that it’s a boy but I just wanted to mention that we were so thrilled when we found out it was a boy. The ultrasound technician thought we were hoping for a girl when she found out we had 3 boys, but quite the contrary.  I love little boys and wouldn’t mind having all boys. I just love the name Levi too (as does Nathan) and wanted to call the new baby Levi right away. I love saying “Levi kicked” or “when Levi comes”. It sounds good. Anyways, we are back in the grove of things here in Rexburg. Nathan is back in school. Benny and Ephraim started pre-school. Ephraim started speech therapy. We have our weekly play date set up with Issac (Benny’s best friend from church) again. And me, I’m just at home sweet home.  

 Asher's first birthday!!!

 Here comes the cake

 I've captured the step by step destruction of the birthday cake. He was timid at first but dad helped him get his hands dirty.

 missed the mouth, but honest effort

 Cake annihilated and now bored and ready to get out

 The most popular attraction with the kids was daddy pulling them along on a tarp dragged behind by the lawn mower.

Oma and Asher bonded during the summer. With the week while we were gone and all the times Oma baby sat so I could take a nap added up. He would reach out for Oma when ever we would come to the house.

 

 Wrestling!

 Ephraim sleeping with Rex

 

slipped into the tub with clothes and everything