First Day of School

The kids started school a week and a half ago, and so of course I have to post some pics of the first day. Rob is a big 4th grader who was mortified to have his mother walk him to the bus stop. I haven't walked him for the past two years because he always had friends on our street to walk with. But those friends all started Jr High this year, so for the first day of school he got me to walk with, and apparently that just isn't cool!
Sarah spent the first day of school home sick. She was SO upset to miss the first day, but after a day of rest and medicine, she was ready to go the next day. I had to walk them to the bus stop again (and embarass Rob all over again) so I could take pics of Sarah's first day!

The younger two enjoy the morning walk to the bus stop. Talia is quite sad that Rob doesn't find it cool for us to walk them every morning--she loves to walk to the bus and wave to Sarah as the bus drives off.

We have a tradition of having ice cream sundaes after they come home on the first day of school, and this year was no exception. Rob's sign says "Best ice cream sundae maker". And he smeared whip cream all over his face as a joke (although he actually is that messy sometimes!)

Sarah's first day--she's a big second grader! They're growing up too fast--sometimes I just want to freeze time and keep them young forever.

Cody turns 1!

Cody turned one last weekend--where has the time gone?! I can't believe my baby is a whole year old. His birthday was on Sat, but we celebrated it on Sunday cuz Saturdays are just too hectic right now! Grandpa Bob and Grandma Bevvy came, along with Uncle Brian and Aunt Jen and their crew. We had a great evening watching him open presents and eating cake and ice cream. Here are a few pics from the birthday fiesta--

He loved opening his presents

He loves his new Fisher Price farm--now he doesn't have to play with Talia's old doll house!

This kid LOVES playing with balls, so of course we had to get him a few new ones

More fun with the football!

The cake!

When we gave him his cake, he was hesitant at first. He stuck a finger in and tried it out...

And then got a little more bold....

And then started stuffing his face!

The end result! I've actually seen him a lot messier after eating Oreos, but he still succeeded in getting the cake in his hair, his ears, and all down the front of him. It was great fun to watch!

Cody-man

This little guy is growing up SO fast!! He's ten months old today--I can hardly believe it. Here is some interesting info on our Cody:

• He weighs 21 pounds
• He talks himself to sleep at night, and we are often woken up in the middle of the night to his jabbering. If we go check on him, we find him fast asleep but talking to himself. It's cute, but can be quite annoying at 2 am
• For some reason, he holds his middle finger up on his left hand ALL the time, and all the neighbor kids think it's hilarious that he's always flipping everyone off. I was actually wondering if there was something wrong with his finger and he couldn't bend it, because it's ALWAYS in the upright position, but there's nothing wrong with it. Then Chris's sisters pointed out that both Chris and his dad always point with their middle fingers, so I guess it's a genetic trait!

Here are a few pictures to update you on our favorite Coder-dude. He LOVES all kinds of food, but especially loves sandwich cookies. No matter what he eats, he always makes a huge mess. He's old enough now that he rips off all of his bibs, so his shirts are always a mess. Thank heavens for Spray 'N Wash!

He pulls himself up to standing and walks along things--he'll be walking all over the place soon!

He crawls everywhere and is into EVERYTHING!!!

He loves walks outside and being in his stroller. I can't do much yardwork with him around because he eats the dirt.

He is still the happiest kid on the planet. He's so much fun, and we love him to death!

April Fool's Day

As my kids get older, I'm starting to realize that I'm a little bit of a party pooper about some things, and April Fool's Day is one of them. For me, it's something I roll my eyes at and then ignore, but for my kids it's an awesome day to attempt to pull all kinds of tricks. I told them on Sunday night that Wed was going to be April Fool's, and they got so excited and started planning what to do. There was no salt on a toothbrush this year (that was Sarah's prank last year to Robbie), but Rob did hide all of Chris's protein powder so he had to search for it. Talia just kept doing silly stuff all day long (like hiding her coat behind her back and then telling me she couldn't find it) and then saying "April Fool's". I decided to get into the spirit a little bit and I made "dirt cookies"--I found the recipe on allrecipes.com. and they were actually really good cookies! I didn't think they looked like dirt, bu the kids and all their friends did (see picture of said cookies below)


The classic prank of the day went to Sarah. On Tuesday night, after I tucked everyone in, she came downstairs and changed the plastic bags inside the cereal boxes. The Kix went in the Apple Jacks, and vice versa. On Wed morning Robbie got up and poured himself a bowl of what he thought was Apple Jacks, and as the Kix came out he just stared at the bowl and said, "What the......?!" It was classic! Kudos to Sarah for thinking of that one all on her own!

What has Talia been up to?

She is the best of frenemies with her sister.

She was a gumdrop in her dance studio's Nutcracker performance in December.


She is a social butterfly, and each day she doesn't get to play is a major tragedy. She loves her cousin Josie (shown in picture) and her BFF Addy.

Her hair has grown into the cutest pixie cut ever! It's been cut once since the big cut last October, and now we'll just keep getting the back trimmed up until all the layers grow out.

She still falls asleep all over the house in weird places. She's the one I have to go check on every night before I go to bed, because I never know if I'll find her asleep in her bed, under the bed, in the closet, on the stairs, under the desk, in the bathroom, in Robbie's room, etc, etc.

What has Sarah been up to?

She lost both her front teeth.

She had a great Christmas! She got spa factory, girl crush, and a crayola glow board. She had fun sledding in Brigham City at her grandma and grandpa's house. She had pneumonia at the end of the Christmas break, which was NO fun!



She was St. Lucia at the Shippen Christmas party. Doesn't she look beautiful?!

She was a mouse in her dance studio's Nutcracker performance. She LOVES dance!

She turned 7 years old! I can't believe she'll be baptized this year! Where has the time gone?

Where Have We Been?

I know it's been FOREVER since I blogged, but lately it seems it's all I can do to get the basics done. Here's a short list of what I've been up to:

• Working out--I'm doing my best to lose all this pregnancy weight, and so far I've lost about half of the extra weight I ended up with. I swear, sometimes it's a full-time job to try to lose weight!
• Scouts--I'm a wolf leader now. It's like planning a birthday party every week! Luckily, my co-leader lives next door, which makes planning and executing activities more convenient.
• Chauffeur--dance, gymnastics, swim lessons, preschool, basketball, baseball--for all these activities, someone has to get them there!
• Feeding--yep, still feeding the Cody man. It's impossible to be productive when you have to sit down every 2-3 hours and nurse a baby!
• Laundry--I don't know what it is about the 4th child, but it seems to be the straw that broke the laundry camel's back. All of a sudden there's a TON of laundry all the time, and I can't ever get on top of it. I swear I have nightmares about folding an unending pile of laundry.

There are many other things going on, but frankly I can't think of them. My brain is way too gone by this time of night. I'll try to do better at updating!