Vacation begins

Thursday was Joshua's last day of school for the year.   I was so looking forward to it.  I always thought I would be the Mom who wanted their kids in school, but instead I love having them home.  We are going to especially enjoy the time Michael has off.   

Leah's always changing and doing new things.  She loves to dance, and clap along to songs.  Currently, she especially loves to walk behind things.  The boys love encouraging her.  In this video you can hear how excited Dallin is for her.  It is so cute.  

 Dallin and I hang out at home while Joshua is at school.  On this day Dallin had a friend over to play with him.  My boys love their friends.  Every day they ask me if they can have someone come over or if they can go to someone else's house.  They are so social. I guess they can teach me a thing or two about being social.  :)

Dallin is so funny whenever he wears anything that has a hood, he feels like he has to have the hood on.  He will not take it off for anything.

We are looking forward to Christmas.  It has snuck up on us.  I haven't done any baking or anything, so I better get on it.  :)

Christmas Program

Joshua had his Christmas program this week.  I loved it!  I loved how happy and proud his teacher was.  They did Christmas around the world.  Joshua's class did the Philippians.  I dropped Leah off at a friends just to make sure I wouldn't miss a beat.  :)  The program was right in the middle of nap time.  Dallin enjoyed going as well.  Dallin enjoys going to Joshua's school.  He got to have milk and cookies with Joshua after the program.  they also go to see Santa.  

The video of Joshua singing is really long and would take forever to upload so I will just upload the video of him holding up the star.

 I haven't shown any park pictures in a while. It is finally getting cold.  I love it!!!  Leah doesn't have a girlie coat, she has a hand me down boy coat, but I think she is still stinkin' cute!  She loves to swing.

The boys don't like to swing on the behinds.  They prefer the super man style.  My kids love to get their coats on.  We don't get to wear them all that often, so we will enjoy it when we can especially around Christmas.  People think we are crazy here walking and playing outside when it is in the 40s.  We walk Joshua to school everyday.  I have had so many sweet people offer me rides.  I enjoy walking and so do my kids, but it is nice to know that there are kind strangers out there willing to help.  :)

Happy Birthday Joshua

 I have a five year old now.  I feel too young to have a five year old.  :)  We are so blessed to have Joshua in our lives.  He is so bright and fun to be around.  He is kind, caring, and considerate.  We love you Joshua!!!

We had a little play date in the morning and then off to school.  After school we had cake with Aunt Jenny and then off to the Ward Christmas party.  It was a busy but fun day.  They sang Happy Birthday to Joshua at school his teacher said he turned bright red.  Joshua received many wonderful gifts.  He loved them all.  He is so blessed.  Thanks to everyone who helped make it wonderful!!

Thanksgiving Break

We have much to be thankful for!  We have great family and friends.  We are healthy and employed.  We have a very good Thanksgiving break.  It has been actually relaxing.  

 Leah is hanging out with her cute pink cowgirl boots and reading her favorite Carl book.  We have been so blessed.  Leah has received so many hand me downs, and they are so cute too!  I don't know that I would have bought pink boots, or any shoes really at this age, but they sure do look cute.  Thank you friends and family for sharing clothes with us.

 Dallin and Joshua playing in the fire truck tent.  They love it.

 We had a great Thanksgiving dinner.  This year we did one dessert a day. Today we are doing the apple pie.   It worked out well.  We had Jenny and Tony over for Thanksgiving.

 Leah loves blackberries.  She had her own meal separate because she slept during the Thanksgiving meal.

 Joshua didn't have school so we went to the Arboretum.  It was so fun.  Dallin and Joshua got their face painted.  They usually don't want to, but this time they went for it.

Joshua got a football and Dallin got spider web eyes.  This is Joshua's friend Ameila they actually share a Birthday.  They are so cute!  We listened to the lady sing songs and the kids had scarves and shakers.  They also had a petting zoo set up.  We had a great time.

Michael had his friend Paul come over and help us fix our lawn mower.  It was so nice!  It is running and we got our lawn mowed.  yea!!!  Thank you Paul!!!!  We also got some shopping done and a Birthday cake made for Tony.

Now we will got back to work and school tomorrow.  We won't set up our Christmas stuff until after Joshua's Birthday, so now you all have fun new posts to look forward to.  :)

9 Months

Well technically 9 1/2 months. :) We went in for Leah's well check today. It was quite the adventure. She is diong well. She is 18 1/2 pounds, and is 29 1/4 inches long. 90th percentile for height and 75th for weight. She is crawling with speed and even throws in a bear crawl every now and again. She is also pulling up to a stand, so my shelves empty out on a regular basis. She loves to clap and wave for us. She has 3 1/2 teeth. She is an awful teether it has been hard work for these teeth to come in. She didn't have to have any shots, but they like to do a blood draw for their 9 month check up. They started with her arm and the vein blew. It will be a nasty bruise in the next few days. Then they pricked her finger and filled up their little vials. She screamed and screamed. It was awful. She got blood all over the place. Then I wanted to stop at the grocery store really quick to pick up our turkey. Today the sale started where they are 29 cents a pound. I thought I could just run in and grab it. Leah, who was in the cart bit off her band aid and got blood everywhere. It was gross. She was covered in it and our cart was covered in it. Who knew a finger could bleed for so long. I don't know why none of my kids like band aids. Now we are all cleaned up and Leah is down for a nap.

If you want a comparison on all three of my kids click http://mwestfamily.blogspot.com/2009/04/9-months.html.

Everyone always tells me she looks like Dallin, but I think that is because they didn't see Joshua as a baby.  I think she looks so much like Joshua.  They are all so cute!  I love my kids!

Family Camping

We went camping this weekend as a family. I was so afraid that it would be disastrous, but it worked out really well. We had five families total share one spot. It was great to spend time with friends and eat yummy food.

This was Leah's first camping trip. She did pretty good. She did wake up crying in the night and Michael took her to the van where she spent the last two hours of the night sleeping. Dallin and Joshua went right to bed and didn't wake up Leah. They did great! My boys really love camping.

We went on a little hike. It was fun to walk and see nature. I love getting out of the city.

Joshua wanted to go fishing so bad. We do not have poles and Michael hasn't fished much, so he isn't as excited about it as the boys. We will have take the boys another time.

It was so fun to be with our friends. The little ones all went to bed pretty good and we got to sit around the fire and talk. It was so nice.

New Things

We had a very exciting week. We tried a few new things.

 Dallin and Rayna went to the Arboretum with Michael. They didn't have any other siblings with them. Dallin had a great time. Michael said he was happy up until they went to pick up Joshua from school. I guess it crushed his dream of being an only child. ;) He must have enjoyed his one on one time with Dad. :)

I got 25lbs of tomatoes. My friend Elise came over to teach me how to can them. It took me until about midnight but I did it, and enjoyed it. I made it into tomato sauce.

It was Raytheon day at Six Flags. We asked Tony and Jenny to come with us. It was so fun! They traded us off and on so we can go on bigger rides. We are so glad that they came with us.

Leah did great! She handled the day so well. Leah was only allowed on one ride. The steam engine. She was such a trooper.

Dallin was a little slow to enjoy the rides. When he finally decided that he could enjoy himself he loved the trucks! I think he rode them like 8 times. I know it doesn't sound like a big thing but he also used his first public restroom. He hates using public restrooms. I think that may be why he decided he could enjoy himself. Silly boy! He had a good time though.

Joshua had an amazing time! He loved this tower ride. They go up and drop you down. He went on four different roller coasters. This is coming from a boy who is afraid to jump out of the van. He also went on this ride where you go up about 200 ft and then they drop you down in a parachute. Michael wanted to try it, but was scared. Joshua asked Tony to go with him and loved it! When Michael and I went on it, Michael kept saying "if Joshua can do it, I can." Michael did great. He didn't even get sick. Jenny got a little sick. I got in a few big roller coasters which was fun since I think the last time I went to an amusement park was over 6 years ago with Jenny, Michael and his brother Paul. There were hardly any lines at the park. No lines is really the way to go!

The other new thing this week is I have a new job at church. I am now going to be a nursery leader. I was released as a counselor in Relief Society. I am told that it will be a good break for me. I am not sure about the break part (kids and break don't usually go in the same sentence:), but a change every once in a while is nice. I was told that I needed a break, which is probably true but almost embarrassing that people noticed. :) It should be fun change, but I will miss the people I worked with before.