GO SILVERWOLVES

Sorry NO pics. I had them all ready to go and when I uploaded them I got a warning that I was out of storage space in my picasa web album. I don't dare go and delete pics from previous posts yet, so for now this is just a regular journal.
We signed Trevin up for soccer with the city league  this fall. He has loved it and it's done wonders for my boy that would cry just a little too easily. Well... that all changed because "Soccer players are tough."
In fact Trevin can do anything because "He's a soccer player!" ....Can you eat all of your dinner?  "Yes, because I'm a soccer player." ....Wow you're smart. How did you know that?  "Just because I'm a soccer player!"
It has been so much fun to watch him and the rest of the silver wolves. He had great coaches, Coach Phillips and Travis. Trevin really looked up to these two and they taught him so much about soccer. Trevin played on Tuesdays and Thursdays officially and every day in between in the back yard. "Big 5" became his favorite store ever! And dad couldn't have been prouder.
It is always fun to watch little kids play soccer... "Herd ball" is what I heard it called and it totally fits. We loved watching all the games and appreciate everyone that came to support Trevin. He was always so excited to see family come.
They rotated the players every quarter into different positions. And even if they didn't stay in the right places I think they were learning. Trevin loved playing defender and goalie. And he did great at both.  I was amazed by the end of the season that Trevin wasn't afraid to dive on the ball when he was goalie even if there were still little feet around trying to kick it. On his second to last game T even scored his first GOAL! He was so excited and we were too! Go #8! (That's what Trevin told me I could yell.)
We can't wait til spring ball starts...

The evolution of people...

I love to see pictures drawn by little kids! I think it is so cute to see their interpretation of the world especially when their pictures involve people!

Cheyenne loves to draw. This is what her people typically look like. A head....with arms and legs coming out  of it. She is very particular about the way she draws eyes too, much more detailed than Trevin ever was at her age. 

In addition to her attention to detail you always know she is drawing because she always tells the story of what she is drawing at the same time... Here is one example.

It kinda makes me sad that Cheyenne just transitioned to this stage.  Arms in the right place. She was pretty excited when she showed me! At the same time I have to smile because it looks like Dad is wearing a dress. Cheyenne says "No, its not a dress! He is just SLIDEY." 

Trevin has always been more interested in drawing shapes than people. So he would always just draw a circle and tell you who it was supposed to be. He eventually added the stick figure arms and legs and body (notice the arms come directly out of the head!)

 It didn't take him long to add in more detail.  According to Trevin this one is of mom and dad dancing. See dad is wearing a tie and mom is in a skirt. 

 Now Trevin is very detailed in what he draws. Every one has arms and even fingers. Shoes and appropriate clothing too. He even gave me an explanation with this one.

I can't wait to see what comes next. Who knows maybe one day we'll all grow HAIR!

7 months

"Levi is having another birthday!" That's what I heard from Trevin and Chey this month when I pulled out the camera to take more pictures of Levi. Ha Ha. But its true another month older already.

7 months.

Trevin has decided that now that Levi is 7 he is allowed to help mom and carry Levi around. I'm sure that this would be much easier if Levi wasn't quite so chunky. But it happens and Levi doesn't seem to mind. 

Levi is such an easy baby. He is very go with the flow and looks like this a lot of the time. Regardless of what's going on around him... Posing with our overgrown zucchini. 

... Helping mom can tomato juice. Same expression. Not excited. Not sad. Just content to be a silent observer. 

 I think he is just taking in all of his surroundings and learning a lot I can't wait until he starts talking, I'm sure he'll have a lot to say. 

Looks like I have a sports fan on my hands already! I'm still not sure how he managed to get his hands on Trevin's basketball cards. But they kept him happy for quite a while. 

 In all honesty he isn't always quite. He jabbers ALL the time. We finally pulled out all the baby toys and Levi is in heaven! With all the excitement of the new toys he has started to scoot! He puts all his weight on his forearms and pull his chunky legs up underneath his belly, then pushes forward until he reaches his goal. 

 This boy can eat! He wants food all the time. I feel like that is all I ever do anymore! No wonder he is so heavy... and look at how chubby his little cheeks are getting! 

A hair cut.

Levi's hair has been driving me nuts for a while now so Friday I finally decided to cut it. I pulled out the clippers and enlisted Trevin to hold Levi still. Levi seemed ok at first and then the tears started. It ended up being torture, Trevin was a sport and just kept holding on. 

 Levi calmed down pretty quickly after it was over.  Look at those little hair chunks. No more wings on the sides of his head. 

 I forgot to put a way the clipper box, in my haste to soothe Levi. When Gage got home he asked Cheyenne who had gotten a hair cut. She didn't answer. So I answered for her, she perked right up and said "Ya, mom cut Levi's hair." Well life went on, we played games a s a family and let the kids fall asleep watching a movie. at around 1 am we carried teh kids up to bed, but made stops at the bathroom first. I took Trevin to my bathroom and while aiming him in the right direction I saw this in the garbage.

The first thing out of my mouth was  "Who's hair is that!" Dumb question since it obviously wasn't mine. I ran into the other bathroom where Gage was washing Chey's hands and I assessed the damage... She cut off her ponytail!! I still am not sure how I didn't notice all night. (We figured she had done it right before Gage got home, he found her in the bathroom playing with my makeup.)  I wanted to wake her up right then and talked to her, more like yell at her! Gage was a very wise man and made me wait until morning. 

Morning came and I was much calmer. I walked Cheyenne into the bathroom and asked her about the hair. She cried. We talked about who gets to cut hair and why little girls shouldn't cut their own hair, etc... Next it was into the bath to really see how bad it was. Once it was dry this is what we had. 

Ugh. Way above her shoulders. I tried pulling it up in a ponytail, it looked silly. I tried braiding it, it looked silly (there is a chunk above her right ear that is only about 1 or 2 inches long). My next and only option... CALL ALEX! and make Cheyenne pose for one more picture! 

 We decided to go to Alex's house so she could see it in person. When we got there I had came to grips that it would have to be cut. Chey's cried on Alex's shoulder on the way out to the deck to get her hair cut, because she didn't want short hair. Hopefully this taught her a lesson.

 Look at that pouty face. 

 CHOP! CHOP!

 We didn't cut it a short as Chey had. Just short enough that with the layers Alex gave her it all kind of blends. Alex did a fantastic job! Life is good and Cheyenne is finally ok with having "Medium" hair. 

What a cutie pie! I love her no matter what. 

  

We actually blow dried it with a round brush and it looks adorable.  (I'll have to add some pics of that). Cheyenne couldn't stop looking at her hair in the mirror saying "It's beautiful and fluffy!"

Just another week in paradise.

This is not a typical Sunday at our house. With Gage in the Bishopric he isn't home much on Sunday. when he gets home we usually head out to see grandparents. He got home on Sunday afternoon and decided to lay down. Cheyenne decided she wanted to lay down with him and before I knew it this is what had happened. I was upstairs cleaning up lunch or else I would have joined them.  

  That night Trevin ended up with a fever. :(  So we quarentined him to his room Monday and Tuesday. He got to have the portabel DVD player in his room and Chey was pretty jealous. He called me up, " Mom come see what I did!" this is what I found when I got there. He had sorted ALL of his cars, by color!

 What an awesome kid. He was so proud of himself and I was proud of him too!

One of the time's I went to check on him, his fever was up.  I asked him if hr would you like a cold rag for his head, he said No. I responded with, "I'll get you a Lighting McQueen one."  He was shocked. "Do we really have one of those!" So I got it and he laid down with it on his forehead. As I walked out he said in his little sick voice, "Thanks Mom, this is awesome." 

 By Wednesday he was feeling better, but we still stayed home. Thursday we ventured out of the house and met Gage for lunch. On the way home we were gunna run some errands. Cheyenne cut those plans out by throwing up all over the car. Bummer. The thought of staying in her room all day watching movies didn't sound near as fun when it was her turn. She did do a lot of coloring! And by Friday afternoon, it was hard to keep her away from her brothers. I was so excited to finally have all the kids feeling better!

Friday night we usually start yard work so it doesn't take as long on Saturday. We have waited for years to have our yard all put together. And it finally is (mostly). And this year ... drum roll... our grass is GREEN! Thanks to all of Gage's hard work. It looks so healthy and it grows so fast ! We finally set the lawn mower higher and it still takes forever to mow. Gage mows and then rakes all the grass. I'm always surprised at how much grass we end up with. It definitely doesn't fit in the garbage can or in the garden.

 Saturday Morning I couldn't wait to get out of the house, even if it was just to buy corn. All week I wanted to can corn and I finally managed to fit it in. :)  Now we'll have yummy corn all year long!

 Levi was a champ all week. He really didn't get very much attention with the older two being sick. However, he did get to try some new foods. He loves to eat real food. Bananas are his favorite, with applesauce close behind. Corn is pretty and the green beans are tolerable.

Not a truly typical week at our house, but even with the hiccups it was a great one. Weeks like this help me to remember to be grateful. I live a charmed life. I have a wonderful husband and three amazing kids. The Lord has blessed me in so many ways!

Girl's night out.

Wow we really forgot to take pictures this year. I'll have to take a couple of the crafts we did and add them.  Sierra made a deliciously yummy, creamy homemade mac and cheese. It was fantastic. So fantastic in fact that we made a trip to the store so we could make another batch! Nikcole made rice krispie treats. After all it isn't girls night out without those.  

For our crafts we made towels to hand on the stove. They turned out so stinkin' cute. I love that they will stay on the stove now and not walk off with my children. 

After towels Cass and I made super hero masks. Actually cass did all the hard work of cutting them out and I just sewed them together. Trevin and Cheyenne love them.

The little girls all dressed up in Sugar's slips and Lindsay put curlers in all of their hair. 

We even made friendship anklets out of sinew. That we burnt together, the girls started calling them our fire bracelets  They were all pretty scared but had fun encouraging each our to be tough. 

The next morning we painted toe nails Cheyenne did mine... 

  She was very careful and made sure she didn't miss any spots.  

 They turned out awesome!

half a year.

Levi is six months old.  He weighs 20.5 lbs. and is in the 99th percentile for height.  

He is just figuring out how to sit in the tripod position and thinks he is pretty cool. 

He loves to be on his tummy and rolls everywhere!!! He will roll until he can't get any further. Which usually results in him getting stuck somewhere... like under the piano. 

 One day I left Levi on the floor in his room listening to Trevin read. When I came back I couldn't see him.

Don't worry he hadn't gone far. He was just hiding under the bed. 

 Before long he had even found some toys to play with. 

Levi is such a content baby. That's the best way to describe him. Happy no matter what is going on around him, being held or not, and he can still sleep through just about anything. Lately he has decided that sleeping on the floor with all the chaos is fine with him as long as he has a blanket and can be on his tummy. 

 Trevin and Cheyenne are still great helpers. They love to play with Levi and make him laugh. 

At his 6month appointment we were told that no helmet would be needed for his head. YAY! and at the same time, erg. I don't really think it has improved much over the last two months. I am tired of waking up in the middle of the night to make sure he is still looking to the right. It would have been nice to have the helmet to do the work even if it did cause stares. Our doctor recommended jimmy rigging his car seat so he couldn't look to the left while we were running errands. I tried everything. But Levi can grab and move anything I stick by his head. Finally I decided a hat was the only option. So I quickly sewed a hat that has foam in it to prevent him from turning his head. And after a week of wearing it I think it's helping. Problem is I've found Levi with it off twice already. I don't know how long it will last. Oh well. No one can say I haven't tried. 

All the stress of the plagiocephaly fades away when I see this smile. ( I see it often!)

 

Odds n Ends

Trav's girlfriend, Nikcole, has a mini cooper...The kids all love it. Maybe it's because it small or maybe it's because they know how cool Nikcole is. Either way they are so fascinated with it.

 I talked Gage into joining us for free doughnuts at Krispie Kreme's on National Doughnut Day. They were way delicious. The kids were way excited... What child/adult doesn't love doughnuts!

 We went boating. Yes: I wake boarded. No: I didn't get any air... I am content to stay inside the wake. 

Trevin got a ride on Darrin's motorcycle and now wants to ride a motorcycle when he is grown up.

Cheyenne got a ride too, she can't wait until Trevin gets his motorcycle. 

 We were home for the 4th of July. This hasn't happened in, I think, 5 yrs. We are always at Bear lake and unfortunately they don't do fireworks. I was pretty excited. The show got off to a rough start (a 25min pause). But turned out to be pretty good.   

 Levi did great, you always worry about a baby's first time at fireworks. But he jumped at the band of the first few and then just settled back into Gage's lap. He really is a great baby. 

A family friend, Trp. Aaron Beesley died during a rescue mission. We had the opportunity to take the kids out and watch the procession. I am always amazed at the and the community support that is shown when an officer dies. I loved getting to show my kids the flags and firetruck that carried the casket and talked to them about Aaron. I am so grateful for the men and women that put their lives on the line for my safety. I hope that appreciation is something I can help my kids to feel and express.  

On a lighter note... if you are going to make an awesome bubble bath. Don't forget that you turned on the bath tub. Thank goodness for those overflow drains. They were invented for people like me!

 City days!! We had a great time at the parade and enjoyed walking through the booths. The favorite booth... PRINCESSES!!! Cheyenne and A were in heaven and didn't want to leave anytime soon. 

Cinderella, Belle, and Snow White...

 Tiana...

 And Repunzel...

 We were supposed to go back to the park for fireworks but Gage, Levi and Cheyenne all feel asleep. So instead Trevin and I climbed up onto the roof and watched. He thought that was pretty cool.