Thank Goodness For The Family Camera Man...

If it weren't for Matt, I'm not sure we'd end up with very many pictures of anything. Because of Matt, I get great pictures like these: Priceless!



I can't tell you how many pictures just like these I have!
However, we do also get pictures like these:

I signed Josh and Matt up for T-Ball. They are on the same team (Yay for me) so it will be a busy month of running to games, hopefully I can keep up. I may forget to take the camera, so in case I do, here is some proof that they are going to play.

This is my favorite. Matt loves Keifer SO much. They are, indeed, kindred spirits. He had his camera out taking pictures of Keifer and asked me to take a picture of the two of them (this is also a common picture we have, but this one turned out better than some).

Last, but not least. Our last turn for preschool at our house was a couple weeks ago. I think Mindy saved this project for me-it was SO fun. They were learning about different occupations and we got to make a COMPUTER! Matt and Joe had to take them to bed that night, they liked them so much. They were excited to be "Computer Geeks." My mom asked Joe what a computer geek looked like one day, his response "A Computer Geeks looks like my dad!"
By the time we painted the "computers" everyone had paint everywhere! So we took pictures of their Crazy Hands! What fun we had.

Happy Birthday, Mother's Day & Anniversary..TO ME!

I'm not sure what I was thinking when I decided to get married in May-and that is probably the problem-I wasn't thinking. As a result, May ends up being my month! 1st-birthday, mother's day, 12th-anniversary. The last couple of years I have felt bad for Keith having so many things in one month to keep track of, that I give him an idea of something he can do for me that covers all the occasions.
This year, I wanted my wedding ring fixed. After 9 years, the prongs just weren't holding up anymore, so I haven't worn my ring for some time. I have refused to take 4 little boys into a jewelry store to get it fixed on my own. So I made the suggestion. I forgot how much I missed wearing it. Especially now that it looks brand new again! It takes me back and I almost feel newly married again!


No birthday video for me (not making one for myself). Keith got one (I didn't post his, he doesn't like that kind of thing advertised). It was a nice day full of calls or visits from family. Thanks for making my cake, Heather! I thought it would be fun to tell some of the things about me that the kids do in primary.
Q: How many brothers and sisters?
A: 3 brothers, 2 sisters
Q: Who do you want to be like when you grow up?
A: My mom
Q: Favorite color?
A: Green
Q: Favorite food?
A: Rice (yes, just plain rice, maybe with a little soy sauce) or my mom's homemade chicken noodle soup over mashed potatoes.
Q: Favorite thing to do?
A: Visit with Keith.
Q: What do you want to be when you grow up?
A: A good mom.
Q: Favorite Scripture story?
A: Helaman and the 2000 Stripling Warriors. I always have loved this story and it means more to me now that I have all boys, I just hope I can teach them the way the 2000 warriors' mothers did.
Q: Favorite subject in school?
A: Business classes/Word Processing
Q: Strangest food you ever ate?
A: Spaghetti at a restaurant in Ecuador-its wasn't spaghetti like we know it.
Q: What would you do if you had a million dollars?
A: Put it in the family mission fund.

Hives....Again.

I don't know what kind of mutation Keith's and my genes did, but all our kids are allergic to SOMETHING. Hives don't usually make me panic because they are so common at our house-but when the baby who is only nursing and eating rice cereal breaks out in hives??? I was a little worried. The only thing he'd had was allergy medication the doctor told me I could give him for seasonal allergies (hopefully, they are just seasonal). After the hives showed up, I read the label, it had banana flavoring. Keith happens to be allergic to bananas, GREAT. I thought that was a little weird to be allergic to allergy medication-isn't that suppose to help you NOT be allergic to things? After 2 days of allergy medication and 2 days of hives, I stopped giving him the medicine. (Its hard to see the hives in the pictures)



About a week later and after being very careful about what the baby was around-he got hives AGAIN! Only this time, he hadn't had any allergy medication and it was within minutes of nursing. What did I eat???? So I start researching hives to refresh my memory on causes. What can a baby be allergic to from nursing? Fresh cows milk. AhHA! The timing had been right. My sister-in-law had given me some fresh cows milk and I was really enjoying it (I am a milk lover). I had just eaten some pudding made with the cows milk. I'm sure I knew this tid bit of information once upon a time when I was well versed in what a mom should and should not eat while nursing (when Matt and Josh were babies). But at this point, a lot of its a blur and we just do the best we can.


I just hope this doesn't pose a problem for when he starts on milk at age 1. I'm wishing him luck. If so, we'll just add it to the list of things the family is allergic to: cherries, bananas, pineapples, Spring, Fall, smoke, pets.....YAY! These are all the boys' problems. I guess I'm allergic to being pregnant and stress, since those are the only times I get hives. Gotta love the allergies!

First Time For Everything

Keith had a scout camp a couple weekends ago. I asked the usual questions to find out what time and where they were going. I knew I needed everything ready by about 3 pm the Friday he was leaving. Friday morning I walked into the front room to find this:

Due to schedules, I always pack Keith for camps and any other time he needs to go out of town. It is something that has always worked out for us, and I don't mind doing for him. I didn't know what to do with myself when I found this. I felt lost all day because I had planned to pack him and it was already done. All I could think was that I hoped he'd found everything he needed. I guess it worked out, I never heard that he forgot anything.

Pine Cones & Glasses

Gotta love brothers. The boys were playing outside at their grandma's house one day and were throwing pine cones at each other (which they shouldn't have been doing-they got in trouble the week before for the same thing when one of their cousins got hit in the eye). Well, Matt threw it pretty hard and Josh had scratches around his eye. We told him to buck up, because we are such loving and caring parents. :)
The next morning his eye was quite blood-shot and appeared to have an infection. We took this picture before we were able to get to the doctor. He complained so much about the light hurting his eye that we put a large bandage on his eye, since he refused to wear his sunglasses. He kept playing with the bandage and then complained about it not sticking, so I grabbed a piece of duct tape and put on it. He quit complaining after that. We got to the doctor and sure enough, there was an eye infection along with a nice little scratch right in the center of the eye. He's all better from that, but there is still a scar.

I knew we needed to get an eye appointment for prior to the pine cone incident, but was waiting for new insurance and a couple other things to get him in. I wasn't too worried because his school work didn't reflect any problems. I felt bad when we went to the eye doctor and his "uninjured" eye couldn't tell what the letters were. Oops, I guess he REALLY needed glasses. So, here he is sporting his new and improved look.

Matt and Joe were able to buy reading glasses from the Dollar Store to make them feel important, too. Funny boys. Joe was napping when we took the pictures.

Old News, But News

I never posted about Matt's birthday party. We invited his preschool buddies and his best friend (and cousin), Grant. They had a lot of fun playing on the playground, cake and presents of course, and a treasure hunt which ended with a pinata. The kids had a blast and Matt felt extra special on this day.

Keifer had a good time at the party, too. Funny to think it was warmer at the end of March than it has been for a while.

Clay Creatures

The turtle isn't suppose to be there-but the kids wanted him in the picture, too.

Josh has an awesome 1st grade teacher-we've been blessed with teachers that work well for his learning. He has been excelling in his schooling and his teacher was afraid he (along with a few others in the 1st grade) would get complacent and not continue to have growth. So they put together these students a few times a week to do things that challenge them. They did a Reader's Theater where they dressed up and everyone had parts to read (I ran off and forgot the camera that day). They also did these really cute clay creatures. I was quite impressed. They made the shoebox into their background and everyone made a large animal and a baby. Josh chose to make lions. Its been a great experience and a lot of fun for him.

Keifer's Funny Sound

This last week Keifer started making this really funny sound. We were able to catch it on video, and he does seem to do it on purpose. I'm always amazed at the things little 5 month old boys do (I can't vouch for girls), but they definitely are boys, through and through!

The video is less than a minute, and I did remind him what sound we are looking for in the video, but it is Keifer making the sounds after that. We get a lot of laughs when he does this. Just yesterday he began dancing, too. What a character! I also love that you can see his chub so well in this video.

Please excuse the foggy appearance, I've cleaned the lens now, but Joe loves to take pictures of his fingers.

The Little Mermaid

I have to tattle on my boys for a moment, because it was so funny. As many of you know, we do movie night each week.

Last week we watched "The Little Mermaid" for movie night. The first funny thing is that none of the boys would admit they helped choose the movie. I suggested it, they said okay, and we got it. When it arrived from Netflix, they had a fit and complained about the princess movie. I reminded them that they helped pick it out-none of them remembered that. I told them that Grandpa Johnson really liked this movie (I remember going as a family to see it in the theater and that my dad had really enjoyed it at the time). Apparently this was all the "guy" credit they needed, as Josh promptly said "Oh, its one of my favorites, too."

So, we watched the movie, enjoyed it and went to bed. The boys watched the movie 3 MORE TIMES in the next couple days before I returned it (on their own, I might add, we didn't help or even suggest it). Keith and I laughed so hard. Usually movie night viewing is all they do. They may never admit it, but they LOVED The Little Mermaid!

Captain Underpants!

So, we have never read the books, our only "exposure" to the Captain Underpants books has been through seeing them in the book orders that come home from school. Apparently that is all little boys need to see.
I will save the pictures and hilarious video for home viewing (sorry to all of you who will miss out), but for memory sake (since I print the blog for my journal) I will tell a little about it.
A few weeks ago Matt came running out of his room wearing only "tighty whities" and a red cape. He had a grin on his face and ran around playing Captain Underpants. This was quite the site and we all had quite a laugh. Josh wanted to join in, but not at the expense of stripping down to nearly nothing-he's so modest :) However, Joe thought it was great! For the first time, with the help of his brothers, he willingly put on a pair of underwear. He wouldn't have a thing to do with the underwear when I tried to get him to wear them.
Thanks to Captain Underpants, potty training has begun (slowly, but surely). While I don't approve of running around in underwear, for now if it will help a little boy get potty trained--I'll allow it. Besides, this is great blackmail material for later on in life..hee hee.