Eight is Great

Back in July, this handsome boy turned 8.

We spent the day at Black Ridge Reservoir in Herriman with our good friends the Snedakers.  The boys had an absolute blast playing on the sandy beaches and in the warm water.  We will definitely be going back there next summer.

For his birthday, Carson had really wanted a dog.  My boys have wanted a dog for the longest time but we have always told them no because our backyard isn't fenced.  Jeff had challenged our boys to keep their Legos cleaned up for 2 weeks(a really big challenge because with four little boys we ALWAYS have Legos on the floor somewhere!) and he told them that if they did, he would consider getting a dog. Well, our boys sure wanted a dog and they were very diligent about keeping their Legos cleaned up. After considering a lot of options, we decided we wanted to go with a medium to large sized dog because we felt it would be more "durable" with four little boys. Carson kept praying really hard that Heavenly Father would send him a doggie that would be perfect for our family.  One day about a week before Carson's birthday I decided that we'd better get looking for a dog and decided to set up an appointment with some people who were selling a dog online.  I also told the boys that we would be going to the shelter to look.  I told them we were NOT going to get a dog that day, but that we needed to start looking around so we could decide what we wanted.

We went to the shelter first, and after a quick walk through, Carson picked out a few big dogs that he wanted to look at more closely in the "getting to know you" rooms.  As we walked through the small dog area, I noticed a cute little terrier that looked very friendly and was the only dog not yapping at us. After being told that one of the big dogs Carson wanted to look at was not recommended for kids and the other one had been returned to the shelter for destroying property, I suggested looking at the little terrier. My boys instantly fell in love with this sweet little dog.  I reminded them that we weren't getting a dog that day, and we were just looking.  I asked the shelter worker if they could hold the dog for us until Saturday and she said that they don't hold dogs.  She also said that the terriers are usually adopted in a few days.  We had to leave the shelter to go meet our appointment with the dog that was being sold online.

We drove to our appointment and met up with Jeff to see a 6 month old Boxer mix.  Jeff had a Boxer dog when we were dating and he loves those kinds of dogs.  Carson, again fell in love with the dog (I think he'd love any dog!) but Mason and Jonas were scared of the bigger dog and didn't like that she jumped so much. In fact, Jonas wouldn't even get out of the van to go see the dog. We told the man we'd have to think about getting the dog.  Since Jeff was now off work, we drove back to the shelter to show him the little terrier and to look at the other dogs again.  As we walked through the shelter, Jeff and the boys picked out another big dog, a Walker Hound, to look at it.  It seemed nice enough, just high energy, and it frightened Mason and Jonas.  We looked at the terrier again and the boys were in love. The shelter was running a special for July and all dogs were $17.76 and they came neutered, with a rabies shot, microchip, voucher for a free vet visit, and a bag of food.  This made it very easy for us to choose the little terrier! He is the absolute sweetest little dog and we love him so much.  After trying out several different names on him, we finally settled on Oliver.

Carson loves his little dog and his favorite thing is to have Oliver come hop on his bed at night and sleep with him.

Baseball

This year the three older boys are playing baseball.  Don't they look so cute in their jerseys?

Carson is playing on the kids pitch team and has a great coach this year.

Jonas and Mason are playing on the 3&4 year old "Itty Bitty Ball" team. It was so cute watching them warm up for their game last week. I really love that they are so close in age.  It's made it nice because we only have to juggle two games instead of three.  Last week Carson's game was at the same time as the little boys' game so Jeff and I hopped back and forth between the two games. It's kind of crazy  because Carson's games are an hour and a half long and the little boys' games last maybe an hour.  So Jonas and Mason watched the first part of Carson's game, then came back just as it was ending.

Star Wars

 A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...

 You knew it was coming, right?  With so many boys in our house, I'm actually quite surprised that they hadn't discovered Star Wars before now.  It all started back in February after we bought our iMac. Since my iTunes account was hacked twice last year (and money stolen off our debit card...twice), I bought iTunes gift cards so we could purchase some programs through the App store.  We had a few dollars left over and decided to let the boys download Angry Birds Star Wars. Pretty soon they were asking if they could watch the movies and I was pleasantly surprised to find out they were rated PG. 

So on a snowy February day, and on our way home from a Jr. Jazz game, I stopped by my friend's house and picked up all six movies.  Even though I really regulate my boys' TV time, the plan was to let them watch the movies while Jeff and I painted our bedroom as part of our bedroom re-style. After all, it was a snowy, icky Saturday, and I needed them distracted so I could get my project done. As it turns out I was the one distracted and ended up watching most of the first two movies with my boys. Over the next week or so we watched all six movies (in order).  This is the first time that I'd ever done that and the saga made so much more sense to me. When it came time to return the movies, my boys cried...and cried. They went two whole weeks without Star Wars before I texted my friend and asked if we could borrow her movies again. She was so kind and let us borrow them for a whole month.  Seriously, how awesome is that?

Mason became obsessed with Darth Vader.  Obsessed.  He made a mask out of a milk box and walked around the house saying, "Luke, I am your father." One day my sweet sister in law, Kris, showed up at our house with a Darth Vader costume!  It was one of her boys old Halloween costumes and she thought Mason would love it.  Cue evil Empire music now....dun, dun, dun, da, da, dun, da, da, dun...

 Pretty soon, Darth Vader, was everywhere I looked...taking a nap on my couch, in my bed, on the patio, playing outside...he even tried to go to the store with me.

Since my boys were making Light Sabers with anything they could find, we soon invested in some "real" Light Sabers.

And the epic battles began...

I have to share a proud mom moment with you.  One day Carson came home from school very sad.  I asked him what was wrong and he told me that all of his friends at school had Star Wars Legos and he didn't.  At first my mind turned to the old "you need to be happy with what you have...wanting things makes you sad...don't covet..." train of thought, but before I said anything something stopped me.  I looked at him and said, "Well, you can be sad about it, or you can do something about it.  If you want those Legos, you will find a way to get them. What do you think you could do to get them?" At first we talked about him doing chores to earn the money.  He decided that it would take him a long time to earn the money because Mom doesn't pay well (I like to make him actually work for a dollar not just have it handed to him!).  There is a Facebook page for our community where you can post items to sell and we've had quite a bit of luck selling things on it. I asked him if he had any old toys he would want to sell.  He went to the basement and picked out four toys he hardly played with.  I snapped a picture of them on my phone, uploaded it to FB, and within 10 minutes all four toys had sold and he had the money he needed for his Star Wars Legos.  It was a great lesson for both of us.  Carson and I talked about how we need to look for solutions instead of whining about our misfortunes. We also talked about how if we really want something, and we put forth the effort to work for it, that Heavenly Father will bless us. I often think of how that day could have went.  I would have told him not to whine about it and that he had a lot of other Legos, and he still would have been sad that he didn't have his Star Wars Legos.  It would have caused contention in our house.  I'm thankful that I was able to listen to the Spirit and teach him.  He sure has been crazy about those Legos, and I'm happy that there are four less toys in my basement!

Glasses

For quite some time it has been on my mind to get Carson into the eye doctor.  We took him in for an eye exam when he started first grade, and the doc told us that he was border line needing glasses.  He sees fine out of his right eye, but his left eye has been losing vision.  So when it came time for my appointment, I scheduled one for Carson too.  As it turns out, his left eye has gotten a lot worse and it came to the point where he needed glasses.

We spent quite a long time trying on frames.  The boy is as indecisive as his mother.  Sorry kid. First he tried on wire frames.  They just didn't look good on him. (Sorry for the dark phone photo.)

Then he found these, but wasn't sure if he liked them.

Then he found this pair and fell in love with them. Unfortunately they were too big for his head.  As you can see he had to tilt his head backwards for them to stay on.  Plus they were a little too wide for his face.

Then he found these and they fit much better.

 Its so weird to see him in glasses.  It makes him look so grown up! He was trying to find glasses so he could look like Jeff.  He sure is a Daddy's boy!

Halloween Festivities

Another Halloween has come and gone.  This Halloween I took the boys around the neighborhood, while Jeff stayed home and handed out candy.  At the time, Jeff was working the night shift and when it came time for him to go to work, we were still out Trick or Treating, so he had to come looking for us to give us the keys to the house.  I had met up with one of my good friends, and we decided to take the kids to a different part of the subdivision since not many people were home on the streets by us.  Here are my four little spooks, just before we left. We walked around the neighborhood for about an hour and a half, until Porter had had enough and cried until we got him home.

(Sorry for the blurry pictures, most of them are from my phone.)

In early October, Jeff's friend, Finn, invited us over to his house to pick pumpkins.  He lives in American Fork, and has a huge garden.  (All Fall, Jeff kept coming home from work with tomatoes, peppers, and zuchinni from Finn's garden.)  The kids had a blast and Finn's wife, Michelle, and I hit it off well. We stayed much too late talking and letting the kids play. I can definitely see us hanging out with them more in the future.

Jeff and I joke that Carson looks like a proud Papa in this photo. We got a few of these Hubbard squash for decoration.  You can see Finn in the background.

Finn and Michelle also gave us these corn stalks to decorate with . 

The boys had fun trying on masks in Walmart.

The week before Halloween, we took the boys over to Thanksgiving Point to the Barnyard Boo.

They got their faces painted.

 Carson and Mason were brave and held the snake and tarantula.  Jonas is more like me and had no desire to hold such things!

Then we hosted our annual Halloween Party.  I made these Owl Cupcakes for one of the desserts. Cake decorating is NOT my thing, so I was happy to find something so easy to make and that looked halfway decent.

Some of our attendees.

Then it was finally time to carve those pumpkins.

On Halloween, we went to Carson's school for the Costume Parade.  I only managed to snap this blurry picture.

When we left Carson's school, the boys begged me to take them to Neptune Park.  Since it was such a gorgeous day, I agreed, and we spent 45 minutes soaking up the sun. It was a great way to get the boys out of the house so Daddy could sleep!

My Little Man is Seven

I can't believe that my little man is another year older! For this little boy, it was a day that started out early.  To accommodate Daddy working the night shift, we celebrated when he arrived home in the morning.  He surprised us all and showed up with a dozen doughnuts and a gallon of chocolate milk. We then opened a few presents and sent Daddy off to bed.

Carson spent a few hours doing his favorite thing: building Legos!  Then it was off to watch a 3-D movie at the Museum of Ancient Life...my first attempt at taking all four little ones to a movie by myself...and we survived! 

We got home from the movie in time to have some birthday cupcakes with Daddy and open the rest of Carson's presents before Daddy had to rush off to work again.

Later in the week we had Carson's real birthday party with family and friends.  We chose to show a movie in the back yard and have a 'Night at the Movies' theme.

Grandpa Larry paid for Carson to take archery lessons as a birthday present.  Carson loved it! 

July in iPhone Pics

Once again time has flown and I find myself doing a monthly recap in phone photos.  At the first of July we went to Idaho for my Grandma Butler's funeral (post coming soon...).  While we were in Idaho, Mason got sick with some sort of stomach bug, and after we returned to Utah, all of the kiddos were sick with it. We spent a day camped out in the living room feeling yucky.

After the boys were feeling better we took them to the Children's Discovery Gardens at Thanksgiving Point.  They loved it.

Porter learned about how itchy grass can be...

We launched rockets from our back yard with Uncle Shane and Uncle Jason.

Then we headed back to Idaho for two weeks because my dad had a knee replacement surgery.   He's needed it done for about 10 years and finally got to the point where he had to do it. He had a difficult time recovering and ended up having a second surgery after I came home.

 While I was there to help my dad, the kids were there to get spoiled by Grandma and Grandpa Larsen.  Jonas got some new swim goggles for...

 the swimming pool they bought while we were there.  My mom and I talked about getting a little wading pool for the boys to play in while I was gone during the day.  We mentioned it to Grandpa and then he comes home with this kind of a pool.  The kids were in heaven!

Grandma treated us to The Lorax with some tickets she'd won from work. Mason wouldn't share the popcorn :(.

In the middle of our stay, Jeff came up to visit us for the weekend. Carson had found my old BB gun in a closet at my dad's house, and so they went out back for some target practice.

 Before we left Idaho, we celebrated Carson's birthday early with a party at my dad's house.  It was the first time in 23 years I've sat down to a dinner with both of my parents.  It was kind of weird.

After two weeks of being away from home, this is how we all felt.

We got home the day before Carson's birthday.  At the time, Jeff was working nights and brought home breakfast doughnuts and a gallon of chocolate milk for Carson .  We opened presents and then Jeff went to bed.

While Daddy was sleeping, I let Carson build his new Legos all morning.  Then I took them to a 3-D dinosaur movie at Thanksgiving Point. It was my first time taking all four kids to a theater by myself.  It was a little hectic, but totally worth it to see Jonas and Mason (in their 3-D glasses) stand up and try to touch the dinosaurs.

The very next day was my nephew's birthday and we went to a Bee's game in SLC.  Four kids, at a baseball game, without Jeff there to help.  Enough said!