Mr. Independent

I think I have said this before, but Eli likes to be independent and do things himself. He watches others really closely and he thinks he can do whatever anyone else is doing. Even today at Isaacs kindergarten graduation, Terry got up and walked across the room and shook the hands of some people in our ward. Eli ran after him and walked up to all the same people and he also shook their hands. Had to be like dad.

Anyway, on Sunday I was busy getting kids ready for church and Terry (who I am glad was home that morning) walked into the kitchen and found this.

Terry kept a straight face and said, "Eli you can't do that." And he said in a very serious voice, "Kristi where is your phone?" And we took pictures of him without cracking a smile because we didn't want him to think it was funny. Terry was impressed because Eli had tried to crack eggs just like I do. He cracked the egg and dumped the yoke on the floor (I don't do that) and placed the cracked egg shell back in the carton. I think he had four or five eggs cracked before we caught him.

Chickens

A couple of months ago Terry left the house and went and bought an old junky chicken coop and eleven chicks. The kids were really excited about them for about a week. They still like them now, but they don't like to have to feed them. I tell them that is why we won't get a pet because the exact same thing will happen.
Anyway, here are the chicks.

We had the chicks in a plastic tote so it didn't take long for them to outgrow the tote. But we didn't have the chicken coop ready so when the weather got warmer we would let the chickens run around our back yard during the day. One day Isaac and his friend Neil were playing with the chickens in the backyard. They decided they wanted the chicks to race so they got our trampoline poles and made a race course with their food and water at the end to try and entice the chicks to move. It didn't work, but I thought it was a cute idea. Here is a picture of it.

Last Days of School

Because it is the end of the school year, we have been going to many programs. I have pictures of some of the programs, but not of all. Abby sang in the choir this year and got to sing in an ensemble for their end of the year performance. She did great!

Ellie had an orchestra concert, and they sounded fabulous. Really it is impressive how good they sound. It isn't the kind of orchestra where you are grimacing because there are so many notes that are off. Ellie has been trading off with her friend throughout the year as first and second chair for their orchestra. Good job Ellie!

Ainsley had her Idaho history program this year. They do a Lewis and Clark play and Ainsley had a little solo part where she sang an echo. She is fun to watch when she is performing because she gets pretty animated. Another mom told me she had so much fun watching Ainsley she had to keep reminding herself to watch her own daughter.

Sam was in a play called A Bad Case of Stripes. He was Mister Cream (the dad) who's daughter had a bad case of stripes because she stopped eating lima beans because she thought people would make fun of her for liking them. Sam had a little solo he sang to the tune of "I Love Rock n Roll" He also had a fantastic electric guitar solo. :)

Isaac just had his kindergarten graduation today. He was really fun to watch and their whole class did a really good job on their songs.

Eli

Since Eli is over two years old I figure I need to record some of the funny things he does. First of all, we all get a kick out of how he says no when he means yes or no. We know which one he means by the tone he uses. If he says no in a really nice pleasant voice we know he means yes. If he says it with force, then that means NO.

Frozen has been really popular over the last few months, especially the song "Let It Go". Eli has heard it so many times and seen it sung by so many different people that he knows it and loves to sing it too. The funny things is, he will go to the music room and find a part of a music stand and then take it back to the living room where he will put on a show for me. The music stand is his microphone and he sings a really nice version of this hit for me. Here are some pictures:

Eli has a very independent nature. He thinks he can do everything by himself. He gets the milk and the jam and any other food he feels like eating out of the refrigerator. He things sour cream is a treat and will eat spoonfuls of it plain. When I am working in the kitchen I will often find him hiding around the corner with our container of brown sugar, or powder sugar, or even oatmeal--shoving handfuls in his mouth before he is discovered. We have also caught him around that same corner trying to plug in electric mixers and frying pans.

Eli can open all of our outside doors so we have to keep close tabs on him to make sure he hasn't gone outside. He especially loves to sneak outside into Terry's car and play in there. He knows how to navigate our ipad and my phone--sometimes better than me. He wanted to watch a movie on the ipad and I was searching for the right place to go and he grabbed it from me and had us there in about five seconds. We catch him with the toothpaste all the time licking away at the open lid. He has unrolled lots of floss in his lifetime. He loves to blow his own nose. He is really good at kicking the soccer balls that are laying around our house.

Eli has a great little smile that can make the grumpiest person (me) smile anytime. He also is good at causing trouble with his older brothers. He really knows how to push their buttons and can make them cry. We love having Eli in our family.

A Fresh Start

I know it has been over two years since I have written anything about my family. But in the last few weeks all of the family has been on the blog reading the old stories and having such a fun time that I have decided to make a concerted effort to do this again and keep a better record of the goings on in our family. So here I am. It is always hard to know where to start when I have missed so much. So I will just start with right now.


It is May and the kids are just starting their last weeks of school. We are so excited for school to be over. We have been on such a tight schedule all year and will be glad for some carefree days. Here is how our mornings go.
5:30 Terry Exercise
6:30 Family Scriptures
7:00 Get ready for school, make lunches, eat breakfast
7:30 Bus
7:45 Kristi exercise
8:30 Take Ellie to school


So that is our schedule. I used to run with Terry over at the college and we would wake up at five in the morning but I was getting really burned out of waking up that early. So once the weather turned nice, I was happy to run after the kids left for the bus.


Our biggest news at the moment is that we are going to have another baby. I felt certain that I was done after Eli and was happy to never have to be pregnant again. I could look at other new babies without feeling any twinges of longing. But then Terry started making comments like "we could probably have another one". He has never in the past been the one to push for another baby. I just told him no way. But then in December and January I started feeling like I really could handle having another one. So we decided to pray about it and then went for it. Just so we couldn't change our minds I was pregnant a couple of weeks later.


I felt pretty nauseous all of the time for a few weeks and it was hard to feel excited about this baby. The thought of it just made me feel so tired. But once I started feeling better we have been looking forward to having this new member of our family. We told the kids early on but told them they couldn't spread the word. They were dying to tell their friends. We made them wait because I had some bleeding early on and in the past that bleeding had led to miscarriage. So we said they had to wait until I was far enough along that we knew the baby would be okay. So now I am 17 weeks and feeling pretty good. The kids are spreading the word to everyone.


Oh, just so this is a part of our history, I have to share a story. When I went in to the doctor to check out the bleeding they did an ultrasound on me. The girl who did the ultrasound was Hilary Furniss. She went to Sugar and was a year older than me. She also had done all my ultrasounds when I was pregnant with Eli. Anyway, as she was doing the ultrasound she said there was a little pre-chorionic bleed. But then she said it was nothing like the bleed I had last time (when I was pregnant with Eli). She said when she saw that last bleed she was sure I was going to miscarry because she hadn't seen a bleed that big. Terry and I came away feeling like the fact that we have Eli here healthy and happy is a miracle. We remembered back to all the prayers our family prayed that he would be okay and be able to grow and develop. We know those many prayers were heard and we are so glad Eli is here in our family making us smile and laugh every day.