Can it really be summer already? Matthew had his last day of first grade today. I can't believe this little man is turning into more of a bigger little man every day. He told me this morning that he was excited and sad that school was done, but mostly excited. We'll see how long that lasts!
Here's Andrew enjoying the game from the bleachers. I LOVE those chubby cheeks.
For New Year's Eve we told the kids we were going somewhere for a surprise. They tried their hardest to guess, but none of them thought we would be going to...the Kangaroo Zoo! They all cheered with excitement when we drove up to the place. For those who have never been there before, it is a big building full of blow-up bounce houses, slides, etc. The perfect activity for these energetic little boys. And might I add the perfect activity for New Year's Eve. These kids played hard for two hours straight and were tuckered out by the end of the day. After some dinner and a movie they were ready for bed. We may do it again next year!
After a long summer of practice in the basement the fall soccer season has started. Ryan's team is called the Crocodiles and Matthew's team is called the Laser Bolts.
For the first time we have moved Matthew and Ryan to the Northern Utah County Soccer league. Smaller fields for Ryan and no goalies for Matthew and Ryan!!
Ryan started up scoring goals just like last season. I think he scored four times but he keeps correcting me that he scored six times, which is possible...I wasn't counting.
Matthew #8 is playing well too. Just like our Wii soccer game Matthew is a five star player. In his first game he scored three goals.
In Matthews team we are working on passing the ball and playing defense. Both Matthew and Ryan had a lot of fun. Zach let us know that he scored two goals today (in the basement league) and had to dress up in one of Ryan's old soccer uniforms. Too much fun.
While I have been trying to catch up on Andrew I haven't posted much about the other kids. Here's an update on Boy#1.
Matthew loves to play games . Did I mention loves? He is a pro at Monopoly, Ticket to Ride, Sleeping Queens, Trouble, UNO, Phase 10, and anything else he can get his hands on. Once after lunch he asked me to play Ticket to Ride and I told him he had to wipe his face first. He let me know that wasn't in the instructions.
Learned to ride his bike without training wheels in April
Reads and reads and reads. His favorite books are Secrets of Droon, Magic Treehouse, and A to Z Mysteries. I think he has finished just about all of them. We are regulars at the library to say the least.
We went to the park near our house a while ago. It has one of those systems where you can talk to someone from one side of the park to the other. Matthew and Ryan were taking turns ordering and making pizzas with the wood chips on the ground. I was helping Zachary climb onto a slide when I heard the following conversation.
Ryan: I want to order a pizza please.
Matthew: Okay. That will be two thousand dollars.
Ryan: Okay. I have that much. Thanks. Bye!
I thought it was great that not only did Matthew request such a large sum but that Ryan had just the right amount. Cute boys.
*This was from March. We're still trying to do some catch-up since we've been lazy bloggers lately.*
It was such a nice day that Kevin proclaimed, "It's time for us to go dig something!" So out the boys went to go dig in the dirt. They thoroughly enjoyed getting dirty with their dad.
This year both Matthew and Ryan are playing soccer.
They call Ryan a bulldog, because he can hold the ball so well. He is having so much fun playing with all his friends and cousins. Update - Ryan scored two goals tonight. So cute!
Matthew is also having fun. He has played four games and has twelve goals. He really likes playing with his classmates from Freedom. He is learning the game and is passing the ball and playing good team soccer.
Zach tells us that he is playing too, even though he isn't, and always let us know that he won.
We also wanted to add some pictures of Andrew. The little guy is growing up so fast!
A quick story. Last Sunday we asked the boy's to put away their toy Lightsabers as we have a no weapons rule on Sunday. Matthew quickly responded to Ryan; "That's okay. We don't need Lightsabers we can use the FORCE."
Matthew has now lost five teeth. We call him Toothless after the main character on How to Train Your Dragon. He has a little bit of a lisp which is really cute.
And here he is with crazy hair to celebrate Dr. Seuss' birthday at school. This was the first time he let me do it different than normal and I think he liked it.
I've never been a great sleeper, so when I was younger I used to sneak out of my bedroom and hide behind the couch so I could watch TV with my mom and dad. One night Kevin was watching a football game and it extended into Matthew's bedtime. We usually tell him that we will give him the score when he wakes up the next morning. After we put him to bed Kevin and I went into our room to change into our jammies and then came out to finish the game. We watched the game for about five or ten minutes when I got the sense that we weren't alone. I stood up to go check on the boys and ended up stepping on what I thought was only a blanket crumpled on the floor. What was hiding beneath that blanket might you ask? Yes, Matthew, who had sneaked out of his room and was hiding very carefully under the blanket to watch the rest of the game. I guess I deserve a little payback.
January is already over? I feel like this whole month has gone by in one big blur. The weeks have been pretty much the same - school, work, errands. And I have to admit that I haven't done my best lately at documenting things. Here's a quick run-down of some recent goings-on before I forget.
Kevin: Keeping busy with work and church responsibilities. We are busy trying to get one of the downstairs rooms painted and the carpet put back in after our water leak at the very beginning of the month. We were thinking of trying a new color down there (instead of pastel purple) and although the boys wanted blue or green we decided to just go with the neutral color already in our house. We may be kind of boring, but at least the name of the color is Tequila. :) That ought to add a little spice to place. Kevin has also enjoyed watching a few football and basketball games. And he even got some time to play Civilization last night. Woohoo!
Amy: Still pregnant and going strong. We are down to single digits on how many weeks left for this little guy to come to our family. I am hitting the big and awkward stage, making it hard for me to bend down for too long. Kevin thinks I should get one of those sticks with the grabbers on the end. Who needs those when you have kids to do it for you? :) We are in the process of getting some new baby gear since ours have started to expire. We are also still working on a name. Both Kevin and I have our lists, but no consensus yet. Hopefully sometime soon!
Matthew: Loves school, at least going and participating. At the beginning of the school year he was very excited to do homework, but has recently changed his mind a little. He loves to read; his new favorites are the Magic Treehouse series. We can't keep them around fast enough before he devours them. I guess he got that from his mother. He loves playing freeze tag at school during recess and apparently sets "freeze traps" on the playground, a fact he is very proud of. He loves watching football and basketball games with his dad and usually chooses a team to root for. He can't wait to start soccer in the spring.
Ryan: Just as funny and crazy as ever. He loves to sing, but doesn't want anyone to pay attention to him while he is doing it. He is very creative and loves to show off his drawings (usually some form of bad guys vs. good guys) as well as his Lego concoctions. He finally learned to write his name with a capital letter at the beginning with lower case letters following. This has not been his favorite thing since he thought everything should be written in uppercase. He takes joy out of the simplest things and has the cutest laugh and sense of humor.
Zachary: Growing and learning more everyday. He loves to be like his brothers, so much so that he will change what he is having for breakfast just so he can be like them. He is learning how to go in the potty and just transitioned to a big boy bed. So far both are going relatively well, although I know as soon as I say that we'll hit a snag somewhere. He is a typical two-year-old - strongly independent and very stubborn. He has a great imagination and loves to play with cars and Imaginext guys. His very favorite thing has been the Nerf ball-popper gun he got for Christmas. He thinks it's great to get the monsters.
That's about it for now. More adventures to come!
I oftentimes find myself being outsmarted by my kids. Sometimes it's because I haven't thought things through, and sometimes it's just simply because they really are smarter than me.
Case #1:
Today, Matthew was playing with his new Star Wars Lego set from Christmas. It's a big star ship with wings that can open and close when you spin a gear on the back. (For those of you interested, it is the ARC-170). For some reason, one of the wings wasn't opening like the other. Matthew brought it to me and as I started looking at it with my advanced knowledge of Lego engineering I deduced that a gear had fallen off from one of the wings. Matthew went and found the piece and I put it back together, thinking (very proudly in fact) I had solved the problem. But when Matthew started to turn the gear in the back, one of the wings opened while the other didn't. When you turned the gear the other way, the wings did just the opposite, the other opening while the other stayed closed. I started looking over the thing again, trying to figure out what I had done wrong (admittedly, my Lego engineering skills are more mediocre than advanced). That's when Matthew whips out this little gem of advice:
Matthew: Mom, I have a hypothesis. (A hypothesis?)
Mom: And what's your hypothesis? (As I'm still fiddling with the thing...)
Matthew: I think when you put the wing back on the other wing was still open, so when you turn it they don't open at the same time.
Mom: (A little surprised at the logic of his answer) You know what, you're probably right. Let's try it and see.
So we took off the wing, closed the other wing, reattached the first, and voila! Matthew the Mastermind figured it out light years ahead of his mediocre mom.
Case #2:
I was munching on some M&M's from my stocking when Zachary caught me with my contraband.
Zachary: What you habing?
Mom: Some M&M's.
Zachary: I need some (with a HUGE smile on his face and those puppy dog eyes). Pleeaase?
Mom: Okay. I'll give you a few, but only because you are so cute.
Matthew: (running in from the other room) I'm cute too. Can I have some?
Mom: Sure.
Ryan: (waiting at the side) Well mom, I'm not cute, so that means I can have A LOT. (I had forgotten that Ryan refuses to be called cute, preferring instead the term handsome. Well-played my boy).
As all parents do, we worry about how our children will react on Christmas. We wonder if we are spoiling them or if they aren't grateful for their countless blessings. This year Matthew was un-wrapping some play-doh that was hidden in a old can of Rolled Oats. As he ripped open the paper and he read the label on the can, he proclaimed: "I love this Oatmeal!" With continued enthusiasm he really showed he was truly grateful for all that he was given...even Rolled Oats. Later that night after we put Matthew to bed he crept back into our bedroom to Thank us for the wonderful Christmas. This Christmas will always be special for me and I won't be able to look at a can of rolled oats the same way again.
The boys had been clamoring to get out in the snow ever since we got a pretty good snow storm. We had a snow ball fight with friends one day and the next day we spent some time making snow angels and building snow men. It was a lot of fun to play together. Zachary was asleep during this time, but he did get some moments to shovel the snow and dig around in it later.
Matthew came home from school one day and informed me that he had narrowly escaped being girl-trapped.
"Girl-trapped?" I asked.
"Yeah, you know. When you have to sit between two girls. But there was a boy who came and sat by me. A girl got boy-trapped though. She had to sit between two boys."
I'm glad Matthew averted such a disaster.
October is such a fun and busy month for us because we have three birthdays to celebrate - Amy's, Matthew's, and Ryan's. We got to go to the Halloweenie for mom's birthday, so here is an overview of Matthew's. Woohoo!
Matthew had been waiting for his birthday forever (and I mean that literally). He was so excited when it finally came around. We had a fun weekend because he was out of school for Fall Break. We visited Grandma and Grandpa Tuft that morning where we opened some presents and had birthday cake. His first request was for an X-wing fighting a tie fighter with the Death Star exploding in the background, but I convinced him that one starship would be enough. So he settled for an X-wing.
Amy bought Ryan this "No Girls Allowed" shirt a few months ago because it just fit so well with his personality. Well today we found out that it was true. We are expecting boy #4 in March 2011. We are very excited and can't wait to welcome the new little guy to our family!
If you have name ideas, send us an email. Amy doesn't like any of the names that I have suggested.
September 1, 2010
Kindergarten! I can't believe this little man is now in kindergarten. He can't believe it took so long to get here. As you can tell he was very ready and excited to get the show on the road. I had to pin him down for pictures.
Rubbermaid promotes its roughneck storage box as being: "...rugged, durable storage box that is shatter resistant." Apparently they never tested this with a five year old and a three year old.
Really, I have no idea how they did this.
