Nauvoo Temple

While we were in Nauvoo for my brother's wedding, Sara and I snuck away at sunset to take pictures of the temple. It was fun to just follow her and watch her work, she is a really talented artist.

Here are some of the ones I took that I liked. I love how the temple is so distinctive, you could take a picture of just one window or one block and know that it's Nauvoo. So here's the question... which one do I print for my wall? Which one would you print? Here's me wishing I had bigger (and, let's face it, emptier) walls so I could print one really big and frame it. No such luck. I'll have to settle for a nice 11 x 14 or something like that:)

Max and Mara

Aren't they adorable?

Mara is super fun and such a cutie. She moves so fast! Max just kind of looks like a slug (Auntie Annie says starfish, I think they move even less than slugs) and sits there and watches her. My favorite part is when she comes and grabs his toy then crawls off to something else leaving it just out of his reach... yes, Max, it's time to start moving!
Doesn't that just make you smile!

Sammy Sam

It was time to take Sammy's four year old pictures - here he is! I can't believe he's so grown up!

When I sang happy birthday to him, he said to me, "Mom, thank you for singing me that nice song."
He continues to be himself - happy, sweet, mostly mellow, and definitely dirt loving.
At the moment, he is into bugs, sea creatures, dragons, and dinosaurs. He's also very into rhyming. Funny.
He plays really well with Pearl, but can be happy for long periods of time laying on the floor playing with his bugs/dinosaurs/sea creatures.
He makes us all so happy! How can you not love a sweet adorable little bug loving boy?
Happy Birthday, buddy!

More of my Boys

So many pictures to blog... I'm probably going to have to do one or two a day for the week, oh wait, I'm leaving, and probably going to take more pictures.... well, I'll eventually get caught up, I'm sure.

Just had to post these adorable pictures of my men... how I love them so!

Auntie

I love being an aunt. I had the only child for a while, and I'm so glad everyone caught up with me! With the cousin explosion going on, I don't have to put as much effort into playdates - we always have cousins!!

Today I got recent pictures of most of the cousins on my side of the family (except for baby Mara, but I get to see her this week, yeah!). Here are my favorites.

Mara's girls

Annie's boys

Love all these kids! And we really love being part of such a close-knit extended family!

The boys

I took a lot of pictures today. Time for Sammy's 4 year pics, Liz was overdue, Jack is almost ready for another birthday, plus, my men were wearing matching ties today (adorable!) Anyway, as I started processing I loved this one so much I had to post it right away!

Hot Dog Adventure

Auntie Amy had a crazy idea... let's go hike in the rain!!! Let's build a fire and roast hot dogs! Let's do it all with six little kids and no outside help!!! Yeah!!!!

So, off we go! A funny story on the way down... Pearl said she was ready to use the Biffy (from girl scouts - a bathroom in the forrest for you!). So, Maryann shooed the little kids down the trail to give Pearl some privacy. Cumorah said she didn't like the Biffy. Maryann said, do you know what it is? She said "some kind of animal." Sam said, "no, it's a creature!" Auntie Maryann took pity on them and explained that it was a bathroom:)
Sammy was always the poky. We'd hear this high little boy voice "wait for me!!!" - then we'd stop and he'd go slower...
Max was happy as always, in the super cool hiking backpack. We were quite the collection, with Max and Sidon in backpacks and Rivers in the stroller:)
Max laughing at the grass. No idea why it was so funny!
The girls were getting ready to roast some hot dogs!
I gave Max his pear sauce to keep him occupied. I opened it a bit so he could suck it out...
and he had to show everyone just how cool it was. Look at this!!!!
Ooh, what's that?
Sam spent some quality time with the owl that's a shooting target...
and got very sticky!!!
Love my kids!
I hope they remember just how cool of a mom I am as they get older... just look at that campfire I built! (I'm still proud:)

Funny Grass

We took the kids down to roast hot dogs for dinner last night - I know, so adventurous of us! We had to do something to entertain them until bedtime, as we had no Daddies around. Anyway, I sat Max down on my sweatshirt to light the fire and stuff, when all of the sudden, for no apparent reason, we hear this...

Not sure why, only he knows! He was tired by now, so I didn't even video him in full form... aah, good thing I think my kids are so cute!

Slug

Pearl is on a mission to be kind and rescue all sorts of creatures. That includes a slug found in the pool on Monday afternoon, and a slug found last night in our friend's yard. I try not to make too many faces. It's good for her to be brave. I just wish her kindness were bestowed on a less disgusting object.

Bugs

Sammy's birthday is coming up, so we've been talking about his cake. He wants chocolate with chocolate frosting, his favorite, so I decided we could make a bug-and-dirt cake. I ordered some bugs and gave them to him on Friday when we were talking about his cake. They're a hit. He keeps them in his little orange backpack, and so far has taken them everywhere - for scooter rides, outside, to grandmas house, to bed... In fact, on Saturday he woke up at 5:30, put his bugs in his backpack, and headed down to play. I found him next to the baby's crib with his backpack on telling Max to be quiet. I asked Sam what he was doing up, and he brightly said "It's morning! I want to play with my bugs!" I told him that it wasn't, and that he should go back to bed, but when he turned his reading light on and started playing, I sent him and his bugs upstairs so Max could go back to sleep. Funny boy! (this early morning escapade ended in him crawling in my bed at 6:00 and falling asleep AFTER playing for an hour or so in a large dirt pile - at least it was Jared's side!). He is a little concerned about the bugs in the frosting, but I promised him we would wash them (before and after!) and that nobody would eat them. He's thinking about it....

He and Pearl play "Bugs Life 2" - this morning he told her "what makes me special is playing bugs life 2 with you" - I think it means he likes it when she plays with him.
One thing I have noticed with the bugs are some amazing math skills. The past few months he's been able to do simple addition and subtraction (he likes to count how many of us there are, and if we're picking dad up for lunch he'll say "but I don't want a four person date! I want a three person date) but he's amazing with the bugs. He knows there are 12, because he counted them. His one to one correspondence counting is 100% accurate, (I remember trying and trying to teach Pearl 1:1 correspondence, what a nightmare!) and he can tell me how many he's missing. The first time, he came down and told me he was missing two bugs, I didn't think much of it, but the second time he did it, I watched him count up 8 bugs, then tell me he was missing 4. Genius! I guess he comes by it rightly, his Daddy and Grandpa Hulbert are natural math brains. Me, I had to work at it. I guess he's slated to be a fourth generation engineer after all!

Cool.

So, I'm passing out Fun Dip to my kids and nieces tonight, totally sure this cements my "coolest aunt" status. To prove my point, I ask Cumorah, "Who's your favorite aunt?"

"Aunt Crystal."

Guess I was wrong.

Pearl and Makayla

This is Pearl and her mostest bestest friend Makayla. They were being sillies after their school play (I'll spare you the video... Pearl was a narrator, so she had a big part and she did a REALLY good job...). It seems that they get closer and closer as they get older. They constantly remind us that they NEVER get to see enough of each other (as if daily at school and weekly at church and girl scouts and at least 3 times a month playdate isn't enough) and that they are practically sisters.

I'm glad she has such a good friend. And that they are such good girls. We hope the Larsens never leave!!!!

Max's new love...

I am feeling major guilt tonight. It's because of you, Lora. You really look at my blog every day? I guess I should be posting more frequently...

Max has a new love... and it is watermelon.

He does an amazing job considering he only has two teeth on the bottom.
I think his favorite part is that he gets a big person chunk to chew on. Yup. He's one of the big people now!
Ahh, sweet watermelon!

Maxi

Max learned to talk this week. It started out as just bu bu bu but he's moved on to gee gee gee. I'm pretty sure he must be a genius.

My Max - Nine months!

I did it, I officially took his 9 month pictures. It happened after bath time at grandma's house, so no cute outfit, but at least he's clean!

He opens his mouth SO WIDE when he's happy, and just about every other time too. I think he's hoping something good will fall into it.
Thinking face...
Showing off his two teeth - he can do amazing things with these teeth... including In-N-Out burgers!
He's just starting to be interested in standing, with support, of course.
And, as of this photo shoot, he has scooted backwards a little bit. Well, gotta start somewhere!
Love you baby boy!