First Haircut and "You're a Man!"

I dread giving my kids their first haircut and push it off as long as I can. I guess to me when I cut their hair for the first time I feel like I am relenting and accepting the fact that I don't have my baby anymore, I have to accept they are getting bigger as the soft fuzzy baby hair falls to the floor. It is this reason why none of our children have had their first hair cut until well after their first birthday. So yesterday I gave in... a little. I was trimming Joseph and Sam's hair so after they were done I plopped Ben up on the chair and zipped up the back and around his ears. I am still not willing to cut off all his golden locks up top. I must say though that he was the most behaved of the three boys. He sat perfectly still and jabbered during the entire process. Needless to say it was more traumatic for Mom than it was for him.

Another funny tidbit about Ben is his eating habits. Last night we were eating dinner and Ben started fussing. We couldn't figure out what he wanted. He didn't want milk, he didn't want more peaches or rice or chicken. We got him down from the table assuming he was just done at which point he walked over and climbed up in my lap and lunged for the bowl of brussel sprouts I had just put one the table. He sat on my lap and happily ate his fair share and a few others. His favorite foods, brussel sprouts and broccoli.

Sam and Joseph are right in the middle of the name calling stage of their childhood. It drives Ronny and I crazy although we do get a chuckle out of some of the new things they come up with. Sam's latest insult, "You are a man!!!" This is really funny when Joseph yells back at him and accuses him of the same thing. Uncle Jon comes today. We need to fill him in on some ground rules.

Old Pictures I have been meaning to post.

Look, we finally found our camera cable to download our pictures. Here are a few that we are a bit behind on.




These pictures are of Joseph's most exciting moments as a child thus far. Becoming a Jedi Master and fighting Darth Vader at Disneyland over our Christmas holiday. This was a great day shared with Grandpa and our cousins Anna, Jacob, and baby Nathan.



This is a picture of one of our many snow days this year. Yes, we get snow in Corvallis!











This is Ben's Big Day! Birthday #1 The whole neighborhood came to celebrate with us and have cupcakes.





Ronny showing off his pinewood derby car. Although he didn't win the race he took home the prize for "Smoothest" car. He sanded it with 1500 grit sandpaper to take home this prize.

Easter and Sports

Yesterday was a fun day of sports for our family. Early in the morning the kids got up early as usual and were watching their favorite cartoons. I came down a little later and watched a little of Little Einsteins with the kids. After it was over Joseph stood up and said, "Mom I don't want to watch cartoons anymore, I want to watch baseball!" It was a proud moment for us. Ronny bought Joseph a new mit so Sam inherited his. They spent all afternoon playing catch outside.

Later that morning we all went to Charley's soccer game. She played goalie first. Like usual the other team dominated her team's side of the field and made quite a few shots on goal. However on their first shot Charley lays out and saves it, total diving catch! Did I mention it had rained earlier and was pretty muddy? Yep, she dove right into a mud puddle and saved the ball from the goal and stood up all muddy. That's my girl!!!! Too bad we didn't have the camera with us.

Last weekend we celebrated Easter. My mom was in town and celebrated with us. She had taken the kids to Target and got each one of them a new toy. Ben got a few new cars, Sam picked out a Hotwheels race track, Charley got Battleship, and Joseph picked out a bottle rocket launcher. Classic! Its rated for 10 and up yet my 4 year old has a rocket launcher. As you can imagine he is the favorite on the playground right now. Another lady and I organized a community Easter egg hunt on our field for the neighbors. We filled about 600 eggs expecting about 50 kids. Unfortunately the weather man was wrong about the weather being sunny, it poured on us! We only had about 20 kids show up so they made out well. Later that day Charley had a soccer game and then we decorated our own eggs. We have church early in the morning so we had to wake the kids up to hunt for their eggs. The boys each got a new church shirt and tie and Charley got new sandals to go with the dress Nana had brought on her visit. Unfortunately Sam did not like his shirt and we had to wrestle him down to put in on for church. Needless to say we weren't willing to fight him for a picture lineup. We'll have to do that another day. (This picture is of Sam explaining to all of us that this chocolate bunny is his but that the egg he is holding with a J on it is Joseph's)

We look forward to Uncle Jon's visit later this month.

New Rules

We just finished our spring break here. We had great fun with Nana while she was here and just played outside the rest of the week. For the most part we had good weather. We went to see "The Last Mimzy" while Nana was here. This was Dad's choice of family movies. It was a cute movie for Charley, however the boys did not appreciate very much. As soon as the popcorn was gone so were the boys. Up and running around the theater. Ron and I really got a good workout as opposed to sitting still for the duration of the movie.

The last weekend was conference weekend. Ronny had his Sunday School class over for the Saturday afternoon session again. These boys get a kick out of eating Ronny's insanity hot sauce while they are here. Unfortunately they tricked one of the girls into eating some. She was not amused and I was worried she was going to be sick. After a few trips to the bathroom and some milk and bread she seemed to feel better. I really felt bad for her.

Last night we were getting ready for cleaning up after dinner and starting to get ready for scripture time. I came into the family to find Sam pitching to Joseph who was using my vacuum cleaner wand as a bat. Every time he would miss Sam would rub it in. After a few wild pitches and a couple of hits we had to institute the new house rule, "NO Baseball in the House!" Ronny thought this was amusing but agreed to enforce the rule.

Grammy Terri arrives this week and Jon at the end of the month. We are sure to have lots more fun. We have also set Charley's baptism date for November 10th.