New Talents

Waverly has developed some new talents recently. She claps whenever we say yeah, or when she does something cute, which is often! She has learned to climb down the stairs as well as up and she is figuring out edges on the couches so she takes fewer nose dives off of them. She is a little chatter-box, always making some sweet little sound as she plays. Her noises are so different from those of her brothers! Her newest skill is clicking her tongue. She clicks as she crawls along. She also likes music and dances whenever she hears a song. We were shopping the other day and she was shimmying her little shoulders to the music playing through out the store.

She is such a cute little thing. I am glad that she is here!

Family Camp Out

We live just minutes away from a nice lake with great camp sites. Therefore, our ward has an annual fall family camp out. The first year, Cannon was a new baby so I only went for dinner and left the family there. I believe we have been to one since then. It seems like the weekend for the camp out also tends to be an annual rain storm, therefore, said camp out has been cancelled. Last night was this years camp out. It was nearly 90 degrees with an overnight low of 70 with high humidity. People were complaining about it being too hot. We are just never happy, are we? The boys love this event! What could be better than a night out with friends and fire? I really do enjoy camping, but it is so much work for just one night. We bought dinner from Wendy' s, despite Sully needing to cook dinner for his family over a fire to pass off some scout requirement. We have a brand new 3 room/12 man tent. It is huge. We barely got the thing up before it got dark. The boys hated hauling all the gear required for 7 people to spend the night away from home. They quickly startd a fire and the fun began. I did not feel comfortable leaving Declan and Cannon alone with fire while everyone else went to the ward program, so I sat by myself watching them stick sticks in the fire pit. Wave fell asleep with Matt so she went to bed in a wet diaper and her clothes. We visited with friends and finally convinced the boys to put out the fire and go to bed. We mostly slept. Wave did wake up but Matt took care of her and I fell back asleep! Yay me! The High Priests made breakfast and we packed up and headed home. And the boys got to enjoy hauling all the gear from campsite to car and from car to house.

I thought it was funny how many times I heard parents discussing how much effort this one night is and asking, "why do we do this?" I asked myself the same thing. This is what I decided the answer is:
1. It is a tradition: those who have been here for awhile would be upset if it did not happen
2. The kids love it: it is a lot of effort and I would happily stay home. But, the kids love it, so we go.

We had a perfectly pleasant evening. The drive home is about 15 minutes. The boys were good and helpful.

I can't wait for the Father/Son camp out in the spring. That is my favorite!

To Trophy or not to Trophy...

Sully is in goal

funny picture, but it is hard to get a good picture of him doing something really cool!

Trophies for everyone!
And this is where my problem starts. None of these pictures are from this soccer season. I actually have not taken any, how many pictures of the back side of my kid in a jersey do I need? This years team has been really bad, 0-6 so far. It has been frustrating for Sully who really is quite good and certainly the best on his team. The coach is terrible, glad he was willing to do it, since we don't, but not happy to have him be Sully's coach again. They have scored 3 goals- all season. They have lost by huge margins. It is not very fun to watch, except when Sully is in goal, then he gets a lot of action and he is good. It has not been fun to play either. He is so ready for this to be over and we are looking into different options for next season. Unfortunately, all the club leagues play on Sunday and are really expensive and travel all over which are 3 things we can not do. This season is finally almost over. I got an e-mail from the coaches wife about the end of season celebration and thoughts on trophies, to trophy or not to trophy, that is the question. I am of the opinion that trophies are for teams that WIN! Not all this everyone is a winner and no one should feel bad stuff. This team is the worst in the league! They did not win anything! Why do we then buy, yes, we would be paying, trophies? To remember the awful season? Because Sully needs something else to clutter up his dresser and collect dust? Because we all just need some other way to spend money? So, we talked with Sully and he laughed at the whole thing and said he does not want a trophy for this team/season. Apparently, we are not the only ones on the team who feel this way. We are opting out of trophies. But wait! One mother did reply that something needs to be given to each kid because of their great effort and team work. Whatever. So, the plan is to print some computer certificate and have the coach say something nice about each kid at our lunch party after the first round tournament losing game. If I was the coach, I would have a hard time sayingsomething good about each kid.... good thing I am not the coach! Heaven forbid we let winners be winners and celebrate an accomplishment or for that matter, let losers be losers and walk away.

Waverly

She was tired and crying when I was posing the boys, so she missed her private photo shoot. I will do it some day soon. She loves the camera and totally smiles for it whenever we pull it out.

I just posted lots of pictures of the boys, so look for multiple posts!

Sullivan

Madsen

Declan

Cannon

The Boys, and Girl

Poor Waverly!

It was nap time, so I put her in bed and took more pictures

Picture day

School pictures are this week. I refuse to buy them since they are outrageouly over priced these days. I have not updated pictures in my frames for a couple of years. So, I took the kids outside and made them pose for a while. It is impossible! to get a good picture of all 5. It was fun trying. So, since I still do not know how to post lots of pictures in a row in one post, look for multiple photo posts!

This one is how they usually behave, no posing here!