Happy Birthday To MARK

Well it has almost been a week since Mark had his birthday but better late than never. Mark spent the day at meetings for church sunup to sundown-no really I think two of the kids never even saw him on his actual special day. Fortunately we plan ahead and anticipated this and celebrated his day on Saturday instead. Who really knows when anyone's real birthday is around here? I made Mark a party cake with party frosting because it is what he enjoys best and I have to admit there is something yummy about it. I could write a million ways that Mark is awesome but really it just comes down to that he can and does do everything. So here are some pictures of my January Boyz.
This year Mark
has learned car repair-something he has shunned in the past but has taken to like a fish in water.
is able to teach two different classes at the exact same time do a scheduling error-don't ask how but it involves a lot of work.
was made Second Counselor in the Bishopric.
turned a moldy bathroom into a work of art.
built a chicken coop and is now working on a second design.
somehow manages to still put 4 crazy girls and a jumpy little boy first before anything.

Happy Birthday to the MAN

party cake

running auto shop-the muffler replacement that started it all

getting pick pocketed

going on the rides that make mom want to hoarf

getting pounced everyday

4-A Delayed post from 3rd January

Today's topic is Ed and his special day.  We actually celebrated his birthday a couple of days ago in New Hampshire but I have to talk about him today anyway.  In the beginnining of last year when asked his age he would say fourteen, eight, twelve, forty whatever then he settled on fourteen and then when people would correct him they would say, "You mean four?  Very good!  What a big boy!" etc. etc.  Since he is a little taller than most he passed for four and he finally got to a place during the second half of the year when he would tell people he was four when asked.
I figured it took so long to teach him to get out of the double digits and he would be four soon anyway so why bother correcting him?  I know good parenting.  :)  It took me and all of his sisters a good part of his fake birthday to persuade him that while he may think he was turning five because as he told us "five comes after four" he was indeed still just four but a real four now on his fake birthday.  It was then that I realized that there was no way that I was going to wish him a Happy Birthday on the third because then it would probably confuse him more.  I can't say this is unique since I think with all of our kids we changed their birthdays to suit our scheduling conflicts. I suppose if you want to get technical his birthday was yesterday because of the NZ time difference-maybe he is five?  Whatevs.

ED FACTS

• Ed prefers to be called Eddie.
• Lately Ed loves to be Iron Man only he doesn't know who he is and has morphed Iron Man into a super villain.
• Ed's favorite Top Gear episode was the one featuring drifting and he was so excited to get a remote control car for Christmas and make it drift on Grandma Ruth's hardwood-thanks Ruth.
• He loves to break words into syllables.  Don't look at me I couldn't even teach him to count (see above)
• Ed loves gumballs and jumping.
• Ed enjoys sharing and to be honest is a bit of a food pusher.
• Orange is Ed's favorite color. 
• Ed loves to say "sure".
• Ed talks about his classmates as "my preschoolers".
• I really really love Ed!
• Ed always has something on his face-whose fault is that?

Blowing out his candles with Grandma Ruth.

Pirate Cupcakes from Grandma Penney

Awesomely wrapped present from awesome mom.

Christmas 2010

I thought I should put a few Christmas pictures up of the kiddos before we get too far into the new year. Aida worked hard making 3 D cards for everyone. They were framed like a book and when you opened them she has a different quote for everyone. It was fun to share them around and hear what everyone had on their card . Ed's read "smile". Mark's was "Be happy, happiness is valuable. Don't be sad, sadness is worthless." I can't remember the rest off the top of my head those are just the ones I have sitting on my desk right now.
As a child I never believed my parents when they told us they loved the homemade stuff the most. Now as a parent, I really do enjoy seeing what they come up with and seeing how they can appreciate and love the effort put into it all.

Christmas Eve reading while Eddie waits to open his eve present.

What Aida has always wanted.

He didn't really know what to do with this until we got home but he loves it.

Aida's homemade doll for Maya.

I love how these girls make things for each other.

Maya's American Girl Doll FINALLY.

The most patient one in our family. .

I hope Tess enjoys it while it lasts.

Lucy was most excited to give Tess goodies on Christmas Day.

The Walking (Ginger)bread

Mark and I spent last week watching The Walking Dead. I didn't realize the impact this zombie laden show would have on my life. I could go on and on but I will just focus on a couple of things. The first is that I was glad that Mark and I watched it when I was able to hop onto the road to recovery because otherwise I think he would have been tempted to "put me down" when I had a fever that "burned hot like a furnace". I wouldn't have blamed him though because when you watch back-to-back zombies you do get a little paranoid and I would have done the same.

The other thing I would like to mention is how during one of my now routine zombie checks I thought I had found a live one in the middle of my living room floor. Maya had managed to rip her gingerbread house off of the foundation and was hovering over it scarfing it down. At the time it really reminded me of a zombie feeding frenzy-crazy eyes and all.

Okay fine my last zombie hot tip is to get a cross bow-SUPER handy weapon to have when the zombies take over.

Warm Fuzzy Sick

I have been sick since Sunday. Monday night and Tuesday I had such a high fever I could barely move which is something since I have birthed at home, recovered from strep throat, run on a lightly sprained ankle for miles all without any medical attention. Serves me right because I am the first to call a sick person a baby.
I feel better now-in that I can function as a mom. I learned that when I am sick my kids can do many things on their own. Normally when I am sick I can call upon my inner mom to take care of what needs to be done for the kids. The inner mom this time was weak, very very weak.
Lucy brought me salt water for my sore throat that I managed to gargle after several doses of motrin, get the littlies ready for school and all the kids packed their own lunches. They got their shoes on after my first raspy request instead of having me shout it out 10 million times. They cleaned and they took care of each other and there was a temporary truce on all fights so that I wouldn't have to hear the fighting during my in and outs of consciousness. Aida covered me in blankets when she saw me shivering and took them away when she read not to over bundle a fever. Then there is my lovely Mark that I knew I could count on for everything even though he as so much to do already. I literally did not know what day it was until yesterday.
Lucky for me before I went down I gave my last energy into finishing our gingerbread houses which provided them with sustenance until mark could get home.
Ed would find me from time to time and with a furrowed brow he would tell me that he would make me a love heart so I would feel better. I woke up to find a stack next to me several times. The little guy would draw me one and if I wasn't better he thought more was better so he would keep drawing them faithfully everyday, every hour. I would tell him I felt better but eventually he would figure it out I wasn't and a new pile of lovehearts would appear. He was doing what he could and he didn't give up hope that it would work.
Here is to my wonderful family for not giving up on their wimpy mom. :)

Happy Thanksgiving

I leave you with a poem by Maya. I really like the ending. Happy Thanksgiving y'all. :)

Children's Court

Run for the children by the children presided by Judge Aida. We never really know what we wake up from a Sunday nap. Sometimes it is fine, other times it is scary, or messy, this was one of those times that surprised and impressed. Aida seems to have taken on the style of a British Judge with the white haired wig (do they even still wear them?). I am sure Aida was fair in her sentencing to Edward because he seems to be taking it well. :)

Tell Me

Here is a picture of young Mark.  Does anyone else see a resemblance to him and Maya(if Maya had Ed's hair)?