Hobbes....

 Putting this post together made me sad because I have realized just how few pictures have been taken of Hobbes over the past several months.  Bad Mommy!

Alas.  Hobbes is about 3 1/2 months in these pictures.  He was put under his toys so that I could do something or other that didn't involve him being on my hip.  He was getting fussy because it was nap time but I was trying to finish up.  When I finally made it in to get him he had given up and was asleep.

 Poor boy fell asleep mid swing.

 Daddy has always been the baby charmer.  I swear when we are out and about he gets them to sleep every time.

 Hobbes has become quite the roller.  He really gets around.  He actually doesn't even sit up very well at this point (7 1/2 months) because he just wants to be laying down so he can roll around.  Here he is under the train table, which he thinks is fun until he finds he is stuck or starts hitting his head on the legs or top.

Tab is a big helper with Hobbes, as I've mentioned before.   Hobbes had awakened from a nap in his cradle and Tab got him out and brought him up on the couch to watch a movie with him.  (Please don't mind the laundry all over the couch.  I must have been in the middle of folding laundry)

Hopefully, I will be able to learn something from this and start taking more pictures of the cute thing.

Family Fun Night

I had this post all set up and then apparently didn't post it. 

Tab's school had a Family Fun Night a while back and it really was a lot of fun.  They had some semi organized dancing set up in the gym.  Paisley had a blast.  She ran around dancing for a long time.  She cried when I made her leave so that we could do something else.

She was completely oblivious to the fact that she was by far the tiniest little thing in that room.  And she could have cared less where her brothers were.  She was having so much fun.

The kids got their faces painted.  Can you tell what Tab and Benton asked to be done as?

They asked to be skeletons. 

Paisley just wanted a heart and a butterfly.

*Side Note: (Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong mom, but this is how I remember it.)  I almost always let me kids get their faces painted when we go somewhere.  One, because they love it.  Two, because growing up my parents would NEVER let us get our faces painted or put on those temporary tattoos.  I always wanted to, so now I let my kids.  I guess that is one of those stupid you want to give your kids what you could never have sort of things...lol.

Worn Out

As usual, these pictures are a little old but I thought that they were worth sharing.  Hobbes loves his jumper.  Good thing because he spends a fair amount of time in there.  It is my life saver.  However sometimes he decides he is done being in the jumper but well.... lets just say my hands are full.  So he has occasion fussed until he decided to just give up.

 

 The poor kid.  He is doomed to having to wait.  I suppose it is a fourth child thing...

Valentine's Day

     Valentine's Day was pretty chill as usual around these parts.  Paisley got invited to a party with several other too young for school kids.  She enjoyed that but what she enjoyed the most was having her hair in hearts.  She now regularly asks for her hearts.  I'm glad that she likes having her hair done because i enjoy doing it.

 Jason worked as usual, so I fed the kids something simple and put them to bed.  And then I made us a yummy dinner to enjoy all by ourselves when he finally got home.

 Though Hobbes wanted to wake up.  He didn't want us to truly be able to enjoy alone time.

 And of course we topped off the evening with one of Jason's most frequently requested desserts, Taffy Apple Pizza.  The recipe can be found here.

A Little Vaycay...

 In February, Jason was FINALLY able to take some much needed time off so we made it up to Jason's parents house with the kids.  Grandma took us all to a place called Monkey Joe's.  Basically it was a huge room filled with inflatable toys.  The boys had a blast.

 Paisley was a bit timid at first but quickly warmed up.

 One evening, Jason took the boys on a "nature walk" in the woods behind grandma and grandpa's house.  The boys liked the rock wall.  I'm sure Jason did too.

 They really liked the stream/creek/whatever you call it.  (I never was sure of the difference between the two.)

 See they had a blast throwing stuff in the water and poking about with sticks. (Why Tab has Benton's coat on and Benton has Tab's coat on, I have no idea.)

 Doing what nature was intended for.

 Remember the stream?  Tab wasn't listening to Jason and fell in.  Did I mention it was really cold outside?  Jason said he told the boys to start heading to the house after this happened as it clearly made a quick end to the nature walk.  Jason was trying to talk to Tab about what happened, etc. and Tab was just getting really angry (not unusual for Tab, but this was a bit different apparently).  Finally Jason got it out of Tab that he was having a hard time walking because his boots were full to the top with water.  Apparently Tab was having a genius moment and couldn't figure out the solution to his freezing cold heavy feet.

 Later during our visit, Jason's sister, Kristine, and her two kids came over to play.  Grandma broke out the parachute and they had a blast bouncing Benny's cow (that he names Cattle) around.

 we also enjoyed some sack races.

 Tab tried to use the sacks as parachutes.

 Getting ready to race.

 Benny was the winner.  Apparently it is difficult to hop in a sack when you have a little girl in yours with you.  I can't imagine why?

Brotherly Love

 I know that I've expressed this before, but Tab is such a fantastic big brother.  This helps me a ton!  He will pick him up and bounce him when he is crying.

Or just lay on the floor and talk to him and play with him to keep him happy.

 Sometimes he will get a book and read to him.  Surprisingly, Hobbes usually enjoys this.

 And sometimes Tab will just pick Hobbes up from wherever he is and bring him to be with him while he is doing whatever it is that he does.  In this instance, he wanted Hobbes to watch TV with him.

 Tab loves Hobbes to death.  With Spring weather in the air, Tab has been wearing baseball caps more often and wanted Hobbes to wear one too.  Lucky for him, Hobbes didn't mind wearing it pretty much all day.

New Year's!

We really didn't do anything special for New Year's! We must be getting old and lame because we didn't stay up till midnight. Actually I'm pretty sure we were in bed by 10. But we did take the kids out to the Peeps Fest. Just Born candy company (which makes Peeps) is nearby and they held an event. It was quite fun for the kids. There was a magic show and a bounce house and all sorts of stuff.

The kids really enjoyed making Peeps S'mores.Paisley couldn't be bothered to feed herself because she didn't want to get her hands messy.The boys on the other hand had no problem with getting messy.Every now and again we like to change it up, and Jason takes pictures to prove that I actually exist.They had a crazy guy there making balloons. And when I say a crazy guy I'm only half kidding.Benton and Tab both requested swords.
Paisley requested a pink mermaid. She couldn't have been more pleased with the result. She kept that thing for weeks. She didn't want to get rid of it even when it had lost all of the air and all that remained was an empty, wilted, twisted up balloon. It had to "disappear" while she was taking a nap one day.
The boys thought this was pretty cool.
The event was held at the Bethlehem Steel Stacks. It looks kinda gross but it is in actually a pretty nice place with the old Steel Stacks kind of set in the background. It was a nice day out with the family.

Leading Up To Christmas!

Hey it's March and we are finally talking about Christmas. It seems that there are always so many events leading up to Christmas, so I decided to put all of those is a separate post from Christmas itself.

First off, we had Jason's work Christmas party. They had a Santa come in for all of the kids. This was the most impressively dressed Santa I have ever seen in my life. Tab must have noticed this too because he insisted that this was really the REAL Santa.
Benton was a lot happier about it than he appears in the picture.
Paisley was much more understanding this time around about Santa not handing her Strawberry Shortcake and Zoobles the second she sat down. Perhaps that is because he did in fact give presents to all of the kids.Hobbes even got to tell Santa what he wanted for Christmas. Santa was a bit nervous about holding him because he was so tiny. (He was the only nervous one, at the end of the night I had to track Hobbes down. Some random single guy, one of the residents was holding him and swooning over him.)Jason and all of the residents in the intern class.Next up and pre-Christmas festivities, was Benton's preschool performance. They acted out "The Night Before Christmas". They also sang several Carols.They especially loved singing Jingle Bells and they got to shake bells while they sang. Benton shook his right by his ear the entire time. Silly boy.At our ward Christmas party the Primary acted out the Nativity while singing the "Nativity Song". Benton and Tab were shepherds.
Last, but not least, a few days before Christmas the local volunteer fire company brought Santa through the streets of our town. He drove right by our house as he wound through the neighborhoods. Have I mentioned how much I LOVE the town we live in? The firemen walked along beside the fire truck handing out candy canes to all of the kids.