Sam's Birthday

Sam is 5-years old today! I can't believe our little boy is already so big! He has been so excited about his birthday and we've had a full week of activities getting ready for it.

Chris has talked about sleeping in the tent with the kids for months. It's now way too hot outside for camping and so since it was Sam's birthday Chris went camping in the living room with the kids on Thursday night. I went out to a RS activity and was very impressed when I came home to a quiet house. I love that Chris does fun things like this with the kids.

On Friday Sam helped make cupcakes for the birthday party. Ella is always quick to help with the cleaning up (or should I say licking-up)!

On Saturday Sam had a combined birthday party with his friend John. John's birthday is just two days before Sam's and so it was just perfect that we could have the party on the day between their birthdays.
The party was from 10am until 12pm. We had a room full of very excited 4 and 5 year olds. Natalie (John's mum), had planned lots of games. The only one I contributed was pass-the-parcel which was one of my favorite party games growing up. I found out that this seems to be an Australian party game. No one else had heard of it before, but it quickly got the boys attention and they were all very quiet during the game waiting for their turn to un-wrap the package!

The theme of the party was the movie Cars. Here are the boys decorating wooden cars.


John and Sam blowing out the candles on their cake. One of the activities at the party was decorating a cupcake with a car made out of a chocolate bar and M&Ms. That's the eaiest birthday cake I've ever had to make!

It was a really hot day. Here are Ella and John's younger brother Josh taking a time out to eat an icypole.


This morning Sam's patience was tested. He had to wait until Owen woke up before he could open his presents. Usually Owen is up by 7am and never sleeps in. Today, he slept in until 8:30! Poor Sam was nearly beside himself waiting. Here he is with his loot.

Ten things we love about Sam
- His happy disposition
- His desire to be obedient and do the right thing
- His love for swimming and playing at the pool
- How he always loves to be doing something (with his Mum or Dad if possible!)
- How he calls Ella his best friend
- How he teaches us to be better parents
- His run, he almost looks like he is floating between strides
- That he already has his life planned out. When he grows up he is going to buy a blue car, go on a mission, go to college and buy a house
- How happy he is in the morning
- His laugh

And the garden continues to grow....

Every night after Chris gets home from school he goes out to check his garden and water it. At the moment the garden is producing more plum tomatoes and cucumbers than we know what to do with!


Our out-of -control cucumbers....

A couple of cute pictures of the kids taken today. Sam and Owen singing Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam to Elliott. Elliott loved the singing and started to coo.. so sweet.

Ella tucking into one of her first watermelons of the season. She only likes the sweet parts from the center of the watermelon and I caught her taking a bite and tossing the not-so-sweet pieces back in!

Fish

Summer comes early in Georgia and it is already around 92oF / 33oC everyday. Thankfully we have a swimming pool in our neighborhood. Most mornings we are at the pool from 10am until noon and then the kids will sometimes go again with Chris in the evenings! I think they might be turning into fish!

To make it possible for us to go swimming, we've enlisted the help of another family. Laura, who is 13 watches Elliott, while her younger siblings play with Sam, Ella and Owen. It's so nice to have some help and it makes it possible for me to break away and do a couple of laps.

Ella still mixes her words up. One of my favorite at the moment is that she calls sunscreen "sunscream"!






Owen with is friend Josh playing in the outdoor shower..

Precious Moments

Everyday there are little things the kids do to make me smile. For example, yesterday we were driving in the car and Sam asked if Elliott was going to be part of our family forever. I responded by saying "Yes, because Mum and Dad were married in the Temple we get to be a family for eternity". Sam responded by saying "cool". And then in his toddler, almost 2-year old voice Owen pipes up and says quietly "awesome". And I agree, it is pretty awesome that we get to be a family forever.

Elliott has been treating me to a few moments everyday where he smiles and coos and is just so adorable. Unfortunately the rest of the time he doesn't seem that comfortable. I swear my milk must be full of bubbles because each of the kids haven't seemed to like it for the first few months of life. Elliott has to let out a few big loud burps after every feed and then still has plenty of gas left for some loud rear end toots on exit.

Some pictures below from the past week. Sam and Owen ready for church on Sunday. Owen is wearing new clothes - sized 18mths. Owen will be 2 at the start of next month and he is only just starting to wear 18mth clothes.


Chris doing story time with the all four.Sam, Ella and Owen love to give Elliott their favourite toys and blankets to hold. This is how I found Elliott yesterday, sleeping with Ella's baby doll.