FIVE!

I can't believe Asher is 5! We've been talking about his upcoming birthday for weeks and he is so tall that most people assume that he is 5 or 6 anyway, but it just doesn't seem possible that he is already 5 and getting ready for kindergarten. Asher is such a loving and caring person. He tells me at least a dozen times a day "Mom, I love you". Sometimes he says it just because he doesn't have anything else to say and occasionally he says it just before he asks for something, but mostly he says it just because he is so sweet. It is so nice to hear :) Most of the time he is very alert to his little sister's and brother's needs. He is especially apt to run to Heidi's aid if she seems to need something and often will help Leif out too, even for silly things that he could do himself.
Here is the birthday questionnaire I did with Asher this year:

Who is your favorite person? Mom

What is your favorite color? Blue

What is your favorite thing to watch on TV? Rescue Bots

What is your favorite outfit? Yellow Robot Shirt

What song do you like the best? I Love to See The Temple

What is your favorite cereal? Honey Nut Cheerios

Who is your best friend? Leif

What do you want to do when your grow up? Build buildings

What is your favorite book? The Hungry Caterpillar (we only own this is Russian, so we don’t read it much)

What are you really good at? Making piles of dirt

Where do you wish you could go on vacation? To Oregon (we are going there in 10 days)

What would you buy is you had a lot of money? A big toy combine (Lucky for him, his grandparents gave him a big toy combine only hours after he told me this even though he never really mentions combines specifically as a favorite truck- Crazy!)

What is your favorite dinner? Russian chicken (he requested this for his birthday dinner)

If you could have a wish, what would it be? A big toy truck

What is your favorite flavor of ice cream? Blue Vanilla (A flavor we've only ever found at my favorite ice cream shop in Utah. I'm pretty sure he likes the color more than the flavor)

Who do you want to be like? Dad

What do you like to do with your friends? Play with them

What do you hope you'll get to do before your next birthday? Get an early birthday present

What is your favorite thing to do? Play Rescue Bots

What are you proud of? When I help clean up

What are you afraid of? Monsters

What is Mom's favorite thing to do? Play with me

How strong is Dad? So strong

What does Dad do best? Make stuff

What does Mom do best? Sew stuff

What do you like best about Dad? He wrestles with us

What do you like best about Mom? She makes us stuff (like costumes)

 To celebrate Asher's big day, we started off with chocolate waffles with whipped cream and strawberries. We hung around the house the rest of the day. The boys did what they usually do- play and make messes and I let them watch a few episodes of Pokemon and Rescue Bots while Heidi was napping. In the evening we had Asher's favorite dinner with homemade ice cream for dessert. The boys were very interested in helping make the ice cream because they are so fascinated with the ice cream maker.

 

Fishing

The boys have been asking for Grandpa to take them fishing for months. I'm not sure where the idea originally came from or whether they really understood what fishing was, but they were determined to go. When he said he would take them 5 or 6 weeks ago, I went and bought them poles and since then Leif has been asking almost every day (sometimes multiple times a day) if Grandpa was taking them fishing tomorrow. I was so happy when I finally could say "yes, he is taking you tomorrow". The boys were told they would have to get up early, but it ended up not being all that early. Still, they were surprisingly still asleep when they needed to wake up. Austin went in their room and told them to get up and they barely moved. He told them Grandpa was at our house and they both sat bolt-upright, ready to go. I'm not sure what they were expecting of fishing, or how their trip fit in with their expectations, but they had fun and want to go again. I know they were a little disappointed that they didn't get to keep any of the fish (but I was quite grateful :) But anytime you get to spend the whole morning with Dad and Grandpa and go out to breakfast afterward is fun and the boys loved it.
  Here are some photos Austin took of their adventure.

Thirteen Months

 This little girl is growing up fast and she seems to be in a hurry to get anywhere her brothers are. She loves to get right in the middle of their games-climbing and rough-housing with them. They are usually okay with this and try to be careful around her, but sometimes they just want her to leave so they can carry on with whatever they were up to before she joined them. Heidi is very active and wants to be constantly moving and interacting. She causes me even more trouble at church than her brothers did- and here I was hoping for a girl that would sit and play quietly. I guess its kind of a silly thing to hope for when I myself have difficulty sitting still for long. Heidi's high activity level doesn't mean she can walk yet though :) We didn't really expect her to until 14 or 15 months since that's when her brothers started walking- so it should be any time now. She is a lightening-fast crawler and has even figured out how to crawl in a dress- on her hands and feet with her bum in the air to keep her dress from dragging on the ground. She also loves to cruise around holding onto things and several times a day practices just standing without holding onto anything.One of her favorite places to stand, though, is right next to the little kids' table with crayons/pencils/markers and paper on it. She loves to scribble on the paper (or table), but I've caught her eating crayons a few too many times, so now she only gets markers (which she can't get the lids off of) and pencils (unless we catch her chewing on the erasers). She loves to climb up onto some little rocking chairs that we have by our front window so she can look into the front yard and see what is going on out there. When she first started this, her only way to get down was for me to lift her down or just to fall off, so Asher started putting throw pillows on the floor for her to fall onto. She has now gotten pretty good at lowering one leg at a time to get herself back onto the ground, so his brotherly protection is no longer needed :)
Even though Heidi is very rough-and-tumble she is also still very sweet and loves to be pretty. Here she is showing us her "pretty hair" which she touches whenever she hears that phrase. After baths, she loves to go with me into my bathroom to get my comb and comb her hair. She only lets me get in about three strokes before she has to hold the comb and try it herself. She also loves to snuggle and kiss- people and stuffed animals. She especially loves to kiss her dad and makes a "mmmuuuh" sound at the end of it. She hugs me all the time as I carry her around throughout the day and is especially lovey when I get her up in the morning or from a nap. She has a pink bunny that I have had in her crib for the last few months. I have been tucking it under her arm for a few weeks now to help get her more attached to it and reduce the likelihood of her needing comfort from me in the middle of the night (which has been working quite well). She has always hugged the bunny to her when I tucked it in, but now she reaches for it as soon as I lay her in her crib so she can snuggle up to it.

 Heidi says about 5 recognizable words (mom, dad, bye-bye, no, ball) and has many others that she understands. We are also pretty sure that she says other words, but we aren't quite sure what they mean yet. She loves to go looking for things when I ask her where they are and is especially proud of herself when she finds them. She shakes her head "no" a lot, which is more of a silly game to play with people than a refusal, except when she is eating and she doesn't want anymore- then she will say "no" very emphatically and shake her head. She has also started nodding "yes", but again, I think it is more of a game than an agreement to anything.
Heidi loves her family, loves balls, loves to eat, loves to snuggle, loves to swing in the backyard, loves to splash in water, and loves to interact with people as much as possible. And we sure love her!

The Denver Zoo

We went to the zoo with Grandma for the first time this year and the kids loved it! I feel like the boys are finally getting to an age where they are really excited to look at all the animals and look forward to visiting their favorites. Leif's favorite animal of course is an elephant. He loves to pretend he is an elephant when he and Asher play "zoo" at home. We headed for the elephant exhibit right away since a show would be happening soon. We watched part of the show, but it started raining buckets in the middle of it and the staff decided to end the show early. We didn't bring umbrellas, but since neither Grandma or I minded, the kids were fine too (especially Heidi who was well sheltered by her stroller canopy).

I love the peacocks strolling around the zoo, so I made Asher get a picture with one.

Asher was very excited to see a baby zebra, even though it doesn't look like much of a baby anymore.

The giraffes are always fun to watch and we always visit them since they are right across from Asher's favorite animal- the tiger. The tiger was really cool on this visit. The first time we stopped by he was roaming around and started ripping up a cardboard box. The second time we stopped by (because Asher had to have "one last look") he was staring some other visitors down and started roaring. I think the boys really liked that. But I didn't get any good pictures.

The polar bear was fun too- here Leif is watching him eat a head of lettuce that a zookeeper had just thrown to him.

Little Miss was so exhausted most of the time we were at the zoo. She usually takes a 2-3 hour nap in the morning, but had only slept about 45 minutes in the car on the way to Denver. But as always, she was a happy little thing and hardly complained despite her eyes being red and having very little energy.

Just as we were about to leave for the day, it started raining and hailing really hard. Here we are at the entrance as Leif watches the rain waiting for it to slow a little so we can run to the car. We had lots of fun- I'll take the rain over too much heat any day. The boys can't wait to come back, so its a good thing Grandma has a season pass!

Heidi's First Birthday Party

Heidi's party was pretty quiet, but she was as happy as could be and we had fun. We just had some family members over for dinner, cake, and presents. I didn't plan any games because she couldn't play them and I figured all the cousins would just play with each other. This first picture was just when I started setting up, but it shows a little what her party looked like- pink and gold colors and pretty girly.

Heidi really enjoyed playing under the table because we threw all the balloons under there while we were setting up.

After dinner, I put Heidi in just a tutu so she could smash her little cake. She really liked the feel of the material and especially liked everyone gathered around looking at her.

My sister made both the sign on the table and the number one for Heidi to hold in pictures.

When she first got her cake, she wasn't quite sure what to do with it.

When she finally started digging into it, she thought it was fun to play in.

After I gave her a little sample of the frosting, she got the idea of eating the cake.

After awhile, the sweetness of the cake got to her and she pulled this face.

But she still ate a bit more before she decided she was done.

After I got her all cleaned up, she was very interested in what her brothers were eating and tried to get some of their cupcakes and ice cream.

She also enjoyed opening her presents, but not nearly as much as her brothers and cousins enjoyed helping her unwrap them :)

Heidi is ONE! (Part 2)

Grandpa surprised us by calling the night before Heidi's birthday to say he was driving over. I swear he did it just to feed her ice cream :) Here are a few of the pictures I got

 And of course once Little Miss was in bed, the boys helped Grandpa set up the tent for their tradition of sleeping in the backyard when Grandpa comes to visit.