wonderful conference

General Conference is always one of the best few days of the year. This one was especially great because Paul didn't have to work and Gavin slept during the first sessions, so I was able to really listen to most of the messages (all amazing, of course).

We tried something a little different with Jenna and Liam. I still printed off some activity and coloring pages, which entertain them for maybe a speaker or two. Then I found a conference bingo sheet, and they got to open a bag whenever they got a bingo. It turned out perfect - I only had to do 5 bags and it didn't distract from the speakers like last time.

 Whenever a member of the Quorum of the Twelve or First Presidency spoke, we ran to the wall to match their picture. They got them all!

Jenna helped me to make pumpkin cinnamon rolls on Sunday. Yum.

And, they love to play conductor during all the music numbers. So cute!

Joy School

This cute boy has two years before Kindergarten, so it was time to start Joy School! We got together with 5 friends from the ward, and decided on a letter-of-the-week curriculum just once a week. It's been awesome to drop him off for a couple of hours and take Gavin exploring, or get to the grocery store with only one kid! And Liam absolutely loves being with his friends (it makes me realize we need to set up more play dates).

My first time teaching was last week, and we learned all about the letter E.
After our welcome routine, we practiced pronunciation and writing E's. We read some books and talked about lots of words with E, then focused our activities and crafts on ears, eggs, and elephants.
It was a total blast! So low-key and easy.
We made these elephants with party blower noses:

I think it's a little funny that when I did Jenna's first year of joy school I was the only mom without a younger child, but now I'm the only mom with one! Gavin did great, though, and just thinks he's one of the big kids! And now he points to every letter he sees and proudly exclaims "E!". It's the cutest!

I'm excited for next time - we'll be doing "J". Jumping, jellyfish, jungle, jets, and jam? Yes, please!

recent happenings

The boys had their 3 year and 15 month check-ups a couple weeks ago. They're both developing right on schedule, and are perfectly healthy. And the doctor was super impressed with both of their block-stacking skills.
*semi-scary story: I was sort of half paying attention to the doctor when she was telling me the vaccinations Gavin would be getting (the other half of my attention was busy trying to get one child to use an indoor voice and making sure the other didn't kill himself jumping off the table), but I was pretty sure I heard MMR and Varicella. The nurse came in with 3 shots, and I mentioned that I thought it was only going to be 2 today. She asked if I would like her to make sure. Normally, I am a very trusting person and I don't like to make a fuss, but I felt uneasy so said yes, I would like her to check with the doctor first. It turns out she was mistaken, and had almost given my baby a shot he wasn't supposed to get for another 9 months. I don't know how much a problem that would have made, but I'm grateful for the Spirit's prompting so that I don't have to find out!

Since Gavin has finally passed 20 lbs, we traded in his infant car seat. I had to get a picture first, because this seat held all three of my babies. His face is even kind of perfect - they all hated being in the car!

We found this turtle in our backyard one day, and the boys wouldn't leave the poor thing alone! Liam kept knocking on his shell, and Gavin tossed him around a bit. Thankfully, our turtle friend survived the encounter, and it turned into a fun learning experience. I just love these curious kids and how much they enjoy this wondrous earth!

I was able to volunteer at Jenna's school for Matter Day. I helped with the "ooblek" station (corn starch and water). All the kids loved it, and it was hilarious to see them try to decide if it was a solid or liquid!
Liam was at Joy School, but I brought Gavin with me. He sat in the stroller eating snacks for the first half, but then wandered around opening cabinets and trying to play with the sink. Some of the kids thought he was pretty entertaining, but he sadly reminded me why I don't volunteer more often. I figure I'll make up for it someday when the boys are in school.

Liam's 3rd

We celebrated our Liam turning 3 with a simple family party.
In the morning Paul made everyone 3-shaped pancakes while I tried to make a balloon drop outside Liam's door. It kind of worked, but mostly just confused him while we all yelled "Happy Birthday!"

Liam got some transformers toys, a baseball bat and glove, and Jenna made him a pirate ship from an old wipes container!

I didn't have to think hard about his cake. He absolutely loves chocolate and the Little Einsteins!

All day long I tried to convince him that he's three years old, but every time he insisted "no, I one!"
Sorry, my sweet boy, but you must grow up! Happy Birthday Liam!!


Some fun facts about our 3 year-old:

-Liam is still super tough. He can take down Jenna with an arm tied behind his back, and after falling down he pops right up saying "I a-right"!

-His favorite song is "Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam" and jumps like a bean all over his bed while we sing it each night.

-His favorite toys are robots and legos. He is an expert at puzzles, and is starting to love the I-spy books.

-He enjoys learning. With basically no effort on my part (poor middle child), he knows his colors and shapes, all the upper-case letters and most of the lower-case, and counts like this  "1, 2, 3, 5, 6..."
One day in church he grabbed the etch-a-sketch and wrote his name. He left out the "a", but I was still impressed!

-Liam and Jenna race to say "me first!" every time we pray, and on his turn he mumbles for about 5 seconds and exclaims "Amen!"

-Sadly, he is getting much more picky about what he eats (we mostly blame Jenna). And he's at the age where the most devastating thing in his little life is when a cracker or cheese stick breaks in half.

-He's a polite little guy, always saying "thank you, mommy" and melting my heart! He's very generous with his kisses and great about taking turns. But he won't share his precious robots unless you pry them from his cold dead fingers!! We're working on that one...

-He is just so sweet, and everyone who meets him loves him dearly!

Gavin: 15 months

As soon as he turned 15 months, I realized Gavin isn't a baby any more. I think it's because he is starting to act more and more like his big brother: he's super tough, loves to be mischievous, and has the same big belly laugh!

He also reminds me a lot of his big sister: I think he looks more like her than Liam, he over-pronounces the -ck sound, and it looks like he's also a lefty!

But Gavin is certainly his own person:

-It's probably because he just got all four of his molars, but he constantly has all four of his fingers in his mouth. Slobbery fingers all day, yuck!

-He's still pretty attached to his mama. If I'm in the house, he insists on being at least in the same room. And he frequently stops what he is doing to give me a quick snuggle.

-His new words: dog, drink, all done, help me, book, fishy, cracker, yucky, down, and shoes.
I'm very soon going to lose count, though, because he is trying to talk a lot.

-He still has that big head, and when he's play wrestling uses it like a hammer. Which explains the bruise that is always present on his forehead...

-Gavin loves to throw! Balls if he's got them, but really anything will do. Especially food. At every meal he throws half his food on the floor, then looks at us with an innocent face and says "uh oh". Haha, he's too cute to get mad at!

-He loves to be outside. As soon as he notices me getting ready, he runs to get his shoes and holds them up to me saying "shoosh!"