Joy School on St. Patricks Day

For your birthday we give you....childhood obesity!

Ryan turned 4 on Feb  23rd!  We asked him what he wanted to eat/ do for his special day and he told us (1) Doughnuts in bed for breakfast (2) A special lunch with friends at McDo

nalds and (3) a  pizza picnic at home with the fam & Gma & Gpa Sleight.

For those of you who don't 

get to spend your days and nights with such a great kid, here are a few things we love about him.

• He is the comedian in the family and loves to make us laugh with his jokes, observations, rump shaking and overall silliness.
• He gives the best hugs with very tight squeezing.
  
• He has the most contagious laugh.  Sometimes he laughs so hard that his big smile forces his eyes closed and you can't help but belly laugh with him.
  
• White hair/blue eyes/red face.  This is Ry playing in the summer at the park.
• His favorite sport is golf and he loves to hit golf balls outside and he can beat anyone in the family at Wii Golf.  He's no hacker either.  The kid has a natural ability at sports.
• He has a very amusing temper.  Lately he'll be angry and complaining about people leaving toys out that he stepped on...we have to gently remind him they are HIS toys that HE left out.
• He loves looking at houses with his mom and her clients, particularly when the houses are vacant.
• He insists on a cereal milk ratio of 1 to 5.  Each morning it's the same routine.  I fill the sippy bowl with a little cereal and a lot of milk.  He drinks all the milk first and wastes the cereal.  He's hungry about 10 mins after I clean up breakfast.
• He loves weapons.   Swords are the weapons of choice.  We own lots of them.
• He loves to wrestle his Dad and Grandpa.  They have to sleep with one eye open open around Ry cause he loves to wake them up with a knee to your ribs.  He is rough with his dad but is gentle with all his friends and wouldn't dream of hurting them.
• His standard of measurement for everything (feelings, emotions, time, etc) is his own wing span.  Always using his hands and arms to tell me how much or how little.
• He loves music and all our CD's have 4yr old fingerprints all over them.
• He hates Sacrament Meeting.    Every night he asks "What day is it tomorrow?"  He's thrilled when the answer includes school or sports camp.   But, when we tell him it's Sunday he always groans and tells us Sacrament Meeting is too long.  Can't really blame him for that one.
• He simply adores his father and tells me often that when he's a dad, he and Craig will ride to work together.  I intend to hold him to that.
• He would spend all day everyday outside.  Doesn't matter how hot or how cold.
• About a month ago he told us he changed his name to Keaton and that's what we were to call him.  We honored that request for about 5 minutes.  He loves and misses all his cousins and wears their hand-me-downs with the utmost pride.
• He loves his sister and brother.  He wants to play with Lizzie every minute that she is home.  When Lizzie isn't around he turns his attention to his younger brother and he can't wait until Andrew is old enough to really play with him.  Ry loves to teach Andrew new things.  This week he has been teaching Andrew how to blow raspberries and spray spit while doing it.
• He is very particular about the sweets that he eats.   He loves birthday cake but he won't touch it if it is a  Girl-themed cake.

A White Christmas in Tremonton

We decided to surprise Grandma and Grandpa Firth  and we showed up at their door the week before Christmas.  They had no idea that we were coming.  We can't believe that we were able to keep it a secret for so long.  We had a great time visiting with family and friends.  The kids really loved playing in the snow.  There were some days that they stayed outside all day long.  They really loved sledding and being towed in the sled behind the 4-wheeler and snowmobile.  It was a great trip!  

Nativity Puppets

Okay Adri, here are the pictures. The first one is Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus. Next are 2 shephards and the inn keeper.

Then we have the wise men.

Obviously, a donkey, sheep, and cow.

The Angel of the Lord and an angel choir.

I don't know why the pictures are turned, but they are. I tried to fix them, but in my files they are correct. Good Luck!!

Really, are you kidding me?

Okay, so I thought I'd give the blog a little facelift and change the background. Good idea right? So I did exactly as "cutest blog on the block" instructed and what happens? Two backgrounds! Now not only is my blog sparse, but it looks ridiculous. I think this is payback for Kim and I putting AC/DC and Alice Cooper on my mom's blog because her computer isn't playing sound and she doesn't know it's there. Please, someone help me fix this!

Enjoying Warm Weather in November

It was about 70 degrees here on Nov 2nd so after Lizzie's soccer game we took the kids to a great new park in McLean VA. Here are some pics from the outing.

Halloween 2008

I don't remember Halloween being a week long party when I was a kid but that is what it has been this year. The sugar rush began the Saturday before Halloween at our ward's annual "Trunk or Treat" party. Unfortunately the weather was poor so the Trunk or Treat party was moved indoors. That didn't have much effect other than making the distance from one parent passing out candy to the other even shorter as we all sat along the perimeter of the gym and passed out candy to the primary kids. During the next week we made candy apples on Monday night, tried to carve pumkins on Tuesday until Dad had to go to urgent care to get his hand stitched up, went to the Vienna Halloween parade on Wednesday night where the kids marched in the parade in their costumes. Ryan had a Halloween party on Thursday in Joy School. Lizzie had a Halloween party and parade at school on Friday. Trick or Treating finally happened Friday night. We had great weather which meant that the kids could stay out longer than normal and really clean up. Their sugar levels have been through the roof. Our neighbor laughed as we had the kids running sprints on the front side walk at 9pm on Halloween to get the energy out of them. Lizzie was SuperGirl, Ryan was Buzz Light-Year, and Andrew was a Lion.

ButterCups 2008

This season was Lizzie's first soccer season. She played on a team with 11 other 5 year-olds coached by her Dad. It's a good thing that we didn't keep official score during the games because we would have officially lost 8 out of 8. The great thing about the team is that most of the girls knew one another before the season started, the not so great thing is that they were all equally "dainty." Lizzie had a great time practicing and playing with her friends. Ryan loved going to the practices and games as well to play with everyone's little brothers. Lizzie's favorite parts of the season are the trophy, dumping water on her head during water breaks, and of course snacks after the game.

Lizzie is on the far left of the 1st picture and in the middle in the 2nd picture.

Take me out to the ball game!

Before school started we thought we'd take in a game at National's park. I think we picked the hottest night in August. (Take note of Andrew 's red cheeks.) The team isn't so great this year so we gave up and left the game after the 6th inning because they were behind 0-4 and the kids' sugar highs had worn thin. Later that night we heard on the news it went into extra innings and the Nat's won. That hurt a little. In the end the outing was a success and the kids said they wanted to go back. Unfortunately it is not for their love of baseball as their father would like to think. They were just really big fans of cotton candy, ice cream in baseball hats with sprinkles and the playground inside the park.

A Vacation from our Problems!

We spent a week at Massanutten Ski Resort. We took the kids fishing for the first time. The fish loved their Princess and Lightening McQueen fishing poles! Andrew was just happy to be outside in the fresh air.

Remember the camera adds 10 lbs

Why must you prop me and pretend I can sit up when I can't?

Andrew thought he'd continue his mom's tradition of the "photo on the couch". Since she doesn't know squat about photography, this is pretty much the background for all three children at this age.

BLOGGING....WHAT A WASTE OF TIME.

Okay, so we've had this silly blog for months and months and I am finally getting around to posting some pictures.