Excited Robynson... (part 2)

Last night I posted a video of Robyn being excited about a video on YouTube... It had Star Wars characters dancing (it's from Disneyland or DisneyWorld). Robyn was sitting on my lap while I watched it. She started dancing and bouncing and was SUPER excited. Also, the boys came in while we were watching it and became memorized with it! :) Here is a video of Robyn and how excited she got.

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Excited Robynson...

I found a video on YouTube that had Star Wars characters dancing. Robyn was sitting on my lap while I watched it. She started dancing and bouncing and was SUPER excited. Also, the boys came in while we were watching it and became memorized with it! :) Here is a video of Robyn dancing while watching it. I'll post another tomorrow. :)

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Sometimes she's a girl...

Robyn cracks me up.

Generally, she will be running around the house hitting (with) the boys or playing with a light saber. If we're outside, she's usually playing with a truck in the mud or the dirt and occasionally she will swing...

But there are those moments when you think -
"Yep. She's a girl!"

Robyn has an obsession with shoes. She has been able to match shoes probably since she was about 17 months old... If I try and put shoes on her and she wanted a different pair, she will go find the ones she wanted and bring them out to me. It's cute, but I'm afraid it's a warning for 'what's to come'...

Last night, she had to go to bed with Handy Manny. She brought him in at bedtime and she started freaking out when I was putting him in the toy box instead of in her crib. The other day, it was one of her babies and they needed to have a bottle like she had... Yeah. That's fun to figure out! :) We kept telling her 'You have a bottle!'

Picture of Robyn and her baby from last week...
And the bottle is water spiked with Children's Cherry Cough syrup.
Yeah, I'm a bad mom. Sorry.

video of Robyn and Manny... :)

Before I started recording, she was singing the Handy Manny song to Manny in bed with her. And she was talking up a storm and telling Manny 'nigh-nigh, Manny'... It was cute. But then I tried when he was in bed with her and not much happened other than her saying 'cheese' to the camera and poking Manny in the eye... :)

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He's done it again...

That sneaky little Archer of mine...

At my house, seeing this on the counter is a sign of
'SOMETHING BAD HAS HAPPENED'
and you immediately wonder,
WHERE'S ARCHER???

So tonight (after a delicious birthday dinner at Los Hermanos for both of Jeremiah's brothers), we came home and let the kids play. Our nephew Draysen is spending the night and when he and DarTanion play together, there is usually a decent amount of noise. Archer was playing with them so it was a little louder than normal. Jeremiah was showering and going to bed and Robyn was asleep in her crib behind me. I was on the computer looking for some things for my Sharing Time lesson on Sunday. Normal night.

Jeremiah came in and said he was going to bed, which is normal since he gets up at like 5am. I was listening to the boys play while I continued to look at ideas for Sharing Time. I got up to go to the bathroom about 20 minutes after Jeremiah said 'Goodnight' and saw Jeremiah's electric razor on the counter. Now I think to myself 'I don't remember seeing that Jeremiah trimmed his beard, but I could have missed that.' But really, the electric razor does bring some fear into my mind. You see, Archer likes the razor - thanks to a lady who cut his hair over a year ago, he thinks it 'tickles his head'... I decided to go check him out and realized that (unfortunately) my fears were correct...

He had shaved part of his head again!

So tomorrow, I will locate the dog clippers and shave Archer's head again - for the 3rd time in less than 9 months - which makes me a little sad because it was just starting to grow back! I guess I should be thankful I haven't had to pay for a haircut for the kid in a while!

I love my little Archer Moe.

He's such a cute, giving, caring, FUNNY little guy. But MAN! He will be the death of me (or more likely, himself) someday! He is an escape artist extrodinaire and the most sneaky kid I have ever met. You can ask any of my neighbors, his teachers, my family or friends - Archer is a quiet and sneaky little guy. He's the reason for the extra locks on our doors. The newly installed alarm system on the doors that tells me if they have been opened. The double sets of child locks on all of our cupboards. He's also the reason for my lack of string cheese, soda and fruit snacks. Those are his favorite things to 'sneak'...

He didn't want to smile for these pictures,
but I got him to and
they were too cute not to share... :)

Star Wars Party!!!

I have to say that the

Star Wars Party was a success! :)

DarTanion wanted a "Star Wars Party" for his 6th birthday, so yesterday we had 16 kids (if you include mine) over for his party (a few are missing from the group shot because they came a little late...) We decided that if we invited all of our little friends brothers and sisters as well, that we would have over 24 kids and I just couldn't afford that, but I felt really bad that we couldn't have all the little friends over... Pretty much everyone we invited showed up (which is awesome).

I had made a Pool-Noodle Light Saber and a brown felt tunic for each of the kids that were supposed to be at the party. :)


We played different games with a Star Wars Theme...

Pin the Saber on YODA
I loved when they were TOTALLY off base. :)

Once the kids helped YODA with his Light Saber, they were awarded with their own (made out of a pool noodle and electrical tape) - which they immediately started beating Jeremiah with... :) It was awesome. :)

Then they had to walk down the HALLWAY OF DOOM. We placed pieces of wood, pillows and other stepping stones down our hallway and the kids had to make it down the hallway without stepping on the carpet (which was made of lava). Oh yeah, scary stuff. :)

Then they beat Jeremiah some more...

Then I gave each of the kids a balloon with a piece of paper in it. 2 of the pieces had a picture of Lego Princess Leia. They had to pop their balloon by sitting on it to "Rescue Princess Leia"... Our winners were Dante and Alex! :) You Go Little Jedi! :)

Then of course, they beat Jeremiah again. :)

seriously, it was my favorite part - and Jeremiah's too!
He's such a good Dad! :)

After Jeremiah had another good beating, we tried to calm the kids down before their parents came. We did it the same way we did as they arrived and we waited for the rest of the friends to come - we watched Star Wars: The Clone Wars from Cartoon Network (thank you, person who invented the DVR!) We invited our little guests' families (and Tanion's grandparents and aunts and uncles) to come join us for cupcakes and ice cream at 5:30pm. I had planned a little "Jedi Graduation" ceremony complete with Jedi Certificates, but we ran out of time, so I just gave the kids their medal and certificate at the end... :)

(NOTE: I have NO idea how to upload the certificate, so if anyone else does, let me know and I will post the invite, the sign on our door that welcomed the kids, and the certificate because they are awesome!)

Tanion opened his presents when people had arrived and everyone had some cupcakes and ice cream. :) He would hold up each present and make sure I took a picture before he put it down. :) SO WELL TRAINED!!! :) I'm not posting all of them, but notice how the kids just get in SUPER close to the birthday boy? :) LOVE IT!

my cute little neighbor baby! :)

I didn't get a picture of the cupcakes (Funfetti cake with GREEN Frosting), but some had some little Green Yodas or some little Red Darth Vaders on them. They were called "Thumb Wrestling Jedis". :) But here is a picture of his cake that some of his birthday presents ended up on. They got pushed WAY DOWN in the chocolate. I was informed that it was a 'sinking sand' cake... We didn't do the cake til it was just our family and like 9:30pm!!!

MY BIG BOY!!!

It was a great party and a great day. DarTanion got TONS of Star Wars things and some other equally cool gifts. We told him that the day AFTER his birthday that we would take him out for lunch where ever he wanted, so I guess I'm heading to a restaurant with a playland for lunch today! :)

THANKS TO EVERYONE
WHO MADE HIS DAY
SUPER SPECIAL!

MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU!

My Big Boy is 6...

Today is DarTanion's 6th Birthday.

And that makes me sad.

You see, my little guy ISN'T so little anymore.

My little guy who used to get hiccups and make my tummy bounce, is always bouncing around the house on his own now. My little guy who used to scoot around on the floor and wiggle his bum at you when music was on, now tries out his latest 'breakdancing' moves to music. My little guy has graduated not only Preschool, but Kindergarten too!

It makes me sad to see him grow up so quickly. I want to make him stop and turn back into that little baby boy who would sleep between Jeremiah and I. I want to be able to wake up to his little smiley face that is ready to play with me. And hear his little giggle and his mumblings of "mommy" and not the yell of "MOM!"

But it has been a fun journey. Watching him be SO good at sports. Seeing him be a good BIG brother to his little brother and sister. Helping him understand reading and math and why bugs have more legs than we do. :) Listening to him as he excitedly tells me how he won a new board on Lego Star Wars. Noticing little changes that are happening all the time as he turns into a little man - and a lot like his Dad!

So a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY! to my big little man today. And tomorrow, I shall probably post all of the pictures from the totally awesome Star Wars Party that he just HAD to have... :)

July 4th Celebrations...

Our family has had

a GREAT weekend!

Provo is BIG on celebrating our country's Independence. They have a whole wonderful festival about it! :) And this year I had PLANNED on being more involved in the activities and doing more things, but we still only did a few.

On Saturday, I woke up early and woke up the boys and took them down to the Balloon Festival. We're talking Hot Air Balloons at 6:30am. Jeremiah was off for the holiday (YAY!) so I let him and Robyn sleep. My boys LOVE hot air balloons, so it was a bunch of "I love this one!" and "I love that one!" DarTanion liked the "American Flag" balloons while Archer liked the "Piggy" and the "Bad Case of Stripes" balloons (Bad Case of Stripes is one of Archer's favorite books). Of course, I forgot my camera, but I had my phone. The quality of pictures isn't as great, but we still got some!!

Tanion pretending to be asleep... :)

After watching the Balloons, we went to Krispy Kreme and paid WAY too much money for 2 dozen donuts and headed home. We ate some donuts, got Daddy and Robyn dressed for the day and headed down the street to the Freedom Festival Parade. We saw our friends the Showgren family and the Miller family. We hung out with them and watched LOTS of bands playing and some pretty floats and some big balloons. I DID remember my camera for the parade! :)

Wonder Woman... My favorite 'float' :)
Everyone cheered and clapped for the Missionaries...
They seemed to be the most liked 'float'... :) Only in Provo! :)

Twitch's older brother??? :)

Heber Pride, yo! :)

Remember my post on Singing in the Rain?

THAT'S (David Smith) COSMO!!! :)

After the parade, we ate more donuts and we all took an afternoon nap (which was so needed and so great!) Then we went to a super fun barbeque at our backyard neighbor's (the Rohrbach's) house. It was a lot of fun! They had kiddy pools set up, some kid sized tables, a tent and toys and lots of chairs for the parents to sit and visit. Again, forgot my camera, but had my phone, so not as great of pictures, but we still have pictures.


After the fun barbeque, we all hopped over the fence to our backyard and we lit off our group's fireworks. The kids had fun with sparklers and the guys (mostly our neighbor Lance and Jeremiah) had fun with the fire. :) It was really funny to watch Lance do his fire dance. :) We teased Lance that a member of the Bishopric probably shouldn't be doing fire dances... :)

Alex, Tanion, Brielle, Hyrum

The Rohrbach's + Mary :)
Mary and the Miller'sMelissa and the Dome's
The Gwilliam's

Yeah, he spit on it until it went out... Gross...

Beautiful Candice and precious little Drexton

Pyros...

Lance doing his 'fire dance' :)

After the store bought fireworks were all gone, the Rohrbach family, Dome Family and me and the boys headed across the street to the baseball field to watch the Stadium of Fire Fireworks. :) It rained for a split second, but it wasn't anything too big. We watched the kids (there were a total of 9 there between the 3 families, but 2 of them were infants) run around with glow necklaces until the Stadium of Fire fireworks started. :) It was fun because you couldn't see the little faces, just glowing necklaces and bracelets running around. :) Sorry, none of my pictures from that turned out... :)

I can honestly say that it was a great day. Our whole little family had a great time taking it easy and enjoying our freedom.

Thank you to those who have or are currently fighting for our freedom!!!