This is a group we saw at the Kennedy Center Open House Arts Festival. They were very entertaining with all his "gadgets" on his chest. This is a video clip - I hope you can watch it.

On Friday night, we went to the Washington Nationals Baseball game! It was Mormon Night, so there were members of our ward all over the place! We had a great time and stayed for the whole game! I'm not a huge fan of baseball, especially LIVE because we were SO far away from the action, and it's hard to tell what's going on, but Grant seemed to get it, and Andrew enjoyed explaining it to him. Clark and Faith liked the treats and the babies nearby. We even saw our friends, the Greers, at the game.

Here is Faith at the end of the game. I'll let you know how it goes next week! Her team is just so fun! There are 3 other girls on the team that she already knew from preschool. The coaches are darling, so we couldn't be in a better situation!. I think "Less is more" when we talk to her during the game. WE're going to try it.

Clark and John on the "Potomac River Cruise" with our friends the Murrays. Their son, Will, was celebrating his first birthday, so they invited us to go along with them on the "cruise". Andrew took the kids while I drove up to my performance at the Temple Visitors Center. They had a great time, but nearly gave me a heart attack while we were waiting for the boat. They each had a bag of goldfish to feed to the ducks, and Clark was looking WAY over the edge to see the duck get the goldfish. He was so interested in watching that he tried to push past me, and stumbled, nearly falling into the water! I grabbed his britches, or we would have both been going for a swim! The Potomac is not known for it's CLEAN water...let's just leave it at that.

Here's Grant with Washington DC behind him. I can't tell if that's the WAshington Monument, but he looks happy. Sweet Grant had to miss his soccer game to do the boat tour, and was such a great sport about it. He has really grown up a lot. Here's a funny fact...when Grant was 3 years old, he absolutely would NOT sing in Primary. When asked about it,he'd just reply "I already know the words!" So, Andrew and I were sure he'd never sing, never carry a tune and never like Primary.
Well, NOW...he sings his little heart out. So loudly, that I have to ask him to sing softer! It's almost a disruption in Primary. What do I do? I'd rather him sing than not, so I think I"ll just let it go! I sure love my big 7-year-old helper!

Faith on Daddy's shoulders. If you look closely, Daddy is trying to read to them from the scriptures...

They were much more interested in wrestling than reading scriptures. Andrew is such a good sport about it, and patient through the whole time. Sometimes when we get this close to bedtime, I just let him handle them, because I am ready to have a little break and move on to my other jobs...laundry, dishes, etc. Isn't my life exciting?

This is Faith at her very first soccer game! She was so funny. She got out there and was running fast and kicking the ball, but something happened, and her demeanor completely changed for the second half of the game...

She wouldn't even go in and play! We were so confused as to what had happened. She was saying things like "They're all better than I am" and "I'm not even fast!" We just continued to encourage her and tell her that this was fun and she was GOING to like it! Hard as a parent not to get frustrated...we didn't know what had changed in such a short time. But, she did finally change and perked up for about the last 2 minutes of the game, did the "2,4,6,8, who do we appreciate cheer" and had a smile on her face when the treat came out!

Andrew's best face! I know he doesn't want this posted, but it shows his silly side!

Grant on the slip n slide at Grandma & Grandpa Croshaws house. Boy, we had fun with that!

Cousins and water...what could be better?

Mommy and my Princess

The kids favorite song right now is "I'll Make a Man Out of You" from Mulan. Faith loves it because it's sung by Donny Osmond (big crush!) and the boys like it because it's about fighting!

Clark knows almost all the words, exactly when to sing and kick - he's looking at himself in the mirror on our wall while he "fights" (looks like jumping to me!) They are so hilarious!

Now it's Johnny's turn. They have so much fun together - but when Johnny's had enough, he has learned to BITE! We're working on that one!

Weekend without Daddy

Just a quick summary of our weekend. Andrew flew out on Thursday for a Dad/Son weekend with his brothers & father.

Thursday night, John was up 20+ times just wandering around, crying, whatever...I didn't know what to do with him! Very frustrating and puzzling! So, the only thing I knew to do was to order him a Toddler Bed. For the past month, he's been sleeping on his crib mattress on the floor because he absolutely refused to sleep in his bed. I know that sounds like I gave in too easily. Who's the mother, you might say? And you might be right! But, this boy cried and cried and cried, unlike anything my other children had done.

So, on the floor, he's been rolling off his mattress (despite the "Noodles" under his sheet) and onto the floor. I think this may be the cause for his discomfort and getting up in the night. So, after weeks of searching Craigslist.com, I broke down and ordered JOhn a bed. Let's hope this is the solution to our lingering problem.

Friday, our friend Jami came over to sleep on the trampoline with the kids. We were all out there telling stories, but in the end, only Jami and Grant slept through the night on the tramp. I know it brought back a lot of childhood memories for Jami, and Grant felt like a big kid doing it!
This was the first night in a month that John didn't wake up multiple times! Go figure!

Saturday, I took the kids to the Kennedy Center where the National Symphony Orchestra performs. They were having an Open House Arts Festival which was completely free and included all the genres of the arts. It sounded like the perfect idea. Well, about 90,000 of Wasingtonians thought the same thing! The Kennedy Center was SO packed that I could not move my stroller through without ramming the back of someone's heels.

No Joke - there was a line of about 300 people for...THE ELEVATOR! So, we waited 10 minutes just to get upstairs to find out (with about 1000 other people) that there were no more tickets for the Martial Arts show Grant wanted to see. Overall, it was a bit of a disappointment, but I was sure proud of the kids. We got back in the car, and I asked "What did you guys think about our adventure today?" And Clark cheerfully replied "I thought it was totally fun, Mom!" That was a shocker.

It was hot, and we sat in the baking sun for 30 minutes waiting for the Circus to start. Not 3 minutes into the show, Clark said "Mom, I need to go to the bathroom!" So, I left Grant there to watch the show (the only child who was genuinely interested in watching) and then took the other three to the port-a-potties (Much better than a squatter, I'm sure, Mindy). As we tried to sneak our way back through the crowds to our front-row seats, Johnny just LOST IT! He was thirsty and would not stop crying for a drink (which we had just finished drinking 10 minutes earlier), so we had to leave the Circus early. My words can not describe the chaos we experienced. Next year, I'll plan better and we'll stand in the lines to see the shows we are truly interested in!

This morning (Sunday), John woke up for good at 3am! He came in asking for "Breck-uss" (Breakfast). WHen I refused, he moved to "I want an apple, Mommy!" Remember, this is at 3am! Finally, I convinced him to get in bed with me - where he proceeded to knock on my headboard about every 2 seconds over and over again! Needless to say, we were both tired when the REAL morning came at 6am. So, John was a CHALLENGE in Sacrament Meeting, just literally bouncing off the pews! I didn't even know what to do, and at one point, I burst into laughter and looked up to see the Bishop noticing my trauma and laughing along with me! Thank goodness for single sisters...I headed out the door with Johnny and Nicole Peterson came to my rescue. She is truly a gem! So, you can guess what John did not 5 minutes after we left Sacrament Meeting. He fell asleep on my shoulder! That little stinker! I have to admit...it was fun to cuddle with him during Sunday School!

Crazy weekend overall, but I wouldn't change my job for anything! When Johnny will whisper in my ear "Mommy, I love you SO MUCHHH!" it makes it all worth it!

BAKING COOKIES! I have so many memories of making cookies with my mother on Sunday afternoons! The entire kitchen table, countertops and stovetop were COVERED in cookies! I didn't know it was possible to make a BATCH of cookies that was less than 12 dozen! So, today we made Mom's famous Chocolate Chip Cookies! Everything is always a little more messy with my "helpers", but we're having fun. The kids (in the first picture) are looking at Grant who just bolted into the room to make them laugh!

This is the kids with their "funny" faces. How do you convince a child not to TOUCH the food, lick her fingers and even eat the dough during the process? Oops, I said "her", so you know who I'm talking about! So, when you get cookies from our house they have already been loved by 8 extra hands! Bon Appetit! MINDY...I was so inspired by your potty training with Janie, that we are going to do it this week! I have no excuse! John was doing so well, and I think he's recently given up because I had...no more! I want to be out of diapers, at least for awhile!

My three boys after our evening of Halloween Costumes! The lighting and focus turned out so cute. Aren't they precious? Ok, we know it's only September, but Daddy was out of town, and we had some extra time before bed, so I pulled out all the costumes to try them out! It's hard to decide what to be for Halloween! We laughed so hard, and turned into all kinds of super heroes!

Clark as the GREEN Power ranger! The arms and legs are WAY too long, but that didn't slow him down for a second! He looks pretty powerful to me!

Grant (aka Buzz Lightyear) tries out his new Light year gun to enhance his costume (this will be year #3 to wear the costume, but it gets cooler with every accessory we add!)

Faith is putting a force field around you! Other than the hair color, she looks just like Violet! The gloves actually go with a Dash costume that Johnny will wear, complete with built-in muscles - the only problem was we couldn't get him to leave it on long enough for a picture. Could be a problem on Halloween!

Grant's teacher, Mrs. Quattlebaum, took these pictures today in the Courtyard of their school. She said that everyone in the class is very well-mannered and polite. Grant is having a GREAT year already!

This is the whole class! 18 kids and one fantastic teacher. The school seems great! Just wish it was a little closer to home - but we can deal with that!

Here's another cute one of Daddy's helper. On Friday night, I took Andrew on a date for our upcoming Anniversary. We played TENNIS! I left tennis balls and a note in his car saying "You & Me, LOVE-LOVE, tonight at 6pm". Our whole date cost $15, including dinner and dessert (we had coupons). We rode our bikes to the park, played tennis, rode our bikes down 23rd Street to the restaurants and ate some Eritrean food (near Ethiopia) which was spicy, but fantastic. Then, rode our bikes over to Coldstone where we gorged on some yummy ice cream! Both Andrew and I want to get more ACTIVE! We'll let you know about our progress!

John and Daddy washing the car! It was so cute to see John stick with his job, while the other kids ran off to the trampoline. He scrubbed all the tires with Daddy and kept going back for more! He was so cute!

Ok, SUPER hard to get a picture of kids jumping when they are bouncing the photographer as they jump! This gives you a feel for what we do EVERY single day on the trampoline! It's great exercise and the kids absolutely LOVE it! We'd recommend a trampoline to anyone! (Enclosure REQUIRED)

Grant is SO crazy on the trampoline and just LOVES to get the bounce from ANdrew and I. He's smart enough that he even figured out how to take the bounce every single time! Fun for him - the other kids haven't figured him out yet!

FAith's hair is constantly in static mode on the tramp. If she doesn't want to go too high, she'll just collapse and turn to "jello". Clark, on the other hand, takes every bounce and gets flopped around like a rag doll, smiling and laughing through it all!

Back to School 2007! The kids were SO excited this morning to get to school that we arrived 20 minutes early! It seems that Campbell will be a good fit for these two - I can hardly wait for them to come home and tell me about their day!

Faith was a little hesitant when we first arrived in her classroom, wanting my help with stickers and keeping her arm tight around my leg, but once she met Jocelyn and her teacher started them on a puzzle, everything was perfect and I slipped out, only to tear up knowing my little girl was in school now!

Isn't Grant a cool guy in this picture? I'm not sure why they're all so "smoky" looking - probably a fingerprint on the lens. Grant was so funny the other day. I told him I was going to ride the bus because Faith wanted me to. He immediately said "Well, then I'm going to sit on another row, because I don't want anybody to think I'm a scaredy cat!" Hard but good to let my little boy grow up!

Here's the whole family right before we left for school! Daddy had a briefing with Secretary Leavitt that he HAD to get in to work for, so my sweet neighbor, Kristen Filpi, took the little boys while we took the BIG kids to school! We've had a great day!