Wesley's cake{s}

Wesley blew out a lot of candles for his 4th birthday.  He woke up to a doughnut tower topped with 4 candles, and then his actual birthday cake was a train cake.  I frosted it, but the kids had a blast decorating the cake for Wesley.

Wesley LOVEd his cakes!

Wesley's birthday gift was a new train set!  He has been playing with it 24/7 since he opened it.
It's something the older kids enjoy too, so Wesley bosses them around while they play together.

Happy Birthday to our Wesley!

Lunch with cutie

Wesley and I had lunch with Cutie the other day at school for the fundraiser for the new school playground.  Wesley's stuffed cheek and wild hair is proof he was having a good time.

Yesterday Wesley and I dropped off some track sweats at the high school for Christina. As we walked to the front door, and I lamented that one day Wesley will be as close to leaving the nest as Christina is, we had the following conversation....

Me: I love you.

Wes: I love you the most!

Me: When you are big like Christina and go to college, I just want you to know that I will cry my eyes out.

Wesley: Yeah.

Me: And I will give you the biggest squish hug ever.

Wesley: Thank you.

Me: ...just so you know.

Wesley: Yeah. ....and I will tackle you.

I'm so glad that he's turning 4 and not 14 next month!

He's got my heart.

Maple Sugaring

Wesley's pal, Garrett was in town visiting.  These two little guys are hilarious.  As we drove up to Parker's Maple Barn, they were chatting up a storm in the back seat.  We had to tell them to quiet down so we could carry on our conversation.  They were so funny!

The tour at Parker's Maple Barn was fun...

...and the pumpkin pancakes with Parker's maple syrup were even better...WOW!  Move over Aunt Jemima, I might just be converted to the real deal.  More sweetness...baby L!  How fun to see Wesley ooh-ing and aaw-ing over her.  She's a doll, for sure.

The boys found sticks and had the most fun banging on the sap buckets.

On the way home we stopped by this covered bridge.

For us this was an especially fun early spring day in New England.  We just wish our friends were here to stay and didn't relocate to Austin.  We sure miss having them around!

conference weekend

This pictures is blurry, but this was a moment worth remembering.  The laptop is set up for conference next to the TV where we all watch.  When President Monson started to speak, Wesley said, "I hear him!" and hustled over to the laptop to have an up close personal view of the prophet. 


We were blessed to have 5 of the young women in our congregation in our home this weekend, 4 of whom don't get conference in their homes, and 1 had it going in Spanish at her home and she wanted to be with her friends watching it in English for a couple sessions.  The girls took notes, munched at the open buffet (including Wayne's homemade pizza), and enjoyed sharing conference together.  These girls have so little support among their peers at school, so they thrive on support from one another and from our congregation family.  At an age where it's the norm to be self-critical, these girls could see how my little girls wanted to be by their sides braiding hair, working on conference activity pages, doodling, and "hanging out" all weekend.  One of the YW said, "I never thought of myself as a role model."  I replied, "Whenever you feel that way, just remember how my girls idolized you this weekend.  You are a role model and that's something to live up to."  When the YW were gone, I had to remind my Gracie who sometimes longs to be as old as her big sis...."Enjoy being EIGHT while you can!  It's going by so fast, and 8 is great!"


I am so thankful for my family; for the gospel in our home, and our eternal commitment.  We are not perfect.  We're loud.  We've got fingerprints on windows.  We lose it sometimes.  Yet, we try to progress each day, and I feel peace in our home.  This weekend I felt like our home "as is" is a haven and I feel so very blessed.

Funnest lunch date

We are expecting 8" of snow to tomorrow (my b-day), so I took my little guy out to lunch with me today.  We talked about Play-doh, his wonderful pre-school teacher, making a snowman, yummy lemonade, how mommy's grilled cheese is better than Panera's, and simply enjoyed our date.

This is mommy bliss!

(It's made with love & cherished.)

The Magic Gumdrop Wreath

It disappears a little more everyday....

Of course the consensus is, "Wesley started it!"

FYI--- I used about 2 1/2 pounds of gumdrops, a styrofoam wreath base (just under 12" diameter), and lots of hot glue sticks to whip up this holiday wreath.  Wes was licking sugar off the table when I was done... such a good helper!

Yep, it's laminated!  :)  

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wesley's Preschool Portrait

Even Wesley was laughing when we saw these...

We just couldn't love you more, Wes!  

xoxoxoxoxoxo

I got blue chiches on my weyebwow.

Wes cut his eyebrow when a door swung open in his face. He was a trouper in the ER. Dr. Tom gave him 2 blue stitches and sent us on our way...off to VT for Labor Day weekend.

Little Man on Campus

It's pre-school for Wesley- 2 mornings/week, and he's lovin' it!

We celebrated your 1st day of school with a lollipop after school.

Wesley words:

wapple = apple

wank you = thank you

shoe shlops (FKA: shlip shlops) = flip flops
wanks = thanks
wice cweam = ice cream
wursrey = nursery
hubump = bump
mixen = Mrs.
weyebrow = eyebrow
chichen = kitchen
chiches = stitches

We love our grandparents!

sweet Caroline & grandma Ilene

We had such big, full days and evenings that Grace shed some tears of exhaustion at church on Sunday.  She was happy to find some true TLC from grandpa.  His hugs are about the best ever.

Big hugs for big boy, Wesley...

Wesley loved his walks with grandpa

Aprons from Ama, sewn with love

Ama & Caroline

Shopping roles of the sexes....

Wesley: Kafwyn, Are we done yet?

Kathryn: Where's the shoe isle, mom?

Potty training....

...is always an adventure. One of us seems to be enjoying this.

Look who's on a bike!

Wayne brought this Craigslist bike home to Wesley's delight. Wes hopped on and worked hard to figure out how to make a go of it. The next morning I went to wake him and the first thing he said was, "Bike..." He wanted to hop back on first thing in the morning.

Go, Wesley!

Mommy notes & Literature for all ages

• Wesley is progressing with his speech development. Sheila, his speech therapist, works with him once a week and noted last week that it seems as though Wes has had a "word explosion" in his brain. The struggle is getting those words out. We see progress every day and Wes loves "playing" with Sheila. He about melts her heart with his "gank you"-s & "you welcome." Wes' buddy G. might as well be his other speech therapist. He's a month older than Wes and he is a great talker, so Wesley learns a lot from G. during their weekly play dates. They have lots of fun playing cars, setting up chairs for a train ride, picnics in the family room, and literally running around in circles.
• Wesley is a budding chef. I walked in the kitchen this morning to see that he helped himself to the food the big kids left out after making their school lunches. He made himself a PB & C sandwich: peanut butter & baby carrots. I asked Wesley if it was yummy (he had taken one bite) and he said, "No."
• Wesley love anything we read to him, but has had lots of fun with word and ASL flash cards like THESE.

• Sweet Caroline is loving Kindergarten. She's always, always, always taking nice notes, apples, and trinkets to her teachers. She loves it when they write back. Something that stuck out to me at Caroline's last teacher's conference....Mrs. K said that if there's a child who is having a hard day, she knows that she can ask Caroline to sit by them and Caroline will befriend them as naturally and sincerely as she would any of the other children in the class. She's a friend to everyone.

• Yesterday I sent Caroline to her room to clean it, although it's at a point where I need to help. After about 1/2 hour I went to check on her progress and she was sound asleep in bed. I was a bit jealous.
• Caroline & I just read the book, A Bad Case of Stripes. This book gets a BIG thumbs up from Caroline!

• Grace got a great start on her classes' reading challenge at school. The girl loves to read. The challenge with kids who are advanced readers is finding age appropriate reading material. Her more recent recommendations: Romona the Brave, Hoot, & Scat.

Yesterday's silly conversation while Grace sat on my lap, we were hugging & cheek-to-cheek:

Grace: Mom, I love you more than a pig loves mud.

Wayne: Grace, some advice...don't compare you mom to a pig.

Grace: Mom, I love you more than a hippo in a tutu! (giggles all around while Wayne is shaking his head)

Grace: Fine. I love you more than Daddy. (more LAUGHTER!)

• Thomas...I loved the drive to NY with Thomas last weekend. I loved seeing him have fun once we got there, and exploring the frozen stream, just me and him. But as we drove there and back (4 hours each way), it was so nice to just talk & not be interrupted. It's hard to make 1-1 time happen, but it's always SO nice when we do.
• Thomas took 1st place by a slim margin in his last Pinewood Derby. I'll post pics soon. He had a blast with his pals at Cubs and will go to Regionals soon.
• I was asked to come in after school to help Thomas organize his desk and locker- apparently the kids, including Thomas, have organizational issues. When I got there the teacher said that when Thomas remembered I was coming, he grabbed all of his loose papers and threw them in recycling. NOT the best system, Thomas! :) I helped Thomas fine tune the good progress he had already made & agreed he'd do a desk check each Friday before coming home, so his desk is always nice and neat on Monday morning.
• Thomas is reading The Series of Unfortunate Events. He also recently read and enjoyed, The Great Brain which fostered some priceless discussion, and The Book of Three.
• Thomas was recently recognized by his teachers in a school assembly for his achievement in writing. He has a courageous, straight forward writing style that makes me smile. He shared with me an idea he has for a book he wants to write. I hope he writes it someday because it sounds AWESOME! (I'd say that even if he wasn't my son)

• Christina has 5 more months of Jr High! What?! She's doing really well in school, and doing what it takes to get good marks in Chinese. Wayne and I have been no help with her Chinese homework, so she's really had to self-motivate, and I think that's helped her take initiative and responsibility for her own work, success & missteps in her other classes. She's a great, positive student. Some of her writing has been honestly compelling. It's wonderful to see her hard work reep real talent.

• I think the sky would have to be falling for Christina to miss a Young Women's activity, or church for that matter. She's got amazing leaders and friends, and she is working hard on her own with her personal progress in YW. I will forever be grateful for the faithful trail she's blazing for her sisters.
• Nina recently read, Lovely Bones (too dark for her at the beginning), and A Northern Light, which she liked a bit more. An avid reader, Christina recently started keeping a "reading journal" using the little 4"x6" book, What I Read.

Feeling Blessed,

PHOTOS by MACY ROBISON PHOTOGRAPHY

A car play mat just for Wes

Dear Wesley,

I love that you're an easy to please, simple taste kind of boy. You love your cars and are content playing on the floor with them for good chunks of time. When you decided that the rug at the top of the stairs was a good car play mat, and started playing on it regularly, I knew we could do better. So, your special Christmas gift was this car play mat I made with much love.

I used your largest small car, the little people car to come up with the size for the white parking spaces stitched on each building. I left several buildings blank, so I can add more names later. The Christmas tree found at the town center needs decorating too. Did you see that our favorite cannoli maker from Boston's North End, Modern Pastry is right there? This play mat is about 62x40...a great size. It's like a quilt. The only thing I did to bind the front to the back was machine quilt around each of the buildings, the tree. each of the signs and parking spaces.

Zooming in on the embroidered signs & different buildings your cars now frequent:

your favorite park where you caught your first fish....

"the Chicken Store" is an inside family joke (should I add a Milk $2.19 sign?)

still to come: a "U-Pick" sign for our favorite orchard, Tougas...

and the CITGO sign for Fenway (maybe the bases too)

I'm so glad you have a new, fun spot to drive your cars around, and it's something that will always remind you of your Beantown roots.

I'm glad you like it!

Loves & Loves,