Six Months Old

V is six months old today!  1/2 a year!  How fun she is to have around!  We sure love her.  Her little personality is shining through and it is great!

She loves to stick her tongue out.  She probably spends more awake time with her tongue out of her mouth than in.  She just is fascinated by it.  She also loves to giggle and it is so infectious when she does.

She loves her toys.  She loves being in her exersaucer.  She is content to play with her toys, either alone or with others.  She also loves books (YES!!!).  She loves singing, particularly "I Am a Child of God," "If the Savior Stood Beside Me," and "Skid-a-marink-a-dink-a-dink."

She can proficiently roll over both ways and scoots (still unintentionally...so it isn't very far, but she ends up quite a ways away from where we put her down).  She loves to sit and is ALMOST able to sit all by herself.  It is kind of hit or miss.  Sometimes she can sit for a long time and be very stable and others she topples in a matter of seconds.

We are so blessed to have her as a part of our family.  She brings such joy.  She is a very good baby, rarely fussing unless she needs something.  She loves all of her siblings.  Her whole body lights up when one of her parents walks into the room.  She is starting to recognize her name and that is fun too.  We love her and she is a huge blessing for us!

Final Day of Spring Break and Finally a Garden

 I have been really struggling with Blogger lately...so there are many posts not posted and even more not even out of my head! 

We have had a great Spring Break and especially a great trip to see A....among a million other things I need to post. 

But, I am really trying to post more...so, at least for now, I am picking up with yesterday and today.

Yesterday was our final day of Spring Break.  We went with one of my good friends and her boys down to a little train that is close to the zoo.  We knew the traffic would be crazy and....well, we were not wrong.  It was so crowded.  But, we had so much fun.  It was a perfect day and it was so fun to be together.

Here is J with J.  They are about a year apart, but both are a little on the crazy and wild side and we had so much fun together.  They were my seat mates.

 V was my other seat-mate.  She wasn't unhappy, but she also was not excited about the train either.  I think she was just taking it all in.

 K came with me too.  She is so much fun.  I love, love, love spending time with her.  As she gets older and I know that time with her is becoming more and more limited, I sure cherish every moment.

What a great way to end our Spring Break!  So fun.


Today, one of our projects was putting in our garden.  We had a great garden at our last home.  Usually it grew great vegetables, but it sometimes was also a great garden of weeds.  I have hope for this new garden. 

CK and I built the boxes weeks ago, but today we went and bought various bags of "dirt," mixed them together, and filled the boxes.  I am excited to follow the prophet and plant our garden.  So far, we have two tomato plants planted, but I worked forever on the layout today and we sure are ready to plant the rest. 

V was not sure about being outside.  It was warm, but quite windy.  She didn't like it much.  Because of the wind, as we were mixing up the dirt for our boxes, she ended up with dirt of her face and in her hair.  It was time for a bath anyway, right?

I am so blessed.  So blessed indeed.  Just look at the great life I have!

Transportation Parade

 How very fun it is to have a Kindergartener again!  We get to do fun things like create something out of a box.  This has been an ultra crazy time for our family, so I do wish that this assignment had come at a different time, but....it is still fun to work on a project together!  :)

Above is the only in-process picture I took.

Below is when J walked out with his submarine.  He was a little shy at the beginning of the parade, but seemed to loosen up at the parade went on. 

 And...here they come again.  Now it looks more like a parade!

 I loved seeing the different boxes that they had.  Each child's was so unique. 

 He is waving energetically to me...and his hand covered his face in the one I caught. 

 And...my little submarine driver!  :)  The funny thing is that K made a submarine when she was in Kindergarten, 8 years ago.  I don't know if J has seen the pictures and wanted to be like her or if he just likes submarines on his own.  Either way, I have had two cute Kindergarten submarine drivers!  :) 

C's Kindergarten did not do transportation day - I wonder what he would have been. 

Best Actor!

 

DISCLAIMER: All pictures were taken 3/1/13.  I don't know what is wrong with my camera this time, but it really thinks they were taken LAST year!  No! No! No!  All pictures were taken 3/1/13!!!

So, Friday was a busy day for us.  We have had a very busy February and will have a very busy March.  Just the way life is when you are so blessed to have so many kids and so blessed to have each of them very involved.  This is the wonderful life we get to lead!  :)

Speaking of lead, C had the lead in his school's UIL play competition.  There are five middle schools in the district.  Three of them have theater programs and these 7th-8th graders practice much of the year for the play.  Our school does not.  I was surprised when C came home from school announcing that he wanted to try out for the play.  At first, he wanted to help with crew, but then he got a desire to try out.

Auditions were strenuous.  One thing he had to do was find (on his own) a monologue, memorize it, and deliver it.  He did very well.  So well, that as a SIXTH grader, he was cast as the lead in the play, Candid.  Now mind you for this play he has monologue after monologue.  He has page after page of lines.  He memorized them all.  He got to work on the play for two afternoons a week for just over a month.  Kudos to that brave teacher that decided to take this project on!

Friday was his competition.  Since this was their only performance, parents were encouraged to attend.  CK, K, my sister - S, and I went to watch.  (Yes, I took K out of school to watch, but it was only a half day and so she missed only about an hour.)  A dear friend watched V and J while we went. 

C did amazing.  Way better than I expected.  He was loud, articulated, knew every line, and really got into his parts and the emotions of each scene.

We were not allowed to take pictures or record the performance at all, but it was great!

 He had to stay and watch all the other performances as well, so we left him there.  CK had taken time off work so he went back to work and K and I went to get the other kids.  We went back in the evening for his award ceremony.  At the ceremony, we waited.... Honorable Mention Cast Members:  Nope.  All-Star Cast Members:  Nope.  At this point, I thought he might get a bigger award, because he had done so very well, but....I hadn't seen the other four performances so I didn't know. 

And....Best Actor comes up...it was C!!!!!  How cool is that!!!

 
I had a difficult time with my camera last night and just never got a clear shot.  This camera isn't great any way, but I seemed to struggle more than usual for some reason.

Then, with the acting out of the way, they started to name the top three plays.  Third Place:  Nope.  Second Place:  YES!!!  Not bad for a little middle school with no theater program!

C with Mrs. H, the teacher that directed the play.  Both were so happy!

And...a high school saw their performance and offered to have them perform it as an opener for their one-act play.  Cool!  :)

I am so proud of C.  I am so blessed to be his Mama.  I am so grateful that he is choosing to develop these talents. 

In other news, I am also proud of K.  She is also in UIL competitions and for Dictionary Skills, she got FIRST place.  Sweet!  What great kiddos I have.  I am so blessed.