Special Moments with Friends

This Spring we were able to be a part of Sebastian's baptism.  Xavier and Sebastian have pretty much grown up together and it was such a wonderful day to all be together and share this special moment in his life.

3 Musketeers or the 3 Stooges, it depends on the day.  Probably today it's just the 3 gentleman.

Tim had the honor of baptizing Sebastian.  He was even able to say the baptismal prayer in Spanish which was especially neat because Sebastian's dad mainly speaks Spanish.

Karina and her boy.  These two are like our family.  Karina had asked me to give a talk on the Holy Ghost.  I was so happy to be a part of this special day.  The Spirit was so strong and it has been such a wonderful journey to see these two grow in the gospel together.  

FLASHBACK: Xavier had started preschool soon after we moved to Pennsylvania.  Sebastian was in his class.  It wasn't until the end of Xavier and Sebastian's first year in preschool that Karina came to church.  I recognized her from preschool, but hadn't seen her at church until that Sunday.  It was her first time back at church in a long time.  I just so happened to be the primary president at the time and encouraged Sebastian to come to Primary with Xavier.  Their attendance was hit and miss for months after that first meeting. But Karina and I got to know each other more since we saw each other at preschool several times a week.  As our friendship grew and our kids friendship grew I noticed they were coming to church more often.  Now Karina is endowed in the temple and Sebastian is baptized. They have changed so much since the first year we met.  The happiness and joy I see between them has been such a blessing to watch.  

Xavier's baptism will be in one more month.  I'm grateful these two are such good friends and will be able to help each other make good choices.    

They are quite the silly pair.

8 is GREAT!

Easter Egg Hunt at the community Center.  Nothing creeps me out more than oversized animals.  Does this bunny say creepy to you?  Oh well, the kids loved him.

Xavier, Martin, and Gavin waiting in the bitterly cold wind to collect their eggs.

Poor Reidster was too small to participate.  It was pretty much torture for him.  

Pure mayhem and chaos once the rope was lowered and the ok was given to hunt for eggs.

Once we were home and in the warmth again I put Reid down for a nap and we dyed Easter eggs.

Waiting and waiting for the colors to set.

A very blurry image of our sleepy boys on Easter morning.  That's probably what they looked like in real life with my sleepy eyes, so it's a perfect depiction of the morning.

We took the boys ice skating for a school fundraiser.  Reid wasn't fond of the skates at first,

But he started to get the hang of it and was practically running in them.

Gavin was cruising on the ice like a pro.

The Fantastic Four had a super time on the ice.

After ice skating we headed over to the new hockey stadium in Allentown to watch the Phantoms play.

The boys getting a quick pic with the mascot.

I have never seen kids have so much fun at a sporting event.  Thankfully it was so loud they fit right in.  They were yelling and screaming and cheering on the Phantom's players.  When the music played they were out of their seats dancing and singing and clapping.  I would say I had more fun at this event than any other sporting event in a long time.  Reid was in awe of all the lights, sounds, and entertainment that he even sat in his seat most of the time.   And when he wasn't we were walking around with him keeping him busy.

The whole crew minus Tim (he's taking the picture).  Go PHANTOMS!

It's Great to be 8!

Our boy is 8!  Holy smokes!  Boy are we lucky to have this gem in our family.  He is truly such a wonderful kid that brings so much excitement, energy, and happiness to our home and everywhere he goes.  To celebrate this milestone Xavier invited a few of his buddies to go bowling and eat pizza and cake at our house.

I decorated the inside and outside of our van so we could take the party wherever we went.  Party in the car this year!  On the back I wrote "HONK It's Xavier's birthday!"  I was hoping we'd get some honks as a fun little surprise for Xavier.  

Hayden, Sebastian, Cye, and Jacob all came along.

First stop: Revolutions Bowling

Trying to keep 7 rowdy boys under control was quite a job.  Tim did fabulous while I was chasing Reid around the entire bowling alley and arcade area.

These boys are pretty spectacular and quite funny when they are all together.  Tim and I couldn't help but sit back, observe, and watch the silliness unfold.

Cheers for Xavier's birthday!

Strike! Spare!  Thanks to bumper lanes it's definitely possible.

Next stop: Pick up cake.  Last stop: home for dinner, cake, and presents.

I am so lucky to be this kiddos mom.

8 years.  Time- FREEZE for two seconds will you?

The birthday posse united once again.

Calm and cool!

Xavier and Jacob.  Buds since pre-school.  They are pretty much twins in the sense that they like all the same things.  Legos. Pokemon. Video games. Chima.  Jacob's mom always says "They speak the same language."

Xavier and Sebastian.  Buds since preschool too.  These two are so different, but are like brothers.  They've done so much together and are both being baptized within a month of each other.  They help each other and make each other laugh all the time.

Xavier with Cye and Hayden.  We are sure glad they moved here this year.  Along with Gavin, they know how to have a great time together.  They are ALL boy from top to bottom.

The three musketeers.  Triple threat when they are all together.  But we love them to pieces.

BIONICLES was what Xavier wanted more than anything this year.  So Bionicles he got.

Our little familia.  Xavier is such a great example to his little brothers.  He is such a good listener, helper, and light to everyone.  He makes us laugh.  He is always teaching us new factoids.  He cares about the planet and animals like no one else.  He's got a heart the size of Texas.  He's got energy like the energizer bunny.  He's got a mind like a maze with all sorts of perplexities.  He's got soul like Ray Charles and understands so many things beyond his years.  He's got talents that always amaze us!  He's an incredible kid and we hope he has a GREAT year being 8.

A LOT OF StuFF!

So seriously I am so incredibly behind on posts that it's August and I'm now getting around to writing about many of our life's events from winter and on.

Xavier had the amazing opportunity to be the lead role in his second grade concert.  They re-told the story of Tikki Tikki Tembo which is an ancient story of a young Chinese boy and his brother.  They sang, they acted, and entertained the audience.  Xavier had lines to memorize and even sang some solo parts in the concert.  He was so nervous the first time they performed for an audience, but he did such a great job up there.  It was so fun to see him do something new and to be on a stage.  His music teacher selected him for the part and I was glad he got to get out of his comfort zone a bit.  It was definitely a learning experience and a memorable performance.

He's giving me the look.  "Mom, stop taking so many pictures!" (No I will not smile for the camera)

Gabe played the part of Tikki's younger brother and Rileigh played the role of the boys mother.  They all did a wonderful job saying their lines and singing their parts.

The boys and I always make fun Valentine boxes.  This year Xavier wanted to make Froakie, a Pokemon.  Second grade boys are obsessed with Pokemon.  (I thought Pokemon was on it's way out.  But I guess not! It's all the rage.)

Gavin wanted to make a robot.

Xavier won the "Most Creative" valentine box which he was especially proud of.

Winter was a rough one for these three boys.  Between illnesses one after another and school closings these boys were averaging 2 days of school a week for a couple months.  I felt like I homeschooled over the winter.  Which had it's perks and definitely some days I was praying for warmer weather so my kids could actually have a full week of school.  The funnest trip to the doctor was on a Saturday night when Tim had left town for a week on a business trip and the boys developed gunk in their eyes in a short amount of time that kept getting worse.  I rushed them to a Ready-Med clinic at 6 at night in the freezing cold.  We were in that clinic for what felt like FOREVER!  Trying to keep a very active little baby boy occupied and off the nasty dirty floor or from putting everything in his mouth was not what I hoped to do on a Saturday night.  The doctor diagnosed them with conjunctivitis- or pink eye.  Fabulous!  Just as a precaution I used their medicated eye drops too and didn't even attempt wearing contacts for a week in hopes I would avoid the worst of it.

So keeping the boys from touching their eyes and pinning them down to try to get the eye drops in their eyes every 4 hours was quite an ordeal.

I embraced my nerdy look for a week!  But I was glad to finally be able to wear my contacts again.

One fabulous part of getting a lot of snow is that we had enough snow to build a ramp off of our porch and a sledding trail.  The boys were sledding down this thing for hours and it took them all the way to the end of our yard and around our neighbors fence.  It was pretty wicked.  

Forks Elementary hosted a mother/son; father/daughter Valentine Dance this year.  I was lucky to take this handsome boy with me.  They even had a professional photographer document the special event for each couple.  They had a DJ and light refreshments.  Xavier's buddy Justin and his mom Gift came along with us.  I'm glad because the kiddos ended up dancing with all their friends while the parents talked to each other.  

We had a blast together and it makes me happy to see Xavier get along with so many of his classmates.

Gavin had Wacky Wednesday at his school in honor of Dr. Seuss's birthday.  This was the outfit he came up with on his own.  Two different shoes, two different Christmas socks, a plaid church shirt, backwards t-shirt over the church shirt, sweathpants, tie, and to top it off a shark hat.  I'd say that's pretty wacky.

In March we make our traditional Leprechaun trap in hopes of catching a tricky little Leprechaun.  I report we are 0 for 8 on catching these fellas.  But Xavier is determined that next year will be our year.

This year the Leprechauns went all out in playing tricks on US.  They toilet papered the boys room.

Left green confetti all over the floor.

Turned the toilet water green and left messages on the mirrors.

Placed furniture in odd places and got into the cereal.

Turned picture frames upside down.

Drew silly faces on some of our pictures.  It was a mess!  If we don't catch them next year I don't want to know what they'll do to our house.  

More SNOW!!!  I was so excited to be able to be out in the snow more now that Reid was older.  This was his first ride on the sled.  He giggled and giggled and giggled.  It was such a fun day.

We have the perfect sized hill a couple blocks from our house.  So we could just walk down and sled.  Half the neighborhood was sledding too which made it even more fun for everyone.

The boys were racing down the hill to see who would beat who and who would crash.

It's still as much fun as it was when I was a kid.  

Gavin turned out to be my best shoveling buddy this year.  He was such a trooper and was always the first one to volunteer to help.  Xavier was a huge help too.  Many times he'd play with Reid so I could go and shovel.  My boys are great helpers and usually have a good attitude while doing it.