Los Valles

Helaman had his first Valentine’s Day party at preschool this year. We made our own Valentine’s because he loves to do crafts, and they are just cooler anyway. His favorite candy is tootsie rolls, so we had to find a way to incorporate that into our theme, of course. I was really proud of him for working so hard to make all of these. Although, he got really tired of writing his looooooong name on the back of them, so I took pity and just let him write the H and I wrote the rest. I thought they were pretty cute! He loved handing them out to all of his friends, and family, and teachers. It was really cute.

Oh, and hey, I like the way you roll!

In the Wal-Mart parking lot last weekend

Helaman: Dad, are adults allowed to talk to strangers?

Dad: Yes, buddy, adults can talk to strangers if they need to.

Helaman: Good, then you can tell that guy over there to stop smoking!

(And then it’s Omar’s fun job to explain why some people already know it’s bad but choose to do it anyway, so you don’t need to tell them again… )

At Disneyland on the Star Wars Ride in October

Operator: And there is no smoking.

Helaman (loudly): My dad never smokes!

Someone in the crowd: Yeah, no smoking!

(Everyone on the ride breaks out into cheers and applause.)

What a funny little guy!

We had two spooky ghosts for Halloween this year. When people would ask Helaman if he was going to be a cute ghost or a scary ghost, he always said scary. We actually thought they ended up looking pretty creepy. They are making there serious/scary ghost faces in this picture.

Our ward does trunk or treat on the night before Halloween for some dumb reason(s). So we got to dress up twice this year. Isaiah was sleeping when I dyed my hair black and put on the black lipstick and eye make up on Friday and he was scared and wouldn’t come near me when we woke up. So dad had to get him ready and put his make up on. Once he was all painted I guess he realized it was fake, and we were friends again.

There was a little carnival inside the church before the trunk or treat, and the boys had fun trying out the games. They never could get a ball to land in the glasses, but they did great on the other ones. Well, Isaiah cheated at the others, but he still had fun and got prizes.

The next day we had a very tired 8 a.m. soccer game, and then our end of the season soccer party at the part at lunch time. Then we went trick or treating again with some friends and had lots of fun. Isaiah was still dragging through it all, but Helaman couldn’t have been any happier, tired or not. A lot of people in Ridgecrest do some really fun stuff for Halloween, and we had a great time checking it all out and getting lots of yummy candy.

We hadn’t had time to get dinner before we went trick or treating, so we ended up at Taco Bell late that night with lots of other people having a late dinner. The boys were really good, even so tired, and entertained the people around us by being their cute selves. We’re all tired today, but it was a great Halloween.

*As requested I’ve added a better witch picture (thanks Khiana) and another cute one she sent me of Helaman eating the donut.

And for your entertainment, our scary/silly Halloween faces.

John's Pizza

Since both boys have birthdays 9 days apart, the beginning of October turned into a whole birthday month. On Wednesday before Isaiah’s birthday we went to John’s Pizza to celebrate with our friend Steven, since we wouldn’t be in town on his actual birthday.

The servers came and sang to Isa, which he loved, although he couldn’t stand to stay and eat the ice cream when there was so much fun to be had in the game room. Almost every game is broken, but the boys had tons of fun playing in the balls anyway (as you can tell by Helaman’s face if you look closely at this picture! Read the rest of this entry »

5

Helaman turned 5 this month. He’s such a fun son. (I’m a poet!) He loves the help me with “chores” and I am enjoying that while it lasts. He loves going to school and learning new things and playing with the kids there. He has such a curious mind, and I’m convinced, an almost photographic memory. He reminds me a lot of his dad in so many ways. He wants to know how everything works and is never satisfied with a blow off answer. He has his own ideas, and while he wants to be good, he also wants to do what he thinks he wants to do right then (Omar anyone?)

He’s always been a little shy, but in his usual analtical way, he asked me about how to make friends and then has been applying the steps everywhere he goes. He loves to talk to everyone we encounter now, and does it in such a cute grown up way. Like when the lady at Wal-Mart tells us the total, he says,”Okay, great.” and then will probably thank her for the receipt before we leave.

He is still in gymnastics and LOVES it. He’s getting stronger all the time, and it’s been really good for him. He also really loves soccer, especially when his dad is the defender coach and he gets to play defender or goalie. Still anything is cool with dad. And he still loves art. He wants to do a craft everyday, and loves drawing on the computer now, too. Maybe he will be an artist when he grow up, though now he says mechanical engineer. “Like Daddy?” I asked. “No, so I can be a race-car driver.”  (Most Nascar drivers are mechanical engineers.) Funny kid.

Helaman cracks us up, and fills our lives with little boy joy. Happy Birthday, Buddy. We love you!

this is mostly for Grandma Maggie, unless there are other art lovers out there. Helaman still says he’s going to be an artist when he grows up, and he really does love drawing. Right now his favorite is drawing in Paint on the computer, though there are notebooks all over our house covered in Jack-o-lanters and ghosts, too.

You can click on any of the picture to see them in more detail and read about them.

Helaman is playing soccer for the first time this season, and I’m his coach. He’s so far, unimpressed, but seems to be having fun in his don’t move around a lot way. We’ll see…

Helaman started preschool again in August. He’s at a new school and he LOVES it there. And his teachers love him, which makes a huge difference for me. (When daddy gave him a blessing on the first day of school, that was one of the things he blessed him with. I’m so grateful for that man!) The learning here is really self-directed, and he can go at his own pace working on things he is interested in. It’s a perfect fit for my little man.

Isaiah had a hard time the first few days, he really missed his brother. But we are always so busy, he hasn’t had a lot of time to mope about it.

Sometimes we worried that we hadn’t done the right thing keeping him out of kindergarten, but he’s doing so well, we are very reassured. We always knew it was what we were supposed to do, but it’s still so comforting to that he’s so happy and it’s all working well. I’m so proud of my little preschooler, who is flourishing, and doing so fantastically!

My boys have been such good friends lately. I just love watching them play together. They are so different, but they love each other so much and have so much fun together. A couple of goof balls!