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 »
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!
July was filled with days spent at the pool and nights spent outside with daddy “working” on his motorcycle. It doesn’t get cool until late at night, so the boys were up late every night playing out side once the sun went down, and then they would sleep in every morning until it was time to leave for the pool. I even got a few mornings to myself until Isaiah realized I wasn’t sleeping in, too. We didn’t do very much work, we mostly played all day every day and every night.
It was a fun and relaxing summer month.
But it was exciting too. At the beginning of the month, Llael came down for the fourth of July. We played in Ridgecrest and then went to spend the actual 4th in L.A. With lots of swimming, beaches, and fireworks, we had a great time.
Mommy & Isaiah on the train
At the end of the month we had another exciting adventure. Isaiah, Helaman, and I rode the train to Sacramento to stay in Gridley for a week. We left on Sunday night, and Omar joined us on Thursday night. We had lots of fun, but even in a week, it felt like we could never see everyone. There are just too many people to love in Gridley!
(Note: If you want to get more juicy, or boring, details, you can click on any of the thumbnails in these posts.)
June was when things really got crazy. I was in a stake band for the 4th of July and had practices once a week for that so Omar got to spend more alone time with the boys. Then we also started swim lessons for both boys and then we would stay at the pool and do lap swim and play with our friends and in the pool. We had so much fun with our Ridgecrest friends at the pool this summer. It’s been a busy crazy fun time!
We also did lots of playing with our friends Ryan and Ashley. The have moved to Washington now, and we miss them, but June was lots of fun, with exciting trips to John’s Pizza in Bakersfield and Lake Isabella, barbecues, and outings.
In the Wal-Mart parking lot last weekend
