Ketchup

Sup Holla! 'Sup Holla' is my new catch phrase. I had to stop using my old catch phrase because my brothers convinced me it contained a bad word, even though I believe it's not a bad word, but a replacement for a bad word. I guess not everything on Snoop Dogg's "Father Hood" is safe to say.

ANYWAY, We got back from Utah a week ago and I have a lot of catching up to do. I have a Utah post coming up, but now I'll just catch you up on all of us:

Mindy
I forgot to mention that two weeks after Tate was born, Kim and I went to see 'Sweeney Todd' downtown. It was a tricky endeavor with such a little newborn because he was still eating every two hours. Jakob had to drive me downtown, I fed Tater at the last minute in the car, jumped out and watched the show, and then sped back home to feed him. He went longer than he ever had without eating, but he was happy and fine. 'Sweeney Todd' was incredible! I had been wanting to see it for forever, but never had. It was extremely dark, which isn't my favorite, but the music was beautiful. 'Sweeney Todd' and now 'Mamma Mia' have gotten me on another musical kick. As in I want to be in a musical. And 'High School Musical 3' is not going to help. All in good time. Gotta be a mommy first.

Next up, my brand new haircut! Love it! I'm super excited. I love having it shorter. It's easier to shower and easier to do. I still haven't figured out what to do with it when I don't want to do it, though.

What else? I've mostly been avoiding reading any blogs spoiling "Breaking Dawn". I have it on my nightstand as a reward for when I finish a little sumpin', sumpin' else. I'll let you know when I accomplish my first task so that I can read "Breaking Dawn" and give my review.

Also, there are a couple things I forgot to mention in Tate's delivery post. First, my labor nurse was awesome, but she was horrible with the IV. She had to put it in twice, and the second time was right on my wrist. So every time I bent my wrist at all - TOTAL PAIN! So really, the most painful part of my whole delivery plus 24 hours postpartum was that DARN IV!!!!! Second, when I was recovering and my epidural was wearing off, I was starting to feel a lot of pain from my stitches and everything else so I asked for some pain medicine. My nurse brought me two Advils. Are you kidding me? This could lead me into a huge rant about how there is not enough sympathy or consideration given to women who give birth. Everyone acts like we should give birth, jump right off the wagon, and start walking with the rest of the pioneers while we're nursing our young. Giving birth is a big deal!!!!! It is my only time that I need to be taken care of, but I don't feel a lot of compassion. So I just wanted to remember these two points for some reason.

Update on our house stuff: We originally mentioned we wanted to sell it months ago. Well, with the market being what it is, we would lose way too much money if we tried to sell it. But our kids grow bigger everyday, so we're still wanting to get into a little more square footage with a basement. So now we're thinking about renting. And looking around for a neighborhood house that will work for us.


Jakob
Jakob got his braces off last week! He's growing up so fast! This was his second time in braces and he was in them for almost four years this time. He also had braces when he was younger for five years. That's a total of nine years in braces!

Here is his 'after' picture. This picture will also serve as his 'before' picture because of all the restorative work he still has to get done. For those of you unfamiliar with Jakob's mouth, here's a brief synopsis: All of Jakob's molars were ankylose, which means they were attached to his jaw bone and never grew up or down all the way. He grew up his whole life chewing everything with his front teeth, and they started to wear down. We found a team of three of the finest doctors in the state - an ortho, an oral surgeon, and a prosthodontist - who worked together on his case. Multiple surgeries later, Jakob's molars can touch in the back! Up next for Jakob's mouth: a few implants, caps, rebuilding of teeth, and some veneers. Who needs a down payment on a house or functioning cars? Money, Schmoney.

Kobe
Kobe is loving second grade. This week he is the 'Star Student' in his classroom so we spent the weekend making a poster for him. Some of the answers to the questions on his poster were:

Where is your favorite place? Amazing Jake's
What do you want to be when you grow up? A Gold Medalist
What is your favorite thing to do? Play Video Games
If you had one wish, what would you wish for? Superpowers

He is definitely on a high note with our family. He is loving us tons and being super helpful with his younger brothers. He wrote us a letter at school that said he is really glad that he came to our family and that he misses us when he is at school. So sweet!

Luke
Luke is absolutely crazy about kindergarten. He is loving every second of it. His teacher is very nice, but has some quirks. Luke loves her, but me.....I don't know. It's just weird stuff. Like instead of having the discipline system be the light system (everyone starts on green, bad behavior gets a yellow, more bad behavior gets a red and a note home) she rewards children with coyotes (the school mascot). If you get a coyote every day you get a prize on Friday. Well, this means that every single day, during the 2 1/2 hour class time, she has to remember to recognize every single child's good behavior and tell them to get a coyote. And I know from experience that if you're doing what you're supposed to be doing, you very often blend into the wall and DO NOT get recognized. And if you don't get a coyote on Monday, then good behavior the whole rest of the week is a waste because you can't get a prize on Friday anyway! Also, she has the children sit at a different seat every day by different people. Crazy. There needs to be consistency and order. They are only five. It's a lot of pressure to find a different seat every day.

ANYWAY, that's just my gripe, but Luke loves his class. Luke is my most talkative guy. He is talking non-stop. I love that he talks to me. Someday he might not. So I'm trying to remember to enjoy all of his chatter and questions and stories. He's a smart boy because he has realized how to engage the listener with questions like, "You know what?", "Guess what?", "What do you think about...?", "How do you know...?", etc. So I can't get away with just "Wow!"'s and "Cool!"'s. I kid you not, I have almost gotten in two car accidents when Luke was in the car conversing with me. I need to learn to multi-task better.

He is such a sweetheart. He is learning his sounds really well in Kindergarten and can even read a bunch of sight words already. He's always spelling words out instead of saying them. Here's a conversation we just had:

LUKE: "Mom, when is it going to be F and F?"
MOM: Effin Eff? "Luke, what is Effin Eff?"
LUKE: "Fursday and Friday."

(And right before this post went to press, another classic Luke moment. Luke dwells a lot on girls. He will be trouble. He just came up to me and asked, "Mom, what does it feel like when you kiss Dad on the lips?" Me, "Ummm.......". Luke, "I just want to know what it will feel like when I kiss my wife on the lips." I had no reply.)

Jude
Ah, little Beans. Jude has definitely felt a little displaced by this baby. He has to work extra hard to make sure he is by my side at all times. I don't think I've had a bowl of cereal that he hasn't shared with me in over a month. I am learning patience. But, at the same time, Judah Beans is my best friend and I kind of want him by my side. Lately we have been jammin out to "Mamma Meeda" in the car every day. He loves the soundtrack and sings all the songs at the top of his lungs. So cute!

Yesterday Jakob found all the cushions taken off the couch (we don't allow this, but obviously don't discipline effectively because the cushions are off the couch almost every day). Jakob saw Jude there.

JAKOB: Jude, did you take the cushions off of the couch?
JUDE: No, I didn't do it.
JAKOB: Then who took the cushions off of the couch?
JUDE: (Raises his hand.) Me.

Jude is hilarious and gets away with so much because he cracks us up. It isn't fair, but maybe it will encourage everyone else to work on their comedic timing a little more. He talks like a little man and definitely is a very happy boy.

Tate
I'm going to post about Tate at two months next, so I'll just post his birth announcement. I wish we could've sent it to everyone, but the price of stamps is killin' me!

Enjoy the Olympics!!!!! (This picture was for Kobe's school project, that is why he has the gold medal.)