Family

Things to note about the kids:

Mason is walking along furniture, standing all alone for several seconds, crawling up the stairs in a matter of seconds and still generally getting up once a night. He is a constant mover! He loves to empty any cupboard, basket, etc... He specifically loves my tupperware cupboard in the kitchen and my bathroom cabinets. He is like a tornado and leaves a mess from his path. It drives me nuts to have stuff all over the floor! He still only has 2 bottom teeth but I think that another bottom tooth might be close to making an appearance. He wants to feed himself and many times won't eat the baby food cause he isn't spooning it into his own mouth. He just got his 3rd haircut a few weeks ago. He loves to wave good-bye and good-night. He isn't a long sleeper and I am lucky if he takes 2- 1 hour naps a day.

Landen loves to color and cracks us up with stuff he says. He is getting better at being able to say what he is thinking. He has LOTS to talk about! Just today I was working out and listening to music on my phone. It was a Scorpions song and he turns to me, "I just love Michael Jackson! Don't you mom???" I despise Michael Jackson but we didn't have that conversation at the moment. I did have to tell him that we were listening to Scorpions and that they were really cool and that is why he noticed that he liked them. Also, the other day he was racing Bryce getting dressed and he told Bryce," You are just wasting your time racing me!" (Meaning that Landen was going to smoke Bryce.) That might have been true if Landen could focus on anything like that for more than a half a second! (I am glad that he has confidence in himself) It is amazing that he can focus on legos and superheros for so long when he can't manage to put his clothes on without being slave driven. He is a sweet kid and gets along with everyone. He is still constantly watching out for Mason. Mason doesn't get away with anything if Landen is around!

Braxton is becoming quite the reader! He can read quite a bit of his verses in the Book of Mormon and is doing really well with the books he brings home from school. Lately he has been getting up at 6 am to do his chores to play the X box or watch cartoons. His favorite games are Ping Pong on the Xbox Kinect and Plants vs Zombies on the Xbox. We are having a few challenges with him testing boundaries, rules and just plain not thinking through some of his choices. Some are not a big deal and a few others have landed him in a heap of trouble (from us). I think that he has gotten in trouble a few times a school but no phone calls have come in from his teacher. We have parent teacher conferences next week so we will chat about that. It isn't anything serious but I would like to know both sides of the story. Braxton really is a good kid and I don't want to paint a bad picture of him. He can be high energy and agressive without thinking about how that is affecting others and sometimes it turns into trouble if it isn't focused in the right places. We really need to find him some good friends. It is hard to have his friends over cause he doesn't play with toys for more than a minute and is on to something different. He also only wants to play certain things and those don't always match up with his friends.

Abbey is doing well in school. Her piano is coming along really well too. She is sprouting up taller and taller. She is starting to pull a bit more attitude and we are having a few more emotional roller coaster episodes so I suspect that the preteen life is coming up quickly. She is still super shy in front of groups and is petrified of doing the story telling festival at school. It is a requirement so I told her that we will just have to start early on practicing for it to make her more comfortable. Abbey is also a good babysitter. We can leave her for short little periods of time and she runs a tight ship. We have had some good lessons about what to do when she is babysitting to keep everyone happy and safe. Soon I think that we will have to schedule her in advance if we want her to babysit for us instead of the neighborhood.