Friday Night Family night

I mentioned in a previous post that I was planning a family photo with some pretty cool outfits.  I got my night.  I got one of the best nights I have ever had.  It was, I'll admit a tad selfish.  I dressed all my boys in my choice of clothes, made them stand in a beautiful field at twilight and have one of my best friends take lots and lots of photos.  They were great sports and I think they all liked their outfits except Paul.  He complained about his tie, but I really had no right to choose for him, I just hoped he would let me.  While we took pictures of Teig, Joren and Eirik ran out into the soybean field and picked a bag full of soybeans.  Eirik said, "mom, now you can have edemame all winter!"  They were so proud of their harvesting and so was I .  My little gentlemen were perfectly behaved and posed like little professionals.  I could not have been happier with them.  Then we treated them to family night out to pizza in Ann Arbor.  It was a fancy pizza place downtown where we had to park a few blocks away.  We are rarely out past dark and all of us walking together all dressed up in hats and ties made it feel like a really special occasion.  My darling gentlemen were stared down by adoring pizza patrons the whole way into the restaurant.  They were a darling sight to see.  As we ate together we were all so happy.  I got a wonderful vision of our Friday Family Fun nights tradition carrying on and when they are all older we will continue to go out and laugh and have a blast together.  These guys really are special and they do love each other tremendously.  I am pretty blessed.

Trip to the island of England with Sambo

In our house, Eirik almost always wakes up first.  I heard him talking to himself in the bathroom this morning.  To my surprise, I heard him say a bad word.  As I layed there thinking about if I should talk to him about it, I heard him talking again in the hallway.  As I listened, I realized he was praying.  It was the sweetest prayer.  "I love you so much Heavenly Father.  Thank you for everything, and thank you for your Son."  A minute later, he came in my room and told me that he had woken up feeling courageous and strong but then he had been tempted to say a bad word.  When he said it, he did not feel good anymore, so he decided to repent.  "Now I feel courageous and strong again!"  he said. 

I had a carved wooden stature from Aruba of a man in a loincloth.  We can him Sambo.  Joren like him and yesterday put on his own loincloth and told me, bye mom, I'm going on a trip with Sambo to the islands of England.  I told him that I would sure miss him, but have a great time and be careful and be sure to skype with me soon!  He waved and started walking away with this big statue as tall as him, and then I heard him sniffle.  Then he stopped and turned around, a big giant tear running down his cheek.  He looked at me and started sobbing.  "Mom, I will miss you too much!!"  I beckoned to him and he came and gave me a big hug.  I told him he could go on his trip tomorrow and today we could look at pictures of the islands I have visited together.  I got out my photo albums and we had a good "trip" around the world and down memory lane.

Tonight Teig would not go to sleep.  He cried and cried.  Finally Paul (he's the softy) got Teig out of bed and let him come downstairs to me.  Teig is talking now, but is new to saying a lot of things.  He has started to say "Oh Man" when he spills or doesn't get his way.  It is too cute for words.  He has been cracking us up and we have been listening hard to understand his new words.  So tonight when Teig came downstairs he said, "phone, call her."  I asked her who he wanted to call and he said, "ganma".  I always want to talk to my mom, so we called her and Teig told her "bed, cying, cying, I be bad."  I loved it.  He knew that crying and crying was a bad choice and he was being bad to be out of bed.  Oh, he is too cute. 
He has started singing "hello, hello" from Primary.  It's so cute.  (Did I already say that?)

Teig; talking and tantrums

Teig learned to talk... This week.  It seems like with all of our children they have reached a certain age and overnight they just decide, "now I will talk."  It has been great fun seeing him suddenly see how gratifying it can be to ask for, and get what he wants.  It's also been a bit hysterical when he throws a tantrum when he can't get what he wants.  It's not very nice of me to say it, but his tantrums are impressive.  We try not to give them a lot of attention, but I'll tell you a story in a second about a good one.
School starts in two days.  We have had a great time getting ready, buying backpacks, new lunch boxes, waterbottles and school supplies.  New jeans and hightops, flannel shirts.  I did not make it to many mom 2 mom sales this summer because of Paul's Sat. work schedules, so I have been "forced" to buy a few new items for school wardrobes this year.  It has been a very sparse gathering, but fun for mom anyway.  I decided it is time for mom to get her way and dress her boys how she wants to for an upcoming family photo.  I told Paul my plans and he basically rolled his eyes.  I said, "come on, I have three boys, let me dream.  It's all I've got."  Anyway, I have a plan and hopefully you will see some cute new family photos coming soon.
Back to school prep.  Tonight Paul decided to let the boys use his old cell phone as an alarm clock and tonight the boys are giving it a trial run.  As we plugged it in and Paul showed them how to use it, Teig got the green eyed monster jealous look and when we told him it had to stay plugged in or it would not work, he got really ...... really... upset.  He threw himself on his back, his breath was held ready for a giant scream.. as we waited, we tried to explain to him again and to help calm him down but someone started to giggle and then we all could not help it, which made him even more upset to which he threw himself over on his face and pounded his fists.  The scream had still not come and Paul said, "wait for it..." which made us all giggle even more.  Poor guy, when he finally screamed, it was deafening.  Don't worry, we gave him lots of love.  He is darling.  Oh, so absolutely darling.  The boys dote on him.  They hover and protect him so lovingly. 

It's creative

Joren has a new teacher at church.  He also has a new habit of forced burping all the time.  He has to leave the table when he does it, which doesn't phase him much.  He spends a lot of dinner time in the corner (burping).  His new teacher told me she asked Joren what his mom thought of his habit and he told her that she says it's creative.
HA!!