King of the World

 Oh my, do I love this little oompa-loompa. I've actually never called him that, but I think the world of him. He has been so fun to have in our family. He's saying and repeating a bunch of new words and sayings. One of my favorites is when he says, "3,2,1 ssshhh" with index finger in front of mouth. I love when he sings in falsetto or when someone asks how old he is and he always says, "four" or when tonight a mosquito was flying around and said, "spider." He's figuring out colors thanks to all these gumballs I've had around the house. He'll scream, "MOM, MOM...Look and then do a silly dance or show me how he jumps. This morning he put all the silverware away. I showed him how to separate the forks, knives, and spoons and he finished it all by himself and did it correctly. Oh, and I love how detail-oriented he is when he draws, colors, and writes. He looks like he's concentrating so hard on writing (it looks like scribbling to me) but I sense he's really trying to draw something. He gets all close to the paper and his attention span seems longer than usual when he's coloring or writing. At church this past Sunday I brought a string and things he could string on the string. He'd never done this before so I wasn't sure if he could manipulate these small little pieces to put on the string. But he figured it out and spent a good 20 minutes creating a necklace of little beads.

 About the crown. I figured his sisters are always wearing tiaras so I made him his special King Krown and he loved it. It lasted for a day before he ripped it into pieces.

A week or two ago we hiked Mt. Baldy. I wasn't expecting this much snow. Jeff and I stepped into snow that went up to our hip multiple times. The kids got stuck a lot too. What usually takes 30 minutes ended up taking 2 hours. By the end, everyone was physically exhausted, tired, hungry, and had no desire to finish  and make it to the top. I seriously would have complained out loud if my kids weren't there, but they were, so I (and Jeff too) kept on being optimistic, positive, and encouraging. We call teaching moments, "devotionals," and so about 50 yards to the end, we had a "devotional" and taught our kids and reminded ourselves that we can do hard things and that we can help each other do hard things. We also believe our Heavenly Father can help us do hard things if we ask him for extra help and guidance. We said a prayer and continued. We finally made it to the top, gave each other a high five and talked about how good it felt to finish what we started even though it was hard. Then we sledded down the mountain. Eating dinner was awesome. We had all worked up a huge appetite.