Ch-ch-ch-changes

With the coming of a new baby, we've been brainstorming rooming arrangements for the last little bit.  And since Grace and Sophie have become such BFFs as of late, and since Grace has been begging for the last couple of weeks to give it a try, we finally broke down tonight for a formal changing of the rooms.

 {Of course, we had to give them a trial run of sorts before committing, so we let the girls have a "sleepover" in Grace's room for a few nights to see if it could even work.  This picture is what we found when we came up to bed on the first night.  Hahaha.}

After resistance extraordinaire from Ethan, we finally convinced him tonight that he had to give up his bunk beds in order to move Sophie into Grace's room.  To say he was hostile to the idea is an understatement.  Nevertheless, after a few hours' worth of hard work, Scott finally got the bunk beds transferred, and I got Ethan calmed down and warmed up {enough} to the idea of personalizing his "new" bed frame by painting it look more at home in his room.  It was a rough night.

 {The girls actually shocked and surprised me with what an enthusiastic and thorough job they did cleaning up the room to prep for the big event.  And to say that they were excited would be an understatement once again.  :)  }

Hopefully now that they've gotten what they wanted, they won't get sick of each other and demand to be split into separate rooms once again.  Because that's not happening any time soon.  Now that the three older kids are settled in and good to go, it's time to start convincing Alex that he has to move out of his room and into Jane's in order to make room for the baby.   I think that's going to go over REALLY well.  Hahahaha.  I'll be sure and keep you posted.  :)

Flashback Friday -- Ethan Through the Years

For tonight's flashback, I couldn't help but post a processional of all of Ethan's "birthday" pictures from over the years.  Starting with this firstborn, I've tried to get a portrait taken for each child at every age.  Sometimes I've been successful in taking the picture REALLY close to their birthday, and sometimes it's been many, many months after the fact.  Hahaha.  Nevertheless -- I have a picture to document every age of their lives and I love it.  Here is Ethan's record -- he really is such a handsome boy.  :)  {A few of these are cell phone pictures of photographs -- so obviously the quality is not awesome on all of them.}

Newborn Babe

{Hospital pic.}

One

 {Kiddie Kandid shot}

Two

{Another Kiddie Kandid.  This is one I remember being late.  I did his at the same time I did Grace's one year pic -- in November of that year.}

Three

 {Kiddie Kandid.}

Four

 {And now we make a switch to The Picture People.  :)  And the only picture where I see a resemblance to Alex.  Perhaps it's because Alex is almost the same age as Ethan is here.}

Five

 {The Picture People.}

Six

 

 {Last "professional" shot.  The Picture People.}

Seven

{It was at this point in time that I decided to start taking their pictures myself to save some money.  :)  This was taken with my old point and shoot.}

Eight

{This is one of my very favorite pictures of Ethan.  He looks so genuinely happy -- which is hard to capture on film.  :)  We snapped this RIGHT before driving over to the church for his baptism.  I had my Canon Rebel then, but just the kit lens.  I've never been super happy with the white balance in this picture.  (Although to be clear, I feel like the white balance is the biggest thing I've struggled to get right while using the Rebel.  I don't know if I'm just really bad at it, or if my camera just photographs warmer than I'd like.)}

Nine

{Another late portrait -- probably in the fall at some point.  I think this is the only enjoyable photo shoot of his life in his mind.  I tried some new "photographer" tricks I had researched to make photographing kids easier, and it worked!  At least this once.  Hahaha.  By this point, I had also upgraded to my 50 mm fixed lens, and I think you can really see the difference.  Also, you can really see his dreamboat eyes here. ;) }

Ten

{This picture was snapped on his birthday the day before we moved from St. Louis.  It was a rushed and torturous shoot, and once again, I don't know what's up with the white balance.}

Eleven

{Another late pic.  I had rented a 35 mm fixed lens to try out for this photo shoot, but ultimately decided my 50 mm did the same basic job, and figured it wasn't necessary to buy the 35 mm lens.  I'm not sure how I tricked him into taking pictures for me this time, but he obliged me with a few shots before calling quits.  :) }

Not Quite Twelve

{This doesn't count as his birthday picture, but I needed a recent shot of him to create a farewell gift to present to him last Sunday on his last day of Primary.  The only reason he agreed to pose was because I told him he didn't have to change into his church clothes -- he could just button his shirt OVER his regular clothes and put on the tie.  Hahaha.  :)  He lasted for only a few pictures before declaring he was done.  Stay tuned though, because I plan on forcing him to do his birthday photo shoot this year in the brand new suit and tie we got him for turning 12.  :)  }

A Dozen Years

We have a 12 year old!!!  I can hardly believe it's true.  How can I possibly be old enough to have a 12-year-old on my hands??  Hahaha.  We couldn't let the day go by without documenting the highlights of it, and here, with the pictures, are 12 things about Ethan and who he is right now, on this day in time.  :)

1.)  Watching TV is a treasured pastime.

2.)  Harry Potter #7 is still is fave book.

3.)  Games and puzzles are his thang.

4.)  His current favorite memory involves surf, sand, and long road trips.  Hahahahahahahahaha.  J/K.  Only the beach resides in that misty, watercolored memory.

5.)  Orange is still his favorite color.

6.)  Amazing Race and American Ninja Warrior are the peanut butter to his jelly.

7.)  If given the chance, he'd order pizza every night for dinner.

8.)  His greatest strengths are his persistence and tenacity.

9.)  He has dreamboat eyes.

10.)  I think his subconscious dream is to flip houses for a big profit.

11.)  He has a faux dimple in his right cheek.

12.)  He has the same size foot as his mother.

And there you have it!  This IS a friend party year, but we were a little slow with getting the invites out and planning the whole thing, so the party will take place in a couple of weeks.  He seems to be okay with that.  I'm hoping that we've done enough today on his actual birthday to make him feel as special and wonderful as he is to us.  Because he most certainly is.

I love how this kid will rise to any challenge thrown his way.  To close, I'll leave you with the following example.  For the last several months, we've been talking about how great it would be if Ethan could finish reading the Book of Mormon by his 12th birthday, when he will enter the Youth program and receive the Priesthood and become a Deacon.  Each night at bedtime, Scott reads the Book of Mormon with him before moving on to whatever else he is reading.  Starting a few months ago, I began encouraging Ethan to read a couple more pages after Scott was done so that he'd be on track to finish by today.  WELL, as I'm sure you can imagine, reading scriptures alone was not all that exciting a prospect for a kid, and he had fallen quite a bit behind by this past weekend.  He decided that there was no way he could finish on time and that his new goal was to finish by the end of the summer.  However, my powers of persuasion are apparently even greater than I supposed, because after throwing down the gauntlet on Sunday afternoon and telling him that I still thought he could finish if he put his mind to it, he totally took the bait and buckled down with single-minded focus and determination to get it done!  In his words {and I'm paraphrasing}: "Aaaaaahhh!  Why do you have to be so persuasive??  Now I kind of want to do the challenge!"  Hahaha.  On Sunday night, he was still at the beginning of 3rd Nephi.  Since then, he's read about 20 pages every night, and only has 25 more pages to read tonight to finish it off!!  {He's got half of Ether and all of Moroni left}.  That's my boy.  :)  I am thoroughly impressed and delighted that he has risen to this challenge.  He is turning out to be quite an impressive young man.  What a treasure to have in our family.  :)

My Olympians

And now back to our regularly scheduled programming.  Or at least in this case, our already scheduled blog post.  Hahaha.  I've had these pictures uploaded since last week, and meant to blog about the kids' Track Camp last Friday, but I think my super tiredness must have kicked in once again and I didn't get it done.

Last week, the older three participated in an Olympic Track Camp through the Parks and Rec department.  They pretty much loved every second of it, even though it was BRUTALLY hot for most of the days and they were all SUPER sore from all that extra running.  :)

Friday was the last day of the camp, and culminated in an Olympic track meet between all the "countries" that were created during the week.  Ethan was Team USA, Grace represented Italy, and Sophie was from Brazil, of course.  Hahaha.  All the campers got to tie-dye t-shirts earlier in the week and wore them for the big meet.  Face painting was also in order for the morning, along with plenty of taunting amongst my kids.  {Seriously, if I had to hear one more fight between Ethan, Grace, and Sophie during the course of the week over whose team was better and which country would win the meet, I was going to lose it.}

{Grace was dead set on attaching that flag pole to the side of her face so that her face actually looked like the Italian flag.  Hahahaha.  Oh Grace.  She DID take it off when it came time to run.}

Team USA

Team Italy

Team Brazil

Scott was working from home that day, so he was able to join us for a couple hours that morning to watch the big kids run and help me corral the little ones on the field.  The meet opened with the "hurdles," and Grace and Sophie both participated -- although they were in different heats.  {And for the record, there were NO official scores or times being kept.  It was one of those everyone-has-fun-and-they-all-get-a-medal affairs.  :)  }

After the hurdles, Grace and Sophie both did the long jump, while Ethan geared up for the 100 meter dash.  Unfortunately for Ethan, I have no documentation for that race, AND the kid in the lane next to him TOTALLY kept knocking into his lane and as a result Ethan did NOT win his race.  Which, of course, he feels like he WOULD have won if no one was in his way.  ;)

Alex and Jane, meanwhile, were completely running rampant.  I sure was glad that Scott was there to help with those two clowns, because there's no way I could have watched the runners, taken pictures, AND kept track of Thing 1 and Thing 2 if he wasn't there.

About 15 minutes into the meet, the skies opened and we were treated to a constant drizzle for the rest of the morning.  It was just enough to cool things off and feel refreshing, and not so much that it ruined the rest of the meet.  Basically, it was practically perfect in every way.

After the 100 meter dash was done, Ethan got ready for the 400 meter and totally vindicated himself with a win.  :)  Hahaha.  Grace and Sophie both ran the 400 as well, and then went back to back with the 1 mile.

I'm not quite sure why they had the girls 1 mile RIGHT after the 400, but that didn't stop Grace and Sophie from going all out, even though maybe it should have.  Haha.  Sophie went from acting like she was dying after the 400 to hopping up and running over to the line after hearing the last call for the 1 mile.  And then she shot out of there like a cannon for the first 100-200 meters of the race.  I don't think she realized she'd be doing 4 full laps around the track.  Yikes.  For a little while, though, she was leading the pack.  :)

It wasn't long before Sophie dropped behind, and Grace wasn't too far ahead.  Grace has had some foot problems since her feet starting growing so fast and so big, and it started acting up in the middle of the meet.  As a result, her foot was "killing her" (she said) and she didn't finish as strong as she would have liked.  I felt really bad for her, because I could tell it was hurting a lot, but she just wouldn't call it quits.

After the girls' mile was done, it was time for the boys' mile, and Ethan lined up one last time.  I know he was wanting to win this one as well, but I think he was still a bit tired from the 400 meter dash, and he hasn't quite learned pacing or racing strategy just yet.  {I think he came in 4th or 5th.}

{Grace made a little friend during the week.  Her name was Cassidy, and she tagged along behind Grace almost the entire day.  Hahaha.  What can I say?  Grace is the Pied Piper of Hamlin, part 2.}

Once the races were over, the medals were handed out and a big group picture was taken.  By someone.  I'm not sure if they'll be emailing that out, or if I should have run onto the field and taken a picture myself.  Hahaha.  At least I got a picture of MY crew before we left for the day.  :) 

All in all, it was a super successful week and meet.  I'm sure the kids will want to do it again next summer.  And perhaps Jane will join in the fray as well.  :)