The boys and I made cookies last week. I love it when they wear these little aprons. When Jake sees me wearing mine, he runs to the drawer, gets his own, and tries to put it on himself. I love to have the kids help me bake or cook, but it's all about the damage control. They love to dump ingredients into the mixing bowl, onto the counter, onto the floor, etc. They especially love to play with the flour, and eat the dough (of course!).

Abby displaying her "homework" that she did at school. The picture on the right is "Princess Leah." She also drew a picture of a boy, labelled "Lookh [Luke]." Abby repeatedly tells me that her three favorite movies are: Dumbo, Star Wars, and The Neverending Story. We watched The Neverending Story last month as a family primarily because I had such fond memories of it as a child. Matt and I laughed at how low-budget it was and how different it was than we remembered it. Abby, the sensitive one, got choked up a few times - especially when a horse died because it sunk in the mud. She rejoiced, however, when the horse came back to life at the end.

Chubby. And yes, I look much farther along than just 5+ months! Woe, woe is me.

Last Saturday, Matt and I gave a workshop at the stake's youth conference on the topic of prayer. It went well, and, as always, it was great for both Matt and I to put some thought into the topic for our own personal benefit. Afterward, we went to the pond by our church so that the kids could see the ducks. Abby and I spent most the time being petrified that the big goose (bottom right) was going to come peck us. The minute our car pulled up to the lake (which is a good 200-300 feet from the road), about 10-15 ducks came and swarmed our car, beaks outstretched. While Abby and I cowered in the car, Jake ran fearlessly into the flock of ducks while I shouted for Matt to save him. I thought for sure he would be pecked. When the ducks realized we had no food, they wandered back to the pond and Abby and I finally made it out of the van.

The latest of the kids and some pictures

I love these pictures of the kids:

(wearing Grandpa Larry's glasses)

Abby: I gave her some blank paper that I stapled in half to form a book. I told her that she could draw pictures and write the story. It is hilarious what she came up with. I'll give you a little sample with the title of the book - "A little girl went to the beach [a litdle grool wet too the bech]. Illustrated by Abby and wrote it [ilastradid by abby and wrot it]." She cracks me up! The other day, she told me this, "When I'm doing something that I don't want to do, I sing a Primary song and it helps me do it." I asked, "What Primary song?" She responded, "I will go, I will do, the thing the Lord commands...." :)

Jake's latest: He loves to hold the phone up to his ear and jabber. When someone is singing, Jake will start singing too. He has started to say the beginnings of words a lot more, ie: "wa" (water), "bo" (broke), "ha" (hot), etc. He loves to climb on top of things and when he can't reach something, he comes up with all kinds of ways to get what he wants - he'll get the step stool from the bathroom, turn over a basket of books and pull the basket over, push buckets from the pantry over to the counter, etc.

Nate's prayer at lunchtime today: "Bless Abby, bless mommy, bless the baby in mommy's tummy, bless my gold robot (R2D2 from Star Wars), thank you for movie night (every Friday night we watch a family movie together), thank you that daddy gets home safely....Amen." Nate also loves to tell us "My (I) wish I had a cute little dog." Or "My wish I could be a little white snowman." Or "My wish I could fly in a rocket ship." And speaking of rocket ships, Nate is constantly flying little rocket ships around, complete with his own sound effects. His rocket ships are anything from spoons, to blocks, to toys, etc. Also, Nate was humming some tune as we were driving around today. Suddenly he stopped and asked me, "Do you know what 'hmmm, hmmm' means?" I responded, "No, what?" He said, "It's the sound of volcanoes moving."

Boys!?!

My boys love to do things like this:

(dirt clumps from the backyard thrown on the floor)

Disco Jake

Joan sent us Matt's old baby clothes a while ago, but they've been mostly too small for Jake to wear. That, however, didn't stop Matt from dressing Jake in one of his old outfits today. He looked so cute, I couldn't stop taking pictures. My favorite is the large belly, poking out from under the vest.