Spring Break

For spring break we headed across the country to LA. What's across the country? Well, other than freezing temps and a nasty stomach virus, Reed's bff from high school and Christian's namesake. The weather was slightly miserable, the throw up slightly gross and the sleep completely non existent. It's a great testament to the awesomeness of the Bacons' company that it was still a great trip. I guess now Reed and Chris can say they've been through EVERYTHING together.

Interesting that we had to go across the country to California to go skating. I quickly regretted my decision to not fly out my skates. On the plus side, the two littlest boys LOVED IT! Gray has been begging to go back and Christian didn't stop laughing. Reed's still not sure about this development.

The Chunks; incredibly adaptable during the day and yet demanding in the wee hours of the morning.

Some things never change

Us

Them

Sensational Seven

If you know anything about Matts you know that he considers anything worth doing is worth doing to excess. Luckily, this it seems that seven is all about sweetness and expression.

EXHIBIT A:

"Mom could you please not throw away my homework? Because it makes me feel like you don't respect my hard work when you do."

EXHIBIT B:

"Mom, I'm so sorry that I hurt your feelings I'm going to try to do my very best to never do it again." (completely self initiated after I had a meltdown that had something to do with boys and messes and noise)

THE present

EXHIBIT C:

"Mom, I just love you so much. More than anything and not just because you gave me the best present in the world. I love you the most because you are the best mom ever"

And because you CANNOT turn seven without celebrating with your friends...we threw together a quick party. Let me just reiterate that Legos are genius. What else could keep 10 children entertained with minimal planning and minimal destruction?

Mattson: The way you you embrace life and live it to the fullest brought life and light back into our home. You are passionate and curious and always striving to do more and be better.

We love you so much and can't wait to see what seven brings.

Madness

March Madness is quite the tradition at our house. Starting my senior year of HS when I won a bracket to when I was in labor w/Matts and we watched the blue Devils to present day when I go against everything I believe in and rearrange our living room to better watch games all day and let the boys stay up until 10:00.

This is what C thinks of the Jimmer haters

C choosing his picks

This is fun!

We all have out strategies; C whatever food looks tastiest, G whatever word association he likes best (letters from his name in their name,or Oakland b/c it sounded like Oakley who he misses so much or Gonzaga b/c it sounds like ninjago), M whatever mascot is toughest, Me whatever random tidbits I've picked up, R whatever the all powerful spreadsheet dictates.

To each his own.

Going beyond

Every 9 weeks Matts has to complete a GBR or "Going Beyond Requirement" for his target class. Their first unit has been "Stepping into Target" aka fairy tales 101. You can only imagine how Matts feels about this. Luckily, there are very few specific requirements and there is an emphasis on initiative and creativity. Here's what he (and Reed) turned out:

Princess Kylie in the dungeon, guarded by the evil Lord Hiss

Quite pleased

Prince Superkid with his Meerkat and Komodo dragon legions

The finished product

You've got to give the kid credit. He managed to incorporate his "incession" with armies, legos, snakes, komondo dragons, meerkats and superkid into a project on fairy tales. If that doesn't demonstrate creativity I don't know what does.

The conflicted life of a 4yr old

Recently we've been working on G's prayers, trying to stretch them from standard and repetitive to more thoughtful and personal. Apparently it's working b/c both his primary teachers stoppped me after to church and told me G had given an incredibly heartfelt prayer that even included "the monster earthquake in Japan". G really is such a gentle soul with an tender heart. As one teacher put it, "on the one hand I wanted to burst out laughing but on the other hand he was so sincere that I could really feel the spirit."

Fast forward to tonight after a fun-filled weekend and a long sunday that led to a somewhat traumatic bedtime.

"Please bless Mommy because she's the worst and she's the best...and I don't like that Mommy makes me go to bed, please help me to be good and make my bed nicely."

Wanting so badly to be good, but struggling with being only 4,

Spring has sprung

This weekend we kicked got in the spirit of spring with soccer, spring cleaning and fun! To make it all the more fun Cath, Scott and the girls came down to help us welcome the most beautiful season in Atlanta.

Madi 'teaching' Gray to read.

Miss Iz taking her role as babysitter VERY serious. Right before the picture her exact words were "He's just so cute".

By the end of Saturday Christian was pretty much done.

The missing link. Two of the cutest, sweetest kiddos in the world.

Obviously too busy enjoying the cake to take a good picture.

Perhaps my favorite line of the weekend; "The birthday girl is happy" which was repeated whenever we ate, played, or celebrated.

And the cleaning part? Scott hauled an unbelievable number of power tools down south to remodel our garage. With less expense and time than we anticipated Reed and Scott did a fantastic job.

There's no business

This past Thursday Mattson had his vocal debut. He had the great honor of being a soloist for the lovely song 'I have music in my soul'. Let's just say that for what he may lack in tone he makes up for with enthusiasm.

An Adorable G ready to support brother

Excited, but a little spoltchy. We had a minor melt down in which I was convinced my 6yr old boy had been switched with a hormonal teenage girl. Let's just say the phrases "I look terrible", "I'm never coming out of my room again" and "You're trying to ruin my life" were hurled down the stairs at me with frightening conviction.

The crew