Life of a First Grader

Caden is one in a million.  He's always making us say things like "only Caden."  For example, last week he somehow got inexplicably knotted into his seat belt while sitting in his booster seat.  By the time I climbed back there to see what was going on he had pretty much created a noose that kept getting tighter and tighter around his waist.  I had two friends climb back and try to help, at one point they lifted Caden off the seat in his booster to see if taking the pressure off of him would allow the seat belt to release.  It didn't, he let out a blood curdling scream and started to cry hysterically.  At this point I ran into another friend's house screaming that I needed scissors or a knife.  We got him out just in time with only a seat belt burn all around his waist and a $200 trip to the dealer to get the belt replaced.

In Septemeber Caden came home with the handwriting bear, an award for the student with the best writing of the day.  He was so excited to have the bear, but also acting really funny about it.  He told me I couldn't see his certificate.  By the time we got home from piano he came to me in tears and showed me the certificate.  We don't know how it happened, but the teacher's aide read Caden and presented him the bear when clearly the certificate and award for the day was for Connor.  He felt bad he had taken Connor's turn to take the bear home.  I texted his teacher and let her know what happened.  She was so embarrassed, she told him to just enjoy the bear because he always has good writing anyway.  She then awarded Caden the bear the following week, and this time it was for real!

I'm loving Caden's toothless grin this year!  It has been a little problematic with his speech.  This is a conversation I had with his teacher about that.

Proudest night of his life to share his art talent at the ward talent show!

Only Caden!  He is also the sweetest little boy I know.  He was so excited to every time we went to the store to look at baby girl shoes for Gracie before she was born.  He tried to convince me to buy some gold sparkle shoes by saying, "she is going to be the shining star in our family, she needs these shoes!"  I finally let him pick her out a pair and he went with pink glitter.

While I was pregnant I had a vein in my leg and a blood clot that looked really scary.  One morning before school Caden was sitting on a stool eye level with my leg.  He said, "your leg looks beautiful today mom."  I laughed and said, "you mean scary!"  He said, "that's what I was thinking but I knew I'd get in trouble if I said that."  I makes me wonder what he is really thinking when he hugs me and says, "you look pretty Mom."

A few days ago he was telling me about some drama on the playground among the little girls that he plays with at recess.  I gave a suggestion to solve the problem and he said, "you have no idea about what I'm going through in my life."  He's probably right.  I already know he's smarter than me.  Only Caden!  I love his heart of gold.

3rd Grade Update

Ethan is loving school this year and I am so grateful.  In general Ethan is pretty happy and easy going, there were a few weeks there at the beginning of the school year that I just felt like something was off.  Clark took him out for pizza and they had a good chat and he seemed happy about everything.  I started praying that he would develop a little more confidence in himself.  Well, that prayer was answered.  The end of September Ethan came home thrilled that his teacher had chosen him to be Student of the Month.  The same week he ran for class representative.  He made some awesome posters and gave a fun speech using emojis.  He was ecstatic to be elected.  A few days later the school contacted me to see if they could start testing him for the Gifted and Talented program because of his high test scores.  One day shortly after he said, "3rd grade is my year!  I got voted class representer, I'm student of the month, and I must be like the smartest kid in my class."  We had a little talk about humility and not bragging, but I felt like my prayers for my boy had been answered.

Celebrating the new elected official with some ice cream!

Ethan's teacher has reported to us a couple of times now that Ethan really pushes her to research and learn more because he's always asking questions that she doesn't know the answer to.  I love his scientific mind.

You know it takes confidence to show up to pajama day at school wearing high water Angry Bird jammies.

3rd grade is off to a great start!

Back to School

After our fun Back to School feast, and special blessings from their Dad the night before Ethan and Caden were ready to start 3rd and 1st Grade!  Back to school was pretty bittersweet for me this year.  We had such a fun summer.  Quinn and I felt pretty lost the first few weeks without the big brothers at home.  I'm just really grateful that these two brother buddies have each other.  

Ethan is growing up.  He wanted a blue bag pack, blue lunch box and lots of blue shirts this year!

Such a big difference from Kindergarten to 1st Grade for Caden, his confidence has grown and he walked in to his classroom without even looking back.

I showed the boys these comparison photos of what I looked like on the first day of my 1st and 3rd grade years.  Caden said, "we would have been good friends mom."  I think he's right!

Ethan said, "you were cute mom and tall!"  I wish I still had these awesome floral hammer pants.

Even without his brothers home Quinn still manages to have at least a little fun!

Summertime in Idaho

The boys and I got to visit my parents in Boise for a few weeks this summer.  It was such a fun trip, jam packed with fun everyday.  Here are a few of the highlights!

3 year old Quinn water-skied...or at least he water-sitted!  It was awesome!

On our way to Idaho we stopped in Vernal a few days to visit Grandma P.  A bonus I got to see my old mission companion Sora Sarah!  

Now we each have 3 boys and a girl!  So fun!

These boys love visiting Great Grandmother Peterson!  They love all of their second cousins in Vernal.

For my mom's birthday this year the boys each planned a date to take her on when we got to Boise.  No one was more excited than Caden!  He waited 6 weeks for this day to take Grammy to Ceramica to paint.  He came to the door to pick Grammy up, he said, "I'll pay, but you drive Grammy."  The worker at Ceramica taught Caden how to make his dog look like it had real fur with a marbling technique, he got to use shaving cream and everything.  His little ceramic dog Bingo is now a prized possession.

Ethan took her to see the Angry Birds movie (he let Grammy choose).  They got popcorn and drinks and went to Walmart for a Lego souvenir afterwards.

Fun day at Quinn's pond and a little surfing on the Boise River.

Loved the dollar and 50 cent movies next door to Grammy's house.

A night fishing at the lake.  The fish weren't biting, but Caden wasn't giving up!  Right before the sunset they reeled one in.

The next morning Grandpa made the fish for breakfast. He told the boys that whoever ate one of the eyes would get a milkshake. Caden took him up on it!

They took the motorcycle to Fanci Freeze for the fish eye cookie dough shake.

We all love Hunter!

After a few weeks of non-stop fun my mom helped us drive back to Colorado to give my problematic pregnant leg a break.  On our way home we got to see Weston, Erica, Scarlett, Holland and Grandpa and Nada.  Such a fun vacation!

The new Provo temple is beautiful.

Baby #4 IS A...

Yesterday was an exciting day getting to see baby #4 on the ultrasound.  Everything appeared healthy and good.  We discovered that this baby is very active, the ultrasound tech said we have a little pistol on our hands.  When she tried to take a picture of the face, the baby put an arm over it's face.  When she tried to take a picture of the spine, baby somersaulted to the other side.  When she tried to take a picture of the foot, baby would kick it's legs.  We knew immediately this baby would fit in our family just fine!
The ultrasound tech kept asking me what I had eaten for breakfast, I was too embarrassed to admit that on the way to the appointment I felt shaky and I found a Slim Jim in my purse to eat.  After seeing this baby move, there's something to be said about "Snapping" into a Slim Jim!

Clark and I stopped at Party America on our way home from the appointment to fill a giant balloon with confetti and helium for the boys to pop to find out the gender!  We were pretty excited with our giant balloon!

Ethan was voting for a boy.  Quinn was adamant telling everyone that he was having a baby brother.  And Caden said, "I want a sister just to see how she will handle this family."
Watch this video to see the results:


Quinn's reaction: