Cup Stacking, Baseball Games and..you know, May stuff.

Kade made his first batch of cookies ALL BY HIMSELF! I only had to step in to make sure he didn't use the metal bowl to melt the butter in the microwave.  He separated yolks from whites in the shell even--he's rad.  And they turned out AWESOME. Butterscotch chocolate chip cookies.  (I didn't make him do the dishes this time--it's kind of a buzz kill :)

Kade signed up for a cup stacking tournament for Relay for Life.  Once we got there Luke wanted to do it too...soo...sure! It's for a good cause. It was a fun little event put on by his P.E. coaches.  Here's Coach Allen helping Luke remember the specifics of the Full Cycle.

The boys took it on themselves to help the schools booth and sell the candied..puff balls?  It was cute to see them so excited to be behind the counter taking money.

Max

Luke's part in the Kindergarten Program made me laugh so much.
 "Goldfish and hamsters and little white mice, and even the little seed in the styrofoam cup, they all die. So do we". 
What? 
Turns out it was in the poem, "All I need to know, I learned in Kindergarten" or something like that.  

Anyway--he's adorable and I LOVED his program.

The boys got free tickets to the Green Jacket's Baseball game for doing a reading challenge at school (plus Mrs. Armstrong sent home 2 more--woo woo). They also got free hats so that's cool.  It was a really nice night for a game and we saw friends there. It was a really fun night.  Short because they had the mud run the next morning, but fun.

Snacks make everything better.

The boys were invited to run on the field in-between games (double header)..but we had to wait in line with all the kids from the county who did this reading challenge for FOREVER and Luke got hungry. So Kade ran (1 second of fame :) and Luke and Jess got food.

And here's one last picture--it's super random I know, but it's such a great one!  

It's my Grandma and Grandpa Tadje.  

How chic and stylish and AMAZING do they look?

I love this pic. 

That's all.

Luke 6

Luke's favorites:

Food: Macaroni and Cheese (when he makes it--it's called Luke-aroni and Cheese)

Least Favorite Food: Broccoli (and potatoes and beans)

Books: Junie B. Jones, Garfield and Calvin and Hobbs comic books

Favorite Chore (if there is such a thing): unloading the silverware.  (especially compared to Kade having to unload the dishwasher--it's a breeze!)

Least Favorite Chore: Folding his laundry.  (it doesn't help that he'll unload his drawer to get a certain piece of clothing, and then take all that he's taken out and put it in the dirty clothes pile---learning natural consequences is rough!)

Color:  Pink.

Least Favorite Color: Green, he calls it his 'arch enemy' because it's the color of broccoli.

Now that he's six, he tries to answer our questions during scripture study instead of letting Kade field them all.  He's started to make his own sandwiches for lunch. He LOVES helping me when I'm cooking.  He doesn't like most sweets--only recently started eating chocolate again.  He still loves playing games!  

Every time he comes across a fake plastic bug in the toys, he sneaks into our room and puts it on my pillow to hear me scream :)  

He currently has a chart for Jess; every time he does something nice, Luke puts a heart on the chart, and when it's filled up, they get to go to ice cream--ha ha--way to be proactive on getting ice cream Luke!

(he also likes playing with Photo Booth on the computer and has some 'special' ones :)

His favorite body part to dance with is his bum--it's a shaking all the time!

Plus, the fact that his new favorite color is pink makes me so happy.  At the first of school he liked that color, but wore a pink shirt for picture day and came home in tears  saying that his friends made fun of him and he never wanted to wear pink again cause it was a girl color.  But now he loves it and says it's okay that others don't.  At a conference with his teacher a month ago she was complimenting him on how he doesn't have to follow a crowd and that he's his own kid and others look up to him for it. That makes me smile.

He loves reading on the toilet.  But he'll stay in there FOREVER so he now has to ask if it's okay first. Ha ha--he always tries to show us the red marks on his bum, or he'll start complaining about the pins and needles in his legs.  He's funny.

He has a heart of gold and wants to just LOVE everyone and everything. He loves playing and being silly and trying to be like his older brother.  We love him like crazy!!!

He wanted to go to Adventure Crossings for his birthday. We only do 'friend' parties every 4 years (I know, I'm a fun hater) so we went as a family and he got to invite one friend.  He picked his adorable little friend Mara. She's so sweet!  After playing a round of mini golf, they were off to their favorite thing there--the Go Carts!

Here they are on "The Caterpillar of DOOM", which is actually called, 'wacky worm'.  

Ha ha--it made me and Jess laugh so much by the intense speed...or lack thereof.  

But the kids loved it and that's awesome.

So turns out, Luke gets motion sickness just like me--poor guy!  What's even worse, is that we didn't realize how bad it was until AFTER he got on this spinney gross ride.  As soon as they started moving, he ducked his head like in this picture and didn't move it the whole time.  It was so sad to watch.  Luckily it was the last ride of the night. 

The plan was to have cake when we got home.  He was so sweet and kept saying we should have cake without him.  But we decided to have cake the next day and let him go to bed as soon as we got home. Which he did.  Poor kid!

Here's Luke the next day--feeling much better! 
(He wanted a Ben 10 cake--I attempted at first to do Ben 10's face...but that turned out to look more like a handicap Frankenstein...so we went with the omni-matrix instead. :)

Happy Birthday Luke!

And Life Continues...

So now we have 4 boys--and Max is already a month old! woo woo!  Here are some more recent pics of the young one taken by my awesome friend Shalynn.

(don't you love her wallpaper!)

Just a totally natural picture from when the crazy kid fell asleep in the water pail. Always being crazy that Maxwell :)

From my technical weighing of the lad (holding him while I was on the scale :) he weighs 13 lbs now!

My awesome mom was able to come out to help me with Max. We had a great time!  THANKS MOM!

We went on a walk through our trails. Luke convinced mom to ditch me and Rhett and we got home like FOREVER later then them. That boy can move SL-OW sometimes.  Plus he stops to play in the puddles--that's cute though--I like that :)

Max is getting more and more alert.  We are loving it.

When Max was the ripe old age of 2 weeks, the day was PERFECT for the zoo; so off we went!  We decided kind of late in the day..and a lot of the animals were sleepy and hiding...but the boys got slushes so overall I think it was a success :)  

(except that on the way home, Max was mad and Rhett decided to scream with him...so...that was loud....)

Luke has a lot of personality :)

During Spring Break, Luke decided he wanted to have a lemonade stand.  So he made a sign, and made the lemonade, and there you go!  As the morning went on, he gathered more and more help.  We had to talk him down from $1 a cup--ha! to .25. But even with that most people spent a dollar on it--sweet neighbors and friends!  

Egg decorating for Easter 2012

Our great friends had an Easter egg hunt.  Rhett picked up his first egg and was happy. Then he opened it and gave me one of the candies--it was super sweet! But he got the hang of it and pick up more later. I love egg hunts!

Eating the bounty!

Big news! Rhett's in a TODDLER BED. He totally rocked it too.  I don't know how we're so blessed, but all our boys so far have transitioned so well into beds.  It's like they don't know they can get out of them by themselves. When he wakes up he still calls for me before he gets out.   

Walked outside to find him this way :)  Ha!

RHETT TURNS 2!!!

 Our Little Man is now a Big Little Man :)

He is so so so great! He makes us laugh so much. He's talking a TON now, doesn't so much stop, ever.  He knows lots of his colors.  

He LOVES the number 2--which is very appropriate. If there's more then one of anything, that means there's 2.  

His favorite color is 'yea-wo'. 

His favorite song is 'Popcorn Popping' which he asks for by putting his hands over his eyes.  

He mostly only eats: fruit, yogurt, deli turkey, and chicken nuggets.

He's a screamer as of late when it comes to naps and bed time...so that's fun.

He likes to be neat and tidy--always wipes his feat before coming in the house, asks for napkins at the dinner table to wipe his hands and messes up with, and hates when his feet get 'gwoss' and will get wipes to clean them off.

His favorite books are "The Happy Man and His Dump Truck", "Go Train Go", a BackYardigans finding book, and a music book about Mater from Cars.

Favorite thing to watch is Elmo's World.

He loves sneaking up on us and tickling us. 

He LOVES boots...Lukes boots.

He loves balls and bats and jumping on the tramp and wrestling, candy--candy--candy, baths, bubbles, and dancing.  

He's currently undergoing sub-par potty training.  Here's a picture of him pant-less and watering the front lawn.  (I don't know how this kind of stuff happens around here :)

We love him soooooo much. He's a happy little man and makes those around him happy.

Video of Rhett's big day :)

Backyard Happy Water Time

So Saturday the boys were at each others throats a little bit...until they went out back to clean up the yard and WHAM---water time totally fixed all that!  Again...we know our toy bin in the backyard--used as a swimming pool is ghetto--BUT, that doesn't change the fact that the boys LOVE IT.

Luke practicing for the circus!

The boys revving up to jump in the 'pool'

still FUN--yay

wait...too fast....wo wo wo

ahhh--my brothers were too excited!

Anyway--the rest of the day was so much happier.  They played hard outside, and loved each other.  Good times.

Max

 Maxwell George Monson Winn

March 19, 2012

12:21 p.m.

8 lbs 12 oz

21 inches long

We love this little guy.  Well, at 8 lbs 12 oz he was almost a pound bigger then our biggest..so we love this tubby guy.  Here's his (long version :) story:

Carrying Max for the last month was a bit harder then it's been in the past. Because of the way he was sitting, I couldn't stay as active as I've been blessed to in the past.  I waddled a lot more--so that was fun :).  At week 37 we found out that he was transverse (sideways instead of head down).  Dr. Joseph said that we'd give it a week--so I could have a talk with the little one :) and then we'd try to turn him. If that didn't work then we'd schedule my c-section.  I was so nervous for that. I'm not one to like anything with blood or opening skin and having my guts out...that sort of thing...so it unnerved me.  That week I got a lot of advice and heard a lot of c-section stories. I felt a lot better--but definitely didn't want a c-section if I didn't have to.

ANYWAY, 2 days before my 38 week appointment I put Rhett down for his nap and decided to lay down with him.  I actually felt Max shift in my belly--but wasn't positive that's what I felt.  When we woke up, we decided to take the boys to the movies to see The Lorax (LOVED IT!  We love Dr. Seuss soooooo bad!  I always get a little bit misty eyed at the end of that story when I read, "Unless"...oh, he's just so great.)  It was great cause this was the first time I really felt Max in my ribs--ironic it's when we were going to sit for an extended period of time-ha ha! BUT it was great.  At the appointment both the doctor and the ultrasound tech were super surprised that HE'D TURNED--on account of there being no room in there for moving around willy-nilly.
BUT HOORAY!  No more c-section!  It was later that I found out that Jess' amazing mom had asked his family to fast for me--I KNOW this is why he turned.
What an amazing blessing it is to have a Father in Heaven who cares about our needs AND our wants. 
 I'm so so grateful for Jess' family and their strength and testimonies!  HOORAY FOR THE GOSPEL!

On Sunday, March 18th--my due date, I started having contractions at about 3:30 in the morning. Jess was at work so I called him around 5:00 just to let him know what has going on. He got home, and since the contractions were still 15 minutes apart we went to church.  That afternoon, they were 5 minutes apart so we went to the hospital.
I stayed 5-8 minutes apart for the two hours I was there but didn't move past a 3. My doctor was out of town till Monday doing a triathlon, so they called the doctor on call and he wanted my doctor to deliver me so....they sent us home.  Lame.  (but I'm sooo glad that my doctor delivered me--he's so great)
That night my contractions kept coming and it was awful!  I was having the chills and throwing up and...so it wasn't the best night of my life, Jess gave me a blessing at one point (did I mention I LOVE the gospel!  WE ARE SOOOO BLESSED) and I was able to calm down and rest for a little while.  We got the boys off to school and I called Dr. Joseph.  I told him I still hadn't moved past 5 minutes apart but that I had a pretty rough night. He said, "Cari, if you're in pain come to the hospital and let's have a baby today!"  I almost burst into tears, said
'Thank you SOOO much'
and off we went!
We dropped off Rhett at the Lindquists (they're great), and drove to the hospital.  Once there, they checked me and saw that I was a 5, then 30 minutes later at a 7.
Ha ha--so I'd played with the idea of trying to go natural this time, but when they asked me if I wanted an epidural (cause we'd have to hurry), I was SOOOO DONE with contractions it wasn't hard for me to say YES PLEASE!  So I got an epidural--which Jess is always fascinated by...and oooooh, how I love epidurals! They are such a wonderful modern-day blessing--
I love you epidurals!

And an hour later at 12:21 Max was born!

So now we have 4 boys.  
WOWZA! I love it.  They are so so great with Max.  Jess took off a week of work so he's been doing the hard work around here.  My awesome mom is coming tomorrow so real life won't hit until all that help is gone (and spring break starts :)....but as of now--being a mom of 4 is roses and butterflies.  ha ha. Okay--maybe during spring break we may have some thorny roses and some ugly butterflies for a bit...but it's gonna be awesome :)

Kade is definitely the most lovey of all the boys for Rhett. He ALWAYS wants to hold him (like--no joke--always), and cuddle and give kisses.  He's so in love with Max!

Luke thinks he's super cute and is happy about him joining our family....but he's also Luke and is always going going going.  When he first held him, he had him for probably 10 seconds when he was happily done holding him and ready to do something else.

Rhett says his name sooo cute, "Mmaxxxx"  The 'x' sound is tricky apparently.  He likes holding him but  is most excited when we let him get Max' binki for him (Rhett just said goodbye to his binki a couple of months ago and has found memories for them). He gives great hugs and kisses and is gentle with him.  He also has TONS of Dad's attention at this point and hasn't noticed any decrease of attention so we'll see how his adjustment is.

Life is great great great and everyone is healthy.  We've had SUCH amazing support from friends with meals and gifts and help with the kids that our hearts couldn't be more full.  (and seriously, how great is it to get meals?  People are so nice :)  

The Gospel is true, and life is amazing, 

and just yay--

we're grateful to have our little Max here with us.

Luke's Jokes

Tonight our ward had a talent show. 

Kaden baked some amazing Texas Sheet Cake all by himself.

Which included stovetop cooking, lots of stirring and measuring---complete with washing the dishes (a little less excited about that part, but did it non-the-less :). 

Luke wanted to tell some jokes. 

AHH--he was so so excited!  So he started his research :)  He looked through his joke books and wrote down his favorite 3.  We like to keep preformances short around here so the 'magic' doesn't run out :)  Jess would probably say that a little differently. (he's not a big talent show watcher apparently :)

Luke was so so so cute tonight. We'd written down all his jokes, and he memorized it.  Then about 2 minutes before he went on stage, he got a little nervous and said he'd need his cheat sheet.  When they called his name, 

he walked up the stairs and looked back at me--

smiled, and handed the paper back with this look in his eye like, 

"i got this".

 It was so cute.

As he walked out he said, "How's everyone doing tonight?" In such a confident way. Ahh, I just loved it. Okay--so here's the video 

(also, sorry it's blurry--Rhett had my camera before we used it and the lens got all "Rhetty").