Ezra is Four

We had waffles for Ezra's birthday. And of course his favorite Persian yogurt pop.

He got a watch and has started to learn how to tell time along with Scarlet.

His favorite chore is laundry. He has laundry stamina! He will fold a whole load and deliver all the piles afterward. It's AWESOME!

He bonked his head on the desk and had to have his head stapled. I don't think I've ever been more frustrated. I couldn't stand that he hurt his head again. 

I was sitting right next to him, just like last time. 

We love this train driver guy.

The older boys usually pick out prizes at piano for Ezra. This time it was sunglasses :)

Puppy party in the pen. They kept cheering together "Group hug!!"

Jacob has taught Ez how to play all kinds of board games. Like difficult games that he can't possibly understand and who wants to play Monopoly-ish games with a four year old? Not me.
 What a nice brother.

He's been enjoying the Lego table while Charlie practices.

I love when he gets out the busy bags on his own.

He's been soaking up some intense homeschool this year. This was the finger play the kids did of The Merchant of Venice. Now we hear Ezra quote Shakespeare around the house..."My dear Antonio, I need 3000 ducats to win my fair lady Portia..."

I like when he's in the imagination zone. My favorite is when he plays "Harry" with Scarlet and Jacob. They let him join in as "Crocky".

Somehow Hazel has started to play too. All I know is she'll call Ez "Grandfather". So I guess that makes her Crocky's grandaughter?

We did an Arctic animals unit- mostly so we could do the blubber 

experiment and make these cute seals. Scarlet did a good job helping him.

We collected all of our arctic animals from around the house and brought in some snow.

We learned about waterproof penguin feathers.

Ezra's first lapbook.

Blubber!!

When the big kids go to piano the littles go to Treehouse or Costco. 

Ezra's been determined about counting and writing his numbers to 100. He's got it down and has been teaching Hazel. It's so neat to see kids persist on their own- there's 

really no stopping it once their ready. He's been reminding me of Scarlet when she became insatiable for learning. I can barely keep up with stimulating activities. Yesterday I was packing for our move and Ezra kept asking and asking about letter sounds. He was going through each letter and making sure he knew all the sounds. Then he used the alphabet puzzle as reference to help him with the words he was sounding out in his reader. Finally I stopped what I was doing so I could soak up the moment. He was literally reading. Totally self taught reading. It was AMAZING to behold.

We finished his first chapter book. He was on the edge of his seat for this one, not at first, but once we got started he wouldn't let me put it down.

-Ezra likes to help me cut mushrooms for dinner. He likes to eat them too- but only raw, not cooked. --Hazel likes to copy everything Ezra does- including the mushroom cutting. I love how she calls a butter knife a peanut butter sword. What the??

-One day it smelled funny outside- like a weird factory smell was wafting in the wind. Ezra took a whiff and remarked, "It smells like a "chickmunk" out here!"

-Me: Ezra go get your scripture out of the scripture cupboard.

Ezra: I don't know where it is.

Me: Yes you do.

Ezra: Mom, I know where it is, I just said that because I didn't want to go get it. 

- We all LOVE Ezra, even though he can't be bothered to answer any of us most of the time.

Christmas 2015 Continued

We put up a small Christmas tree in the school room and this year Scarlet was so diligent about wrapping ornaments for it and putting a new one on Ezra's tray each day for him to open and put on the tree. We had done that for her when she was joy school aged so she made sure it happened for Ezra. She was also very excited about scanning everyone's finger each day with the Naughty or Nice app on my phone. She definitely wins the award for Most Christmas Spirit this year!

Scarlet usually gets olives in her stocking. She's the only olive eater out of the 8 of us.

The girls surprised themselves and actually wanted some girly things this year- like fake nails and glitter makeup. I'm always encouraging them to be lady like- like perhaps wearing dresses (like me) but they persist in their "naytriss-ness". That's their word for being outside, nature, tree climbing girls. 

Hazel got a kitchen which has been worth every penny. We placed it in the kitchen so she and I can cook together.

Now Scarlet is set-up to snowboard with the older three kids.

I was unusually mainstream gifty this year. I bought the kids junky plastic-y, large toys. My friends always tease me about having 6 kids and not a toy insight but this year I really let loose. Cinderella light-up shoes? I may have crossed the line.

I found this treasure on Kijiji. Best lego table eva! I highly recommend NILO activity tables.

It was tricky picking out a skirt for Jane that was a bit of an older girl style but Etsy never lets me down :)

Jane's been loving learning to draw horses this year.

I just adore Scarlet's drawings.- they have a very distinct style.

I also highly recommend this Goobi toy. The Goobi's are played with twice as much as the Lego at our house and all the kids equally enjoy them.

Tim and I went to our favorite Persian restaurant together on Christmas Eve. We'd already had Christmas earlier in the week so real Christmas Eve was just a regular day for us.

This was our Christmas Eve- Timmy and the olders sang Holy Holy Holy by Sufjan Stevens for us and Ez fell asleep on me which was heavenly :)

This Christmas we went down to Utah for a family reunion. It was neat that the whole family was there. We had a fun talent show one night and took this picture of all the grandkids together.

Hazel gave Gramma Gail a hug which is miraculous for Hazel who usually puts up her "no way" arm to hugs.

Christmas Is Coming

 Scarlet was an awesome little giver this Christmas. She wrapped all the ornaments for Ezra's Joy School tree and made sure he had one on his tray each morning. She also made these seashell hair pins for her favorite peeps.

 Sunday morning family history homework from Aunty Linda.

 I wood burned spoons to go with homemade chocolate sauce for our neighbors and home and visiting teaching friends. It was a fun project.

 A family in our neighborhood turns their yard into a Christmas lights wonderland, complete with blasting Christmas carols. They even leave a poster on the mailbox inviting the neighborhood to drive in and enjoy. So awesome.

Scarlet got to go with Grammy and Belly to their ward Christmas party. Grammy is so pretty!

 Jane is loving her Christmas booties from her friend Ava.

Scarlet took time to really teach Hazel and Ezra the Christmas story. She did such a lovely job. They prepared a FHE to share too. However, I did overhear Ezra saying something about an angel flying down and teaching a camel the gospel?? Also, we may need to clarify that it's Santa rather than Jesus who comes down the chimney and eats the cookies and milk. Other than that, Scarlet really did do a lovely job.

 Found this beauty at the Value Village- Merry Christmas to me.

 What will I do without a little to make a sensory bin for someday.

 Christmas pomanders. They smell delightful.

 We had a beautiful Christmas at Grammy and Baba's. We arrived on Saturday and had our annual Christmas concert. Jacob was in charge this year and did a terrific job organizing it. Then we slept over and went to church together. The next day the rest of the fam showed up and we had fun playing games and eating lots and lots and lots of gooooood food. We acted out the Nativity which is always interesting... no beaver costume this year but baba joined in as a wise man so that was a treat. We slept over for another night and had Christmas morning. Then we hung around and enjoyed a relaxing afternoon before shrimp and steak dinner!! So 

 The big surprise this year was a new pug puppy for Baba. He was so surprised!

 Grammy and Baba brought these real china dolls all the way home from their trip to Europe. All the little girls loved their special new doll.

 I love reading books by the tree.

 This was our Christmas back at our house. The kids opened their new extra warm socks before they went skating on Christmas eve.

The kids all gave the gifts they had for each other on Christmas eve too. It was exciting to finally give them since it's pretty tough waiting that long for these littles. They all worked really hard to have something for each one of their siblings. Lots of creative ideas I never would have thought of!

Christmas Klootcheh cookies and milk before bed. They all slept together in Charlie's room. I thought they'd never go to sleep...