Are We Boring?

Lately I feel like we got into a winter rut and can't get out.  Three kids kind of pushed us down in our "adventures" and then winter and morning sickness seemed to make us kind of boring.  That and we've already seen most of the tourist destinations in Moscow.

We did venture out for what will probably be our last trip to the zoo.  Autumn was there too, but we somehow didn't take many pictures and none of her.  Is wear we took more than this, but this is all that was here, so I guess not.

 We went swimming at the Embassy pool for the first time in a long time. Autumn was not a fan.  She clung onto me the entire time.  The water is a bit chilly if you're not moving about and are just being carried around so after a while I took mercy on her and she and I got out and watched for a while.  The other kids love it.  I hope we can find a place to swim in Maryland.

Levin

The kids tend to dominate our blog and since Levin takes the pictures when we're on trips, and I do the writing of the blog, he not featured much.  So we'll do a little post about him.

Our kids do not get their cowboy/cowgirl obsession from me.  It is all Levin.  Levin got himself some cowboy boots last summer and I have to say he pulls them off pretty darn well!  Note to self:  Remember to take a picture.

 Levin is in the final days of his reign as bishop.  Is that sacrilegious to refer to it as a reign?  I just couldn't think of a better word.  One of the last things is getting these five guys from various parts of Africa, the Melchizedek Priesthood.  He did a special dinner at our house and then a presentation on it.  His 2nd Counselor Mike Dunson is the guy on the left.

Stanley and Buchi joined us for Family Home Evening one night after Levin did their interviews for the Priesthood and for Patriarchal Blessings (coming in April.)  We played spin the bottle and decorated St. Patrick's Day cookies.  They were fun to have around.

 On Levin's mission he taught a woman who had a little granddaughter.  Well, guess who grew up and moved to Mosow!  She is just here working before she goes on a mission soon to Temple Square.  Her grandmother isn't even active anymore, but she still loves Levin.  Another family Levin taught has a son here on a mission in Moscow.  We haven't seen him yet.  Hopefully before we move or at least before Levin moves.

 We are in the final weeks of Levin being bishop.  It has definitely been a strong influence on our last two years.  I wonder what we would have done with all our time if he wasn't the bishop of our ward.  Our first year we did sight seeing and our 2nd and 3rd years we did bishop stuff.  When I say we, I mean, the kids and I hanging out at the church and me cooking for many, many, dinner guests while Levin did what bishops do.
Even though it hasn't been easy all the time, it has been a good blessing for our family.  Sometimes I wonder what it will be like to move into a ward and not know most of the stuff that is going on.  I might have to pay attention to announcements instead of just knowing that Levin will make sure I know where I'm supposed to be and when.  But I might also be able to listen to the announcements better if he is sitting with me.  I'm trying not to get my hopes up about that though so I won't be let down if something happens and he again can't sit with our family during sacrament meeting.
I do have to say I think Levin has done a great job being the bishop.  He has a great ability to not let people talk him into doing things he doesn't want to do, or doesn't think is are right.  BUT he is also able to see when he has been wrong and then go ahead with someone's idea.  He is dedicated and reliable.  Sometimes I wish he was less-so, but he is and it's good.
Leah loves that her Dad is the bishop and when he was gone once went around saying, "hey, where's the bishop?" to everyone.  Oliver told Levin's co-worker about our trip to England, "Yeah and we went to church and my Daddy wasn't the bishop there so he got to sit by us!!"  It will be a happy day when he gets released, but it has been a good ride. :)

Leah

Leah started preschool in February.  She really likes it.  The class is wonderful and all the kids get along superbly.  Leah has little friends there and is going on play dates after class sometimes and I feel like I hardly see her!  I need to ask the teacher for some pictures of her in class - I know they have them.  I will hopefully post those some other time.  I wish I had pictures of her all bundled up on her way to preschool, but the snow is gone, hopefully for good!  Leah has always been a little bit of a challenge to get her to get on her shoes, etc. all by herself. BUT preschool starts and miraculously, she can get into her snow pants, boots, coat, gloves, and hat.  And grab her lunch box with a snack with no complaining or prodding.  I LOVE IT!  

She must be learning wonderful things in Primary at church.  One day after church she said, Mom, I'll wash the dishes, you just go sit down and be lazy.  I obliged. :)  She did a pretty good job and most of the dishes were cups and breakfast bowls since I don't think we'd eaten dinner yet.  She put them all on the counter behind her to dry.  Later she wanted a glass of water and I was obviously still being lazy like she told me to be.  I told her, you don't need me to get you a cup down, just go get one of the ones you washed.  She wouldn't drink out of them saying, uh maybe, what if I didn't do a good job or rinse the soap off well enough.  I figured if the washer isn't brave enough to eat off her own dishes, maybe the rest of us shouldn't be either.  So I may have snuck them into the dishwasher later.  But I was still proud of her!

Leah lost her first two teeth! I don't know what age is normal to lose a tooth so I was a little nervous after she lost her first one that we'd kind of knocked one loose, but her cousin Calvin lost one not long after her and he is a couple of months younger, so I figured it was okay.  She lost it in ballet class and the other at home.  She got rubles for the first tooth and so she wanted us to write a letter to the tooth fairy with the 2nd tooth asking her if she could have dollars this time instead.  It worked.  Both times she bought a little Russian Milky Way from the commissary and both times she had enough money to buy one for Oliver too.  I was really proud of her that she just volunteered to buy one for him too.

 Here she is at her friend Alexis's birthday party.  I wonder how long after we move here will Leah talk about Alexis.  Leah loves a good birthday party.  I told her it was too cold to wear a skirt so she wore pants underneath and then took them off as soon as we got there.

 Alexis

 Leah is friend to everyone!  This is a bad picture and I'll write more about our visitor Lilly later, but Leah since she was a baby has always assumed any visitor to the house was there to play with her.  Sometimes we have to remind her to get off of people, but I love her friendliness and there has never been a person she didn't want to play with.  What a great quality in a kid.  I hope it lasts.

Oliver

I just did a post about Oliver in January, so maybe this won't be as long.  Oliver loves to play with the camera and have his picture taken so he can look at it.  I'm pretty sure that's what this was.  It's hard to get him to scoot back far enough.

 I think this was after his "phase" but Oliver went through a phase where every night we'd put him to bed in pajamas, and then sometime in the night he'd change into his swimming suit.

 At Alexis's birthday party.  What are we going to do without the Dunson family around to keep us entertained when we move??  They are like having cousins!

 One day Oliver got in the box that holds hats and gloves and demanded I take his picture and keep opening and closing the door to the closet.

 Another, "take my picture please!"

 At Burger King with this Teen Age Mutant Ninja Turtle mask.

 This picture below is probably the most telling about Oliver.  He LOVES to wear his rain boots and his cowboy boots.  Lately he's been doing a mix-match and will wear one of each.  When I try to get him to change he begs me not to.  It is always just to go pick Leah up from Preschool or somewhere else in the Embassy so I confess I let him do it, probably too often.  One day he really wanted me to take him outside to ride this little truck.  He wouldn't take the tricycle that is more his size.  I'd been reading a book about letting kids feel confident and free to be who they are.  If this isn't a Mom letting her son be confident and free in who he is, then I don't know what is.  Especially since it was at 6:00 when the Embassy closes so a lot of parents were walking by as I'm outside with Oliver in mix-matched boots riding a truck he is much too big for.  But he was happy, so I was happy.

The only other thing I'll say about Oliver is that he is superb at playing alone for quite a while every afternoon.  Leah goes to preschool and Autumn takes a nap and he just plays and plays and plays.  He does require my help from time to time and some days are better than others, but I am AMAZED at how well he plays alone.  I love over-hearing the things he's playing too.
Today during quiet time he and I were drawing a picture of our house in Maryland.  I was showing him where the sheep or cow would live and he wanted to draw a dinosaur too.  I explained that we could draw one, but you know all the dinosaurs are dead.  (Is that a mean mom thing to do, or just educational?)  He asked me a while later if Jesus loved the dinosaurs even though they were dead.  Then he asked me, does Jesus love the woofs (translation = wolves) even though they are scary?
I may have written this before, but sometimes Oliver asks me, "Mom, do you still love me even when I .  . (something bad)?  I always say yes and he acts so happy about it.  I do have to make sure I say, but I'd like it better if you didn't do that or something like that.
Lately, during this quiet time or other times, he'll say, Mom?  Can I tell you something?  When I say yes, he'll say, I love you!  Oh how I treasure these moments because I know some day when he's older he probably will not say that to me.
Oh, AND Oliver has an obsession with saying, "can I tell you something?" before he says anything.  I hardly notice it anymore, but Levin sure does.  He is such a fun boy and I just want to freeze him as a sweet little boy!

Autumn

I decided since lately my pictures are just random shots that I'd do a post about each of the kids.  This is what we've been up to the last 2 months - kind of nothing.  Mostly boring.  But that's okay.  Here we go with the youngest!

Autumn loves to go outside!  When anyone leaves the house she runs for her coat.  Here she is one day when we went out to play.

 She loves to hold things in her hands.  Markers are her favorite, but cause too much damage.  Glue sticks and Chapstick were her 2nd favorites.  For  Long time she was really good about not taking the lids off even though she technically could.  But a couple of incidents with the Chapstick and we had to put a stop to it.  But as long as she has something in both her little mits she is generally happy.

 She loves to ham it up for the camera and it is nearly impossible to get a "real" face of her.  I was worried for a while I'd never have an other picture of her sweet face, but only this wrinkled up nose and squint.

 Here she is with coat and hat while still in her pajamas.  Sometimes she'll just go sit in the stroller to indicate she's ready to go outside.

 I finally learned that if I just wait long enough her cheeks get tired of the "cheese" face and she'll come back down to a normal face and I can get a picture.

 Jacob is Oliver's best friend, but Autumn has taken a shine to him.  She loves to give him hugs.  Luckily, Jacob is a loving boy and likes to hug her back.

 Overall, she is a Mommy's girl.  At church I have received several offers from people to help out with her during sacrament meeting, but unfortunately, she will not go to anyone so we sit together and have a little circus on our row.  Lately, one of my young women, Ellie, has been helping us out A LOT.  She sits with us.  Last week her it took her entire family that was in the row behind us and we still were not really reverent, but no one had to be taken out.  Let's just say I look forward to Levin being released as bishop and being able to sit with us.  He thinks he's being nice by saying he'll take the baby out. BUT I will take the baby - he can deal with the circus.  Until the baby grows up enough to join the circus.

 Autumn's hair is still pretty short in front, but pretty long in back so I can do pony tails.  I tried to get a picture for my Dad, but somehow it is hard to get a picture of pig tails unless I put them really on the sides which I did one day, but never got a picture that day.

Autumn is a determined girl!  If she wants something she will go for it.  She is a scrappy fighter and I can't think of any fight with her siblings that she hasn't won.  She has been known to use her teeth.  Oliver two weeks later still has two little teeth marks just above his belly button.  She tried to bite his knee in sacrament meeting on Sunday, but I grabbed her away just in the nick of time.  I am not sure she ever gets full.  You can feed her and feed her and feed her and she will still take more.  She is our least picky eater too and can't get enough of meat.  Crazy since the other kids are barely starting to eat much meat.  She breaks into the refrigerator and gets the lunch meat out.  If I'm cooking and she's in the kitchen with me I have to sneak if I'm going for cheese or she will scream until she gets some.  She can open the dishwasher and pretty much everything else.  Wow!
I don't have a picture of her finger, but you can really not even tell she had her "incident."  It looks pretty darn normal.
She has started to love TV especially Minnie and Mickey.  She points to the TV and gets a little upset if I won't turn it on.  Luckily, she is usually pretty dis-tractable so it doesn't take long to move her on to something else.  And now I have a trick to get her in off the playground - "you wanna go home and watch a show?"
Lately I've lost a lot of things.  I was starting to lose my mind.  Then I started noticing Autumn throwing bowls in the trash can.  I'm starting to think I know where my missing items went . . .
She is so much fun!  She loves to laugh!  She loves to pull my hand and then pull down on it so I know I'm supposed to sit and play with her.  She doesn't talk too much, but LOVES to say hi and bye!  I mean she REALLY LOVES to say them.  She also says in the loudest voice possible Da-ee!!!  when Levin comes home.  She may or may not say it to other men as well . . . I am so blessed with three amazing kids!