These first pics are before we went home to the states. This is one night I let the kids make their own pizzas. They were pretty excited about it.

Scarlet was mad I was taking her picture, but she has been CONSTANTLY making books! It tugs at my heart strings because this is exactly what I did when I was her age. All I remember about kindergarten is making books- everyday. I loved it. She is constantly writing words, asking us how to spell everything. She is a PERFECTIONIST and will throw things away if there is just one mistake. It's pretty frustrating for her and we've been working on being ok with mistakes. One day she took out her mini Book of Mormon and copied out all the words that are underneath the pictures. She made several pages and copied the title page and wrote Book of Mormon on the front. She wanted to make her own. I just loved it, but was amazed at how much work went into it. She worked on it for hours- literally! It's pretty fun, because her stories are short and simple, but they are creative and have great plots to them. My favorite was her first- she said it was a song. It was:

THE

BAT

SAT

ON

THE

CAT

THE

CAT

GOT

MAD

It was amazing. I absolutely loved it and she's just continued on day by day.

Family Movie Night!

It can be very challenging to keep a diaper on Marius sometimes. It's gotten better these days.

The pictures below are all from after we returned to the Philippines. Marius has been SERIOUSLY INTO STICKERS. I had dozens and dozens of sticker sheets and within a week they were all gone. He just went crazy with them. Stickers all over the house, the furniture, the floor, himself. I was so glad when it was over. I'm never buying stickers again.

Now he's obsessed with Band Aids. It's the worst. I don't know when this phase will end. If he only uses 4 in a day, I feel it's been a success! He's definitely used 7+ in a day!

Scarlet gave her barbies a haircut. I sort of loved it.

Then Brighton swept it all up.

It's become pretty common for Greg to make the kids crepes Saturday mornings. He is so great on Saturdays. He basically takes over everything. The kids looooooove crepes and their favorite is crepes with Nutella.

He's the best. Right now Greg is in Singapore for a month! It's been 2 weeks and things have gone unexpectedly well. We've managed to talk a lot on the phone and with all the changes and unusual stress the last two weeks- it's really incredible that everything's gone so well. Once again, when things get to that "oh my gosh! I don't know how this is going to work!" situation, Heavenly Father just steps in and covers it all. That's what it feels like, anyway.

So sweet . . .

Brighton turned 4!!!!! We let Brighton decorate his cake with candy and he loved it. I loved it because it brought back fond memories of decorating my own cake with candy. I loved it so much and I was excited for Brighton to do it too.

It's so hard to get pictures of him. He'll make me delete anything I take. We have to be sly about it.

I was pretty proud of my cake. I'm a pretty inexperienced cake maker, but it's becoming more and more often that I'm making them. This was my best yet.

We celebrated Marius's birthday too. I'm not sure he knew. We just sort of tagged him along so we got him presents too. We never celebrated his in the states. We got them guns and train set. They loved them both! Yea!

This is a typical saturday morning. Greg playing guitar and singing and the kids getting wild in the living room. Notice Scarlet flying between the couches?

It's a daily occurrence for the kids to build a mound of some kind. Sometimes it's a mountain and they rock climb on it- sometimes a house or a place for an adventure. Then they bring all their possessions (their toys) because it's where they live, or they get on backpacks and hats and go on their adventure. As you can see they use every couch cushion, boxes and even chairs. I think one time they used our play grocery cart. They're getting pretty daring with this daily pile. A little too daring.

Scarlet had her first week of Kindergarten. Her teacher is Miss Emily and she is awesome. Scarlet was veryyyyyyyyy anxious and nervous for school to start. The week prior so many people asked if she was excited for kindergarten and she'd say, "No," and then they never know what to say next. They're always quite surprised. Her first day we were late and I said, "I'm sorry we're late" and she loudly said in the car, "I'm not sorry! I don't even want to go!" But she said it with a smile on her face. She was really good about it all. She clearly didn't want to go and was very nervous, but she didn't fight me on it and never tried to get out of it. This was her first official day.

Well, after all the nerves and waiting for the first day- SHE LOVES SCHOOL!!! I ask her what the favorite part of the day is at school and she smiles and says, "Everything." She just really loves every moment. It's been so wonderful. I thought it would be such an adjustment and a very stressful transition but it couldn't have gone smoother. I love her teacher, I'm so glad she got her. I was really nervous too because it was also Greg's first week away.

We found this great little cul de sac on our street that is a great riding spot for the kids. I'd been trying to get the kids to come out with me for weeks and Greg was finally able to convince them. We had such a great time. I love it there. This way I can ride my bike too. The driveway is pretty small for all of us to be riding around.

Brighton on his Balance Bike.

Scarlet wanted a picture in her uniform.

Notice the sweat on his forehead?

Scarlet has learned how to ride her bike. Greg taught her last spring. She also has a loose tooth. She has had so many "growing up" experiences- it freaks me out! When she told me her tooth was loose I just about cried thinking, "My baby's grown up!"