Levi wins hands down for easiest to potty train!  We tried it for a day back in March, but I got serious about it only 3 days ago and he’s been dry AND clean since then!  Woohoo!  Quote from him today after going in all on his own and doing his business; “I’m the BEST pooper in the world!”

Note: I hesitate to actually put that on my public blog, but it was just too great to pass up sharing! 

YES!  Only one in diapers!  Happy Day!

The day after I told the boys about the tsunami in Japan and showed them some video clips from it, Levi asked to watch more video of the “sumani”.

When asking for more dip at lunch Levi asked for more “sketup” (ketchup).

The other day when it was time to read scriptures, Reagan said, “Can we PLEEASE read about a war?” (as if you can go very long without reading about a war in the Book of Mormon!  lol)
A few days before that, Levi asked if we were reading about the ‘Levites’ that day.

Yesterday Levi was sitting in Time out for doing something naughty and after about a minute, I heard his little voice singing ‘Follow the Prophet’.  I don’t know which was funnier, the irony of the song he chose to sing, or the way it sounded. “Fowow the pwophet, fowow the pwophet, fowow the pwophet, don’t go astway.” 

Here’s what we’ve been up to this month.

On March 18th it was 76 degrees here in New Jersey. On March 23rd, less than a week later, it snowed 2 inches. Then for April Fools Day it snowed AGAIN!

Liberty is having lots of fun in her glorified playpen that is our step down family room.

Stuck in the corner

Stuck in the toy box

And she is developing quite the voracious appetite.

And just because I am in love with this little profile with the chic hairdo…

Why do they ever have to lose this adorable roundness…

BUSTED!

Caught in the act! Reading Calvin and Hobbes when they were supposed to be reading their scriptures.

Last week we took a quick trip to New York City.

We parked right in front of the Regis and Kelly film studio and…

The temple!
If you look close you can see Rock’s goatee. He shocked us all by shaving off half his beard to a goatee. Then a few days later he shaved the whole thing off! It’s so shocking that when I roll over at night and see his bare face next to me it scares me! Who’d have thought I’d get so used to the beard. He claims he shaved it to prove to me that I really do like the beard better.
I hate it when he’s right!
He hates to shave, though, so the beard will be back soon enough, I’m sure. I don’t’ think he’ll last a week!

We had a quick lunch in Central Park



Levi and Reagan are near the top on the right. I took this picture mostly for the awesome building in the background. Everywhere you go in Central park you are surrounded by amazing buildings.

And last but not least, we have started the oh so fun process of…

Potty Training! He’s already figured out what good magazines are for!

And that was March!

Apparently I don’t use Liberty’s hair bows enough for the boys.  They took it upon themselves to beautify her today.  And in answer to your question, “Does she REALLY put that big pink one on her in public?” the answer is no.  It looked smaller online when I purchased it.  Someday her head will be big enough for that bow… maybe. At any rate… ya gotta love big brothers!

Liberty loves her big brothers.  And they love her. 

We don’t know why, so don’t ask…

Snuggling in bed on a Saturday morning

I would have to say that her favorite brother hands down, though, is Levi.  When Liberty wakes up from a nap he runs up to her room to say hello and where mom only got a tiny crack of a smile for saving her from the crib, Levi gets a wide, dimple showing grin every time.  He spends much of his time playing with her and making her laugh.  They are such great buddies.

Levi and his “Libety”

Yes, we just finished our first Pinewood Derby here at the Hymas house. Reagan has worked feverishly over the last month to create his masterpiece, while little brothers looked on in abject admiration and anticipation for their turn. We have 9 Pinewood Derbies to look forward to, 1 of which we will be making 2 cars for! Aren’t you jealous!!!

The Car

Or Animal, take your pick. For those less versed in your animal classification, this is a cheetah-the fastest animal alive. (It looked even cooler before the weight was glued onto the bottom, but Mom forgot to take a picture of it BEFORE the race!) Rock let Reagan do almost all the work, from design to paint job. He did a fantastic job if I do say so myself, and everyone at the race from parents to kids kept telling him it was awesome! My favorite quote from another parent was, “That’s the coolest car I’ve ever seen in my life!”

The Competition

The Audience

She was REALLY into the race, can’t you tell?

The Race

Ladybug is now rolling around mobile and I often find her in such predicaments as this one:

She had been laying on this blanket when it was flat and then got wrapped up in so many layers it took me a while to find her.

She wants to move so much now that when I sit her down on the floor and walk away I always hear a loud ‘thunk’ as she hits the carpet, falling over on purpose (because she can’t “lay” down yet) so she can roll herself around the room. I turn around to see if she’s ok and sure enough she’s got a big smile on her face even if it’s smashed into the ground and her arm is pinned under her. Should get a picture of that too, hah?

She also does calisthenics every morning.

Friday we took Go Go on his Half Birthday Date with Mom and Dad. Technically we’re a little behind schedule, but that’s ok. This year he chose to go to a Hibachi steak house for his date. Though he didn’t catch any food in his mouth this time, he is planning on perfecting the skill at home.

Chopstick instruction

The Memento


Yeah, I found it disturbing too, but we didn’t tell him it was weird to be drinking juices from a man’s stomach. He thought it was awesome!
Happy Half Birthday Go Go! We love you!

Many years ago, I spent a fortune on the greatest Christmas present ever.  The complete collection of Calvin and Hobbes. I bought them for my dear husband- who has never ever read them.  Friends and family alike have drooled over our collection while they sat lonely on the shelf.  Finally the collection is getting the love and attention it deserves… all the time!

And just for fun because she’s so dang cute….

If you look really close (and expand the picture) you can see her pearly new tooth.

To all our adoring fans, I apologize  for my lack of posts in recent months.  We have been very busy at our house and I just haven’t had time to write.  But you can all feel better, as I do, that there haven’t been any catastrophes for which I need to write about   to find the humor, thereby saving myself a trip to the psychiatrist.  In our case, sometimes no news is good news!!!

We’ll start with Ladybug. She is growing so fast! 

Strawberry Shortcake

Ladybug had her first cold last week at exactly 7 months of age.  Pretty darn good considering that she has 3 germ covered, adoring brothers.  Everyone else had been sick so I couldn’t avoid it forever.  She had a constant faucet of the nose and mouth , a yucky croupy cough and even a fever for a few days.  There’s nothing more sad then a sick baby.  What is really pathetic, is that her mother did not even notice until she was all  better that during that week of suffering, she also cut her first tooth!  I feel horrible for not catching it sooner-something I can only blame on the number of children I have now and the fact that her real cold hid the regular symptoms of a tooth.  She is still a very happy, easy going baby, content to sit on the floor and chew on her tag toys.  She is infinitely patient it seems, for which I am very grateful!  We’ve started calling her Mini Go Go because she looks identical to him as a baby and everywhere we go people are amazed at how alike they are. 

This funky little towel was a gift from a friend that we like to call her Princess towel.

Next is Blue Jeans.  He has recently learned the benefits of friends-probably because his brothers are gone all day at school now.  He has started asking me every day if we can play with “our friends today”.  He has really enjoyed his little playgroup this year. 
Two weeks ago when he was sick, he called out to me in the middle of the night.  When I came in to see what he wanted he said, “Mommy can you kiss my ear, it hurts.”  Needless to say we got out the Tylenol-after a kiss on the ear of course.

Go Go is very much into drawing and math right now and I do believe he has a talent for both-excuse me while I dote for a minute.  We taught the boys to play monopoly recently and he is a better/faster banker then me!!!  Rock has started doing math problems with the boys at the dinner table and Go Go is proving to be a pro just like his brother and Dad.  When he has free time in school he chooses to do math.  Personally, the thought of doing math for fun gives me the shudders, but I’m thrilled he’s taking after Dad on this one!

Mr. President had his first Cub Scout Pack Meeting (finally-thanks to his father volunteering to be the Cub master)  where he earned his Bobcat

Today at his Cub scout activity he got to watch a python swallow a rat.  He LOVES scouts.  He has also gotten into Pokémon of late, to which I was remiss to allow, but oh well, right?  Now there are Pokémon cards strewn all over my house almost as much as LEGOS.  I don’t know which is worse.  Ok, Pokémon cards don’t hurt to step on-it’s true.  And speaking of which, here is his latest massive LEGO creation. These things keep getting bigger and bigger.  Who needs the $50.00 sets when you can make your own?

We are finally seeing grass for the first time since the day after Christmas.  It’s as brown as the trees, but at least it’s not white!  Spring can’t come fast enough! 
We recently rearranged our house, swapping the hardwood floor family room for the carpeted dinning room and I feel MUCH better about this house.  We are much more comfortable on the carpeted floor and the kids can drop their food on the hardwood and Mom doesn’t freak out!  We are thinking we may stay here for a few more years now, rather than move to a different rental and so I finally got out all the rest my decorations and I’m feeling much more at home in this house.  It feels more like it’s mine, rather than someone else’s.  Yes, I know, I should have done it long ago.   For those of you who have been here, here’s the finished product.

New family room

New dinning room
I want to point out the fact that Rock came up with the great idea of making a mud room behind that bookshelf.  So now we have all our cubbies and shoes back behind there and we love it!  I know most of you haven’t even been to our home, but it’s a cool change that I wanted to share.  And those little pink things you see all over are from our Valentine’s day heart attack.

So Happy Belated Valentine’s Day to all of you!