We just got back on Monday the pictures that they took for school. We bought both packages (you can never have enough pictures you know) and so I thought that I would share them today. Both boys turned out cute. As I look at Weston, it just blows my mind that he will be 8 in less than a week!!!!!!!!! 
And here is our little fry guy that isn't so little anymore!!! His picture turned out really cute I thought. Hope you enjoyed them!
Amber is a darling baby. Okay, so I might be just a little prejudice, but still, don't you think that she is cute? But, for as cute as she is, I just cannot figure things out with and for her. I need a manual!!!!! I am feeling almost totally frustrated in the food department with her. Now, I am pretty sure that I wrote about the fact that she was not tolerating cereal at all. First we tried rice and throwing up for hours was the result. Then the pediatrician recommended oats. We got the same results. Then it was on to allergy testing. Their answer......she isn't allergic to anything, so start back up the foods. So I try applesauce and bananas. That is easy right? No! She doesn't like it. (I don't blame her....if I had thrown up every time I ate, I wouldn't want to eat food either.) So, I decided to try banana and apple slices. While she like them, there was almost immediate diarrhea that followed. I am feeling a little frustrated. I saw a show about this disorder that a baby had. The disorder is called mastocytosis. While I think that Amber might have this, I would have to have some tests run to confirm it. In the meantime, I decided that I would just skip the cereal for a while and then later try to cook just plain old rice, mash it and feed it to her. I thought that the problem with the cereals was perhaps some preservatives or cross contamination from other foods processed in the same plant. SO......today was the day to try the mashing and feeding. And guess what? THE SAME THING HAPPENED!!!!!! I think that I might just pull my hair out. I think that the next step for us will have to be a pediatric GI. I can't nurse her forever. Someone help us!!! Please!!! I am not crazy!! (My doctors tend to think that I am blowing things out of proportion- I think I need to switch) I just want my poor little baby to be able to eat and not throw up (and I don't mean spit up- this is full blown throw up) over and over and over again!! It is times like these that I wish I had a manual for my kids.
As I got Aaron dressed this morning, I thought of how the same outfit that I was dressing him in, Weston had worn before he turned one. So, for fun, I thought that I would post pictures of Aaron and Weston in the same outfit for comparisons. Funny thing is that Weston at one weighed more than Aaron does at almost 3!!!! Above is obviously Aaron.
And here is Weston wearing the same thing!!! I actually think that they look sort of similar in these pictures, although Weston is MUCH chubbier!!!! Wow.....time sure does fly! It seems like just yesterday he was born!
And of course, here is a picture of Amber today.
Lookin cute for the picture.....
And my sweet little Aaron!!!! I love him bunches!!!!!!!!
Brian came home yesterday with his class picture. It was taken about 3 weeks ago I think. Anyway, it turned out cute so I thought that I would post it. Since he goes to the preschool provided by the school district, there are kids ages 3 to 5 in his class. There are a few that have various disabilities, need help with speech (or in Brian's case, his articulation), or have qualified for free/ reduced lunch. He goes Monday through Thursday for a little over 3 hours, and LOVES every minute of his day!!! As soon as he is out of the car, he is running for the door. (And that is not an exaggeration) His teacher and the aides are fantastic and so kind. It has been such a good experience for him. His teacher is the one on the bottom row with the cream colored sweater. Brian is on the back row sitting between his two best friends in his class!!! I am so glad that he was able to get into this class!!! It has been wonderful in every way!!!I got this song emailed to me tonight and I thought that it was too cute not to share!!! Enjoy!
Okay, so I think that I have been slackin' lately when it comes to posts!! Sorry about that!! I don't know why for sure.....perhaps we are just boring lately. Not that I mind boring!!!!!!!! Boring is highly over-rated. I tend to love the non-adventure that is going on at our house. I thought that I would post some pictures of the kiddos sporting their new hair cuts. You might notice Aaron's bright red cheeks here. I think that he has 5ths disease. It is the one that has the slapped check appearance and then the trunk, arms and legs get red off and on for about a month (or something like that!) Once you get the rash you aren't contagious!! He never ran a fever, but oh well. I guess if the others get it, they just do!!!! Que Serra, Serra! I gave Aaron a bowl cut this time. (although his hair is so thin that you can't really tell) Aaron's first response after seeing himself in the mirror was, "I look just like Bubby!!!" (aka Weston) He was SO excited to look like his big brother!!!
I just love fresh haircuts. This is not the best picture of Brian's cut, but I do love it too. I love his curls when they are long, but I love it too when it is shorter. Lately Brian has taken to "fluffing his curls" at resting time. That just means that it looks like he has a big afro when he wakes up! :) Oh, and you can see Aaron's bowl cut a little better in this picture.
Weston and his cut! He has the best hair for this cut.....thick and shiny and perfect. Weston had his first day of standardized testing yesterday. He will have more testing this week. When I asked how it went, he thought that it was "fine and easy and didn't really take that long." I just love that he is so upbeat most all of the time!!! It is nice having a happy-go-lucky oldest child. He kind of sets the tone for the others! I am such a lucky mom.
Amber didn't get a haircut! But she is a cute as ever. She had a red-letter day today!!!! She finally cut her first tooth!!!!!! Hooray!!! I can't believe how big she is getting!
I thought that I would take a picture of the flower bed today since this will probably be the most flowers that it has at once. The small red tulips and white flowers are almost all dead, but the daffodils and pink tulips are in full bloom. I am really enjoying all the flowers!!!!
Here is a closer shot of the pink tulips. I think that it is interesting that the first flowers up are the last ones to bloom. They sure are pretty though!!!
In order to see Amber's new little clip and hair-do you really have to make this one bigger. Most of the time her hair sticks up like a new fluffy chick, but I can get it to stay down for a few hours if I wet it a ton and put one of these little clips in it!!!! My personal preference is for the big fluffy bows, but I do like a little variety and thought that this was cute. This is one of the firsts of MANY hair-dos that Amber will have!! I just can't wait till she has more hair for me to put in pony tails and braids!!!!!
I think so!! I got the boys these matching vests on clearance this week at the Children's place. They were clearancing off their Easter stuff and so I got things for all the kids to match. I took these pictures right after church and while they are not perfect, I still think that they are cute! Enjoy!
I managed to get a few more pictures of Brian's game than I did of Weston's. It was probably because I had Barth there to help! :) Even though it was actually colder than it was at Weston's game, we were a little more prepared. We took heavier coats, Amber's snowsuit and a down throw to cover up with!! Brian had a blast today. Here, the 6 and under teams are co-ed and play on MUCH smaller fields than the ones that Weston plays on. Each team had a 30 minute practice before the game began and then played their game. Since there were 9 players on our team as well as the other team, they played 4 on 4 the first half and then 5 on 5 the second half. Brian's team won 1 to 0. It was funny to see the kids keep running even though the ball had gone out of bounds and was rolling into another field with another game in progress. They were oblivious to the fact that they were interrupting someone else's game! :) Brian loved being in the middle of the action.
Here is Brian playing goalie. One of his coaches in standing next to him (even though it looks more like behind him) telling him what to do! He did an excellent job and even blocked a goal!!! (I have to interject here that while in this position, Brian found it more fun to make mud holes with his cleats than to watch the action on the other end of the field. He did pay more attention when the ball was on his side though!)
Here he is running in the game. It was kind of funny afterwards when Brian asked when his actual game was. He thought that the whole thing had been practice!! I guess that was because he is used to watching Weston's practice and they scrimmage at the end of their games. No matter, he still had a great time! I taped the games and we all had fun this evening watching it back. The boys were both proud of the way they played. You can't ask for anything better than that!!!!
Today was the first game of Spring ball here! Weston's game was at 9 am this morning. It was barely above 40 and VERY windy! In retrospect I should have had him wear a shirt under his jersey, so he was quite cold. He did a good job and had a lot of fun. I wish that I could say the same about the other kids. Amber screamed most of the hour. Aaron clung to my leg and cried. Brian enjoyed the game and so did I. Barth had to go to the temple for our ward temple trip and so I did the best I could to calm kids and tape the majority of the game. And if you can imagine.....it is actually supposed to be even colder this afternoon at 4 for Brian's game!!!! At least Barth will be here for that one though. :) I think that we will pack a few extra blankets and layers for that game!
The boys love to check the flowers! I thought that I would post a picture of what it is looking like in our flower bed now. The red tulips are almost dead. So are the white flowers that are in front of them. The pink tulips are about to bloom and the daffodils are coming out nicely!! I just love it!
On Sunday Amber was 7 months old. Also on Sunday, Amber decided that she was ready to be more mobile than just rolling and so she decided to start doing the army crawl. Here are some pictures from Sunday of her progress. She could actually make it clear across the room on Sunday, but she kept getting her right arm stuck under her as she did her odd style of crawling.
This strange laying on the ground and moving forward was what her crawling looked like for the first few day. Now, she gets up on all 4's and is starting to actually crawl. None of my other kids crawled this soon...she thinks that she needs to keep up with her brothers!!! :)
In other news, she went to the doctor yesterday because she is not tolerating food at all. Every time she has cereal, she begins to vomit within about an hour of eating it. Then she throws up for a few hours and as many as 30 times. It is very sad. We have tried rice and oatmeal both, with the same results. The doctor suggested that we try strait fruits and veggies. While there they looked her over and found that she has a double ear infection once again. She just had her ears checked on Friday and they were fine. They are bulging and oozing and everything!!! Poor baby. Her ears just keep giving her trouble. Since this is her 4th time for a double ear infection in just a short time, they gave her a shot of antibiotics yesterday and then they are also having her take an oral one. Lets just hope that this is the last of the ear infections!!!
We have been enjoying great weather here. It was overcast today, but no rain yet. It was right around 60 today and perfect. After we picked up Weston from school, we played outside for a while. It was my kind of a day. After an early dinner, we were off to soccer practice for Weston. Brian put on his cleats as well and got some practice in on the field next to Weston's. Brian is on the 6 and under league, and here they don't have practices for that age group. They meet 30 minute before game time and then everyone gets to play. That is nice for me because that just means one less practice to have to go to!!! Anyway......here are a few pictures of this afternoon.
Weston is really about too big for this big wheel, but still loves it and will ride it as long as he can!! Aaron wants to be just like his brothers!!
Brian was busy picking me flowers from our yard. He is so thoughtful!!! :)
The last few days have been very nice here with temps right around 70!! I was so excited to finally wear short sleeves! This is a picture of our neighbor's dogwood tree! They are all over the place here and SO BEAUTIFUL!!!!!! The dogwoods around here started to bloom out on Sunday and then just yesterday the "popcorn" trees started to pop. Good thing I am finally getting my voice back so that I can sing the popcorn song in the car with the kids!!!! Even though it is supposed to only get up to 43 on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, I think it is safe to say that Spring has officially sprung here!!!!
These next few pictures are of the flowers in my flower bed. All of the other flowers are just about to bloom. Hopefully in the next day or two I can take a picture of how pretty it all looks. This is one of the tulips.
I don't remember what this white one was called, or the next pink one for that matter. Not that the names make them any prettier!! :) I just love them all.
I planted big daffodils, but somehow we got some mini ones in with the bag.....I am not really sure how that happened. The minis are the first to bloom and they are just so darn cute that I don't mind that they are small!
This must be why the neighbors don't plant tulips. I was told that the deer eat them. Ours must not have tasted all that great because this was the only one in the bunch that got eaten!!! Poor little flower! 
Here are the rest of the trip pictures. Late, I know, but better late than never!! These first two of the kids are taken at the Smoky Mtn National park as we drove through. This was taken at Maloney point. I wanted to take one here since my first grade teacher was Mrs. Maloney.
The tree behind Brian make him look like he has horns!! :)
Isn't this a pretty waterfall. We went to the visitor's center first and I left the camera in the car thinking that we would go back before the hike. There was a good trail that left from the center and so I didn't get any of the hike that we took up to a waterfall. Most of these pictures were from the drive around the park as we checked out the camping spots to see if we thought it would be a good place to camp in the future. It was!
We stopped along the drive to let the kids stretch their legs and have some fun at the mountain stream. I love this picture best!!! It is like Barth is the Daddy duck with all of his little ducklings! Barth is such a good and fun daddy. He taught the boys to skip rocks on this stop and they had a lot of fun!
Daddy and his boys! Don't you just love the posed/ forced smiles?
Weston is showing off his "gems" here that he got out of the stream. They were just pretty white rocks, but he was sure that they were worth something. He LOVES to collect rocks like Barth!
Enjoying the park.....
It was a nice day. There was a sprinkle or two, but it was really the perfect day to be out.
Finding stones to throw.
Amber and I.....in case you didn't know!! :)
After we finished at the national park, we headed back into Gatlinburg to ride the tram up to the ski resort. While the ride was very fun, all of the attractions up at the resort were temporarily closed. That was kind of sad, but the ride was awesome. It was not very crowded on the way up, but on the way back they crammed the thing full (like over 100 people)!! There was barely any room to breathe. These last pictures were taken on the way up the mountain.
The view......pretty huh?
Amber was taking it all in too~
Brian enjoyed when the tram would sway all over the place!!! 
We all had a fun time. I just wish that it had been a little longer. Hopefully we can get back there soon!!!