If I could tell 30-year-old Henry what he's like at age five, this is what I would tell him.

Henry,

You are quite the five-year-old boy, always keeping me on my toes, making sure we're on the go or doing something fun, and humbling me in my role as a mother.

Just today you cut Maggie's hair with a pair of scissors from the pocketknife you found high up on the bookshelf. You later wanted to "go on an adventure," so we drove to a bike path to ride our bikes. You were disappointed that we didn't see an ostrich, tiger, or an elephant on our ride and about 3/4 of the way into the ride you were whining and complaining about riding. When I told you to push your bike, you complained and Maggie came to your rescue and pushed the bike for you. Later when I told you to ride the bike, you whined and Maggie came to your rescue and rode the bike for you. You finished the bike ride strong, though, and we all had a fun outing together.

Your imagination is incredibly big right now. You often come up with exciting things to do, like find dragons and ride them. You ask for dozens of toys that I've never heard of before. I've planted seeds by telling you that you should be an engineer someday and become a toy maker. Right now you are really into making things (usually out of perler beads) and have requested that I make you a stool, a tree house, and dozens of flying and life-like toys. "Just look at the map," you say (the "map" being a picture we have colored or drawn).

You are the most affectionate person I have ever met and display your love through hugs. A hug to you is touching your cheek to whomever on both sides of the face with a hug and/or kiss to follow. The words "I love you" mean a lot to you and you have a big heart. Your love for your sisters is beyond what I thought capable for a 5-year-old and you love spending time with them. You play with Maggie all day, every day and she takes almost every order you give to her. You are quick to play with Hazel too, which is very endearing given the fact that she can't reciprocate with much more than an occasional laugh. You are her biggest source of laughter; in fact, you are the one who gets us all laughing and you set the tone of our home. Our house is loud, crazy, and happy because of you. You bring a lot of energy to our home.

You currently don't want to get baptized (not sure if that's because you're not confident in the water), don't want to go on a mission (don't blame you), and don't want to get married in the temple (because you "don't want to kiss anyone"). I tell you (while reminding myself) that those future decisions will all be made by you. Most of the time you don't like church and sitting still is not your forte.

As my oldest, I am experimenting more on you than is probably fair, but I'll be honest: I don't know what I'm doing. I'm trying my darndest to teach you how to care for yourself, help our family, love others, and to teach you about Christ. We are learning so much together and I'm grateful for the amount of love you carry in that little body. Some of your gifts given to you from Heavenly Father are already evident: you radiate joy and and genuinely love people.

You run all day, every day. You wake up around 6:30 am and go, go, go all day. I think it's great that almost every night you crash quickly after story time is over. You are physically and emotionally drained. You play hard! You love hard! As I was putting you to bed tonight, these thoughts came to me and I had to write them down.

Love you forever,
Mom

Hazel is One

Little Miss Hazel.

Dad's "bug."

From the very beginning, our hearts burst with love for you,

 but, oh, you have shared so much love with us.

I recall writing that we all felt special and would often say to each other, "Hazel loves you!"

Right now you love Mommy most.

(And don't you forget it.)

It reaffirms her so much.

Thank you for the joy on your face and in the sounds of your voice when you see her.

She cherishes you and this phase of your life.

*****

Hazel turned one year old.

I seriously feel like I brought her home from the hospital six months ago at most.

I vividly remember so many details of the days surrounding her arrival.

Hazel is a really good baby.

Joyful, happy, smiley.

She squawks and quacks and cackles.
And offers kisses freely.

She is starting to pick up on what we say and do.

Just yesterday I was reprimanding a child while pointing and talking sternly.

Hazel was in my arms and started pointing and chattering.

Today Dad was giving a command to a child and started clapping while saying, "Jammie time."

Hazel started clapping while mumbling.

Hazel says about five words,
but I usually know what she wants when she wants it.
She can be very loud, especially when she's around her siblings.

She sleeps in her car seat, in the ergo carrier, and her crib

and is very flexible with her schedule.

(Third child problems...a phrase I use a lot with her.)

She loves her binkie for sleeping, but the goal is to get rid of it soon.

Sleeping through the night has never been a concern and

--knock on wood--

we haven't had to do any sleep training with her.

On the rare occasion when she does wake up in the night,
it takes her about an hour to go back to sleep.

Hazel is anxious to play with her siblings.

If they are outside, she wants to go outside, too.

Henry and Maggie love to play with her.

Henry is often asking if he can push her in the swing,
which she has just recently warmed up to.
She used to hate getting pushed anything more than a tap.
Below you can see her holding on for her dear life.
Henry pushed her often enough that now she laughs and is getting used to the roller coaster feeling.

Hazel loves to eat dirt.
As opposed to picking it up in her hand, she face plants it into the dirt/sand and eats it.
She is a good eater, though.
(I guess if you like dirt, you'll eat just about anything.)

Hazel loves Henry, but gives the "help me" look when he is loving on her.

He is so affectionate and loves to smother her.

His embrace these days consists of two hugs and a kiss:

the first hug is on the right side with his cheek touching yours, 

then another hug on the left side with his cheek touching yours.

Then a peck.
If you're Hazel, you get several pecks and a couple more cheek touches.

It's really adorable but Hazel can only stand so much.

When I ask Henry to play peek-a-boo, he is quick to oblige.
When I ask him to push her in the swing, he happily responds.

He really, truly, loves his baby sister.

Hazel and Maggie are cute together, too.

Maggie loves to talk baby talk with Hazel.
And Hazel lets Maggie love on her however Maggie likes,
which happens infrequently but is always softly.

Their sisterly love is blossoming.

I'm thinking/hoping the three will be besties for life.
So far, so good.

I keep thinking Hazel is close to walking on her own, but she has yet to take off.

She has taken four steps on her own as of Easter.

It is so rewarding to see her excitement as we cheer her on, clap for her, and praise her on her efforts.

It reminds me of this talk.
Watching this milestone is hands down my favorite one to witness.

Hazel loves to be around me most of the time,

but is good to play on her own as well.

Her favorite thing to do to occupy herself is to find something like a basket of clothes 

and pick out one piece of clothing at a time. 

Our movie cupboard is also a good entertainer.

Hazel can be shy at times,
but is usually vocally and physically expressive.
She likes to be on the go unless she's in my arms.
She makes the cutest squinty-eyed face that I have captured several times.
Everyone laughs which prompts her to continue pulling the face.

Hazel seems to be long and lean, although I am not one to keep track of statistics.

She has beautiful blue eyes

and the cutest dimple on her right cheek when she smiles big enough.

Her hair is showing a similar growth pattern (i.e. a lack of growth) as Maggie.

She is stunningly beautiful inside and out.

*****

We celebrated Hazel's birthday with her cousin, Zach, who was born two days after her.
(More to come on that trip.)
I had a blast decorating cakes for the party
and Hazel did not disappoint with her cake-eating abilities.
She ate so much frosting that she got a little sick afterwards.
It's kind of a cruel transition from eating no sugar to a pound of butter with loads of sugar in one sitting.
But she survived the event.
Zach was a little more cautious but still seemed to enjoy his cake.

It was so fun celebrating these babies first birthdays together.

Happy first birthday, Hazel! We love you more than you loved your birthday balloons.

Easter Weekend

Easter is a new favorite holiday for me.

Little to no expectations brings nothing but happiness

and little to no stress for me.

We started out our holiday weekend with plans to go on an egg hunt at Henry's school,

but Henry wanted to stay home and I was glad he did.
I was solo for the weekend and it was a little cold,
so I was happy to make our own last minute egg hunt in our backyard.
So we did just that and the kids had a blast.

We ate candy while listening to conference.
Well, the kids watched a movie while I listened to conference.
Later that day we colored our Easter eggs.

On Sunday the kids woke up to their Easter baskets and were thrilled with their gifts.
Hazel got to taste her first peep, a moment worth documenting.
We  I watched conference again.
When I sat down and listened to conference, it was very uplifting and encouraging.

Later that day we had some friends over for an Easter feast and had so much fun sharing our holiday with our great friends that have become family.

Don't get me started about how much I love them,
I've already cried over leaving them.

Four weeks later (i.e. today), the kids got (or should I say had in Henry's case)
 to wear their Easter outfits.
We got some cute pictures.

As we walked outside, Henry & Maggie were walking together and I called them over to get pictures.
"I want to marry Maggie first," said Henry.
So they walked down the "aisle" together and I said, "You may now kiss the bride."
These two are too cute together.

What's Up?

For the most part, I am really enjoying this phase of life with my kids.

I made a more concerted effort lately to play with my older two kids, and we've had fun together.

The weather started warming up and we love being outside.

Since I haven't posted a lot of anything lately, 

here is our life in pictures over the last few months:

{JANUARY}

Just me & Hazel grocery shopping. I like having a buddy. 

And it's nice having only one buddy when grocery shopping. 

Henry earned a swimming frog for pooping on the toilet. We have been working towards this since August, so it was a big deal. Frog 1 died within 24 hours. Frog 2 didn't seem to be doing well so we gave it to someone that had experience with dwarf frogs. We ended up with beta fish. We all have a different name for the fish: Pepper, Swimmy, Fish...but she's still alive. (Henry would rather have a dog...or a chicken...or a lizard...or, or, or...depending on the minute of the hour of any given day.)

Hazel turned nine months old.  I LOVE the baby phase at nine months: 

happy, exploring, talking, very interactive, and very rewarding.

 

{FEBRUARY}

Maggie's hair grew long enough for pig tails (a day worth documenting)!

Sibling love grows daily between these two. Henry has always loved Hazel, but Hazel is slowly realizing his squeezes and tough love are really sincere displays of affection. She loves him and the wincing when she sees him are slowly subsiding.

Going to the park on the random days of warmth and sun. 

Stroller rides

Dad was home a lot. This girl LOVED it. We all did.

{MARCH}

Grandpa and Grandma Gibson come to town and we went shopping, played at the house, celebrated Henry's birthday, and enjoyed each other's company.

Brendon's residency program had a retreat in Ruidoso, New Mexico. We went with our snow gear, hoping to go sledding. We did, but there was not nearly the amount of snow we anticipated. It was snow/mud sledding. The kids didn't know any different and had a blast.

Hazel is crawling, trying to walk, and becoming quite a busy girl.

Outdoor fun for hours on end as the weather is warming up. 

The kids even pulled out their swimming suits.

Bike rides to the school down the street.

Catching moths and caterpillars. 

The moth flew away and our caterpillar died (maybe we should stick to beta fishes).

(Henry asked if he could have a snake after we caught the caterpillar so I told him if he could catch one, he could keep it. Fortunately there were no snakes in our yard that day--not that I've ever seen one.)

Daylight savings time has mostly been nice to me. We now wake up around 7-8 am instead of 6-6:30 am. Henry is almost always the first to wake up and usually wakes me or Maggie. He's always got a buddy by his side.

At the beginning of daylight savings, Henry was still waking up pretty early, and one day he fell asleep under his bed while trying to get me to come find him.

Lastly, this was taken today at church, mostly to text it to my brother but she sure is cute.