A mother of (almost) four boys…

So many people have asked me this pregnancy if I wanted a girl. Maybe? No? What do you say? I just explain that I’m happy having my fourth boy :) but I just want a baby. A healthy one hopefully but I’ll love him no matter what. But boys. That is all I know, and yesterday I had an experience at Jacob’s baptism that was very, well, important to me. I have always felt a great responsibility since beginning to have boys to begin preparing them to be good men, great priesthood holders and good husbands but that urge and responsibility is becoming even more clear.

While Vili and his boys were singing this song I was brought to tears and just thinking about all of these wonderful men from the scriptures and it reminded me of what I want my boys to be. They are each named after someone in the scriptures and have a family name as a middle name to remind them of someone great and what they can become. Their potential as sons of God is so great.

As they were singing though I kept thinking about my boys. Boys. Boys. Boys. I had a strong feeling that I probably won’t have a girl because he needs me to raise boys. I might be wrong, but, I know either way that he has a special job for these boys. The world around us is deteriorating and we need to raise our sons so that they can be like Nephi, like Samuel, like the Army of Helaman (and so many more people!)

Thanks for singing that song Vili, it touched many people yesterday, but especially brought a new light and understanding to my role as a mother.

How Can I Be, written by Nela Otuafi

Performed by Adam Ashby, Ben Mataele and Uaisele Fa

My Birthday Boys Nathan (4) and Sammy (6)

Sammy turned six today and I know that Nathan officially turned four ten days ago but you know what I didn’t get it posted…so I figured we’d do them both today!

Nathan is so excited to be four. He has run around telling everyone that he is now four and loving life. On his birthday we were really busy but we ate at L&L together before Daddy ran to CSULB for class and then used a BOGO free coupon at Dairy Queen and got two blizzards to share. YUM! Things that he enjoys at this stage of his life:

• Chocolate anything
• Shredded Mini Wheats
• His Webkinz Koala
• Pretending to be a koala, lion or kitty cat
• Geotrax
• Playing with Danny while Sam’s at school
• Train chasing (with Daddy)
• Grapes
• Jello
• Helping Mommy in the kitchen
• Primary
• “Praise to the Man”
• Playing outside in the dirt, riding his bike, or anything else outside.

Sammy, or Sam or Samuel as he sometimes writes on his papers, is excited to be six but doesn’t like time outs being so long. ;) He is loving kindergarten with Mrs. Lim and is happy to be able to say hi to Mrs. MacInnis daily too. For his birthday today we took him to get orange chicken (one of his favorite things) and then used a BOGO free coupon for ice cream at Cold Stone. YUM! He wore his birthday hat/crown from school most of the day and was so excited that it was finally his birthday after celebrating Danny’s in August and Nate’s on the 5th. Things that Sammy enjoys at this point in life:

• Chocolate anything
• “Strawberry cereal” (Special K with strawberries)
• Mac and Cheese or French Toast Sticks from the school cafeteria
• Long sleeve shirts (whether it is 40 degrees or 100 degrees)
• Combing his hair so that he looks “handsome”
• Dancing and singing to two or three lines of Justin Bieber that he learned from the girls down the street (sigh)
• Combo pizza or hot dogs with onions, mustard, ketchup and relish on them from Costco
• Building rockets, planes and space ships out of Legos
• Playing computer games (Webkinz.com, lego.com, Starfall.com)

Happy Birthday big boys. We love you!

Sammy: Kindergarten Picture

Sammy got his pictures today from school. He was more excited about his first homework packet that he got returned today because it had an A+ on it (I’m not sure how he knew that that was a good grade but he did!) but I was excited to see his pictures..

I think that the picture is cute…and I like that you can see how his hair color since he loves his hair and is proud of it. I also love all of his freckles on his sun-kissed nose and his million dollar smile.  Just thought I’d share…

Sammy and the Power Snakes!

Sammy started his second year of soccer and I think that he is enjoying it a lot more than last year. They actually have teams this year of five little guys and they play three-on-three. He is playing with two kids from year, Henry and Elias, and Elias’ dad Chris is the coach. Sammy seems to really like Coach Chris and I think the smaller group is helping Sam have a little more individualized attention since he’s still trying to learn the basics.

They had their first game yesterday and they “won” even though I think that there was no official score taken. They each scored (even Sammy, thank goodness) and it was fun to watch their mini 7.5 minute quarters. Here is to a great season Power Snakes! :)

Sammy’s 1st Day of Kindergarten

He was so ready to start school this year he was counting down the days and when Thursday, September 8th arrived and I went in his room he woke up with the cutest (and hugest) smile ever. He was so ecstatic. He even got dressed quickly (a miracle if you know Sammy) got his backpack ready and shoes and socks on.

He has Miss Lim this year who was Maddy’s teacher last year and he is so excited. I think that it will be a fun year for all! He’ll miss Mrs. MacInnis a bit but Nathan will have her next year in Preppie-K! :)

I did ask him about his day when I got home from my first day and he said, “It was awesome!” Enough said. I’m glad that he loves it!

P.S. I am laughing about his crazy hair in the picture…Thad took the camera on the first day but I had forgotten to charge the battery so he wasn’t able to take a picture. This is from the second day of school. Sammy was still asleep when I left for CHS so he must have just woken up and gone! I guess that this hairdo is kind of in though?

Happy 2nd Birthday Danny Boy!

Yesterday our baby boy turned two! Doesn’t time fly by? Doesn’t it seem like yesterday that we were bringing our third boy home from the hospital? Now in 11 or 12 weeks we’ll have another baby to love and take care of as well! But before then we’ll celebrate the Marcroft way, a simple chocolate cake, some vanilla ice cream and two candles, but lots of love!
We love you Danny boy! Happy Birthday!
Here are some of Danny’s favorite things at this point in his life:

• Balloons
• Trains, train tracks, trucks and anything else that moves
• Chocolate, candy, ice cream
• Shoes/Socks or as he says it “shoesock on!”
• Balls of any kind…he’s even learned how to say the different types recently!
• Scooters, bikes, skateboards and yes, he tries to ride them all and does really well on the scooters!
• Getting dirty
• Washing his hands (he’ll stand at the sink for 20 minutes if I let him!)
• Screaming “Mommmmmy!”
• H “ugs”
• Snuggling after he wakes up
• Nate-Nate (he calls both of his brothers Nate-Nate!)
• His blue Clifford Doggie, Mac
• (Any) night-night blanket (and he’ll often just lay down where ever he is when he finds one and pretend to be asleep!)
• Milk! This boy loves milk.
• Books…and he just started saying again, which he loves saying after reading a book.
• Saying nooooooooooooooo! (but always with a smile!)
• Saying yes and then nodding… :)
• Swings (and slides but he calls them both swings!)
• Sammy's snow boots
• H "ats"
• Monkeys

Family pictures with Kellie Larsen Photography

I take tons of pictures of the boys. Way too many. But professional photography is one of those things that I almost never have done (besides a gift from my sister Cathy who paid for the boys to have some pics taken!) I didn’t have pictures of each boy taken at 0, 3 mos, 6 mos, etc…and the last time we did something like this with the whole family was before Nathan’s big surgery when I wanted to make sure if something went horribly wrong that we had some nice pictures to remember him by and my brother-in-law Danny took those with his DSLR!

Anyway…this was a great experience and might I add, was (especially by professional photography standards) affordable. Kellie wants to make sure that people, normal people like us, can afford to take pictures! So enjoy the pictures and definitely look her up when you need family pictures. She is a great gal that the boys immediately were comfortable with and we will definitely be using her services again!!! :)

Enjoy the pics that we picked out and if you’re interested in seeing the rest check them out at Smugmug…

Here are a few of my favorites :)

       

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Or check the full gallery out on Smugmug!