30 September 2007

Abe and Helen eat a limited diet because of their food allergies and they HATE to miss out on dessert. We all eat a lot of rice crispy treats. Here Abe and Helen are making another favorite kid treat-- Jello. Did you know Cool Whip is dairy free? Scary. Abe and Helen love Cool Whip. Jello is just a useful vehicle to supply Cool Whip.


Abe LOVES having a brother. He is not waiting for Gibson to grow big enough to wrestle, but regularly tackles Gibson whenever Becky is too far away to stop him. Abe's preschool teacher calls this male bonding. Becky is sure Gibson is going to end up in the ER.


A favorite game at our house is for the kids to jump on Brandan and cling on the best they can while he tries to shake them off. They can jump on better when he is sitting or kneeling down and sometimes they don't warn him that they're coming. So far, Brandan has stayed out of the ER as well.


Finally, a moment of silence is due in appreciation for our well used baby swing. It broke this week. As well as we can tell, 7 babies have used this swing. Linda bought it for us second hand when Sophie was born, all of our kids have used it and we've loaned it to 2 different friends. It came back from one of the loans a mis-match of parts, but still worked well. Farewell, faithful swing.

23 September 2007

Today was our ward's Primary Program in Sacrament Meeting. Sophie's piano teacher arranged "I Know That My Redeemer Lives" as a duet for Sophie to play with another one of her students in our ward, Zachary. The duet sounded beautiful today-- their hard work payed off. Sophie also sang "I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus" in a duet and "Beautiful Savior" in a small group. Abe was in the same small group to sing "Beautiful Savior" and sang "Listen, Listen" with the Sunbeams. They also both memorized their speaking parts. There were lots of other songs and speakers and the program was wonderful. The photo shows Sophie and Zachary practicing their duet.


Gibson is very, very mobile. He only moves backwards and sideways so it takes him a bit of problem solving to get where he wants to go. He constantly surprises himself and us by ending up in odd places like underneath the rocking chair. Any object he comes across in his travels goes instantly to his mouth, like the unfortunate block in the photo. Gibson has a very wet mouth.


The weather has been beautiful - 80s and sunny - and we took advantage of good weather and an unscheduled (mostly) Saturday to do some yard work. One project was staking our chitalpa tree. This gorgeous tree is a cross between a catalpa for its blossoms and a chilopsis for its heat tolerance. Our tree is leaning south a bit so we're trying to straighten it out.

16 September 2007

Abe has memorized a few books that he can "read" to Helen. This one is about a turkey that gets its clothes mixed up and they both think it's hilarious, even after its 100th reading.


Gibson continues to amaze us as he cruises past milestones. He can balance himself sitting now, although not well enough to leave him sitting alone. Sophie took this photo.


Last night we invited several friends over for lasagna and whiffle ball. Whiffle ball is traditionally played like baseball, but our game was a combination of baseball/tag/dodgeball where at least one touchdown was scored. Who knows which team won, especially since the kids wandered freely between the field and the batting lineup, depending where the action was. The photo below shows some of the kids. Their parents came, too.


Here's a pretty typical Sunday afternoon at the Hull house. Helen is taking a nap. Becky is updating the blog. Brandan is reading to everyone else. He just started reading Inkheart by Cornelia Funke, an excellent adventure story.

9 September 2007

Our friends, Greg and Kathy, invited us to go rafting with their family on Labor Day. We met Greg and Kathy at the U years ago and now we live 20 minutes from each other. Their kids are named Reagan, Bethany and Henry (standing behind Greg). It was a gorgeous day to be on the river. Gibson hated his life jacket, but luckily he slept for about 4 hours so he didn't cry the whole time. We did wonder if he even needed the life jacket. We're pretty sure he'd just bob on top of the water. We're sad to say goodbye to summer.


A correction: Sophie is not sad to say goodbye to summer. She woke herself up at 6am the first morning of school. Fourth grade has lived up to her expectations. She loves her teacher, is glad to be back with her friends and is eager for homework.


Abe started preschool this week. He visited his school a couple of times before school started and he knew he'd love it. He gets to paint and dig for treasure and play in water. His classroom has worms, snails, bugs and a pond with fish. He has 3 great teachers. If that wasn't enough for any boy, in a couple weeks, the school will have their new pirate play structure delivered. The worst part of school is waiting for Tuesday and Friday so he can go.


Gibson delighted us by cutting 2 teeth this week. His first tooth through was his bottom left incisor which showed up on Tuesday. His right incisor followed today. You can't see his teeth in this photo, but we're hoping to see more smiles from Gibson now his teeth are through.

And here's Miss Helen, all dressed for church. Helen is the big girl at home with Abe and Sophie at school and she is so much fun. Helen has a great sense of humor and loves to tease Becky.

2 September 2007

Our public library closed in April, ending storytime which we attended weekly. This summer we had storytime at our house every Wednesday morning and Becky would read stories and lead activities and songs. We had between 3 and 20 kids come every week. This Wednesday was the last storytime and we ended with a teddy bear picnic.


This weekend was our ward campout at Lake of the Woods. Our ward uses the Girls' Camp every year. Here Brandan is out paddling with Sophie, Helen and Abe.


Besides a gorgeous lake with canoes, the Girls' Camp has lots of amenities including cabins to sleep in, showers and flush toilets and a dining hall with a full sized industrial kitchen. Brandan helped cook breakfast Saturday morning: pancakes, sausage, eggs and fruit--yummy!


Brandan and Becky came to the end of an era this week by finishing the 7th Harry Potter together. We've read them all outloud to each other. This was easier to do back when Brandan was just in school and we only had Sophie. No spoilers here, in case some of you haven't read it yet, but we loved the book. Becky will admit she cried a little.