Temple trip

We went to the temple for Family Home Evening last night and the boys loved it. They had a good time exploring the grounds and talking about some of the things that happen in the temple. We also had our family scripture study at the temple, and they seemed to like that. They all kept saying that they wanted to stay there and wanted to go back soon. We've told them that maybe the next time we're down visiting family, we'll take them to see the Salt Lake Temple and maybe the Bountiful Temple so they can see the place where we got married. They're excited to be able to see more. It's so fun to see them excited about things like that.

Here are some pictures I took of them at the temple:

3 months old now

I just thought I'd post a few pictures I took of Daniel on his 3 month birthday. He's funny and won't smile for the camera even though he's pretty smiley in between the shots.
The marble and beans system we've been doing with Ben and Ben's teacher seems to be working so far. On Thursday he didn't get to keep any of his beans, so he didn't get to put a marble in the jar at home, but he was very happy coming off the bus on Friday because he had been able to keep 3 of his beans, which meant he got to put a marble (3, actually) in the jar at home. I'm sure his teacher appreciated that he was being better in class. (For those of you who haven't heard about this part, Ben's teacher called on Wednesday to discuss concerns she was having with him. Basically he's been defiant and will do the exact opposite of what she tells him to do, he blows in the other kids' faces to the point where they don't like to stand by him, he yelled at another teacher that she wasn't the boss of him, things like that.)







I thought I'd add this cute one of Chris, too.

Doctor for Ben and Daniel

Ben and Daniel both had doctor appointments today. Ben had his 5 year check-up and Daniel had his 2 month check-up (even though he's almost 3 months now). Both of them are healthy and growing well. Ben is now 45 pounds (75%)and 43 inches tall (50%). His eyesight is good and his blood pressure is good. He got to have another chickenpox booster, which he wasn't happy about, but it didn't really hurt him. Daniel is 13 pounds even (80%) and 23 inches tall (50%). He got 3 shots and an oral vaccine. He's not happy now though, since he's starting to not feel well from the shots. We had wondered about his soft spot on his head since it seems large, but his doctor said it looks fine. And he's like our other boys and we get to try to make him turn his head to the right more. He likes to keep it turned to the left and is making his head a little flat on that side. They're both healthy kids, though, so that's always a good thing.

How do you solve a problem like...Benjamin?

So Ben had a hard time being good this past weekend. On Friday he kind of fought with a kid on the bus on the way home from school. He was putting boogers on the kid and told the kid that he was going to cut him with his scissors. I believe he also called the kid names, but I'm not totally sure on that one. Ben wouldn't really tell us what had gone on.
On Saturday, we were over at our neighbors Brett and Alma's house having a BBQ. The kids ate and then were running around playing and Ben grabbed the top of a small baby tree they have in their backyard and looked at us all with that gleam in his eye. Brett and Bryce both repeatedly told him not to pull off the leaves, but that's exactly what Ben did. So he had to go home at that point.
Yesterday at church, Ben was actually pretty good during Sacrament Meeting, even when I had to leave him in the chapel by himself to take Alex to go to the bathroom. However, for some reason that is beyond my comprehension, Ben decided that he needed to keep pulling down his pants in Primary, getting himself kicked out for the day.
What do you do about a kid who doesn't want to be good and doesn't act like he feels any remorse for what he's done, other than the fact that he gets privileges taken away and ends up going to bed early? The only other thing I've been able to think to do is to try to have us be better at reading the Book of Mormon together as a family every day.

On a different note, Alex gets to start preschool today. He's excited to be able to go, I think because his big brother goes to school, so now this is something he gets to do.

The latest trip to the doctor (with an edit too)

Well, we just got back from taking Chris for his 2 year old check-up. He weighed 23 pounds, 4 ounces. That means that he gained more than a pound in the last 3 weeks. It also means that he's finally back on the chart. Yay for Chris! He's around the 3% for weight now. He's also about 33 inches tall, so he's still on the short side, but he is growing. He's looking pretty good in everything else. He got to have a Hep A shot, which he didn't like at all. We'll take him back when we take Daniel in for his 6 month check-up to check his weight and to check his testicles because one is bigger than the other and it could just be some fluid or it could be something like a hernia. It doesn't seem to be painful to him, so his doctor just wants to watch it for now.

We just barely made it to get Ben to school on time and had stopped at Wendy's so that he'd be able to eat lunch before he went to school. Of course, I looked in his sack when we got home and noticed that he hadn't eaten any of his chicken and not many of his fries, so hopefully he won't get too hungry at school. *Edit: When Ben came home from school today, I asked him if he had gone straight to class when he got there and he said he had, but then he went to the lunchroom. "They were having pizza. So I had some pizza and two oranges." It's just too bad that we haven't actually paid for any school lunches yet, don't you think?

Daniel and Ben both have doctor appointments in a week, so we'll get to go have more fun then.