Ella Bella

My favorite picture of Ella!

Gavin's Best Friend

Gavin LOVES to look at pictures of himself on the computer. Today, while Matt was showing Gavin some pictures of himself, Gavin made a new request. He said "Dad, now I want to look at pictures of my best friend." Matt said "who is your best friend Gavin?" and Gavin said "my best friend in Seattle.....Gramma West!"
How sweet is that?

Sweet Prayers

Over the last few weeks Abe has staged a little rebellion about saying his nightly prayers. We are trying not to make an issue of it so we just give him the chance and remind him why we say prayers...if he still refuses we let it go for the night and try again the next (if you have any suggestions for us leave us a note in the comments section). Last night he said "I'm too sad today to say prayers" and let out a dramatic whimper (a pitiful sound he has perfected). Then it was Gavin's turn to say prayers. Gavin is good to say a prayer but has said the same things every night for the last 6 months (we are open to suggestions on this as well). Last night, after Abe's sad reply, he said his usual prayer but at the end added "and bless Abe to not feel so sad". Afterwards, Abe got a big smile on his face and said to me "now Heavenly Father will help me to not be sad". It is good to know that, as much as they bicker, fight and wrestle, they really do care about each other.

Da Fridge

The other day I cleaned out our fridge (this is Matt writing . . . yes, I clean sometimes) and I was so proud of my accomplishment that I took this photo. I figured we could show it off, MTV cribs-style, to give everyone an exciting view into the everyday lives of the West family. As you can see, lots of good stuff. You've got a mega-sized salsa container, condiments, oranges and lemons, some gluten-free bread for Gavin, condiments, a bottle for Ella, string cheese for Abe, condiments, bottles of OJ for Matt, Diet Coke for Karen, lots of tortillas, lots of condiments . . . that's how we roll.

Feeling diggowy

Abe is always trying to emulate his older brother. He wants to walk like him, talk like him, dress like him. The other day Gavin got on a real giggle fit. He couldn't control himself and it was making Mom laugh pretty hard too. The next day Abe comes to me forcing a laugh and I asked "Abe why are you laughing?" and he says "I am diggowy today, just like Gavin was". He spent the whole day forcing "diggle" fits, so he could be like his brother.

Bubble paint!

Today the boys and I made bubble paint. It is a combination of dishwashing liquid, water and paint. The idea is to put the mixture in a bowl, blow bubbles into it with a straw and then place your paper on the bubbles. You end up with a cool marble effect. Gavin was the first to try it. He did a great job (he has a lot of experience blowing bubbles into his milk). Abe was really excited to go next. On his first attempt he did a good job and got some nice bubble action going. The second time around he got confused and sucked in instead of blowing out (don't ask me why I didn't see that one coming!). He ended up with a mouth full of red paint/dish liquid and looking like dracula. From then on Mommy did the blowing and the boys placed the paper on the bubbles. Our pictures turned out pretty great and are hanging in our art gallery (the bathroom door) for all to see.

CICADAS

2007 is the year of the Cicadas! Every 17 years cicadas come out in Illinois. They are harmless bugs, but they are HUGE and come out in massive numbers. We haven't had many by our house, but we found a place just down the road where there are millions of them....so we went on a Cicada hunt! They make a constant loud buzzing so all we had to do was roll down our windows and follow the noise. We stopped at a park that was especially loud and went searching. The boys were excited at first, but when they saw the size of the bugs they got nervous. We eventually talked Gavin into holding one by promising him some ice cream. Abe was willing to hold one on a stick, but only long enough to win the ice cream cone. We took some great pictures of all of us with the cicadas and the boys are proud to say they held a cicada. The next time they get that chance Gavin will be 22 and Abe will be 20! Hard to imagine!