Jack is SEVEN!

Happy happy birthday to everyone's favorite scallywag:

Jack Q. Izatt (as he prefers to be addressed) is seven years old! If this feels sudden... like, maybe you remember just reading about him turning six... that's because you did haha. The only real thing that bugs me about being this behind on my blog is birthday posts... I feel like they aren't as genuine when they're six... nine... twelve... months after the fact ;). SO, until I catch up on the blog (aka never) I figure I'll jump in and do birthday posts on time!

SO, here's Jack as a seven year old: He's a total babe at school. Loves first grade. Loves Miss Overcast. Loves the rules and the schedule and the consistency and the work and specials and lunch and recess. I subbed in his classroom for two days recently and Jack was amazing - he listened well and interacted so positively with his classmates and did his work adorably. Jack also loves piano. Like LOVES piano. He started in August and never looked back - he doesn't fight us at all about practicing and has a couple songs memorized to whip out at random family or church events haha. Jack also loves Pokemon. Grandma Pam introduced the kids to a Pokemon club at the Boise Library and after watching his older brothers play for a few weeks, Jack was permitted to sneak into official play early despite being younger than the 'age 8' cutoff they use. Over the last few months, Jack has become a complete and total football aficionado, much to Chuck's delight. Jack is obsessed with the rules and with the records of various NFL teams, and has studiously selected BYU as his favorite collegiate team (much not to Chuck's delight haha). Praise the heavens for youtube - we don't get most games on TV so every morning following a big game, Jack wakes me up at 5:59 with a whispered, "Mom? Do you know who won last night? Can I go watch highlights from the game?" haha. He loves his primary teachers and class and recently requested a suit be purchased for him to wear each Sunday - a slight upgrade from the crocs/shorts/polo look he previously sported for church functions. Blessedly a suit jacket and pants were procured from the Boise Savers for a grand total of $4 and Jack looks dashing and debonair in them!

Jack is a pretty typical third child: he really really loves and thrives on one-on-one attention. And he really really does not thrive on being interrupted. Or almost being interrupted. Or there being a slight chance that someone is not paying attention while he's talking. He LOVES reading scriptures aloud when we study them together in the evenings as a family but has very strict rules about who can help him if he stumbles on a word... and also the time frame for that - i.e. he prefers to ponder the word alone for a bit before requiring assistance. But you have to read his mind to know when it's acceptable to offer help. It's really special ;). Jack and Carma are the cutest little buddies. Jack and his older brothers either got along fabulously or NOT AT ALL. Jack and Will were having some issues as roommates so Chuck and I prayed, pondered, and ultimately decided that adding another brother into the mix would help, so Clyde packed up his belongings and moved down the hallway into their bedroom too! The boys have dubbed their space 'HQ' and 88% of the time it's fantastic. The other 12% involves Jack's beloved privacy being invaded. Jack requires the room to be completely empty when he changes any article of clothing at all. Like, even socks. Is this the same child that occasionally drops his towel and streaks through the house after a bath? Why yes, yes, it is. I DON'T UNDERSTAND IT EITHER (insert alllll the crying emojis....)

Chuck and I have so much love for and pride in our Jackers. He definitely tries our patience... about every thirty eight seconds... but we remind ourselves of his sweet, tender side and forge on with great hopes and expectations for how he'll entertain and surprise and infuriate us in days to come haha. Happy birthday Jack!!

February ramblings... aka all of it...

Carma would like to welcome everyone to this long boring recap of the entire month of February. She highly recommends a Juicy Juice to get you through the post:

Chuck and these three yahoos hit up Wendy's for the Park Ridge PTA dinner out, which is always a good time. Will was VERY sad to miss it but he was home sick.

Carma spent the month delving into the world of make-up. Sadly I have a very small selection from which she can steal, but here she is figuring out my mascara, eye shadow and lip gloss:

Aaaand this day she availed herself of my foundation and was not shy about the coverage haha. 

We had the Blue and Gold Banquet for Cub Scouts; the boys voted for a western theme:

Chuck spent his early formative years on a ranch which makes him look extra hot in plaid shirts ;). 

We had a lego competition one night - everyone had a different theme and 30 minutes to create a scene... then we put them up for a fb poll. No surprise, Chuck's 'shipwreck' won with Clyde's 'zombies' in second place. I don't think people really appreciated my bee.

Movie date with Grandma Pam to see Coco! It got rave reviews from the whole crowd.

I sneaked away one Sunday morning to be at baby Kaitlyn's blessing and it was lovely and Kaitlyn is an absolute doll and Emily is amazing. 

Movie date with Dad to see Thor: Ragnarok.

We went through a SET phase because it's my favorite game ever. I love watching my kids get better and better at it!!

More games inside... February was cold, yo.

Not super snowy, though, much to Jack and Carma's disappointment. They loved going out when it did snow a bit:

I'm all about snowball fights when the snow is soft and I'm protected by the living room window!

Jack's basketball season wrapped up. It was so so fun to watch him get animated and enjoy playing with his teammates:

Cute boy after one of his games.

Carma will miss the practices and games though; she loved cheering for her brother and also loved wandering away to get a drink every 8.7 seconds ;).

Sometimes Karlina and I feel so inspirational and amazing during yoga that we have to document the occasion ;).

Ummmm this dress was one of my favorites for Carma Junie:

Oh, this one was definitely another favorite.

Carma was pretty dolled up this particular Sunday... so obv we needed some pictures with her cute Andy. Those two legit kill me.

Aaaaand a million more pictures of Cray-cray from this month....

Couple fun temple trips this month including one with Shannon to the Boise Temple:

and one with Sister Holm and Sister Barnhill to the Meridian Temple! I loved being invited to join these two lovely women on our their outing. 

Some Valentine's Day celebrating - Raquel and I both looked adorable in pink the Sunday prior, the big boys got Valentines from their beloved piano teacher, Cookie Wednesday, and Chuck made delicious chicken alfredo for us AND for the Robertsons because he's a stud.

Chuck and I sneaked in a temple date the day after Valentine's thanks to my awesome dad! He took Carma and Jack to lunch and a movie down the street from the temple so it worked out perfectly :).

Mushy facebook memories:

Another temple date! Raise your hand if you've ever taken a selfie with me and I made you take a second one so I could flip my hair back around to the front haha.

Carma felt very grown up in February (maybe it was the makeup...) so she took it upon herself to make a couple trips over to Andy's house... alone... without permission... SIGH! Instagram caption from the video still on the left: "That awesome parenting moment when you learn your daughter's whereabouts via a Marco Polo video from your excellent friend around the corner 😳🤦🏻‍♀️👀. My fave part was Grace asking if her mom knew she was there to play and Carma merrily lying, "Yesss!" 🤗👎🏼🤥🤔😂" The pictures on the right are mid-lecture when she did it AGAIN the next week. It would appear she finally got the memo that she's THREE not THiRTEEN and has not sneaked out since... that we know of...

Seems like a timely moment for this meme...

Our stake relief society held a fun morning of mini-classes and lunch. I attended one about senior missionary service and was so happy to see this couple featured in the slideshow - Holly's parents-in-law!!

And we gathered our ward sisters for a picture during lunch because we're awesome like that. I'm so grateful to get to spend time with these ladies (and more!) every Sunday.

Beautiful scripture and beautiful image:

Ummm not to get super political but I definitely appreciated President Russell M. Nelson's comments after the devastating school shooting in Parkland. Here's a news article about what he said: https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2018/02/24/mormon-church-president-russell-nelson-laments-laws-that-allow-guns-to-go-to-people-who-shouldnt-have-them/

On a lighter note, I came across this on twitter and laughed pretty hard:

Jackers is a responsible kindergartner, hooray!!

If there's anything Will loves more than PDA, it's pictures with me:

My new plan appears to be not telling my sons I'm taking a picture... it clearly worked well here with Clyde...

Will and Carma together are pretty hilarious, not gonna lie:

Caption via instagram: Will deigned this Where’s Waldo? shirt as his Friday shirt. He wore it on Thursday and when I asked about he replied, “I know, I was a bit surprised too!” And that’s Will: specifies shirts for days of the week, regularly uses “a bit” in everyday conversation, and is just about as cute and silly as can be 😆😍😎

Girls' niiiiiight! I don't know how I'm friends with so many people that wear jeans. 

Bonus girls' night - had a lovely, lovely dinner with incredible women that I'm blessed to be related to! These are some of my aunts and cousins on my dad's side of the family (we missed a few who couldn't make it and all the out-of-towners). So fun to catch up (in person instead of on facebook haha!) and spend some time together. L to R: Aunt Deana, me, Lindsey, Lorrie, Aunt Diane, Andrea, and Kellie. I'm excited to get together again sometime!

I feel very passionately in favor of this idea:

This kills me every time I re-read it hahahahaha.

Ahhhh I love it when general authorities get all mushy and sweet about their wives!

Kristen Bell is probably the coolest celebrity out there, and I'm not just saying that because they're making more Veronica Mars episodes. I really appreciate how vocal she is about how hard marriage is but how worthwhile it is.

Aaaand that's everything from February... including this shot of Chuck reading the blog out loud to Jack and Carma.

 I blog in an effort to be as over-sharing as possible and bore everyone silly enough to click on the link from fb... but mostly because of how fun it is for our kids to read old entries. So onto March, I guess!