Out of the Mouth of Davis

I really wish I could bottle up 4 year old Davis forever. He is so cute, so funny and so full of life! His vibrant red hair and bright blue eyes are the perfect match for his personality- BRIGHT and LOUD and UNIQUE. People from our neighborhood often remark to me (usually quietly, like it's a secret) that Davis is their favorite kid. He's just contagious. His antics lately have been such a light in my life- it's hard to record them here because my words just don't do his hilariousness justice. The way his little face moves when he talks and his comedic timing is just the best. But I'll try!

Since Halloween he decided he was "Miles", not Davis. Miles Morales is the black Spider-Man. To the point that he went to preschool as Miles, his papers came home from sunbeams with Miles written on them (by his teacher, but Davis knows how to spell his own name, and knows Miles starts with an M and WAS NOT OKAY with her writing Davis). Anyone who called him Davis got corrected.

So naturally, in the primary program, he sprinted up to the pulpit with a huge smile on his face and declared "My name is Miles, and I can be like Jesus by going to Sunbeams." Everyone in the congregation got a good chuckle out of that.

Then he kind of slowly phased from being Miles, to being Buddy (the dog). So now at least 50% of the day he's Buddy, who mostly yips and pants and can't open doors on his own and crawls around on the floor and lays on blankets. At a dr. appointment recently the nurse referred to him as Davis and he turned around, yipped at me and in a little high voice said, "MOM! Can you please tell her to call me Buddy!"

He was really sad one day while I was facetiming Heidi. She asked why. He replied "Because I'm not eating cookies!" (This is the most legit reason to be sad, ever.)

Shortly after that they made cookies at preschool with instructions to take them to someone. 

Me: So Davis, who are you going to take these cookies to?

Davis: Will!

Me: Why did you pick Will?
Davis: Because Will is sad.

Me: Why is Will sad?

Davis: Because he doesn't have any cookies!

Lila and Davis are in a Covid vaccine study, which means two shots and three blood draws. He hates the needles and after the first appointment where he really freaked out, he talked about it a lot. So we started watching the Daniel Tiger episode about getting a shot and he asked for it over and over again, really preparing for him next appointment. He would repeat often "Close your eyes, and think of something happy!" When I asked him what his happy thought would be, he would always close his eyes, smile and say "Will". His little friend Will Hickman was his happy thought!

Then we started talking about Monkey Will, who Davis ONLY refers to as MONKEY Will (which derived from Unky Will). He says Monkey Will is his cousin. He will not be persuaded otherwise. When I asked him why he thinks that he said, "Because he lives at my cousins house!" Also, he calls his cousins Ner-a (Nora) and Anna-girl (Her parents call her Banana Girl). 

He's so darling an affectionate. At least once a day he will wrap me up in a big hug and enthusiastically exclaim "Oh mommy! I JUST LOVE YOU!" Whenever I do his laundry he thanks me profusely. "You washed these FOR ME! THANK YOU!"

When I ask him to do things he doesn't want to do he very calmly replies, "Um......no."

Often times he starts phrases with "Well....." 

Davis loves his little preschool group. He's the only boy with four little girls. He doesn't mind at all, especially since he doesn't have to share the super hero toys with anyone else. He calls them "my preschool girls!" I asked him if Grace was his friend. He said, "No, Grace is my girl!"

He's in costume all the time- whether it's Spider-Man, Ironman or a storm trooper. Somedays it's all three. He loves his suits. Especially when he's in costume, he can't even move without making little sound effects. Whooshing as his shoots webs. Electronic sounds of the ironman armor. Whenever he lifts the mask on his ironman helmet, it's accompanied by very realistic sound effects. 

This is a day he was Buddy. He had to eat his breakfast on the floor like a dog. And then while I was making dinner, he played fetch with me for a whole hour. Carried the ball in his mouth the whole time just like a little dog. Right after this he went to be babysat at Papa Ray's and asked Papa Ray to put Chelie's leash on him and take him for a walk (Papa Ray said no).

I'm not even sure what the plan for this was, but I saw this in his room one night. 

He's constantly dressing up in funny little outfits and I love how insistent, yet casual he is about it. Like its totally normal to wear and hat and sunglasses inside all morning. 

I could just eat this kid up! His little face is the cutest thing in the world to me and I love him so much!
 

Hudson's trip to Seattle!

Two weeks after Chase and I got home from Boston, it was Hudson's turn! Ben picked Seattle as their destination, since he'd never been there and wanted to see it, and Dude Perfect was also performing a live show in Tacoma. 

I wasn't at all surprised when Ben texted me a picture their first day at a chocolate factory. Anywhere we travel, Ben is always scouting out a chocolate factory to tour (we rarely actually do it). This ended up being a highlight for both of them!

They had fun exploring the sites in Seattle. They hit up Pikes Place Market and saw the gum wall. They went to the museum of flight. And Ben researched carefully to find them the best restaurants, where they ate lots of seafood. And they also had a fair amount of chill time at the hotel- something both of them really enjoy :)

Dude Perfect did not disappoint for Hudson! He loves these guys and is such an avid fan. He had saved up his money to buy a Dude Perfect hat and talked about this show relentlessly afterwards.

Hudson is super scared of heights, but did say he wanted to go to the top of the space needle. Ben said on the whole elevator ride up to the top, he could feel Hudson's heart beating super fast through his chest. Once they got to the top, Hudson stayed in the center part and wouldn't go out on the balconies, and was super concerned when Ben stepped out to enjoy the view and see the glass-bottom floor. And Hudson was pretty anxious to get back down, but HE DID IT! That's huge for Huds, and he was super proud of himself!

 I'm so glad Ben and I got to do these little trips with our big kids- it was such a luxury to get that quality time with them and something we've promised ourselves we will do again as often as possible. I didn't really think Davis would notice that we just took the big kids. He did. I guess we better work on getting something in the works for Davis...

Halloween

I say it every year, but Halloween is so fun with kids! Their excitement just brings so much magic to a holiday that otherwise is kind of whatever for me. It fell on a Sunday this year, which I loved. And the Friday before we had no school. Which meant we spread the Halloween fun over three days which was awesome! On Friday I carved pumpkins with the boys. I thought it was going to be stressful and I was not super excited going into it, but all three boys (and Lila) surprised me by being super chill and happy the whole time. No one complained. No one got sliced accidentally. They all just waited patiently for me to help them and enjoyed playing in the pumpkin guts in the meantime! I'm putting this one in the win column!

And their pumpkins fit their personalities perfectly- Hudson did a creeper from minecraft.

Davis's pumpkin is "spin" from spiderverse. I'm not sure it actually looked like Spin, but Davis is sure it does and I didn't correct him.

Chase designed AND cut his own pumpkin. He made it look like a city skyline! This was the week after we got home from Boston and he had big city on the brain!

Saturday we did trick or treating! After not getting to go last year, they were all so excited they got to go this year! I was shocked that Davis remembered trick or treating in great detail (he was only 2 last time he went- also dressed as Spider-Man). 

Lila was a darling ladybug.

Chase just wanted to be a zombie. Luckily, he thought this costume and make-up job was awesome.

I told Davis he could choose his costume from his existing pile of costumes he wears on a regular basis, which was great because he really only wanted to be Spider-Man anyway. He seemed super excited that the rest of the world joined him in dressing up!

I had a storm trooper costume for Hudson that he was planning to wear, right up until an hour before trick or treating when he asked if he could just wear his Jedi costume from last year again. Whatever makes him happy!

We stopped at Nana and Papa's to get pictures of all the cousins together and get loaded with treats from Nana and Aunt Kate. These two little girls are just getting cuter and cuter and their little friendship is melting all our hearts.

I handed out candy while Ben took the kids out trick or treating. I let Chase go on his own with friends, which he was super excited about. Richie's family came down to trick or treat in our neighborhood. The plan was for Ben and the younger kids and the Petty's to all stay together, but they were faster than Lila. So Hudson ended up spending the night with Petty's while Ben went at a slower pace with a darling little Ladybug and super excited Spider-Man. The kids kind of trickled home. Ben brought Lila first. 15 minutes later he came with Davis. Hudson showed up a little later. And Chase got home last, and used every minute of his curfew! After checking in, Chase got to go watch a scary movie with friends (are we already at that stage!?!) and we put the little guys to bed. They were all full of sugar and so happy!

Sunday was actual Halloween. We wanted to do something to make it a little festive, so we did a Harry Potter night. The boys picked recipes from our cookbook and helped me make all the food. Hudson picked an apple crumble pie (when I told him that didn't seem very British, he responded with "well, I'm American"). Chase picked Kreacher's french onion soup and mini meat and potato pies (both were super delicious). Then we curled up and watched the 7th Harry Potter movie Part II. It was a magical night!

 

October

The kids had a pumpkin sale! They each made a good amount of cash, which they used to buy souvenirs later that month on their trips.

This is just SO DAVIS. He's always in costume. The googles were new though.

Conference weekend felt really, really busy. Saturday conference we caught what we could in between a whole bunch of kids stuff, errands, house projects. On Sunday we needed to breathe a little, so after having cinnamon rolls for breakfast we headed up to Snowbasin to appreciate the beautiful fall leaves. It was stunning. I couldn't stop marveling at the beauty! Of course, the beautiful of the leaves pale by comparison to my beautiful family. 

We listened to Conference while driving home and spent the rest of the day feeling uplifted and inspired by their beautiful messages.

A few days later Lila had a rather dramatic day- poor girl dislocated her elbow! It happened to quickly when Ben went to pick her up and she flailed a little in protest. I popped her right in the car and headed to instacare. The Dr. on call popped it back in super easily and immediately Lila acted totally normal. Later that day we went for flu shots, which she also didn't love. But none of those things were as traumatic as when I made her sit by a pumpkin for a photo.

Phrases I didn't think I'd ever say, "Don't lick the car." 

Over the kids fall break we did dinner in a pumpkin! The kids surprised me and actually loved it!

We had the cousins over to play one morning while they were showing their house (the people who came that morning bought it!) and I snapped this darling photo of Davis and Anna "We're being ironmans!"

And then Lila and Rosie (RoRo as Lila has been calling her) practiced their sharing. They decided that the purple bunny was Rosie's and the pink one was Lila's for the morning. Whenever one girl saw an abandoned bunny they'd immediately take it to their cousin- it was so cute and sweet!

We all went out on a walk and after I took this I realized they look just like the Von Trapps with seven kids all lined up like that. Maybe I should have had them sing?

This is how the Hugo boys do crazy hair day. Meaning- nothing for Chase, and Hudson had a funny idea.

Davis has gotten super into legos and I love watching him play. 

Chase applied to the school's robotics team. He has wanted to be on the team for years and this year it was finally his turn to apply. So many kids applied and he was so nervous. I picked him up from school this day and he was waving an envelope- I was hoping it was good news. It was! He absolutely loves it! His little robotics teams consists of 4 of his best buddies- it's been a great experience for him.

Hudson's book report assignment included making a pumpkin to look like a character from his book, and then filling out a "report card" giving examples of characteristics of that person. He, of course, chose Harry and put so much thought into the details of painting it. Then while filling out the report card, he asked me if he could use wizarding grades- O/E/A/P/T. I love his creativity!

The boys had a piano recital! It was Hudson's first recital and they both did so well! Chase started learning his Sonatina in July- it was long and challenging and beautiful. Hudson played the theme to Pirates of the Caribbean. We love Jodi, she's the best piano teacher. It is so fun to hear these boys learn this skill.

She got into my lipstick! Pretty!