Dinosaur National Monument Trip

Over President's Day weekend, we took the boys on a fun trip. We drove 200 miles to Vernal to visit the Dinosaur National Monument.

The boys absolutely loved it!

Day Two, February 19, 2012

We were so glad we did all the outdoor activities on Saturday. Sunday it snowed, and snowed!

Sock Gloves

Derek and Caleb like helping me clean the bathroom. Derek came up with the idea to put socks on his hands for his "gloves". He saw that I had gloves on, so he wanted to do the same. Now Caleb has joined the tradition. I hope they keep their enthusiasm as the get older and can actually be more a help than a hinderance when I clean.

Brennan's Boa Constrictor Report

Yesterday Brennan gave an oral report on Boa Constrictors. He did a great job! His project turned out great too. The whole family was able to watch him give his report. Derek and Caleb get SO excited when they get to go to "Brennan's school."

Sunsets

This was the beautiful sunset on Feb. 11, 2012.

Form over function... gone

I can still remember the day I had to pack-up my cream hand towels in my guest bathroom. That was 5 years ago. With boys, there was just too much dirt to keep the cream towels looking clean all the time.

I've now come to another turning point, form over function is now gOnE. I've always made sure form was the most important feature in my living spaces. I was able to "hide" most of the kid stuff or at least "contain" it. Sadly those days are gone.

I know I'll be able to live form over function sometime in the distant future... but for now it's ALL function. I've been going through the house finding ways to organize and keep the kids stuff under control. I used to try and also keep it out of sight. It's just not possible anymore. It was becoming so stressful and time consuming to try and keep it all out of our main living area and out of sight. I've had to embrace this new way of thinking. I am so sensitive to my environment and clutter causes me stress...

The bins and baskets are now in my living room and kitchen. My new goal is to try and get processes down so the kids know where everything lives and sleeps. I know it won't be perfect, but I'm going to try.

Here's to a new way of living!

Games and Poems

Brennan loves to write and create. Here are some samples of his recent work.

This is a game Brennan developed after creating a few smaller ones. Each new game had improvements and this final one is really fun to play.

I pledge to the flag, 

with strong voices and to our nation,

Our nights tire out, 

our nation we bless to be strong,

With strong armor to be protected, 

and to stay healthy,

We fight for our freedom today, 

we bless to be safe

and not to be invaded,

We won't fight unless we have to.

This is the illustration that went with the poem.

Making Green Smoothies

Feb. 15, 2012

Caleb loves helping Clint make green smoothies. He stands on the stool right by the blender and drops-in the bananas, apples, pears, etc.

Caleb calls them green "smoovies"

Sweet Valentines

We had a great Valentines Day. Brennan had a basketball game and we just stayed home and ate dinner together. I left out little goodies for the boys with some notes taped to them. Clint brought home some beautiful flowers and a sweet card. It was a great day!

I sent some Valentines to all the second counselors in RS in the stake. I sent six little cards they could use to give to the ones they love. I had two of the sisters thank me for the cards. One sister is a teacher and she was so grateful that she could make pancakes and leave those little cards and her family would know that she cared for them. Another sister thanked me and said how great it was to just be able to put the cards on her children's pillows. She had tears in her eyes when she was talking to me. I know it's so much better to give.

More Mischievous Messes

Yup, that's shredded cheese! (2-15-2012)

Both Caleb and Derek are obsessed with tape lately (2-16-2012).

My 18 yr. old curling iron got snipped last week. 

Caleb took a pair of scissors to the cord... 

or was it Derek... I couldn't tell who was lying!

At least I got a lot of years of use out of my Cabooldes® curling iron. 

I couldn't get too mad. (2-16-2012)

Caleb is now aware of what will happen once I catch him in a mess.

 He tries to pout so I won't punish him. Too bad it doesn't work. 

He gets punished no matter what! (2-13-2012)

Caleb is Feeling Better

Caleb has had a nasty virus the past five days. It started last Thursday and he's finally feeling better today. Last night was our first full-night of sleep, {{yeah}}
He had a fever and congestion. With his stuffed-up nose, he just couldn't sleep well. He'd be up every hour. Clint and I would split the night, I'd have Caleb duty until 1 am and Clint would take over until he left for work at 5 am.

This morning, he's already created two messes. We had some counting cards on the table we were using to help Derek with his numbers. I hear water running in the bathroom... Caleb had them all in the sink washing them with soap and water. While I'm cleaning that up, he grabbed a pencil and was tracing the back of one of our kitchen chairs. At least the chair was plastic and it mostly wiped-up.

I know he's feeling better!

Christmas Morning 2011