A few Little Boy Moments....

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Tyler: Tyler has been in preschool (a FANTASTIC preschool, I might add) since the school year started. He and his friend Andrew go together to this school. Well, recently Andrew's brother had the unfortunate experience of getting a skin ailment called molluscum contagiousum (I have no idea if I spelled that right) - anyway, this is super contagious and could easily go through the entire family. One of the preschool moms got wind of this and it caused a huge ruckus at preschool. Andrew ended up getting ONE bump and it was gone in a matter of days but by that time there was enough of a stink that Andrew's parents decided it wasn't worth the drama of dealing with the other moms if they were so concerned about it so they pulled Andrew out for the rest of the year.

I never told Tyler what was going on, because I didn't want him treating Andrew any differently...my theory was any kid could've gotten it anywhere....it just happened to this one family. Tyler was so upset that Andrew wasn't coming back to school...so a few weeks after he had been going without his friend...the teacher pulls me aside and tells me that he had a meltdown in class and told her that he can't come back to school because he has sores on his body. She had him show her where he had "sores" - and he pointed out a few scrapes...he misses his friend so much and it was hard for Miss Amber to hear and hard for her to let Andrew go too...but Tyler decided that if Andrew was gone - he should go too. He is the sweetest little boy! We are holding out hope that Andrew will be able to come back to school sometime in February or March since the sores are gone and none of the other kids got it...In the meantime, Tyler and Andrew play at least a few times each week!

Dallin: Dallin has been an active kid from the time I could feel him move inside me. He has an endless amount of energy and managed recently to get the honey from the kitchen and spread it on his carpet so strategically that it's only noticed when you are barefoot and not looking. He has also developed a love of scissors and has used them to cut Tyler's dinosaur bedspread, my phone charger (that was PLUGGED IN when he cut it to pieces), and write with permanent BLUE marker all over his walls, bedroom doors, and bathroom counters. He dumped an entire bottle of purple nail polish all over his carpet- it didn't all come out, but it's better than it was. He has also taken the bean bag down to the stuffing and spread it all over the room!!!! I wouldn't trade a single minute of him....but I am human and I do get very frustrated sometimes.

Pinewood Derby 2012

This year our Pinewood Derby was in January. Hunter really wanted to use a car that Uncle Philip and his boys had made so Travis said he could and off we went. Philip had spent lots of time and energy and $ on this car and you could tell - we ended up taking FIRST place with this car. I think Hunter has decided that he wants to try to duplicate it next year by using that car as his model and building one that is the same. It was a good learning experience. I think it was fun all around.

Wicked Weekend!

My mom, sisters, Marie, and sister-in-law Brittany went to Los Angeles , CA for the weekend. It was a girls only weekend without any kids. It was soooo much fun! We spent a lot of time laughing, driving, navigating, avoided crashes on the freeway of people who thought it was ok to come across the median and get back into the opposite direction of traffic......, we cried, we played, shopped, you name it we did it! Marie brought her shellac nail stuff so we all had our fingernails shellacked! So, lovely! We went to downtown L.A. on Friday and did some shopping in the fabric and fashion districts. I compare this to shopping in Tijuana Mexico - you can barter for your price and there are screaming good deals! Lynn and Marie even found a guy - "Speedy" who took them to a separate location to view some "knock off" bags and purses. Marie was pretty shaken by the whole experience - thought Speedy was going to take all there money and leave them to die. While I would've likely peed my pants in this situation, Marie and Lynn kept it together....and returned to the fold! We enjoyed going to the show "WICKED!" on Saturday night - it was so fun and so entertaining....we were all sooooo tired from the mall shopping, L.A. shopping etc. that we came home after the show and CRASHED! GRRRReat weekend! Let's do it again!~

A midnight scare!

On Friday EARLY MORNING (1/13) @ 3:46am to be exact Travis and I were in a very good deep sleep (this does not happen often for him) and we woke to the sound of glass shattering everywhere. We both JUMPED up Travis ran down the hall to check on the kids and Hunter wasn't in his bed....(he had gotten cold in the night and was in bed with Gwendalin) so when Travis couldn't find him he was yelling "Hunter!" down the hall...I called Travis back to our room and said I thought it was the glass in the bathroom - sure enough we turned the light on and the glass above the bathtub had completely shattered and was in the tub and on the floor. It was so scary - so Travis put his gun back (yes he had grabbed his shotgun) and we laid back down - not before saying a prayer and laying restlessly for another hour before we could fall alseep again. I thought we were being burgularized! SO SCARY!

Lazy Sundays....

I have always loved Sundays. We have church at 9am for this year and I love the lazy afternoons. We tend to veg out as a family - and just have a great time. In the evenings we have been going over to grandma and grandpa's and my kids discovered a toy that me and my siblings used to play with growing up....the "BONGO BOARD" - I of course showed my kids how good I still am at it! They loved taking turns- even Travis tried it. And of course we played a bit of cards.... When the weather gets nicer we will add in an afternoon family walk! I treasure these days!

Somehow...

Every once in a while it really hits me that I am considered a competent adult capable of doing adult things: raising kids, having food storage, driving kids to and from activities, planning family vacations, talking to insurance companies, etc.

Today I was making cookies. Travis was upstiars laying down - I had just been laying down but couldn't sleep anymore- so I came down and made some oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. Travis came down just as the first batch came out of the oven and rounded the corner started to say to me "Where are some cooki....." when he realized I had already made some. It was then and while I was baking that I realized somehow I have become this adult person that knows what he likes (sometimes before he tells me) and I do grown up things. I was out of flour and sugar inside - so off to the garage I went to get the buckets from the garage to refill my inside supply....that's something my mom and dad had at their house when I grew up - buckets of storage food to replenish when we ran out.

I lead the music in primary....my mom was in primary - I can remember vividly the day she got released and she bore her testimony that she would miss us (she was the primary president) . Although I am not the primary president, I would miss my association with those sweet kids every week. I have so much fun in there...and I feel like it wasn't long ago that I was in primary and now they have deemed me an appropriate "adult" figure to be a teacher for them.

It's so crazy , that somehow through this circle of life it will inevitably be "my turn" to be in positions that I watched my parents be in. i.e. going to have "chats" with neighbors about thier kids, having to teach my kids the same life lessons that my parents taught me, establishing and enforcing rules in our house to hopefully prepare my kids for the world (big one right now - NO SLEEPOVERS) .... It's a bit overwhelming to think the Lord trusts me enough to make these decisions and deal with life events that will and do affect my life and the lives of my/His children.

Travis was asked to be a "guest speaker" at our ward's ym/yw this week. The task was to tell 3 stories - 2 true stories and 1 false. He worked on this from Sunday until Wednesday ....thinking up the best stories...the kids were enthralled with his stories to say the least and some of them made the comment "how come you're telling stories about things we shouldn't do..." He made sure to preface his commments with the comment that some of the things he was sharing (egging homes, having his sister pretend to be his mom, etc.) was not permission for these youth to do those things....BUT isn't it crazy that no matter how our parents prepare us for the world, somehow we have to figure it out on our own using the knowledge they have armed us with.....my point is, Travis was now the "adult figure" telling these youth the colorful stories of his past.....

Somehow the Lord is ok with us learning by trial and error as we trudge through life. What a colorful experience it is to reflect on how somehow I have become the adult that I thought only the "adults" in my life would ever be. How thankful I am for the learning experience it is.

Gwendalin's FIRST Dace Recital!

I hate that some of these pictures are sooo blury.....my camera was having issues.

I signed Gwendalin up for dance this year. She goes for 45 minutes every week and does ballet and tap. It was a tough choice to make because things were tight, but I decided it was good for her to have the exposure to different artistic things...and boy does SHE LOVE IT! Not only does she love it, but she is good at it. She had her recital tonight and did a fabulous job - she knew the moves, had the rhythm and most of all she was ADORABLE! (I'm not baised)....Mom and dad went with Travis and I to watch her perform and we gave her flowers after the performance! What a sweet girl! On the way home she and I had a quite a conversation about the difference between Mormons & Christians....this seems to be a constant one since my kid's friends tell them that they are Christian and it tends to throw them off....so FHE this week will be on the comparison between Mormons/Christians. I love little moments like that where I can share my testimony with my kids!