Tubs and Zoo play

I don't have much to say. We've just been living our life of school, parks, soccer, storytimes, dinner, etc. We did go to the Deseret Ranch rodeo last Friday. It was a lot of fun to watch the bucking broncos and barrel races. At one point in the evening they release a bunch of little pigs and invited all the children to come try to catch one. If they did they would earn a dollar. The kids actually went out and tried, without any luck. Mer said she actually touched one, Max ran fast but never got one and I think Jack just stuck with Doug a ran around a bit. We also saw a pretty crazy horse collision when some riders were trying to catch a bucking bronco.

Here are some pictures of Jack and Luke tub mischief last week. They would spend an hour in there if I let themHere, we were pretending we were at the zoo feeding the Giraffe. If Luke looks a little dismayed it was because he was terrified of the giraffe face. Everytime Jack leaned forward to get a cracker Luke would wail.
I finished my church messenger bag I've been working on. Now that Luke is out of his baby carseat I no longer take the stroller into church with me to cart all my stuff around. I made the bag so I could carry all my stuff to teach my class and leave my hands free for Luke. It works like a dream, and thank you Sarah for my designer decorator fabric freebies that I made it out of.
We went on our Sunday walk at dusk and Max caught a toad. He named it Bumper and put it next to our house in hopes he might stick around to be caught again on a future evening. We've searched for him since without any luck.

The Sweetest Little Boys

Friday, Luke, Jack and I spent the morning at the zoo. We had a ton of fun seeing the animals and playing in this new water feature area. Anyway they were both still taking naps when it was time to go pick up Max and Mer from school. I felt bad ripping them both out of bed to load them in the car. As I carried Jack from his bed I told him we had to pick the big kids up and that I was sorry I had to wake him. "It's okay" he's said in a sleepy but sweet voice. I brought Luke out and loaded him up, he didn't even make a peep, just looked at me and smiled. My two peaceful happy boys still with sheet prints on their faces.


Minutes later, this was the scene in my rear view mirror. The lull of the car put them back to sleep. I remember thinking, what wonderful, cute little boys.

Saturday night we ran some errands that left us all in the car a little longer, well a lot longer, than we would have liked. And this was the scene as Doug leisurely drove through the neighborhood on our way home. (It's dark, you may have to view this at night with the lights off for the full effect.) My sweet little boys had HAD it. The chocolate covered raisins were gone and they were done being strapped in.

That night Max , our champion of pain, let Doug pull his loose tooth out. He finally lost his first tooth. He's so excited and proud that he hasn't even put it under his pillow for the tooth fairy yet. He has taken it around in a test tube container to show everyone at church and now to school.

First Injuryof the season.

So last night we spent a couple of hours in the ER with our little "Budding Baker"...Don't worry it wasn't a result of a baking accident. We were at soccer practice and while we were waiting for it to start, Mer figured out she could stand on her ball. She also immediately learned that it can quickly roll out from under her, leaving her face flat down to the ground. And so it did and she ended up with a badly sprained arm. She's in a sling for a few days and isn't supposed to run around much for a week or so. She let me take a cute picture on the condition that I wouldn't post it. I may be a little crippled without her helping haul Luke around.

This is a shot from her first game this past Saturday. She's number 2.

A Budding Baker

We are better now. Just a 24 hour bug.

After a couple years of practice with the Easy Bake oven, Meredith has graduated to real baking. She bought a kids baking book with some birthday money from Barne's and Noble last year, and has recently really taken an interest in baking things. It's wonderful. She is finally old enough to do it all with minimal help. She reads through the recipe and sets out all her ingredients and just goes for it. Today she volunteered to make Pizza for lunch, home made crust and all. It turned out awesome. She even does a great job cleaning up. She has really saved me in the kitchen a couple of times getting dinner on the table when I'm running late with it. She can cut a salad and start the rice. Its like having a little sous-chef speeding every thing along. Last week she made a great Cinnamon Swirl bread. I think this might be a new hobby she'll stick with for a while.

Disgusto

Disgusto means disgusting of course. It was a word invented by Max but most often used by Jack. We went through a period where everything that Jack tasted was "disgusto". It is actually pretty cute to watch him wrinkle up his nose and say it. Well its the word that best describes our last 24 hours. Luke, Jack, Doug, and I all have the stomach flu and it's disgusto. The smell, the laundry, it's all disgusto. Thus far Max and Mer have dodged the bug, they are actually loving it I'm sure because they have been sipping sprite all afternoon and Doug is getting them wendy's or something for dinner. That's what's happening here.

We have a one year old!

Luke is One!! Man that year went fast. We celebrated the day by getting balloons, wrapping presents, and making a ball cake. Of course Luke had his regular day of naps, driving the kids to school, and playing with Jack with the addition of Jack telling him all day long "It's your birthday Luke". Jack was so excited for him and couldn't wait till everyone got home for the party.
After dinner we had presents. Luke tried to open a few but got a bit of help from everyone. New clothes, new books, a sand toy basket, a ball, some spoons, a little elephant, and a little dog that barks and pants when you pinch his ear.

He wouldn't let go of his new pail and shovel once he got his hands on them and we eventually had to hide them to get him to notice any of his other presents. Then we had CAKE and let Luke tear into it. It was supposed to be a ball cake but with all those pokey circles I'm not sure he recognized it as one.

The frosting was hard from it being in the fridge and we had to help him get started. He had been playing with his new spoons just before cake time and he woudn't let them go, so the funny thing is that he ended up digging in with a spoon in each hand and eating like a pro. Such good table manners Luke!Happy birthday little buddy, we love you

Happy Valentine's day

Ever since Jack heard about Max's school V-day party he's been asking if he gets could go to a party like that. So Since Valentines day was on Saturday this year we had a V-day party at home in the afternoon with everyone. We all exchanged cards, decorated heart cookies, did a sand art/glitter picture, and opened packages from Grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. Thank you everyone for your valentines. We had a nice time and laughed over Doug's personalized Valentine poem cards. Mer and Doug gave me pretty red tulips and we treated ourselves to Papa Johns.


Monday was a day off from school. The kids really wanted to go swimming. I checked the forecast it said the high was going to be 80... so we ventured out to the nearest heated pool. Driving there we had to make a few stops and in getting in and out of the car it seemed the day was not heating up as the forecast said it would. The temp was 66 at ll:00 when we arrived at the pool! We had fun anyway and it was only cold when we got out because of all the wind. Luke and I even got in. Luke absolutely loves the water and kept squealing with delight at all the splashing. Here's a pic of Max shivering in his towel.
Meredith was a little mermaid and was last to get out
After we swam we changed clothes and had our lunch in the WARM car. Sufficiently toasty again, we went to the neighboring park for a little run around time.


Oh yes, When we got home in the afternoon I looked at the computer which was still open to the forecast of the day. It was then that I realized that I had pulled up the Melbourne, Australia forecast. No wonder it never got up to 80.