Lego's Come Alive...

My boys love their Legos.  Seriously.  They can sit at the table and build and build all day long, day after day if I let them.

One thing they always insist on is that their Lego men come alive at night and battle each other.  Well, I couldn't resist.  Last night we had a little fun.

We cleared the whole table and lined up the storm troopers and a battle ship. 

Then led all the Lego men (by Storm Trooper gun-point) to a bridge.  

Where after climbing to the top, they get their heads cut off.

(Wade told me this was too gruesome, but I knew they would think it was funny.)

(See the head at the bottom?)

But don't worry, Harry Potter & Hagrid (you can't see him in the picture) are there to save the day.

Last night it felt like Christmas Eve.  Seriously, I couldn't wait for them to wake up!

This was the expression on Noah's face when he first saw it.

Noah totally believes it, but Gage was skeptical and spent a good deal of his morning doing this face... "I've got my eyes on you...."

He is convinced that Daddy did this...or is he?  I had to make a video, because they were just too funny this morning.

So what is your guess?

I love being a mom.

Glow Stick Tub

Glow sticks in the bath tub = lots of giggling and no fighting!

Another one we do:  The pop up play tent in the shower.  They "think" they aren't getting wet, or clean....cracks us up every time.

Do you know those Uber-Creative-Can-Think-Of-Everything people?  I have a friend that is one, and I stole the glow stick idea from her.  And I love that although it's been 3 years since I've seen her, I can always count in her blog  to keep me full of ideas:)  It's so fun to see her blog pop on Pinterest and see people I know now pin her.  Anyway, it makes me feel like I know a famous person.  Thanks Erica, for the idea.

Fish Funeral

Yesterday, Noah's beloved goldfish, Boba Fett passed away.  

Of course, that meant it was time for a fish funeral.

After some deliberation and discussion of land versus sea, Noah opted to bury his fish on land.

After placing him in the ground, Wade asked if anyone wanted to say anything nice about Boba Fett. 

Noah - He was a good fish, and orange.

Gage - I liked him, but Shawn White ate him.

(Gage's fish is named Shawn White.  And, yes, we do think he was eating Boba Fett.)

He now rests in a nice place in our front yard.  Marked by a rock and a stick (placed by Eli).

~

I was the first to discover Boba Fett.  I sent Wade a text and let him know we would be having a funeral later.  He sent a message back wondering how Noah was taking the news.  Noah was at school, so I told Wade he could have the job of telling Noah.

Later that day when we all got home, Wade took Noah outside for some one on one time.  He tried to gently break the news, but he said he couldn't stop laughing.  Because Noah was so happy!  He came running back inside the door and exclaimed, "GAGE!  GAGE!  My fish died and that means I get to get a NEW one!  YES!!!"

So the worst part of Noah's day yesterday, wasn't in fact that his dear friend and pet Boba Fett died.  It's that his good behavior sticker he gets at school  happened to be PINK and he was very mad about that.  

~

Rest in Peace Boba Fett.

Sunday Photo

7 1/2

Almost 5

2 1/2

13 months

If I could just freeze time.

~

I was uplifted at the General Relief Society Meeting this weekend. (It's the women's organization in our church.)  I had such a good time hanging out with the girls.  (I secretly wish I could go every year with my mom and sisters...how awesome would that be?!)  I came home so inspired.  Feeling so much better.  You can read my favorite talk by clicking here. It didn't take long for pins on pinterest to start showing up.  I love this little hand out.  Just what I needed to hear.

Pretzel Fun

Has anyone else seen the Family Fun booklets at the Hot Spot in Target?  I was super excited to pick a few of these up the other day.  I knew they would be full of great ideas!

Well, every Wednesday is an early out in our school district, which makes for a great day for a playdate too!  So, yesterday Gage had a friend over and I thought we could try a recipe out from one of the new books.

Homemade Pretzels!

1 1/2 cup warm water

1 tablespoon sugar

1 package dry yeast

4 to 4 1/2 cups flour

1 tablespoon salt

vegetable oil (I used cooking spray)

2 tablespoons baking soda

1 egg, beaten

1 to 2 tablespoons melted butter

course salt, or cinnamon sugar

1.  Measure water into bowl.  Sprinkle in the sugar and yeast and stir gently to dissolve.  Then stir in 3 cups of the flour and the salt until combined.  Gather the dough in your hands and place it on a floured surface.  Knead the dough, working in more flour a little at a time until you have a soft dough that doesn't stick.  Continue kneading for an additional 8 minutes.  (I used my mixer, so I skipped the whole hand kneading step).  

2. Place dough in bowl that has been greased with oil (or cooking spray).  Turn it over a couple times until it is lightly coated.  Then cover and let it rise to double in size.  It takes about an hour.

3.  Heat oven to 450 degrees.  Punch down the bough and divide into 16 pieces.  Show your child how to roll each piece into an 18 inch strip then twist it into a pretzel shape.

4.  Fill a large stainless steel pot with 3 inches of water.  Bring to boil, then reduce the heat and keep the water at a simmer.  Add the baking soda.  Now gently drop a pretzel into the water and poach it for 1 minute.  Use a slotted spoon to transfer the pretzel to a greased cookie sheet.  Repeat for all.  Brush on beaten egg.  Add salt if you want salted pretzel.

5.  Bake them for 10 to 12 minutes until golden.  Brush on butter and sprinkle on sugar if you want sweet pretzels.

6.  Eat and enjoy!

The kids were super excited about the salted pretzels.  That is the kind they kept telling me they wanted, but in the end, they ate way more of the cinnamon sugar ones.  We ended up with all kinds of shapes.  Pretzels, sticks, twirls, dough balls.  They had fun.  It was a great project and they were all gone in an hour or two!  We'll have to make these again!

Skate Park

Our development has a little skate park.  I'm not sure why, but Noah LOVES the skate park and is always asking me if we can go to it.  It is also the farthest park away from our house.  

I'm trying to get ready for the Gladiator Rock Race that Wade talked me into, so Noah and I made a goal to ride or run to the skate park and back a couple times every week.  

We end up stopping so many times because of Avery trying to climb out of the stroller, Eli needing a snack  or Noah wanting to slow down on his bike, that it's really not much exercise, but it's better than sitting on the couch!  And it makes my little Noah a pretty happy boy!

12 Months of Eli

I finally got around to making a collage of the pictures of Eli I took every month his first year.  He is such a cuddle bug and such a happy boy.  What a stud.

Sunday Photo

This weeks Sunday photo; checking out a passing snail on the front porch.

People tell me all the time,
"You certainly have your hands full!"
"You must be super busy"
or ask,
"How in the world do you do it?"

This is one way that I am able to do "this" and it all has to do with this weeks Sunday photo.  I pick my battles.  I know what is important.  I cannot control everything.  I try to give choices and let the kids choose whenever possible.

A few examples:
Having the kids wear something besides sweat pants (NOAH!), having their hair fixed (AVERY), looking at the camera without making a strange face (GAGE) or not having food and drool down your front (ELI), well those would all be nice things, and they would make for a good Sunday photo.  But would they portray our real life?  Would they tell a story?  Would it be worth making people upset about, just to get my photo?  Probably not.  Don't get me wrong, I think documenting our life is totally important.  I am so glad that I decided to to take a photo every Sunday this year.  But I have to let certain things go.

Documenting our life. A battle worth picking.  The kids (okay - really it's just Wade and he's hardly every in it) that groans every Sunday when I say it's picture time.  But the details, they don't have to be such a battle.

Family time.  A battle worth picking. We have Family Home Evening every week.  But if we end up singing 10 songs, and having 3 mini lessons, just to make everyone happy, I think I'm okay with that.  We sit and eat dinner at the table.  Almost every day of the week.  Sometimes people don't want to sit down.  Sometimes people still want to play Lego's, but nope.  Everything goes away and we eat dinner and talk.  Fridays we get a day off and have a free night.  Table/floor/blanket/outside.  Whatever goes Friday.  It's part of our Friday night tradition.

Clothes.  Yeah, I used to have a handle on this situation. They wore what I picked out.  Then Noah.  Mr. Noah - the one who refuses to wear pants.  I really don't think it's worth the battle most days.  He can wear basketball shorts, or wind pants every day of the week.  But Sunday.  Sunday he has to wear his button up white shirt and dress pants.  He gets mad almost every single Sunday morning, but it's a battle we feel is important.  (Today he didn't!  YAY!! I think he was finally excited to go to church, he got dressed and ready so fast!!!)

Just one thing.  That is a part of how I do it.  Battles.  When to pick them.  I end up with a lot of Sunday photos that look exactly like this.  Standing out on our front porch (that still has the smoker and bikes in the background) checking out a snail.

We are imperfect.
We look like this most days.
But we are happy and loved.
We pick our battles and we let things go that aren't so important.
That is how we roll at our house.

Holy War 2011

Yesterday was the Holy War, otherwise known as BYU vs. Utah.

I always love this game. Not that I really care who wins that much, but a good rival game is always fun to celebrate and watch.

Who do we cheer for?  Good question - and here is where things get a little tricky around our house.  

Want to know a dirty little secret about me?  I was a student at BYU when I met Wade.  Yep.  You read that right.  Fast forward a few dates, a wedding and a few years later.  I graduated from the University of Utah.  A few years later, Wade graduated from the U too.

Yes, I grew up cheering for BYU, 4 of my 5 siblings went to the Y, I went there too for a while.  But I really like throwing a little opposition in the mix.  It has to be done, I might as well be the one to do it!

So I side with the U of U.

Wade?  Different story.  Wade grew up with season tickets to the BYU games.  His family had the same seats every year and they tailgated for all the home games.  We even went to a few of the games the year we were dating.  No matter what name (or color) his diploma says, he says he will always bleed blue.  (He will however cheer for both teams to win, unless it is THIS game.)  And if you see him wearing a Utah shirt, you can thank me.  I do the shopping. He has blue and red.

On to the game.  I decided we all needed game day tee shirts, so I made some for the kids this year.  I was showing Wade the plan one night and we were letting the kids pick their own team.  The boys were all about Utah (YAY!) until Wade reminded them that BYU stood for Brigham Young, as in the prophet.  Well, that hook-lined-and sunk them.  They wanted the church school.  So I decided this year would be a girls versus boys game.  Avery and I look better in red in the first place...you know, that is all that matters, right?  We have further discussed this and decided that we will only cheer for red teams....Utah and Arkansas Razorbacks, to be exact. (Yes, she knows how to call the hogs!.

So I got busy making shirts.  It was 4:2, boys against girls, but as you can see in the picture below Avery and I weren't too worried.  Perhaps the blue team sad faces had a feeling about how their night would turn out?

Go Utah!

Go BYU!  

Let the game begin!

Or, more like, let the eating begin.  We had the feast of all feast last night.  I made all red/blue food.  Coke,Pepsi, and Root Beer, chocolate football strawberries, blue corn chips and red salsa, red wings and blue cheese dip, red rhubarb cake, green ( as in the football turf) cream cheese ball, and blue and white peppermint candies in a red dish.  Not to mention the food our friends brought over too.  I think we were all stuffed silly!

The kids ran around like crazy wild hyena's.  (Until they realized their team wasn't doing too well.)  Avery, Courtney (thanks for joining our cause!) and I had a fantastic time rubbing a few plays in.  Everyone had fun.  Even the losing team.  Avery and Mr. Mustache man.

In the end, I could totally rub it in who won the game, but I won't (because I'm pretty sure they heard it all last night!) but it was more about having fun with our friends and letting the kids stay up way too late.  

Can't wait until next year!

Big Girl Bed

I'm not sure what we were thinking.  But we moved Avery out of her crib last night.  We must be losing it, nuts, crazy, or all three.

We had been talking about this to Avery for a while.  She has stayed in her crib more than 6 months longer than the other boys.  She couldn't climb out of her crib yet, but she could climb in.  And she can get in and out of Eli's crib, so it was only a matter of time.  And she is the worst sleeper in the universe our family.  We thought that perhaps having a change might help her sleep a little better.  Time will tell.

We moved both Gage and Noah straight to big twin beds, and I really wanted that for Avery too.  They were too scared to get out for so long and they never fell out, that it worked out well.  But unfortunately, I wasn't sure how we could fit a twin bed in the tiny room that she shares with Eli. 

(See the room for yourself here and can you figure out how to fit a twin bed?  Me either.  I'm counting down.  10 months until we should be in a different house!)

Okay, so anyway.  We got her this tiny little toddler bed.  I didn't want to spend a lot, or have it take up much space.  She likes to call it, her "Baby Princess Bed"

Last night was the first night.  She was pretty tired.  We crossed our fingers and hoped we weren't totally shooting ourselves in the foot.

She slept all night long!  And if you know Avery, you know what an accomplishment this is!  I couldn't believe it!  At 6:30 she woke up and walked into our room.  

I'm not entirely sold on it yet (since it's nap time and she is sitting next to me instead of being in her room).  I'll have to work on that, but it's an accomplishment.  She is pretty proud of herself and her new bed.  

I can't believe how fast she is growing up!

ps.  Eli loves it too.  He thinks it is his personal wrestling mat.  I snapped these pictures this morning.  Wade suggested that if she still ends up waking up all night long that we put her in his crib and just give this bed to him.  He sleeps like a champ.

Sunday Photo

(Big gold star for the first person who finds something wrong with this picture.  Can you find something that doesn't belong?! ha!)

9.11.11

10 years ago.  We were living at married student housing at the University of Utah.  We had been married almost a year and half.  I had the tv on the Today show, mostly for noise, as we were getting ready that morning, and came out of the bathroom to watch, because I was positive that what I had heard was not correct.  A plane wouldn't hit a tower.  Not in my world.  Not back then.

Then we rode the free campus shuttle to Presidents Circle.  I remember the bus was in front of the law school on University when the radio said that a building had collapsed.  I couldn't believe it.  I couldn't believe how quiet the bus was.  Wade went to class.  I had a little bit so I sat in the student union with everyone else and watched the news unfold.  Perhaps I was naive, but this stuff didn't happen in my world.  It was heart breaking.

My world is a lot different now.  I know this stuff happens.  Now I have these four little people to teach and protect.  They might know and understand that the world has scary stuff out there, but it's my hope that at the end of the day, they will always think that our home feels different.  That our home is a safe haven.  A place they can come and are loved and can love.  A place they can learn, grow, make mistakes, make memories and be themselves.  That no matter what they come across out there in this big wide world, that there are always arms welcoming them back here.

First Day of Pre-K

Noah started his first day of Pre-K today.  We went back and forth as to if we should even do this, but he is ready.  Noah's best friend goes to a preschool, and he is the only kid in his class at church not starting Kindergarten this year,which makes him really sad.  This really helped boost his spirits, and after watching him today, I feel it was the best choice for him!  He absolutely loved it!

We started out last spring looking at a few schools.  I really wanted him to go to the same one as his best friend, but since it was a co-op and you have to work a lot of hours as parents, I knew that wouldn't work for me, so we kept looking.  He went with me to a meet and greet at the one I decided and fell in love with his teacher.  He told almost everyone he met this summer that he was the first person in our family to go to preschool (not true, I did), and that his teacher's name is Miss Call.

This morning he was up bright and early (6:40) dressed and ready.  He couldn't wait to start!

At breakfast this morning he got really serious.  He looked over at me and said, "Mom.  At preschool I won't say pee or poop.  I won't say die, die, die either."

Good to know, my Noah.

Right before we got there I told him that on the first day that I might get to stay since it was the first day.  If he wanted me too.  He then got really mad and told me that I had to leave!

Come on, Noah, you are killing me!  Stop growing up already.

When we got there he sat down and colored a great picture of a shark.  One of the best ones I've seen him draw.  He wrote his name on it, and showed his teacher.

He had some fun checking out the toys and the other stations.  But then he told me (again) that I had to leave.  I told him good-bye.  Avery told him good-bye.  Eli waved.  Noah looked at us like we were goofs and told his new friend that "My mom is leaving now."

Ok.  I have to confess I totally felt so sad without Noah this morning.  We went to the grocery store and got a few things, ran them back to the house and then headed back to watch his preschool.  Navigating the store was WAY easier, but Noah is my buddy and I missed him.  Wade laughed when I told him I rushed back there. But I wanted to watch the class too.  (The hallway into his class room is windows so parents could standout side today and watch.)  At first Noah gave me a strange look when he saw me, but then a few minutes later he gave me a smile and waved.  YAY!

The little two didn't seem to mind hanging out at the rec-center for an hour and a half this morning.

And then before we knew it Noah was done!  He was so happy to come home and told me all kinds of things about Pre-K.

He learned "thank you" in sign language.  A days of the week song.  He told me all about the book the teacher read them.  He told me about snack time and all about his new friends.  He told me about recess and how he got to play on the monkey bars.

(I think I heard more from Noah about one day of preschool than I've heard from Gage about kindergarten, first and second!)

What a stud.  At dinner I always ask the kids what their favorite part of their day was.  Noah quickly answered, "PRESCHOOL!"  Which really means something, because we played in our friends bouncy house all afternoon too. 

And along with our first day tradition, we served up root-beer floats after (an all orange in honor of Noah) dinner tonight.  And just because Noah loves ice cream so much (and maybe because I missed him a little too much today) I let just him have an ice cream cone too.  He felt like a king.

He is growing up so fast.  

Here's to a great year of Pre-K!

First Day of Second Grade

Thursday, September 1st marked Gage's first day of Second Grade!  I an not sure why, but I totally think second grade sounds so much older than first.  Gage has really been excited to start school again and see his friends everyday.

Wednesday we got to go meet his teacher and check out his class room. He was pretty excited about his first assignment.  A paper bag that he had to return with 2 items about himself.  He chose a small Lego set and a Magic Tree House space book.

Wednesday night a miracle happened and we got to see Wade. (not kidding, last week was rough, this week isn't looking better).  His scouts was canceled so he was able to be home to give both boys a priesthood blessing for school.  I'm so glad that it worked out and he could be home for this.

Thursday Morning - the morning picture!

We all walked him back to find out where he would line up.  Everyone else was more excited for the first day of school than Gage.  The little 3 were all up and ready before 7 am. Gage slept until around 8. 

(We leave at 8:35) 

Gage wouldn't have been excited to start school at all if he didn't have his best friend M. in his class.  I am so glad they ended up in the same class and he has such a good friend.

Apparently second graders are too cool to look at us and wave as they take off for their first day.

After school we had a homemade pizza party and our annual back to school root-beer float night.  

Gage didn't have much to say about his first day.  He never really tells me much about what goes on, except who gets in trouble and who he plays with at recess.  He did give me a big hug when we picked him up, and he still holds my hand when we walk through the parking lot after school.  

So I'll take it.  I know it won't last too long.

Here's to a successful year in 2nd Grade.

Sunday Photo

Yeah, so our post-dinner activity tonight consisted of sitting on the front lawn.  Well, it wasn't too long before someone (WADE!) came up with a game to play called "target practice".  Basically it goes like this:
Gage and Noah take turns riding Noah's bike past us as fast as they can.  The others shoot their dart guns at the bike rider.

Then Gage came inside and asked us if he could get a BB gun.  Wade and I both couldn't say NO fast enough.

~~
On a totally different note: I am so excited (and relieved) to have the Super Saturday sign ups and crafts all lined up for our church's big craft day in October.  It should be such a fun day!  4 hours, 10 classes, & lunch!  If you couldn't sign up today, don't worry.  Sign ups will be available all month long.

My lesson today came from this talk.  I love this video.  I could watch it every day. Don't you just want to go out and create something after watching it?  I know I do.



Happy Sunday.

Tomatoes

We came home from vacation and found that a lot of the tomatoes in our garden had turned red.  

Some of us picked tomatoes. (Avery picked green ones)

 While some of us just decided to eat them.

I can't keep this little guy out of the garden.  Tonight he was going after the strawberries.  He sits out there and puts his back to us and then picks stuff and eats it.  I can't help but want to squeeze him!