Family Home Evening

I took the boys down to my parents house last Monday night.  Shayne was out of town for a couple days and I didn't have lessons that day (as I typically do on a Monday night).  I brought HUGE marshmallows to do a Family Home Evening activity with the boys and their cousin, Michael.  The challenge - to sit in front of the marshmallow for 5 minutes (I know, I should have done 15) and if they didn't eat them, they could have 2 marshmallows.  Afterwards, we watched a video together of Pres. Uchtdorf talking about this same challenge and patience.  It was a fabulous night for all of us!  I wish Shayne could have been there too.

Notice that Michael's is already gone!!

"I not touching it!"

I was amazed at Danny's determination - he wouldn't even touch it.

The rewards

The video:

Hamster Roller Derby

When we adopted/purchased our first hamster, Chewy, we were asked by the seller to PLEASE take Chewy to the PetCo Annual Hamster Roller Derby.  We had not heard of it - but we were game.  Chewy was a natural at rolling around in his ball!!  Well, since Chewy did not make it to that special event, we took Cookie.  The boys were super excited about it and kept saying that Cookie was going to win.  I would gently remind them that Cookie likes to SIT in the ball and go into corners.... so, she was not so likely to do well in this event.  

The store had a few people in charge of the event.  They had a track set up for the balls to "race" down.  Cookie was the only regular hamster - there were several dwarf hamsters and one girl even brought 2 rats - DISGUSTING.  The little dwarf hamsters were SPEED DEMONS and the boys quickly figured out that Cookie was in for a tough competition.  But, there's something about peer pressure - Cookie caught fire and we had a fabulous afternoon watching her roll her way down the track.  Some races she won, others she lost, and in the end, we were surprised that she WON THE ENTIRE EVENT!  She won herself a blue ribbon and a new home.  She's loving life, and she still rolls like crazy at home now.  

I had to include this picture of before the races.  I asked the boys to smile - look at the response!!  LOL

Here's Cookie.

Cookie's prize! Go Cookie!!

April fools pics

This is how I WANTED to post about April Fools Day:

What happens when you combine the following ingredients:

HERE is where I suggest you watch the video (next post) if you haven't watched it already)  Here are a couple of follow-up pictures of Danny still eating his yummy doughnut.  Did you catch at the end of the video that he said "I not crying!"  Nah, that mustard stuff is for sissies....  he thought it was a great addition to his fabulous doughnut!!

April Fools

Well, I officially filled up my blog, AGAIN.  I deleted a year and a half of posts and was able to add 1 post.  Lame.

I figured out how to embed a video of our April Fool's morning.  What is not included in the video is how I got Shayne:  I had a friend, a MALE FRIEND, climb into bed with Shayne at 7am.  Chris did not DARE cuddle with him - but finally said, "hey Shayne" in his most manly voice and that woke up Shayne in a hurry.  It was SUPER FUNNY!

Now, sit back and enjoy the video of us tormenting our boys!
(PS there's mustard, doughnuts, and salt-water colored like juice involved in this prank!)

Fun times

Aunt Jenny and our cousin Tyler came for a visit!  Too bad I couldn't capture how much Danny doted on his cousin - so sweet!  We had some good times in just a couple of days - we hope they come again soon!!

You can fill up a blog?

Evidently, there is only so much space out there and I have reached the max - well, the FREE max, that is.  So, I just printed my first year and a half of posts into a book through BLURB and it is AWESOME!  I'm so happy to have it printed.  I'm excited to do my next 2 books (in my freetime?!)!   And, now that I've spent some time deleting posts and photos, (I hated doing it - felt like I was erasing a part of myself) I hope to have more space to share some goodies from the past few weeks!

Is it a disease? Or a fashion statement?

St Patrick's Day

I'm bummed I didn't take a picture of Hunter's Leprechaun trap - but he did make one.   He covered it in tin-foil to make it shiny.  He also had the brilliant idea of painting a rock with gold paint - of course a huge chunk of gold would attract a little green guy - but not too big... he would know it was fake.  

Every year I resolve to do something "green" for next year's holiday - so this year I did a few things.  The kids asked for milk with breakfast and as I poured it in - it magically turned green!  (I was prepared with food coloring already in the cups and Hunter caught on quick)  I also made green pancakes for dinner.  Gotta love our "breakfast for dinner" night... everyone eats without complaining.