For the teachers....

My boys made sweet thank you notes for their teachers during Teacher Appreciation Week.  What I didn't expect or even encourage them to do - was they taped some of their money to their cards because they wanted to give their teacher's something special.  Hunter wrote "for the spa" with his $2 in change and Cole just labeled it as money with his loose change.  I thought it was sweet and I'm so curious what the teachers' thought about that unusual addition to their cards.  I can honestly say, I received many gift cards as a teacher - but never did someone tape a bunch of their "change" to it!!  The cards were very much from the boys and not their mom.

Easter

On Easter Sunday we had the wonderful opportunity to just be at home in the morning since our church meetings didn't start till 1pm.  We spent some time with the boys talking about the Resurrection of Jesus Christ and his ultimate sacrifice for us.  We have a darling "easter egg" tradition (which a dear friend made for me) that each egg contains a symbolic item of Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection.  I'm amazed at how much my boys do understand and know - and I'm grateful they are learning the real meaning of Easter.  We then watched an animated video meant for families about the tragic event - this was how I wanted to spend Easter morning - focusing on Christ.  I knew our boys were going to have LOTS of fun egg hunts with cousins later that day!  I'm grateful they all sat and listened.  It was a very special morning.  

Later, that morning - Shayne did an awesome little egg hunt/scavenger hunt for the boys.  They ran from clue to clue and had a great time scouring the house to find their prize - we gave them a plaster kit to make stones to place in the flower beds.  That was a fun hunt.  After church we went to Shayne's family celebration.  All the cousins scoured a nearby park for eggs that literally overfilled their baskets.  I love this picture of Connor jumping up for his treats - he looks like he's flying!

Doesn't Connor look so grown up with braces?!?!  I can't believe how much these kids are changing and it scares me because I know my own children are only a few years behind their big cousins!

All the cousins showing their loot.

I guess it was too much to carry with his hands....  these kids got LOADED with candy and coins - lucky kids!

After being with Shayne's family - we went to my family celebration.  That's a treat to be able to enjoy both of our families and both traditions!  My family always hides the hard-boiled eggs...

Then we roll the eggs at eachother to crack them!  The eggs are then made into our famous EGG-STUFF dinner (creamed eggs on toast).  My boys aren't huge fans, YET.  I'll keep trying every year!

I love having family close by - such a blessing in our lives!!  And I'm grateful for the importance of Easter's true meaning in our lives - I know my Savior lives. 

Arches, sand, petroglyphs, eggs, and GOBLINS!

We took a short/long weekend trip to Arches National Park.  Hunter was intrigued by our plans, but Cole just complained and complained about how boring everything sounded.  "I HATE HIKING" and "I HATE GOBLIN VALLEY" - etc - he doesn't hide his feelings very well.  Lucky for us, we knew a thing or two about finding cool things for boys to do in Arches Park and Goblin Valley.  We had 2 other families with us and we had so much fun together.  Here's a sampling of the 200+ pictures we took!

Danny LOVES his club.  His club goes to bed with him and it also did all the hikes too!

 

A HUGE Sand Dune makes for easy fun.

"Eat my dust" comes to mind with this pic.

Lots of sand came home in his pockets!

Hunter and James 

Too bad sweet lizzy is destined to be a foot taller than our danny-boy - they sure are cute together!

Hiking to see REAL petrolyphs

Just a sampling of what we saw.  It was really amazing.

Getting ready to hunt for eggs amongst the goblins (in Goblin Valley) 

Danny was mad about something.... I love that face!

Egg Hunt

Hunter was a natural at climbing the rocks and exploring - and Cole decided that he likes hiking now.  WHEW!

I think this one looked like the Goblin castle - that little white shirt boy is Hunter approaching his next playground.

Happier times....

True Love

I'm not sure you are aware, but we have picked out Cole's future wife.  Both Cole and Emily know that they are destined for marriage in the future (and the parents are all thrilled).

Recently, Cole and Emily were on the phone deciding whose house to play at for the afternoon.  As they ended the conversation I heard Cole say, "Bye, I love you!" and I just giggled inside.  Well, Hunter laughed OUT LOUD and asked Cole, "Why would you say that to a girl on the phone?!?!"  Cole's quick and matter of fact reply, "Cause I'm going to marry her.  Of course I'm going to say I love you since I'm going to marry her."

Even better, I later found out that miss Emily had replied "I love you too" and her mom had kept her giggles to herself wondering what had prompted a "too."

Sweet, young, and very innocent love.

My obsession

So, I have an obsession - and I suppose if you drive anywhere with me you just might notice it.

ROADS

My sweet husband said to me today (as we were out on a bike ride) "I just don't find roads fascinating" and I thought he was telling me that road biking is boring and that mountain biking is much more exciting... but that wasn't what he meant.  I had been pointing out to him all the new roads being built in our area "Look at how that one will connect the interstate all the way over to here" - or "check out how they are making it a dividing highway - rather than 5 lanes" - or usually in the car I will be pointing out how the construction has changed since I last drove the same path.  I guess he was just saying "I really don't care about that new road."  And I think I must be a a weird-o.  

I admit it, I'm obsessed.  I'm fascinated with the construction (irritated at times, too) - but I'm in awe of the scheduling, the  work in progress, and how it is constantly progressing.  I constantly wonder who has that job of creating the job chart with all the little things that have to be done, the timeline, and how much time and effort and money it will take to make it happen.  Absolute awe.  Who decides those weaving roads for us drivers and has decided this is the most efficient way to make things happen?  How do they build a bridge and then move it in place with hydrolic rollers?  When they put those big metal bars over the roads (to widen the interstate) - how do they make the road solid - so that they can pour cement/asphalt and make it a super-strong roadway?  When all those dump trucks line up in the middle of the night - do they have a detailed map of the "secret entrances" to the work sites?  And how do they  even connect a bridge to the regular road?

Perhaps there's a different job waiting out there for me - I'd honestly love to learn more about the magic of engineering all these ROADS!

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!!