Digging up those HOLES!

When we decided to move to the QC a major factor was the space and yard for the kids to play. You see we came from a nice little home in Mesa that had well a modest back yard. Here is our fun filled backyard before the move, and yes that is all of it. Our new back yard is 1.4 acres for the kids to run and play and do whatever they want. Here is the problem, they have all this space, but all they want to do is dig holes. Anywhere they can find a spot they are digging holes. In the flower bed, holes, on the irrigation berms, holes, on the side yard, holes, spots where the grass has died and you can see dirt, you guessed it HOLES. Some of the holes are large, but for the most part we just have small little holes all over our yard. We got holes everywhere! To this point they have left the grass alone but everywhere else they got holes. On the side of the house there is a small 20X5 foot section that separates the rock from the grass. Dane just has not gotten around to filling in the rock there. This is their favorite place to dig their holes. The boys have one hole there that they have been working on for some time now. They say they are trying to make it big enough to put Dad in it? I just don’t get it?

This is our first yard, Yes those are houses on both sides

This is our new yard.

This is the hole they want to put Dane in, eventually.

By the back fence.

In the berms.

And last but not least my flower beds!

Cinnamon Rolls

At the request of Dane, I made cinnamon rolls this weekend. Because our family can not handle an entire batch of cinnamon rolls, we decided that we were going to take some to a few individuals in our ward as a thank you for lots of support and love the past few weeks. The boys also decided they wanted to help mom make the yummy treats, so they pulled up their chairs and got dirty. They absolutely loved “helping”, from smearing the butter, to spreading the middle, the boys were in heaven. I don’t know if they really actually helped much but we sure had fun and made lots of memories. Oh yeh and boy were they good!

Spreading the Butter

The brown sugar

Lets Play Music

We have Wyatt in a music program called Lets Play Music. This is his second year he is officially a green turtle shell. Last year he learned a little harmony and note recognition while banging away on some bells. Well luckily he gets to start learning the keyboard this year. YEPEEEEE! He is so excited and really we are to. But this whole keyboard thing will be a bit of a noise challenge. Here is some info on Lets Play Music.

http://www.letsplaymusicsite.com/home.php


Green turtlt shells.

Let’s Play Music believes that all children are musically talented, and that talent is developed through fun, interactive play. FUN, FUN, FUN! Children learn most effectively when they are playing! If you were to peek in on a Let’s Play Music class, you would see jumping, singing, skipping, storytelling, and laughing! Music educators have long taught that the young child learns best through play, experience and discovery. As musical concepts and skills are presented in a playful, joyful setting, children absorb knowledge and ability.

Brother & Sister love to get involved.

High School Musical 2

Last Friday we had a High School Musical 2 world premier party. I am still so baffled as to why Dane likes this so much and just holding out hope that it has more to do with how our kids love it and not the movie itself. Regardless, we had a great time; the boys had been counting down the days all week and could hardly wait for Dane to get home so we could start the party. We had pizza, friends, and a movie, what a great recipe for FUN. Dane kept commenting on how mean Sharpe was and insisted it was not as good as the first, but we have watched the movie almost 10 times now, Wyatt DVR the movie. I am sure others watched, which was better, 1 or 2?

Music Fireside

When I was 12 or 14 I had a young men’s leader who gave a fireside on music. It was one of the only firesides I really ever remember having much of an impact on me. Well a few years ago I called and asked if he would come and give that same fireside to our youth. He politely turned me down and insisted that it was time I started giving that fireside. Well I have now done this fireside three different times for three different wards and am working on my fourth ward in a few weeks. Each time I do this the songs and content gets a little worse. It is unbelievable what is on the radio, and even more unbelievable that we don’t process what we are listening to. The fireside consists of a survey given to the wards youth and youth leaders in advance and then we talk about their musical content without singling out bands or songs. The most interesting part of this is that in every ward I have done this for so far, the difference between the most popular music the youth listen to and the most popular music the adults listen to is almost identical. As I went through this wards content I found a very popular song that in fact I have on my play list at work. I was totally shocked when I looked up the lyrics of that song, needless to say that song is no longer part of the play list. I guess the moral of the story is we must be aware of the world around us. Here are some of the findings for this upcoming fireside. These are the slides I will use, sorry if it is hard to understand. This is what our youth and youth leaders are listening to and probably most of us, WOW!

Content has been replaced

Transformation

A few nights after we brought Gracie home from the hospital I walked into her room to find Dane standing over the crib talking to his “sweet” little girl. He had wanted a girl so bad and was so excited to finally have her here. It wasn’t that he didn’t just adore his boys, but there is just something about dads and their little girls. With tears in his eyes he smiled, gave me a hug, and mumbled something about his sweet little girl. She was indeed special and had brought a spirit into our home that my rough little boys had lacked. That was then, and o how times have changed. Daddy’s sweet little girl has transformed into something our family has previously not experienced. Diva does not do her any justice at all. We have always tried to teach our boys that girls are special and Gracie has caught on to the fact that she may be able to use that to her advantage. Her latest terror tactic is biting. If things are not going just the way that she would like she will show her brothers her teeth. This morning I walked in to an argument between Jesse and Gracie and found our little princess grab Jesse’s head with both hands and with an open mouth move in for the kill. Wyatt and Jesse were not biters, but this has become a very regular activity for Gracie. It is almost like she thinks it is a game and she will never loose. Any advice on how to fix this lovely little problem would be greatly appreciated.

Showing off her "Chompers"

Here she is just after tasting one of her victims

The Best Getaway

With all the crazy happenings in life, we decided that we just had to get away. Danes parents own a little house just north of the temple, which just happens to be vacant at the moment. On Thursday night we left the kids with a sitter for the weekend and took off. It was so nice; we stayed out late every night, NO CURFEW! We went and saw Bourne Ultimatum, it was so good, but very suspenseful. But the best part of the weekend was the temple, it just makes everything easy. It was very busy as it was the first week open since being closed. It was so much fun, no kids just the 2 of us. We got back home on Saturday night to the peaceful sounds of screaming children and never ending bickering. Oddly enough we really missed those sounds? I love our life

School Lunch

What a difference a week makes. Life is seemingly falling back to what we might call normal. Wyatt has finished his first full week of ALL DAY Kindergarten. I was not sure how I really felt about sending him off all day, but I must say I love it. He is doing so great, has a fabulous teacher and comes home with fun stories every day. He has already taught everyone the “Days of the Week” song to the tune of the Adams Family, and the “Month-oraina” to the tune of the Macoraina. It is very fun and rewarding to see him start to use his brain for other adventures than just TV and computer games. Of course his favorite thing about school is recess, lunch, and who would have thought, girls. I’m too young for this. Last night after everyone had gone to bed Dane and I sat up talking about Wyatt and all of the fun adventures he is having. Dane told me a story that Wyatt had confided in him to “not tell mom.” After looking over the menu at school we decided we would pack a lunch for Wyatt the majority of the time. His first day he came home and told us he had only ate ¼ of his sandwich and tossed the rest in the garbage. We told him he needed to eat the entire sandwich and to bring home every thing he did not eat so we could monitor if he was eating enough. On Tuesday he came home and informed us he had eaten his entire sandwich. Later while Dane was talking to him he told dad “not to tell mom” but he only eats some of his sandwich and throws the rest away. Dane told him he was very disappointed in him and asked him why he did that. He looked at Dane and with a very mischievous grin said, “I can go to recess faster?”