Flour, the many uses.

As a little girl, I remember my Grandma always talking about paste that you would make out of flour. Flour is used in so many things to eat. Why not play with it!! I've posted a picture this summer with him, but I got a kick out of seeing his face after he CAREFULLY placed each truck. He had to think about where he was going to place it and then put it in the flour. The kid cracks me up. So methodical.

James the leader

Shortly after we moved into our new home, James was called as the Deacon Leader (leader of the 12 & 13 year olds at church). We've talked to him a lot about what it means to be a leader and how to stand up and teach others the right thing to do, even when others may make fun.

He was doing some fast offering collections today after church and met a new boy that moved in who just turned 12. James had never met him before and he was excited to tell me about him. I asked him if he'd like to make some cookies and take them to him. He did, but little did he know HE"D be making the cookies. We pulled out a recipe and I sat back and watched. He made the cookies all by himself and I have to say, they were delicious!

He made a note for the boy, with his phone number on it and an invitation to the activity this week. He walked over to his house and gave them to him. He is so brave. He forgot to ask the boy his name, so he went back and the mom asked who made the cookies because they were so good. She said, oh your mom made them, right? James was happy to reply, no, I did! He was very proud of this compliment and couldn't wait to tell his leader.

I'm proud of him for not being shy and willing to be a good leader and an example. I need to invite people and not be afraid, like he is.

Clark Griswald

It is Kevin's dream to have a home, someday, like Clark Griswald, from National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. You know the one, with the "250,000 twinkle lights" and they can see the house from space. Someday. Someday.

For now, Kevin loves to put the lights on the tree and I love it. He thinks he needs more than 1000 lights though. I beg to differ. He put the lights on this year and because he only did the front 2/3 of the tree, it leans...bad. I had to put a block under the tree to make it lean back because it is so weighted down. If you look closely at the picture, you can see his tongue hanging out.





Kevin also was finally able to get his house lights. Silly me thought 200 feet was enough. Apparently I missed the memo that he wanted to do the roof line and the valleys of the house. How dare I do that. So now, he has to have the house only 3/4ths done. This is how they all had to bundle up to brave the FREEZING cold to hang them up. They do look nice though. Justin also had to get in on the action. He wanted to help with the luminaries. I have wanted to do luminaries for forever. I can remember doing them with my Grandpa Peless. I loved driving around a neighborhood in my hometown that the whole street had them. I love luminaries. The ones we bought aren't so hot, so we'll rely on the candles and bags. If you drive by on Christmas Eve, they should be out. Hopefully I can convince him to do them more than one day, we shall see.

Thanksgiving Morning with Family

On Thanksgiving morning, Kevin's brother, Kenny, and his family (Sarah and Jason) came over to hang out before the meal. The three boys enjoyed the sunshine and just the time to play outside. It's been freezing ever since, and the times outside are few and far between. Jason loves his cozy coupe car (did you know they have sold like over a million of these things?) and Justin is yes, getting a bit big for his bike. and yes mom, Kyle was still in his pajamas at noon.

 

Fun memories this week.

I want to write a few things that I've noticed this week about the boys..

Justin had a trial day at a local preschool and loved every minute of it. Kyle was beside himself in tears as Justin got to stay and he had to be dragged back to the car and heaven forbid, home with just MOM!

Kyle started crying just a bit ago, I scooped him up and he just started to "tell me" all about how mean Justin was and what Justin was doing to him. It was just so cute. Justin had been sitting on him. I'm sure that was NOT fun.

I love seeing the two of them play in the bathtub and watching Kyle copy everything Justin was doing.

We read "How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night" just about EVERY night. I never really knew if Justin understood it or not. I mean, I remember my dad reading us books almost every night. We LOVED a Good Fish Dinner. We could repeat that book and the same with Gertie and Gus. Well, tonight was fun because after the bath, I just started quoting some lines from the book, and Justin knew them! It was cute. He really does listen to me!

These two boys are becoming fast friends and I love to see them together, when they aren't fighting. They are all three sweet boys when they just snuggle together and love on each other. I'm grateful for my boys and for what they teach me and try to teach me every day. Some days I just don't get it and have to taught over and over again. Thank you for our health and our boys. Those are my thanks every day.

Popcorn

Growing up, we used to have popcorn every Sunday night for dinner. At least it felt like it was every Sunday, Mom. We had an air popper and my mom would pop it into brown grocery bags, melt the butter and pour it on, shake it up and use special popcorn salt. Don't ask me why it was special, but it was. I secretly think we had it for dinner, because it was fast, easy and my mom didn't have to cook.

Well, I was looking at one of my brother's posts about popcorn they were eating awhile back and I let Justin/James have some while Kevin and I went out. Well, that got Justin hooked. We bought an 8lb container of popcorn from Costco and we are 1/3 done in 2 weeks. Justin always wants popcorn in his "special" bowl. (Everything is his "special" (fill in the blank). Anyhow, we've been making it on the weekends and tonight, being Sunday, we made it. It made me think of the popcorn dinners we had growing up, watching Mr. Boogity or other shows at night. I do think we'll be enjoying popcorn more, every Sunday....hhmmmm...that is to be decided. But I am grateful for the yummy memories as a kid that we had, especially when we got to go on the boat and eat popcorn for the evening. Just a relaxing boat ride was so nice. Not sure how relaxing it was for my parents, if we were fighting. Thank you for the memories. I got this picture of Kyle cuddled up with James, sharing his popcorn. Great brothers


I think Justin was attempting to smile. Who knows.

What's wrong with this picture?

I am cleaning the kitchen and Kyle is extra quiet. I noticed he was playing with a box of pencils on the couch, not thinking too much of it, I let him be. He was quiet, playing, boys weren't fighting...it was nice. I come over to clean up the pencils, and this is what I find. Do you notice what is wrong with them??

They are all missing their erasers! Yup, Kyle ate them....all. I can't wait to change his next few diapers. This should get interesting. Maybe I should "capture" a picture of his diapers when they emerge.

ps....I just found Justin cutting his own hair. heaven help me.

Halloween 2009

I am so so late on posting these pictures, I just got them off of the camera. A friend of mine (thank you April) gave me a monkey costume for Kyle so we decided he would be Curious George and Kevin would be the Man in the Yellow Hat. Kyle was a cute monkey and did NOT want to take off his clothes.

I had asked Justin a few weeks before Halloween what he wanted to be. I gave him the idea of Scooby-doo, since he is in to watching it lately. He told me know, he wanted to be a cowboy. Where on earth did he come up with that? I dont' think he has ever seen Toy Story, we don't talk about cowboys, but he knew what he wanted. We got him a cowboy hat, toy gun and a bandana. He told me EXACTLY where to put his bandana, "around my neck, Mom. Right here." He of course, slept with all 3 things every night for 3 weeks. He's phased out of it right now, but he was thrilled to be a cowboy.

Making pretzels

Have you ever made home made pretzels? The big, yummy, soft kind? The kind of love drenched in butter and salt? Nope...no mustardy sauce for me. Well, my friend Megan had made a post on her blog for making pretzels, here's the recipe

And here are our pretzels. Not so pretty--but they were still yummy!!


Yes, that is Kyle trying to eat the dough.

Justin is showing me his "nest" he made out of his dough.


Kyle had a bit of dough with some flour in front of him. He proceeded to eat the dough, with no hands and of course ended up eating flour too.

Kyle's 1st haircut

After 17 months of "growing out" his hair and his pretty curls, Kevin had had enough of him looking like a "girl". He said it was time to cut his hair. So here he is! He sat very still while Kevin was buzzing it. He looks so different with his short hair and no curls. I'll grow it out again, maybe this time they'll stay the same length.






These pictures are of Kyle attempting to put my mascara on his face. He had gotten into my makeup last week and had actually put the eye makeup around his eye. I have to watch that kid like a hawk. Justin never really got into things like that. Just different kids. He is so much fun though, to see him pushing his trains and making the "woo-woo" sound and all the things he is learning. He is definitely attempting to talk more. I can get "touch it" out of him, Kevin denies it. Just a fun cute, cuddlly, boy.

Wow...a bit of a break

Okay...I was told that I needed to wake up and do my blog. Things have gotten a bit crazy over the past few weeks, 2 months.

So, one thing that has been consuming time is my new "education" adventures. I've decided to go back to school for nursing. The first two steps are pre-reqs and a CNA class. I'm almost done with my CNA class. i took it at the local hospital here, so I can work there and gain experience and hopefully be able to use my lactation experience there. (I sit for that exam in July '10). I have my pre-reqs to take now. I thought I had 6 classes to take, then I decided to go a different route for school. The University of Utah has a program for those who have a 1st bachelors, to go back adn get your BAchelors in nursing in 15 months...but I have 10 pre req classes now. So here's wishing me luck to applying for the program in May 2011. It sounds so far off. As someone told me, Time will Always Pass!! After that, it's 3 more years for nurse practitioner. I wish I had known what i wanted to be when I grew up...when I was like 21. Rather, had the guts to do it. So, alas, I am starting again.

James had a fun time playing soccer this season. His team didn't do so swell, but he had some great goals and really improved well this year. Now he wants to do wrestling. I guess my influence is coming through! And Justin had a great time trying to play soccer too.






A few weeks back, Kevin and I took the little boys to the zoo again. We saw so many cute babies. The giraffes are my favorite! We saw the giraffe baby, the elephant baby, but missed the lion cubs. Justin is always so helpful with his little brother.







I also caught this picture of Justin reading to Kyle. Sorry about the sun coming through the window! I didn't want to interrupt them.




We did some peaches and chili sauce this year. I got really busy and didn't even do plum syrup! That one I am ticked about. My fault though. I didn't seek any out. Next year!

That is us in a nutshell, with a few pictures!

Joes Valley 2009

Every Pioneer Day weekend (July 24th) we go camping with our friends, the Pursers. This is our second year at Joe's Valley. SSHHH, I really don't want to say where it is for fear more people will go there! We love that it is a small reservoir and not a lot of boats. It is PERFECT. It's quiet, quaint, and the best place to ski and boat.



Justin's favorite thing was to jump off the boat, again! the kid is a fish with no fear. He loves swimming and loved the tube ride with Daddy! He was so happy it was going "fast". Kyle liked his feet in the water, that was about it. James loved kneeboarding. He even got a little "air". Kevin accomplished a 360 turn with the kneeboard and had some nice jumps! All in all, it was a great weekend. James came home for 16 hours and went off camping for 6 days with the scouts. His smell when he came home was apparently, "the smell of adventure". We quickly washed it away. It's amazing how teeth don't get brushed for a week!! They had furr on them! He had a blast and loves camping.


It has been a great summer. We've done 2 camping trips, swimming, boating, skiing, kneeboarding, zoo trips, visits from family, jam, garden, etc. I can't imagine summers where kids are off to different camps all the time! Phew, we were busy enough! and not to mention two beautiful nieces that were born on the Potter side and Peless side! Congrats jackie/Kirk and Jared/Aimee!

 

And this is what we were privileged to see all weekend, the kid has no butt, and his pants are constantly falling down!