love note

Reed was in the shower when he started yelling for me. He has just recently started taking showers so I thought maybe the water had gotten too hot or he had shampoo in his eyes. I came running into my bathroom to find a note written on the glass door in the steam:

I lofe mom no mater wut

He was pretty proud, sounding out the words all by himself! I would have taken a picture of it but you know, just didn't seem proper.

anger leads to hate,

and hate leads to the dark side. Tonight for FHE we talked about anger management (something everyone in our family needs to works on, even me- shocking, I know). Colby likes to use Star Wars to teach many life lessons to our boys. Tonight it was about when Yoda tells Anikan to be careful because anger leads to hate and hate leads to the dark side. We were discussing ways to control our anger, and Reed all of a sudden busts out with a full on lecture of techniques that work for him, breathing in through your nose and out through your mouth (he told us this gets rid of all the old air inside of you and old air is what causes anger). Then he suggested counting to five, in fact he even sang a song about anger control. He must have learned all of this at school, because heaven knows I didn't teach him, like I said I need to work on it also. Then Reed asks, "What's that evil brother's name?" At first I thought he was talking about Star Wars again. Nope, he meant Satan. Needless to say, Reed taught the lesson without any preparation. He's gonna make a great missionary!

let's wrestle

Blue came down the stairs this evening and asked Colby if he wanted to wrestle. Blue was wearing a mischievous grin. I was sitting on the couch and Blue whispered to me, "I have my gloves on, but don't tell dad." He was unsuccessfully trying to hide them behind his back. It was hilarious! Blue totally thought he was going to surprise Colby with boxing gloves, as if Colby hadn't noticed the big purple boxing gloves that are three times the size of Blue's hands. When Colby rang the bell, Blue started coming at him like a propeller, arms flailing about. There was a brief look of shock from Colby. I guess the element of surprise wasn't necessarily in the boxing gloves but in Blue's passion.

there must be baseball in heaven...

Because Beau has definitely played before. Since Reed has started tee ball, we have discovered that Reed is enjoying himself but not so competitive. Beau, on the other hand, is a die hard! My dad will be pleased to know that Beau is a lefty. Why is batting left better than right, you ask? Because you are two steps closer to first base, duh! Everyone knows that:) The things you learn when your dad has been a little league coach for as long as you can remember. Anyway, we bought Beau his own glove because he would hold the ball in his right hand and the glove in the left, but would pitch the glove instead of the ball. His motion is naturally left handed.

He loves to bat also. Every time he swings, he grunts just like a major leaguer during batting practice.


It is so fun to watch him, but very tiring because that is all he wants to do all day long!

coolest kid in the class

The wind has been blowing so much lately that this morning, since there weren't any strong gusts, Colby decided to take Reed and Blue fishing. I went to take Reed out of school early and he happened to be eating lunch right then. Can I just say that he was the coolest kid in his class when they found out that he was leaving to go fishing with his dad. All the other kids were begging to go with him. Reed was pretty excited also. They fished for a couple of hours. Long enough for both Reed and Blue to each reel in a 'whopper/beauty' (it changes every time you ask them). When they got home, Colby told me that it is getting easier taking them fishing, that he doesn't have to work as hard. My thought was that maybe the boys were learning to cast better and not get the line tangled. But what Colby meant was that he showed Reed how to maneuver the trolling motor and Colby just took a quick snooze in the front of the boat with his hat over his face. Colby must have really fallen asleep because the next time he looked up, Reed, sitting at the motor with a bag of chips and a soda, had gotten stuck in the weeds near the bank! I don't think Reed was too concerned about being stuck. He was just having a good time with a bag of chips and a soda all to himself!

concerned child

Tonight during dinner, Reed told me he had a note from his teacher for me. It was an invitation to a breakfast for all of the volunteers at his school. Reed asked if Colby was invited also. I told him no because Colby never helped out in his classroom. Colby pretended to be sad about this and put his head down and started sniffling. Reed got quiet and I could tell he was gonna cry. Colby stopped pretending and quickly reassured him that it was no big deal that only mom could come. Reed seemed okay but then a few minutes later he asked Colby, 'Are you sure you're okay with just mom going to my school for breakfast?'.
Reed is such a sensitive kid! He is always thinking of others feelings. I am so lucky to have him for my son!

dancing queen

Heidi came to visit this weekend with her kids. All of our kids have had a blast! Josie has been most amusing to watch, of course. She never slows down! Most of the pictures I took of her are blurring because she just won't stop moving!

Anytime Josie hears music, she can't help herself. She is quite the dancer!

She tried to convince Beau numerous times to dance with her.

But he would have none of that, and had to reprimand her.

huh?

Beau doesn't do a lot of talking, just a lot of grunting. His latest word, though, is 'huh?'. He will respond to anything you say to him with a 'huh?'.

me: 'Do you want a drink?'
Beau: 'huh?' OR
me: 'Go get your brothers.'
Beau: 'huh?' OR
me: 'Don't touch that!' (what I was saying in the above picture)
Beau: 'huh?'

I can repeat myself over and over again and still get the same response. Those who are not living in our household find this very amusing (ie. Chea and Heidi). But it gets very frustrating for Colby and me. On the bright side, at least it isn't the word 'no' all the time.

the bus: take two

I forgot to mention yesterday that Reed's teacher tried contacting my cell phone(which was at home), Colby's cell phone(he was out of town), and even our emergency contact(who did not answer either). Good thing there really wasn't an emergency:). So today I called the bus barn and asked if it was okay for my son to ride the bus, I wasn't sure how else to word it since it was ridiculous that he couldn't get on yesterday. The lady on the other end of the phone giggled and thought it was strange behavior from the bus driver also. Anyway, after clearing it with them, we got the go ahead. I called Reed's school to let them know he could now ride the bus. We met him at the bus stop and it went flawlessly today! Hooray! While waiting, we even met another boy on Reed's t-ball team that just lives one street over from us. He was hilarious! He told me that his mom had to buy his dad a car that was really expensive, like five dollars or something (his words not mine). He was singing like a canary. I think this bus stop is sorta like a barbershop, I will learn a lot about our neighborhood...maybe even more than I would care to know.

the bus

Today I finally let Reed ride the bus home from school. He has been begging me all year to ride it. I sent a note to his teacher telling her what bus he needed to get on. After school I waited at the stop and... he did not get off. After talking to the two boys who did get off, they told me that Reed got on the bus and then a teacher took him off the bus. By the time I got to his school, he had been waiting 45 minutes. I was so frustrated! Why didn't the bus driver let him on the bus? When I finally reached Reed, I was slightly teary-eyed. Reed, on the other hand, handled it like a champ. He reassured me by telling me it was okay. His teacher was very understanding also. She told me she even tried convincing the bus driver that I would be at the correct bus stop waiting for Reed but since the bus driver didn't know which bus stop that was, she wouldn't let Reed ride. Reed, undaunted by the whole incident, asked if he can ride it tomorrow. I will give it one more shot for his sake.

mr. mom

I went to visit Channy in Farmington the last couple of days and Colby willingly watched the boys. I must say...he did a fantastic job! Even if he had a rough time, he didn't complain to me instead he responded with a "thanks for all you do here at home." While Channy and I were discussing paint colors for her new house, Colby was trying to get the timing right for Beau's nap which is a tiny gap in between shuttling Reed and Blue to and from school. Colby did have a little scuffle with Beau on Monday morning and here is how it went in Colby's words:

This morning after I fed all of the boys and got Reed off to school, I took a minute to make myself a good breakfast. I cut up into pieces the top sirloin steak and scrambled 3 eggs with cheese and made two pieces of toast, I was very hungry and as I sat down Beau came over and was whining and pointing at my food, I puts some on a fork and tried to give him some, he turned his head and started to whine again this went on about three times then I asked "what do you want the whole plate?" He smiled and nodded his head yes. I pushed the plate over in front of him and he began to devour my breakfast. I got to finish what he didn't eat, which wasn't much.


Thanks Colby! and thanks Tana for coming along with me, keeping me awake while I drove.

opening day for sidewinders

Today was opening day for little league. This is Reed's first year, he is playing t-ball with the Sidewinders. I think this is the most comical age to watch. When the ball was hit, the entire team went after the ball like a school of fish fighting over a single piece of fish food. Some of the batters ended up in the outfield, not sure of where to run next after first base. As if not bringing my video camera was bad enough, my camera was malfunctioning in the bright sun (I wish some of Chea's know-how would have rubbed off on me). Reed had a blast! He said his favorite part was running the bases and getting treats afterward, of course!
On a side note: Blue and Beau thoroughly enjoyed the park that was nearby. The camera was working there...

undecided

So Colby had to go down to the valley today. It is always project day when Colby is out of town. I like to make changes around the house while he is gone before he can have any input :). Anyway, today I am recovering my chairs around my kitchen table. I cannot decide if I like the green and brown hounds tooth or the pottery barn-esque orange floral. And since I can't decide, I will probably end up using both of them even though they don't mesh/match/or flow together.

I thought it was spring

Yesterday the weather was crummy! It was a combination of strong wind gusts, hail, and snow flurries. Beau was so upset with me because I wouldn't let him go outside while it was snowing/hailing. Here he is trying to give me the cold shoulder.

I thought Beau would perk up when I pulled out the camera. He loves to say "cheeeese". Although Beau didn't, Blue did. He was not as upset as Beau about not being able to go outside. Obviously, look at that dimple...

like father like son

Reed has his own compound bow. Lately, he has been practicing shooting it in our backyard. He can load (I'm not sure what the correct verbiage is) his own arrow and everything. He had been practicing for about 30 minutes when he came in all excited, "I did it! I did it!" I was thinking maybe that he got a shot close to the middle of the target. Oh, no. He actually hit the target. It was barely hanging on the edge of the foam. He was so proud to finally get an arrow into the target even though it was no where near the middle of it. He probably flung at least 100 arrows in order to get "the perfect shot", according to him.

addicted

This morning I went to Safeway with Blue and Beau to get pectin for freezer jam (which turned out amazing, by the way). Anyway, I noticed the Easter area was getting a bit of attention from customers and employees alike. I went over to check it out and everything had been marked between 5 cents and 50 cents. I just about started to hyperventilate! Not that I needed more candy because I still have all of my boys Easter candy in a cupboard (the Easter bunny didn't feel like giving anymore candy after seeing all the boys got from their Easter egg hunt the day before). But the thought of getting something, anything, for pennies on the dollar of the original cost, I couldn't help myself. I tried to stay level headed and did a pretty darn good job of it...until I got home and felt the urge to check out the other two Safeway's in town, just to see if their Easter merchandise was any different. I know, I'm obsessed. Luckily, the other two did not have the great deals that the first Safeway had. I mean, c'mon, how many chocolate bunnies does one girl need? Maybe it has to do with my childhood; like my chocolate bunny getting eaten while I was at church. What do you think, Dana?

countdown

Spk Friday at 8

Star

Wrs

2 mor bays (he wrote his 'd' backwords)

My boys are so excited! This Friday, Spike TV will run all six episodes of Star Wars in a row! Reed and Blue have been counting down the days since the first commercial they saw for this special. Now it is only two days away. The boys made sure Colby has already set up to record all of them. Reed went ahead and made a countdown sheet for us and taped it to the fridge... just in case we forgot about the big event.

you don't see that very often anymore

So there is a park here that has metal slides. There is something nostalgic about metal slides. Now I know that metal anything in the valley is not so smart, but up here it isn't the heat we worry about. Anyway, we took the boys there after school. Even though it is April, the weather is still cool enough for a hoodie (Personally, my teeth were chattering while we were there). Reed and Blue pretended the playground equipment was a space ship. Beau, on the other hand, wanted to play in the little grill by the picnic table. Every time I tried to get a picture of Beau, he would run straight towards me and try to punch me. Looking through the lens, I couldn't tell how close he was getting so it made me jump every time and he thought that was hilarious.




After posting these pictures, I noticed how dirty Blue's and Beau's faces are...it is a full time job keeping up on their appearances and apparently I am only putting in a part time effort.

you can dress up a pig...

But it's still a pig. We live in a nice neighborhood and have a nice house, but one look at our backyard and you know we are still no better than the Clampett's. It would be okay if we had a fence, but we don't. It was okay during the winter because all the piles of trash were hidden under the snow, but the snow has melted. And it would probably be okay if we lived on the back end of the neighborhood, but we don't. In fact, our backyard it the first thing anyone sees when they drive into our neighborhood. Part of me wants to be embarassed, but hey, we are who we are and sometimes there's no hiding it.


In fact, after Colby put together our swing set, I noticed that the slide ends right into a pile of broken glass. I still find random pieces of glass every now and then. Thankfully, none of the kids have noticed any.

We thought we might start a neighborhood dump.