I love my job!

My sister has 5 kids, and while I was down taking care of her kids in Texas last month I was inspired to change the way i'm doing things with my kids and their chores. i found out just by watching her kids that a job done 4-5 times slightly less than perfect is still better than me putting it on my list of things to do that may or may not get done. For example she has her 6 and 8 year old vacuuming the front room every day, and even though they maybe don't do as good a job as she would herself, they are learning and actually getting more done than she would if she tried to do it amid all the other things she's doing. I can totally see the value in that. Plus the kids are pretty proud that they can do the big kids jobs too. So with this new found inspiration i thought it was about time that i changed up the chores here at our house. So now ethan and sam are helping with the sweeping and vacuuming, collecting and sorting laundry, unloading the dishwasher, folding socks and towels, putting their own clothes away, etc. And as much as i know i am somewhat, slightly, and maybe just a little bit of a perfectionist on certain jobs, i've really had to take a step back and say it's ok, they are helping out and that's more important. Ryan is in charge of dusting and even has his very own duster with his name on it. And i read somewhere that if you have a 4 year old that has a duster of their own, you're house will be completely dust free. Well Ryan also has the job of cleaning the kitchen window. Of course with this he can only reach so high, but most of the finger prints are where he can reach anyway. The other day i took this video of him cleaning the window. He loves his job. He started out with just less than half a bottle of windex and a few dry papertowels. (also, watch his mouth). I do have to say my kids are doing great with their jobs, and my house does seem to be in more order than it use to be.

Buzzin' into Summer

Call it being stir crazy from what seemed to be a longer than usual winter, we decided that maybe if we gave the boys summer hair cuts, summer temperatures would come sooner. Kind of the sheers of dreams,"If you cut it, warmth will come."

Each of the boys was asked if they wanted to get a short hair cut and they all said "YES!" They wanted to look like one of their favorite cartoons characters, Avatar the last airbender. It seemed appropriate to have Aang the Avatar join their pictures here.

After all was said and done, they boys had their cool haircuts and a new pet like on Mork and Mindy or even a miniature cousin it sitting on our floor.

As Ryan says it, "we did a short cut".

Arrrrg we be pirates, looking fer treasure!

So i have been meaning to post this on the blog for some time and even got part of our trip to delta/Millard county/topaz mountain posted, but there was soooo much more i wanted to post. For example we have some friend that lived by us in Lindon years ago and they moved away to Colorado and then moved back to delta, UT where she grew up. We've known they were back here in Utah for a while but as schedules go we've just not found the time to get together with them. When we found out that the boys had some time off of school Blake worked out his schedule to take a day off so that we could spend some time together as a family. Well it was too cold still to go to Idaho and we had just been to St. George so we decided that we'd go to topaz mountain and go searching for treasure. We've talked about doing this dozens of times but just haven't made it happen. Well once we decided to do it, i happen to see my friend online and worked out meeting up with them for one of the days. Which we ended up spending time with them both days we were down there. If you want to eat at a nice little restaurant in delta they own and run a place called "the Pizza House" just on the main road there. It was awesome and they have some really good things on the menu for everyone. Our boys loved it and we really like all the things they recommended (and it's not just pizza). Anyway, our friends there have kids really close to the same ages as our boys so it was a great time to have fun with our friends. I am really glad that we were able to hook up with them because they knew all the right places to go so that we could have a fun and "profitable" trip. (And by profitable i mean that we found things--not that it is really worth anything, other than cool rocks for boys.) We were able to find sun rocks, obsidian, and pumice. All in about a two hour time span. Just finding one of those places could have taken us that long if not longer. So i recommend going with tour guides or going to the places where you pay if you don't have a guide. All in all the trip was a blast and the boys are asking when we can go again. We are hoping that we can do it before it gets too hot down there. We had a lot of wind so even though it was warm both days the wind kept it from being hot. Thanks again Jen and Miah! Anyway, some of the fun of going on this trip was of course taking a road trip and staying in a hotel with a pool. This trip was all about the boys and i know they absolutly loved it. What boy wouldn't, pool, dirt, cool rocks, friends to play with, and treats, treats, treats! (sorry about the pictures being all over the place, i was just trying to hurry--since this is the 3rd time i've tried to post this.)

Boys will be boys!

So after many requests from friends and family I'm going to try and blog again, now that life is somewhat calm (and that's a total stretch). At least no one is out of town this week. I took these pictures of the boys about 3 weeks ago when we finally had a good warm day. They were of course taking advantage of the warm day by jumping on the trampoline together. I had stepped away out of the kitchen where i can see them for a bit and came back to see them all jumping with out their shirts on having a great time. What is it about boys wanting to be half dressed all the time? Anyway, small rewarding moment for me cause the boys were absolutely enjoying each other and having a great time. It's times like this that i just can't get enough of my boys.

Things to look for in Millard county

Dinosaurs made out of wood. (Called Wood Art in Fillmore)
Rock Man/Gargoyle on front steps of a house near the "Wood Art"

Lots of space and dirt for boys to play in. (love the belly hanging out of his shirt)
Decorative lava rock on houses. (this one is for you mom).
Horse and Horseman at Wood Art. (the pictures really doesn't do it justice, it is actually pretty cool looking.)

Pretty rocks. (these are actually Sun rocks)

This is the Place

So this last month i got to go with Ethan and all the 4th graders to "This is the Place" Monument. I have to admit this was a first time for me up there and it was a lot of fun. I will however suggest that you go in your car and not on a school bus full of 4th graders. I couldn't hear when i got off the bus because of the ringing that was still in my head. I will also give the 4th graders a little break since it wasn't complete chaos noise on the bus. They had just given a school program the night before with about 7 or 8 different Utah songs (since they are studying Utah history). So the students would break into song for periods of time on the hour up and back bus ride. I am one of those crazy mom's that likes to go on the field trips. I figure i have to take advantage of the time that my boys really really want me to come. At this point in Ethan's schooling (including 2 years of pre-school) i have only missed one field trip. It was shortly after Ryan was born. He was going to Thanksgiving point and i didn't know if i could work something out with Ryan so i felt like i should not volunteer. I dropped Ethan off at school that morning and he asked me if i was coming on the field trip and i said no, and he seemed sad but ok about it. I sat and cried in my car in the parking lot across the street from the school trying to decided if i should just follow the bus up and walk around with him anyway, that way i could still take ryan in the stroller. I called blake and he talked me down from my sad sad state and told me ethan would be fine and that if i didn't want to go i should just go home, but if i wanted to go, then i should go. I went home, who was i to go to the field trip in such a mess of emotion. So anyway it was fun and it was nice to spend the time with Ethan. One little boost to my ego was i was only one of two parents going from ethan's class and then of course his teacher. The kids were left to decided who was in who's group and then had to document it on their name tags. (E for ethan's mom's group). I had 9 of 22 kids in my group. And i noticed that a bunch of them had E's and then had them scratched out because they were trying to make the groups a little more even. I know the kids like me because i am in their class once a week helping when i can. That makes me happy. One other boost to my ego was that one of the girls in ethan's class that isn't always the nicest person told me two different times how pretty i was. I thought it was nice of her the first time but when she said it again later i have to admit i might of blushed. So after those 2 different ego boosts and really having fun with Ethan, i'd do it again. Field trips aren't so bad. Just might need to bring some ear plugs for the bus ride.

So much to blog, so little time!

I swear every time i turn around it's been a few more days and then another few more days and i still haven't gotten to blog what's going on. And i know i am always telling blake, oh that's somthing we ought to put on the blog (whether it's something funny said or what's going on). Well since blake is out of town and i have access to the computer that has our pictures i shall blog like there is no tomorrow, since i probably won't get a chance to do it tomorrow anyway.

For April 1st (april fools day), i helped the boys comb their hair in silly ways. After alot of coaxing of hair and using some major product to get their hair to stay the way they wanted it to this was the finished products. Ethan always (seriously!) is asking to have spikey hair the way sam some times does. Ethan's hair however does not stay up, it's cowlicked to stay down. So this was quite a feat! Sam wanted it slicked back (which his hair sometimes, well most of the time doesn't want to stay down). It makes me laugh, cause even boys want what they don't or can't have, just like girls (and i'm purely speaking of hair and hair styles).