Date Night

Last night I went to the NGS, FamilySearch, and LDS Church sponsored "Celebration of Family History" (http://www.familysearch.org/ngs2010/)with Tyson. We made it into a mommy/son date. Grandma Candee has been working on five short films that were shown during the concert for months and months. The films were wonderful; I cried through all but one of them (I know, me cry? Shocking!). It will probably be rebroadcast on KBYU this weekend if anyone is interested.

The real heart-wrencher was the film about a lady from Hawaii searching for her grandmother Emma. Emma had been sent away to a leper colony on an isolated island when she was 24 years old. There she met and fell in love with her husband. Together they had six children, all of whom were immediately taken from them for fear they would contract Leprosy. They never knew what happened to their children. This lady went to the island and searched the graveyard three times. It was this third time that she found the records and her grandparent's headstones.

Tyson's favorite was a film about a family who knew they had Scottish heritage, but were never really that into it. One day their seven year-old comes in and announces he wants to play the bagpipes! Of course he is horrible at first, but over time he becomes really good. They start delving into their history. The daughters take up Highland dancing, one learns Gaelic. It brings their family closer together. After the film the Mo Tab sang "Amazing Grace" accompanied by four bagpipers, the fourth being Jared McCloud (the former seven year old, who is married and has his own children now to pass their Scottish heritage onto). The audience loved it. Standing ovations all around!

President Eyring shared the cutest story about how a family history search resulted in him meeting his wife. David McCullough (author of John Adams and 1776) spoke and soapboxed. It was wonderful, if not a little too long for an eight year old who usually goes to bed around 7:30 pm. He loved "Grandma's movies," but resorted to reading his Jigsaw Jones book during Mr. McCullough's talk. He finally fell asleep against Grandma's shoulder about twenty minutes from the end. I took pictures of him asleep with my phone, but haven't a clue how to get them off.

All the people featured in the films were present for the concert. Over the course of filming them, Mom and Dad played host to a few. It was so neat to meet them and hear their stories. The lady from Hawaii was in love with Tyson's hair and decided he was the politest child ever! He makes a good impression, but wait until you get to know him! Evidently, he waited very patiently for her while she was in the bathroom and told her all about his spelling test today while they were waiting for Mom. He is the sweetest boy! We had such a fun time, but with the bad traffic and scary storm coming over the Point and through Highland, we didn't get home until almost 11:00. Totally worth it to hang with Tys for a night!

Once there was a snowman....

Clearly, he melted. We made these last year, and as they are so cute, we are making it a Spring time tradition.
Last year we used big chocolate melting chips for the brim of the hat, but I couldn't find any this time, so peppermint patties were a perfect substitute (but they usually get thrown away because Trent's the only one who eats them). Mostly, this is a pantry raid with some leftover Easter Candy (we still have lots, so if you need a candy fix....)

Tyson was a little disappointed. He thought we were using doughnut holes to make snowmen. He wanted his snowman to be non-melted and upright so he could decorate it like a Ben 10 alien. I think we'll have to try doughnut hole snowmen next winter. Good idea Tys! Instead, he just gave his melted snowman four pretzel arms and more eyes than necessary.

Kaylee was clearly more interested in eating the candy than decorating with it.

Good bye Winter! Hello Spring!

A Little Easter, A Little Spring Break?

Happy Spring Break! Hope you are basking in sunshine and tulips. We are doing this.... This is Cam after he got too cold to be outside in the snow. Yes, I did say snow. Yup. It is April 6.
Kay loved her snowy mitts.
First attempt at snowman...turned into.....

a snow wall.....which was originally a snow fort of some kind. They loved it. They got to warm up with hot chocolate and make Shrinky Dinks all afternoon. Remember Shrinky Dinks!?!?

Saturday for Easter we spent time at my parents with my sisters, bro in law, and my cousins, the Pattee Family, that just moved in down the street from Mom & Dad. Mom went all out as usual. We had yummy creamed eggs and cornbread (and pancakes for the kids) for breakfast, and then the kids headed out to find eggs. It was freezing, but not snowing yet, so they had a riot running around the yard and inside the house looking for eggs.

Kay tried and tried to blow that pinwheel, but she just couldn't get the hang of it.

I have to add: Cam was a champion egg finder this year. After all the egg hunts were over, we counted the real eggs and found we were missing six. He would wander outside every now and then and search until he found another egg (which he actually did, twice!). He says he'll find the rest next time Grandma! The Easter Bunny hid plastic filled eggs all over our house this year. The day after Easter, all three kids come running up from the basement family room, with an egg in each hand. Evidently that Easter Bunny hides eggs a little too well (good thing we keep the hard boiled eggs outside!).

Grandma found those cute felt baskets at the dollars store for all the kids to hunt eggs with. Plus, she made little goodie bags for each of them, in addition to all the candy and change in the eggs they collected. We love Grandma and Grandpa...their the BEST!

During Priesthood Session of Conference, whilst Trent, Dad, Mike, and cousin Ryan were gone, Mom, Lissa, Jen, and I took the kids to see How to Train Your Dragon. Loved it. It was clean (Has Dreamworks finally figured out that the crudeness in Shark Tale and the Shrek movies is not necessarily appreciated in family films? Perhaps.), and the kids were sucked in for the whole movie (except Kay, who con-ed Aunt Lissa into taking her to the bathroom and wouldn't stop kicking the back of the seat in front of her. She's two, what to do?). Liked it better than Princess and the Frog....

I love the look on Kaylee's face in that picture. We came back to our house Saturday night, and the Easter Bunny visited us Sunday morning and Trent's family came up for lunch, but more on that later. Happy Spring! Try not to freeze to death!

Who's the Fool?

Trent evidently fancies himself Puck, the Trickster King. Last year, he had me believing he had been in a car accident. Yesterday, he and another guy at work put another co-workers brand new truck up for sale (very cheap) on KSL. The poor guy was getting phone calls and txts and emails all morning. So he made a website (http://sites.google.com/site/mattsnuttall/) featuring Trent and M as "Construction Lovers," and sent them some email about it. Kind of lame retaliation, but funny. Trent also helped tape papers to the insides of several other co-workers cabinet doors, and when they opened them Reese's pieces slid off the paper and all over the place. He also tripped my neighbors garage door circuit so it wouldn't open (sorry H family).

To top it all off he got into my FB account and told everyone I am pregnant (insert several curse words here, all screamed with an Irish accent of course). Which I am NOT! He also changed my password so I couldn't take it down. Needless to say, he'll be living out of his truck for a while.

I don't like practical jokes. I think someone usually ends up getting hurt physically or emotionally. I HATE April Fool's. However, if anyone has some magnificent ideas on something that would put Trent in his place....I am all ears.

N is for Nest

I know.... They are super cute, huh!?We made Easter Egg nests tonight. So fun and super easy. Cameron is in charge of a snack at preschool for the letter N, so this is all I could think of. N is for Nest. First things first, we started off with a rousing debate on why Tyson couldn't help me until he washed his hands.

I won.
I know I have seen these before, but I couldn't find any kind of recipe online, so we winged it. White almond bark, Chinese noodles, and candy eggs. I melted half the block of almond bark (which will burn in the microwave if you look at it wrong, so be careful) and mixed it with one big bag of Chinese noodles. Then tablespoon-ed the nests out and had the kids kind of shape them and add the eggs. That's it. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy (this is Cam's new favorite phrase. Well, that and "okey dokey artichokey." Sometimes he uses them together)! I think the nests turned out cute, and the kids loved making them. In the next few days we are going to make our "Hooray! Spring is here!" Melted Snowmen. I'll post when we do it, especially since I have half a pound of white almond bark left over.....

Patrick's, Pinewood, and Pictures

Take a deep breath. It's going to be a long one folks. My favorite holiday! Yes, Lucky the Leprechaun visited. He drank our milk and used our toilets, dyed our dinner green, he literary threw gold coins all over our yard (for more on this, talk to Mom and Lis...they saw him!). We woke up to this note, lots of chocolate gold, candy, and books! We LIKE this leprechaun.
We did our first Pinewood Derby! Tyson and Trent were psyched! They researched car designs on the web for the shape. Tyson wanted it to look like Upgrade (for all you Ben 10 fans out there). Trent cut it out, but I made him let Tyson do all the sanding. Tys really did help with every part of his car, except for when Trent decided late the night before that they needed a smoother top coat of varnish. I found him in the garage, eyes watering from the fumes, spraying nearly an entire can of clear coat on the thing. We had various discussions on why derbys are about learning woodworking skills and having fun with Dad and NOT about winning. Evidently, many men in our ward feel this is up for debate. I am over cub scouts for our Primary, so I made really cute certificates for all the boys with a fun award for each of their designs. Tyson got the "Best Ben 10 Alien Annihilator." It took the Primary President and I three hours to come up with 13 awards....

Okay, Aim. Why the feet pic? Well, ROSEANNE (insert growl here) tagged me. And we all know Aimee feels guilty if she doesn't do this stuff, so send it her way. I love you, so I'll do it. The point is, if you are tagged, no cleaning up or whatever, just go take a picture of that room or person, or thing..... Snapshot of your life.
#1 Favorite shoes. Their comfy and easy.
#2 Kitchen Sink. No my back splash is not grouted yet. But he did buy the grout. The thing about being married to a contractor...everyone's projects take priority over yours. It stinks, but it pays the bills.

#3 Favorite Room. This isn't really my favorite room, but it's my favorite spot. I love to sit in our loft and read in my chair. Love it! Someday, Trent will build a desk and some huge bookcases to house my out of control book fetish, and then this will be my favorite room.

#4a What are the kids doing right now? My favorite part of this is that she has taken off her pj pants after we have tucked her in and replaced them with a princess skirt.

#4b See the ratty old blanket he's snuggling with. He's had it since the day he was born and it's falling to pieces, but if you even suggest putting it up, he gets teary. I love My Sweet Boy.

#4c Cam has his falling to piece baby blanket too. They're so sweet asleep. And so quiet.....

#5 Self Portrait. This is me scowling because we all know how Aimee feels about pictures of herself. I must really love you Roseanne.....

#6 Your bathroom. I know...white walls...ugh. Someday (you hear that word a lot around here), I'll paint....Well, no. I'll pick a color and Mr. Perfectionist Painter will paint.

#7 Your closet. Insert evil laugh here! Thank you Ikea. The reason the middle door is missing....Ikea is cheap. Trent had to glue one of the panels back together because the glass is too heavy for the frames. It's down in the garage waiting to be brought back home.

#8 The refrigerator. Yes, we do need that much honey butter. Yes, we do go through a lot of apples. Yes, Kaylee would starve without all that yogurt. No, the margarita mix is not because we are drinkers. Trent is a big fan of smoothies.

#9 Laundry Room. I know my machines don't match. Our washing machine died a year ago, but why replace the dryer when it works just fine? I love my counter. Usually, it would be covered in folded clothes, but I was dog sick yesterday, so nothing got done.

So tag! Your it! Now you do it. Go take a few pics and post.

1. April

2. Kari

3. Amber

4. Courtney

5. Kellie

6. Melissa

Even if I didn't list you, you should go do it anyway. Because you LOVE me! This means you Emily, Leona, Stacey, Macy, Jen, Mom, Mary....I could go on and on.

Embace Life

My sweet friend sent me this link. Watch it. It's only a minute long and worth every second, especially if it gets you to buckle up. I imagine the only reason you would read this blog is because we know and love each other. I have been in enough car accidents and had friends and family in enough accidents to know I never want to lose someone I love that way. Buckle up.

Buckle your kids up. Drive safe. Because I love you and too me your are worth way more than the few seconds it takes to click it.

http://www.embracethis.co.uk/