Please vote!

Somehow this is the most important thing I've voted for in a while. I know, I'm seriously deficient. Don't tell Aaron.

Easter on a Farm

We spent this morning at a local farm near our new house (we moved the end of Feb). Every Saturday Superstition Farm has tours, but today they also had an Easter brunch and an Easter egg hunt for the kids. Despite some long waits and a fairly grumpy two-year-old, we had a great time checking out the animals, learning about the dairy farm, and enjoying the products of the farm: buttermilk for the pancakes and eggs for our breakfast burritos.

We were sorry to miss conference, but are trying to make plans for the kids so we can enjoy as many words from the prophets as possible the rest of the weekend.

Happy Easter!

In the Blink of an Eye

Roland turned two years old on Saturday. I no longer have any babies, only toddlers and crazy boys. I find this both sad and exhilirating. Roley is the sweetheart of the family, although he has recently discovered the joys of screaming for no reason. He adores his older brothers and is completely infatuated with our dog, Bella. He is even sweet to Mom & Dad most of the time & will give kisses. Ro-Ro loves balls and cars and anything train related. I swear he could watch Thomas for hours. He's still pretty attached to his Minky-Moo blanket and holds it while he sucks his thumb. He's been a little bit slower on the talking that his brothers, but his vocabulary is increasing steadily and we're starting to understand what he's saying most of the time.

Here he is the morning of his birthday. The brothers often sit with their blankets, sucking their thumbs, and watching cartoons early in the morning. You can see his sippy cup of milk, which he calls "cars." He always asks for "cars" and could go through 8 cups a day if we let him. All the sippy cups we use for his milk have pictures from the Pixar Cars movie. So he never says milk, just "cars."

Saturday was also moving day for Roley's Autie Candice & family, so we had Jaycee over to play all morning. These two love & hate each other. Just like siblings. I think they will be very close growing up and it was fun to see them ride on the glider together - that's a new skill for Ro.

After an early nap - we started Roley's birthday party. We planned a fun-filled afternoon for our family of five to enjoy. We started with a late lunch at Chick-Fil-A, which is everyone's favorite. Roley followed the cow mascot around the restaurant, loved the play place, got balloons & cow presents, and ate tons of chicken & Oreo shake.

From there we drove to McCormick Ranch Railroad Park, where Roland was in heaven and just ran around crazy saying, "choo choo! choo choo!" We rode the big train (Alden & Emmett rode in the cattle car!), and the carousel, and checked out the extensive playground for a while. All the boys really liked to room full of model trains too. Then we had Roley's birthday cupcakes and gave him his present - a new lawnmower! He was always running around the backyard with the old, garage-sale one we had, even though it had lost two wheels. We figured it was time to upgrade.

For a final treat, we took all three boys to the dollar theater to see Planet 51. It was Roland's first time in a theater and he did pretty well. We got home just in time for bed and to exclaim what a fun family day it was. I'm really glad we chose to do this rather than a more traditional birthday party for Roley. We love him so!

First First Day of School

Alden started kindergarten. Hooray! and sigh. but no cries. He's only four, and we did have him signed up for pre-K, but that program was cut with the budget crunch. So full day kindergarten, here we come. He loves it so much and can't stop talking about it when we pick him up every day. He goes to MacArthur, which is where I spent seven years of my childhood. He loves his teacher, Mrs. Harvey, and is making new friends in his class every day. He is always telling me about a new kid that he knows now. We were happy to have Hailey Bastian in his class, from Miss Peggy's preschool - so at least he had one friend on the first day. His buddy Kaleb Rasmussen is in the class next to him and they see each other often.

Movie-time Thursday

The old Superstition Springs dollar theater has been closed for a year or so but was bought out and refurbished. They re-opened today but had a special free pre-screening yesterday in conjunction with the kid's club at the mall. I took Alden & Emmett to see Tales of Despereaux. The boys were pretty good while we waited in line for 45 minutes. Emmett only pushed other kids twice. And they didn't even fall down. The theater even gave out free kids packs (popcorn/soda/candy) to everyone. Alden was perfect during the movie, but I think we need to wait another year for Emmett. He did okay, but left by himself twice. He wanted to play the video games in the lobby. It was fun though - even with Emmett's meltdown as we walked to the car about leaving his (empty) soda in the theater. That's what I get for thinking he can skip his naptime. (He fell asleep on the way home and napped for an hour when we got back.)

Emmy's a big boy

I'm just going to write this post and totally ignore the fact that I haven't posted to this blog in 2 1/2 months. More on that later.

This week Emmett and I are working on potty training. And it seems to be going pretty well. He finally started acting interested and ready in the last few weeks. He's been taking his diaper off when he's wet. And he even insisted he needed to go potty one night last week (after we put him to bed, of course). And he actually did. Miracle.

I worry that things have gone so well because he's been a bit sick and not drinking nearly as much as usual. So while we go sit on the potty 20 times a day, he only goes 3 or 4. Not many accidents though. He's learned that when the kitchen timer goes off - it's time to head into the bathroom.

Yesterday was good and Emmett filled up the rest of his potty chart. It has 15 circles on it and he gets to choose a sticker every time he goes. He's filled up 2 charts now and somehow he decided he was getting gum for this one. We've never really let the boys have gum, so it's the mystery of the thing I guess. All three boys and I were dressed and at the store before 8am this morning. Emmett picked out some watermelon Hubba Bubba and I let Alden get something sugar free. Here is our big boy showing off his accomplishments.

Our Little Bob the Builders

My friend, Jody, gave out the cutest gifts this year. They were gingerbread house kits. There were foil covered boards, graham crackers, royal icing in ready-to-squeeze bags, and plenty of candies for decorating. And it was all wrapped up in plastic and tied with a gorgous bow. Such a great idea!

We had Jody's son, Kaleb, over to play a few days after Christmas and decided to occupy the boys with a little building. We built the houses and started out like this:





Poor Emmett's house quickly deteriorated to this:





And then this:





And finally this:





But Alden and Kaleb were very meticulous and did a bang up job on their houses. Thanks for the kits, Jody. And thanks for letting Kaleb come to play and show us how to decorate.

After our little builders finished we met up with the Rasmussens & the Eggers at the park for a little picnic and playfest. We were happy to get a little time to spend with Jeanna & Jason, who were visiting from California. We miss them!

Visiting the House of the Lord

Aaron and wanted to attend the temple during his time off work and finally harangued someone into babysitting the morning after Christmas. (Thanks, Candice!) We have been out of the habit a bit and are really enjoying the temple again, especially together.

As I sat in the session, I paid strict attention to every word, wanting to learn and grow. I know the temple is full of symbolism and I was racking my brain, trying to gain more insights and figure out all the pieces of the puzzle. Then I realized that gospel answers don't come that way, through the brain. Although studying is a big part of learning, I remembered that all understanding comes through the Spirit and that I needed to sit back and listen with different ears.

As I realized this and began to soak up the words with all my senses, I did gain a little understanding. I was very touched to see an elderly woman in a wheelchair helped by her companion and a sweet temple worker. This woman could not physically do the things required of her in the temple and these other two women did everything for her. I was suddenly overcome with the realization that that's a huge part of what the temple is about. Doing something for others who can not physically do it for themselves. This little thought made my day and left me feeling refreshed and anxious to go to The House of the Lord again soon.

Who wants to babysit in January?