Life in General

We have had a lot of fun things going on lately...everything from this pre-school field trip to the fire station, to making a jail out of cardboard for the Blue & Gold Banquet, to having a big birthday party at our house.  And, Jared has done his first glaze firing of his pottery in his kiln which he found water-logged on the side of the road.  More on that later...but first, as you can see, Paxton loved the visit with the fireman.  He let the kids try on his helmet and coat and he told them all about the firetrucks.  They had a group pic sitting on the front bumper of the HUGE fire engine.  This pre-school group has been great, I think its success is due to a good group of moms who each do their part.

The jail is thanks to Denette's new kitchen remodel...we used up all the cardboard she and Clyde gave us.  I should have taken photos of everything else- signs, cactus, longhorn skulls, nearly life size wagon wheels, etc.  Oh well, they were auctioned off at our service auction in our ward last Friday.  Sorry Paxton, you don't get to spend time in jail.  The theme of our Blue & Gold Banquet was cowboy, which was so easy.  One den made amazing campfire centerpieces cut out of wood and then each den ran cowboy games including a shooting gallery.  It was nice to have the whole family invited and the food was good.

The rideable "horse" was thanks to my Grandma, she has this old sawhorse saddled up well enough for all the kids to climb on it.  Paxton does love that hat, gun, holster, and anything cowboy lately.  He should have been a Steen!  He thinks their boys are his brothers.  I thought I would struggle with figuring out stuff to do for cub scouts but it has been a great calling with a lot of people offering help.  

Paxton recently earned a new toy due to behaving like every child should in church.  It made me think that every set of Legos should come in a blank, plain box with no pictures of how it is "supposed" to be built.  Jared had empathy for Paxton when he kept saying he didn't know what to build, I kept saying whatever you want, anything!  His shirt there says wax on, wax off...I'm sure he has no clue what that means.  I have been cutting his hair lately, Jared did it for a while and probably does a better job but I felt I should learn how.  It's good you can't see the back.

Bennett is completely mobile...and getting fast.  He also has started to plop himself down by the book basket and spend a while carefully looking at them.  He'll even hold one up walk over to Jared or I to have us read it with him.  I'm getting concerned he's going to be way smarter than either of his parents.  Overall he still is very mellow and happy but now will protest if we move him from where he wants to be or take something away.  And sometimes, it is a true wrestling match to get him to stay on his back for a diaper change, no toy is interesting enough for him to stay put for 20 seconds.  

Lately we do spend a lot more time downstairs.  It's just easier, if we're in the kitchen/living room, Bennett will empty the contents of the drawers and even has pulled the safety latches of some of the cabinet doors.  He got a balloon from Grandma Jackie's birthday party and it's hilarious to watch him yank it around or try to grab onto it when he's stepping on the ribbon.  

I don't know about Emerson, but we're up to size 4 diapers.  I remember when Paxton was in that size and I thought they were huge then.  But thankfully, we're slowing down on the formula and Bennett is eating more regular food.

The chubby legs show no signs of slimming...but his waist is. He still has the rosey cheeks (hope it isn't a skin condition) that everyone loves.  As far as talking, he is usually either really quite or jabbering up a storm.  We can put him in his crib awake for bedtime and he gets really loud and goes on for 15 minutes with some kind of happy story telling.

Here are some of Jared's recent pots that he fired in our garage.  I do insist that he park the car outside : ) when he's do a high temp batch. He's been doing different types of lids and did have an example of each lid, but he donated some to the ward service auction.  These pictured are still at our house, the bowl shows the green glaze the best, but the drips on the other pots are really nice.  Jared also donated 29 bowls to the Food & Care Coalition's Bowls for Humanity fundraiser.