April

I bet you didn't know that the word Easter can be a verb. Well, to my in-laws it is. We all went Eastering to the desert a couple days after the actual holiday. It happened to be Spring Break for many of the schools, including UVU, so we headed southeast. We had our choice of where to spend the day because apparently this part of the desert isn't a popular destination for folks from our area.

The rocks here are well suited to adventurous kids. But they are deceptively sharp on the surface so we had a few cuts by the end of the day. I ended up with a hole in my jeans and Bennett managed to get a giant tear in the seat of his pants. He didn't want anyone to see his underwear but we could see plenty. This kids archery set was fun for our boys.

For lunch we had hot dogs cooked on a tiny portable grill. And there was plenty of candy to go around. The unpredictable wind created a challenge for kids to fly kites but it was decent weather overall.



This egg hunt was unique for sure...but not original. We found eggs before our family had even hid any. But it was a fun day, a nice way to get away from the usual routine.

Oh, how time escapes me! It's unbelievable to me that Bennett is four years old. Today he said to me that he thinks he might be the smartest kid in the world. He is smart...and we'll work on his humility. I asked Bennett what kind of cake he would like for his birthday and each time it was different and often bizarre. Finally, when I was almost out of time to bake it, we settled on lemon-blueberry. There you have it, a bundt cake.

Bennett had repeatedly asked for a Luke Skywalker costume and this was the best I could do online. I hope he wants to wear it when he's 6 or so because it's pretty big on him. I am convinced that Star Wars will live on longer than any of us.

We had a triple birthday celebration for Bennett, Emmerson, and Austin. Heidi made these sweet little minion cupcakes. I made some trifle for dessert, the banana blackberry was a new combo for me and it's my new favorite.

We were lucky to have a visit from Jaylene and her two sweet little ones. Ellie here is wearing a bib as a cape and she sporting a necklace she found in Paxton's toy drawer. They spent a couple of days with us and we loved having them. Ellie was not shy about playing with the boys and she had a great time with them on the trampoline.

You might ask where the youngest one is...Cami was hanging out in the stroller. She is a beautiful, happy baby and I am a FOOL because I don't have a good picture of her! What's wrong with me? We all know the whole point of this blog is to SEE PHOTOS of the kiddos. Oh well, another excuse to plan a trip south.

 Here's the best shot I could manage with the camera strap wrapped around a pole to set up a self-timer shot. I'm not sure what Bennett is doing there but don't look too close : )

 

March

Our youngest brainiac. He came up with this combo by himself. He really does love to dress up, even in his regular clothes. I am trying to get him to only wear ONE set of clothes each day and it's a struggle. But we can't help but laugh! Bennett is starting to READ. Simple, three letter words but it is reading and he can write his name. I don't feel like I've taught him one bit about writing, he just wants to learn to make the letters. He'll be ready for preschool in the Fall.

I am part of a neighborhood play group that was organized in our ward. So far it's been great, I'll only host about 5-6 kids once a month and the other weeks Bennett goes to another family's home or to the church with two other moms and a bigger group. Sometimes it's hard to let him go, but then I realize how much I need and want to accomplish every day and then I think it's okay.

Paxton had a fun week at school as the "swashbuckler" aka star student. This entailed making a poster about himself, taking his favorite book, getting a letter from mom and dad and being "king" for a day. I wanted to put a photo of his poster here but his teacher hasn't given it back yet. This photo was an attempt to get both cats but they were being "catty" so we only got Chica. Even if you have been to our house, you probably have never seen her because she hides when most visitors come.

This is Paxton's new bed, made by Grandpa. Despite my sure belief that he would fall out of it, he hasn't! He loves it, and I like it so much that I positioned it to get a maximum view of it when I walk by his room : ) His brother and our giant cat Chico enjoy it too...sometimes too much.

Here's the chicken coop as we started to paint it. Bennett really did help, and he never got tired of it until we were done. It was the perfect painting project for a kid his age. We did the roof one day and re-coated the red another. It came from our neighbor's rental property and had been left so he suggested we use it and we really appreciate it. Eventually his flock could be combined with ours because he only has 3 chickens.

Here's the after picture...I like to call it the chicken church. The lower roof has two separate panels that lift up; one to feed them and the other has nesting boxes directly underneath it where we can collect eggs, hopefully this summer.

The is the enclosed run that they can go out into anytime and still be safe from predators. We also let them out of both of these when we're nearby so they can have more space and pasture grass to peck at.

Once they're full grown they can be out more because then even stray cats aren't likely to mess with a bigger bird.
They aren't chicks any more - they're juveniles now and they look basically like miniature chickens with almost all their feathers.

Jared has had some great results from his latest firing of the kiln. One of our favorites is this blue color he achieved on a couple bowls;  I turned that bottom right one over to show it off. The tall vase is his tallest yet at 12 inches. The narrow shape was challenging. The other vases have a nice combination of green and brown colors. In the back is one of several bowls on which the color sort of washed out instead of being red or brown.

All about chicks

For all you that want pics of the boys, sorry! We have some new babies at our house. On the 6th we bought 8 chicks, 4 pair of different breeds. In the past I'd been opposed to chickens and I actually was not looking forward to the chick stage but it turns out I love 'em!

They are more charming than I had thought, and they do live IN our ping pong room at the moment (working on getting them to a more natural environment).  This cardboard box is their second home.  It now also has an addition, pictured below, for more space.

 In this one you can see two pale yellow chicks, we added them to the flock after losing one (I cried - I'm such a pushover for animals). So to date we have 2 two week old chicks, 5 three week olds, and 2 four week olds. They are getting along well and grow incredibly fast.

This is their addition - I wanted them to see some natural light and have more room. Today I did begin a makeshift coop for under our deck which we'll slowly acclimate them to until they are more fully feathered out and can move to the red "chicken church" that our neighbor acquired for us. It's great, used, but we'll throw a little paint on the roof and it will make a great home. I'll post pics of it next month.

Some think these little ones can be outside now (with a heat lamp) and they may be right but I don't want to lose sleep over wondering if they're cold so I will start moving them outside on the days when we get warmer, sunny weather. So what if our ping pong room smells like IFA? Ok, I do care and that's why I am working on the next space! Ultimately they'll live on a portion of the extra lot with their equine friends. It will be a colorful flock of white, black, rusty red, buff, and more. Two of them will lay (hoping they're all hens) pale blue or pale green eggs, many will lay brown eggs, and two will be white.

This one's my favorite, a Buff Orpington. She's mellow and friendly. When she gets all her feathers in she'll be much fluffier. We may name them so we don't have to say "that dark brown one". So far I like Star Wars names; Bennett calls the largest black one Darth Vader.

Speaking of movie characters, this is Bennett dressed up as Luke Skywalker. He is totally into making up costumes lately. When I woke up today he had a full superman costume UNDERNEATH his church clothes (tie and shoes included) so he could look like Clark Kent.

Tonight Paxton is sleeping on his NEW bed...at least the mattress anyway. His frame, headboard etc is coming from Grandpa's wood shop next week. Due to his crazy sleeping positions, I am certain Paxton will be falling off as his new bed won't have sides like his old fire truck toddler one did. So we're having him try it out with just the mattress on the floor so if he rolls off we won't hear it : )

Our January

We have had some fun chances to spend time with others' little ones. This is our nephew Jack, he is adorable and so sweet. I hope he comes again soon - it's great for Bennett in particular to learn to share with younger kids.  

I had to post this pic because I can see the resemblance in Jack to his father, who is my brother. Hopefully Jack doesn't also get his teasing and mischievious genes. Growing up with two older brothers has it drawbacks!

My mom & I were lucky to take a quick drive to St. George to see the exhibit I was invited to participate in, and we got to visit Jaylene. The show was all pastel paintings and it had some nice variety. Those three hanging on the darker wall are mine. Since I'm relatively new to pastel painting, I loved seeing how other artists work with them. As with most art, viewing them in person reveals so much more than any other way can.

Julie Rogers is the artist of this piece, and she has a much more loose and painterly style that I really admire. She works fairly large and had good variety of colors within her pieces. I also like how she works with more muted tones as well, like in this closer up photo of a larger piece. There were several other artists that I admire who had work in the show including: Marilee Campbell, Robert Barrett, and Carol Harding.

These pieces are gourds that were carved and painted by artist Kolene Granger. It's a particular kind of gourd that grows larger. I'd love to try to grow some myself but I fear we don't have a long enough growing season. One year I had a great crop of bottle gourds but I haven't had such good luck since.

This was the other reason I HAD to head south. Jaylene's newest little one is named Cambria. Jaylene is now mother to two little girls and she's doing well. In all the photos I took, I always managed to catch Cambria pulling some kind of silly baby face. But she is beautiful regardless!

Jared has continued his pottery hobby. He made this vase the other day which measured 12" tall, his tallest yet. I am trying to encourage him to try other shapes... not that I don't love the homemade bowls, but the teacher in me knows he needs to expand his skills.

I have started some pansies and "Johnny Jump Ups" from seed. These lights are just flourescent shop lights hanging close. I learned from a gardening class last year that the plants don't care much about what the light looks like as long as they get enough.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Once again we have so many reasons to be grateful. Jared's parents came home from their mission in the Philippines early this month. With the tumultuous weather in that part of the world, we're all relieved they made it home safely. It was fun to wait at the airport for them (new experience for me) and ALL of their children and grandchildren were there. We had a nice evening with dinner and catching up. The kids ran wild downstairs and I chuckled to myself when I crept down to take this photo of them having a good old time.

The next day the party shifted to Denette's and the weather was so mild then the kids could play outside. It has been a warm December up until just before Christmas. The kids had fun things to do while some dads and boys went to shoot clay pigeons.

These are adorable snowmen that the kids made thanks to Jared's sisters' planning. They are tube socks filled with rice, separated into sections with rubber bands. Usually I don't get into crafts, but this one was a winner. I loved how the littlest kids would pack them around like a doll. Even the boys enjoyed them.



The kids also decorated little Christmas trees made out of ice cream cones and candy. With so many in the family now, it's a crowd for sure. But we are fortunate to have the opportunity to all be in one place, which only happens a couple times each year.

Grandma and Grandpa had a gift for everyone - amazingly they brought them from the Philippines in their 4 pieces of luggage! They must have left some "non-essentials" behind. The kids all patiently waited to open them until everyone had a gift.

Even as a part time instructor at UVU, I am getting into the spirit of "Wolverine Green". Well, sort of. We went to watch the men's basketball team take on Utah State and I had to wear my Aggie apparel right there in the front row (of the UVU section). It was actually a very close, competitive game and I was worried that my alma mater might lose. But in the end, they came through. Not all of our little family was happy though - tears were shed when the green team went down. Not by Bennett though, he had a great time and loved the green man group you can see performing behind him.

Christmas finally arrived and the boys were surprisingly slow at opening presents. I don't mean to complain though, they were just excited to see the snow (me too, it seemed overdue). On the flip side, they haven't been able to tear around outside on their new ride-on toys but I'm pretty confident we'll get a January thaw. Can you tell I'm semi-obsessed with the weather?

These gifts, including the bean bag, were from Jared's parents. We have been practicing baseball indoors and haven't broken anything. Yet. Of course, some of ours and Santa's picks were a hit and some less so. We've gotten especially good entertainment for the cost out of Star Wars coloring books, and Play-Doh, and the green block style stilts that Bennett is showing off. Both boys like the height advantage and didn't have any trouble with their coordination. That's sort of a goal of mine, to have the boys be capable of basic things, like catching and throwing a ball. I don't expect them to be professional athletes but I personally love sports toys.

It is always a treat when Grandma Leslie and Papa Mack come by - especially when they bring gifts! They gave the boys some fun robot slash transfomer thingys, a frighteningly fast hot wheels track, and electronic bugs that crawl through a sort of obstacle course. It's all pretty futuristic here in the year (almost) 2015. One day soon my phone will be more intelligent than I am. You can see the Christmas Story marathon on behind Paxton...I am entertained by that show every year. We'll end it here with a few pics from tubing. That orange hat was totally Bennett's idea.