Happy Valentines Day

Notice the drool. I hope this stops soon.


She's eyeing the neighbors dog.


I'm pooped mom. At least I got my blanket.

Just to catalog the injuries of the last week. She face planted at Target, later that day she face planted on the street on the way back from the bus, that evening she fell off her bathroom counter onto the toilet (I caught her midway), and the next morning she somersaulted off my bathroom counter (again, caught her midway to slow the fall). Wish I could get her to hold my hand or stop climbing.

Silly Girl

Someday I will get her to wear something in her hair again. This is what I have made for her in the mean time.

All Things Basketball

I have to admit, I forced basketball on to all my children. My philosophy is that they have to at least try it. They don't have to like it, but they have to learn how to play the game and give it a chance. Brett was rebelious and although they had a winning season with only about 3 losses, he definately doesn't ever want to play again. I kept telling him he was quite the defender but it is hard to balance that with a desire to shoot the ball and to actually make baskets.



Alex was gung-ho from the beginning and enjoyed the season. I enjoyed making lot's of friends with the moms. He even got hit in the mouth a couple times with the basketball and it helped get those lovely front teeth to fall out. (Funny side note, Greg "accidentally" pulled his first front tooth out by tying floss on it. Bled like a bugger and Alex was very upset. The second tooth was really ready to come out but he wouldn't let us near it. We finally got floss tied on it but when Greg was trying to get the floss off, Alex was holding it and yanked his head back and pulled it out himself.)

Logan enjoyed his season although it was a little funny to see him attempting to dribble the ball. They were very lenient at this age so I was happy for him that he got to "handle" the ball a few times. His favorite part was having the boy with the matching arm band chase him around the court and having a running commentary to either the referee or me during the whole game, especially while he was playing. I always knew if I was supposed to be cheering for the yellow or white.


It was quite the season for me with Greg working 7 days a week till 11 pm or later. He got off when 2 kids had a game at the same time so at least each child could be supervised. I always had to entertain Abby. It was a job in itself.

Quiet

Have you ever wondered what is going on when your young child is quiet? I don't know about you but mine is usually in the pantry pooping. How about you?

Father of the Year

I have to honestly admit I am being sarcastic. I was at Walmart last week and saw something quite extraordinary. A rather tall man, I would wager at least 6 feet and bulky had his cute little 2 year old son on his shoulders. As I watched the greeter at the door tel them thank you for shopping with Walmart, I wondered why on earth she hadn't said something about the small doorways. To my horror the father did not consider his frame verses the door frame. Considering I am a small person of only 5 foot 4 inches, I still duck any time I have a small child on my shoulders no matter the size of the door. I could not even fathom how this could be the "first" time his child was on his shoulders and how he could consider himself to be short enough with an extra 2 feet on his shoulders to fit through any size doorway. As he got closer, I yelled out, "Stop, You're not going to make it!" Fortunately, he did stop right as he wacked his child into the top of the door. I guess it helped he didn't have all the momentum going and his son had ducked to the side so it lessened the impact. Anybody else been witness to parent's of the year?

Craftaholic

I have become a craftaholic and are enjoying following many craft blogs as I have said before. Here are some of more of the things I have completed in honor of Valentines Day.

I took their idea of the kissing felt balls and made one out of a feather boa. It is kind of silly but fun.



I am planning on making more tissue flower balls and hanging them from Abby's ceiling.


The ideas have mostly come from theidearoom.net and house of smiths on blogspot. I am looking forward to what ideas they come up with for Easter.

Family Sweep

I never would have thought it could be done...

Greg is a professional pinewood derby car builder...
well, at least the wheels.

We let the kids design it, cut it out at a pack meeting, they sanded and painted and I basically sprayed them with laquer.

We have perfected the art and last night it payed off. The boys were so cute. Everytime Alex's car won he would jump up and down and yell, "Yes!" He was so sweet, he was also cheering for his friend Andrew. Brett walked around and told everyone his brother was going to win. (We actually were sure Alex was going to win). When it came down to it, the top four had a race off. Alex won twice, Brett won twice and then they each won against the other kids. Then the determining race...

Alex, Brett, and Tate raced...Brett took first, Tate took second (we attribute Tate's win to the fact that his car raced backwards and his nose was longer than Alex's), and Alex took third. Based on these results Brett took overall first, and Alex took overall second. The funny thing is if Alex been second in that race they would have tied for first. I am so proud of them and how they were such good sports. It was fun to have two winners in the family and especially fun to see how much they supported each other.


We teased Alex that next year his competition will be out of the way as he goes for another victory. ;)
Our ward is also having a family pinewood derby. Two categories: Regular and No Holds Bar (except explosives, fire, and CO2). Should be fun.

Coincidence? I think not.

We have a had quite the time getting an alarm system installed in our new house. With nothing prewired they have had to do things a little bit different. Our first issue was with our second key pad. It liked to tell me the alarm was set when it wasn't. After the second technician came, we had a new one ordered. When he installed the second key pad he made a new set of wholes in the wall because this time we were going to have it plugged into an ac adapter so the cording was strung back and forth from the wall, to the closet, back through the closet and wall to the outlet. When he got it up, he tested it. There was another problem. This time when he triggered the fire it said it was medical and vice verse. In the meantime, I walk downstairs to see a firetruck with lights flashing outside my house. After verifying with the tech that we really were in test mode we asked the firemen if they were here for us. They weren't. They said,they were dropping somebody off across the street. Okay.
Moving on, the technician ordered another keypad and several weeks later (this went on from August till January, in case you were wondering), the technician brought our new keypad. Again, we put it in test mode and again we couldn't get the fire key to read fire. Again, I walked down the stairs and low and behold there is a fire truck with lights in my front yard. Again, I check and we are most definately in test mode. We checked witht he firemen and they were called to the house across the street. Coincidence? I think not. We called the manufacture and they suggested we change our house code. You see each keypad comes with a code imbedded in the hardware...different than what we use for the alarms. Anyway, most house codes are 10. Plain and simple. Apparently our wireless system was triggering the neighbors fire alarm system because our house codes were the same. Funny huh? I knew two firetrucks two different days couldn't be just happenstance.