My Little Vikings

Here's a better view of Claire's cute "Astrid" costume I mentioned at the end of THIS post.  

She loves wearing it.  I also found viking helmets for each of them in the Halloween clearance at Wal-Mart.  They crack me up!  I don't have pictures of Austin or Coen in their costumes for some reason but they've got some, too.  

Since Dallin is the BIGGEST dragon fan EVER I got him the Hiccup costume.  He wears it everywhere and I love that.  It reminds me that he's still a little boy with a big imagination.  He even wears it to the park and doesn't care who sees him in it because he is lost in his own little world.  He especially loves Hiccup because he thinks he is just like him.  Brown hair, freckles, and smart.  I have to agree.

Yes indeed.  These kids love How to Train Your Dragon.  Sometimes they get so into it that they can't even sit down.  Ha!

Good People

We had an interesting experience the same weekend that we went to the lake for the picnic.  Friday evening, January 28th, we decided to go for a family drive.  We do this just to get out together and do something fun every once-in-awhile.  We didn't really have a destination in mind but as soon as we were just a little ways down the road Tory remembered that he had been invited to a baptism of a lady he used to work with here.  We were already out and we debated whether he should even try to make it.  Would it be that big of a deal if he missed?  Deep down we both knew that he should be there.  We checked the time and decided that there would be just enough time to go home, have him change into his dress clothes, and get to the church.  While he was changing I was searching for the church location on his phone.  It was not in our Stake and we had never been there before.  All we knew was the main road it was off of.  

We found it and he made it just in time.  The kids and I waited out in the car for an hour since we hadn't had time to change.  It was a long wait but the kids did really good and luckily there were enough signs and random stuff and just enough daylight to play "I Spy" for awhile.  On the way home we spotted an IHOP restaurant and very spur-of-the-moment decided to pull in.  We very, very rarely eat out as a family.  It costs a lot to feed this many!  We figured pancakes wouldn't be too expensive.  We ordered up, did a few bathroom runs while we waited, and just had fun talking and being there together.  The kids were so excited to be at a "real" restaurant.  

In the booth behind us there was a man, his wife, and it looked like their daughter and little granddaughter.  While we were waiting for our food I saw him get up and as he walked by he talked to Beckham for a second.  A couple minutes later he came back and their family got up and left.  As they were leaving the waiter came and told us that our meal had been paid for.  We were shocked!  The man from the booth behind us was just going around the corner behind us and the waiter secretly pointed him out to us as the one who had paid for our dinner.  What a wonderful man!  The waiter handed us our receipt and this is what the man had written on the bottom:

From the Lord.

Thanks for loving Him.

The world is filled with wonderful people and when things like this happen it is such a reminder to me to be this kind of person myself.  It was a blessing in disguise for us and confirmed to us that the Lord is mindful of us, that He loves us, and that we were at the right place that night.

The Calm Before the Storm

Did I mention that the entire weekend before our big snow storm we were enjoying weather in the upper 70s and low 80s?  It was sooo beautiful!  We had to take advantage of it and went to the lake for a picnic Saturday evening.  It was so much fun.

The kids found this ditch filled with leaves.  It had to have been over 2 feet deep and completely filled with leaves.  They had a blast jumping in...

...and "swimming" in the leaves.  I have to admit I was quite nervous about any other critters that might have thought those leaves were a good place to hang out...or hibernate...or things like that.  These pictures don't show the mother who kept saying, "You better get out.  What if there are snakes in there?  Or spiders?"  Thankfully they made it out alive.

Meanwhile Dada was busy stoking the fire with Beckham keeping him company.

We had a yummy dinner!

Then as the sun was setting we went to check out the lake a little bit closer.

I can't even describe how lovely the weather was!  It was a beautiful night!

Yes, the kids thought this was fun.  

What a crazy bunch!

Dallin

When it was finally too dark to see we made the trek back to the car.

What a fun evening!

Snowed In

At the beginning of February we had a good snow storm that shut down the area for about a week.  The kids went to school on Monday, January 31 and didn't go back until Monday, February 7 and then a couple days later had ANOTHER day off because of ANOTHER snow storm.  Crazy!  We've had bigger snow storms but this one was bad because it was so COLD.  We're talking teens!  We only had 4-6 inches of snow or so but it was the couple of inches of solid ice below the snow that was so dangerous.  One big giant ice skating rink.  Without snow plows the only thing to do was wait for it to melt and there wasn't a lot of melting going on with those temperatures.  So the only thing left to do was stay home, stay warm, and stay happy!  All very easy things for us to do.  Tory's work was closed down those four days, too, so we even had him at home with us.  The second day we woke up at 6:30 am to Austin telling us there was no electricity.  He happened to be up using the bathroom when the lights went out.  Ha!  That was a little exciting.  There were a few thoughts that ran through my head during that time: 

     1)  It would be nice to have a fireplace as a back up heating source and a way to heat up food (see #2).

     2)  It would be nice to have a few more food options that didn't require heating.

     3)  I was thankful that I had gone shopping the day before the storm and we did have plenty to eat.

     4)  I was thankful we all like Cold Oats.

     5)  We might want to invest in some flashlights.  Good thing it was daylight when our electricity went out.

     6)  Thank goodness I ran the dishwasher the night before.

     7)  And by the 4th hour we were thinking, "Thank goodness we have an entire yard full of snow in case   we need to start packing our refrigerated foods in it to keep it fresh!

Luckily the power came back on soon after so we were only without for a little over 4 hours.  We hurried and did showers, laundry, and anything else we needed to with warm water and electricity in case we lost power again.  Thank goodness we didn't.  Our house got cold fast with those temps!

During the week we drank lots of warm beverages in these cute little guys:

And the kids braved the elements and played in the snow a few times.  It was just so cold and we aren't prepared with the appropriate snow gear.  Anyone 2 and under is set.  Plenty of cozy snowsuits from our Colorado days.  Unfortunately, that didn't help those of us wearing sizes larger than 2T.  But the kids made it work and had lots of fun.  Claire and Coen especially loved being outside this time.

I especially love this picture of Claire getting into a snowball fight.  With a couple pairs of socks she was good to go!  I can't believe how long she lasted out there!  Watch out Austin!

I suppose I should have bundled Beckham up and took a picture of him in his first snow but it was just soooo cold!  So instead he hung out inside with me and got into mischief.

  

He is pulling up to everything, cruising along the furniture, and crawling like a speed demon.  He especially loves to pull the trash over on him almost every day.  We either need a taller trashcan, heavier trash, or...I don't know...more distractions elsewhere?  He hasn't dumped it in at least a week now so maybe he's learned.  Let's hope!

I love this picture of Austin and Claire.  Austin is such a good helper.  Here he is making some cold oats for breakfast.  Claire was waiting for hers.  Don't you just love her cute little braids...not to mention her cute little Astrid costume?  For Christmas I gave each of the kids a "How to Train Your Dragon" costume (or some sort of Viking-ish costume).  I got them when the Halloween stuff was like 90% off at Wal-mart.  I paid no more than a dollar for most of them.  Money well spent.  They have had so much fun.  

We had a fun snowed in week.  It was hard to get back to the routine after that!

Adding on to our family

We have a new addition to the family.  We've had her for a couple weeks now.  Austin and Dallin and Coen pooled their birthday money together and bought themselves a pet hamster.  They've always wanted a pet and this was a good start.  She's a cute little tiny hamster that is dark grey with black stripes.  She loves to nibble on carrots and especially kale and collards.  We're finally getting used to her little wheel running full blast in the middle of the night.  She's really cute! 

Meet Lundi

(That's French for Monday)

Happy Valentine's Day!

=]We had a lovely Valentine's Day.  The best part came a few days early when Tory and I got to go dancing!  Yeah!  We both love dancing and haven't been since we lived in Colorado and had a dance for Tory's work Christmas party.  That was 6 years ago!  So when we heard that our Stake was actually going to have a dance for all of the grown-ups we made sure we were there.  It was a blast!  They had professional dancers come and teach us some "real" moves for an hour or so before the dance started.  Great instructor but we seriously need a few more lessons.  Ha!  Then they dimmed the lights and the dance began.  

They gave each couple a card and had a couple people randomly punch people's cards who were showing some serious "moves".  We danced every single dance and it's a good thing because at the very end they stopped the music for a few minutes while they gave out awards and once they started up again both of us could barely move.  Ha!  We danced one more dance and then hobbled gracefully out to our car.  It was so fun to get away and do something really fun together.

The boys got up early the next morning to finish their boxes for their class parties.  They made monsters.  They turned out pretty cool but the best part is the photo shoot they did all by themselves.  Check out their backdrop!  So funny!  It is part of Austin's solar system project he's working on for school.  Cracked me up.

Dallin's purple monster

Austin's red monster

We decided to make their Valentine's this year.  We had tons of broken crayons that we chopped up and melted to make round swirly crayons.  46 of them!  Austin, Dallin, and Coen each brought some.  By about the third batch I think I finally got it figured out.  A little cooking spray works wonders and popping them in the freezer for a minute or so once they are cooled off helps pop them out.  Just in case you ever wanted to make them.  But a word of caution...I don't think your muffin tins will ever be the same.  I'm going to be working on those babies for a long time I think.  Bummer. 

We have been having fun with our Valentine mailboxes for the last couple weeks.  We get them out at the first of February and randomly fill them with goodies and love notes for each other.  If your flag is up then you've got something waiting!  It's always lots of fun and the kids love it.  I need to get one for Beckham though!  He was OK with missing out this year but that won't always be the case.

The kids got heart shaped sandwiches for lunch.  

Coen and Claire had the hardest time holding on to them!  So funny!  I guess a heart shaped sandwich is hard to hold!

I have this big old frame on my mantel.  It covers a big old hole where our doorbell used to be.  Eventually I want to put a big old family picture in there but until then...I've got to come up with something besides the bland empty frame I had up all through Christmas.  Nice.  I put some fabric remnants leftover from our kitchen/dining room curtains and then put vinyl on it for Valentine's Day.  I thought it was cute.  Now to figure out what to do with it now that Valentine's Day is over....Hmmmm....

Tory's brother has four little girls and his wife, Wendy, passes their cute dresses on to Claire.  This one came just in time for Valentine's Day.  So cute!  (She also sent a little box of chocolates for each of the kids.  What a fun Aunt!  Austin was eating his chocolates and said "It feels sooo good to sink my teeth into some real chocolate."  Funny kid.  Guess he doesn't have enough chocolate in his life.)  I let Claire wear my little Valentine pin that I had when I was a little girl.  It has a little white mouse peeking over a heart that says "Hi Cutie!"  She loved it and took such good care of it.  I was so excited to share it with her.  Have I mentioned I love having a girl?  Maybe a couple times...

Beckham might not have known what was going on with all the hearts and stuff but he certainly felt loved.  This soft, squishy, happy boy is one serious love bug.

I made the family our traditional "fancy" dinner for Valentine's Day.  It can be a lot of work but it's always worth it.  They just love it.  I made salmon gravy over puff pastries, vegetables, green salad, 1-2-3 Jello (of course), and chocolate covered strawberries.  We had leftover drinks from Austin's school party so we had those (gag).  I always get them their own special Valentine surprise on their plates.  This year it was a box of conversational hearts that were "dazzled".  I just thought that meant sparkly.  Apparently they were intended more for girls.  LOL  A houseful of boys and they got conversational hearts that said "diva" and "drama queen".  Oops!  Sorry boys!  At least they tasted good.  And  they were sparkly!  And see the pretty flowers in the middle of the table?  Those were from MY Valentine!  Love them!  And love HIM!

Where are all the people?

OK...funny story here.  Last Sunday, February 13, we were all getting ready for church.  Things were a little hectic, as they seem to usually be as we're getting ready, but I managed to get three haircuts in for the three boys and they all showered and we even found presentable clothing in all the right sizes AND ironed them.  So by then time was running a little short for me to get ready.  I jumped in the shower and asked Tory to feed Beckham really quick.  I threw myself together, remembered to grab the three dozen gigantic chocolate chip cookies I needed to bring to Primary, and headed out to meet the family in the van.  By this time we had about 5 minutes to make it to church.  Hmmm...we were definitely going to be a little late.  But then I noticed everyone was standing outside the van.  What?  Turns out the three car seats, two booster seats, and two van seats were not installed.  Tory had taken them out the day before to carry a big load.  Oops!  Now we were REALLY going to be late but not much we could do.

We pulled in the church parking lot 15 minutes late.  But...where were all the cars?  It was just a little over half way full.  That's never the case.  Strange.  We hurried in and were even more confused.  Where were all the people and why hadn't they started yet?  People were still at the doors handing out programs.  Were they stalling in hopes that more people would show up?  We had our choice of almost any pew available.  The boys picked the front row.  We backed them up 8 or so.  And that's when it hit us.  We weren't 15 minutes late...we were 15 minutes EARLY!  I hope we didn't cause any heart attacks or anything.  We certainly were shocked and had a good laugh.  For some reason all morning we were thinking church started at 11:00 instead of 11:30.  Ha!  And in case you're wondering if we ever even GO to church...yes, we do.  Every single week.  And we have had this time since the first Sunday in January.  That's what makes it so hilarious!  We've decided we're just going to keep telling ourselves it starts at 11:00.

And on the same note.  We have some friends who live on our street just a few houses up.  They go to the same church as us.  She and I were driving to a meeting one morning and she said, "I hope you don't take offense but we have kind of a running joke in our family.  We've noticed that if we leave for Church and your van is still at your house we're doing fine but if your van is already gone then we know we're REALLY late.  It's kind of funny and we're always watching for your van now."  Ha, ha!  (They probably have the same joke on school days, too.  However, I am a little better with that.  The boys have only been tardy a couple times but I do meet her as she's coming home and I'm going to the school a whole lot more than the other way around!)  So anyway, no offense taken and in fact it's kind of nice to know.  I told her to watch out!  The standard has been raised!  All I know is last Sunday they were probably shocked and checking their clocks!  Pretty funny.

It's a Joke and It Goes Like This

OK...so we were all in the van driving home one evening when Austin says he has a joke for us that he made up.  It goes like this:

There was a boy at school who needed to use the restroom.  He asked his teacher if he could go.

"You can if you say your ABC's".

The boy didn't know how so he went home to learn his ABC's.

He asked his big brother who replied, "Who cares?"

He asked his sister who said, "Get out of here!"

So he decided to go ask his mom but she was getting ready to take a shower so she said, "I'm taking a shower!  I'm taking a shower!"

Not to be discouraged, the boy went on to find his dad.

"Dad will you teach me my ABC's?"

But Dad was busy watching a football game and instead enthusiastically stood up and shouted, "42!  Smack 'em hard!"

On his way out the boy heard the trash truck outside so he decided to ask the trash man.  But the trash man was busy singing, "In the garbage, in the garbage..." (sung to tune of "Oh My Darling Clementine")

The next day at school the boy needed to go to the bathroom again so he raised his hand and asked  the teacher.

"Can you recite your ABC's?"

The boy jumped up and said, "I don't care!  Get out of here!  I'm taking a shower!"

The teacher couldn't believe what she was hearing and quickly brought the boy to the principal who said, "If you don't say your ABC's I'm going to have to swat you.  How many do you want?"

The boy jumped up and shouted, "42!  Smack 'em hard!"

The principal was outraged!  "That is quite enough!  Where are you're parents?"

To this the boy responded by singing, "In the garbage, in the garbage..."

We got a kick out of this joke.  Pretty funny!

What I've Missed

It feels like Christmas was so long ago.  I really meant to get it all on my blog before February but that didn't happen.  We did have a wonderful Christmas and lots of fun!  Tory's parents came and spent two weeks with us, we did all of our fun Christmas Eve traditions, woke up to a wonderful Christmas morning, Beckham and I flew to Seattle for my little brother's wedding, and then we had a fun New Year's Eve and welcomed the new year together.  Shortly after, Austin celebrated a big birthday!  The next few posts will be from Christmas, wedding, New Year's, and birthday and I will be posting them back on the dates when they happened.  So if you want to read about our Christmas scroll down to December or click on the December link on the right side of my blog or click on the link below.

Christmas Fun

Christmas Eve

Christmas Day
Celebrating 10 Years

Levi and Dara's Wedding

New Year's Eve

New Year's Day

Austin is NINE