David Gets A Lesson Using The Weed Whacker

Craig is planning on leaving town for the next week or so.  With him out of town David is going to get the job of mowing Starr's lawn. But she's wanting to have her lawn edged. We like the idea of having our lawn edged too. So it is time for David to learn how to use the Weed Whacker.

This morning we were able to catch Craig before he was leaving town. So he took David out back to learn the workings of the Weed Whacker and some tips and tricks for edging a lawn so that it looks great.

We wasting no time in letting David get some practice with his newly developing skill set. He tried edging both the front and back yards.  For his first experience he did a pretty good job! By the end of the summer he'll be a pro.

Library Kids

We just learned about a special program that the library is hosting called "Library Kids".  Each week they  get to go to the library where they do a project, listen to a story (being read to them) and get a treat.  The program has been quite successful, even though we just learned about it.  You have to call earlier in the week to get your kid's name on the list.  If you don't call soon enough you can wait as a stand-by, just in case another kid doesn't show (you can claim that spot).

Even though we called and had the boys name on the list, they still had to wait in line to get in and verify that their names were actually on the list.  I'm guessing there were about 30 kids in this younger class.  The older boys were in a different class.

This week the younger boys we're making a Leprachaun trap.  I guess we'll see how well they managed to put their traps together and see if they actually catch anything.

The older boys made a secret hiding book.  They glued pages of old, discarded library books together and cut out the middle where they could store their special things.  Then, when it's on the shelf, it just looks like an ordinary book, but inside are their hidden treasures.

Both groups get to listen to stories after they finish working on their projects.  For those kids who need additional time to work on their projects, they get to finish working during the story time.

Everyone who participated seemed to enjoy the activity.  Our boys are excited and want to go back next week.  We'll have to call early in the week to make sure that we get them a spot!

(Published on 6/2/13)

Family Night with Macey Ice Cream Cones

Michelle decided that it would be fun to take the boys over to Macey's for an ice cream cone.  The boys though they had died and gone to heaven, or at least the next best thing to it.  So we loaded them up in the suburban and headed on over.

Macey's has several sizes of cones and every one of the sizes is a good deal.  Good enough, in fact, that the youngest two boys weren't able to finish eating their ice cream cones.  Of course, the older two were hoping they could be the one's who'd be chosen to complete that task!

(Finally published 6/2/13)

Perplexus

We got two Perplexus maze balls for Christmas.  If you've never seen one (I hadn't seen one until this holiday season) they are pretty amazing.  Well, Quinten has become a student of the Perplexus and has been working very diligently on the mazes every day.  Quinten has been able to finish the simpler maze (the one in his hand) and has started working on the more complex one.  Gidean is learning to be like his older brother.

Donovan Makes Lunch

Donovan is in cub scouts and we want to help him quickly earn his wolf badge.  Making a meal for the family is one of his requirements.  So we let him make lunch today.  Not too bad for his first day on the job.

The Man of Steel

Well, the man of steel he is not but Quinten did put his strength to the test yesterday.

So, here's the situation...Michelle has the three younger boys at Sam's Club getting a few supplies.  Aleky says he has to go to the bathroom (which is at the front of the store.  Michelle tells him to wait just a minute and they'll all go together.  Aleky couldn't wait that long and immediately takes off running to the bathroom.  Quinten thinks it's a great idea to run through the store too and takes off following Aleky.

In Sam's Club there are a few support pillars that are located in the middle of the isle and they are made of steel.  As Aleky flies around the corner he sees the pillar just in time to make the correction and misses the pillar.  Quinten was not so fortunate.  He didn't see the pillar until it was too late.  As a result he landed himself a super size goose egg right in the middle of his forehead.

Naturally, he let's out a scream which Michelle ignores because it is coming from the other side of the store and she was just grabbing the paper plates from the shelf.  But then she realizes/recognizes the scream and hurries to the scene.  Naturally, the mass of concerned employees you would normally expect to see with such a ruckus was unnaturally missing.  So Michelle pick Quinten off the floor and took him straight to the bathroom to clean up the blood from the busted lip.  (An employee happened to see them in the bathroom an alerted the manager.)
  

This was supposed to be just a quick stop so Michelle didn't have the diaper bag or anything with her so she checked out and headed straight home.  We've discovered that Past Tense (doTERRA essential oil blend) works wonders on bruises if it is applied immediately.  So Michelle applied the Past Tense to his forehead several times over the course of the day.  Now, 24 hours later, Quinten is looking remarkable normal.

 

Although he proved to not quite be the man of steel he did show that he is quite capable of bouncing back after a tough hit.  I hope he will slow down from now on, but that's probably wishful thinking.

Christmas Tree Hunting

We have upheld the family tradition of going Christmas tree hunting for a live Christmas tree.  It has been a fun experience and is building some great memories.  This year we still made it out for the hunt but it was postponed until almost the middle of December!  So we haven't had the Christmas tree and lights with all the other decorations to really make the holidays bright. 

This is actually our second trip out to search for a Christmas tree.  Our first expedition didn't go so well even though we got some good hiking in.  Unfortunately we ran out of daylight and had to abandoned the search.  This is trip two and, with a little help from the Petersens, we were able to find our Christmas tree with very little trouble.

The return trip turned into something a little more unusual, at least compared to other similar expeditions.  David decided that he wanted to run down the mountain instead of riding in the suburban.  That seemed like a reasonable request and he took off ahead of us.  Michael decided he wanted to take advantage of the open space and headed off after David.  We caught up to Michael who, after a little jaunt, decided that he wanted to ride instead of run.  When David didn't stop running Michael decided he wanted to join in the run again. 

We stopped the suburban and let Michael out to run.  David never seemed to tire but Michael, once again, ran out of energy and jumped in the suburban for good.  However, Michelle took over the relay for Michael and she got out and started running after David.  After some distance Michelle's turn to run ended and I took over, trying to keep up and even overtake David.  It wasn't really fair since I had driven the first 3 miles or so but I did finally out distance David.  He ran all they way down the mountain and to the main gravel road which was about 5 miles!

Everyone got in the suburban once on the main road and we drove the rest of the way home.  We all felt like we had our exercise for the day and enjoyed the ride back to Provo.  Once back in Provo we brought the tree in.  With help from David we quickly had our tree planted in our front room in front of our main picture window.  Now we just need to actually decorate the tree!

(This is our only recent family picture so we're going to use it for our Christmas cards this year!)

(published 3/14/13)

Suburban is now "mature"

When we talk about people we don't like to say their getting "old".  So we talk about our "mature" population.  I guess the same can be said for cars, right?  So our suburban is now officially "mature".  Today we hit 200,000 miles!  Now, for complete disclosure, we didn't drive all 200,000.  We inherited many of those miles when we bought the truck.  But we were there as a family when the odometer rolled over!

Sledding Alternative

We just had a snow storm over the weekend.  I'm lucky I didn't have to drive very far to get to work.  However, our boys wanted to take advantage of the new snow.  We had a snowball fight last night with the four older boys.  I don't know if that was the best Sunday activity but it was a family experience and I didn't want to miss it.

The boys excited for the snow was not abated when they woke up this morning.  Donovan, Michael and Aleky decided that they wanted to go sledding.  Not having a hill in our back yard they came up with an alternative option.  I thought it was awesome to see them sledding across the yard and having a blast.  I caught a little bit on camera to share:

(video)

Family Bowling 2012

Our family went bowling tonight as a reward for getting the playroom cleaned up today.  The playroom had become a disaster area and needed a concentrated effort.  The boys worked hard all morning and had the room cleaned up by the time I returned home from my interview at the U of U (for the PA program).

We arrived at the bowling alley on BYU campus a little later than we had originally anticipated but there were no lines and we were able to walk right in and start bowling.  It was great because we had plenty of room for our family to have fun without running into (or bothering) any other group of bowlers.  The boys had fun cheering for each other as they launched the balls down the alley.  We had a few strikes and several spares sprinkled throughout the games.  That made things even more exciting for everyone.

It was a close game and Donovan showed the most concern over the scores.  He looked to be the winner until David came up with a spare in the final frame giving him the extra points needed to pull into the lead.  But you have to be impressed with Quinten's high score!!!

(video link)