Heard around the house

Yesterday the boys were both sick and Aric had to stay home from school.  He choose Man vs. Wild as the show to lay on the couch to watch with Taylor curled up on daddy's lap in the chair.  Bear of course at some point in the show ate a disgustingly large bug to which daddy went "eeeeeeeeewwwwww" for the boys benefit. Aric proceeded to defend Bear by saying "he has to do what he does to SURVIVE!"  Taylor was shocked by this statement and said in his most parent-like voice "That is not good behavior!"

3-10-2012

So Travis bought me a new computer so I have been transferring all my files for a while and am finally able to start going through my pictures again and start up my series of last years pictures. 

My boys take after their father in their total devotion to Indiana Jones.  Years ago I had a picture of Aric decked out like Indy and now I have some of Taylor too. 

Here is my Indiana Taylor:

1And just for fun here are the ones of my Indiana Aric taken 2/17/2008

 



You wouldn't have to try hard to figure out they are brothers. lol

Aric-ism

Aric and I are working on his homework. He is to come up with sentences for his sight words, he choose the word are. When I asked him what his sentence was going to be, he sat thinking for a moment and with a big smile on his face announced:

"Arrrr, matey!"

We had a hard time explaining why he couldn't use that for his sentence.

Aric-ism

After loosing a game he was playing Aric nearly killed Travis and I when he announced:

"OHHHHHHH, my team got skunked like a fart!"

What we are reading today- The underpants Zoo

The scholastic school fair was this week. I got a book for Aric that I am regretting terribly. I thought it would be funny, but the humor has gone from it now the umpteenth time I have heard "UNDERPANTS!!!" yelled at me as another weird picture is shoved in my face.  It is a cute book for the boys age though, but I am terribly afraid I may see a bunch of underpants in my dreams tonight.

Last Year - 2/17/12

"I never saw blue like that before, across the sky, around the world. You've given me all you have and more, and no-one else has ever shown me how, to see the world the way I see it now. Oh I, I never saw blue like that before. And it feels likes now, and it feels always, and it feels like coming home." Never saw blue like that by Shawn Colvin.

This has always been a favorite song of mine. I thought I knew exactly what it meant the first time I really looked into Travis' eyes. Such a different shade of blue and such a brighter better outlook on life.

Three children later and a quick snap of to cold little boys wrapped up in a blue blanket after crawling out of their bath and my heart and mind went right back to that Shawn Colvin song. Their eye's haven't been enhanced with photo shop, the blue black just happens to be just the right shade to make them pop and everything that song meant to me changed. Seeing life through Travis' eyes was amazing, and I had never seen blue like it, but seeing their blue eyes looking up at me in this picture I can honestly say I never saw blue like that before...and it absolutely feels like home.

Last Year - 2/15/12

Growing up living in Joseph, Oregon February meant a few things mostly cold walks to school and alot of snow and all things that come with it. And I am not talking about a skiff of snow here or there but SNOW, the kind you had to take turns being the lead person because they were the trail breaker and therefore got worn out, that snowball fights never ran out of ammunition, you could invent entire families of snowmen, and sledding/snowmobiling was a part of every weekend.

I have adjusted to many things living in Walla Walla, but the lack of snow is the hardest for me. Apparently February here means spring has begun, 50 degree days aren't unheard of, and everything is starting to grow. It might seems silly to those of you who didn't grow up with a love of snow, but I miss it terribly. My kids however think it's awesome, these were taken last year on a very warm February day (those 4 words together still blow my mind) but nevertheless you can see the lack of snow isn't bothering them at all as they race around our back yard playing with Jake (my mother and father-in-laws dog). Hope you enjoy.

Last Year - April 2, 2012 The treasure hunt

Okay this is one of my favorites from last year. The pictures are not all that great but the story is to good to pass up. Last April my parents went to the coast, in the spirit of the piratitude that my family adores (my daughter has a pirate flag on her wall and several pirate chests she hides things in in her room) they bought some Spanish doubloons (tourist fake ones obviously not that the kids care or know) for them. However, in the dramatic flare that follows our family through life, instead of just giving the kids each their doubloons, dad bought a small treasure chest as well and filled it with the "treasure".

My mom and I distracted the kids when my parents came home and dad made the pass off to Travis who promptly took it out side to our unplanted garden and buried it in what was supposed to be a shallow hole (more on that later) placing to large wooden staves from his bow making supply in a large X on top of the buried treasure. After discovering the X the hunt began.

After they moved the X, they used their hands to clear away the debris that was on top of the dirt.

Next came the shovels, each of the boys took turns using the shovels to dig on their expedition. (Sydney was playing the big sister and letting the boys have fun as she video taped the whole thing.) 

 

Suddenly realizing that something is wrong and this is taking forever Travis decides he better help out in the digging before everyone freezes. (Notice the hole isn't just getting deeper but wider as well.)

 

Alright now Sydney, the expert in piratitude, is called in and the little hole has grown substantially. It has now become a full scale operation.

 

Last come my favorite picture, it's the moment when Travis realizes he has no freaking idea where he buried the treasure that was supposed to have been found in a matter of minutes and is now running on an hour. Some time later the boys got bored and cold and soon Travis and my dad were digging large wholes all over our garden looking for the stupid thing. It took sometime and a few beers, but eventually it was found. Of course by then it had become a mission for fun, but it did help get a huge section of my garden tilled up and makes for a good laugh now.

Last Year - January 28, 2012

Travis was manning the camera when he captured one of our favorite pictures of the boys.  You can't see their little faces, but you can see the bond they share just by looking at them. I really can't explain it any better than that. They say a picture is worth a thousand words and Travis and I think this one is worth so much more.

The last year

So I haven't been here in a while because I have been crocheting my fingers off (okay I still have my fingers but I have been crocheting alot!!!) and that has left little to know time for anything else. I have been looking through pictures from the last year in my spare time.  Since we have been leading a pretty solitary life I thought as I go through them I would post some of the pictures of the kids up here so you can watch them play there way through the year.

Last January we went on an adventure up Mill Creek with our kids and my nephew Ezra, had a fire, roasted hot dogs and marshmellows over a fire, threw rocks in the river, and in general just had fun as we froze our butts off.

Hope you all enjoyed these, and could see how much fun the kids had, even though all of their noses are red.

Aric-ism or motto of the day, I am not sure which!?!

Last night the boys were playing a video game together. Aric yells, "Come on Taylor we must take the castle!!!" Taylor proceeds to ask, "Why?" Aric's response: "Because we are men!!!"

Now to Travis and I there was only one response to that aside from laughing, if you don't know what it is shame on you. If you know what it is shame on you. lol

Either was "Because we are men!!!" here it is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRdJ9lyr9-k&feature=player_detailpage

One big SISTER and two little BROTHERS

Do you know the problem with having a girl first? Besides the obvious of just not having any idea what to do with a boy when he comes as everything about the tiny little thing is different. While a girl knows that tip toeing while you spin makes you a ballerina, a boy instantly know the noise a car makes, that mud is a boys best friend, and if you can point it it must be a gun that goes bang. That adjustment takes many moms want to pull their hair out, but somehow you think it will get easier. Well let me tell you it doesn't/ 
I'm a little surprised that I wish that my boys were a little more boy like a times, but with an older sister that they worship everything she loves the love. Yup she has put them in dresses, painted their toe nails, put clips in their hair, etc... (all without permission and with a stern talking to after) but the boys don't care because Sydney loves them.  She wants to play baby dolls, or barbies, oh course if sissy wants to do it then it must be to cool to pass up.
Why am I ranting about this? Well it could be because I am laying down with my two boys for a bit of movie time so that Sydney can have some daddy time. What movie did my two little boys pick out?????

 

That's right I'm laying here watching a Tinkerbell movie with a 6 year old and a 3 year old BOY. Sometimes I think a little Dirty Harry might not hurt them at all. ;-)

Aric's Dual Language Program

They have re-tested Aric and it  now shows that he is above average for his age group. The tutoring sessions have paid off and he is flying through things now.  I'm so proud of him.

Aric's Dual Language program

Aric is in kindergarten this year and he made it into the Dual Language program. It has been keeping us all busy as none of us really speak spnaish.  But he is also working on learning english. They send a book home everyweek that he reads to us for the week and he sends it back on Monday and we go again.  This week is:

He read it without missing one word, I was so proud of him.

Jan 7th at the kingdom Hall = PROUD PARENTS

Two stories to report from our morning at the meeting. Well not mine, Carla stayed at home with me as I was not doing well at all, but Travis and the kids were there.  Travis said the boys were being absolutely golden.  So he leaned down and started to tell Taylor how proud he was of him and Taylor turned and with a stern look said "SHUSH DADDY"!  How adorable is that. 

Then after meeting Sydney got sighed up for the ministry school. 

We are so proud of are spiritual little ones.

Aric-ism

So even though I haven't been blogging I have been keeping a diary on and off again and will share a few of my memories I wrote down there from time to time. This first one comes from Nov 19, 2011:

Aric was playing Metal Gear, there is a part in it where Snake is fighting a girl and Aric yelled “Take that fluffy panties!” No the woman was not wearing fluffy panties, but normal pants and a tank top as you can see from this screen shot. I thought Travis was going to die laughing.

A trip to the store

After giving a long lecture to the kids on the way home from the store about how their behavior wasn't acceptable Travis was happy to hear Aric speak up thinking he was going to apologize, really he shouldn't have been surprised knowing our children when this is what the conversation was.

Daddy: Long lecture
Aric: Never eat a booger!
Taylor: I won't ever eat a booger AGAIN!
Daddy: That was random.
Taylor: I won't eat random either.

Aric-ism

So last night I was desperately trying to get Aric down for bed. He was fighting it with every fiber of his being. After going to the bathroom I came back to check on him and he was in a fist fight with his pooh bear. (for those of you who don't know his pooh bear is almost his size and has been his special animal since he was a baby) I yell to get his attention and told Aric that I had had enough it was past bedtime and if he couldn't settle down I would take pooh bear away. He never missed a beat but looked at me with some black attitude that I can not explain in his genealogy and did the whole black girl head thing as he, "Pooh Bear started it, he hit me in the face."

Do you have any idea how hard it is not to laugh when your beach blonde (and I do mean beach blonds as he has surfer hair naturally) little boy black attitude tattles on his stuff animal.

Maybe you had to be there.

I'm Taylor and I am TWO!

I was laying here this morning not having a super morning so I was just laying in bed listening to my boys having breakfast with Grandma. I think sometimes we forget that our kids actually do here the words coming out of our mouths even if they don't listen at that moment it may be they remember it at a crucial moment in their lives. This morning wasn't anything dramatic or life changing but it still made me smile. Taylor does listen he just prefers to be the boss. He just very clearly told Aric:

"Sit you butt down!"

Motto

Our new motto in life is as follows:

The most important thing in life is to be yourself. Unless you can be Batman. ALWAYS BE BATMAN!

Here are a few pictures of my boys living the motto to the fullest.