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

Last Year - 02/19/2012

There is a determination that runs in our family (mostly on my side - okay mostly from me) that Sydney has inherited. What 10 year old little girl gets it into her head that she is going to help daddy with his bow making work by splitting an over 6 foot long fairly round yew wood stave. She had watched daddy do it enough times she knew what she was supposed to do. To be honest I didn't think she would last very long. What she was doing was hard work and even tires out in shape adults. This would be where that stubborn determination comes in. She was out there for hours, at times it looked like she wasn't going to be able to pick up the hammer her little arms were so tired, but she persevered and split that dumb thing.  Way to go girl!!!!! (Of course I wish she hadn't done it in her school cloths, but oh well.) And for you doubters, here is your photographic evidence.

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 - 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.

He's Taylor and he is Three

Been a way for a while and can't stay long now but I just had to share the latest bit of Taylor-ism.  I had to crack up when he was playing a video game and Travis started vacuuming the floor.  Taylor yells at his father, "Hey, stop that noise I can't hear!" The role reversal in this was just to priceless not to share. 

NEW BOOTS! YAY!!!!

 

I don't know why this picture came out so small but these are my new boots and I love them.  Thank you Travis for letting me get them even though things are tight around here. Because of an awesome sale they were on the selling of one of my hats paid for them and that made me feel pretty good. Maybe I will even take a picture of me in them and post that at some point. 

She's Syd the kid

Today we are expecting Stormy as company. He is more family than company, you know the kind that you don't scrub everything before they show up, but just kind of pick up a bit.

After the kids got home from school I told Sydney I wanted her to pick up the front room, that included the table, the floor, the couch, the coffee tables, the piano bench etc etc and ended the long list with "So that when daddy gets home he doesn't go nuts."

Sydney replied, "He's already nuts." I said I was going to tell on her to which she replied, "I'm just stating a fact. Mr. Coffey (her teacher) says it is important to tell the facts, and even you have to admit he's a bit nutty."

I can't wait to tell Travis, she will receive the biggest "getting" in her life.

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.

Saying of the day

"One man's arrow is another man's chipmunk spear - I guess depending on their elevation."

Sorry I get two sayings today but they were worth it.

A Quest for fun!

So waking up this morning I felt better than I had for a while, so I convinced Travis to take us up Milk Creek and light a fire for us to roast marsh mellows and hot dogs. We load up and head off only to end up TRYING to enjoy ourselves as Aric, Ezra and Taylor found it very cold and were not interested in waiting around for Travis to get the wet materials lit and burning. Then Aric slipped into the water (nothing serious just his feet) and while trying to warm them by the fire he fell into it, (again not serious as Travis caught him by the back of his jacket and pulled him out before he really hit so no burn) I think if we heard "I want to go home" one more time Travis was going to go postal. That being said I did get some fun pictures. Check them out:

Sleep Talking!

Talking in our sleep runs in our family. Both my sisters and I do it (when I worked at a restaurant after closing I would fall into bed and pass out exhausted, my little sister would come into my room and make me "serve her in my sleep. She would make me go through the specials and all the different kinds of dressings etc She would laugh so hard eventually I would finally wake up and kick her out of the room) and I know my husband does (We will never forget his "Well, did you find me pony collection?" And now my three kids do it.

Sydney's comments are the best though, "The fat man put the licorice on the grass!" and "One more beaver aught to do the trick!" are among the top comments.

As I am sitting in me rocking chair at almost 2:00 am I am trying not to laugh as Taylor (laying on the couch behind me) is apparently having a dream about being "Super Mario". While Sydney in her room is yelling at Taylor to stop cheating. Add in to that my Sister's dog Molly who is laying next to Taylor apparently chasing something as her little legs are going a hundred miles per hour and she keeps sleep growling.

I suppose if I have to be awake I am glad I am well entertained.