Down and Derby

(No, we didn't watch the movie Down and Derby, but I like the name and so I stole it for my post.)

 This was Miles' first pinewood derby.  Miles really enjoyed planning out his car and working on it.  He drew out some design plans and got to work on it with Ben.  He named it the Diamond and had to glue on a crystal rock for its full-effects.  Awesome.  He did a pretty good job painting it and was super pleased with himself.  :)

 Anxiously watching his car zoom down the track!

Wahoo, his car got first in this run.  They were able to race their cars many times.  There were 11 kids/cars there that night.  Miles ended up placing 4th overall.  So that was pretty good, we think.  Miles was totally content with that.  Every race he was either 1st or 2nd (out of 3!), but that was sure exciting for him.  The cubs were all just so cute and excited and eager to simply watch their car go down the track.  Sure, they wanted 1st.  But they were also just so excited about racing their car that it wasn't a bummer if they didn't get 1st.  At least that is what it seemed like.

It was just a bunch of cute boys watching their cars race down the track.  Fun times.

R is for . . .

On Tuesday, R was for reptiles.  Today, R was for rainbows.  It was my week for school and we had a lot to do.  Hopefully the girls had fun, too.

 After a bunch of other activities and books, we made rainbow cookies, that I found here.  The girls did a really great job mixing the color in the dough, shaping their dough into marble-sized (or not) balls, then taking one marble-sized (or not) ball from each color and rolling it in to one ball, then "snaking" that ball, and finally spiraling up the snake-dough for the final step before we baked them (did you follow that? :).  Whooah, that was a lot - but, like I said, they each did a really great job.  They turned out cute, too.

 Lucy is ever-present at our preschool (except on Tuesday when her screaming demands were enough and so I took her up to her room.  Amazingly, she just stayed there for like 15 minutes until I went to get her!).

 Sweet Emmy with her sweet cookie.

We also worked a little on graphing.  Their "homework" was to make the graph again at home and tell their parents about it.  So before I let Emmy eat the {fake} Fruit-Loops, I had her make the graph.  She was a little off, but did pretty good and did good in telling me how many of each color without counting, what had the most, the least, etc.  Fun times.

Of course when I asked Emmy what her favorite thing we did in in preschool was, she answered:  "Playing!"

Go figure.

Kidzplex

Kidzplex is a place in Grand Junction that is pretty much a glorified McDonald's play-place.  But my kids LOVE it so much!  It's crazy how much my 2 year-old up to my 8-almost-9 year-old love it alike.

We went up a year ago with my good friend Csilla and her 2 boys and since she's moving next week (boohoo!) we thought it would be fun to go one more time together.  So we went today.  One awesome thing is that we get to carpool since we both have Honda Pilots that fit all 8 of us.  So fun.  So I drove last year and she drove today (since Ben has our car in Littleton).

We all had a great, great time.  It's pretty much always great being with Csilla and our kids just played and played and played.  For 4 hours!  Of course there were many food-breaks - because man can those kids eat after playing there!

 One of Lucy's favorite things to do there:  the zip-line.  She did it tons.  And by herself - of course.  She bawled the times Jonas and Miles helped her fall off.

 Random picture of who knows what.

 I'm not sure what game was being played, but I'm sure it was fun.

 Yep, Lucy loved it.  Beforehand, she was so excited about "Kidzplex!" because the siblings were.  But of course she didn't remember it.  So I was glad it lived up to her expectations.  :)

Miles:  "Mom, take my picture."  Then he went in to some lengthy explanation of being up high.  That's my Miles.

I can't believe I didn't get any pictures of one of everyone's favorite parts:  the ball pit.  The love it.

I'm glad we went for 2 reasons:  I got to visit and hang-out with Csilla all day (and chase after our kiddos, too, of course) and the kids just loved it all.  Good stuff.

V-day

It was a busy day full of lots of Valentiney activities, then just the activities of life as well.  Like baking bread. Attending parent-teacher conferences.  Making dinner.  Dishes.  And so on.

But we did get a lot of fun stuff done, too.  I did the girls' hair in heart-shapes.  They turned out pretty cute:

We started the day with a dessert after breakfast, of course.  Sucker!

I don't really have any other pictures of the day.  Emmy went to her preschool and loved it (of course).  Lucy and I started making bread (actually, Lucy hid in Emmy's room while I grinded the wheat - it is loud!).  We then went to the library and randomly chose some book-on-CDs for Ben to listen to on his drive to Littleton.  I wonder if he liked any of them????

The boys were done with school after lunch.  While the girls napped (Emmy is still tired from her cold-sickness) we made soft-pretzels.  I used Ben's favorite recipe and we tried to make them in to hearts (some kept shaped, others didn't).  We even sprinkled them with dyed sugar crystals.  We gave some to neighbors, the boys' teachers, the office staff at school, Ben, and ourselves.  The kids LOVED them.  They are good.

Ben got home and got ready to leave as we got ready to head back to school for conferences.  I ended up leaving a few minutes before Ben.  Conferences were fine.  My boys, though not perfect, are good kids.  And smart.  But I've got to figure out how I can teach Miles to focus (well, focus on something that is not of his choice.  He's got some crazy-good focusing skills - on those tasks/activities of his choosing.).

After that was dinner and the yummy sherbet drink.  Then we played some "Cupid's arrows" and the kids totally got in to it.  I was even able to finish up the dishes while they played and played.  Even little Lucy finally got the hang of it and loved it.

We finished the evening with another treat I had made - a simple 2-ingredient "strawberry fudge" heart.  And watching another Olive Us video.  My kids' favorite.  They are simple and so sweet.

Valentines

So my sister sent me this link to a cool Star Wars valentines.  I showed Jonas and he was super excited.  Then I remembered we had a great Halloween picture of him as Luke Skywalker and maybe I could use that.  Once I decided on that, I looked up Harry Potter valentines on Pinterest.  This is what I found.  Pretty cute and I definitely liked the genuine "Harry Potter" font.  Anyways, this is what I came up with:

 Sorry, I couldn't get the glare off the valentines.  But it's cute, huh?  (Just in case you don't get it, like maybe my parents wouldn't? . . . Miles is Harry Potter.  Riding a Nimbus 2000 or something like that - a fancy broomstick that Harry has in the books.)

 I was super pleased with Jonas', too.  I just love them.  :)  I just made a slit with a super-sharp razor-blade and Jonas stuck up the pixie-stick, i.e., Light-Saber.  Cool, huh?  It was totally cheap and fairly simple - especially because I used my sister to format the pictures side-by-side on a 4x6 print.  It made it super cheap for printing.

The boys were excited about them, too.  Although Jonas did say something like, "Don't say 'love' on my school ones."  Sorry, bud, too late.  I did think of that, too - but too late as well!

Ben has to drive to Littleton on V-day, so we won't be doing much as a couple.  But hopefully the kids and I can do a few fun V-day activities.  I'm thinking we might try and make these (sans red salt since I don't have any!) and deliver them to the boys' teachers when we go for Parent-Teacher Conferences in the afternoon.  (The boys have a 1/2 day of school.)  These would be fun to make with the girls!  Maybe play this cute game (scroll down until you see "Cupids Arrows").  And Emmy would love this hair-style if I can pull it off with her thin and short hair!  Oh, and make this yummy drink for a special after-dinner treat.

I saw this a while ago and decided to do it.  I started on Feb. 1st and each day I put up a heart on the kids' door with something that I love about them or why I love them, etc.  I even did it for Ben.  The kids all really like it - but Emmy especially.  Every morning she asks, "What does mine say?!"  And then when I tell her, she gets a sweet dreamy happy look on her entire face.  It's so precious.  And guess what?  On Feb. 8th I got 8 hearts stuck in my room for me . . . from Ben.  It made me so happy.  :)  Miles even made hearts up for everyone one night.  I think it's a tradition that I'll do every year now.

Anyways, I have lots of ambition for the day, but we'll see what I actually do . . .

Miles' luck

Miles just has this "luck" that just comes to him.  It's crazy.  This has happened, this "luck," many times over the years.  Today was just another example.  There was this "Cup Stacking Competition" at their school this morning.  It was the first of its kind here.  The boys have talked about cup stacking that they get to do in P.E.  Miles had begged for some cups and I would ask him, "Why can't I buy cheap plastic cups from the store?"  Now I understood.  This cup stacking stuff is serious business and I was so super impressed as I watched these kids practice.  There are different styles of stacking.  Jonas competed in the 3-3-3 competition.  Miles did the 3-3-3 and the 3-6-3.  They were grouped in age groups:  K+1st, 2nd+3rd, and 4th+5th graders.  During the week Miles really, really wanted to win 3rd prize.  That's right - not 1st, not 2nd, but 3rd.  And why 3rd?  Because the prize was the miniature stacking cups.  And Miles loves everything tiny.  I wasn't sure if any of my kids would win anything after I saw the competition!  Luckily the boys both won "door prizes" and so that relieved some of the pressure.  Jonas ended up not winning anything.  And Miles?  Of course - he won 3rd place in the 3-6-3!  Of course!  That kid and his luck.

Miles and his prize.

Ice Rinking

A couple of weeks ago my parents asked me to take videos of my kids on the ice rink.  I had posted one earlier on facebook, but not here.  So I decided I better go and do it before the rink melts away . . . (Slightly related:  my parents are safely back in the states!  I talked to them briefly yesterday and they were exhausted from being up for 30 hours.  Hopefully they can adjust well to MST soon!)

And I'll probably post ALL the videos I took.  Sorry.  But I want them.  I think by video #4 or so my voice is quite exasperated.  They boys were driving me nuts.  (Actually, the videos are all out of order once I uploaded them.  Oh well - can you guess what was originally video #4.)  It seems like not only do our bodies need a warm-up, but so do the emotions.  They cooled off as we played more and more.

I'm gonna miss this rink!

Another {long and perhaps slightly boring} Update

Here I go again . . . shall I go youngest to oldest or oldest to youngest?  Hmmm . . .

Ice-Rink:
Ben's baby.  :)  Just kidding.  Well the ice-rink is a grand old time, really.  Ben has had three men's hockey nights and they have all been great.  We have neighbors and friends come over and some even try ice-skating for their very first times.  It's pretty neat.  Last week the boys were probably on the rink for about 3 hours on a Friday night.  This past Friday was a sad one, though:  it was unskateable due to the warm night previous and the warm day.  Bummer!  We made up for it on Saturday morning when the four of us (Ben, me, Miles, and Jonas) played a little 2-on-2 for a little bit.  It will probably not be frozen solid again until mid-week this week, but all is not yet over with the rink.  But when it is, truthfully I will miss it.  It's been fun and great for so many reasons.

Lucy:
She is as crazy and as cute as ever.  We all just love watching the little antics she does all day long.  She's just so funny.  Ben is a complete softy when it comes to her.  He said some evening this week how he worries about Lucy and that she just gets what she wants/DEMANDS.  I told him I had noticed how he, ahem, does quite give in to Lucy (yes, I admitted, we all do - but I think Ben does it best . . .:).  When I came home from my run on Saturday there was Lucy eating a sucker at 8am.  Really?  Oh boy, that dad has a hard time saying "no" to Lucy.  I do tell her no because I must; then I get to suffer her wrath.  Poor me.  I haven't officially started potty-training her (I missed her window a while back I think), but she probably does go poop in the toilet more often than not. So that's a great start.  I thought it would be fun to get underwear from the Easter Bunny, but I'm not sure I should wait that long.  She does okay in nursery - it's a small group of 4 kids, I think.  She cries sometimes when she gets dropped off, but she settles down.  They always make little crafts and she is always so excited to "show my mommy!" I'm told.  Her favorite book and the one she wants read all the time:  The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig.  She thinks she's at least 6 years old.

Emmy:
She, too, is crazy.  Sometimes crazy sweet and sometimes just crazy CrAzY.  I'm excited for the time that she'll outgrow her tantrums.  I'm unexcited about the thought that she probably never will to some extent . . . She loves her preschool group - a bunch of 4 beautiful girls.  They do a lot of fun learning activities each week - she's so lucky.  This week we had it at our house.  Tuesday was play-doh and puppet day.  The girls made paper bag pig puppets and we put on the "Three Little Pigs" puppet show for the moms.  It was very cute and the girls seemed really excited about it.  Thursday was pizza day and we did all sorts of things:  pizza dots and matching clothespin number, stamp-painting with veggies to make a paper pizza, cutting pizza shapes and toppings, and making their own pizza to eat for lunch.  YUM.  Emmy loves to dance and gymnastics - mainly on our couch.  I have to remind her everyday that we don't do gymnastics on our couch.  Sigh.  We still do school together at home and "read" some books on starfall, practice number recognition, patterns, etc., etc.

Jonas:
Man can he be a grouch.  Seriously, as he "matures" his whiny-ness is turning in to moodiness.  Sigh.  Luckily it's not an everyday thing.  Thanks heavens for that!  But I did have to suffer through a few days of it these week.  Poor me (again).  He continues to do great in school - he got the math award at the last quarter's awards ceremony (each class can have 1 or more in each category for awards).  He's finally started to read the Magic Tree House series and hopefully he'll like them {almost} as much as Miles.  He has a best-friend named Jake that lives just up the street.  They get together a lot - at our house or sometimes at Jake's house. We're so close that they can just walk on their own.  But, we just found out Saturday that Jake's dad got a job in Montana and they'll most likely be moving at the end of the school year.  Such a bummer for so many reasons!  Sad for Jonas (but they will be great pen-pals we've decided!).  Sad for our school to lose 2 great kids (Jake and his sister Elizabeth).  And sad for our street to lose a great family.  Jonas loves going out on the ice rink and was in to making stop-action movies this week.  Legos is still a fun hobby of his and he especially likes to play with his Star Wars legos.  His class at church calls him "Little Bishop."

Miles:
He's doing well in school.  His won his class' "science" award for the last quarter.  His teacher commented that sometimes Miles knows more than she does when they are talking and learning about science.  Some of his classmates thinks he should be called, "Sci-Mie."  His class is working on their multiplications and for every "set" (x2s, etc.) they pass off they get something for an ice cream sundae bar.  Like, passing off x10's and x0's will earn you a bowl and spoon.  So if you can't pass anything else off, that's all you get!  Miles has passed off all the required sets and is now working on  the "bonus" sets (he's got the most sets passed off thus far) - so he'll be able to get the works on his ice cream.  Unfortunately learning his multiplication tables has made him quite slow in the basics of addition and subtraction.  His mid-term assessments weren't so grand at all.  So now I guess we'll still need to review those each night.  It's not that he doesn't know addition and subtraction, he was just slow at it and wasn't able to finish much.  Sigh.  He likes going to his gymnastics class on Mondays.  He's a good kid with great potential, but still maintains Head-Pesterer in our home.  I'm not sure what else to say - much more and it might start heading even more downhill, so I better stop.

By the time I get to Ben and myself I am kind of "done" with writing updates.  But I guess I should say a little:
Ben:
I think he's doing well in managing his time and all of his responsibilities.  He will never be able to "catch up" with all the things he could do in his call as Bishop, but he does try and do what he can.  But he makes time for other things as well - like his family and hockey night.  :)  I think all are very important and so I support him in all those areas.  He's working on an advanced certification in his RN role - that of becoming a First-Assistant.  The surgeon's right-hand man.  Or something like that.  He has a clinical course to attend in February by his parents' house and hopefully that will go well and encourage him on in his quest!  He continues to ride his bike to work every morning - yes, even when it was -15 or something like that.  He loves it.

Me:
I'm doing alright.  Sometimes I just think to myself, "Life is really good!"  But a lot of other times I am tired.  Tired of doing the same thing over and over.  Tired of dealing with the same tantrums and fights over and over.  Tired of dealing with each child and his or his "issues" over and over.  And lonely.  I can spend all day Sunday with the kids by myself, getting everyone ready (including myself!), snacks and meals made, dinner prepared, sitting in the pew during Sacrament meeting, bedtime routine, etc.  I can do it and I do do it each and every week.  But it gets tiresome and lonesome doing it all by myself.  Ben and I were just talking last week about how the time that I really could use him sitting by me at church (not just wanting him sitting by me, but actually needing him by me) is now - when he can't.  Bummer.  Sigh.  But it is what it is - that's my new motto, I think, because I say it a lot now.  But we are determined to make Ben's calling a good one for him, us, our family, and our ward.  We will try our best!  I still long for and treasure my Saturday morning runs.  It's probably a good thing I don't have everlasting endurance because I could imagine myself just running and running and running . . .:)

More Boy-made Videos

By Jonas:

The Flyer

The Scuba Diver

By Miles: (turn up your volume, but not TOO much!  The boys started incorporating some videos in to their still-shots - mainly for "sound effects.")

The Hockey Game

The Gold Diggers

Miles in stitches. . .

Well, just about.  :)  It happened on Monday when the kids were out of school and our backyard neighbors came over to play on the rink.  Well the 3 boys (7, 8, and 15ish) came up with "Zombie Tag," or something close to that.  It's basically tag, but when you're "it" you have your eyes closed.  Skates + ice + eyes closed + tag = something bad.

Miles came in crying a little bit.  I looked at his eye - hmmmm, does it need stitches or not, I thought?  It was clearly split, but not so very deep.  Ben called a little bit later and I asked him about it.  He didn't care as much since Miles was a boy and boys can have scars - at least that is what I took from the conversation I had with Ben. :I told him I still want my boys to beautiful.  :)  He said he'd bring home some steri-stips and we'd assess then.

When Ben got home we put on the steri-strips and Miles was nicknamed "Franken-eye" by Jonas.  Miles was really quite "proud" of his scar and the first thing he said when he saw his friend Kevin at school the next day was, "Look at my eye!  I got hurt!"

Pictures:  (please excuse the "I am a 2-year old trying on my mommy's lipstick face."  Miles, while being the oldest, is probably also the messiest eater of all my kids.)

Needless to say, Zombie Tag is now outlawed on the rink.