our day and some of my favorite places to go

First, Alex has a concert for you:
(he really likes piano lessons)







Second, here is my first attempt at doing Katherine's hair. See the tiny ponytail?

Now, I wanted to tell you about some of my favorite places in Salt Lake (and where we went today):

Elizabeth's Bakery and Tea Shop:

It's in a renovated old house with tons of charm, and serves afternoon tea, and other authentic British food and drink. For those of us who only drink herbal tea, they have a great selection of herbal fruit teas. Today I had a hot chocolate and it was the best I've ever had! I like this because of its great atmosphere. It is by Trolley Square 575 S 700 E SLC Tues.-Thurs. 9am-5pm and Fri-Sat. 9am-7pm, closed Sunday. 801-433-1170

Next to the tea shop is a British store and I got the boys a candy. They have chocolate eggs that have a little toy inside they like.

Les Madeleines:

Todd and I saw this patisserie on Food Network. They were featuring Salt Lake and so we decided to try this a few months back. I love bakeries and patisseries. 216 E 500 S SLC 801-355-2294, http://www.les-madeleines.com/ . They have won many awards and the owner is very friendly. They sell out every day of their specialty, the Kouing-aman, so call before you go or go early in the day to try it! They also have classes, that I'm sure Todd and/or I will soon be signing up for! http://les-madeleines.com/classes.html

Dancing to the music in the patisserie

Discovery Gateway aka Utah Children's Museum:

Discovery Gateway is in the Gateway in downtown Salt Lake. This is a TERRIFIC children's museum. It's worth it to get a membership. Saturdays are pretty busy, so we like to go during the week. I wish it were closer, we would definitely go every day. It is fun for all ages-- babies to adults. They even have fun classes that you can sign the kids up for that are free with admission. http://www.discoverygateway.org/

The birthday room:

(I think it would be fun to have that tree in our playroom; and we could decorate it according to the season.)

almost crawling:

cute giggles

maestro

Other favorites not in Salt Lake:

*Dear Lizzie Boutique and Bistro (Highland/Alpine):
I think I'm going to have a girl's birthday party for my 30th at Dear Lizzie http://www.mydearlizzie.com/. Would you like to come Sat. March 7 at 11am? PLEASE email me or leave a comment.

*Thanksgiving Point!! Love the place!! I get the property membership and then everyone that comes with me gets half off. It was cheaper than getting everyone in the family memberships, and if I go with a friend they also get half off. The Gardens open March 28-- YIPEE!!!! Lehi http://www.thanksgivingpoint.com/

*Gardner Village- lots of fun shops in cute cottage houses-West Jordan http://www.gardnervillage.com/

*Tahitian Noni Gardens-- in the Riverwoods in Provo and it's free! It's like a small Thanksgiving Point-- 5 acres of beautiful gardens. They have picnic tables and a wading pool for the kids to put their feet in. If you work there you can go after hours and on Sundays--I need to get a job there so I can go on Sundays!

*Fun for kids- Jumping Jacks in Springville

*What are some of your local favorite places to go--in or out of Utah?

Alex's hero

Alex really looks up to his dad. He wants to be just like him. Todd was cooking dinner and Alex got out his Easy Bake oven to cook with him.

a picture of the cute happy baby girl for your enjoyment!

FHE

Today for Family Home Evening, we talked to the boys about how our family rules apply to the boys even at friends' houses, and about good and bad touch. Then Nathan said, "and we don't smoke" and Alex added, "and we don't watch wars because then you could start shooting people, like at Trolley Square."

Then we played a game of Settlers and Alex won first, Nathan second and me and Todd tied for last. Usually Todd wins every time, but this time the boys won!



Tonight Nathan said he tried "cooked" chocolate. I asked him what that was and he said one time he had a chocolate gold coin and he put it on the light switch, one without a switch plate, and he saw, heard and felt it zap. I asked him if it hurt and he said it made him crazy. He said he still ate it even though it was cooked.



Thanks to Keri, our bathroom door is now open! Incidentally, do you know how I met Keri? We were having a birthday party for Nathan years ago, and Sydney (her daughter) was in Nathan's nursery class. We went to her house to invite her and it was the last invitation we had to pass out. All the other invitations the boys went to the house, but they were tired so I left them in the car so I could run this last one to the door. While at the door, I heard a loud crash, and looked to see that Alex had put the car in drive and smashed into their garage door. Luckily it didn't fall down. I was embarrassed and didn't know what to do, but they invited me in to figure it out. So, that's how we met.

My thoughts at 2:22am

I can always remember having a dog. Growing up, the family dog always slept with me (in my bed). I couldn't wait for Todd and "Snuggles" (my dog from about age 13-23 and email address honoree) to meet, and Snug sure liked Todd! At about age 10 until college, I collected dog figurines. I am a dog lover through and through.

So when we bought our house, I couldn't wait to finally get a dog! We got a black lab puppy from a puppy mill that had some "issues" and could not be potty trained. After a few months, we gave her away. Then we got a 3 year old German Shephard, JT, with epilepsy and a 4 month old yellow lab/ golden retriever, Rocket, both from the animal shelter. When JT had seizures he was completely out of it, and one night turned on the water in the downstairs bathroom in the middle of the night and flooded our entire downstairs. Another time he was out of it he ran off and got hit by a car on the freeway but lived. Then his seizures couldn't be controlled by medicine so we had to put him to sleep. We still have Rocket, and he has gotten about 3 tickets, eaten about 1239854757 blinds, gotten into the trash 1239854635376789790890789463789463789463 times, eaten the drywall in the bathroom, etc, etc, and recently the unforgivable sin of eating all 14 of Todd's chocolate, caramel and toasted coconut cookies. For some strange reason, Todd now hates Rocket (and I'm thinking he hates all animals at this point) but he is a great husband and father and has tolerated him for the last 3 years because he knows that the me and the kids love him.

Well, recently my parents in Arkansas offered to take Rocket. Todd has never told me to get rid of Rocket, but I thought this was a good compromise having my parents take him: we still get to see him, we know he's in a good home, he'll have another dog to play with, Todd's happy. The plan is that in March I am going to drive to Arizona with the kids and the dog to visit my sister, then my parents are going to pick me and the kids and the dog up and we'll drive back to Arkansas. Then the kids and I will fly home and Rocket will stay with them (until he gets evicted for eating their drywall).

But the closer it gets, the more worried/scared/sad I get about him leaving. Remember what I said about me being a dog person? How can I live without a dog?? (Of course I would rather live without a dog than without a husband).

Here's what I will miss about Rocket:
-taking him swimming at Salem Pond, watching him leap off the pier like a jack rabbit--it always draws a crowd
-car walks
-jogging or riding my bike with him
-hikes and camping with him
-watching the kids laugh and play with him
-taking him and the kids to the playground and getting Rocket to go down the slides; throwing the ball with him and all the kids at the playground wanting to take turns throwing the ball
-spending all day outside in the spring/summer playing trikes and bikes and gardening and he's with us
-petting Rocket in the middle of the night when I can't go back to sleep
-having Rocket in the house the one week a year when Todd goes out of town to computer conferences
-having him constantly at my heels

Here's what I won't miss:
-having him constantly at my heels
-the dog hair in all of our eyes, ears, noses, mouths, our food, on our clothes, in our hair, in our toes, in our bellybuttons, behind our ears, in our shoes, on our walls, our counters, knee deep on our floor, on the computer screen, on the tv screen, no this is not a fur coat, in our car, under our fingernails, on the furniture, on the cieling, asd sdfjakleio avnioe oinvnela ioasoij eio bepoijh eio vnaelwiojwerg aoi n ero ijag n (it's driving me insane!!!!!)
-wondering if tonight is the night that our neighbors (one in particular) will murder us and the dog in our sleep
-having a window or two that always needs new blinds
-going to court with the inmates because our dog got another ticket
-having to see that mean ugly animal control cop
-wondering if Todd will murder Rocket with his bare hands




P.S. A random side note: somehow our downstairs bathroom door got locked, and it has been locked for 2 days now and we can't get it open. Can you help us?

Spring is around the corner!

It was probably 50-55 degrees today and sunny! It felt like spring!

I pruned the rose beast (do you think I pruned too much?) And notice the Christmas wreath? I forgot it was there, but that's gone now too.

Nathan always likes to garden with me (especially when he can find worms). When he saw me pruning roses, he asked if he could help. He was pretending it was a monster he had to defeat in a video game (everything is a video game to these kids).

"Look at this monster I defeated!" Nathan told me and showed me this. See the bikes and trikes in the distance?? I also went on a short jog with Rocket in the sunny weather. On my jog some little kids on another street were kind of scared of Rocket. I told them, "Don't worry, he's only eaten one kid." One of the kids looked worried and said, "What kind?" I said, "A little one...about your size." Then I said I was just joking. They laughed.

Alex saw Nathan and wanted to do it too.

Nathan said, "Look! Serious clouds!" (Cirrus)

One of my favorite things about spring, and part of my gardening bug, is watching the plants wake up. I always tell the kids, "Look!"--like I just found gold, when we find the first growth of spring (which was today). Look, you reader, BUDS!

DAFFODILS!

MORE BUDS!

When we're outside in the nice weather and the kids play outside and I garden, Rocket either runs with the kids or sits by me while I garden. If I'm not gardening, I'll throw the ball with him. He really enjoys being outside with us and goes REALLY CRAZY if he can't be outside with us.

Nathan made a spear. Then all the other kids wanted to make spears, too.

When it's nice weather, all the kids on the street come out and play. Do you like Katherine's cute face she is making?

BUDS ON THE NECTARINE TREE! (it's not dead!)

Katherine's happy face and her new spring outfit.

BUDS AND A BLUE SUNNY SKY!

A tiny sprout on the rose beast (among the dead leaves):

But... there are still traces of winter... but spring is around the corner!!!

really random thoughts

*It was beautifully sunny today, and warm (it's all relative) and it made me have a sunny mood!
*I went to the gym this morning. It feels good to exercise.
*I went got some Scentsy bars (like candles but you just melt them instead of light them on fire) and one of the smells I got kinds smells camping (spruce and citrus is the name) and I was thinking about how fun it was to go camping as a child with my family-fond memories. I like to go camping now, but I am really scared of bears eating my family (and me).
*Our family went to the Draper temple open house. After a temple construction is complete, they let anyone go through a tour of the temple before it is dedicated. It was a beautiful temple. It was special to take the kids.
*Todd was pushing Katherine in the stoller in the sunshine, and I looked at her in her adorable dress and happy smile and felt so much love for her! I am so grateful she joined our family. Right now she is close to crawling. She gets on all fours and rocks back and forth. She rolls all over. She does really good in the daycare while I am at the gym. Lately she is in to singing. She sings to herself and if I sing to her, she tries to copy me.
*Before the tour we sat to watch an intro video. Alex asked to hold the baby. I watched my firstborn hold my baby--such a sweet moment. I was just staring at the sugary sweet cuteness when Alex told me to watch the movie (I guess I was embarassing him).
*While we were waiting in line, a family with 2 boys and a baby girl was standing in front of us. They asked how old our baby was (6 months) and they said their baby was 9 months. The dad asked his boys "How many months older is she? What is 9 minus 6?" The boys didn't answer so from behind Nathan said "thwee". The dad turned around and said "There's a little mathematician." I was a proud mother, but even if he and Alex weren't the smartest kids ever I'd still be proud. On the way home in the car, Nathan said, "Do you want to count to 272 with me?" He really loves to count and really loves numbers. Why 272? Who knows? These kids are better entertainment than Comedy Central-- they always make me smile and laugh.
*I was so happy all day today. I thought to myself, if I died today, I'd have lived a wonderful life.

Recommendations

We got this program to monitor the boys' computer time: www.kidswatch.com
The boys like it and I like it. They have to earn computer time so I go on and add computer time to each user as they earn it (or loose it) and it automatically logs them off when their time is done. Computer is a good motivator for them-- today they got up and brushed their teeth and made their beds first thing without me even asking! Now I need to get something like that for the tv!

Next is http://www.sparkpeople.com
It is a wieght loss website that is completely free! You say what your weight, height, etc. is now, and it then you say what you want to weigh. It will calculate different programs (aggressive, slow and steady, etc.) and you pick the one you want. Then it makes a meal plan for you based on your calories, and an exercise program so you can get to that weight by the time you want. On the meal plan, you can click on something you want to change and it will give you a list of things you can substitute for it. Then, it will make a grocery list for you. On the exercise plan, it does the same type of thing- you say what kind of cardio exercise you want to do, and it will tell you how long and how fast you need to do it to burn the amount of calories you need. It also gives you the strength training exercises you need to do and how many and the directions, but you can change those, too, and substitute other ones if you want. It has lots of resources, and even an online planner, and will email you to remind you of things on your planner (good for me who needs reminders).
It has a website if you are pregnant: http://babyfit.sparkpeople.com/ with tons of resources and healthy meal plans and pregnancy safe exercises and other pregnancy resources.

fun school day

Right now we are reading the book that Nanny McPhee was based on and we all like it. Last night we read that Nurse Matilda (Nanny McPhee in the movie) did fun "lessons" for their school. We read that to learn money, they had to pay for arms and legs. So today we did that. They played a Jeopardy game to review their science and to earn money for their arms and legs. After the Jeopardy they added their money and could buy arms and legs. Arms were $. 49 and legs were $.86 and they could trade with each other. Alex ended up with 4 arms and no legs and Nathan with just 2 legs and no arms. They put their arms inside their shirt or jacket if they had no arms. When they had one leg they had to hop on one leg.



Another game we modified from the book was for math. They are adding 2 digit numbers. Alex had the first 12 problems and Nathan had the next 12 (so they had different answers). I put the answers on little pieces of paper and hid them all over downstairs. After they finished a problem, they'd go looking for the piece of paper with their answer on it. Then they could turn in the answer papers for pieces of chocolate. They really liked that game and asked to do more math at the end of school! Today is President's Day and it just happens that we are learning about the Revolution and George Washington in history. I love history, especially early American history. We sang "Yankee Doodle" and read books. In a book about George Washington it said he learned handwriting by copying a book, so for handwriting they copied a sentence from a book.



This is one of the main reasons we are doing homeschool... I like playing "teacher"!

Love

Rexy has now been replaced by Linny from the Wonder Pets. Ever since Nathan had that "true dream" about flying on the Wonder Pet's fly boat, he has been into the Wonder Pets. We found a stuffed Linny at Toys R Us for $2.98, and then went back yesterday to get the other 2 Wonder Pets-- Ming Ming and Tuck (Todd refers to them as Lester, Ding Ding and Chuck). Linny goes everywhere with Nathan and has to sleep with him, too. I asked if he loved Linny more than Rexy and he said, "one penny more."

Alex has been wanting a wife for Beary, so yesterday we went to Build a Bear and he got a pink bear with white hearts on it. He got a wedding dress for "Mrs. Bear" and a tux for Beary. So tomorrow we are going to have a wedding and I'm going to make the wedding cake. Alex said he bought a house for them, and he told me Beary is a little bit scared because he's never been in a wedding before.

Friday night I told the boys that Sat. was going to be Val. Day, a day to do things for the people we love. Nathan said, "Can I take cookies to Nancy?" Nancy is our single 65 year old neighbor that Nathan has a crush on. He said that he is going to marry her. We didn't have time to make cookies, so we got a rose and a Valentine and gave it to her. She wasn't home so we left it at her door. We saw her today and she said that it made her day. (Todd said Nathan knows how to work it with the older ladies and I said he gets that from my dad- ha ha ha ha! My dad works with older people and many older women have crushes on him).

PE and A Genius Idea

PE:
On Wed. the kids did a PE class with other homeschool kids in a church gym. They played kick ball and it was HILLARIOUS! My kids got their coordination and sports "skills" (or lack of) from Todd and I. In this picture Alex just kicked the ball and is running to first base (the chair Nathan is sitting in) but Nathan doesn't know he's supposed to run to second base yet. Other highlights include Nathan kicking the ball and running toward third base, Alex standing in outfield and falling down for no apparent reason, Nathan getting the ball and running after his own teammates or players who have already passed home base, etc. They did have a lot of fun, and so did I.


Tonight the kids were learning to do cartwheels in the living room and they pretty much got it! My plan is to have a fireplace downstairs with a coffee table and chairs where the computer desk now is, but tonight I was glad to have room for the kids to learn the important skill of cartwheels.
Scripture Memorizing:
Each morning I read scriptures with the kids and then they learn to memorize a scripture. For some reason lately, they have been having a really hard time. Usually it takes maybe a week to learn a new scripture, but the last scripture we have been learning for ...who knows how long. So, I had a genius idea from the "Friend" magazine. In it, it has a picture of a home and a scripture on it D & C 88:119. It is divided into puzzle pieces and each piece has part of the scripture on it. Soooo... I made flashcards for the scriptures we've learned, that has a picture that goes along with a part of the scripture to help them visually memorize it. I also made puzzles out of the scriptures we've learned for them to put together during sacrament meeting at church. I also made a scripture mastery can out of an old hot chocolate can where I put a piece of paper with a picture that goes along with one scripture. Each day they can pick out a picture and that will be the review scripture. Here are some of the flash cards-- I cut the paper into 4 pieces but scanned 4 pictures together. On the back are the words.