Jack

Andrew made this for Jack... it's pretty funny.

Dance Festival

"Can I crawl out on to the field mom?"


They kids do a dance festival at the end of every year. I think the teachers use it to fill up time at the end when no one is trying to learn anymore.

Jack did The Haka. It's a Maori fighting dance. He learned all the words and actions. I'm a loser mom and didn't take a picture of him all dressed up. ugh! So... here's the video. It's terrible. They put a kid right in front of Jack. They I tried to zoom out... not so good. I was just using my little camera, so I'd like the camera to take some of the blame.



Close up of the face... after the dance.


Tristan HATED his dance. In this video he's 6th back on the right.



Waiting for his turn.

Kindy 500

School's out for the summer! I have mixed feelings about having the kids home all day... every day. The last month of school was CRAZY!!! There were so many activities. Here is Jack's Kindy 500. We had to build a car out of an apple box. The instructions said, "Use an apple box and glue 4 paper plates on as wheels and another paper plate as a steering wheel".

Jack wanted a tank.
Hudson is Captain Destructo. He makes HUGE messes. Please excuse the mess in this photo.... he is hard to contain. If we come and visit you... beware. Please put up anything he can reach.


The finished product. I thought we did a good job... and we did, but if you think this was the only, or the best tank, you'd be wrong. There are some incredibly talented parents out there who DID NOT use an apple box. Also, I think they have art/engineering/auto design/architecture degrees/build box tanks for a living.

Isn't he so cute? Notice the camo clothes?

He's about to sing us some patriotic songs.

The parade.

In their Kindy 500 cars they "drove" to different locations at the school and visited many of our country's landmarks. They went to the Statue of Liberty, the Liberty Bell, Mount Rushmore, the White House, etc. At each landmark they learned about it and did an activity. I think Jack's favorite was the Lincoln Memorial because they gave him a penny.

The fate of the pretend microphone

I needed a microphone for "The Singing Bee" for Primary. We didn't have anything at home... and of course I was looking on Saturday night. I found this ice cream cone at the store and figured it would work.

Then... I saw this happening:

Look who's almost 1

Goldilocks Bike Ride

I was semi-talked into this bike ride last Saturday. When I signed up for it I didn't even own a bike. After I got a bike it seemed like I never had time to ride. Brian had to be home AND it had to be nice weather. Which, as you can see by the 2" of snow we got yesterday, sometimes good weather is hard to come by.

I had been on my bike 7 times and fallen down 3 of those times. This is my first time in clipless (also called clip-in, which I think is more accurate sounding, but not commonly used terminology) pedals and they take some getting used to. I would unclip one foot and weirdly lean the wrong way... the way of the still-clipped-in foot. Once you start to fall you don't have time to unclip that foot and save yourself... it's just KABOOM.

Anyway, so I did it. I rode 64 miles and climbed a total of 3,000 feet. I had some mechanical difficulties with my bike. My front derailleur broke a few days before the race and I only had the use of the large gear on the front. For those of you who don't know, this is the gear that makes it harder to pedal, not easier. It is great for flats and downhill. I had to make a choice, I could ONLY have the little "climbing" gear or I could ONLY have the large gear. My husband was at the fire-station for the 2 days prior to the race so I asked my neighbor to help me. He said, if it were his wife, he would make it so she only had the large gear. Soooo.... I went with his suggestion. It was probably the right one, but it made climbing the hills a pain. I was slow on the hills. I would pass 25 people on the flat and downhill and that 25 would pass me on the climb.

Before I rode, everyone would tell me not to drink too much Gatorade or take too much Gu or too many Shot Blocks. They said they would make me sick. I think I didn't drink or eat enough. At one point, on one climb, at mile 50, I pulled over and straddling my bike, put my head down and sobbed. I called Brian for comfort. One girl asked me if I was having an asthma attack. No, my eyeballs are just sweating. I pedaled on, however. The thing that actually hurt the most was my neck and my back. Also my toes kept falling asleep which was kind of painful. I guess you're supposed to pedal with a wiping-the-mud-off-your-feet motion. That would have been good to know a week ago.

When I finally finished I had been biking for 6 hours. I took 3 breaks, probably for 5 minutes each. I learned that, like Caitlin, I can do hard things. I was exhausted when it was over. I think it was a similar exhaustion to giving birth. When asked that day if I would do it again, I said, "No Way!" BUT now that it's been a few days, I'm already planning on another race this summer and planning all the things I can do differently to be faster.
At the finish line all of my neighbors were waiting for me. They started screaming my name and jumping up and down when I finished. Yay for nice neighbors. And just in case you're thinking it, I wasn't last, not by a long shot.
Here's an action shot. I'm in black. Ok, so it't not the most flattering picture. I am wearing a big black sweatshirt. This was at mile 10.

At the finish line with my friends. I got a medal for finishing. It was cute, Jack predicted I would win the bronze medal. I thought that was cute for 2 reasons. First, he thought I would actually win a medal. Second, he knew it wouldn't be the gold.

PS. Brian said to me that night, "You surprised me. I didn't think you could do it. I thought for sure you would quit." Um, thanks?

Pinewood Derby

These pictures were taken by my neighbor... the mother of the other boy in the pictures. She's a good mom and always brings her camera. I'm not so much. Tristan won 3rd place.


I'm actually in this picture. I'm to the left of the kid on the left's head. I'm wrestling Hudson.


Notice Hudson in the bottom of the picture making a break for the track. Brian and Jack are in this one too.


PS. Tristan's shaggy hair is what he wants. I ask him to cut it almost daily. Brian says he doesn't need a cut... so... it stays shaggy. It's what all the kids are doing now. Don't worry, I draw the line when he needs a barrette or ponytail holder.

Tandem Bike Race

Me: "Brian, I think we should ride a bike race together. Like LOTOJA." (LOTOJA is a 200 mile race from Logan, UT to Jackson, WY)

Brian: "Like we both ride it?"

Me: "No... together... on a tandem road bike."

Brian: *silence* then... "No way! No way would I torture myself that way. I can just see you not peddling."

Me: "OK, I'll go in front. That way you can see I'm peddling."

Brian: "The front person is in charge of STEERING! No way are you going in front."

Me: "So... we can do it if you're in front?"

Brian: "You would torture me by talking all 200 miles!"

Me: "I would not! Besides... the guys that rode it last year said you're not allowed to even use an ipod. They said it was super boring. It would BE AN ADVANTAGE to have me entertain you for 200 miles. huh??? sooo???"

Brian. "No."

A kinda lame update

I haven't updated in a while. Nothing that exciting is happening. Here's the latest:

1. Hudson is sleeping through the night. 9pm-7am. It did not take 3 nights of crying it out... it took 10. What finally made me do it was I was talking to this lady at school and she said her 4 year old was just like Hudson... woke every 2 hours and she nursed him back to sleep every time. (This is what I was doing 10 days ago.) She said, "You know, he still doesn't sleep through the night." Uh... DANGER! DANGER! What?!!! Suddenly I knew I couldn't take 4 years of this. That night I put a fan on in his room and closed his door, and closed my door... and I haven't been in once. He is now sleeping all night with no crying. His daytime naps have gone from 30 minute cat naps to 2-3 hour naps with no crying. Yippie!

2. Jack is enjoying kindergarten and has the exciting Kindy 500 coming up. We have to design a cardboard car for him to walk around in. They are going to "visit" famous landmarks in the U.S. (The Statue of Liberty, etc.) Jack recently was moved up a level in tumbling and was VERY excited. I didn't think it was time to remind him that we are going to take a tumbling break for the summer (and hopefully not start again in the fall). Jack has also started playing soccer. He is a million times better this season and almost scored 3 goals in the first game. Last season he was a parallel player. This season he's in there... all the time.

3. Tristan is ready for 2nd grade to be over. He is in Cub Scouts and we recently had the Pinewood Derby. Tristan took home 3rd place. He was really excited. He already has plans for next year's car. He's also still doing tumbling. Again we are going to take a break and I'm hoping we don't start again in the fall. He also just started baseball. It's machine pitch and he's surprisingly good this year. I say surprisingly because we did T-ball before and it wasn't his thing. Maybe he's just grown into his own body. He is the best hitter on the team and has gotten good at catching the ball too.

4. I've been practicing for a 60 mile bike ride that I signed up for. There's a lack of time to ride outside (bad weather and Brian has to be home to babysit) so I'm not sure how I'll do. I'm really glad it's Spring. It's beautiful outside. The hills across from our house are all green. The mountains are snow-capped in the background. It really looks like we're in Switzerland or something. Only a few of my bulb flowers have bloomed already and the others are almost ready. The kids planted seeds with mom when she came and they're ready to be planted outside, but I don't want to yet. It's supposed to snow 3 days this week. Local advice says don't plant your garden until Mother's Day... so maybe we were early with the seeds.

5. Brian has is National Practical Paramedic test today. I'm sure he'll do well. He spends all of his time studying. He still has 2 more months of clinicals left to do. He has a written test at the end of June and testing for a job coming up soon. He and I have been busy cleaning up the yard after a long winter... raking... seeding... tons of dog poop.

The kids are out of school on the 27th of May. We'll be doing swimming lessons for Jack and looking forward to our June vacation to California. We'd also like to take the kids to Yellowstone to see Old Faithful and the stinky sulfur pots this summer.

Easter

I made these. They turned out cute.
Pre-race....

Tristan's actually in the picture. He's all bundled up... 5 points to whomever can locate him.



We went yesterday to the neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt. Since there was very little "hunting" we're going to call it the Easter Egg Race next year. It was cold... obviously. Four days ago the last of the snow melted off of my front lawn. I saw my tulips peaking up.... now... there is a foot of new snow out there. blast.

Sweet Sweatband

We went to Target and I let the boys pick something out of the $1 bins. Jack picked a sweatband and some socks with baseballs and basketballs on them. He feels like the sweatband and the socks make him look more athletic. He even asked Brian if Brian wanted to wear the sweatband to workout at the fire department. I tried to push this, but he declined.

Note several things about the video: First,it was completely spur-of-the-moment. Second, the dog is also racing. Third, the baby is just happy to be along for the ride.

The Roaming Gnome

We didn't pull him on a sled, we just posed him there for several reasons: Our arms were tired of holding him and we wanted to take pictures of him. Notice his sweet gloves and shoes. He did have a heavy, one-piece footie pajamas under the socks.
Looks warm, huh? Jack and Tristan are in the front and I'm holding Hudson. Brian is the tallest... duh.

Jack preferred to ride, than be towed. He's turned around so he can be the lookout.
The kids spent hours playing cards. (We're missing the boy that's Tristan's age from this pic)
Tristan's catch at the fishing pond.

A scout, a baby, a war and a dog whisperer

This is one of Tristan's Lego Mindstorm creations. In the end it was a "shooterbot" that shot different color balls out. He builds and programs it. Sometimes it reacts to a certain color or movement.

This is the Blue and Gold dinner. Tristan is getting his Bobcat. I'm a blur.

He's mobile! He is SO CUTE right now. I wish I could bottle it up.





Seriously? Look at him!
He crawls under the table and gets stuck... several times a day.

He also loves the dogs and crawls over and pulls their hair. They just tolerate it.

Dog Whisperer and future Vet... but only if they get lunch breaks.

"Mom take my picture again with Cedar... and again..." I didn't post all of them.

The prize the war is being fought over.

In one corner... Cedar the Dog.... and in another corner....
Babyzilla!!!

If Hudson has the babydoll, Cedar sneaks over and quietly takes it out of his hands and takes it back to her bed. If Cedar has it, Hudson crawls over and takes it off the bed and crawls away as fast as he can... over and over.


Mmm... smoothies.