Summer Happenings

We've been out of school for a couple of weeks now. After the first week of fighting and boredom, I went online to see how many things we could sign up for. Jack had a week of swimming lessons. He was able to jump off the diving board and swim to the side, without assistance, but he needs another week of lessons. I just don't really have the money/desire to drive to lessons for another 5 days and sit and wait. It was a little painful. We went to the pool yesterday and he wore his life jacket. He wanted to take it off for a bit, and stay in the shallow lazy river. He can touch the whole way. I grudgingly said yes. So then, he comes running back 5 minutes later and says, "Mom, I was pushed into the deep end and was drowning. Will (his best friend) saved my life." Great. Now put back on your life jacket.

Tristan missed out on playing Jr. Jazz basketball last winter, because of his own dumb choices and has been looking forward to playing this winter. In my search for things to do, I saw a 3-on-3 Jr Jazz fundamentals league this summer, for cheap, through the community center. Done. I signed both boys up and we started last night. Oh.. I will have to try and video Jack playing. He's the smallest kid on the team, but I'm going to say, the most enthusiastic. He was SO INTO IT! It's man-to-man defense. So Jack is hopping foot to foot waving his hands all around. He came over during half-time so pumped up! "Mom! I'm having a great time!" I've never seen such an agrressive 6 year old player. He made 4 baskets too. Tristan played too, but, as you can imagine, he's more subdued. He made a few baskets, but his league is better and it's a little tougher. Tristan just wants to be able to make unlimited fouls on the other players. Nice. I don't know what to say to that.

Jack is signed up for tackle football in the fall. He's so excited. He and Brian picked up his pads, pants and helmet last Saturday. Brian said they got in the car and when he looked in back, Jack was already dressed in all of it... including the helmet. Jack then proceeded to wear all of it, including the helmet, for the next 3 hours, at least. He was watching TV and I could see sweat rolling down from his head in the helmet.

Tristan is in the middle of a 5 day video game/ computer programming camp at the University of Utah. He's in heaven. I wish I had a gagillion dollars to sign him up for everything he would like to do. Alas, I do not. He's learning how to program his own computer game. He then comes home and works on designing games upstairs on the computer. He also wants to talk about his games and his programming. a lot. He's so smart. He got 100% in math on the state testing and a 98% in English. He also got straight A's all 3 tri-mesters this year. He's getting his Bear badge, 2 arrowheads, a bead, a beltloop and the baseball pin tonight at pack meeting. Don't worry, he's not perfect. He has a temper and has angst (read: drama) a lot of the time.

Hudson is cute and full of life. He's currently sitting up at the bar eating his favorite food of "Jogurt". Vanilla jogurt to be exact. He wanted "Mo fish", but I'm all out of goldfish, so he settled on yogurt. He LOVES, LOVES Dora the Explorer, much to Jack's dismay. Hudson calls it "Backpack". I know you can hear it in your head, in a whiny voice, "Mo backpack....momma... mo backpack" etc. He loves to be outside and thinks he's as big as his brothers. He hits whenever he's not happy. That includes other people and himself. When he goes to timeout he puts both hands over his face and buries his face in the carpet in shame. It's VERY dramatic.
He loves his Daddeee. He follows Brian around the whole house calling, "Daddeee" whenever he's lost sight of him, or if Brian happens to not be looking at him. I think it's pretty funny, but apparently it wears on Brian's patience. Hudson has renamed all the kids. He calls Jack, Jach. He actually says all 'ck' sounds, 'ch'. (i.e. chichen,) He calls Tristan "E". We don't know why. Tristan hates it, but it's his name now. "E, E, c'mon. E play with me." He called Coleman "O" for a long time, but Coleman has worked non-stop trying to get him to say "Coleman". I think it's working.
Speaking of Coleman, he's busy with high school football. He goes every morning from 6:30-9:30. He then comes home, eats an enormous pile of food, showers and naps. He's pretty helpful around the house and occasionally babysits for us. All of the boys have summer chores that they're supposed to do. We've been fairly good about it. No one likes the dog poop scooping chore, or the dishes. Yeah, me neither.

Jog-a-thon

Hudson thinks he's part of the third grade class. Truly he does. This is pre-race when they were getting a pep talk.

Hudson went around 5 times. It was the size of a baseball field, including the outfield. He was so tired after and took a great nap.



Jack was so cute. I can't believe we had decent weather a month ago for this. It snowed this morning. The kids get out of school for summer on Friday. I would be incredulous, but it snowed last year the same week the kids got out for summer vacation.
They opened our community pool this last weekend for the first time... ever. It's been finished for 3 years, but because of a lawsuit with the city and developer and Zion's bank, it has remained filled with water, but closed. Even though it was only 40 degrees, the kids all went swimming. It's SO nice. There is a zero entry beach access, a big twisty slide and a little umbrella toy thing that has water coming out the top. There is also a big exercise room with machines. It makes living up on this hill slightly more tolerable.

Random

These are all from my iPhone so the quality isn't very good.

Hudson LOVES to go to Daddy's work and "drive" the truck. Last time we were there they took us for a ride in the tower truck...me too. I'd never ridden in a fire engine before. We even went on the freeway.



They have a really tall tower engine and the captain offered to let the boys go up in it. I stayed on the ground with Hudson and took pictures.


Hudson is battling me with a cardboard sword and shield that the boys bought at a Renaissance fair at school. Each item was $ .25.
Brian and I went to General Conference with our neighbors. We thought it was funny that Brian and our neighbor both were dressed alike. We insisted they pose for a picture.

Jack's cute freckles.
Tristan's gross alligator skin after too much sun in California.

Big News! Jack went to the dentist early in the morning and we asked when he was going to lose his first tooth. The dentist said, "Oh, not for at least 6 months." We went to the park that afternoon and Jack bit into a fruit roll-up and yanked. Out came the tooth along with a lot of blood. Too bad it wasn't his dead tooth on top. Jack was just grateful that he FINALLY lost a tooth.

Look who was Student of the Month!!!

California Highlights

At the Scripps Aquarium.
At Mom's pool.


Hudson and Mia are ready to walk over to the park. I got Hudson these new sandals and he kept tripping in them and bloodying his knees. Poor kid.

Chocolate Soul Cake

Today was Brian's birthday and he asks for the same cake every year.

Chocolate Soul Cake

1 pkg Betty Crocker Choc Fudge Cake mix
1 sm box choc fudge instant pudding
4 eggs
2/3 c. oil
2/3 c. water
12 oz chocolate chips
1 pint sour cream

mix all ingredients and pour into bundt pan.
Bake at 350 for 1 hour.

Frosting

3 c powdered sugar
3/4 c cocoa
1/2 c butter
2 1/4 tsp vanilla
3-4 T milk

mix powdered sugar and cocoa. Add butter, vanilla and milk and mix until creamy.

Notes:

In my opinion this cake is best the day after, or refridgerated. If you eat it warm it just tastes like gooey chocolate cake. When it has a chance to set up, the pudding sets up a bit and the chocolate chips harden again. So delicious. I just make it the night before.

Also, when I went to frost it this morning, I saw we were out of cocoa. great. Since it was Sunday I just make some sour cream frosting and frosted it with that. Yummy!

Nothing runs like a Deere.

I was making a donation to the local thrift store when Hudson spied this beauty. There was no dissuading him from having it. It was listed at $39, but because I made a donation I got it for 20% off. It took a miracle (and by miracle I mean a lot of screaming, throwing his head back and general melee) for him to leave it so we could pay for it. I also had to drive to Brian's fire station and borrow his truck to pick it up. It needs a new battery and a windshield. New they are like $300, so it's still a deal. The best part is, Hudson doesn't really realize it's supposed to move, so he just plays on it, as is.

PS. that's a spilled soda on Hudson's pants. Toddlers sometimes (always) spill in the back of the car with their drink from Burger King.

Jack is painstakingly pushing Hudson around on the skateboard. So sweet.

Anne came here for a conference at BYU. Because Madison (my cousin) watched the kids for me, I was able to go in and hear her presentation. She was lovely and her advisor kept telling me how great she is. Alas, I already knew that.

Lastly, a comment about braces for all of you who have yet to experience your children having them. 8-9 year-old boys DO NOT KEEP THEM CLEAN. It's so gross. I'm so happy they're gone for now.

Shiny Teeth

Tristan has had his braces on for a little over a year.

Here is a "before" picture:First day of braces:

The dreaded EXPANDER

A couple more pictures before he gets them off:

Ta DA!!!!

Somehow he could not seem to smile normally AND keep his eyes open. I have plenty of weird smiles with eyes open and good smiles with eyes closed.

He gets his retainer on Thursday and has to get braces again in 2 years to correct his over-bite. We have to wait for a few more permanent teeth to grow in first.

P.S.

I broke my toe two weeks ago. Gross, huh?

He's Handy

We've been working on our basement for over a year. Lucky for me Brian's handy. Here are some before and afters of the progress.





Before














After. Brian framed in the walls and has framed in for a fireplace. He wired the 6 can lights you see.


This is also his work area, so excuse the mess.










Before. The far area on the left will be the spare bedroom. On the right will be my office/craft room.












After.









Before. We did this part last spring to make a bedroom for Coleman. The door in the photo is a cold storage area. The room on the left of the hallway is just storage. It's where the water heater and furnace are. The room on the right is Coleman's.





After.











Before:

This is going to be the bathroom. The black box and pipe on the right are the shower drain and toilet sewer pipe. Notice how close they are together. We had to pay to have someone break out the concrete and move the toilet.







After. Almost done! Brian's done all the framing, wiring and tiling. We have the vanity, but it's not in yet because of the tile.

"Hudson- Let mommy take your picture..."

Hold still...

Get back here... stop running away


Stop trying to grab the camera
Stop trying to hit me with that metal thing

Maybe I should hire a professional