Shark Attack!

Part of the fun of having an 8-year old boy is getting to do this-

We haven't had to make one of the infamous pinewood derby cars until now. I know I said "we" but honestly we all know the dads have to help. It's one thing to give the boys a boat kit for the raingutter regatta and to tell them to put it together. All they have to do is slap some paint on it and stick the sail in. Clay did that one in June and it was a piece of cake (google raingutter regatta for exact instructions on how to make the extra fast pontoon boat, Clay did the regular one).

For the cars they give a bunch of 8 to 10 year-old boys a block of wood and tell them to make it into something that meets stringent size and weight restrictions but it must also be as aerodynamic as a jet plane. Of course the dads have to work the power tools, but it is amazing how many of the cars look like they have been built by rocket scientists!

We gave Clay an outline of the block and told him to draw the profile. He of course drew the outline of a horn shark (I didn't even know there was such thing as a horn shark) which was practically to scale, complicated fins and all. We had to have him simplify it for the sake of those of us who do not plan on having a career in marine biology and especially for Mike's sake when cutting it out. Clay then helped sand it and painted it a nice shark gray. He decorated it by painting shark teeth on the top and eyes, gills and an open mouth on the front. It may not have been the fastest or the shiniest (and it wasn't even the slowest!!), but I doubt there were many other cars there that had more kid time put in it than dad time.

Clay had a great time, which is what really counts!
I'm just glad they only do this once a year!

Ninjas, Sharks, & Cowgirls- Oh my!

I hope you all had a very happy Halloween!! I can't believe how busy a holiday can be that consists of dressing up and giving/getting candy. It wears me out more than Christmas. This year I was not finishing up costumes while the kids ate breakfast, trying to be done in time for them to wear their costumes to school. I did that the night before.
The school parade was fun. Well, for most of us...

After the school parade & parties, finishing carving pumpkins, visiting grandparents, eating jack-0-lantern shaped pizza, and an hour and a half of door-to-door neighborhood trick-or-treating (that was a lot of hyphenated words!), we were ready to go to bed. :)

See you next year!

Getting "bigger"

This week we made the switch from this-

to this-

Eliza is so excited to be sleeping on her "big girl" bed.
The first time she slept on it was for a nap which she thought was fun. She had already had a couple of naps on her brother's bed so it was fun to try out her own bed.
The first night I tried to get her to sleep on her new bed she said "I want to sleep in my crib".
Now she's doing better. Sometimes though, I think she is sleeping and she has really been in there playing quietly. I guess as long as she gets some quiet rest time we can both be happy.

The next step will be the potty training. I am really looking forward that being over with, definitely not looking forward to the effort it takes to make it happen.

Success!!!

The moose hunt has had a very successful outcome!

The most amazing thing of all is Mike got this with his bow. Yes, that's right his bow.
The area he was hunting in doesn't allow the use of rifles or
even muzzleloaders, so his bow was the only option.
More news later!!!

Fall ahead

Summer ended, school started, the weather turned cooler (finally!!), soccer took over, and now we have spent the last week chasing these...


It seems that when you are just out for a leisurely drive up the canyon you will see a moose here or there. Well, they are much harder to find when you are looking for them. Still, we have all had fun going on drives through areas we've never seen before, enjoying the fall scenery and great weather. Fall has always been my favorite season and it never seems to last long enough. I've been wearing my long sleeve shirts and recently was eying my sweaters, but it's not quite that cold yet.

This happened this week:













He was soooo excited! I had just said he should let Mike pull it out, but he would hear nothing of it. So, a minute later he shouted "look!!". He had taken a bite out of his apple and he thought he had apple stuck in his tooth. He tried to pull the apple out of his tooth but pulled the tooth out instead. Eliza now has more teeth than Tyler! The tooth fairy visited and we now have to wait for someone to get another wiggly tooth. It just better be one of the boys!

Tomorrow we will be up early moose hunting again since the boys are still off for fall break. The next time I post a moose picture it will be the one Mike got!!

Past time

When I wrote that last post I really had every intention of writing every week. Mentally, I must of meant every month. So, here are some pics of celebrations I could have blogged about.

So far Summer has been good to us, and we've had good times to keep us busy and a few down days to do nothing. Here are a couple examples:

We have had several other good days that I didn't even bother to take pictures of. I will have to beg them off Grandma and/or other participants of the day.

So, until next month, remember this- take lots of pictures, post them to your blog, write often in your blog (yes, this means you), and then call me. Otherwise you won't know anything about us!

The official start of summer

Today starts the first whole week of no school. The other day I counted on the calendar and there are only 11 full weeks of summer break. I think summer break was longer when I was a kid. I remember at first being so happy to be out of school, then I remember being bored. Now when I hear "I'm bored" I get to be the one to say "If you need something to do I can give you a job". I guess it's a mom thing.

Today is also the start of swimming lessons. All I can say is it's about time! The boys should have started lessons at least two years ago, but we never really go swimming enough for them to have needed them. I would like to go swimming a lot this summer so I think this will be a good start.

On the blogging front, last month was pathetic. I don't think two entries even counts as blogging. I'm hoping for at least once a week this month with twice being even better. It's fun to look up someone's blog and see a new entry and find out what they are up to or what they think. Well, at least that's what I think about your blogs! :)

Enjoy your summer!

Anybody home?

This morning I realized it has been almost 3 weeks since I last posted. How boring of a blogger am I?! There are things I could say, but for each of those there are about 63 things I really should be doing.

So, I am off to do a "should". Maybe I can come back later and play!

You're Invited!

... TO A FUN PARTY!

For: Eliza

When: Saturday

Time: Noonish

Place: Grandma's

I can't believe Eliza is turning 2!!! She is getting so big and growing so fast. The talking is really kicking in and can be non-stop! :) She is my little friend when the boys are at school and keeps me busy with all her exploring! Right now Eliza loves the movies Cars and Finding Nemo, eating marshmallows & fruit snacks, rubbing my chapstick all over her cheeks, and of course she still loves her blanket.

Eliza... WE LOVE YOU!!!

happy birthday!!

Badonkadonk be gone!

(And all extra space too!)

Last night we were able to get this all set up in our room- lucky for me my husband can put anything together (Thank You!). By the time we finished it was too late to do more than give it a quick spin, so this morning I got on for a real test run. It kicked my butt in only 10 minutes! I've been walking three miles in the morning (Thanks Arleen!) and this was tough! Hmm, now I can aspire to actually run one of the built-in programs and make it all the way through... someday.
Time to get ready for soccer games and enjoy a beautiful sunny day!

The blur

I wonder just how often I will actually be able to post pictures. My camera is getting worse by the week. We go somewhere fun and more often then not this is what we get

Eliza learned a new skill while at the museum...

now I have to hide all the scissors. :)

My favorite fast-food order

I think you've all heard me talk about the Subway commercial. Well, here it is (don't forget to turn on your speakers first). To be honest, the last Subway sandwich I had wasn't very good... but, I love the commercial! Enjoy!

Testing... testing...

The inevitable post. The test to see if I can be smarter than that big plastic box we spend so much time in front of. No, not the TV... the other one. I almost wonder why I am starting this when there is already so much out there to explore. Am I just creating a time waster? Time to figure out the balance between real life and whatever you would call this.

This is what we did Saturday. After the boys' soccer games
(Clay scored a goal!!!)
we decided to go fishing at Strawberry. We were definitely fishing, not catching, but the exploring was great! On the way home we stopped for ice cream to celebrate the goal.
Kids grow up so fast! I suppose this is my attempt to capture little bits of our life before this part is gone!
Well, time to push publish and see if this works! Wish me luck!