Brinlee's Art

Brinlee brought home this drawing Sunday after church. When I first looked at it I asked her what it was a picture of. Then she said "Joseph Smith." I looked again and was so amazed at what she had drawn. Can you tell?

The cute things kids say

This morning while snuggling with Spencer and Brinlee in bed I said, "What do you want to do for fun today?" Spencer replied "Christmas" with a big smile on his face. It was so cute.
Spencer has also been very sick the past few days and up at night coughing and crying. One night when I went in to help him, and while talking to him and asking what I could do to help him he said, "Let's say a prayer that the angels will protect me." The profound things kids say.
Brinlee has been taking a Spanish class in her preschool and it amazes me how much she has learned and remembers. She only knows some words but the words that she knows she make sure to say in Spanish. She is constantly correcting me when I say these words in English and making sure I know them in Spanish.
Budd likes to tell stories to the kids and he has started to let the kids make up their own. It is fun to hear what they come up with.

Tree House Museam

We have gone to the Tree House Museum a couple times with the kids recently. It is a great children's museum in Ogden with all kinds of learning activities. They have art projects, a music room, a castle room, and rooms from many different countries where they can play and interact with everything. We enjoy it so much that we decided to get a year membership so we can go more often. Here are some fun pictures of the kids playing there.

Spencer turns 3

Happy Birthday Spencer. Somehow I forgot to put up pictures of Spencer's birthday . I guess the screw swallowing distracted me. We had a fun party with my brothers and their families. I cannot believe he is 3 already. He finally decided to be potty trained one day and now does it all by himself and never wants my help. He loves to dress him self now and changes outfits 5 or more times a day. I thought only girls do that. But I guess he is finding joy in being able to dress himself. He is really growing up and such a happy kid. We sure love him.

A visit to St George

A couple of weeks ago we headed to St George to visit my parents and the "Sun". My brother Garrett and his family came too. It was a fun 3 day weekend, as we were able to go biking and hiking and get some great sales at the outlets. We were also able to go on a date to Mongolian BBQ and then to the musical, " Singing in the rain." We had a lot of fun. The funnest part was being able to go hiking with the kids in the red rock. We went on a couple hikes that were about a mile long each and the kids were great troopers. They really had a lot of fun exploring and throwing rocks. It is so fun now that they can go with us. Budd and I were also able to go on our favorite bike ride down there that has a lot of downhills and jumps. It was a nice little break from everyday life.

What to do with little boys?

So last week while I was planning Art lessons Spencer was behind me on the floor playing when all the sudden I heard him choking. I turned around and starting getting scared to death and was ready to give him the him lick, when he swallowed whatever he was chocking on. I asked him what it was and he said "that pointy, shiny thing." "What pointy shiny thing?" I asked. He couldn't explain it to me and I was worried about it but wasn't sure what to do, so when Budd got home I told him about it and he got Spencer to show us where he got it and what it was. Spencer proceeded to climb up on the arm of the couch and reach up to the fireplace mantle into a piece of pottery and he pulled out a screw, and not just any screw, a wood screw with a point on the end. "What? You ate that?" I couldn't believe it and we really got worried. I mean how does a kid even think about sucking on a pointy screw, and how did he even find it. Kids have amazing exploratory minds, especially our Spence. We must have dropped the screws in there after hanging something up in the house. So we called our brother in law who is a Doctor and he said we should take him in for an X-ray the next morning, since it was already around 9:30 at night. So we took him in the next morning and TA DA......... this is what we found

That thing is huge, was our first thought, then the doctor said that he was talking to Primary Children's hospital which is the major children's hospital around here. They said because the screw was pointed they were worried about it, so we might have to take him in for immediate surgery. Then the doctor left, and we were kind of freaking out by this time. Then the doctor came back a few minutes later and said, "well, since it is already in the small intestines we don't dare do surgery because it is too risky, so you just need to watch him closely and if he shows any pain, rush immediately to Primary Children's, and then they sent us home. Crazy! So for the next two days we watched Spencer every second and even made him sleep in our room. We kept asking if he was ok, and fed him a lot of fiber. Then finally two days later, on Saturday morning, he finally went #2, and he told me, so of course I yelled, "Don't flush" then I ran in there with my handy big spoon to dish it out and sure enough there it was, a pointy screw that was a inch and a half long. Wow, I don't know how that thing got through his little body, but we sure feel blessed that it all went well and that he is ok. He continues to get into things every day so I have realized that I have to keep an eye on this boy.

Snow Fun

We have had a lot of snow this winter, and instead of not liking it, we have decided to enjoy it. We have a lot of fun. We got both of the kids complete snow gear so they have loved playing in the snow too. We have had fun sledding and Budd and I have had fun Snowboarding. We went up Fairview canyon on New Years Day and Budd started to teach me how to board. I started to catch on, so now I just need more practice. I love winter when we can have fun in the beautiful snow.




Here is our backyard this winter. It is beautiful to see the snow on the trees.