Summer math problem.

some sun + some clouds + deck pool + begging child = 1 mom carrying 15 buckets of hot tap water out to warm up the colddd hose water filled pool.

The result... 2 hours of perfection!!!

I love summer,

With children!



"Fox, can I take the boys fishing?"

Hm, can the boys go fishing??

Twist my arm...

ok!

The spoils from the first "spring?" fishing trip:

Rulon thought his albino trout was cool.

But not as cool as the normal looking one.

Mads did NOT think his albino catch was cool, definitely creepy.

Mads had the moster catch of the day with his Lightening McQueen fishing pole, Take THAT!!

Nothing warms a mom's heart like happy boys!

Look out fish... the boys are warming up!!

Need your car towed?

We've got just the guy for the job.

Red Rock A-maze-ing!

Chester took the boys on a little outing to explore the red rock mazes so the boys could try out their new binoculars. Safe to say they had a fun time!

Rulon really loves the red color of the mountains and dirt in St. George, he watches for the first hint of red on the drive down from Orem and alrerts me to the fact that we are geting closer as he sees the color changing from brown to red. This time there had been so much rain that the earth was a much darker color than he was used to. As we got closer to St. George I could not believe Rulon had not informed me that we were getting close. No sooner had I dismissed this thought than Rulon asked, "Mom, what's wrong with St. George? It's all wrong." Had to smile at that!

White Stuff

It seems as though my last post was a bit one sided, that is boy sided, so here are the pretties of the family!! Birdie and I stay nice and toasty warm together in the house while the boys teach the snow a lesson outside.  Seriously... they teach the snow serious lessons.

Lesson 1:

Utah snow will become Canadian if it wants to stay in our yard.

Lesson 2:

Why is Chester in shorts? Ok, not a lesson but whatever.

AND Lesson 3:

If snow dares to fall in our yard it will get "falled right back on" by 2 boys.

Faller Jr.

Faller Less Jr.

When the snow teaches the boys a lesson, like hey it's really cold and wet out here... the boys head indoors to do some hunting, mostly birds and small game. Occasionally a spider or ghost - but they are more elusive than you might think.  Full gear is always necessary, hydration as well, but that goes without saying.

I've warned them a time or two about Santa lurking about... heads up Mads.

Game face? check.

Where have we been?

I cannot believe how LONG it's been since I posted something, ANYTHING!!!

So here goes everything.

In the last month...

Chester tried really hard to break his ankle but only succeeded in almost breaking it.

Better luck next time babe! This was before it got all swollen, seriously.

What better place to recover than at home in Raymond?!?!

It was like having his ankle on ice 24 hours a day!!

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, who goes out in that kind of weather?

The men go out in that kind of weather! They did some hunting...

 IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE!! How nice, Steph is giving that poor hurt deer a sled ride!

 They went to a football game...

 Good grief, what a buch of crazies.  I love them ALL!!

Chester had the best trip ever, he was spoiled rotton and got to hug and kiss his momma and tell her how much we miss her.  He was so sad to leave that he told me he had to hug his mom extra long to hide the tears filling up his eyes when it was time to go.  We love Mona and Gord so much.  The boys were super sad they did not get to go to Raymond with their dad!

A few days later it was time to celebrate thanksgiving.  Mads was thankful for his food, his bed, his body and Heavenly Father and Jesus.  Rulon was thankful for his family, his sister little Birdie (he mentioned her specifically), and for pilgrims... and food.

Lets see... Then it snowed a bunch! The boys were bouncing off the walls to go out and drive their vehicles in the snow like the "ice road truckers" we watch on TV.

 Mads was packing snow in to the back of his mini coup and then eating it... like packing a lunch, right?

 Chester got an early christmas present... and Mads tried them out.

Ta Da!!

 I have done a few things with the boys to raise my "cool mom points."  The boys have been on a pirates kick lately so we made telescopes in one afternoon (papertowel rolls, tissue paper, mod podge), and treasure boxes just today... I think I was the "best mom ever" for like 5 whole minutes!!!

 When we make things two things are sure to happen: Rulon will get a bit frustrated that his project is not as perfect as he wanted it to be (uh huh, I  know it's my fault, genetically speaking) and Mads will get more paint, glue, water, dough... on himself than on the project.  Either way, they have fun and I love watching them be themselves!!! 

At the end of each day I wish I could have half the energy of my little Madser... he is determined NOT to stay in his bed.  I suppose sneaking out of his room for the 10(hundredth)th time and finally falling asleep in the living room fort is not the worst thing in the world.

I am so in love with my family, how blessed I am.

Fire Department Open House!

(the spacing on this post is crazy, so it's staying crazy and I'm not fixing it or I'll go crazy.)

Thanks to a friend we became aware of a completely awesome and totally free family "field trip" opportunity. We spent a little of our evening at our local fire station. They offered demonstrations and hands on learning activities for everyone.

Rulon's favorite was the "smokey escape", a demo on how to feel for heat behind a door and how to crawl through a smokey area to safety.

.

The kids got to go inside an ambulance and see the kinds of things that are used to help save lives on the way to the hospital

Rulon was eager to try CPR since he wants to be a paramedic when he grows up, "but not the kind that rides in
an ambulance, the kind that DRIVES the ambulance".

The coolest thing for Mads was getting to spray the fire hose, look at his super excited little face, priceless!

There was also an extrication demo where they actually showed how they cut the doors and roofs off of wrecked cars in order to get people out of the vehicle!

I picked up my friend Taunya's kids so they could see the cool stuff with us. They were just hanging out at home while Taunya was a parent teacher conf., so it was great for them and for me... they helped me keep track of Mads :)

It was fun to take pictures on the bumpers of the big emergency vehicles, the kids loved it.

I loved that my boys looked small again wearing the big Fire Fighter's coats. Mads wanted to leave his on, I probably should have let him, it would have slowed him down a bit!

There was a big fire fighting demonstration! It was amazingly HOT even from our safe distance!! The boys backed up super quickly and were astonished at the heat! They followed up this fire hose demo with the big huge water cannon from atop the fire truck ladder. Soooo cooool!

Mina was a good sport strapped to me in the baby bjorn, she only cried once, when Mads shrieked with excitement at manning the fire hose!

New Scooters

Ok, so everyone in the neighborhood has razor scooters, seriously, all the kids.  Well, when Rulon came asking (begging) for a scooter of his own, we said no.  Then a few days later after several homework melt downs we decided to try something big to help Rulon feel motivated to work through his homework frustrations, plus Walmart had scooters on "roll back" (sale).  He is only in Kindergarten but he takes his homework sooo seriously (where does he get THAT from?) At the slightest imperfection he freaks out and wants to throw his paper and pencil on the floor and cries...

So, Rulon wrote a goal on a 3x5 card: "1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Scooter"

Translation: Do homework 5 times without getting angry and quitting to earn a scooter.

Getting frustrated was ok, but no tantrums, just ask for help, take a breather and get it done, also no erasing the imperfect letters, just do the next one more carefully.  FYI he only has homework twice a week so 5 homeworks takes 2 1/2 weeks to accomplish if all goes well, a pretty long time for a 5 year old.  BOY was he excited when he had homework to do, he was ultra patient with each assignment, a few frustrations but a good attitude about it. He never complained about days passing slowly or it taking too long to get 5 chances to earn his scooter, just plain happiness.  So, this week he crossed off #5 on his "scooter card" and we have been scootering every day since!! Mads earned his scooter by leaving Rulon alone while doing his homework.  Mads and I had reading time together to keep him occupied.

Good thing we have had such beautiful days even in late September, I think they will still want to scoot in the snow....

 Mina is a good sport, she chills and "watches" her brothers with her eyes closed, as in sleeping.