Visitors From a Friendly Planet

Penny, Wendy, Gizmo, and Todd all came for a visit to help us celebrate Jenny's birthday. We all had a lot of fun and even got out of having to do school a few days!While they were here, we got to visit the pumpkin patch, play in the backyard, go to several parks, and make two trips to the airport (always a hit with the kids). It was hard to see them leave, but comforting to know we'll see them again in just two months.

Moving to Provo

It's been a little over a week since our exodus to Provo, and we can proudly say that the boxes are out of the house and the car is getting parked in the garage! The kids love the backyard and spend every day on the trampoline and the swing set (sometimes "day" begins at 6:30 am for them!). They've invented two new games on the tramp, one is called "Poison Bowl" where they place a cereal bowl (plastic) on the tramp and then jump all around trying not to let the bowl hit them. If you get hit, you have to sit down on the tramp until someone else gets hit and takes your place. The other is like "egg" except that rather than curling up into a ball while everyone else jumps around trying to crack the egg, the person sits on a small chair and tries not to get jumped off the chair. It's pretty funny to watch!

4th of July Weekend

We had a blast this 4th of July. We went camping at Taylor Park, watched the aprade in Mill City, got to dunk Uncle Jared in the dunk tank, went swimming at Little North Fork, and then went back to Mill City for fireworks to finish out the day. The kids really enjoyed the water and none of them cried during the fireworks display this year (a first for us).

It was a bitter sweet weekend knowing that we won't be around next year because we'll be in Utah, but we look forward to doing it all again in a few years!

Hike to Shelberg Falls

We celebrated the Sabbath over 4th of July weekend with a hike to Shelberg Falls. I think it ended up being about an hour and a half hike in, most of it on a well-maintained gravel road, but the kids all agreed it was well worth it. We stopped and looked at caterpillars and butterflies all along the way. Jenny had the kids convinced that a crazed cow was going to come charging out of the trees at us at any moment (silly Mommy), but fortunately we were able to complete the hike without any heffer-human confrontations.

The falls were beautiful and Jared got all the boys to take a cold shower under the falls. Chris ended up jumping in the water and got both Matthew and Isaac to join him for a few minutes each. We took the opportunity to teach the kids that sometimes the things that are hardest in life are the things that end up being the most worth while. I think they all got the message, at least they where all doing the bobble-head thing...

What happened to June? and May? and April??

OK, so there's no way it's been over 4 months since I last posted...or has it?

So much has happened since the Masked Offenders, but I'll just get to today as quickly as possible:

Had a baby, got accepted to grad school, found a house to rent in Provo. I think that's it.

We're excited for our upcoming 4th of July weekend especially with Jared and Krystal visiting for the week. I'll include a photo of the house we'll be renting in Provo. It should be plenty big enough for us, and the kids are thrilled about the in-ground trampoline and the swimming pool in the back yard. It will be nice to have a little more space for them to play, not to mention the extra time Jenny will have to spend with them once she's not working.

I'll try to post again, sometime before next quarter!

The Masked Offenders Attack!

What do you get when you combine a lazy Sunday afternoon and an endless supply of masking tape? Masking Tape Masks, of course! Now that we have church from 9-12 instead of 11-2 we have a lot more afternoon than we're used to. No, I didn't go to choir and no, I din't have all my home teaching done yet; it just seemed like the perfect day to wrap my kids heads in tape.

The whole thing was really Jenny's doing. As the kids were finishing up their lunch, she suggested making some paper mache figures with Nathaniel and Matthew while she and the younger two laid down for a nap. They headed up to bed I looked online at a few paper mache websites and decided on a recipe: 1 part flour to 5 parts water, boil for 3 minutes, add some salt to increase shelf-life and then just a pinch of cinnamon to cover up the bad smell...no problem. As soon as the concoction started boiling I began wondering just how I was going to keep this sticky gooey mess off the carpet in our dining area. I must have gone on wondering too long and not stirred enough because before I knew it the flour had all clumped together and scorched the bottom of the pan. The entire mess quickly found its way to the sink and in my mind I literally thought (and I'm not even a little ashamed to admit this): home-make mache = broke = need to fix = DUCK TAPE!
I knew I didn't have enough duck tape, but I always have plenty of 2" masking tape we use for painting the town houses. So I first convinced Matthew (much more trusting that Nathaniel) to sit in the high chair while I formed two pieces of tin foil over his entire head and then began running strips of tape every which way. After a few minutes, Matthew informed me that he couldn't breathe. No problem. I just took a little painting brush and poked some nostril holes for him. I was going to give him some eye holes too, but after he complained that I'd jabbed the end of the paintbrush a little too far up his second nostril I decided against the idea. Once his entire head was mummy-wrapped, I took the scissors and made two cuts along the back and pulled the mask off. A few eye holes, a mouth, a little paint and walla! It was about then that I looked over at the scissors and noticed a few strands of curly blond hair, which I of course quickly wiped off before Jenny came back downstairs from her nap.

Not to be outdone, Nathaniel sat up in the chair next and earned himself his own mask. I say "earned" because, based upon all of his complaining, the tin foil was pretty pokey and I'm sure it was difficult to breath even with two nostril holes. Matthew also decided it would be fun to start jabbing Nathaniel's bum with a broken toothpick (once I had his entire head wrapped and he was sitting defenseless -of course). I joined in the fun and went silent, making Nathaniel think I had left the room and that Matthew was really going to have his way with him. After a few seconds of pure panic I spoke up, partly becasue I felt bad but mostly to keep Nathaniel from tearing the mask off in a frustrated tissy and thereby rendering it useless.

It's been about 6 hours sinse we finished our project; the masks are still in good working condition and I'm still laughing at the pictures we took. I guess the only thing keeping this afternoon from going down as a complte success is me being able to convince Jenny that the scorched pan in the sink is all hers tonight.

Seeing Things a Little More Clearly Now...

Nathaniel finally got his glasses!

The eye clinic called Friday morning after the kids had left for school and told us that Nathaniel's glasses had come in. Excited, we swung by and picked them up as we were out running errands so as to have them for Nathaniel when he got home. "Nathaniel, guess what came today," Matthew teased as Nathaniel came in the door. A huge grin spread across his face. He knew exactly what Matthew was talking about.

I wrote several words on our little chalkboard using larger letters along the bottom and smaller letters in the words towards the top and then had Nathaniel stand back about 10 feet and read the words to me. He could read the bottom 3 words, but by the time he reached the 4th word the letters were too small for him to read. It was then that I placed his new specs upon the bridge of his nose. "Dad, these really help!" he exclaimed!

The doctor told him he only needed to wear them while at school and that whether or not he wanted to use them at home would be up to him. So we bought him a hard case to keep them in while they were at home. The case hasn't been used yet as he hasn't taken his glasses off except to go to sleep! WE think he likes them.