Thanksgiving

This year all of Darryl's brothers and sisters were home for Thanksgiving. We slept at my parent's house to ease a little of the crowdedness at night. We went down Wednesday and helped Marcia with a some food preparations then went over to my parent's house for the evening. On Thursday we got up and went to the Bosshardts all day. The crowd was Marcia's family and her brother Clair's family. It was quite the large crowd which was fun. It was especially nice to have all of Darryl's siblings together again. Friday we took a new family picture with all the Bosshardts then spent the afternoon helping my mom set up her Christmas decorations outside. Of course there was a few good shooting hours left in the day that needed to be taken advantage of so Darryl and Kelby went shooting. Everyone else was taking a nap, or buying a car. Wendy, Marcia, and I ran over to Richfield to do a little shopping while the kids played with the cousins. That night we played some games, although Darryl wasn't feeling great. He'd messed up his back/shoulder rolling around with Clint. Saturday we spent the morning with my folks and then they headed up to the BYU vs Utah game so we headed to Redmond. The game was exciting-- especially in a "house divided." We stopped in to see Jori's new baby Carver. He's so little and sweet. It made me realize how rusty I am with newborn babies. Sunday we went to sacrament meeting with my folks and then headed back to Heber. My folks had dinner at Buzz's with Wayne and Buzz's father-in-law.

There was a lot of rocking out with Guitar Hero, planting and harvesting "sucker seeds" (colored sprinkles), playing with cousins, and dusting Grandma's house(Clint came in once with an extremely dirty duster and said, "Grandma it's really dirty under your fridge." Looking at her like don't you clean under there often?)

Simple Toys

We got a dresser for the boys room this week and the boys have had a blast with the cardboard edge protector pieces. Kade saw the pieces and started creating something. I let him be with his work and when he was finished he put his hands on his hips and said, "Now lets test her out." He asked for some marbles but I remembered we had some steely marbles that would work even better so he was excited when I pulled them out. So all week this is what the boys have been up to from morning(as you can see) to night.

Polar Express 2009

Well the Polar Express is always a hit with our boys. Clint was so excited to see Santa but he didn't seem so sure once the Jolly man appeared out the window. The picture of him with his hand out shows his reaction. For about 5 minutes straight he had that same glazed look on his face and just kept waving. He did tell the elves though that he wanted a Santa to bring him a jelly gun(If you've ever seen the old Rudolph, Frosty, and Santa movies there is a song on one of them about misfit toys and there is a gun that shoots jelly-- so that is what Clint has decided is what he really wants-- Great!) Kade has decided he wants a Wii. Ummm ya. . .
The boys loved ringing their bells, as always. Clint also enjoyed snuggling with Darryl. They both were pretty worn out guys. Darryl had spent the day working on a huge tree job with Kirk. Kade loved the cookies too. He was so glad they gave us a recipe so we could make them at our house. Unfortunately there was hardly any snow around this year but most didn't seem to mind or notice. It was great to go all together. Now we've got the Christmas bug and we haven't even hit Thanksgiving! Oh well it's worth it to be able to go for free. Darryl is a reader on the train so the first night, the dress rehearsal night, they let all the families of those who help with the Polar Express go for free-- such a great perk!

Nap Time

I checked on the boys today during their nap and had to grab the camera because I could see both their sweet faces. My boys love sleep-- I know how lucky I am to have at least an hour and a half every day to tackle a project or two while they're asleep. I really hope this new little guy feels the same way as the other two about sleep.

Totally Wicked!!!

I'm always a little nervous about what Kade will say next in Primary; He doesn't seem to hold back anything. A few weeks ago one of the Primary teachers asked me if I'd heard Kade's latest, "Oh no, what did he do?" She said Bishop was in talking to the kids and when he was done he started leaving the room and Kade shouts, "You're totally wicked!!!" Our sweet bishop is about 78 years-old and had a confused look on his face so one of the ladies explained that means you're really cool. I guess Kade has seen the Incredibles one too many times.

Gotta Love Sunbeams!

The other day Kade had mentioned that if we're feeling angry we can just sing to ourselves. What a cute thought. It was Sunday and it seemed like something they probably talked about in Sunbeams-- I love primary.
The Application: Kade and I are in the bathroom today; He's sitting on the toilet, and I'm getting ready. He's singing and rambling on like he usually does while he's there and then he says to me so sincerely, "Oh! I'm starting to feel a little angry I better sing to myself. Heavenly Father, are you really there? Do you hear and answer every child's prayer? Some say. . ." I smiled and told him that was a great idea. I love this little guy. Now we just need to work on doing that when were playing with others and we feel angry.

Random Day

I'm wanting to write more about just average day-to-day events, so here is an average day with a few twists. After I taught my class this morning I picked up the boys from the Spencers then took them home to get a quick snack. Then we headed down to Orem/Provo to "get out" and do something fun with Wendy, Abby, & Baby James(will I ever be able to call him James?). We went to the Orem city park and the kids played and played. They had a great time but hunger set in and so it was off to the greatest "Happy-Meal Place"(that's what the boys call McDonalds) I've ever been in. It was the nicest looking, cleanest, and had the coolest playland. There was a slide that was a piano so when the kids would slide down it plays the keys--so cool. Well we were just packing up to leave and Wendy's water bottle spilled; No biggie but she had to go get someone to mop up the water. Then we're putting on the kids shoes and Kade starts out the Emergency Exit. The alarms sound and I'm trying to get Clint's shoe on before he falls off the bench and so Wendy goes to get someone again. Meanwhile a lady goes over and pulls on the door and the alarm stops. Nice. We went different directions from here. I ran with the boys to KMart, then headed to Walmart. It is about 3 PM and my boys are SO tired they can hardly keep their eyes open. As I'm driving to WalMart I just happen to look in my mirror and see Clint completely freaking out. He was doing the mouth open silent scream/cry and thrashing back and forth. WHAT!?. I tried to talk to him. He just kept saying he wanted his Dad. Kade, meanwhile is setting next to him completely asleep and oblivious to the drama. Clint is crying so hard he's coughing and throwing up. I'm trying to settle him down but he just wouldn't calm down. Finally we arrived at Walmart and I climbed in the back with him and talked to him. He calmed down and started drifting off while I'm talking to him. He was so tuckered out poor little guy. I didn't want to make another trip to Walmart and he said he felt better so I cleaned up the throw up and threw his clothes and blankie into one of the bags from Kmart put his jacket on him and we headed into Walmart. Both the boys were great. We did have a 15+ minute intermission to our shopping. Kade had to go #2-- so I baracaded all of us in the family bathroom. Where Clint and I kept asking Kade, "Are you done?" With that taken care of I grabbed every thing I needed and we headed home with a stop at the Bombay House to pickup a special surprise for Darryl for dinner. Clint and Kade slept the second we left Walmart until we arrived in Heber. They were both so glad to be able to sleep. I was just happy that Clint's little episode wasn't illness related. I really didn't want to deal with a flu bug(but when would I ever want to?--Never). Once we were home we ate some Chicken Tiki Masala, Chicken Saag, and Garlic Naan quickly with Darryl and then he rushed out to scouts. The boys took a bath, and then helped me clean up the house and put away all of the items we bought. Then it was off to bed for my two sleepy heads. Darryl and I watched a movie-- of course I was grading papers as I watched. Then it was off to bed for us.

Yo-Yo Fighting

The boys got Chinese Yo-Yos at the trunk-or-treat fish pond this year. They've had so much fun with them. Yesterday they started flapping them around at each other-- kind of looks like rhythmic ribbons but different. Today I had to laugh when I saw them playing; They were both covering their eyes as they fought. I guess they finally got sick of getting hit in the face and so they were attempting to cover(of course stopping wouldn't be an option, they're having too much fun.) As you can see in the photos half the time they weren't even getting each other because they couldn't see where they were going. It was quite the bit of comedy relief for me. I love these guys so much. You'll have to click on the pictures to get a better look at the footage.

The GREAT PUMPKIN

We adopted a new tradition this year: The GREAT PUMPKIN. Darryl heard about this last year from a guy at work and we thought we'd try it with our kids. Halloween night the kids can go through their candy and pick out a few pieces to keep, then leave the rest of the candy on the porch as an offering to the GREAT PUMPKIN. The great pumpkin takes the candy and leaves a surprise. After last year and the constant fight over candy every half hour I was SO ready to get the candy gone(well at least in the boys mind ;0 ). So we asked the boys if they wanted to give their candy to the Great Pumpkin and boy were they excited--especially Kade(but when is he not excited). As we were trick-or-treating Kade kept saying, "Wahoo! We're getting so much candy for the Great Pumpkin!" I thought he was excited about the candy for himself, but then it all made sense when we were letting them pick out a few of their favorites and Kade turned us down because he said he wanted to the Great Pumpkin to leave him something super great. We put the candy on the porch and in the morning sure enough, the bags were empty and there was a Burger Maker Playdough set. The boys had a blast making burgers, fries, and chips all afternoon. The greatest thing is we haven't had to fight about candy ALL day like last year. I'm a fan of the Great Pumpkin.


Picture side note: I think it's so funny that they both have their mouths open. The whole time they're working there is commentary, sound effects, or songs.