What?!?! SNOW!?!?

On March 29, 2009 we got 3 more inches of snow. Just when we thought spring was here to stay and we could start playing out in the yard without a coat (refer to earlier pictures of Isaac) it snows. Over the last two weeks we have had cold snaps that cause it to snow INCHES at a time. The next day it melts. This has happened a few times recently. We all love the snow but come on already pick one or the other not both.

All About My Dad (by Cosette)

1. What is something dad always says to you? Wait.
2. What makes dad happy?
By doing stuff right…what’s right is something that’s helpful like obeying
3. What makes dad sad?
By doing stuff bad…like doing stuff that’s not right…like hitting and throwing a fit and hitting.
4. How does your dad make you laugh?
By doing stuff that’s funny like tickling me. And I tickle daddy, hee hee
5. What was your dad like as a child?
Letting kids be happy
6. How old is your dad? Is he 14 maybe?
7. How tall is your dad? Very tall, tall, tall, tall, tall
8. What is his favorite thing to watch on TV?Basketball!!
9. What does your dad do when you're not around?watch the boys
10. If your dad becomes famous, what will it be for?
doing stuff that’s right.
11. What is your dad really good at?
Making big airplanes and doing his own airplanes
12. What is your dad not very good at?
He’s not good at that…he is the famous dad in the whole wide world…
13. What does your dad do for his job?Go to work…(when he’s there, what does he do?) Work and get money
14. What is your dad's favorite food?soup
15. What makes you proud of your dad?by being happy that my dad is going to be happy that I like him I hug him and I give him kisses when he goes bye-bye
16. If your dad were a cartoon character, who would he be?Super Why because he’s a boy
17. What do you and your dad do together?Make my playhouse and paint it
18. How are you and your dad the same?By being 4
19. How are you and your dad different?Being tall and being a little bit taller
20. How do you know your dad loves you?By giving hugs and kisses
21. What does your dad like most about your mom?by hugging and kissing
22. Where is your dad's favorite place to go?To work.

And the snow is back again...

Ethan was so worked up about getting outside, he put his shoes on backwards, literally.

What to do when the snow's gone...

The snow had been melting for a while, we'd been getting nice days at 55 - 65 degrees. We only had a small patch of snow left in the middle of our yard. The kids were having a great time digging in the mud and playing in the dead grass. This is the new past time Isaac took up Saturday, March 21:

The only sad thing was it snowed 4 inches overnight on Sunday, March 22...so all the grass is gone.

What do you know about me...

Typically I don't like doing the tag questions, but since this one involved an interview with Cosette, I thought it would be fun to write down. And I might even do it once or twice a year, if I remember, to see how her answers change...

Ask your child(ren) to answer the questions and type their answers in.Tag other moms with kids who might have fun with this. :)
( just type what the kids said...)

1. What is something mom always says to you?
Be nice.
2. What makes mom happy?
Being good.
3. What makes mom sad?
Doing bad things.
4. How does your mom make you laugh?
Be funny.
5. What was your mom like as a child?
Being nice and doing stuff for each other and for friends.
6. How old is your mom? 30
7. How tall is your mom? 9
8. What is her favorite thing to watch on TV?
Shows…that Cozie likes
9. What does your mom do when you're not around?
Watch Owen
10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
Me coming home
11. What is your mom really good at?
doing Daddy’s planes and writing maps
12. What is your mom not very good at?
doing stuff that’s not right
13. What does your mom do for her job?
vaccum
14. What is your mom's favorite food?
noodles and chicken nuggets…giggle giggle
15. What makes you proud of your mom?
being nice to my brothers
16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?
a girl that’s named Mommy…WordGirl
17. What do you and your mom do together?
Show me how to play games that are hard
18. How are you and your mom the same?
I’m 4 and you’re 9…we’re not the same size… (how are we the same) by eating red ketchup
19. How are you and your mom different?
Having yellow hair and red hair.
20. How do you know your mom loves you?
By hugging each other
21. What does your mom like most about your dad?
kissing
22. Where is your mom's favorite place to go?
Go to school.

Spring Cleaning

Owen, Isaac, and Ethan playing Whack-a-Mole!

This is what 85 pounds of meat looks like...what can we say, it was a GREAT sale!

Saturday was a nice day, so once we got started straightening in the garage, it was hard to stop. The kids helped out with all the dust on the ground.

When we thought we were so close to Spring (thus the spring cleaning yesterday), we got about 3 inches dumped on us Sunday. The car sitting in our driveway had only been there about 1.5 hours, and the neighbors across the street had an entire yard of grass before the snow started to fall.

Family Home Evening

After seeing our friend's pictures from bowling a couple of weeks ago and playing the bowling game on the Wii, we decided to hit the lanes for some good times of our own.

Although Cosette owns the game on the Wii, Isaac actually beat her at the real thing. We all had a great time and Ethan even bowled a couple times. It's too bad we missed that picture.

Here is the Table

Here's what the table looks like. A very strong table. We had baby back ribs, potatos and veggies tonight on it and the strangest thing happened... absolutely no mess at all. This may be the worlds first "no mess" table. The seats feel like they have never been sat on. Like I said it has 6 chairs, but we only put 4 around the table.

New China Hutch and Table

After looking for over a year for a reasonably prices china hutch we finally found one. As a bonus it came with a matching table set with six chairs. Here is the picture of the hutch and one of the chairs to it's right. It is a medieval style chair set with 3 of the chairs in a putrid yellow and three in a beautiful brown. We like the table and chair set but we LOVE the china hutch. In the hutch is authentic Mexican china that was given to us as a wedding gift. Three doors on the bottom open up to shelves on the sides and drawers in the middle. We can now put all out table linens in it as well as out china setting for 12 people. It is very sturdy and will last the test of time. Kudos to Emma  for helping Rob lift the heaviest piece of furniture (besides the piano) up the stairs and into place. We have now entered the realm of matching furniture.

Happy Valentine's Day

I wish the pictures wouldn't load in backwards order, but they do. Ian called to have us drive by his work. This was on the marquee out front of Courtesy Ford. If you're having trouble reading it, it says: Happy Valentine's Day Cosette, Isaac, & Ethan. love Uncle Ian. The kids were excited for pink pancakes and pink eggs for breakfast...I wonder how green eggs and ham will go over for St. Patrick's Day...

Cosette loves climbing this aspen tree in our backyard. Only problem is, she gets herself stuck.

No arsenal of blackmail videos would be complete without one of a kid rubbing food in their hair...here's Ethan!

Bambi is that you?

I know this is not exciting to everyone who reads this blog but it is exciting to us California folk. Every day Rob looks out all our windows in hopes to see the deer that leave their foot prints in our yard. He has no other motive than to just see them. Well at 10:15 pm on Feb 12, 2009 he finally saw those ever elusive majestic animals. Four Deer were standing in the front yard when he pulled open the drapes to look outside. They slowly walked themselves across the street and into the golf course. What a wonderful place to be!

Winter Carnival Grand Prize

The grand prize was called "Camelot". On first look you see a castle and a flying dragon with it's wings stretched out.

On the outside of the castle is a detailed Knight fighting the dragon. It has a sheild made of ice that is clear and a sword that broke off.

Upon entering the castle you see King Arthur and Queen Gwen. They have places for you to sit on thier laps and take pictures.

Behind the king and queen is an ice slide that the kids loved.

You could climb in the castle and look out the towers if you wish. There was also an ice mote all the way around the castle.

Winter carnival, it gets better

Here is just a random castle with some flying dragon wrapped around it. In the center is a wizard holding a crystal (ice) ball. It was also very detailed. It won 2nd place.

As you could see previously the ice sculpture were really cool. Now it gets better. This was by far the tallest and most extravegant sculpture I have ever seen I could not get it all in one or even two pictures. the pictures once again do not do it justice so whatever you are thinking multiply that by 100. Here you see the top of the sculpture. It is a castle sitting on the tops of trees. the whole thing was done 360 degrees, so what you see in the front it continues with a variation of that all the way around. this is only half of it and it stood probably 50 feet high.

Here you see the trees that are holding up the castle. There are several of those all the way around each with a distinct individual face.

Behind the trees were rock (ice) walls and doors with heads in the doors. Absolutly amazing. This won first place but not the grand prize.

Stay tuned in the next few day for the Grand Prize.

Winter Carnival

Above you can see a bear who is suppose to be fishing, but his pole broke off. Behind him you can see kids...they are climbing steps to an ice slide behind the bear that comes out on the left of the bear (not in the picture).


Here is a dragon that was very detailed. it was the biggest one of the day thus far.



This is summer fun. The picture does not do it justice. Behind the boat and not in the picture is a big wave that the boat left behind. There was also and "ice castle" (sand castle) and a cooler with drinks in it (all ice).


The largest ice bear I have ever seen. It was called "the bear met his match" it stood about 12 feet tall and still not the talles tone we saw.

Stay tuned in the next few days for more pictures of the wonter carnival.

Stake Conference

What we learned in Stake Conference this weekend:

"Don't be the Kamakazi pilot that flew 100 missions"

(Commit to something)

"Be like a stamp and stick to it!"

(Endure)

"If you buy a new boomerang, don't waste your life trying to throw away the old one."

(Once you repent, move on. Stop dwelling on the past.)

"Be the father your children think you are."

(Children don't see it all...)

"Be the missionary your mother thinks you are."

(Some missionaries are, others just have mothers who think they are.)

and Rob's favorite...

"Wives should have a hot meal waiting on the table when their husbands get home, and make sure their husbands feel appreciated." (Although she was serious when it was said, the message was about service to others inspite of our own trials.)

Marshmellows...in January?

Family Home Evening found us around our fire pit making smores. I had to go to the grocery store to get graham crackers, chocolate, and marshmellows. That's all I got. The cashier looked at me funny and said, "S'Mores?" What can I say. We had a fun night. The Lee's came and joined us from next door.

Honor Thy Children

What a powerful message this video relates. I hope it touches your heart like it has touched both Rob's and mine. We can't let these kinds of things remain hidden in the dark. They have been "family secrets" for too long... Call 1-800-4-A-Child to report child abuse. It is not "other people's" problem it is our problem as well.

Cosette is...

I must tell you about Cosette. A while ago she was frustrated that she could not read the words herself to one of her kids books. We told her that if she practices saying the letters it will make a word and soon she will be reading. Now she picks out words at random places and on random things sounding out letters to everything. Just the other day she wrote, I km hom frum rschool and... This says, I came home from preschool and... I think this is one of the coolest things I have seen in a long time. WOW how our kids grow up so fast.

Getting Better

Ethan's nose is healing quite well. Here he's enjoying his dad's Swedish rice and you can just notice the red under his right eye. The medical facility has called twice to check up on him. He's a trooper.

Green Nose

He's really starting to look good now. The swelling is mostly gone and the only real color is under his right eye.
Cosette did say something funny though..."Mom, why is Ethan's nose green??"