myfoibles.com

Getting a family picture is a little tougher now than it used to be.  Brendan wants to cry every time you make him sit still for a photo.  Jonathan can’t help but look like a walking zombie…and Marissa sometimes doesn’t look at the camera.  Adam and I try to smile through it all and take it in stride.  Amazingly enough…this was only the fourth picture we took this morning to get one that worked.  As soon as this one was snapped, the second battery for the camera died.  Of course, we did have to turn on the movie Cars on the laptop and set it behind the camera to get Brendan to look in the right direction…but, whatcha gonna do?

For Christmas, Nana gave Jonathan a kit to make a bionicle riding a huge ship.  It took Jonathan three days to put it together, but he had a great time doing it.  He wanted me to post pictures of it so that Nana could see the finished product.

Jonathan had the assignment of making a castle out of anything he wanted.  We started making it out of legos, and it became apparent very quickly that we would have to buy a lot more legos.  So, I suggested asking Uncle James to help.  Jonathan became very excited at the thought of being able to weld again with “Uncle Bob.”  So, we sent him off to spend some time with James.  Jonathan was able to design the castle, cut the metal, use an electric drill….and watch his uncle light the whole thing on fire for fun.  You never know what fun you’ll have when you get together with James in the garage.  Anyway, Jonathan was assigned to dress up as a peasant.  He decorated his castle with medieval people and took it to school.  Everyone was very impressed.

All of us dressed up this year and went to the mall to trick or treat.  Before we left, we took some family pictures on the porch.  Brendan cried through all of them.  But, when he saw a cat run by our house, all the tears dried up.  We went store to store to trick or treat, and then we went to the ward trunk or treat.  The day before, Jonathan and Marissa had school Halloween parties.  This year Marissa decided to be Jessie from Toy Story 2…mostly because she says she wishes Jessie was her real name and not Marissa.  Jonathan wanted to be Batman from the Dark Knight movie.  This is kind of humorous since he’s not been allowed to see that film.  Mom deemed it too scary.  Adam and Brendan and I were the three musketeers.  When Jonathan was Brendan’s age, I made these costumes because there were only three of us.  It was fun to go see Grandma and Grandpa Stone and then visit Uncle Jon to see all of his scary decorations.  Needless to say, at the end of the evening, the kids were Halloween-ed out.

Jonathan and Marissa were both excited to carve pumpkins this year.  Last year, we somehow never found the time.  Marissa wanted a cat on her pumpkin and Jonathan wanted the bat symbol.  The both scraped out the inside of their own pumpkins.  Marissa played in the goo while Jonathan covered his hands with plastic bags so that he couldn’t feel the “nasty feeling of it.”  Brendan slept through the entire process.  The end result was pretty impressive.

On Saturday, we drove the Nebo Loop with the kids.   We stopped and saw “Devil’s Kitchen” and then had dinner on a log near Payson Lake.  The kids loved hiking the trails and were especially excited to see the snow.  Brendan wanted to stomp on the snow repeatedly because it made a funny noise.  He thought it was quite humorous that the snow was so cold.  We had a great time hearing about all the different kinds of rocks from Jonathan.  He is so into science!

Adam challenged both the kids to read 1000 minutes in the month of September.  If they did, he would take them to the new Pirate Island.  This is located close to my work, and the kids talk about it constantly.  So, they both made their goals, both reading two or three chapter books in one month.  The place was fun.  The ambience was very cool.  We had pizza, which was really good, even though we had to wait ten minutes for them to bring our plates.  The kids played arcades and on the playground.  Even Brendan enjoyed being a pirate.

A few days ago, as I was driving my kids home from school, Jonathan turned to me and said, “Mom, I think I’m gonna marry Natalie.”  Natalie is a girl he has gone to school with for the last three years.  They are best friends.

I tried to stay calm and asked, “What makes you think that?”

He turned to me and said, very seriously, “I just think she’s the one for me.  She is really nice and she likes to be creative like me.”

“That’s true,” I said, trying to suppress my giggles.  “She is always very interested in the things you enjoy doing.”

Then from the backseat, Marissa said, “I’m going to marry Taylor.”  I could feel my eyebrows raise as she continued.  “There’s a Taylor A and a Taylor W in my class.  They both play with me at recess.”

“Which one do you like?” I asked.

“Oh, I could marry either one I think,” she replied matter-of-factly.

Ah, I love my kids.  I hope they don’t get married TOO soon, though.

We are very proud to announce that Jonathan earned his Bear in Scouts in only 3 and a half months.  He was very happy to earn this before school started.  Now he can just earn arrow points during the school year.  They had a picnic dinner outside and then gave out awards and played games.  Thank you to Grandma and Nana for coming and celebrating with us.  Jonathan especially liked going out to Sub Zero afterward.

Sunday is the best day for family pictures.  On August 16th, as I got each of my kids ready, I sent them out in the front yard with their dad to have their picture taken.  Brendan is a smiler.  He will laugh at almost anything you do that is unexpected.  Marissa is gorgeous.  I often find myself staring at her and wondering how I helped to create such a beauty.  Jonathan is the man.  He is constantly trying to spend time with me or make me proud of him.  He has already completed his Bear in Scouts, and has only been in the nine year old class since May.  He is a hard worker.  Marissa has literally blossomed over the summer when it comes to reading.  She read Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, Ramona the Brave, a couple Junie B. Jones books, No Flying in the House, and Coraline just over the summer.  We are very proud. Adam gave both Jonathan and Marissa a father’s blessing before school started.  As always, Adam is so in tune with the spirit and was the mouthpiece of two beautiful blessings.  I love to hear him do this because his love for his children is truly exposed when he gives a blessing.  I married an amazing man and I love him to death.  Here are the new pictures of our family.

My cute Brendan.

My three sweet children.

My sweeties and me.

The whole family.

So, Thanksgiving Point had the Two for Tuesdays in August promotion where each person could get in for two dollars.  We decided to jump on it.  Adam took the day off and we were just going to take the kids to the dentist at 8 am and then run to the museum.  Apparently I forgot to set my alarm.  I woke up at 7:33 and our dentist is fifteen minutes away.  Adam and Jonathan got dressed and ran out the door.  He told me to hurry after them in the second car.  I got Marissa and Brendan and me dressed in fifteen minutes and we hopped in the car.  Luckily we all made it…but then we got to the Museum at 9:30…thinking we were way early for their 10:00 opening time.  We were actually second in line and watched the crowds line up behind us in the next twenty minutes.  It was really good that we had gotten there early.  We were able to enjoy the museum for only $8 for our entire family…and we did it just ahead of all chaos that came up behind us.  It was a crazy, but good day.

Waiting outside in the line.

Marissa was so excited to play in the water erosion exhibit.  She talked about it all the way in the car.

Jonathan and Marissa created their own dinosaur.

Our children have now been weighed and measured and been found…very cute…especially Brendan in his dinosaur shirt.

The whole family acting like they are afraid of the shark.  Nice.

Marissa took dance again this summer and loved it.  But, we missed a few classes, and the teachers taught them a new dance during each class session.  On the last day of class they performed all of them.  I thought it was a little too much information to cram into a six year old’s head…but Mom was more concerned about the performance than she should have been.  Marissa was just there to have a good time and feel the beat.  She did really well.

Marissa stretching out and getting ready to perform.

Marissa had a dance that ended with a “Rar!” cat sound.  Here she is performing it very well.

Getting ready for the summer dance sequence.

Looking very elegant during the ballet sequence.

Both kids were so sad at having to really narrow down their list of friends for their birthdays…because Marissa’s party was at Chuck E Cheese and for Jonathan’s birthday we took the kids bowling….that we told them they could have a summer party.  This party was to invite the other kids…and to have a pinata.  Both kids really wanted a pinata at their birthday parties…but not enough to have the party at home.  So, both Jonathan and Marissa had a summer party where all they did was play in the water, throw water balloons, eat popsicles and open a pinata.  They had a blast.  Marissa’s party was all girls (except Jonathan) and Jonathan’s was all boys…except Rissa.  Wow, the all boy party was a lot different than the all girl one.  We didn’t take any pictures of Jonathan’s party, we had to save Marissa from being dragged away by a Jedi Knight, and our grass is still recovering from the waterslide trauma.  But it was worth it.

Marissa loved the new slip n slide.

Jonathan had fun with the sprinkler.  He liked spraying people.

Everyone having a water balloon fight.

Jonathan smashing the pinata.  He always has the same look on his face when he does this.

Funny picture.  I know he has socks on.  He wouldn’t walk in the grass barefoot, so Adam let him…ruin…his socks.  Still, worth it for this look on his face of pure enjoyment.

Early on the third we enjoyed the tradition of watching the hot air balloons.  This year, Brendan was much more aware of what was going on…and a Tony the Tiger balloon made an appearance.

On the morning of the fourth, we went to a neighborhood breakfast.  Then we drove over to our church and helped clean, since Adam had volunteered our family to do so.  But, the real fun began at Grandpa Stone’s house.  The kids love Grandma and Grandpa.  They love throwing rocks in the stream behind his house.  And they all have a good time in the hammock.  This year they even had a race to see who could roll down the hill the fastest.  The food and company was great.  So many cousins were there because Jen and Joel were blessing their baby Breanna on July 5th.  We, of course, took some family pictures.

So, there are more pictures.  I will put the rest of them on my facebook page if anyone wants to see them.  The family crazy pictures and the kid crazy-face pictures are worth the time.

Later, we went to Nana and Grandad’s house and the kids were able to ride a horse.  We then had an amazing barbeque…where it is our family’s tradition to pretend like we didn’t just have dinner at Grandpa’s.  So, we ate dinner again.  Then we went out front and set off fireworks and the kids played with glow sticks.  It was a beautiful day.

Here are just a few of the…over 500 photos we took on our vacation.  I figured you didn’t really want to see all of them.  I will scrapbook a nice portion of those.

This is our family in front of Carhenge…yep Stonehenge made of cars.  Adam was very excited about this site and the kids asked several times during our vacation to go back there.

Brendan in front of Carhenge.

Our family in front of Mount Rushmore.  I was so excited to be back here.  I came with my family when I was about Jonathan’s age I think.  It was gorgeous.  We went to the night presentation where they lit up the mountain.  We were able to visit the visitor’s center and even walk the trail below the mountain to see the sculptor’s studio.

We saw lots and lots of wildlife on our drives.  We saw buffalo, deer, squirrels, prairie dogs and even mountain goats.  But, my favorite were the burros.  They work in pairs to block the movement of your car while the other goes to ask for food at the window. Eventually they were both at our window enjoying our red licorice.

Our family was lucky enough to dress up and have over 60 pictures taken of us as cowboys.  The kids loved it.  We had a lot of fun together and made some memories.  These pictures will be really fun to scrapbook.  I thought Brendan was awfully cute in his beaver hat.

The weather was pretty cloudy and rainy the whole time we were there, but it let up for one nice sunny day.  We hurried to the alpine slide and took a couple trips down the mountain.  It was lots of fun.  Brendan sat with Mom and then with Dad at the base of the mountain.  He sat down on a stump and waved at the people sliding past.

Here we are at the Badlands.  Very beautiful landscape.  The kids enjoyed learning about fossils and seeing the wildlife.

Of course we had to go see Devil’s Tower.  It was amazing!  We showed the kids “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” just a few days before we left.  They were convinced that around every turn they would see an alien ship.  It was very cute.  I love experiencing things with my kids!

Today was Brendan’s first birthday!  This morning I took him to Target to get his picture taken and he was such a doll.  He had a new outfit from Grandma that had a little golf hat.  He would rip that hat off as fast as I could get it on.  But, the photographer amazingly snapped a few really cute photos before he ripped it off a few times.  I will post those pictures when I get them.  But, for Brendan’s dinner, Adam bought finger food.  We had cheese sticks, chicken nuggets, tater tots and cheetos.  I know… anyway, for desert we had tiny ice cream balls, and a cupcake.  Brendan had a really good time eating at the table with all of us.  We stripped him down to his diaper for the cupcake with his initial on it.  The look on his face when Jonathan handed it to him was priceless.  Strange, we did this exact same thing with Jonathan…and now he’s the one handing Brendan the cupcake.  Needless to say, after he finished, we had to put Brendan straight into the bath and clean the kitchen!

Jonathan grew out of his bike, so he chose a BEN 10 colored bike and Marissa got his red and black one.  She was very proud to be on a bike.  She only fell once and was pretty brave. Brendan watched for part of the time from the trunk of Percy, our car.

Not much to say…just felt like taking pictures of Brendan.  You can’t help but smile when you see him.

We haven’t taken pictures of anything for awhile except yearbook stuff.  I am in charge of the yearbook at Jonathan and Marissa’s school, and it takes a lot of my time.  Anyway, here’s our cute family.

My Grandpa Stone told us a few weeks ago that he and my grandma had visited the Harley Davidson store.  He was quite surprised when they reached the second floor to see a picture of he and his family on their farm back in 1939.  He had no idea they had gotten this photo.  So, of course we got together as a family and met my grandpa down there.  He told us all about growing up on a farm, what all the buildings in the picture were, and how it felt to have the government tell them they had thirty days to get off their land so they could build Geneva Steel.  42 families had to leave for this steel plant to be built.  Right next to my grandpa is him in the photo on the wall at age 17.  Afterwards we all ate at Marley’s.  Sliders are awesome!  The kids had a wonderful time seeing all of the motorcycles as well.