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Jonathan entered the science fair in his school on February 2nd.  He did an amazing job with his project.  He proved that not only an Idaho potato could power a clock, but also a red potato and a sweet potato could as well.  He peeled them all and it still powered the clock.  Then he cooked them all, and it still powered the clock.  Then we made mashed potatoes…and it STILL powered the clock.  Jonathan and I had a good time and we laughed that the mashed potatoes worked.  Then we called Uncle Andy who explained to us why our experiment worked.  Jonathan learned that the potato needed water and could not power the clock without it.  Thus, dried potato flakes would not power the clock.  Jonathan did an excellent job explaining the process to the three judges that visited his project and could tell them all about the acid inside the potato.  I was very proud of him.

A big shout out to all of my sixth graders who did an excellent job on their projects as well.  Thanks for always making me feel needed and happy.

These pictures were taken back when it was actually warm.  I found them recently and thought that I should post them.  I miss seeing our grass.

For Halloween, we went to the mall to trick or treat.  Then we went to the trunk or treat where they thankfully took the festivities inside.  Then we visited Grandma and Nana’s house to show off our costumes and then hit the jackpot of candy at Uncle Jon’s.  Marissa was a perfect Alice in Wonderland.  Jonathan had a great time being Iron Man and about half way through the evening Brendan warmed up to actually holding his light saber and being a true Jedi.  I was Little Red Riding Hood and had a good time seeing the kids have fun getting their candy.

We took the kids down to BYU to feed the ducks.  Those ducks must be so overfed.  Brendan kept running around saying, “quack, quack!” and throwing bread at the birds.  We saw several groups of baby birds and I brought treats for everyone to eat after the ducks had their treat.  It was a fun afternoon.

The year brought another 4th of July (as it always does) and the family gathered in Grandpa’s backyard to slide on the waterslide, hang out in the hammock, throw rocks in the stream, eat good food and visit with friends.

Jonathan invited a few friends and cousins (who are also his friends) to come to Nickel City with him and celebrate his 10th birthday.  They played video games (Jonathan’s FAVORITE past time), ate pizza, played laser tag and opened presents.  They had a great time.

Every year we go and visit my father’s grave.  He passed away when I was fifteen years old due to a heart attack.  Every year it seems strange that another year has passed without my father in my life.

This summer we went to see Thomas the Tank Engine in Heber.  Brendan thought it was amazing.  The kids got free balloons, they ran around in bubbles, watched the expensive train go by, and rode in a free little train car past the expensive train.  All in all it was a fun event.

Brendan had a good second birthday today.  He got a donut with candles for breakfast.  Then we went to PetSmart where he marveled at the fish, birds, lizards, hamsters, dogs and cats.  Then we went to a playground and played on the toys.  After that, we had lunch at Wendy’s.  When I got home from work, we had dinner and then he got a chocolate cupcake with candles for dessert.  Then we revealed the present…a Woody with a pullstring.  A huge grin spread across his face.  What a success!

Marissa had her 7th birthday party today.  She wanted to go to Classic Skating.  They now let you use scooters as well as skates.  She invited some friends from the ward, from school and some of her cousins…and of course her brother.  They played red light, green light.  They played “wipeout.”  Classic even announced her name over the speaker and had her stand in a spotlight to announce her birthday.  Everyone there sang happy birthday to her.  Her grin was enormous.  Her grin makes me smile even more lately since she’s lost her front two teeth.  The kids had pizza, ice-cream and pop.  They skated, played video games, bought toys with their tickets and opened presents.  I think it was a success.

I got all of the kids a shirt for Easter.  Brendan got a Buzz Lightyear shirt, Jonathan received a Transformers shirt and Marissa got a pretty pink sparkly shirt.  It was very girly.  The kids hunted for eggs with their wheelbarrows.  I had a wheelbarrow when I was little instead of an Easter basket, and we have carried on that tradition at our house.  Brendan had orange and yellow eggs, Marissa could hunt for pink and purple and Jonathan sought out blue and green ones.  Brendan was not very interested until I opened one of the eggs and showed him what was inside.  Then he was all for it.  They had a good time.

Brendan has recently turned a little of his love for the movie Cars to the movie Toy Story.  He calls Buzz “Buh” and Woody, “Hat.”  He didn’t pay attention to our toy Woody until he realized that he had a hat that could come on and off.  On Wednesday, for his birthday, Adam and I are giving him a Woody with a PULLSTRING!  I know…exciting.  Anyway, for Easter, he received a Buzz Lightyear shirt.  He thought is was amazing.  Lindsey bought him some Buzz pajamas and a Cars flashlight.  She also made him mud pies with rocks for his birthday desert.

Saturday night, we had Easter at Nana’s house.  There were so many eggs in their front room.  The kids had a great time finding them and mostly eating them.  Jonathan, Marissa, Brendan, Savanna and Miles all hunted for eggs.

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.