cousins

The very same day that Granny and Grandad left, Uncle Ian and Auntie Sarah arrived with cousins Issac and baby Christian. How lucky are we?

cuddles with granny

Granny, Grandad and Aunt Janie have been here for the past 4 days, but left this afternoon. We had lots of fun and are anxious for another visit very soon.

on a jet plane

To celebrate the fact that our little boy turned four years old today, we had a little airplane-themed birthday party for Linus. The kids decorated paper airplanes with stickers and markers (Todd and I made the planes in advance -- we used cardstock and a pretty aerodynamic design), we flew the planes outside for a bit, ate snacks, played "Pin the Propeller on the Plane," pummeled a rocket-ship pinata, and ate a lot of birthday cake. Linus had an absolute blast, and I think his friends did, too.

may day = swinsuit season

talents

Give that kid four chocolate chips and a minute alone, and this is what you'll end up with.

missing keys

What happened to my keyboard, you ask? Linus did. Todd was able to fix it and Linus has been informed that he will never, ever, ever again be allowed to watch shows on my laptop, ever.

art critics everywhere

Yesterday at church, I had to take Linus out into the foyer. I didn't particularly notice, but apparently he was looking at the picture of Christ knocking at the door over the opposite couch, because after sitting for some time, he said, "Those boards what the light is coming out of look like the cross what Jesus died on." Take a look at the window on the door, and tell me that you don't think this is quite a perceptive piece of iconographical criticism (especially for a three year old).

the sun hat series

This is the face Casper makes anytime you come at him with the camera.

Normally, he looks more like this:

a boy and his bear

something really terrible happened today

nature spot, april

Our Earth Day celebration consisted of dropping off our recycling, visiting our Nature Spot, enjoying a long nature walk at one of our favorite parks and late-afternoon yardwork.

mama's little helper

Gwendolyn has gotten so good at helping me lately. Without being asked, she will start folding laundry or helping with Casper or pulling weeds in the yard.

truckin'

Once again, Todd had to fix the steering column/handle of the kids' truck (this time, the screws which held the handle onto the column had bent and failed from overuse). But now it's back in the playroom, and Casper in particular loves it.

not so sleepyhead

We've had some trouble with the kids actually staying in their bedrooms after we put them to bed each night. It's a problem because they aren't getting the sleep they need and Mama and Daddy aren't getting the time away from the kids that they need. So we invented "tickets". Each child drew nighttime scenes on two little cards. After they are put to bed, they can only come out of their rooms if they spend a ticket. We've been doing this for a good month now and it works like a charm.

Our afternoon "quiet time" is another story, at least with Linus. During a recent quiet time, when Linus had wandered out of his room multiple times, we had this conversation:

Linus: “Maybe we should do tickets for quiet time. Go get the tickets!”
Mama: “No, the number of times you’ve been out of your room is equivalent to two tickets.”
Linus: “There is no equivalent!”

I actually came up with a quiet time solution that works: if Linus comes out of his room, he has to help me with extra chores. This tactic also works like a charm.

The Whacky Circumference...The Belly-Go-Round...The Shazameter...The Hipster...The Daddy-O

Yesterday we got ourselves a hula hoop and today that kid is a pro.

he rides

Though his birthday is still a few weeks off, Linus got to celebrate early during our trip to Dallas. Grannie and Grandad decided to take Linus to the store to find his own bicycle -- which, after the past several months trying to keep up with Gwennie on his little tricycle, is a major step forward. Today was the first time we got to go on a real ride, and despite a little road rash on his elbow, Linus had a great time.

nature walk

We spent the morning with cousins trekking around a local wildlife preserve. We ran the kids ragged on our 2+ mile hike, but enjoyed seeing turtles (including a big grandfather of a snapping turtle, with algae along his tail and shell), beaver-gnawed trees, animal tracks in the mud, birds (swallows, finches, cardinals, herons), and of course, animal excrement.

little monkey

Today while at the park, Gwendolyn was positively determined to go across the monkey bars by herself. She tried and tried, but each bar was at a different height, so when she got to the middle (and highest) bar, she kept falling. She followed Granny's advice to rest her muscles for a bit and after resting, went back and swung all across those monkey bars like she'd been doing it all her life. A little later, another (10 year old) girl tried to go across, but couldn't do it, so Gwennie advised her to "rest her muscles" and then coached the girl to the other side. She was so sweet and so proud of herself for accomplishing her goal.

the big top

We took the kids to the circus tonight and had a great, great time.

Gwendolyn was mesmerized the entire time. At one point, she leaned over to me and asked, "Is this real?" I suppose she thought all the tricks and acrobatics might be illusions. She also told me, "When I'm older, I might travel around with the circus for a little while."

Linus was all about the motorcycles, and even though he is expressionless in this photo, he was quite excited to be sitting on that big bike.

Linus said the highlight for him was the "motorcycle part." See the figures at the bottom right corner of this photo? That's Todd with Linus on his lap -- they had front row seats for the "Globe of Death."

Casper would have been perfectly happy to have left at intermission. He really just wanted to wander around the arena.

we hammer in the mornin'

We've got coughs and runny noses this week so we've been sticking close to home and Linus is bored out of his head. He's just so busy that I can't keep up with him! So this morning, to buy myself enough time to unload the dishwasher, I set him up with a block of wood, some nails and one of Todd's hammers. He gave me 20 uninterrupted minutes, had a great time and didn't hurt himself -- perfect!

salon

Gwennie to Linus: The Wright Brothers are the right ones to fly. Ha, ha! Did you hear the joke in between?

Todd: Gwennie, you’re being a pill. Stop being a pill.
Gwennie: Stop calling me names! You always call me names when I’m being a brat.

regarding family

Linus: I’m not going to marry any members of my family because I know it’s not healthy for my body.

Linus: Gwennie’s a little dummy.
Mama: Linus, we don’t talk like that.
Linus: All right – Gwennie’s half dummy and half good.

After I tuck Linus into bed and he kisses me goodnight:
Linus: I love you more than Daddy.
Mama: Oh really? Why?
Linus: Well, actually, I like Daddy a little bit more than you. But I didn’t give him three kisses.

general conference

Linus, after we turn on the fourth two-hour session of General Conference: “I hate conference and I’m not going to watch it! Damn!” (Then, explaining helpfully: “When I say “damn,” that means I’m angry.”)

country life

Today we went on a field trip with some friends to visit the ranch of another friend. We all had a wonderful time. We fed the chickens and collected their eggs,

held 1 week old kittens,

fed hay to the horses and admired the week-old foals,

strolled through the pastures, ran from an aggressive cow, played outside and enjoyed good food and great company.

flower children

Linus: “I have three rules! One is, we can break the rules you made, because they’re not good for the house. One is, we can jump up and down when we’re strapped in our car seats. One is, we can break our doors down.”

Gwendolyn: "Why didn’t Casper get a cavity, since he only started brushing his teeth?"
Daddy: "Because when he was little, he didn’t have any teeth. He just got some recently."
Gwendolyn: "But what about when he got his first little boulder? [molar]”

prankster day

The kids call April Fool's Day "Prankster Day" and they love it. All day long they've been plotting pranks to pull on Mama and Daddy. They did the pillow on top of the door, rubber band on the vegetable sprayer, pretending to be asleep when they're supposed to be awake. I also helped them freeze little plastic dinosaurs into ice cubes to put into Daddy's water cup and drove them to the university parking lot so we could wrap Todd's steering wheel in tape (sticky side out). They thought it was a riot when Todd called from the driveway saying he needed help because he was stuck to his steering wheel. Our big prank on the kids was dessert -- we served them little bowls of mud (leftover chocolate pie all mashed up with a few gummy worms thrown in). They loved it -- the pie and the prank.My dad is a big prankster and is always trying to nab us with something on April Fool's Day. For posterity's sake, I want to document the best April Fool's prank I ever played, and it happened to be on my most deserving father. A month before Linus was due, my parents were in town and staying at a hotel. Everyone was expecting Linus to come early (but the joke was on me -- he came two days late weighing in at 10lbs, 9ozs). About 11.30pm on the night of April 1st, I called the hotel and told my parents I was in labor (mom knew about the prank ahead of time). I told my parents I needed them to come to our house and stay with Gwendolyn while Todd and I went to the hospital. We hung up, I waited a good ten minutes (enough time for them to get out of bed and start getting dressed) and then called back to tell Dad "April Fool's". One of my finest moments.