Gingerbread Houses

Before Christmas Shane's mom had the great idea of decortating gingerbread houses. So tonight we had everyone over and deorated houses. Now usually Max is the star of the show when the family comes around and tonight was no exception. Everyone thought that is was completely hillarious how he would cozy up to someone at the table and then start double fisting their candy decorations into his mouth.


That is until some serious work got done on the various houses, pretty soon having Max near your gingerbread house was as about desirable as having Godzilla near Tokyo.



Eventually Michelle was the only person willing to hold him and let him "help" with her house, and you can see how helpful he was.


Just to demonstrate I took a picture of the side of Michelle's house that she did without Max's help

and then the side done with the help of the Max man.

There were some other lovely gingerbread creations made.
Mason's house

Grandma's G's house

and Lynsey's train

Thanksgiving

This weekend we went on a fun trip to Salt Lake to visit my family for Thanksgiving. We had a great time. The kids stayed up way too late, and were fed a great many treats by many an auntie, and had a wonderful time. We spent Thursday preparing a great dinner, that was attended by almost the whole clan. Mandy wasn't able to make it for dinner, but showed up in time for pie and also brought along her clever carrot pie and her friend Adam, who fits right in and is a welcome addition to our family gatherings. At dinner we all shared what we were thankful for. Jimmy tenderly said that he was so thankful for Melissa and that she said "I do" a few short weeks ago. Lana said that she was thankful that her dad had found a job and her puppies, Kris said that he was thankful that the Thanksgiving marathon only included two stops for them this year, (which we were all grateful for too, since it meant we got more time with them), and I said that I was thankful for my family, my new calling in the Young Women organization (since it meant that I was getting to know the good babysitters in the area and therefore Shane and I could go on dates again), and my new computer. We all have a great many things to be grateful for, but I felt especially grateful for my family that day.

On Friday the kids spent most of the day playing, Dylan and Duncan came over for awhile and Mason had a great time playing with all of them. Then as it got closer to evening we ventured out to Temple Square to see the Christmas lights. It was beautiful and a fun adventure. Probably the highlight of the evening was when we decided not to try and fight for parking near Temple square and instead parked at Mandy's house and rode the Trax train downtown. Max was so thrilled. When we got on the train his eyes got big and stayed that way the entire time. When it was nearly time to get off Shane told Max we would be getting off in a few minutes and Max stated emphatically "uh-uh."


So after we got off we had to hurriedly distract him. We all enjoyed the lights, but Max was so excited when it was time to go because we got to ride the train again. We drank hot chocolate at Mandy's house and then headed back to Grammy's with some seriously tired boys.

Today we headed home, but not before stopping in for a tour of Brynne's beautiful new house. She has the coolest back yard and I volunteer her for the next summer barbecue. She and Kris have already started painting and beautifying the place even further, it looks great and I am so glad that they were able to find such a nice place to call home.

All in all it was a great Thanksgiving weekend.

Good bye summer

Being the economy what it is, there are many times when I have to step back before making a purchase and ask myself, "Is it really worth it?" And sometimes it is, and sometimes it isn't, but there are two items we purchased this summer that I am so glad I didn't pass on.

One is the awesome hand-me-down swingset, we purchased from our neighbors.


And the second was a large box of ice cream cones.


Good bye summer, we'll miss you, and welcome you when we see you again in June.

A Week of Firsts, Seconds, and Sore Fingers...

So Friday last week Shane comes home at 5 pm, which is the first time in two weeks he's been home before 10 pm so we are all thrilled, and Shane is excited because he is going to fly his plane for the first time. Let me tell you that this rather large plane has been hanging around our house in various states of completeness for as long as we have known each other, and to tell you the truth I really didn't think that I would ever see the day that it would be completely done. But to my surprise Shane announced a few weeks ago that it was in fact done. So Friday we set off to take the plane on its maiden voyage.


So Shane is getting the plane ready, adjusting different settings and breaking in the engine, which means that the engine is running while the plane is stationary. Now let me tell you something I learned this day: when the model plane's engine is running, the propeller will be spinning...very fast, so fast in fact that you won't even be able to see it, and because you can't see it, you might forget its there and you might just stick your fingers right into its spinning blades at which time you will remember its there, because this will hurt quite a lot, which is exactly what happened to Shane. So instead of spending his free night in leisure we spent it getting stitches, and oh my I cannot think how grateful I am for modern medicine, and a grandma nearby who is willing to come and whisk my kids out of the waiting room so that I could pat Shane's head as they sewed the top of his finger back on. For the most part his fingers are expected to make a full recovery, but the top of his index finger will be shaped a bit differently from now on.


The second excting event we've had recently was Max's second birthday. This was a fun day because we were lucky enough to have Grammy come visit. She told me she had really been missing the boys, so she came up just for the day. Mason and Max were thrilled, and as the three of them set off for the zoo, I found myself in an empty house feeling very grateful for my mom too. We had a fun party that night. Max is in love with planes, trains, & tractors these days, and since our house is already a haven to more trains than should be legal (Mason was rather obsessed with them too) we had a plane themed party. It was very fun.

Shane was able to take the night off of work and Shane's family came over and we barbecued and had cake and ice cream. I think Max's cake was one of my favorite birthday cakes to date. Although the two little planes were the most desired object on the cake.
A serious tantrum had been exhibited only an hour earlier when Shane (against my advice that it would indeed cause a tantrum) had shown Max the cake that I had carefully hidden away. So as soon as the candles were extinguished both planes were immediately confiscated by two anxious boys.


After which everyone had to watch out for flying die cast planes, which although small did smart a bit when thrown at you by an excited two year old. But really I had a hard time getting him to stop throwing them since they were planes, therefore meant to fly, and it was his birthday. All in all everyone had a fun night, although I am still in denial that Max is two and rapidly growing out of being my baby.


The next day while we were outside playing we decided to try taking the training wheels off Mason's bike. We took them off a few weeks ago and Mason didn't like having them off at all. So we put them back on, but raised them up as high as they would go. Mason spent a week or so riding his bike at a severe angle so that he could keep at least one training wheel on the ground, but after awhile I noticed that he was riding most of the time with his bike upright and hardly using the training wheels at all. Still I waited awhile to make sure he was comfortable, and then Thursday he and I decided that he probably didn't need them at all. This time instead of being apprehensive, Mason was excited to take them off. We detached the training wheels, and as I turned to put the wrench away Mason hopped on his bike and started riding. I was amazed I didn't have to help him at all. In seconds he was halfway down the street without so much as a glance back at the piece of childhood he'd just left behind in the driveway.
It was so easy and I felt rewarded and proud of Shane and I for our patience. Yes, we may have been able to push Mason into learning to ride his bike when we first removed the training wheels a few weeks ago, but doing it on his terms worked out so much better for him (as is usually the case with Mason). I was so proud we all loaded into the car, put his bike in the back and ran over to Shane's work where he was again working late. We called Shane down to the parking lot and surprised him with Mason's new skill. Shane was as thrilled as I was and I could tell that it brightened up his long day as well.

Countdown to the Dark Divine

I'm ready, Are you?

Time's running out, check it out at readbree.com

And after a long hard day of being Max

What could be better than chillin' with Grandpa (cowboy boots and all) and watching a little Bolt. That is one lucky kid I tell ya.

Ducks

A favorite pastime of ours has always been feeding the ducks. My kids love it. For Max it is a combination of two of his favorite things: throwing things and animals.

Mason is a little more timid and always has to keep his distance at first, but he usually warms up to it in the end.
The ducks and geese don't care at all as long as we've got the goods.
This little family of geese were particularily aggressive, hissing us away from their babies while still wanting us to throw our crumbs. Max thought it was hillarious, and Mason was slightly terrified.
Even the bossy geese though can't detour us from our fun though. I mean how could you resist loving this little guy. And if you get tired of ducks you can always try and catch some seagulls. This is great because even when they fly away before you can within ten feet of them you can still do the victory dance, because you made them fly away.
Max loves the baby animals, and was thrilled when he saw this horde of baby geese. I think we may have stumbled onto the geeses' daycare. To which Max said "baby" over and over again.
So ducks and geese fed, kids enriched, and a new word what a great outing!

A few weeks ago we went to visit my family in Salt Lake. While we were there we went to the children's museum. This is a magical place for little children. My kids absolutely love it. This time I was really struck with how different my kids are. Mason was born an engineer. Anything with a button, or crank, or lever that he can manipulate thrills him, he has to figure out how it all works, and then once he figures it out, he has to change it. So this place is right up his alley.





Max on the other hand is all about the experience and movement. If there is something in the room that is taller than he, he must find a way to climb on top of it, and for him it is not about the achievement of climbing on top of something, its the actual climb that he loves. I know this because, once he gets to the top of something, he always turns right around and does it again. If there is a ball, or a rock, or some sand nearby he has to throw it (yes we've been ejected from many a playground). If there is water nearby he doesn't just splash his hands or his feet in it, he has to get as much of his body in the water as possible. I really had to talk him out of putting his whole self in this water table. His absolute favorite thing at the museum was this fairly simple contraption: a large fan set in a table with small cupcake liners around it that could be used for parachutes.

Another thing about Max is that if their is something to see or do he wants to be right in the middle of it. Even when he is soooo tired.