Having a BLAST!!

We took our family to Blast Off the other night--I guess you could say we had a "blast!" The best part about Blast Off is they let the parents play too! So we crawled through all the tunnels, went down the slides, and spent some time in the big ball pit! Jed completely buried himself in the balls while the kids were in a different area so he could lie and wait to scare them. Drew came back and jumped in, but then wanted to go find dad. Then we waited for Madelyn. The next person to enter the ball pit was a little boy about 6 of whom we were not familiar. He jumped in right about where Jed was, so Jed grabbed his foot while remaining completely out of sight. The little boy shot a bewildered look and then quickly left without saying a word. Then we continued to wait for Madelyn, that was until Jed about lost his life when a husky young man decided to cannonball into the pit....

As you can tell by the look on Hannah's face, she is not keen of Blast Off. I figure she is a bit claustrophobic. Every time we were about to enter a tunnel she started to be fussy!!

Here is Madelyn donning an umbrella and formal wear for a rainstorm outside. Our kids have an obsession with umbrellas. That was what Drew most desired last year and he spent his savings on one. Of course Madelyn had to have one too. Madelyn is into a dress wearing phase. It's one dress after another all day every day. She especially fancies the dresses that need undershirts, but she prefers to wear them without. Then she will come ask me "Does Cinderella wear undershirts?"

This is random, but for some reason was so funny to us today. The kids had hot dogs and they also got orange juice out of the fridge. Well, our pitcher has a handle that has an open space on the top....just the right size to squeeze a hot dog through. It's just funny to me how Drew even thought to place a hot dog in that small opening! Then when Drew was attempting to solve the problem by shoving a spoon handle up the bottom of the pitcher opening, he got the spoon stuck too! Anyway, it gave us a good chuckle. When Drew finally retrieved the hot dog, he took a bite of it and decided it wasn't palatable any more. I've never taken a bottle brush to the opening of the pitcher handle....ever. So, most likely the hot dog took on the flavor of dishwasher detergent residue..... I wouldn't eat it either!

Hannah's new favorite toy!! She is starting to get the feel for this jumper and it is so cute to watch. She likes to twirl and jump simultaneously while keeping eye contact with me. She likes to make sure I see how big she is. She is too much fun. Something Hannah has developed is what we call the "diaper dance." When I change her diaper she thoroughly enjoys the freedom. She swivels her hips from side to side and moves her legs all the while like she is walking in mid-air. It just makes us all laugh!

This month both Drew and Madelyn gave talks in Primary. I handed out the "mail" in Primary (that is where we hand out the assignments for the next weeks opening exercises) and he wouldn't even take his assignment from me. He is SO scared to talk in that microphone and he knew that if he took that mail it would be his turn. After church we tried to pump him up about it, we colored pictures of our family together and ran through the talk several times. He did a great job and said all of his own words. We agreed that if he really didn't want to talk in the microphone he could do his part by holding the pictures we made for me. Then the big day came. He was SO nervous that he didn't even want to hold the pictures! So I gave the talk that week.

A couple of weeks later, I got a phone call at the end of the week from a mother saying their child couldn't give the talk the following Sunday. So I decided I had another member of primary living with me that could fill the assignment. I asked Madelyn if she wanted to give a talk in Primary and she said YES! So we came up with a little talk and when Sunday came she was pretty excited. She is one of the smallest children in Primary so when she stands up to the microphone you can hardly even see her! But she has the cutest little voice and she did a great job!

Scripture Mastery?

I rediscovered something from a Family Home Evening a couple of weeks ago. I'll give you a little background before sharing: Jed taught our lesson on the translation the Book of Mormon. At the end of the lesson, we did a little activity just to give us all an idea of what it would have been like to have been an active participant in it. Jed had his scriptures open and then told Drew one line. Drew relayed the message to Madelyn, who then passed it to me and I recorded it. This is what we came up with:

Do things that you want
Whatever selfless is is
We're holding to the fish
take upon him to his people
Be on..."I don't know the other part"
According to His commandments
And now behold
That is the testimony that teaches me.

I will dub anyone who figures this scripture reference out to be "The Eternal Champion of Scriptural Knowledge."

Goings On

Here is Jed working on our electrical last week. We headed out there to help......if we helped at all. I ran some wires, but Hannah is not a fan of doing electrical work and after enduring some crying we decided to just head back home! I'm excited for the warmer weather where we can be of a lot more assistance!!

The kids and I held a tea party the other day. It was a lot of fun. Madelyn got all dressed up...in her slip....and we had lunch/"tea." I saved these pictures in the order I wanted them posted, but the computer has a mind of its own....to be continued...

Hannah has just seemed to come alive the last couple of weeks! She is so much more aware of everything that is going on around her. She has started playing more with toys and she loves to look them over very closely. Her favorite game now is tag. I hold her and then we chase Drew and Madelyn around and she tags them. She thinks it is hilarious!! She has also started to explore her abilities more on the floor. I'll lay her down and slowly she will turn around in a circle, just like the hands of a clock! She is rolling over now too, which is pretty fun too!

It is funny to me how holding a tea party brings out instinctive manners. At the usual dinner table, sometimes I have to coax the children into just using utensils! Whereas at a tea party, this is what I find: Madelyn cutting her bananas with a knife and fork, such skill!!

This was our tea party menu. Quesadillas, carrots, bananas, and the most important item: Hazlenut hot chocolate. Drew especially loved and was thankful for the "lovely food!" We were sure to invite lots of friends, it turned out to be a great time!

Some picture updates

One day I decided to just let our kids have their fill of snow. So, they got bowls and scooped as much as they cared to eat and then I let them spruce it up with toppings!! They were quite pleased!! Hey, it's cheaper than ice cream.
We finally got around to making a snowman!! Hannah's naps are more predictable now, so the kids and I did everything and anything you can do in the snow. We made snow angels, sledded down our small hill of snow, I pulled them around in the sled, threw snowballs, and made a snowman that they named "Gumby."

What child is this?!
One night as I was straightening my hair, Sis decided she didn't want curly hair anymore. She wanted her hair to be "flat." So I reluctantly took the hair straightener to her hair, a little nervous that they wouldn't come back!! This was the result. It was crazy to see her without her beautiful curls, but she is beautiful no matter what! (And they did come back after a bath)

This is our house!! For any one who has not seen or didn't even know, this is the house we are building. It has been a huge undertaking.....more than 2 years. I think Jed is amazing and has learned how to do so much and I think he has done an amazing job! We've been very blessed in the whole process and look forward to being able to have a house for our little family!! We enjoy this opportunity to work together as a family toward something so important. We still have a lot of work to do, but every week we're a little closer!!

The other week we took Jed's Grandma out to lunch. It was really hard to convince her to let us treat her to lunch!! Like pulling teeth, but she finally relented and we had a great time!!