Mother's Day and an Early Anniversary Celebration

On Mother's Day we went to the Perkins house for a fun afternoon. The kids had fun playing in the creek. I loved watching Cache and Max follow each other around.

Another Day that week, we stopped by their house to see Gran when Mom and Dad weren't there, and the kids were so sad that their mailboxes were empty :) My Mom and Dad's friend Jill gave them the mailboxes (one for each grandchild) and every time they come to their house, they check to see if there's a little treat, or coin, or something. Andrea had a good idea and told Max and Peter that this time since their mailboxes were empty, they should leave notes for Grandma CeCe and Poppy.

At work we had a Wiffle Ball Tournament during lunchtime one week. My team was the "Wiffle Woodruffs," and our attire was supposed to be like early 1900's people . . . so we were pretty much 80% there with our church clothes. We ended up getting 3rd place. Not bad. 

I eat these sometimes. I had 4 last week. $1. Spicy, not spendy.

 Peter knows how to use chopsticks to eat top ramen.

Andrea is a FUN primary teacher. She always has good ideas to engage the kids and have fun. I help too, even though I was just taken from that calling after a mere 2 months! It was fun while it lasted. Anyway, Andrea had the idea to practice the coming Sunday's lesson on Monday with our boys, so here they are acting out the story of Nephi. 

Below is the following weeks family home evening where we learned about how Nephi had to build a boat. Peter built a boat with toilet paper rolls, yarn, plastic wrap, and a straw. He floated it on this camping cot that was in our shed when we moved in that had been left out in the rain so it had a good puddle on it. Andrea taught this lesson today and it was a big hit, she said.

Last weekend Sumedha's mother was in town visiting from India for Sumedha's graduation. She got a masters degree in Computer Science! How exciting! It was fun to meet them both and to talk about the upcoming wedding, even though they don't know exactly when it will be. There are so many cool traditions that they have and it's just a humongous celebration. It would be so fun to see. 

They were very nice to bring a toy to Peter and Max: it's a race track for airplanes!

This last weekend, since next month is going to be pretty busy, Andrea and I decided to celebrate our anniversary early. The Wrights watched the boys and we had a weekend to ourselves. We saw "The Avengers: Age of Ultron," ate at Arby's, test drove a Honda Odyssey and a Toyota Sienna (we'll probably need a van soon, so we're just starting to research), and shopped. Below is a photo at Station Park.

Andrea wanted to get a picture of this stuffing job she did. We had bought a shirt at H&M and they put it in a bag that had girls in skimpy bikinis on it and I felt awkward carrying it around. Is that weird of me? We were planning on eating dinner at the garden as well, so that was making me feel really uncomfortable, carrying that bag around in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. So, we turned the bag inside out, but that didn't do much, so she stuffed it into a little Deseret Book bag. 

This is the beautiful view from the Garden. That was our first time eating there and it was so nice! It has such a bright atmosphere and the roof is retractible and it's just wonderful. I had fish n'chips and Andrea had a pesto sandwich. We also had fried pickles. It was good food and it was very reasonable priced. 

The last thing we did was we went to "Over the River and Through the Woods" at the Hale Center Theater. We loved it! It wasn't a musical, which was nice. Not that musicals are awful, but they tend to be long and drawn out. This was a very nice play about family and I don't feel like explaining the whole thing here, so just ask me sometime. 

The end. 

Mother's Day Weekend

I forgot to put some pics in last week. Here's the chart Peter filled in to earn his Buzz.

I had never heard of this "May the fourth be with you" holiday, but when I bought Peter's Buzz at the disney store, they gave me this commemorative pin. 

Buzz is doing well. Of course Peter has been sleeping with him every night.

Andrea, her Mom, and her sisters went to Las Vegas for a long weekend. As I was driving with the boys, I thought we ought to do something for ourselves, so we went to Smokin' Bones. Peter LOVED this pig in a blanket! He was also really excited to drink Root Beer. It's always good to stop by there and see Kile, and this time his Mom was there too. 

On Saturday we decided to go to Smith and Edwards to dink around and see what they have. These old helmets are pretty cool. Really heavy!

Remember that time that you were trying to do something with a flashlight or a headlamp and you thought "Man, if someone would just make 'finger-lamps' that would solve everything!" Well, I'm letting the secret out THEY HAVE THEM AT SMITH AND EDWARDS!!! 

Isn't that funny? We told the boys that they could either pick some candy, or they could pick from one of the many many flashlights that they have, and they went for the lights. These finger lights are actually a pretty fun idea for kids! You can strap them to the wrist of your favorite action figure, or strap them to an airplane, etc. They're really cool!

Andrea is usually the one that runs the dishwasher, and she's been complaining that the door won't stay closed and needs to be fixed. If you take a look at the picture below, you'll see that she's over-reacting. It's nothing that wedging a broomstick inbetween the dishwasher and the stove can't fix :). 

To May

We didn't have as many "planned adventures" in May, but we did have one or two, and several other things worth noting. 

First, we went to the Gem show up in Ogden. they do it every year and Peter has been going with his grandparents since he was 2, I think, and I went last year with him and Andrea came this year. It's really cool! I mean, it's not like disneyland or something, but there are tons of cool rocks and fossils, and there are little activities for the kids, and theres a guy who has these dinosaur puppets and he goes around chomping kids heads with the T-rex. They love it! 

This is a cool display where you see the rocks in the light, then push a button and see them under a black light. Peter was excited to see that there was a ruby in there. (That's his birth stone.)

Afterward we played at Mom and Dad Perkins' house. I schooled these kids in hide and seek. Sprained my ankle doing it though ;).

They just did this cool thing to their backyard. It started as a project to just help the hill to stop eroding and get some better steps down to the creek, and it grew from there. It's beautiful. 

The boys are almost always up before Andrea and I on the weekends, and I was delighted to find them playing together one morning. 

Max cozy-ed up to Kaden one day. As you can see, it was probably for the chips. Max LOVES chips. That's all he ever wants to eat. He's always asking for chips "noo-noes" (noodles), or "pees-Ket-eee" (piece of candy.)

My parents have pictures of me sleeping like this with my butt up. 

Speaking of butts, I unintentionally captured Caleb's in this picture. He came over a few weekends ago and helped us lay a laminate floor! My Mom helped too and it turned out beautifully. We really love it. 

One day Max woke up from a nap and was sad and cranky. He was whining for Andrea to hold him but she was busy in the kitchen, and then Peter said "I'm big enough, I can hold him." 

. . . WE MELTED.

I don't think there's been a sweeter moment between the two of them! Max turned around whimpering with his hands out and reaching for Peter. I helped them over to the couch and they sat for a minute. What sweet boys!

Peter saw a buzz lightyear at his friends house and he HAD to have one. He told me late one Saturday night and I said "Talk to me tomorrow and we'll count your money and see if you have enough." Sure enough he approached me that day after church and said "How are we going to get my Buzz?" We found the one he wanted and counted his money. He was $5 short. I said that if he did special chores around the house that he could earn 50 cents per chore and earn his buzz. The next day he was up before Andrea and I and he came into the room and said "Mom, I'm ready to work for my Buzz!" So this week he has vacuumed, weeded, cleaned toilets, and scrubbed baseboards to earn his toy, and yesterday, he finished! We're so proud of him and I hope that the experience has helped to teach him that he can do anything he wants if he's willing to work. 

Everyday I walk through temple square and see these stunning tulips. They are amazing. I can't believe that I work in such a beautiful place. 

Max got a haircut this month. The first real cut. I was worried that there wasn't a "look" that would ever suit him like those curls, but this one does! He's cuter than ever and I'm so happy for him not having to deal with that long hair. 

Andrea broke her pinky toe one night. 

She was very sad, and I unfortunately didn't offer the sympathy she was looking for. Caleb seemed to break his toes all the time so it wasn't anything new to me and I didn't react properly. 

I did make her a nice cane though :)

Here's Peter vacuuming. 

We've been buying ice cream cones from the store lately. We all love them! There's nothing like an ice cream cone on the back porch on a warm evening. 

Max and Peter trying to get warm one morning. 

Peter, the time it snowed last month. He was excited to wear his new jacket and boots. 

For preschool Peter got to take home froggy and he was supposed to draw a picture of what they did together. Froggy is a stuffed animal by the way. So Andrea asked if I would help him draw a picture. It was fun! I would ask him what they did, then I would kind of draw on my paper to give him an idea of how to do it, but I let him have full creative freedom. 

This is the end product. Froggy and Peter eating chips and playing outside. I want my kids to enjoy drawing. I love it so much, I hope they do too. 

And heres Max sleeping with his Rex. Since he got Rex in the beginning of April he has continued to sleep with him every day and he drags him around the house saying "Mah-Wex. Mah-Wex." 

Some other things he does:

Every night after Peter goes to sleep and Max fakes Andrea out and doesn't go to sleep, he comes downstairs and says "Dad, Wes wats tee-bee. Wats tee-bee Dad. Wats tee-bee." (he wants to watch TV. 

If he likes something, a song or a game he said "Gen! Gen da-won! Gen da-won" (again, that one!)

If I get in bed before Andrea, Max climbs in and lays next to me, inches away from my face, and he says "Sy-dow, Sy-dow" which means he wants me to sing "itsy bitsy spider" to him. He usually joins in and laughs and laughs. Sometimes we switch to "doggy" which is a different song that Andrea sings sometimes. He's always sad when Andrea comes in and kicks him out of bed :)