January Pictures

Some people tell me I do so many fun things with my kids. I don't really. I just take pictures of the few times we do something. And some of the "somethings" take 5 minutes or less...attention spans are mini in our family:)

We made a few more snowman crafts and goodies.

I saw on The Idea Room blog these really cute snowman treats. You take an Oreo, put it on a stick, dip it in white candy melts and put mini chocolate chips on it with a candy corn nose. Ours failed completely! They were still tasty. If you notice, Tommy loved putting the mini chips on his!

I am not a very creative person. I never think up my own crafty ideas. One day as I was washing dishes, I looked over at my little outdated holiday tree that I love. I don't have any "January" items to display on it. I totally had a creative moment. I have a stack of old canning lids that can't be used to seal anymore. I thought they would turn into nice looking snowmen. The boys loved making them and they were really easy! This is when Tommy said, "wait a setent, no arms!" I debated about putting arms on the little guys, but figured they'd get pulled off anyway.


I saw on Family Fun where you can use water bottles to make penguins. I thought we'd try snowmen. We put some paint inside and shook them like crazy...I had to help the boys out a lot. They we glued the stuff on. They were sitting on the ledge for a few days next to the boys' mittens. One day it dawned on me...I took the mittens and put them on for hats! The boys loved it!!

Here we are playing outside the really warm day we had last week. We loved the wagon!! Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!





I'm pretty sure there isn't anyone out there who hasn't heard the name Jimmer Fredette. Barrett was talking my ear off about him one night...I couldn't keep my eyes open. He then had the great idea to call Nathan to chat about Jimmer and BYU basketball...I quickly made my escape up to bed:) So, last week BYU had 2 games. I had the boys wear their BYU shirts and we made Y pancakes with cool whip and blueberries for dinner. All the boys loved it!


Saturday was our Branch Temple Day which resulted in the youth going to do baptisms. We woke up super early so I could do a session before Barrett had to be in the baptistry with the youth. It was fun to come out of the temple and walk right into all my seminary students plus a few more familiar faces. We all walked over to the Visitor's Center for a few minutes. Damon and Tommy are a little too comfortable inside here now, so we didn't last long. They always love looking at the Christus statue...Damon wanted his picture with it this time.

Don't the temple grounds look beautiful with snow everywhere? The boys couldn't resist jumping and stomping in it. Notice the nice clear sidewalks? Tommy loved kicking the snow into the sidewalks ruining someone's hard work...we retreated to the car to eat an early lunch:)


One of the other reasons why we went to the temple so early was because of the BYU basketball game! We finally got a game on tv, so Barrett wasn't going to miss it! The boys and I made cookies with the Y cookie cutter JaVan gave us for Christmas. (Thanks JaVan!) They turned out so cute! We had a few scraps left over at the end, so I shaped a B and U. Unfortunately the cougs lost, but Barrett was excited to watch Jimmer play. Funny story: Damon had his outfit picked out for Saturday Temple Day...Batman shirt, square underwear, grey pants, and new blue Batman socks. He was so distraught one night thinking about it. He said,"I want to wear my Batman shirt but I want to say Go Cougars and wear my BYU shirt." I told him he could wear his Batman shirt and wear his BYU hat!! That solved his little troubled heart:)


And here is our January Calendar (for memory purpose only). I thought it would be cute to make a snowflake every day. I didn't realize how difficult it would be for Damon. He could only do the kind using a hole punch. I ended up making most of them...I gave up the last 3 days:)

Kid Funnies

* We were getting the boys ready for a bath. Tommy wanted to go to the bathroom on the toilet. I sat him up there and he said, "It not working." He must have thought you automatically start going to the bathroom the second you sit or stand near the toilet.

* One early morning, Barrett heard the boys singing in their beds. It happened again this morning. We heard Jingle Bells and the Cougar Fight Song!
* One evening, Damon got in trouble so he ran out of the room. I was about to get angry and then I see our little stuffed Curious George poke his head around the wall...I had to laugh:)

* For some reason, Damon has loved pretending with George (the stuffed monkey). He has to snuggle with him at bedtime and eat breakfast with us too. One night, Damon told me George wanted to say his prayers. Damon would whisper to him and then George would repeat it. It was really cute and funny.

* Today during church, Tommy says to me, "Wet's doe home. I dohn yike church." (Let's go home. I don't like church.) Barrett replied, I didn't like church when I was 2 either!

* One night Tommy would not fall asleep (ok, so that is most every night) and we decided to just let him come downstairs with us. We watched Iron Man 2 (I was against subjecting Tommy to it...for the record). Well a few nights later...same routine. Tommy was downstairs with us and he said, "watch bad dies." (watch bad guys). Nope, not this time buddy.

* Tommy was saying a prayer and it went something like this: Dear Heavenly Father, go on a mission...grown a foot or two. (of course he didn't speak all these words perfectly) I Hope They Call Me On A Mission is one of his favorite Primary songs right now. Barrett and I died laughing at it.

* We made some snowmen out of used canning lids. We hung them up and then Tommy said, "Wait a setent...no arms!" (wait a second...no arms!)

* We had an extremely warm day this last week. We went to the park in the morning then played outside with our new Christmas wagon in the afternoon. We took turns pulling and pushing each other around the yard and sidewalk. I pulled the boys in the wagon down to see if our pond was frozen over. They sang pretty loudly The Little Drummer Boy...or what words they knew:)

* This same warm day, we played soccer too. Damon had "rules" and when one person was kicking to score a goal, the others had to chant "go Damon go! He shoots...He scores!!" It was really fun. Tommy was super cute cheering and chanting for us and loved to score as well!

Finally...November Pics!

I got all my pictures burned to CDs (thanks to Barrett) and deleted all my old photos off my memory card (thanks to talking on the phone to my good ol' roommate/best friend Carie) which meant I could FINALLY load my November pictures to the computer!! It was fun to remember the fun things we did and the awesome people we hung out with!
If anyone really cares...go back to my old post where I described without the photos...I should've reposted it and added the photos in the correct spots.

Damon's pumpkin font (I told you it was cute!)

Beautiful day at the temple.

Painting paper to cut into leaf shapes.


Turkey snacks (graham cracker with chocolate frosting, whopper head, and candy corn feathers)

Making applesauce.

Pumpkin pie playdough.



Apple Turkey from the library.


Thanksgiving Day with a turkey and two Indians.

Damon and Gavin waiting for Thanksgiving dinner.

Barrett with his delicious turkey in the background...as well as the super yummy sweet potato crisp.

Damon, Gavin, and Caroline at the Air Force Museum looking at the airplane that had something that looked like a dragon (we had just watched How to Train a Dragon and they were into Chomper...the dragon at the end).

Fun at good old downtown Dover.

Dipping pretzels.

All the cute cousins! We sure miss them.

Our Turkey Wall!

Snowman Season

Now that the birthday and holiday season are over, I've been able to have a little more motivation to do projects with my boys again. One day I was looking on one of my favorite websites No Time For Flashcards. I found some really cute snowmen projects. She cut snowman shapes out of foam and put magnets on the back so they could be recreated over again. I used cardstock and laminated it (with my new laminator!) then put magnets on the back. Damon and I had a lot of fun making silly snowmen. Tommy woke up from his nap and joined the party. He got upset every time we did a silly non-normal snowman...he eventually woke up enough to see how fun it really was. It has been really fun to come in the kitchen and see the fridge with some new creation. Barrett is amazed and all the different ways the boys and I have been able to create things out of the shapes:)





Another project I found on the site was a snowman made out of marshmallows...small marshmallows glued to a paper. We received tons of big packages during December and many of them contained packing peanuts. Instead of using marshmallow, I had Damon glue on packing peanuts. I love how they make the bumpy snow/popcorn look. We found other things around the house for the rest of the snowman. It turned out really cute and Damon loves it.

We felt like painting one day, so we busted out some paper towel rolls and dipped them in white paint to stamp circles for snowmen. Tommy loved it, but started smearing the paint, so I gave him a paint brush. We loved our paintings!



Barrett was going to be on a campout Friday night with the scouts, so I found a cute snowman craft I wanted to do from The Idea Room. With starting back at seminary, I was too exhausted to do it Friday, but I was able to make it Saturday night. It looks nothing like the one on the website, but was fun to do. I even sat there and crocheted a hat for the snowman...it was Barrett's idea, then he made fun of me for crocheting a hat for a snowman:)


Non Snowmen things:
One day we were downstairs burning off some energy. Damon was running, tripped, fell, and hit his head on the wall. It sounded really bad and he started screaming holding his head. I was terrified that he would move his hands and blood would be gushing, but luckily not a scratch. The wall, on the other hand, looks like this:
We showed Barrett when he came home from work. I had to remind him, we were grateful Damon wasn't hurt. He then said that little crazy boy must have fallen between studs. It would have been bad if he didn't fall where he fell. Phew...we feel lucky.

Damon really enjoys drawing and coloring. Yesterday he told me he was trying to draw Woody. It was too cute watching him stare down Woody, then sketch away. I thought it was hilarious that he started at the boots and worked his way up:)


Pretty cute,huh?

*I can't look at Buzz or Woody without being skeptical. Were they just running around with the other toys? Did he just flop himself down the second I entered the room? Seriously...

January 1, 2011

Wow, I can't believe it is 2011! Here's a rundown of our day.

6:40 Barrett hears the boy's bedroom door. He goes to investigate, and they're in there jumping on their bed:) I have no idea and sleep away:)
8:00 I wake up and head downstairs. All three boys are in the recliner finishing watching a movie:)
8:20 Eat breakfast, clean up the kitchen, clean up the house, get showered and dressed
10:40 Talk to Damon about tithing and saving for a mission. Damon decides what money goes in his tithing and mission envelopes and counts how much money he has left.
11:00 Head to Toys R Us to use his birthday $3 off coupon and spending money.
12:00ish Purchase a Batman toy and head home
12:30 Eat lunch and get Tommy to bed:)Dad takes a nap alongside him:)
1:00 Damon watches Mickey Mouse Prince and the Pauper while mom sweeps and mops the floor! :)
1:30 Mom sits and snuggles with Damon for the end of the show:)
2:20 Barrett wanders downstairs. Tommy isn't far behind him. They snuggle in the recliner and Tommy finishes his nap while Barrett watches football.
2:45 Mom and Damon work on the "calendar" making a border and putting stickers on it:) Damon makes his own Bat Cave out of paper and is super excited about it:)
3:40 Everyone hurries to get ready to go see our first movie all together in the theater!
4:10 Find seats and wait for Tangled to start. Tommy cuddles with Daddy the entire movie and Damon is enthralled. Mom just looks from side to side with a huge smile...how lucky to have such a cute little family:)
6:15 Get buckled in the car and order pizza from Dominos. Pick it up and drive home. Talk about all the parts we liked in the movie:)
6:45 Eat a very late dinner
7:30 Run around and play/wrestle/tickle/chase:)
8:15 Get Damon ready for bed:)Tommy was nowhere near tired...he played with dad downstairs.
8:45 Mom finishes folding some laundry then enjoys watching and talking with Tommy and Dad...and blogs away:)

January 1, 2011 was an incredible day! We were all so happy!! We hope we can have many many more happy days throughout the year!!

*I have to post this somewhere! A couple weeks ago, a firetruck drove through our neighborhood with lights and sirens blaring. Santa was riding on the firetruck throwing candy canes. Now every single time Tommy hears a siren, he yells, "Fireman...Santa!!" and gets really excited. It is so funny:)

Happy New Year's Eve

New Year's Eve was pretty fun. We made sure both boys had naps, then ran a few errands late afternoon. We went over to our friend's house for a little party expecting to only last 30 minutes with crazy boys, but were totally shocked. They were pretty pleasant (at least in our eyes) the entire night. The adults were even able to play some games. 1. The cookie game where you put a cookie on your forehead and have to use your facial muscles to get it into your mouth. 2. blow a Christmas card and get it to hang off the ledge. I had some serious luck and did it in 9 seconds. Damon and Tommy loved trying it too. 3. Trying to unwrap a Starburst in your mouth. 4. Catchphrase. Damon even got in on this game...he loved it.

We had a countdown to the New Year a few hours before the actual New Year. We partied it up with silly string and poppers outside. All the little boys started unloading the garage toys and ended up in a pile of snow digging, raking, shoveling, and golfing. It was hilarious.

We had such a great time! Happy New Year!!