Refrigerator Love

I'm not sure if his post will reveal my sense of cheapness about all things, or the amazingness of my children, but judge as you will:

We were in a need of a new fridge for the new house we will someday in the near future close on. . . .still waiting. Anyway, I was having a hard time stomaching the $1500 price tags for the fridges I actually wanted, because, let's face it, I'm a budgeter. Plus, the rest of the appliances in the house are bisque, and I was realy having a hard time buying an expensive bisque fridge. Well, we finally decided to take the Craig's list plunge and found a beauty for $350. So much more satisfying! Ryan and I picked it up on Monday morning, with help from Ryan H. (thanks, Ryan) and brought it home to our garage since we still don't have the aforementioned house.

When I got home with the kids later in the morning they saw the fridge. I am not exaggerating when I say they were thrilled! Todd said, "OH, MAN!" Ben quickly followed with, "We are SO lucky!" What, you may ask, was the source of their excitement? Have we been living out of an igloo cooler for the past several years? Nope. There is ice and water in the door of our new fridge and the joy my boys feel for this feature is evidentally boundless.

I love that my kids can be excited about fun surprises in life. They aren't so used to getting everything that they just expect it. And I love that a fridge can make their day!

A Good Man

I just had a take a minute to say what a great husband I have. He has faithfully taken me on a date nearly every week for the last six months, thus saving me from sure insanity. I'm not sure this has made him popular in the eyes of other men we know. When we are with others and I proclaim Ryan's awesomeness in this particular field, the husband will often look stricken and the wife will glance pointedly at her husband with an, "and why do you not do this?" in her expression.

So, husbands, I apologize for putting you in the doghouse with your wives. But if you haven't, maybe you should try taking your wife out on a date once in a while. It will earn you some major brownie points. And if you're already amazing and dating your wife, kudos to you! Tell her she ought to write a post proclaiming your greatness.

Chain of Love

The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you.This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:
1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I make for you!
2. What I create will be just for you.
3. It'll be done this year.
4. You have no clue what it's going to be. It may be a song. It may be a self portrait or maybe even some creation I haven't yet dreamed up. I may draw. I may bake you something and mail it to you. It may not be big or impressive. Who knows? Not you, that's for sure! But lets be honest here. This is me and I will likely do something amazing. =) So come on, sign up!
5. I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.
The catch? Oh, the catch is that you must re-post this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on your blog. The first 5 people to post this same blog on their blog and leave a comment telling me they did will win a FAB-U-LOUS homemade gift by me! Let's keep the chain of love going around!!

Fell out

Everyone needs a good poop story now and then to brighten their day, so here's a good one.

Ben has finally made the commitment to be 100% potty trained. I still have him in pull ups at night because of that 3% chance of moisture that I don't want to deal with at 2 a.m. But he is also a holder and a dancer. He will dance, dance, dance until the last possible second.

So, the other day, he finally ran to the bathroom. I hear the tinkling sound. Then I hear a very disturbed Ben voice, "Ummmm. . . Mom?"
"What, buddy?"
"Some poop just fell out of my bum."
That deserved a quick check. Sure enough, he was in standing position, and there was a nice big chunk on the ground behind him. He looked pretty worried. I guess he still doesn't entirely have his signals down as to which end it's going to come out. That's one advantage to having girls. You're always sitting. We got a good laugh out of that one.

Fun Family Night

So, I have a son who is going to be baptized in 2 months. I'm not really sure how that happened to me. I mean, I know the part about the birds and the bees, and I understand that scientifically, our bodies do age. This would mean that both my son and myself are getting older. But it sure did seem to fly by.
Anyway, Ryan and I decided that we wanted to start really talking about what an exciting step baptism is for Todd. So tonight we had a dinner discussion about baptism and the covenants we make and what they all mean. Then we headed over to the church for Todd's personal tour of the font, the dressing room, and all that good stuff.
He was super cute with his little crooked grin in the font as he practiced going under. He thoroughly discussed how much he dislikes water going up his nose when he dunks his head under from the back and how he is going to practice in the bathtub for the next two months so he's sure to get it right. These are very important details to consider, I'm sure.
Then we rounded out the evening by doing a good thorough cleaning of the bishop's office and the clerk's office. The boys love carting the vacuums up and down the hall.
My little family of boys is so fun. I'm sure glad they're mine.

Good times

This was a few Fridays ago, but was very satisfying. We went to Jen's house for Friday morning art (tie dying T-shirts) and a little four wheeler action. Todd had a great time! Reminded me of my childhood, riding 3 wheelers in the fields at the ranch. Which reminds me, I need to do a post in honor of our blog name. Soon. . .

Siege Weaponry

In conjunction with home schooling, we have a small group of kids (3) that meet together once a week for "school time." I've been teaching for the last month and we've been learning about force, gravity, friction, and simple machines. The last two weeks we built catapults and talked about the fulcrum, force, load, etc. The first week was kind of a bomb, as our rubber bands were wimpy, wimpy, wimpy. But then Ryan brought some manly ones home and the fun began. So the second week, the kids set up opposing fortresses and launched army guys over the wall and in to each other's borders. The girls actually managed to get two more army guys in than the Todd. During the battle, we reviewed and discussed the things that we've already learned about force, work, and simple machines. It actually made me pretty happy when later in the day the kids were talking and said, "This was cool. We didn't really even do school today; we just played." It's super fun when they learn and don't even realize. Plus, it was fun.

Day one--launching paint sponges.

The playground was more appealing

But Ben found the paint very entertaining

Second attempt:

Sophie and Olivia pause to smile for the camera, before destroying Todd

Todd takes aim