Cascade Springs

A while back my sis was in town with her family. After they hiked Timp, we convinced them to head out to one of my favorite places in the Provo Canyon area- Cascade Springs. Here are a couple different pics from that place. Emitt, Jenna, and Laurene by the falls

Laurene picking out the fish in the pools

Tyse climbing the trees by the boardwalk,

And my favorite spot in the area- the old bridge that spans the spring flow. I haven't been up here since the fires that burned the whole area. I though that the bridge would definitely have burned, but it is the same old one...

What a beautiful place!

Tyse's Big Week!

Tyse had a HUGE week last week! He has been waiting forever for 2 big events and they happened within 2 days of eachother!

As you can (kinda) see in the picture, he lost his first tooth! A week prior he bit into a corndog a little too enthusiastically and loosened it quite a bit. He played with it for an entire week, and then he decided he'd had enough, so he just pulled it out by himself. Good thing too- neither Kent nor I are squeamish about many things, but apparently loose teeth creep us both out! The tooth fairy made his debut to a raving review.

His second big event was that he started KINDERGARTEN! YAHOO for all. He has been waiting not so patiently for over a year now, so he is finally able to get going. He is exactly a week into it and still loves it. I am learning more about 5 year old boys. Apparently they can absolutely love something and not remember a thing about it. Every day I ask him how school was and what he did. The answer is always the same... "Great! I don't remember." Now how can a child that can remember even the tiniest detail about something I make a mistake about not remember what he has done for the preceeding 3 hours of which he has apparently loved? I felt better when the neighbor boy came over and told me the EXACT word for word answer. Now if he could just get a cell phone and a diet coke with his happy meal the world may become just.

Summer vacations chosen by the kids

Tyse and Emitt were playing a game where they had "tickets" to go anywhere they wanted. Tyse asked Emitt where his ticket would take him, Emitt decided to go to see his first little neighborhood friend that moved away about a year ago. Tyse replied, In a spectacularly skeptical voice, "OK, Emitt, You go to Arden's house. MY ticket is taking ME to heaven. Maybe I'll see you there someday."

Tattling

My boys have sure been on a tattling streak as of late. It seems as though some days all I hear are "Mom, Emitt's..." fill in the blank. Usually it is that he has gone swimming in the fishtank or he is dumping litter out of the litterbox or he is climbing the shelves in the pantry... or any of the other 2 year old isms that I so love.
If it isn't about Emitt, it is "Mom, Tyse..." followed by pushed me, hit me, spit at me, said poo poo, etc. We are trying to crack down on the potty talk.
Anyway, the other day I had had it. I could not tolerate another tattle. I st down with the boys and tried in my best nice mommy fake voice that if they tattled again, they would spend the rest of the afternoon upstairs in their room. I think I scared them a bit because it was silent as I got out some snacks and we sat at the table listening to the radio.
The other thing about my kids is their strange obsession about the radio and who sings what song. Tyse has been doing it for years and now Emitt is doing it right along with him. So they are pretty rehearsed as to what is on the radio and who is singing it.
So we are sitting at the table eating a snack in silence. All of a sudden out of the blue, Emitt says,
"Mom, Taylor Swift just said stupid" in his best tattling voice. Yup. She does say stupid in that one song. And he caught her. And I didn't follow through with the afternoon in the room- I was laughing too hard.

THis week's stories

As the mom of the boys, I get to hear and witness so many precious "gems" of boyhood. I am trying to get better at recording them because they say so much about the boys character.
We have the best library- as far as what they carry. They have the best selection of dvd's and cd's to check out! Anyway, I checked out a CD called "80's music for kids." I thought it would be kinda fun to see what they included, since my recent ban on the song "I Like Big Butts" has been so unpopular. Anyway, some of the songs that he has loved have been expected, like that "Wierd Science" song. But his hands down favorite is "Axel F", by Harold Friedmeyer. Not recognizing that name or title? It is song number 2 on my playlist down on the right hand side. He has mastered the voice of a synthesizer! He always makes me think of that Friends Episode (The one) where Ross gets out his old keyboard from college... if you are friends fanatic, you know of what I am speaking!
Tyse's favorite thing to do on sunday afternoons is watch golf. You are all thinking "who's surprised", right? But neither Kent nor I watch it with him- it is his thing alone. Anyway, he has apparently been picking up the terminology in preparation for the golf lessons he is begging for because he was outside playing with a friend when a term came up. His friend was playing with a yoyo and letting it go at the bottom, trying to make it land in a little divit in our front yard. He tried once and missed, so he picked it up again and this time made it in the hole. His friend was very excited and threw his hands in the air yelling, HOLE IN ONE! I DID IT! to which Tyse replied, "No, Aaron, that is called an eagle. You missed the first one but made it on the second shot. That is an eagle."
I really had to rack my brain to reaffirm what he was saying, and he was right. I was shocked! I might as well start the country club membership savings account now.
Emitt's story of the week isn't quite as cute, unfortunately! Kent built me 2 planter boxes in the front of our house for mothers day. I have been using my free moments to paint them white. Yesterday morning I had gotten up early to get some painting done before the boys got up. I had only given myself a little bit of paint, knowing I didn't have much time and not wanting to get out too much. But I left the gallon of paint open on the counter in the kitchen. Enter Emitt. While we were finishing up mowing and edging the lawn, Emitt the painter decided to paint himself, our appliances, chairs and the countertop to match the planter box. It was quite the sight. Unfortunately Kent found him- that got paint on his new favorite jeans (which is a HUGE deal- he actually likes a pair of pants) so I spent my morning scrubbing paint out of skin and pants and off of chairs, dishwashers, and counter tops as well as fishing out all of the paper towels he had shoved into the gallon of paint. I doubt I will make that mistake again!
Ollie learned to crawl up onto chairs by himself this week. He is also really starting to communicate. He says Dada, Mama, that, and cat. He loves to follow charlie around and squeal at him- charlie isn't so much of a fan. I have just decided to stop blaming his grumpy demeanor on teeth or earaches or whatever else and have justdecided he is a grump. Maybe he'll grow out of it soon! He had a great time figuring out how the spigot on the big water cooler worked at our neighborhood bbq yesterday. Unfortunately we were serving red koolaid. He has also taken to drinking out of pop cans. I hope the shirt can survive all the stain remover!

Loving 8a

Kent's grandma Ada passed away a couple weeks ago. The day beforehand Kent's sister had called to say that itwould be any time, and so when I hung up, I shared the news with Tyse. He is worse than any older brother I ever had as a teenager- WHO was on the phone, WHAT did they want, WHY did they need to talk to me about it, etc. Anyway, he is pretty sensetive about these things and he began to cry, so I mentioned maybe he would like to send her a picture, thinking she may last until weeks end and she would recieve it. I had also forgotten that the mail had already gone that day and it would have to wait until the next day. Anyway, this is what he drew her-
My favorite part being on the right side of her body where he wrote her name- 8a. I was proud of him for clearly trying hard to sound out how to spell Ada. He was so excited about sending it. Unfortunately she died the next morning so she never recieved it. Kent's sister brought it back to us after it was forwarded to her and Kent had to tell Tyse that Ada never got it. To which he replied through tears, "Well, I guess if I open it now, she can see it from heaven." I love the clear perspective of kids.

Ever had one of those months....

Ever had one of those months that it seems like you just couldn't cram any more it, be it travel or work hours or misery from the kiddos...etc.?
I am hoping we are just finishing one, but I think it may last a little longer yet-
Kent's company just technically finished the temple on the 17th of April. He is still tying up loose ends, but the long nights leading up to the turnover are done, which we are so grateful for. He finished just in time to leave later that evening for the first of 2 weekends in a row in Cedar City, which, despite the reasons for the gathering, were very enjoyable. It was really nice to spend time with kent's siblings in commemeration of his mom's passing 10 years ago. I didn't know her so I really enjoyed listening to their memories of her and seeing some of the glimpses of her in his siblings and my family. The boys really loved cousins, the new kitten Peanut, and a gigantic bucket of vintage trans formers.

But we know kids and vacation- no sleep, a lot of extra stimulation and sugar, and just so many kids to get/share illness with! Anyway, the trips were great, the car rides less than desireable, but survive we did. And came home with 3 boys bearing 4 pinkeyes and 4 ear infections. As if that should be enough, I watch an extra little boy a couple days a week and he also had 2 ear infections and 1 pinkeye. Our house was a HOTBED for excitement and fun! Sorry to whomever we shared with! Just when the older 2 are really on the road to recovery, I end up with an ear infection and what I am guessing to be strep throat just in time for another week to begin. I had Carter again for 2 days, and then Kent's sister and nieces came in town for 3 days. She had a conference here so I watched her 2 girls while she attended. The night she arrives, Kent comes home saying he has recieved his next project and got a promotion! HOORAY! until the phone rings late that night saying he had a flight to Phoenix the next morning. So I have enjoyed being a single parent of 5 kids, the oldes of whom is 5. You should have seen the looks I got at Carls Jr. I think they may have pondered slipping some kind of contraceptive into my waffle fry salt. We really had a great time and I got a little dose of PINK. Now onto the yard projects, mothers day projects, soccer games, and back to the DR this afternoon because I don't think Ollie's ear infections have responded to the antibiotic...
Empty nesthood sure will be boring.