Keeping Up With the Joneses

Yesterday I made a good homemade dinner and when Max walked into the kitchen he took a sniff and said "Oh! Is Hannah here?"  Maybe I need to start cooking more. . .

Mason wanted to decorate eggs this morning and fortunately I had bought a kit a few weeks ago so we were ready. We didn't get to it until almost noon, and the kids were still in their pajamas, but we had a good time. It was so much less chaotic and messy than I remember it being in past years. Myles and Mason had very particular ideas of what they wanted their eggs to look like.,  Mason made (what else!?) a Minecraft Creeper car.  Myles wanted his name on each of the eggs he dyed.  And poor little colorblind Max kept saying "now I want that water" and could not understand why we were dipping eggs in "water." He looked so cute and confused the whole time. 

Mason and Marshall have been looking forward to Mason's first pinewood derby for months now. A few weeks ago they went to Lowes and spent $150 on tools for the car! At first I flipped out a little--then I realized that with three boys doing three derby cars each, the tools would get plenty of use. Marshall did a great job letting Mason design everything about the car. Mason drew out his plans,  Marshall cut it out and Mason sanded it. Mason then drew out how he wanted it to look (a Minecraft Creeper) and we had a great time painting it. I was surprised how long the whole thing took and so grateful that Mason had a dad to do this stuff with. In his scout uniform ready to go. He was grumpy because I had been yelling at everyone to get going. Oops. Mason insisted on writing "TNT" on the back of his car so the leaders named his car "Turbo-N-Terrific." I don't think any of the leaders had any idea it was from Minecraft, but a lot of the boys were pre...

The kids have been looking forward to St. Patrick's Day since last year when they had an epic leprechaun hunt.  This year did not disappoint. Here are a few highlights.  Hannah is the mastermind behind the leprechaun hunt. When I came home from work, the kids were on hour 4 of the hunt and were joined by about 6 other neighborhood kids who stayed until dark hunting. There were clues and signs all over the house and yard. The kids kept swearing that the leprechaun was pinching them! Hannah also helped the boys make these rainbows. When Max woke up from his nap he got to make his. Not bad for a colorblind kid! We realized that while he can't tell colors, he could sort the fruit loops according to shade.  For the actual St. Patrick's Day we continued our tradition of having William and Nicole over for a green dinner. Dessert was homemade BYU mint brownies.  This was a better idea than it ended up looking. It was chili with cornbread on top, whi...

Just a few pictures from our last few weeks. The weather has been getting better and Myles decided he finally wanted to learn to ride a bike. So we went to Walmart and he picked out this cool hot wheels bike.  Don't worry--he has a helmet. That same day we had a billion errands to run and for one of them, we dropped Marshall off at a camping store while we went to Krispy Kremes to see the donuts be made and get a few samples. It turned out to be a nightmare with a crazy-long line, and as soon as we got to the front Max needed to go potty urgently. Fortunately I have a mature 8 year old who agreed to take him, but then I ddin't get him the kind of donut he wanted and he was furious. The whole ordeal was more than an hour and will never be repeated on a Saturday morning again. Last week Mason saw a billboard for McDonald's Fish McBites and because he is obsessed with fish he decided that we needed to go. A few days later Marshall donated blood after work and so ...

Our awesome nanny and her son bought a baby turtle and brought it over Monday. It was so cute and the kids are in love. It's name is "inja-turtle." When Max saw it the first thing he said was "I think it loves me."

Last Friday the school celebrated Dr. Suess's birthday and encouraged everyone to dress up as a character from one of his books. I wasn't going to worry about it and then about 10 mins before school started and right as I was walking out the door to go to work, the kids decided they wanted to dress up. I quickly threw on red shirts, painted their hair blue (leftover blue hair spray from Byu homecoming) and wrote "thing one and thing two" on paper plates. I didn't get any pictures but one of the moms of Myles' friend took a picture of the kindergarten kids who dressed up and sent it to me. I cropped it so it is blurry, but he was pretty cute!

Well, it was touch-and-go for a while but Mason got baptized today! He had some concerns about it for the last few months, mainly fear about "making a promise he can't keep." We've had a number of family nights recently, and ultimately Mason decided to have faith and join the many generations of his family that have been baptized members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  It was a great day with family and friends, and Mason was grinning ear-to-ear the whole time. He is lucky to be a member of the Church, and in my opinion, the Church is lucky to have his contribution of a sincere desire to know how to be a better person.  Mason is the more sincere, thoughtful 8 year old that I can imagine and I am so very proud to be his mother.  Mason's father baptized and confirmed him. I'm so proud of my little boy. I can't believe we have an 8-year-old. Where did the time go!? Mason with both his grandmas. Mason's grandm...