Be Smarter than the Blog!

Okay, I enjoy blogging, well, I enjoy keeping relatives and friends up to date with what our family has been up to, but to be honest, blogging is extremely frustrating for me. Take the posts below for example. I decided to finally post Britta's birthday. I had all sorts of trouble getting pics to post the way I wanted them to. Whenever I tried to enter captions they kept disappearing! I don't know where they went,but let me tell you, they went. So then I got "smart" and decided to post the pics separately, after I explained Britta's B-day. I posted the pics first, so that that entry would be underneath the explanation, but no, for some reason it kept them as the latest blog entry and so now the whole post about Britta's birthday is a little messed up. So, enjoy the pics and then the explanation about Britta's party. It'll make sense eventually.

Pics of Britta's B-day

Ben made the "Willy Wonka" cake for Britta late (maybe too late) the night before.



Hope you enjoyed this trip through imagination land. Now bundle up, it's crazy January weather out there!

Better Late Than Never (Again)

Come with me to the land of imagination, where ladders climb you, books read people and nothings what it seems! It is actually January 12th, and I haven't forgotten to blog about Britta's Birthday, even though I remembered to blog Avery's!

Britta had her three best friends over for a pizza party and what was supposed to be a movie night, but you get four 5 yr olds wired up on cake and pop and throw presents into the mix, and there wasn't a whole of watching going on. We eventually called a spade a spade, turned off the movie and just partied!

(For pics see the previous blog-oops!)

Deep Thoughts, by Britta and Avery

Britta: "Everyone in the whole world is a girl except for the boys."

Avery: "A panda is a panda."

There you have it folks. Truer words rarely have ever been spoken. Now, take this moment to contemplate that truth, apply it to your lives, and I'm sure you'll be the better for it.

Yeti Garden Art - A Treatise

[Submitted by Ben]

Today I received an email from my sister suggesting an accessory for our co-op garden.


(A little background first. Stephanie and I found another family in our ward with a yard and a desire to garden. We struck a co-op with them: we contribute labor and supplies and we split the harvest.)


This is the email I received with the subject line "Ben needs this for the new community garden" and included a link to this item:

My younger brother Alan shared his thoughts on the matter:

Haha! "If you can't afford 'class' - you can still afford to CLASH!"

I decided to comment on her suggestion as well: First impression is that it would make a pretty useful scarecrow. Second impression, does Sasquatch work out?!?! Take a look at the guy - he's seriously buff! He obviously does a lot of bench pressing, arm curls, squats, and abdominal exercises. Does he use creatine powder? Where does he get his proteins? Does he ever carb-load before lifting?

Even with as buff as sasquatch is, I sympathize with the hair loss. Maybe he should follow suit with other body builders who have hair loss and just shave his head completely. That seems to keep with the image of masculinity and current trends. But how would that look with all the long body hair? I suppose it would diminish the mystery and fascination of sasquatch to look like you are wearing a gorilla suit without the mask.

And why is he looking to the side. With feet as big as his, he should be looking in the direction he is heading if he wants to avoid an embarrassing tumble. (Believe me, walking one way and looking another is dangerous; I know from experience).

This must be an example of true art because it really has me thinking about it. So many unanswered questions! Still, I don't think art belongs in the garden. It dramatically increases the risk of tripping while walking and looking sideways.

I Woman Hear Me Roar

Eden decided to get the thrill of her life and go parachuting...off her bunk bed. She really thought she was being daring so she was a little surprised that I started laughing about it and even encouraged it. Rock on Sister!




Britta decided to be a bit more daring and jumped without the parachute.





And Avery just warming up to the idea of daring, decided to jump from the bottom rung of the ladder.

Avery's Third Birthday!!

Avery started her big day off in true birthday girl fashion. She got dressed in her favorite dress up dress, and upon learning that Ben had already made her cake the night before, asked for cake for breakfast. Who was I to deny the birthday girl?



Avery wanted to go the park for her birthday. I did insist that she change her outfit. She had fun playing on the equipment, but once she saw a field full of dandelions, she was ecstatic. A side note: Picking dandelions is Avery's favorite out door activity. It doesn't matter where we are, where we are trying to get, or how late we are, if she sees a dandelion, she runs for it, picks it, and does a little skip and a dance. So we spent the next half hour picking dandelions.



We had a minor set back in our partying when she fell and scraped her leg, but a special birthday picnic lunch and sucker soon put things to rights.






And of course, the day was rounded off with cake, ice cream and presents. She was a happy birthday girl indeed.

American Idol's Fifth Judge

Ben and I love to watch American Idol together. It was definitely a lot more fun when Paula was on her crazy pills, but we love the music and the contestants, and Simon and Paula's ongoing love-hate relationship.

Because Eden is on Spring Break this week, we thought we'd let the girls stay up a little bit later and let them watch a few of the contestants perform. Britta, calling them as she sees them(scroll down a few posts) quickly began summarizing each performance. After Lil Rounds performance: "I think that at first she wasn't very good, but she just needed some confidence and then she got it so it was pretty good. I liked her." That's our Britta B!

Britta Putting Two and Two Together

Britta is my call them as she sees them kid. Here are a couple of funny examples of her putting two and two together and, well, calling it as she saw it:

(Britta saying family prayer) "...and please bless mommy that she'll get enough sleep tonight so that she won't be grumpy in the morning..."

(Britta stuck her finger into Weston's mouth) "Ouch! Mom, he bites really hard! You better switch him to bottles quick!"

Yes, Those are Boxes on Our Kids' Heads!

Kids are so funny and the games they come up with give us a laugh and keep us on our toes!






It all started because Britta chose to put her "Build A Bear" box on her head for a monster costume.






Then the other girls decided to put on the boxes and ram into each other! I don't know why kids do the things they do, but Heaven bless them all!