QUIET GAME

Brenna LOVES the quiet game. Whenever we are in the car she is trying to make the game happen. A few months ago we were driving for a family vacation and she was holding a stuffed animal on her lap in the back seat. Soon we heard her say,"you lose". We cracked up because we realized she was playing it with her stuffed animal.

MAKING PINS

I am a pinterest addict. I love to go on and pin all the cool things. We went to a BBQ at a friends house and I noticed the cupcakes and meal and multiple things in her home were inspired by pins on pinterest. I realized that I needed to actually do something with all the cool things. My favorite is to pin cool things to do with my kids...so devised a plan and called Ashley. I knew that I would not consistently make time unless I had someone else in on it.

During the summer, while school is out, we have gotten together once a week and had an "activity" - as the kids have come to call it. One person does a snack activity and the other a craft activity. Then we eat lunch. So much fun.

Made gak
Made sugar cookies where each child added their own sprinkles to the mix.
Made ivory soap explode in the microwave and then added food coloring and reshaped it.
Planted plants in flower boxes.
Put faces on cups and planted grass seeds in them to grow "hair".
Made ranchers lollipops.
Made crayons by remelting broken crayons.
Made rice krispy treats with each childs own sprinkles on top.
Made chocolate pudding  and gummy worms dessert.
...

The kids LOVE it.

POOP STINKS

Potty training...potty training...and more potty training. Twin boys are no picnic in the potty department. It has been about 6 months and still their is no guarantee that they have it down. Peepees eventually worked out after a few months but if they are playing and distracted they still wet their pants. But by far the worse challenge has been pooping. No they are no constipated, or holding it in...instead they poop in their pants anytime or anyplace.

We tried everything!!! Rewards. Patience. Time out. Spankings (yep, we were getting desperate). Shane even heard a rumor that someone in the ward got their child to poop by offering the reward of calling "Go Diego GO" on the phone. So he did. Josh pretended and Jackson thought it was AMAZING but pooped his pants the next day :(.

Finally after wearing only long shirts we discovered that if they don't have underwear on they don't poop. They hold it in. So 3 times a day we sat them down to poop on the toilet. After screaming and tears it would come out and then we would call grandma, have treats, and do a potty dance.

CHICKEN POOP

One of Shane's bosses lives out in the country and has a motocross track in his front yard. One Saturday we went over and played on their land while Shane played on the track. They also have chickens and horses, which the kids found fascinating. I was recovering from the night shift and not paying very close attention to my kids as they ran around. One of the other little girls came to her mom and said she was holding the chicken and it pooped in her pocket. We all laughed about it and began a conversation. I soon realized Brenna was talking to me.

In my half listening and nodding way I heard her say, "Mom the chicken should have pooped in the toy truck." 

She repeated it a few times before I said, "Wait...What?...No that would be gross." 

Her reply, while shrugging. "Why I did". 

"Wait...What?...".

 "I had to go peepees so I did it in the truck." 

" No hunny that is gross! You really did that?" 

"Well I dumped it out"

HUSBANDS NEXT LEVEL OF FUN

Shortly after we moved to Oregon the husbands in the family created a grand scheme. They wanted dirt bikes but knew their poor wives would not let them spend a couple grand on them. So...they did side jobs, raced the money and bought some. It began as a harmless trip to the forest to trail ride every few Saturdays. Then it morphed into riding in Sandy at the track, which made the trails seem very lame. Now They ride/race every Thursday at Portland International Raceway on the Motocross track...which is TOTALLY AWESOME...or so I hear. Josh and Shane actually do amazingly well and win trophies most times. They have the same riding style and pace so during the races they are neck and neck. Way fun to watch!!!

I have begun putting Shane's trophies and pictures of him on his dirt bike in his man cave -the garage above his work bench. Mysteriously they have returned to a place of honor on the mantle next to a picture of Christ...glad Shane did not take down Christ to make more room.

HELVETIA HALF MARATHON

I was a tad bit too cocky going into the run. The year before when I ran it, I had trained hard averaging 13-20 miles per week. That race was AMAZING and I felt AMAZING the whole time. This year I had just had a baby two months before. I only had time to run 1-2 per week. I TOTALLY flopped. I ran the first half at 10 min/mile pace but then when my partner left me in the dust I lost all motivation and could not convince my body to go any faster. :(. My time ended up being. 2:28, about a 12 minute mile pace. But I did it and plan on doing it every year....call me crazy ;)