Just some updates.....nothing too fancy.

I just have to add one more funny thing that Bryan said the other day. He came to me with his fingers stuck in his nose and asked, "Why do I have these two holes?" He was totally serious and I was chuckling at his funny question. So I told him that is how Heavenly Father made our noses and he was okay with that answer.

Sunday (yesterday), was a bit of a hectic day for us. We had stake conference in the morning and I had to be there early to accompany the choir. After a wonderful conference we went home and I fixed a quick taco lunch before Barton had to head to the airport for a trip to Nashville for work meetings. I had a 3:30 meeting with the stake primary presidency for some training, so the kids were on their own at home. I had my cell phone on silent so as not to interrupt the meeting if any calls came in. About 5 minutes before the meeting was over I thought I should check my phone to see if I had received any calls and decided not to because I was in the front row and didn't want to seem rude. As soon as "amen" was said for the closing prayer I pulled my phone out and saw that there was a voicemail message that had been left exactly 5 minutes before. I quickly dialed and listened to Nathan saying that Bryan had fallen down the stairs and hurt his wrist pretty bad. I hurried home and found Bryan had been well taken care of. The boys put ice on his wrist and propped it up with a pillow. I took one look and knew it must be broken because he didn't want me to even touch it at all and he was very whimpery and there was some swelling. So off to the urgent care clinic in Broomfield we went. Luckily we beat the crowd that seemed to follow us in there and didn't have too long of a wait. The x-rays showed that it is broken....possibly both bones. Thursday he will be getting a permanent cast as he only has a splint while the swelling hopefully goes down. He is a little trooper and has hardly complained about it hurting. He is hoping to get a red cast but says he will get blue if they don't have red!

Scissor Conversations and Other Funny Things!

I walked into Bryan's room the other day to help him get ready for bed. To my astonishment, on his floor was a large pair of scissors! I asked Bryan why there was a pair of scissors laying on his bedroom floor and his reply was, "Oh I used those to cut open the cookies". "What cookies", I asked. "Oh the ones that I have under my bed." Puzzled, I asked,"Why do you have cookies under your bed? Will you please show them to me?" He willingly pulled a package of oatmeal cookies out from under his bed and said that he couldn't open them without the scissors. So, thank goodness he hadn't cut the curtains or his clothes or shoelaces or hair or done any permanent damage. Just a package of cookies that he snuck up to his room along with some large scissors. They funniest part is that he had only eaten one cookie! For all that trouble that he went to he really should have enjoyed more of them!!

This morning while I was putting on my make up Bryan wandered into my bathroom and said, "What ya' doin' mom?" Before I could answer he said, "Oh you're puttin' on your face....(pause)...oh no you're not, you're just putting on your cheeks." So today I just have my cheeks on....not my whole face! I must look really funny...... :)

Easter Weekend.....

We had a busy, but fun weekend with all that was going on. After church today I was pretty worn out. I showed up early to practice singing with the ward choir and also to accompany two of the numbers. After that I played 5 numbers on the organ for Sacrament meeting and then headed to primary where I did the music time in junior and senior primary. So it was a bit of a long day at church, but I survived and also went to dinner at my in-law's home. Yesterday (saturday) the boys decorated Easter eggs and Barton and I drove some kids to a youth dance in Greeley so we were up a little later than usual. Here are a few pictures of the egg coloring. I hope you had a wonderful Easter!!

Our 7th pinewood derby!

With four boys all spaced 3 or more years apart it allows us the opportunity to participate in 12 pinewood derbys. The making of the cars is great and Barton is a good dad and lets his boys do all the work except for cutting it on the band saw. This was Justin's first derby and he really did great. He made a blue and silver car that was pretty darn fast. Overall he placed 12th out of 36 boys, so that puts him in the top 1/3.

Kempton took a video. Justin's car won during the heat he was recording. It's a really short clip so you will probably need to replay it a few times like I did so I could take it all in.

Card Swap

I just wanted to post a picture of the card I made for March Card Swap. I had a harder time with the theme which was cards for anyone with any theme (birthday, congrats, etc.). I chose to do birthday using a stamp set that I had never used before. I acutally ended up using three different stamp sets to get my final card design.

Lately we have had some little gray visitors in our house (mice). Luckily we knew that mice could be a problem in this house so we have plenty of glue traps and traditional traps as well. Barton was doing some "mice checking" a few days ago and noticed that a trap which sits behind a box in the storage room was missing. After some searching he found the mouse and TWO traps. The poor little mouse got one foot caught in the first trap then ran around and got a second foot caught in another trap on the other side of the room! We thought it was something we ought to capture with the camera because it is surely something we probably won't see too often if ever again!

The Thrashing Threes........
Now I remember why we came up with that title in the first place. Three year olds really are thrashing!! The twos may be terrible, but the threes are worse! Bryan seems to be getting into mischief A LOT lately. Yesterday he took a squirt bottle full of water and sprayed my laptop computer and a portable DVD player. Thankfully both devices survived. Last week he poured water on our DVR and ruined it. A few weeks ago he put Justin's reading light into a bathroom sink full of water and so it got ruined also.

But....there is a theme here. WATER!!!



So here is a picture of Bryan "ready for church" as he put it!!!

What did you do on President's Day???

Nathan ready to sled!

Justin and Bryan on the sled. :)

Bryan pulling his sled back up the hill. :)

I decided to be adventerous with my boys today so my friend and I took our boys and headed for the mountains. We went to Rocky Mountain National Park and stopped at the Hidden Valley Snow Play area. The sledding hills were not very crowded, so it was a really fun time. Bryan had not ever been sledding before so I got into the long sled with him and we went down the hill 3 or

4 times. After that he was ready to be "on his own", which I was a little worried about but he did just fine. He went up and down the hill over a dozen times and just did not seem to get tired of it. Kempton took his snowboard and took several runs down the hill on it and did quite well. Justin was the "screamer". He got so excited going down the hill that he would squeal and scream almost everytime! We were at Hidden Valley for about 2 hours and then headed to Estes Park where we had lunch at McDonald's. Needless to say we are all a bit tired this afternoon and just hanging out for the rest of Presiden'ts Day. So what did you do today???

Video of Kempton on his snowboard!!

Brickman, Beaches and Bays!

Barton and I are winding down our trip to the Caribbean and a 7 day cruise. We have had the most awesome time. First of all, this was a cruise we signed up to go on with Jim Brickman. If you don't know who he is then by all means get to know him and his music. He is "America's Romantic Piano" player and composer. We attended two private concerts, a songwriting workshop and a meet and greet. Jim is the most warm and friendly guy to his fans. He is so humble about his musical gift and just a joy to be around and take in his music as well. He was traveling with his friend Chef Jamie Gwen and she did two private cooking "shows" that were so much fun and now we are all inspired to go home and cook food with a Caribbean flair!!! We took tours of 4 different Caribbean Islands. I have to say that I was a little surprised by how "un-tropical" some of the islands were. My favorite island is most definitely St. Thomas. While there we went to Magen's Bay Beach........ABSOLUTELY breathtakingly beautiful. The water is SOOO clean and clear I could see the fish swimming around my feet. We happened to be there on a day when not too many cruise ships were in port, so the beach was "under crowded" and very pleasurable to visit.

The cruiseship we sailed on was "Adventure of the Seas" and believe me it was an adventure! The ship was so beautifully decorated and the service was splendid. The ship is like a city all in one. They serve food 24/7 and I was told the average person gains 12 pounds while cruising. I was trying to be careful to not eat too much and avoid being "average". (I think I did okay, my clothes still fit!) We made some fabulous new friends whom we ate dinner with each night and they were also a part of the Brickman group. We enjoyed each others company very much and may meet up again on another Brickman cruise. There are shows every evening after dinner and they were excellent and we enjoyed each one of them. Some were musical artists--The Nelson Brothers and another guy who was a 13 time winner of "Star Search" (can't think if his name right now) and there were variety shows and comedians as well.

Tomorrow morning we head back to the continental 48! It's been a wonderful vacation with just Barton and I getting some quiet time with each other but we both said today that we are looking forward to going back home and being with our 4 energetic boys.

Well, I guess I'm a little slow to get this one posted, but better late than never---as they say! In November of 2008 I had my student piano recital. It was a fabulous success with all of my students participating and all of them doing a wonderful job on their performances! I was so proud of everyone and happy that all chose to participate. Even my student who had some outpatient surgery the same day was able to come and perform. Way to go! Here is a picture of the whole group. There will be another recital in May of 2009.............

Card Swap #3.....

Tonight's card swap theme is "something 3 dimensional" that can hold a gift or something similiar. Since I don't have a ton of free time I chose something simple. It is fashioned after a sour cream container that you would get in a restaurant or cafeteria. Of course it is embellished with stamps, ribbon and punch outs. It is filled with Valentine candies and not sour cream though.

What do you get when you give a bored teenager a camera??? Give up? Just take a look at the pictures........

Nice, huh?

Did you know Sunbeams can fly???

As a matter of fact, they can.....at least mine can! Today while I was sitting at the piano in Primary (I am the piano sub), which is held in the chapel (and do I dare mention that the 200 primary kids FILL the whole chapel???--that's a lot of kids!), Bryan's Sunbeam teacher brought him up to me on the stand and sat him on a chair next to the piano and then she went back to sitting with her class. I hadn't seen what had happened, but apparently he decided that jumping off the bench where his class sits was an okay thing to do! It didn't really surprise me at all because he jumps off of EVERYTHING at home. So I guess that now he's a sunbeam he thinks he can FLY!! Since Bryan is my fourth boy, this really didn't ruffle my feathers. Bryan and I just had a little chat about not ever jumping off the bench again. He promised that he would never do it again...... :)

First Blog Entry of 2009.......and I just got used to writing 2008!! Oh well.

The kids are back in school now and we have hopped right back into our crazy, fun, never boring routine. We had a fabulous Christmas!! Some of the highlights are:

*** Letting the boys exchange names and then taking them shopping all at the same time (what was I thinking???). We had to be pretty sneaky and creative in our shopping to keep things a secret. I had fun and the boys enjoyed picking out something fun for one another and bringing it home and wrapping it up.

***A fun Christmas Eve when my cousin and his family drove up here from Littleton. Yummy ham, yummy rolls, etc! We played a fun gift exchange game and visited and visited and enjoyed one another's company. It's nice to have family close.

***A trip to Dillon, CO and the boys skiing on "Scout Ski Day". A few days before Christmas was "Scout Ski Day" and so we got a great deal on lift tickets. Barton and the big boys bundled up (it was a high of 5 degrees that day!) and spent the day in the snow. Mom and Bryan hung out at the condo and the mall. It was a fun time. I had my first experience driving on a snowy I-70 through the mountains while on the ski trip. My knuckles were white. When I see semi trucks with chains on their tires, I don't get an easy feeling!

***Barton and I decided we were going to do way less Christmas presents for our kids and focus on other fun things and focus less on the commercial-ness of the season. It was so much less stressful that I actually I enjoyed making some treats with the kids and taking them to our neighbors, watching some great Christmas movies and just chilling out and not feeling like I had a million more presents to buy and wrap. Thanks to my friend Suzanna who gave me the idea!

***We enjoyed having family near to us this Holiday Season. The holidays in Illinois were a little lonely for us with no family near-by, so this year was a nice change from that.

Surprise Autographed Football

Yesterday we received a wonderful surprise in the mail....a football autographed by Corey Graham of the Chicago Bears. So... you're wondering what the connection is, right? Well, our house in Chicago was purchased by Corey Graham. Of course when we got a contract after six months of being on the market and praying everyday for a buyer we were ecstatic to have any buyer and then we found out it was a pro football player named Corey Graham. Not being followers of the NFL or any other sport, well except KU Jayhawk basketball (National Champs!), we didn't really "know" who Graham was, but I hear this year he is a household name in Chicagoland. So our dear neighbors from Lindenhurst, the Sassers, surprised us by sending a football autugraphed by Graham. Thank you Sassers. It was a fun surprise! What's it like to have a celebrity for a next door neighbor?

Card Swap #2

My second "card swap" is tomorrow night. The theme for November was "gift tags". I had fun making them and my sister joined me in her first creative/crafty experience. She did very well I must say.

Spoiled Rotten!!!

My sister, Susan, has been here visiting me and spoiling me for the last few days. It's been a great time....I go to drop kids off at school and come home to find the dishes are all done, the floor is swept and Susan is playing with Bryan. While I was teaching piano lessons after school, Susan was busy in the kitchen making dinner and playing board games with the boys two nights in a row. Last night she made the best chicken dish--so yummy!! She also helped Justin with some hard math problems one night. Susan is a great teacher....runs in our family! We went galavanting yesterday at Flatiron Crossing and rediscovered the Nordstrom Rack and discovered The Great Indoors--great store, by the way!! Tonight we are all going out to eat and then tomorrow sending Susan off on a plane to SLC. It has been a fun week. We will miss you Susan. Come back soon.

Scouts, scouts and MORE scouts!

This has been a week of lots of scouts stuff.

On Tuesday Kempton "crossed over" the bridge and is now officially a boy scout. At the pack meeting he was awarded a special patch and certificate for earning ALL 20 of the Webelo pins/badges! Way to go Kempton. He was also given his scout patch because he earned the Arrow of Light a few months ago. He is excited for Saturday's orienteering course that he will be doing and for the upcoming merit badge university in November.

Wednesday night was a Court of Honor where Nathan advanced to the rank of Star. I am very proud of him for keeping at it when it comes to scouts. He attended merit badge university a few weeks ago where he earned his engineering and first aid merit badges. He's doing a great job.

SSSSSSSnake!

Kempton is the proud and happy owner of a Ghost Corn Snake. "Phantom", as he is named, is a very friendly snake and likes to be held. He eats mice (frozen and then thawed) but will not eat in front of anyone as we have found. You may think I'm crazy, but I think he makes a great pet and I don't mind petting him, although I have yet to hold him! Phantom is the attraction of the neighborhood. The Lowry and Ahlstrom boys have been over a number of times to pay him a visit as well as Kempton's classmate Zack. I would definitely take a pet snake over a rabbit, lizard, turtle, hermit crab or fish anyday!! Phantom likes to slither into Kempton's shirt via the armhole as you will see in the pictures. It's pretty funny and Bryan thinks it a riot when he crawls into Kempton's shirt!

What have we NOT been up to???

To answer that question.....not much!!! We have had some summer indian like weather that has allowed us to enjoy the last of Kempton's football season and take a short trip to Miller Farm (about 3-4 miles away!) to pick some great vegetables, herbs and pumpkins. A friend told me about Miller Farm and it sounded like too much fun to pass up. We had a total blast riding the hayride to the corn field first where we loaded up on indian corn. Next it was out to the potato field where we dug up some nice red potatoes then onto the onion patch where we picked onions the size of grapefruit. (No kidding). When we got to the carrot patch the boys wanted to find the biggest carrot out there. They sure found some big ones, but I don't know if they were the biggest. We loaded up on squash, gourds and pumpkins as well. They had pedal tractors that the boys rode and big tractors and an airplane for kids to climb on. The boys had a blast and we are eating lots of squash, potatoes and onions lately.