On the News

Oh man, I love being a Cub Scout Den Leader.

Last week we took our little guys to tour the channel 5 CBS News Station.

How cool is that?

Back stage...

We watched a live broadcast from inside the studio.

As soon as it was over the boys went up and met the newscasters and asked totally ridiculous 9 year old boy questions. Pretty much all they cared about was, what is the most embarrassing thing you've said live. ha ha.

We watched the weather man do all kinds of cool stuff on a green wall...

.... that magically appeared on the TV like weather.

Then the boys each took their own turn at the green screen.

and loved seeing themselves on TV.

Matt Hamada in our ward is a producer for CBS news, he did the tour for us, he was so kind. It was awesome.

Scouting for Food

Bruce is the Scoutmaster in our ward. I'm SO glad because our son Dallin is in his troop. Every time they leave together on a Boy Scout outing it makes me happy in my heart.

This month they were "Scouting for Food". They walked all over the neighborhood passing out flyers for it... then on the scheduled day went around collecting any canned food donated by people to take to the Food Bank. It was a good service, multiple hours on a few different days.

They came back to our house after passing out all the flyers...

.... Bruce had me pick up chicken wings for them. You know it made them happy to come back here "Scouting for their own food"... especially when its wings!

They let Logan eat with them because he's a Cub Scout.

Back in the kitchen the rest of the family had wings too... and to our surpise, oh yes, 18 month old Sophie LOVED chicken wings. ha ha. We laughed and laughed at how she could eat a medium chicken wing at such a young age.

She drank a lot of milk with her 1 wing.

Valentines Day

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Valentine

Treasure Hunt

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For Valentine Day we did our traditional dinner as a family.

Chicken Parmigiana, lights out, candles lit, fancy glasses, classical music playing... and I serve everyone. After dinner we sit around the table and start with the youngest and everyone says something they love about that person, and we go around the table until everyone has been spotlighted.... took a long time with 6 kids. But some sweet things were said, and some NOT as sweet as I would've liked...

Then I had spent an HOUR writing clues for our Valentine Treasure hunt for the treat. (Sample clue below)

"For me it's been a VERY long day
Oh how the kids want to play and play
But I AM TIRED and just want to say...
'Leave me ALONE' so I can go HERE right away"

This year the treat was homemade heart shaped Chocolate Eclairs.

Pinewood Derby

You've got to double click on the below picture to see larger and see how excited the boys are watching the race! And you can see me making popcorn in the background chattin with the young ladies.

Logan was so excited about the Pinewood Derby in January this year. We brought our big popcorn popper and popped bags of corn for everyone through out the event... the room smelled LOVELY (popcorn is the yummiest smell). He loved making his car with Bruce... Bruce has issues with dads who "Make" the car for their son... so Logan REALLY does it with just guidance from Bruce. Logan's car wasn't the speediest... but he got first place a few times. Logan is darling and LOVES Cub Scouts. He so carefully hangs up his full uniform after each den meeting... and gets it on an hour before we have to leave often, because he is so excited. He looks so handsome every time in his pants, shirt tucked in, belt and neckerchief. I was recently called as a den leader for the Bears, since Logan is still a Wolf, he was sad he's not in my den. But he LOVES driving to cub scouts with me and asked me every week when I was going to get my "shirt". He was so excited to see me in a Cub Scout uniform like him. It is tender to my heart that he can't WAIT to turn 9 so he can be in MY den. I love that boy.

Boys

For a saturday family activity we went to Hobby Lobby, all 8 of us. Bruce kind of grumbled about this family activity. The boys didn't care at all about the lovely home decor, so they ditched us girls.

Next time we saw them...

they had found Rockets.

They launched this rocket 4 times in the park behind our house.

DJ was lucky enough to stop by our house right before lift-off, he joined them for the masculine activity.

Dallin said it didn't go as high as the 200 feet stated on the box,

maybe only clearing 150ft at highest.

Overall Dallin still felt the launches went "Awesome".

Funny Things

I wish I recorded more often the funny things my kids say... I use to be so much better at that. (Man I was such a good mom a few kids ago)

Emma:

Getting in the car after church, Br. Seiter walks by and Emma says to me, "Br. Seiter is so skinny. We should invite him over for dinner". I cracked up that she had full confidence in my ability to fatten him up.

Lily:

After I woke up from my sunday nap Lily so proud comes to sit next to me with her little Barbie products catalog and says, "I circled everything I want". So we started to look through it together... and I notice every single thing in the catalog is circled except for one thing. So I say, "Oh, you don't want that?"... and she looks at it and says, "Oops, I forgot to circle that one"... and ran off to get a pen to circle it too.

Logan:

After church we were getting in the car and Logan says all whiney, "I just don't get why we have to go to school on Valentines Day". Okay... well... so Logan is maybe more whiney than funny these days... On saturday around 12:30pm after the kids had slept in, watched cartoons, played and laid around all morning doing nothing... I say to the kids, "We're going to do some chores now, lets start with the playroom"... at which point 8 year old Logan breaks down crying, pathetically sobbing in to both hands with actual tears saying, "Why does EVERY other neighbor kid have FUN ALL day saturday... and ALL we do is chores??"

Poor Snickers

Introducing:

Lily and "Snickers"

One very exciting weekend of the year, each student in Lily's preschool class gets to bring "Snickers" home for the weekend, with a class scrapbook, that they have to send back filled with pictures and stories of what "Snickers" did over the weekend. The scrapbook is filled with darling fun adventures for Snickers the puppy, however....

Poor "Snickers" did not have a good time at Lily's house. We are very sorry to say the scrapbook post from Lily's weekend was a sad one.

Things started off well... but then Lily's little sister Sophie threw Snickers on the floor. He was really crying... and Lily and I were pretty sure that she broke Snickers arm.

This is Lily and Sophie waiting with Snickers to see the Veterinarian.

We didn't really have a choice... good thing we know a wonderful Vet.

Dr. Vernon said Snickers has good hips.

Dr. Vernon gave Snickers a complete check-up.

He let Lily help a little.

Poor Snickers had to get a shot...

... Lily really hid under the exam table while Dr. Vernon gave Snickers a shot.

Nobody likes shots.

Dr. Vernon did find that Snicker's arm was broken, he was going to need a cast.

Lily scolded Sophie a little for being so careless with the puppy.

Dr. Vernon did a great job giving Snickers a little cast on his arm.

He said that Snickers has to leave it on for 2 weeks...

Poor Snickers.

Concert Pianist

When Sophie stands at the piano, her little eyes barely reach the keys.

And from the back, even a clean diaper almost reaches her knees.

If Sophie grows up to be a concert pianist, won't these pictures be especially lovely.

Hopefully Sophie will LOVE to play the piano more than her oldest sister did.

(who we spent thousands of dollars on lessons over many years, and finally let her quit this last year... sniffle sniffle, but at least she can play hymns... no Bach, no Beethoven...)

Do not despair, I have 3 other daughters, and a son who just started piano...

there's hope. :)