KIDS SAY THE DARNDEST THINGS...

Silas was sitting on my lap and I was telling him what pretty eyes he has and how I wished my eyes were his color. He says, "But mom, you have bootiful eyes and I luff dem. Logan has yer eyes too mom. Peas don't change em!"

Logan says to me one morning as he's chewing his gummy vitamins, "Mom, did you know that my taste buds work really well, cuz when I eat my vitamins, they just taste like candy."

CATCH UP, PART 1

Pics from Jason's iphone I forgot to blog from last year.

JULY 2010. Clark Planetarium.

(McKinley, Luke, Roman and Logan)AUGUST 2010.
The best playhouse on the planet! Only found in Aunt Neat's backyard in Alpine. It's a 2-story Victorian.
Let's take a tour.It's been the center of many great imaginary play-dates in my family for over 20 years now.
"Who es et?"
Si and Lydia playing "mommy and daddy."
Adorable antique kiddie hutch.Si putting a picture back up on the fireplace mantel.
Heading upstairs to the bedroom.All the furniture is just the perfect size.
Great windows with old school plantation shutters.
"Mom, peas come down. Et's time fo yew to go to woke."
Awesome rainbow outside Jason's office beneath Cottonwood Canyon.OCTOBER 2010
Jason went on an overnight deep sea fishing expedition with his Dad, brothers and some friends near Corpus Christi, TX.
One of the fish Jason caught. 80 lbs.
Total catch for the boat within 10 hours of fishing,
totaling 2, 900 lbs.
CORNBELLY'S
This was Siley's favorite favorite tire swing. Every time we went he had to ride it for a couple minutes.
Water racing ducksThe Cornbellys MonsterThe boys look like cute little dolls in this picture!
Silas perfecting his Karate chop, "Uchi-te!"
Riding the train through the corn field.Williams Fire Rescue No 2.
Bouncing on the jumping pillows.
Silas playing with a black kitten on Halloween at the Palfreymans'."Ahhh, he's so coot, he's dust a baby, he's so litto mom.""Hey, he's ticko-ing me.""His tongue is wet...and scratchy!"

THE FATHER, THE SON AND LITTLE TOOT!

A picture of the boys saying family prayer last night!
Logan climbed onto Jason's back as he knelt to pray, so of course Silas soon followed. Jason left for Nevada this morning and so the boys were literally clinging to him last night. It's the sweetest thing in the world to hear their precious little voices say, "and please bless daddy as he drives to Vegas that he will be safe and come back home to us cuz we miss him."

A LETTER TO DAD........

Jason has been working out of state quite a bit lately. He splits his time between Wyoming and Nevada, lot's of driving. He's gone about 4 of the 7 days of the week now. The boys really miss him! Logan wrote him the sweetest note after school one day, and drew a really cute picture of him and Jason swinging together at the playground.

to dad
Dear dad I think your
the best dad in the
wrld and i liked the
Alean (alien) Show you Put on
and i like you and you
are tikulish (ticklish) yor son
Logan

THE YELLOW SHIRT

The yellow shirt had long sleeves, four extra-large pockets trimmed in black thread and snaps up the front. It was faded from years of wear, but still in decent shape. I found it in 1963 when I was home from college on Christmas break, rummaging through bags of clothes Mom intended to give away.
'You're not taking that old thing, are you?' Mom said when she saw me packing the yellow shirt. 'I wore that when I was pregnant with your brother in 1954!'
'It's just the thing to wear over my clothes during art class, Mom. Thanks!' I slipped it into my suitcase before she could object. The yellow shirt became a part of my college wardrobe.
I loved it.
After graduation, I wore the shirt the day I moved into my new apartment and on Saturday mornings when I cleaned.

The next year, I married. When I became pregnant, I wore the yellow shirt during big-belly days. I missed Mom and the rest of my family, since we were in Colorado and they were in Illinois. But, that shirt helped. I smiled, remembering that Mother had worn it when she was pregnant, 25 years earlier.
That Christmas, mindful of the warm feelings the shirt had given me, I patched one elbow, wrapped it in holiday paper and sent it to Mom. When Mom wrote to thank me for her 'real' gifts, she said the yellow shirt was lovely. She never mentioned it again.
The next year, my husband, daughter and I stopped at Mom and Dad's to pick up some furniture. Days later, when we uncrated the kitchen table, I noticed something yellow taped to its bottom. The shirt!

And so the pattern was set.
On our next visit home, I secretly placed the shirt under Mom and Dad's mattress. I don't know how long it took for her to find it, but almost two years passed before I discovered it under the base of our living-room floor lamp. The yellow shirt was just what I needed now while refinishing furniture. The walnut stains added character.
In 1975 my husband and I divorced. With my three children, I prepared to move back to Illinois. As I packed, a deep depression overtook me. I wondered if I could make it on my own. I wondered if I would find a job. I paged through the Bible, looking for comfort. In Ephesians, I read, 'So use every piece of God's armor to resist the enemy whenever he attacks, and when it is all over, you will be standing up.' I tried to picture myself wearing God's armor, but all I saw was the stained yellow shirt. Slowly, it dawned on me. Wasn't my mothers’ love a piece of God's armor? My courage was renewed.
Unpacking in our new home, I knew I had to get the shirt back to Mother. The next time I visited her, I tucked it in her bottom dresser drawer.
Meanwhile, I found a good job at a radio station. A year later I discovered the yellow shirt hidden in a rag bag in my cleaning closet. Something new had been added. Embroidered in bright green across the breast pocket were the words 'I BELONG TO PAT.' Not to be outdone, I got out my own embroidery materials and added an apostrophe and seven more letters.
Now the shirt proudly proclaimed, 'I BELONG TO PAT'S MOTHER.' But I didn't stop there. I zig-zagged all the frayed seams, then had a friend mail the shirt in a fancy box to Mom from Arlington , VA. We enclosed an official looking letter from 'The Institute for the Destitute,' announcing that she was the recipient of an award for good deeds. I would have given anything to see Mom's face when she opened the box. But, of course, she never mentioned it.
Two years later, in 1978, I remarried. The day of our wedding, Harold and I put our car in a friend's garage to avoid practical jokers. After the wedding, while my husband drove us to our honeymoon suite, I reached for a pillow in the car to rest my head. It felt lumpy. I unzipped the case and found, wrapped in wedding paper, the yellow shirt. Inside a pocket was a note: 'Read John 14:27-29. I love you both, Mother.'
That night I paged through the Bible in a hotel room and found the verses: 'I am leaving you with a gift: peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give isn't fragile like the peace the world gives. So don't be troubled or afraid. Remember what I told you: I am going away, but I will come back to you again. If you really love me, you will be very happy for me, for now I can go to the Father, who is greater than I am. I have told you these things before they happen so that when they do, you will believe in me.'
The shirt was Mother's final gift. She had known for three months that she had terminal Lou Gehrig's disease. Mother died the following year at age 57.
I was tempted to send the yellow shirt with her to her grave. But I'm glad I didn't, because it is a vivid reminder of the love-filled game she and I played for 16 years. Besides, my older daughter is in college now, majoring in art. And every art student needs a baggy yellow shirt with big pockets.

MY PERSONAL MASSEUSE!

This little gadget is A-MAZING!

It's a portable hand held (size of an mp3 player) muscle stimulator just like one you would use at a Physical Therapist or Chiropractic office.
It has 4 pads and 6 levels of heaven, and once I'm hooked up.....I'm zoned out!
It was a belated Anniversary gift from Jason....who knows me so well because I absolutely love it! I would never buy something like this for myself because there is always a greater need for our money elsewhere. He picked it up while we were on our short vacay in sin city last month (more to come on sin city). It has become part of my evening ritual now. I just hook up those little sticky pads to sore shoulders, or neck or low back and relax while I get a 20 minute massage. It's one of the greatest things I've ever been given. Massage XP Micro III people.....look into it!

KIDS SAY THE DARNDEST THINGS............

Silas saw a small pump house in a field out here in Herriman as we were driving one day. He says, "Mom, how do peepo lif en dat litto, teeny, tiny house? Dey can only seep in theo. How do dey make stuff, or haff a pawty, or bwuss deo teef? Dey can't even bake. And mom, deo can't even be a toilet!!"

While eating dinner one night I said to Logan, "Please sit up straight and eat your chicken enchilada. You should be done eating by now."
Logan gets this really puzzled look on his face and says, "Why is it called Chicken and Chilada, what's a chilada? And where's the chilada anyway?"....as he's poking around his plate with his fork.

Silas was playing with a magnetic book set and he was being too rough with it. After being warned to be more gentle several times, I finally took it away when he broke one of the bindings when he threw it on. He was upset, and pouted and left the room. Twenty minutes later he came up to me and said,
"Mom, you made my hawt vewy, vewy sad."
I said, "I did? How did I make your heart sad?"
"Cuz yew hoted (hurted) et when yew took away my books!"

LOGAN'S FREE HAND DINO ARTWORK

Here is a Stegosaurus beneath a volcano.....
and he spelled it correctly!
Here he drew a picture of him and I as Pterodactyls soaring through the clouds. Love this one! I've always wanted to fly.

I just love his creativity!

THE ECLECTIC HERO!

I love little boys and their adventurous imagination. With a little time for free play and a closet full of costumes the possibilities are endless. I never know from one moment to the next what Silas will come down the stairs wearing.

Today the right combination was:
firefighter pjs + spartan shield
pirate eye patch + alien blaster gun

"See mom, I'm da HEWO (hero) Man!"

THE TRAIN WRECK......................

Silas was upstairs in the family room patiently putting together the large wooden train set. There is a bridge, a train station, a shipyard, and a tunnel mountain, along with houses and buildings and lots of vehicles. He played quietly for about an hour when all of a sudden I heard the sound of crashing, and smashing and falling toys. I climbed the stairs to see what he was doing and I was greeted with this:

With his voice raised and with a look complete horror he says, "Look mom, even ets Japan an all da wato es rushen en an evweethang es all bwoken. Ets an beeg oaththquake! So run fo yew life!" ( it's Japan and all the water is rushing in and everything is all broken. It's a big earthquake! So run for your life)....as he begins to run in circles around the family room.

Needless to say Japan has been on the news and in our prayers lately, so it's not too surprising that it would eventually end up in his playtime.

PREGNANCY AND FRACTURED TOES.........

I hate to be a stereotype, but it seems that I am consistently clumsy with my phalanges when I'm pregnant, 3 for 3 now. Not surprising since the term phalanges is derived from the Greek word Phalanx which means "a straight projection." They seem to stick out a mile and have a radar to ram into anything. Not exactly sure what my deal is. It's not that I can't see where my feet are going, since I can still see my feet. I don't get the big cute round basketball belly...thanks to extra wide hips I just look "fat." So I guess it boils down to the fact I'm just a clutz. At least I've alternated the damage to every other foot every 3 years. With Logan, I fractured my left second toe on a door frame while running through the house on the way to church....yes, I was late...Again! With Silas, I fractured my right big toe when I pulled out the silverware drawer too far and it came crashing down on my toe! Yes it was extremely, extremely painful! And TODAY, it was the fourth toe on my left foot (the one next to my piggy) slamming into the bottom of the ottoman in the office. The bright side is that at least the toes on my left foot have had over 6 years to recuperate from the last injury. How do I know it's fractured? Been there, done that and if you've ever had ONE before, you just know. It's the initial crack then the nauseating dull ache that goes all the way to the nerve in your hip, followed by the burning/stinging and searing pain that doesn't go away for hours! Can't bend it or move it without shooting pain, and because I'm pregnant I have to suffer through it. Now I'm no stranger to pain. I've had quite of bit of physical pain in my life so I'm built tough and made tough. Today however, I'm wishing I could have a Percocet, and really, really wishing I hadn't throw away the therapeutic walking boot I used to nurse the last broken toe back to health.

THINGS THAT MAKE ME SMILE ABOUT SPRING.......

Walking out of a cold house into the warm sunshine

Blooming tulips

The sound of birds chirping early in the morning

Butterflies
Wet grass between my toes

PB&J picnics in the backyard on a blanket with my 3 yr. old

Cherry blossoms

The hollow pitter-pat of falling rain on leaves and flowers

The sweet and rusty smell of wet dirt

Easter!!

LOOK WHAT I FOUND IN A NOOK OF THE CRANNY!

I love the Nook & Cranny in Lehi. It's the cutest little ma and pa antique and second hand store this side of the Mississippi. You really never know what you are going to find there. Almost everything is on Consignment so it changes every day. My house is literally full of wonderful N&C treasures; antique glass bottles, cups and saucers, old drawer trundle chest, etc., etc. I stopped in Friday with my SIL-S Andi for a quick shop, and low and behold tucked away on a little shelf I found:

I know, I know, it's just a bag of chips....but not just ANY chips, Old Dutch Salt n' Vinegar from our good ol' neighbors to the north, that being Canada for those of you who don't know your geography. Don't worry, they're not antiques. One of the Consigners is from Canada and he comes baring treats of deliciousness all the time, mostly candy bars so I've never seen these before. Looking upon this bag of chips brought back a flood of memories from an entire family vacation to Canada back in 1989. Truly, one bag of chips did all that! We ate these on our trip, so suddenly I was whisked back to hot pink earrings and a ruffled mini skirt over black lace leggings, New Kids on the Block, relaxing in a bean bag in the camper of our Ford 350 Club Cab Dually (lovingly known of as The Blue Mule cuz it was bright blue and dad had a silver mule as the hood ornament that had orange eyes that lit up when the headlights were turned on) as we drove the winding roads around Glacier National Park with the back camper window open. Good times. I was 14, can't believe all the possibilities I dreamed of on that vacation, one of which was marrying Jordan Knight from NKOTB. My brothers were just toddlers then, now they have toddlers. Life goes too fast. I hope my memories never fade.

LITTLE LOOSTER!

Where has this been all my life! The Little Looster (Booster for the Loo!), invented, created and developed by a mom in OR. I love industrious, intelligent women. I used three step stools around the base of the toilet while potty training Logan, and looked for something like this. Seriously, how excited can I get? I would kiss it, if it wasn't on the floor of the bathroom! It fits all around the base of the toilet and it's not in the way for adults. Brilliant! I bought 3 of them, and paid full price and didn't even cringe, which is a first for me! Just in time for potty-training Silas....which is a long, sordid story for another day.

ORANGE CHICKEN

1/4 c sesame seed oil
3/4 c finely chopped green onion
1 TB finely chopped garlic
4 large chicken breasts, cut into bite size pieces
Enough flour to coat the chicken pieces

1/4 c seasoned rice vinegar
1/4 c white vinegar
2-3 TB cornstarch
6 oz frozen orange juice concentrate
3 TB Worcestershire sauce
3 TB soy sauce
3 TB sweet chili sauce
1/3 c honey

In a deep frying pan heat oil and saute onion and garlic for a couple minutes, then add the chicken pieces. While the chicken is cooking whisk together the cornstarch and vinegars in a bowl. In a separate saucepan over med/high heat add the remaining ingredients. Bring the orange sauce to a boil and whisk in the cornstarch mixture until it thickens. When the chicken is fully cooked add the orange sauce and simmer for 20 minutes. Serve over rice, with steamed broccoli. You can also add sesame seeds, almonds, mandarin oranges, or red and green bell pepper if you wish.

DIAPER DUTY!

In case you are wondering, no, you are not looking at a picture of the diaper aisle at Walgreen's. This is a shelf in the baby's closet. I managed to round up this stash during an incredible Walgreen's diaper sale. Why so many? Because what are regularly $9/ea jumbo pack ended up netting $2.50/ea thanks to a buy one get one free sale, as well as a coupon for $2 off per pack! Yes it was a major victory in my book. These diapers are truly fantastic. They are as good if not better than the name-brand, so when you can get them at 75% off, it's almost highway robbery! I bought every size, including training/night time pants. I am hoping I bought enough to last until she is in underwear. So I guess I officially have a 2+ year supply of diaper (food) storage. Too bad they are not edible. I guess if worse came to worse I could barter them off, or use them as first-aid compresses if someone is bleeding to death. A big thanks to my fabulous SIL Andi who gave me the heads up on the sale...and to Silas. My sweet little 3 year old, who not only endured being dragged in and out of his car seat for half the day while I drove to 8 different Walgreen's, but for doing it without one tantrum, fit or tear. It was a good day!

KIDS SAY THE DARNDEST THINGS...

Silas says to me, "I haf a girlo fwend mom. Ya know who et es?". "No", I say, "who is it?"
"Ets a seekwet but I'll tell yew."
He bends over and whispers in my ear: "You!" then kisses me on the cheek.

The boys were belting out the Scooby-Dooby Doo theme song and Silas was saying, ""Sooby cooby doo....wet awe yew!"

I went to check on the boys, who were apparently playing cops and robbers in their room because Silas says to me, "Mom don't come in heo, or we will haf to shoot you in the nuggets!"