Owen's Creativity

Owen's creativity never ceases to amaze me. After being assigned to fold the laundry, this is how I found the towels...The American Flag
A Rocket ship...I love it!He also made this Jango Fett (Star Wars) Costume on his own.

The last thing that I want to share is a letter that he wrote to a prominent member of our community, seeking money for a school fundraiser (we also sent the same letter to Oprah, it was worth a shot, right?):

Dear Mr Adams,

My name is Owen. I am 7 years old. I go to redwood elementary. We are having a read-a-thon. i need people to sponser me with money. D o you want to help my school earn money? We are earning money for computers, projectors, tvs, phones and other stuff for our school. The person who brings in the most money gets a big prize. I have read 438 minites so far! Thank you for the things that you do for grants pass. Write me back please.

Love Owen.

More San Diego Fun

The Cousins!!!!

Hunter and Emma had all the kids helping with the Sunday afternoon treat baking. The adults literally did NOTHING to help...it was AWESOME! Oh, we did help eat the treats.
Just Dance for the Wii...it proved to be fun for all ages...yes kids, we did play after you went to bed! The truth is out.
Nap time for Gracie, at the BEACH!!!
The girls were so focused on building their sandcastles...
The big kids were focused on burying each other and playing in the water...I am convinced they would have stayed at the beach forever had we let them.
Good-bye San Diego...we hope to see you again soon!

Legoland 2011

We finally did it...we knocked another thing off the boys long list of dreams! I think that the pictures from our recent trip to Legoland tell the story of our day there better than anything, but below you will also see each of the kids top three favorite things from the day. Enjoy!
Owen: 1. The ROLLERCOASTERS! (We have created a monster!) 2. Meeting Stormer 3. The Shopping (thanks to all of those who helped the kids earn their spending money) and the ride with the robot arm (he couldn't decide between the two)

Davis: 1. The Dragon Rollercoaster 2. Meeting Stormer 3. Dune Raider (the big blue slide)

Gracie: 1. French Fries 2. The Duplo playing area 3. The airplane ride (really the only ride she could go on...she said that she liked it, but the tear by her eye tells a different story! She went on the ride once with her Auntie Amy and once with me)

Couldn't resist this cute pic of my niece, Hannah.
Kate: 1. The little airplanes (she loved riding with her Auntie!) 2. Face painting (she spent her own money on this...$15...isn't that CRAZY!?!?) 3. The Beetle Bounce (she laughed through the whole thing)

Kate now swears that she liked this horse ride, but by the end was screaming, "Get me off of here!". Sorry, I can't help but laugh!

You think YOU have bad hair days...

So, this is how Kate came to me last week after putting her pajamas on (apparently she had fallen and hurt herself while getting dressed. Me being the awesome/compassionate mother that I am, I burst out laughing and grabbed my camera. Just another thing for her to discuss in therapy...

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

So, really, I dare you to find a preschool teacher better than our friend, Teacher Cindy...go ahead and try, it won't happen!
Davis caught a leprechaun's shoe and a piece of gold in his trap...good job Davis!

Kate had another dance performance. This time she tapped to "Animal Crackers", "Irish Eyes" and "Life is so Peculiar"...She may not have been totally in sync with the music (or the other girls for that matter), but she was darn cute and oh, SO HAPPY!

Brownies Anyone?

About a week ago we told the kids about our plans for an upcoming trip to visit my sister (and her family) and to go to Legoland! We have heard that our boys are at the prime age for the park. We typically do not tell our kids too far in advance about such plans as we will surely hear EVERY DAY about how long it is until we leave. Sure enough it began that night. We told them that we were giving them some warning because we wanted them to have plenty of time to earn some spending money for the park. The boys immediately went to work making business plans. Within a day they had a labeled box for Jed's office for cans and plastic bottles to be in turned in for their deposits. They had plans to build wood tables, but when that proved to be more complicated than they thought they settled for peanut butter cup brownies. Owen emailed a few friends and within 12 hours he had sold 8 dozen.
Friday morning we bought the ingredients (Owen didn't have school and I wanted him with me so that he could see how much everything cost) and then we went to work in the afternoon. As you can see from their faces, everyone had to taste a bit of the batter! By Saturday at noon all 8 dozen brownies were baked and delivered.

Jed was with the youth from church on a hike, so I took the kids alone (NEVER will I do this again) to turn in the cans and bottles. We were grateful for several bags full of cans and bottles from two different friends (thank you Marci and Shelby!), but it took us well over an hour, in a nasty environment if I do say so myself--although I think I am more sensitive to this having Gracie with me, who hasn't quite learned what we do and do NOT touch and what we do and DO NOT put in our mouths....ahhhhhhh....) to put them all into the machine. In the end the kids got $13 from this alone...they were over the moon thrilled. Even after paying tithing and paying me back for the ingredients (I'll admit I didn't make them pay for all of it...I am a softy, I know) they each will have a nice little wad of cash for a souvenir...well, it will at least buy them a Lego guy or two, right?

Bookworm

I should have known when I found Owen "reading the paper" when he was a year and a half old that he was going to become a book worm like his Dad. Last week he told me, with a certain amount of wonder and awe in his voice, that when he is reading a book he feels like he is "actually inside of the book". I was beaming with joy as I agreed with him and expressed how amazing it is when that happens. Let's hear it for our little book worm and the teachers, family and friends who have helped us create this monster. May all of our children enjoy getting "sucked inside" many many more books in the future!

Thank you Jimmer...

I think I have said this before, but in our house there are two college teams that we mainly cheer for BYU (Jed and I met at BYU and married a year after I graduated) and U of O (we live in an area where starting in Kindergarten you are either a Beaver or a Duck and Owen decided we are all Ducks). Well, lucky for us the Ducks had an AWESOME football year and now BYU is causing some serious waves with it's basketball team. Of course the boys are obsessed with Jimmer Fredette. He is seriously the most incredible college basketball player that I have ever seen and Davis in particular thinks that he can do no wrong. Recently both boys finished playing basketball and I have loved having "Jimmer" to hang over their heads (especially Davis)..."Do you think Jimmer would talk to his mom that way?"..."Do you think Jimmer became so great by working hard or being lazy?"..."Is that how Jimmer would act?"....I love Jimmer Fredette (don't worry Jed knows...I think he loves him too).
Enjoy this video of Little Jimmer (aka Davis)...notice what a complete ball hog he is and his signature "spin" move...cracks me up!

Tattoo Artist Extraordinaire!

If I had to guess today what Gracie will be when she grows up I would have to say a Tattoo Artist...or a Kleenex sales person...but that's an entirely different post....

No Bangs!

This week it is becoming more and more apparent that Kate has her own ideas about fashion and style. I sent her with Jed to get his hair cut and she insisted that she would not get hers cut...especially her bangs. She wants to grow her bangs out and in fact wanted to start wearing them back immediately. "No bangs is cuter," she says as she looks in the mirror....Oh my! Honestly, I am scared for the future. I hope that she will always chose styles that are appropriate!