Saftey town Firetruck waterplay

Davis is going to Safety town this week and loving it! On Friday they did fire safety and after safety town the kids could stay to be sprayed by a firetruck.

Does it surprise anyone that Caleb was front and center?

They let it blast!
There was 500 gallons of water and it was gone in about 2 minutes!

They loved it!

They even huddled under the truck trying to get spare drips :)

One of the firefighters is a friend of ours and he told us that Davis was really upset that they didn't get to climb the firetruck ladder. I was really surprised because they had it fully extended and it made me a little weak in the knees just looking at it. Luckily its not allowed!

Embracing our Hero's!

This last Friday the 222nd and 213th of the Utah National Guard left for a 6-12 month duty in Iraq. On Wednesday night they had a celebration and farewell called "Embracing our Hero's" at the college. We took the boys and it was a wonderful and emotional evening.


I am so humbled by these men and women and also their families who are willing to spend time apart for their belief in freedom and their love of our country.

It was an awe-some sight.

God Speed!
May the Lord bring you home safe and soon!

We love you!

We are planning the BEST party ever!

With a little....
Jedi Training academy
Tiki Room
and
Pirate's of the Caribbean

Its going to be a blast!

the trampoline!

Oh boy has this been a project! We were following this tutorial but found it lacking on some details. First off her materials list was way cheap compared to the actual cost as we priced it out. Luckily we got our sheet metal off of Craig's list to make it more affordable. Second, we must have used a different gauge metal because our metal did not - and would not fold like that!

Thanks to our good buddy Spencer's help we redirected our pipe.


Then we added the 2x4's and sheet metal. I will leave it at that so as not to become a swearing woman :)


We back filled the middle along the edges and John covered it with weed block and added big rocks to hold it down while I worked on back filling the sides.

The boys were so helpful shoveling dirt and handing us screws.


They also put all of the springs back into place for us.



Caleb was carrying springs hooked to his pocket and Davis made a chain in order to carry more! Efficient boys.

Then we played!!!

We still need to cover the sheet metal edge because its sharp and we also need to finish back filling the hole. I will post a final picture soon!

Preschool Graduation #1

Davis graduated from preschool last Tuesday. He can go to Kindergarten next year but we decided based on everything that has happened this last year to hold him. We have wrestled with the decision for a while now but we feel more peace when we think of having him wait one more year before growing up. I'm glad I have one more year with him here at home.

He loved Mrs Morris and Mrs Sherry! (No really, he did. He was a little angry that he had to leave the waterside for a picture)

He loved all of the science and he learned so much! He was given the award of "Best Shapes Knowledge" and had proved it earlier in the presentation. They were reviewing all of the things they had learned and when it came to shapes all of the kids got stumped on one shape and it was quiet for a few seconds before Davis yelled out "Rhombus!" It was so cute. Of course the battery on the camera was dead and it just so happened I had the little flip video camera which had dead batteries too! I was so sad...


He has been looking forward to the water slide party for weeks!


And he enjoyed it...

On his bum

Sideways

Forwards

Backwards

Bouncing

and leaping!

He had so much fun!

Love you Davis!

You can be so serious one moment and so goofy the next!

Great job this year!

In Memorial

If there is one thing my Mama taught me it was a deep love for this country we live in and those who have fought for it. I don't think I ever saw my Mom sing the national anthem without becoming emotional, a happy pride so strong that moved her to tears and made her want to burst. It embarrassed me as a child but now when the national anthem is played I find myself doing the same thing. She was so proud to be an American, as am I.

I love America!

I love the people of this country. Not the politicians, the people. I think politicians might be some of the most unpatriotic people around. It seems they have forgotten what this country is really about, a promise for something better if you work hard. The American Dream.

Today I want to say thank you to the Men and Women who work each day to keep us safe. Maybe sometimes too safe that we become complacent about our way of life and our gratitude wanes. Today and tomorrow I will teach my boys about real superheros.

I also want to honor the military wives and families. The nights they spend lying awake at night worrying about their loved ones while my family sleeps safely and soundly... it takes my breath away.
Thank you!


To the Coast Guard, the Navy, the Air Force, the Marines, and the Army...from our home today we honor you.
May God continue to bless you!
We love you!

Up the nose!

Ive heard the stories about kids sticking things up their noses and should have known it was only a matter of time before Beckham tried it.Thankfully he tried it with a soggy Cheerio!

He was nice enough to tell me he put cereal in his nose and sure enough when I looked inside it was way up there! I plugged the other nostril and told him to blow. It took a few blows before a soggy, buggie covered cheerio flew out and hit me on the arm.

Life is so glamorous these days!

Davis' Magic trick

A couple of weeks ago Davis told me he wanted to show me a magic trick. He said he needed the droppers so I got the droppers from our science kit. But he didn't want those ones he wanted the other droppers that went like this (upside pinching motion). I could not figure out what he was talking about so I asked him to draw me a picture of what he was talking about (mostly to distract him). I was amazed what he came back with.
I knew immediately that he meant food coloring. I was amazed at his ability to remember the colors of the droppers and to express it so well in pictures. I will be using this technique more often when I am having a hard time understanding what he is talking about.

He got a couple glasses of water and told me he needed the red and blue colors. I asked him where he had seen the magic trick and he said in Primary - which had been 3 days earlier. Davis' mind and attention to detail amaze me each day.

Ta- da! Purple!
(which I was to busy clapping to get a picture of)

I then proceeded to show him all the magic we could make with food coloring!



He loved it. He preformed another magic show for the rest of the family that night and amazed with his magic abilities. The best part was after we had orange, green, and purple the boys were so excited to see what each of them tasted like. After each taste they would exclaim - "it tastes like orange water. Oh this one tastes like green water!"

Phase 2

A big hole.


Which led to phase 3 - redirect landscaping pipe.


That will very soon be the home for our trampoline :)

Southern Utah sense of style

Beckham was running around and decided he wanted to go outside. It was raining and had gotten cold so I told him it was too cold to go outside. He left the kitchen, I assumed to go play. Then I heard "I'm weddy to go owside" and when I turned around I found him like this:


Because flip flops and a beanie are apparently the perfect cold weather accessories :) For some reason Mom still wasn't happy and he was forced to just watch the rain despite getting all dressed for the weather!