Haden is learning about different features of the earth in preschool. Today they made volcanoes. What a hit! Only problem is him dropping consonants when he is talking about it.
Haden explaining to Connor what is supposed to happen.
Look at that! It “esplodes”!
Thanks to our awesome preschool teachers. I have been really impressed with Haden’s growth this year, and his eagerness to learn. The activities have been great!!
This will seem really weird, but we have reached a milestone of sorts, and I feel I must commemorate it some way. We have opened our last bar of soap. No big deal you say. Until I mention that I have not bought a bar of soap since 2001. Now, before I get the eww reaction, a little explanation.
In 2001, our stake was putting together hygiene kits as a service project. One of the neighbors found an online coupon for $2 off Dove soap. Now, I don’t know if it was because it was in the “early” days of online couponing and they didn’t know how to do the limits on coupon printing, or if the company was just stupid, but the coupon was simply a pdf file you could download to your computer and print as much as you want. So I did.
Every time I went out, I would print off a handful of coupons, head to Wal-Mart/Target, where the soap was less than $2, and pick up as many as I could. I donated half to the humanitarian kits and then kept half for my home storage. I was literally getting them for free. Some of you may have seen the shelf of soap in the basement bathroom. It served us well and I am sad to see it go. We have not had to buy soap for a little less than 10 years and I don’t even know where to start looking for good deals. Bring on Pinching Your Pennies!
Connor dumped out the Lincoln Logs yesterday and spent the morning before school building this:
I love that the horses are eating on the porch roof. Great job kiddo!
Since it has been raining the past couple of days I am feeling a little restless. So my thoughts have turned to yard work. We have been working on the yard while the weather was nice. This last weekend we started the boys with weeding. Connor was initially not impressed with the idea, but finally warmed to it. It was nice to get the backyard cleaned up.
I finally let Garrick outside. I have been kind of waiting for him to start walking so he doesn’t get all dirty crawling in the grass and mud. Oh well, when do kids ever go by their parent’s schedule?
Now, I just have to post a picture of the infamous tree. Dan decided to prune our trees on Conference weekend. He told me he was going to be “trimming a few branches” (Yes, his words). Then I looked out my kitchen window and saw this:
The tree used to be over 20 feet tall. Needless to say Alicia lost it. My family is still laughing over it. I do find a bit of humor in that it looks like Dan is giving me the finger. Oh well. That’s all I can say at this point.
Have you ever read a book that just felt right? For the past couple of years I have been reading “college recommended” books, and it seems like all the political science genre dealt with socialism, utopianism (sp?), and communism. Not just about them, but why they are better for everyone. I would read and just have a pit in my stomach. Not so with this book.
Now, I don’t claim to be a political guru by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, I feel that I can’t compose a competent argument for anything political. I just know what feels right and what feels wrong. No explanation, just a feeling. It tends to be the way I make my life-changing decisions. Not that reading this book was “life-changing”, but it sure made me reflect on the blessing of living in this country and how it was truly God’s hand that brought it about.
The founding fathers were divinely inspired and brought about a miracle. Now my goal is to remember that a little more often, and make the effort to become better informed on how current events are changing the way our country is run.
Rating: Already in my library, and family shouldn’t be surprised if they get it as a gift.
I bow to the genius our family friend, Sister Griswald. A couple of years ago their family was going to Disney and I couldn’t figure out why she was spending the day before they left, in the kitchen. Then she shared her money/time/health saving tip:
When staying in a hotel take a crock pot and throw your meal in before you leave in the morning-----and have a nutritious/”cheaper” meal that evening. (especially appropriate for those who have bought ANY food at Disney)
I didn’t think it would actually work…..boy was I wrong! It was GREAT!
I prepped and froze all the stuff for 2 simple dinners : Chicken Soft Tacos and Beef Stew. We threw it in the cooler and took it with us. Imagine my excitement when I found a fridge in our hotel room. That made life even easier. It was the first time I used the crock pot bags, and they definitely helped with cleanup.
It was awesome walking into our room after a busy day and having dinner ready to go. Not to mention the bonus that it save us the $$$ that we ended up having to spend on the hotel room. A definite DO AGAIN! Thanks again Sister G.
While checking into the Grand Canyon I noticed that there is a Jr. Ranger program that the National Park system runs. I had seen it before, but didn’t pay much attention since my boys were so young. They are finally old enough, and it is AWESOME.
At the Grand Canyon it was totally free, which I believe is the way it is everywhere. Anyway, they get a free work book with about 4 activities that they need to do. They ranged from Grand Canyon Bingo, to drawing pictures of what they see. It was great at keeping the boys occupied for the 2 days. They ate up every minute of it.
One of the other activities was that they needed to do a ranger guided tour. That had me worried in that they were only run at certain times, and most of them were about an hour long, which with 2 boys stretches their attention. The ranger was great though. She had a goody bag to keep us interested and shortened it to about 30 minutes since our entire group was made up of kids trying to get their Jr. Ranger badge. The boys loved the nature walk.
When they finished everything, they turned it into the Rangers, and got a certificate and badge. 
So next time you visit a national park, make sure to check with the Visitor Center about the Jr. Rangers. If only for the workbook. Something great for the kids to do while driving around the park.
Dan took pity on me Friday and took us on a detour to Meteor Crater. I have been interested in seeing the crater for years, and was excited to see that it was relatively close to Flagstaff. Totally fascinating. I’m not sure it was worth the price to get in, but we may do it again if any of my kids really get into space stuff.
It was a good morning excursion, and then we were off again to the Grand Canyon.
We spent the afternoon hiking down the Bright Angel Trail. We were told that there was a rest house 1.5 miles down the 6mile trail. We figured we would hit that, and hike back up.
We gave up after hiking 2 miles down an icy, muddy trail. I think we may have just missed the rest house. Oh, well, we got our 4 mile hike in.
Garrick and Dan LOVE the new hiking backpack. Garrick was too small for it last year, so Dan was excited to put it to use this year. Sure made things easier.
The casualties of the hike. Connor fell on his butt, Alicia on her knees, and Haden everywhere else. Luckily we were mostly dry by the time we got back to the car. The boys did great though! It was a nice quiet trip back to Flagstaff.
We finally made it to the Grand Canyon on Thursday. What a sight! The boys weren’t completely amazed, but it kept them occupied just running up and down the paths.
The weather was beautiful, which made me double think the fact we weren’t camping. But looking at the kids, we decided we made the right decision.
Trying to get Haden to smile grrr…At least he likes being goofy.
That afternoon Dan booked a jeep tour with a local company. They took us to some cliff caves to check out petroglyphs and such. The boys loved the jeep ride. Connor said it was better than a roller coaster.
Garrick was such a goof ball. Absolutely adorable on the ride. He giggled and laughed the whole way. Kept us all entertained.
After the jeep ride we drove through the park to the Watchtower and took in the view on that side. Long, exhausting day, but well worth the time!
Ahh, sleep. Please don’t wake me again!
We’ll actually try hiking the next day!
Yep, we did make it back from the Grand Canyon. Life has just been busy. In fact, yesterday I finally went grocery shopping for the first time since we got back. So here is the scoop on the trip.
We took off late Tuesday night and spent the night in Beaver. We wanted to knock off a couple of hours before the kids realized how far we were going. On Wednesday we spent the bulk of the day getting to Arizona. Due to weather concerns we decided not to camp (sorry, not camping in 20 degree weather with a 1 year old. Even with a space heater. I am not a glutton for punishment) So on Monday Alicia frantically found a hotel in Flagstaff, a little out of the way, but reasonably priced.
On the way down to Flagstaff we stopped off at the Wupatki & Sunset Crater National Parks. Pretty neat little parks. The kids loved running around the pueblo villages. The Volcano, didn’t hold much of their interest, probably because we couldn’t hike to the crater. It was a nice little break from driving though.
Garrick did awesome with the drive. It is so nice that he is taking a bottle now. It really freed things up. Although, not so fun trying to get him warm bottles.
Everyone was nice at the parks. People were great about asking to take our family picture for us. Too bad my boys don’t cooperate very well. At least there is proof that both Mom and Dad were there.
This was at Sunset Crater Volcano, which on the maps only said Sunset Crater, which Alicia thought was Meteor Crater. Yep, next time I will investigate a little better. I had my heart set on going to Meteor Crater, so Dan was great to take a little detour on the trip so Alicia could see the crater (a later post).
Well, we made it to Flagstaff with no casualties, thank goodness for portable DVD players! The hardest part of the day was traveling across Flagstaff and back trying to figure out where to have dinner. Wouldn’t you know, we chickened out, literally, and just went to KFC. A treat for the kids since I can’t remember the last time we ate there. On to the busy days!
Garrick is definitely my timid child. Both the other boys were walking by 11 months. Well, we hit the 11th month mark last Friday, and this is the most we can get out of him.
Pick up that toy,
….and forget to hold on to the table while putting the toy in your mouth. Totally still at the inadvertent stage, but we are making progress. There we are—11 months old.
My brother really did eat my homework!
It is an 8 page book. I have only found 4 of the pages. Though I finally clicked on where the scraps of paper I had been picking up all day had come from.
So teacher, Haden will be working on his flashcards this week.
This was the theme last month in Cubs. We had to forgo our normal fieldtrip at the end of the month due to having to deliver bags for Scouting for Food. So with the left over time we pulled out a Frisbee and play a game of Ultimate. Connor and Haden were ECSTATIC. So that weekend they pulled Dan and I to the church parking lot to throw the Frisbee around!
It seemed like Haden had to run halfway across the parking lot before he would actually throw the Frisbee.
Connor still trying to figure out how to catch the stupid thing. (It doesn’t help that Alicia has absolutely NO skill in throwing a Frisbee)
There’s the pro of the family. He puts us all to shame.
Garrick spent the time laughing at us running around. He loves being in the sun.
Oh warm weather I miss you. I am currently writing this with an inch of snow on the ground – boo!
