Grandma Got Run Over by a Muskrat

Earlier this week Jen had to go to a "meeting" (that's where we tell Ethan Mom is going whenever she goes anywhere by herself) and Kyle took the kids on a walk to a local park. Ethan has such a vivid imagination. We were two doors down from our house, and Ethan decided that he would be Woody and Dad would be Buzz Lightyear and Brooklyn would be Jessie (the yodeling cowgirl). Then he said he was going to ride RC (the toy car from Toy Story), reached into the basket of the stroller, and pulled out an imaginary RC car. He rode the car for a few more houses until he decided he wanted to fly. He put the car back in the stroller, and started flying down the sidewalk.

Our destination for this walk was a small nearby park that we don't usually go to. This park has a couple of raccoon toys for the kids to ride. Ethan was excited to jump on (as Woody) and ride his horse, Bullseye. Brooklyn had fun too.
This weekend, we went up for a late Easter/birthday party with Kyle's extended family in Brigham City. Grandpa Morrey brought his horses to give the kids a ride. Ethan said that he wasn't big enough to ride the horses. Once Brooklyn got on she didn't want to get off!

Both Ethan and Brooklyn loved riding the 4-wheeler's up and down the dirt road. Ethan kept shouting things like "This is so fun," and "Rock and Roll!" (Anyone familiar with the Bob the Builder cartoon will recognize that this is Scrambler the 4-wheeler's catch phrase)

Another highlight of the trip was when the dog ran up to the party with a freshly killed muskrat in his jaws. He chased Grandma Morrey around the 4-wheeler a few times before running off to show the everyone else. We really wish we would have gotten a picture of that.

And now, a few miscellaneous things:

Brooklyn has started saying "Ethan" and "Brooklyn." Ethan is "Eth" and Brooklyn is "Broo" (pronounced as if she is going to say it correctly, but leaves off the "klyn"). We bought some Blue's Clues Luv's diapers the other day and she loves to point to the picture of Blue (the dog) and say "Blue." She's been trying to emulate whatever we say instead of just ignoring us.

For the last couple of months, whenever she sees or hears anything that has to do with Elmo she sticks out her tongue and says, "la la la la" as if she's singing "Elmo's Song."

We've discovered a great trick to get Ethan to do what we want when we want him to, whether it's getting him ready for bed, finish eating his dinner, or get ready to leave the park without an argument. We show him the clock and say, "Right now the clock says 6 - 2 - 1. When the clock says 6 - 3 - 0, it's time to . . ." He agrees, continues doing what he's doing, and then when it's time we show him the clock again and say, "Ok, now the clock says 6-3-0. It's time to . . " and he's ready to go. Works like magic.