Family Portrait

After a bit of coaxing, Jen finally got Ethan to draw a family portrait. Ethan refused to draw a picture of himself, but when Jen said he could be Super Why, he was happy to draw the picture. He had Brooklyn sit in one of the red chairs that Jen built.

After drawing the family portrait, he decided to draw our family as the Super Readers (Super Why and his super hero team). It's fun to see some of the details he remembers. For instance, Princess Presto (played by Brooklyn) has a Magical Spelling Wand and crown. Wonder Red (played by Jen) has braided hair and roller skates. Alpha Pig (Kyle) has a pig nose. And of course Super Why (Ethan) has brown hair, a mask, and a book on his shirt. We also all have shoe laces. It's funny that he missed some not-so-minor details like arms.

Kyle asked Ethan to draw a picture of him and Grandma at Disneyland (since Grandma Taylor was there this week). He thought about it and said, "I will draw a picture of me and Brooklyn and Grandma Taylor and Grandma Morrey at Disneyland. Notice how Mickey Mouse (in the upper left corner) has red pants and yellow shoes with ears on the top of his head.

Budding Artist

Ethan has been drawing a lot lately, and we've been very impressed with how good he's getting. The other day, Kyle was watching (aka sleeping through) an episode of Super Why with Ethan and Brooklyn. When the show was over, Ethan presented a "comic book" based on the episode he had just watched.


Today at church, Ethan decided to occupy himself by drawing Curious George. Notice the fine details (ears, hair, skin coloring, thumbs, etc).


When he was finished, he decided to draw Curious George with a banana. (look carefully, or you might not see it) Not bad for 3 1/2! (even if George looks a little like Pop-Eye the Sailor Man)

Marshmallow Hair Gel

Yesterday we took the kids on a picnic at the local park. We grilled some steaks and kabobs on the charcoal grill, and topped it off with some s'mores. We thought it would be fun to get those REALLY big marshmallows to roast, but we found out that giving kids marshmallows the half the size of their face isn't a good idea. Some of the roasted marshmallow goo found its way to Brooklyn's hair and glued one of her eyes shut. Needless to say, we'll be sticking to regular sized marshmallows in the future.

We went to Home Depot's monthly kid workshop, where Ethan and Brooklyn built football holders/mini tables. Brooklyn decided to eat her dinner on one tonight. Ethan was really excited to get a football to put on his stand (5 cents from a yard sale!)

Brooklyn has been really enjoying our garden this year. We have yet to find anything that she hasn't liked to take a bite out of.

Ethan and Brooklyn been loving to watch Curious George lately. It's just about their favorite thing on the planet. Ethan's favorite episode is the Donut episode. He pretty well has the entire episode memorized. We'll often find him scribbling on little pieces of paper writing, "1 dozen donuts please."

We walked in one day and found him scribbling on a piece of paper. When asked what he was doind, he replied, " I'm crunching numbers," emulating The Man in the Yellow Hat (Curious George's owner, in case you aren't familar with the show/book).

Brooklyn has been obsessed with closing doors lately. After she closed a door yesterday, Ethan commented, "Brooklyn is good at closing doors." When Jen asked, "What are you good at, Ethan?" he responded, "I'm good at lots of things."

This is the Place

On Saturday, Kyle's work held their annual summer party at This is the Place Heritage Park. We had a lot of fun going around the old west village. Ethan and Brooklyn had a lot of fun playing with this "authentic" old west water fountain. Ethan was sweet to help Brooklyn get a drink.

Jen especially looked forward to what was advertised as an "authentic old-fashioned shave." Kyle even decided to forego shaving for a week prior to get the full effect. We were dissapointed to see that the barber didn't even have a sharp blade on his razor. It was all for show.

One of the kids' favorite things to do was ride around the park on the trains. There were three of them continuously shuttling visitors around the park.

Brooklyn loved the petting zoo. She chased after the baby animals and loved to pet them and say "Lamby, lamby." Ethan was a bit timid and didn't want to touch any of the animals.

Ethan was excited to ride the ponies. He has a big grin plastered on his face the whole time. When asked if he had fun when the ride was over, he said, "Yes, and I didn't even get sacred!" He's always been a bit timid around Grandpa Morrey's horses. Maybe this has cured him.

Brooklyn, on the other hand, was very concerned about getting on the horse. She cluched onto Kyle's arm the whole time, and she did not want to let go. Kyle did break away for a second when the ride was over to snap this picture and was lucky enough to get the shot just before she started crying.

The kids also loved the miniature train that went around the pond.

Ethan didn't want stop playing on this replica (1/6 scale) of the Brooklyn.

Over all, this was the favorite company party we've been to. It helps that our kids are finally old enough to do the activities. When we were leaving Ethan said to us that he really thought we should come again.

Today at church Kyle and I spoke in Sacrament Meeting. We invited Grandma and Grandpa Taylor to watch the kids while we spoke. We also had quite the arsenal of snacks for the kids to keep them happy since they have been known to flip out if one of us has had to go up to say a prayer in the past. They did very well. Grandma also invited her parents to come and we had them all over tonight for dinner. We had a good time and the kid loved playing with them.

Summer Fun

This weekend was our local community celebration. We've been here for three and a half years, and this was the first time we've gone to check out the festivities, since the kids are finally old enough to appreciate the activities. We sure had a lot of fun.

We took the kids out on the lake in on a paddle boat. It was obvious to us that Ethan was having fun. Brooklyn had a look of indifference on her face the entire time but when we were done, she cried - she didn't want to get out of the boat. It made us want to get a boat so we can do it more often.





The kids also had a lot of fun on the inflatable bounce house/race track shown below. We thought they may have been a little small to play on it with the other bigger kids, but they had a blast.

There was also a car show that we checked out. Ethan was assigning names to the various cars - "This one is Lightning McQueen. This one is Snot Rod." etc. We saw this souped up car and Ethan said, "That one kind of looks like Grandma Morrey's car." She drives a Honda Accord.

The other "car" we really liked was the semi shown here. It's a little hard to tell at first, but this is a golf cart that looks like a semi. The golf clubs behind it gives an idea of the scale.

We took the kids swimming at the local kiddie pool, which was free for the day. The had so much fun. It is so fun to see them playing with each other.

This morning Brooklyn decided she would dress herself before church. She put on the Super Why costume Jen has been working on for Ethan for Halloween. Jen was surprised to return from her presidency meeting to find the kids parading around the front yard, Ethan in his PJs and Brooklyn dressed like this.

Ethan has finally figured out how to pedal his bike. He loves to ride up and down our sidewalk. The other day we caught Brooklyn helping him. So cute.

This morning while we were rushing to get out the door to get to church Ethan got so mad when I put gel in his hair. He usually likes it. He got upset and said, "No! I don't want to be handsome!"

We've been impressed with the improvement in Ethan's coloring as of late. Here are a few of his masterpieces from Sacrament Meeting today.

Prince and Princess

Tonight, while in our backyard Ethan came outside carrying Brooklyn's clear, jelly shoes trying to catch her telling her, "I've got your glass slippers! I can be the prince and you can be the princess!" He tried to put them on her feet so he could dance with her. Unfortunately for him, she was having too much fun picking and eating strawberries to give him that dance. We were surprised and impressed at his princess knowledge. I don't think he has ever watched Cinderella, though he has seen the "Super Why" version before. We sure love these kids!

24th of July Festivities

We spent the 24th of July weekend with family in Cache Valley. We had a lot of fun at Grandma Taylor's annual 24th of July family party. Ethan had his traditional fireworks meltdown when we pulled out the fireworks. He just doesn't like loud noises. We couldn't even get him to touch any of the little snaps you drop on cement for a small bang. Brooklyn couldn't get enough of them. We finally got him to agree to go the big fireworks in Mendon as long as he could wear Grandpa's gun shooting ear muffs so the fireworks wouldn't be loud, but he fell asleep ten minutes before the fireworks started. Maybe next year. Brooklyn loved the fireworks, showing no sign of fear. She just sat and stared in awe.

Friday night Kyle, Ethan, and cousin Brian had a campout in the backyard. Kyle thought he wouldn't sleep very well, but he probably got more sleep than anyone sleeping in the house thanks to Brooklyn waking up crying at least three times in the middle of the night.

Ethan was excited Saturday morning to go to Grandma Morrey's house and watch the parade, but he flipped out when he realized he left his Buzz and Woody toys at Grandma Taylor's house. He was so upset that he started walking back to Mendon to get his beloved toys. He got as far as the end of Grandma Morrey's driveway before he realized he didn't know which way to go. He sobbed and screamed through the entire parade, repeating "Buzz and Woody, Buzz and Woody." The rest of us had fun though.

We had a family pot luck with at Jen's Aunt Kaye's house on Sunday and Brooklyn was such a doll running around in her "princess" dress. She and Ethan couldn't get enough of the swings, picnic table, and sandbox.

The kids also enjoyed eating at a picnic table their own size.

Brooklyn loved having Grandpa Taylor read to her.

The other day Jen's mom came to visit and she took us all to to Wendy's near Kyle's work. Ethan got a microphone toy with his kid's meal and he was so excited. He was hard to keep quiet once he had it in his hands. He has always wanted a microphone like on the PBS cartoon "Sid the Science Kid." He sure got a lot of laughs from the other people in the restaurant.