Wild Wild West

We just got back from a trip to the family cabin in Island Park, Idaho. While there, we had to stop in West Yellowstone for our traditional family photo. You may notice how much more classy we've become over the years. The kids were very excited about holding guns.
Here's our photo from 2007, when Ethan was only a few months old.

And here's the one from 2006. This picture sat on the desk of the photo studio for many years as an example of how a girl can dress as a modest "saloon girl." It now hangs on the wall above the desk.

We have many more adventures (with pictures) to share soon. Stay tuned.

Ethan's antics

Here are a few quick stories about our silly little boy:

Ethan has had a phobia of fruit for the last few months. Anytime he sees a strawberry, he screams and backs away. When someone is eating a banana, he always complains about the smell.
This afternoon we were eating some plums and when Ethan noticed what we were doing, he ran downstairs to get his pliers. When he came back upstairs, he was plugging his nose so he didn't have to smell the offending fruit.

Ethan and Brooklyn were having a bath earlier this week. We stepped away for a minute, and when we came back one of them dumped a bunch of shampoo into the water and all over both kids' hair. The water was so soapy, we had to give them a quick shower to get all of the soap off. Brooklyn did fine with the shower, but Ethan was traumatized. After he was all cleaned up and dried off, he wanted to draw a picture of the shower. This is what he drew:

You can see the water falling down, and the circle with a cross through it (similar to a "no smoking" sign). At the bottom, he wrote, "No Showers!" (or at least that's what he says he wrote.)

Weekend of the Fourth

This weekend we went to Logan for Fourth of July festivities. As soon as we got out of the van at Grandma Morrey's house, Brooklyn saw the neighbor's cat and had to go shower it with love.

We celebrated Kyle's Grandma Smith's birthday with sparklers. Ethan didn't dare hold one.

We got Brooklyn to hold one for a few seconds.

The family went to Romney Stadium to watch the fireworks. Ethan didn't dare come, but Brooklyn was excited to go. She had a lot of fun running around before the show. When the fireworks started, she sat in Grandma Morrey's lap and hardly moved a muscle. When asked if the fireworks were scary, she replied, "I 'tared." When asked if she like the fireworks, she gave an enthusiastic "Yes!"

She made it most of the way through the fireworks, but couldn't last through the entire show.

The next day, Grandpa Morrey took Jen, Brooklyn, and Grandma Taylor to ride horses. Brooklyn had lots of fun playing on the bleachers while the horses were getting ready to go.

Grandpa Morrey got them ready.

And Brooklyn wandered off into a nearby, picking "pretty flowers" (the giant dandelion-type weeds).

The next day, we took the kids to the Cache Valley Cruise-in. Ethan and Brooklyn both had fun seeing some real-life cars from one of their favorite movies, Cars (of course).

This picture shows their utter excitement, doesn't it?

There were some other fun cars too.

Last weekend, we took the kids to see Cars 2. They were really excited to see it in 3D. We figured the kids would do well since they've each been to a few movies before. When we walked in to the theater, Ethan flipped out about the room being so dark. He cried that he wanted to go home. He burried his face into Kyle's chest until he recognized Woody's and Buzz's voices from the Toy Story short before the featured presentation. He peaked at the screen and cheered up a bit until the Toy Story credits showed up, at which point his face went right back into Kyle's chest where it stayed until the Cars movie started. Again he heard voices he recoginzed and peaked at the screen. After about 10 minutes into the show, Kyle finally convinced him to sit forward and put on his 3D glasses. Kyle never could convince him to sit in his own seat. Brooklyn took a hint from Ethan and insisted Jen hold her. So we had to hold both kids through the entire film. Ethan did fine until the last five minutes. He must have sensed the credits were coming, and he started hystarically screaming. His head went right back into Kyle's chest for the remainder of the show.

We thanked our lucky stars that there were only a handful of people in the theater, although it did give Brooklyn the excuse to run up and down the aisle for the last fifteen minutes of the movie.

After we left the theater and Ethan finally stopped crying, we asked him what he thought of the movie. To our surprise, he firmly declared that he loved the movie! He loved that it had three races, whereas the original Cars only had two. We liked it too, despite the mediocre reviews it has been getting. It's about half an hour too long, and the plot is way too complex for our kids.

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's day to all the great daddies out there, especially the three dads who have been the greatest blessing in my life, my dad, Kyle's dad and Kyle himself. I've learned so much from all of them and am so grateful for the relationships we have and that they have with my kids. I have to say, though, that I think I married the sweetest daddy on the planet. From the time Ethan was born he has always been such a naturally tender father. He loves to spend time with the kids as much as he can and finds so much joy in watching them learn and grow. I admire all the sacrifices he makes for us and all he does to provide for us. I can't find the words to express the deep love that I have for him and for the loving family he has helped establish.

This week we finished up swimming lessons. It was a really good experience for Ethan. Although he still has a long way to go to get over some fears, I'm grateful we made the decision to start them this year. He really had a great time and looks forward to going swimming as a family throughout the summer.

Meg, one of Ethan's friends, had a birthday party this last week. Ethan was the only boy invited, and Meg was adamant that he come. He picked out a Little Mermaid toy for her and was excited to give it to her. Her family rented a bounce house for the party and Ethan loved it.

Ethan has already been planning his Halloween costume. He keeps flip-flopping between

Tangled characters (Him as Flynn Rider, Brooklyn as Rapunzel, and Dad as the horse, Maximus), Cars characters, PBS cartoon character Word Girl (which we are aren't going to support outside of our home), and a few others. Well, this week at a yard sale, we found these awesome Cars costumes. Both kids have been racing all over the house in them. This morning, Ethan "pulled" Mom out of bed using Mater's tow cable.

Today for our Father's Day dessert we had chocolate fondue with coconut covered marshmallows, strawberries, bananas, and pretzels. It was enjoyed by all but possibly ruined a t-shirt or two. Ooops!

Now that the warm weather is finally here, our peas decided to produce. Two days ago, Brooklyn spent at least 20 minutes picking them clean. Today, enough had replaced them that we were able to have fresh peas with our lunch. Yummy.

Swimming Lessons

Ethan started swimming lessons this week. He was very timid for most of the week, but by Friday he was "swimming" all by himself. When he finally let go of the teacher and floated by himself on Friday, the teacher quietly declared it a miracle.
He also got to the point where he would jump into the teacher's arms instead of cautiously sliding down the side of the pool.

He's getting more comfortable with each lesson. Here's a picture of the first time he "jumped" off the diving board. He's a little more comfortable now, but has a long way to go.

After swimming lessons the kids love to go feed the ducks near the pool.

These ducks are very friendly, and Ethan even got on of them to eat right out of his hand.

Houseparty.com is a website that gives free products from sponsoring companies as a method of marketing. They sent us a bunch of washable dry erase markers and marker boards to give away. We had a bunch of kids over on Saturday, and they all seemed to have a good time.

One of the activities we did was inspired by the kid's show Blues Clues. We hid little blue footprints around the yard, and the kids had to find them and draw a picture of the different clues.

Brooklyn likes to eat with her toes. It's funny to watch.

Party

This weekend the kids were invited to a birthday party. They had fun playing with the other kids.
The kids decorated picture frames for one of the activties. Brooklyn put all of the stickers on her frame, and then took them all off.
Ethan was very excited to put firetrucks, airplanes, cars, boats, and other stickers on his picture frame.

The birthday boy (Thomas) had a cool monster truck cake.

The kids have been excited about our garden this year. Ethan's favorite so far is the parsley. He and Brooklyn will go in the back yard and pick it and eat it. Brooklyn has been loving to nibble the tops off of the green onions - while they're still in the ground! Jen was having her help carry things in the other day, and she ate one of the freshly picked radishes - dirt and all! She'll also peels the paper part off of onions in the kitchen and tries to eat the raw onion. We sure have to keep an eye on her and what she eats!

Bargain Hunters

As the weather has gotten warmer, our weekly tradition of seeking out yard sales has started back up. The kids get excited when we tell them, "Tomorrow we're going to some yard sales!" This year they have had good reason for their excitement; we've found some really fun stuff for them for some really great prices. Just last week we found this Power Wheels Jeep, and it only cost us...

$3.00

Ethan had been begging to get a scooter, but with all the other toys, Brooklyn has been the one getting really good at riding it. And it only cost us...

$2.00

We've been hoping to find a bike for Ethan to ride. We got this one at our community yard sale yesterday, and he's already spent countless hours riding back and forth between our driveway and the neighbor's (and he's very good at staying within these boundaries we've set for him). The bike, including training wheels only cost us...

$5.00

A few years back, we got a Little Tikes "cozy coupe" (the red and yellow Flintstone style car) that both kids love to drive. When we saw this mini van, we just had to grab it so they could each have a car to drive. Ethan's favorite thing about this one is that it has a "trunk" that he can store his toys in while he drives. Brooklyn's favorite thing about it is that she can use the trunk as a back seat that she uses to hitch a ride with Ethan. And it only cost us...

$5.00

We feel like our kids are already getting really spoiled this year, but for a grand total of $15.00 we can't help ourselves.

And now for something completely different:

The other day, Ethan went poop in the toilet just after a lunchtime quesadilla. When he was done, instead of yelling his standard, "Mom, I went poo-poo," signaling to us that he needs help wiping, he yelled out, "I see a big poop and some little ball poops. I think the big one was my tortilla, and the little ones were the cheese!"