Dad and the Boys

(By guest blogger Jonathon)

Sarah slept in yesterday, leaving the boys and me unsupervised. So, of course, we watched videos on YouTube. I was showing them some of the many Lego stop-motion videos when Christian wondered how they were made. I told Christian and Andrew about it, and they immediately wanted to make one. So we got to work.

However, it is much harder than I thought it would be. As it turns out, of the three of us, I have the least amount of patience for this kind of thing. Anyway, we took 40 pictures with my iSight camera (the webcam on my laptop) slowly moving each car forward a cm at a time. Then we loaded all of the pictures into iMovie and put them together at a rate of 10 pictures per second. After an hour, we finally got a pretty bad 4 second video done.

I thought our little educational experience was done and I could move on with my life, but the boys thought otherwise. After much persuasion, I finally agreed to try again this afternoon. It went faster this time and turned out much better. The video is only 18 seconds long, but it includes several camera angles and even has dubbed audio. It's nothing much, but the boys had a blast. We will see how long it takes them to convince me to do it again.

Here is our final product which the boys lovingly refer to as Cars 4:

I intended to just take a picture of my new haircut....

But the boys had other ideas. 

We had way too much fun with Photo Booth. We haven't laughed that hard in a long time! It was nice to be able to spend some fun time being silly together.

First, the new haircut. 

After a year and a half without a cut, I love having some kind of hairstyle again.

 Straight with layers... and a curly ponytail

Fun with the Boys

 Chipmunks

Aliens

Watch Your Step!

Last Friday, Christian fell down the stairs while he was playing. He said that he missed the step, rolled down the stairs, and tried to catch himself at the bottom.

That is when the screaming started.

He immediately started gasping, "I broke my am! I broke my arm!" I calmed him down, looked at his arm, and told him that I thought it was just fine. I gave him a drink and let him watch cartoons for a little while. 

He kept saying, "Mom, now I can't clean up my toys." This was rather convenient since I told him he couldn't have his after-school snack until the toys were cleaned up. 

3 hours later, he was still crying intermittently and not moving his hurt arm. Jonathon thought we should probably take him in to the doctor. I was still skeptical because his arm was still not swollen and looked fine. He also kept talking about not being able to clean up until his arm was better. It all seemed a bit fishy to me. I am notorious for being overly concerned about injuries, so this was highly unusual for me.

Luckily, Jonathon took control of the situation and took him to the urgent care. I got a call about 45 minutes later that the arm was indeed broken. He has a hairline fracture of the humerus near the elbow. He handled it all really well and didn't complain much about the pain after the first few hours.

I might not have realized it was broken at first, but the next day there was no doubt. That little boy's elbow was as big as mine because it was so swollen. In fact, at his appointment to get a cast on Monday, it was still too swollen to cast it. The Doctor said it would probably take another week before it would be able to be cast. So until then, he is wearing a splint and trying to be careful. 

Christian has really had a good attitude about everything so far. He told me today that kids at school were calling him "Broken Arm Boy." Worried about his feelings, I asked him if he was okay. He said, "Mom, it's fine. I do have a broken arm." 

I have always known that broken bones were probable with two little boys. I just figured it would be the wild and crazy boy (Andrew), not the reserved and calm one (Christian) to have one. As far as broken bones go, this experience hasn't been too bad.

 My fingers are crossed that we won't have another one for a long, long time!

"The Scaree Haluween" By: Christian

In his Kindergarten class, Christian gets to write "self-authored books." Technically, the Kindergarten students are just supposed to draw the pictures and dictate to an adult what the story should say. Christian, however, loves to write and is getting really good at it. I encourage him to write his own stories. He sounds out all of the words by himself and does his best to write real stories. He only half-heartedly draws pictures because he is supposed to, but he has always been quite the linguist. I love to see him learning and growing and improving. Here is his third self-authored book called "The Scaree Haluween." I wrote the correct words at the top for future reference, but Christian's words are actually pretty readable. I think it is pretty awesome for only being in Kindergarten for 3 months.

Christian is also a great reader. He reads like crazy and is cruising through all of the books in his class. He has to read each book 3 times and can only get one new book per day. He gets very bored by the third time through and has begun to sing the books in an opera voice. It is both hysterical and completely annoying. We are so grateful that he loves to learn and is doing so well in school.

Christian Says:

"After I'm done being a paleontologist, I am going to be a football player."

In the Locker Room:
Christian: Where is mom?
Dad: In the girl's locker room.
C: They have a separate room.
D: Yep, the boys and girls each have their own room.
C: Why?
D: (Not wanting to get into it in public...) You will understand when you are older.
C: (Throwing arms up) I want to understand NOW!
D: Because boys and girls look different when their clothes are off, so they need their own rooms.
C: So, they have separate rooms so they don't get their clothes mixed up?
D: (laughing) yeah, something like that.
C: It's a bad idea to separate boys and girls.

"Did you know that when you are a genius you have to feed your brain. You need to eat fish and broccoli every day and drink 10 gallons of water."

While playing with their toy dinosaurs:
Christian (exasperated): "Andrew, would you please stop calling a stygimoloch a maiasaura. We don't have any maiasaura."

"Mom, I just thought of the biggest food chain ever. The sun which is food for phytoplankton, which are food for zooplankton, which are food for anchovies, which are food for little squid, which are food for giant squid, which are food for sharks, which are food for people." (I'm not sure if this food chain is technically correct, but I don't doubt Christian)

Dad: "Christian, you are going to Grandma's while mom and I go car shopping."
Christian: "How do you put a car in a bag?"

While looking at the planter boxes in our gardening book:
"I didn't know you could build sand boxes for your plants!"

"Mom, did you know that a big space rock that hits the earth is called a meteorite. All of the other rocks that miss earth and are just flying around in space are called meteor-wrongs."

Jonathon: Mom wants us to buy some ant traps.
Christian: It won't hurt the ants, will it?
J: It is a poison that will kill the ants because we don't want them in our house.
C: (Highly emotional by this point...) You can't kill the ants. They are an important part of the ecosystem.

Seemingly out of nowhere...
Christian: "I am getting better at laying eggs."
We soon realized that he was talking about playing Angry Birds. Christian and Andrew love that game, especially the birds that lay the egg "bombs."

We were helping Christian read the words on his pencil. They said "I Love NY."
Christian: "What does NY stand for?"
Dad: "New York"
Christian: "I love New York... no I don't!"

The First Day of School

My first child started Kindergarten today.

Amazingly, there were no tears.

Christian did great too!

 The traditional first day of school picture on our front stairs. So Excited!

Andrew had to get in on the action too.

Learning to line up outside the school / Christian's new seat in his classroom

Everything went fairly smoothly today. He got to meet his teacher and see his classroom during orientation last week, so Christian wasn't too nervous for the start of school. He was excited all morning long, but when it came time to line up with his class, I saw a flash of fear in his eyes. He held my hand tight and I thought for a minute he was going to run for the car. Luckily, he summoned his courage, and was able to relax a little bit. I walked with him into his classroom, took a picture, and said a quick goodbye. When I picked him up after school, he told me all about his adventures and his new friends. 

I think this school thing is going to work out just fine!

(The only one who isn't thrilled with the whole situation is Andrew. I think he had the hardest time of anyone. He will miss his good buddy, Christian.) 

Christian Says:

"Spiders use their webs like magnets. The insect is the magnet and the web is the refrigerator."

Christian has been really into animals lately. That brought up this analogy that he somehow concocted in his funny little brain:
"Finding eggs in the ocean is like trying to find a flea in the dryer. They're both hard."

During our trip to Idaho, Andrew was REALLY scared of the cat. He would scream every time it came into the room. Christian caught on to this and decided to torture him a little bit. When Jonathon was putting the boys to bed, they were all laying in there quietly. Suddenly, Jonathon heard Christian quietly whisper, "meow, meow." Jonathon gave him a major talking to, and we thought it had finally sunk in. We were wrong. The next day when he thought we weren't around, we heard Christian say, "Don't worry, Andrew. The cat will only eat you when you're sleeping."

"Mom, someday I will teach you to dance and exercise like me."

When we were discussing his birthday cake, Christian got really excited and described a really complex cake. I was worried that I couldn't make what he wanted so I said, "Christian, can I just do my best to make you a nice cake. It might not be perfect like you want." He replied,"You can make little mistakes, but no big mistakes."

One night when Christian was supposed to be trying to sleep...
Christian: Dad, What is a black hole?
Jonathon: A super dense object that sucks everything in.
C: Can it transport you through time?
J: Some people have proposed that may happen.
C: How does it transport you through time.
J: (Feeling deafeated...) I don't know son, now go to bed.

While eating lunch at McDonald's:
C: "Mom, why did I get a toy with my lunch?"
M: "Because it is a Happy Meal."
C: "What is a Happy Meal?"
(Oh man, I feel like such a good mom!)

During his birthday party, we asked Christian what things he could do now that he was five. He couldn't really think of anything, but a few minutes later he said, "When snails are five, they can't race anymore."

Christian was helping Aaron put together his new dinosaur train. Aaron was trying to attach two of the cars, but was putting the wrong sides together. Christian showed him that you had to put the ball end into the cup end. He said, "Aaron, it's easy... it is just like putting ice cream into a cone."

When cousin Loriann stood up to go get dinner, Christian quickly grabbed her seat and then proceeded to say in a sassy voice. "Excuse me... you're blocking my view."

Big Birthday Boy!

Christian turned 5 on Thursday! When I asked him what he would like to do for a party, he said he wanted to go to the aquarium with Siena O. He also told me he wanted an underwater cake with sharks, fish, dolphins, and whales. Yikes! He is asking a lot of his poor mommy. We tried our best to make all of his birthday dreams come true....

The Aquarium in Sandy is much smaller than the one I am used to (Monterey, CA), but it was the perfect size for a bunch of little kids. Christian was so excited to be there. The kids were practically running from one exhibit to the next. It was all we could do to make sure that none of them got lost. We finished the whole thing in slightly over an hour, which was perfect timing because they all started begging for food as soon as we were done. Afterward, Christian reported that his favorite things were the sharks and the underwater cave cockroaches. Andrew liked the penguins and the snake. Aquarium... check!

Then on Saturday, we had a barbecue with some of Jonathon's family. Christian was so full of energy because he was the center of attention. He was running back and forth and saying so many funny things that we were all cracking up. (A nice, big "Christian says:" post to follow shortly) He wanted hamburgers, hotdogs, chips, and ice cream to go along with his underwater cake. So without further ado....

The Cake:

I decided since Christian wanted so many different animals, I would do sugar cookie animals and put them onto the cake. That allowed me to use cookie cutters for the shapes and then frost them each individually. I ended up with 5 different sea creatures, so I went with a square cake to showcase each one on its own side. I made waves in the blue icing to give it the appearance of water and then piped in green seaweed around the edges. When I was almost done, Christian surprised me with one last request. He wanted the fifth candle to be balanced on the dolphin's nose. That one about did me in. After failing to secure it with frosting, I broke out my handy dandy hot glue gun and glued that sucker to the back of the dolphin. Luckily, he was happy with that solution.

Here are pictures of all sides of the cake:

We had a wonderful time at his family party. The weather was perfect, and we were able to sit outside in the shade. Christian was a lucky boy this year and got so many neat presents. He was on cloud nine all night. Some of his favorite presents: a new Land Before Time movie, a dolphin pillow pet, a dinosaur train, a dinosaur puzzle, and his very first pet... a fish. 

Christian is a smart, sweet, kind little boy. We love him so much.

Happy Birthday, Christian!

Preschool Graduate

Christian graduated on Thursday from Mini Explorers Preschool. They had a cute little ceremony complete with hats and awards. Christian won the "Knows the Most Facts" award.  I could have called that one! Miss Alisha and Miss Sadie made special mention that during dinosaur week, Christian told them all about each of the dinosaurs and how to pronounce the names. Haha, that sounds like my boy.  Now it's on to Kindergarten....

Of Birthdays, Baking, and Blast-offs!

It has been an eventful few weeks at our house. May is always full of festivities, but it is even more crazy this year. The first week of May, Jonathon went to a heart conference in Cincinnati for 4 days, arriving home just in time to celebrate Mother's Day. The next week was my birthday, and our anniversary is the last week. Along with all of that, we have preschool parties/graduation and lots of wedding preparations. (Did i mention that I am making 500 cupcakes AND a wedding cake for my brother's wedding.... yikes!) Let the pictures begin:

Aaron and Amanda's birthday is the day before mine, so we all celebrated together down in Provo. They turned the BIG 16! I turned the big 28.... 

 The Birthday Trio

 Blowing out the candles

 I really wanted to practice making the wedding cupcakes and cake before the actual wedding. On Saturday I went into a baking frenzy. I frosted cupcakes the same colors they are going to be, tried out a couple of new cake recipes, and have made 300 little chocolate flowers so far.  I think they turned out great. Hopefully, they will look great for the actual day!

 I think I am going to do one more practice in about a week and then hope that I can pull it out for the wedding. It has made me a little nervous, but it is also exciting to try something new and gain some new skills. Luckily, Matt and Katie are very calm and relaxed (and forgiving!) about the whole thing.

Last, but not least, Christian is approaching the end of preschool. He has done wonderfully and made a lot of new friends. Andrew and I were able to go to the park to watch them shoot off the rockets they made while studying space last week. They had an air compressor all set up and were able to shoot the rockets really far. I was pretty impressed by the whole set-up, and Andrew kept saying "Whoa!" when they would launch them. 

 Christian getting ready for the launch

 After retrieving his rocket

 His Goofy Grin!

Cute brothers watching the rest of the launches together

Happy Easter

It has been a wonderful Easter holiday for our family. On Saturday our ward had an Easter breakfast and egg hunt for all of the families. The boys had a great time finding the eggs.

Once at home, the Easter baskets became a fashion accessory. The silly boys wore them on their heads all morning long.

Playing and dying eggs with Easter baskets

On Easter morning, we gave the boys some new Easter books (Thanks Grandma C!) that they read all morning. At church I got to teach the Easter lesson to my Primary class. I was so glad that I was able to take the time to prepare it and ponder on the reason for Easter-- the resurrection of Jesus Christ! Later that evening, we went to Aunt Gaylene's house for an awesome Easter dinner. The company was great, the food was delicious, and it was the perfect way to celebrate. After all of those years away from family, we really do treasure the times we get to be together.

The favorite thing of the whole holiday though was a little Book of Mormon that I bought for Christian. His primary leaders have really been encouraging the kids to bring their scriptures to church. Christian can't read them yet, but I wanted him to be able to participate, so I went into the distribution center and found this little one for $4. It is the right size for him to carry around, and he was so excited to take it to church. The only problem seems to be that Andrew wants one too. It is a good problem to have.

Happy Easter!

All About Christian

Nothing too exciting has been happening at our house for the last few weeks, but everyday life has been pretty great. Jonathon and I both agree that this is one of the happiest times our family has ever had. We are all in a good routine and schedule, everyone is healthy, we are finally feeling some financial stability, and things are just overall positive. Times like this don't always happen, so I wanted to document some of the normal, everyday things that are making us happy. This post is all about Christian...

*Preschool: Christian has been going to preschool 3 days a week this school year. He really loves his teachers, his friends, and his school. He is learning so much and is especially working on reading and writing. A few weeks ago, he got to bring home his school pet for the day. Luckily, it was a STUFFED elephant named Peanut. He played with it all day and then got to write down their adventures in the class journal. This is his writing and drawings. I thought it was pretty cute, so I took a picture. His words say "Penut, Christian, and car"

*Field Trip: For one of Christian's preschool field trips, we got to go to the Gateway Discovery Museum. The boys loved the kid-sized town that they had set up. The majority of our time was spent there, but we also got to do some science stuff and sit in a life flight helicopter. 

At the kid-sized grocery store

 At the building yard

In the helicopter

*Grandma H's birthday was April 1st, so Christian gave her a homemade card. Here is some more of his writing and drawing. I always have him sound out the words by himself first because I think it will help him learn. It also gives him a lot of confidence to do it by himself.

* Last week we got "Duck Tales"-- the TV series from Netflix.  Jonathon was initially just being sentimental about our childhood, but it turns out that Christian and Andrew love it.  During one episode Gyro goes back in time and becomes a knight (please tell me I'm not the only one that remembers all of these). Christian decided he wanted to be a knight, so he came up with this costume. A beanie for a helmet, cardboard shield, and sword from a vacuum cleaner attachment. He loves to pretend, and is always acting out his latest ideas.

Pumpkin Patch Field Trip

Christian went on his first field trip last Thursday, and Andrew and I got to go too. We went to a cute little pumpkin patch near our house. It was raining and nasty beforehand, but when we got there, the sun came out, and it was a beautiful Fall day. We had a great time.

Andrew standing on the trailer getting ready for the hayride

 The boys choosing their own special pumpkins. Andrews was a bit too heavy for him (hence the face :)

 After we got done picking pumpkins, we headed back to the activity area. They had so many fun things to do all made with the farm theme.  Here are some examples:

giant "jump house" pumpkin; corn tunnel

 haybale slide; 4-wheeler cow train