Sha-mean Business

We played "Mighty Sha-means" today.  How 'bout you?   What did you do today?  When Jace says "machines" it comes out "sha-means."  Pretty dang cute.

Playing sha-means means that Mommy gets her metal 1 cup measuring cup out of the kitchen drawer and comes downstairs to the sandbox. She then sits on the edge so she can fill each dump truck up a scoop at a time, making sure to not "miss a spot."  Then the dump trucks haul their loads away to the construction site and dump it out.   She does this over and over and OVER again!   Luckily for her, the sandbox is indoors.  She can enjoy this sand in the comfort of 70 degree temps.  No pelting rain coming down, no sweltering humidity, no freezing snow, no scorching heat.  Just good old comfort to enjoy.
                                                   Ya can't get enough perks with that there sand.

I love Robin toe prints in the sand.

Heck, she doesn't even have to get dressed. She can enjoy this good ol'fashion fun in her pajamas all day long if you know what I shamean!

Happy 87th Birthday Dad!  I Love You! xoxo

Eggventory!



204 eggs ready to go!


With only 3 more days until the Easter Bunny visits our house, I spent my morning mating Easter eggs.  You know, like mating socks.

When I opened my blue Easter tote on Saturday to get Jace his Easter basket for the Primary activity, I noticed that all our eggs were a disheveled mess from last year.  Thinking back to last year, I remembered that the squirrels in Virgina attacked our eggs and chewed big holes in them and ate the candy.  Can you believe the rascals?  I still want revenge!

Last year the Easter Bunny hid 100 eggs for 3 year old  Robin to find. I remember being  worried that it wasn't  enough.  Jace is a night owl and we finally got him to bed after 10:00pm.  Ryan and I stayed up and filled 80 plastic eggs with money and candy.  I was great with child, so Ryan was  in the dark in our 1/2 acre back yard hiding eggs until all hours of the night.  Around midnight I was telling him,  " I really don't think 80 eggs is enough.  I just filled 20 more.  Will you pleeeease hide them for me.  I would rather have too many then wish we had more.  Easter is only once a year.  Please Ryan hide them- pretty please!!  You know if I wasn't so dang pregnant I would do it myself."

Oh, my sweet Rye-Pie told me over and over again that 80 was a great number.  That we had PLENTY.  But he still went out and hid my last 20 eggs until freakin' 1:00AM!

The next morning when Jace had about 60 eggs found, he saw a  medium sized frog hoping through our damp grass.  Well the frog  trumped the Easter egg hunt.  So who do you think had to go find the 40 eggs that were left behind?

Oh, that would have been Ryan!

This year I have limited myself to 200 eggs.  I only had 130 this morning after cutting my losses to the squirrels.  So I packed the kids up and off to Kmart and the dollar store we went.  We had such a great time getting 70--yes-- 70 more eggs for the Easter Bunny to hide.

The jury is still out on whether 204 eggs will be enough!!



Grace LOVED the disheveled egg mess!



I do admit that I get a little carried away when it comes to the holidays.  And my reasoning behind my madness-- it's in my genes!! But all too soon my little Robin and Rue will be grown and gone.

All sorted and counted.

My Little Gymnest

A snowy January, February and March  brought us one cooped-up Robin in our neck of the woods.  To solve the problem we signed him up for the "Mighty-Mini's" class at the Iowa City Gymnest.

Here Jace is seen going proudly into class with his coat on upside down and backwards.  But he put it on himself!
He is also trying his skill at rolling down the  triangle, and sitting and listening on his "target."

He's a natural!

The highlight to every session was going downstairs to the big room to jump in the square pit.

Waiting his turn to jump into the "squares."   Notice the lost sock.  We lost half  a dozen socks in the pit.

In he went

Then out he climbed. Over and over again!

Waiting his turn for the "big" trampoline --

-and then getting some good air!


Oh, it was a great 3 months.  Our winter session just ended.


We had so much fun watching our "curly-haired-mo" (Jace)  bob up and down and all around.  What a long and lanky gymnast he became.


We will miss you Iowa Gymnest until next year!

Rain Rain

Rain, rain go away, come again another day.   That is a little rhyme that my Mom taught me to say when on the rare occasion I woke up in Southern Utah to rain.  I would chant this little saying to myself  to ease my disappointment of not being able to go outside and play.

Well, the Midwest is known for rain.  And we had lots of it today.

Christopher Robin came in to me early in the day with the declaration that he wanted to "do something fun today."

We started with board games and it was really fun.

His favorite is Mouse Trap.  He got one for Christmas.  I had shown him one at the Goodwill and his little mechanical mind was absolutely mesmerized by it.  He was broken  hearted that I didn't buy it for him. I grew up playing the game and I knew that there were several pieces missing. Luckily Santa came through this year.

Here he is playing the "ABC's"



He sings the ABC's to himself  out of pitch and very loudly as he places each wooden letter down on the Scrabble board in order.  I love it!

                                                      Rue got in on the action too!


By 11:00AM we were done with board games and on to "making a garbage dump."  He needed  all my "stinky junk" to load in his dumptruck  and haul off to the landfill--his bedroom.  Just when the pile got huge----Daddy came home for the day  at 11:40AM.  (Rough schedule this week!  We love efficient surgeons that get in and get out!)



Behold the garbage dump.  Not too shabby!



We ran out of stinky junk so we made cookies and rode on Daddy's back.

As much as we tried to avoid it, clean-up time eventually came.  Those two were at it for at least an hour and a half.  And they had a marvelous time.

Singing and clapping hands all the while cleaning up the dump.

They did a great job!

And now, with the "Autobots" all in a row, it is bedtime.

It was one SUNNY rainy day, all thanks to a Dad who surprised us and came home early.  He is also the best Dad a little boy could have!

Ryan has a full Saturday tomorrow.  He has a big Osborn lecture to go to  from 8:00AM to 4:00PM followed by dinner from 6:00pm to 9:00pm that I have to go to.

And Jace has a Primary activity in the morning.  So that is what we will be doing all day.

Have a great weekend everybody!

Rue's Pliko P3

Doesn't she just look stylin'?!!

I scored Rue a Pliko P3 today in Lisbon, Iowa!!  What the heck is a Pliko P3 you ask, and where is Lisbon, Iowa?  Well, I had no idea myself until about 24 hours ago.

A Pliko P3 Peg Perego is the perfect stroller (in my opinion) for little Rue.  Jace's old second hand $3.00 umbrella stroller was not cutting it anymore. I needed one with more bells and whistles.  A Peg Perego isn't just any stroller, it is the top of the line, the creme de la creme, sporting ball bearing suspension wheels, rear foot board for second child, folds up with one hand like an umbrella stroller, and turns on a dime.  Need I say more? One of these puppies will put you back $299.00 or more.

Today at  4:45 PM, the minute Ryan got home from work, we packed up the kids and drove for 43 minutes to Lisbon, Iowa, population 1000 or less. Grace fussed the whole way over and back and clearly reminded us why we will NEVER drive to Utah in the near future.  Jace fell asleep on the way home and had a pee-pee accident.

And it was all worth it because this little beauty -with a brand new seat cushion still in the package- only set us back $50.00.

How did we manage that fine find you ask?  Well, as Ryan would say, it was "The Holy Ghost of Shopping"--Craigslist might have helped a little too.

Rue couldn't be happier with her Fisher-Price version of  a Pliko P3!



 



Unfocused Ramble and an Orange Juice Picnic

I have unfocused rabble, rambling around in my head tonight. There were 230 new pictures on our camera that are uploading right now as I type. It takes awhile for that many to upload. Who takes that many pictures?   I think we have too much time on our hands around here! I wish it felt like that anyways.

When the day is as gorgeous as today was, it would have been a travesty to waste it indoors.  After Grace was down for a nap, Jace and I made our escape.  Upon his request, we had a picnic on his blue blanket that consisted of orange juice.  He then spent  half an hour carrying every car he could find outside to make his "really big transformer."  And then of course it had to be "crashed" all apart. It is still outside in the dark spread all over the lawn.  I weeded until Grace woke up, and then my weeding stopped.

We got called into the Bishop's office tonight.  My wonderful church job of being a visiting teacher supervisor is no more.  It was seriously my favorite calling to date.  I now have a new calling, which I will enjoy.  More on that after Sunday.  

So what else have we been up to these last few days? I seriously can't remember.  When I get a free hour, I will look through all these pictures and tell you.  Until then, may the suspense not kill you!

Rain for Rue

Spring brought with it a wonderful treat. Eighty degree warmth accompanied with an evening shower.  Rue heard the pounding of the raindrops on our roof and squealed in delight as she watched them hit our outside deck with fury.  She made it very known that she was not going to be content until she got her way and was allowed to venture out.

As I stood and watched her soak in the rain,  I got to feel again the joy that motherhood brings when you watch your child discover something wonderful and new for the first time.  And this warm rain did not disappoint.