Turtle woes.

So, I was thinking that my kids and preschoolers would love to have a pet around. I didn't want a pet that would take a lot of energy or ruin my house. Driving home one day, I passed a guy who was selling turtles and I figured that turtles have to be really easy pets-- little upkeep, and they basically fend for themselves.

Was I ever wrong-- first of all the guy who sold me the turtles just said that I needed a long tupperware box. Fill it half up with water and half up with rocks. All I would have to do from there is feed them and clean out the box every other day.

So, when I got home I put them (yes, I got a boy and a girl) in the long tupperware container and then went to take a nap. An hour later I returned outside to find one missing. Despite our best efforts we couldn't find it anywhere (we even went on a walk around our neighborhood and got quite a few chuckles when we asked people if they'd seen a turtle).

When I got home I decided to look Red Eared Sliders online and found out that there was a lot more to it than just that. They are aquatic turtles that had a lot of specific needs. They are notorius for being great escape artists, etc... Well, we did the best we could but within 3 weeks the one that was left had died.

The funny thing was that about a week later we were doing yard work, when Darin said, "is that your missing turtle". Sure enough- there was our other turtle crawling across the grass as if he had never disappeared. Since he had fended better then the girl, I decided to continue to let him loose in our backyard and we left out food and water in case he wanted some. Needless to say, he soon met his end too.

So, from this sad tale-- I have learned that I am not a pet person. Sorry turtles, I feel bad that you have only reinforced this sad truth.

Making applesauce.

My sister in law borrowed her mom's applesaucer and offered to let me use it. How could I pass up such a chance especially since apples were selling for 49 cents a pound at the store. Daniel and Rylie enjoyed helping me and I had a friend come over with her kids to do some too. So fun-- and super yummy applesauce if I don't say so myself.


before

making the applesauce

the finished product (not so sure why there is so much water on the bottom, maybe it was because they were Walmart apples)

The armor of God.

So, I have been completely stumped on what to do for FHE with my kids so young and Darin rarely around. I came across a book about the Armor of God and decided to really draw it out and focus on one piece of armor a week. Most ideas were very spontaneous-- but the best part is that Daniel and Rylie didn't care. They LOVED it! Daniel still will go and get his armor of God suit on when he is angry. He has it in his closet in case he needs it to fend off monsters. He also still will ask for his "Belt of Truth" or "Breastplate of Righteousness". So Cute!

Cute kids!

So, we are completely behind on our blog. A few reasons-- Darin has been busy with school and work (he is the one that usually keeps up our blog), we had to get a new computer since our old one completely crashed on us, and we broke our camera and had to get it fixed. With that said, here I go all the way back to October.

Here are a few shots of Rylie and Daniel playing in our backyard. I thought they looked so cute in their orange. Don't they just look like they love to play. It is so cute to see Daniel and Rylie play together. They have so much fun.



I love this picture because Rylie looks like a celebrity. Hopefully that won't be the case, but she sure fits the part.

Our weekend

We had plans to go to my parents cabin in Strawberry over the weekend and hopefully have some fun playing in the snow. There was a chance it would be melted by the time we got there, but we thought it would be fun to get away regardless. Friday night Rylie woke up about 11:00pm and didn't fall asleep again until 4:30am. I tried all kinds of things to get her to go back to sleep but nothing worked.

There is little to do around the house between those hours of the night. After passing up the opportunity to make tens of thousands of dollars PER WEEK from 3 separate paid television ads (by simply calling the 1-800 number and buying their product, no education necessary, not even high school; I may live to regret this decision) and resisting the urge to buy a steam-sanitizing mop with extra extensions, a food processor that cuts through veggies like... a food processor, a slick see-through oven from Mr. T, and various other products late night America can't do without, I settled for a movie and watched Matrix. It's amazing that the computer technology shown in that movie is already outdated, like CRT monitors.

Because Rylie and I didn't get enough sleep we scrapped the Strawberry and snow idea. Saturday Heidi took Daniel to the store and Daniel told mom that he wanted to go to town. Heidi said that they were in town but Daniel replied that he wanted to go to the OTHER town, which means traversing the 20 miles of expansive desert to get to Chandler or Mesa. So we decided to eat at TGIF as a family.

We ordered the kids food first knowing they would not sit still long. Daniel had to go to the bathroom so I took him. He closed himself in the stall and locked it. I didn't want to be a "psycho guy in the bathroom looking under the stalls" so I patiently coaxed him out after he was finished. He had to use both the Pink soap and Purple soap from both sides of the counter, which is more than one guy could say as he came in and left without washing his hands at all.

Their food came and they ate. Rylie had to go to the bathroom too and although she still wears diapers, she will not be outdone by her older brother and insisted she visit the ladies room. When she got back Daniel said he had to go too, again. Our food still hadn't arrived yet so I took him again. This time I think he went number 2 although I'm not sure because he locked me out of the stall again and flushed at least 4 times. By the time he washed his hands twice again (4 times total now) our food had finally arrived.

After literally two bites from my plate, they were done being there and wanted to leave. That of course means I either take my food to go or eat as fast as I can before Daniel gets all the sweet and low packets open and I suffer heart burn later. Heidi had actually finished hers, mostly while I was in the bathroom with Daniel and decided to take the kids next door to the Petsmart. So I got to finish eating dinner at TGIF with my family by myself. At least I didn't get heart burn.

At Petsmart I got a status report of the lizards and fishes and snakes. On the way home Daniel treated us with 5-10 second stories. For example: Once upon a time, there was a stop sign and we stopped, the end. (we were riding in the car at the time).

Daniel has quite an imagination that often involves monsters or spiders. Sunday on the way to church, Daniel mentioned the package of diapers we keep stored in front of him behind the passenger seat. He said, Mommy, these diapers have two eyes and a mouth and they scare me! I don't know what to say to that.

At preschool, Heidi taught Daniel the Australian version of Rudolph the red nosed reindeer called RooRoo, the red nosed Kanga. So, at church today one of his nursery teachers was wearing a reindeer tie that had a button that lite up Rudolph's nose. When I picked him up Daniel said something about RooRoo the Kanga and how he was teasing his teacher. I can only imagine.

Daniel is such a teaser, just tell him what you don't like him to do, he will persistently exactly that from that point on just to tease you.

It's so nice to have the next 3 weeks off of school, I'm looking forward to playing with my kids the whole time.

My new do!

So, yesterday after years of talking about it, I finally took the plunge and cut my hair. What do you think? Daniel's first reaction was, "I don't like it. Put it back." Darin was plain shocked-- he knew I was going in, but had no idea how short I was going or what color. As for Rylie, she didn't even notice a difference. After a day of getting used to my new reflection I have decided it is a fun change and I love it. I still love long hair, but it was time for a change.

Just for a comparison below is a picture of my hair prior to the cut. A different color and long.

Getting out of the heat!

In September I was going nuts with the constant heat here in Phoenix area. The kids were going bonkers being inside all day-- so I made the spontaneous decision to take the kids up to Darin's parent's cabin up in Strawberry where the weather is much milder. We had a great time digging in dirt, taking walks and just enjoying the nice day. What a great break!

Ain't she sweet

Rylie is the greatest girl. She is constantly making us smile by her happy personality and girly ways. These pictures are a normal occurance in our home. Rylie loves these necklaces that my mom gave to me and will often show up decked out with at least 3 or more necklaces at a time. She loves being all dressed up and pretty. Ain't she the sweetst thing you've ever seen?

We have a new computer

I couldn't be happier-- we have a new computer. Life is back to normal again. So, hopefully now you will be getting more consistent blogs from us. Oh, and by the way, the red looks great.

More posts to come

Our computer died a couple of weeks ago so we haven't been able to keep up with blog world. I'm using my laptop from work to make a couple of updates. Hopefully we'll have a new computer next week.

We knew it was dying for some time, the hard drive had been wheezing and making strange noises. We would also have to start it a number of times before it would actually, really start up. It was over 7 and a half years old. Is that like 130 human years? Our new one is a laptop and without paying extra I could choose between black or ruby red. Of course I went with ruby red.

Later Heidi said that when I take it to school all my classmates will appreciate how it really stands out. I hadn't thought about taking it to school. Images of Legally Blonde come to mind of Reese Whitherspoon's pink laptop at Harvard.

When they ask me why I picked red like they're embarrassed for me I'll have to point at the color and shrug and say, you know, the wife likes red; the wife, you know how it is... or I could just say, hey, shut it!

But it will sure be nice not to have to wait 10 minutes for programs to load.

Primary moment

After practicing a couple of times to sing with the primary, today was the big day. Even grandma and grandpa came out from Mesa to see their grand kids. Daniel and Rylie were good for the most part during the whole performance as we waited until it was time for Daniel to go up with his class and sing.

The last 10 minutes Daniel was extremely bored and like he does when he's bored, he starts teasing Rylie. Grandma was holding Rylie across the aisle and every time Daniel got near mommy Rylie would throw a fit out of jealously. Daniel would just grin and keep doing the hokey-pokey putting one foot on mommy one foot off mommy enjoying the screaming sound effect coming from across the aisle.

I finally made Daniel sit on my lap which he hated because I wouldn't tickle him. I kept trying to keep him still, telling him it was almost time to go up and sing but he was so fidgety he was really like a spring wound so tight it was ready to explode.

He also kept telling me he wanted to go talk in the microphone, but would fuss and fake cry when I said that it would be better for all of us if he didn't do that this time.

Then the moment arrived and I said excitedly ok it's your turn lets go lets go lets go!! and he promptly shouted "I don't want to!!!" and exploded, then broke down and had to be escorted out.

Well, at least it was dramatic and showy. The primary presentation was great, my only suggestion for next time would be to let the 3 year olds go first and get their part out of the way instead of waiting an hour until they're tired and cranky.

Primary last week

Daniel was so funny last Sunday. The primary was practicing in the sacrament meeting room for a performance they were going to give and for part of it they are bringing in Daniels nursery class to help sing in the front row. While they were practicing I was sitting in the back listening (Rylie was napping on my shoulder, I needed a padded bench) so when they brought Daniels class in Daniel saw me and ran over and refused to go up on the stage with his class to sing. So I told him he could have a treat when we got home if he would go up with his class.

As soon as he heard treat, he ran up there, didn't join his class but cut in front of all the older kids lined up to say their lines at the microphone, climbed up on a chair next to the pulpit, rested his elbows on the pulpit and quietly waited for his turn to speak in the microphone. Everyone was looking at Daniel and appeared confused like, umm, who's that? Why is he at the pulpit? where does he belong? who's supposed to be watching him?

He didn't have a speaking part so I was curious to know what he was going to say. His Aunt Anna was playing the piano behind him, and so when all the attention of the program stopped and focused on the kid at the pulpit who wasn't supposed to be there, Anna said that's Daniel, I think he wants to say his name. So she told him to say his name. Someone adjusted the microphone down for Daniel and he very quietly said daniel then got down and ran to me.

I played dumb like I didn't know what was going on. The whole room turned to look at me wondering why I didn't speak up sooner, and I said, hey where did you come from? OK lets go back to class! and promptly exited.

Daniel didn't mention the treat until we got home and we hadn't walked through the door yet before he reminded me of the treat I promised. He definitely earned it.

reupholstering, round 2

We got our kitchen table and chairs at a garage sale 5 years ago when we first moved to AZ. It has been a good table, but the chairs were covered in white fabric. Once Daniel could move it was quickly clear that this just wouldn't work. Our chairs constantly looked filthy and I always was reluctant to sit down. Finally, I finally bought some fabric at JoAnns and tried recovering them. It worked great, until we realized that the material I chose quickly ripped-- so everytime Rylie or Daniel climbed on it a new tear would appear.

Finally after duct taping our chairs a few times (which looked hideous), I decided to finally get the right material and try it again. Here is the result. We love the new chairs and so far no tears.

Going domestic

Last Sat. I got a box of UTAH peaches. I didn't realize while growing up in UT that they truly have the best peaches around. So juicy and tasty-- I just can't get enough of them. While growing up my mom would bottle peaches at the end of every summer. I remember well working with her in the kitchen and then enjoying the peaches all year round. So, after getting my box on Sat. I was so excited to finally try this out myself. Tuesday night, while Darin was at class, I decided to take advantage of some free time and ended up bottling peaches and making jam. On Weds. I then made fruit leather and dried peach pieces. It was so fun. Daniel and Rylie tried the bottled peaches out yesterday and seemed like big fans. I just love the sight of the bottled peaches, they bring back fond memories. If only I also had cherries and pears to bottle-- they were also divine.

I did learn one thing though-- when making fruit leather make sure to spray non-stick spray onto the plastic before pouring on the puree. My leather turned out really good, I just can't get it off of the plastic without taking painstakingly long to slowly peel it so that it comes out almost in one piece. I think this morning it took me about 30 mins. to get one sheet off. Daniel devours the stuff. He has just come up with a complete love of fruit roll ups, so he is thrilled to now have so much on hand in which I don't get upset if he eats a lot.
(this is of course a picture of him with a fruit roll up, now just imaging a peach leather and his face wouldn't be too different.)

Great to have a friend

It has been so cute lately to watch Daniel and Rylie play. They are truly best friends. Even as I type they are both on my lap playing with one another. Rylie follows Daniel wherever he goes and they just love to play outside, with all our preschool toys, etc... It is so fun to see them grow closer all the time.


As a disclaimer, I realize that in most of our pictures or videos Daniel is always partially dressed. I promise that everyday he starts out completely clothed, but always mid-way through the day he takes off his shorts to go potty and they are never seen again. Also, by the time we are ready to go to bed, it is just too hot for them to have much on, so thus the diaper only look.

Daniel loves preschool

Daniel has been thrilled the last 3 weeks to have preschool back. M, T, Th and F-- Daniel is able to join a group of 3 or 4 year olds for the morning and has just thrived with having friends over everyday and doing such cool, fun, and engaging projects. Here is a video of him trying to recreate his own preschool later in the afternoon. At this pace, he will know more than me in just a few years.

An architect at 3

So, I was wondering, is it normal for a 3 year old to be able to create these type of structures with blocks? Daniel has completely surpassed my creative genes. Darin claims he created structures like this at Daniel's age, but I'm amazed at how cool this is. Daniel built the entire structure on the right. On the left is the updated version of when Darin came to play with him too.

Rylie cheer

We finally got a new camera. Camera's have sure come a long way in 5 years. We decided on a Sony this time and fortunately don't have that obnoxious 3 second delay between pushing the button and the picture taking like we had with our previous Canon.

Rylie starting doing this cheer one day, I'm not sure where she learned it but it sounds like WooHoo!! She put both hands in the air and said WooHoo! over and over.

So of course we all had to join in. I don't know what we were cheering for but it was fun.

Computer wizes

I would have had pictures of this but our camera is broken and we haven't been able to get a new one yet.

Daniel has learned to play games on the computer almost completely by himself. We get him to the games site then from there he knows how to move the mouse and click. The site is animated, educational and fully audio. He can listen to what they are saying, click on the pictures or words and make things happen. Any word you click on will be pronounced for you. It's great. He can't read yet but they make it so simple and color coordinated that it's pretty intuitive even for a 3 year old.

The first time I saw him playing I was totally blown away. Not just because he was interacting with the game site on his own but it took an incredible amount of focus and concentration on his part. He spends 20 minute sessions just playing these educational games several times a day. At the end of one lesson they played a song and we all danced to it including Rylie. Daniel enjoyed that so much he played it again like 15 more times until we finally convinced him to move on.

He will get frustrated if he gets stuck. So I have to teach him not to throw the mouse or hit the keyboard. We're working on the "ask for help" part.

Rylie does whatever Daniel is doing, or tries to. She can't interact with the computer but she certainly knows that the thing you move around with your hand on the table makes stuff happen on the computer screen.

After Daniel got down she climbed up on the chair and was moving the mouse around with her right hand while completely focused on the monitor, watching the little cursor move around the screen.

It won't be long before I have two free network administrators in the home.

Kitchen sleep

This picture was from a few weeks ago. It was a night that Daniel was being obstinate and not wanting to go to bed. Heidi had put him down to bed but he kept coming downstairs for various reasons. Instead of getting angry she decided to just ignore him. He started throwing a tantrum on the kitchen floor but Heidi just ignored it and kept doing the dishes. After a while Heidi realized that he had been quiet for several minutes and when she looked around the island this is what she saw:



He had exhausted himself and finally fallen asleep right there on the floor. I guess Daniel proves again that he can fall asleep just about anywhere.

Danielisms

Daniel woke up in the middle of the night last night. I guess he had a nightmare of some sort, anyway he was upset. Nothing would calm him down until I suggested he sleep in our room. He liked that and calmed down. All he wanted was his blue blanket. He went in and laid down on the love seat. We even turned the bathroom light on for him so it wouldn't be so dark. Then

Heidi asked him: are you ok now?

And he meekly said: yes.

She said: is there anything else I can get you?

And he said: go to the store, get me a popsicle.

To which Heidi replied: goodnight.

Then to me: He's just fine, he's Daniel.

Good morning

This morning I woke up to the sound of this:

MOOOOOOMM!!!! RYLIE IS AWAAAKE!!! MOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!!!

Thanks Daniel, now the rest of us are too.

I got my car back!

When Heidi went to Utah with the kids we switched cars so Heidi could use the one with cruise control. That left me with the stick shift and cassette tape player. Admittedly at first I was disappointed because, well, it's a tape player. But then I remembered I still had an old cassette tape collection of mine somewhere from like 20 years ago.

I dusted it off and have been rocking out to these goldies:
Boston 3rd stage
Triumph Thunder Seven
Europe - The Final Countdown (why am I not listening to this song every morning when I wake up???)
Queensryche Empire
Phil Collins
...But Seriously
Serious Hits Live!
Rush
Van Halen
The Doors

Tell me you're not jealous.

My tape collection isn't that extensive anymore and I got tired of repeating albums. (I listened to Phil Collins two days in a row).

Then traffic started getting to me again. People drive 15-20 mph over the posted speed limit, tailgate and get mad at me because I won't speed up or move over to accommodate their recklessness. Is it any wonder that Arizona has the highest death rate by vehicle manslaughter (next to maybe Argentina where stopping at intersections is merely a suggestion) accompanied by the highest car insurance premiums in the world? I'm digressing.

I can't wait to have audio cd's again. 45 minutes of story time bliss twice a day. It takes my mind off of maniacs who value getting to their next destination 2 minutes faster more than their own lives, or other people's lives for that matter.

And it lowers my blood pressure.

Trip to Idaho and Bear World

While in UT, we decided to head up to ID to visit my good friend from BYUH days. We had a great time hanging out with Corban, Peyton, Shyanne and Josh. Daniel was in heaven having to friends to play with. They had a nice big front and backyard where you could just let the kids run and play. We also went to bear world- and had a blast seeing bears up close and personal. Here are some pics from our trip:



Daniel was thrilled with all the rides, they had a train, a turning bear ride and a car ride. The boys spent most of the time rotating between these rides having a blast.


We splurged and payed to do the curator tour where you get to ride in an open truck and feed the bears. It was lots of fun. Rylie tried to crawl out the entire time trying to cuddle with the bears. It took a lot of effort to keep her in. The bears came right up to the truck- it was really neat to see them so close.


Here is Daniel at Shy's place. He just became potty trained, so thus the beautiful crack shot. We also enjoyed a night around the campfire where we enjoyed Smores. Nummy!