SPRING BREAK!!!

Spring Break was much anticipated this year - probably mostly by me.  Dustin's mom had agreed back in January to come out this week to help me do something fun with the boys since I wouldn't have gone any further than Idaho Falls otherwise.  We took a trip to Boise.  We left Monday and came back on Thursday.  Everyday we had one field trip and then just shopping/relaxing/playing/walking time until dinner.

Monday:
Spent most of the day getting ready to leave and then traveling.  Matthew was so excited to get to Boise that when we stopped in Twin Falls for some lunch he was very upset that it wasn't Boise and didn't want to get out to eat.  We did get him out.  When we arrived in Boise he shouted Yay, Boise!  It was fun and cute and made me happy.

Tuesday:
Discovery Center day.  The boys really enjoyed running around trying out the experiments.  They even enjoyed playing the the little grocery store at the entrance of the center - they played there at the beginning and the end.  The Discovery Center had a special bodies exhibit.  We did go, Matthew did not last more that 5 minutes before yelling GROSS! and running out of the exhibit.  I stopped to get stamped so that I could return when David and Sharon were done, the men gave Matthew a stamp too and he immediately freaked out.  Everyone outside of the exhibit thought it was because of the exhibit but no, it was the just having a stamp on his hand.  As soon as I cleaned it off we were okay and ready to play with the toys.

We took time to explore the trail by the hotel (which is about 2 - 2 1/2 miles from Downtown Boise) and see how walking to the zoo would go the next day.  We had hoped to find a grocery store in order to just pick up a couple of lunchables and salads to eat on the patio outside our hotel room.  Well it turns out that it was a really long walk for the boys and we hadn't even made it to the grocery store.  Sharon had to walk back quickly to the hotel, get the car and pick the rest of us up.  We did have our relaxing hotel dinner.  We had hoped to be able to just walk to the zoo the next day but realized that it would not be a wise thing to do with the boys.

 

Wednesday:
Zoo Boise.  I was pleasantly surprised by the zoo.  The space for the zoo is just a little bigger than the zoo in Pueblo, CO if not the same size.  However, Boise seems to use their space much more effectively resulting in a more enjoyable zoo.  We were able to see many animals and were there for a couple of hours despite my preconceptions of the space.  It was lots of fun and the boys really had a great time.

After the zoo we picnicked in the park and let the boys play on the playground for 30 minutes.  I went back to the room for a nap and the boys went to the book store with Sharon to get some new books.  Dinner was out because I was really wanting a good dessert - Olive Garden was the winner.

Thursday:
After checking out of the hotel we headed south to The Peregrine Fund which is a Birds of Prey center.  We were able to see many birds; Condors, Peregrines, other hawks and falcons.  It was fun.  The live bird presentation was the Harris Hawk.  The Harris Hawk is a really interesting bird.  They live in the desert and hunt in "packs".  Matthew was really insistent on getting a picture of this bird and I did the best I could with the presentation being done at noon outside.

From the birds of prey we headed to lunch and then hit the road home.  There was another stop in Twin Falls so that I could walk around a bit and try to keep the swelling down in my feet.

**We got a call from Dustin while we were driving home!  It was even a 20 minute call.  It was so nice to talk to him.  Dustin and I had both expected the call to happen in Sunday and then it didn't come.  The whole week we were gone I felt like we were back at the beginning of his departure just waiting anxiously for the phone to ring.  Dustin is still doing really well.  We are in the final 3 weeks of basic training.  The boys will get to go see him and they are excited to see Dustin as is Dustin to see them.

Friday:
This was a relaxation day.  We slept in and just hung around the house all morning.  The afternoon David was at a birthday party and the rest of us ran errands/did a little shopping.  The boys enjoyed spending their last evening with Grandma out in the back yard and playing.

Saturday:
I'm glad that all though the previous weekend had awful weather that it has only gotten nicer as the week has gone on.  Today was also a relaxing/get back to normal day.  We got the house cleaned up and spent plenty of time outside playing.  We even took a walk to Ross park.  David rode his bike and Matthew (rode in the stroller there) walked the whole way home.  Here's hoping that spring is really here and that winter won't be coming back again until the appropriate time at the end of the year (after we have moved).

How NOT to chop jelly beans

First I tried chopping jelly beans with my chef's knife, the way I would if I were chopping nuts.  Not so successful.  Jelly beans kept ending up on the floor, the sink, the stove, or hitting me.

Second, I tried using my food chopper.  Even less successful at chopping the beans but really good at crushing the candy coating on the outside.

Third, I went back to my chef's knife (because I didn't want to get another set of dishes dirty to try the food processor or the blender) and basically cut each bean individually.  Successful but time consuming and oh, so slow!

Why was I trying to chop jelly beans?  Well of course the answer is to add them to cookies.  I had seen a recipe on Pinterest for jelly bean cookies.  The lady that made them said they were great and that she loved having them when she was pregnant.  She also said that they were colorful and festive and fun for the kids.  Well.... this pregnant lady did not find the cookies very good.  They were colorful and festive and fun for the kids.  Let's just say that betweeen the chopping of jelly beans and the tasting of the cookie, that recipe will not be repeated ever.

Today, Saturday, was our annual Family Easter Egg Decorating and Hunting party.  Every year since we moved into a house we have done this party.  Usually we dye hard boiled eggs outside and leave them for the Easter Bunny (read: any husbands in attendance) to hide while the kids do an Easter craft.

Two years ago our craft was to make these super cute bunny masks from paper plates (by far my favorite craft.).  Last year we had foam shapes and stickers for decorating Easter designs on Eggs and bunnies.  Good, not much prep and lots of glitter all over the house.  This year David requested a coloring contest.  Brilliant idea!  I covered the table with craft paper, put out the colors and a bin of stickers/foam shapes and let the kids create.  I loved this!

The kids came up with some wonderful pictures or could just scribble on the table.  I particularly liked Shelby's Easter Eggs (I forgot to get pictures of everything) but David chose her brother Jakob as the winner for his Easter Bunny drawing.

Due to chilly temperatures/missing husband this year I had to modify our party a bit.  The dyeing occurred in the kitchen as 3-4 kids would color their eggs at a time.  The remaining children hung out in the living room either drawing their pictures or playing with the train table.  While the kids were busy I found one unsuspecting husband (thanks Jeremie) to hide the plastic eggs in the backyard.  When the eggs were all dyed I kicked the kids out to find three plastic eggs each.  It didn't take long for all the eggs to be found.  Once back inside the kids were allowed to add stickers to their eggs and eat snacks.  Our snacks were vegetables and dip and the infamous jelly bean cookies.

All in all I would say that we had another successful Easter Egg party.  It was a good start to our spring break festivities.  I have to say that I really like some of my modifications and they may just stick around.  First, I really like having everyone bring their own eggs to decorate.  This means that I don't have to have a head count of how many people are coming and I don't hear complaints about not having more eggs to color.  Second, I really like that only the plastic eggs were hid this year instead of the colored eggs.  No one went home sad because their egg was taken by someone else or that their egg got stepped on and no one was sad that we couldn't find their egg before going home.  Everyone took all their eggs home, decorated with colors and stickers.  Everyone got to have yummy snacks.  Everyone got to visit and have fun even though we were stuck indoors for a majority of the party this time.

I like being able to hold this party for my boys and they really look forward to it.  I had originally decided not to worry about it this year with Dustin being gone.  The more I thought about it though, I realized that we can't put our lives on hold just because Dustin is gone for a time.  There will be other times throughout his Army career that he will be gone and the rest of us aren't to just be in limbo until he returns.  If we did that we would have a very boring life that would end up with many regrets, the kids would miss out on many opportunities to develop friendships, serve and explore.  I learned an important lesson with this party - to keep on keeping on, it's good to learn this at the beginning of his career.  I am glad that I did the party and it was nice to have other adults in the house.  Here's hoping for many more Family Easter Egg Decorating and Hunting parties and warmer party days!

Daylight Savings

I always switching from standard time to daylight savings time.  I don't like losing that hour of sleep.  I do enjoy the much longer days though.  Well, then we had kids.  What do you do with kids when the time changes?  You have to adjust them as well but it never goes well.

This year because Dustin is gone I tried my darndest to get those kids to go to bed on time last Saturday.  Did they do it?  No.  They stayed up until about 11pm maybe even 11:30pm for who know what reason.  However, they did fine on Sunday despite their minimal sleep.  I was pleasantly surprised.

During the week this week I kept the boys on their normal bedtime routine.  Matthew goes down at 7 and David at 8.  It has been awful!  Don't worry we have blacked out the windows in their room so the extra light doesn't shine through.  Every night this week it has taken at least 30 minutes to get Matthew to go to sleep if he went to sleep at all before David went to bed.  Then once they are both awake in their room, every problem possible arises and no one goes to sleep for hours!

Well tonight I had the thought that I should just push their bedtimes back and hour each.  I don't know why I didn't think of this earlier (oh, yes I do, I'm pregnant and tired), but I did it tonight.  I got Matthew into bed by 8pm, other than opening his door once to let Toby out of the room he went right to bed.  At 9pm I got David into bed and there hasn't been hours of sneaking in and out of his room.  David went right to sleep as well.

I am so glad that I have adjusted their bedtimes and here's hoping it continues to work well for us.  The only real bummer part is that I don't get my quiet Mommy time until 9pm which is an hour later than it used to be.  I feel the need to make up for it by staying up later.  I need to work on this part.

Small victories are the celebration of the day!

Books

Today (Tuesday) I took the boys to the library this afternoon.  Unbeknownst to me there was a program  there today.  The library had the author Monica Brown there for stories and book signings.  The boys were unsure about the whole thing at first but they eased into it.  The stories read today were:

A biography about Tito Puente

Clara and the Curandera story about a grumpy girl that meets with a wise old woman to help her change he attitude.  I thought it was funny and would be a good book to have.

A biography about Pele the Brazilian soccer player.

I let the boys each choose a book to purchase and have signed.  David of course chose Pele King of Soccer.  Matthew didn't chose a book so I chose Tito Puente for him.  They were both so good about waiting in line to have their books signed.

They looked at their new books a couple of times this afternoon.  Matthew was so excited about his book and David's book.  Matthew realizes that they each have their own name in a book and it's pretty cute.

I like that the boys were excited about their biographical books.  They can learn about a couple of really cool men.  The pictures are great too.

It was so fun to be able to participate in this activity.  It's always nice to be surprised with something exciting and different and fun.  We stayed at the library longer than I had intended but we had a great time.

Letters

When David was little he did really well learning his letters by playing Starfall.  Matthew has also learned to love the website as well.  He mostly enjoys the colors and especially the numbers there.  Since the colors and numbers were a membership thing, I went ahead and purchase the membership so that he could do more than the color read and the numbers 1 and 100.  He loves it!  David loves it!  I still limit the time they can spend on the computer, usually 30 minutes each unless I really need to take a nap or get something done.  I am so happy that they enjoy learning and that there are many ways for them to learn new concepts.

This week has been a very exciting one for us.  We got letters from Dustin!  I expected one last week before we left for New Mexico but that didn't happen so we were happy to have a letter waiting for us when we got home.  I got another letter Monday and a third letter Friday.  By all accounts Dustin is doing well.  I think after this next week we will be caught up enough that we are not repeating the same information/questions to each other.  It takes about 4 days for each of us to get letters from the date they were mailed.

Letter #1:  Dustin let us know about transferring from Reception battalion to actual Basic Training.  They get personal time but for the first week or so it was really preparation time for the next day.  They began learning about different weapon systems and began with M-4 weapons emersion.  The M-4 is on them at all times during the day so they were learning how to properly enter buildings with it and will eventually begin using it the firing range.  The began learning combatives, which is hand to hand combat.  They prepared for the Gas Chamber which they did over the weekend (about February 23).  He let us know that he received his first letter from us and was really excited because it came in the first batch of mail his platoon received.  It also came the day before their big snow/winter storm that basically shut the post down.  They went on their first ruck march and began learning combat first aid.

Letter #2:  Dustin told us about going through the Gas Chamber.  He said it was one of the worst experiences of his life however he followed directions, stayed calm and didn't react too badly.  He was really exhausted at the end of the day even though they didn't really do anything physical and so chalked it up to the stresses of the gas chamber.  He let us know the results of his first APFT (Army Physical Fitness Test) which he did well on.  He did well enough that he passed for even the youngest age group.  They also did portions of the Physical Endurance Course (weather permitted only partial use of the equipment) and was proud to say that he was able to complete some of the more physically demanding obstacles like the climbing rope.  Apparently not many people could do them.  They did the next combatives course.  Dustin said that it's cool to learn but then there's the secondary thought of learning these skills to actually cause harm is a little disheartening

Letter #3:  This letter was fun because we have caught up enough that he was able to respond to our most recent letter that we had sent him.  Dustin told us that the combatives for the week had been wrestling - fun.  They learned hand grenade techniques and mechanics.  They also did practice throws with practice and live grenades.  He did well in his qualification of hand grenades.  Friday (3/1) they did a 4 mile ruck march, he said his pack was lighter than when we went back packing a couple of years ago.  They did field training on IMT (Individual Movement Techniques), a mock patrol (he's a team leader of 5 members of his squad) where they learned squad movement, hand signals, team work and intel collection.  It was a long day, it began at 3:30am.  The following day, Saturday, was also spent in the field learning LandNav which is use of maps and compasses.  There were day time and night time components and so it was also a long day.  They phased up to White phase so he's 1/3 of the way through.  Dustin was finally able to make it to church, well part of it anyway, on Sunday 3/3.

On Sunday, February 24, we were able to talk to Dustin for about 15 minutes.  It was so nice to talk to him especially since we hadn't received any letters from him.  My only information up until that point came from his Company's facebook page.
On Sunday, March 3, we were able to talk to Dustin for just a couple of minutes, we were able to say hellos, I love your and take care of a couple questions before saying our good byes.  Knowing that the boys and I would be traveling that day Dustin and I had arranged, the previous Sunday, that he would just call his Mom.  He was able to talk to his parents and let them know how he was doing.

Please, please, please write letters to Dustin.  They are always encouraging and especially for him to know that our family and friends are being supportive.  It has been very difficult for all of us to be seperated like this and for so long.  We are excited for the day that we are all together again.
Please email me or facebook message me for his address.

Cassie Comes Home

February kind of got away from me.  I got the posts written but I didn't get the pictures loaded.  I will get them loaded on there and the posts published.

My sister Cassie came home from her mission on Tuesday.  She had been serving in the England Birmingham Mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  It was so fortuitous that she came home this week because David had Thursday and Friday off of school.  Wednesday afternoon we  headed down to New Mexico so go see her and visit for a couple of days.

Upon entering the door at my parents house Cassie greeted the boys and they immediately ran away from her.  The boys did, however, run and excitedly greeted their Uncle Brian.  By the end of the day Cassie was the favorite and the boys loved playing with her.

I have enjoyed being able to visit with and spend time with my sister whom I haven't seen in a couple of years.  She may come up to Idaho in the next couple of months but I won't be traveling down to New Mexico again before Benjamin is born, so it's nice to visit.

I am so proud of my sister and her decision to serve a mission.  I know she learned alot and has many great, uplifting and inspiring experiences to share.  I know that this has been a great benefit to her.  I am glad that she is home though.  It will be exciting to see what happens next in her life.