Preschool Field Trip

On Friday the 13th we went to The Botanical Gardens to see the butterflies! David said that there was a pizza party at school so did not want to join us.













Here is a pic of Matthew as a caterpillar.













Here is a pic of Matthew as a butterfly.













I tried to get Hailey to stick her head in ther but she didn't wanna have anything to do with it!

Matthew's 4th Birthday

This year Matthew had a pirate theme to his birthday party. He had LOTS of friends over and they all had a good time!













The cool pirate cake was made by Matthew's Uncle Jared!

Winter Sports

David played coach pitch baseball and was able to play with his friend Cody and cousin Samuel. They had lots of fun! Here is a pic of David's team and then the 3 Musketeers!

Christmas in March?

I never got around to posting pics from Christmas, so here is my attempt to catch-up on mostly everything since the last post. Pics with Santa at our ward Christmas party.















We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas day with my mom because my in-laws were on a cruise! This is a video of one of the presents the kids received. They totally loved it! I think my dad enjoyed it as much as my kids did!

After my in-laws got back we all got together and made mini gingerbread houses.

Just a MOM?!

I received this by email and thought it was worthy enough to post about.

A woman, renewing her driver's license at the County Clerk 's office was asked by the woman recorder to state her occupation.

She hesitated, uncertain how to classify herself.
"What I mean is," explained the recorder, "do you have a job or are you just a......?"
"Of course I have a job," snapped the woman. "I'm a Mom!"
"We don't list 'Mom' as an occupation, 'housewife' covers it," said the recorder emphatically.
I forgot all about her story until one day I found myself in the same situation, this time at our own Town Hall.
The Clerk was obviously a career woman, poised, efficient and possessed of a high sounding title like, "Official Interrogator" or "Town Registrar."
"What is your occupation?" she probed.
What made me say it? I do not know. The words simply popped out.
"I'm a Research Associate in the field of Child Development and Human Relations."
The clerk paused, ball-point pen frozen in midair and looked up as though she had not heard right.
I repeated the title slowly emphasizing the most significant words. Then I stared with wonder as my pronouncement was written, in bold, black ink on the official questionnaire.
"Might I ask," said the clerk with new interest, "just what you do in your field?"
Coolly, without any trace of fluster in my voice, I heard myself reply, "I have a continuing program of research, (what mother doesn't) in the laboratory and in the field (normally I would have said indoors and out). I'm working for my Masters, (first the Lord and then the whole family) and already have four credits (all daughters). Of course, the job is one of the most demanding in the humanities, (any mother care to disagree?) and I often work 14 hours a day, (24 is more like it). But the job is more challenging than most run-of-the-mill careers and the rewards are more of a satisfaction rather than just money."
There was an increasing note of respect in the clerk's voice as she completed the form, stood up and personally ushered me to the door.
As I drove into our driveway, buoyed up by my glamorous new career, I was greeted by my lab assistants -- ages 13, 7, and 3. Upstairs I could hear our new experimental model, (a 6 month old baby) in the child development program, testing out a new vocal pattern.
I felt I had scored a beat on bureaucracy! And I had gone on the official records as someone more distinguished and indispensable to mankind than "just another Mom."

Motherhood! What a glorious career!
Does this make grandmothers "Senior Research associates in the field of Child Development and Human Relations" and great grandmothers "Executive Senior Research Associates"?
I think so!!!
I also think it makes Aunts "Associate Research Assistants".

I want to thank my partner in research, Gordon for allowing me to take "breaks" every once in a while. I also want to say how much I appreciate my 3 lab assistants, David, Matthew and Hailey for their ongoing "testing" they provide for me to become a better Research Associate in the field of Child Development and Human Relations!

Thanksgiving

For my side of the family, I took the kids up to Granny's. Just to warn you, there are a lot of pictures but I'll explain as I go. First, I will start out with a hammock picture.













There were some casualties again! (If you don't know what I'm talking about go here.) My kids were not "privileged" this time. I was pushing the hammock pretty hard thinking, "Sweet, I'm totally going to tip them!" When all of a sudden, the chain just broke and they all fell! It was awesome! (It's a family thing to think it's funny when other people get hurt. Strange, I know.) Just to get started here is a picture of the Tire Swing.













A lot of the cousins were there and the youngest 5 (which includes my sister, Jill and I and Rae Ann, Joey and Jesse Anderson) were reminiscing about our Helicopter Swing. While I was eating I mentioned something about it again to my nieces and they looked at me like I was weird! I looked at them with the same weird look and said, "You've never heard about the Helicopter Swing?" With excitement in my voice I said, "I'll show you when I'm done eating!!" So apparently, the 5 youngest grandkids/cousins have never actually talked about this, let alone passed on the fun! Why were we so selfish in keeping this to ourselves when we had so much fun doing it in the first place? I have no idea! "What the heck is a Helicopter swing," you say? Well, let me explain. When "we" (the 5 youngest grandkids/cousins) were little we spent a lot of time at Granny's for the summer! Granny lives in a super small town called Gisela. It's on your way to Payson. Anyway, there's not a whole lot of things to do there so we got very creative! More so when Granny tended too be busy or gone! heehee! So many great memories! I'll have to share more stories later! In an attempt to fit all 5 of us on the Tire Swing at the same time we came up with this CLEVER idea to put Granny's straight ladder in the middle of the handles. Not so much fun swinging back and forth on a stinkin ladder. Then, came the excitement of twisting the ladder to spin around on it! We learned a lot about Physics that day with many casualties! Sometimes we squished poor little Jesse in the middle, but it wasn't any different then spinning in the swing itself without the ladder, except more squished! It was mostly 2 people at one time. So more brainstorming came and we finally understood the Physics part of it all and finally found the right balance for all 5 of us to spin at the same time! Now the problem was to spin the swing as high as we could go and then get on and ride it down! Another problem! How can you jump on a ladder that was so tightly wound up so high without actually enjoying it? More creativity, of course! Granny had a step ladder that we would use for the last person to climb on while holding onto the other 4. The last person would get on and KICK the step ladder out of the way so as not to fall on it as we were coming down! (We actually hit it a couple of times before figuring out that we needed to kick it out of the way.) While showing this to all who was fortunate enough to see it, my sister, Jennifer named this our Hillbilly Helicopter! One last warning, the safest way to get off is to let the people on the Helicopter fall or completely ride it out! If you tried to stop it mid-flight, you got hurt yourself! Okay enough suspense! I'll show you what I'm talking about.


I think this is hilarious!













Adjusting for balance!













Spinning for speed!

There was also a little pellet shooting going on also. We would stack up empty soda cans and then shoot them down. It was pretty fun.













My nephew, Nathan was nice and patient enough to show David how to shoot.

















David and Matthew playing with toy guns.













Notice anything different about Matthew? His pants are on backwards. When I told him this he emphatically said, "NO! They're not!"

Preschool Thanksgiving Program

I know it's a little late for this, but better late than never right? Anyway, I still need to get pictures from my side of the family to be able to post a little more about what we did over the Thankgiving Holiday! I think Cynthia did a really great program for her preschool! Thanks Cynthia! (Just a warning, it's a bit long.)