Love is in the air

Brayden got pretty into making his Valentine's this year for his classmates.  We found some creative ideas online to do something a little different than just buying the pre-boxed cards and slapping his name on them.  He chose a Pop Rocks theme with a note saying, "Valentine, You Rock!"  After he helped me create the card he cut them out and attached them to each package and then wrote his name and his classmates name on each one.  He was proud of his work, but even prouder to be able to share something he made with his friends at school.

Life is a highway

Recently, I had a chance to transform last year's blog posts into my 2011 family blog book.  It looked pretty amazing on screen and I can't wait to hold it and read it in real life.  Reading through it, though, the pictures and stories shared create the image of a mostly flawless family.  Our family is many things, but flawless is not one of them.  Yes, we have lots of fun together, we laugh, we cry, we share adventures, adore quiet days at home playing outside, helping each other, learning and so many other things, but there are also moments (sometimes many of them) when at least one person is crying, someone is screaming, fighting, having a complete meltdown, sick, whiny or just having an all out crappy day.  Sometimes its the boys and sometimes its me.

When I started this blog I wanted it to share the stories and memories that match the pictures taking the photo album of yester-years a bit further so that some day when we look back on all those photos they have some context.  I also want our boys to know, though, that life wasn't always happy smiles.  I fear conflict like a bad rash, but I want them to know that respectful conflict is OK, often good even in helping people and relationships grow.  I want them to know that our family wasn't perfect or trying to hide anything, but rather that we did the best we could to show each other love and support. So, moving forward I've vowed to myself to be more transparent in documenting our story so that we can look back and know we are stronger and closer because life wasn't always perfect, but because we had each other. 

Now, that I've published my little vow I have some blog catch up to do. Here goes.

I love capturing pictures of the boys doing the things we do every day like....

Loading up in the car to go to church most every week.  It makes me happy to know the boys look forward to church every week and always leave having learned something new about God's love for them.

We have the waiter take a picture to document we actually went on a date - a rare event to the point we aren't even sure what people do on dates.

We eat little character's for breakfast for time-to-time.  (Make note - it is a major hassle to get Yoda out of his little mold without chopping off an ear.)

We go to the zoo in mid-January because the weather is amazingly beautiful. 

We cherish moments when brothers demonstrate love and affection for each other - and I mean "moments" very literally sometimes.

We take on new athletic challenges to learn new skillz and make new friends. 

Kennon started swim lessons in early February and was so excited he completely zonked out at 6:00 pm and slept until 7 the next morning. 

Brayden's team was undefeated in basketball.  He loved basketball and was very proud of their accomplishments.  He scored about 10 baskets during their 8 games.  I wish I had a picture of the look of bliss on his face when he made his first shot during a game. Totally priceless!

We enjoy afternoon outings to the Discovery Center and learn something new every time.  Brayden is turning a light bulb on with his finger because the energy is being transferred through his body in this picture.  "Pretty cool, huh, mom!" (Scratch courtesy of Kennon.)

In February we took off for the indoor water park to run off some energy.  Daddy didn't run off too much energy standing around like this....

...but, the boys had a blast until...

...we headed home and they all passed out. 

Life really is like a highway.  Sometimes the road is wide and smooth with beautiful blue skies and nothing in our way.  Other times, the road is narrow and bumpy with dark clouds, storms and obstacles along the way. Regardless, of what stands in our path, though, as long as we have each other and our faith we can conquer all things.

100th Day of Kindergarten

The boys are always looking for a new adventure and we do our best to turn their interests into some educational experience when we can.  Other times we just have fun and sometimes they get in a little trouble along the way.

Brayden celebrated his 100th day of Kindergarten in late January.  He was assigned to create something with 100 objects of anything he chose.  He thought of about 15 different ideas, most of which required trips to multiple stores to round up the goods to make said project.  I'm all for going over the top and doing your very best, but the assignment also noted "use simple objects or ideas that are easily accessible." 

Shamefully, I admit we started a project one afternoon, but it wasn't going as I had imagined.  Brayden and I were not communicating well.  He was frustrated.  I was frustrated.  The scene ended with B mad because the supplies weren't exactly what he wanted and me frustrated (and angry) because he didn't appreicate the efforts I had gone to secure the supplies we did have on hand.  I went for a long walk and he chilled for a while.  Later, we group and gave it another shot.  He was proud of the final project.  It was a very simple idea, but there was a lot of learning involved along the way....counting by fives, counting by tens, patterns, writing the numbers, counting and more.  We locked ourselves in his room, turned on a little music and talked while we worked together.  It ended well.