2.28.10: Family Night

I've recently had a burst of creativity regarding family night and we have had a rather enjoyable time together. I will now share my ideas with you, because 1. I don't want to forget them, 2. maybe some of alls can benefit, 3. everybody else talks about how awesome they are on their blogs so I will talk about how awesome I am on mine.

Now for our family nights.

3 weeks ago we learned about repentance. After song and prayer, I explained that when we are naughty we need to ask for forgiveness, that's called repenting. Then I let Rex put a bunch of food coloring in water and mix it up. We didn't have any bleach so I used some toilet bowl cleaner to turn the water back to clear...toilet bowl cleaner only lightens the color. So we talked about how sometimes where you're really naughty you have to talk to the bishop. Rex liked the sinning part the best.

Last week we learned about Samuel the Laminite. We sang Book of Mormon stories then read the story of Samuel the Laminite from the children's Book of Mormon reader. Grandma, Grandpa and Rex then took turns being Samuel while the rest of us threw waded up paper at the Samuel. It turned into a paper fight. This was also enjoyable.

Tonight we learned about finding the lost sheep. We sang Do As I'm Doing (as in do what Jesus does) and then read the parable of the lost sheep from the children's New Testament reader. Next we played Where's the Button using Rex's plastic sheep from his Little People farm. Rex was not super good at the game because he kept telling me and Greg where the sheep was hidden (Me: Where's the sheep? Rex: It's here). And when it was his turn to find the sheep, he would only close his eyes for 3 seconds because that's how high he can count(ish). Anyway, it was fun.

Next week, we're going to learn about Noah and the Ark and make rainbows out of Rex's new favorite food--Fruit Loops, which Rex calls blue Cheerios.

2.19-23: At Grandma's house

Last week, as previously mentioned, Rex and I made a late Christmas trip/pre-2nd birthday trip to see G-Pa and Grandma in Seattle. I won't give you a play-by-play because that's boring, but I will give a few of the highlights.

We arrived on Saturday around 10 am. Rex was pretty good on the flight, though he did climb up the seat and spit apple juice at the poor guy behind us. Other than that he was well behaved. We went straight to Grandma's house and played for a bit, got lunch, and went for a walk. Rex feel asleep during the walk, but then, when moved into the house, refused to go back to sleep. But Mom and I had to go to our shoe-fixing party to get us some super cute and super free Jeffery Campbell shoes, so Rex stayed and played with/helped Grandpa re-grout the shower. For dinner we thought it'd be fun to take Rex to the Rain Forest Cafe. Well, so did the rest of Seattle, so we ended up eating at the mall food court. But while we waited an hour before we decided not to eat at Rain Forest Cafe, Rex fell in love with this guy.

Every time he had a chance to break free, Rex ran to the frog, pushed the other kids aside and gave him hugs and kisses. When the frog went on his break, Rex kept holding his arms out wide to indicate that he wanted to hug the frog some more but we just could not find him. I have such a sweet boy.

On Sunday, my cousin Peter, his wife and their two kids came down from Everett for dinner. Rex enjoyed watching T (as in TV) with them.
He also enjoyed playing songs on the piano. He insisted on having a book to look at and would turn the page every couple of minutes. I don't know how he knew he needed to read music to play a song. Oh wait, I do. He's just super smart.
On Monday, Grandpa had to go to work, so we went shopping. We ended up at IKEA (yeah). Rex was mostly well behaved so was rewarded with an ice cream cone. He also got to watch Nemo in Grandma's car. He loved watching TV in the car.

On Tuesday, Grandpa took the day off work so we headed up to Everett to go to an awesome children's museum/giant play place with Makenzie, Nathan, and Hailee. Pictured below: Rex in the construction room where children got to wear hard hats, orange vests, and build houses out of large foam blocks.

Throughout our stay, Rex loved sleeping on a big boy bed, as mentioned in my previous post.

On Wednesday, we enjoyed one last of Renton's finest--a bounce house play land. Rex's favorite was the blow up obstacle course. We did this like 10 times. I was a little too big and Rex was a little too small. It was an adventure, but it wore Rex out and he loved it.
We got back to Provo around 2:30 am on Thursday morning after our 6:45 flight got delayed 3 hours. Rex threw up on the way home but other than that the flight home was even more pleasant than the one there.

Overall, Rex and I enjoyed our final free trip to Seattle. Who knows the next time we'll be there, since now we have to pay for Rex to fly.

(Ok that was a bit more of a play-by-play than I originally intended but it's for prosperity and you probably aren't reading this far anyway.)

2.21.11: Why Rex doesn't sleep at Grandma's house

Rex and I abandoned Greg and are in Seattle visiting my parents. Rex is sleeping in Hannah's room. The first night we were here, I could not get Rex to go to sleep, which is wierd for him, especially because he missed (like as in really did not sleep at all...ok maybe he slept for 15 minutes) his nap. After a few minutes, I figured out that he was mad because he wanted to sleep on Hannah's bed and not in the crib.

This is why he didn't go to sleep last night. He did this for about 20 minutes. We got the video after he'd been going for about 15 so he's slowed down a bit.

2.17.10: Taxes

I finished our taxes today. Ok, really Turbo Tax finished them, but I had to sit in front of the computer, call multiple offices, and enter data so that Turbo Tax could calculate for me.

We're getting a refund--which is good because I was afraid we wouldn't it. It's not a very big refund but we're getting one nonetheless. As I sat watching our refund ticker go up and down while I entered data I took mental note of the things that affected it the most. 1. Loss on our aparment. 2. Tithing. 3. Tutition.

Noting these three things, I started plotting in my head how to get a bigger refund next year. 1. Pay more money to upgrade the apartment. 2. Pay more tithing. 3. Continue to go to school and pay for tuition. 4. (This is a residual notice from last year) incur massive amounts of medical bills. We could easily do all of these things--I have a wall I'd like knocked out in the basement apartment. We could fund the building of a temple. I like school so why not keep going. And we are well on our way to massive medical bills after Greg's little sushi incident. Now all I need is a car accident or a baby and we're set.

Then I started to do the math. This year we spent about $1500 upgrading the apartment, more than that in tithing, and about $3000 in tuition. We're getting $845 back. Before I entered all these deductions we owed just over $100 in taxes. I spent over $5000 to make $845. Next year I'll keep the $5000 (ok, take the tithing out of that number because tithing is a blessing not a burden) and pay the $100 in taxes.

Tricky tax code, trying to get me to stimulate the economy by promising me a tiny weeny bit of it back.

On a side note, thank you to Rex for the $1000 deductible. Now I need to adopt a baby because I hear they're worth more...

2.14.10: There could be worse days

There could be worse days than Valentines. In fact, for a holiday that doesn't even qualify for a day off work, it's a pretty good one.

I know a lot of people don't like Valentine's Day because it's a commercial holiday for the card companies and they don't like being told when and how to love someone. But why not? Why not just show people we love them and take the holiday as an excuse to be a little more extreme.

This year Greg and I took a little get away to St. George (a big thanks to the in-laws for the room). We had a lovely drive chatting, and talking (there's difference). Had a wonderful dinner. Toured St. George a bit. And watched lots of cable. It was wonderful. And we used the holiday as a reason to fall in love some more (not again, because we already loved each other).

Then today Rex, Reagan and I decorated cookies and spent the morning delivering them to Reagan's parents and Rex's dadDY.

Holidays are fun just to make cookies and show people that we love them. And so Valentine's Day could be a worse holiday. It could be New Years.

2.6.11: A few of my favorite things

1. Rex's teddy bears. A few days ago Rex and I were reading stories in his room when he got up and left. I decided I wanted to know what happened so I kept reading. Later I went to the kitchen to find this--he put the bears there and gave them food. Yesterday, after he finished his pancakes each of his bears got a bite of pancake and a drink of milk. Last night instead of folding his own arms for prayer, Rex helped his stuffed beaver fold his.

2. Rex playing with his daddy. Rex loves his daddy. On Monday morning of last week Rex searched me out in the bathroom, and asked, "Wher Da?" I replied, "At work." Rex: "Da?" Me: "At work." Rex: "oh."

3. Rex learned how to jump (finally). Rex has been crouching and springing up for a long time, but this week he finally got his feet off the ground. And he loves it. The other day we had to hop all the way to the car from the church. Don't worry we weren't in any hurry to get anywhere.

4. Rex's obedience. Rex learned how to open the dishwasher this week and does so frequently. He, however, knows that he's not supposed to play with knives, so he opens the dishwasher, gets out all the knives and runs around the house looking for me (with knives in hand) until he can give me the knives. Awesome. I"m just waiting for him to trip one day.

5. Rex's OCD. Rex is very particular--he likes things the way he likes them. For example, he likes the toilet seat to be down. He does not like short-sleeved shirts. He likes zip up pjs--not shirts and bottoms. He likes his blue shoes and no others. And he insists on having things his way. I give in because one, what does it matter if he wears his blue shoes instead of his black ones, and two, he's so stinking cute.

2.1.10: Blug

Conversation with Emma on Saturday:

H: I took a 3 hour nap on Friday and then fell asleep at 10:30 and slept in until 9. I think I have mono. You really should stop making out with me.

E: I am lonely.

And so that's my January. Blug.

I just feel gross and lazy. Not that I've been particularly lazy. I've been keeping up with my school work; the house is clean; I painted my bedroom last week; and even now I just finished folding 4 loads of laundry. And still I sit around looking out at the beautiful blue sky, which Rex frequently reminds me of (he says blue (bue) and purple (poorple) now), and think ugg.

After all the excitement of Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas, January is hard to take, and we've even had fairly pleasant weather. I ask Rex if he wants to go outside and ride his tricycle and he just says no. And so we wait for even more pleasant weather and for a month with a better holiday than President's Day.

And that is why I have written nothing this month. Blug.