Big brother class

Our hospital puts on a class to help siblings get ready for a new baby.  They teach you how to hold the baby, put on a diaper and bathe the baby.  They also took the kids on a tour of the hospital to see where mom and baby would be.  Alex was too old for the class so we just signed up Logan.  When we got to the class there was only one other kid so the teacher let Alex participate as well.  They are both going to be awesome big brothers.

Holding baby

Bathing practice

The graduates

St. Patrick's Day

Every year we have a leprechaun that comes to our house and leaves a little chaos and a lot of gold.  The boys get so excited when they wake up to find the trail and see what he did and to find the pot of gold. 

The mess

Waiting to start on the trail

We found it!!

For breakfast we had green eggs.  Then for dinner we had a meal of all things green.  We also made rainbow cupcakes for dessert.  Thanks leprechaun for coming to our house!!

Happy Easter Emma!!

While we were down in SLC we went to visit Emma.  We decorated her grave for Easter and just took a few moments to understand the importance of the Easter story.  Logan was so cute.  As we were leaving he said, "Love you Emma" and kissed her headstone.  It was a sweet yet sad moment. I am so grateful for the knowledge that Jesus Christ lives.  That thanks to His sacrifice we will be able to hold and love our dear baby girl again.

HAPPY EASTER SWEET BABY!!!

Clearing my head

I have had these thoughts running through my head the last little while so I figured I would type them out on my blog.  I normally try not to get too political on here but I feel this is important.   You have been warned!!:)
I have been thinking a lot about my two kids and their education.  Logan is starting Kindergarten this fall and I can't believe it.  He has been so different in his learning than Alex, part of which was due to his hearing issues he had for the first 2 years of his life.  He is just barely starting to recognize his letters and sounds.  At this point in life Alex had been reading for a year.  I don't see this as a big deal nor do I view this as a lack of parenting on my part.    I just had different priorities with Logan than I did with Alex.
As I have thought about this I thought about how different their education may be due to these differences.  Alex has always been a quick learner and has struggled at school due to all the "required" work he had to do.  He was far ahead of these assignments but had to due them because it was required by the standards set by No Child Left Behind and others.  In the past there were options for these kids.  Now all of the money that was used to advance these kids further is put towards bringing kids up to the standards set.  I feel like we are stifling the creative minds of our kids with these standards.  What is their motivation to be creative and to think out of the box?
Are we creating a generation of kids who will all be the same due to the standards in place?   I have had people tell me that this is where my job as a parent comes in to play.  I get that and Andy and I do this.  We teach our kids about the things of the world like politics, science and history.  The problem is then when they get to this point in school they are once again set aside as other kids learn what they already know.  What is a parent to do?
 I am grateful Alex was able to get into a different school that allows him to excel further and doesn't stunt his education.  I know there are a lot out there who don't have this option.  What are those parents suppose to do?
Logan will be attending the same school in the fall.  It will be exciting to watch as he embarks on his school journey.  I am sure he will explode in school and just start learning everything like crazy.  I hope he will learn to love school and the opportunities that he gets from it.
As we embark on  child journey #3 I struggle to know how to best help this little one with life.  I am still going to teach him/her the colors, numbers and letters.  But once again I feel like I am setting my child up for a school time filled with boredom and wondering what is the point? 
I hope all of this rambling made sense for anyone willing to read all the way through it.  And if you made it all the way to the end you deserve a medal.  Thanks for listening to my ramblings!!

Staycation

I have always wanted to pack up and just stay at a hotel in our area.  Just a night where we don't have to worry about messes, we can eat in bed and watch movies and the kids can play in a pool.   One of the hotels up here had a remodel special so we decided to splurge and have a staycation.  Our plans had to be changed a little due to Andy's grandpa passing away but we made it all work.  Unfortunately, the only day we could go was on Fast Sunday so Andy didn't get to enjoy the yummy breakfast.  Next time we will plan better.
The day we checked into the hotel Scott's family was up here so we planned on taking them to play in the pool with us.  As we were on our way to the hotel the car they were in broke down so we had to do some rearranging so we got a little bit of a late start. 
Once we got to the hotel the guys went back to see if  they could figure out what was wrong with the car while the gals stayed to let the kids play in the pool.  Thankfully, there wasn't anything wrong with the car.  Something about the 4WD being stuck.  However, Natalie wasn't so lucky in the pool.  She missed a step and went under and so Brooke, fully clothed, went in after her.  Oh the fun times of managing a mob at the pool.

How many cousins can fit in a hotel closet?

After they dried off and got on the road we went to have dinner.  It was pretty good for being a lite dinner.  The boys discovered the joys of jumping from bed to bed.  They had so much fun while we waited for dad to get ready for swimming. The Dad is a lot more fun in the pool than mom.  He was throwing them all over the place and splashing each other.  We went back to our room after that and watched the Gonzaga/BYU game and the kids were so exhausted they fell asleep in the middle of the game.
We all had such a blast hanging out and having fun as a family.  I think this may become a family tradition.

The boys at dinner

Bed diving

Our family

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss

Dr. Seuss is one of my favorite children's authors.  I love having a day to celebrate him and read his books.  Plus who doesn't love a meal of green eggs and ham.

Fun in the snow

We got a big snowstomr on the 29th.  Logan went outside in the dark and was gone for a while.  When I looked outside I saw this:

He was shoveling the snow for all of the neighbors.
The next morning Logan wanted to go out and play in the snow.  I heard him calling me and when I went out there he was doing gymnastics in the snow. 

I watched him for a few minutes and then shut the door.  I heard him call me again so I grabbed the camera and went out.  Thankfully the camera was ready.  I captured this shot and then slammed the door before I was hit.

Leap Day

We love celebrating any holiday and Leap Day was no exception.  I told the boys we were having a frog themed dinner.  We had frog legs (breaded chicken tenders), frog eye salad ,frog eggs (corn) and a frog cake for dessert.  The boys loved eating them.  Logan told his preschool teachers about his dinner and they wondered if we really ate frog legs..  It was really fun to celebrate an unusual holiday.