Lunch time with 5 year old boys

Lincoln:  Laura, can I have another corn dog?
Andrew: Yeah.  me too.
Laura:  How about a glass of milk?  You both already had one corn dog and apples.
Lincoln:  No, a corn dog!
Andrew: yeah!  corn dog!
both:  corn dog!  corn dog!  corn dog!
Michael:  Uh oh, Laura.  You have an uprising.
boys:  corn dog!...(giggle)   dorn cog! ...(snicker)  cog dorn! ...(giggle) dog cor! ..(snicker) con con! ... etc
Michael:  (to Laura) Well, lucky for you they can't seem to get organized.  (to the boys)  You need a union president for some leadership here.
Lincoln:  Good idea.  I will be the president.  I will be Abraham Lincoln.
Andrew:  Yeah!
Lincoln:  And you can be Abraham Andrew!
Mike and Laura:   (Laugh Out Loud!!!)

*extra corn dogs were completely forgotten, but milk and caramel popcorn were directly given to the boys.

Prelude to Christmas -- Part 3

Santa's Lap:

What would Christmas be without a visit to Santa?  Gunnison had a light parade (not that impressive, but a traditional small town event none-the-less) and afterward hot chocolate and Santa at the town park.

 Joshua is a pro at this now.  He had his list all ready and rattled it off without missing a beat.  The best part is he knows the...secret...about Santa, but still loves to buy into the magic of it all.

 Andrew panicked just before his turn because he realized he had no idea what to ask for, and that has never happened in his 5 long years.  He settled on asking for a surprise, and is going on faith that Santa will bring him something totally awesome.  I am trying to decide if that makes things easier and harder. ;)

Caitlin absolutely panicked.  Santa is saying, "Take the picture, take the picture, hurry!"  I guess he didn't see the fabulous humor in it that we did.  Doesn't every kid need a picture of them screaming on Santa's lap?!

Prelude to Christmas -- Part 2

Christmas Carols:

What would Christmas be without Christmas music?!  And my favorite variety is that of the children.

Prelude to Christmas -- Part 1

The Tree:

Mike and I don't see eye to eye on what kind of Christmas tree we should have.  Every year we debate, and every year I end up giving in because his passion for the "experience, tradition, and real pine smell" is so darn cute.  So we loaded up in the ol' truck and headed up the canyon.  There had been a storm the night before so the snow was deep, but our ford handled that just fine.  It ended up being a very fun trip.  The boys both froze their toes off and spent most of the time in the Truck, but only after valiantly wading through waist-deep (for them) snow fields to find "the one with the light shining on it."  After loosing a dog, hiking a mile or so, shaking snow off of dozens of trees, emptying snow out of boots, we finally found THE ONE.  

 Daniel and Duke came along and found a nice tree as well.  After we had our sappy treasures in the truck we took a few more moments to enjoy the gnarly sledding hill.  I love fluffy snow - crashing is just as fun as sliding.

 Once home Mike's inner child really came out.  We realized that if we didn't trim the tree down it would fit perfectly right under our vault.  So we moved the piano and centered the thing in the only spot it would fit.  Amazingly, once the star was on there is only about a half inch of clearance.

 This year I finally got savvy in the Christmas tree debate.  When I folded and agreed to a live tree I made Mike promise that he would put up the lights.  I hate lighting the tree. Ornaments are so much more fun.  So he borrowed a ladder and made a few trips to ACE for extra strands, but lit the thing up beautifully.  The kids and I made a team effort with the rest of the decor, and voila!  A beautiful tree!  I have to admit, it does beat the fake kind....once all the work is over!

What a nice story, eh?  Well the next day I heard a great crash.  We came into the living room, and the whole tree had gone down.  I am so glad I switched out all my glass ornaments for plastic ones a few years back!  Mike put it back up, reinforced the base with 2x4's and secured it to the wall with fishing twine.  I guess we weren't thinking about our tree stand when we decided on a 15' tree!   Timber!

Natural History Museum

       If you know anything about me, you know I am a museum nut.  I have a real thing for them.  Luckily I married someone who feels the same way.  S0 when Mike came home with  a newspaper advertising free tickets to opening day at the new Natural History Museum in SLC, we both jumped on it like kids in a candy shop.  

       We were able to get enough tickets for our family and Grandma and Grandpa Barlow as well.  We took the kids out of school, drove north, caught a drive through lunch, and headed for the University.  The building itself is a marvel to see.  Copper, cool angles, earth elements, etc.  

       We were able to see so many neat things!  Along with all the regular exhibits we were also allowed into some usually restricted areas.  We got to go into the archives and see the filing systems, we were able to go into the paleontology lab and watch people working on specimens.  All the scientists were there for opening day and wanted to talk about  their areas of expertise.  It was so amazing!

         Andrew's favorite part by far was the dinosaur wing.  Joshua loved watching the paleontologists at work, and Mike was astounded by the gems  As for me, I thoroughly enjoyed the Anthro stuff and the Native American exhibit.  Everything was beautifully planned.  There were so many interactive and hands-on exhibits.

         All-in-all, a favorite day for our family.

Odds and Ends

All of us Barlows are unnaturally obsessed with the camera, so I have several pictures that are floating around my files asking to be blogged, but with no real place.  So why not stick them all together and call them odds and ends?

 I love the way Caitlin sleeps.  She has a full sized crib, but she will only sleep in one little corner.  Always on her belly, and more often than not with her rump sticking up in the air.

 The IPad is a special fascination.  We love the front camera feature - it is like looking in a mirror and taking a picture.  It makes for good smiles every time.

 This one I am not proud of, but I am proud of Mike for catching a picture opportunity.  Jeri likes to sneak into bed sometimes.  If she's lucky I don't notice and she gets away with it.  If I do notice it's back to the floor for her!  Nothing worse than dog hair in your sheets.  Spoiled princess of  a mutt.

 Caitlin, like her brothers before her, is in love with books.  She has a little basket of books in her room.  I found her the other day having a reading party all by herself.  She was pretty happy about it.  And so was I.

Give Thanks

 This was the first year that Thanksgiving Dinner was officially held in our home.  It was so nice to have everyone come to our house and enjoy my favorite holiday.  Our floor plan lends to long tables very well.  The kitchen functions really well too.  We had such a great time cooking, talking, watching sports, teasing, and of course, eating!  Thanks to Jon for the marvelous turkey.  I think Daniel may have eaten half of it all by himself!

 Ma had a great time.  Of course she had a little too much fun and pushed herself beyond where her body said to stop, but she has always been stubborn that way (imagine I said that with a smile of contented resignation).  It was so delightful to have her in the kitchen, and playing with the kids.  Joshua shadowed her the whole time.  He wants to be just like Ma.

 I love this picture of Joshua.  He wanted the turkey leg, so dad plopped it on his plate.  He only made it half way through it, but it was a fun 8-year-old moment.

 When will dinner start????

Becky and her world-famous deserts.  I was so glad to assign her all the sweets -- she is soooo good at making goodies!  Maybe its because she is so sweet. ; )

Festival of Trees Gingerbread

Be sure to check out www.gingerbreaddelirium.blogspot.com for our 2011 gingerbread project.

Fruit or Vegetable?

We have just spent the last half hour having a very in depth discussion on what defines a fruit or vegetable.  Really it came down to a lot of technicalities, shouting, laughing, arguing and Internet searching.  The boys seem to have the rules figured out, but as for Mike and me we have decided to just call all of them frugtables to simplify things.

Scramble

One of Andrew's favorite games is "Scramble".  We like to make up words and spell and ignore all the rules of the game.  Such fun.  We were playing the other day, and I walked out of the room for a bit.  When I returned this is what I found. Apparently there had been a little fight.  What a laugh 5-year-olds are!

I found paint on sale.  I couldn't help myself.  :)

Liquid Layers

Sometimes living with a science teacher can be an adventure.  Our kitchen regularly doubles as a laboratory - I have had beakers and household chemicals and crystal growing medium on my kitchen counter for two weeks now.

This experiment here is called liquid layers.  Everyone has played around with oil and water and watched the amazing way they separate.  Well, Mike took it a few steps farther.  Nine to be exact.  The layers are honey, corn syrup, maple syrup, milk, dish soap, water, vegetable oil, alcohol, and kerosene.  It is hard to believe, but the entire column is liquid.

I love that our kids are being raised with passion for science, music, and art.  Josh and Drew think it is the neatest thing in the world when Dad brings work home with him.  I have to admit, other than losing a little counter space, I think it is pretty cool too.

Halloween

Halloween 2011

 pirate and ghost at the carnival place
 having a laugh with a pie in the face
of teacher and friend - great Mrs. Hatch
when it comes to pies, she's quite a catch!

 spooky decorations abound
spiders, webs, and ghosts are found
with kids at home is quite a crime
to not decorate at Haloween time.

 Go ahead and be a ghost, vampire, or cat
 wicked witch, zombie king, or rabid spooky bat
but as for me, I don't show up dressed in something scary
I find it much more true to me to be a cute strawberry.

A haloween recital is the perfect time to play your song so spooky.

Its fun to play your scarry song then eat a gravestone cookie!

Sanpete Sunsets

You may think this rural area doesn't offer much by way of interest, but Sanpete has something great going for it :  the most beautiful sunsets in the world.  Since we have lived here there has been a "stop what you are doing and look at this" sunset at least once a week.  It is so amazing and fulfilling to take time to just enjoy the wide clean sky.  We caught this particular sunset last week.  These are not clouds; they are contrails.  Amazing.

Portraits

I love to have a current family portrait hanging in our home.  This year I wanted to add some color to the "family wall" as well as not spend any more money than necessary.  So I ordered our prints from Sams, and used a poster frame we had in the basement.  I already had the leaves and raffia from a fall decoration, so I just put it all together and slapped it up on the wall.  I think when spring comes I will change out the leaves for pressed flowers.

 Large family portrait collage:  $18.00  Woo hoo!

Rite of Passage

It finally happened!  Both the boys caught their first fish on a fishing trip up Mayfield Canyon two weeks back.  It was a proud moment for everyone!

Park City

We love Park City.  Andrew says it is his favorite place to go.  Lots of fun things to see, lots of great shopping, hotels with pools, awesome activities, and best of all, great food.

We recently met Mike's sister Karen there for a one day visit.  She was here with her daughter Andrea and her fiance Marcus from North Carolina.  How we love her!

After park city we stopped at Bridal Veil Falls on a whim.  It was so nice to walk and see the beautiful fall colors.  I grew up around the falls, but it has been a long time since I've stopped to really enjoy the area.

Aren't those boys cute?!

Impressive Heritage

What a great heritage we have.  With veterans day around the corner, please take a moment to remember those who have served, fought, and sacrificed for our country and our families.  We have many servicemen in our family.  Gene Peterson: Air Force WW2,  Harold Barlow: Navy WW2,  Tony Desimon: Navy WW2, J.L. Jaussi:  Marines WW2, Clair Jaussi: national guard, David Barlow:  national guard, and many cousins and uncles as well.  Some gave a short time, some gave all.  Thank you for your dedication, honor, and sense of duty.

Caitlins Room

I had such grand plans for Caitlin's room.  I was going to do a faux paneling around the walls, lavender paint,  and a vinyl wall decal along with the butterflies.  I was also dreaming of a new rocker.  But alas, my frugality (my brother would call it my tight-waddedness) scaled the project back to what you see here.  I still think it turned out really nice.

 These butterflies on the wall are a glittery card stock that has sticky on the back.  They look like they are actually flying.  I love them!  If you like this kind of thing, check out www.etsy.com.  One of my new favorites.

 The changing table turned out so great!  I took the old oak changing table I have had for all three kids, and bought at a garage sale before that, and painted it with the extra paint from our exterior doors.  The color almost matches the crib perfectly, and unless you look close you would think they were a matching set.  The bins are $4 at Walmart, and spray painted sage.

 These you have seen before.  Grandma Peterson's water colors have been hanging in my house for a decade.  But I thought they would make a nice soft feminine accessory in the baby room.

 The chair.   Ugh.  I love and hate the thing. Again, this piece of furniture has been with us since Joshua was a babe.  We bought it at DI for $10.  As ugly and faded and stained as it is,  it is also very comfy and fits well in the room.  So for now I have the curtain I sewed for the Mayfield house nursery draped over it.  Not too professional, but at least it isn't a big brown furry eye sore.

I sewed all the crib bedding when we lived in Mayfield.  I wanted to add a little something to the floor just to give the room a little distinction.  After shopping online for butterfly rugs I was very discouraged. $40 and up was what they were asking for.  So I went to Walmart, spent $7 on a purple towel, a green towel, and a yellow washcloth, and made my own.  It is so darling!  I have to say I am pretty proud of it.

So there you go.  A nursery decorating job on a uber-budget.  Fun!