The Much Awaited North Pole Room!

Yes. I have finally had enough of the harassment from you all and am now posting the long awaited for, much anticipated, totally epic............NORTH POLE ROOM!!
Sawyer LOVES Christmas, snow, polar animals...basically anything snowy and cold, totally my kid...so, when asked what kind of bedroom he wanted he naturally chose the arctic. Which then turned into the North Pole.

So the lights were hung around the ceiling of the room but we had to take them down to replace because half of them were burned out...and you can kind of see the lights going into the top of the igloo...it's because Sawyer and I made a lantern night-light that hangs inside. Awesome.

You can kind of see the lantern. It's a metal canister with holes poked in it and some of the Christmas lights inside...very cool effect when all the lights are off. Kinda like a disco tech.

So I was "volunteered" to paint the backdrop for santa for the ward Christmas party....they wanted to keep it for other years....I said no, it's going in Sawyers room. He was SOOOOO excited when I told him. The ward can still use it next year. Easily taken down. Never tell the Relief Society your talents... Just kidding, it was really fun. And I'm not gonna lie...I do love a little praise now and then. :-)

I had this little wooden carving growing up of the "hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil" saying, monkeys, not sure where it came from. Anyways, still love it and use it in other art work...like this. Ha!

So that is Sawyers room! The igloo took months to make! It's HUGE! 6 feet in diameter! I got the design here but made it an igloo instead of the planetarium.

 

So last night we got bored. The boys have been sick since the day after Christmas and so have been stuck in the house...so what to do? Put party streamers around the dining table and pretend it's a volcano. And then eat a special volcano dinner inside said volcano. It was a hit. boredom gone.

Yes. Those are little hotdog pretzel people being killed by lava. Boys.

So I have a lot more to post. And I will try not to go another year to do so. No promises though. Happy New Year!!

 

 



 

Monsoon Season and Friends

 Oh how I've missed the rain. I hope it never stops. And so does Sawyer. Monsoon season is here and it rains all the time!!! For now. Sawyer LOVES being out in it while Wyatt sits by the door and watches him play.

 So we just got back from a little vacation in a mountain town called Chama. About 3 hours from our house. Our friends parents have a cabin up there and so we packed up all the kids and went up for the week. It's literally in the middle of nowhere. There was so much room for Sawyer and Wyatt and their two kids to run around and make forts and catch bugs....so much to do in fact that Jim and I got to actually hang out with our friends and play cards or just sit around and chat!! It was SO relaxing.

 We went to the lake. Wyatt was really happy for about 20 minutes. Then fell in the water and cried the rest of the time.

 We went fishing for the first time with the boys too. Sawyer LOVED it. And was the first one out of all the adults and kids to catch a fish. He fished on his own and as soon as he got a bite yelled for Jim and started bringing it in! I was so proud of him!!

 We were going to go 4-wheeling....but the batteries were dead. Still fun to sit on though.

 Sawyer and the kids caught like 30 grasshoppers and put them in this container and carried it everywhere. And shook it everytime they didn't move enough...poor things.

 I was too far away to hear the conversation, but Sawyer and Wyatt were having a very long intense discusion with lots of head nodding and pointing at the dry riverbed.

 The view from the porch was amazing

And the one picture of Wyatt happy while fishing. This boy does NOT like the wild. He would rather sit and draw. He likes being outside, just not fishing or hiking or going to the lake and getting wet...he was kind of a bummer anytime we tried to do anything super fun.
But over all it was the best vacation since the family reunioun above Sundance!! It was so relaxing and so much fun to be around friends in such a pretty place!! I miss the green mountains! It made us very homesick for Utah.

5 Billion pictures

 Let's play catch-up...A LOT has been happening around here. Let me start out by announcing the good news!! Jim got his acceptance letter today!! YAY! Congrats to him! Now that I KNOW we'll be here for at least 2-3 years I can start decorating the house....and doing all the fun little projects I've been wanting to do since we got here but have been too afraid to start because what if for some crazy reason he DIDN'T get in and we ended up moving back to Utah into mom and dads basement!!!? So now it begins....
The above picture: Jim got this MASSIVE canvas at an auction for 5 bucks...horribly ugly painting with weird bumpy designs on it, but for 5 bucks I just slapped some paint over it and then gave the boys all sorts of utensils and paints to do as they wished. It is now hanging in the playroom.
Next we have the old sheriff office. Had lots of boxes that needed a purpose, and I needed a jail for my outlaws. Win win.

 I believe we have finally had our last snow for the year. Poor boys.

 We went to the aquarium a couple weeks ago. Boys LOVED it. But kept asking where Alta and Elle were. And the canoe. Remember that Shalane?

 Wyatt was angry because we were leaving the aquarium part and going to the gardens....this place is a smaller version of Thanksgiving point....

 Petting farm at the gardens.

 Ok. So I sat here with Wyatt for like an hour while Jim and Sawyer went to the Japanese gardens...why is he so facinated? A GIANT mini railroad village. I mean HUGE! And you could push the buttons to make the trains go. So cool.

 Lastly they had a kids section in the gardens that we totally overlooked somehow and missed because Wyatt was done....but you would walk under this giant bee and it would start buzzing like crazy.

Ok. Easter. There was a neighborhood egg hunt that the boys had a lot of fun with. Jim and I laughed because in some of the eggs they not only had jellybeans but quarters as well....someone didn't really think that one through. Gross. 

 And I put both photos because I want to show everyone what a dork Wyatt really is. He acts shy and sweet....

 Time out for throwing a fit and chucking his basket of eggs at the floor....

 Happy 2 seconds later...

 Decorating eggs

 I wish I got a picture of Sawyer, he was wearing the Peter Pan costume that I made for Wyatt and it's WAY TO SMALL!!! Hilarious. I don't know how we got it on but we had to literally rip it off...sad...

 For Jims birthday Sawyer wanted to make his cake. These are his words:
"Mom, we should make daddy a hot air balloon cake."
Me: "Ok. That's a fun idea. But how?"
S: "We could make a basket of cake then go to the dollar store and get a balloon and put it on the cake. Then it will need fire to make it go up."
So here is Sawyers idea come to life. He did pretty much the whole thing. Then the next morning Wyatt comes into our room at like 6 with chocolate FROM HEAD TO TOE!!! Yes. That's my kid. He ate EVERY SINGLE kit kat bar off the cake....

 Lastly. Today we went on a train ride to Santa Fe. Just for fun. First real train ride for these two.
Below:
Sawyer holding onto Wyatt so he doesn't go past the yellow line and get run over. When Wyatt wants to hear something better he puts his hand up and cups his ear...really funny...in this case the train.

 It was about an hour long ride. They were pretty good considering they are my kids....

And that's the end.

So we have stopped giving Wyatt naps because I'm really sick of being woken up multiple times a night and then at 5 in the morning for the day. Sometimes earlier. It's starting to work I think. The last couple days he's slept in till 6!! Without getting up at night! Yay! Who would have ever thought I would EVER think 6 was sleeping in. It is. So sometimes he'll just get SO tired he'll fall where he is and no amount of noise or slapping will wake him.

And sometimes I just let him have a little nap because I don't want to wake up someone this cute.

So we woke up the other morning to very unexpected snow...again...it was melted by the end of the day so good thing the boys took full advantage of it.

Then sunny and somewhat warm the next day. Wyatt has memorized all his books so reads them outLOUD to himself...very amusing.

Their all time favorite thing to do is dress up. And then go run around outside. After I make them pose for photos.