I'm not sure if this is sacriligious, but. . .

Aiden's night-time prayers have evolved over time, and I almost can't get through one of his prayers without giggling.

At first they were all with help, and occasionally he would say something funny and off the wall.

Then he started wanting to pray all by himself, "I don't want any help", and it was a little memorized, something like this- "Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for the day, thanks for all the blessings, thank you for nursery, thanks for momma and daddy, and gramma and papa, and anyone else he had been thinking about recently, name of Jesus Christ, amen."

A little bit later he had shortened it up considerably, to "Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for the day, thanks for all the blessing, amen." and he would say all this as fast as he could to get it over with quicker.

So then, we had a talk with him about how we need to be reverent, and remember to say thanks for everything we are thankful for, and ask for blessings we are in need of. This has been his prayer for the last couple of nights. "Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for the day, thanks for all the blessings, and the ball hits the pins, and I say yes, and the bowling ball and the pins, and number 8 and number 3 and number 2, and Minnie and Mickey, and Lambie and Giraffie and Monkey and Gramma and Papa and Momma and Daddy and Momma and Daddy and Momma and Daddy and Rina and Uncle, and the ball hits the pins, and I say yes, (at this point we redirect) thankful for nursery, and our teachers (please bless. . .) please bless we can sleep all night long, name of Jesus Christ, amen!"

There were times in church when I was younger that I would just giggling, and not be able to stop for some reason or another, even though everyone is looking at you like, "stop it, get a grip!" Well, I am grown up now and hardly ever have that problem anymore, but last night by the time Aiden was done I was rolling on the floor.

just a little more

I promise this is the last Easter post. For this year. We did a lot that weekend, apparently, and I took lots of photos. Sunday after church Aiden wanted to see the bunnies.


These rabbits used to be pet store bunnies, but after years of living in the conditions my Dad has created for them, they are a bit wild. Okay, I should clarify that these rabbits have a pretty good life compared to the life they were originally destined for. These rabbits, in the beginning were meant as bird food. My dad helps rehabilitate injured birds-hawks, owls, big birds. The birds haven't eaten the rabbits yet, and they are now more pets than they are food, so they have stayed. Their future still isn't certain, but I have to warn my dad right now that if we come home one day and one of those bunnies is missing, it will just devastate Aiden. Anyway, the rabbits live in a cage outside on the grass so that they can just eat the grass under their cage, and they act as a lawn mower at the same time. Thus, the rabbits are a but wild, and are not easily caught. And when they are caught, they are fierce with their claws, which explains the tight grip Kenny has on that rabbit.


We set up a little "structure" to fence in the rabbit so after we let the little kids pet it, Kenny would be able to catch it again, and put it back in it's pen.


After the rabbit adventure, Aiden grabbed my mom's umbrella and embarked on another of his favorite activities, re-enacting his favorite movies. This on his from Winnie-the-Pooh. Aiden likes to walk around with the umbrella saying "tut tut, it looks like rain".


I love it when his eyes look at the camera, and I snap the photo right at the right time, it doesn't happen very often.

And all that fun was followed closely by some jumping on the trampoline.

I don't know who's having more fun, Aiden, or Kenny.

When we have this much fun in Moab, it makes it that much harder to leave. I wish we lived there.

bubbles

This child loves bubbles.

There have been a couple of weeks, where the only way we could get him to go to nursery was to promise that there would be bubbles at nursery if he went.

So, when he got these bubbles in his Easter basket, he was thrilled. He likes to do it "all by myself", sometimes inhaling bubbles rather than blowing them.

But, as you can see, every once in while he gets lucky and gets a while lot of bubbles to come from one big blow. That makes all the extra effort worth it.

Easter Cyclin'

For Easter weekend we headed out to the wilderness to have our annual picnic in the rain,




complete with hot dogs,

and motorcycle ridin.

Aiden, Chase, my mom and I started out on the four wheeler while all the boys rode motorcycles. Chase and grandma didn't last long, Aiden and I scared them off at the first hill, they got in the truck and rode with Drew.

This is my Dad. He's an awesome motorcyle rider, for an old man. My Dad is a big advocate for land use rights, and recently he and his motorcycle group "Ride with Respect" took Governor Huntsman on a ride on a trail near Moab and got to talk with him one on one about their concerns. The ride and interviews were features on At Your Leisure. My sister posted the link on her website, so I stole it from her. Watch it if your interested. If you don't think land use issues afftect you, you might be surprised. There are a lot of places that my Dad took us to growing up that I probably will never be able to take my kids to, because they are closed to the public, or access is way limited. Anyway, here is the link.

My darling boys.

We headed out to the Cowboy Caves, which were actually pretty cool. It was a fun four wheeling trail too, one that all of us, the more experienced riders, and the novices could have fun.

We had a really great time. I hope we can make it a new Easter tradition.

coloring eggs

Boy this kid sure had fun coloring his eggs for Easter.

I wasn't sure how he would react to changing the color of the eggs, because he's so wierd about so many other things, such as flying kites. He enjoys playing with kites, but the second you try to get it to fly in the air, he starts to sob. He took right to it though, throwing the same egg in three or four different colors, just because he could. I also wasn't sure how he would react to throwing them down the hill, and watching them break to little egg pieces, but he was all over that too.

fishin with my dad

For two days straight Aiden was begging to go fishing. Actually he was insisting that he "needs to go catch a BIG BIG fish in the water!" So Thursday night while I went to work, Kenny took Aiden to the little fish pond nearby and let him fish. Much to both our surprise, he caught two by himself! Alright, Kenny cast the line out there for him, but Aiden did everything else on his own.

He was pleased with himself, and even enjoyed eating those nasty little fish for dinner. I was SO glad I wasn't home for that.

a man day

I realize it's Thursday, and I'm just now getting to posting about the weekend, but forgive me. Blogging doesn't seem to be my #1 priority, but I still want to get it documented. This is my journal, after all.

Saturday I had to work, and while I slept in, Kenny and Aiden spent the day doing manly things. They headed to Home Depot to get stuff for our new backyard garden, and there just happened to be a class starting right then for kids. They stayed for the class, and Aiden had a great time. They built this cute little bird house/feeder. They even gave Aiden this adorable apron--MANLY apron of course.

Since I missed the whole thing, because I was sleeping, I waited till Aiden woke up from his nap so I could snap a couple of photos of him in his apron with his bird house. You can't tell that he just woke up, can you?Or that he is forcing this smile. Right?He is unbelievably proud of his little bird house, and the fact that he built it himself. Which is why I think Home Depot is great, and we will be going back next month. They have these classes monthly, and they are free. I think that's great.

This is the little backyard garden that Kenny built. I'm quite proud of him, and he is so excited it's like a little kid. I'm pretty sure I may never have to lift a finger to do anything with this garden.

things are so much better when it's warm

We went to the park yesterday. This is a different kind of park, no playground, but I don't think Aiden even noticed. Believe it or not, he's saying hi to me. He hadn't looked for me for so long, he didn't realize that I had moved three times. He just looked to the place he saw me last, waved and yelled "hey mom!"

Look at the delight on his face. I think he saw a bubble. He loves bubbles.

Making more bubbles.

Getting as wet as possible.

See?

Chillin in the warm sun.

This nice family (yes, all of those people are one family) invited Aiden to play boats with them. They were playing boats, Aiden was playing Pooh sticks. Here they are letting their "boats" or sticks go.

And then they watched them float down the river, and whoever's stick got to the end first, won.

Aiden had no idea what was going on, but he was happy to tag along and play clueless.

We are so happy to have our warmth back. Thank you, sun.