St. Patrick's Day Photos

Here are those photos. I found my phone. The first is Scotti during the Motocross races. The second is our leprechaun trap. The kids lured the leprechaun up the ladder by putting a piece of gold on top. Then, once the leprechaun stepped on the top of the hat, the top fell in and the leprechaun would have been trapped inside the hat. Too bad it didn't work!

St. Patrick's Day

We had a very fun St. Patrick's Day this year. The kids built a trap (which we found on familyfun.com) for the leprechaun, but our leprechaun was just too sneaky. We didn't catch him. He DID, however, paint with green paint all over our windows, turn our toilet water and milk green, and leave us some green treats. The kids decided that, mess aside, he must be a pretty great leprechaun if he left treats. They had a great time cleaning up the mess from that naughty leprechaun!

This week, I came home from church a little after my family and found Scotti riding his bike with a dinosaur costume and my ski goggles. I'll post a picture of it tomorrow. It was hilarious. He has a new thing called "motocross," which is essentially bike racing. He gets in uniform, which could be any get up you can imagine, with my ski goggles on. Then, he goes out and rides his bike as fast as he can. His opponent is always called "Lucifer", but in recent times, he's been calling him "Luke-cifer" (in honor, no doubt, of his imaginary friend Luke.) His favorite uniform seems to be to wear his coat with a sweater over the top of it, and then a T-shirt on top. He says the coat and sweater underneath make it look like he has pads on, like in football. He also likes to wear his snowpants with normal pants underneath. Scotti also has taken to working out a lot. He made pretend weights out of some blocks, and he spreads his blanket out and does sit ups and push ups and lifts weights. His entire life revolves around sports, race cars (which I guess is a sport), and competition. He loves it. The only break he takes from it is in reading books and watching TV. Obsessed.

Sammi just seems old to me lately. She takes care of Everett and bosses around Cooper and Scotti so well. She tries to put them in time out, and loves more than anything when I give her responsibility. She has been reading words all over the place lately, which makes her really happy. Sammi has been talking like a baby as of late. I'm hoping it is a stage. My current strategy is to just wait it out, but if anyone has any ideas, I'm open to them. Today, Sammi stood on our bed holding a big stick she found outside and has adopted as her own, instructing Grant and Scotti of what to do on their work out: "Ok, good work Scotti, now here's what we're going to do. Ten pushups and then a new exercise which I'll show you later. Good work dad too. You follow what Scotti is doing, and then I'll tell you what to do next. Great work boys!" Sammi has a little cow which she calls "Reindeer Gold" who she keeps on a leash and takes everywhere she goes. She feeds it and gives it naps and gets mad at us if we are not thoughtful of Reindeer Gold's needs.

This week, Cooper and I (and the other kids, but Cooper got into it most), were super heroes rescuing our yard from the naughty ivy. We had to find it, catch it, and put it in the garbage prison. Cooper played this game with me for four days this week, sticking it out with me pulling Ivy until I was finished. The entire time, he talked in his lower super hero voice, and used his "Super Snippers," "Super Trowel," and "Super Gloves!" He loved it. I had a great time too. Who knew weeding could be so fun. I also read in my gardening book that urine can keep the deer out of your yard and away from your spring flowers. Well, my boys were thrilled to hear that! "You mean when we've got to go, we can go outside?" Don't worry, we've got specific rules about where they can go, and have talked many times about how we don't go in other peoples' yards, but we'll see if they stick to it. They have been really funny about it. Cooper hugs and kisses me so much in a day that I sometimes have to tell him, "Cooper, now is the time for reading books. Afterward, we can snuggle all you want." Sooo affectionate!

Everett has been singing like crazy this week. Grant is teaching him to sing "Zip a Dee Do Dah" and he loves it. His favorite book lately is the one about the ocean. He thinks every fish is a shark and screams "Shark!" every time I turn the page. All day long he asks me, "Daddy? Work?" When I say yes, dad is at work, he sweetly says, "OK." He is such a cutie pie. Somehow Everett goes through 3 shirts every day, and his face is always messy. I just can't figure it out. I hate to wipe his face too much, because he has sensitive skin and gets chapped so easily, but what's a mother to do? My favorite is to listen to Everett sing himself to sleep. That is sweet.

I can't find my phone that has my pictures on it. I'll post some tomorrow if I find it!

St. Patrick

Skiing in Salt Lake City!

We returned home last week from our fabulous week in Salt Lake City. There, the kids learned to ski for the first time. They absolutely loved it. They stayed most of the time on the "magic carpet" at Alta, which they stand on to take them up the small hill they practiced skiing down. They learned how to take their skis on and off and how to get up by themselves when they fall. I was glad to hear that they learned those skills, because those are two things that are certainly difficult to deal with when you are the adult teaching a kid how to ski! It was exhilarating for Grant and me to see that our kids loved something that we love so much as well. It was fun to think about the years we have ahead of family skiing. While in SLC, we had a delightful time with our family. We got to visit the Draper Temple open house with Great Grandma Bird, Great Uncles Clyde and Bruce, Great Aunt Diane, the Lords (2nd cousins to my kids), and Grandma Carol. My kids had a great time messing around with their uncles, but Scotti told me he doesn't want to go back to another temple because it is so boring there and there is just so much walking! Cooper agreed, but Sammi thought the diamond chandeliers were worth a return trip. On the other hand, this week, Sammi told me she didn't want to be baptized when she is 8. She had just been in trouble and had just received a whole lecture from me about how she really needs to practice making good choices in preparation for when she is baptized, because then she'll have to repent for all her poor choices and it's just easier to make good choices. She told me that it just seemed easier to do what you want and then get baptized as soon as you know how to make good choices. She thought that might happen when she is 9 or 10. We also had a great visit at Grammi's house and Great Grandma Hatch's house. We went to our traditional hamburger joint with Great Grandma Beck, and the kids climbed all over the restaurant. Grandma Beck didn't even seem stressed or upset that they were so wiggly. I was proud of my heritage! Other highlights of our trip included seeing my sister Amy's new house, disco night at the Beckstrand's, a dinner party for Grant's uncle who received an international award for his aid in writing the freedom of religion clauses in countries like Iraq and Afghanistan, hanging out at Grandma Janet's and Grandpa Kelly's, family ski days for both the Beckstrands and the Jacksons, playing at Jer and Joni's house, a pizza picnic with Grandpa Jonathan, and as always, tons of great times with Grandpa Richard and Grandma Carol. Those two work so hard when we come into town. My mom especially did a lot of babysitting this trip, for which I am so grateful. We have the greatest family. We have so much fun when we come into town. I so appreciate how you all take so much time out of your schedules to see us when we come into town. We adore you. We love our family. I love the affect you have on my kids. They feel your influence, even from such a distance. Love you all!

As for the pictures: Sammi is in pink, Scotti in the red coat, Cooper in the blue coat. Jake Hopkins, our cousin, is the other skier in the polar bear hat, and Maggie Driggs, our cousin, in the blond hair and pink coat.