Boys Monthly Letters

The boys have posted their monthly letters. You can see them by clicking on their pictures to the right.

"Making Hoops"

The boys (and I mean all FOUR of them) have a new toy! We finally cut down the old bent and broken basketball standard in front of our house (it had a run-in with the garbage truck) and got a new adjustable one that the boys can play on. And they LOVE IT! They are out there every chance they get. Eric loves to count how many "Hoops" he makes and Brandon loves to tell me every time he gets a "Swish". :)

Bread ... and other rainy day recipes

Today was a wet rainy day, the perfect day to stay inside and bake. Good thing because today was my bread making day anyway so it worked out perfectly. I have been making bread weekly lately and have been able to get my family completely off of store bought bread. Now all we eat is homemade 100% whole wheat bread that I really enjoy making.

I have tried out many different recipes, trying to find "the one" that reminds me of the bread that my mom made for us while growing up. Of course I have asked all my relatives, trying to see if anyone had her recipe but had no luck. I thought that it must just be lost forever. But then I talked to my dad this afternoon and was complaining about wishing that I had her recipe (YES ... I have asked him before if he had her recipe) and he non-chalantly said "Well I have her recipe, I've made it before." Silly dad ... all these months I have been crying about the long lost recipe only to have him say, yeah it's right here in my recipe thing under the bread section. So I will have to make that one next week.

I figured while I had a mess of flour in my kitchen and a rainy inside day anyway I would also make homemade tortillas which are so super easy! And I went ahead and made my first attempt at homemade bagels. They aren't much to look at because I have a really hard time dividing the dough into 9 equal pieces and getting the shape really smooth but I was happy with the outcome considering it was my first attempt. I will have to keep practicing on those because Eric loves bagels and fresh ones are so much better then store bought.

Kyle's 2nd Birthday!

Today was Kyle's 2nd birthday. I wish that I could freeze time right now in regards to him and just keep him at this age forever. He is so angelic and just such a sweet little lover. He is such a joy to have in our family.

We celebrated his birthday as a family today without all the extra fanfare. We took the boys to the Mayan restaurant so they could see the divers and they LOVED it! Kyle kept pointing to the "guys" and asking "where they go". And when the would dive he would squeal with delight. It was so cute! We had a great server who really took a liking to Kyle (can you blame him) especially since it was his birthday as well. When his co-workers sang happy birthday to him and gave him a big yummy chocolate cake he brought it over for Kyle and his brothers to devour.

And they did! They annihilated it! While eating it, Eric exclaimed, "This is the best day of my life!"

Then we took the boys to Bear Park in Sandy, the park that Dave spent a lot of his time playing at as a child. It was a beautiful day and they had so much fun playing.

When we got home we had cake and ice cream (like they needed anymore)!

And Kyle got to open his present ... just what he always wanted ... a light saber!!!

It was a wonderful day! Happy birthday Kyle ... we love you so very much!

Spring Soccer

Today was Eric's first soccer game. Technically be played last year but that season was a bit of a disaster since all he did was cry. This year he promised that he wouldn't cry and he was ready to play. :)


He did fine today. He is a bit spacey out there and just kind of wanders around aimlessly but he's cute and he has a good time!

My New FAVORITE Toy!

Okay so before I tell you what my new, favorite toy is I will just say, YES I AM A NERD ... I know it! But I am so excited about this and love, love, love it!!

Yes ... it's a PULL-UP BAR!! And it's so fun! I have NEVER been able to do a pull-up in my life, even when I was a scrawny little light weight in elementary school. But now I CAN!! But I don't always have time to do them at the gym so I got this bar that I can use at home throughout the day. I have it hanging in the door frame to the master bathroom so I can pretty much just leave it up and do a few pull-ups everytime I pass by it. I even told Dave that he had to do a couple pull-ups anytime he wanted to go in that room ... yeah right, like that worked! :) I can do a few pull-ups at a time now (depending on which grip I am using) and with more practice plan to be able to do lots of them! Yeah!

See, I told you I am a nerd. :)

Wheeler Farm

We took the boys to Wheeler farm today for a little adventure. They had a great time.

Aren't they just too cute!!

Ahhhhhh ...

So I admit it. Before I had kids I had a very different picture in my head of how my children would spend their time. They would of course be calm and would just find a nice quiet activity to do such as reading a book. Haa!!! I am sure everyone who has kids can relate. BUT I do have to say that every now and again, they do live up to that picture I had in my head ...

If I find Brandon the right book he actually does curl up and read for long periods of time quite often. But I was surprised to find Eric had joined him to read this time. Ahhh ... so quiet and peaceful.

Grandparents Day!

Last week Brandon's school had Grandparents Day. Grandma Chris and Grandpa Clark rearranged their schedules to be able to attend with Brandon. Brandon was very excited and happy about that. Thanks Grandpa & Grandma!

Hunting for EGGS!

We got to enjoy a really fun Easter brunch and Easter Egg hunt at Randy & Melissa's house today. The food was of course fantastic! There was still quite a bit of snow in their backyard so we had to have the Easter Egg hunt inside. Melissa had a jumping castle in the basement where the kids could play while we hid the Easter eggs on the main floor.

Needless to say, the kids thought that was just the coolest thing ever!

The kids love hunting for eggs and had a great time. Brandon was so excited that he found the $5 money egg!!

Eric was just happy to get lots of candy but also came away with a $1 money egg.

Kyle just enjoyed the hunt and having some chocolate to munch on!

The snow did melt later on and the kids were able to go outside and play for a little bit. They of course had a great time!

And we attempted to take a little family Easter picture which as you can see, Kyle was having no part in. All he wanted to do was play on the forbidden rocks. Little stinker. So this is the best we could do.

Brandon wouldn't put down his stick he found, Eric had to have his $1 he got in the Easter Egg hunt out for all to see and Kyle was screaming the entire time. :) Oh well ... what can you do?

Thanks Randy & Melissa for hosting it. It was a lot of fun!

Easter Eggs

This was Kyle's first year to really participate in decorating Easter Eggs. He had fun, even though he thought it was fun to bang his eggs on on the table and hear them crack. :)

Eric is of course always happy to be doing anything fun and worked very hard to put cool stickers on his eggs.

And Brando is a pro at eggs and even used the "magic crayon" to put a 'B' and a viking hat on his (we went and saw "How to Train Your Dragon" today which gave him the viking idea.)