Oodles o' photos and a few videos too!

Swinging is FUN!

No, those aren't Nolan's real teeth!

Silly dinnertime pictures:

6/29/09:  Sometimes when we're all done eating, we like to sit around and take silly pictures or sing silly songs or just do silly things together.

Ethan sometimes tries to catch invisible bugs.  We think it's funny, which he thinks is funny.  I almost DARE you not to laugh at this kid:

Mama Moose and the Twins:

On Friday last week, it was very warm, so I took the boys down to swim in the lake.  Ethan had a good time until he fell face down in the water, over and over and over while trying to get out.  He never went back after that.  The other boys swam for quite a while and eventually their friends came and joined in.  Thanks great-grandma Williams for the new towels!  We came home and had lunch, got Ethan down for a nap, and put the sprinkler under the trampoline for some more wet fun.

Saturday we tiled the bathroom (YAY!) and then went to a fantastic 4th of July BBQ at our friend's house.  Boy do they know how to throw a party!  There was more food than anyone knew what to do with and they bought every outdoor toy or game imaginable.  The adults played wiffle ball - men against women.  I don't know who had that idea (ahem, Holly), but it was a bad one.  Eventually, the kids joined in and fortunately for us, Holly's 11 year old scored the most points for our team.  I didn't take my camera, so I don't have any photos other than the ones below that I stole from the Ley's facebook page.

Ethan ate more cupcakes than I could count.  Every time I turned around, he was licking the frosting off another cupcake.  No matter how many people thought they put them out of his reach, he always managed to find another.  Once the cupcakes were gone, he moved on to the chocolate chip cookies.  This was the very last one.

The one below I just couldn't NOT post.  Look at Ethan's face!  (And no, that's not Nolan, but it could be his butt-double.)

We were all sad again this year with no fireworks.  We heard some, but never saw a thing.  (I remind you - this is Alaska.  There is no darkness right now.)

Today we cleaned out our paddle boat to take it down to the lake.  I have been looking forward to it for a long time.  We paddled from the neighborhood boat launch around to our dock.  The boys loved paddling, but Doug and I eventually had to take over in order to make it home at a decent hour.  It may look like it's the middle of the day, but again I remind you, this is Alaska.

While cleaning out the boat, Ethan discovered what fun the hose was.  Check out the video - this is the "This is fun!" laughter.  Previously, it was evil laughter as he was getting away with squirting mom and dad and there was nothing we could do about it.

Also today, we saw Newman (our basset hound) had a small animal in his mouth.  We rushed to remove it, but too late.  We all witnessed a tiny bunny take his last labored breaths.  The boys were so sad and dug a small grave, buried the bunny, and placed flowers on the grave.  Brenden had immediately wanted to pray to heal the bunny.  He's so sweet and takes things like this very hard.

Brenden has a question:

He wants to know what a scientist who studies books is called - a bookologist?  (That was his theory.)  Doug says a scholar.  So, what is a scientist who studies books called?

I finished the bathroom today, but then tore out the floor, so you still get no pictures.  Sorry.  Now you need to start bugging Doug to get the cement board down so I can tile - I don't do cement board - did it once or twice and wasn't thrilled with it.  I figure it's the least he can do, right?  Okay, maybe I'll end up doing it, but I really do need Doug to take out the toilet.

I have moved on to Nolan and Ethan's room.  This is what happens when you're painting a kids' room:

Isn't it sweet?

You know what else happens?  Your six year old's little six year old friends walk in the front door uninvited and say, "Wow, this place is a MESS!"  Everything from the bedroom is stacked pretty much right in front of the front door.  I said, "Yes it is, thank you" and pointed them back toward the door.

Now, what I can't figure out is how I hate to paint, Doug LOVES to paint, and yet I have spent a solid week painting alone.  Oh, wait, Doug hasn't been home A SINGLE DAY I have been painting.  I find some peace in knowing that he hates the situation as much as I do.  

Doug only has 3 days off work before my parents come in two weeks, and one of them is a Sunday.  I am not concerned about the painting, mostly just the tile in the bathroom.  Let's explore Erin's way of thinking: "I better paint the bathroom before we tile so I don't have to worry about the paint getting on the new tile.  Well, now I have the paint out already, I might as well do the boys' room, oh, I have to paint the ceiling... Brenden's bathroom ceiling needs some touching up, oh and his bedroom ceiling too..."  Besides that, I decided that as long as I was painting, I might as well paint all of the exterior doors on my house.  Now there are little fingerprints and bugs stuck to them.  Today I painted the previously green ceiling in the boys' room to white and painted one wall the exact same color.  Unfortunate, I know.  (Why would anyone paint their ceiling green, another brown, and another yellow with pink polka dots?  Perhaps they missed the memo that said CEILINGS SHOULD BE WHITE! unless there are extenuating circumstances, which I am quite sure there were not.)

The results of Brenden's making and doing late at night:

Brenden's Modern Day Miracle

I think that we can all learn a lot about faith from kids.  Today Brenden and I set out to paint the letters that spell his name and go in his bedroom.  (They still need some work...)

They were previously primary colors and were on the wall above his crib the day he was brought home from the hospital.  They don't fit his room decor now, so we were painting them to match.  We had all of the letters, but couldn't find the D.  We went out to the garage to hunt for it and after a long while, had no luck.  I told Brenden we were going to have to change his name to Brenen.  Immediately he responded, "Let's pray to Heavenly Father to help us find it."  He then said the sweetest prayer requesting help in searching for his D.  

He asked me how it was going to work.  How was God going to tell him where to find it?  I told him he had to listen and pay attention to where he feels like he needs to look.  He looked around for a few minutes and the very first box he looked in, I said, "Those are daddy's tools, it won't be in there."  He kept diligently searching through the box, so I figured, what the heck, I'd go help him.  He was right!  The D was in the bottom of the box where it didn't belong.  He quickly said a prayer thanking Heavenly Father for showing him where to look and that he was "very grateful."  He called Doug and told him that Heavenly Father showed him where to find his D.

During the process, we also had a lovely retelling of Nephi and the Liahona.  Nephi's brothers tied Nephi up on a boat and the Liahona that told them where to go stopped working.  Brenden and Nolan had been fighting and Brenden reminded me that when Nephi's brothers stopped being wicked, Nephi prayed that the Liahona would work to show them where to go.

One Year!

Today is exactly one year from the day we arrived in Alaska - but family, don't start counting down yet, we still have one more week before Doug has been at work for a year.

Yesterday I dressed Ethan and Brenden and noticed that they mostly matched, so I purposely dressed Nolan to match.

My mom gave Nolan this big floor piano last year.  He and Ethan like to set it in the middle of the floor and chase each other around the coffee table and across the piano just to listen to it.
Ethan loves to play with his big brothers - especially chase and trucks.

I would like to note that we do not allow shoes in our living room - or past the front door for that matter, but the matching picture was a last minute thought on the way out the door and it got a little out of hand.

A few of Brenden's favorite projects:

Newspaper mat

I have to admit, it was pretty fun to make.

Banjo 

(I showed Brenden the video "Banjo Boy" by Ryan Shupe and the Rubberband - if you don't know the song, I think it is worth looking it up on youtube - as a matter of fact, watch all of their videos, I really rather love them.  Brenden says they're not real rock stars because real rock stars don't play the violin, only the electric guitar and drums - he included a little demonstration with that explanation too.  I showed him they have drums and guitars, to which he responded: "Is it an electric guitar? No!")  

Back to Brenden's Banjo:

Flute (it sounds like a kazoo)

Puppet 

(this one he made while he was supposed to be asleep last night)

He's been a busy boy and has been trying to involve Nolan in the projects.  They made these hand and foot fans while I was painting the bathroom today.  

Brenden managed to trace my foot amid the mess of paint.  He painted it for me and I asked him if my toes were dead and he says they are painted with "you know, that stuff Felicia puts on her toes."  The fans are to cool themselves from all of our "warm weather."  (It has rained for almost a week.)

The bathroom is done except for the ceiling - it was brown before, so I am painting it white.  I promise pictures when it is finished.

Things to Make and Do

Last night, I went to check on Brenden at 1:00 a.m. - I suppose that would make it this morning that I checked on him, whatever - 1:00 a.m.  He was wide awake with a bed full of projects he was working on.  He is reading a huge book - it looks like a text book - called Things to Make and Do and he was making and doing all of them.  I told him that he was up ALL night and now it was morning and he said, "That's funny, I don't feel tired."  I cleared his bed and stayed in the room until I knew for sure he was going to stay in his bed.  He was up bright and early ready to make and do more projects.  We made a flute and a banjo this evening.  We are missing some of the items needed for the projects he wants to do, but he spent quite a bit of his day wandering through the house and garage looking for precious gems he could turn into something else.

I accidentally pained a section of the bathroom I am painting in yellow and was painting back over it and Nolan said, "But yellow is FUN!"  He was surprised to see some blue on a wall and he said, "I LOVE the blue!"  He also told me this morning that he is cute because I made him that way - usually he tells me he's cute because his dad made him that way.

Ethan has a set conversation he uses on the phone for everyone, "LO! (hello) gaba gaba gaba bye, wuv oo," sometimes he'll throw in a "mo" if you ask him a question.  He has a little girlfriend at church.  He threw a fit on Sunday because she went in the nursing room with her mom and he desperately needed to go too!  When they see each other, they hold hands and there is the occasional hug.  She used to give him kisses, but has been dissuaded from that.  Ethan has turned into a little monster.  He hits and kicks his brothers randomly for no reason at all.  His favorite book is Go Dog Go and he yells "GO! GO! GO!" through the whole thing.  He is just too cute!