Mint Chocolate Chip vs Burnt Almond Fudge

This is a repeat for anyone on my facebook but after dinner we had brownies and ice cream.  Hayes and Kamri got into a debate with Bracken over which ice cream flavor was better, Burnt Almond Fudge or Mint Chocolate Chip.  I love both but if I had to have only one I'd pick Mint Chocolate Chip too.  Bracken sited "studies" he has done that Burnt Almond Fudge is more popular. Although I have learned after years of marriage that "studies" can mean anything from his guesses, his quick judgement from some observations, but rarely from actual studies.  Since he doesn't blog on here he can't argue against that....maybe he'll start  We decided to do a study of our own by posting the question on my facebook wall.  Mint won 13 to 6 as of 10:01 p.m. I'd still love to hear which flavor you like better so we can add you in.

Hayes & Kamri will be so excited to learn in the morning that their ice cream flavor won.  Just a little taste of elections for them.  Bracken was explaining how Hayes & Kamri being excited to find out what flavor won is similar to how Bracken has been excited for primary/caucus returns. Then Hayes started talking about President Obama and Romney again.  That kid is going either going to be like his father and love politics as an adult or absolutely despise it.

Lyla is getting to the age where she just wants to be down and moving. Although she is darling, it is tiring trying to keep her occupied during church...the countdown to Nursery age has begun.  Only 8 more months...
Hayes humbled me during church. I was getting after him, in a not very christlike way, for not being reverent during sacrament meeting.  He turned around, wrapped his arms around me, gave me a kiss and said, I love you, mom!  Either he knows just how to manipulate his Mom or it was a sign that I should have been a little kinder.  Probably both.
Kamri & I took a short nap together on the couch today. Dare I hope that it is becoming a Sunday tradition?We all went for a walk before dinner, the first time we've gone for a Sunday walk since long before Lyla was born.  We used to go almost every Sunday during the summer when we lived in Cache Valley. Now that we get home from church at noon hopefully we'll get into the habit again. It's so relaxing to be outside with the family.

Quote for Sunday:
"Perhaps the greatest charity comes when we are kind to each other, when we don't judge or categorize someone else, when we simply give each other the benefit of the doubt or remain quiet.  Charity is accepting someone's differences, weaknesses, and shortcomings, having patience with someone who has let us down, or resisting the impulse to become offended when someone doesn't handle something the way we might have hoped. Charity is refusing to take advantage of another's weakness and being willing to forgive someone who has hurt us. Charity is expecting the best of each other." -Elder Marvin J. Ashton "The Tounge can be a sharp sword." Engisn May 1992. (I saw this quote in Feb 2012 Ensign.)

Family & Politics, Not Family Politics.

We drove up to Cedar last night to attend my nephew, Xander's, baptism today.  It was fun hanging out with most of the family today. I was horrible at taking pictures, except on my sister's camera...I'll have to steal some from her. I didn't even get one of the boy of the day.

Lyla & Neve hanging out

Hayes & Kamri making Snowmen with Audrey, Grace, Grandpa Dane & Aunt Linda

Got home in time to go to Mitt Romney's victory speech for the Nevada Caucus and got Ann Romney's signature. Got to see my aunt, uncle & cousin too.  

Now to bed.

FLT: My dad told me after they built a snowman Hayes had Bracken get him two cups of water to drink.  Hayes gave one to my dad and told him to walk over to the snowman with him. Then Hayes said, "A toast, to our new friend, Mr. Snowman."  Clinked cups with my dad and drank.  I have no clue where he learned toasting from...that kid.

Important Facts

Dogs don't wear bandaids. -Kamri

If you sky dived without a parachute and landed on a mattress would you still live? -Hayes

Nope. -Bracken

I love the random important facts that come up while we are driving in the car.

Legos

 Hayes wanted me to take a picture of him with his Lego creation to send into the Lego Club magazine.  It's not going to make it to the magazine but I'll post it on here....

Kamri didn't want to be left out so she got a picture with the Legos as well.

and Lyla just wanted to eat them.

(no baby choked on legos due to this post)

I watched my friend Starr's baby today. When she came over I was also watching another friend's three kids.  We sat and talked and it was a bit chaotic but I love listening to kids play, as long as they get along.  I think I scared her from having anymore kids but I'm glad she humored me and stayed for lunch so I could have some adult conversation amid the chaos.

I took the kids bowling this afternoon with our friends the Doxey's. Kids bowl for free in the afternoon, seriously awesome. I swear it was like $6 each growing up. The kids did pretty well although we did have our own personal ball retriever.  About halfway through their game an employee just sat behind our lane waiting for one of the girl's balls to get stuck and then go get it out of the middle of the lane.  It wasn't busy so hopefully she was happy about having something to do....ahem. The kids loved it. I'm also easily entertained because watching people's reactions from the casino as we tried to fit two double strollers, five kids, two babies and two adults into a tiny elevator...almost as fun as watching a three year old try to throw a bowling ball.

Bracken and I went on a date to Macayos and the Barnes & Noble.  I found a whole bunch of books to add to my hold list at the library.  I'm a cheap and a nerd but I think most people already knew that. It was lovely going somewhere with him without the mini us's in tow.

Laundry Basket Races

Took Lyla for a spin in the laundry basket. The first time down the hall she had a tentative smile, on the way back she just burst out in giggles. Hayes & Kamri had to join in, they've been loving laundry basket races since they were babies.  It's getting to be much more of a workout for me though, I think Hayes' racing days are getting short--maybe I'll just make him push me.

Now a flashback- Hayes & Kamri Oct 08

Hayes & Skye Feb 07

Park Thoughts

We went to the park today. It is near a middle school and a high school bus drop off so it's full of older kids in the afternoon. I usually try to avoid the park that time of day. When I overhear the language, the conversations and the interactions of the teenagers there it makes me want to tell them to shape up and at the same time wonder what in the world their parents are teaching them at home.  Which in turn makes me feel like I'm already fifty years old.  I wasn't paying too much attention to time (no surprise there) and school got out and the teenagers started coming. I told Hayes & Kamri we had to go home.  Being the inquisitive children they are and trying to avoid the injustice of having to leave, they had to know why we couldn't be there the same time as the older kids.  Wanting to avoid more questions about what does inappropriate, cursing and sex mean, (I'll deal with those later but not at the park!) I summarized by saying some of them are bad examples.  Hayes responded that we could be good examples to them. I wish it was that easy buddy...   A nice thought bud, but we're heading home.  As we were leaving we passed a group of kids where I heard two girls saying things that I feel are inappropriate for anyone to say, much less a 13-year-old followed by another kid saying "shut up there are little kids over there."

Although the teens conversation is a bit different, the same scenario has happened multiple times on our trips to the park. One teen says something to their friends and gets shushed because I'm overhearing.  I know they could care less if they didn't see an adult around. It makes me wonder how I'm going to teach my kids when they are teens to not be the ones saying those things, not  just shush their friends when adults are around, but to have the confidence to tell their friends they don't want to hear it and not only conversations, but to have them stick up for what they know is right and will keep them happy in the long run, not just what's "cool" or "expected behavior" in high school.

I was mulling over this as I pushed Lyla in the stroller home. Hayes stopped riding his bike, bent down and picked up a piece of trash.  "Mom, we gotta throw this away, I don't want the earth litter-y"  He ran back to the park and threw it away. Not helping my patience, Kamri found a bag and wanted to do the same thing. As they got back on their bikes Hayes turned to me and said. "It makes me happy to make good choices, keeping the earth clean is a good choice, right?" Yep!  I know being a tree-hugger doesn't always equate to moral soundness but it did help me realize that it's the little things I teach my kids--taking it a day at a time--that will give them confidence to stand up for the things that they know will make them happy in the long run and become well-rounded adults. That...and A LOT of prayers.

Beautiful Day

It was a beautiful day outside. We went to the park with some friends for lunch.  Being outside in nice weather puts me in a great mood.  The kids fell asleep easily tonight since they got all their energy out running around, which also puts me in a great mood.  When we got home from the park I had the kids make flying fish that I saw on UCreate today. I drew lines on the paper for them to cut out and then they decorated the fish and watched them "fly"  I thought they'd spend most of their time "flying" the fish but they ended up decorating and cutting out different sizes of fish for about 45 minutes. Hayes taped a bunch of strips together to make a fat shark. I love easy projects that keep them entertained for a long time.  Lyla also explored the house while they were coloring. She crawled to every room, looked in and then came back to table to see how we were doing.  She's quiet trouble...gets into stuff quietly so you always have to know where she is...only going to be more so once she's walking!  We had orange chicken from Trader Joe's for dinner and I made Egg Flower Soup.  Yum.  Romney won the Florida primary and Bracken showed me these funny bad lip reading videos.




Writing about my day makes it sound mundane but it was one of those simply fun days.  Spent time outside, got the laundry done, played with the kids and got to share with Bracken our excitement that Romney won Florida.  Now I'm going to go eat a bowl of ice cream to finish off the day.

My FLT: I was putting clean sheets on our bed Hayes called the pillowcases, pillowsheets.

and I back posted about Dane's Birthday.