Lucky Green Shirt

The Lucky Green shirt welcomed yet another baby into the world! 

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2012

Fun at the Fire Station

Our last field trip was a visit to the fire station. 

The firemen showed us the fire truck, the hoses, and where they live went they aren't running around saving lives.

These two were  right at home in the firemen's tv watching chairs. 

The helmet was so heavy!

.. but the coat almost knocked her right over. 

These firemen were so great telling the kids all about fire safety and giving them a glimpse into their lives. We really appreciated all they did for us!

Thanks Station 7! 

Fieldtrip to the SAM

This month we've been learning about shapes, patterns, and colors. 

We found them in nature, in construction, and in a feast. We finished up this topic by finding them in art!

We figured free day at the SAM was a great place to find those things in art. 

As you can imagine it was stressful. And fun. But mostly stressful.

Wait, no ... don't touch the floor! ... Just kidding. They could touch the floor. 

But not that car behind them...

It was just a normal car sitting on the ground that someone claimed was "art". The cars hanging from the ceiling with "spikes" as Dragon calls them, were much more artistic than the car on the ground but what do I know. I just drive a car every day of my life.

In other news, when you tell Dragon to hold still and smile he jumps around like crazy and gets his friends to join in.

Yeah, the lit-up spike cars were a huge hit.

When we walked in this room Colt got SOOO excited about this statue so naturally I had to take a picture of him in front of it. 

These kids are so cute. This will be their album cover when they start a band someday.

This art was a looping video of butterflies flying around in a field. Obviously the kids loved it. Obviously.

While the moms spent the majority of the time freaking out and trying to keep our three-year-olds from being three-year-olds, the kids really did have a blast.

Dragon walked into a room at one point and said, "This is AMAZING!" I was in another room and didn't see what had caught his attention but I did hear him. It made me smile.

And what do kids do when you don't let them touch anything but the floor and benches they sit on for an hour?

They find a bench and have recess on it. We didn't stop them.

Yep, that's a doggy pile on the bench.

We made it out. I don't think any art was damaged by us there. I can't say for sure though because I mostly hovered over my own kid. I'm sure the security was happy to see us leave. 

And, a tip from someone who hates paying for parking, DO NOT park in the SAM parking garage with their "reasonable" parking rates. Ha! I was fooled. I went down the ramp and then I saw what their "reasonable" rates were.

Too bad it would have cost me $7 just to go in and out. Otherwise I would have done just that and spent another 40 minutes looking for parking somewhere else. Oh well, I'm just saying I paid $22 for admission and the parking was free.

Another fun field trip for the books!

Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

We kicked off the Christmas season with our annual tradition of chopping down a tree! I actually tried to get Ben to get our tree from Costco but I'm glad we didn't. We went to a different tree farm this year--a little further out in the woods and away from civilization. It almost felt like we were out in the mountains.

This year Dragon was all about helping his daddy with the tree. 

This is my very favorite picture from the day. I think it is adorable and perfect and it makes me smile every single time I look at it.

Aren't these two just the cutest? I am definitely jealous of how much Dragon admires and wants to be like his dad but I'm also really happy because I can't think of a better person for him to emulate. Ben is the best!

And this is what trying to get a picture of Dragon these days is like: 

So if you ever see him standing normal and smiling for a picture, know that it took a small miracle to make it happen.

We brought the tree home and got the lights on it right away but it took a couple more days to get the decorations up. It's certainly not our perfect tree from last year but it is still our tree and I love it. 

Colt had so much fun decorating the tree for the first time. 

He loved it so much he even stood to put the decorations on (or maybe he was taking them off) the tree!

Don't worry, he's still being a pill and refusing to walk regularly. In fact, now he walks less than before but he's started doing a bucking bronco crawl around the house so I'll try to get that on video sometime.

I can't wait to share the rest of our Christmas traditions! We're having so much fun!

Boys, boys, boys ...

Oh how I love my family of handsome, beautiful, ever active boys.

I especially love them when they are mesmerized by simple things like lights on a Christmas tree.

It was past bedtime and our boys were so grumpy. I told Ben I couldn't wait for them to be in bed and then suddenly this happened and I could barely stand putting them in bed. 

My boys get their dance moves from me. ... Sorry boys.

We spend at least a half an hour each day doing the above. Exactly. It has taken me several months to finally catch Colt's signature dance move in such great length on camera. Enjoy!

In other news, we are so far behind on our blogs so I'm going to try and catch up a little over the next few days but that's mostly wishful thinking so just enjoy this post and hopefully it will tide you over until the others come!

What are we going to do with this kid!?

It was a day like any other except that I decided I wanted to eat in peace and let my kids get down from the table before Ben and I had finished our meal.

As Ben and I sat relaxing and chatting about the events of our day, Colt decides to stand up and randomly FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER walk from the middle of our room to the couch -- a good 5 or 6 steps away!

There was no motivation for him to do that. No one was there to catch him. No one was encouraging him. All those hours I spent trying to get him to do it with me or Ben were in vain because apparently he could care less if his parents are there to catch him. The pesky.

Guys! This. Kid! This was a few minutes later. Luckily he decided to cooperate for the camera otherwise I would have been so mad!

It's about time! 

Preschooler! What?!

I have a preschooler! I real, official, preschooler. It's crazy. 

He's entered the stage of life where a normal smile is THE hardest thing in the world to accomplish. 

3 going on 15.

A group of ladies from the ward with kids all around the same age (2-3) decided to put together a co-op preschool this year and I am so excited (and a little nervous!). Dragon was all against it until I told him his favorite friends were going to be doing it as well and then he couldn't wait to go.

This morning he woke up bright and early and even let me fix his hair! He prefers it to be broken but on special occasions he lets me tame the wild beast.

Closest thing to a real smile we could manage! 

He put on his backpack and we took a few pictures and then it was time to go! (Actually it was still 15 minutes early but he wanted to go so badly that we just got in the car and I drove really slow and then took a really long time unloading them.)

Once there he got straight to work learning life skills like how to fix a shopping cart wheel.

Dragon had a blast singing songs and he was chosen to hold one of the flags for the pledge of allegiance.

They decorated their own place mats and laminated them before snack time.

Colt decided that he wanted to have snacks with the cool kids and he was soooo happy when no one pulled him away.  

After snack time they opened the "Letter Box" and found a bunch of things that started with the letter "M". 

And then, every kid's favorite thing: The parachute! 

It was so fun getting to participate in Dragon's first day of school. Next week he'll be on his own. I'm sure he won't even notice that I'm not there

"Miss Paige" did an awesome job kicking it off preschool for us. Glad I still have a few more weeks before I'm in charge.