Saving Account

Our children are getting to the age we think it's time to teach them about money. They have absolutely no concept of it right now.  Logan knows it costs money to buy things, but we haven't followed through very well with allowance so they don't truly understand how to earn money.  Jill has created a job chart and now each week when the kids do their work, we will give them allowance.

Monday is family home evening so we will give the boys $1/week when they do their jobs.  To help them save money, Saturday we went to the credit union and opened up savings accounts for all of the kids. It wasn't the fastest experience, but we should have known better than to go to the credit union on a Saturday. 

Having saving accounts will come in handy to deposit the money Grandparents give the kids on their birthdays. 

Jill took Landon and Alyssa to the museum of Natural History this week.  Unfortunately Jill didn't get any pictures from the outing.  Alyssa's favorite thing was to go up and down the stairs, and Landon liked putting a piece of paper over some Dinosaur skin and get a chalk rubbing of it which he got to keep.

This week has been pretty slow and relaxing.  The highlight was when Logan tried to close the toothpaste with his mouth and got his lip stuck when the cap tightened to the tube.

Last Sunday Shanel changed my life forever by introducing me to an awesome new thing called a nose wax. 

Everyone should try this.  It doesn't hurt despite how bad it looks like it would hurt.  All nose hairs come out connected to the wax and it looks like a little fur ball.  I purposely didn't take a picture because I didn't want to gross everyone out, but this is what I looked like.  It's my first foray into man-scaping and I loved it!  My nose has never been cleaner.

It's new-bishop Sunday in our ward today and sure enough my two best friends are now Bishop and 2nd counselor.  I'm happy and sad for them at the same time. We run together 3 times a week and I can't help but think about how this will change our friendship dynamic.  On one hand I'm sure they still want to be friends and "don't want things to change."  However things have changed.  One of my favorite things to talk about on the run is things about church (note not things about faith).  I talk to the guys about processes, my calling which is 5 years running of being in 11-year old scouts, and of course some of the crazies who live in our ward boundaries. Now if I respect their new callings and don't talk about such things it means our relationship has changed. Or I could keep it the same but it could make them uncomfortable because now they are in a position to make changes.  Also he is my friend, so now am I supposed to call him "bishop" 100% of the time or only on official business.  When I run I think it's best when I run with my friend "Doug". I hope he continues to run with us given the increase of demands this will mean for his family. 

Valentines

Valentines this year was celebrated a few days early on a double date with our great friends the Utley's.  Jill and I went to dinner at The Dodo and had a wonderful visit with Brett and Danylle.  We see them once or twice a year and enjoy visiting with them and hearing about their adventures.  After dinner we headed to Marie Calendar's for pie.  

The actual day was celebrated with a Valentine gift for the boys. Lately their "favorite thing in the world and they can't live without" is Lego Ninjago cartoons and action figures. We found a game that included action figures and they loved it.

Later that day Jill's cousin Dallas Bunkall was married.  I got off work just in time to make it to the reception and after we all stopped at Costco for some flowers.

The next day I flew to Detroit with work.  It was a longer trip than I have been going on lately, but it mostly went well.  I met with five clients and the visits all went well. The neat part was I was able to see the Gerald Ford Presidential Museum in Grand Rapids.  Well the outside of it at least.   I wanted to go inside but we got there just at 5:00 p.m. when it closed.  Considering Monday is Presidents Day it was very appropriate to stop at the Presidential Museum and walk the grounds.

Outside the museum, along the banks of a mighty river that runs from Lake Michigan right through Grand Rapids is where the former President and his wife Elizabeth Ford are buried.  There is a terrific quote by President Ford from his inauguration address where he said, "I am acutely aware that you have not elected me as your President by your ballots, and so I ask you to confirm me as your President with your prayers."

This statue stands at the entrance.

Friday we took a client to see a Detroit Pistons basketball game.  The Pistons aren't very good right now so really good tickets were easy to get.  We sat 6 rows from the court right at mid court.  It was so amazing to see 10 huge basketball players, the court seems so much smaller with such big players. Our tickets included an incredible meal in a really nice lounge above the concourse.  Now I've been to 3 NBA stadiums; the Utah, Charlotte, and now Detroit arena's.

Here is a picture of Don Rudick from Hansons Windows and me at the game.

It's always great to be home. The kids were all really excited to see me which made me happy.

Dads and Doughnuts

This was the 2nd time I was able to go with my sons to "Dads and Doughnuts".  It's something the boys look forward to for weeks.  I know they love the doughnuts, but they also like to show me the school and introduce me to their friends.  Technically Dads and Doughnuts is just for Logan, but Landon comes too and he feels like he belongs as if he were a student.  

I enjoy seeing Logan's friends and his school. Logan is so social and loves to greet everyone he knows with a big happy hello.  

The other big event of the week was Logan's chess tournament.  This is his 2nd tournament and it is a pretty big deal.  There were schools from all across the valley that attended, including several private schools.  Riverton Elementary sent out an email to participants' parents to prepare their children because many of the other children have had "years of private chess lessons."  

Taylor Ludlow also participated, and it helped so one parent didn't have to be there the whole day. Parents were sequestered outside of the chess playing area so I'm not exactly sure how Jill shot this picture. 

While Shanel was watching the kids she overheard a parent yelling at his son, "YOU HAD BETTER WIN THIS NEXT ROUND!" I'm so glad I didn't hear that because knowing myself I would have gotten involved and told the father to cool down (my experience of telling volatile parents to cool down doesn't go over too well).  It's a game people!

Logan won his first round which bumped him into a tougher group.  From there he lost the next 3 rounds to some very good chess players.  Logan told me, "Dad I versed a kindergartner and he got me in check mate!" He went on to win the last game (finishing 2 of 5) which earned him an Outstanding Contributor trophy.  It appeared as if this was the 2nd level of awards given out. He sure made me proud considering his lack of private lessons.  He sure enjoys chess.

One other thing I had forgotten to post about happened two weeks ago.  Cousins and friends of our sons seem to enjoy Harry Potter.  Our boys have been asking for a while to watch the movie because their friends and cousins have seen it.  We finally decided that they were old enough for the first movie, but first they would need to read the book.  We started the book and were able to finish in under two weeks.  Both boys loved everything about the book.  Landon would sometimes fall asleep while we read, but Logan was always riveted and wanted to read more each night.

As we neared the end of the book it talks about the number of "house points" that each of the classes had earned.  Then, when extra house points were awarded to Gryffindor, it sent Logan through the roof.  I've never seen him so excited! It made me think that we may incorporate a reward system based on points for when the boys do their chores.

Of course after we finished the book, within a few days we let the boys watch the movie which they absolutely loved.  Jill and I hadn't seen the movie in such a long time it was fun to see the characters so young.  Now of course, the boys want to read book number two.  I'm still not sure exactly how far we are going to take this.

Blue and Gold Banquet

Logan will turn 8 this year and will join the ranks of the cub scouts.  To celebrate the birthday of cub scouting all boys who will turn 8 were invited.  Logan was so excited to go to the blue and gold banquet.  For well over a week he asked every day "how many more days until the blue and gold banquet?"

The big day finally came and he had a great time.  The theme was western and when we arrived we saw a very fun "Wanted" poster for Logan.

Here he is in his brown paper bag vest and cowboy hat.

There were fun activities including barrel racing (on stick pony's).

Alyssa loved climbing into the barrel. 

There was a fake bull that they practiced roping. 

And the last acidity had two teams tie blue and gold balloons to their legs and try and pop the other teams balloons.  Tears were shed as balloons began popping.  Pretty much every scout and his sibling were crying at the end of this activity. 

Saturday was Logan's last basketball game.  They won again so they had an undefeated season.  Mom and Dad came out again to support Logan.  They watch a lot of basketball as they come to lots of Logan's games and they have season tickets to the Jazz.  It means so much to Logan to have this support.  He even scored again this game which made him so proud.

After the game we invited his team to come over for pizza and cake and to play basketball all together again. Here are the boys gathered around the cake.

Here are the boys all eating cake.

The other event of the week was I had my staples removed from my head.  I went back to the Emergency Room to have them taken out and got there at 5:30 a.m. to beat the rush.  The nurse who attended to me looked at me in a puzzled way.  I thought she wanted to see my bracelet to know it was really me. She said, "no where are your staples at?" I bent down and showed her the back of my head.  She must have been new because she proceeded to violate the rules of the medical profession, "OH MY GOSH! What did you do, I can't believe it!" I told her what happened and she invited her other nurse friend to come over and take a look.

My head is still a bit sore, but I am feeling well enough to begin running again.