Easter Sunday

The week before Easter Sunday, Kandis called to see if Logan could go with her to a Jazz basketball game.  Earlier in the year she had taken Landon to a BYU football game.  It was so nice of her and Logan had a great time. She even bought him ice cream. 

Wednesday our neighborhood celebrated with an Easter egg hunt.  It was in Shanel's circle and all of the kids had a blast.  A big chalk circle was drawn and all the kids had to stay inside the circle until the countdown ended. Then the kids ran to the 4 homes that had eggs hidden in the front yards. 

After the hunt, I talked Shanel into doing some man-scaping for some of neighborhood men.  I've been a long time fan of nose hair waxing, and was able to talk these men into trying it out.  It was a huge hit with all of the women and children who watched and laughed.

Saturday night we colored Easter eggs.  We only colored a dozen eggs.  Sunday we let the kids try to eat a hard boiled egg.  Alyssa was screaming she was so excited to eat her Easter egg.  After the first bite she said, "I don't like it."

Jill tried out a new recipe that made a "divinity-like candy."  It was to be made while reading select scriptures.  It was pretty fun, and ended by putting the candy in the oven and waiting until morning to see the final result (you turn the oven off, of course).

The kids searched for Easter eggs and found a couple of presents from the Easter bunny.  Now the kids have just the right size of garden tools to help out in the yard.

Here are the kids just before church.  Alyssa got an Easter dress.

Before church we played some games and Logan got creative and spelled his name with Jenga blocks.

Last week, Alyssa said something pretty funny.  When Grandma Bryant watched the kids, she and Grandpa took Alyssa out for lunch.  Grandpa wanted to order a cheeseburger and she said, "I have those in my nose."

Our kids have discovered youtube.  There is a particular series they like to follow; it's a boy named Evan and he evaluates Lego toys.  For a couple weeks our boys have followed Evan's evaluations of Lego toys and love to watch them over and over again.  This week the boys decided to create their own youtube video.  We talked them out of actually putting the video on youtube, but the boys loved making the video.  They created a character named "Silver" who has a younger brother "Robert" and they go on adventures.  Logan created a sign called "Logan Tube HD" and Landon did a terrific job shooting the video with my old iPhone.  Logan did a terrific job of telling his audience about Silver and built Silver's Jeep.  He ended the clip just like Evan, "If you like this video remember to subscribe by clicking here."  It was very cute and I think we will keep him focused on making more videos.

2nd Surgery Complete

It's been almost 4 months ago Jill went into surgery to successfully remove the cancer from her body.  Friday she went into the second of three scheduled surgeries.  Grandma Bryant came out first thing in the morning to watch the kids and Jill and I drove to the Utah Surgical Center.    

We had to be checked in at 7:00 a.m. Jill doesn't like mornings, but it's nice to be done with outpatient surgery and home by 2:30 in the afternoon. Dr. Self said Jill did a great job and she should recover well.  

Grandma Bryant took the kids for a sleep over at her house and they had a blast.  She stayed at our house until school let out (and Alyssa woke up from her nap) and then took them to her house.  For over a week Alyssa has been talking about having a sleep over at Grandma's.  She asked almost everyday, "Grandma watch me and have sleep over when Mommy have surgery".  

Jill came home and went to bed and slept most of the afternoon.  She woke up in the early part of the evening to have dinner and we watched the movie Life of Pi.  It was a pretty good movie and Jill was recovering so much quicker than after her first surgery.  She even said, "it took over 2 weeks to feel this way after the first surgery".  I think that is telling to how great she is recovering, and just how rough the first surgery was. 

Grandma played games with the kids and they all slept in her family room together.  As they laid down, Alyssa asked "Grandma is this a sleepover?".  Saturday mom took them to see a new movie called "The Crood's".  They loved going to the movie and she got them popcorn and a drink.  Alyssa was good the whole movie and has been quoting the monkey all weekend.  The monkey say's. "Da Da Da". 

Saturday morning we woke up to 6 inches of lake effect snow.  It was a crazy morning.  The Sears store came delivered our much awaited fridge.  It's been over 2 months of having no freezer, and water, and ice, and 3 weeks using a borrowed refrigerator. It is so nice to have a fridge again.  I had to race over to Riverton park to run the half marathon. It was crazy with the amount of snow we had, so the race was canceled.  So my friends and I all decided to run the race course anyway.  It wasn't a fast race because of the snow.  We all stayed together and had a lot of fun and finished in about 2 hours.  The city will refund our money, and we still got shirts and medals.  

The rest of the day we rested.  Sunday I took the kids to church while Jill rested.  It makes me feel for single parents, not having backup.  It's so important having someone to help when you need to tap out. 

Landon's Loses His First Tooth

Being the younger brother can be tough.  Landon is almost 2 years younger than his brother, but loves to keep up with everything Logan does.  Landon is really good at soccer, basketball, and gymnastics, but some things are just impossible to do.  Landon has wanted to get a visit from the tooth fairy now for a long time.

His front tooth started to get loose this week.  After a day of wiggling it, he agreed to have it removed "uncle Jake" style.  Logan never dared let me pull his teeth out with pliers, but Landon wanted it out so badly he agreed to let me pull it.

Landon loved the money he got from the tooth fairy.  He was so brave, it was well earned.

He also had a big week at school.  Landon was able to be "Leader of the Week" for his class.  His teacher wrote, "Landon is always on task.  He is an example to everyone around him of someone who always puts first things first.  He follows rules and gets things done!  Thank you Landon for being a leader by example.

The other exciting news of the week was St. Patrick's Day.  Last year our kids were exposed to other children's "traditions" of making leprechaun traps and expecting candy in their shoes.  I'm unfamiliar with the reasons why these things are done, but it's not worth disappointing our children.

Jill and I were at a church meeting on Leprechaun Eve, so Logan made this trap while his babysitter watched.  He used a bowl and had a paper drawbridge so the leprechaun could walk up to the bowl.  The bowl had small pieces of yellow paper to draw the leprechaun in making him think it is gold.  Of course the paper is too flimsy so the leprechaun would fall into the bowl.

We picked up some chocolate coins and put them in the bowl and some chocolate to put into their shoes.  Sunday morning the kids woke up right on time at 7:00 a.m. and woke us up to tell us that they got 14 coins!  They pointed out that "last year we only got 10".  I couldn't believe they would remember the amount of candy they got.  Clearly we will have to keep better notes for the future.

Random Things The Kids Say

I came home from work the other day and Logan had been to a museum with the Cub Scouts.   He asked me, "Dad do you know how to tell a boy buffalo from a girl buffalo?"  After a brief pause I had a pretty good response, "Logan why don't you tell me how to tell a boy buffalo from a girl buffalo?"  He then proceeded to tell me about how the horns curve inward or outward.  Whew!  I avoided a potentially difficult discussion.

Landon is reading so well these days.  He is the best reader in his kindergarten class but still makes mistakes.  While eating breakfast he said, "Why does it say Crackers and there aren't any crackers in the box?"  He was eating Quaker oatmeal (not to be confused with Cracker oatmeal).

Alyssa is always cute.  She talks so much and has such strong opinions about how things should be done.  She is determined to pick her clothes and her pajamas each day, AND which parent is lucky enough to help her get ready. Lately she wants Shanel to escort her from Sacrament service to her nursery class and isn't happy if anyone else tries to walk with her.  It can only be Shanel.

The weather is finally getting warmer and the kids can play outside.  They have been jumping on the trampoline and playing basketball again.  It's so nice for them to use up all of their pent up energy.  I pruned the trees Saturday then we all went down to Pleasant Grove.  We stopped in and saw Jake and his fun family. They have baby lambs and our kids loved feeding/holding them.

The Song That Never Ends

My parents always get the most creative things from going to Jazz games.  

The drama of our lives right now has been described by Jill as the Song That Never Ends.  In January,  on the day we left for Disneyland our freezer broke.  From that time on we haven't had a freezer in our kitchen.  Yes it's been 2 months without so much as a chicken nugget available without having to go to the garage to retrieve it. 

Parts have been ordered and multiple repairmen have attempted to fix it.  More recently a "repairman" also broke the refrigerator portion of our fridge.  I asked him "what are we supposed to do for a week until the part is delivered?"  His response, "buy lots of ice."  Thankfully a neighbor and my dad both have small fridges.  So for the last week we have been using 2 small fridges and 2 cooler chests (yes with ice).  So when we wanted a bowl of cereal we would retrieve milk from the cooler chest and, just  like when camping, it would drip with water from the melted ice.  It always caused a mess to wipe up. 

I know this is a "first world problem," because there are people around the world without refrigeration, but it's a major inconvenience.  

Finally after a week without our fridge, the repairman finally declared our fridge non-repairable.  Then began a 3 day fight to get a new one at no cost.  Finally Sears agreed to replace the existing fridge (it was 22 months old when it broke), but it will take 2 more weeks until it can be delivered.  Ugh. 

We couldn't live another 2 weeks without a fridge so another neighbor let us use an extra fridge she had in her garage.  It was when I installed it that I realized our current refrigerator was pretty big.  Here sits the "loaner fridge" for the next 2 weeks. 

It's starting to get warmer and our kids are outside now playing on the trampoline and riding bicycles.  It's so nice for them to get some energy out and exercise.

Part of my favorite time of every year is when I can earn my man-card and trim our trees.  I love getting out the pruners, loppers, and now chainsaw, to prune our trees.  I filled my dad's truck bed and also my trailer with limbs and branches.  Then I love taking them to the dump.  It just makes me feel like a man when I can use power tools, drive a truck, and go to the dump.  The kids love riding in Grandpa's truck, too.

Mission Call!

For a couple of weeks my parents have been waiting on their mission call.  On Thursday it finally came and they are now "Called to Serve". 

Everyone met at our house to open the call. 

We had pizza and ice cream and celebrated the mission call. 

Everyone met at our house and we ate pizza after we heard the big announcement.