St. Patricks Day

Friday for lunch I went to The Panda to get some delicious orange chicken and fried rice.  Along with my meal came a fortune cookie that said, "You will soon gain something you have always desired." At just about the same time, Jill was home accepting a delivery from Fed Ex. 

Inside the box? iPad 3!

Random picture of Alyssa

Somehow the children of today believe that St. Patrick's Day is similar to Christmas and Easter, in that they will be getting gifts left them by a leprechaun.  Our kids have learned from their friends that they need to leave their shoes out so a leprechaun can leave candy in them, AND that they need to build a leprechaun trap to catch the little bugger.  Of course they tell us this information on St. Patrick's Eve.

Jill and I were busy so in my quest for Father of the Year I told my boys "there is no such thing as leprechauns."  Logan told me about how his friends have really caught leprechauns and how others have told him leprechauns are real.  I told him, "Remember what I told you?" He understood but after he kept talking to himself he convinced himself that indeed leprechauns are real.

Later that night he made a leprechaun trap all on his own.

Logan is very creative and his design came from something he saw on-line over a year ago.  This is a leprechaun hat that had a false top on it.  He also spread pieces of paper on top of the hat that were yellow and cut into circles to resemble money. The thought was that a leprechaun would go up on top of the hat for the gold, and then would naturally fall through the paper and get trapped in the bottom of the hat until Logan woke up.  It was a very clever idea so we rewarded it with candy in their shoes and some chocolate money coins in the bottom of the hat.

Jill also out did herself by planning a really fun neighbor get-together to celebrate the holiday.  We invited 4 other families to our home for dinner and prepared some amazing food.

There were fruit shishkabobs with green fruit, green cookies, chocolate mints, green licorice, and for the kids we made ham and cheese sandwiches on green bread.  The kids loved the food and so did we.  For the adults we had much of the same, although we had Reuben sandwiches on rye bread, made with corned beef. We hadn't ever made corned beef before but it reminded me of my grandfather (he ate corned beef often). We also had sauerkraut and the sandwiches turned out AMAZING!

We even dressed in green.

Jill did a great job in preparing the food and inviting over some of our great neighbors.  It was a lot of work so I'm not 100% sure she is up for making this an annual tradition but hopefully by next year we can remember how much fun it was and do it again.

No More High Chair

Our little girl is growing up.  She has such strong feelings now about her hair, clothes, and her seat at the table.  This week she has decided that she doesn't want to sit in her high chair any longer. 

Here she is at a typical morning breakfast eating waffles with her brothers. If you look closely you can see her unused high chair over her right shoulder. 

The weather has been amazing this weekend.  Spring is coming, the tulips are starting to come up, and the kids can finally play outside!

The weather was so great I had to set up the trampoline again. Oh how we have missed being able to send the boys outside to go jump.  Of course Alyssa can't quite keep up which causes it's own challenges.  She does love her swing and being outside (don't' we all?).

Toothless

Sunday after church, we visited the Yeager family to view their new kitchen and get some ideas.  Kevin Yeager is one of my great friends and he is our family dentist.  That's important for this story, because while we were there Logan lost another tooth!  Alyssa now has more teeth than Logan.  

He's been missing his two front teeth for a really long time, and we are beginning to wonder if they are going to grow back.

Our big family event of the week was going to a Jazz basketball game!  Before the game we ate at Rumbi Island Grill in the Gateway Mall.  Jill and I love the rice bowls there, and the kids had cheeseburgers.  I was able to introduce them to chopsticks which was pretty fun.  They used them to pick up their french fries.

They love wearing their Jr. Jazz jerseys and Jazz hats. Alyssa even got to come to her first Jazz game.

Grandma and Grandpa Bryant helped make the night possible.  The kids loved being at the game with them.

While at the restaurant Landon was talking about not wanting to go to college.  He doesn't ever want to move out of our house. Logan asked him, "what about when Mom and Dad die?" Landon didn't skip a beat and said, "I'll live with you when you marry a girl."

Landon started gymnastics this week.  He loves jumping and doing somersault so it seemed like something he would enjoy.  He had a great time at gymnastics, but later felt that it is something he isn't very good at.  Gymnastics will go for another 5 weeks and we will see how he does.

For the second time in two weeks while out and about Alyssa has seen an older man with a beard.  Both times she pointed to him and said, "Ho Ho!"  She thought it was Santa Claus!

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.