Snowman and stuff . . .

It was finally warm enough this week to build a snowman! I don't mean warm enough for us to be outside (we've quickly learned if we waited for that we'd never go out!), but warm enough that the snow would actually stick together enough to make balls.

Strangely enough Jack named the snowman "Conflux". Have no idea where that came from.
James with the extra ball that we rolled too big for me to lift. He rolled it over our retaining wall in front so he could see it smash in the gutter. Jackson loved being out in the snow. And eating it.

My child the Lego Maniac. We have literally been obsessed with Legos since Christmas!

James had a storytelling festival at school this week. The kids learned stories and had instruction by professional storytellers. We went and listened to all the kids in his class--it was really fun to hear and see the character of the kids come out in their performances. James worked really hard and did great!

Bravo!

Phone pictures . . .

So I looked on my picture gallery on my phone and it had 84 pictures! Oops! So, here's a catch-up session, most of them from our Utah trip over the holidays (oh, and sorry not the best quality with the phone!).

Swimming at Little America with almost-married Zach!
Rock Band with Jake's fam!

Cute little Evie crawling around at Costco!

Temple Square lights on Christmas Eve!

Playing pioneer games at the Church History Museum with the Dovers! Such fun!

Stick pull.

BYU Bowling with good friends the Mickelsons.

and Grandpa and Grandma!

Watching football--Jack just got a little tired out!

Book Review

Just finished a great YA book that I thought I would share! It won the Newberry Medal in 2010, which was what first brought it to my attention, usually it means a worthwhile read! "The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate" by Jacqueline Kelly is no exception.

It's a great book about a young girl growing up in the post-Civil War South. She's trying to find her place in a family of boys and a society that has certain expectations of girls despite her growing interest in science encouraged by her eccentric grandfather. I highly recommend it and wish I had daughters to share it with!

Potty-training King . . .

Jack has been working very hard and is (should I knock on wood?) potty trained!

So, in my vast experience potty-training two kids (not!), I learned some lessons that made it easier the second time around. (I don't know if these apply to everyone so feel free to contradict me!).

1. It's really okay to wait until your child is ready. I let others pressure me into training James when he was 2 1/2. I didn't feel like he was ready. It took a long time and several small relapses before he was truly trained. Jack, on the other hand, was interested and showed he was ready (after age 3). I didn't stress about it or push him until then. It was so much different to feel like he was part of the process and wanted to do it.

2. Rewards really work. With both my kids, finding the right motivation was important. Thank goodness for Thomas the Tank Engine. And all of his many, many friends . . .

3. It's all about being positive. When they really are ready and want to succeed help them be excited about the little successes and not get too upset about accidents.

4. Winter's not such a bad time to potty train. I used to think summer was best with little clothing and being wet with accidents, but winter's not so bad. Who wants to go outside when it's single digits with wind chill anyway?

5. Potty training in a day is a nice dream, but does not necessarily work for everyone. Actually not for anyone I've met. It's okay to be patient with your child and yourself!

6. Don't give in once you've started. The BM part especially is tough for many kids and Jack wanted a diaper back for that. It was hard to be tough about it, but we were and he eventually figured it out on the potty.

Hooray for no more diapers!!!

my favorite albums of 2010

Since Becky posted about her favorite books of 2010 I thought I would post my favorite albums of 2010.

I will break the rules and posted an album that actually came out in 2009, but I didn't discover it until the end of 2010. "These Four Walls" by We Were Promised Jetpacks. To be more 2010ish I would mention an EP release named The Last Place You'll Look which is more subdued but I haven't heard it in its entirety. These Four Walls is a tight fast-paced post punk sound that would sound good on any snowboarding video, particularly if that video were filmed is Scotland. The band hails from Edinburgh.

The Avett Brother's masterpiece, but all of their albums are great. I bought the album after attending the live show when they were in town. This is Alt-Country at its finest. It has simple Appalachian melodies with beautiful uplifting lyrics about true love, getting married, and overcoming frustrations. One of my favorite lines, "I wanna have pride like my momma had. And not like the kind in the Bible that turns you bad" coming from the song The Perfect Space. The album is a must own no matter what kind of music you like.

If you are a Black Keys fan you will like Dan Auerbach's solo venture release in early 2010. My introduction to the album cam after hearing "The Prowl" and loving it. The album sounds much like the Black Keys but without Pat Carney's savage drumming. Not really better than the Black Keys, just different.

Dummy-Proof Project

I'm really not being self-deprecating when I say I'm kind of a dummy when it comes to "crafting" of almost any kind. And I'm really okay with it most of the time.

Sometimes, though, I get the itch to make something cute to hang in my house, and it's really frustrating when it doesn't turn out.

But, this one did! Yay!

The idea came from this blog: http://www.theidearoom.net/2010/01/felt-heart-wreath.html

via my very crafty sister Kim's blog. It's actually a pretty simple design.

From JoAnn's I purchased:

A styrofoam heart (presumably for floral design?)

3/4 yard of red felt

a cheap box of straight pins

I cut the red felt into 3" diameter circles using a drinking glass from my cupboard. You then fold each circle in half, then in half again (more illustrations on the idearoom blog). Then, put a straight pin through the corner and press each of the folded circles onto the foam heart. A thimble is helpful for pressing all the pins in without killing your thumb. Don't worry too much about the placement of the circles, you can always pull one out or put one more in if a space doesn't look quite right.

I feel so festive with my one Valentine's Day decoration . . . If you come to my house, please notice it . . . ! Just kidding (well sort of).

Best Reads of 2010

To borrow an idea from a friend who is an even more avid reader than myself (thanks, Bridget!), I wanted to list some of my top reads of 2010.

I have meant to read Atlas Shrugged for years. I finally got around to it this summer and thoroughly enjoyed it. While I don't agree with every tenet of Ayn Rand's philosophy, her insights into the political and social problems of today are frighteningly realistic (especially given that she wrote this over 50 years ago).
I may not have picked this up (or even heard of it) if it hadn't been for my book club. But it was a great read. An interesting perspective on the Holocaust taken from the viewpoint of the occupants of a small German town.

I may have actually finished this book the end of 2009, I can't remember for certain, but it's worth a mention. It's a fantastic read. I really enjoy McCall's other (more well-known) books such as the "Ladies Detective Agency", "Sunday Philosophy Club" and "44 Scotland Street". He is a great writer and I enjoy the journey as much as the destination. This book has perhaps a bit more "meat" than his others and some deeper thought and meaning. I'm sorry it hasn't been more popular, it's a very worthwhile read.

This is one of my favorite books of all time. It took me a while to get around to reading it because I read "Wives and Daughters" by the same author and didn't think much of it. However, this is different. It has a great story and is based enough in the realities of the time period that I learned and thought a lot about the difficulties people faced.

Another book club read, this was also a great story and one that raised my awareness as to individual's lives in the time period it takes place. The discussion made the read even better. Definitely a good book-club choice!

I have to include a couple of kids books because I do so much reading aloud! To confess, though, I really enjoy reading YA books in general. Having kids is just an excuse for indulging in them!

We were definitely obsessed with the Percy Jackson and The Olympians series at our house this year. The characters are interesting, the stories compelling, and best of all, they are based (like my favorite childrens books) in some reality so that it gets your kids interested in actual history. My kids have wanted to hear more and more about mythology and Greek and Roman history, and James even checked out a "kids version" of the Odyssey from the school library and has enjoyed reading it. Too bad the movie was so poorly done. Or maybe not--I'd rather have my kids read than watch a movie any day and James just finished reading this for the 2nd time!

This is far and above my favorite picture book of the year. We picked it up at the school book fair, and I have to say (shallow me?) I initially picked it up because of the illustrations. And the illustrations are AMAZING. But the story is really clever and it's a very fun read. For a while, we were reading it several times a day!

So, while I clearly preferred fiction to non-fiction this year, I learned a lot. Here's to more great books in 2011 . . .

Space Derby

Wednesday was our Scout Troop's Space Derby. Everything in scouting is a unique experience for us (well, maybe not for Jake!), so it was interesting to see how this worked. A big thanks to the Robertsons for putting so much time and work into building the setup and helping the boys with their (sometimes temperamental!) rockets.

Unfortunately James's rocket for some reason was very temperamental, so this try was the first of many, but we did get an eventual success at the end.
Very exciting for all the boys!
Even Jack who played more than watched.

Ian's rocket did the best--actually making it all the way across the "track".

David's rocket did pretty well, too! It was fast . . .

Jack and Clara amused themselves by playing with their shoes.

Winding and winding (Mom how much longer?) . . . Thanks again scout leaders!!

Lots More Wedding!

The long awaited moment: the arrival of the bride and groom!

Coming out of the temple.
The reception at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building in downtown SLC.
Pictures and pictures and, oh yeah, more pictures.

Grandma and Evie.

Jack and Lola.

Me and little bro. He looks pretty happy! I think marriage agrees with him . . .

The cake.

The dance.

Sassy Roxie ready to throw the bouquet!

Zach and the boys.

Evie celebrated the end of the reception by dancing on the table. What a day!

Here Comes the Bride?

So, my youngest brother Zach got married December 28th. While we were waiting for he and his cute new wife, Roxie, to come out of the temple, Jake got a bit snap-happy with some interesting results!

Mom, Dad, Jen, and Dave.

This was my favorite of his pictures. A great photo of my Grandpa. I love this.
This was the low point--a photo of some random guy walking by.
We waited a long time. Jake was a little bored.
Cute Syd.
Me catching up with a couple of Zach's buddies, Mike and Nick.

Fabulous brother-in-law, Mark. You gotta love the enthusiasm. On the other hand, maybe he was just trying to stay warm?

Bo and Heids (and her always-amazingly-beautiful hair!).

Abby and Chris.

It was a really cool experience for my family to be all together in the temple. And, we're so glad to have such great sisters-in-law (that means you, too, Abby!).