Far Away

So in addition to the usual work, school, basketball, laundry, cleaning, playing, cooking, and piano lessons this last week we thought we would throw in pack night with pies in the face and a quick root canal complete with a crown and a little spin to Billings. We left early Friday morning so Ben could happily :/ visit the dentist to have some fairly severe tooth pain looked at thankfully they were able to take car of it that same day! We all decided to go with him because we were planning to get up at 2 AM on Saturday to drive to Billings and get there in time for the 8:30 session at the Temple and since the dentist in Milies City is half way to billings and the weather man was calling for snow on Friday afternoon along the route we usually take. So that left the kids and I with 4 hrs of time in a teeny town with nothing to do. So we went to the park. Twice but it was only 25* outside so it was a little chilly even with coats, gloves, and hats.

We spent a lot of time at Walmart

Everybody got new sunglasses

We also got Dairygold chocolate milk (our very favorite, thanks Grandpa Rydalch!) and lunchables and had a picnic in our car looking at the frozen park. We drove around for awhile until Brevick fell asleep then we parked and watched a movie. Then Ben got done. For about 2 hours. So we had lunch (again :) then since we are so cultured we went to the only museum in town that was open. They were featuring a miniature art collection the kids got to use magnifying glasses to look at the painting. It was pretty cool. The kids had fun. Brevick just wanted to run away. Thankfully the lady working there had a dog which really captivated him!

Then Ben went back to the dentist for about an hour. We went back to walmart and got 3 copies of their toy catalog so we could plan our Christmas. Then we played in the creepy arcade game area (yep I'm that parent). As soon as he was done we booked it to Billings.

Once we arrived we went straight for the hotel swimming pool which was cold. We played in the hot tub. After a late dinner everybody went to bed except Brevick, Emmerlyn, and of course . . . Mom. At 11 we were all finally asleep. After an early start to the day Ben went with other ward members to the Temple to support one of our good friends taking out his own Endowment and I watched kids and youth at a nearby stake center ***oh how I wish we lived closer to the Temple*** I am grateful that we did have a place for the kids to run and play. When the session was over our kids had had enough so we decided to have lunch where Brevick cried, threw his food, and climbed out of his chair. We ate fast, got gas and left town. 

This is what the car ride looked like for the first 2 hours.

(Yes Goobs in in there, he is just collapsed to the side :) 

It was so fast and the kids were SO GOOD! If they hadn't literally circled every single toy in the catalog I would get them everything on their Christmas list!

Happy Thanksgiving!

*PS to our families we will miss all of you guys tomorrow. The kids have been asking me periodically for the last few weeks if we could go to the grandmas' and William even typed in both addresses into our favorites on the Tom Tom just in case :) Maybe next time. . . 

The Princess and the Pea

So the kids have been really into watching Sandlot 2 lately and yesterday as Charley and Emmerlyn were downstairs happily playing I suddenly heard Emmerlyn's sweet little voice saying  " Charley you A** is grass!" Repeatedly. Of course he came up to talk to me about it so we and a discussion about clean words and decided that we will no longer watch that movie.

I tell you what there are some conversations that it is SO HARD to keep a straight face while having!

Snuggle Puff Moves the piano

Pretty much we don't have anything exciting from this last week. William is still loving basketball. Charley is enjoying recess. Emmerlyn has been a little bored and a little dramatic. Brevick is starting to pick up more words and growing taller. He likes to climb onto the table and he likes to yell his Amen really loud at the end of the prayer. Ben has been working. I have been dreaming up projects :) oh and working to keep our house in a state of somewhat order.

 I did a little 70s upgrade here. (looking at it in this picture it doesn't look quite as bad but in real life with real light it is so drab I just couldn't take it. It is supposed to be a bulletin board but now it is hanging above the couch so we have a little color on the wall.

With the help ?? of this cute fellow we moved the piano into the back room. I just think it will work a little better with the lessons that I am teaching (now our living room looks like we live in a college dorm, we REALLY need new furniture!) We also took the big metal piece that holds the strings out of the back so it is a little lighter. Ben only crushed his fingers once. I felt really bad at first then I remember that it was his idea therefore it was his fault :) Then I didn't feel so bad!

Have a great week!

First Snow

I know! It's crazy to think that it's November and we are just now getting the first little flurries of the year. I am not going to lie, I am loving this 50* fall weather! This last week wasn't too bad just pluggin along. Ben has been auditing a lot. The kids have been doing school, Emmerlyn and Brevick have been playing and growing and getting on each other's nerves!

The kids were doing a little early morning family search. What a great little group.

 We did some painting. Brevick worked on getting paint on the brush and then onto the paper (or the table :)

 Emmerlyn was practicing drawing flowers she was doing a great job. She definitely loves crafts!

 The kids were SO excited to get to wear their boots today because they knew it was going to snow. Well I looked at the weather and it said it wasn't until late this afternoon so then I was like no we are not going to wear boots today because we are saving them for when we really need them (side note it was like 34* so any snow that came was just going to melt upon meeting the ground) Well they left to meet their ride and I went outside like 2 minutes later and of course it was snowing. Open mouth, insert foot. Well you can bet those boys came back for their boots, the snow did not stick but at least they had them just in case!
*Charley is feeling the burden of being the second brother because he realized that he was never going to get brand new bogs! He would always only get William's. I felt for him being the 2nd sister and my heart wanted to cave but my wallet said no! I reminded him that he got a new coat, snow pants and gloves this year and William has to wear his last years snow gear so his life is not so bad. I did not go into the fact that he would be wearing all of Williams current gear next year. . .

This little girl was so excited to put on her boots and run outside in the WINTER SNOW! She wouldn't even stop for a coat. Brevick escaped with her in just his socks. I had to chase him down the sidewalk to bring him in screaming at the top of his lungs to get his shoes and coat on. 34* is too cold for barefooted babies!

 Brevick learned to play ring around the rosies this week. He LOVES it!

For mutual this week we did a standards night on modestly. We had different outfits that the youth put on paper dolls and then we all went over why or why not it was modest. It turned out really fun! I hope that the youth got something out of it!

Yay For 2 Finished Projects!

Yes I know that heading comes up every once in awhile (I wish it was more common but ya know there are just not enough hours in the day or cash in the wallet :).  This most recent project however was a must have because I felt like our stairs were a safety hazard. If you remember *or have ever seen them* our stairs on the side that faces the family room downstairs just had a stair hand railing. No spindles, banister, wall, nothing just a little round grab bar and a deep cliff leading to the edge of abyss. Well we had the big kids trained to stay away from that side of the stairs but they still made me nervous plenty of times but now Brevick was starting to venture down the stairs. If nothing in life gives your heart a big panic attack just watch your 16 month old baby going backwards down the stairs an inch away from the edge of death. Yes. It's true. He actually fell once, he was just 2 stairs up but that was enough for me. It was Friday and I told Ben tomorrow we would be fixing that. He said "how are you going to do it?" I said I don't know but by the time you get home from work tonight I will have a plan." After working with some ideas (some of which were totally unfeasible such as buying a new house. . .) I came up with one and we worked all day Saturday and got the basics done then the next weekend we put up the face frame, then while he was out of town I surprised him and got it painted. That took FOREVER!  It was hard work, more complicated than I thought it would be but I LOVE the end result. I think it turned out really well and the best part is there is no more cliff of death!

This is our before shot. 

I forgot to take one *even though my dearest worker man told me too. So you get the in the process shot when all of the demolition had been done (it wasn't much :) We took off the railing and the NASTY mixed color shag carpet then I plucked off the super nice 70's paneling that they put in front of it and ran along the side of the stairs (where you can see bare wood and then it covered where all of our paint is sitting :)

 The after shot. 

The shelves need some adjusting aka they need to be redone the lady that did them was tired and her arm felt like it was going to fall off after painting for 7+ hours. We won't hire her again. The super worker man will fix them better someday. Probably not because these ones work sort of and they are in there so we will most likely forget. Forever.

I love it though and I think that it fits the space. It is only 10 inches deep so it really doesn't take up much space in the room which is nice. Now I just need some more clutter. . . 

This project I started a little while ago We had a computer disaster area that was locked in a baby gate pen that you need a 6 digit pin to get into. Just kidding. . . about the pin. It was a disaster and looked messy and then Brevick was getting quicker, taller, and smarter everyday so we needed to do something different. (You can see the computer stuff in the background just imagine it wrapped in a baby gate.)

We had this old dresser in our room that was awful because the drawers didn't really work *they usually fell out into your unsuspecting arms as you were just trying to get a pair of socks* So I took that 

 and made this.

The bottom drawers will still fall out but thankfully nobody knows that they are ever drawers so that worked out. Some day I will rebuild them but that is not this day. Inside that dresser is all of our computer stuff. It is like a home office in a cabinet. I LOVE it! I think our house looks so much cleaner and best of all I have outsmarted Brevick. For today. 

Halloween 2015

Hm, that rhymes :) Well as all the other weeks are this last one was busy. Ben left Monday morning to go to Scoby and was gone until Friday and my to do list was ever so long (self inflicted of course :) I think that most of it got done which was nice but there were some late nights and early mornings to get there. I have been getting up at 5 and you would think that with that extra hour I would have oodles of time to get things done but no, I am barely cramming things in!

That is in part to these two.

They keep me busy because they like to be entertained and me to get down and play with them OR they like to help me; which is sometimes worse. 

This happened this last week because a small dude that I know has learned to climb up on the chairs and move them to where ever he needs them to be. It didn't last long though because I was afraid they would get pulled off and fall on somebody. Now I just spend long hours pulling him off the table and hoping he will lose interest. Oh and when he is standing on the table he can reach the chandelier. Perfect.

With halloween comes school parties I had to bring the sweet treat to Charley's. He requested cupcakes. Ghost cupcakes. He had a great time decorating them for his class. Emmerlyn and Brevick had a great time sampling all the misfits.

 William was in charge of the meat tray for his class. He took in a list of lunchmeats and had his friends vote on their favorites and then we brought those. There was just a little leftover and he brought them home so carefully then they spilled right in front of the door on the porch. We picked them up and I was holding the plate and it gave out and spilled again, this time the ham landed on Charley's face and bounced off onto his cupcake carrier. Needless to say we were all excited when the ham finally made it into the garbage can!

 Licking the beaters is his favorite thing in life! He was surprised and excited to learn that it was potatoes not frosting on the beaters this time! For our ward trunk-or-treat I got to bring a batch of spudnut dough for the mutual kids to fry then we all enjoyed spudnuts and hot chocolate after the trunk or treat was over.

 

 Isn't she beautiful? She didn't want to be this at first, she wanted to be a court jester but I really didn't want her to be. I talked her into being Elsa. It took 2 shopping trips to Shopko and a whole lot of convincing but we did it.
I only feel a little guilty. . . .

 Elsa hair, she wished her hair was a little bigger so it could be just like Elsa's but I think it was perfect!

 He wanted to be a skeleton and I did NOT talk him out of it. (For the first time in his life :)

 What a stud. He got TONS of compliments on his outfits especially from people that have served our country. It fits him well!

The pudgy penguin. Need I say more?

 This right here is life!

 She posed this on her own, and really wished she had the power to do this. She also told me that if I didn't do what she wanted then she was going to freeze me. Hmmm maybe this was a bad costume choice. . .  

 Lighting pumpkins on Halloween night. Emmerlyn decided that she was going with her original plan for the real trick-or-treating and she did look pretty cute anyway. *She also didn't want to ruin her BEAUTIFUL Elsa costume because she wanted to keep using as a dress up.

 The kids did a great job. Brevick's bink-a-punk (that's what we named it) fits him well. He sure loved to stop and look at it every time he got outside.

 Oh, which was way more often because he learned to open doors while Ben was gone too. This resulted in baby locks and lots of tears of frustration. He escaped out the front door once before I got the lock on but luckily Emmerlyn witnessed it and ratted him out pretty quick. He didn't go very far because the mailman was pulling up at the same time and it scared him!

 Charley's potato boat from dinner. He wanted to document it for posterity. Hey, whatever it takes right?

Here's to the upcoming busy week!

William's Wit

Disclaimer: This may be TMI for some of you. . .

So the boys were on their way downstairs tonight for bed and Charley turned to tell me that he had green poop this morning  (because he feels like he needs to let me know when anything is amiss :) without missing a beat and very matter of factly William responded "green poop? That means you're turning into a leprechaun."

I laughed until tears.

Oh that boy kills me!