Thank you, You're welcome, May I and Will you vs. Can I and Can you

Henry and I have been working on grammar a lot lately.  He's doing a great job saying "may I" and "will you" instead of "can I" and "can you" which doesn't make any sense grammatically in the way we use it...not that I'm perfect at grammar but I do know the difference between their, there and they're and your and you're which I see misspelled ALL the time amongst educated adults.  I am pretty obsessed with teaching my kids at least what I know and hopefully they'll end up being mindful of other grammatical issues as they grow up. 

Henry and I just had this conversation

Henry: Thank-you mom for my piece of candy
Mom: Thank-you for saying thank-you!

20 minutes later
Henry: Mom, you didn't say you're welcome when I said thank you.
Mom:  Oh, sorry. You're welcome, Henry
Henry: Thanks for saying you're welcome when I said thank-you mom(sweet smile). 

Oh, and he just asked me if he could recycle his sucker stick. I just love that boy:)

Lunch? What?

 Marta, Henry, Thomasin

So as most of the other children are graduating to cool Halloween costumes my son likes to stick with his theme of really cuddly, plush animal costumes.  His cousin was a cool pirate and Henry was a fuzzy frog.  He loved his costume and it kept him really warm.  Neither of my kids needed a coat and that's always a plus(Just ask Jerry Seinfeld).  He raked in tons of candy which I threaten or bribe him with daily.

I'm about ready to throw it away since he's shed a lake full of tears already when I don't let him have it whenever he thinks about it which is usually first thing in the morning...and every second until he goes to sleep.  I also realized that he has no concept about Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner.  Have any of you had trouble with this? I have tried to teach him and there's even a song that he knows from Signing Time about it but he still can't remember what Lunch is and when it's eaten.  That may be an issue stemming from me not having any sort of regular eating schedule until just recently.  I tell him he can have a piece of candy after lunch and he eagerly eats his breakfast and then asks for candy at 9am.  I tell him, "no, after lunch, which is in a few hours" and then he bursts into tears, sometimes for extended periods of time.

Two of the most disturbing costumes ever

He's also started turning my techniqes for threatening back on me like when I tell him I'm going to throw his candy away if he doesn't start behaving he'll say, "If you do that, then I'm going to hit Bea all day long and be really mad." Then I say, "Well I'll just put you outside all day then." at which point he says, "I'm just kidding mom."  It's getting cold out there.

Tears for Tomatoes

Today I broke down my garden and threw the withered, dry tomato plants in the compost along with all the tomatoes that Justin forgot to pick while we were on vacation that rotted on the vine.  When he saw they were all gone Henry burst into tears.  I held him and told him we would plant new ones next year and that we could go out and buy some today and he wept..."But I only love Heirlooms!"  That's my boy:)

BTW there are beautiful heirloom tomatoes at Right by Nature(local organic store) that are almost $6 per lb.  Is any other produce you can think of that's that expensive? I don't know that there is. Any ideas?

Henry also caught a walking stick the other day all on his own.  I'm so proud that he's following in my footsteps, loving bugs, nature, gardens.  He really loves everything now that I think about it.  I have so many interests that I usually can't choose between any one of them so I do them all.  I think Henry'll be like that too.  We can't wait to get him up on his own skis this year.  Many wipe-outs are to come!

Henry the Pirate Farmer

Pretend play is at a all time high these days with our little Henster.  He's constantly babbling and if I respond to cries for help or questions he's asking I frequently get the reply, "I'm not talking to you mom!"  Lately, however, Justin and I have been included on the fun as we play pirates almost every day.  Our couch is the main boat, the chair is the life boat (for rowing ashore) and a huge poster of the movie, "Land of the Lost" is our treasure map.  He has a periscope and his ride on toys are the dinosaurs he has to kill before he can collect the treasure. 

To give this a comprehensive description, you must know that everything is said in rough, scratchy pirate voices.  The first day I asked him who was going to be captain and he said in his usual voice, "I'm captain," and then I asked him what I do and he said, "you take care of the baby".  Not much of a roll change for me.  He gets off the life boat where he was supposed to fight a T-Rex for the treasure(I was the T-Rex growl) and as I was trying to play the part, he told me that he was only poking him in the bum but hadn't chased after him yet.  Finally he was chased and he used his sword to slay the beast. 

The all-time best was, though, when Justin was playing with Henry and they went around the house collecting pretend things to put in their treasure chest and when he was done Justin asked him what he had collected and in his pirate voice he said, "food, drinks and seeds." Justin asked him what he was going to do with the seeds and he said gruffly, "plant a garden so we can eat vegetables."  Justin and I couldn't hold in our smiles and chuckles.  That night for dinner he wouldn't eat his squash but I turned pirate and told him that he had to eat it because we grew it in our pirate garden and while he was laughing, I shoved a huge mouthful of it in and he happily chewed it and swallowed.  We just love our boy. 

I'm also going to start including my thoughts about the many reasons I wish to home school and time to pretend play and be creative is one of them. I heard creativity usually starts petering out as soon as kids enter the public school system.  Tragic! I want my kids to have all the time in the world to write plays, paint, roll-play with their siblings, etc.  I remember my sister spending hours writing and illustrating books when she was only 5.  I still think she could have been an amazing author but I think the busy life of a child going to school doesn't allow kids to develop their natural talents enough to make it enjoyable, at least.  I had talents in many things but I was always stressed and rushed to get practices in my busy schedule which makes things not fun at all. I even see it with Henry. He used to create these fabulous abstract paintings but now he thinks he has to draw or make something recognizable or it's not good enough.  He gets frustrated and won't continue.  I want him to think that whatever his hand does is fabulous and that he doesn't have to think or reason to create art.  I think I'll have to take him down to the museum of art and show him some abstracts to bring back his confidence. 

Pool Boy

We took a trip down to Dallas to visit Nanna B and Grandpa Chris last week and Henry had a blast.  His favorite thing was the hot tub and we lounged around it in every day, rain or shine.  Henry can now swim under water pretty easily and spent most of his time jumping from side to side of the rock covered hot tub, completely submerged.  We all thought he would break his teeth off (not that they aren't already traumatized) but instead the pads of his fingers got totally rubbed raw from all the contact with the concrete and stone.  Every finger and toe had a blister on it and it made eating with his fingers really difficult.  Just so you know, Henry has an issue eating with his fingers...still.  I think it's because I didn't introduce silverware to him until probably after he was two.  Bea already eats with a fork and hardly makes a mess while Henry still has food all over his hands, face and clothing every meal.  He cried a lot at meal time asking for band-aids to cover his raw fingers.  Anyway, Henry was such a good swimmer even showed me he could swim to the side of the cold pool after I threw him in a couple of times.  Sorry Henry!  He swam really fast, cried, yelled at me until I told him how fast he swam and how awesome he looked, and then he felt pretty good about himself.  He tortured "the boys" (two red poodles, Charlie and Oliver) and had a great time throwing the ball in the pool for Charlie to fetch.  That dog never gets tired of retrieving the ball! 

We ate good food morning, noon, and night, played with uncle Will all weekend and got to see our good friends the Evanson's and meet my second cousin's wife and kids while at dinner at Chuey's and play with everyone back at the house in the hot tub.  Nanna B took us to play tennis, to the park, and to our favorite store, Cutie Patootie (where we always find the best, never before worn, winter coats and pants). 

At the park Henry showed us how fast he can run and every night Nanna B read him stories and sung him to sleep. We really love our Dallas visits.  One thing about Dallas is that it's rampant with the swine flu so Nanna B has some hand sanitizer that we used after we went in public places.  When our plane landed and we were walking out to the car Justin told Henry not to touch his face before he washed his hands.  To that Henry replied "Nanna B has special soap that kills the swine flu".  He said it so matter of fact-ly and was so amazing to me that he rememberd the name and finally understands about sickness and how you transmit it.  He is getting so smart! Even my brother, Will, not really being around a three year old much, kept commenting on how smart he was.  Not that he's a genious, but that three year olds really know way more than you think they know and can comprehend some pretty complex ideas.  It's so wonderful to see children grow and progress.  That is truly one of the joys of motherhood:)

"FU" N in the car

Henry is always singing, usually the ABCs which he NEVER gets tired of.  Today he was singing the ABC tune but only using the letters F and U.  Saying over and over, "F F U U FF U".  Justin and I were trying to hold back our laughs.  We finally suggested another song and he forgot all about it.  I wonder what made him pick those particular letters. Good thing Bea can't really talk yet.

Camping dream come true

After the last camping trip in the cold and rain --wait, it wasn't rain it was inchworm poop dropping on our tent all day and night.  That's right. -- we had the most fantastic camping ever in WV last weekend.  We met up with our best buds Christi, Dave, River, and impending arrival of gender unknown for a sunny weekend at the best camping spot we've found in the East coast.

The campsites at Blackwater Falls were right on a beautiful river and the second night we stayed in the premier spot with a tiny creek running alongside it as well.  There was plenty of dry firewood, a stone firepit, soft grass padding our tents, amazing mountainbiking trails all over the area and a Shop-n-save five minutes down the road. haha.  Schweet.  The area is home to some really fantastic little towns that have been singled out in Outside magazine for being great for outdoor adventure.  I can't remember which one, either Davis or Thomas.  They both looked like they had some really fun boutique stores, interesting restaurants, live entertainment, festivals and the best part is that you feel like you might just be in the mountains.

The mountains aren't anything like the west, but after spending 7 years out east, I'll take 'em!  Henry was counting down the hours until we left and is still asking to go back to our camping site as we speak.  I've never seen a boy so happy and content as when he was sitting next to the roaring campfire in his crazy creek chair with a cup full of hot chocolate in both hands.  He couldn't keep a smile off of his face.  Henry and River played a ton together and I forgot to thank Christi for watching out for Henry the whole time since Bea is in a world of her own.  So thanks girlfriend!

The boys enjoyed playing in the river, exploring, finding bugs and snakes. Henry did get a little rough with cute little River.  I think it's all the suppressed tackling energy he never get to get out with Bea at our house.

Justin and Dave took two fantastic bike rides while we let the kids nap, relaxed and let the kids run around.  We spent some time bouldering around this rocky area just seconds from our campsite where Henry got to use his climbing shoes that my brother gave him for his first Birthday.  They fit perfectly right now and he was a climbing maniac and climbed up everything he could find.

After such adventurous days Henry went right to sleep and couldn't wait each night to get into his super cool sleeping bag he got from my Dad.  The first night he was so sleepy that he went into the tent and fell asleep in Justin's bag and we had to transfer him into his own.  He was tuckered out! We spent one afternoon hiking up Seneca Rock which is a beautiful rocky top mountain which is really rare in the area since all the other "mountains" are covered from base to crest by trees.  Oh and the leaves were already changing so we experienced some really fantastic vistas as we drove around.

On our way up the 1.5 mile hike of Seneca Henry kept asking to be carried and said he was tired, but I think it was just because the other two kids were being carried and he felt left out.  At one point I had Bea on my front and Henry on my back, which got a lot of laughs out of the people passing us on the way down.  It actually felt pretty balanced with him on there and I was getting a good workout.

I have to say that my glutes didn't even get sore after that so I must be in pretty decent shape with an extra 60 lbs to carry.  When we finally got to the top we saw amazing views of the valley below and refuled for the hike down.  There were some ligit rock climbers up there which would have been really fun to try.  Maybe next time.  One of the best things about Seneca Rock is their Discovery Center.

They have a corner just for kids with puzzles, books, bean bags, sand table with molds to make animal tracks with, animal figurines, habitat set-ups, papers to color and crayons.  Everything was about nature so we were in heaven.  Justin and Henry read books together on the bean bag chairs, bea ate sand and I cleaned up the mess.  Henry cried when we told him we weren't going back to camp that night but we assured him that we would be back to our jewel of a find soon.  Anyone want to come on our next camping trip?

Where have we been, you ask?

The task seems daunting to actually write everything we've been up to these past few weeks.  We have been busy harvesting, canning, freezing, and drying food as well as traveling, welcoming visitors and loving life.

Labor Day
Was spent at our friend's, the Nobbs, lake house on Lake Chautauqua which is beautiful and fabulous.  It is also the home to a place called "The Institute" which is an amazing private neigborhood with a central college which kind of reminds me of the Dharma Project on LOST.  Another place called Lily Dale is a place where they teach you to communicate with fairies, gnomes and to bend spoons with your mind.  I plan to go up there next summer to attend the spoon bending class with some friends.  Want to come with? Anyone, anyone? We cooked amazing dinners, played in the lake on a giant tube with my friend Melissa, met a darling Italian family and stayed up way too late.  Henry found his favorite new girlfriend, Eliza, and now I'm singing "There's a hole in my bucket dear Liza and dear Henry" all day.

Then we were supposed to go to NYC but our plans got postponed which gave us time to do much food preparation for the winter.  Check the food blog shortly for the juicy details:)

Henry really loves to play with playdoh so I decided to make some with a recipe from a book I have and Henry was more excited than I had seen him in a while.  We decided to make really thick dinosaur statues but they cracked really badly and fell apart.  Beatrice also ripped some of the apart with her iron grip.  It's always fun to be able to make something you spend a fortune on.

Next, my friend Sarah Morris came up for a couple days to cook gourmet food. She also has a giant baby girl named Eva who is the exact same age as Bea, almost to the day.  In fact, we have three friends who have baby girls only two weeks apart from Bea's Birthday.  Miraculous. Anyway, it was so nice to have someone in the kitchen who knew what they were doing and had the confidence to just do what needed to be done.  I kind of like two cooks in the kitchen! We also spent some good time out back with the swimming pools filled up with warm water, went shopping down on the Strip District, and made her fall in love with Pittsburgh(not hard to do), took a trip up to our local farm, Soergels,  and cooked up a storm.  Henry's favorite was the home-made dark chocolate mint(real mint leaves not the fake ones) ice cream.  Probably the best ice cream I've ever made.

Henry really had a blast with the two babies.  He tortured them a little here and there, but all in all he was pretty decent to them.  He thinks babies at this stage are so funny because they just talk and babble nonsense and I often her him laughing his hardest laughs at these little girls who say such funny things. 

Actually, I think I'm going to do a separate post for the camping trip we did last weekend. 

Farm Livin'

Every night before Henry goes to sleep he and I spend some quality time together. We read poems, read lots of scriptures, but lately we've been dreaming about our future farm. I usually start listing off all the things we will have at our farm, including goats, chickens, rows of corn, a huge pumpkin patch (in which we will grow giant pumpkins that will be be big enough for him to fit inside of), etc. I've recently added that we're going to have grapes growing all over the fence surrounding our property and a few of each type of fruit tree so we can pick our own fruit every year. Henry gets so excited at the prospect that he can't even control his body. He starts wiggling and yelling and exclaiming his excitement as he's coming up with his own ideas, like dogs and cats, a giant patch of colored carrots (see hohlfoods.blogspot.com for a visual) and rows of beets and Brussels sprouts. lol.

I'm sure by the time he grows up on a farm he'll be sick of all the work, even if he loves the produce, but I wouldn't be surprised if he became a chef someday. He surely loves good food and animals too.

Beach Vacation #2. Man is Henry spoiled!

Once again we find ourselves at the beach, this time in North Carolina. The water wasn't as warm as the Bahamas and the waves were larger, which was fun for us, but the kids weren't too keen on getting cold. Henry enjoyed jumping over the small surf but was most interested in digging in the sand and making giant sand castles. Henry also learned how to swim! It was basically a result of him putting on goggles and probably because he was watching Kaitlin swimming around all week. He still needs to work on technique and still has a hard time treading water to get a breath, but he finally will put his face in the water with his head down and do a general forward crawl. Yea! So once again I have to just make a list of the fun things we did because I hate logging every detail of long trips so here we go. Fun things we did....

Spent some time with our friends Sarah Morris and family in VA
Flew Henry's dragon kite for the first time on the beach
Went at night to the ocean to chase after casts of crabs with a flashlight
Climbed up a steaming hot lighthouse to see the view
Drank totally delicious regional light house root beer and decided that someday we would, instead of a wine cellar, have a root beer cellar where we kept many varieties of root beer ready to be brought up for parties and such.
Made giant sand castles with moats and waited for the tide to come in to fill it and I quote Kaitlin Chou, "Woh! I didn't know this was going to be so cool!".
Ate gourmet meals every night, including my favorite dinner, shrimp enchiladas and two of my favorite pasta recipes, caprese, and bacon squash
Actually read a book, "The new global student"
Attempted surfing again with no luck. Justin and I are getting really frustrated with ourselves. I mean, shouldn't two hard core snowboarders be able to get up?
Found one of the coolest houses we've ever seen. I just love the asymmetry of it all
Boogie boarded and body surfed as much as possible until they kicked us out of the ocean because the waves got too big(residual hurricane Bill) for you East Coast babies who don't know how to swim in real waves.
Spent countless hours in the hot tub and pool playing with the kids and getting Henry and Kaitlin to dive for grapes in the hot tub.
Found a local type of grape in NC called the Muscadine grape, yum, but the peaches were a totally let down. Big, but mealy with no juice. What a pity.

Caught two sticky tree frogs and a big toad, all of which Bea tasted
Got freaked out by the giant spiders all around the neighborhood. I'd seen them before in Japan, but not here.
Ran on the beach in the blazing heat with Courtney(because we were too lazy to get up early)
Had a photo shoot to try to get a decent photo of the family without much luck. Sorry Paige, I can't find one where everyone looks decent. Mostly Justin's fault as usual.
Unsuccessfully tried to take a photo of all the grandkids on the beach
Collected shells and jelly fish bodies washed up onto shore.
Rested, relaxed, played, slept, ate and drank delicious things. Thank-You Lynn and Burnell for the wonderful vacation!

I'm sure I missed a lot, but that's what I remember right now

Boys are trouble

So I know what you're thinking, why are my boys so much trouble. It's usually the baby who's to blame for trouble sleeping. Well, she is the only person in the family who isn't waking me up on a regular basis. She sleeps completely through the night and isn't cranky in the morning! Here's an example of what I'm going through...

3:30am Henry Screaming in Bed: I want gum! Waahhhhhhh.
Me, delirious from going to bed at 1am and running into his room: Okay, I'll
find you some. Just relax and go back to sleep
Henry: I don't want your gum, I want daddy's gum! (kicking and screaming)
Me: Okay, I'll ask Daddy when he wakes up
Henry: No, I want some now! Aaaaaaaahhhhh!
Me: Henry, you're going to wake up your little sister and Daddy and he's not
going to be happy about that. He's really tired.
Henry: Daddy!!!! Ahhh. Ahhhhh!
Me: Go back to sleep please, it's the middle of the night. Everyone is
asleep!
Henry still freaking out: My Daddy, I want my Daddy! I want gum! Aaahhh!
Me: Henry, if you don't stop screaming I'm going to throw your blankies in
the garbage!
Henry: No! Don't throw my blankies in the garbage!
Me: Then stop freaking out and go to bed! It's the middle of the night! If I
have to come back in here, I'm not going to be nice! (I leave the room)
Henry whimpering for the next hour or so and turns on the light. I can still
hear him so I don't every really fall back to sleep until he's in bed at 4:30
5:15am I hear the loudest crash ever. Justin's not in bed and it's still dark
outside. I run out to the hallway and frantically yell, "Justin are you
home!!!!???" thinking someone just broke down the back door. My adrenaline
is on overload.
Justin: few second pause, yes, I need some help
Me: I walk down to the kitchen to find en entire half gallon glass milk jar
with the full amount of milk in it smashed on the ground in front of the
open fridge, milk everywhere, glass everywhere, milk on the carpet, under
the fridge, down the wood floor slats, and Justin needs to leave for work,
can't be late.
Me: cleaned up milk and glass for an hour and start my day

This and other incidents including Justin crashing the baby gate down one morning after another night of Henry's fits are common occurrances in our house lately. I basically get no sleep. Now I'm sick in the middle of the summer and have a race to run in two days! Boys really are trouble

Another one for the record books...

So things aren't going so well around here. First Justin broke the glass top of the deck table, then Henry broke the mac laptop for good, then someone broke my car window to steal my purse that had all of $10 in it and the rest of my whole life, including my phone photos of my darling children that I will never see again. I had to go down to the bank to get some new cards sent to me and while I was talking to the nice man in his cubicle, Henry was pestering me for one of the suckers they give away, whining,"mommy, I want a sucker" over and over. This eventually turned into, "mommy I have to go pee pee" and holding himself. I asked the man if there was a restroom we could use and he hesitated since there were no public restrooms, but he said we could use the employee restrooms and of course he had to go in the men's room and didn't want help. I went back out to get Bea when I heard Henry freaking out in the restroom. I took Bea with me this time and found Henry trying to pee in the man sized urinal which he could not reach. He was unsuccessfully trying to climb on the urinal with his pants down, which wasn't working. He wouldn't let me help him, and would NOT go in the regular toilet. After a few minutes I was fed up and pushed him to the toilet and smacked him on his naked bum which started his flow and he was FURIOUS! He was looking down at his stream and screaming, "NOOOOOOOOO! I don't want to go in the toilet!!! Ahhhhhh!". I came out with my screaming boy only to notice that while I was trying to deal with Henry earlier, Bea had found the graham crackers and the guy's cubical was strewn with crumbs. I dragged them out of there and continued my quest to get my life back together.

Haircut

Henry has had a haircut for a couple weeks now and I forgot to post a photo. It was the result of a bad trim, but I think it looks good on him, especially for the summer. The story goes...I trimmed the back and sides too short but left the front long which made him look like a punk. All he needed was a little eyeliner and some skinny jeans and his look would have been complete. So, we had to cut the rest off. He really does look different. What do you think?

Now that I have my baby girl whose hair I don't ever have to cut if I don't want to, I think I feel ok about cutting Henry's hair short. I still miss his little curls. Here he is at the zoo riding the jeeps.

What to do, what to say...

So today I invited my friend and her mom who is visiting from Korea over for lunch and we had a lovely time eating, playing with our babies, picking raspberries in the garden and playing music. I also have been feeling the impression to give her a Book of Mormon so I got one in Korean, wrapped it up really nicely and gave it to her with my testimony. I have been praying and looking forward to giving it to her for a while now and I was hoping that I would feel the spirit and that it would go smoothly, but Henry was so out of control that I think he annoyed the spirit right out of me. He took the opportunity to try to get everything he wanted since he knew I was busy with something important. He screamed, hurt Bea on purpose, was acting like a maniac, asking for candy and gum was destroying my house and he also finished breaking our computer which he first started to break as a baby. Now it's completely shot. After my friend left I just wanted to cry because I dion't know if she took me seriously since the spirit was not there. I put Henry up in his room and put Bea down for her nap and lied down for the first time in months. I kind of feel defeated since I was the one who got annoyed and didn't have the spirit with me. How do I deal with him and how do I chill out in those situations? He's getting so wild I don't know what to do with him sometimes. Help!

Fourthed Away

I know the fourth of July was last weekend, but when you make all your food from scratch and there's no food in the house but a freezer full of berries the blog takes a back seat. Sorry Henster. So, for the 4th of July we went to CT to visit the grandparents. It was a really quick weekend. We stayed only 48 hours total which wasn't enough time to even stop by NYC and get anything from our favorite restaurants. It killed us to just drive by without indulging in GROM, Dinosaur BBQ or Saigon Grill.

In CT we spent time with almost the entire family, minus Stef the sickling prego mama and Meg who was in Utah. Gammies sister, Gail, was the special visitor of the weekend and she helped out with the babies and with cooking and cleaning which made the weekend so relaxing and enjoyable. Grandpa took Henry and the rest of the kids fishing in the pond where they caught a nice little fish. Go Gramps! The kids also spent a good deal of time jumping on the trampoline, catching fireflies or flierflies as Henry calls them and even took the boat out on the pond. Roasting marshmallows on a nice big campfire was a nice treat as well. Too bad everyone went in by 10pm to put their kids to bed and never returned back out to socialize. Times aren't like they used to be, that's for sure!

On the morning of the fourth Justin and ran a 5K race where he basically tied Garrett so I think there's going to have to be a rematch sometime in the future. I was left in the dust and ended up slowing down at the end because of many lame excuses and didn't do as well as I had hoped. It was fun though. We headed over to the ward for the ward picnic and Henry got to hit a pinata and collected some candy. When I asked him on the way home what his favorite part of our trip was he said enthusiastically, "getting candy!" I really hope that wasn't true! We then went home, made food for the bbq lunch that was skillfully prepared on a tinfoil covered grill(not sure why)and lynn's famous fruit salad. Delicious! Then it was off to the Saunder's place where they have a swing that is hooked to a branch 50 meters up on a tree. The swing literally goes out over the whole entire yard and it takes at least 15 seconds to do one rotation. After eating many yummy deserts we went to Waveny park for more food and to stake our spot for fireworks. Henry really enjoyed the fireworks and still mentions them now and again. The display was incredibly good and lasted for a long time. I don't know about you but I'm constantly impressed by how good the fireworks are getting. They have shapes, coordinating colors, ones that float down to the ground, and supernova ones that cover the entire planet. Amazing. We had a blast and so did the kids.

Sunday we went to church and during a very tearful testimony meeting hearing about our good friends the Humphreys woes about losing his business, house, reputation, and life and having to move to Utah, we found a deer tick in Henry's tushy. I wonder how it got there? Running around naked perhaps? Taking every opportunity to pee in the woods only following in the footsteps of your daddy? We took him home, researched how to get the little bugger out and successfully removed it. So far there has been no bulls-eye mark so I think there's no lyme disease for now. I HATE ticks and that's on the top of my list of why I don't want to settle in the East Coast. I don't want to worry about running into poison ivy and deer ticks every time I want to venture out into the woods with my kids. The west is a lot safer in that respect as far as I know.

At the end of our trip we went to say goodbye to a wonderful and darling man, Axle Ohrn, who was almost 98 years old when he died 24 hours after we saw him. He finally passed because of esophageal cancer which swiftly blocked his ability to nourish his body and he died. He and I would talk about tomato plants all the time and we had such a sweet connection. He hugged me and kissed me like I was his own granddaughter and I always heard about him asking about me and commenting on how wonderful he thought I was. I will miss him so much!

Then we passed by the city again on our way home and made the long drive home with screaming children in the back. Afternoons are NOT good times for my kids to travel. We made it back in one piece and life is good.

Mulberry Wine Feet

Well, that's what we were thinking as we sloshed around the fallen mulberries under the trees in our bare feet. It was such a squishy and delightful feeling but now I'm paying for it as the cracks in my heels and fingernails are still black and I don't look so hot in my slingback shoes. Good thing Henry doesn't have that problem.

Bahama Boy

Last week we took a trip to the beautiful Bahamas where Justin presented a total of 8 minutes of information at a conference at the Atlantis Resort Hotel on Paradise Island. We made it into a week long jaunt and I have to say that it was the first vacation since I had kids that I wasn't totally ready to go home at the end. I could have stayed an extra few days...weeks....forever maybe. Aaahhhh. The luxury of relaxation is a lost concept in my life at home. Anyway, back to Henry. Henry found his new love, which is snorkeling! I had to threaten him with staying home with a babysitter if he didn't give it a try because at first he wouldn't even put the mask on his face, but after I fitted him just right and shoved his head under water he was hooked (after the initial freak out until he opened his eyes and saw all the fish). For the first day or so I was so lonely out there by myself. I had to find a buddy and Henry was my target. One of us had to stay behind with Bea so Henry and I had snorkeling adventures together almost daily for at least an hour at a time. Our best adventure was a snorkeling trip out to Rose Island where some of the most spectacular scenery and fish in the world were and Henry had fish swimming all around him, close enough to touch, and he was in heaven.


We all had a great time playing in the sand on Love Beach, a private beach that we found with almost no people on it, and it also had the best snorkeling right off the beach. We met quite a few locals, very friendly people, and even got some great contacts for next time we go over there, namely the manager of a billionaire's private island who invited us to come whenever we wanted. Um, yeah, we'll be back for that. Some noteworthy things are, that we went to an awesome pirate museum, saw a giant shark fin right off the beach one day(so scary), the car we rented was such a lemon that the hub caps kept falling off and the one zip tie that was keeping them on only made 9 people in one day honk and yell at us to fix them. And get this, mangoes and bananas are more expensive there and they grow wild! The guys selling them on the side of the road told us that "farming is really hard here". Like you farm them! $3.50 is what they charge. I can get them here for about $.75 at Stan's Market on the Strip. That brings me to my next question, why is everything so expensive in the Bahamas? We've been to other islands in the Caribbean and they don't have high prices. What makes the Bahamas so inflated? There's got to be a lot of corruption because most of the island is totally divided between really wealthy foreigners and luxury resort hotels and seriously poor islanders. With all the money coming in from travel, that whole place should be wealthy. I heard how expensive it was so I bought a ton of stuff before we left and packed it with us wherever we went.


The first half of our trip was spent in a two bedroom condo on the main island, which was nice since the kids did not sleep right next to us and then we upgraded to the Atlantis Resort which is really indescribable. The resort itself is like a small city surrounded by an water amusement park with something like 30 pools and is all surrounded by beach. They have their own resident aquarium there with incredible habitats, giant manta rays, sharks, a lobster tank, ugly grouper, beautiful tuna and every other fish in the area.
The marina had yacht after yacht parked in it and I heard they charge around $200 per foot per night to park there. Henry actually got us on one of the most beautiful boats when he made friends with the son of the boat owner. After a few minutes we realized that some sort of family problem was happening and we had to leave. After we left Justin told me that the boat owner told him three times that he wasn't addicted to prescription pain killers for his back problems, which meant that he totally was. He could hardly have a normal conversation he was so drugged up. And he had little kids! So sad. We played in the pools, rode the crazy wave river, relaxed on the beach, made sand castles, snuck our snacks to save money, and got take out at NOBU. The spicy tuna was excellent. Yum! We brought home a bunch of nice shells, some of which still had hermit crabs and snails in them that actually made the trip home in a ziplock bag. They have all died though. Poor little creatures! I wanted to bring home the baby gecko I caught one night, but I knew he would somehow die too.


Henry said it best when on our way home we asked him if he ever wanted to come back and he said that he wanted to go back "today". And still asks us when we're going back to live in the castle, which was our hotel. He also asked today if we could go back to the pirate museum. I think he really loved the Bahamas.

Bribing leads to first joke

Henry's grandma, Nanna B, came to visit this week and as any normal three year old has turned into a stubborn stanley and wouldn't do anything we wanted him to do like learn how to hit the tennis ball for instance. We had to bribe him with gum at the end if he stood there and hit the balls like we wanted him to do, otherwise he would just run around the court playing a sort of tennis hockey. He even tattled on us to Justin. Oh the shame. The best part was Henry's first real joke and it was funny! We asked him if he had fun playing tennis and his response was, very matter-of-factly, "not really". We were shocked that he didn't have fun and that he actually said that but then he said a couple seconds later, "No, I said, not really, Ha Ha, and that meant I was kidding". (us) "So you really had fun?" (Hen) "yeah, I had fun, (smirky smile)." He was so good at faking his response. He's good at faking other things too. I should have guessed.
Anyway, Nanna B helped him learn some tennis, played at the pool with him, read him stories, babysat a couple times for us while we exercised for our impending triathlon (THANK YOU SO MUCH!) and made delicious sugar cookies which we took with us to the park and were gobbled up by all the kids. We also ate amazingly well with all the food she bought us from Costco. Henry and Bea were enjoying blueberries, strawberries, fresh roasted vegetables and fresh tortillas all week. Delicious! Thanks for all the yummy treats Nanna B!

Daddy is not coming home tonight....

Tonight at the dinner table Henry said the prayer over the food and said, "thank you for Daddy is coming home tonight" and then he turned to me and asked me, "is daddy coming home tonight mommy?" and I told him that he wasn't. Henry looked concerned and said, "but I already said thank you that daddy was coming home. OK, (continuing on) thank you that daddy is staying at work and is not coming home tonight, but I'm going to be really sad." It breaks my heart. Poor little guy. Today we just lounged around on the grass in the back yard together with his head on my stomach. We also played frisbee for a little while, picked strawberries, checked out our huge raspberry patch, but then Henry requested that we lie on the grass again and just rest. What a sweetheart.

Later on today I heard Henry doing something in the bathroom and I caught him trying to clean up a huge puddle of pee on the ground with a few squares of toilet paper, shloshing it around and stepping in it. As soon as I looked in the bathroom I noticed that there was urine all over the walls as well. I asked him if he peed all over the walls and he looked at me and said, "mommy, I'm never going to do that again." and did his best to clean up the whole thing. Needless to say I spent a good 20 minutes scrubbing down the entire bathroom tonight.

Camp Wormy

Any of you who know me know that I love bugs and it's really hard to gross me out when it comes to bugs. Even in our ghetto apartment in New York City I would nonchalantly pop baby cockroaches with one eye open in the kitchen in the middle of the night while I got a drink. Our Friday night camping experience, however, is still making my skin crawl and sometimes I feel like I want to vomit. As we hiked about a mile into our camping spot in the Laurel Highlands, we noticed something strange. All the trees were still bare and it literally looked like winter. That's because there was an inchworm infestation of gigantic proportions that carpeted the forest like an old school horror movie. These worms were EVERYWHERE and it seems like they are programmed to just climb up to the top of whatever they were on because on top of everything, billions of them were congregating. Every time I looked at Justin, he had twenty of these things mangled up together on top of his coat collar with no where else to go. They were all over our clothes, Bea was picking them up and trying to eat them, they were dropping in our food, and were our entertainment as we ate dinner, almost unable to eat our hot dogs with the mass of worms on the pole in the middle of the fire pit. The grossest part was realizing that all the drops we heard on top of the tent were, in reality, worm poop dropping all night long and not rainwater. About twenty of them managed to get into our tent that night and they crawled up to the very top of it and were hanging above our heads all night long while their comrades on the outside of the tent squirmed on top of the skylight. Basically, it was freaking sick. Henry was even grossed out by them and now I'm seriously reconsidering my life long dream of being an entomologist and I'm not looking forward to pulling out the tent and finding billions of tiny worm carcasses everywhere. I'm still shivering from it all. Blech!!!!!

On a more pleasant note, the ferns on the forest floor were amazing, especially since they grew in perfect circles and I found this totally awesome transparent flower on this strange plant. I have to look it up. We spotted some wild strawberries but they weren't ripe yet. Supposedly there are a million blackberries in that area during blackberry season.



Henry had a blast hiking around, playing with rocks, bugs, and both he and Bea slept perfectly through the night. When we finally got out of there we had a nice hike at a rock climbing area called Beam Rocks and then ate lunch at a fabulous place called Out of the Fire Cafe. We ate smoked salmon, soft shell crab, and a carrot/ginger/coconut/curry soup that was to die for. I'm going to try to make it this week so check the food blog for more details.

Phone trouble

Today in the car I was talking to my sister-in-law on the phone about some important matter when Henry decided to throw a "you're not paying attention to me" tantrum in the back seat. The stickers on the play phone he was playing with came off so he got mad and decided he didn't want it anymore. I tried to tell him to wait until I was done talking a few times but he got more frustrated and was thrashing back and forth and kicking my seat, waking Bea up, and was screaming, "I don't want this phone!!" over and over. When I finally got off the phone and turned around. He said with a fake pout, "I don't want this phone." So I took it and threw it out the window. Henry was mortified. Just then a little boy with his mom was walking by and I said, "oh look Henry, that little boy will probably find your phone and take it home with him." Henry was in such a state of shock and agony about it that I don't think he took a breath for over a minute. He started wailing, "I want my phone now, I want my phone now!" I know how much he loves his play phone so I pulled into the parking lot and picked it up (Luckily that boy didn't take it) and told him that next time, I wouldn't go back for his phone. Needless to say, he was an angel for the rest of the trip and the rest of the day.

Sunburned Son

The sun has been beating down hard on Pittsburgh this spring, which is very unusual for us. My garden has been suffering and I'm sure our water bill will be sky high. Henry loves playing in his water table which has now turned into a mud table where he usually makes things and bakes things for the family. His favorite thing to make is cupcakes or maple syrup. The other day he refused to put his shirt on and wouldn't let me put sun block on him and then the next day it happened again. I am trying to not force him to do things anymore and let the natural consequences take over, but the burn he got exceeded the severity of the defiance and now his back is horribly burned, I think second degree in a couple spots. I feel horrible. The good thing is that he will never fight me again when I tell him to put on his shirt or sun block. What a price to pay to teach a lesson. Goodness Gracious.

Pittsburgh to DC bike trip trial

Last Saturday we drove down to Ohiopyle to do a section of the new Pittsburgh to DC bike trail with the kids in tow in the bike trailer. We eventually want to do the whole thing this September. Anyone want to join us? The trail is on an old train track and the scenery is absolutely beautiful.



One of the greatest parts about this trail is that it's never more than a 1.5% grade so that means NO HILLS! which is unheard of in the Pittsburgh area. They started constructing this bike trail in 1978, finally connecting all the parts last fall making it a 30 year long project.

Henry was awesome and even took a nap in his trailer. Bea screamed the whole time, but if we get a trailer with shocks and make sure the seat belts don't bug her ears I think the thing is doable. It'll probably take us 5 days to complete, camping along the way, and then we can just take a rental car from DC back home, which is about a 4 hour trip. We are very excited and hope that things will all work out!

Buy some money?

Today Henry was asking me if we could go to our favorite Italian ice place, Ritas, which is also pretty expensive and since I started this all cash budget I tried to explain to him that we needed to save our money to buy real food like vegetables and fruit and that we don't have money for that sort of thing all the time. He then said, "well, we should just buy some more money!". Ha! Why didn't I think of that before?? Genious!!!

Does it get any better than being a Mother?

Wow, every day should be Mother's Day. This morning Henry thanked Heavenly Father three times that it was Mother's Day during his breakfast prayers. At church we got a CD, a measuring cup filled with chocolates and a nice card with a professional photo of Henry on the front and filled with things he thought about me on the inside. I also gave away a couple hundred of my tomato plants, so everyone else got an extra special gift and I was SO happy to send them to loving homes. I listened to my CD on the way home, had Justin make me dinner and just relaxed while he did the dishes. Bea was perfect as usual and Henry gave me plenty of hugs, kisses and talked about Mother's Day non-stop. It was a very nice day...and the sun was shining. Thank-you my dear, sweet family.

DC Trip

Well we went to DC to visit Christi, Dave, and River for about 5 days even though Bea had a fever, which was probably the swine flu (what in the heck is the big deal about that anyway!?) and we had a great time hanging out with their awesome family, playing in their gigantic back yard, exploring the area and me sneaking into a fancy Gala where I ended up talking to Phillipe Cousteau about worm composting (yes, as in Jacque Cousteau) and mingled with Saudi Arabian Royalty. Too cool. Henry and River loved getting dirty and wet since it was over 90 degrees down there! Our bodies weren't ready for that much heat, especially feverish Bea. Henry and River get along great and are already creating a nice little brotherly bond.

Out of the routine

Henry got the 24 hour flu that's been circulating and so we canceled our Earth Day garbage pick-up in the park and I quarantined him in his room so he wouldn't infect Bea or me and it seemed to have worked. This afternoon I was finally convinced that he wasn't sick anymore and I let him touch Bea and the two of them were overjoyed to be able to interact again. They were wrestling, playing and laughing like they hadn't seen each other for years! It's so wonderful to see how much they missed each other. Henry took such a long nap yesterday that he didn't go to sleep until midnight! I was reminiscing back when he wouldn't get to bed until sometime between midnight and one am when we were waiting for Justin to get home. I can't believe he actually had that schedule! I made sure he didn't take a nap today so he went to bed at the normal time of 8pm. I left him in his room to unwind while I put Bea to bed and when I went back in there, he was nestled in his bed ready to fall asleep when I peeked my head in to say good-night when he said in a tired, scruffy voice, "we need to read the Book of Mormon". I had totally forgotten! We sat together and read the story of young Nephi and Lehi while they were missionaries and were protected by a ring of fire and converted all the Lamanite prison guards. He LOVED the story. I can't wait to go down to Washington DC tomorrow and go to the LDS bookstore so I can get some fun things for our Book of Mormon party when we finish. We're going to have a great time. Thanks for inspiring us to read Henry. We love you so much!

American Idol Prayer of Thanks

Lately we have been encouraging Henry to say something new in his prayers since they've begun to get really repetitious. We usually pause before our prayers and tell him to think of the things that we did that day and to thank Heavenly Father for being able to participate in the many fun activities in our lives. It just so happened that our ward had an American Idol night that was an almost exact replica of the show with videos, Ryan Seacrest, the judges, professional stage lighting, a giant disco ball, and 10 fabulous contestants. The activity was awesome and went off without a hitch and since I was on the activities committee I worked hard for months to get it all put together. I was also IN the show....and actually WON the show. I sang "Love Story" by Taylor Swift and played the guitar with my brother-in-law, Franklin, on the piano. I am really flattered that I won, but was more embarrassed because I basically created and won my own show. Anyway, so after Henry saw me win the show I told him that I was the American Idol and I think he really took it to heart because the next night he said in his prayers, twice in the same prayer, "thank-you that mommy is American Idol". Justin cracked up during the prayer, but I was grateful that my son was proud of me:). And for the first time EVER He didn't complain when I told him we were watching it last night. I think he fully expected to see me on the show this week. Now I bet I've really confused him.

Easter Saturday

I tried this year to make the crazy sugar overloaded Easter holiday on Saturday this year instead of Sunday and it worked out so well that I think we'll do that from now on. I am keeping up the tradition that my family started of giving socks and underwear at Easter time and Henry got a ton of new socks, which he needed badly, and some cool new underoos along with a bunch of white undershirts for when it's hot in the summer. We hung out all weekend with our friends, the Romney's and their darling son, River, and had a fun Easter egg hunt and picnic with them in the city next to the river. The weather was fabulous and so was the company!

Also that day we went to the Children's Museum in the morning, went to the Strip District for delicious cheese and bread for our picnic, and then went to the Banff Mountain Film Festival screening that night. Henry, River, and Bea got babysat for five hours and were very good. Easter Sunday we had about 20 people over for dinner and had a wonderful time! Thanks everyone for helping us make such great Easter memories!

Another adventure at Rite Aid

So you remember what happened the last time we spent quality time at Rite Aid? Well this time we went to drop off a prescription and to buy a pull back car with Henry's hard earned money from doing his chores which you would think would be a simple task. First of all, I was looking rather shabby, had not taken a shower in two days, had just worked out, was wearing no make-up and had really greasy looking hair. Henry was in his sweats, a stained shirt and boots that are falling apart, plus he's crying as usual from being cold at swimming lessons. We walk into the store and go back to the pharmacy where Henry drops his ceramic piggy bank and it shatters all over the floor. Pretty soon all the employees are there helping us pick up all Henry's nickles and dimes and making sure no one hurts themselves on the shattered pieces. The owner of the store, through Henry's sobs, looks up at me with a sincere look and says, "I think we have piggy banks on sale." and so I agreed to look at them. He took me to the isle with the lawn ornaments and other hideous items and shows me the kitchiest looking fish/frog piggy bank, something you would expect to see in your grandma's garden right next to the fake flowers sticking out of the ground, and even though it's on clearance at 50% off I tell him that it's too expensive. I was not going to pay $4 for something that hideous. I started walking down towards the check-out counter when the store owner taps me on the shoulder and whispers, "It's okay, I'll give it to you for a dollar", and at that moment I realize that he probably thinks I am some poor white-trash mother that can't even afford to buy my son something that costs so little. Needless to say, I can never resist a good deal so we took the piece of junk and took it and Henry's red truck up to the counter to pay for them. I knew I couldn't argue with their perceptions of me the moment I brought out the plastic bag filled with nickles and dimes to pay for our items. I could feel all the employees give me that look that would translate to, "I know times are hard but you just keep on saving those nickles and dimes and you'll move out of that trailer park someday (imaginary hug)" One thing I can't figure out is that they didn't recognize me from the poo wall painting fiasco, and now I don't want to go in there looking like I usually do because they might think I was faking being trailer trash to get a free piggy bank. But alas, I have no choice since they didn't have my prescription in stock, so I have to go back tomorrow......