“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” ― Albert Einstein
We stretched Dave's birthday over quite a few days this year, which was really fun. On the 27th, Dave took the day off because of the weather, so we all drove to the Riverwoods and used the Tucano's birthday coupon. The boys loved eating until they were sick, and Miles' favorite part was using the tongs to get the meat. He didn't actually eat the meat, but he loved the tongs!
On the 28th, Dave's actual birthday, the boys and I made him a German chocolate cake and gave him sunglasses and a gift card to Joann's to buy vinyl for his boat seats.
Then on Friday the 3rd, we picked the kids up from school with Lucy in the car, drove to the Ybarra's and dropped off Lucy (Miles was pretty upset to leave his doggy), and then took the kids to Abby & Casey's to spend the night. They ate pizza, walked to 7-11 for dessert, and watched a movie. In the morning, Abby made them banana pancakes and scrambled eggs. Jett told me that I need to start putting salt and pepper in the eggs because "it brings out the flavor."
After dropping the kids off at Abby's, Dave and I drove just across the city to The Holiday Inn Express and checked in. Honestly, I had reserved at that hotel because it was the least expensive decent hotel, and I was really surprised at how nice it was when we entered. Our room was on the 1st floor, so we had a vaulted ceiling; we loved having a king size bed and a fridge and microwave as well.
After check-in, we drove to downtown Provo where we ate at Black Sheep Cafe and I cannot tell you how amazing it was. It was like, Sundance Foundry Grill good. And, as it turns out, just as expensive. But we figured, it was our "vacation" so we were okay spending that much on ourselves, and my parents had given Dave some money for his birthday, so that definitely helped with our little getaway.
Dave got the Green Chile Pork Navajo Taco and I got an off-menu entree which was a filet mignon on top of a bed of braised red cabbage, with a side of asparagus with a spicy carrot sauce, and parmesan mashed potatoes. It look amazing and tasted like heaven. We also got cactus pear lemonade, which was delicious, and for dessert, we got a chile creme brûlée that was just a little spicy and incredible, and a chocolate strawberry mousse which was pretty good but nothing special.
After dinner we went back to the hotel until check-out the next morning. We slept in so we missed the free breakfast, but it was just nice to not deal with kids first thing in the morning. We actually hadn't been away from the kids in 5 years, and had never been away from Miles, so it was a much needed getaway and it let us recharge our batteries in a sense.
Then on the 5th of March, the Ybarras had us over to celebrate Dave's birthday with a taco salad dinner and pumpkin pie for dessert. They gave Dave some $ for his birthday, so he was pretty excited about that. I think he had a pretty good birthday.
Last month, Cruise built his first working robot and named him Zim. He had gotten a book from the library about building your own robot, so he told me the stuff he needed me to buy and built a robot! He got some help from dad to hook up a remote so he could turn it on and off.
He is now working on his second robot and wants to get sensors for it, so we'll see how that one goes.
Dave took Miles out to do a little fishing. They caught a fish and Miles insisted they keep it. Dave forgot to prepare Miles for the next step, which was to bleed out the fish, which caused Miles to cry unconsolably and to beg Daddy to "fix it".
So I took Miles the next day to PetsMart where we bought a Beta fish that he named Fish. And all is right in the world once more.
On Valentines morning, I came downstairs to make just a regular breakfast, when Cruise said, "Mom, aren't you going to make us heart pancakes?" He literally was tearing up. I told him I tried last year but that the batter stuck to the cookie cutters. Of course I couldn't not try when I'm staring into the face of a heartbroken child, who was dreaming of heart shaped pancakes for Valentines breakfast. Luckily, I quickly got the idea to put the batter in a piping bag, so I whipped up some Valentines pancakes for the boys. Miles slept through it, but still refused to eat them when he woke up. He wanted circle pancakes. You can't win 'em all.
The boys had each bought a small box of chocolates for the ladies in their lives, but Jett last minute decided Camry hadn't been too nice to him over the past year, so he shared the box with his brothers. Ha ha! Cruise gave his to Claire. Of course.
The night before, Dave sent me on a scavenger hunt for a dozen roses, even though we had agreed to not getting each other anything for Valentine's day. So I was just slightly irritated that he bought me flowers because I literally got him just a box of Hot Tamales. Wife of the year right here, I tell you what. But I loved the roses. And the scavenger hunt.
I helped out at both the boys class parties. I had the kids in Jett's class each decorate wooden heart magnets. I always try to have the kids do something I know their parents won't throw away. I figured a magnet is always good for fridges. Cruise's room mom planned a chocolate dipping party and it was insane. A lot of fruit and treats and a lot of chocolate in many colors. The room mom is kind of amazing but she's one of those people who makes me super nervous. She talks really fast, moves really fast, and most of the time I can't process what she is saying quick enough to respond. So it's always an anxiety-ridden experience helping with parties in that class this year.
For the boys, I got Cruise and Jett each a special Valentine's Hershey's candy bar and Miles got a V-Day Minion marshmallow on a stick thing.
On the 15th, Dave's parents were kind enough to come watch Miles while we went out to Tsunami for lunch. We had an amazing lunch and enjoyed not dealing with crowds.
A couple weeks ago, the boys participated in the school science fair...again. I tried talking them out of it, but they just had to do it.
Cruise had a little trouble at first trying to come up with a project because "Do birds understand English?" and "Is time travel possible?" are just not science fair do-able. Finally, we settled on "Which color are birds most attracted to?" So for his, we (I) painted six hanging baskets, each a different color, and filled them with bird seed. Each of them were hung on the treehouse in the back yard. Unfortunately, the yellow one broke and all of them weighed more at the end due to the rain and snow. But he somehow managed to still get a 1st place ribbon. His findings showed that the red one was the most popular, but since we put them back outside, the yellow one seems to be doing the best.
Jett's, I thought, was 1st place worthy but came home with a 3rd place, which is still really cool. Dave came up with his project question, which was, "Which has more bacteria? A dog's or a human's mouth?" For his, I had to order prepared petri dishes on Amazon. The first batch showed up and after two or three days of sitting in the package waiting to be used, they were growing bacteria. So, we had to return those and quickly ship the next set from a different seller that turned out great. He swabbed his, Cruise's, Miles', and Lucy's mouths, and eventually found that Lucy's definitely had more bacteria.
I realized just how expensive doing two science fair projects is. I didn't really add that up last year. So I told the boys they should do the Storytelling festival next year instead.
Miles is a sweet kid. This month he started Sunbeams in church and took the transition really well. He doesn't seem to miss the toys and snack time, probably because he has such great teachers! My friend Nikki and her husband teach the class and they are just the best! The first week he came home with a little baby Moses craft and then this week he came home wearing an adorable, blinged-out crown. He loves it.
Miles loves other kids and is pretty outgoing. He likes to make new friends and playing with anyone who will give him the time of day. This picture was from November when Dave took the boys to Texas Roadhouse while I was out of town. He was completely taken with this little girl sitting behind them.
Miles also loves Daddy. Daddy is the preferred parent. Sometimes Miles won't even let me do certain things because Daddy must do it. Sometimes when Daddy gets home from work, Miles makes him play Lara Croft: Tomb Raider on the old Nintendo console. He says, "Daddy shoot game?"
Miles also loves music. He definitely has a favorite genre and it's hilarious. Today while we were in the car, he kept telling me to put on a "fast song". I tried my best but he was not satisfied. He finally settled on Alice In Chains "School's Out" and then Black Sabbath's "I Am Iron Man". So, yeah, he likes hard rock. He also likes to head bang in his carseat. And it's hilarious. He also likes it when I sit with him and we practice drumming.
Miles loves to play. A lot! He loves superheroes, he especially loves the Batbot, and will play with any group of superheroes. This includes Batman, Superman, the Ninja Turtles, the Joker, and Buzz Lightyear. Lately he's been really into Lego mini figures and likes to mix and match their bodies, heads, arms, etc.
Miles loves the water babies I have kickin' around. For about a week, he carried this babydoll around, had me swaddle him, and he bathed with the baby and even washed its hair. It was adorable. He giggled when I told him that he was the daddy and the doll was his baby. He bathes with it every evening now. Along with 37 of his most favorite action figures (okay, that was a random number, but you get the idea).
Miles also loves playing in the snow and especially sledding. One day he was the only one who wanted to go sledding, so Dave took him out and pulled him around with the Jeep.
A couple more gems:
A week or two ago, we were trying to get Miles dressed to leave the house. I called him a few times and he just danced around looking at me as if he was daring us. So Dave finally said, "Miles, come get dressed. You want a spank?" So Miles smiled and said, "YES! Gimme spank." And turned around and stuck his butt out. So...that wasn't effective. But definitely funny.
Miles has potty training down. He rarely has an accident. Usually when he flushes his poop, he always says "bye" to it. Today, as he flushed, he said, "Bye poop! I love you!" I guess we all should appreciate our poop more. Lol!
Jett
Jett played Jr. Jazz all throughout October thru December. Sure, we missed A TON of games, but when he did show up, he really enjoyed it. He learned a lot and had of fun playing with kids he knows from school.
Jett's shot. ALMOST made it in!
When Jett isn't driving me up the wall by teasing his brothers, he is being the sweetest human on earth. I was going to attend a Stake Relief Society activity on a Saturday that was focusing on refugees. At the event, we were going to be putting some kits together as well as tie a bunch of quilts. Well, Jett wanted to go with me so badly. So I brought him along. He really enjoyed helping, and was really excited about tying the quilts. Now, I am not a sewer. I have never enjoyed it, really. So I was definitely out of my element when he asked if he could learn how to sew. From what I remembered as a kid, I did a lot of cross-stitch stuff. So I took him to Hobby Lobby where he and Cruise both picked out small cross-stitch projects. They have gotten pretty good, but they haven't completed them yet.
Anyway, back to Jett being super sweet. Jett was invited to attend a birthday party during Christmas break. The party was going to be at Jack & Jill's where they were going to do some laser tag and play in the arcade.
Jett ended up winning 9000 tickets! When he came home, he handed me this bracelet:
Me: Thank you Jett! I love it! Did you buy this with your tickets?
Jett: Yeah. It was only 200 tickets. I got 9000 tickets!
Me: What?! You mean 900?
Jett: No, 9000. It had 3 zeros.
Me: Well then what did you get yourself?
Jett: (Holds up small vial) Some disappearing ink!
Me, confused: But, that isn't worth that many tickets is it?
Jett: No, I shared my tickets with some other kids who only got 23 tickets. They were only able to get a couple pieces of candy. So I gave them some of my tickets.
I think back to when I was that age, and I wish I could say I would do the same thing, but honestly, I don't know if I would have. He is quite the kid and I'm not gonna lie, I got pretty choked up.
A few Saturday's ago, Jett wanted to go to Kneaders for lunch. Dave and I told him it costs too much and that we will just made lunch at home. So he decided he was going to pay for the three boys to get lunch at Kneaders. So he handed us $15 and we all went to Kneaders. His brothers were so grateful to him for buying their lunch.
Jett is also my snow kid. He LOVES playing in the snow. He will come home from school, get all geared up, and go right back outside to play in the snow. He loves making snowmen, snow forts, etc. He will spend hours building something in the snow, even if he is by himself.
Jett also loves baking still. He LOVES it. Every day he asks if we can bake something. I keep telling him if we do that, we're all going to either get huge, get diabetes, or both. So he bakes something about once a week. The rest of the week, he learns how to cook other things. He likes to help me make dinner and always wants to know how to cook certain things. I taught him how to make scrambled eggs and quesadillas a few weeks ago. He also learned how to peel potatoes and shred cheese. I have been trying to eat healthier lately, so when we make things, I teach him about ingredients and how to make certain meals healthier. This picture is of the cookies he made and couldn't wait to eat, so he brought down his bed fan downstairs to cool the cookies faster.
Cruise
Cruise has been doing pretty well lately! His psychiatrist moved him through a couple different medications and now has him on one in the morning and another in the evening. So far his teachers are saying he is focusing better and his anxiety has lessened noticeably. For a little while the meds were making him irritable while he was trying to adjust to them, but lately he's been doing great! He is finally making progress is math and always aces his science tests.
Cruise also took up cross-stitch and is kind of a natural. He has so many other projects he is always doing, so he hasn't finished his picture yet, but every now and then he picks it back up and does a little more.
Around election day, his class held their own election and everyone got to run for an office. Cruise chose President and wrote this:
I'm pretty sure Cruise is more qualified to be president than Trump.
Like I said before, Cruise is always doing a project. For awhile he was making these little cardboard worms called Wormies. he would wrap each one individually and give them a little name tag like Beanie Babies do. Then he would sell them each for 30 cents. Miles became obsessed with them and eventually Cruise handed me a bill saying I owed him over $2 from all the Wormies Miles bought! So, I had to tell him he couldn't charge for them anymore. That kind of stifled his motivation to keep this Wormy shop going.
Cruise has gotten so good at writing. It seems like he's writing all the time. During the day he writes and draws signs and notes all over the house. He writes A LOT of comics that make absolutely no sense to us but he sure gets a kick out of them. He also keeps a journal on his computer, so before bed you can always hear him typing away on his keyboard. His reading has also gotten so good and he loves reading the books he gets from the library.
This this particular day he had told me he was going to finish cleaning his room for money in the morning since it got too late the night before. Well, he woke up and didn't clean it, so he left this note for me. I actually didn't see the note until after I finished cleaning his room, but I didn't want him to be upset so I still paid him. I'm a push over.
Most recently, Cruise has taken a HUGE interest in bird watching. He comes home from school almost every day, grabs his coat and my camera and goes outside to take pictures of birds. He walks around the neighborhood and sometimes I let him ride his scooter the street over where there are more birds. Sometimes his brothers like to go with him and get in on the action. It's pretty adorable. And I like that he is getting outside finally. This is one of the many many pictures he's taken. He has learned their names and can identify them. Every time we're out running errands he calls out the birds he sees. I bought him a little bird watching book for kids and he loves it. Today he had me get a bunch of his photos printed from Costco and he put them in a book and took them to scouts to show everyone. I keep telling him he should use his saved money to buy his own little camera. He wasn't interested in that. I mean, why buy his own when he can use his mom's $300 camera?
Dave
Dave's been doing pretty well. Work is pretty good, with an agent fluctuating every so often, but things have been pretty consistent. He has been quite the trooper knocking out in the cold and snow. It does not look fun and I can't believe he does that every day. He is such a good provider and never complains.
Along with work, Dave likes to play as well. He goes fishing every so often but with how snowy and cold it's been, it hasn't been the easiest. Still, it's nice for him to get away from the noise of everything and relax. He also plays with the kids in the snow all the time. He helped them build a giant igloo for the kids when it dumped a bunch of snow on us last week.
He also drags them around behind the Jeep and they love it! He is such a great dad.
Dave also took me on a date a couple weeks ago! We don't get out often, but it's so nice when we do. We drove to Salt Lake and had dinner at our favorite Peruvian restaurant Del Mar al Lago. It was amazing and we ate EVERYTHING. There were absolutely no left overs! Then we had some time left over so we stopped by Thanksgiving Point on the way home for dessert and made ourselves sick. It was awesome.
We've been doing so much better at family scripture thanks to Dave playing them on his phone during dinner. It is so much easier to do that while the kids' mouths are full and they're not touching each other.
Me
Lately I have been taking the boys to the library once a week. I hadn't taken the kids to the library since I was pregnant with Miles and it was then and there I decided no more! They ran wild, screamed, and made a mess of all the books, so I just bought their books from Scholastic instead. Well, a few weeks ago Cruise asked me if we could get a book about robotics. I asked him if he's like to go look at the library. I felt really bad about myself that my kids didn't even know there were city libraries. He thought I was talking about the school library! So, now every Thursday after I pick the boys up from school, we head straight to the library and they get to pick out books and DVDs! And they love it! We don't have a very big library unfortunately, but they still really enjoy it.
My band is playing again after taking a small break over Christmas and New Year's. We practice about twice a week now and I have yet to finish recording. Eric decided to invest in a bunch of mics and stuff, so we are going to finish up recording on our own. Right now we're working on getting a bigger following and finding more shows to do.
The week of the inauguration I was super depressed. And my anxiety was through the roof. I woke up the Sunday before with three cold sores on my bottom lip and my entire neck and chest broke out in either hives or some sort of rash. It's been almost two weeks and it's finally starting to go away. Anyway, I had really wanted to attend the Women's March in Park City but I let my anxiety get the best of me. I woke up Saturday morning and watched the D.C. rally and march and I cannot tell you how much it helped me. I realized I wasn't one of only a few to have serious concerns about the Trump Presidency and the threat to our freedoms. The march actually empowered me and I decided enough was enough. I am not one of those people who is content sitting in my little bubble, happily uninformed. I feel like I have a responsibility to my fellow Americans, to my children, and to the disenfranchised. So I dusted myself off and got to work. I decided I needed to use my anxiety and put it to good use. I joined up with an organization called Indivisible. Every Tuesday they send out a new action. This week's was to visit with our Senators or those in their offices, and tell them to vote against Trump's cabinet picks. About 40 of us showed up and only 7 were allowed to visit. The rest of us had to stand outside in the cold. I ended up having to leave after an hour because Dave needed to get to work. I also was able to send a couple postcards to the Senators as well since I did not get to personally speak with them.
After talking to one of my good Democrat friends, asking her what I should do since I need to practice self-care but also wouldn't feel true to myself if I didn't join the resistance, she told me to pick one day a week to save the world and the rest of the week take care of me. So that is what I plan to do. I feel like that's been working out for me. All of us have a responsibility as Americans to stand up for our freedoms. To stand up to the powerful when they abuse their power. To say something rather than keep quiet. To remind our representatives that they work FOR US.
I don't want my children to grow up and see the mess Trump made and wonder why their mom didn't do anything to stop it. So I'm going to keep trying. I'm going to keep resisting. I'm going to keep speaking up.
