Smithfield Canyon

On the day of the Brigham City temple dedication, church was canceled because of the dedication. Ty, Tameka, and Tuff stopped by and visited but we were still going stir crazy by the end of the day. So we loaded the kids up and went for a drive up Smithfield Canyon. The mouth of the canyon is less than a mile from our house, but Bentley was freaking out about us being lost and wanted us to turn around. We finally pulled over and I insisted everyone out! Bentley refused to move until I told him we were going to be explorers.

They had a lot of fun "exploring" and then yelled when it was time to go.

They were so careful crossing the stream and then Lincoln said "who cares" and stepped right in. He says it was a lot faster that way. They had so much fun that that Friday we once again piled in the car and headed up the canyon, this time with firewood and hot dogs.

Gracie hung out as I was building the fire and the boys were off exploring. All 3 came back wet and ready to eat.

It was obviously that we need to do this more often cause the boys were CRAZY and will for sure be the most annoying kids at scout camp if they don't get a little more experience with a campfire.

Instagram v.17

1. Shopping with mom. Lincoln's life is hard.
2. Gracie first time eating rice cereal. Lincoln has been looking forward to this day since before she was born.
3. Baby Tuff came to visit. Gracie will eat you.
4. Tuff is scared of girls and Gracie is a cuddle bug.
5. Drive up Smithfield Canyon. Lincoln said this mountain was aMaZiNg!
6. Another shot up Smithfield Canyon.
7. Lincoln hijacked IG again.
8. Our Activity Day girls made this mixed media girls--I think they turned out really cute!
9. PB&J on whole wheat every. single. day. for Bentley. Unless he mixes it up with some honey.

Not Just a Mom

Last night Chod brought me home flowers. Sweet, yes, but not the point of this story. As I was arranging them in a vase, Bentley and Lincoln were questioning my every move.

"Why are you cutting them?" (So they'll be able to drink the water.)

"Why are you doing that?" (These are called guard petals and they're ugly so I'm peeling them off.)

Chod told them to calm down, that I was a plant scientist, and knew what I was doing. Bentley looked at me in shock and asked, "Wait, did you graduate?"

I told him that I had, indeed, graduated and then he turned to Chod to see if I was telling the truth.

Later, he curled up to me on the couch and told me that he never even knew that I was smart.

I'm not sure what graduating means to him, or even what he thinks that I have graduated from (high school? kindergarten? college?). But no matter. Whatever it is, it's enough for me to be more than just a mom in his eyes.

Instagram v.16

1. Tri-School Trot. Bentley ran 10 laps (2.5 miles)!
2. Date Knight at Chik-Fil-A
3. More Date Knight fun
4. Talk like a Pirate Day.
5-9. Lincoln hi-jacked my instagram feed.

Lincoln's Barbershop

Dear Lincoln,
Always remember, when you use these:

and do this:

 

it will prompt Dad to do this:

which will cause you to do this:

Love, Mom

Date Knight

I took the boys to Date Knight at Chik-Fil-A. They had the inside decorated like a castle and the tables were candlelit. The boys had a great time designing their family shields and eating chicken nuggets. Maybe you can tell, but it was just a few minutes after Lincoln's haircut. Chod stopped by to pick Gracie up on his way home from work and the first thing he noticed was the gaping hole (in fact he was so embarrassed that I took him out of the house looking like that, oh well).

 After dinner we went on a wagon ride with this team of mules.

And the boys had fun hanging out with the cow and jester on our ride.

Gracie at 4 months

At 4 months, Gracie is still the worlds best baby. She's drooly and likes to chew and we think there are teeth on their way. She's still sleeping through the night and is happy and content. She's starting to roll. The doctor was a little concerned about her size at her appt, but considering she's her brother's sister we aren't too worried about having another midge in the family.

Zucchini Boat Races

I volunteered my surplus of zucchini for one of our Activity Day activities.

The girls had lots of fun decorating their zucchinis with marshmallows and flowers.

Then we took them to the park and raced them down the stream.

My boys love hanging out with the Activity Day girls. Especially Lincoln, I think he thinks the girls love him and they think he's such a cute little kid.

Instagram v.15

1. Crafting Chicks was picked as KSL's blog of the week. Brooke got to go on TV to talk about it.
2. Our favorite chicken farmer turned 4.
3. The birthday cake. I tried making up for the birthday failure from last year. See balloons and a big cake.
4. Forgot to add the butter to the cake and it had the texture of a kitchen sponge.
5. Ballerina Gracie
6. Sunday rolls don't last long around here.
7. Apple nachos. The boys devoured these.
8. 3 monkeys in a bed. Some nights a king isn't big enough.
9. Gracie and Ike chilling on a Thursday night.

Tri School Trot

Smithfield has 3 elementary schools, and every year they have a Tri-School Trot fundraiser. The kids set a goal of how many laps they will do and then collect pledges. It was Bentley's first year participating and when we asked him how many laps he wanted to do he said 3, cause 4 would make him too tired. Chod thought that was pretty weak and insisted he could do 10. So he bumped his goal up to 10 and hit the grandparents up for pledges.

The morning of the Trot, as we were coordinating plans for the day, Chod realized they would be running laps around the high school track. And not inside the elementary gym like he had thought. All of a sudden the 10 laps he was sure Bentley could do got much, much longer. Bentley was so excited to run his first "race".

He started out strong and did his 4 laps. Whitney and Katelin came to cheer him on and Katelin did a fantastic job of making sure he got a drink with every lap.

After lap 4, Chod joined him. With a little support and encouragement from Dad Bentley finished all 10 laps or 2.5 miles! Chod's not really dragging him like it looks like, Bentley was just heading over to his hydration station. It was fun for the whole family and there's already talk of 12 laps for next year.

Lincoln's 4th

I tried to make up for the failed 3rd birthday. There were balloons, a happy birthday banner hung, and a wrapped present waiting to greet him in the morning.

 He was kind of really excited for his very own scooter.

He went on a lunch date with Mom to Arby's, but didn't eat any of his turkey club except for the piece of cheese.

 It was family day on the quad, and he thought the party was for him.

 And he got a blue monster cake like he had requested.

I went big on this one and made a rainbow layer cake. He loved when we cut the cake open and he saw all the colors. But the cake was super nasty. It hung around for a couple days, but Lincoln was the only one who would eat it.

So while it was a lot better than last year, there's still room for improvement!

I

Lincoln's 4!

Happy birthday to our favorite chicken farmer! We didn't know if he would make it to 4, but it's here and so is he!

Lincoln brought a lot of excitement into our lives during the last year--bike painting, living with the chickens, getting gum in his hair, cutting his hair....wait was just the past 2 weeks! Never a dull moment with this kid around. He has an awesome sense of humor and loves to make us laugh. He's a friend making, Aggie cheering, adventure seeking, animal loving, movie quoting, sister adoring, rock star music requesting, chicken whispering, iPhone hiding, backwards dressing, egg counting, heart melting little man!

Here's hoping things calm down at 4!

Instagram v.13 & 14

1. Goof Off save the bikes. Goof Off saved Lincoln.
2. Trash talking onesie
3. Can't leave home without the gadgets.
4. Linky and Ruby.
5. Wilkinsville #wilkinsreunion2012
6. The house that Mike built
7. The house that Troy built
8. The house that Maria built
9. The house that Kathy built

10. The house that Ryan built
11. The house that Patrice built
12. The house that Theron built
13. Ticket booth
14. Family pictures
15. Grandpa's train
16. More Lincoln and Ruby
17. The next generation's wedgie
18. Lincoln out on a limb

Our Graffiti Artist

Last Saturday Chod was working on a service project with the Elder's Quorum and called asking for us to bring him a new pair of gloves. The boys rode their bikes and I pushed Gracie in the stroller. A nice morning, we were able to help dad who was helping others. When Chod got home the first thing he asked was "Did you know Lincoln spray painted the bikes?" "WHAT!"

Sure enough, that was spray paint. We surveyed our property and then the neighborhood to see what else he had tagged on his little spree. Luckily, it stopped with the bikes and the neighbors sidewalk. No houses or cars or boats were graffiti-ed. Chod grabbed his new best friend, Goof Off and a roll of paper towels and we set to work removing paint. 

First we tackled Bentley's bike, then Lincoln's, and finally the sidewalk. <

People want to know how I didn't know. #1 He had no paint on himself. #2 Do you check on your children's bike every 15 minutes? #3 Our spray paint is kept on a shelf in the garage. I have never thought he would think to climb up there and get it. But the best part is that most of the cans have lids on them, only the new Valspar paints have the twist top. When I asked him how many paints he tried he answered, "A lot. This was the only one I could get open." But my favorite part of all was that he wheeled the bikes out of the garage, painted them, and wheeled them back in. Kind of like he's been watching me work on projects. So we really don't think it was a vicious move--more of a curiosity thing. Stinker.

Instagram v.12

1. They build their own jump. Looks like an accident waiting to happen.
2. They requested Chod build them a 'kicker'.
3. Our first Lowe's Build and Grow--building an onion carriage.
4. Sunday baking
5. No words can describe this character
6. Taped 3 cutting mats together to get a long enough stencil!
7. The chicken coop decorations
8. Autumn sunset and a cardi kind of night.
9. The family graffiti artist struck-luckily the tagging stopped here.