June 7, 2008 Sheridan was on the city track team this year, and here is the one picture we got of him competing. This was as he ran the 200 m at the last meet of the season. There were several other track clubs there, and Sheridan finished 6th in this event, 6th in the long jump and 5th in the 4 x 100 m relay (his age group included kids born in 1996 and 1997). He placed higher in other meets, but I've lost track of them all. After one meet he brought home 2 ribbons (a 2nd and 3rd, I think) and at another, his relay team took 1st, and he got a medal. He really enjoyed the experience and plans to participate next year as well. I actually enjoyed track much more than the team sports we've tried. Maybe next year we'll remember to take the camera to more meets. . .

June 9, 2008 Caleb and Marcus show their ability to entertain themselves in the playroom. In my opinion, Marcus (note, he's still wearing his baseball cap) looks like an uncertain alien jedi (toting a firearm just in case the mind-control thing doesn't work), and Caleb looks like a very confused bee-keeper. But, hey, whatever keeps them happy, right?

(Well, one of them. . .) . . . is to find a healthy chocolate cake. I've decided that if I had a slice of chocolate layer cake and a glass of milk to look forward to each day, my outlook on life could be seriously improved. The problem is that daily consumption of that much butter and sugar can't be good for me. So I'm on the hunt for alternatives and if you know of anything that will provide my daily cake fix and not go directly to my hips, I'd love to hear about it. I'm actually thinking of toying with a brownie recipe that incorporates pureed spinach and carrots. But frosting is key in a chocolate layer cake, and I just can't think of any way to make that healthy or even slightly healthier. Sigh.

Here are a few highlights from my birthday a couple of weeks ago. I actually stole these pictures off my Mom's blog because (naturally) we didn't get any taken ourselves. The first picture was June 1, when Guy was out of town, and I went to my parents' house for a visit. Mom surprised me with this birthday display of all my pictures. This is a tradition she started when I was still living at home. I admit that many of these pictures definitely make me cringe, but the kids got a kick out of seeing them all up there. The second picture was from my actual birthday. Guy had just gotten back into town, so Mom helped out by providing my birthday cake (the leftovers made me happy all week, and I managed not to share them too much :-) and she and Dad stayed with the kids while Guy and I went out for a really really yummy dinner. Oh, the gorgeous flowers are from my Visiting Teacher. I had decided earlier that day that I was ready to be done having birthdays, but dinner and chocolate cake make getting older worth it.

One Saturday morning, Guy and were looking out into the backyard (probably discussing the many things that need to be done out there) when this very striking bird flew into the apricot/plum tree. We called to Sheridan to come and see (he's been very into birds for the last couple of years), but by the time he got downstairs, the bird had flown off. Naturally he asked what kind of bird it was, and naturally, I didn't have the faintest idea. He fetched his bird guide book and started trying to find a picture of the mystery bird based on my description. After a couple of misses, I described the bird again, he got very excited, and turned in his book to a picture of a Western Tanager--

Further evidence of our bizarre Spring. Chelsea came for a visit and we decided to go for a Memorial Day hike up Rock Canyon--in the cold, and rain, and even a little hail. When we left the house, it didn't look too bad, just a bit overcast, but we'd barely made it up to the cliffs where people rock climb when we turned around, pretty well soaked, and quite chilled (Mitchell, especially). The last picture shows Chelsea and the boys standing on a rare patch of dry ground, sheltered by the rocks.

Not quite the workout we'd wanted, but fun, nonetheless.

Highlights from Caleb's recent prayers:

After a Family Home Evening lesson about being peacemakers and getting along, Caleb included in his prayer, "Thank thee that I can beat Marcus to the chair this week." *

"Thank thee that we can't get distracted during prayers (at which point I opened my eyes to see him playing with some legos)."

"Help us not to be mean to each other, even thought Mom's really the only mean one in the family." **

* The chair mentioned was the swinging chair in the playroom, and was actually taken down the next day because Caleb and Marcus couldn't figure out how to share it. It has been back up now for several days and so far, so good. Maybe as long as Caleb doesn't pray about it again, we'll be ok.

** I have to admit that on that night, those words really stung, but I'm trying to see the humor (rather than the potential truth) in the situation.

May 22, 2008 Yes, the date is right. Such has been our Spring this year. The kids' school has a Lagoon Day each year where we can purchase tickets for about $15 less than the normal price. Sheila Reynolds (son Hunter was in Kindergarten this year) talked me into going and we went together to save gas, and offer moral support. We almost didn't go because of the weather, but I had babysitting lined up for Mitchell (thanks, Chelsea!) so we went. We got drizzled on most of the time and the hand warmers Sheila brought for the kids to put in their pockets were a good thing to have. But we survived, and I think everyone even had fun. At first we were really upset because none of the Kiddiland rides were running (since these school days are primarily for Jr. High and High School students), and we hadn't known that would be the case. They did run the carousel for just a half hour or so for a group of 2nd graders that were there and they let our kids hop on as well. That's where I took most of the pictures. We found enough other rides that Caleb and Diana could ride that they still had fun (Caleb's favorite was the Odysea, his least favorite was the pirate ship). I talked Sheridan into going on Colossus and he even went back and rode again with Sheila. I also talked him into going on the Rocket, but once was enough for him on that one. Marcus was tall enough to ride Colossus, but wouldn't be talked into it. Instead his favorites were the Wild Mouse and the Spider. The last picture was taken as they closed everything up just before we left the park (to show we'd survived).

One of my "gifts" for Mother's Day was to be left alone to finish some Sunday-appropriate projects in my "office." Caleb quickly came and joined me and announced he was going to make my Mother's Day present. He went to work on the sign on the right (the only help I gave him was in spelling "from"). I told him I thought it was a lovely present, but he announced that it was only the tag, and then proceeded to tape 3 pieces of paper together (2 large, one smaller) to make (his words) a "Memory Keeper" for me. He even went so far as to wrap it up in a pizza box he found in the recycling bin, and when I opened it, he wrote some letters on a piece of paper for me to put in the Memory Keeper. I loved it.

For my birthday last week, he disappeared into my office just before it was present time. When he emerged, he announced, "I don't think you're going to like this present very much." I asked why, and he held out the gift (several sheets of small notebook papers stapled together) and said, "It's The Book with No Words." Maybe it's one of those things that only a mother could love, but I think it's great. I'm still waiting for the book of poems he says he writing called "Do You Know Poems?" It may be a bit of a wait since he's still trying to figure out if HE knows what poems are.

May 2008 We finally got rid of the blue sectional couch that we got from Kendra in 1997 (and she got it from the Wards in Prescott some time before that). Shortly after we moved here, it was put in the basement and the kids played on it. We had no idea the dramatic and emotional effect our decision to get rid of the couch would have on the boys (I actually saw a journal entry of Sheridan's where he expressed his dismay that we would have made this decision "without even consulting me!!"). After several rounds of Sheridan coming to show me his very upset face, I told him to go put his emotional energy into something constructive--draw a picture, write a story, etc. This is what he came up with (spelling and punctuation intact).

Our Couch, A Memoir

Our couch, you could hide behind it,
and you could find me on it.
It's modular construction
was great for destruction,
and made for a long day.

When Christmas came
me and Dad would lay
on it waiting
for Santa to come,
and we disscused ways
to catch Santa on video

I'm sad that we gave it
away, but whoever recives it will
certainly make more use of it.

A couple of weeks later, we replaced our old padded bar stools, and Sheridan wrote this:

The Three Stools

Our three stools
would wobble to and fro
one was broken
they were filthy
but I didn't mind

Dad made pancakes
we would sit
gobbleing those
pancakes up.

Our new ones
are sleeker and
hard, but I'll get
used to them. We
still have one though

They were also great for tunes
on the floor.

Sheridan also drew pictures to go with each of these. I must admit that I really like the couch one. It was a test of my skills, though, to be able to read these (with graven-faced Sheridan standing next to me) without busting a gut.

Last month, Caleb was assigned a talk in Primary. He and I had not been seeing eye to eye on too many things at the time, so I thought that I wouldn't even try to have him write his own talk, but rather pulled a couple out of my files that he could use. But on Saturday when I tried to get him to pick which of the two talks he wanted to use, he was quite adamant that he should be writing his own instead.

I got paper and pencil and tried to act as scribe. Initially, he was being very silly, and I finally told him (in my "I'm not mad, but take me seriously" voice) that I had other things I needed to do and he could call me when he was ready to write his talk. I hadn't finished my sentence when he blurted out, "Heavenly Father has sent us to the earth." After a couple more sentences, he stopped and told me, "I'm doing some serious work here, Mom." I concurred. So, after his serious work (with really only very minor editing from his parents), this was the talk he came up with and gave very proudly in Primary.

A Family Talk

Heavenly Father has sent us to the earth. He made the world. The world we live in is humongous and we can do anything we want in it.

He also gave us families. We're glad that we can go camping together.

Heavenly Father can bless us if we get sick or need anything.

I can help my family by: helping take care of my little brother, getting dressed by myself, helping clean up, washing the dishes (especially when it's my brother's turn and he doesn't want to do it), sweeping and mopping. But mostly, I can help by being nice and doing my best.