He's A Cheeser!

The dreaded red and blue lights start flashing behind us. 
Bill pulls the car over and rolls the window down.

Officer:  "Do you know why I pulled you over?"

Bill:  "My wife says I was going too fast."

Officer:  "Yeah, you were speeding.  Can I see your license and registration?"

I start fumbling in the glove compartment for the registration while Bill pulls out his license.  Meanwhile, Oden takes his shoe off and uses his big toe to roll down his window (which is on the driver side and right next to the officer).  He shoots the officer his classic Oden smile. 

Bill has by this point taken the papers from the glove box from me and is trying to find the registration.  (I have never been pulled over, so I don't know what I'm looking for anyway.)

The officer sees Oden, smiles. 

Officer:  "He's a Cheeser!"

Bri:  "Yes, he is!"

The officer gets the papers from us and tells us he will be right back.  We wait.......

He starts coming back and I just know we are getting a ticket.  He hands the papers back to Bill.

Officer:  "Here's your information back.  I'm letting you go with a warning because your kids are so darn cute." 

AWESOME! 

True Story!

January Happenings

I've been keeping a little list in my head of all these things I was going to blog about each week, but never got around too.  So, I've complied the list and here is a shortened version:

I managed to drop a brand new gallon of milk onto my tile kitchen floor....yeah....it burst open and started spewing milk all over.  Of course I had to leave to go get Quickyn from preschool five minutes ago.  I quickly laid towels down and then Oden and I rushed to go pick her up.  I got home and had to mop that whole section of the floor. 

While I was mopping Oden found his safety scissors and started cutting up some paper.  I don't mind this because it is good practice for those motor skills.  So I get into cleaning the floor and the walls (yes, it got on the walls too) and then Oden comes up and says, "Mommy, my socks are in pieces."   

Ice rain!  We had ice rain for a few days around the middle of the month.  Bill got up to drive to work and he said the rain would hit his windshield and immediately turn into ice!  He was going about 30 the whole way and used up all his wiper fluid to get there.  We've also had more snow than we have ever seen since moving here.  Bill shoveled the driveway a whopping total of 1 time last winter.  This winter we are already up to 8.  It would be more, but when the freezing rain hit it wasn't worth trying to shovel frozen snow.

Poor Bill, he also drove to work when a big snow storm hit us this last Sunday/Monday.  He has to climb up a pretty steep hill right next to the school to get to the parking lot.  He turned up the hill and couldn't make it and started slipping backward.  But, luckily a guy with a big truck was turning up behind him and carefully pulled up to his bumper and pushed him up the hill.  He was so relieved.  When he called me I asked him why he didn't have it in 4 wheel drive.  He forgot about that.  I don't know much about 4 wheel drive.  Maybe it wouldn't have helped him all that much anyway. 

I love being married to a science geek!  Bill had our entire kitchen counter taken over with electrical "stuff" and potatoes last night.  He was making circuits with potatoes.  His potatoe clock didn't work, but it looks like it is 20 years old.  Then he took the clock apart to find out why it didn't work and got into explaining liquid crystal displays.  I was so tired I don't think I understood half of it, but he sure was fascinated. 

Other than those fun little things we've been widdling away the time stuck inside with organizing, sewing, crafting, and playing. The kids have covered our kitchen windows with hearts and love to create valentines.  What kids doesn't love the holidays! 



Superman and Princess Aurora
writing "secret messages"

Making Valentines




Sweet Oden

Snow!

I love this time of year because things slow down for me until about mid March.  I am enjoying having time to work on some projects and not feel rushed.  Here's to a cold, and somewhat peaceful start to the New Year! 

When Time Slows

Children should be active and energetic.  Mine are!  In fact, sometimes I think they are extremely energetic.  Especially my Quickyn.  If Quickyn could be an equation she would look like this:

Q = 1 w/ns

 

Which translates:  Quickyn equals one wiggle per nano-second.

 

 

You should try having her sit in your lap sometime.  It would make perfect sense after that.  Oden is crazy active too, but he will at least let me cuddle with him for a brief moment now and then. 

 

So, I find that time flys before me as they run around, growing and changing.  The next thing I know they wake up one morning and they are "different" than they were when I put them to bed.  I find myself happy and excited about their growth and progress, but also sad because it didn't last long enough for me to burn into my memory.  Pictures are priceless for this reason, but I still want more of the real thing.  So, I ask, when does time slow?  When do they slow down and let me just look at them?..

 

...When they sleep. 

 

 

 



Many times I've found myself staring at their sleeping faces, just soaking it all in.  Many times I've found myself cuddling up next to them, touching thier hands, faces, hair and marveling at the beauty of them.  I even fall asleep myself.  When Bill is out of town I cannot sleep, so I started putting the kids in bed with me.  I fell asleep watching them sleep.  Some of the best rest I've ever had. 

Time slows while they sleep, and I feel at peace. 



Christmas Dancing

 

Quickyn's dance class performed their Christmas number this past week at the local nursing home.  They only practiced it a few times, so it is not smooth.  They are so cute and they had such a good time.  Enjoy!  Merry Christmas.

 

 

 

 

Hearing Problems?

Mom:  What do you love about Dad?

Quickyn:  I love going to Dad's work . 

Mom:  Oden, what do you love about Dad?

Oden:  I love Dad . 

Mom:  Quickyn, it's your turn . What do you love about Dad?

Quickyn:  I love going to Dad's work . 

Mom:  You already said that. 

Quickyn:  I didn't hear myself, so I said it again . 

Grant Writing History

Bill is amazing.  He surprises me with his concern for everyone and his dedication to helping others.  Every year teachers have an opportunity to apply for a $250 grant for their classrooms.  Bill has applied for this grant every year and received it.  He has been able to get science supplies for all his multiple experiments as well as other classroom supplies.

This year Bill was asked to be a technical guru for the other teachers.  In the process of helping them with their technology he has found ways this grant could help them.  So, this year he was able to help several teachers prepare their grants to update technology in their classrooms.  I would try to explain exactly what he is doing for them, but I would mess it up.  It has to do with allowing computers to talk to ipads so that teachers don't have to be sitting at their desks to project their computer onto the board and present to the class.  They can run their computers from the ipads.  It is really cool! 

So, he helped the teachers and got all the grants in and the results were amazing.  The school was awarded over $8,200.00!  This was the most every awarded to a single school in Cache Valley.

So, a big pat on the back to Bill for making History in his own little corner of the world.  The best part to me is that he didn't do it for the recognition, he did it because he genuinely wants to make things easy for the teachers and engaging for the students. 

He is a great teacher and I love him. 

Angel Bells

Every Christmas since I can remember Santa Claus would come to our house the night after we put the tree up and he would leave my Angel Bell.  Angel Bells are Santa's helpers who watch over an individual child during the Christmas season.  They report to Santa when you've been naughty or nice.  I remember waking to find my Angel Bell in a special spot on the tree, never to high or too low.  I would always talk to her and she would make this "tingle tingle" sound in my ear.

My mother had an Angel Bell when she was growing up.  I had one while I grew up and now Santa leaves Angel Bells for my two kids.  We put the tree up on December 1st and Santa came that night.  They were so excited to see their Angel Bells.  They love to whisper to them and hear the tingling sound they make in their little ears.



Quickyn's Angel Bell

Oden's Angel Bell

 

Here is wishing you all a *Magical* Holiday Season.

 

 

Birthdays, Field Trips and Projects

I had a wonderful birthday a few weeks ago.  Bill splurged and got me a Kindle.  I absolutely LOVE it!  My favorite part of this birthday was the cake Quickyn picked out for me.  I was planning on baking a little cake, but then some friends of mine came over to spend the afternoon and I didn't want to be baking while they were there, so Bill took the kids to the store to pick up a cake.  Quickyn picked out a little white frosted cake with pink frosted edges that had Disney Princess rings all over the top.  She comes home and tells me that she picked it out for me and was so excited to show me all the princesses.  Of course I had to wear one for the rest of the evening, but it eventually found its way into her dress-up box.  Priceless.  I will always remember that cake. 

I loved having time to be with friends and family that night.  My parents invited us to birthday dinner at their all time favorite restaurant, the Timbermine, in Ogden.  It was so wonderful.  I can't even consider my year as complete without one dinner there.  Yum!  I even got the chance to talk with Heidi when she and Bill Sr. stopped by to drop off a present.  We haven't made it over to see them as often as we used to so it was a nice treat to talk with her.  By-the-way Bill, Dad, I love the book!  Historical fiction is one of my weaknesses. 

So, a great birthday.

Quickyn went on her first field trip that same week.  Her preschool class visited the Fire Station and learned about fire safety and met Sparky the firestation dog.  She thought she was so cool!

I will also never forget Quickyn when we went to the Timbermine.  After being seated she immediately tried to get the waitress's attention, "excuse me, ma'am.....excuse me, ma'am".  She needed a booster seat, can't forget that.  Thanks to Mom and Dad for being so patient with our kids, they had a great time.

I've been trying to get back into my painting and have been working on a few projects.  They aren't paintings, exactly.  I like to think they are part painting, part craft. 

Hand Print on Canvas and Fabric Trees

These were a lot of fun. I think any art that involves children and family is a lot of fun!  You can't see it in the picture, but the background on the canvas is mostly brown, but I also blended in a little green and cream to match our living room.  Then I had us all make handprints on them.  Oden was the most difficult, he thought it was more fun to smear the paint all over, so I had to redo his twice before we got it right.  The fabric trees are a cool.  I was sceptical at first, but once you add a little ribbon they are cute.  I still have the tallest one, in green, to finish. 

Scorpio Word Panel

This one I made for my sister's birthday.  Again, the picture does it no justice.  I could not find a decent place to take this picture and we had to rush because I needed to wrap it and get out the door in the next five minutes!  The background has some very deep reds mixed in with the black to add some depth instead of just a flat black.  I had to use stencils and also free hand paint the letters.  It took a lot longer than I thought it would.  For those of you who don't know, my sister really enjoys astrology in all its forms.  She is a scorpio, so I put together this list of words that are part of the scorpio personality.  I painted them in scorpio colors too.  I'm just so mad I didn't get a decent picture of it. 

"Gifts"

 

These "presents" I actually painted last year.  They were a lot of fun.  The picture doesn't show it, but the "wrapping paper" has a texture to it that is really cool.  Bill hung them up for me, the bottom picture shows his version of straight!  We laugh because we both think we know what straight means.  I have a lot more ideas and Bill is being understanding of the messes and craziness when I get creative.  I hope to show you more as I get them completed. 

Looking forward to Thanksgiving.  Hope you all enjoy the holiday.  Lots of Love.

Spooky Halloween, Giant Holes, Swinging Success & Yeah Oden

It has been quite an eventful week!  I don't feel like I get to say that often.  Things tend to stay pretty usual around here.  Well, this week was full of surprises. 

To start, we had an excellent Halloween.  We started by carving all the pumpkins we grew in the garden this summer.  Q and O went out with me every day to check on them, Oden had to pat them all and Q had to kiss them all.  On Halloween day, Quickyn got dressed up in her costume for her preschool Halloween party and had a great time.  Then we went to the ward Halloween carnival and played games that included pumpkin bowling, musical cake walk, mini golf, candy rocket blast (Bill spent some time talking with these guys about how he can turn his rocket launcher into a candy launcher, which he informs me is now complete), fishing, and of course the bean bag toss.  Quickyn won a cake at the cake walk, she did last year too, and was very proud of herself.  Then the Trunk-or-Treat started, which is fun, but not so fun.  I feel like it is more of a candy grab, so Bill agreed to drive the kids to Grandpa Bill's house for some traditional Trick-or-Treating.  What a fun and long night!  I was just happy we were done by 8:30, bedtime.





















After Halloween we got to watch the City dig a huge hole in front of our house, but it was not on our property, just right next to it.  Later that day they accidentally cut the power lines, so we were without power for 2 hours, but I couldn't complain when I think of all the people who suffering back East.  The next day they knocked on our door and said they dug the hole to the wrong box and that they needed to dig the hole to the box on our property, so we got to watch the big tractor dig a hole in our yard!  Quickyn felt it her duty  to inform the man that he was responsible for turning off her power the other day.  He was really nice and told her they were sorry and would try not to do that again.  She said, "Yeah, you better not!"

On Friday, we were in the backyard getting things ready for winter.  Yes, again we are very behind, but poor Bill, he's been buried at work.  Any who, Bill was doing the last string trim and the kids were playing in the sandbox when Q decided she wanted to swing.  Nothing new here, we swing all the time.  I get her in the swing, pull her up and get her started and to my surprise she starts swinging herself!!!  She was pumping her legs, the right way, she had the swinging rhythm down!  Now, you have to understand that Bill and I have explained swinging to Q every time she swings.  She never gets it, she is always putting her legs forward when they should be back and vice versa.  It has been very frustrating trying to help her learn this skill.  Then she just DID it, on her own, I didn't even have to ask her to try.  She gets it!  This is going to make swinging with her even more fun.  She loved that she could swing herself higher and had to brag that she goes higher than I can push her.  Yeah for Q.  We Love You!

And in conclusion, Oden decided he want to start using the potty!  We started showing him what the potty was all about when he turned 2, but he never had more than a passing interest in it.  He will use it first thing in the morning if we make him, but if we put underwear on him he just wets it within the hour.  Well, this Saturday morning, Bill got him to use the potty, then he put real underwear on him fully expecting to be cleaning up a mess soon, but then Oden kept using the potty, he didn't pee his underwear, not ONCE!  He even slept through the night without wetting his bed.  We tried to get him to wear pull ups to bed in case of an accident, but he refused.  We put towels under him, but he didn't need them.  We had some trouble with him today after church, but so far he is on his way.  Bill and I felt like we missed the gold star, pat yourself on the back, you've worked so hard to get to this point, parenthood moment.  Oden did this on his own.  We are so excited and we are so very delighted with him.  We Love You Oden!

We love you all too.  Hope you all have a great next week.

Oh, you want to know why they were digging holes in our front yard?  They are for our new street lamps.  There are holes all over the neighborhood.

Black Light Paintings

It was my turn to come up with an activity for Achievement Days.  For those of you who do not know what that is, Achievement Days is a church function for girls ages 8 to 12.  We get together about 2 times a week and do an activity to enrich and strenghen.  The three of us rotate turns with conducting an activity.  So, it was my turn.  Because it was the only activity before halloween I wanted to make it fun and a little halloween oriented.  I also wanted to do a painting activity with them, not a craft, a genuine painting activity. 

I googled halloween art activities and found this amazing blacklight painting project.  Check it out at:  http://www.incredibleart.org/lessons/SubPlans/hween.ht  This page is full of Halloween art ideas.  You will find this one a little way down on the page under Ideas Submitted by Anne in Illinois.  Great Idea!  First I showed the girls a picture of Edvard Munch's "The Scream".  He was an early 20th century norwegian painter who was part of the expressionist movement.  This movement involved artists portraying a meaning in their painting or emotional experience instead of focusing on realism.  If you haven't seen "The Scream" you should:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Scream

I did a quick lesson on 20th century expressionism and Edvard Munch.  Then we painted our own "screamers" in black and multicolored flourescent Tempera paints.  While they were drying we enjoyed a Halloween treat.  Then we turned off all the lights and turned on the black light.  WOW!  Here is my painting in normal light and black light.  I painted mine ahead of time and took some pictures.  I forgot my camera the day of the activity, so I don't have any pictures of their paintings.  I know, I know....I will do better next time.  Then of course Bill has to remind me that I have a camera on my phone!  I felt like a real idiot. 

Normal Light

Black Light

Standing Back

Oden in Black Light!

We had a lot of fun.  The girls enjoyed creating art that was easy and left them open to create without restrictions or judgment.  I'm thinking of letting my kids paint flourescent pumpkins tomorrow!

Try Try Try Again

It has been exactly 2 months less than four years since I last posted on our blog.  I tend to avoid the blog because I feel so bad that I don't do anything with it, which in turn makes me feel worse because I want to do so much with it.  I also put it on the back burner because I don't have the time to learn more about linking emails and making sure it gets to everyone.  I found myself writing in the blog and then sending out emails to family to tell them that we blogged today and they need to check it out.  Well, that just became a nuisance. 

So today I found the link to our blog in my favorites column and decided to bite my tounge and do something with it.  I figured out how to link emails!  It only took me and hour to figure it out.  I'm home sick anyway, don't want to do much, so what's an hour to figure out email linking??  So, this blog is being emailed to family as soon as I push the publish button.  What a great way to say "Hey, I wrote something, come check it out!"  Now I don't have to email you all on top of writing this.  Unfortunately it would only let me put in 10 emails.  So, I had to leave out Landon, in hopes that Caitlin checks her email more frequently and would share it with him.  I had to leave out BJ for the same reason.  Nancy please share it with him. 

My goal is to blog at least once a week.  I don't think this is unreasonable.  I must have an hour to spare each week to post the highlights.  If you don't want to receive an email every time I post a blog, just let me know and I can take you off the list.  You can always wander into our blog when you find a minute to spare. 

Now for a little update:  We are here!  We are doing okay!  That is the most important part. 
     Bill is doing really well this year at school.  He is still teaching 8th grade integrated science, but he is also teaching 2 courses of 9th grade physics.  He is loving it and the kids are loving it.  I want to take his class!  They shoot of rockets, burn things with a GIANT magnifying glass, play with iPads, compasses, thermal readers, blinky cars, etc.  He's had students from past 8th grade classes tell him he is their favorite teacher.  This has really helped boost his confidence with teaching.  He really has a gift to reach these kids. I know I couldn't do it. 
     I am home taking care of the two little ones.  Right now I am trying to clean out and organize all the stuff that has piled up over the years.  I didn't realize how freeing it is to clean out your bathroom drawers.  I can't wait to clean out the medicine cabinet.  I'm also helping Q with her new found knowledge from preschool.  We work on her name every day and I'm helping her with her alphabet.  I am also helping Q and O both with various art projects.  Oden LOVES to paint while Q is away at school.  It is our special time together.  He is even painting faces all of his own creation. 
     Quickyn started preschool this year and is really doing well.  She can now write her first name and Oden's name too.  I love that her "c" is backwards and her "k" is droopy.  She is making lots of new friends.  She is also becoming quite the know-it-all too.  Hopefully I can keep up with her.
     Oden is now 2.5 years old.  He is just starting to assert his authority, so he is also just started to understand what it means to be put in his room.  He is talking so well now.  We worried earlier because he really didn't talk much, but now we have no worries.  His favorite phrase right now is, "no fair!"  He is also over his fear of being left without Mom or Dad.  We can leave him in the nursery now!  YEAH.  That was the worst 9 months of staying in the nursery with him or having him in Relief Society.  We usually ended up in the hall.  It is also nice because Bill and I can go on a date night without Oden in tow.  He is a delight to our family.  We couldn't do without his constant smile. 

So, just a little update.  No pictures this time.  I will work on loading them from the camera and phones for next time.  (Picture loading and saving is also another reason I avoid the blog, I need to learn this better so it doesn't take me an eternity.)

Love to you all!
Bri

I Like to Put Lots of Pictures on

Lost Pictures, Lost Time

Hey, sorry it has taken me so long to update the blog. We lost pretty much all of our Sept. and Oct. pictures. I actually dressed Quickyn in the pumpkin outfit again in Nov. to retake those pictures. Appaently memory cards have a poop out date. Well, can't cry about it any more. Here are some more photos. Quickyn started sitting up in Oct. She is now a champion sitter! She's starting to try and move, but can't quite figure out how to put it all together. I'll try to get some video of her on here soon. Love you all.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving at Mom and Dad Bangerter's house. Lots of food, lots of love. Thanks for a wonderful time!