Concentration

Last night was Hyrum's winter concert.  The picture above is terrible but it gives you an idea of how Hyrum was during the entire thing.  His brow was furrowed almost the entire time.  Hyrum is a perfectionist and I think he was concentrating hard on remembering the words and getting the actions right.  It made John and I laugh watching him.  He was so excited to have it be HIS concert.  We've gone to many events for Alan but this was his first.  He was even asking if he could have the "You are special today" plate at dinner.

Another reason why I love this kid.

The other day after school he says he's going to make a sandwich for a snack and this is what happened.  It's a triple decker peanut butter, pretzel and cracker sandwich.

I love this kid.

Success!

It was every child's worst nightmare.  The invitations were sent, the cupcakes were baked, the decorations were set.  Then Alan got the stomach flu the day of his birthday party.  He took it pretty good when we told him we needed to cancel, but it was hard.  I had a hard time not crying.  John had a hard time not crying when I stayed up all night debating back and forth to him about what we could have done to save the day while John was trying to sleep.  But we rescheduled.

I was worried that no one would be able to come since December is so busy (it took us 3 weeks to find a weekend where we were free to have a party). But friends came, they all had fun, and Alan felt special. And THAT makes it a success.

It was a movie party filled with lots of candy and popcorn.

Progress

 My parents were in town last week and we took them to the Phoenix temple site.  It doesn't look like much from the street but they have been doing lots of work. 

 This is the best picture I could get of the hole in the ground, also known as basement excavation.  We've still got a long ways to go but we are very excited.

This weekend we took the kids and some friends to go on a carriage ride with Santa.  Alan just handed Santa a list of what he wanted.  Santa didn't quite get through the list but he did tell Alan that cell phones were reserved for those a little older.

 

Alan turned 9 a few week ago.  The birthday was fun.  Unfortunately Alan got sick the day of his birthday party and we had to cancel at the last minute.  We have it rescheduled but I'm afraid that many kids won't be able to make come since December is so busy.  Poor kid.  I think that is every kids worst nightmare.

Food Blog

I love food.  Not just any food but really good food.  I've toyed with the idea of a food blog for a long time.  I've posted some favorite recipes to a family food blog but since it was just family not many people read it.  I finally decided to do my own recipe blog.  It motivates me to organize my favorite recipes and is a good way to share them with others.  I decided to keep it completely separate from my personal blog so I can keep this blog, well. . .  personal.  I'll be adding to it regularly so check it out and let me know what you think.

http://thinklovesleepdine.blogspot.com/

Overheard

I'm wearing a sweatshirt and Alan is running around barefoot

Me:  Aren't you cold?

Alan:  No.

Me:  You're crazy!

Alan:  That's because I'm a MAN and you're a sissy.

Two Boys

I have two boys.

They love video games.

And dirt.

And being loud.

They are definitely two little boys.  They are also two very different boys.

At our church Halloween party the kids were given candy as prizes for the carnival games.  As Alan got each piece I don't think he waited any longer than 30 seconds before putting it in his mouth.  Hyrum however made it through the whole carnival and the truck or treat, before eating a single piece of candy.

This year we have the kids in two different schools.  That means two fall carnivals which can set our family back about $60.  We wanted to support each of the kids equally but were not wanting to spend an arm and a leg.  We told the kids that they had to earn money for tickets at the carnival.  At our house when the kids do extra jobs they can earn a "dollar" that they can turn in for 10 minutes of video game time.  We told the kids that they could instead turn in a "dollar" for a carnival ticket. 

We gave the kids lots of opportunities to earn the tickets.  As soon as Hyrum would earn two or three "dollars" he would ask if he could go play the Wii.  We would remind him of the school carnival coming up to which he would immediately reply "I don't want to go!"  Hyrum wanting the immediate gratification could not wait until the carnival for his enjoyment.  Eventually we told Hyrum that we wouldn't go to his carnival but that we were going to Alan's (Hyrum was OK with this until we drove by his school on the day of the carnival.  Too late!).

When we went to Alan's carnival, Alan had diligently earned a lot of tickets.  He had 3 times as many as Hyrum.  However, as we approached each booth ready to show Hyrum how much fun Alan could have because he had saved his money, Alan kept deciding that each booth was not worth his hard earned tickets and ended up going home with tickets still in his pocket.  Hyrum was not to be deterred and spent the few tickets that he had within minutes.  Hyrum enjoyed every booth he could but we had to twist Alan's arm to get him to spend his tickets.

Two boys.

Two very different boys.