Field Day

Friday was Field Day at school. With 8 days left of the school year it was the perfect day for some fun events and water games. The kids all had a great time and I was glad I got to go to school to see the boys participate. It's always fun going to school to see them. I have loved the teachers my boys have had this year and all of the things they have been able to do at school this year. It's been a great year and even though we are looking forward to the summer and all of the things summer will bring I think the boys will really miss the friends they have made and their teachers. They both love their teachers and it's sad to see the year coming to a close.

Fine Arts Festival

Every year at Trevor and Colin's school the kids have a Fine Arts Festival where they show off things they have learned throughout the school year. They show off art work they have been working on and every grade learns a dance that they perform for their parents. During the month of April the kids also learn about a different country and they share what they learn with the rest of the school by doing "Culture Walks". Colin's country was New Zealand and Trevor's country was Vietnam. One night Trevor had to eat dinner with chopsticks for part of his homework. The dance festival is always fun to go to. The kids get so excited to show off their dance and Colin was especially excited since it was his first year. He talked about his dance for weeks, telling us all about it and what a great dancer he was. Trevor thought it was gross that this year he had to dance with girls and hold their hands. But he did a great job. Here's a little clip of part of their dances. Trevor is the one in the red shirt. His class has only 4 girls so he had to dance with a different class. I think they both did an awesome job. I love going to school seeing the different things they do.

Spring Break

I always imagine that school vacations are going to be super fun, full of smiles and laughs and exciting times. Family outings and fun trips and good memories that the boys will look back on and smile. But in reality, school vacations are more like super lazy kids who don't want to get dressed or get up from the couch, their eyes glued to the TV, moans and groans when I suggest we turn the TV off and go outside to get some fresh air. We never have big plans, but instead we do just little things here and there. We did have some smiles and laughs, we had lots of fights and plenty of tears. For Spring Break this year we had a babysitter for a few hours while I did my Easter shopping, the kids had the afternoon at the park, we spent many hours in my parent's backyard playing basketball, digging to the center of the earth, swinging and pulling kids around in the red wagon. Colin went to the dentist, twice in one day. I cleaned the house only to have it get messy again not even 24 hours later. We called the Tortoise Pet Hotline and were visited by a very nice girl who taught us many things about the desert tortoise and told us we took excellent care of Milo. She then took Milo with her and away to a conservation and research area where the boys were told Milo would be very happy and have many friends to hang out with. Colin cried, Trevor fake cried and Logan cried because everyone else was crying. We had Popsicles, dyed eggs (a very first for my boys) and they helped Dave mow the lawn. I finished my desk! I love the way it came out and now I have to fight Colin for it. He wants it for his drawing desk, I want it for my writing desk. I am not sure if we can share. Today is a picnic and egg hunt at the park and tomorrow Easter dinner at my parent's house. Somewhere I need to fit in an Easter lesson. It's was the most exciting week, but all in all we had a good time. Sometimes it's nice to just relax and have no plans and just do whatever you feel like for the day. But I am looking forward to Monday. I think I do better with schedules and busy kids.

Crafty

I decided today that I want to be more crafty. I don't mean arts and crafts with my kids. No, no, not that at all. I am really not good at that kind of stuff. What I want to be able to do is make things for my future home-to-be. Lately there is a blog I love. The girl is always making cute things for her house to decorate with: wreaths made of book pages, pillows made from rugs, and all kinds of other cute things. I look at her blog and see how she has set up and decorated her house and it's so cute. Some of the stuff she does I would never do in my own house. I mean she has one room that, to me, looks like a grandma, a very old grandma, decorated it and it's not my style at all. But she has such good ideas and lately I have been planning things I am going to do for my new house. Some of the things I want to do will just have to wait until we move. I'm not going to make a bunch of stuff now and the have to pack it up. But something I've been wanting to do for a long time has been to refinish an old desk we have. It's Dave's desk. Well it was his mom's desk and he got it and when we got married he brought it with him. It's not the cutest thing in the world and I decided that before we moved I wanted it to look cute. So I went to Home Depot today and got my stuff and got started. I am half way done. Everything needs one more coat of stain but I am already liking how it looks. And it was fun! And it wasn't too hard! And I did it all on my own! I can't wait to do more stuff for my house. Here's a sneak peek:

Before

During

After pictures to come later this week! I can't to see how it all comes together

Trevor's baptism

Trevor got baptized on April 9. It was a great day and we had a great turn out of family and friends. Trevor did so well on the musical number all the kids who are getting baptized sing together and when it was his turn he got right in the water and did not hesitate at all (he's been very nervous because he has a fear of water). It was truly a wonderful day, one I will not soon forget. The spirit was strong and Trevor made us all very proud. He even said to me yesterday, "Mom I can't lie anymore because now I have the Holy Ghost so I will know if it's a lie or not." Nice.

Trevor with Grandma and Grandpa Eyre (they came in from Reno for the occasion).Trevor and his handsome brothers posing for pics before going into the churchDave and Trevor before the baptismTrevor with his friend Luke and Aaron (Aaron is his friend from school. They have been in class together since kindergarten and Trevor really wanted Aaron to come. We told Trevor he's already being a good missionary!)

The Potty Train Express

I dread potty training. It was the hardest, most frustrating thing I ever did as a new mom. When Colin came around I did not want to do it. I tried with him for a while but he wasn't getting it so I stopped. Then a few months later we tried again and he was trained in about a week or 2. With Logan I just didn't want to do it again. We're busier now and I knew I would need at least a week where we were home all day. But with the boys in school and errands to run I just didn't know when I'd have the time. Logan's been going pee in the toilet for a while now, just not consistently. I never pushed it or encouraged it, just let him go when he wanted and got excited when he did. I heard stories from friends who told me their 2 year old boys were potty trained and I felt like I was behind somehow. But then they told me how long it took (1 or 2 months) and I was not ready for that. A while back I decided to try and potty train Logan over Christmas break, but the first day he had like 5 accidents in a row and I was not going to do that. I pretty much wanted Logan to train himself. I wanted to just wait until he totally wanted to do it. On Monday we jumped on the Potty Train Express. Logan asked to wear underpants like Colin and Trevor did. He had some in his drawer that we kept around for when he was ready. We put them on and the rest of the day he went to the bathroom in the toilet. He had a few accidents but he did pretty good for the first day. Tuesday was even better. We took the boys to school, went to Target and he stayed dry the whole time. He had maybe 3 accidents. And he went good ol' number 2 all by himself. Today was even better. One accident all day. He pretty much trained himself. But don't think I'm bragging here. I'm not. I'm just letting everyone in blogging land know that it's okay to have a 3 year old in diapers still. For real. It's okay if everyone else has kids younger than your kid potty trained already. It's totally okay to wait until you kid is ready to potty train. I am sure some of his success has to do with being the youngest and seeing his older brothers go. But I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that this was very low stress, no pressure at all, no expectations, no worries. If he went, great! If not, oh well, we'll try again. I sure wish I knew all of this 5 years ago when I potty trained Trevor. Who cares what other people do? Who cares what they say or think? All that matters is what's best for you and your kid. Raising kids is hard enough. The last thing we need to do is put more pressure on ourselves and our kids to be like everyone else. I love my Logan. I love that he did it all himself.

Testimony

I ran into Trevor's Primary President at the grocery store last week. We were chatting and we were talking about Trevor when she said, "Do you know my favorite thing about Trevor? I love the questions he asks. He wants to know for himself if what we're saying is true." I took that as a compliment. Last night for our Family Home Evening Trevor picked a story from the new Friend magazine to read. It was about a little girl who told someone the things she believed in. I asked the boys what things they learned at church or in the scriptures that they believed were true. They both made some comments and then I asked, "What about Joseph Smith? What do you know about him." Colin said, "He prayed and saw Heavenly Father and Jesus." Then Trevor said, "Well, I don't know if I believe that. I know he went to the Sacred Grove and said a prayer but I'm not sure he saw Heavenly Father and Jesus."

Now when he said that I got worried. Did we not teach him well enough? Was he not going to be ready to be baptized in 2 weeks? But then the words of his Primary President came to me and I realized he needed to know for himself. Dave and I asked Trevor what he needed to do if he wanted to know if that really did happen to Joseph and he said he needed to pray and ask. I was talking to him about how to pray for that and he said, "I think I already have the answer. I feel good right here (he pointed to his chest) and I hear 'yes, yes, yes' in my head. So it's yes. He did see them." And I knew that was the beginning of my son gaining a testimony of his own.