Dinosaur Museum

Today we took a little field trip to the University of Michigan Natural History Museum in Ann Arbor (on U of M's campus)...aka..the "dinosaur museum". Tanner and Logan are hugely into dinosaurs right now...especially Tanner. They know every name and characteristic...and are always on the computer wanting me to read them facts about dinosaurs (not my favorite past-time, but I'm trying to be excited about their interests:) Anyways, at the museum the boys loved going around and looking at all the displays and bones...and for the first time ever, they actually wanted me to go around and read all the information and captions. We learned about Michigan wildlife, Michigan's Indians, Space, and much more...I always feel like a better mom when we do educational things (makes up for all the Nickelodeon they tend to watch in the winter months:) All in all it was a good trip...except for a few minor mishaps...

First...Preston broke my sunglasses. He was starting to get restless so I gave him my sunglasses to play with. About two seconds later I heard a snap...and found he has broken off one side of the glasses:( My only favorite and only pair:(

Second, Mallory took off her socks and lost them somewhere in the museum. I tried re-tracing my steps...but couldn't find them. Needless to say, I got some nasty looks from strangers as I pushed the stroller several blocks back to our van in the FREEZING cold with Mallory having bare feet!

Lastly, I went to leave the parking structure, and the attendant asked for my parking validation from the School of Dentistry. When I told him I was here for the museum, he prompty informed me that this lot was only for patients coming to the school of dentistry and if I didn't have a parking validation then I had to pay a $25fee in addition to the hourly rate! I tried to fight it, complain, apologize, whine, ask for the manager and so on...but it all came down to the fact that I made a mistake...I didn't pay close enough attention to the sign, and now I had to pay! So it was $28 for our little museum adventure. Ironically, one of the reasons I picked that museum was because it was FREE!...guess it wasn't today!...drats!

The Love Dare

Ok, so I think the picture is sideways, and I'm too lazy to change it:)...but I wanted to share this as a little "post-valentine's" thought. As part of Scott's Valentine's gift I bought him this book called "The Love Dare". We watched the movied called "Fireproof" last week and really enjoyed it. It's about a couple who uses this book, "The Love Dare" to strengthen their marriage. The book and movie kind of go together and are Christian based and I really recommend both. So basically, the book is a 40 day challenge. Each night you read a new section and then there is a dare or challenge at the end. Each day the focus is something different and the dare could be anything from a small act of kindness, making a list of your partners best qualities, discussing certain differences, etc. etc. We have started it and are doing it after our nightly prayers each night and are really enjoying it. I recommend it:) Scott and I are going to be on a marriage panel this Saturday evening for a marriage workshop at church. We are supposed to talk about "how we stay connected in marriage". I think I will tell a little about this book during that. I also recently started a blog that is only for the two of us...to share love notes with each other:)...to share our feelings, thoughts, and sentiments. It has been fun to write back and forth to each other on the blog. How do all of you stay connected in marriage...I'd love to hear your thoughts and ideas as I'm preparing for what to say this Saturday:)

~julie

Valentine's Day Treats:)

Valentine's Day tomorrow... so I played "cupid" tonight and got some treats ready for tomorrow. The kids will be excited. I also made a little maze/hunt where they have to follow the yarn all through the house which leads to hearts with clues on them ( a treasure hunt) which leads to their gift bag with a special valentine's gift. I love stuff like this:) Happy Valentine'S Day everyone!

Kids Say the Funniest Things:)

I had to share what Tanner said today:) This morning when I looked outside and saw that it was going to be a wet and rainy day, I decided we would just stay home and clean the house...something I've been needing to do, and had been putting off. Tanner and Logan love to be my helpers...so today they helped me vacuum, mop, sweep, dust, clean bathrooms, etc. Lately I have found it harder to do things like this because the babies don't like to be confined anymore. They just cry if I try to keep them in one room or in their high chairs or something. So most of the time they just go up and down the stairs all over the house and get into everything!! Well, today, after the boys and I had cleaned the whole house, we were basking in the smell of the cleaning chemicals, and patting ourselves on the back for a job well done. The boys were so proud of themselves for being my "big helpers". No sooner than two minutes later Tanner comes down the stairs and says "Mom, I don't think we should have anymore babies! I'm going to say a prayer right now that we don't have anymore babies in our family!". I asked him why he didn't want us to have anymore babies and he said "Mallory just pulled hundreds of books off my book shelf and I just cleaned my room! The babies keep messing up everything and I'm tired of cleaning up their messes!!!" I had to laugh...it was so funny. Tanner proceeded to kneel down and say "Heavenly Father, please don't send us anymore babies"...and he was totally serious! Anyways, I thought it was funny:) It was also a great lesson for the boys because I explained that I feel like that sometimes too when I have to go around cleaning up after everyone and how important it is that we all clean up our own messes:) I always say that cleaning while my kids are awake is like shoveling snow in a blizzard...what's the point!!:)

Time to Make the Valentines!

The valentine preparations have begun. I asked the boys if they wanted to make their own valentines this year or buy them (somehow I had envisioned us making homemade valentines and how cute that would be...but they chose to buy the character ones instead...go figure:) So today they did all their valentines for their preschool valentine's party coming up this week. I was impressed...they worked diligently signing their name 25 times on the cards and attaching the suckers (while snagging a few for themselves:) Fun!

For FHE this week we had a lesson about...what else...LOVE! We looked at many pictures of the Savior and talked about all the things Jesus did to show us love...then read the scripture and sang the song "As I Have Loved You, Love One Another"...then we wrote on paper hearts different ways that we can show love in our family. And of course...heart candy for our FHE treat!

Ok, so giving kids candy might not always be good for them, but heart candy has its benefits. Scott keeps bringing home bags of heart candy...and since the boys are starting to read and the hearts have only short words on them, before they eat each heart they run up to me and tell me what it says. They'll run up and say "Mom, love ya!"...or "Mom, be mine!"...or "Mom, kiss me!"...you get the idea...it's really cute:)

Happy Birthday Scottie!!!

Today is Scott's birthday so the kids and I went to his work to surprise him and bring balloons and cupcakes:) The boys had a great time sneaking in to surprise him:) I pretty much show up at his work almost every year with some kind of surprise, so by now, he pretty much knows I'm coming, but it's still fun:) It was funny because right before we got there I called Scott, and while on the phone, I said that we had just left story time at the library, even though we hadn't, because I didn't want to blow our cover. After I got off the phone, Logan said..."Mom! You just told Daddy a LIE..We weren't at storytime!" I then proceeded to have to explain why it was ok to lie in order to surprise Daddy, but it's not ok any other time. Kids!...they catch everything!



We had cake this evening...



...and had fun celebrating his birthday at Scott's favorite restaurant, Outback Steakhouse:) And of course, while Scott was in the restroom, I snagged the waitress to bring Scott out his birthday dessert:) (anyone who knows Scott, knows he doesn't like his birthday...so I feel extra compelled to make it a big deal...and embarrassing him at the restaurant is just part of that:)

'Tis the Season of LOVE

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!...a little early I know...but I love Valentine's Day so why not stretch it out as long as possible. I love my dear sister Kathy...she created my blog header and the Valentine's card above for me. She loves to use photoshop and has a knack for making photocards and improving pictures, so sometimes she'll take some of the pictures our family puts on our family website and spice them up just for fun...so she made these for me to print off...I thought they turned out cute:) Thanks Kathy! I have some fun things planned for Valentines Day, so stay tuned:)...

Kindergarten Round-Up!

I just got the information for kindergarten round-up from Tanner and Logan's pre-school. So next month we'll be registering the boys for kindergarten in the fall. I seriously can't believe the time has already come for us to start thinking about school soon! It is kind of sentimental for me to think that soon I will be sending them off on the bus each day. I thought I would be super excited about this...when Mallory and Preston were born I thought "if I can just survive the next two years until the boys go to Kindergarten I'll be ok:)"...but now I'm starting to get a little emotional thinking about it. I think I will really miss them and miss our days together where we have no schedule and are free to do what we want to do each day. They have had a great pre-school experience so I am not worried in the slightest about them adjusting to school...I think they will thrive...I'll just miss them:( I am feeling this "mother hen" thing, where I want to protect them and shelter them and just worry about them being at school where I'm not there to be the mediator between them and the world to explain things to them. I won't be there to listen to them, correct them, and be their advocate. A little scary for me. Ok, I'm seriously tearing up right now...silly I know. They will be going to Miller. I am curious to see whether they want twins to be in the same class or separate classes. Their pre-school teacher says she thinks they will want to separate them, which makes me so SAD. Kindergarten is a big adjustment in itself and Logan and Tanner have done everything together since birth...to be separated would be like cutting off their right arms! I hope they can stay together at least for a year or two. They will feel more secure and confident that way. Anyways...on a more positive note...both Tanner and Logan are reading! We have been working with white boards each day and I will write a word on the board and hold it up. They will sound out each sound of the word and figure it out. We've done hundreds of words and most of them they figured out on their own! We've also been working on writing and spelling. I'll say a word and they try to figure out how to spell it. This is a little harder, but they are doing well. I never realized how weird the English language was until I tried to teach them how to read. For example...I'll say, "spell drums" and Tanner writes 'DRUMZ'. When I say it's spelled DRUMS he will try to dispute it because it sounds more correct the way he wrote it:) Anyways...enough rambling...I'm just so proud of my boys:) I just hope and pray I have taught them well and have prepared them academically, physically, socially, and emotionally enough to enter kindergarten and be successful and happy!