Last week I took a trip to Utah to check out a new homeschooling option that may be coming to Idaho.  I took the Littles, Levi and Liberty, with me.  We visited with Grandma and Grandpa H and Alli and Sarin too!  We all had a blast.  Me, because I only had two children, and the Littles because they got to eat lots of junk food, swim in the hotel pool, and play lots of video games on the phone (my sanity on the drive).  Life doesn’t get any better for these little people. 

They thoroughly enjoyed the hotel room, as you cans see.

They had just been in the car for five hours so I was more lenient than I usually would be.  Unfortunately, the Littles did not sleep well the first night in the hotel and kept me up half the night.  The next day we took our zombie selves to the most awesome children’s museum in Ogden, the Tree House Museum. 

This huge tree house is right in the middle of the museum. 

The kids rode horses,

Played in a teepee,

Dressed up like royalty,

And milked a cow!

They also played chess.

Liberty loved the school room.

Levi loved the tree house.
 

And Grandpa loved his little nap.

Is it just me, or are these three extremely stereotypical??

Just outside the museum was the very new and improved Ogden Temple.

We finished off the day with dinner at Levi’s favorite restaurant, Texas Roadhouse.  I thought the Boise Texas Roadhouse was busy, but I was wrong.  It was insanely busy and we waited a loooong time to get our seats.  We put Levi in charge of watching the buzzer and he took his job very seriously.  He did not take his eyes off that buzzer for forty minutes.

By the time we finally got our main course, Levi and Liberty had stuffed themselves so full of yummy rolls and peanuts, they didn’t even want their dinner.

I should note here that the reason Texas Roadhouse is Levi’s favorite restaurant is because of the peanuts.  I brought him here several months ago and he got to eat peanuts for the first time in his life.  He thought he’d died and gone to heaven.  When your brothers are allergic to peanuts, you don’t eat peanuts at home and you certainly don’t get to go to restaurants where every inch of floor space is covered with peanuts.  But Levi has found a new favorite food and he shovels those things down like you wouldn’t believe!  Grandpa did pretty good for himself too.

Stay tuned for Part II of The Littles in Layton!

I seem to have totally lost a month, but here are some fun highlights from February.

We had the last of our winter snow and the kids tried to catch some of it.

This is Levi’s cute birthday gift from G & G Hymas.  He loves this thing!

Cade decorated his Blue and Gold Banquet Cake-Western themed.

That’s a lasso and some cacti.

Rock and I made Coxinha from Brazil for Valentine’s Day.  I absolutely LOVE these things!  It’s basically shredded chicken and cream cheese deep fried.  Yummy!  They turned out pretty good for our first time.   

Rock is getting very culinary in his old age and recently learned how to make Pão de Queijo (Brazilian cheesy bread) too.

Our Origami Wonder Boy has been at it again…

A few weeks ago while I did my hair up for church, a very interested little girl watched in awe.  She then proclaimed that I looked JUST like Cinderella and that she wanted her hair done just like Mommy’s.  It was five minutes before church, but we did hers up too!

She is SO much fun!

Tonight I went in to check on Liberty and Levi who are now sharing a room.  BTW, that is one of the best parenting decisions we have EVER made.  Everyone goes to sleep earlier and with less goofing off.  It’s great!  Well, tonight when I went in to check on L and L before I went to bed, I noticed that Liberty was sleeping with Levi’s dog and Levi had no stuffed animal.  I couldn’t figure out why until I walked back out into the hall and noticed their stuffed animals on the floor outside their door. Lately, the consequence du jour is that they lose their stuffed animal if they are talking or goofing around after lights out.  Apparently, Rock had taken their animals and there on the floor lay Liberty’s little pink pig which she NEVER sleeps without and Levi’s fox, also never slept without.  At that moment I realized why Liberty was sleeping with Levi’s dog.  He had given it to her so she would have something to sleep with after Daddy took her piggy.  Levi had no animal to snuggle with tonight because he’d given his remaining stuffed animal to his sister. 

Thanks for teaching us all how to love, Levi.

When I was a kid there was a tv show called “Thirty Something”.  Thirty something sounded really old to me then.  Sunday was my birthday and it’s really weird to be nearing the end of those thirty something years.  I still have a few years yet before they put up black balloons on my birthday, but for those who don’t know how old I am, let’s just say I’m at the farther end of thirty, ok?  And as I told my mom, yes, I’m old, but that just makes her even older!   

It was a good birthday. On Friday Rock took me to my annual free dinner at Tucanos.  They really should advertise as the only restaurant where you truly save money because you are so full when you’re done, you don’t need to eat for a week!  After dinner we went to a movie.  We had planned to see the new Jack Ryan movie, Shadow Recruit, which I admit I was apprehensive about seeing.  I’m a big wimp when it comes to rock em up, shoot em up, everyone dies but the main character kind of movies.  But who am I to resist Chris Pine, so I agreed to go.  Well, we walked into the theater, Rock bought the tickets at the automated booth, and we went in and sat down.  I am also a big wimp when it comes to rock em up, shoot em up, how crude can you be trailers, so I was bracing myself for the onslaught when instead of the usual PG13 trailers, they showed Disney trailers.  It took me a minute to realize this was odd in such a movie as we were about to see, but it was not until Mickey Mouse showed up on the screen that I knew I was not in the new Chris Pine movie.  We were in Frozen!  Once I got over my brief (very brief) loss, I laughed out loud and turned to Rock who said, “Surprise!”  You have to understand, the first time Rock took me out for my birthday he took me to dinner and a movie I had no desire to see.  He says he was just trying to avoid that mistake again.  Thus the movie switch.  By the way,  Rock is looking for someone he can re-watch that movie with.  Anyone want to see Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon with him this weekend?  I’ll be doing other things. 

My favorite part of Frozen, besides listening to Idina Menzel sing anything,  is where they pronounce ‘Weselton’ as ‘Weaselton’ and the silly little duke has to correct them over and over.  Oh, that was funny.  I was the only one laughing in the theater, but I so felt his pain. 

The morning of my birthday my children let me sleep in instead of waking up at 6:00 in the morning to “surprise” me with breakfast in bed.  This of course never works because it just becomes a big fight downstairs that I either have to deal with myself, thereby ruining the surprise, or Rock has to deal with it but I am awakened by the raucous just enough, that I can’t go back to sleep.  Sleeping in was awesome!!

About 10:00 AM this nice looking French waiter dressed in his jammies come into my room.

He handed me this menu:
and then said in a fabulous French/German/Italian accent, “Velcome to thee Hymas Keeds Café.  Please-a’ choose from z menu vut you vould like to have for-a’ breakfast.”

My food was prepared by the head chef, Reagan Dean

and when it was ready, a little assistant waiter named Levi came up to tell me my food was ready.  It was very yummy. 

Rock stood outside in below freezing temperatures to grill me some steak for dinner and it was also very yummy.  For dessert I wanted “Better Than Sex Chocolate Cake”.  Reagan really wanted to make it- until he found out what the name of the cake was.  He then begged me (in between gagging sounds) to call it something different and since I love that cake and all my kids will be going through this “sex is gross stage”, we decided to rename it. I suggested we call it “The cake which shall not be named” or maybe “The Voldemort cake”, but we settled on “Chocolate Toffee Cake”  It was delish! 

To finish off a wonderful birthday I went to bed on my new heated mattress pad with dual controls.  Life is good-even when you’re old.

Liberty spends a LOT of her time prancing about the house singing and dancing.  Even walking to the breakfast table is done in true ballerina form.  I caught this video of her recently.

We signed Reagan up for skiing lessons with a homeschool group in the area that offered a steal of a deal; $75.00 for three two hour lessons + all day ski rentals and skiing each of those days.  Even better is that Rock got to be a chaperone for two of those weeks for FREE.  We prepped Reagan very well ahead of time for the difficulty he might encounter at this new sport.  He is usually a perfectionist and has little patience with himself when trying something new.  It was with baited breath that Rock dropped him off last week for his first lesson.  But he was a raging success!  He figured it out very quickly and had a blast.  Here he is shooting down the slopes.

I know who is going to watch the skiing events at the Olympics this year in a whole new light.

Let’s start with Christmas Eve.  Cade will remember this as the year UPS let him down.  We waited all day for his Christmas Eve present to be delivered and it never came.  Finally at 8:30 we gave up.  😦  Here’s the official news announcement.

Thousands of holiday gifts won’t arrive by Christmas after an unpredictably large number of packages overwhelmed UPS, the world’s largest package delivery service.

“The volume of air packages in our system exceeded the capacity of our network, as demand was much greater than the forecast,” UPS spokeswoman Natalie Godwin said Tuesday. “As a a result a small percentage of shipments are delayed and will not be delivered today.”””

Cade’s Transformer bed sheets are now among the “small percentage” that will arrive the day after Christmas this year.  I will say I am very grateful for all the UPS workers who were out driving around the country as late as 8:00 last night delivering presents to all the girls and boys.  Cade was not so forgiving, but he handled his misfortune rather well and did get to open a present anyway.  Mom learned an important lesson.  Don’t buy anything online two days before Christmas.  Sometimes even Amazon can’t guarantee two day delivery. 

Next we’ll talk about the Holy Nativity that wasn’t so holy.  The kids were quite a bit more wild this year on Christmas Eve, if you can imagine that.  Consequently all was not calm or bright or silent last night.  Reagan and Liberty had a knock out brawl over who was going to be the angel, until he convinced her that she could be the angel “partner”.  And isn’t that just what Jesus would want on his birthday- children fighting over parts in his nativity?  After all the fuss and screaming, Liberty changed her mind and decided to be Mary anyway.  Except for the shepherd scene where she abandoned the manger and baby Jesus to sing in the angel choir.  She got back to the stable just as the shepherds were comin round the bend.  Levi spent the entire show being either a sheep that would not listen to the shepherd’s voice or a camel with a hairball in its mouth.  Cade decided he’d had enough shepherding this year and played the dual role of Joseph and a wise man.  Reagan would not perform as the angel until his hair was ‘done’ and then he spent much of the time flapping his big white sheet in everyone’s face and jumping from the highest point in the room.  All in all it was loud, rowdy and hardly spiritual at all.  Sigh.  I’m thinking we need to rethink it next year. Maybe we could do it in mime.

Mary and Joseph on their way to Bethlehem.  The road to Bethlehem was all uphill for this donkey.

Christmas morning went mostly well.  No crying, no “he got a bigger one!” and the kids were silent until the very late hour of 6:30!!!  Benadryl works wonders!!!! 

This was the Christmas of the bikes.

 
If you know anything about our children you will not be surprised to know that the excitement over the bikes lasted for all of one minute and then they were sniffing the presents under the tree for the Legos.  Sigh.   Santa graciously let Mom and Dad buy the legos this year, so once that coveted gift was open, the boys took a two hour break to put them together!  I got a nice nap in!

What did Liberty do during those two hours you ask?

She patiently waited for her brothers while coloring the entire Hello Kitty notepad they got her. 

Car and Driver Magazine was a BIG hit.  I wish I could have gotten their excitement on video. 

The sparkly crayons and Strawberry Shortcake coloring book were also a big hit.

This was my big hit.

I’ve wanted a Christus forever! 

This was my favorite wrapped gift.  Courtesy of Amazon.  Maybe I won’t have them wrap my gifts anymore.  LOL.

Thanks, Aunt Alli for all the cool presents!  Reagan is creating his next Stop Motion Video as I write!

Reagan and Cade pooled their money to get me a pizza stone!! 
 
I’m very excited to use it and so proud of them for making their own money to buy it for me!

And lastly, the annual Christmas pictures in front of the fireplace.  For the first six, just look at Levi.  He’s a riot.  Not helpful at ALL, but a riot.

Finally a good one…

Boy, that was a lot of work!

We hope you all have as good a Christmas as we’ve had.  We love you all and wish we could be with you!  Merry Christmas!

You thought he was older, but no.  Captain America is really six years old-as of December 18th.

Levi had his first “friend” birthday party this year and I have decided two things as a result.  First, my mother was right. I should NEVER have had a baby the week before Christmas.  Planning and carrying out a birthday party that close to Christmas is ridiculous, not only because you are trying to buy gifts for this kid for two major events at the same time but because it seems crazy to give the kid a ton of toys only a week before he’s going to get a ton more!  We usually don’t give the kids a ton on their birthday, but the friends they invite sure do!  Second, we are celebrating Levi’s birthday from now on in June, on his half birthday.  Then all the loud rambunctious little boys that come to the party can play OUTSIDE and Levi gets his gift getting spread out.  Not to mention the lack of major holidays in June.  All that being said, we survived and he had the time of his little six year old life. 

The Games

Reagan planned the games for the party and did a great job.  They played Pin the Star on Captain America’s Shield, Break Wall with Captain America’s Shield, Block bullets with Captain A’s Shield and Bullet (beanbag/tin foil ball) Toss.  Here’s Break the Wall:

We got about 3 inches of snow last week and the kids have had lots of fun playing in it.

The older boys decided to give their December allowance money to help the people in the Philippines and so they have been trying to find ways to earn money around the house so they could afford to buy each other presents.  The day it snowed, Reagan decided to go around the neighborhood charging 2.00 to shovel a driveway.  He and Cade teamed up and as we saw with the lemonade stand, people in this neighborhood are overly generous and the boys made $45.00!!!  And that was only for four driveways!  

Santa’s elves shopping at Target for the Twelve Days of Christmas

Got this funny one of Libby the other day.  That is actually a baby towel on her head.  She calls it her princess crown cape.

Liberty changes her clothes about fifty times a day right now and her room is always a mess because of it.  She is also always wearing my high heels around the house.  Now I understand why they sell those silly dress up high heels for little girls.  I’m thinking Santa should bring her a pair for Christmas so that she doesn’t kill herself trying to go down the stairs in mine.  Speaking of which, I found mine hanging precariously over the edge of the stairs yesterday.

Here are some funnies Liberty has said lately. 

The other day I came in to get her up and she said, “Mom, I woke up because the sun was on.”

Last week the kids were playing downstairs and Libby walked upstairs yelling, “Gody bard!  Gody bard!”  It took me a minute to realize she was trying  to say Bodyguard. 

The boys finally got to meet Byam’s new dog last week when Katelyn and Taylor brought him over.  After watching the three boys and the puppy for an hour I was amused, but not surprised to discover that little boys and puppies are VERY similar. 

We’ve been enjoying our Christmas tradition of unwrapping a Christmas book every night.

Even Derek got to participate this year (after we twisted his arm a bit)!
He went home raving about the tradition and can’t WAIT to do it with his family!  😉

This post is for anyone who cares what our house looks like all decorated for Christmas.  Admittedly, that is not very many.  So I won’t do this to you every year, but it’s been fun to decorate this year in our new house!

This is our first year to have a “Pretty Tree” as my mom always calls them.  The kids have their own tree downstairs that they get to decorate however they want.

Close

Closer

Really Close Up

It’s the calendar’s fault this is late.  If there had been more days AFTER Thanksgiving, before the craziness of December actually started, I would have been able to get Thanksgiving blogged.  But the calendar worked against me this year, so now you are getting it very late.

Grandma and Grandpa Hymas traveled over the river and through the woods to our house for the big day.  Here’s Grandma reading one of our favorites…

The next day Libby helped get the food ready.

She was very proud of her work on the relish tray.

Helping Grandpa wash potatoes

Dinner with the In-Laws and the In-dians (who wouldn’t smile)

We didn’t quite make it to one pie per person as Grandpa would have liked, but we came close.  We let the kids have pie the next day for breakfast and they thought they’d woken up in the wrong house!

The next day we went to the Festival of Trees and the Boise City Tree Lighting.

The statue of Liberty

And that was Thanksgiving!  We had a great visit with Rock’s parents.  It was just over too quickly.  Thanks again for driving so long to come see us!