Children's Authors

The boys LOVE to draw. And since Kurt's been in school, writing is increasing as well. We've written "books" together for awhile now (they tell me what the story says, I write it down, then they illustrate it), but now they're doing books all on their own.

Today they decided to make books for the baby.

Kurt wrote "Freight Train 2"

Luke wrote "Hot Air Balloon, Hot Air Balloon."

He started it for our baby, but then decided he wanted to give his to his cousin Ryan.

(He didn't want to be in this picture for me)

Valentines Day and their Amazing Race

I'll admit, I was kind of a slacker this year with Valentines Day. This is as festive as breakfast got - Heart shaped eggs and toast with strawberry jam and pink milk.

They got little Valentine bags with goodies that they seemed to like

After Dad got home from work, I planned an Amazing Race out for them. Kurt didn't seem too excited about it at first. He warmed up to the idea though after I explained it a little bit more. He was also excited to be the camera man.

Clue #1: I'm big and blue and I go 'round and 'round. What am I?

A: The BYUI track

Clue #2: Go to BYUI, find someone wearing red and take a picture with them

Clue #3: Using these red wax lips, find someone and give them a kiss on the cheek

Clue #4: You'll find me up high, gazing towards New York City. I love to play them trumpet. Who am I?

A: Captain "Ramonie"

Clue #5: Find the big blue water tower and take a picture of it

Clue #6: Choo, choo, choo, what's coming down the track? Find a train to take a picture of.

Clue #7: Find the letters I-L-O-V-E-Y-O-U and take a picture of each one. They must be from different signs.

Clue #8: Using the money for this leg of the race (50 cents), buy 1 banana.

Clue #9: In the place where you find all the books, find a book about love.

Clue #10: They have lights and sirens. They could be red or blue. Find one.

Clue #11: Sing Happy Birthday to Raschelle in person

Clue #12: Find volunteers to lay on the ground in the shape of a heart.

Clue #13: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday - We walk here everyday.

Clue #14: Come back to where you started, and find what I have waiting...

A fancy candlelight hamburger dinner

I made everything into heart shapes for them. I don't know if they noticed, or cared, but here's the proof of my love for them all :) Oh, and some X's and O's too.
And I wrote them all special valentines...
Kurt was SUPER excited. He kept saying, "This is the BEST DINNER EVER!!" (Kinda like from Tangled) He's already requested the same thing for next year.
Luke was excited, I just wasn't able to capture it on camera. He was hungry.
And even Dad thought it was pretty cool. He wondered if I'd purchased the hamburger buns in heart shapes. I said, "Nope, I just love you that much." :)
Then the boys made an extra pit stop along the race to hit Cocoa Bean for some fancy cupcakes. We ate 2 before I thought I should take a picture of them. But here's the rest. They were yummy!

Cre8ting

Since Lego's don't last forever, I try to take pictures of their creations for them. Brandon was very impressed with this one Luke did, I think because of his age. So I took a picture of it for him.

He really does have a very creative brain. He made this duck out of some blocks we have.

And a cute face :)

And because I'm a horrible mother, I don't keep hardly anything they draw. It's not that I don't love the pictures, I just don't want to store them for 20 years. But so we have record of them, I take pictures.

These drawings are all Kurt's.

This is Nephi's boat.

Samuel the Lamanite

Captain Hook

This is Luke's first letter. He wrote to Cinder-Ella (Grandma Ella) about our sledding adventures. He wrote, (most spelling was on his own):

"I went down the mountain and hurt my knee." Can you follow it? :)

Sledding

Kurt had the day off from school so I took them over to the park for a little bit of fun.

They were a little apprehensive at first, the hill looked a little big to them. So what does any good mom do? Yeah, I pushed 'em down. :) Luke screamed for the first half and giggled the last half.

Then they got adventurous and wanted to go off the "jump."

Yea! So much fun!
Kurt doesn't steer to well, so it took him awhile, but he finally hit it

And then again

Then they tried sledding together

And a day of sledding wouldn't be complete without taking someone out - yep, he nails the kid. He flipped up backwards, feet in the air. The evil side of me wishes I'd just kept shooting and captured the moment.

And a couple face-plants :)

We had a great afternoon!