3-year-old logic

Like most three-year-old children, Cole says lots of funny things. The best entertainment Floyd and I have is to relate stories about things he has said or done to each other. His favorite thing right now is dinosaurs. At the library this week, he chose a movie about dinosaurs. It's not really meant for preschool-aged children - it's one of those documentary-type movies you would watch in a junior high science class. But Cole loves it. He watches it every day. The first time he was watching it, he kept calling to me - "Mom, come down and watch with me. This show is so ins-tra-string (interesting)." They show some paleontologists working in the field, and I explained to Cole who those scientists were and what they were doing and said to him, "maybe you'd like to be a paleontologist when you grow up." He thought about it for a minute and then said, "actually, when I grow up, I'm going to be a missionary."



We have a dinosaur book that goes into the different theories about how dinosaurs may have become extinct (also not really meant for preschoolers, but oh well). He apparently is having a little trouble understanding what a meteor is. Yesterday in church, I was showing him some pictures and one was of Crater Lake. I explained to him that a meteor hit the earth and made a big hole that was filled with water. His response - "why wasn't it a meat-eater?" I guess they do sound a lot alike, but I'm pretty sure it was a meteor and not a meat-eater that killed off the dinosaurs and made Crater Lake. But I guess I'll look into it - he's been right before!

Be Mine

Happy Valentines! Not my favorite holiday, but it is much better now than it was for the first, oh twenty years or so of my life. I never really had a high school boyfriend and valigrams in seminary from all my friends only did so much for me. The first time Floyd and I celebrated Valentine's was when Floyd was in the MTC. I was in Rexburg at school and a little bit bitter that I still didn't have a chance to celebrate. But he tried. He sent me one dozen roses he had made out of cafeteria napkins, a package of Hershey Kisses, and a stuffed bear that one of his MTC friend's mom smuggled in to him. It was fun to get that package. The first time we celebrated Valentine's when we were physically together was a few months after he came home from his mission. He gave me a book, some homemade cookies, and beautiful flowers in a vase on which he had painted a poem about daisies (my favorite flower). It was sweet. Unfortunately, there were some relationship on the rocks/relationship nonexistent days thrown in there and, since I don't like clutter, all that is left of those first Valentine's are my memories and the book. Sweet story, huh? Luckily, I have a good memory. Anyway, if you ever happen to read this, Floyd, happy valentine's day. I love you and promise not to throw away anymore valentine's presents.

Groundhog Day

The forecast says more snow. I like winter, but this is a little insane. In the past three weeks, we have had three separate storms with more than 15" of snow each. Plus a bunch of little 4 or 5 inchers in between. We now have enough snow to open a ski resort. They have pushed all the snow on our road to the end of the dead end road and since our house is the last one, the snow banks end about 1 foot past our driveway. This makes backing out slightly tricky.
On the bright side, we have had lots of fun. The snow piles are so high, we don't need to go anywhere to find a sledding hill. Floyd plowed a tunnel through the bank to the drainage ditch and all the neighborhood kids think it is really cool. So, I guess we'll just hunker down for a few more weeks. I have, however, officially retired from snow shoveling for the season. We have 4-wheel drive and I intend to use it should we get another big storm.


Cole got to stay up late and help shovel the 18" of snow on our driveway. I had been in Cache Valley all day and when we came home, they hadn't plowed our street yet. Thank goodness for 4-wheel drive!


Massive snow piles by our house.


Annie getting in on a little sledding fun.


Cole's yellow sled was, tragically, left out during one storm and is now buried beneath many inches of snow somewhere on the lawn. He has not been thrilled about using Annie's purple sled as a replacement.

ski bunny

Cole tried skiing for the first time this week. He's probably a little young, but he has been wanting to all winter so we figured he might as well try it. He had fun for a bit, but then it got pretty cold (it was night skiing) and headed for the lodge. Which was probably just as well since after about two runs, Daddy's legs couldn't really take much more of Cole "skiing" and I wasn't brave enough to be in charge of skiing down the mountain with him in tow. So they headed to the lodge with Annie while my dad and I made a couple of runs before we called it a night.




Annie just hung out in the lodge - and tried to stay away from Landon who adores her and loves to chase after her (he's got a 4-month head start). We've learned not to let her wear bows around him!

Snow Fun...

We spent a couple of days at Bear Lake with my family and my aunt Cindy's family this week. Cole was so excited, mostly about the swimming pool. I was not quite so excited about the swimming pool, but we did have a great time. We played hard and ate lots of good food, so all in all it was a great trip. Thanks Rob & Cindy and Mom & Dad for the good time!


Annie's first time swimming - she was hesitant at first, but warmed up and started splashing like crazy. Cole was, of course, a crazy man.


Cole & my cousin Andra - Cole adores her and spent the week gathering little presents that he thought she might like (a dinosaur, a train, etc.)


The mighty snowmobilers - Cole, Katie, and Savannah (my niece). We were out driving on the lake and hoped that it was frozen since you couldn't tell where beach ended and lake started.


Cole & Grandpa Clair.