Making the Bed

Making my bed usually involves these two.

Good thing I'm completely enamored with both of them.

Spring, Parenting Books, and More Birthday Pics

I really was trying to come up with a clever way to tie all of these topics together, but alas, they were too varied. In any event......



Spring is here (at least momentarily) and I find myself GIDDY at the thought of weeding, THRILLED to see worms in the soil, and DELIRIOUS to see the children in something other than their winter attire. Please, PLEASE stay, Spring.....


To change the topic, I read a lot of parenting books. A lot. I have to mention one here that I think EVERY PARENT SHOULD GO GET IMMEDIATELY. The concepts were simple, gospel-based (without meaning to be ) and they actually work.  Ten Days to a Less Defiant Child  by Jeffrey Bernstein is an excellent resource. I love having new tricks up my sleeve to use  in my quest to coexist peacefully with my children! I wish I could put in print all the positive experiences I'm having using these techniques, but occasionally my children read this blog and well, I wouldn't want to give away any of my secrets!


Now to pictures from Ben's birthday celebration....

 We have a tradition of going to Olive Garden in Orem to celebrate Ben's birthday and our Grandma's, which is the day before Ben's. We love the salad and breadsticks so much we usually end up taking the entree home with us. Which makes lunch the next day pretty exciting.

I'm not sure if they are scrutinizing the cake or blowing out candles. (Skor candy bar cake, if you must know).

Ben scored a new Hyper-Dash game from one Grandma and a 

gift card to Fanzz from the other Grandparents.Too bad he's not into sports or anything...

We also have the tradition of letting the children choose between a party with their friends or $50. Ben has always chosen the money. To spice things up, we sent him on a treasure hunt around the neighborhood to find the loot. The 11 clues were all written in rhyming verse, a fact which I'm sure was lost on our son.
He also scored a new in-ground basketball hoop from his mom and dad, but it hasn't arrived yet. More pics to come when it does.

King Benjamin begins his 11th year of reign....

11 Things You Might or Might Not Know About Ben

• Ben loves to read. He usually reads more books than I do in any given  month. He is fond of fantasy, adventure, and mystery books. He has read Harry Potter, Fablehaven, Percy Jackson, Eragon and many others many, many times. He is an avid re-reader.

•  Ben is a picky, picky eater. Among other things, he turns his nose up at spaghetti, most pasta,eggs, whole wheat bread (but sometimes I trick him) and most fruits and vegetables. There are only a few foods he actually eats. He did not inherit this trait from me.

• Ben aspires to be an NBA player more than anything else on the planet. His Plan B is to be an engineer, like his Dad.

•  Ben is an exceptional chess player. In fact, he is good at most strategy games.

• Ben does not like to sleep in. He has always been an early riser. (Seriously, how can he be my son?)

• Ben loves math. He loves it so much he asks for extra instruction at home and at school. 

• Ben hates to write in cursive.

• Ben does not like long rides in the car.

• Ben likes origami.

• Ben loves to cook. He is getting really good at it, too.

• Ben is a great son. We are so happy to call him ours. Happy Birthday Ben!

Something's Under My Bed

On Saturday Cassidy played in a  Piano Festival. She is an amazing pianist and I love that she practices everyday without whining or complaining. She has such a great teacher, too. =) She had to play two memorized songs--Something's Under My Bed and Just Stompin' Around. She played for a panel of judges and scored very well. She said she wasn't even nervous. Thanks to my friends who remembered their cameras when I forgot mine. My other students played too and everyone did a great job. I, for one, am glad it is over so I can  start hearing everybody play different songs!

P.S. In case anybody wanted to know, last night at our house we had a child up at 11:30 who could not sleep, a different child up at 12:30 with all-over-the-bed-and-floor throw-up, and at 4:30 the smoke alarms starting chirping for new batteries. It took Rich 20 minutes to figure out which one it was.  My alarm went off at 6. For a good time come sleep at the King house!

Flash

Lots of basketball this week for our family! Saturday night Cassidy sang the National Anthem with the Lehi Children's Choir at the Utah Flash game at UVU.  They sing a capella and do a fabulous job. (I just googled the word a capella and for your information, there seems to be no consensus on any correct spelling.)

AS usual we had great seats for the game but terrible seats for getting good pictures of Cass performing. Come on people! Do you really thing all us parents are there to watch basketball or to take pictures of our children? Seriously! Here's what I got:

The crucial moment: filing in to the arena.

If I was cool I would know how to draw an arrow so you could all see Cassidy in the second row, second child from the right. 

If you look closely enough you can almost HEAR them!

Filing out of the arena. It's pretty exciting, I know.

We ate some kettle corn and watched some hoops and wrestled a one-year old who is not really fun to have out in public and then we called it a night. Oh, and Garrett wanted me to include that for dinner that night we ate Lunchables in the car in the parking lot of the McKay Events Center. First class all the way, baby. Hey, the Lunchables did include chocolate pudding and a Capri Sun. Garrett asked if we were celebrating anything. I love him.

Sugar. Cookies.

Look at that sweet face. But don't let it fool you. He made me do it. He BEGGED me to do it. And he had accomplices.  And the whole thing was  such mess and it was all their fault. I tried to tell them it would not be pretty, but did they listen to me? Ha!

They made me let them make sugar cookies. From scratch. With frosting. AND sprinkles. In my kitchen.

Evidence of some of the mess......

more evidence....

the culprits...

I let them do everything---eat raw dough, lick frosting, add food coloring to their liking, eat as many cookies as they wanted. I didn't offer pointers or explain to them that cookie dough has raw eggs in it and they might die or limit their frosting colors or YELL at them to stop making a mess of my kitchen. I just watched and took pictures. And somehow we survived, kitchen and all.

I'd like to know why the very same activity can be at the top of the kids' list and at the bottom of mine? Would someone explain that to me please?

Just Because and Snow

The Just Because picture.....

and the snow pictures....

I debated long and hard about whether to post these pictures or not. I do apologize if you have now fallen off your chair and are in near seizure-like convulsions from being grossed out, but let's face it----Motherhood is full of well.....a picture is worth a thousand words (or Kleenexes). Viewer be warned for the next one:

Where IS this child's mother? Stop laughing hysterically behind the camera and get this kid a Kleenex already!

(Okay, that is the last of the gross-out pictures. In this post, at least).

 Finally! Someone wiped the poor kid's nose!

Can I just say how much we love our little neighbor Josh? We love his whole family, for that matter!

Our cat Tyler LOVES the snow!

There's nothing like a foot of snow on March 5th!

Basketball

Meet #20, aka as "3 from downtown King".

Congrats Ben, on a great bball season. 

What will we do with our Saturdays now?

Behind Enemy Lines

WARNING: This post contains offensive pictures

 

(I notice how you didn't hesitate to look!)

Wednesday night found us in enemy territory as we watched the BYU Cougars smash Utah 71-51 at the Huntsman Center.We proudly wore our BYU apparel amid a sea of crimson, and we were not the only ones. 

In case you're wondering what that look on Garrett's face is, be assured he is only there for the half-time ice cream, and sometimes his patience runs out before the clock does.  (Cookie dough, if you must know).