Wintering Elk

We went on a great field trip last Friday to Hardware Ranch with my SIL and her kiddos. We had a fun time seeing the elk, and riding the sleigh. We saw TONS of deer on the way back down the mountain. This poor fella- apparently he had a run-in with an electric fence- and brought the fence with him. I guess it'll get untangled when he loses his antlers this spring

Doodle- studying the animalsWe thought this was a nice size animal. Counins C and H along with Bug, Roo and Doodle in front of the horses that pulled our sleigh.

Thanks Natalie! We had a fun time!

Cures for the Winter blaws

Winter is getting long and old. I am SO ready for spring. Bug always says "I can't wait until....(fill in the blank)" and recently it's been "I can't wait until summer" and I'm right there with him. Last week we went cross country skiing for Family night- It was just getting dark- so the pictures are a bit dark- I haven't photoshopped them yet- Roo falling down- silly kid- he's really good at skiing- but he gets going too fast and falls plop! on his back.

2 bigger boys skiing around the park-On Friday for Bug's Birthday we went sledding. Here's Bug- taking flight after a jump. Doodle and Bug on their way back up the hill

Roo was so funny. We got to the sledding hill, and he takes one look at the hill and decides he's NOT going to go down it. So he sat at the top for a while, then kicked his sled down the hill. We told him he'd need to go get his sled. So he tromps to the bottom of the hill. a few minutes later he walks up the hill 2 feet, sets his sled down and climbs on it, and sleds down. He decided that wasn't too bad, so he pulls the sled back up the hill, about a foot higher than the last time, hops on and slides down. So Ben and I walked halfway down and told him to bring his sled up to us. "Nope," he replied, "I'm just going up by inches." Ben and I walked down to about where Roo was putting his sled on the hill (now about 5-6 feet from the bottom) and watched him sled down. As he went down, we took a few steps back up the hill. And Roo would come back up to us, set his sled down and go on down the hill. Eventually he was more than 3/4 the way back up the hill, and Roo looks at us from the bottom of the hill, "HEY, you guys keep moving up!" Yup- we had. lol. Me and Roo on the sled.

12 years!

HaPpY 12th BiRtHdAy BuG!

Hard to believe it- but it's been 12 years since I became a mother. 12 years ago I remember driving on a rainy January morning to the hospital to have a baby. I was excited, nervous, scared, happy, worried and thrilled.

Bug is such a great kid. He is such fun to be around. We are so blessed to have him in our family. He is so looking forward to Sunday when he will become a Deacon and receive the Priesthood. We LOVE you Bug! Hope you have a great day!

Polymer Science fun

For Christmas Doodle and Roo both got some cool science kits from my grandma. Roo has had a blast with the kit- one of the tubes had some tiny polymer beads. He soaked them in water- and they grew to the size of marbles. We all spent Saturday trying to find ways to make them shrink back to the small size quickly. We tried the blow dryer, the food dehydrator, putting them in a pan on the stove, dumping salt on them (Bug's idea- he said it worked for slugs- it might work for polymers- good hypothesis- but no luck!)

The beads- about the size of a pinhead- (not a real good picture- they are inside an orange plastic cup- lol)

Here's the "marbles" at various sizes- the ones in the ziplock bag didn't shrink at all. The circle of balls on the right were Doodle's experiment- he put a glass over the top of them. It slowed their shrinking.In Roo's kit also were some "Ice cube" shaped polymers. the left is before, and the right is after soaking in water overnight. They more than doubled in size.Roo- writing his observations We have had a blast with Polymers!

slacker!

My mother informed me I haven't updated the blog in a while ;) Sorry, Mom! I'll do better! So what's been going on around here?! We took December off from school work, and just enjoyed Christmas crafts, books, movies and activities. A few highlights:

Trip to Temple Square to see the Christmas Lights:It was surprisingly warm that night- usually we pick the biggest blizzard of the year to make our trek down. It was nice!
Kids on Christmas Eve
We repainted Doodle's bedroom. The paint seemed to get EVERYwhere ;)Even Roo helped The finished project- He picked a beautiful blue color- and we put barn wood up around the windows.
This is Doodle's corner- behind the bed where his stuffed animals stay, and where he likes to hide. We painted 1 wall as a chalkboard- it turned out great! And he loves to draw on that wall. Since his nickname is Doodle- my wonderful SIL made some vinyl words for me-

Ok- we'll do lots better keeping up to date on here! Upcoming- fun science projects we've done lately.