Slave Driver

As I've mentioned before, Brandt loves helping out with household chores. He pretty much has laundry down now, so all I have to do is sit back, relax, and let him take care of it. LOL!!!

Weekend Get Away

For Christmas this year I bought Jazz tickets for Bryce and booked a room at the Radisson Hotel. It was a much bigger sacrifice for me than just the money since I've never left Brandt for the night before, so I was more than a little anxious about that. The 28th was the big day (also well planned since it was 2 days after my b-day) and totally worth it. We had a nice drive down with hardly any traffic even when we got to Salt Lake (we were worried that it would be a zoo since it was Larry H. Miller's funeral day). Checked into the hotel around 4pm and discovered we would be on the 9th floor-way fancy! Pretty sure we've never been on the 9th floor of anything before! Walked across the street to the game while everyone else was scrambling for a parking spot, found the cutest Williams jersey for Brandt buddy, and still had plenty of time to find our seats. They weren't the greatest, but still so much fun and so exciting to actually be there live. The game was awesome; Brewer especially killed it with all his dunks. I neglected to get many pictures and the couple I did get aren't great, but proof that we were there, I guess. After the game while everyone else was once again scrambling to try to get to their cars and get out of there, we walked back to our hotel and had a nice, quiet, and very yummy dinner at the in-house restaurant. It was so different to have the entire night just to ourselves for a change. Some of the time we actually didn't know what to say to each other since we usually have Brandt for entertainment and subject matter. Sunday morning was relaxed and also very different than trying to shower and get ready for the day with an almost 2 yr old. We once again enjoyed good food at the hotel at their breakfast buffet (free with the whole Jazz packet-- nice!!) I had absolutely the best omelet I have ever had in my entire life and would go back again just for that. Anyway, we discovered that it was a much needed break from "real life" and that it was kind of like dating again since we didn't have to worry about anything but each other. Hopefully we won't wait so long for our next retreat.

A Trip Down Memory Lane...

Making all of these fun memories with Brandt has made me think a lot about my favorite childhood memories, so I thought I would share a few of them.

* Cleaning the church with my grandma Pugmire-actually, I think she did most of the cleaning and I spent a lot of time riding my bike and rollerskating. She's such a hard worker. I've always loved the smell of her house when she's baking bread or cookies.

*Spending Christmas vacation at my grandma Bodily's. We also used to all go stay there when the "California cousins" came during the summer. I loved it when Diane and Annette would braid my hair fun ways (other than I have a tender head and that part wasn't fun). At night we would go out and find night crawlers with uncle Eddie and then he would take us fishing down by the bridge. Whatever fish we caught would go in the water trough by the milking barn.

*Every summer my sisters, brother and I would each get to take a turn staying at my grandma Bodily's in Lewiston for a week or two by ourselves. It was the best!! My best memories were hanging out with Kent and helping him with whatever chores he had for the day-haying, moving pipe, milking... We had so much fun it hardly seemed like work to me. We also spent a lot of time playing basketball in the driveway, playing cards, playing hide-and-seek (somehow we always tricked the younger kids), jumping on the trampoline... One of my most vivid memories was when Kent fell off the haystack. It was so scary. I still remember when he was given a blessing afterward and the feeling of peace I had. It was one of the first times that I understood the power of the priesthood.

*Eating green pineapple ice cream with my grandpa Pugmire. He also used to take us to Bundy's to get ice cream cones in the summer and whenever we stayed at their house grandma would make us malts. Um, ya, he loves ice cream and has passed it down to us.

*Hanging out at my grandpa's barber shop in Paris. I loved spinning around in the chair (would definitely puke if I tried it now). It was a sad day when he closed it down.

*Moving cows in the summer- especially when it was time to take them up on the forest and then bring them down again since they were long horse rides.

*Calf selling day- when we were done my grandpa would always take us all out to eat.

*Branding day-still love the smell of it-weird, I know.

*Often on Sundays we would go for long drives up the canyon and sometimes we would have a picnic. My favorite drives were the ones when we would start out in St. Charles and come out in Fish Haven.

*Boating with Clark. My dad always impressed us cause he could wear his hat while he would ski and never get it wet.

*My grandpa Bodily died from cancer when I was very young, but I have a few memories of him. He would always give us 50 cent pieces and kept "church candies" in the top drawer in their bedroom. When we went to see him in the hospital he would let us have his little jelly packets. I never remember seeing his teeth in his mouth; they were always in a cup in the bathroom. He gave me straight black coffee and I thought it was disgusting even though I love the smell of it.

*Gathering worms for money with my family. The stuff we dumped on the ground to make them come up was vile, and it was kind of a gross job, but we had fun.

*I loved the tree swing in my Pugmire grandparent's front yard. And I loved the big trees that lined the fence and ditch.

*Hanging out with Stephanie and Amy at my grandparent's was always a treat. We had a lot of fun.

*My favorite babysitter (actually the only one I really remember) was Jared Hillier. He was such a great sport and even let us put lipstick on him. He probably still owes us for that one!!

*Playing softball in the summer-didn't matter if it was city league, YW ball, etc.- I lived for it. We even had our YW practices at like 5:30 am and I rode my bike to the diamond most of the time, but I wouldn't have missed it for anything.

*Picking raspberries. Had a few different people take me; Mindy was one of the first I think and was the one who taught me to pick through the bush and pick fast in order to get the most berries and make the most money. I'll never forget the morning Cody, Cassidy (I think), and I decided that we were too tired to pick and wasted the entire morning messing around in the car. I felt so guilty about it forever! Made many friends picking berries; Nanette, Melanie, Elizabeth, Tyler... and learned even more dumb songs. We froze in the morning and roasted in the afternoon, but friends made it go fast and we had a lot of fun.

*Kelli's B-day is on July 3rd, so we used to do fireworks in the backyard for it. Then on the 4th we would go to the Lewiston parade, rodeo, and fireworks. They also had all kinds of booths and entertainment set up across from the fairgrounds and had softball tournaments at the ball diamond.

*My parents make the best dutch oven food and it has always been a summertime favorite.

*Helping feed the cows in the winter. My grandpa used put the truck in low gear and I would steer it while he would push hay off the back. Can't believe we didn't get someone killed doing that!!

*Kent taught me how to drive grandpa Bodily's old red truck. I still remember thinking I was so mature driving around the field and also to gram's.

*Gram used to kill snakes in the garden with her hoe and then chuck them over the fence. I loved staying at her house, but I was scared of upstairs, so she always let me stay in her bed.

*We didn't really do a lot of family vacations, but we did spend a lot of time in Garden City with Geeg and Duane, and then when they started spending time in St. George we would try to go stay at least once a year down there. They totally, completely spoiled us and we loved every minute of it. Sometimes I got to stay with them in Garden City and we would do puzzles, play cards, ride bikes and have lots of fun.

There are many more, but they will have to wait for another time.

Lesson in Anatomy

Tuesdays are my favorite. It's my day off and the day when I get to be selfish and have Brandt all to myself. A typical Tuesday is spent playing, reading books, doing puzzles, coloring, doing laundry, cooking, washing dishes (ya, yesterday we were both soaked by the time I finished :), etc. Yesterday while we were playing with the farm animals, Brandt brought his cow over to me, pointed to the udder, and said "milk, babies eat." Later that evening when my parents were there he showed them, with illustrations no less, using a smaller sheep as the baby calf and making sucking noises. Guess those weekly trips to help with chores are really paying off!! :)

BEHOLD YOUR LITTLE ONES

I have a confession to make; in 10 1/2 years of marriage we've never had a serious, sit down, have a lesson type family home evening...until this week. I usually justify not doing it by saying that we spend family time together at least once a week (doing chores, watching Dancing with the Stars, rough-housing with Brandt...), it's too hard because I work and don't have time to prepare anything, and besides Brandt's too little to understand yet anyway, right? Wrong!! So, last week I was reading an article in the Ensign and had the very distinct prompting that Brandt is old enough and that I need to start NOW. The preparation part was actually easier than I thought it would be thanks to Sonja and Rusty sending Brandt home with a picture and finger puppets from nursery. We also have a copy of the nursery manual, Behold Your Little Ones, thanks to my mom and dad giving us one for Christmas, so I was able to match up the handouts with which lesson he had. So, on Sunday afternoon I let Brandt color his picture some more while I cut out his finger puppets and then he helped with taping them together (oh my!!). Monday night after dinner I asked him if he was ready for the lesson and he got so excited. He ran and got his dad off the couch and brought him over to sit on a blanket on the floor. The lesson was very short and sweet, but he had so much fun helping with the Joseph Smith story with his puppets and picture that he colored. Yesterday we got two encore performances-one for my mom and then later for my dad, so I guess he got more out of it than I thought he would. I LOVE the nursery manual! It has pictures to color and activities for each lesson and can be adapted for just about any age. My plan now is to use the handouts that he gets at nursery every week (thanks ahead of time to Matt and Tara!) and do sort of a review lesson for FHE the next night. Hopefully I'll be able to stick with it since I'm sure it will be so worth it!

Forced Child Labor?

For those of you who know me well, you also know that one of my least favorite things is house work. I like my house to be clean, I just don't like spending every free minute I have cleaning it, especially since I'm a working mom. There are about a million other things I would rather do with my time at home than wash dishes or clean toilets, including spend quality time with Bryce and Brandt. So, I've come up with a genius solution. I go to work and Brandt cleans the house and makes the meals while I'm gone. His wages include food, a bed to sleep in, and some other necesseties such as diapers and clothes. Actually, we've come up with a compromise that works for both of us. He loves to help with everything from laundry, sweeping and mopping, cooking, and washing dishes to helping his dad carry in wood; I draw the line at cleaning the bathrooms, although I'm sure he would dig right in to that, too. Most of the time it takes me at least twice the amount of time to finish a chore with his help, but we have a lot of fun together and I'm hoping that he's learning valuable lessons in the process. He gets so excited whenever we praise him for doing a good job and helping and it's worth every smile we get out of it. He often claps and hollers "woo-hoo" after finishing something. Now if I could only get his dad trained to help so well...

FUN WEEKEND

Our weekend was jam-packed with fun. My mom ended up having both Amanda Jean and Rylie there on Saturday, so Brandt and I went to visit for the day, too.
These pictures of Jana and Amanda were actually from the week before, but I didn't get a post for them done and figured I might as well add them here. Brandt loves aunt Jana and calls her mom when she calls to talk to him. He likes to get pillows and blankets and make people lay on the couch with him and go "night night." It usually doesn't last long since he can't hold still long enough to fall asleep, but it's cute anyway. Actually my mom says they sometimes spend about an hour a day doing this and watching toons when she has him. I've never seen him hold still that long, so I guess I'll believe it when I see it!

Brandt gets a little jealous if anyone tries to hold "there ya go" AKA Amanda Jean and not him, so he's always right there trying to get some attention, too. When we all went to my uncle Dale's funeral a few weeks ago, Jana was handing toys to Amanda and saying "there ya go" everytime she gave her something new. Ever since then he has called her "thereyago", really fast like it's all one word. What a funny kid!!

Amanda was just getting crawling down last week, and when she was trying to show off her new skills, Brandt climbed on her back like he does us and then bailed off the side yelling "crash!" She didn't care too much until he kneeled on her hand as he was falling. She's definitely going to have to be tough 'cause Brandt is less than gentle when it comes to playing with her.

My dad got this tent for Rylie and helped the boys set it up on Saturday to give them something to do. Rylie was way excited when "papa" told him that he could take it home and use it to go camping with his mom.

They ran around like crazy men (what else is new when it comes to Brandt?) and had a blast playing in it all afternoon. They hauled a bunch of their toys in there as well as blankets and pillows. My dad even let them use one of his big flashlights so it wouldn't be dark while they were playing.

Rylie started pressing his face up against the window screen and so of course Brandt was right there with him doing the same thing. He is a little copy-cat anyway, but he especially idolizes Rylie and follows his every move. They did take a little break from playing to go out and help with chores. They got to sit on a cow, see the new baby calves, and ride in the tractor with grandpa. Of course, I forgot my camera (dang!), but they were so cute in their almost matching red and black snow clothes.

The boys both love getting in the "big tub" (hot tub) with grandpa. They were all waiting patiently for the rest of us to get ready so we could all go get in. Check out grandpa's sexy legs!!

Although a hot tub is supposed to be relaxing in theory, one doesn't get much down time when Brandt and Rylie are involved. They both love to splash and have fun, and they don't stay in one spot for long. Most of their time is spent playing musical chairs between grandpa, Bryce, and Curtis.

Brandt loves the jets and starts yelling "ooh, bubbles" as soon as we turn them on. It's so much more fun than playing in the regular tub!!