The gospel according to Tom and Jerry

Today while driving in the car, Brigham started talking about Jesus and his creations. Then he mentioned how when we die our spirits go up to heaven but our bodies stay here. I thought it was a pretty profound gospel principle and wanted to compliment him on his gospel learning so I said to Brigham, "You are right about our spirits going to heaven. I am so proud of you for paying attention in primary and learning." He promptly answered, "oh, I learned that from Tom and Jerry, because when Jerry dies his spirit always goes up to the clouds." Who knew such deep gospel principals were being taught in cartoons, maybe I should let them watch more tv :-)

Disneyland Fun

For Christmas we surprised the kids with a trip to Disneyland. We left the second week of January. It was a wonderful time to go. We escaped the cold weather here and enjoyed 70 degree weather.. oh how I am missing that 70 degree weather right now! We had such a great time. It was so fun to see the kids reactions to everything. I already miss it! Here are a few pics. from the trip.

The girls on Toys Story Mania (our FAVORITE RIDE.) We rode this ride six times. We all loved this one.

Shae was the great driver at autotopia. I haven't laughed so hard in a long time. She was hilarious. We kept crashing along the safety railing underneath. I was sure Andrew was going to get whiplash, but I was laughing so hard there wasn't much I could do.

Here is most the family at California adventure right after a lunch break.

I love this picture. This is a typical sight. By afternoon Andrew AND Josh needed their naps. So, we parked them both out of the way and the kids and I went on some more rides.

This was the most peaceful driving trip we have had, now that we have a dvd player in our van. ALL the kids were hypnotized for 12 hours. It was wonderful!

You can't leave out the picture with Mickey!

The whole family in our hotel with our Mickey pajamas. We tried this shot about five times. My head is still a little cut off, but this picture was the best we could do.

The Van is going to explode!

So... it has been a while since I have had a good Brigham- Benjamin story. (For those of you who don't know who Benjamin is.... he is Brigham's best friend. They are the cutest boys. They can't get enough of each other. They do, however, have very active imaginations and are ALL boy. Having said that, they tend to get into a little trouble at times.) On Monday Benjamin was playing at our house. I needed to start dinner when I realized I didn't have eggs. I told the boys they needed to come with me to the store. Of course they were in the middle of a very important game where they were playing tigers and did not want to be interrupted. So I promised them they didn't have to put shoes on. They could stay in the car (OK all you moms thinking how horrible this is... I live in a very small town and sometimes a mom's got to do what a mom's got to do to survive! I know it's wrong!) On with the story: I pile the boys in the van and head to the store. When I got out of the van I locked the doors and ran in. It took about 10 seconds to grab the eggs, but of course there was a small line at check-out. I was probably in the store for about five minutes. As I am leaving the store I see Brigham and Benjamin running through the parking lot barefoot (actually Benjamin was running in his socks.) As they are running they are crying and screaming hysterically, "The van is going to explode! The van is going to explode!" I am sure it was quite a sight for everyone seeing two little boys running in the winter, during the rain barefoot screaming and crying. I am sure everyone was wondering where their mother was. My first thought was to panic. I couldn't understand what they were saying and I knew that Andrew was still in the van. When they told me the van was going to explode I couldn't help but laugh. After I settled them down. I found out they tried to come out of the van. Since I had locked the van, when they pushed the automatic doors to go out, the doors had beeped at them. Of course they assumed, as any four year old boy would, this meant the van was going to explode, so they booked it out the driver door and ran as far from the van as they could leaving poor Andrew strapped in his car seat to survive the explosion on his own. It took me a while to convince them the van was safe and they could get back in. I guess that's what I get for leaving these boys alone in my car!

Christmas Fever!

I know I haven't posted FOREVER... but I had to post this story so I don't forget it. The other night I got off the phone and Bodell is smiling at me. She starts (in the sweetest voice.) "Mom, well... we were wondering... if we could open our Christmas presents tonight." Of course I immediatley respond, "Absolutely not!" Then Shae jumped in, "we want to open all the Christmas presents under the tree." All the presents under our tree are the presents that the kids have given to each other. Shae continues, "we bought them ourselves so we have the right to decide when they are opened." Hmmm, I must admit she had a pretty good point there. So they can tell I am starting to falter. They started to really push the "PLEASE MOM!!!!" So I decided that I needed some reinforcement. I tell them to call their dad who was driving home from work at the time. They tried calling him, but he was out of cell phone coverage. So they continue to beg and I can tell the excitement is building. So, I say why don't we call Heather and ask for her opinion. I knew that Heather would get a kick out of the situation. (Heather is my sister- who by the way ALWAYS opens her presents early. She even had a mini Christmas when she was here for Thanksgiving, because she wanted to give her presents to my parents.) The kids got excited about this idea. Shae said, "Yeah, ask Heather she is nice." So I dial Heather. Shae immediately rips the phone out of my hands and starts telling heather what they want to do. Heather, to their surprise says she doesn't think they should. Shae got mad at her because she opened some of her presents two weeks ago. I talked to Heather and she tells me she doesn't think the kids should open any presents because, "being tortured by presents is part of Christmas." I hung up the phone and the kids were mad at Heather. I think they thought that she betrayed them. Then Josh walked in the door and the kids start an all out assault of pleases on him. Even Andrew got in on the action. He started following Josh around the house saying, "please dad." Even though he had no idea why he was saying please. Finally we caved. We decided to let them open ONE present. The excitement was more than we all could handle. I must admit watching them open that one present got me pretty excited for Christmas morning. They are going to be fun! I had to laugh at the kids response after opening presents. They said, "next time when we want something we are asking Dad not Heather!"

Catching Chipmunks Continued...

Ok... so at the end of my last post I journaled about Bodell spending most her time at our camp trying to catch a chipmunk. Well, today I pulled in from the store and I look in our truck parked in our driveway. What do I see? A little chipmunk running across the dashboard on the inside of our truck. I pointed it out to Shae who was in the car with me. She got so excited and ran in to tell Bodell. Bodell runs out ready to catch the chipmunk. I told her she needed long sleeves and thick gloves on. So she runs back in the house gets her proper gear on and brings out a tall garbage can to put the chipmunk in. I was ready with camera in hand to take an amazing shot of Bodell with a chipmunk in her hand. From the outside of the truck we could no longer see the chipmunk. So we cautiously opened the doors. The kids climbed in to find the chipmunk. They were looking around and seeing nothing. I decided to peak inside and see if I could see it. I had barely poked my head under the passenger seat, and the chipmunk comes running right towards me (I of course did not expect that one. I thought once it saw one of us, it would run away and we would be able to corner it.) With the chipmunk running toward my head, I screamed like a little girl. Then the chipmunk lept toward me and the open door. It landed at the base of my feet. So, I screamed some more and started dancing around. The kids are all watching this with amazement. Then the chipmunk ran off through our garden and under our neighbor's fence. You can imagine how happy Bodell was about this. She couldn't believe that I let the chipmunk get away. So, unfortuneately, at this moment the kids are IN OUR NEIGHBOR'S yard trying to catch a chipmunk, that has tons of places to hide, with the old box and twine method. Sorry kids, your mom is not very brave!

Camping On Elk Ridge

Josh had a couple days off last week so we decided to go camping on Elk Ridge. Sadly it was the first time we had been camping this summer and the first time I had been on Elk Ridge. The mountain is so beautiful right now. The kids insisted we sleep in a tent instead of staying in Grandpa's camper with him.

The kids wanted to look for frogs.

At first all they found was a dead bat. Shae kept telling us that, "it is disgusting!"

Success! They caught a frog. Andrew LOVED the frog. He kept squeeling with delight and quickly grabbed it when he had the opportunity.

Brigham was proud of their catch. He wanted to take it home. Sorry Brigham- no way!

The kids laughed histerically when they put the frog on Andrew's head.

We climbed the Bear's Ears with my dad. We saw a bear from the top. We watched it rummaging for food below.

Once Bodell learned from Grandpa how he used to catch Chipmunks she was determined to catch one. She set the trap and the bait, but it is pretty hard to catch a chipmunk when your siblings and dog keep hovering around your trap. Maybe next time!

Snow, Snow, Snow!!!!!

We have been pounded with snow this year!!! In one week we had three feet of snow. We had two snow days from school. The kids have LOVED it. It has been so beautiful here.

Here Shae is standing in front of our house. It is hard to see how high the snow is. When I walk through the front yard, I sink to my hips. It is so deep it is actually hard for the kids to play in it because they sink too far down.

More snow.

Here is a picture of our neighbor's house. The snow was so deep you can barely see their chain link fence in the front yard.

In the past we have built snow dinosaurs. Bodell asked if we could build a snow horse. Here is our beautiful sculpture.