The Bee has left the building....

Our family had a momentous occasion last week. C lost his binky. We absolutely tore apart the house looking for it last Tuesday, when suddenly D and I paused. Did we really want to find it that badly? C is two and he definitely doesn't need it. When he turned one, we only let him have it at night. It was not allowed to leave his bed. He was very cool with this, but insisted on having it to go to bed. I even remember driving 40 minutes into town when we were camping last summer, after loosing the bee, to replace it in order to ensure we all got a decent night's sleep. However, this time we decided that it was time to carpe diem. It was obviously a sign from the fates that it was time to move on.
When he asked for it, I used the usual parental response. "Oh, you don't need a bee. Those are for babies. You are a big boy." He informed me that no, in fact, he was not a big boy, he really was a baby. I also had a few tricks in my bag, so I quietly started to put away the toy cars he was playing with. "Well," I told him, "Babies don't get to play with cars. They also don't get to eat cookies or fruit snacks. And they don't get to..." and the list went on. Well, I had him.
Now, it has been an entire week and he hasn't even asked for it. We are praying that we are the first ones to find it. No matter. I'm pretty confident that it has found a home in the vortex of lost children's items. I firmly believe that each home with small children has one.

Batter Up!!

I can't say "batter up" without thinking of the movie, A League of Their Own. It is one of my favorite movies of all time. OK, sing it with me: Batter Up! Hear the call! The time has come, for one and all, to play ball! That one and "There's no crying in baseball!!" It's all great and we are so excited to watch J play every week.

The change in him has been dramatic. He is confident, outgoing and he is actually out-eating his brother. Who would have guessed?

J has a great coach, Coach Chip. He is so patient, encouraging and loving with all of the kids. Best of all, he does it while teaching the kids teamwork and respect for each other and their elders. J is learning awesome life skills as well as the game of baseball. Well worth the $65.

J had the honor of being the very first one of the season at bat as well as the first one to score! Way to go Big J!

OK, be honest. Is this not the cutest catcher you've ever seen?

"We are the Broncos! The mighty mighty Broncos! And everywhere we go, people want to know, who we are! So we tell them! We are the Broncos that you heard so much about! Coaches lock their players up whenever we come out! Hey!!"

I had enough!

Well, as you all may have read on my previous post, I have been less than delighted with the weather that we have been having. Someone forgot to tell whomever is in charge that all of us stay out home moms wait with baited breath for sunshine, warmer weather, and the ability to send our children outside when they are driving us to the brink of insanity. So, I packed up the children, bought 3 plane tickets and took us all to California to visit Grandpa George and Grandma Elizabeth.

Brave, you say, to fly alone with two small children. Nay, I say! They were brilliant travelers. Even the flight attendants all commented on what great little guys I had with me. I was so proud of them. Never have you seen two children so excited to have a small bag of trail mix and a half of a can of soda. When we left Boise on the morning of April 1st, it was 32 degrees. When we touched down in California, it was almost 70. I almost kissed the sidewalk when we got outside. Below are some fun things that we did during our week with my grandparents. Enjoy, and remember, it is always summer somewhere in the world.

The boys were very conscientious and, when instructed, read in great detail the safety instructions that provided directions in the event of a water landing. I think they were the only ones on the plane that did so.

Tuesday night we were able to watch Grandpa sing with is barbershop group. They were awesome! They even sang the most beautiful version of Love at Home. I've only heard it at church, so to hear these men sing it in a completely different setting was a real treat. They are going to sing it in a competition next month and I really hope they win!!

Grandma has two little parakeets that the boys just loved. I almost had a heart attack when she took the cage off of its stand and let the boys play with them on the floor. I think the birds were sweating it too.

Of course we had to have story time every night with Grandma. She is a very good reader; Jonah was impressed.

It was also Grandma's birthday while we were visting. We picked out some fun new jammies for her and then went out to dinner to celebrate. Happy Birthday, Grandma!!

Our last night in California, we stayed in a hotel close to the airport. Boppo got us a really nice room at the Holiday Inn Express so Grandpa and Grandma wouldn't have to get up early in the morning to get us to our flight on time. The kids were thrilled to have a new place to destroy. Of course, we had to have some jumping on the bed time.

Thanks for the fun visit Grandpa and Grandma! We love and miss you so much!!

Spring Break?

OK, so am I the only one who is going nuts this week? I had all of these beautiful plans to take my children to the zoo, the park, and other various OUTDOOR activities. What the heck happened? We woke up to sun this morning, but it is about 20 degrees outside. Yesterday, in between brief peekings of sunlight what did we have? How about rain, snow and last night, very painfully tiny, sharp HAIL!! Oh Hail!!

I am so grateful to the Lord for blessing us with the moisture we so desperately needed in the valley. What a blessing to live in such a beautiful land rich with activites, freedoms of all kinds with safety and health...

That said, I am feeling totally jipped of my spring break! I couldn't even spring clean because I had already done most of it last week when our family was coming for the weekend. (Did I actually complain that I don't have anything to clean?) And on top of it all my kids have had croupy, phlemy coughs all week. I make note of all these critical feelings here because this is my family journal. I will look back on this years in the future and probably laugh at myself...maybe.

I have to stop writing now, my kids are screaming at each other. I think we are all getting cabin fever... Too bad I don't have a cabin to have it in...

This picture was taken two weeks ago when we, anticipating spring, made bird feeders out of Crystal Lite canisters. This week's freaky weather washed off the peanut butter and seed, of course.

I'm making Doup!

Our oldest has had so many exciting things happening in his short little life, that I have neglected to share with you all how equally wonderful our youngest child is. He recently informed me that his favorite things are "pi-wrates" and "skewetons." He loves to play with his "guys," various small figurines that he takes to bed, in the car, and anywhere else we will let him.

Somewhere along the line, we have failed to inform him that he is younger than his brother. He has to do everything the "elder" one does. Which accounts for the more frequent bumps and bruises.

The most recent hilarious thing he told me was just this morning. He and his brother were playing in the bathtub, which usually last for about an hour, and he slipped on his bum and briefly went under the water. When I quickly righted him, he insisted on getting out and screamed, "I drownded!!" I kept calmly reassuring him that he really had not drowned. Poor little guy...

He also loves to rock out, a trait you all know he gets from me. At the McCall Winter Carnival he jammed near the stage of a live band. The area by the stage quickly became a mosh pit for toddlers and he quickly returned to mom and dad.

He is quite the little gourmet as well. He loves to "cook" and frequently makes "doup for Donah," (soup for Jonah).

Perhaps the most wonderful thing he does is when he tries to sign "I love you." Instead of the usual sign, he makes the "ok" sign with his little fingers. It has become our new way of saying "I love you" as a family. And so I say the same to all of you tonight. Sweet dreams!!

It is only the beginning...

Well, like most of my journal writing, I've become a slacker. So many things going on, so little blog time, right? However, I would be remiss if I did not make note of a momentous occasion at the Sutherland house. Our first born, our offspring, one of the lights of our life, J, registered for Kindergarten last week. We are so excited for him, but we realized that this is only the beginning of an 16+ year journey for our family.

He was quite the little man as he went to each station and showed how he knows the basics: rhyming, letters, numbers and the like. Too bad they didn't have a station for storytellling, paper crafts, math and writing. He would have aced them all. We tried not to notice that the "welcome to Kindergarten" t-shirt he received went down to his knees.

Well friends, its the beginning of the end. No more going on vacation whenever we want (like we ever did that in the first place) or sleeping in during the week. Hello to schedules, homework, sporting activities and fundraisers.

Actually, I'm pretty excited. It will be a fun new chapter in our family's life and we are going to hit the ground running. J is going to do great and we all can't wait to hear about his new adventures at the "big kid" school. Good luck. You're a Big Kid now!!

A mother's lesson in humility...

Do you ever see people around your neighborhood walking their dogs? Do you see them with plastic grocery bags, usually knotted and containing something relatively heavy? I often feel ashamed for those poor people. Forced to trail around behind their dog with their make-shift, poorman's pooper-scooper. While I am glad that they are taking responsibility for the cleanliness of their neighborhood and beloved pet, I secretly wish they'd just make their dog do his thing in someplace where I don't have to witness it as I drive by. Snobbish, you say? Perhaps...

Fast forward to today. What a fun day we had. We attended our last day of gymnastics, as t-ball will be starting shortly and had lunch at Burger King with Aunt Shell, Little Dude and Tater. The children played in the kiddie land until they were actually sweating. We were having so much fun, we decided to take them to a local neighborhood park to continue the wild rumpus, so to speak. While J had frequented various restrooms on our day of fun, he had not done the one necessary thing that really cannot be done on a tree. I'm sure you are all following me so far.

While the park we went to is probably one of the best in the city with great climbing toys, picnic tables and RESTROOMS (!!!!!) , the powers that be chose to close said facilities for the winter.

@#$%&*}!!!!!

It would of course be at that moment that J had to use that potty, RIGHT NOW!!! After trying to brainstorm solutions with the co-mom in attendance, the only thing we could come up with was to emulate those selfless pooch owners and their grocery bag porta-potties. I don't think I have to paint a picture for you, but I was laughing so hard at the sheer rediculousness of the scene, which took place privately behind the locked facility, that J had to ask me to stop before he could go into the bag.

As I walked, with bag, knotted at the top with it's weighted contents, to the garbage can, I couldn't help but think, "Man, this would be great experience to put on my blog..."

J, I hope someday you can forgive me for sharing this uniquely priceless moment with the world. I really do love you...