i need something to blog about

Everything just seems so boring and un-blog-worthy around here these days. We are stir crazy and bored of winter and bored of it getting dark so early. We are bored of Scott being sick for a week and a half (poor guy). We are bored of watching TV and playing Wii (I use the term "we" liberally there). Bored of the daily grind.


So in search of something to do (and something to blog about) we ventured to the duck pond today. It's actually a pretty good time in the winter. For some reason it seems to be a congregating spot for ducks from all over, so it is rather overrun. Plus, it being freezing cold and all, not very many people go out to feed them, so they are extra hungry.

The end result is very aggressive birds who will snatch the bread right out of the hand of the almost-2-year-old that's feeding them. June kept yelling at them when they'd steal a big piece.

Oliver got really nervous when they'd come up close and kept reporting to me as if I should do something about it. I did -- I took pictures, kept giving June more bread, and laughed a little when they'd snip at her fingers.

Despite his protests, we had a good time and June perfected her quacking sound.

On another boring day earlier this week, we built a fort.


And what a mighty fine fort it was, if I do say so myself.

I got involved to make it strong and durable to withstand the almost-2-year-old and to mitigate the number of fights it caused (well that was the hope, anyway). Uncle Zack's favorite zip ties came in handy. The fort lived for about 3 days before Dad insisted he needed the couch back and we needed to sit on real chairs for dinner.

Apparently boredom also breeds pyromania.

Scott says it's genetic and to brace myself for all the things Brenden will burn over the next few years. I guess I should be grateful for now that it's limited to candles and small things in the snow. Needless to say this activity also makes Oliver very nervous, and he constantly reports to me what's going on and asks, "does Brenden need to be done with that now?" We did finally have to put a stop to it after using up the third butane lighter.

Of course there have been craft projects too.

This one was inspired by an episode of Fetch with Ruff Ruffman where the kids went to a shoe manufacturer and got to learn about and then try designing their own shoes. Oliver had me print out about 20 copies of this shoe sketch and has been coloring them in for days. And you probably can't tell from the picture, but the toe and heal are covered with fabric -- he tells me which color and where to put it and has me cut it out and glue it down for him.

Then you know that part of Curious George rides a bike where he's delivering newspapers and then stops by the pond and folds paper boats to float in the water? Yeah we did that today too. I helped a bit with the folding part, but it was all Oli's idea.


As a matter of record keeping...

June talks a lot these days. She says Mommy, Daddy, Oliver (Wah-wah), Yo Gabba Gabba (babababa), phone (pho), sauce (used for any sort of topping whether powder or liquid), bottle (ba), Christine (Tine), baby, nigh-nigh, pacifier (fie), what, hello, bye-bye, doggie (fa-fa), and lollypop (bap-bap). When she thinks she missed something good she'll say "wha wha wha wha wha?" until you fill her in. That can get annoying.

She is yet to come up with a repeatable word for Brenden and Rachel (please don't take this personally -- she really does love both of you!). She sings along with Yo Gabba Gabba on the parts where DJ Lance says "Yoooooooo" and "break it dooowwwwnnnn". She does funny faces to try to make people laugh. She loves daddy best during the day and mommy best at night (as in won't even look at dad or play with him or let him hold her for even a second). She plays with things in 30 second spurts - her dollhouse, tea set, babies, monster trucks, hotwheels cars, the doodlepad. She's a good climber and knows all about pushing chairs and stools around to get what she wants. She loves to play in the sink filling spoons and cups and pouring from one to the other. She has a major sweet-tooth and loves to use said chairs to sneak nestle quick straight from the container.

Thanks to all of you who are willing to indulge her constant desire to talk on the phone. I know it's boring and incomprehensible, but it really does make her so excited to have an actual person responding on the other end of the line. If anyone else out there is willing to take her calls, please let us know as we are probably wearing out our standbys.

As for New Years resolutions...
I've decided there are no more excuses and I have to buckle down and cook for my family. This week was pretty good -- 5 homemade meals, only one trip to Panda Express and one pizza order on date night. It's convenient that this resolution comes in the same year that I expressly decided not to exercise as much (you get to do that when you're pregnant, right?). Oh and about that - I'm feeling fine, thanks for asking. I'm blessed to not get sick when I'm pregnant. I've heard the heart beat and had an ultrasound to confirm there's really something in there and there's only one of them. Other than that it's been rather uneventful so far.

That's it for now. Time to put the kids to bed. Over-and-out. Adios. (Can you hear the boredom dripping from my very being?! I seriously need a project.)

happy days

Guess what's totally thriving?!

That's right -- my lemon tree! It's covered in blossoms now and it smells soooo goood when I walk past the dining room (it's current indoor location right in front of the south-facing window).

Check out this awesome D.I. find.

To most of you this is just a weird looking cookie jar shaped like a squirrel with an unusually happy look on it's face. But to those of you "in the know" you'll recognize this as a Wiley family heirloom. Check out what's peeking out in the background of this picture from Thanksgiving (you might need to enlarge it to get the full effect):

This exact same cookie jar has sat in a place of honor on the counter in the Wiley's kitchen for as long as Scott can remember, and now we have one too! And of course a new cookie jar calls for a fresh batch of cookies, so that's always a happy day.

We're not sure why, but lately Oliver spends most of his leisure time

up-side-down

Guess it's time to sign him up for gymnastics!

Do you recognize this look? It's something we haven't seen June do in her whole 22 months on earth:


She actually sat still for a full 20 minutes and watched TV. She was completely mesmerized and engaged and so excited. We've searched for months for something to catch her attention. Brenden's old favorite Teletubbies, Oliver's old standby Max & Ruby, new girly shows like Carebears and Strawberry shortcake -- nothing worked. What was it finally that caught her eye?


Yo Gabba Gabba. What a weird show. But also somewhat endearing. I know it's weird or backwards to be excited for your kids to watch TV, and I guess when she grows up to be a couch potato I'll look back and eat my words, but I have to say for now it's quite nice to get a 20 minute break every once in a while.

Which is all a long winded round-about way to announce our happiest news of all:

Baby #4 will join our family in August

See there's payoff in reading all the way through the post!

We were a little nervous about telling the boys, so put it off for a while, but finally today while we were hanging out before church we broke the news. They were playing and Brenden stopped and turned around and exclaimed, "What?!" and then turned back around and continued playing. That's the last we've heard about it from him all day. Oliver did an audible "hmmm" and then went about playing his game, but then came back a while later to say, "it's just that babies are so much work!" But Oliver is actually pretty baby crazy, so even though he tried to hide behind complaints and protests, we know he's actually very excited.

heads up

I've got a hot tip for you, and you're going to thank me for it later. You know how you always seem to hear about the cool things to do after they're over and it makes you feel left out and you swear that if you ever hear about it happening again, you'll be the first one there? (oh, is that just me?) Remember when I told you about this great show that you should have gone to? Well listen closely and then do something about it -- there's still plenty of time to make arrangements and come.

Paul Jacobsen & the Madison Arm will be playing in Provo at Velour on Saturday night. This is going to be a great show. First of all the lineup is great -- The Devil Whale, Sayde Price, and Joshua James are all awesome. This is part of Velour's anniversary weekend shows and the other night will be great too but in more of a rockin' party kind of a way. This night will be about the music and everyone will be expected to be quiet (and dare I hope there might even be chairs?!) making for a great musical experience. Paul will be playing with the whole gang -- Scott, Ryan, Pat and rumor has it Mr. George Brunt might even make an appearance all the way from Spokane, WA.

the particulars:

Velour 135 N. University Ave, Provo
doors at 8:00pm
tickets $7

So don't go out of town (booo Kendricks) unless you're coming to town for the show (yay Brunts!). We'll see you there.

Need I say more?

Whenever June hears that someone might be going somewhere, she is quick to run to the door so as not to be left out. This morning she ran out like this "ready to go" with Dad to work.

Christmas just keeps on going!

More Christmas was celebrated at our house when the extended Wiley family came up for a visit. It was so great to have everyone here and we tried hard to show them a good time.

To that end, we invited the local EMTs and firemen to come hang out with us on Tuesday morning. Webb had a great time talking to them about the air suspension system on their rigs, and turned out Brenden was just fine after passing out from a fall down the stairs. Coincidentally the last time we called 911 was exactly a year ago when the Wileys were visiting last time and we thought we smelled gas (not to mention of course the trip to the emergency room for Oliver's sledding accident stitches). Of course it always makes for much excitement around the neighborhood, and now we've established a new Christmas tradition.


Once they were gone we were able to get back to the real business of the trip -- more presents. Who could have thought there was more stuff out there that we needed, but turns out there was, and it is much appreciated indeed.


Brenden is almost done with his new lego excavator, and my pink swiss army knife has already come in quite handy.

On Wednesday night we went tubing at Soldier Hollow. That was really fun and our first time to do it at night -- very fast and the cold was actually pretty manageable. On Thursday we went to Sundance for some skiing/snowboarding. Unfortunately Peter got injured on the first run, but was a good sport waiting at the bottom. Brenden did great and kept being the voice for "one more run". On the last run Scott & Brett traded skis for snowboard so that was funny to watch Brett snowplow down like a beginner. Friday we opted for a less physical activity and saw Marley & Me at the Thanksgiving Point theater. It was actually pretty cute and heart-warming, even for those of us less enthusiastic about dogs.

We rang in the new year with leftover fourth-of-july sparklers and fireworks. Then the parents all went to bed while the kids and Brett tried to stay up until midnight - in the end Brenden was the only one who made it. We were sad to say goodbye as they drove off this morning, although glad it was them who'd spend the next 12 hours in the car rather than us. Thanks for coming!

On another note, June tried out her cute new outfit from Grandma Z last Sunday, and then posed for her photo shoot -- oh I mean did everything she could to avoid looking at the camera.




















So tomorrow's task: take down the tree before it catches on fire. Then I guess back to regular life -- can't remember what that was like.