Pinchy and Mokoi and other random things

I am not a pet person, so naturally I'd marry a man who loves animals and had 5,000 pets growing up.

Now as our children grown older, they too have grown to love animals. At times they would beg me to have a pet and I'd say no, but seeing that having pets was such a big part of Jon's childhood, I decided I shouldn't deprive them too much of the fun of having their very own pets. Jon and I decided for their first pets they could choose between a hermit crab or a beta fish.

Jaina was the first to get one after achieving a goal, which she diligently charted for several weeks. She is the most like Jon when it comes to animals. She really wanted a hermit crab ever since our neighbors showed her theirs.

The first day she got it, it pinched Jaina so she named it Pinchy.  Jaina is very literal when it come to naming things. Her baby boy doll is named 'baby boy' and the doll she got several years ago from an antique store that came with it's hand up in the air is named 'hands up'.

 Grey then wanted a hermit crab too and earned one for staying in his bed at bedtime for a whole week. After coming up with a few crazy made up names, he settled on Mokoi, which means two in Guarani (a language Jon learned on his mission and which he has taught the kids to count to three).

Grey and I went to the library the other day, and I found a book about Hermit Crabs. He made me read it to him when we got home and then he read it to his crab afterwards.

Here is Mokoi. Grey loves that Mokoi has a ghost painted on his shell.

Jon helped the kids make a house out of legos for the crabs. They let them play in it every day.

Hunter actually decided to get a beta fish, which he names Soldier and he takes care of him so well. In fact he didn't sleep in today, now that school is out for the break, just so he could feed his fish so he wouldn't starve. He is very responsible:)

But ever since Jaina and Grey got Hermit crabs, he decided they looked pretty fun so we went and got him one, too. His name is Rapido because he is so fast:) I still need to take a picture of him.

This is Pinchy.

Some other things that are going on around her is that Hunter entered this picture he drew for the school yearbook cover. It's a picture of an eagle with his school in the background. He was very excited to do this and took his time to make it just right. I think he did pretty good, wouldn't you agree?

Last week I ended up going into the OB emergency since I couldn't keep any food or water down and my contractions were not stopping. I was pretty nervous that I'd have to deliver our little babe at only 29 weeks, but luckily everything was ok and I wasn't going into labor. But for the next few days I was not feeling well and had to take it really easy. By Saturday I was feeling back to normal and so we decided to take the kids out for some fun! 

We went to Modern Display in Salt Lake. The kids loved this part of the store and I'd have to say it was my favorite part, too. I love that vintage TV.

Afterwards we went out to eat at Tonyburgers and then went to Trader Joes to stock up on Candy Cane Joe Joe's and other assortments.

This is a random picture I took of the kids a couple days ago. This is a typical school morning. Eating breakfast with the bright sun shining in. I finally got these bar stools which were 4 years in the making since we first bought our home. They love sitting up to the counter on them.

And lastly, for FHE this week, we made decorations for Scarlett's Christmas tree which we'll take to the cemetery tomorrow. The kids painted ornaments and made this pom pom garland. It was fun to do something that still makes her a part of our everyday lives:) As we sat there, we talked about how grateful we were for Scarlett. We sure miss her.

Catching up

Sooo... it's been awhile. Don't know what happened to my goal of blogging more often other than I just haven't been up to doing it, but I really need to do something with all these pictures I'm taking. I'm slowly getting more comfortable with the new camera, but I definitely need more practice:) 

I'm gonna start waaay back to April Fools Day.

It was just a regular day for everyone until we gathered around the dinner table. The kids were sooo excited to have dessert first- cupcakes and ice cream:) but it ended up just being meatloaf and mashed potatoes:(

Jaina didn't mind it so much, but Hunter doesn't like it when I disguise his food.

Then we had dirt and worms for dessert. Yum!

school papers and other random things

When my oldest child Hunter started Kindergarten last year, I often wondered what I was going to do with all those cute school writings and drawings. My parents had kept some of my best work in grade school and I am so thankful they did that. It's been fun to look back and read my quirky stories and see the little doodles I'd draw in my school journal. 

Well this past year Hunter was in 1st grade and Jaina started Kindergarten, so the papers were so much more. I couldn't believe all the work Hunter did during the year, but it definitely showed by the end of school. He is reading wonderfully and is a math whiz.

I've kept most of our kids school work in a designated dresser drawer in our kitchen and we finally got around to cleaning them out. It was so much fun reading Hunter's stories and seeing Jaina's progress in writing. They had such wonderful teachers this past year!

Grey's primary teacher taught them a lesson about bugs a few weeks ago and gave each of the children a bug catching kit.  That is Grey's thing, catching bugs and any kind of bug. He doesn't even mind holding spiders. One time he was holding one and came to show me. He said that the spider only bit him once:) Another time he had caught a slug and left it in a bowl on the kitchen table. When Hunter went to check on it, it was gone and he asked where it went. Grey said, "it slugged out":) so that is a term around our house now when something goes missing.

 Here's a snapshot of our home. This was something I remember my dad doing as we were growing up. It was fun to see how our home changed over time. This little house has become our home.

Monday, I packed a lunch and loaded the kids and we headed to Brigham City to finalize everything for Scarlett's headstone. Here it is, a lovely pink stone, just perfect for our little girl! It should be set by her birthday next month.

Afterwards we had a picnic at the cemetery. We then visited my parents and enjoyed sweet cherries right off the tree and then went to Cami's to see her cute kids and beautiful home. It was a wonderful day!

a weekend with the Pearsons

Our front room has gone through a bit of a transformation yet again. Jon teases me that it's been longer than 5 months so its due time to paint:) We sold our old white comfortable sofa in exchange for a sectional which was the best move for our family. We only have one family room/living room in the entire house so we had to make it comfortable for everyone, and somehow make it stylish, too. I'm trying to learn the art of a well balanced gallery wall and maybe one of these days I'll actually finish it. I bought this rug at Ikea. Last week I was looking at it and thought, "Hey those look like blocks in a town and roads too." so we pulled out all the play animals, guys, and cars and went to town on the rug:) We made a dinosaur museum, bug museum, zoo and a buzz lightyear home filled with Grey's collection of Buzz Lightyears. They played with it for a total of 4 minutes.

On Friday night, we decided the kids earned Happy Meals, or Sad Meals as Jon likes to put it. And then Jon and I got Pho at our favorite Vietnamese restaurant, Kim Long in Layton. I was so excited to eat it that it was pretty much gone when I thought to take a picture of it.

We then went over to the Farmington Pond and went for a walk. We love all the hidden places in Farmington. We discovered a new trail that we had so much fun on.

Then on Saturday, James and Janese and their cute kiddos came over. Jon made a delicious dutch oven dinner of lemon chicken and potatoes. Janese made a refreshing fruit dip with cinnamon chips that I am definitely going to try to make.

Father's Day weekend

Why hello there! It's been a while since I've been on here, but I'm determined to be better at journaling the happenings of our family.

This past weekend was a much needed break from the boringness going on at our house since the Summer break started. We started Saturday with a breakfast at the park for my wonderful Dad. 

Afterwards, me and my family went to listen to my brother sing in his band at Heritage Days in Brigham City. We walked around to all the booths to see familiar faces of my home town wearing pioneer clothing showing the day to day tasks that the pioneers had to do to get by. Sometimes I'm a bit envious of my ancestors. Their days were busy I'm sure, but there was lots of teaching and loving and having fun and I'm certain they didn't have the temptation to splurge their money on a nice wardrobe or  wonder where they were going to go on their next big family vacation. I bet they felt good at the end of the day for all they accomplished. 

Hunter leaned how to tie a quilt, Jaina and Grey were fascinated by the bees the beekeeper brought. And I loved watching the old lady spin wool into thread, and Jon was a trooper and followed me and my big eyes around.

Afterwards we went to the cemetery to send Scarlett our B-mail (balloon mail). This is a tradition we started maybe around her 5 month birthday. We generally send as many balloons as how old she would have been. We haven't skipped a month and I'm sure the environmentalists love that:)

Next we went to Shady Acres, our families camping spot, and cooked up some delicious hobo dinners. The kids found a snake and Jon rushed over to make sure it wasn't a rattlesnake, which it wasn't. Just a little ole garder snake with a ferocious attitude. 

We cooked up some smores. Grey didn't like how sticky they were until he realized the gooey marshmallows looked just like Spiderman webs.

Wow we did a lot this day. Afterwards we went to the Mantua Reservoir and Jon and Hunter fished, but unfortunately didn't catch anything.

 Then on the way home, we stopped on the hill side to get a quick shot with the poppies. The kids were pretty warn out by this point, but we managed to get one, somewhat normal picture.

It was a fun Father's Day. We visited Jon's parents on Sunday and saw a lot of our family there. I'm so grateful for Jon. He is a loving husband. I can talk to him about anything and I want to. He is my best friend. He is the perfect Dad for our kids. They love him!