My Brilliant Child (One of them)

Tamsyn had to memorize and perform part of Patrick Henry's speech for school. She got 12/12!


Doesn't that speech just give you goosebumps?!

Tamsyn made this on her itouch when she was trying to memorize. Like I said. Brilliant!

Getting my craft on

I found this on Pinterest (I feel so, I don't know, modern when I say that!) I loved loved loved the color and the Valentines feel it added to my house.

 Sylas saw what I was doing, got excited, and had to add his artwork to the wall. I left it. It makes me happy when I see it.

I saved all those little hearts I cut out, pretty sure I would find a purpose for them, and I did. I had to make 70 cutesy invitations to announce the Relief Society Meeting in February.  I actually am opposed to spending time in my calling on things that have no purpose (such as hours spent on cutesy, fluffy invitations). I can get the same point across with less money and time spent on it. Black ink printed on white paper. Good 'nuf. But, alas, I am a hypocrite. I spent half my Saturday making these. They are cute though...

It's a service auction! The Sisters provide the goods, and we provide the "money." The goods could be anything from jams, crocheted items, or services such as volunteering to wash windows, babysit, organize your closets, etc.  I am excited to see what I win! (Not so excited to be in charge, but such is my lot in life. One must not complain, sigh)

My husband is AWESOME

Our vacuum died. My 800 dollar vacuum. Yes I paid that much for it, and totally worth it. Best. Vacuum. Ever. I've had it for 10 years, and it has served me faithfully. But Sylas decided to give it a hug while standing on it, leaned on it and SNAP. Something inside broke, and its mighty suction power was no more. I was mourning the loss of a true friend and contemplating the purchase of a less worthy Red Devil (aka red wimp) when Lohn did some googling and decided he would try to fix it. He ordered the part and put it back together. I took this picture because he wanted me to see what he was up against. But my wonderful brilliant AMAZING husband put it together again, every bolt, and it WORKS! I was giddy to be vacuuming my house again after two weeks.

Our van has been a great source of embarrassment to me lately. The poor thing has over 200,000 miles on it and it sounded like a Harley. Vrmmmmm VRMMMMM!  So once again, my fantabulous, brilliant husband did some Googling, and decided he could replace the muffler by himself. Here is the new part.

And here is the muffler he took off. What a rusted piece of junk! FYI, my van is now as silent as a mouse, and my neighbors no longer know when I'm coming home :D

And here is a project my husband took on after helping Tamsyn with her science homework about circuits (she was struggling with it) and after reading a school book to Gunnar about magnets and how you can make electric motors from them.  He decided to make a practical lesson about motors and magnets and this is what he made. Our kids were fascinated by it, and Tamsyn even took it to school to show her science class, and hopefully got some extra credit points from it.

In short, my husband is so wonderful. He's a car mechanic, repairman, and scientist. He's the best dad ever, I couldn't have picked a better man. Also I am thankful to my Heavenly Father for giving my husband the ambition and knowledge to fix these necessities.  We have saved thousands because he fixed them himself.  Life is good!

Sylas's prayer at dinner time (assisted by Lohn)

 Sylas: Dear Hebenly Fodder
            Thank you for this day
Lohn: Please bless the food
Sylas: No, Peas bess Gamma!
Lohn: Um Yeah. And please bless Tamsyn and Mommy and Daddy that they will get better
Sylas: Yeah.
Lohn (stifling a laugh): In the name of Jesus Christ
Sylas: 'MEN!

Sylasoudini

Want to take a guess as to why he does this every single day?

This last picture should give you a clue.
 He HATES having a wet shirt, so he does this weird arm up and under and through the shirt thing.

Also, a favorite saying of Sylas's is "My do it!"  He uses "My" to replace all of his I'll, I'm, and Me's.  

He will be three soon. My baby isn't a baby anymore. When did that happen?!

He had a temperature of 105.4 around midnight four nights ago. That threw Lohn and I into a panic. We heard him moaning in his sleep and we checked on him. I've NEVER had a kid get that hot. We gave him medicine, took off all his clothes, turned on the fan and the heat off. He was oddly happy and talkative though. He told Lohn and I all sorts of stuff, most of which we couldn't understand. His fever broke from the medicine about 30 minutes later, and it never came back. Weird. (Can I also say I really hate it when my kids are sick? I was a nervous wreck that night, shaking like a leaf.)

Oh, and he threw up last night. He seemed really confused about it. I don't think he's ever thrown up before. But once again, he was happy as pie, and didn't act sick at all.  He was dancing and growling at us, and being his normal self. :)

D.C. for Martin Luther King Jr. Day

The Hope Diamond.  It was pretty, but I would rather wear some of the other gems I saw there.

We were planning on spending a few days of our spring break in DC. After this day, we changed our minds. Sylas was awful. We are never taking him to a museum again. Ever.  He wouldn't stay in his stroller, screamed if we tried to make him, and ran away from us and hid when he got out.  The leash was a disaster. It lasted two minutes. Once he figured out he was strapped to me, he flopped to the ground and howled.  Okay, we MIGHT go again if we administer some tranquilizers. I'm pretty sure Benedril wouldn't cut it folks.

Lunch with  Amy and Ryan family. Mara (11) is in the very back, Kyle(10) is in the black with his hand on his head (him and Ander are good buddies), Dasha(14) is in the orange, Liam(7) is sadly not in this picture but him and Gunnar are good buddies. And Mason (3) is in the gray hoodie. Sylas and him played really well together. It makes my heart happy to be so near family and cousins :)

Triplewart Devil fish. Why have we never heard of this one? Why does the Angler fish get all the glory? This one is just as creepy.

Pocahontas State Park

We are getting to be professionals at finding free things to do. I figure we will do all the free stuff now, and someday when we have a little more wiggle room in our budget, we will do the expensive stuff then!

We liked this/these trees. Two different kinds of trees, hugging.

It was a little monochromatic, but still very beautiful. I suppose in the summer there would be too many leaves to see anything, so maybe this is better.


Fun times. Look, no coats, not even jackets. Virginia winters agree with me folks.

I also wanted to share the following video. It is one of my favorite Mormon Messages. It meant a lot to me just a few short months ago, when I was scared that Lohn wouldn't find a job. There are good things to come!

Tamsyn torturing Sylas

Our week

On Saturday, we announced that we were going to the beach for the day. We told the kids "We aren't going to get wet!" And for good reason. It is January. It should be cold. And while it wasn't humid and hot, it was a nice sunny day of 65 degrees. And of course our kids got wet.

Their favorite game was trying not to get wet, and running away from the waves after they got as close to them as they could.
Good thing we were smart enough to bring a change of clothes...
Yeah, this pretty much ended our day at the beach. We were parked several blocks away, and while 65 degrees is nice, it isn't nice enough to be completely sopping wet. We are only 2 hours away from Virginia Beach and the Atlantic Ocean. And it only cost us in gas money. We will be going again soon.

And now a short blurb about my nerdiness.

I love to coupon.

I get really excited over free deodorant.

I love love love saving money.
Kelloggs cereal- 1.50 a box after coupons (all coupons are doubled at Kmart this week) and a five dollar gift card when I buy 8 boxes. Yes, there are 2 boxes of fruit loops. Go ahead. Judge me.

4 Dawn dish soaps- 1.37 each after Krogers digital coupons, and manufacturers coupons from the Sunday paper.

Lady speed Stick deodorant- 59 cents after Krogers deal of .88 per deodorant, and after coupons.

Soft soap- .38 each after Kroger deal of .88 per bottle with my .50 of coupons.

Penne Pasta- clearance rack for 1.00 at Kmart

Pants for Tamsyn- 7 dollars each from clearance rack at Target. (Her jeans all disappeared. She didn't grow out of them. They. Just. Disappeared. Yeah I know, I don't get it either)

Church shoes for Tamsyn- 8 dollars. Also from the clearance rack. And I wish they were in my size.

Grand total? 46 dollars for everything. And half that was for Tamsyn's jeans and shoes.

I think I like being a coupon nerd....