Tyson - February 2014

Well, like in Logan's letter there really hasn't been a whole lot of excitement at our house lately.  You've taken a bit of a shine to Tessa's dress-ups, which have led to some fun blackmail pictures that you were more than happy to pose for.

At least in this one you are Tinkerbell riding a camo fourwheeler.

You also get your kicks by riding the vacuum...

and running around the house naked refusing to get dressed...

taking selfies with mom....

and chasing everyone around with the spray bottle we use for Tessa's hair.

We finally got you and Logan's bunkbeds done and moved in.  We didn't build a ladder because we didn't want you to be able to get up on the top bunk.  Well as you can imagine that plan failed because about the third day the beds were in your room you figured out how to climb up the sides and up to the top.  Sure enough you fell off, but that didn't keep you from doing it over and over again, so now your nice newly built beds are covered with a piece of cardboard and duct tape to keep you from sticking your pudgy little toes in between the slats to climb up.

 You were MAD.

We spent the night at grandma and grandpa Hillier's house one night, and you went straight to grandma's puzzle when we got there.  The next time we went over you decided to "help" by breaking up the pieces she already had put together so she could do it again.  You're always so thoughtful.

We still get to enjoy having Kyler come play in the mornings, and you just happened to be twins in your orange shirts watching Mickey Mouse or Bubble Guppies this particular morning.

A couple days before Valentine's day you and I made the cookie dough for our sugar cookies while the big kids were at school.  You were cranky (shocking), so I let you have the beater and a cookie after they came out of the oven.

You went to town on that beater, and I laughed at the cookie dough on your face in the shape and size of the beater.

We've been lucky to have such a warm winter where we have been able to get outside quite often.  You and I walked to the park one afternoon while the big kids were at school and played for a while, and I pretended like that counted as exercise.

And we've gone to the big park with the big kids after school quite a bit too.  You and Logan keep looking longingly at the pool and telling me you want to go swim.  I'm pretty excited for summer too.

The Saturday before my birthday you and Tessa stayed in Panguitch with grandma and Tinsley while me, dad, grandpa, Uncle Dusty, Quade, Bosten, Uncle Boo, and Coby went fishing.  At lunch time grandma brought you all up to have lunch with us on the shore, and we had a fun time.

You kept saying you wanted to go fishing, so dad walked you out to one of the closer holes on the ice.  Then he took you and Tess on the sled and then on the fourwheeler while he spun donuts on the ice.  You didn't like that much and came back crying.  He took me a few minutes later and I didn't fare much better than you did.

For my birthday I wanted to have a picnic and hang out outdoors for the afternoon, so after my breakfast in bed and hanging out watching Downton Abbey and just all around chilling we got some Subway and headed up to the Ponderosa Grove campground by the sand dunes to eat.

We walked around out there and then drove down the road a bit to find some sand to play in.  I took a poor picture of you holding my finger because I know that my days of this are numbered.

You totally dug the sand and had a blast throwing it up in the air as long as it landed on your brother and sister and not yourself.  We had a really fun afternoon, and I'm so glad the weather cooperated.

Because on rainy/cold days when we are stuck inside this happens:

You are such a goof and even though the thought of going out in public with you makes me want to cry, we love you so.

Love you bud,
Mom

Logan - February 2014

Well after the excitement of the holidays and the January of basketball games the rest of January and the first part of February was pretty unexciting.  I do have a picture of you flipping a coin that you asked me to take.  It's a big step in a kid's life, learning how to flip a coin.

And I took a picture of you sitting at the table with your butt-naked brother?

Then apparently we went to Junction and you guys drove me crazy playing on the arcade games and begging me for quarters for the quarter machines.

For Valentine's day I stayed up past my bedtime cutting out hearts and writing what few things I could think of on them and then sticking them to your doors.  I did this in the dark so cut me a little slack on the random placement.  As I was finishing up in the front room I could hear them falling off the door one by one, so I ran and turned on the light and took a picture so of what it looked like because I was pretty sure that they'd all be on the ground before morning.  A few stayed though, and you guys thought it was pretty fun.

Then you came out to the kitchen to find your Valentines, a box of chocolate, a balloon, and a book.  Of course yours was a Diary of a Wimpy Kid book - the Do-It-Yourself one you saved up to buy.  It came earlier than we expected, so I decided to wrap it up for you and give you 3 of your hard-earned dollars back since that's how much I spent on Tessa's book.  You were pretty okay with that deal.

For your Valentine box you requested something, you guessed it, Diary of a Wimpy Kid.  I had NO clue what to do, so I paper mache'd some notebook paper to a box and then kind of gave you an outline of the face to draw, but when it came down to it you were the one who drew the face.  It may not have been spectacular with lights and moving parts, but you were pretty proud of it, and it did the job of holding all your Valentines from your friends.  Apparently your teacher has been calling you Mr. Awesome (like you need a bigger head), and some of your Valentines were even addressed to Mr. Awesome.

The Saturday of President's Day weekend we went fishing at Panguitch Lake with Grandpa Rob, Me, Dad, Uncle Dusty, Quade, Bosten, Uncle Boo, and Coby.  You and Quade had fun being drug out on the ice on the sled behind the fourwheeler.

As usual, you had more fun goofing off on the ice than you did fishing, and we got after you quite a bit to stick by your pole.  You couldn't figure out why everyone else was catching fish and you weren't, but you didn't stick around long enough to know if you had a bit.  You boys had fun though, and after we were done fishing Grandma, Tess, Ty, and Tinsley met us at the shore for a fun lunch.  Grandpa, Dad, and Uncle Boo decided to push their luck and took you out on the fourwheelers to spin donuts on the slick ice.  Talk about giving your mom a heart attack!  There was open water at the edge of the lake, and we got to see one of the fish cops dump his fourwheeler through it.

There's really not a whole lot else going on.  I finally put my foot down on our last trip to the library and said no more Wimpy Kid books.  It's all you talk about, and you've checked them each out of the library at least twice.  It's kept you from reading other books that you could test on at school to help meet your goal of 500% of your reading goal this year.  Plus I want you to see that there are more books out there that you will love.  It's hard right now though because they just tested you at school, and you're reading at a 5th grade 1st month reading level, and a lot of those books are a little more "heavy reading" than I'd like for you right now.

Other than that...yup, this is a pretty boring letter.  I'm even struggling to come up with some motherly advice today.  I will say, again, and maybe by the time you've read this you will have heard it enough that you believe it, but be nice to your brother and sister.  They'll be your best friends when you need them.

Love you bud,
Mom

Tessa - February 2014

Tessa Sue, Tessa Sue what am I going to do with you?  Not a whole lot has changed in the past month, and I was busy taking videos every day that I didn't get a whole lot of pictures.

We went up ice fishing on New Year's Day, and the fishing was crummy.  We all got skunked (except dad, he never gets skunked, but he only caught one), but you and I had a fun time chilling in the shack eating cookies and watching down the holes for fish to swim by.  I was getting pretty grumpy and frustrated (ice fishing isn't all that fun if you aren't catching fish), and at one point you sweetly asked, "Um, how long are we going to stay here?"  I said I didn't know and it depended on your dad, and you replied, "Oh.  So.... is this all we're going to do?"  Yep, pretty much!  Ice fishing when you aren't catching is pretty much just sitting on a frozen lake for a few hours!  You were a good sport though and never really complained.  Plus I know your dad loves it that you like to go do that kind of stuff.  He was gone for 2 weeks this month with a Saturday home in between, and when he asked what we should do on his only day at home with us you said, "I know!  Let's go shoot guns!"  Oh girl, it's so funny because you are sucking up to him without even knowing it.  Way to get him wrapped even tighter around his finger before you turn into a teenager.

At the beginning of this year we started watching Teresa Kabonic's little boy Kyler.  He and Tyson are only about 6 weeks apart, but this age isn't the best for sharing and playing together.  They get along okay, but I sure am glad to have you here when he is here to help me referee!  I always hear you playing the "mom" and trying to dissolve problems or drama and sometimes literally coming right between them to keep them on their best behavior.  You love to "mother" and will be such a great one someday.

You have this habit of sitting or perching or laying on the couches in ANY way that is not normal.  Whether it is laying across the very top of the couch, sitting on the arms, or hanging upside down over the arms.  We've told you a hundred times to just sit, but it still hasn't clicked, and you've fallen off more than once!  One day you and Ty were arguing about who was there in that particular spot first, and he just pushed you right off the edge of the couch where you hit the box that holds all his wood blocks.  I was in the kitchen and about to tell you to stop crying when I saw blood coming from your mouth.  It freaked me out and I thought for sure we'd be headed to the ER, but it turns out it wasn't too bad of a cut.  Poor girl though.  I know it had to hurt pretty bad, but you were a trooper and let me doctor it up.  Even after you caught me trying to put some alcohol on it after you'd fallen asleep you told me it didn't sting too much and let me finish up.  Lucky for us you made a full recovery within a couple days, and the scar isn't too bad.  Whenever Tyson meets someone new the first thing he says, still, is "I pushed Tessa off the COUCH!"  I'm not sure what we're going to do with that kid.

Between the time you get out of school and the time Logan gets out we have about 20 minutes to sit and wait, so we drive to the school and get a good parking spot and hang out in the car.  This is when I get to hear all about your day - who you played with, what your snack was, and the newest gossip with the 3-5-year-old set.  From what I can tell you play with just about everybody in your class and have a lot of fun with them.  One day as I was picking you up one of the boys in your class who is in your primary class at church yelled from the fence, "I love you, Tessa!"  I got a pretty good laugh out of that until you told me that another boy had told you the same thing earlier that day!  Your teachers love you too and continue to tell me what a sweet girl you are.  Between all that love and praise and taking selfies in the car while waiting for Logan and asking me if I think you are pretty, I think we better make sure your head doesn't get too big!

You love to eat waffles or pancakes morning, noon, and night.  The last couple nights you've actually eaten what I've made for dinner and proclaimed, "This is my favorite dinner ever!"  When I asked you if it was better than pancakes or cereal though you quickly changed your mind!  It's a good thing you guys like the easy stuff for dinner because that's usually what you get when dad's out of town.  You love to play "kitties," pet shops, horses, and color.  You love to go to school but don't care so much for homework (I know, writing the letter "h" 10 times can be exhausting).  You love the idea of earning money by helping me clean but not so much the actual cleaning.  You are just an overall silly, goofy, sweet girl who makes our family awesome.

I don't know what we were talking about, but the other night dad said, "I never did want a girl, but I'm sure glad we have one.  I can't imagine our family without her."  I couldn't have said it better myself.

Love you sis,
Mom