some new year tricks

pace came running out one day grinning from ear to ear and very excited--he had a bowl full of bread "shavings".  he had gotten his very own snack!--he pulled his stool over to the counter, got out his very own "pace knife", and dug out all his own pieces of bread.  another few hilarious things pace has said:

• smells like a dentist treat, right?  (speaking of a mint truffle chocolate treat)
• i can't clean up because i don't have a spine (apparently our anatomy days are making an impact...i told him he had a spine to make the mess, so he certainly had a spine to clean up)
• a date is when everyone leaves and i'm all alone and i'm so sad (ok, this one isn't hilarious, but it's something he said, word for word.  david and i went on a date to the sacred gifts exhibit and out for dinner, and right before our babysitter came over, david asked pace if he knew what a date was.  we were ready to cancel the date right then and there!)

max has decided to start planking!--our little comic relief!  

say it with me now...

are you seriously still working on that?!

david and i stayed up on new year's eve watching some silly shows, and i painted the animals on the ark.  then finally got the rainbow in, but made it too big, and the colors weren't quite right, so i repainted it.  don't worry--that red stripe on the top got covered up.

so...here it is, all the paint that i had planned on it and finished.  my mom asked me once when i knew a painting was done, or when it needed a little more work done on it.  here is a perfect example.  the painting below is what i had planned, with exception of adding black lines to make it look like a stain glass window.  but it just looked...off.  the grey sky was the color i wanted, but it just felt like a big, yawning, vortex of a black hole, sucking everything in.  it sat for a few days, until david and i stood back and looked at it together.  he said just what i felt, "the bottom has so much going on, and the top is sort of bare."  then i woke up the next morning, knowing what to do to fix the problem!  the water is so boisterous, i had to mirror the boisterous lines up above to help bring the viewer's eye back down--the clouds needed a little bit of help--and voila!

i thought i'd just go around everything with a black sharpie and lickety-split it'd be done.  but the sharpie wasn't working with the acrylic paint, so now i'm having to use paint to go around everything with a miniscule paint brush...and it's all i've been working on during nap time for the past 2-3 weeks.  today i decided to take a break and catch up on the blog.  i still have just over two-thirds to finish...hopefully i'll be posting a completed project within the next month!

welcoming 2014 part II

 looks like i did pull out my camera for a few photos!  

the glow-in-the-dark race track:

david and i decided to walk around city creek mall and stay at the marriott for our overnight date.  we also ate dinner at the roof, the cool restaurant with the view of the temple.  the carpet in the hotel was kind of cool.  and then we went to the music and the spoken word the next morning!--we hadn't done that since before kids, so it was a fun treat.

a couple more shots from turtle day

more exploring--this must have been one morning with david

bubble rocket away!

 playing feed the woozle--doing a trick and walking backwards to feed the hungry woozle...

welcoming 2014

bishka came to ring in christmas and the new year with us!  it was fun welcoming bishka christmas night and fun for the boys to wake up to see her the next morning!  david was still working peak hours, and i had a stomach thing the first 4-5 days, so boy was it nice to turn everything over to bishka and climb back into bed!  i think i always get sick when bishka visits in the winter...it's probably psychological--i know someone else will be here to help out, so my immune system gives up and i lay in bed for a few days.  

i didn't take out the camera much while bishka was here.  good thing she has one of those newfangled iPhone things to take pictures!  i need to look into investing in one...

so, here's bishka's visit, documented via iPhone, in no particular order:

just snacking

we went to the byu art museum to check out the sacred gifts exhibit.  it was an amazing heart-touching experience, even if we the boys only lasted 20 minutes.  bishka had shown pace the paintings before we went, and so they spent some time finding all the little details that were lost in a smaller-sized reproduction.  max and i spent our time looking for the animals in paintings, and making the matching noises.  he is now an expert sheep-baa-er!  pace knows whenever we go to the art museum, we always go upstairs to the cafe for a special bishka art lunch.  the cafe was closed that day!  so we ended up heading over the kneader's instead.  we love their treats and smoothies!

exploring with bishka!  i have no problem getting up at 545am to go running in the dark with my running buddy. we hit the road in snow, rain, utah-valley-winter-smog-air, and even went when it was all of 6 degrees outside (our chins got numb by the last half mile, so we had to stop talking)!  but ask me to go on an exploring walk when the sun is up?--no thanks; it's too cold!  good thing bishka is brave and bundles everyone up!  

lots and lots of game time!  we were set between games from uncle jon erik, great mom mom, and bishka's inventive games with existing toys!  i think the race track from great mom mom was the top favorite--once we found it it glows in the dark, pace kept running around the house closing all the blinds to get the room dark enough for the track to glow!  

cooking lesson with bishka.  pace is an expert stirrer.  he and max are my little kitchen buddies--we even had to get a second step stool due to some stool wars.  so it was good for pace to have some special one-on-one kitchen time with bishka.  this visit was rice pudding with blueberries!  yum!

good morning!  my mom always complains that i post pictures of her without make up and bad hair, so this one's for you, mom!  here we are making our morning smoothies, bed head and all.  good thing these boys  love their smoothies!  my mom took notes so she could whip up a smoothie when david and i went on our overnight date.  the laundry list included: honey greek yogurt, spinach, carrots, ground flax seeds, wheat germ, oatmeal, any frozen fruit: strawberries, blueberries, cherries, blackberries, bananas...and t he kitchen sink...talk about getting their daily dose of fruits and veggies!

pizza for dinner!  let me just say--seeing myself in photos with my haircut--i love the fact that it takes me all of 20 minutes to get ready in the morning now!  love! 

ready for church--thanks for the cute outfits, uncle jon erik!

playing in the tent cave upstairs, and bishka selfies.

max being his cute self...max loves popping up and playing peek-a-boo on the stool.  

new years day was warm enough to play outside without coats!  the boys had fun playing with their new bubble rocket--david and i picked that little number up at the city creek mall on our overnight date.  

turtle day!  bishka and pace had a fun turtle day.  pillow make for good shells!

pace was in time out for hitting max, or not sharing toys--i don't remember, but those are the usual offenses.  here's visual proof:  when i put pace in time out, he kicks and cries and paws at the wall for the entire three minutes the timer is running.  the second the timer goes off, he wipes his eyes, takes a deep, breath, smiles, and walks over to me saying, "let's talk".  max decides to join pace in time out.  he'll sit next to pace, lean his head over for a hug, or pat his back.  pace tells max to go away, that he's in time out, but max hangs around.