Springtime is officially here as we set up the trampoline on Saturday and the kids rejoiced. I was feeling optimistic about doing it faster than last year...but I made a few mistakes that required me to literally set up the whole thing again after it was just about done. We had a small Easter Egg hunt thanks to Lehi city planting some eggs in our lawn (Kas was amazingly quick to the draw to sign up for one of the limited opportunities for that so we could have this). Some things take longer for me to learn than others! Kas and I had a fun date going to see The Courier mid-week, courtesy of some free tickets from a local networking group.
Distributing Easter eggs equally
Hinckley has really taken off with an interest in the solar system again, dusting off a book we gave him a year or two ago and working to understand all the details of what he’d need to plan for if he decided to go spend a few months on one of Saturn’s moons. When we were reading one of his storybooks the other evening he suddenly asked me, “Could I build a website?” and I thought of Google Sites and said “Yes”. He started and was enthralled with it all, and is very eager to complete it. I believe it is mainly due to the love of building, but he is also curious if anyone will visit his site. It is really wonderful to behold when his spats of creativity take over and he gets building. We've added his YouTube playlist of 9 lego creation videos to the site which is pretty fun. He is frequently frustrated with the fact that he doesn’t have his own phone or computer. Apparently, everyone has a video game console he says, and everyone has a phone, and one kid has a virtual reality headset, etc etc. I just hope that he eventually will appreciate the fact that he doesn’t need these things and hopefully will avoid early addiction to these devices. It is tough!
Addie is loving her dance class, ever since agreeing she doesn’t need to wear tights to dance she hasn’t had any problem going. That has been so great! She loves going through the ‘secret passage’ with me as I now park in the adjacent parking lot to make it easier to get in and out of the dance studio parking lot. Kas found a good bike on KSL that better fits Addie's growing legs and I got that setup and good for her on Saturday which she was pretty excited about. She is making some big progress with reading and numbers at school and continues to draw lots of wonderful and fun things (e.g. Jesus on a Unicorn).
A princess vampire
Greyson treats his water bottle like one of his treasured stuffed animals. It has to go with him everywhere. Unfortunately, this means he wants to guzzle lots of water right before bed...and then when he has to use the bathroom at midnight he feels the need to scream his head off uncontrollably. We are working on ways to throttle back this water habit. He and I had a fun date on Saturday going to FatCats in Saratoga Springs. They have a huge arcade there which was pretty intense. He kept saying, “FatCats is fun!” We were both a little overwhelmed at the sounds and sights as it was incredibly loud with flashing colors everywhere. And I imagine with him being small it was extra crazy. We went and got some soft-serve ice cream at Macey's afterward which was just right. He said, "I love Macey's! It is the best New Years Ever!" I think the last part comes from a quote from Cory Carson, a Netflix TV show he loves.
Playing board games with Smutty and Elephante
Arcade adventures at FatCats
Goofy face with chocolate ice cream at Macey's
March 21, 2021
We had a full week beginning with Monday when Hinckley and I went up to Alta to ski. The kids had the day off from school so I took off from work and we went up and had a great time! The weather was warm and given it was a Monday in mid-March there weren’t many people there at all. After some initial struggle we got things figured out and he was going down the mountain really quick. They have 2 free rope tows and a small lift and so we were able to practice getting on and off the lift easily without lots of pressure and people. It was great! He loved just doing straight down and then either falling to stop or doing a right-heavy pizza.
Hinckley ready to take off down the hill
Lunch break at Alta
St Patrick's day brought a fun morning with visits from the Leprechaun who brought chocolate coins and books from Shel Silverstein. Hinckley has been reviewing those this week and it is fun to read those with him. Hopefully, the other kids will be interested in them too in the coming years. I enjoyed going with Addie to music class and she just loves it so much and is always eager to participate and learn. It is great to be with her in those moments in supporting her stepping out into uncertainty.
St Patrick's Day Dinner
Friday both Hinckley and Addie had friends over at various times and it was fun to hear their conversations and activities as I was working. Addie had to go to the principles office today to explain what occurred during recess when both her friends turned on her and pushed her into a fence. It was a little pathetic and silly hearing about that experience but luckily she seemed to come out of that relatively unscathed or bitter. Kids are amazing like that it seems. Mom and Dad came over to put the kids down for bed as Kassie and I went out to eat at a Mediterranean "street food" restaurant, a place we hadn’t been before but it was tasty. Afterward, we took a walk by the lake despite it being a little chilly. The day overall was really beautiful and warm and the weather is warming up and things are starting to turn green!
I had a few adventures with updating toilets this week including retooling everything in the kids' bathroom toilet and installing a more permanent toddler seat in the downstairs bathroom. While not my favorite thing to be doing over the course of a week, it feels good when you finally figure out a problem and solve it!
March 14, 2021
Wow, another week gone! It is hard to believe sometimes how time is flying by. We had some friends from AZ come by to visit on Friday and the kids had a great time playing together and Kassie was able to have a good visit with her good friend Amy. I watched Space Jam with the kids on Saturday after taking them for a very quick viewing of the UVU Roots of Knowledge room. And beyond these things, it was a very normal week!
Addie's Space Jam Masterpiece
Hinckley had a few moments of creative insight and built a small cardboard home for his Blobfish slippers, including a school and complete with a rooftop and chimney. Addie is really into drawing and as soon as the movie was done drew a really cute set of space aliens, Bugs and Lola Bunny, and Michael Jordan. She was overjoyed this week with new PJs and we ordered some shoes as it turns out her feet are 2 sizes too big for her current ones...she's been growing like crazy! And has been having some growing pains at night this week. Greyson got a little football from our neighbors this week and his favorite activity is running around the house throwing it at things. He continues to insist that when he grows up he'll be a construction working basketball player. When we drove by UVU and I pointed out the baseball and soccer fields he said something to the effect of, "I can play sports here too!"
Blobbys at school
I had a full week at work as a lot of my strategic research is moving into the presentation to executives and development phases which is exciting. I also completed a survey of learning professionals to gather ideas on things to do with my podcast and realized that I really get a rush from gathering data and making sense of it. But on a very small scale!
March 7, 2021
This week Hinckley started "Level 2" in gymnastics, something he's been working toward for a month or two. He loved it! it was just him and another boy and based on his report seemed much more challenging which he enjoyed. With him changing levels it is now at a later time and is the first extracurricular event we've had that coincides with dinner time. It felt very strange to have a family dinner without Hinckley there and in some ways felt like one of those little moments that add up to a child growing up and leaving.
Addie loves music and she had a blast with Kassie attending her class with her. She is always so happy and singing loudly and participating. She really lights up! And Greyson is pretty much all clear on the Potty Train. He continues to act the part of the baby, eliciting lots of remarks about his cute faces and mannerisms and basking in the attention that comes with that.
Marble track fun
Coloring time
Visiting with Grandpa H before Sunday Dinner
Hinckley's Temple creation for FHE
This weekend we did a very small trip to Arches, going down Friday afternoon and returning about 24 hours later. It was a beautiful time to be there and just the right amount of things without anyone getting too overwhelmed or exhausted while still seeing some great sites and getting in some good hikes. Hinckley had the idea as his teacher had mentioned that with their day off (Friday was a teacher prep day) the students could go see something like Arches. And so we did and he was pretty excited that we had agreed to his idea. That is such a beautiful place in the world, and other than a couple screaming fits and a handful of arguments it was much even more wonderful to be there with our whole family. As soon as we got out of the car Greyson eyed a towering wall of red rock and pronounced, "That is a BIG Mt. Krumpet! And a Grinch lives in a cave up there!" The Sand Dune Arch was the all-around kid favorite as they really enjoyed all the sand, including Greyson's digger which he had brought along.
Life is good! Maybe our trials have changed our attitude or maybe things really have gotten better. Either way, 2014 is already looking happy, bright, and beautiful! Greg LOVES his new job. The environment is great and he likes all of his co-workers. Plus, he gets to make films for work! As a media arts major, it is pretty hard to land a job with a steady paycheck right out of college. This one just kind of fell into Greg's lap. The stark contrast between his previous job as a teacher and this one is like night and day. And believe me, the ripple effect of this has spilled over into our home; it's like a breath of fresh air! Hinckley has been very active lately and is already starting to assert his independence. He is 17 1/2 pounds and 28 inches tall. He just discovered how much he loves rolling over, so he does it all the time now. I think he would like to be running and on the move if he only knew how to do it! He also loves food. So far he has only eaten rice cereal
Tomorrow is our baby's due date! We don't think he will come tomorrow, but one never knows. Here are some pics from this week. School is going pretty well for me, though I transition to writing/reading from doing math for the past two weeks so I am a little nervous about that. The view from the bus just before I get off and start teaching for the day. Usually I am barely awake at this point. Awesome panorama of our classroom. It has taken a lot of work to get all this stuff up, but it could still use lots more! Here is a view of the front of the classroom, along with our space ship behavior chart and so forth. I decided to see what would happen if I didn't shave during the week This was the result. Kas is feeling quite big, and ready for the man child to come out! This week Kas learned how to make homemade yogurt - or at least how to extend the yogurt you already have. The latest creative masterpiece from Kassie is this little elep
The final product of "make me a match" that I labored over exceedingly. I was actually sort of unhappy with it all not because of the performances of anyone but mainly just the story. We had to write all so quickly and the re-write it time after time and then storyboard it and really break it down. In all this rush I didn't realize till I was actually shooting it that I really didn't care much for the story as a whole and thus my motivation suffered greatly. I don't think I need to tell epic dramatic tales to care about them but I do want to have a strong point and also a specific conflict or issue that is approached and resolved. I am starting a screen writing class tomorrow and possibly I will gain some insights as to how to develop good stories. Ones that I care about. I don't know why I feel so interested in telling stories - particularly in that I haven't felt very confident with the stories I have come up with. It is extremely hard for me to come up
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