Roughin' it

Beau has been camping about once a month with the scouts in our ward since he has become the Young Men president.  This has been a great learning experience for him, but try telling your little boys that you're going camping and they aren't.  Not fun.  The day he got home this last time, as much as I'm sure he wanted to sleep in the comfort of his nice, warm, cozy bed, he told the boys they were going camping.  They didn't go far--just out the back door, but they were beyond thrilled.  

 I could see the flashlights on as they were reading books in the dark of night.  

Morning arrived and they were all bright eyed and bushy tailed!

Tyce looks like he had a rough night...he was the only one in this picture that didn't sleep in the tent!

Camping was a success!  They can hardly wait for another adventure & boys night out!

Woodbridge Wilderness

Practically in our own backyard, there is a "wilderness" area.  Ever since I can remember, its been closed.  Sad part is, it used to be open all of the time until some smart guy decided to gas the place and set fire to it all for "fun".  I just found out it is open the 1st and the 4th Saturdays of the month (with supervision at the gate)...we had to check it out!  I've been wondering for years what was behind the chained gates.

The boys were ready for some wilderness!!  When I told them where we were going, true to their nature--they both put on camo shirts, jeans and boots.  Oshyn even threw on a "safari" hat.  The excitement was awesome.

We had a little tour guide show us around.  No joke, he looked about 12, but was something fancy in the military.   

Cruz got a cut from some very dangerous grass :) which slowed him down a bit, but he survived without a band-aid for quite some time.  He wouldn't suck on it like we all advised him.

 My little tree hugger enjoying the log walking.

We saw a deer skeleton to round off the day.  They took the skull but we were able to look--not touch, the rest.  

We can hardly wait to show Daddy and Tyce the gem of wilderness in our backyard!

Funny Faces

Lover boys (& girls)

 

 Here are all of our Valentine's...can you feel the love?!?

Oshyn to Beau 

Cruz to Beau 

Oshyn to me and Gma Annie

 Cruz to the fam (kind of funny when you look at the card to him from us...)

 To Cruz from Mommy & Daddy--The SAME!

To Tyce from Mommy & Daddy

 To Oshyn from Mommy & Daddy

To Gma Annie from boys

The spread.  Pink spaghetti, not pink broccoli, some sparkling pink lemonade with some fancy cups, and strawberries, raspberries and blueberries with whipped cream for dessert.

We love to do up the little holidays with the boys.  I think they may think its okay too. 

Confused

It is the middle of February, but the weather has been so fabulous and warm that the trees think it's SPRING!  I love blossoms.

Sharing seats & Lately-isms

Tyce-isms:
I don't want a sticker! (when we enter story time at the library or the dr. office--both always offer stickers b/c most kids like them)  If by chance one makes it on the top of his hand, we may as well have given him a shot in the same place because he complains about it hurting for hours and CRIES his eyes out.  We avoid stickers.

Oshyn's school?
Tyce's swimming? (when we drive by familiar places)

I happy to see you! (to any of us when he sees us and when he's playing cars--this is what they say to each other :)

What's up dude? (when we least expect it--we can't help but laugh b/c we don't know where this one came from)

Jesus Christ was born? (he loves Bony M's "Mary's Boy Child", but says this at random times...

What's in your mouth?  Jesus Christ was born.

What do you want for breakfast? Eggs, toast, Jesus Christ was born.)

Brother Kerr is coming to town. (to the tune of Santa Claus is coming to town...???)

Going in na church? (anytime we look nice he asks us this)

Tyce always has a song in his head and walks around the house singing something almost all day.

Cruz-isms:

It's "soggy" outside today. (Foggy :)

Socks that are connected to your pants...those are called tights!

'Party Rock' has a nice beat...a COOL beat!

Cruz is very proud and honored to have a CTR ring. C=Choose, T=The, R=Right.  He received it from his Primary teacher and has been making really good choices when he wears it.  I should have gotten one sooner!

Oshyn-isms:

The goal for the year for O is to think of others first.  He has demonstrated this in ways recently without any prompts, which has been really neat.  At school they receive "otter bucks" for good behavior, getting work done, etc.  Occasionally they can cash them in at the "Otter store".  One day he came home and had bought Tyce a book with cars and Cruz a Star Wars bobble head.  I asked him what he bought for himself and he said, "Nothing".  I assumed he just didn't see anything he liked, but O told me that he didn't have any otter bucks left after he bought Cruz and Tyce their presents.  Wow.  

He's worn his contact for up to 12 hours!!  and isn't struggling with them anymore!  Yay!

The boys are obsessed with "jinxing" each other...

Cruz: Jinx!! You owe me a coconut!

Oshyn: Do I have to go all the way back to my homeland??

For about a week straight I was asked to sing the National Anthem, so the big boys could start playing baseball in the backyard.  Cruz used the tramp for his ball return net and Oshyn used the rebounder.  Good stuff.

 The "Worker Guys"

Running Partners

Tyce and I are good running jogging/walking partners these days.  He spends some time in the stroller and some time stretching his legs out and running as fast as he can.  I'm amazed at how far he can really go and laugh out loud when he tries to pull out the pouty, woe-is-me moments.  He is a cutie and occasionally asks me to get him (aka run over him with the stroller).  I love my mini exercise buddy!

The Tramp

I love this tramp and all 3 static-haired boys inside!  Oh how thankful am I that they are all safe from the hot lava because of their stepping stones.

Porta-caged animals

The good times you can have when you flip your brother's bed over and start acting ferocious.

Date Night

Cruz and I had a fun little outing on Friday night.  The rules were to hold hands whenever possible and have lots of fun.  Topics of conversation went about like this...Cruz is most excited about kindergarten because he gets to learn a whole lot more than preschool (Oshyn tells him about the Jesus Christ was born song).  He is most excited that when our baby is born he'll be bigger than two brothers.  He wants to be a motorcycle guy when he grows up--a police motorcycle, so he can help all kinds of people.

I'm 110% sure that Cruz picked this "ice cream store" because of what you see in the background.  He made sure to bring quarters along.  I deemed it a success when we left, holding hands--of course, and Cruz said, "That was soooooo fun!"  It's the little things. :)