Happy Birthday Dad!

I hope you had a great birthday Dad. I spent the day on an airplane with children...thinking about how much more fun it would be to be enjoying your birthday dinner and cake and presents with you! Sorry we missed you. Hope you heard our pathetic birthday singing on the answering machine. Will says he thinks you want "video games and a play station" for your birthday. He hasn't quite grasped that what other people would like is not always the same as what he would like.

In honor of your birthday I am not posting the picture of you and Kyle when you won The Amazing Dickerson Family Race last Christmas (you know...after taking the fast forward and going in the hot tub and then having to walk through the snow and then posing in towels in front of the fireplace). But just remember that I have it.

Happy Birthday! See you Thursday and we'll have a good time.

Love,
Erin, Bryce, Will and Sawyer

I really am talking to myself

I came downstairs from showering the other day to discover that Sawyer had smeared a stick of butter over every surface he could reach in the kitchen. I responded by chastising him...immediately...repeatedly...and possibly...loudly.

As I was, shall we say, verbally expressing my frustration Sawyer walked over to the junk drawer and started rifling through it. He pulled out of pair of foam ear plugs, stuck one in each ear, said "Too loud in here Mommy" and walked out of the room.

He is 2. I might as well give up now.

Oh, and it appears he smeared the butter because he took a giant bite out of it and was mad that "it not cheese!"

not to mention...

We returned from Wyoming to find a cleaned-up house (including the boys' bedrooms and the FRIDGE) and a pan of freshly-baked brownies on the counter. There are good elves at my house.

Why, why, why Wyoming

We spent the weekend in Wyoming. Laramie to be specific. My brother was in Laramie for the week so we drove out to visit. We also went to the BYU vs. Wyoming game that happened to be the same weekend. The boys did remarkably well on the drive there and back. They slept most of the time both ways. Which is good, because if they had acted the way they usually act in the car I would still be recovering from a total mental breakdown. And let me just say, I wasn't even doing the driving, but the drive across Wyoming on 1-80 is one boring drive. And I have spent a fair amount of time as a passenger in a car on some boring drives. (The state of Nebraska comes to mind here too.)

Will got to "hang out with Uncle Evan" which is high up on the list of his favorite activities. Will spent most of the weekend toting around Evan's old still-semi-functioning cell phone. He kept pressing buttons really intently and we asked what he was doing and he said he was "texting Sophs" and "sending her pictures." Oh my. The thought of that child at 14 is truly frightening. We took the boys across the street to the pre-game festivities and Will wanted to go on an inflatable obstacle course. I told him he had to give me the cell phone first. He handed it to me and I put it in the diaper bag. When I looked back at him he was busy "texting" on another cell phone that he had stashed in his pocket. He obligingly handed it over. I put it in my bag only to look back and find that he was now using a THIRD cell phone which he had also stashed in his pocket. Sawyer got to play with Paul and chase the "puppies" which were really cats. Sawyer was disappointed that Paul didn't come home with us and kept asking "Where's Po? Where's Po?" on the way home. Bryce and I spent 3 hours at the football game with no children and also got to hang out with Uncle Evan and Laurel.

A grand time was had by all (well maybe not Laurel and Evan...but that's what you get for inviting us!...but you didn't think we'd actually show up did ya?!) Heh heh heh.

For anyone who doesn't follow BYU sports (cough, cough 90% of the people who might read this)...Wyoming fans are not particularly fond of BYU fans. Like in the physical violence and destruction of property type of way. Luckily, Laurel and Evan provided our boys with some camouflage. And we used it. Don't judge.

And turns out we only spotted one BYU-insulting middle-aged man during our stay. And his biggest insult seemed to be that we "think Provo is so much better than Laramie, but Laramie has everything Provo has...except Provo has a mall." Yes, he actually said this...and meant it to put the BYU-wearing fans in front of us in their place. I guess it is hard to think of much to say when you just got beat 52-0.

Halloween by night

Mollie was about to change into her costume. (RDRR)

And this is the only picture that was actually taken on Halloween night. Will kept running out the door trying to join up with every passing horde of trick-or-treaters. Sawyer was busy having a melt-down because we woke him up from a late nap following the dinosaur museum. Once they got back from trick-or-treating, Will was too busy tearing into candy to take a picture and Sawyer was too busy having a melt-down every time a trick-or-treater came to the door. He would grasp desperately for the candy bowl screaming "My candy! My candy!" every time I gave some away. He was definitely not okay with the idea of people coming to our door and taking our candy away right in front of him.

Sawyer asked to be Popeye. I bought a box set of the old black and white Popeye cartoons from Big Lots for $3 and the boys love them. I love that they are learning the virtues of random violence, domestic abuse, and ethnic stereotypes. Ah, the good old days. On the plus side, both of the boys are much more willing to eat vegetables.

Will wanted to be Indiana Jones. Actually Will wanted to be Indiana Jones last year...but so did every other boy born in the 2000s and after going to about 5 stores looking for Indiana Jones costume pieces I talked him into being a robot instead. I thought to myself "Surely, he will have moved on and forgotten all about Indiana Jones by next year." Alas, the year came and went and he was still obsessed. So this year he finally got his wish. He also planned out his next 5 years' worth of costumes: "next year Popeye, then a giant lego, then a dad, then a bobblehead." We'll see.

Sawyer still wears his sailor hat all day, every day. I bought it as a decoration for our nautical nursery a good 2 years before he was born, so I guess it was just waiting to meet its true owner all this time.

Halloween by day

We decided we needed to take advantage of Halloween being on a Saturday and not just sit at home all day waiting for trick-or-treating. Well, ok, I decided we needed to go do something and other members of the household came along for the ride. We took a chunk out of the boys' college fund and went to the Dinosaur Museum. Seriously, that place is kind of pricey. Our later children will probably complain that they never got to go to the museum. Sorry about that later children. We'll make up for it by letting you be the ones to take care of us when we're old! I tried to take the boys over the summer on a $2 Tuesday, but upon seeing the line we quickly bailed out of that plan. Halloween was a perfect day to go. They had some little Halloween activities for the kids and the place was almost totally empty. We saw other people maybe a half dozen times as we spent over 2 hours wandering around. I think we got our money's worth.

They aren't clawing each other's eyes out! That alone is worth $30.

Big dinosaur. Little boys.

They especially loved having the water and sand tables to themselves. Will was a little possessive of his dinosaur parade (and possibly a little possessed too).

Boys at work. Sawyer wouldn't dig for bones until he had hoarded all the brushes.

Son, just send the therapy bill to your father.

Howl-een

I wasn't sure it was gonna happen, but we managed to carve pumpkins the night before Halloween. Neither of the boys would help clean out the insides..."disgusting!" Sawyer helped a little bit, but only with a spoon. Will wouldn't touch it at all and kept complaining about the smell. I'll admit, pumpkin insides do have a rather distinctive smell.

Will carefully planned out his design with a marker.

Wow, good drawing Will! Just kidding...he drew a googly eye-ed face on the other side.

We're just a little tiny bit into Transformers at the moment.

Bryce bought me this song by request and I used it to make a picture music video for a friend. (Yes, it is from the Jon & Kate commercial, but since we all know how that is going I have no problem appropriating it.) Then I decided I needed my own video and spent an hour looking for another song to go with the pictures...but eventually decided I like this song the best for my own video too. I used the super easy Picasa video maker. The only thing I can't figure out is why the pictures look low resolution and some of the colors get messed up when you put them in the video maker. They don't look that way otherwise. Only biological relations are required to watch a video of my kids. The rest of you (if any) are welcome to go do something more amusing.

What I've read since the Bar Exam

The last time I updated my sidebar was right after the Bar Exam. Which was February 2008. I guess it is time for an update. I saved a few library receipts so we'll see what I remember about the books I've read in the past year and a half. In no particular order:

Eat cake: a novel
- light and fluffy, like eating cake

The mermaid chair
- What would be better than a story about a bored middle-aged woman having an
affair? Why, if she had the affair with a monk, of course. The other elements
of the story were interesting, but I just wasn't feeling sympathetic towards
the main character.

The tenth circle: a novel
- by Jodi Picoult...need I say more?

Salem Falls
- by Jodi Picoult.

Legally correct fairy tales
- Hmm...I really don't recall at all. Hard to believe that legalese wouldn't be
memorable.

The future homemakers of America
- Fine, but one of those books that doesn't know when to stop. The story went on
a little too long.

The day I ate whatever I wanted: And other small acts of liberation
- A collection of short stories about women and their neurosis of which I
remember very few details.

The sand castle
- A family goes to the beach...and I don't recall too much of what happened there.

Death by cashmere: A seaside knitters mystery
- A slightly mysterious tale

Them
- by Joyce Carol Oates. A story about a depressing life based on letters Ms.
Oates received from a former student. I hope the student's real life wasn't as
bad as the life depicted in the book.

**The Friendly Persuasion
- A set of short stories about a Quaker family. Understated and insightful. I
really enjoyed this one.

"But a woman lived in a house, not outdoors. A sunset didn't come inside, light the wall behind the kitchen range so's she could see it while cooking supper; clouds taking this shape or that didn't settle down on the mantelpiece to keep her company while mending. The prettiness a woman saw, she had to make, she had to build it up from odds and ends. Did Jess ever note her handiwork? The articles embroidered, painted, stenciled, gilded, dyed? The combcases, footstools, doilies, tidies, fire screens, rugs, penwipers, lambrequins? Did he see how the bareness of timber and stone had been hidden and softened, until the room, to her eye, showed itself as prettier than any cloud, and not to be outdone, even, by a rose."

Yesterday's weather
- I very, very rarely do not finish a book. I didn't finish this one. It is a
collection of short stories and I didn't find any redeeming qualities in them.
Bad language and depressing subject matter do not a classic make.

Bee season: a novel
- A book about a little girl who competes in spelling bees...no wait, that is
what I thought it was. Actually a book about a little girl who competes in a
spelling bee in the first chapter of the book and then in the space of a year
her family goes off the deep end while she prepares for the next spelling bee.

The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency: Books 1-4
- I wouldn't call these suspenseful, or all that mysterious...but they are an
easy, enjoyable read.

The Devil Wears Prada
- Wow, Hollywood actually improved upon a book and made it cleaner at the same
time? Seriously, they did. The book falls short.

Julie and Julia
- Wait, Hollywood made a movie that is better and cleaner than the book again?
Yes, they did. The book has very little driving the plot (if you can call it
that) and even less to recommend it by way of writing style and language.

The 5 People You Meet in Heaven
- Memorable, in an odd sort of way. Not what I was expecting.

The Maytrees
- I don't think I'm smart enough to understand half of what this book was
saying. It did make me want to go hang out on Cape Cod though.

My Name is Asher Lev
- I don't think I know enough about Judaism to really get this book.

The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet
- A quirky book about a quirky kid. An interesting read, but it takes a giant
leap into fantasy at the end of the book. Seriously, I think a fantasy
writer found this unfinished manuscript in an attic somewhere and thought "hey,
I'll just come up with an ending to this book really quick." I'm still
perplexed by what happened there.



Re-reads:

Anne of Green Gables 1-8
- Don't be surprised when you want to move to Prince Edward Island and live at
Ingleside. Beautifully written stories from a long-ago era. Nothing
scandalous need apply.

The Secret Life of Bees
- Some memorable images and an interesting story line. Definitely preferred the
book over the movie.

Wuthering Heights
- I finally made it through the whole book this time. Sorry Heathcliff, but you
just aren't my favorite.


Those are all I can think/find the library receipts for.

On an unrelated note, Sawyer's bedtime prayers lately crack me up. This was tonight's: "Father...Monster trucks jump over cars...pizza, cheese, chicken, juice, napkins, fruit snacks, pickin' carrots...Amen." He just lists things that he likes. Awesome.

Dusk at the Big Red Barn

I can't figure out how to make these pictures not ginormous. More specifically, I set them all to be the same size so I can't figure out why most are ginormous except the first and third pictures that actually came out the right size. But I'm giving up on messing with it for now.

We went pumpkin picking at our traditional spot. This year we even made it there before dark. And we remembered to buy donuts before going on the hayride so we wouldn't chance them being sold out like last year. And we got to go with friends this year. A successful trip.

[Unlike our attempted trip to Gardner Village on Saturday. We thought we'd go up early to avoid the "Witches' Night Out" crowd (not to mention the $5 parking fee that was supposed to accompany the evening event)...and discovered that half of Utah had the same idea. And they were already charging for parking. Super lame. We detoured to Wheeler Farm instead, which was also busy. Then we went to Target. Where I got super lucky. I was looking for a pair of leather boots that are sold out online and of course the store was sold out too. Until 10 minutes later when I walked by again and saw a pair in my size sitting in a cart. I asked an employee and she said it was a cart of returns and to go ahead and take them. Wahoo! Now to decide if I'm feeling fashionable enough to pull off the tuck-your-jeans-into-boots look.]

Speaking of Target, we stopped there the other day and on the way out we let the boys choose a toy from the $1 section. Will chose a dart gun and Sawyer chose a stuffed lion. No surprises there. That pretty much sums up their differences. On the way home Will announced, "I'm collecting weapons to destroy Sawyer's animals and Sawyer is collecting animals to try to destroy my weapons." Interesting. We saw some kittens for sale at the Farmer's Market last week and Sawyer was in love. Will could not have cared less. He wouldn't even pet a kitty. He was too busy begging us to buy him an inflatable cartoon character on a stick. Once again, that pretty much sums up their different interests.

And lest I forget to ever mention it (since I keep forgetting to take pictures), Will moved up to 2 wheeled transportation a couple weeks ago. No more training wheels! Congratulations Will!

PS: Did you notice anything different about Will? The angioma (red spot) under his eye finally disappeared! I just realized it the other day. I looked through some old photos and it first appeared when he was around 18 months old. They said it would go away eventually and it did. I'll stop messing with this post now. It is probably screwing with you RSS reader type folks.