We love our mom!

And James & William & Dad & Alexander & 

Jesus & Heavenly Father & cousins 

& not Darth Vader, 

but we love Luke Skywalker & R2D2

{a note I found up on the wall after being gone one evening... written by Rich and dictated by William and James}

Back to School Feast

The Monday before school started we had a Back to School "feast".  In my mind I had planned a nice, special dinner.  But when I asked William what he wanted he told me that he wanted pizza and fruit.  

  

Not exactly the feast I had in mind but he loved it.  And since he is the one going back to school that's what mattered.

For Family Home Evening that night we played "Trash or Treasure" in which the boys chose a card and we decided whether is contained words which we should treasure or put in the trash.  We added words that we hear too often at our house (and wish that we didn't) and for some reason the boys thought that was really silly.  They recognized them as words that belong in the trash.  We then introduced our family theme for the school year: "Speak Kind Words."  

In the kitchen we placed a jar (that had previously been used to collect warm fuzzies).  This jar collected our kind words... and every time a unkind word was spoken we took one out. It took a whole week to get it filled but once we filled it up there was a special treat (ice cream sandwiches).  I then emptied the jar to start over but William wanted nothing to do with it.  I finally realized that he didn't like the "stress" of worrying about losing a fuzzy.  So we did away with losing fuzzies and now we just earn them for speaking kind words. 

Rich and I were discussing our family theme the other night and we both agreed that it has made such a difference already.  The boys are much nicer and respectful.  And even when they're ornery a quick reminder of "speak kind words" helps them to remember and try again.

Hopefully we can make the feast and theme a new tradition in our home.

Pops!

Well, we finally made it down to Pops.  I have been wanting to go there for a long time and we finally got the chance!

The food was delicious... and I've never seen so much soda in my life!  Our waitress asked us if we were married and then told us that we were the happiest married couple she'd ever seen.  (Then she told us that she saw our rings and thought we might be married to other people?!  Super weird.)

We brought home a small sampling of the {over 500} soda's they had available.

 {Cucumber, Leninade, Marionberry, Butterscotch Rootbeer, Rootbeer, Chocolate}

We tried a few last night... I didn't try the rootbeer {we brought it home for Rich's dad} but it didn't seem to be a favorite.  The Dang! was for Lisa and she said she felt like she was drinking Butterbeer {from Harry Potter}.  Lisa, Rich, and I had a sip of the Cucumber soda. Lisa described the experience as "like drinking grass."  I'll have to let you know how the rest of them taste.

I am so glad that we got a chance for a little different date night!


Update: Chocolate soda--bleh.  Marionberry--tastes like Nyquil.  Leninade--the winner!!  Super good!

What a weekend!

This past weekend Rich took off for Texas to run a marathon--actually a marathon to Marathon--with one of his old roommates, Darin.  {Why didn't we join him?  Because it was a 10 hour drive one way... no thanks.}  This meant I had a few days to fill with fun activities that doubled in wearing these boys out.  Friday evening we attended the Fall Carnival at the elementary school.  We met up with William's best buddy, Colt, and spent the evening wandering around the school with him.  The boys had a blast.

They loved all the bounce houses.  {Who doesn't?  I kind of wish I could have joined them.}

The games were great too.

William loved seeing all of his friends.  James thought he was a really big kid.  And Alexander enjoyed the live music {as exhibited by his clapping and head bobbing every time he heard it.}

After our chores were done on Saturday we made newspaper ghosts,

pumpkin oreo truffles,

and then ended the day running around at the park.

 

By Saturday night we were all exhausted... but no one more so than Rich.

What's in a name?

I've always liked my name.  I thought it was neat that I was named after my mom's BYU roommate.  And it's just different enough that I never had to add my last initial to my name for someone to know who I was--unlike all the Jennifer's and Amy's in elementary school.  I had only ever met a few Jeanine's in my life.  That is until I moved here.  A few years after we moved here so did Jeannine... and then Janine moved in a little while after that.  Three of us all in the same ward!  We all agreed it was weird.... but fun at the same time.  My name was once announced over the pulpit to release me of a calling I didn't have... they meant to say Jeannine.  To me the distinction (in writing) is simple because we all spell our name differently...  so still no need for last initials. But that's assuming that everyone remembers how each Jeanine spells her name.  Jeannine has since moved... so now we are down to just two.  However, in the past week I have been "mistaken" for Janine.  It doesn't help that Janine replaced me as Young Women's President.  One of the mom's of some young women in the ward approached me about an idea for Young Women.  It took me a second to realize that she forgot which Jeanine she was talking to.  And then this afternoon I got a call from one of the Stake Young Women leaders with a question... and I had to point her in Janine's direction. 

Trendy

Elementary school has introduced at least one new thing into our life: silly bands.

   

William just thinks they are the coolest thing ever.  After he first collected a bunch {I haven't bought a single one} he just wanted to leave them home.  Finally he decided {with a little prodding from me} that it was more fun to bring them to school and trade them... and that the more he shared, the more his friends wanted to share back.

I know that some moms hate the things--but I think they are fun and encourage William to be a little less selfish.  In fact, just yesterday while I was cleaning up, William asked, "Mom, do you like silly bands?  Do you want some?"  And then he gave me all his purple ones.  Very sweet.

The Cause of Right

For the past few weeks I've been attending an institute class in our ward building.  Our current curriculum is "Presidents of the Church."  For the next two weeks we'll be studying the life of John Taylor so I was reading up on him from the manual.  I came across the most wonderful quote last night and just had to share... especially with mid-term elections just around the corner: 

"Certainly if any person ought to interfere in political matters is should be those whose minds and judgments are influenced by correct principles--religious as well as political; otherwise those persons professing religion would have to be governed  by those who make no professions; be subject to their rule; have the law and word of God trampled under foot, and become as wicked as Sodom and as corrupt as Gomorrah, and be prepared for final destruction.  We are told 'when the wicked rule the people mourn' [D&C 98:9].  This we have abundantly proved in the state of Missouri, and having had our fingers once burned, we dread the fire.  The cause of humanity, the cause of justice, the cause of freedom, the cause of patriotism, and the cause of God requires us to use our endeavors to put in righteous rulers.  Our revelations tell us to seek diligently for good and for wise men [see D&C 94: 4-10]....

Let every man then that hates oppression, and loves the cause of right, not only vote himself; but use his influence to obtain the votes of others, that we may by every legal means support that man whose election will secure the greatest amount of good to the nation at large" ("Religion and Politics," Times and Seasons, 15 Mar. 1844, 471).

Grasshopper Hunters

Meet our hunters: James and Alexander.  This afternoon they went outside to play (these boys love the outdoors) and immediately spied a grasshopper.  With their weapons of choice (James a stick and Alexander armed with the rack from our grill) they began to chase the poor insect.   In fact, I had to ask them a few times to be kind and not kill it.

James wanted desperately to get the creature up onto his stick but no matter how he tried it just wouldn't climb on.  This had much to do with the fact that he kept putting the stick behind the grasshopper instead of in front of it.  Once I stepped in to show him he caught on rather quickly.  He'd carry the grasshopper around on his stick until it jumped off... then the boys would chase him down again to put him on the stick.

I don't know if it was frightened or just friendly but it seemed to like James.  James would pet it and a few times it climbed up on to his arm.  I would have freaked out but James thought it was super cool.  (Actually, the bug did hop onto my bare foot and I did freak out... but just a little bit.)

Finally William decided to join in on the fun.  

There's no way that William would let that grasshopper climb on him but he did find a stick so that the bug could climb from stick to stick and back again.

These boys played for at least 30 minutes with that poor little creature and had the time of their lives!  Who needs a pet when we can play with bugs for free?

Lost:

William's first tooth.

Tuesday William mentioned that he had a loose tooth.  After further inspection I realized that it was really loose!  I decided to make a little "tooth pocket" to hold the lost tooth and have a place for the tooth fairy to put her money.  It's a good thing I didn't procrastinate because William and I got it out on Wednesday night!

William was super proud and I don't think he slept well {out of excitement} because he was up before me in the morning!  He was thrilled that the tooth fairy left him some money {50 cents} and couldn't wait to put his name up on the wall at school.  I can't believe he's getting so big!

Ketchup

Sheesh!  I've really fallen behind on my blogging!  We have had a lot of fun things happen in the past few weeks that I've neglected to record.  So please forgive me while I do a little catching up.

About 3 weeks ago the State Fair was in town.  The boys love the fair... and so Grandpa Crane took us all one Saturday morning.

The boys had a blast!  I think they just love the atmosphere more than anything else.  They did get to ride a ride this year which they thought was pretty cool.  It was so hot though... so after a few hours they were all ready to head back to Grandma's house.

A few weekends ago Great Grandma and Grandpa Crane were in town as well as Great Uncle Troy (Curtis' brother).  We drove down to Edmond a few times to visit with them.  Even though we don't see them very often the older boys remembered them.  This was the first time they had met Alexander.

At the end of September there was a free museum day... so we took advantage of it!  We headed down to the Science Museum and played for a few hours.

The boys had fun on the giant tree house, teeter totter, laying on a bed of nails, riding the segway, building, exploring, and watching the exploding science show.  It's definitely one of their favorite outings.


That wasn't quite as long as I thought it would be!  I have one more catch-up to do (hopefully!) and then we'll be current!

Our weekend

We had a wonderful weekend... full of:

General Conference,

(I wish I had managed to get a picture of the boys using their "I-spy-the-prophet" spyglasses.  Priceless.  But wasn't Conference so great?  Loved it all.)

Games

(A church here in town was having a "Free Sale."  What's a free sale?  It's like a garage sale--only everything is free.  It was great!  One of my favorite finds was this practically new Twister.  Hours of enjoyment just waiting to happen.)

Playing Outside,

Alex and William poking at a few grasshoppers.

(In between sessions of Conference I tried to get the boys outside and move around so they'd be quite during the session.  Didn't work out quite like I'd hoped... but we had fun outdoors--in the perfect weather--anyway.)

And to make the weekend even more special we had a visitor to our house.  Meet Wags.

Wags is the "class pet" from William's Kindergarten class.  Every night he goes home with someone and they get to write what they did with Wags in his journal.  William was extra lucky that he got to have Wags for the entire weekend.  James really loved to hug Wags... it was really sweet.  While Rich went to Priesthood Session of Conference we had a little movie party.  We watched "All Dogs Go To Heaven" (another free sale find) in honor of our special guest.

We didn't go anywhere out of the ordinary or do anything spectacular but I love when I get the chance to do little fun things like this with my boys.   It makes the frustrating moments worth it.

What did you do this weekend?

Sweet-n-sour Alexander

I can't believe how big my little baby is already!  It just seems like yesterday that he really was a baby... and now he thinks he's one of the big kids.  In fact, for the past two Sundays he's even gone into nursery {even though he won't be 18 months until November} and he does great!

He wants to do everything that his big brothers do.  He loves to play outside with them.  He'll often come up to me with a ball and something that can be used as a bat--wanting to play a little baseball.  Or he'll carry around two light sabers until he can find someone to pass it off to so they can fight.

 A light saber the perfect size for Alex.

 An epic battle

And if the big boys are coloring... then he's got to be up there too.

I think that Alexander is my sweetest, happiest baby.  He's always carrying around his cup of milk and any stuffed animal he can find.

 He's got a few new "tricks" too.  He will shake your hand {he thinks it's so funny} and when you announce that it's time for prayers he'll find a place to sit down and then fold his arms.  Too, too cute.

Oh little Alexander... stop growing so fast!