Reading Scriptures

Every night when the kids are falling asleep in their beds, we read scriptures to them. We only read a chapter every night but the kids love it and always remind us if we forget. I don't know how much they understand but I know they love it and I have read in different articles that it's good to read to them because they can feel the spirit. Anyway, two nights ago the kids were in their beds and I was getting ready to read scriptures. I opened up the scriptures and took a breath to read the first verse. But before I had a chance to say anything, I heard a little voice from Laney's bedroom that said, "And it came to pass....."

Ty's Guldkorn

I love when kids get to the stage where they start making up songs. I guess Ty hit that stage yesterday when we went for a walk while Laney was at Joy School. We walked down to the little canal where there is always a ton of ducks and geese. When we got there the first thing we saw was a dead goose laying in the shallow water. Ty was mesmerized by the "died goose" and we looked at it for about 5 minutes before I could convince him to walk to the other side of the road where all the living ducks and geese where. After about 5 minutes of chasing the ducks and laughing at them flying away in horror, he wanted to go back to the other side with the "died goose". So we meandered back over there and spent another 10 minutes discussing if it was a mother goose or a baby goose and if it was dead or just sleeping. Finally he made up this little song that he sang to me:
"We are looding at a died goose.
When we are done looding at the died goose,
we are doing home."

Then today I finally took the kids to get haircuts after Laney's dance. Ty was starting to look like a young blond Beatle and Laney needed a trim. While we were driving from dance to the haircut place Ty made up this little song: (It was an upbeat happy song. Feel free to sing along...)
"We are getting hairduts,
we are getting hairduts.
We are doing to the hairdut place,
We are doing to the hairdut place."

Finally my last story for the day. When we got out of the car at Laney's dance class it was bright because the sun was shinning so lovely down on us. When Ty stepped out of the car he immediately started sneezing like crazy. Then he said, "When it's bright, it makes me bless you."
I laughed for a while over that one.

Oh and one more thing....Ben was sick a couple of weeks before Christmas and so he didn't go to work and was just in bed most of the time. I don't know where Ty got the impression that he dies but somehow he did. (obviously he doesn't understand it...)Anyway, when Ben was sick Laney made a card for him and attached one of the Christmas candies in a little plastic bag for him. He didn't eat it and I finally threw it out. As luck would have it, Ty came up to me a couple of days later and said, "Where that dard and dandy that Laney made for Daddy when Daddy died?" I really don't know where he got that from but I remember he asked me a couple of times when Ben was sick if he died. I kept telling him no, that he was just sick but obviously he had made up his mind otherwise.

Phantom of the Opera

I had turned on our Phantom of the Opera movie and I was watching my favorite song and Laney kept telling me to turn it to the beginning. So after the song was done I did. Ty came in and they both watched the beginning where it starts in black and white and then it turns into to color and the music is really loud and cool. Anyway, both kids were just standing there with huge eyes watching and Ty says (while still engrossed in the movie) : "Maybe this is my favorite movie!"

Laney's Danse Klasse

Laney ville gerne have at Mormor og Morfar saa hende til hendes danse klasse. Det her er lidt tap.



...og her er lidt ballet.

Computer Nerds

It always amazes me how good the kids are on the computer. I think kids nowadays are born with a mouse in their hands. They can't read yet but they know exactly what to do and which buttons to click on. On the Wii too. They can navigate around on that thing and choose the rights things after we have only shown them once. Lately Ty will come up to me when I'm on the computer and want to write. He'll just sit and write "TYLER" and "LANEY" over and over. It's cute. Anyway, I just like this picture 'cause he looks so serious.


Both kids love playing on the computer and we have a couple of kids sites that they play one. Recently we discovered that there is a church kids website and so the kids have been playing it lately. I really like it because they have the primary songs in the background and the kids will sing or hum along.

Tired Fella

So on this particular day I had asked Ty to go do something upstairs and he didn't want to so he was fake crying and complaining the whole time. I could hear him upstairs but then suddenly he got all quite. I left him for a while because I figured he was doing whatever it was I told him to. But after about 5 minutes I got a little concerned and went upstairs to see what was going on.....He must have been really tired because he was dead asleep and slept for like an hour.

Taylorsville Firehouse

The kids went to a firehouse for Joy School. Here are all four kids and Ty with the fire fighters in front of the fire engine.
All the kids got a helmet....Laney wore hers all day.

The kids looking at the light son the fire engine.
One of the fire fighters showing the kids the tool they use to break into people's house if they have to.

A Ginormous Thank You

I have been wanting to do this for a while now and I'm not getting around to it til now....but I wanted to say a big huge THANK YOU to everybody who helped us finish the guest room part of the basement. We couldn't have done it without you and really appreciate EVERYTHING that EVERYBODY did.
Thanks to Tony who moved the plumbing so we can someday make a bathroom down there and to his family for driving down and letting Tony work for us. Thanks to Matt who came running at the last minute to do all the electric stuff and his family. A BIG HUGE thanks to Mike and his family for spending endless days and nights at our house working on everything in the basement.
We love it down there and are excited to have a place for people to stay when they come to our house.....and I think I'm going to set up a table down there and unpack all my craft stuff in there.... :)

Fun 2 Weeks

This is a really long post...my mom, dad, and brother Zak came over to celebrate Christmas with us and this is just a couple of the pictures of the fun things that we did. We had so much fun having them here and can't wait for them to come visit again. When they left Laney and Ty both packed their backpacks and were ready to go back to Germany with them. Anyway, here's a little summary of what we did. Enjoy!! (Sorry the pictures are out of order since they keep deleting when I try to move them around....)
We went to Temple Square to see the lights.
Here's the modern men walking with the kids.....
Ben, Zak and I went to a Jazz game.....Zak's a Jazz fan now.
Ogden train museum.
Zak and my dad driving the trains.
Hill Air Force base where the kids got to be pilots.
Morfar and Zak as jungle jims.
Ty playing with Morfar. Morfar getting a good leg work-out..... :)
One day we went to a school in the area where there's a really nice sledding hill. This is Laney going down all by herself in the inner tube.
Ben brought his snowboard and Zak did really well on it.

Laney used a plastic bag for a little bit and kept turning backwards when she was going down....
Fun puppet shows to watch.
Lots of Wii playing going on....
On Christmas morning we opened our stockings....what fun things we all got.
Ty opening his stocking.
Dancing around the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve.....
I put an extra picture on here just for you, Val. :)
Cuddling with Zak. What a nice, patient uncle....always ready to play whatever the kids wanted...what a brother! Tak Zak!
On Christmas Eve we acted out the Nativity Story. Ben was Joseph and Laney was Mary.
Ty was a very tired angel...
Mormor and Morfar were the wise people.....they just saw the star....
I was a lone shepherd....with weird bangs....hmmm, I don't know what happened there.
They wise people came with the gifts for baby Jesus.
Ty thought that Morfar was a climbing wall and used it frequently.
Cleaning up after we took the Christmas tree out....wow, what a mess.
One day we drove around the valley and saw the new temples being built. We also stopped at the little airport in West Jordan where they have cool helicopters sitting around....dang it, I was going to remember the names of them.....blast!
Everybody digging into the Christmas dinner. Tak Mor for al din hjaelp! I couldn't have done it without my mom's help.
Laney and Ty eating at their little table.

Joy School Nativity

The four Joy School kids and they brothers and sisters performed the nativity story on the last day of school.
Laney's little friend was the star....she's really shy and not happy to be performing in front of everyone.

Joseph, Mary and the donkey.
The angel Laney.

We Live at Lowe's....

We have been to Lowe's so many times that we feel like it's our home away from home....
...hence we just play and climb and have fun when we are there. This is Ty being a sloth...
...and Laney as a sloth.

Random Cuties

Ty wanted to wash his hands in the kitchen sink, where there is not step stool instead of going in the bathroom....I wasn't fast enough in taking the picture though....moments before he was just hanging with his belly over the counter and using his little toes like suction cups on the cupboard underneath. He climbed all they way up there though, with no help at all. A monkey, I tell ya'!
Laney's little friend couldn't play on this particular day and then she saw one of the other little kids playing in the snow outside. So went out to play and a little later came back and asked if she could borrow the snow shovel. I kept asking her if she didn't want her coat zipped up but no she was just fine....

Zoolights

Last Monday for Family Home Evening, the Georges and our family went to the Zoo to see all the Christmas lights. It was FREEZING but really fun. We really liked the reptile house 'cause it was nice and warm.
We made pizza and took to Ben's work for dinner and then went to the Zoo and met up with the Georges. We bundled the kids up in extra sweaters, snow pants, jackets, scarfs, hats, gloves, and boots. When we were walking over to the entrance Laney said, "My face is the only thing that's cold..."
Luckily they had these little fire pole things where you could warm up....we used them a couple of times and we would hold up the kids to warm up their faces. When Ben was holding Laney up to the fire, she said, "Aaaaah, I could just stay here all day!" What a fun night. Thanks Georges!!