boys

Almost every preschool day Ty and I battle over him hurrying to get ready. I usually don't care too much about what he wears (unless he looks really ridiculous), but he is SO SLOW in choosing. He also has a hard time getting on his shoes.....he waits until the last minute.

So today today just as I was getting out of the shower I heard the pitter patter of little feet racing up the stairs. Ty excitedly said, "MOM, I'm all ready for school! I even have my SHOES on!" I of course praised him and tried to give some positive reinforcement for his goodness, all while I was wondering what in the world he picked out to wear.

When I came out of the bathroom this is what I saw......

Not going to lie I was surprised he didn't have shin guards on as well.

Now the other day Kace got these baseball cleats, but Ty has worn them more than Kace has. Ty is SOOOO excited (understatement) to start soccer. He wanted to show me the shoes.

I did make him take off the shoes (Kace in all reality hasn't even tried them on yet, so I might have to take them back), but this is what he wore to school! He did turn the shirt around though!

Pond drainage and Easter egg hunt

This weekend was full of adventure! Kace and Ty have been counting down the weeks and then days until their cousins to come and Nate has been anxiously waiting for the day that he can drain the pond and get out all the big huge catfish that are eating his other precious fish.

That weekend finally arrived :). Happy day. On Thursday night we had a house full of boys as the four Cannon boys came over to spend the night. They had a great time. On Friday, Nate got up early, it was like Christmas morning to him, and got his pump going to drain the pond. At about lunch time he went out with his nets and starting to catch the fish. He (and our neighbor) caught them with nets and then tossed them onto the bank. The boys would then grab them and run them over to the tubs of water. One of them, Nate tossed onto the bank and it hit Evan right on the forehead. It was so funny, but I didn't want to laugh out loud because I wasn't sure if it hurt or not. Thankfully, he burst out laughing and said that it was a catapulting fish!

They caught some BIG catfish (we are going to enjoy one of them tonight :) )

The boys had so much fun playing on the trampoline playing, 'watch out for the shoes' (a game they made up). They would run back and forth from the house, the dirt hill (always a boy favorite) the trampoline and the pond. They were FILTHY by the time the day was over. Then we shipped them off to grandma's :) A couple of them found a bunch of 'quicksand', or so they say, and their feet sunk. Then the shoes came off. But, I will say it again, they were stinky and filthy!

The next day was the annual Jones family Easter Egg hunt. Donene found this awesome chalkboard fabric that the kids had fun drawing on. Grandpa Shaw also had fun decorating it. I captured his design :)

This year it was too muddy to go up to the campground so we had the hunt on the land surrounding their house. All the kids were so excited and could hardly wait for the rules to be explained (and pictures to be taken!). And then they were off. I went around with Ty this year. I kept thinking to myself that I hoped I, I mean Ty, would find the big egg because in all of the TEN years I have been to this egg hunt I have never found it. Well, Ty and I were in the garden searching and by the pond when I looked under and pine tree and THERE IT WAS! I couldn't believe it and asked Tydon if he wanted to look under the tree. He was also excited :) He did tell me that it was TYDON'S money and that I couldn't have it.

For most of the weekend Kace and Layne palled around together. Kace is always telling me that his cousins are his best friends. I just love that!

Every year we usually find some awesome treasures. Usually there are eggs from previous years with some awesome candies inside. This year Isaac found some real beauties.....

We finished the night off with a birthday dinner for Donene. Rainee made some macadamia nut crusted mahi mahi that was SO GOOD. I can't stop thinking about it! It was a great weekend :)

Become as a little child......

So I am going to tell a story, not because I want everyone to know (and if you do read this PLEASE don't mention it to him because he would be mortified), but because I want to remember this forever. I also want Kace to remember it and hopefully remember the feelings he had.

Last night the boys had been in bed for about a half hour when Kace came into our room struggling not to cry. I asked him what was wrong and he started telling me a story about how on the bus a boy told him to finish the word he was saying. They would say the word grass. So the boy said, "GR" and then Kace said, "ASS."

Kace was so broken up about it and rushed out to say that he didn't know what it would be until he said it. He didn't think about it. We talked about how this life is full of experiences both good and bad and how you have to learn from all experiences and we talked about what he would do next time.....because I know this is not the first time this game is going to be played.

He then went back to bed and was going to pray and talk to Heavenly Father and talk to him about how he was feeling. About 5 minutes later I got up to go to the bathroom and heard him crying in his room. I was really touched with how badly he felt. Godly sorrow.

Nate didn't want him to feel like it was the end of the world because he said a swear word, but I was glad that he felt bad. I truly wish that I felt bad for all the "little" things or even recognized I do them, because then maybe I could have a better effort to fix them. It starts with little things.

Tydon's Trophy

While we were at my mom and dad's on Sunday celebrating Dad's birthday (Happy Birthday DAD!) Ty saw a cow trophy in his room and commented that his brother has a TON of trophies. I am guessing that my mom or dad said that he could have the cow trophy (I wasn't actually in the room). He was so excited. He then said, "My brother has a ton of trophies and now I am going to have a ton of trophies."

He made sure we didn't forget it. When he woke up the next morning the first thing he asked for was his cow trophy and was wondering where it was. I love how excited he gets for the simplest things.

It was just what we needed at our house...........a cow trophy!

PS Please notice his attire...he is ready for football with his football shirt and for basketball with his shorts. Nate just got finished putting together our new basketball standard (Kace busted the backboard on the old one) and they were getting ready to go shoot baskets and he had to change his clothes for the occasion :)

LOOOONG TIME!

I just LOVE basketball season.....as I do football season :). Basketball has always been my favorite sport to play. I had the BEST memories of playing basketball. Especially in high school, maybe not that actual playing part, but the friends I made and the experiences I had were priceless to me. Someday I should do a post just on that :)
It has been really fun watching Kace develop. It seems that by the end of the season they are just starting to really "get it".
His poor little team didn't win one game this year, but they had so much fun. Each day he would ask if they were having practice because he loved it so much. He was the fastest kid on the team and he probably had the best defense. He is finally getting that you have to work at something to become really good at it.

Nate coached Kace's team again along with Clint Payne. They did a really good job with the boys. I would have to go to practice to make sure that they didn't get after them too bad :).

When I was playing I did not do very well with a coach that yelled at me for all the mistakes I made, it made me afraid to make more mistakes and then I wouldn't play as hard as I should, because I knew I would be taken out if I messed up. Nate is very passionate and really gets into it, I just had to help him get into it with the positives as much as the negatives :). Kace doesn't respond the same way I do when it comes to types of coaches, but Ty is WAAAAAY more tender hearted and it will be harder with him.

I think Kace playing basketball was a very good thing for Ty. He is a very good dribbler now and loved to go to practice at the church with us. He really liked it when the Bishop showed up because then he got a treat. Anyone that knows Ty knows that the way to his heart is with a treat!
He loved going to the games and playing with the kids and running out to shoot baskets whenever the buzzer rang.

CALIFORN-I-A

Heidi gave me one week to get the post up from California and I know she will be surprised that it is up after only ONE DAY! Be impressed.

For Christmas our family was given a trip to California to do all sorts of fun things. We left this last Monday afternoon for the airport. Luckily for us my dad has airline tickets so we got to fly. My parents also have a timeshare so we had a place to stay as well :). We thought it only fair to invite them along for the ride and we were sure glad they did! After we got to LA we split up and they headed to Bakersfield to a farm show and we headed to Anaheim.
On Tuesday we went to Disneyland :). I don't think the boys knew quite what to expect other than what Grandma Jones told them. Kace was SUPER excited to ride the tower of terror........but we didn't go to California Adventure until Thursday.

Anyway, it was such nice weather and it wasn't crowded at all. We could just walk onto most any ride we wanted. Ty LOOOOVED the Matterhorn (understatement). He loved the abominable snowman that growls at you in it. He loved all the more 'adult' rides that went really fast. We kept teasing Kace about going on his "favorite ride" which was 'It's a small world' because that was his favorite the last time we went to Disneyland which was when he was almost one. He didn't like the teasing very much!

Kace's REAL favorite ride at Disneyland was space mountain. They were both exhausted by the time the day was over. Who am I kidding, we were ALL exhausted. But they were still excited to see Goofy (I kept getting mixed up on Pluto and Goofy and they were both quick to correct me!)

While we were waiting for one of the shows to watch Ty made a friend by the 'waterfall'. He seems to make friends wherever we go. He is such a friendly kid. They had a great time together laughing and splashing.

Mom and Dad came back to Anaheim on Tuesday night so they were with us the rest of the time.

On Wednesday before the whale watching cruise we hung out by the rocks and tried to see what we could see. Ty got splashed by a big wave that came up and got him wet. It reminded me of when we went to California when Carson was about his age and Carson got all wet. Ty's reaction was much the same as Carson's, but as soon as his shirt got taken off he was fine and starting being a "big stud boy" as he likes to call himself.

We all went over to this big rock to see what we could find......but mom.......she didn't want to get her pants or her shoes wet. She looks so alone way over there.

Then we did what Kace really wanted to do and went on a whale watching cruise. This was probably my favorite thing too. I will be honest, I wasn't too excited, but I would highly recommend.

Again, one of the nicest things was that there wasn't too many people and we were pretty much the youngest one on the boat. We figured that Ty would entertain all the older people. We weren't out very long before we saw our first dolphins. We were so excited, but little did we know what was to come. After about 1/2 hour there were thousands of them jumping and swimming all around us. It was SO AWESOME! I tried to take some pictures, but I don't think they do it justice as to how many there were.

If you blow the picture up you can see all the splashes of all the dolphins. Every white splash is one dolphin and for every dolphin you see there are 3-4 under the water. SO FUN!

After we went around with the dolphins for awhile we tried to find some whales, but didn't find any. We did find some seals and sea lions, but no whales. Kace wasn't too disappointed because we saw so many other things.

By the end of the trip we were all pretty worn out. I don't know why it is tiring to just stand there, but it is.

When we got back to the beach we went to the tide pools (it was now low tide) and searched for all the little critters that hang out there. This was Nate's favorite thing to do when he was younger.......and I think now too. Kace loved it too.

Kace is showing off his find. He worked for a long time trying to get this starfish off, which I am pretty sure you aren't supposed to remove (don't tell). Nate and Dad found some crabs and lots of other ocean stuff. :)

I don't know why Kace has to make a pose in EVERY picture, but he does, and we still love him!

We ate dinner that night at the Boiling Crab. It was interesting because you just picked the seafood that you wanted by the pound, they cook it, season it, and put it in a plastic bag for you to enjoy. Nate really really liked it. The rest of us thought that you had to work a lot for a little bit of meat. I had shrimp. Dad had crawfish. Nate had lobster and mom lived on the edge with fried catfish and fries. It was an experience!

The next day we went back to Disneyland and went to California Adventure. This was my favorite place! Maybe it was because I hadn't been there before, but there were so many fun things to do. Kace loved the tower of terror (that was my favorite ride too :) ) Ty loved it too. I was surprised, but every time I looked at him he was laughing his head off. Nate's favorite was the 'talking with Crush' and 'Soarin' over California'. Ty's was still the Matterhorn and we had to go back to Disneyland at the end of the day so he could ride on it one more time. Kace also liked the California Screamin' roller coaster.

Don't worry I took a picture of our picture :)

We also liked the Bug's life show. It was fun for everyone.

By the end of the day we were all totally worn out again. Who knew vacations were so tiring. Mom don't kill me with this picture. It is funny.

The next day we went swimming at the hotel and then went back to the beach. It was such a beautiful day. Nate and Kace went looking for creatures again. Ty wasn't so much into that and just wanted to play in the sand. They all liked 'running from the waves'. The water was SO COLD, but it was so nice outside that no one minded getting a little bit wet.

That night we went to a medieval times dinner show. This was also fun. It was a lot different than I thought it would be. When we got there we were all given crowns and told what knight we were supposed to 'cheer' on. Nate was worried that he wouldn't have enough food and would have to go to Taco Bell afterward to fill him up, but we were all stuffed by the time the evening was over. Ty and Kace loved the sword fights (although they were cheesy and fake) and loved cheering and yelling for 'our knight'. It was a fun fun time.

And now our trip is over and I have a TON of laundry to do.

Kace at school

Sorry for the post with no pictures.

So I always had crushes during elementary school (in fact I think I started before) so I don't know why I was surprised when I was helping in Kace's class yesterday and a little girl came up and told me that she liked Kace. I asked her if any of the other girls liked him and she said, yes.....Emma, Andrea, and Ruthie. So in this day in age I guess you just go up to the parent and tell them that you have a crush on your kid.......what happened to the big secrecy of someone passing a note and asking to check the box? She also told me that Ethan and Emily were boy friend and girl friend. That triggered me that I needed to have a talk with my dear son Kace.

So on the way home from school I asked Kace if he knew of any girls in his class that liked him. He said, "Yes.......Marijka, Emma, Andrea and Ruthie." So he knew of all of them (Nate calls them Kace's harem.) I then asked him how he knew they had crushes on him. He said that they just come up and tell him......again what happened to the notes with the checking of the boxes (most of the other stuff that he comes home and tells me is the EXACT SAME as when I was in Elem.........the same jokes, the same songs, the same fascination with BOONDOGGLES. He came home with boondoggles yesterday and was so excited that I KNEW how to do them. That was something he didn't know about me :) ) Anyway, I asked him if he liked any of them and he said a NO with a disgusted look on his face. I asked him what he says when they ask him and he said that he says in his mind, "Oh...COME ON!" (Anyone who knows Kace can imagine him saying this.) Then he just says, "oh" and walks away.

Very glad that he isn't interested in girls in SECOND GRADE.