Brother friends

They don't always get along perfectly, but man do they love each other. I am having fun being the Mama to these two bright shiny souls.

I imagine them at 15 and 13 running around the mountains behind Laie like their daddy did.

I'm looking forward to them playing instruments with their dad and dreading the inevitable close calls they encounter jumping off The Point with their friends.

My heartaches a little with pride as I think about all they'll encounter for two years on their missions. I want to protect them from rejection, danger, and loneliness and I want to get them on the most direct path out there more than anything in the world at the same time.

I want to keep our family in this fun, small, tight unit forever and not complicate the simple joy we have and in the very next second I can't wait to give these boys another little sibling friend someday!
That baby child would be a good, if not overly enthusiastic, big brother.
They're both pros at the whole "fierce love" thing.

Best brother friends forever.

A Fall Ritual

Uneventful Fall Break

Hawaii has a Fall Break. You Idahoans will understand, what with your potato harvest and all. Ours is just one week and I had a zoo trip, waterpark day, maybe even Bishop Museum with the grandparents....etc week planned...

and then we all took turns having the flu.

So much for my flu shot eh? Thanks for nothing Foodland pharmacy.

Anyway, we didn't do anything and anytime I thought we were well enough to do something I was always a little sorry in the end as I held a crying child all the way home from the elementary school fall break play performance and whatnot.

It wasn't all bad though.

We tried out some possible Halloween costumes

Hung up some spooky bats (they have since all fallen down because of my safety tape and have been displayed elsewhere)

And in desperation one day I took the invalids to Costco for a quick trip. Nature called to Ambrose on the way home somethin' fierce so we had to pull over in a pineapple field and I had to take a picture because I am mature and discreet. He'll thank me someday I'm sure.

Not a bad week I guess.

Crafty Ambrose

I was looking through our family photos on the computer and noticing that we had a lot of crafty Ambrose pictures. I wish I would have thought to take a picture of ALL his crafts over the years, because it would be quite the overwhelming collection.

The boy loves trash.

Anytime I am about to throw out any empty box or container I have to hurry and do it before he notices or I will get in trouble.

"No Mama! I was gonna save that for a craft!" Is the most common phrase to come out of Ambrose's mouth after, "Sandwich please!"

Although I feel I am missing some of his truest masterpieces, here are a few I found recently:
Valentines- I did the cutting of coures cuz he was little little here

Homemade watch

Cardboard fort

Rocket with Mama's help

Some sort of alien gun?

iPhone. Duh.

Stilts- grandma cut the hole in the cans

Another rocket

A remote control car remote... one Mama's trash is truly his treasure.... frequently I will throw something away and find it like this later that day.

A paper "friend" named ROM...

He was jealous of his friend's Ironman toy so he made his own

Jack Skelington from Nightmare Before Christmas

He insisted we need personalized, decorated food trays for Family pizza and movie night

A robot factory... clearly. This is a combination of different days of trash and you should see his face when you happen upon him configuring something like this. SERIOUS. We could go through a roll of tape in a week and sometimes we do.

A family of finger puppets

Oh get ready for this one! A laptop computer with a mouse to go with it. I walked in on this delightful scene. I laughed for like 20 minutes with glee.



Oh and sad, he really wanted video games like all his cousins and I told him not until he's older so he fashioned this little gem and played on it all afternoon:


Kite

Bug jar with grandma and her Stampin' Up! supplies and a recycled jar of course.


Extremely intimidating robot (Daddy helped with cutting)

Oh, and a clock.

You get the idea. I could post at least one a day, but suffice to say, this child is a crafty beast. I am endlessly entertained.

A pretty (fun) week anyway

Upstanding Youth groupies gettin all sassy.


Biking to work.


These three gents picked me up from work Monday night so we could have FHE at the Seasider and ride bikes home together.


It's been annoyingly hot lately.... maybe it just feels so insulting because everyone else is getting fall colors... at any rate, to beat the heat I channeled my inner six-year-old instead of shaving my head. This is the only time in history that Hello Kitty buns have ever been considered the sensible alternative.


Tried and True recipe friends, I made Taylor's Orange Chicken and Fried Rice! Have you? I was always too intimidated in the past, but I DID IT!

Sorry for the nast picture. It doesn't look that appealing here, but IT WAS AMAZING! I kinda felt like Top Chef for a night. Make it. You won't be sorry.

Asher didn't even touch it. So I put him in playground prison.

KIDS! I know that they would love 97% of the things I make if they would just TRY IT.

Oh! And we started a new tradition of making a special family dinner and having a crazy sleepover in the family room for General Conference weekend.

Confession: Once the boys actually settled down Thomas and I crept to our room and slept in our own bed.... so we cheated... but those kids roll around in their sleep and take up ALL the mattress. Next General Conference I think I'll just make a big bed on the floor with tons of blankets and then I'll actually sleep out there. Promise.

Well, that's about it for this week.... except for it's suddenly starfruit season again.

Have a juicy week.