No food for Jack!

Jack really, really, hates homework. So much so that he sometimes forgets to show his mother proper respect. Well he happened to be having a hard day last week and was being less than agreeable for Mindy; I wasn't making much headway over the phone either, so I left work early to come home and "encourage" him to do his homework. When I arrived he refused to do it still, so I sat him down in a quiet room upstairs and brought him a notebook and pencil with instructions to write a letter to Mr. Nicholas about why he wouldn't be doing any more homework. When I checked in on him 15 minutes later he still hadn't started on the letter; he seemed even more dead set against that than the homework itself. I reminded him that he would not have to write the letter if he did his homework. But before he could eat dinner he would (1) have to finish his homework and (2) write an apology note to Mindy. After we jumped the homework hurdle, he got whiny again when I reminded him about the apology letter to his mother. I left him to his task as I went down to the kitchen to help finish preparing dinner (I think Mindy was making her awesome bratwurst sausage and pasta dish). Anyway, just as the the family sat for dinner, I
went in to check on Jack again. He told me that he was bad and that he didn't deserve to eat, and that he wasn't hungry anyway. I reminded him that he is a good boy, but he sometimes forgets to be good to his mother. I asked that he come join the family at the table even if he wasn't going to eat. He folded up the paper he was drawing on and came down stairs after a minute. When he came down he handed his mother this note. Mindy started to smile, then laugh; soon all was forgiven and in the end, Jack got his food. Rock 'n Role!

Happy Birthday Grandma Na

Here is some artwork done by Jack and Hannah for Grandma Na's birthday.

Hannah said this is Grandma RapunzelNa'

And the writing says "Happy Birthday Princess"

New Easter Outfits

Happy Easter

Remington in his new Easter outfit.

Remington

Word Wall Words

This is one of Jack's recent Word Wall tests. I think he should at least get partial credit for #3.

We are having a baby......

BOY!

Jack and Hannah are very excited (we all are).

Now that we know the gender we can cut down the search for a name in half. Or at least a third (in case we wanted to use those names that can go both ways - like Pat, Francis, Tracy, etc).

While Mindy and I have our own ideas for names, Jack has made his contributions as well. He has narrowed down all the names to two.

1. Jack
2. Mister baby

I think Mister Baby is a good name, especially since we already have a Jack and do not want to cause confusion. So until a more suitable name is found, Mister Baby will do.

Once there was a snowman

We built this one day when the snow was finally wet enough to roll. The 7+ foot tall snowman did mostly melt the next day, but remnants stuck around even after all the rest of the snow in the neighborhood was gone. We just kept moving the carrot nose and acorn eyes down a level.

Complaints

I have received more than one complaint that the blog has not been updated for some time. So to start making up for it, we will be making a major announcement tomorrow night. Stay tuned.......in the mean time, I will post a picture or two.

Arts and Crafts

"Gromma Nana" decided to let Jack and Hannah enjoy some unsupervised arts and crafts time. Jack wanted to be a zebra (see the stripes on his legs).



Hannah got in on the action too.



....the final product. All painted up and ready for battle.

Cars!

We were at a car show in Twin Falls and look who showed up....Ramone from Cars!

Jack really had to pee, so we got in one quick photo before running to the DQ.



Ahhhh....that's much better! Plus Ramone gave us a hot tip on where we could go to see one of his buddies.

Shoshone Falls - ID

This was taken at Shoshone Falls. Jack said he thought we were going to swim there, but didn't want to because it would be scary - I agree.

Couldn't get the kids to hold still for a picture.


Time to go get in the barrel - it's going to be a hell of a ride.

Updates

A friend was "complaining" about no updates since Dog sitting........so here are a few postings from events the past couple of months.

Dog-sitting

We are dog-sitting this afternoon and the kids are having fun entertaining the dog and vice versa. Jack used to want a chihuahua named Mexico, or Funny. But since the recent movie came out, he thinks every dog should be named Bolt. This is our dog for the day - Pink.

My, what big (and sharp) teeth you have. The better to smile with - she is a great dog, just not very photogenic.

A lesson in Creation

I was eating pizza with Jack tonight and he said, "Dad, Heavenly Father made us."

I replied, "Very good! You are right, but technically Jesus made us."
Jack said, "No, not Chuck E. Cheesus; Jesus!"

So there you go - Chuck E. "Cheesus" did not create the heavens and earth - just crappy pizza and a lot of pressure on parents to hold birthday parties at his place.

a toy story

While traveling home from Pennsylvania yesterday, we had Toy Story 2 on the DVD player for Jack and Hannah to watch. So naturally, the first toys Jack gets out to play with today were Woody, Buzz, and Zurg. I walked into the room and he had Woody and Zurg toe to toe, apparently in a standoff. He was saying something about a giant and I could see that the Woody figurine was much taller than Zurg. So just in case Jack ever tells you (as he did me today) that he has a "big giant Woody," he is referring to his toys.

Jack's exciting play DATE!!!

We had a play group at our house today. One of Jack's best friends, Sherona, was over. The mom's were downstairs and the kids were upstairs. We could hear Jack and Sherona playing "Boy friend and Girl friend". She would say things like "Do this boyfriend". He would say things like "Here I am girl" or "I did it girl". I think he might have the makings of a good husband. Well, after a little while Trudy, Sherona's mom, says " I think they are kissing!" We both ran upstairs to check and see what was happening. When we got up there they were sitting next to eachother on the floor. Trudy asked Sherona if they were kissing and immediately Sherona says "NO" and kept denying it as her mom quizzed her for more info. Jack on the other hand starts saying "Yeah, wer were, yeah wer kissed!" Jack was on his way to work, so naturally they kissed! My little guy had his first kiss at 4!

Names have been changed to protect the innocent

Updated Kids Pics

Mindy and the kids are out of town, so I have been looking at photos because I miss them. Here are some recent ones I thought you might enjoy.

Happy 4th Birthday Jack!

We drove up to Cincinatti for the day (had to check out the new IKEA grand opening).......Jack got a spider painted on his cheek.

......had some delicious birthday pizza at Dewey's.

........after dinner we strolled out on the boardwalk. This picture is taken in Newport, KY looking across the Ohio River at Cincinatti. It wasn't as cold as Jack makes it appear, he just likes wearing his mittens.


We finally made it home to have cake and open presents. Although he went straight to the presents (pretty excited about a new Lightning McQueen), I did notice all the cake was gone the next day.

Johannah's new dress and sweater

She's twirling, showing off the homemade sweater from 'Nette and dress from GG.