Two Boys in a Box

We ended up having to buy a new stove and microwave last week and this is the box that the stove came in. Darrick had asked the delivery crew to leave the box so that Nate could play in it. It didn't take long for all the kids and their friends to play inside the box. Naomi and Marissa have played for hours in it and they're 13...so it's entertainment for everyone. Darrick and I haven't had the priviledge of playing inside it, as we have chosen to pass on the fun! It's just a box, and yet, it has been the highlight of the week. Darrick and I came home late Tues. night to find the boys asleep inside the box. Shay was sleeping in the fetal position, while Nate slept on his back with his head on a pillow that kept his head tilted forward. All we saw in the "not to distant" future were sore "sleepy" legs for Shay and a stiff neck for Nate. Dad shot some pictures of the two, and then tilted the box down until they woke up enough for him to move them to their own beds. If you're wondering if the box is still together and around? The answer is.....yes it is, for how long?...... we don't know,.... and the bottom is taped up with masking tape and painters tape. Nate found the two most available rolls of tape in the house. To him......it's as good as concrete.

Nate's models

Nate has a great mind for putting things together. He has loved putting together puzzles, and building huge towers with blocks since he was a young toddler. He loves using his mind to figure things out. His new love is "Bionicle's and Lego's". He received 2 new bionicles for Christmas and has put them both together several times. He also received a K'nex roller coaster and Ferris wheel set and put that together with his Dad. In the picture above with the Lego star wars ship was taken last year when he put that together all by himself. It took him several days to do it. One day he sat, studied, connected, & read directions for 12 hours straight. He only took time out for lunch and dinner. He is unbelievable. He shows such patience while putting together his models. He gets his direction book out in front of him....pulls out all the parts...organizes them into piles, and wha-la.....they're done before we know it.

Snow, Snow & More Snow!

We had a beautiful Fall, but since Dec. 13th....this is what we have seen. Darrick and I haven't seen this much snow since we've been married. This is what our house and yard has looked like for several weeks now. Between Darrick and I....our driveway and sidewalk got shoveled 6 times yesterday. We had to keep shoveling a path out back so that our dog could get outside to go to the bathroom. For those of you that know our dog, if we hadn't.....he wouldn't have been able to make it out there before he was buried in 13 in. of snow. All that snow on our BBQ....yeah, it's new snow! Look at our piles out front next to the trucks. It's as high as we are. We can't possibly keep piling the snow on.......we are running out of places to put it. The sun has shone all day today and we even made it to the mid 40's. The greatest sound I heard all day was the draining of melting snow from our gutters and downspouts. Sun, keep shining! If you look at the bottom 2 pictures you will see Shay shoveling snow for our neighbor. Shay is so amazing that way. Each year when it snows.....he's the first to put the coat, boots and gloves on and run outside to help shovel neighbors driveways that live around us. Mon. after school he finished his homework and was putting away his coat and backpack when he looked out the window and saw a neighbor of ours shoveling snow. He ran to his room, kicked off his shoes, grabbed his boots, reached for his beanie and coat when I asked "where are you going?" He said so matter of factly "I'm helping that guy shovel his driveway." I laughed inside and watched so proudly as he raced across the street to help our neighbor, but it didn't stop there. He went on to other neighbors homes and back to ours. Then yesterday after school, he again did his homework, bundled up and headed out the door with his friend to shovel snow for others. He was gone for nearly 3 hours! I had many phone calls thanking me for his help! What a kid! Shay we are so proud of you and the service you do for others who have a hard time doing it themselves!

Those waskly wabbits!

Today we decided to go shoot some bunnies out west of Utah Lake. It was cold, but the sun was shining and the sky was blue. My little Nate has grown so much that he needed new boots, because the other ones were just too small. Of course their not snow boots, they are "huntin boots" like Dads. They help him walk quietly so that the rabbits won't get scared. Of course you can't go hunting on an empty stomach so we absolutely had to stop at Arby's on our way out of town. We were on our way. We passed Goshen, then took a right at Elberta, and started to notice how deep the snow was getting. Shay is my worry wart, but even he was quite positive that we could get out there. Out of the truck and within two minutes our first rabbit jumped. It leaped from the sage brush not two feet from me and took off at full steam. After fumbling with the 12 gauge I was able to knock it down with hoops and hollers from the background, coming from my boys. "We got it Dad!" they yelled. I'm pretty sure I just wounded it, but Shay had to have taken it out with his pellot gun. He deserves all the credit. The rest of the day was more walking and following tracks than anything else. We could not leave without a fire so a few sage twigs were gathered and my boys started a fire. My kids are the greatest in the world, nothing has brought me more happiness. I couldn't help having my throat tighten as we walked through the sage, knee deep in snow, and the sun shimmering in the west desert. What could be better?

Worst movie EVER!

I don't normally do this, because I figure if a movie isn't all that great....I just forget about it. Chalk it up as money gone down the drain, maybe blame the critic or the relative that recommended it, BUT WOW!!!! And I mean WOW!!!!
We decided to go get dinner (which was great) and then catch a movie together. We haven't done a movie without the kids for some time now. We were looking to watch a good, intelligent, thoughtful, feel good movie. Something to recommend to others and really enjoy. How wrong we were about this pick.
Okay....so we started looking up titles. Read a few reviews, made a few phone calls, and decided that "Australia" could maybe fill that criteria. There was one showing in the theatre which was completely sold out. We had to stand in a long line which gave us some confidence that we picked a great movie. WHOA....there are no words to describe the agony that we put ourselves thru. Maybe "I have had better root canals that were shorter in length and less painful." Or, how about me and the fellas get a vasectomy for fun?
Lets just get to the meat of this. The acting was "overdone" and too dramatic in EVERY SCENE. The plot jumped around like my chihuahua on crack. The cinematography was insulting. One minute they were doing blue screen, then poor lighting that looked like a sci-fi movie, you could tell when they were using sets, and tried to mix it all in with some wide screen shots of the most desolate lands that I've ever seen in Australia.
We had to wonder if they were writing the script as they were filming the movie. We couldn't quite get the message that they were trying to portray in this movie. Too many things were going on and bigger stories were being ended in 3 second clips. There were times I wanted to bust out laughing because of how stupid the story line was going. That and the fact that the woman next to Alisha started crying. They couldn't have crammed any more sappy, dramatic, & pointless scenes into this movie.
Nicole Kidman looks like an Alien. I thought her eyes were going to bug out of her head. Lay off the plastic surgery. It's not helping.....you use to be pretty.
Top ten worst movies of all time. 2 1/2 hours of my life that I will not get back.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.....I know what you're saying..."you should have just walked out!" But we wanted it to get better, we needed it to get better. And by the time 2 hours had passed we had to wait the last half hour just to see if they could wrap this train wreck up. I wanted to stand up before we walked out and scream at the top of my lungs "That was the worst freaking movie I have ever seen!" It was amazing. It was amazingly complete in it's horrificness and I will recommend this to noone, except for maybe SATAN!
Thank you for your shoulder to cry on,
Darrick