Aliens, The Electric Monsters, and other Stories

Monday was "President's Day".  Although, around here it was like any other day, except that the town was decorated with flags and the Post Office was closed.  I was surprised that the kids still had school, because in Oregon it was always an observed school holiday.  I looked up President's Day on Wikipedia to get the story behind the holiday.  Apparently, it's called different names in different states.  In case you're curious like me, see the Wikipedia entry here.  

This week started out nice and sunny.  The snow and ice was melting quickly, and we could see pieces of our lawn again.  We were going places with no coats or jackets and even wearing short sleeve shirts! *gasp* 

I saw 3 bunnies (only 2 in the pic) hopping around the nieghbors' lawn early Tuesday morning and took a pic.  I love seeing all the wildlife around here. 

The little boys had a dance party on the counter.  Rhett likes to watch himself in those glass cupboards.  Their shirts always end up coming off.  Rhett is into doing whatever Connor does now.  

Tuesday night I attended a Relief Society meeting focused on the new FamilySearch.org website.  I wasn't all that excited to go, because I had already tinkered around on the site enough to know the gist of how it works.  I am so glad I went though!  They have added some cool new features since the last time I logged in, and continue to add more and make things easier.  I left with a new excitement for gathering my family's stories and pictures to upload on the site. To me, Family History used to be names and dates. Boring stuff.  Now, Pictures and stories make the names and dates come to life, and all the sudden it's so much more interesting!  It's SO COOL!!!!  

When I got home, I logged in and clicked on one of my great-great-grandmothers on my family tree.  To my delight, a personal history had been added, as well as a few photos by my lovely Grandma Clarke.  She's such a great example to me.  She has spent so much of her time recording her own personal history, as well as gathering whatever she can about our ancestors along that line.  I have always been a journal-writer, and really believe in the importance of keeping a record.  I love that now it's not just one person in the family who has access to all the stories and old photos, but now we can all access them.  Just need to get them uploaded.  :)  Another important realization is that family history is going on now.  When we record our blogs, journals, make photobooks, etc, we can upload them on FamilySearch.org now, for our children and grandchildren.  It's a lot easier to record things in the present, than it is to dig it up from the past. 

My Gr-Grandpa and Gr-Grandma Reed and their young family:

Ok...I'll settle down now.  

  Wednesday was the lovely Blue and Gold banquet.  It turned out great.  The cub scouts had fun, and did awesome in their skits.  The leaders tried to get out of doing their skit, but don't worry, I love making a fool of myself, so didn't let them get away with it.  With wrangling the cub scouts and our own boys, I didn't remember to take any pics, bummer.  Clark was assigned to bring 24 cupcakes.  Helped me realize that I am an AWFUL cupcake maker.  Haha.  They were all different sizes, and the frosting was ghetto.  Oh man, luckily, the sprinkles helped disguise them a bit.  Since I'm not a fan of cake, we really don't make cake or cupcakes that often in this house.  

Before school the other day, Jack was reading his library book out loud so the other boys could hear.

I'm so glad they have each other.

On Thursday night, the Elementary School hosted an Art Night.  Every family was given a new book, and then the kids got to make a few different art projects.  

At one station, the kids made little bunnies.  This is Clark's alien he made instead.  Points for creativity!

Jack's Eric Carle art:

 The boys had a lot of fun, and it must have sparked some creativity in them, because they have been all sorts of creative the last few days.  

Found this on the side of the fridge, courtesy of Clark as he was picking magnets off of the floor.

The Electric Monsters, by Jack

Cool sky on a stormy afternoon.  Picking up Clark from piano on Thursday.

On Friday morning, we had some friends over to play.  It's good for me to have people over.  Nothing motivates me to clean up more.  :)

I noticed the stash of confiscated weapons on top of the fridge has been growing.  The candy bowl, however, is almost depleted.  Sad day.  

 I finished Book Three of the Mortal Instruments this week.  While I was reading, I came across some Romanian and sent it to Reid for translation.  (He served his mission in Romania). 

The Third book has been my favorite so far.  I've got a few other books I want to read before I delve into the next book though.

I started a book that the Book Club is reading this month.  I loved this description.

It's been snowing constantly the last couple days.  Just when I thought the snow was going to melt away for a bit...  I do love the snow, but I'd say I'm ready for winter to be over!  I feel like I should pull the Christmas music back out.  At least it's gorgeous.  The boys love playing in it.  Clark and Jack have been exploring out past the rodeo grounds and found some new spots to play.  I love that they can do that here!

 And, the obligatory sunset pic. :)  Have a great week!