The Mechanized Managerie

The following is an accurate transcript of Grant describing the robots he made with Legos. I don't know where he came up with the names but he was pretty consistent about them over the course of several days.

This is Antatockta. He's very good at flying but he's the most good at being tall. He's the most good at remembering. He's the most good at two things, the others are only good at one thing. He's very good at fighting.

This is Flyacogger. He's the most good at flying.

This is Sollacleaner. It's the most good at cleaning. This one is the mama because the window only reaches to Antatockta's neck.

This is Sollacogger. It's good at changing into other things, like other robots. But it just can't change into this one (Flyacogger) because it doesn't have enough blue.

This is Windowbetter. It's the most good at making windows.

This is Steadycogger. The baby is the most good at standing.

These robots all live in Idaho.

Scarily Delicious

I was making cookies for my class and when I was almost done Grant asked if he could help (and by "help" he meant "eat dough").  I said, "I'm afraid not; I'm almost done."  He replied, "You don't have to be brave for this."

I gave him some dough.

Early Mother's Day Present

The best presents sometimes come wrapped in Santa Claus jammies.

Cookies, Eggs, Chicks and Friends

Let's start with some cookies - a very important part of Easter. Now, I actually made these because I was helping throw a baby shower a few days ago, then I was all cookied out by the time Easter actually came. But they're festive, and delicious, and the recipe is at Our Best Bites.  Lot's of fun, if you have lots of time.

Next, our engaged friends, Hannah Zabriskie and Ken Allen came over for dinner and an egg hunt.  I rounded up our newest family members (in my arms) plus, we managed to get one cat tail in the picture.  No one wanted to hold my bunnies.  Weird.

Let the search begin!

Eggs are much easier to catch with fishing nets.

Or just borrow other peoples' baskets.

Warm Enough

How warm does it have to be before you strip down to your diaper and jump in frigid hose water (while dad rebuilds our pond)? According to Bryn, about 70°.

Grant got his swimming gear on, too, but his common sense kicked in before he got wet. Brynnie's common sense? Well, this is the extent of it.

The Eyes of the Beholder

The boys and I were looking at past blog entries and we got back to our Christmas dinner with the Zabriskie family.

While looking at this picture we had the following exchange.

Dad: Who's the prettiest one in the picture?
Cole and Grant, in unison: MOM!
A moment later, Grant: Really, Hannah is the prettiest but I just said Mom because I like her.

Bedtime for Boys

Picture this: it's 8:30 PM; the boys have been "in bed" for a half hour. Suddenly they emerge from their room. Accusations are exchanged. Basically, there's too much talking going on. My solution:

Silence is golden.

Lego Language

The boys were playing with Legos together. I overheard several interesting exchanges over the course of the afternoon.

Cole (in his growly voice) : I'm still nice but I still kill people!


Grant (the manager): I know just what I want to do so if you're out of work I'll give you more work.


Cole: You're too smart!
Grant: Do you think I'm smarter than you?
Cole: Yes

Up"lift"ed

I just realized I forgot to officially document Grant's day on the slopes!

We went to a different hill than I took Cole.  This is "Summit" at Mt. Hood.  It's very small - only one little double chair lift, and we never waited in line once - on a Saturday!  Naturally, the chair lift was his favorite part.

He did great!  A little grumpy towards the end.  (And by grumpy, I mean screaming at the top of his lungs for all to hear, "I HATE SKIING!!!!!" over and over, among other things.

So we packed it up, at that point, and he was happy again.

I love you, Grant!  Good work!

And all the way home, he said things like, "Mom, I love skiing, can we come back tomorrow?"  Four and fickle.

Farm House

My dream is becoming more of a reality every day! I am slowly convincing Evan that we need a small farm in our back yard. At about midnight, when he was good and worn out, I'd bring up how we needed chickens until he said, "zzzz....okay whatever, can I go to sleep now?"...which of course I took to mean that he was thrilled with the idea!  I already knew the schedule of chicks arriving at the feed store, just in case, so a couple days later I loaded the kids up, and we went to adopt our new babies.

So soft and snuggly! We got 4 chicks, 3 different types, just for variety.

I told Grant he could help gather the eggs so we could eat them.  "No," he said, "we want them to hatch!"  I told him, "that won't happen because we only have hens and we would have to have a rooster in order to have more baby chicks."  To which he replied in frustration, "that just doesn't make any sense!"  Later that night, Evan explained the concept of chromosomes, which I'm sure made everything as clear as mud.

This is 10 days later - they change so fast!

So for now,  they've made a nice addition to our dining room, since they must be kept at 95° then slowly cooling off some until 6 weeks old and they move outside.

As my husband says, "we have a circus inside the house, why not a farm outside?"  Good point.

Paper Jumbo Jets

What do you do if dad brings home a stack of old construction blue prints from work? Make giant paper airplanes of course.

Hmmm, looks like someone was practicing their camping skills earlier in the day.

Some people just insist on weaponizing planes.

Come fly the none-too-friendly skies.

Clean Teeth vs Agency

Here is a boy with some shiny polished teeth...and very proud of them!  Grant is all about this - the marshmallow tooth polish, the goody bag, the prize box, the sunglasses, the praise.....what's not to love about it? (Well, when you're 5 and have perfect little teeth.)

When it was Cole's turn, he decided it was a good time to exercise his free agency, and there wasn't no way, no how he was going to get in that chair, or even let a tooth show through.   So, Dr. Church (our neighbor and former Bishop) just said he could do the exam at his house later that night.  Some time between 11am and 6pm,  Cole decided he really wanted the dentist to look in his mouth after all (when it was HIS idea), and I thought his jaw was going to come un-hinged he opened so wide, here in Dr. Church's dining room.

Then, he was introduced to video games by their adorable son, and Cole was in heaven. (Thanks, Ty!) And so was I - because the Church's are just the coolest family anywhere, and I could stay there forever.

Long Lost Family

Evan was cruising through the Whiting Family website not long ago, and checked to see if any of his family here in the great northwest with us.  WELL - what do ya know!  Only a family in our ward that we just love to death!

If we were going through and hand picking people to be our relatives, we definitely would have wanted the Aldridge family.  They are so cool, and happen to have boys just the right age for entertaining our boys.

Missy is Evan's 3rd cousin - they share great, great grandparents,  Edwin Marion & Anna Maria Whiting.

On Sunday, Grant and Cole were trying to explain to their CTR4 teacher that Tanner (also in their class) was their cousin.  Of course, she thought they were crazy, but we confirmed the down-right lucky connection.

Cruncherisms

1. While I was cutting Grant's hair (and yes, he typically complains the entire time):
Grant: "Mom, you keep moving my head."
Me: "I'm just moving your hair, I'll be done in a minute."
(10 seconds goes by)
Grant: "Mom, if you push on my head one more time it's going to LOSE POWER!"

2. Evan: "Do you guys like to play with Bryn?"
   Cole: "Dad, sometimes Bryn is a little bit mean to us."
   Grant: (enthusiastically) "And she's BORING!"

(Now really, how can he call this little one-girl road show boring??)

Arrrrg!

Bryn got a bonk, and asked for a bandaid. I just gave her one, didn't ask any questions. Later, I noticed we had a pirate running around the house.

Spelling Bee

Grant and I were driving today and I was quizzing him on spelling. He easily spelled, "Grant" and "Cole" but when I asked him to spell Bryn he said, apparently sincerely, "B-R-A-T". He then got "Dad" and "Mom" but when I moved on to non-familial objects and asked him to spell "cat" he promptly replied, "D-A-L-E". He seemed rather pleased when I told him he'd actually spelled Papa Z's first name, later proudly telling Sue about his feat.

Ski Buddy

Hey, Cole - what's your favorite part of learning to ski?
The shuttle?
The moving carpet?
Making the "pizza"?
Lunch outside?
Looking like a pro on your first day?
Going fast?
Seeing the sun?
Being on Mt. Hood - and actually being able to SEE Mt. Hood? (A rare occurrence in the winter)
My favorite part - hearing him say over and over, "can we go down one more time?" Cole, you're a natural!
Jan. 22, 2011
Mt. Hood Meadows Ski Area, Oregon
Just Mom and Cole

Bryn's Pronunciation Guide

What Bryn Says:	What She Means:
chay pup	ketchup
coo mo mo	cucumber
key buddy	spaghetti
so nee	smoothie
ow se nut	elephant
uh key sug	yucky slug

Meet Our New Pet!

The Crunchers are very excited to introduce our new pet, "Legs".

Here's a close up for our older readers.

Now watch as Cole takes him for a walk.

Unfortunately, shortly after this photo was taken there was an unfortunate "smooshing" incident and Legs didn't survive. Oh well, I'm sure we'll find one of his brothers around here soon.