Miles' Playgroup

Even though we live in this fabulous neighborhood with literally hundreds of kids, Miles just happens to be the only kid that will be a Kindergartner in 2 years.  Weird right?  There are other kids in his primary class but no one else born Sept 09-Aug 08.  Especially weird since there's no less than 6 in the year above and below him.  But not a single one for him.  Not even a girl.  

But luckily age doesn't matter when it comes to playgroups and our next door neighbor graciously invited Miles to join even though all the boys are either 1 or 2 years ahead in school.  Some are even Isaac's age but he has morning Kindergarten so he misses out.  

We get to host every 8 weeks and we love it.  So glad Miles has boys to play with.

Scout Olympics

Taylor has been the cub master in our ward for the past 3 years.  He has grown into his calling a lot and so has the program.  The first year there were 7 boys, last year 11, and this year a whopping 19.  That's a lot of little boys just ages 8-11 from just 3 streets basically.  Taylor's proud too that the troop is so fun 4 non-member boys come and learn and play with their neighbors.
For January's pack meeting, Taylor knew he wanted to do an Olympics theme.  I tried suggesting he just do summer track events but he would hear nothing of the sort and no matter how much I try to get him to plan, he just can't do it and is a great last minute kind of guy.
So at lunch time the day of pack meeting he came home to say he thought he was going to do a "Biatholon" event.  What???  In case you don't know this Olympic sport combines cross country skiing and shooting.  And I admit to having rolled my eyes at him and walked away.  Could he have picked a weirder sport and how was he going to do that INSIDE the church???
And somehow he did.  He went and bought 89 cent cookie trays from walmart and pvc pipes from home depot and declared himself ready.  I came along for the event because my group of 9 year olds was all receiving their Bear awards.
First the boys started by decorating their pvc pipe shooters with duct tape and sharpees.

Then the parents and siblings (of which there were a lot since 16 of the 19 boys were receiving their badges that night) all lined the hallways of our church.

Brother Wallis stood at the door with the timer and then the boys were off... one at a time of course.

Skiing on their cookie tins.  There's Ethan, pvc gun in hand ready to take off.

And here he goes around the corner.  Amazingly those cookie sheets worked on the carpet.  And though it was a lot of leg work for the boys, not a single one of them had anything but an ear to ear grin on their face.

Once they made it 3/4 of the way around the church, Taylor had set up a "shooting range" in one of the classrooms.  That's my broom with to-go boxes strung from it.

Each of the boys got a small paper cup with 5 marshmallows to shoot and then they told the adult how many they'd hit on the targets.

The chairs did a nice job of keeping them back far enough to shoot as well as kept them from squishing mallows into the carpet.

Isla enjoyed being a spectator and stole cups of marshmallows most of the night.

And then it was back onto their "skiis" to finish out the lap.  It was a fun night with parents getting to kind of hang out and chat and also cheer all the boys on.

Isaac decided he needed a job and voluntarily started lining up the boys "skiis" while they were inside shooting.

Taylor let all the boys go three times around and timed them each time.  The top 3 earned ribbons and Ethan was excited to come in 3rd.  And while we had our meeting we let all the other siblings try their hand at skiing and shooting so they didn't feel left out.  Some of the parents even jumped on the cookie sheets to race.

Then it was time for the real awards.  Here's our big group of 8 Wolf scouts.

And me with Ethan as he pins on my mother's bear pin.

And there's all my bears and a very camera shy Ethan as you can tell.

Ok that's better.  It was a really fun night and with treats afterwards I'd say it was a success and everyone went home very entertained and very happy.  And I promise in the future to TRY to not roll my eyes at Taylor.  He always does come through.

Mornings with my littles

Just a normal morning at the Woodbury household- mom's working on laundry or something. And what are the two youngest and only ones left at home doing?  Playing together of course.

Cause what else would you rather be doing if had someone this fabulous hanging out with you?

Ethan's Dance Informance

Once a year we getting invited to Ethan's school to see his class dance.  

He is quite happy to have us (and others) watching him and tries to stay mostly near the front of the group.

It's more of a modern take on dance with free forms and self expression and their teacher is really (and I mean REALLY) intense about this not just being another recess.  This program is to enhance their education.  So at the beginning of each year she meets with each grade to discuss what they'll be teaching the next year and what concepts need extra reinforcement.  And then those are the topics she builds into he dance lessons.  This year they learned mostly science (since this subject sadly gets little attention in public schools) and they danced their way through the earth and the solar system.  It's pretty amazing what they learned and that they did it having fun.

And of course Ethan is always happy to come greet us- especially since Isla came along.

Night Hockey

One of the kid's favorite parts of their big Christmas present is going downstairs to play "Night Hockey".  It helps that with Day Light Saving, it's dark around here by 5:30 so they have plenty of time to play.  

This is really what it looks like without my flash- completely dark except for the table lights which flash blue and red.  Pretty fun!  Thankfully no one around here is epileptic.

A functional basement

We love the space that our home gives us, but some of that space was too big while other space was not functional enough or non-existent.  So this year we decided we'd make our basement work better for us and all it would take is adding one wall and door and one new light switch.  Amazing right?  But it truly has changed the whole floor.  This is now the very large toy room.  It used to be a guest room/craft room/storage and all without a door that we could close to give our guests any privacy or to keep little hands out of things.  So it didn't function well.  But this does.  Big, open, and hidden in the back of the basement but with a nice window for sunlight.  And who cares if it's messy, no one sees it.

This is the other side of the room.  3 really good sized closets for storage and lots of space.

And then the view out of the room.  The reason we could never put a real door on this room is because that little door to the left is the furnace room.  And the only window in this room has a window well that's soddered shut so it would have been a real fire trap.

This is what USED to be the toy room.  It was always just too big and with the TV/game systems in it is was always a giant toy/game disaster.  And right out where everyone visiting would be.  So it's better to have the toys contained in the back.  And this becomes the almost teenager game room and we can change or update in the future as we like.  That wall there is new.

And separates the game room from our new, perfectly sized guest/craft room.  It's small enough that it's not taking away space from other rooms in the basement but big enough to hold a bed, dresser, closet, and 2 desks.  

We didn't want to build in a closet and limit ourselves in the future so we just put up an IKEA one.  It's huge and works just as well.  Taylor's desk is right next to it and gives him a space to leave out his work computer and papers so he can work more from home in the evenings if he needs to.

And here's finally a safe space for me to leave my projects out.  It's so nice to be able to organize things and then work on them and leave them out at my convenience.

We did also tear out our root cellar so our unfinished storage seems just enormous- or would if my sweet mother hadn't asked us to store an antique table and 10 large chairs for her until she and my dad retire and settle down.  We don't need the space for now though so we're happy to oblige.

The full kitchen stayed as is for now but sometime in the future I think we'll make it smaller and more modern.

The bathroom also went untouched and the last room didn't get any work done but we moved in a couch and the gaming systems so the kids can play in a space just the right size for them.  And it's hilarious to watch them ride the elliptical while they watch each other play the wii.

This is actually one of the rooms that makes the basement the most functional.  It has a door to the outside so the kids can come and go during the summer as they need to.  There's plenty of storage for both winter boots and gloves and snowpants as well as summer swimming suits and towels.

And once the kids come in, there's this fantastic door that also leads straight to the bathroom and even a funny little working water fountain.  Plus the floors are tiled in here so its super easy to clean up afterwards.

We love our basement now and really love how it functions so much better for us and our guests and our kids.

When Christmas is done...

It's time to move on to... Valentines Day!  At least that's the way I try to think of it as I'm putting away Christmas decorations  and feeling a little sad to see all the amazing holiday times slipping away.  But at least I can keep the red, and add a little pink.  So the pillows stay.

And the bouquet of roses and lilies and calla lilies and hydrangeas that Taylor got me the first Valentines we were back in Utah.  He knows I hate to see flowers wilting and dieing.  So these are fake but they're big and gorgeous and bloom as long as I have them out ;)

And there's this subway art that sings the praises of love and Valentines day.

And more pink flowers.

And more.

But the whole point of Valentines is not just flowers and I saw these cute felt envelopes on Pinterest I thought I could whip up pretty easy so I did.  I literally just cut felt squares, trimmed a half circle off the inside one so kids could reach in easier, glue gunned the pieces together, added rickrack and felt letters and then some handstitching that gives it that true envelope look.  Super easy.  Cute.  And functional.

See, little pockets for letters of love.

And I added straps to the back so they can hang on each of the kid's chairs.  Then we had a Family Home Evening where we made love notes for each other (and added treats since that's just more fun) and delivered them to their envelopes.  I made up a little box with bags of extra card paper and stickers and pens so the kids could write more love notes any time they wanted.  And boy did they!  It was really fun to see them making cards and delivering them and enjoying receiving them too.  These will definitely be a Valentines staple for years to come.  It made the holiday more about love and sharing our gratitude for a longer period of time and much less about silly little store bought cards and candy.

The one and only stitch

Knock on wood!  We've been very blessed and never had a single trip to an emergency room or even an instacare for anything more than a cold or a rash.  But with 3 rambunctious boys I knew it wouldn't last too long.  So one rainy Friday afternoon Isla was napping while the boys played downstairs in the toy room.  And then there was screaming and running up the stairs and lots of gushing blood.  

Apparently they'd been playing with our tiny trampoline and unscrewed one of the legs enough that it was wobbling and it tipped sideways and he flew off into the corner of an ikea bookshelf.

But thankfully a call to my next door neighbor who has 5 boys of her own and a surgeon for a husband and has had countless trips to ERs over the years.  She looked at it and recommended an instacare visit.  She then took all the littles while I rushed Ethan off to instacare.  The cut was less than than 1 inch long but he got cut right between the eye bone and the eye ball and it went DEEP.  And she was right he needed stitches.  Or to be exact- ONE STITCH.

Lucky for Ethan our local Instacare has this new fabulous numbing cream that they can just put on a patch and put it on the cut and it numbs the skin while you just wait in the waiting room.  And then by the time they're ready for you, so is your face.  Fantastic!  And no shot needed!  Ethan was happy to play the ipad while he waited.

One easy stitch later we were done.  So we're no longer stitch free in this household but at least it was one easy stitch to ease us into the trauma of, well, trauma.  And still ER free here so yay!  In all seriousness though we're really grateful that he hit the bookshelf in exactly the right place.  One cm to the right or left and he could have really damaged his eye or his eye bone.  And I was really grateful to have such an amazing neighbor who not only had expert advice but jumped right in to make the whole experience so much less stressful for me.

Yaya

This little girl has stolen ALL our hearts.  Her brother just adore her and really take care of her if she's ever sad or gets hurt.  It makes me smile because they naturally treat her different than each other.  It's pretty sweet to be the baby girl.

Plus she's irresistibly cute.  She's a natural mother and is forever carrying babies around, placing them in blankets, and feeding them- most often her own food.  Apparently this little doll wants a cup of milk and grapes.

And sometimes she insists her dolls come to lunch with her and she shares with them right from her own tray.

There's my attempt at pig tails.  Her hair is a little too fine and slippery for now so mostly it's a giant mess but it's cute anyways.  And she insists on me helping her put on her baby doll bjorn at least once a day only to take it off 2 minutes later.  Oh well, it's cute while it lasts.

And these two are home with me every morning so they're always my little helpers.

It's hard work cleaning the cookie dough spoon for mom.

And sometimes when we wake up and mom gets us out of our crib, we ALL need to come out and eat breakfast.  And we mean ALL- the baby girl and all her baby girls.  Isla would obviously rather hold her dollies and let the other eat her cereal.  Such a funny little thing

I almost forgot to explain the Blog Title.  A few months ago Taylor pulled out his phone with Isla sitting next to him.  It has her picture as the background and Isla pointed at her picture and stated "YaYa".  And it's stuck.  How cute is it that she's nicknamed herself?  It may not be an acceptable teenager nickname but we're sticking with it for now.