Andrew wants his way

This morning regarding video games.


Andrew: "Daddy, can I play your air game on the 360?"

Daddy: "That's what you have a DS for. I don't HAVE a DS so I HAVE to play on the 360."


Andrew: "Well, Daddy, kids NEED to play the 360 and the DS."

Seed planting

On our walk home from school registration, Andrew and Mark were walking together.

Andrew asked, "How do babies get into Mommy's tummy like me and Sean and Ryan?"

Pause. Pause. Daddy answered, "Ah, we planted a baby seed in there."

Andrew continued, "Does she swallow it?"

"No. Don't worry about it."

Andrew asked, "No. I think the doctor puts the seed in Mommy's tummy."

School Registration Day

We went to Park View to verify all our paperwork, sign up for PTA, and find out who the kids teachers were.

Alex got a new teacher. A sister of one of the coolest Paysonite's I've met. She's got to be great -- her sister is!

Andrew got a very sweet lady for kindergarten. But she's a little tough on him -- so perhaps, he won't be able to say, "But I can't fill in the blank...."

School starts for Alex in 20 days, Andrew a week after that, and Sean and Ryan, the week after Andrew.

The summer is going WAY too fast.

I-SPY

The cub scouts went to one of the museums at BYU to see the I-SPY exhibit. Mark was volunteered to drive and therefore took the younger chicklets as well. (I had a house to clean yesterday.)

Last night, I asked Andrew what he thought, being that I-SPY and the like are his absolute favorite books between the rhymes and the hunt and the fun pictures....

"It was ok. Uh, Mommy, are you going to come in my room?"

"Just ok?" I asked.

"Uh, Mommy, I don't want to talk about that. When are you going to come in my room?"

Tracy Aviary

Seany, Andrew, and Alex check out the birds in the walk in exhibit.

Ryan tries to find his way out of the high grass.

Mark made a friend.

Andrew's second favorite bird the Golden Eagle.

And the Ugly Duckling, with his parents the lovely swans.

Super Andrew!

We received a box of clothes from friends -- Alex got most of it. But Andrew found: Superman!

Rachel Coleman

One of the reasons, I was pleased to meet Rachel Coleman of Signing Time when Andrew had his icky skin removed: she is an inspirational mother.

Her latest blog entry: http://www.signingtime.com/rachel/

After you read it, I bet you'll put her on your Top Ten to meet too.

Seany gets himself dressed

Every morning, Seany changes from jammies to clothes. He was trying to button up his green froggy shirt when he asked for help.

"Mommy, I than't put my butt on?"

Kathryn looks for a job

After nearly 5 weeks of looking for work, I have to admit, its harder to find a gig than I imagined. Mark's having an even harder time than me.

Today, I received a rejection email. Not only was I the most impressive and professional candidate, the only applicant to follow up with them, I was also a pleasure to speak with and was assured that I should be able to find another gig in a jiffy. Didn't get the job though did I? Oh no, that went to someone with more recent work experience. If I was really that fabulous, why not hire me?

After receiving that email I finally decided to apply for the 911 dispatcher job that keeps flitting by me. Pays well, but in the rotation are mandatory holidays and graves. Not ideal for me, I know I could physically do it, I just would rather not. I called and asked about the application since the job board posting misrepresented its location. (I applied and didn't get the job that would have posted this job opening among other things, just saying.)

Upon receiving the Word formatted application. I filled it out, checked it twice, printed it, created my cover letter and took a more recent typing test, faxed it all off and then disaster struck: I noticed an entire section was missing from the employment history. Called it back up on the computer, still there. Reopened the application, printed a fresh one, blank, that too was missing the section.

I created an 'employment history addendum' and amended my cover letter to include said document with an explanation and emailed the department back about the error in their word document for other applicants.

So what are my chances of getting this job?

Zilch would be my guess. I faxed off an application that was missing data. Then I emailed them to correct the issue for other applicants and re-faxed the application with the addendum. Pretty sure, they'll just be annoyed with all the paperwork and I'll not even get an interview.

Ryan gets the spoons

Every morning, the 3 youngest chicklets race to get the spoons for morning cereal. Everyone has a preference.

Alex prefers a tablespoon.
Andrew usually goes with a tablespoon but will on occasion seek a teaspoon or the lone Spiderman spoon.
Seany likes the biggest spoon he can get which he then replaces after 1 bite with teaspoon.
While Ryan's choices seem arbitrary varying from day to day.

This morning, Ryan hit the silverware drawer first. As the rest of the chicklets headed to the table. He passed out the assortment.

To Andrew: a teaspoon. Accepted.

To Seany: a baby mini spoon, Gerber. Accepted, then rejected.

To himself: a tablespoon, the rejected baby spoon, and a serving spoon. Had Alex not been on a hike with the cub scouts, upon seeing the serving spoon Ryan produced would have made his usual breakfast serving spoon joke, "What's this? A shovel? hahaha Get it Andrew, a shovel!"

Parting gifts

My parents let each chicklet chose a toy at Kmart last night.

Alex and Andrew finally after much deliberating and refusals to allow Bakugan in the house, went with guns.

Ryan chose a Mickey Mouse -- no surprise!

Seany tried out a few toys, a dump truck. "Ok Mom, put this back." A big red ball, "Ok, Mommy all done." And finally went with a wheelbarrow.

When we got home. He dumped all the blocks onto the floor, then loaded them up and took them to his room. He repeated the process and said "My weebarrow took the bwlocks!!"

My sweetie

Love my sweetie, even after all these years! Our neighbors gave us the swing and some plastic furniture and here Mark is putting them to good use.

Baseball!

At the state tournament, Alex's team won the first and lost the second two games. His coach was proud of Alex's dramatic improvement over the season!

Alex's team above and Andrew's team below.

Cub scout happenings!

Alex's pinewood derby entry.

Fishing at the Payson Lakes.

Bebe gun shooting at wolves and bears camp!

Happy 10th Wedding Anniversary

Mark and I have been married for 10 years today. Our wedding day was a stressful day filled with lots of anger and I generally don't like to think about it all that much. I remember wondering if this marriage would last and thought our families would never get along. But 10 years later, our families are friendly and despite the hardships we are facing now, we are still happy and in love.

10 memorable moments:
1. Our wedding in Lake Tahoe, beautiful!
2. The birth of our first son Alex.
3. Family vacation to Disneyland with my parents.
3. Moving to Utah.
4. The birth of Andrew, son number two!
5. Family vacation to Disneyland with Mark's parents and Jazmine.
6. The discovery that the new baby in the belly had a twin and the famous twin hug.
7. The birth of Sean and Ryan, sons numbers three and four.
8. The entire NICU period, Ryan's surgery, virial hospital stays, monitors, and therapies -- the whole era.
9. Moving to the Payson house and setting up shop -- especially the patio!
10. Getting to go to the Disney Studios and meet Swampy and the rest of the Phineas & Ferb gang.

The twix's summer preschool

Seany sitting, Ryan standing with their preschool friends.

Sean in blue, Ryan in white at their last day of summer preschool -- water party day!

4th of July Fun with the Devlins

Andrew and Alex relaxing in the hot tub.

Playing in the creek in the country.

Andrew taking a break. And Alex helping cook the pig -- wonder what he's thinking.

Dinosaur b-day and Farm fun!

At the dinosaur museum, we got to celebrate the museum's birthday complete with face painting, t-rex adventure, crafts, and games... Ryan has a blue t-rex with red teeth on his cheek. Seany an orange brachiosaurus on his cheek.

Seany rides a pony. And below, Ryan rides a pony.

Both twix introduced themselves to their pony and stroked the big beasts faces before asking to climb into the saddle. "Hi orsy! I'm Ryan (or Seany)." Pat, pat....

Here they checked out the newest pony at the farm...

Fun at home with the twix

Unemployment fun with the twix: Kitchen marshmallow roasting. Mark, Seany, and Ryan in red.

From the Avery's adventures with Alex & Andrew

Andrew and Alex on the Dragoncoaster at Santa Cruz.

Playing in the sand!

Andrew prepares to enter the ocean.

Alex almost waist deep!

And Andrew in the water....

(PS I don't have any from the adventures in the country with the Devlin's, yet.)

Bwocks

Blocks are big time fun right now. The twix pull them out of the closest and play with them for hours. Then when 'clean up' time comes around. The twix throw all the blocks back into their bag and shake 'um up to make room for more.

This morning, Ryan said, "Ok, Seany. Its time to play bwocks. Come on, Seany. Help me open the door."

To which Seany ran full speed to the closet and obligingly opened the door.

Moments later, at full volume, "NO SEAN MY BWOCKS! MY BWOCKS!"

Seany responded with, "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Twix in action

Sean and Ryan have been very busy playing with each other while their big brothers are away. Their favorite game: tackle the twin. They love it. Its great fun until a head gets banged or the twin is absolutely pinned down.

Ah, to be 3 with a exact match!

4th of July

For Independence Day we went to Magna to watch the Magna parade, bbq, and watch the fireworks at our friend's house. The next door neighbors have a giant dog, Walter. As you can see, Seany and Ryan loved the horse/dog...

Highlights:
-Sean and Ryan collected candy tossed out at them from the various floats.
-Played with their friends on the playyard in the backyard.
-Carnival rides especially the boats.
-And fireworks laid out on the grass!