Loving our Lilacs

Last week one of our lilac bushes began to bloom and now we are enjoying the beautiful blossoms.

I bought 2 little lilac bushes two years ago for 75% off, and let's just say they were on clearance for a reason.  They did not look well at all.

But I LOVE lilacs and decided to give them a try.

I only wished they bloomed more than once a year!

Mormon Well Road - Husband Guest Post

This post is cross posted with Mike's Jeep Law blog here. Angela was disappointed she didn't go on this drive after looking at the pictures.

My son Jasper has lived in southern Nevada for all of his three and a half years. In that time, he's had snow in his yard just once, and that was when he was just over a year old. He's seen snow when visiting family in Utah, but that's a lot of driving and he's only seen it a few times. As a result, snow is still very exotic to him.

This last week I decided to take Jasper on a ride on the Mormon Well Road. It runs across the Desert National Wildlife Refuge from US-93 (near Coyote Springs) to US-95 (north of Las Vegas). The night before we were going to go on this run, it rained all across southern Nevada, but I knew that it would have been cold enough to snow at higher elevations. The morning of our run, it wasn't surprising, then, to see that there was snow on the mountains we would be driving through. The only question remaining was whether or not the snow would be far enough down the mountains to interfere with our drive.

As we were driving up US-93 to the start of the road, Jasper noticed the snow on the mountains. He immediately got excited and began asking me if we were going to the snow. I truthfully didn't know, but I thought it likely based on the snow I was seeing. When we turned onto the Mormon Well Road, the mountain in front of us had a healthy amount of snow on it. Seeing this, Jasper was all the more excited and was convinced we would driving through the snow. I knew we would be turning before getting to that mountain, so I tried to temper his enthusiasm. However, it wasn't long until it became clear that we would be seeing at least some snow.

At this point, I knew we had another thousand feet of elevation gain, so I told Jasper that we would not be getting out at that spot. A few miles later, the snow was indeed getting deeper, and I let Jasper out to play a bit. Before I could get his winter coat on, he ran off to discover what he could discover. It seems that the first conclusion he came to was that he was cold. He asked for, and was promptly provided, his heavy coat.

I expected that the snow would continue to get deeper before it went away and so we pushed on. I had prepared myself to turn around if conditions were too bad, or if I found it difficult to identify the road but due to the trees and heavy brush it was pretty easy to identify where the road was and wasn't. I just drove through the gaps that were big enough for the jeep. We got to a spot where the snow was close to a foot deep (in places) so we got out to play again.

I am happy to report that my Jeep did a marvelous job in it's first snow action. My Cooper Discoverer STTs gave me great traction in the snow. Jasper was particularly interested in the tread pattern and very much enjoyed looking at the Jeep's tracks. Hopefully we'll get to the snow again soon.

Rockefeller Mine Road - Husband Guest Post

I have been surprised at how many good Jeep tracks there are near our home in the desert, but I shouldn't be. Most of the early inhabitants (except the native americans, of course) came to Nevada in search of shiny rocks and the many things you could buy with them. Of course, these miners went all over in their search, and left lots of roads behind them. Rockefeller Mine Road (Download KML file here) is one such road.

In order to get to this road, drive south on US-95 until you get to Searchlight. It's an old mining town that benefits from being on a major road. Turn left towards Cottonwood Cove, and this route branches off the main road shortly after the fee station for the Lake Mead Rec Area. You'll pass Harry Reid Road on the drive out there ... try not to stop, there are better things to see once you get off of the pavement.

The road is not difficult if you have a 4wd, high clearance, vehicle. There are a couple of places where the traction is a little iffy, but mostly this is just a rocky and sandy road, but more rocky. You should be able to make good time.

There are a lot of things to enjoy about this trail. The geology is varied, and there are great photography opportunities. There is the history cut from stone, wildlife galore (for a desert) and some strong stands of teddy bear chollo. These really are some neat cactus ... so cuddly looking, and yet so prickly. We also saw eagles and a pack of coyotes in addition to the predictable lizards and ground rodents. All in all, a great drive.

Cross posted at my husband's Jeep Law blog.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day from our home to yours!

My talented friend Heather Smith designed Jasper's Valentine's for him.  She currently has a cute Valentine Bingo you can download for free.

Here are the links to Jasper's Valentine's from last year, and the year before that that I made using a template from Heather Ann Designs.

I am excited to try these hidden message hearts for an activity during Family Home Evening tonight.  It looks like a lot of fun, and Jasper loves ANYTHING to do with paint.

I love it when Mike happily helps around the house.  Nothing says I LOVE YOU more than waking up to the kitchen, living room, bathroom, laundry room and hallway sparkling clean and mopped.  Then to top it off he steam cleaned our shower that he already scrubbed a couple of days ago!  Whew! He is AMAZING!

Happy Valentine's Day to me!

Mean Maggie

Last night for Family Home Evening we had a lesson on "Love" and read a short story from the 2007 issue of The Friend called, "Mean Maggie."

Jasper really got into the story and decided that from the description of Maggie she sounded like one of his favorite bad guys, the Queen of Hearts in the Alice in Wonderland ride at Disneyland.

I think it was the shaking of the fists and yelling that made him draw the comparison.

Lesson learned:  If your Family Home Evening lesson REMOTELY relates to a ride at Disneyland you have a captive audience.

Valentine Making Mania

We are knee deep in the making of Valentine's.

Jasper has a Valentine party at school on Thursday and his assignment is to bring homemade Valentine's.  As you know, that is messy business...to say the least.

We're also having a Valentine's party at our home and I am going totally old school and asked the kids to make and bring a Valentine box and Valentine's.

So far Jasper wants to make a pirate ship, a spaceship or a container of chocolate milk.  I am not sure which one we will make.  I would like to point out that I am trying to work with Jasper's limited artistic ability, and yet still have him make them. This is quite a challenge.

One item that helps with this is the  Dot-a-Dot rainbow paint markers.  Jasper uses these at preschool and they are his favorite.


We buy them from Lakeshore Learning and they cost $15.  We're signed up for frequent flier club there which gives us 15% off everything all the time, and I usually only buy stuff when they have 20% off coupons, which brings the price down to $10.  You can also get them on Amazon too.   They are well worth it -- in my opinion.

I saw the idea to put paint in bottle lids and knew that would be a much better method than the tiny cups we normally use.  Jasper loves painting and swirling the colors.

Our kitchen table is now such a mess (CRAFT EXPLOSION as my husband would say) that we are eating in the formal dining room for the next two days.  I am opening up our craft zone for our friends to use on Tuesday and Wednesday from 4:00 to 6:00 PM.






  
Why make a mess at your house when you can do it at mine????

My BRILLIANT friend Heather designed these cute Valentine cards with Jasper's photo on them and we are, shall we say, EMBELLISHING them.  After all - the assignment from school is to bring homemade Valentine's.

Next up, we still need to make our treats -- homemade suckers!

Happy Chef

Jasper LOVES to help in the kitchen.   

He thinks I can’t cook anything without him.  He thinks he's the only one who knows how to run the mixer.

The other day he decided to wear his Mickey Mouse Ears while helping me make some whole wheat banana mini-muffins. 

Jasper is addicted to them and starts having a panic attack if he thinks we are running out.

I took them to church for our treat in Sunbeams a week ago and Jasper proudly told all the other Sunbeams, "I MADE THESE!"

So this Sunday when I gave them some cookies they all asked if Jasper made them.  

The funniest part is that they were Lemon Creme Sandwich Cookies from Wal-Mart still in the package!

Gotta love my Sunbeams!

Happy February

Polar Bear, Polar Bear....

Jasper really enjoyed learning about penguins and now his preschool class is doing a unit on polar bears this week. 

He came home yesterday with a small booklet to color in that corresponds with the book, "Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?"

Last night I set our copy of the book out on the couch so we could read it together sometime this week.

I was so happy when I found Jasper on the couch reading the book out loud to himself this morning.

(see video below -- watch in full screen or on youtube for a clearer picture).

Scripture Bags for my Sunbeam Class

I wanted to sew a small, simple scripture bag for the Books of Mormon I made for my Sunbeam class.

These bags are very inexpensive, cute and easy to make.  I gave them to my Sunbeams on their first day of class with their Book Of Mormon and name tag inside.  I handed them out before church started so they could look at them during Sacrament meeting and get excited about coming to class. I also thought it would be fun for them to look at the class photo list on the back of their Books of Mormon and see who would be in their class.

I didn't want to spend a lot of time encasing seams or adding drawstrings.  I had a stroke of genius while buying some clear vinyl for another project.

I decided it would be the perfect material for me, and I thought the kids would like to be able to see what is in their bag.  I printed a template in Microsoft Word for each letter and cut it out of cardstock.  Then I traced the letter onto craft felt.

For the initial on I started with a zig zag stitch in a contrasting color of thread.  I soon switched to a straight stitch and matching thread to keep things easy.  For the girls I added a simple bow that I secured on with a straight stitch.

The next step was the handles. I used grossgrain ribbon from Walmart, and then I sewed the sides up with a straight stitch.  

I bought the vinyl at Walmart for $3.00 per yard, and it only took 1/4 yard to make 7 bags since the vinyl is 54 inches wide.  It is found on a large roll next to the cutting counter near the material for vinyl tablecloths.

The medium weight vinyl is much easier to sew with than the extra thick vinyl and holds up just fine.

In case you are wondering where I find time to do all of this...On Saturday mornings our family usually takes a Jeep ride and we go for a hike or explore a trail.

I always take my lesson manual and scriptures with me and we talk about my lessons for the next week or two.

On Jan. 1st I even took my letters to cut out and traced them on felt while my boys went out exploring.

Books of Mormon for my Sunbeam Class

I read about this idea on Sugardoodle and knew I wanted to do something similar.  Especially since the Primary Theme for 2011 is "I Know the Scriptures are True."

My Sunbeams LOVE their scriptures.  I knew they would since Jasper LOVES to be involved in family scripture study at home.

Jasper likes to check to make sure we are all on the same page, which cracks me up.  He doesn't know how to turn to the Book of Enos - Chapter 1, but he does know how to find page 136.

I've asked my Sunbeams to bring their Scriptures with them to church every Sunday and we mark a scripture that goes with our lesson.

We just use a crayon and they get to also place a smiley face sticker near the scripture we marked.  I also read a few additional verses to them while they are coloring.


I think it's a great idea for them to get in the habit of bringing their scriptures to church every week.

I was reading from Jasper's Book of Mormon during Sacrament meeting yesterday and he said, "Mom, those are my scriptures.  It's okay for you to use them right now, but I need them for class."

My Sunbeams spend quite a bit of time during Sharing Time looking at their Books of Mormon.  Sometimes they are reading them upside down...but it does help keep them occupied and in their seats.  They proudly raise their hand when the person conducting Sharing Time asks, "Did anyone bring their scriptures today?"

I have had several mom's report that their Sunbeam "reads" their scriptures during Sacrament meeting. Jasper loves to also look at the illustrations of scenes from Book of Mormon in the front of the book.

In case you think I am CRAZY for asking three year olds to bring scriptures to church each week, I am happy to report that most of them do! 

On the front cover I put my class theme graphic with a photo and their name.  Even though most of them can recognize their name it's they love to see their picture on the front.

On the first inside page I printed a cute graphic my friend Heather made and added a photo of each Sunbeam.  I printed this in color on white paper and used a glue stick to paste it in.  If you haven't been to her website, GO!  She has a ton of free downloads that are super cute.  Her blog is also full of fun things too.

On the back I pasted a class photo list (printed on white cardstock).   The Sunbeams love to pour over this at church and ad home.

My husband headed up the durability part of this project.  He cut a piece of clear adhesive and wrapped it around the front and back with an inch overlap inside the front and back covers.  He used the Duck Brand adhesive laminate and I really like it.  It was $5 for a big roll at WalMart -- found with the shelf liners in the kitchen supply section. 

Please let me know if you have any questions or need a template for any of the graphics.

Welcome to SUNBEAMS!

Here they are!  Sometimes Angels, sometimes . . . not so angelic  :)  But always fun and VERY entertaining.

I loved each of these kids before they were in my class and after being their teacher for a month I love them even more.

It has been fun to get to know each of them better and see their fun personalities and individual talents shine through.

This photo class list is what I pasted on the back of their Books of Mormon.

They love to look at the photos of each other and talk about their classmates.

I also had Mike take a few class pictures as I thought it would be fun to see how much they've grown at the end of the year in comparison to now.

Farewell Friends

Mike and I were so happy to visit with our friends Rob and April Smith before they left the country.

They will be gone for 3 years.  Rob is the Chief Operating Officer of the Horizon International Flight School where he will train helicopter pilots from around the region.  They live in Al Ain, UAE.

We are all going to miss them so much!

Penguin Report: Pre-Research

The above photo is black and white in honor of the color of penguins.  Jasper came home from preschool today with an assignment to do a research project on penguins.

I thought it would be interesting to ask him the questions we are supposed answer and see what he thinks about penguins as a benchmark for our research. 

During lunch I asked him the questions and wrote down the answers on his research sheet.  Then I realized that I should have just been recording our interview and asked him the questions again on camera.

Surgery Report

All went well with Jasper's second set of tubes and adenoid removal.  Mike was able to be with us for the surgery.

We read some Thomas the Train books: "A Crack in the Track", "Stop Train Stop", and "Go Train Go" to pass the time.

Jasper kept saying, "Let's get out of here!" So when the nurse came to take him to surgery she said, "Okay Jasper, let's go."  Of course Jasper had one of his puppies and a little plastic alligator with him so they could get their ears fixed too.

Jasper went back at 8:00 AM and it was 45 minutes before his ENT came out and told us he was okay, which had me a little worried since when he had his first set of tubes he was only in surgery for 10 minutes.









I took this photo of him looking so miserable after he has been out of surgery for an hour.

Dr. O'Donnell said that Jasper's adenoids were pretty big and he was glad that he removed them.  I asked him to check his tonsils too and Dr. O'Donnell said that on a scale of 1 to 4 they were a 2 and are fine for now.

Jasper had a really hard time coming out of anesthesia.  Because he threw up after his last surgery they gave him NO pain medicine at all, in case they would make him nauseous on his empty stomach.

Jasper's throat was really hurting when he woke up.  He couldn't stop crying.  The nurse only let me go back since Jasper was having such a hard time.

I just held his hand, sang him some Primary songs and held his oxygen mask in place so it wouldn't pinch his face.  We had a great nurse who gave Jasper three doses of pain medicine in his IV to get his pain under control.

Jasper was highly motivated to start drinking because his nurse promised she would take his IV out.  He also earned three "Cars" stickers for good sipping.

Jasper's nurse was so nice that she ran out to our van to give Jasper his alligator that he had left behind in the tangled mess of sheets.

After more than an hour Mike was able to come back to be with us.  Jasper was so happy so see his Daddy.

At home Jasper enjoyed a Popsicle and orange push-up festival coupled with a movie marathon.

He told my mom on the phone, "The orangey-orangey's (referring to the push-ups) are REALLY STICKY!

He is doing great now.  We go in for a post-op check up at the end of January.

THANK YOU to everyone for your prayers and well wishes.

Preparing for Surgery

What better way to prepare than drinking hot cocoa with a Candy Cane?

Jasper's tubes in his ears lasted 1 1/2 years.  He got his first set in on June 3, 2009.

Everything went smoothly the first time and we hope the same for this time.

We've known since a hearing test in October that he has a lot of fluid in his ears and that the tubes probably weren't functioning.

At Jasper's ENT appointment in December Dr. O'Donnell said that the tubes were in Jasper's ear canal and not down where they were supposed to be.  He also confirmed the fluid in there.

And so on Wednesday Jasper is having a second set of tubes put in AND having his adenoids out.

We're slated for a 6:50 arrival ath the Surgery Center on Rancho and Charleston, 6:15 AM.  And of course, nothing to eat or drink past midnight tomorrow.

So he's getting the good stuff in now!

Jasper's had a fever the last few days and even had to miss his first Sunday as a Sunbeam!  We weren't even sure if he could still have surgery on Wed., but the ENT is started him on his post surgery antibiotic today just in case he has some kind of a bug.

Bellagio Fountains

When we have company in town, we will oblige them and endure a little time on The Strip.  But we'll only go to one place...The Bellagio Fountains.

We've had several guests this last month and below are a few videos from our fountain viewing.

Holiday Stories and Hot Cocoa

Last night our family, the Schroeder's and the Bradshaw's went to "Holiday Stories and Hot Cocoa" at the Gibson library.

Hot Cocoa is one of Jasper's love languages, and since I don't let Jasper sit on the carpet drinking hot cocoa at home, he was in Heaven.

Jasper wore his snowmen footed PJ's and brought puppy and his pillow and blanket. He sat there and listened to all of the stories.

I'd told him that there was going to be singing at the end, and when there wasn't Jasper was quite disappointed.  I was worried that I might have to break out in song to appease him, but he was able to wait until we got into the Jeep to break out in his favorite Christmas song, Jingle Bells.