I'm driving to Denver this summer with the kids.  They'll watch movies the whole way, but I need some good books to listen to on my ipod.  I need some suggestions!  What are your all time favorite books?  Recent favorites? 

FYI:  The dishwasher is a great way to wash Crocs.  The  dishwasher with the heat dry turned on is not...unless you need your crocs to shrink a whole size.  3 pairs of month old Crocs...  :(

Joshuaism:  I watched "The Witches," a movie based off a book by Roald Dahl the other day with the kids.  (Fun movie, by the way.)  At one point it was explained that to witches, children smell like dog droppings.  Joshua got excited and said, "Oh! I love dog droppings!"  Noah made a sick sound and I lovingly told him that dog droppings was really dog poo.  I was worried he would get upset because we were all kind of giggling at him.  But he smiled and said, "Oh, I don't love that!!  I thought they meant Cough Droppings!  I love those!"

Anyone who has been to my house has seen the ugly juniper bush that was slowly taking over my yard and driveway.  Really.  You couldn't even park on that side of the driveway and get out of your car because of the ghastly bush.  I've always wanted it torn out, but seriously, it was huge and we don't have any of the tools needed to remove it...a truck, chains, chain saw...Well, now that our good friends moved back to the neighborhood, not only do we have lots of play dates, yummy meals, and lots of rock band playing time, we have access to some sweet tools, not to mention some man power to add to my own man's power.  

A huge thank you to Peter and Aaron for pulling out my bush for me on Saturday.  It took them six hours and they only broke a few tools, but it's done. They were drenched from all the rain we had that day.   I was so amazed that they were able to take that huge bush and jump on it enough to get it to fit into the back of Peter's truck!  (Who wants to pay TWICE to go to the dump??)  Also, the missionaries stopped by to offer some assistance which was totally awesome!  Thanks guys :)

Now, as soon as it stops raining........I'll get the area looking nice and plant some dogwood trees and ground cover and pretty flowers.  I can't wait!!  Thanks again guys!!

The other night Aaron and I were playing a game and the boys kept sneaking out of their room. After telling them to go back to bed a few times we just ignored them and played our game.  They eventually got quiet and we ended our game and went to the family room to watch, "Lost."  During a commercial I heard a rustling behind the end table.  I jumped thinking there was an animal back there.  I got brave and took a peak...Noah, fast asleep.  I giggled.  A while later, he woke up and stumbled his way to the bathroom.  He came back in the room and sat in the middle of the floor.  I noticed he had socks on because he started to take them off.  He was struggling so Aaron went to help him.  Aaron laughed and said, "He's got two pairs of socks on."  Noah said, "No.  I have 3."  I asked him why in the world he had 3 pairs of socks on.  He said, "So I could be quiet...it's not comfortable."  Well it worked...he got past us and made his way downstairs without us catching him.  When we came up to bed, we found Joshua in our bed with a ball of lots of socks by him.  I asked him about it and he told me that Noah wanted him to be sneaky...but he just wanted to sleep.

Tonight, we came up to bed and I turned on the light.  Joshua shot up from our bed and yelled, "It was Noah's plan!"  Two naughty boys out of bed way past bedtime and chilling in my bedroom.  And Joshua...I KNOW it was Noah's plan :)

The Father and Sons camp-out was this weekend.  Sarah made the boy's and I lot's of yummy treats and she was right we had too much food.  At Noah's request we had fresh quesadillas for dinner but by the time I had camp setup and they were cooking on the griddle the kids were full of nutty buddies (some of Sarah's treats) and covered from head to toe in powdered sugar (No pictures, I forgot the camera).  We went down to the lake after dinner to catch some salamanders.  Noah really wanted to keep each one we caught and have it as a pet.  They were dark brown on top and yellow/orange on their bellies.  We found an all yellow one for Joshua and as he held it it turned chocolate brown.  We told him he had the chocolate touch (we just got done reading that book not that long ago), he liked that.  After playing in the campfire and bumming some marshmallows off of some people I put the kids to bed.  Anyway (the point of the whole post) the next day we talked about fishing wile catching salamanders again.  Noah ask if he could keep a fish heart.
 "No", I said, "Fish guts stink really bad".
"Well", said Noah, "I'd like it for my collection".
 Again I tried to explain and he seemed to get it a little.
 "Well", he said again, "then can I have the eyes for my collection?".
 He was pretty insistent that he needed some fish parts for his collection.  He brought it up with Sarah while fishing later that day (We picked up the girls to go fishing with us after leaving the Father and Sons).  Sarah caught two fish and I caught the small one to make three.  I wish Noah had been around when I cleaned them so I could show him what it was he'd been asking for.  He and Joshua were excited to eat the eyeballs when we sat down to lunch.  They said they were delicious.  Anyway latter that day Noah comes up to me, and I realized what'd been going through his little mind about the fish guts, he'd brought me a little plastic heart and said, "I guess we can use this one to make mommy a necklace for Mothers Day instead".  He'd been reluctant to give up his treasure and figured he'd just get another heart from the fish.  What a cute boy.  Anyway Sarah has a nice non-fish heart necklace that Noe gave her for Mothers Day.  The other kids also helped me pick some flowers (above) and draw some pictures for her.  Arwen helped take the picture.  Happy Mothers day Sarah.

Love,

Aaron and the Kids.

I stayed home with the girls from church today because Larkin has been really sick for the last 5 days and got worse last night.  Arwen was sick yesterday, but I think her body kicked the bug. Anyways, as I was getting the boys out of the bath and ready for church and the girls out and ready to go to the doctors, Joshua was upset because he couldn't stay home from church too.  I told him that he really needed to go because it was Mother's Day and he would probably make me a neat little present in class.  (Joshua really likes to draw and make crafts these days.)  He then told me that maybe I should go to his class and make my craft for him...with my eyes closed so it would still be a surprise and then he would give it to me.  Nice.  Happy Mother's Day :)

Arwen made breakfast this morning...

Chocolate Grape Toast is one of her specialties...I guess.  The kids love it anyways.

As the kids walked off the field to go to their cars I noticed a few had pretty muddy shoes and mud spattered here and there.  But when Arwen came tromping off the field it looked like she'd been trampled by all those muddy shoes.  

Seeing my questioning look, Arni said smiling, "I got hit in the face by the ball".  Well that and about everywhere else I added in my head.  She sure loves soccer.  What a beautiful princess she is, even covered in mud.