We're Sick Again . . .

With SPRING FEVER that is!

It's official - we have Spring Fever! We're deep into March and here in Utah that means some lingering snow storms mixed in with some really beautiful days. You just can't help but want to be outside playing. We were lucky enough to have a few really nice days this week and we made the best of them.

First up though - you can't go play until your homework is done. Ugh! I'm loving school though and doing really well.

Here's Sam taking advantage of the warm weather that often follows a spring snowstorm. You can see the snow still on the ground - but it doesn't keep us down for long.A few days later, all the snow is gone and Sam is out digging in the dirt. We're ready to start planting as soon as the freezing nights are over - probably another two months mom says . . . hopefully that's not a very long amount of time?!?!And here is Sam breaking in the swings for the year. It was soooooo good to get back in to our sandbox for the year.

And you can't keep us away from playing sports in the backyard either. Daddy took some time off from working on his final project for another teaching endorsement that is due this week to play T ball with us. I think we've tagged him out - he's tricky, that daddy!

Here I am taking some whacks at the old T ball. I'm looking forward to playing in a T ball league this spring - can't wait! Look at that ball fly.

Even Sam gets in to the T ball action - and he's a good hitter just like me.

And back to the sandbox. Oh it feels good to be back - we've missed you dear old friend sandbox!

Sam Alert: Howdy y'all. I'm feeling better - just a little bit of a cough and a runny nose left, but overall - much better. Enjoy a few cute pictures of me from the week.

Here I am eating with mommy's chopsticks. We had some yummy Chinese (including sushi - which I wouldn't try) the other night for dinner. I'm getting to be a pro at using the "sticks" - look at that form.And here I am on the piano. I'm not sure you've ever met a little guy who loves music as much as me. Singing, dancing, playing, listening - - - I'm all over it. Have a great week everyone - Sam out.

It's Been "THAT" Week!

We seem to have one of these kind of weeks every winter - you know, a week were absolutely nothing happens. And we mean absolutely nothing! We've been fighting some germs around our house. In fact, daddy has spent more time taking people to the doctor's office/urgent care center this week than doing anything else. Sam had conjunctivitis (pink eye) on Monday. Then he came down with croup on Wednesday and Thursday night - the kind of croup that requires his parents to be awake most of the night walking him around in the cold air outside. Then daddy came down with conjunctivitis on Friday afternoon. And that same evening, Sam's cough got really bad and he was diagnosed with bronchitis.

So when we say nothing happened, we really mean it. We looked at the camera this morning and saw literally no new pictures on it. How sad is that!

We did end up doing one thing today that daddy found picture-worthy - - help with the laundry. Here is a clever picture of us each getting our own dirty laundry out of our hampers. Never let it be said that we don't air our dirty laundry on the blog :-)

Sam Alert: Howdy everyone. Anyone want my cough? I'm happy to give it away. Here's one cute picture of me from this week (the only one). It's me gathering laundry. Ah chores - somebodies gotta do them. Here's to a better week!

Our Big Day Out

Plus Digging for Some Fossils

Since Monday was a holiday, we decided to take off and do something fun that we had never done before. So we hopped a train in to downtown and spent the day at the Clark Planetarium. As our faithful readers know, we LOVE a good train ride, be it historic railroad or light rail.

Ah . . . watching the world go by.

One of the first things we saw at the planetarium was the giant marble maze. We could have spent all day just watching the marbles.There was plenty to see and do - here we are with a model of the earth.
And here we are walking on Mars. (Are you loving these poses?)
A quick hop over some planets and we're walking on the moon.

We watched a movie about a cardboard rocketship and learned all about the 4 rocky midgets and 4 gas giants (planets).

On our walk over to have lunch, a big firetruck pulled up right in front of us. The firemen and women got out and talked to us and gave us quite the royal treatment. We got to hop up inside the truck and visit with some of the firemen.I've officially decided that I want to be both a fireman and an artist when I grow up.This was definitely a highlight of our day!Here we are playing with playdough one afternoon - getting our fingers and hands strong for writing and using scissors. Then we went digging for fossils last night. Daddy found these great fossil bricks at the dinosaur museum last week and we got to dig right in to them. Each brick had 5 fossils inside and we had to carefully discover them and dig them out. Here's Sam working on his.And here we are, all cleaned up, with our fossils. We each found a shark's tooth, clams, ammonites, and other cool fossils.

Sam Alert: Hey everyone - Sam here. Enjoy a couple of cute pics of me from the week. First up - me and my laptop. Everyone knows that I love me a computer - I always have, even when I was a baby. This is mine from Christmas (thanks Uncle Carl and Aunt Fran!). I love to play with it.And here I am with my fossils. Have a great week everybody!

Celebrating and Having Fun!

Well, two weeks in to school and I'm already reading and passing off my tests. I earned my Letter Crown (passing off all my letters and sounds) on Tuesday. Then on Wednesday I earned my Blending Badge (passing off a long list of blending sounds). On Thursday I passed off my first book and got to bring it home. I'm already ahead of some kids that have been in school all year. And I have to pass everything off with our Headmistress, Miss Cindy, before it counts. Here I am reading to dad. To celebrate Valentine's Day, we had dinner and games at Uncle Noley and Aunt Christy's house. The traditional soup and scones are always yummy. We enjoyed playing with their marble games a lot!

Marbles, marbles . . . .. . . . and more marbles!
Then mom and dad said that I got to have a whole day of celebration for doing so well in school. So Saturday morning I woke up and got to pick some fun things to do for the whole day. First on my list was going to the Dinosaur Museum. We love that place!Ever wonder what it feels like to be in the belly of a super giant dino?

Makes a little guy feel even smaller!Here we are with our traditional pose at the baby Triceratops.We invited Grandpa and Grandma L. to go with us. I think they had lots of fun.
The other two things on my list of fun celebrations for the day were painting
and playing Angry Birds on the iPads. Definitely a day of fun for me!Sam Alert: Hey everybody. Sam here. I had a good week and got to do some fun new things. I went to the spa with mommy and Aunt Lu one evening while they got pedicures. What an experience! That's all I will say about that.And here is yet another cute picture of me - this time from the Dinosaur Museum. Have a great week everyone.

School, Celebrating, and Fun

Well a really big thing happened to me this week. It was my first week of school! I was so excited and I love it! It turns out that I'm pretty smart too. I get to bring my own lunch and do homework and everything.

To celebrate my first day of school, we went bowling that night. We take bowling pretty seriously!

Here's Sam - they don't have bowling shoes small enough for him. But he does amazingly well without them!

Ta Da - - - the final scores. I won this time. Sam just barely lost to daddy. By way of other celebrations - a big holiday is coming up tomorrow and in preparation for it, Uncle Carl and Aunt Fran sent us a present. We got a mountain goat and big horn sheep along with a book about them. Thanks! We love it!Then, after two whole days of school . . . guess who got sick? Me! I was so bummed that I had to stay home for a day, but mommy said - better safe than sorry. I had a little 24 hour stomach bug. All better now.Here's Sam being a bug hunter. And here we both are with some fun crafts we did this weekend - Hearts and sock puppets.Sam Alert: Howdy y'all. A quick update on my sleep test from last week. The doctor called and it turns out that I have central sleep apnea. The respiratory center in my brain hasn't matured yet and it doesn't communicate well with my lungs while I sleep. So I get to have some oxygen at night and some iron supplements for my restless legs. I'll probably have an MRI too in a few weeks just to check out the old brain. Pretty wild stuff huh! This may explain why I'm such a small guy. Good sleep and big muscles . . . here I come!

Here's a picture of me on my first day going to the baby sitter's all by myself. I was a little nervous for about the first minute, but all my friends are still there, even if my big brother isn't. And here I am out in the snow. Spring is just around the corner but we still have a few more snow storms to look forward to. And one last picture from the week of me helping to shovel the snow - good thing daddy came through with the snow blower before I got there. That makes shoveling super easy!

Happy Birthday Dad!

This was a pretty dull week for us . . . good thing dad's birthday fell right in the middle of the week to give us something to celebrate. We did get in another round of "Ice Treasures". We haven't gotten to do this fun activity since the summer. Here we are coloring pictures for dad's birthday. Note the birthday balloons in the background. In our house, no birthday is complete without balloons.

Daddy had a late class on his birthday night so here we are singing happy birthday to him after he got home. We picked up some of his favorite custard eclairs this year - Y U M M Y!Sam Alert: Howdy everyone. I got to sleep at the hospital with mommy one night this week for a sleep study. These really nice people put 26 "stickers" all over me along with a really cool spiderman hat. I watched a bunch of movies and then fell asleep. No sweat! They said we'd hear back in a few weeks but so far so good. They said that I was a really great patient and that I did everything they asked . . . and that most 8 year olds can't even do that. Wow! It's great to be me!