pack meeting

There is something about boys making paper airplanes at pack meeting!!

(Julie or Maryanne, this is where knowing how to put a much bigger picture on my blog would come in handy, hint-hint!!)

"it was called the ship of dreams...

...and it was; it really was." (As quoted by Will on a daily basis!) Anyone who has been to our house lately, or been around any of our boys for that matter, knows that around here we eat, drink, live and breathe anything Titanic. It all started about 2 months ago at Thanksgiving break, when Ben brought home two books from the school library about the Titanic. That Thanksgiving weekend the boys couldn't get enough of reading about it, and it has just exploded from there. This was our collection of books as of last week--I think we have every Titanic book from the school library at our house!

After the books came the movie, Titanic, which we had to borrow from Charlie since we don't own it. They have seen the whole movie a time or two, or fifty...yes, the whole thing. There have been a few questions about a couple of naughty scenes, seen when I wasn't around, but we have gotten past that and they know when to hit the skip button. Will can basically quote the entire movie, English accent included, but his favorite part is when the ship hits the iceberg. "Wake up you b*^$%#@s" always followed with the question, "Mom, is that a bad word?" Then on to, "What do you see?" "Iceberg, right ahead!!" "Thank you." Jack and Rose are practically part of the family;)

Next came the drawings...oh, the amount of drawings we have seen around here!! I think we have gone through at least an entire ream or two of paper already, and we haven't slowed down at all!! This was Will's first drawing of the Titanic.

I couldn't get this to copy in color, but it's a drawing done by Daren at church. This is patterned after Will's favorite page in the Discover the Titanic book. Ask anyone who sits around us in church, and they will testify that all we do is draw page after page of the Titanic.

Ben drew this great picture that he had framed for a while, but has since been replaced by yet, another Titanic picture.

Will even painted a picture of it at school.

Somehow Santa knew that Will loved the Titanic, and brought him a toy one, which I am pretty sure was very hard to find, um build, but he pulled through.

MANY hours have been spent in the tub with it!

Thanks to Brett and Honnelore for the framed poster of the Titanic, which hangs in Will's room now. Brett got this a long time ago at the Titanic exhibit, and it was just taking up space at their home, so they gave it to the boys on Christmas day. (Our extended family is always looking out for us--even Dakon the other day texted me that a program about the Titanic was going to be on the History Channel the next day...but we already had it set up to record!:) A couple weeks ago Ben and Jake sat for an entire hour and watched a program about the iceberg the Titanic hit--it was a snoozer, but they loved it!

The boys have gotten quite clever about what they can make into a Titanic, including snow...

...playdough...

...blocks (complete with lifeboats if you look close)...

...and Mega Blocks. It's seems to be never ending!! (picture of Titanic sinking after hitting the iceberg) A while back I remembered that I had the cd to the movie, and thus it had found a permanent home in our player. They play it all the time (esp. number 7, because that is when the ship hits the iceberg, and the quotes go on from there!) and have filmed many of their own movies of the ship sinking with the music in the background.

And last, but definitely not least, are the Legos. This was Ben's first lego Titanic, and we have learned a lot since then. The challenge now is to see if you can be more creative than the last time. It's amazing what we have come up with on our own, just using the pieces we already have.

Over time more and more details have been added, and it makes it a lot of fun. The boys have discovered youtube, and they can't get enough of the lego titanic videos people have done on there. We found, through youtube, that Legos had a section on their products page called Design by Me, and Ben has designed his own Lego Titanic, which is currently on order and he is trying to wait patiently for it.

Their favorite song these days is the song I taught them that I learned when I was back in 5th grade:

"Oh they built the ship Titanic, to sail the ocean blue,

and they thought they had a ship that the water would never go through;

but the Lord he raised his hand, said the ship would never land,

it was sad when the great ship went down.

It was sad, so sad, it was sad, so sad,

it was sad when the great ship went down,

to the bottom of the sea...ea...ea...ea,

(husbands and wives, many little children lost their lives),

it was sad when the great ship went down."

A few of the neighborhood kids were over the other day, and they were all drawing Titanic pictures or building a new lego Titanic. Ben said that is going to be one of their school-day themes this coming summer when he hosts school again in our backyard, so watch out! And that's just a sampling of what we go through every day here...it's fun, and if you ask any of the boys they can tell you Titanic facts like you wouldn't believe, including the fact that she had two sister ships, the Olympic and the Britanic (as per Will--"the greatest hospital ship in the world). Stay tuned for Britanic mania!!

the rest of the story

Oh man--we recently upgraded to a faster modem and can I just tell you how much I love it?! It makes blogging so much better because the pictures can upload soooo much faster.

I wanted to post the rest of my birthday the other day because there were so many that put forth an effort to make it a great one for me. Thanks to everyone for texts, calls, etc. throughout the day!! Julie brought me a half dozen of the most delicious donuts from a new-ish donut shop in Draper called "Beyond Glaze." They look almost too good to eat, but we did. We took little bites out of each one to try them all, and I think my favorite one, at least that day, was the Key Lime Pie (bottom left). Or maybe the peanut butter and chocolate (bottom middle). No, no--it was the s'mores (bottom right). Of course you can't go wrong with maple, ganache(?), or nutmeg either. Thanks Julie!

These pictures show you what my new lens can do--zooming in on one tiny point in the picture. Love it!

We made plans to go out with Brenda and JD that night, and the kids were going to all be at Brenda's with a babysitter. Daren said he'd meet us there because he had a meeting that afternoon for one of his cases. When we got to Brenda's, we walked in and the babysitter was there with hot pizza on the counter for the kids, and then I rounded the corner to see a bunch of my friends, and all yelling SURPRISE! Brenda and Daren had planned this party for me, and I have to say it was a huge surprise--I didn't have the slightest clue anything was going on! What a blast we had!! Daren brought Pat's BBQ (the best bbq EVER!), Brenda, of course, had games planned, and my mom and dad put together the funnest dvd of pictures of me growing up until just recently. I know that was a lot of work--THANK YOU!!

Thanks to Brenda for taking pictures because my lens just wasn't the right one for taking pictures that night. These are the girls I have known and loved forever it seems like, and I'm the first of us to turn 40. These are the ones I'm going on a trip with this spring, and even though Megyn doesn't turn 40 until next year we are going to let her come too! ;)

Daren, JD, and brother Darren, laughing it up over the pictures of me from the 80's with my 80's big hair! Laugh it up--your days will be coming soon too!

Cute little Sydney, 10 months old.

It doesn't matter what kind of cake it is, but Brenda's signature always has been cinnamon bears on top!

The kids couldn't wait to dive into the cupcake cake.

Garrett's patience paid off, and this is my favorite picture I think I've taken in a long time! He was so excited to finally eat his piece of cake.

A huge THANK YOU to Daren, Brenda, and everyone else for making my birthday so memorable! I know it was a lot of work (and money!) and I had the best time. I'm sad that I didn't get a picture of me and Brenda together. Not that we don't already have a ton of them together, but you know. I guess turning 40 isn't so bad...but then again...

four decades later...

I have neglected this blog for too long now! Between trying to figure out a new computer and it being the month of December, I didn't get around to blogging for a while. It's been a crazy month around here, to say the least. I will hopefully get a post up about December in the next few days, but I have a different subject today...me. I don't really like talking too much about me, but today is a big day so I'm gonna bite the bullet and let it fly.

Four decades and a few hours ago, I came into this world via a great family. At that time there was just my mom and dad, and my older brother, Eric. Brenda and Darren would follow quickly after me, giving my mom a real handful! I had a great childhood with loving parents who were great examples to me, and siblings to play, fight, and love with. Now I have an amazing husband, who I love very much, and 3 of the greatest boys, who I also play, fight, and love with!! I look back on the past 40 years (yep, I finally wrote it out and it's official!) and look at all I have been blessed with, and it's a lot.

Friends have also meant a lot to me over the years, and I'm fortunate to keep in touch with so many of them. I am the first of my friends I had growing up to turn 40, but they aren't too far behind! We are planning a girl's trip this spring to celebrate our oldness. I also have many "newer" friends, who I love as well. Included in that group of friends is this crazy group of girl's called the "running girls." At 7am this morning I heard the loudest singing of "Happy Birthday to You," out on the front porch. Will and Jake came running to say, "The running girl's are out there singing!!" (I'm not quite in the shape they are, so I bypassed the 10-mile run this morning in lieu of more sleep.) They had decorated my front porch and had a box of donuts.

Are these guys the greatest or what?!

I came back in to make breakfast for a couple of boys heading off to school, and they gave me a new 50mm lens I have been wanting, so this is the first picture I took with it. And yes, their teachers might kill me for letting each of them get sugared up right before school!!

So this is what 40 green (my fave color) balloons look like, and I must admit, it looks like a lot! Heck, it is a lot!!

When daylight finally started to break, I took a picture of what the running girls did to our trees. I can just see them now, laughing their heads off as they are t.p.ing our trees--ah, the good ol' days! You don't see much of this anymore! And all this before 7:30am! Whew!

Anywho, it's really not so bad turning 40. For the most part I don't feel my age, but then I look in the mirror and it is apparent that time is marching on. That's ok, though. As long as time doesn't pick it up to a full-out sprint!