Hurst Family News

CRAZY HAIR DAY part 2! See part 1.  Ian said we had to make sad faces. Apparently Lando missed the message.  This is actually from this morning:  instructions were to make a sad face.... go figure. It's a good idea to wear a helmet when you're 2 1/2 and fall off the bar stools a lot.  Happy Thursday. 

We had a funny moment this morning.   At least I thought it was funny.   Ian wanted an orange for a snack and I gladly peeled him one.  I was telling him that when I was little we had an orange tree in our back yard and that Grandpa Wittwer has an orange tree in his back yard now.  He thought that was pretty cool.  He wanted to know how big it was when I was little (BIG) and how big Grandpa's is now (little--it's a dwarf tree). I tried to explain that they were two totally different trees at different houses.  He wondered where I lived when I was little and I had to explain to him that it was a different house than the one Grandpa lives in now and that when I was little Grandpa was married to Oma.   "That's weally weally stwange Mom dat Drampuh Wittwoah maowied Oma."  To know them now separately I suppose so.  It's all he's ever known.  But for me I still think of my parents as a unit- now married to different spouses. ...

I need name suggestions for my new camera.  I didn't have a name for the old one- but I need to call this one by something :)  I knew I needed to update pictures of the squidlets so here's just a few from us playing around with the camera the other day.  Brotherly Tummy Time:  I love how happy Landon is in this one. He's always happy around Charlie.   Cheese and grumpy face:  I caught him smiling!  This guy too: (just a bit more drooley)  I can hardly believe he's nearly 4 months old!  Knuckle sucker:

As we begin to anticipate and prepare for an epic journey this season I find myself getting more and more excited.   Not for things.  Things are cool but are really just STUFF.  And we have much to much of that anyway.   I find myself anticipating TIME and EXPERIENCES far more than what kind of gadgets we can blow all of our money on.   I look forward to edible trees and snowman pancakes and a trip to the aquarium and songs in the car and route 66 and crafty hours and singing songs around the piano and the joy and merriment of BEING TOGETHER. Perhaps a round of Muppetopoly or Bezzerwizzer. or both.   I love to GIVE gifts and wish I thought about it more during the year so I wouldn't feel crunched with a deadline.   So here's to the Holiday Spirit.  

We made play dough today.  the boys are currently creating masterpieces on the kitchen floor.   Landon wanted red. Ian wanted blue. as always.   I decided that I probably DO need a new camera--hence the severe lack of pictures on the blog.  do you want to make play dough too? Here's what you do:   in a saucepan MIX; 1 C flour  1/4 C salt 1 tsp. Cream of Tartar once well blended together add 1 C water. whisk until smooth cook on MED heat and stir until it pulls from the sides and looks like play dough. cool. knead.  play and enjoy.  store in airtight container (we're using good ol' ziplock bags) we added food coloring when I was kneading it... not very bright because I didn't do a lot but I think it's easier if you do it when it's in the cooking phase.  Merry Christmas. 

Light a candle for heaven's sake! Oh my. These boys STINK!  Luckily we're on the tail of of the barfy/diarrhea phase at our house but man!  So today I decided to make a WalMart run.   I happened to have the car because Sean flew to Navajo Mountain this morning leaving me the vehicle.   WalMart happens to be in the next state over... which is still kind of odd to me.  90 minutes driving to get there.  3 boys. 1 mom. stupid consumer "deals" crowding the aisles, which include copious amounts of toys that the kids insist they want 0 double curtain rod brackets for my book shelves project... dang 45 minutes or an hour saying "no we're not buying that" and we're outta there phew we made it.  90 minutes home  1 phone call to sister dropped about 5 times... gave up. 1- 30 minute stop along the way to change 2 diapers and let the other one pee on the side of the road and feed Charlie Bucket.   Dude- I feel like I can do anything.  Some ...

On this, the celebratory day of my birth, let me take a moment to say thank you to my mom.  Thanks mom for laboring and bringing me into this world and for supporting me every step of the way.  Looking back even the chastening moments were really just trying to get me to be who I really am not who I wish I were (or who I thought others wanted me to be).   I've been reading Gretchen Rubin's Happiness Project  sporadically when I have time to linger in the tub.  Remember when it made me want to blog every day .  See how well that turned out?  Oh well.   Which reminds me- I saw a plaque on Pinterest that says  I second that emotion.  Meanwhile back at the farm....I was reading in the tub this morning and pondering my little sister's blog post.  Do I like myself?  Woah. Loaded question sister girl.   But a good one to get the cogs in the old noggin thinking about something other than barfy children (which we had ye...

I'll have to get pictures at some point to prove my awesomeness.  Until then... What is so awesome? you ask. My thrifting skills of course. Last winter I found Sean a London Fog Leather Jacket at a thrift store.  We went looking for something else but it caught my eye and so I made him try it on...yes I twisted his arm.  Didn't take much twisting after that when it looked so good on him (and was yummy warm to boot) to get him to say yes to buying it. $12. For a jacket purchased new around $100.  Granted this wasn't new anymore but still in excellent condition. Well- now fast forward to last week.  We were getting ready for a trip to Logan.  Looked everywhere for Sean's leather jacket.  Decided it got left at work (45 minutes away not worth driving to get).  So we took a sweatshirt for him and thought we'd try the thrift stores while we were up there for a backup winter coat that can get a little more beat up-one that can go sledding and ge...

I like free--- check out the temple picture giveaway here .

The Costumes 2011:  First up is Ian the Builder  Next we have the Fierce Landon Dragon  The somewhat tired Charlie Monkey  Arrg! Avast ye Mateys! Thar be Sean the Software Pirate.  Mt. Maggie-souvious: Look out! She's gonna blow!   Curling the molten hot Magma. (Ian took this picture without any direction.)  close up shot Droop Shot

First I wanted to show you my handsome boys all ready for church.  Secundus wanted to be like Primus and make grumpy faces... both turned out pretty cute I think.     Ian got to participate in his first ever Primary Program yesterday.  After the narrator he was the first one.  Remembered his line and didn't even use his silly voice. So proud.  Sang some of the songs- mostly jumped around and said to daddy, who was sitting next to him in case of a jail break, "Look Mom's singing!" Because I happen to know the songs and I was trying to encourage him to sing or at least stop jumping.  So he tried, in vain, to get Daddy to sing them too--but Daddy wasn't the Primary chorister so he didn't know them (some were a bit obscure). He managed to get a few laughs from the congregation though. After church it was time to CARVE PUMPKINS! I wasn't super thrilled at the idea (still groggy from my nap that should have just been an early bedtime) so I cleaned/roasted p...

Well I may not get any other pictures for Halloween so I figured I'll give you what I've got.  Ian wanted to be Bob.   Like I mentioned before, Landon wanted to be an airplane but will have to make do with the flood style dragon.  He's had the roar down since he was less than a year old.    I don't remember what they were dancing and singing to but it was pretty cute.  Side view of Sir Dragon Maybe I'll remember to take pictures of the wee one in his getup later too. 

My tough boys all got Cars tattoos before working on Nena:   I asked Landon a week ago what he wanted to be for Halloween.   "AIRPLANE!"  "How about a Dragon?" (I happen to have this costume on hand from when Ian was a dragon... ) "No. AIRPLANE!" uh...ok.  Looks like he takes after Grandpa Wittwer in his love of airplanes. So yesterday morning I brought the cardboard boxes inside before it started raining (brilliant move on my part thank you) so I could have decent cardboard to work with to attempt an airplane.  Well the morning was hectic as usual and I was hoping to work on it during a certain big brother's nap (because he often likes to help and this mama gets frustrated with little helpers especially when they are not allowed near Ex-acto knives).  Then the wind picks up and POOF! the power is gone.  We waited for a few minutes to see if it would come back on....and nothing happened.  The quiet was nice--it's amazing how much noise ever...

Behold: He likes it when I crinkle my nose. I love that the boys love each other.

So yesterday was Granny Night aka Date Night.  I left it to Sean to plan it.  All too often my brain is fried at the end of the day.  So he called at 3pm saying I had to be ready to leave right at 5 so we'd have daylight.  I figured that meant we were going hiking or something.  Ding Ding Ding- I win--he had indeed planned to go for a little hike.  Good thing I figured it out and thought to bring along the Moby for Charlie.   We dropped the kids off with the grandparents (the boys and I had been at Aunt Dani and Uncle Fielding's house) and headed south.  When it starts to get chilly, like it happens to do this time of year, heading South is the best option.  Drop elevation- warmer climates.  (The opposite is true in the summer.  One of the many great things about living here)   Well we weren't out of town yet and Sean turns off the highway.  To the old Ruins Road.  Leading to none other than Make Out Point. ...

Mr. Blue Eyes There's the money shot!  Sweet Boy "Mom, gimmie the camera!" "Hmmm..." (PS- There is another post for today.  I had to post this one for the grandparents though.  To see the other post: Click on "Hurst Family News" at the top and scroll down)

So much for my blog every day goal.   Oh well.  Life happens.  On the housing front: waiting.  I'll let ya know. On the kid front: all sleeping.  Charlie didn't want to be put down at ALL today but he's kinda cooperating at the moment.  Wish I could get a nap in though. (Watch, as soon as I hit post one or all 3 kids will magically wake up and that 3 minute nap I was hoping for will vanish...) On the crafty front: we made puppets today but the boys don't totally get the idea of acting out a story so I told them to try just telling a story... we'll see.  Pretty cute to see them get so excited though.  We're going to have to make more puppets.... I just need to get more felt first- a task not so easy given my limited resources.  I think we need to get a tension rod for the doorway too so they can have a curtain to hide behind, like the wizard in the Wizard of Oz...everything is more magical that way.  The cardboard box they are curre...

Small town living means a few things: Run into my father in law almost every time I go to buy fabric.  The fabric is sold at the hardware store. Business hours=shut down when the sun goes down (and I think I should sleep then- silly winter) Options? What options? Speed limit 30.  Movies? you mean MOVIE singular. We have a theater here that has one screen and plays one movie.  It usually runs for a week or two and then onto something else.  Understandably so when the population is less than 5000 how many of those people are really going to go see every show every week or have enough demand for more variety.  So a few months ago the Book Club read The Help by Kathryn Stockett.  I thoroughly enjoyed the book.   I loved Skeeter.  Gutsy.  Finds her voice and helps others to have a voice.  The other characters?  Hilly- Bully.  Elizabeth- Spineless.  Minnie- Large and in charge--a says-it-like-it-is character.  ...

So I missed yesterday. Sorry. I did get feeling better but didn't get around to posting.  My bad. We looked at another house last night.  (The first one accepted the other offer and since ours was second in line we'd only get it if the people backed out or the money fell through- neither of which are likely.  Ce la vie) This other house is better suited to my liking except that it's not finished.  As in-- it has sturdy walls but no insulation- plumbing for bathrooms but no toilets- plumbing for kitchen but missing a wall and hm- pretty much everything else in it.  But it has new windows and a new roof and is laid out well to do the finishing work.  It is small- but would suit our needs and we'd get to design a lot of it ourselves since we'd being doing the work.  And the lot is a third of an acre- good sized but not overwhelming.  It's been on the market for a while and we're hoping there's not a lot of back and forth bargaining on the price...

Woke up sick. No blog. I hope this passes quickly.

So grateful that the sunshine is back!   I firmly believe that all living things are solar powered- not just high-fa-lootin' cars.   We spent the morning making cards to send to loved ones (hope they make it in the mail sometime this century) and Charlie learned to love his new swing.  $2 at a yardsale and it's exactly what I've been looking for! It's a wind up kind so no worries about batteries.  Also only swings long enough to calm him down so it's not incessantly going all the time.  I kind of like it myself.  It looks like THIS   (mostly).  It works for us and I only put him in it if I'm around-- I do NOT trust his siblings. A little common sense goes a long way.  Saves my back too because usually if he's really upset I'm swing him in his carseat for a minute to calm him down- and it kills my back.   We had Charlie's blessing this weekend (similar to a Christening) and my Dad and Step-mom we able to make the long trek out here for ...