Colton is three months old!

We love this boy!!
At three months, Colton is such a sweet boy - most of the time. He loves to smile and talk. He likes it when his brothers sing and play with him. He is sleeping much better now and will actually just hang out occasionally and let his mother get something done!

Corbin finished his chore chart!

Corbin has been working on this chore chart for months (like since before Christmas). He got stickers for doing different random jobs. It started out that he got stickers for just about anything - picking up toys, putting away the silverware, setting the table, etc. But then some things became standard (which was the idea) and he had to do different jobs. It worked well. Throughout the chart there were random rewards on certain squares, so he just filled in the stickers and when he got to the one with the reward that's what he got. There were things like "go to McDonalds", "ice cream" (which meant actually going to get ice cream), surprise from mom (usually something fun like a book or a workbook - yes, he loves both). So the very last square said Jungle Jims. It is this little indoor amusement park type thing for kids. Corbin loves it! Long story short - he finished his chart and we finally went. We invited some friends from the fire dept to go with us . . .

Books, Books, Books

When I was younger, like elementary age, I loved to read. Then I went through this phase (aka high school) where I despised it and got by with alot of help from my friend Cliff. (Why are they called Cliff's Notes anyway?) Somehow I made it through college without reading hardly anything for pleasure while I worked my way through many, many textbooks and assigned books. Now finally the last few years I am enjoying reading again! I do still love non-fiction, but I have allowed myself to get into a novel or two thanks mostly in part to my book club that I joined when I lived in Provo (going on our 6th year!) and my new book club here in Sanish Fork that just got through year one. So since I love to hear what other people are reading, what they liked or didn't, I thought I would share a bit . . . if you want to see what I have read and how I ranked it, check out http://www.goodreads.com/profile/mindyj.

Usually in book club if there is a book I am not really into or I think I would rather spend time reading something else, I just skip it, but I am trying to expand . . . this month in my new book club, we are reading a juvenile fiction called The Lightning Thief. I might actully break out of my shell and do it. I'll let you know how it goes.

So in this book club, we decide what we are reading for the entire year. Here's the list, let me know if you have read and have any thoughts on any of them!

September -The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
October - Bel Canto by Ann Patchett (already read this one, but I liked it so I'll probably read it again.)
November - The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch (We're actually reading this one right now for my old book club, so I guess I will be ahead of the game!)
January - Gift From the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh
February - A History of Joseph Smith by His Mother
March - Fablehaven by Brandon Mull
April - The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad
May - The Last Promise by Richard Paul Evans
June -A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

So there are several that push me out of my non-fiction, historical fiction, true story genres that I prefer, but maybe that will be good for me. :)

By the way, for all of my book club gals in SF and the Sassy Sisters, I love book club! I like reading the books, of course, but I love getting together each month and catching up on each others lives and hearing the latest saga of love, family, kids, husbands, travels, etc. Husbands and kids are great, but I don't think I could do it all without my girlfriends too!

Car Games

So Corbin loves to play games in the car (I spy, ABC game, etc.). We play spelling bee - give him a word and he has to spell it. If he gets it right I have to clap and if he doesn't I have to buzz him. He often tries to make up new games too. The "song game" is where we lip sync to the radio - he does the boy singers and I have to do the girls. And since he can't really see me when I am driving, I have to sort of move my head, dance, tap my fingers or something so that he knows for sure that I am playing. The most recent one is my favorite. It's called "The World Game". I have to pick a country that I want to go to and he has to try and spell it. This is quite complicated for a five year old. So the other day I chose Egypt. Since he has a hard time pronouncing it, it was quite interesting to hear the attempts at spelling. So as he is rattling off different letters in no coherent order, I was trying to pronounce it slowly for him and trying to hint at the "y", Cody is on the other side imitating me and says laughing, "You want to go to 'Pee-gyft'?". And of course since they are boys, anything that has to do with Pee is just hilarious. I couldn't help but laugh, because I think that really is what Cody heard. Boys are great.

Corbin loves legos!

Corbin is very proud of the semi-truck he built. He got it for his 5th birthday and spent about a month working on it. When I first saw the instructions, I thought I was going to have to spend alot of time helping him. But he did it completely by himself. I am so proud of him! He is really proud because this is one of the lego sets that is for 7-12 yr olds. He thought that was pretty cool.

Muffin Tin Monday

I got this fun idea from my cousin (thanks, Emily!) and I guess there's a whole world out there of muffin tin meals (http://www.flickr.com/groups/muffintinmeals). It 's just a little twist on your average everyday lunch. My kids thought it was super fun and they ate it up. We invtied some neighbor friends over too.

This time we had Pokemon Mac n Cheese, squash and zucchini, carrots, dip for the carrots, apples and marshmallows.

Corbin and Sydney

Ashley and Cody got their own little tin.