An Empty Think Tank

Any of you out there friends with Russ on Facebook? Is so, have you (like me) stopped reading most of his posts because you know they will all be of a political nature? (Before you judge me, I feel OK doing this even though I am his wife because most of the time we will discuss them over dinner or before bed. Plus, he always asks "did you read my post today?" so it's not like he doesn't know I skip them. I do read the short ones :)

Well, you may not have to block him any longer. :) He's started a blog to get down all his political thoughts. (Probably some science, math, and religion too.) It's at emptytank.blogspot.com (I plan on reading this. I like hearing his thoughts, but not on Facebook. I'm usually not looking for something deep when I get on.)


Now he can get back to his funny self again on Facebook. Yeah!

Camping

Dallin had a little campout tonight. We made a fire with a wrapping paper roll, tissue paper, and glue dots. He was sad it didn't really light up, so we found some battery operated tea candles we had from Christmas and put them in the middle. He "roasted" smarshmallow (as Dallin calls them). We turned out the lights and told stories by the campfire. At night we set up a tent for him and he slept by the fire. (I did have to give him a heads up that he would be moved into his bed after he fell asleep. He gets so mad when we wakes up in a different place than he fell asleep.) It's our way of pretending we have good weather outside! Happy Camping!

All we had was baby marshmallows. He didn't mind.

The local wildlife loves to cuddle by the fire.

Humor Me....

by taking my little poll on the left side of the blog. I just wonder which would be more important to you. I know some of you have both (and I greatly envy you), but try to imagine if you didn't.

Thanks for humoring me! It wasn't too painful, now was it?

And if you are like me and feel the need to explain your choices, please feel free to comment. :)

Sanity Saver Bucket....

Or, as we call it, snack bucket. Dallin drives me nuts asking (or rather begging, whining, and crying) for snacks or treats all day long. Of coarse when it is time for a meal, he hardly eats anything. We (or rather I) have decided to try a new technique. Enter snack bucket....

I used an old McDonald bucket from Halloween and with my label maker (thank you Russ), we labeled it "Snack Bucket".  In the morning, while Dallin is eating breakfast, I fill it with the daily 5 snacks. I do different snacks everyday (Anyone who knows Dallin knows that if I did the 5 same snacks and one day ran out of one of them, it would be a full on tantrum. By never having the same things, I hope to avoid this.) There is usually two sugary snacks (fruit snacks, marshmallows, granola bars, cereal, etc.) and three healthier snacks (string cheese, apple, banana, orange, peanuts, etc.) Here is the best part...I give it to him in the morning and he's not allowed to ask for anymore snacks during the day.

On the first day we tried this he ate most of them right after breakfast. All he left was half an apple and a clementine. I was nervous it wouldn't work because he would be starving around 3:00 and have no snacks left. I was wrong. After lunch he was watching his daily movie and he got the clementine and peeled it and ate it all on his own. Not even a word to me about wanting a snack. No more tears about not getting to eat the whole bag of marshmallows or that we ran out of granola bars and that is what he wanted. I love it!

On another note, Dallin loves 80s cartoons. We let him watch one movie a day or a couple of episodes of a TV show.  We got Transformers the original cartoon from the library today. Here he is totally enthralled.  (And yes, that is an Optimus Prime McDonald toy in his hands.)

He had a run with Thundercats, practically memorized Heman, and discovered his new favorite movie on Netfix Instant Queue is Rainbow Brite and the Star Stealer. (I'm sure Ashley remembers that one. We've watched it 3 times just last week.) And let's not forget the Chipmuck Adventure. We also got that one from the library today. I'm happy he likes these cartoons. I could have to be watching Sponge Bob.

Tumbling

Just a few videos from Dallin's last day in his tumbling class. I thought Grandmas would like to see what he has been up to.  The next class he wants to take is Sports Camp, a class where they learn things like kicking a ball, throwing a ball, playing on teams, etc. It's the kind of things he could easily learn at home, but he loves getting to take classes with other kids.

Photo Fun (And A Video)

Just a quick video and some photos.

First, the video...Yesterday Dallin was playing games on a new website we found, Lego.com.  At the beginning of almost every game they ask you to enter your name. It wasn't long until Dallin could do it on his own. If he would get confused on the order of the letters, we would sound out his name until we got to the letter he was unsure about. He's doing pretty well now. You'll notice he acts like he is typing on the keyboard when we remembers his letters (Though in this video he got the location of the N and I confussed)

Second, the photos....We were suppose to get this horrible storm last night and today.  According to weather.com, we have had just over 8 inches of snow. Not fun, but not a massive storm in my opinion. (At least not the big deal they have made it out to be. What do you all think? ) Anyway, Dallin wanted to play in it. He sure had fun.