Conversations With Stew

A couple of weeks ago:

Stewart to me: "Mom, can Becky come pway today?"
Me: "Sure, you're in luck! Becky and her mom are coming over in just a few minutes so we can do pears."
Stew: "Pairs of what?"
Me: "You know, those pears that are in the pantry. The ones in the big brown box. We're going to can them."
Stew, as he runs to the pantry and holds up two pears: "You mean dese ones?"
Me: "Yep, those pears."
Stew: "So, we need two of 'em?"


Today, as I was making my bed:

Stew: "Mom, where does Jesus wive?"
Me: "Up in Heaven, with Heavenly Father."
Stew: "Does he get hit wiff da rain?"
Me (trying not to laugh TOO loud): "I'm not sure. What do you think?"
Stew: "I sink He does."
Me: "Does He like it?"
Stew: "Yeah. He wuvs it."

Blast from the Past

We've been working on transferring all our old pictures off of our oldest computer and have run across some great memories. Here's a few in no particular order.

Here's a stitch of some pics I took when Tiff and I went to York, England of the York Minster. Tiff is in the pic sitting under the tree across the street from the Minster. Pretty sweet to be able to just fit them all together in software instead of printing them out and tacking them to a wall. We'll have to try that again with some of the other cool places we've been.



Totally forgot about the pics of Braden and Chris when they wouldn't go outside. They were so obnoxious. We'd send them outside because they were too roudy in the house and they would sit by the back door and scream... relentlessly. Little stinkers.


Here's a pic of one of our many river trips down the Payette River while living in Boise. Some of the funnest days we spent up there with friends and family.


I suppose we can throw in a couple of pics of when we were in Oregon. These qualify as old pics only because they were on our old computer.


It's been a long strange trip over the last years. Fun to go through some of the old memories.

Back in Action

Been a while. The computer has been out of commission, so it's nice to have it back. We've had a great summer with tons we could post about, but time keeps on slippin, slippin, slippin, into the future. So, I guess we'll just post a bunch of random pics and blurb about them totally out of context which seems to be the fad these days.

First of all we need to give a big shout out to G-pa Judd. One of the last few real cowboys. Hopefully the hall of fame selection committee overlooks the last few years when he traded in his horse for a 4-wheeler. It's about time he got to use that box he made like 10 years ago. I sure was glad he resisted the urge to make use of the box for a random environmentalist.

Its been a rock sling'n, slide-tastic summer full of family get togethers. Out to Wilard Bay, ranch in Wyoming, and ranch in Panguitch was where the adventures were at their peak.

The kids have been having a blast with Tiffani as the Bear Scout Den Mother. They have done all sorts of fun things. Braden got to try his hand at being a farm boy as well as a backstage VIP all-access pass in the fire department museum.


It's been fun being able to attend some of the family activities without having to worry about having to drive the entire weekend for 1/2 a day togetherness.

Braden and Chris are enjoying school, and are both enrolled in Karate (discipline and obedience demanded from someone who could literally submit you with the wu-shu finger hold -- hoping some of that spills over into home life). Plus, now that the computer is rockin again we should be posting more often. 'Till next time :)

Summer Fun

I've been putting off posting for a while because I want to post PICTURES but the computer we use to store all our pictures is still toasted. Hopefully we'll get that taken care of soon.

So far, summer has treated us well. It seems the rain that usually plagues Portland in the spring followed us to Utah. The whole month of June was very wet and we had tons of lightning and thunder. Braden and Chris liked it, but they kept asking 'Mom, what happens if our house gets struck my lightning?". Stew didn't like it at all. One afternoon he had to go out and get his shoes before the rain soaked them. I've never seen him move so fast. The poor kid looked terrified as a huge clap of thunder struck just as he was running up the back steps, and I could tell he was fighting back the tears when he ran to me for a hug.

Man, window wells are awesome animal traps. I can't believe how much excitement we've missed out on in all the years we went without a basement! A month or so ago, Braden came upstairs after we had sent him to bed for the tenth time, complaining that he couldn't fall asleep because there was a rat in his window well. I rolled my eyes, told him to ignore it (thinking he was simply coming up with ONE MORE excuse to stay up), and go to bed. The conversation went about like this: "But mom, there's a rat in my window!" I replied "Oh, it's probably just a cat. Just go back to bed and it will jump out of the window eventually". "No, mom, it has TEETH (Braden held his hands up with his fingers bent in a claw-like position), and a REALLY long tail that has no fur on it!". I wanted to watch a movie with Dave and Daine, and I was tired of kids, so I continued to insist that he should just go back to bed. I was sure if there even was an animal in the window well, it must be just a cat and it would eventually jump out and go away. Braden finally slumped his shoulders and slowly went back to his room. A few minutes later, he came bounding up the stairs, hollering "there's a rat in the house!!!!". I ran downstairs and about jumped out of my skin as this HUGE, cat-sized animal ran at me at top speed! I ran back upstairs, grabbed my video camera for posterity's sake, and hurried back down to capture the excitement. My brother, Daine was visiting that night, so he helped us corner the R.O.U.S. (Rodent Of Unusual Size, for those of you who have never seen The Princess Bride). We have some pretty funny footage, but you'll have to tune in later to see it.

Just a couple weeks ago we ended up with a GINORMOUS bullfrog in another window well. The poor thing was nearly dead, so Braden and Chris attempted a rescue mission. Braden jumped in the window well, picked up the frog (with shopping bags over his hands), placed the frog in a bucket and darted for the pond, Chris by his side. They set the frog in the water, hoping for a miracle but unfortunately, the frog just sank to the bottom. Since then, we've discovered the ponds out here are FULL of frogs. A boy's paradise:).

This past Friday we took the boys to Lagoon. Ellie had to go play at Dallin's house (thanks, Em and Kev!) because, frankly, she would have had fun for about an hour, then spent the next 7 hours being a pain... not that she's a hard kid. Lagoon just isn't that fun for a 21-month-old (or her parents, if she's there). It was the best day I've ever spent at Lagoon. The weather was warm, but not unbearable, and the longest line we waited in was maybe 15 minutes. My kid are going to have such a skewed idea of what theme parks are like! When we took them to Disney World last fall, we had no lines and great weather there as well. I have a ton of pictures and video, but sorry, can't post 'em until we get the computer fixed! The boys were SO well behaved and they just loved every minute of it. It was one of those perfect days.

With school being on hold for the summer, we've found we have a lot more time to visit both sets of grandparents. Over the 4th of July we went to Gunnison and spent some time with Dave's parents. All 8 of us rode the 4-wheelers up the 'G Hill' and watched Gunnison's firework show. Ellie's voice was a little hoarse after a whole evening of screaming 'what's at?'! The next day we took the kids to the parade. It was so funny to watch them stand there and get hit with a whole handful of candy and not even notice it was there because they were too enamored with a tractor or horse going by. No worries, though. Somehow they did manage to come home with bags full of taffy and Tootsie Rolls.

The boys also love going over to Grandma Kathi's house. Between the sandbox, Tyler (my youngest brother, who is just older than Braden), and pickles, I think they'd be happy to just move in. We've been able to visit Grandma and Grandpa Eaton about once a week this summer. What a blessing to live near our family and to have TWO sets of grandparents that just adore our kids!

Ready or not...

Just two days of school left, and I'm finding myself oddly excited! I'm really getting tired of making sure the kids get to bed early enough that they won't be little devils at school the next day, being the 'home-work Nazi' and not having enough time in the afternoon to go anywhere fun before dinner. I'm planning on getting a season pass to the Deseret Peak Complex swimming pool and Dave suggested maybe getting a pass to Lagoon. Hmmm... we'll have to scrutinize the budget before we commit to that one.
This past weekend Dave got all of us outside to help prune the trees and bushes in the backyard. I don't think the previous owners had heard of pruning. We filled our trailer with branches and we can see the whole backyard now (vs. seeing half the yard, then trees). Yard work is hard, but so much more rewarding than house work. I love having a clean house, but it seems to stay clean for only a fraction of the time that the yard looks nice after a good days work.
We ALMOST had our second house fire last night. A while back we had a little water problem in the basement, so Dave had hauled his big shop light downstairs to try and heat things up enough that it would dry out faster. Dave and I don't really go downstairs very often, so it didn't surprise me that the light was still down there last night. Well, the boys thought it would be fun to build a 'hut' out of blankets in the family room. They spread blankets out over tables and chairs, and (of course) the shop light, which they figured, would create a nice way to light up their new abode. They plugged it in, and played for a while. It was about that time I called them up for family prayer. After prayer, it was off to bed. The kids wanted to sleep in their hut, but I turned them down because I knew they wouldn't actually sleep and they had school the next day. They obediently went to their rooms and went to bed, but did insist on having the hall light on because they were scared... (probably of muskrats chewing on their toes; we got a muskrat in the basement last week. I'll have to post the video). Anyway, a couple of hours after the boys went to bed, I went downstairs to turn off the light, and discovered that the basement was starting to fill with smoke! I couldn't understand why the smoke alarm hadn't got off. I ran around the basement, looking for the source, and remembered that Dave's shop light was down there. I ran to the hut, and sure enough, I had to peel the blankets off the light. Turns out, there is no smoke alarm in that part of the basement (HELLO, Mr. Inspector)! I keep thinking of all the little things that happened that night that lead to the way the whole thing played out. Yes, my quilt does have a nice big hole in it, but things could have been so much worse! I'm so thankful for a Heavenly Father who looks out for me and my family!

Springy

Well, It's been a while since I've posted anything. Plenty of stuff that is blog-worthy going on I'm sure, so no excuses for not adding a new post for a while. I finally got Tiff to put stuff up though, so that's good. It's taken a fair bit of arm twist'n - but she's surprisingly limber.

Easter was fun. We went to the community Easter egg hunt which was okay. What was cool was that Ellie won a new wagon at the end of it. Wal-Mart and a few other retailers donated some stuff for a raffle and Ellie's name was pulled for her age group for the wagon. She loves it. She gets all upset if you try to pull it around and she's not in it. Somehow she knows it is legally hers and she could have the courts enforce ownership if she so desired. She's been really demanding lately. It's kinda funny to hear Stew in the other room just yell out all of a sudden "OOOWWWWWW! What was that for Ellie? GEEEEEEEZ!" I"ll give him a couple more years until I get worried that he's being beat up by girls half his age.

Braden and Chris are doing good. I'm the new cub scout master in our ward, so we're looking forward to getting more involved in the scouting. Big day camp is coming up with bows-n-arrows, B-B-guns and all sorts of stuff Braden flips out over.


Well, here's a little competition for our avid readers. Whoever is first to correctly identify the subject of the following puzzle wins a guaranteed comment from Tiffani for each post on their blog over the next 30 days.

Work, Work, Work

I've had a request for pictures of the chore charts I made for Braden and Chris. Let me tell ya, they're works of art... well, at least they do the job (no pun intended). In the "Do It" pocket, I put an index card with each of their personal daily chores (get dressed, clean bedroom, homework, etc.), one card for each chore. I have index cards for 'family' chores that only need to be done every few days (clean the toilets, scrub sinks, vacuum, dust, etc.), and I rotate those cards into the pockets as they need to be done. On school days I only give each boy one 'family' chore on top of their personal chores, but on weekends or days off from school, they get 3 or 4. At the bottom of the chart are spaces for each day of the week. The boys get to put a sticker in the box when their chores for that day have all been moved to the 'Done' pocket. At the end of the week I give them a few dollars, based on how many stickers are on their charts. They can earn extra stickers by being extra helpful, or doing more jobs than are required for that day. It's simple, and so far, it's worked really well... most of the time. We still have our days, but overall, things have gone much smoother since I started using the charts. Dave just kindly pointed out that it must work well, judging from the pictures... there's only two stickers on there. Okay, so we had a rough week. AND, they only get to put up a sticker if they can move ALL their cards to the 'Done' pocket. Thanks for the encouragement, babe.

Helping Hands

The kids are on spring break this week, so I've been trying to find things to fill their extra time. Recently I put our chore charts back up, after a long break due to all the moving. This week, the boys have found more chore cards than usual in their slots. Surprisingly, no complaints! Today, Chris and Braden helped me organize all the toys (for the millionth time), vacuum the whole house (they did it, not me), dust, wash clothes, unload the dishwasher, etc. Earlier this week, they cleaned toilets, scrubbed sinks, swept floors, and put away clean clothes. They've been really busy. I promised them they could put up extra stickers on their chore charts (therefore earning extra allowance) if they were good helpers. They've both been very enthusiastic about it, doing extra chores without me asking, but Chris takes the cake. As I was sitting here at my computer, he came in, carrying a poopy diaper with a huge grin on his face. "I changed Ellie's diaper, mom!", he proclaimed with triumph! I was shocked, and a little scared of what I would find. Chris assured me he'd wiped her off really well and kept the dirty diaper under her until he was done "so no poop got on the carpet". Sure enough, Ellie was clean and happy. With a little adjusting of the tape, she had a perfectly changed diaper on, thanks to her big six-year-old brother!

Time to catch up...

Time keeps slipping away. Braden is now baptized! It was a great day. He was really excited to go through the process. We sure are proud of him for how hard he is trying to be a good boy. He sure liked all the family and friends who took time to congratulate him. It's crazy that we have an 8-year-old. What a great ride it's been.















Well, here's a couple of clips to prove that we're still practicing with getting the home videos together. It's fun and they are much more bearable with some quick touch-ups. It takes a long time to get anything together right now, but with all the tricks we're learning it shouldn't be too bad to get the next ones done.

More from Stewart

Stew is always saying and doing funny things. He was at Grandma Kathi's house the other day, and while eating a bowl of cereal, stated, "Look Grandma, I'm a vacuum!", as he slurped his cereal. Great, so we need to work on manners.
Just after dark the other day, we called the boys in for dinner. Braden and Chris came bounding in the door, but Stew was not to be found. We went outside and called his name, searched everywhere, but no Stew. We went inside, called his name and looked everywhere we could think of, but no Stew. Then my nephew pulled back a flap of carpet in our basement (we had a little water issue when we first moved in and had to pull some of the carpet back to let it dry out... long story), and there was Stew, fast asleep.
A couple of weeks ago, Dave was repairing the light fixture in our bedroom and had taken the light cover off and set it on the floor. While I was doing my makeup one morning, Stew peeked around the corner and said "Look, mom, I'm a head light!" I couldn't stop laughing. He was wearing the light cover on his head, like a hat.

First attempt at posting a vid

Well - here's our first attempt at putting some clips together and uploading them to the web. Yes, we realize that the background music doesn't match, but we couldn't find anywhere to download the theme song for the three stooges.

The best is yet to come

Well, we're finally back online. We've moved into the house and out of G&G Judd's basement/hair. Finally some hint that things are going to get back to normal. We're so glad to be back close to so many of our friends and family. It's been a long, strange trip over the last couple of years, but one we wouldn't change much of. Of course there always is that house fire we could've probably done without.

I'm currently working at L3 Communications. Apparently it's a really hard name to remember. We're always repeating the company sometimes 3 and 4 times to people. No, I'm not making sticky notes at 3M or climbing K2 or anything related to I15. It's a good job and I'm excited to be moving into a different sector in the industry.

Tiff has been painting up a storm for the last couple of weeks. She's got all the main living areas all done and looking great - which is an amazing accomplishment given that we're also trying to move in and get organized at the same time.

Braden and Chris are adjusting really well to yet another school. Both have friends at school and in the neighborhood already. We're excited for them and looking forward to getting back into the sports come spring.

We sure are grateful for everyone who helped us through this transition. Mom and Dad Eaton who let us store our stuff in their storage unit, and all the help with the actual move. Mom and Dad Judd for coming up to Oregon and moving us down and then letting us invade their empty nest while we sorted out employment and housing. Gary and Ami who let me stay with them so I could work while we nailed down the house. Emily for helping Tiff with the paint, and all those who cashed in some elbow grease to get our stuff moved. It sure is a blessing to be part of such a great family. We sure are glad to be back. We look forward to the future and are glad we get to participate in everyone else's for a change too!

I've put off posting anything for long enough. I use the excuse that I want to put up a ton of pictures and since our own computer is packed up, it's too big of a pain to post pictures... therefore, it's too big of a pain to post anything. Stew said some pretty cute things today, though, so I decided I'd better break my vow of silence.

Dave, Stew, Ellie, and I have been staying at my sister and brother-in-law's home in Stansbury, UT for the last couple of days while we wait to close on our house. Stew had gotten out of the bath but and was running around the house butt-naked while I looked for his P.J.s. When my Brother-in-Law, Gary, pointed out this fact to Stew, here is how the conversation went:

Gary: "Stew, you're butt-naked."
Stew: "Hey, datts a potty word!"
Stew bellows: "mom, datt big guy say a potty word! He needs to sit on the chair!"
Gary (aka: Datt Big Guy), from the couch: "I am sitting on the chair."
Stew: "nu-uh, datt's da couch."

As I was trying to recover from the previous exchange, I heard this:
Gary said to Jenna: "You're a stinky-butt." (Gary really likes butts, I guess.)
Stew: "Hey mom, dat big guy say a potty word TWO TIMES IN A ROW!!!"

Kids are the best. We never get board of listening to Stew talk. The older boys never really did the 'baby talk' thing, so it's been especially fun to listen to Stew. It's bad, though, because I find myself frequently talking like him.