Sammy and Jakie love trains. They love playing with them, seeing them as they look out the window of our car, watching them on tv, and they love to say Choo Choo. They call trains choo choo's and so that is what we now call them. So, I decided to take them to the local train museum. They had a great time playing on the train and going through the museum. We went with their Moma and Papa (my parents) so that is who is in the pictures.
We had a really fun day last Saturday. Alan finally had a day off and so we took advantage of that and went to Hogle zoo. The boys really enjoyed seeing the animals, especially the monkeys, which they call bunky's because they get their m's and b's mixed up sometimes. After the zoo we went to temple square because there is a sister there who I knew from my mission. Unfortunately we never got a chance to see her, but we did go to the Beehive house. Alan had never had a tour there, so he got a short tour, thanks to Samuel and Jacob who were rather tired from the day and didn't want to be there anymore. But it was a fun day all together as a family.
Daddy and Jacob with the Zebras.
Mommy and Samuel with the Zebras.
Samuel and Jacob on a statue of tigers.
Jacob and Samuel with a statue of a gorilla.
These are some cute pictures of the boys wearing a pair of Alan's sunglasses. Jacob is in blue and Samuel is in green.
I have to admit something that I didn't realize until just recently. Some people have told me how lucky I am to have two kids the same age so that they have someone to play with. I always tell people that my kids rarely play with each other and that they still rely on me to be their play partner. But over the last week with my kids being sick at different times, I realized that the other child really did miss his brother, his playmate. Although, I do spend a considerable amount of time trying to entertain them, they do entertain each other quite a bit. So, I apologize to those of you who I told differently.
This week there is not much to report, other than we are really tired. Sam was the first to get sick and then once he was starting to feel better, then Jacob came down with the same thing. So, we have been battling this awful stomach flu for over a week and thank goodness it looks like Jacob is finally getting better. Alan is still plugging away at his field camp, he was in the Willard area this week so I got to see him in the evenings which was nice, but he spent most of the time doing homework, so we didn't get to spend much time together even though he was here. We are just excited for the warm weather to return and for the boys to be able to play outside again.
Since my mother in law is an amazing cake decorator (see Jane's cakes if you want to see how amazing) and has taught me a little about cake decorating I decided to offer to make my niece Afton's birthday cake. So, I made the cake and my sister in law Courtney (Afton's mom) and her sister Logan decorated it using the techniques Jane taught me with fondant, Logan came up with the flower design, I think it turned out really well.
Because Alan is going to be gone for the next month we are living with my parents. They live on five acres of land so the boys have been enjoying running, and runing, and running some more, I think they have definitely enjoyed this more than I have enjoyed running after them. So far we have played in a pool of balls, used sidewalk chalk, gone swinging, sliding, used an old wagon where the boys pulled each other around, and we even went swimming. It has been tiring, but it is nice to see the boys sleep really well. Here are some pictures of the boys enjoying life in the big house.
We moved Friday and Alan graduated (well sort of, he still has a month of field camp left) Saturday. Here the graduate is with our little family and with our extended family. Congrats Alan!
Goodbye House
We have now moved and it has been a long process. But, here are some cute pictures of some of the things the boys have been doing to "help us."
Sammy has figured out how to open doors, and right before we moved he would hide in the closet and wait for one of us to come looking for him. Here he is right after I found him in the closet.
Jakie helping mom unpack what she has already packed.
Helping mom box up things.
Sliding on some boxes.
This is a little update of our week. After our visitors left we continued to do some more packing and Alan worked on his thesis. So, I ended up watching the boys by myself on Saturday. Sunday was the first Sunday in two years I could go to Relief Society in our ward, but I ended up going to the nursery to help out there anyway. I have to admit it was kind of a relief, I don't know what I would do in R.S. It has been a bit depressing this week because it has snowed a bit. This morning we woke up to snow covering our car, when will this snow end? 
The boys have discovered tent making this week as a result of the bad weather, these are a few pictures of them reading in their tent. They have also discovered that they can use our laundry basket as a boat. This they enjoy until they try to get out of the boat and tip their brother over. 
Last night, the boys were being pretty goofy and kept sticking their forks backwards in their mouths. It was pretty cute, so Alan grabbed the camera. you can see the moving boxes in the background along with all of our mess.
We have had a couple of visitors this week. First Grandma Jane and Aunt Sarah came from Orem to visit. Jane has a cake decorating business and said she would teach a class in our enrichment class, so she brought Sarah up for a couple of days to teach the class and spend time with the boys. We had a fun time going to the zoo. Then, Uncle Robert and Aunt Marisa came to visit. They live in California and were coming out to get the rest of there things from a storage unit in Provo. We had a fun time hanging out and going to the park.
Alan recently received two scholarships for his outstanding performance in school. The Peter Kolesar Scholarship, which he received this plaque from Kolesar himself, and the Clyde Hardy Memorial Scholarship. He has worked really hard and it seems like it has paid off a bit for him. I think he was a little embarrassed that I am posting this but I am really proud of him.
Every year in Logan the Western Heritage Center has Baby Animal Days, which is exactly how it sounds, a day when children are allowed to go see, and pet baby animals, or aminals as our boys like to call them. We saw lambs, goat and their kids, cows and their calves, big horses and little horses, piglets, bunnies, chickens, ducks, and also snakes, frogs and tiny little turtles. The boys were a little scared at first but soon caught on to what they were supposed to do and they talked about it for the rest of the day. We also participated in the candy cannon event where two cannon full of candy and toys were shot out into a field and then kids were encouraged to go get as much as they could, Jacob cried as Alan helped him get candy, Samuel saw a ball and decided not to get any more candy and just to play with the ball. But we had a lot of fun. We went with our friends Wendy and James Hillstead and Dan and Daniel Walker and their baby Olivia. We also got to see a sheep getting sheered with hand sheers it was interesting to say the least.
Here is a picture of Jacob and Samuel finally riding the horses at Papa's and Moma's. They have been scared of these horses for months and finally they decided it was ok to ride them.
Samuel and Jacob were sick this last week and because of that and the fact that it was freezing this last week the boys were forced (by their evil mother) to stay indoors. I could only think of so many things that we could do with sick boys before I decided to do the unthinkable, let them into my kitchen. Some of you might know that I have a gate around my kitchen and my children are not allowed into the kitchen, but on this particular day I let the boys in and we made cookies. Jakie was very excited about eating the cookies, but as it turned out, he wasn't too excited to make the cookies. But Sammy was so excited to make cookies, but didn't really want to eat them. So I guess Sam can make them and Jacob can eat them. Here are some pictures of them and their cookie making experience.
I first want to say that I am sorry to all of you that have been checking our blog and not finding anything new. I have to admit, we are a bit lame, but the real reason is that we have been busy figuring out what we are going to be doing in the next couple of years. And these last few weeks we have received a couple of offers for graduate school. After careful consideration Alan and I have decided to take the offer in Waco, Texas at Baylor University. We do realize that this might not seem like the greatest place in the world, especially with the history that Waco has, but we are still excited for the offer and happy to be moving on. (Only two more years of school, or at least let's pray it is only two more years.) So, we will be moving to Texas some time in August. For those of you who don't know where Waco is, it is an hour and a half south of Dallas and an hour and a half north of Austin, right in the middle of Texas. I just don't know how we feel about our children having southern accents, that might take some getting used to.
The boys were very excited about Easter. Jacob was so excited about dying eggs that he dyed his own hand in the blue dye. They enjoyed not only eying eggs, but also their egg hunt. It was nice to spend the day with just our little family. Here are some pictures of the boys on easter
Alan is in his final semester at Utah State University, he will graduate in geology in May. Minda is at home with Samuel and Jacob and busy with Primary. Samuel and Jacob are 18 months soon and are into everything, they can climb and they enjoy reading and playing with toys.
