Travis Makes a Surprise Visit

Travis (Brian's youngest brother) was passing through Boise a few weeks ago, so we decided to surprise the boys. Here's the video:

Christopher missed his Uncle Travis so much that his first reaction was to cry. The fact that he hadn't slept well the night before probably helped too. But he was smiling soon enough:

Since we only had a few hours to visit, we decided to go for a walk along the river downtown, followed by pizza and cookies at the Flatbread Pizza Co. It was soooo nice seeing Travis. The boys LOVED it!

Friendship Bridge

Goofing around. Look at that smile on John's face. :)

A Few Things About Ben

First, he would like me to tell you that his nickname is "Cookie." It started when he made friends with a boy named Ben. Apparently that boy is "Bendy" (from Ben D.) and my Ben is "Cookie" to avoid confusion. :) Ben has requested that I call him Cookie. Not happening. ;)

In other news, he was recently awarded the Presidential Academic Award.

While I was proud of Ben for earning this award, I was far more proud of the attitude he had about it. I didn't see the slightest bit of arrogance or conceit about it. He didn't brag or make a big fuss. He simply went to school, accepted the award, humbly showed his family the medal and certificate, wore the medal under his shirt the rest of the day, and that was that. He's a sweet boy who has managed to overcome several years of painful shyness. He's an outgoing, friendly, confident kid who has come to accept himself for who he is, while accepting others for who they are. It's a wonderful combination of traits and that's what really makes me proud.

His grade also put together a really fun performance all about America. They sang songs, played a verse on their recorders, and recited tales about American history. It was really fun.

Well, Ben's elementary years are over. Middle school starts in 6th grade, so off he goes. Egads.

How Could I Forget?

In my haste to update quickly (I'm still not done, BTW) I forgot to draw special attention to one of the best pics Anna took at our reception (and she took SO many great pics!).

Behold, the ultimate foot picture:

Thank you Anna for this wonderful addition to the collection. :) Hugs!

Name that Bird

Maybe a month ago now, we had a feathered visitor hanging around our yard and cul-de-sac for a couple of days. It's the only time I've seen a bird like this in Boise. No one seems 100% sure what kind of bird it is, but we're thinking it's some type of pheasant, or perhaps a grouse. You can't tell from the pictures, but he's a good sized bird. Maybe twice the size of a large crow.

In any case, he had a really interesting song which I captured on video.

Christopher's Domino Runs

A few months ago, it was not at all uncommon to have to tiptoe your way around one of Christopher's many domino runs. He does these all by himself, and comes up with the designs on his own. I put together a montage for him, which we posted on his own channel on YouTube. It's pretty fun.

Before I Check Out for the Night

Okay, that's about all the updating I can do for now. I have more coming, hopefully sooner rather than later. Before I go, though, I thought I'd do some update cheating and give you links to personal posts I wrote for my America Jane blog. Since these are more personal, I'll share them here too.

The first link is to my book review of Tear Soup, an amazing book on grieving for kids. This was given to us by a friend. If you follow the link, you can read what this book has meant for the boys.

The second isn't really about the boys, but since you guys are my friends too you might be interested. :) Thanks to my dear hubby, I've now tried my hand at painting and drawing. This post is about my first painting workshop. There will be a drawing post forthcoming. Eventually. Here's a sneak peek at one of my drawings in progress:

Lastly, I want to give a big plug for Ben.

Chances are, most of you have already been contacted by Ben about this. If you haven't, or if you just need a reminder (hint hint, LOL), please follow the link to learn about Ben's upcoming trip to Washington, D.C. and how you can help him raise the funds for his tuition. (It ain't cheap.)

We have a week to go and every little bit helps, truly!

You can sponsor (100% of the donation goes to his tuition) or you can buy raffle tickets for the 70/30 raffle where 70% of funds raised goes to his tuition and the remaining 30% goes to three winners.

Even if you can't make a donation, please do check out his page anyway. It's a pretty neat experience he's going to have. :)

Our First Snow

The winters here are very mild, similar to Prescott I'm told. I was worried the cold might be a bit much for me, but it really wasn't at all. Plus, I can't help but be partial to weather which encourages cute boots and fuzzy neck wraps. :)

These are pictures from our first snow, which the boys and I found absolutely mesmerizing. The boys played in it that morning, and on the way to school John kept saying, "It's just so beautiful!"

Amen!

Rather than go work in our office/studio in the basement, I camped out by the family room windows and watched the snow. It was so quiet and peaceful. And inspiring. I wrote a poem, my first in many years.

I'm glad I took the time to enjoy it because by mid-afternoon it was starting to melt and by the next day it was nearly all gone. Apparently, that's normal for Boise. I'm glad we don't get a ton of snow here, but we only experienced a few snows this winter; I would've been happy with a bit more. As John says, it's just so beautiful.

View from our front porch.

Chris playing in the backyard. It wasn't long before he came in, hopping and saying, "It's cold! It's cold! It's cold!" LOL.

View from the dining room. Otherwise known as the warm view.

I loved how the snow accumulated on even the tiniest of branches.

Ben decided he had to fling that snow right off the branch.

View from the kitchen window.

View from the family room.

John playing in it after school. You can see how much it's already melted.

Before we moved, Ben and Chris got to participate in one last Winter Sing at their school. One of the songs Chris sang went like this:

"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, SIX-ty million snowflakes!"

Here's a video of Chris giving an impromptu performance of that song in the snow, but my memory card was almost full so it cut him off halfway through. I was so bummed! But it's still cute, so I'm posting it anyway:

Christopher's Baptism

This baptism was a little bitter sweet, since it was just a few months after Brian passed away. We were able to do it in Arizona before the move though, and that was a blessing. As with Ben's baptism, Brian's brothers performed the ordinances and his family was there supporting Chris, of course.

Christopher is such a cutie. I love these pictures, even though he and Ben both have a tendency (they've yet to outgrow) for making goofy faces at the camera. Chris was really excited to get baptized, and since moving to Boise he has shown a lot of personal motivation for reading the scriptures on his own. It's so nice to see.

Anyway, his baptism really was a great day.

Christopher Commendeers the Bathroom

Within a week of moving in, Christopher laid claim to "his side" of the bathroom with a passion. Guarding from potential invaders, I'm pretty sure....

Watch out. The Ewok and Storm Trooper mean business.

Roadshow

Shortly after we moved here Kevin and I somehow got wrangled into the Roadshow. I wrote most of the script and directed one of the scenes (the Avatar scene). Kevin helped with props and lighting. John, being a young man now, was actually in the Roadshow, as one of our commercial announcers. Being the ham he is, he really got into it and did a great job. The whole experience turned out to be a lot of fun. I don't have many pictures, just these few from the staging room before the show.

John and his co-announcer for the commercial.

For the Avatar scene. LOVED their costumes!

For the Tangled scene.

Elf Queen, Shelob the spider, Frodo, and Golom for the LOTR scene.