PInewood Derby

Ben had his second pinewood derby on Wednesday. This year he made an Angry Birds car, and Gabe spent a lot of time building sensors for the race track that would record the cars' times more accurately.  

Ben's car was definitely the fastest car in the race (he got the fastest 2 times out of any other car), but because his car came off the track in one of the races he was penalized so he did not get first.

Ben was a really good sport about it though.  I think Gabe and I were more upset than he was.  I wish we as adults could let things go as easily as kids.  

Thomas Waves Hi!

I just had to mention this on the blog.  Thomas has been waving Hi to absolutely everybody he sees.

It was so cute when I went to Sam's today, and in the parking lot he started waving to anybody who would look at him.  When they smiled and said hi back, he would get so happy.  He even started waving at nobody in particular (that I could see at least) because he loved it so much.  He made a lot of people smile today.  What a cutie.

Winter Sports Come to An End

Ashlee and Ben just ended another great season of volleyball.  They played on the same team.   

Ben and Sam also just ended basketball this week.  

We are all enjoying a little time off this week, before we gear up for Spring sports!

Happiness Project

Have you heard of this book?  

I just finished reading it yesterday, and I absolutely loved it, except I had a hard time finishing the book because I was overloaded with her ideas and wanted to start putting a few things of what she did into my life. (And I am such a slow reader!)  But knowing me, I made myself finish the book before I did anything else.  I love the ideas she wrote about, and lots of the ideas are things I think about often when I don't have a busy week going on.  Am I as happy as I could be?  What could I do differently so that I could be more happy?  I have never had the discipline to write any of these thoughts down though, so I appreciate all the research she did and all her thoughts and examples.  Really an enlightening book.  It definitely inspired to make some changes in my life.  

A few of her resolutions are things that I am already doing,and a few are things I could definitely do better at.  I wrote down a few things that I want to focus on doing better:

-Go to sleep earlier

-Toss, restore, organize

-Keep blog up to date (this book is one of the reasons why I started writing in this blog again!)

-Be treasure house of happy memories (This one made me feel guilty that I am not doing enough, I am trying to focus on making holidays and birthdays more memorable)

-Take time for projects (I have lots I could do here!)

-Find more fun, be silly, laugh more

-Show up

And I wanted to add one of my own that I really struggle with:

-Don't rush--plan more time to get ready  

Now I just need a system to hold myself accountable.... I hope I can try to remember these things as time goes by.  But I know this blog has already made me happier.  When I look back at the posts I have written, it makes me focus on the happy moments we have had as a family and definitely makes me happy inside.  

Sam's Geotrax Birthday Party

Sam turned the big 7 this year!!!

For his party, we borrowed all our neighbors' Geotrax (they've got tons) and put them down in our basement.  

Look at all those bins of geotrax!

The kids spent almost an hour down there playing with the Geotrax.  Here are some of their creations.

Then when they got hungry, they came back up for some snacks.  

Here is the snack train!  

(I wish I could take credit for the snack and birthday cake train ideas, but I found them here.)

Here is the birthday train!

And of course, Sam wanted a pinata too.

The kids are all lined up!

 Love this kid.

He is very loving, playful, and loves to joke around.  I love it when out of nowhere he says, "I love you Mom."  (Or "I lava you." --inside joke)

Love you Sam!  

Thomas

Oh I love this boy.  He makes me so happy, and I love to squeeze him and give him kisses.  Lately my favorite words he says are "Water bottle" (Wa toe bo toe) and "Silly"  (ah SIL ly).  I've got to record him saying it because it is just too adorable.  

Whenever I am changing his diaper,he likes to say, "Dirty (DO dee)" then right after, "WA ka la"  (Spanish word--means "yucky"-- learned from his dad).  So cute!!!  

Also it always used to sound like a bad word when he would try to say "Open it."  It would sound more like "Oh sh...t"  It sounded awful, and one time I was at Target and looking at clothes, and he just kept repeating it over and over again.  It made me a little embarrassed.  I wanted to tell people nearby that we really don't say bad words like that to him.

My absolute favorite part of the day with Thomas is when I get to rock him in the rocking chair before he goes to sleep.  We sing a few primary songs, and he finds his blanket corner and holds it, while he puts his thumb in his mouth (only time he does that), and we rock and I sing a few songs to him.  I think we both love that time together.

Oh, I love this boy!!!