Outsmarted

I oftentimes find myself being outsmarted by my kids. Sometimes it's because I haven't thought things through, and sometimes it's just simply because they really are smarter than me.

Case #1:

Today, Matthew was playing with his new Star Wars Lego set from Christmas. It's a big star ship with wings that can open and close when you spin a gear on the back. (For those of you interested, it is the ARC-170). For some reason, one of the wings wasn't opening like the other. Matthew brought it to me and as I started looking at it with my advanced knowledge of Lego engineering I deduced that a gear had fallen off from one of the wings. Matthew went and found the piece and I put it back together, thinking (very proudly in fact) I had solved the problem. But when Matthew started to turn the gear in the back, one of the wings opened while the other didn't. When you turned the gear the other way, the wings did just the opposite, the other opening while the other stayed closed. I started looking over the thing again, trying to figure out what I had done wrong (admittedly, my Lego engineering skills are more mediocre than advanced). That's when Matthew whips out this little gem of advice:

Matthew: Mom, I have a hypothesis. (A hypothesis?)
Mom: And what's your hypothesis? (As I'm still fiddling with the thing...)
Matthew: I think when you put the wing back on the other wing was still open, so when you turn it they don't open at the same time.
Mom: (A little surprised at the logic of his answer) You know what, you're probably right. Let's try it and see.

So we took off the wing, closed the other wing, reattached the first, and voila! Matthew the Mastermind figured it out light years ahead of his mediocre mom.

Case #2:

I was munching on some M&M's from my stocking when Zachary caught me with my contraband.

Zachary: What you habing?
Mom: Some M&M's.
Zachary: I need some (with a HUGE smile on his face and those puppy dog eyes). Pleeaase?
Mom: Okay. I'll give you a few, but only because you are so cute.
Matthew: (running in from the other room) I'm cute too. Can I have some?
Mom: Sure.
Ryan: (waiting at the side) Well mom, I'm not cute, so that means I can have A LOT. (I had forgotten that Ryan refuses to be called cute, preferring instead the term handsome. Well-played my boy).

Rolled Oats for Christmas

As all parents do, we worry about how our children will react on Christmas. We wonder if we are spoiling them or if they aren't grateful for their countless blessings. This year Matthew was un-wrapping some play-doh that was hidden in a old can of Rolled Oats. As he ripped open the paper and he read the label on the can, he proclaimed: "I love this Oatmeal!" With continued enthusiasm he really showed he was truly grateful for all that he was given...even Rolled Oats. Later that night after we put Matthew to bed he crept back into our bedroom to Thank us for the wonderful Christmas. This Christmas will always be special for me and I won't be able to look at a can of rolled oats the same way again.

Merry Christmas!

Once again the time has come for a year in review. This year has been a great year for our family, full of fun and adventure.

Matthew, age six, started kindergarten and is loving it. He has a great teacher and loves going to school. Matthew was also involved with his first soccer team. Although it was more bunch ball than soccer he now loves soccer and actively follows Real Salt Lake. Matthew loves Legos, Star Wars, and reading.

Ryan, age four, started preschool and goes for the toys! Ryan loves dirt and rocks and likes to collect said items. If you are missing some rocks, I’m sure we have them at our house. Ryan also loves Legos, superheroes, cars, and trains. Ryan is starting to sound out words and enjoys disagreeing with everything Matthew states. Ryan loves to sing and this year he started to make up his bedtime songs.

Zach, age two, is built like a linebacker, and needs to be to protect himself from his older brothers. (Sometimes we have to protect his older brothers from Zach). Zach started nursery this year and at first was apprehensive, but now he lets us know when sacrament meeting is running long (his internal clock is incredibly accurate) and it is time for class to start. Zach loves anything his brothers are playing with and has requested his own lightsaber.

Amy, age withheld, stays busy keeping up with three active boys. She sped through some independent study courses at the beginning of the year to renew her teaching certificate. She is very grateful for our wonderful neighbors and the time she gets to spend with others of the X chromosome. Amy spent half the year teaching CTR 9 and the Activity Girls, but was recently called to be a counselor in the Relief Society in our ward. Amy is also very busy making preparations for our fourth little boy due in March of 2011.

Kevin, age unknown, is still the Director of Web Architecture and loves working with the Internet. He is thrilled to have a garage, a short commute, a basement, a garden, and a backyard. He also survived the family’s first camping trip that started at 6pm and ended before 6am the next morning. After teaching CTR 9 with Amy for a few months, he was called to be the Elders Quorum secretary.

Overall, we can’t adequately express our gratitude for this past year. We have felt the Savior’s involvement in our daily life and we have been blessed. Our family echoes President Uchtdorf’s counsel stating: “I pray that during this season and always, we will see the purity of the story of the Savior’s birth and feel sincere gratitude for His life, teachings, and saving sacrifice for us. May this gratitude cause us to renew our determination to follow Him. May it also lead us to draw closer to our family, our church, and our fellowmen. And may we look steadfastly forward to that blessed day when the resurrected Christ will walk the earth again as our Lord, our King, and our blessed Savior.”

Merry Christmas!

The Tams Family

Snow!

The boys had been clamoring to get out in the snow ever since we got a pretty good snow storm. We had a snow ball fight with friends one day and the next day we spent some time making snow angels and building snow men. It was a lot of fun to play together. Zachary was asleep during this time, but he did get some moments to shovel the snow and dig around in it later.

Temple Square

The boys got an extra special treat over the Thanksgiving weekend. The Saturday after Thanksgiving we got to spend time with Grandma and Grandpa Tuft at Temple Square. They were so excited to see the lights this year. For some reason Ryan was especially interested in everything. He talked very loudly and excitedly about every color and size of tree he saw. They loved the "activities" (nativities) and the view of the Salt Lake Temple with the floating bubbles on the water (sorry, no picture). On the way back to the car, we saw some horse-drawn carriages waiting on the side of the road. Ryan didn't believe the horses were real until he actually saw one driving down the road. He was very pleased to see a real horse. The boys were also very excited to go out to dinner with Grandma and Grandpa. It was a lot of fun and reminded us of how close Christmas really is!




And yes, that is Matthew, a six-year-old, in the stroller. Although he did walk for some of it, he thought it would be great to be pushed around during certain parts. I don't know if you could call it lazy or just brilliant.

Thanksgiving

As always, I am late on posting things. Someday I will be on the ball, but I figure that may take awhile. So don't hold your breath. :)

Thanksgiving was a lot of fun. We went to Grandma and Grandpa Tams for the weekend. There was lots of eating, playing, and all around good times. We spent some time looking at the Black Friday ads (and buying everything online instead of heading to the store!).

We built some Legos with Grandpa

And made the annual gingerbread houses

It was a very fun weekend and of course went by very quickly. We were very grateful to be with family and reflect upon the many, many blessings we have received from our Heavenly Father.

Halloween

October 30, 2010

The boys decided they wanted to be Jedis again this year for Halloween, which was great with me. I did make them some better robes this year, which turned out to be a good thing since they had Hallloween parties at school and went trick-or-treating in the rain.

Here they are before we headed out.

There was a light drizzle that wasn't too bad when we first went. We pretended that we had just landed on the planet Kamino to keep us going. We were almost done with the inner part of our block when it started to pour and got windy. Ryan was ready to go home at that point. Matthew didn't seem to care much and surprisingly Zach could have cared less. He was loving the rain. And he loved trick-or-treating. He never said the words, but when we were done with each house he would say, "Okay, next house. More canny." It was pretty funny.

The boys in action

Carving pumpkins

October 29, 2010

We didn't get pumpkins carved as early as usual this year, but it was fun all the same. Matthew drew his picture on his pumpkin and then we cut it open to start carving. He took out a few seeds and then decided he was done. Funny kid.

Ryan, on the other hand, couldn't get enough of the pumpkin guts. He thought they were great.

Zachary wasn't terribly interested this year, but he did like the finished products and was very particular about seeing where they were placed on the porch.

Girl-Trapped

Matthew came home from school one day and informed me that he had narrowly escaped being girl-trapped.



"Girl-trapped?" I asked.



"Yeah, you know. When you have to sit between two girls. But there was a boy who came and sat by me. A girl got boy-trapped though. She had to sit between two boys."



I'm glad Matthew averted such a disaster.

Ryan's Birthday

Birthday number three came around very quickly, probably because Ryan was so excited to be four. Kevin was able to take the day off and we had fun playing together as a family. Ryan opened presents in the morning and was very surprised to get a new bike.

He got to talk to grandmas and grandpas and received a lot of phone calls from family. We asked him if he wanted to go somewhere with mom or dad but he decided he just wanted to stay home and play with his best bud Isaac. We ordered a pumpkin pizza for dinner and he was very excited to have green jello, baby carrots, and root beer. Ryan had requested a Toy Story cake with all the characters, but again mom convinced him to pick his favorite so he went with Buzz. Not my finest showing as far as cake decorating goes, but it served its purpose. He loved it and I guess that's what matters.

Some fun things about Ryan:

He likes to draw and often has some great stories behind his pictures. One time he showed me a picture with a big circle and lots of dots and explained to me that it was a spooky cave with scary bats.

He thinks the word "underwear" is hilarious and laughs whenever it is mentioned.

He loves Legos and is also very creative in coming up with new things, usually spaceships with special areas for the pilots to lay down and rest or prisons for the bad guys.

He is starting to recognize lettern patterns and can sound out basic words.

He still loves to wear hats.

He loves to play Candyland.

We love Ryan and are so proud to have him in our family. Hooray for four!

Pumpkins!

We went on our annual trip to the Big Red Barn in Santaquin to ride the tractor and go to the pumpkin patch. For some reason Zachary wasn't too sure about the tractor ride, but he loved the pumpkins. The boys had their pumpkins picked out very quickly and spent the rest of the time playing in the dirt and finding sticks to use as weapons. There was also a fun maze the kids went through. Somehow Zachary ended up going in by himself and got a little lost - not that it bothered him of course. Thanks to Grandpa Tams for finding the little adventurer. Overall it was a fun day!

On the tractor ride with cousin Isaac

Matthew and cousin Jackson

We also announced the arrival of our own little pumpkin that day. Zachary wore a shirt that said "Future Member of the Big Brother Club." It was funny to watch our family read the shirt and then do a double take when they finally realized what it meant.

Matthew's Birthday

October is such a fun and busy month for us because we have three birthdays to celebrate - Amy's, Matthew's, and Ryan's. We got to go to the Halloweenie for mom's birthday, so here is an overview of Matthew's. Woohoo!

Matthew had been waiting for his birthday forever (and I mean that literally). He was so excited when it finally came around. We had a fun weekend because he was out of school for Fall Break. We visited Grandma and Grandpa Tuft that morning where we opened some presents and had birthday cake. His first request was for an X-wing fighting a tie fighter with the Death Star exploding in the background, but I convinced him that one starship would be enough. So he settled for an X-wing.

After visiting the grandparents we came home and he went to spend some time with dad at the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point. The other boys stayed home with me and we decorated the house and got his birthday dinner ready - chicken and rice casserole and pears. We finished off the night watching How to Train Your Dragon which the boys loved. I'd say he had a pretty good day.

Some fun things about Matthew:

He loves to read.

He loves to play with friends.

He likes to watch soccer and football games with his dad. He wants to play soccer for Real Salt Lake some day.

He loves Legos and can build some really cool things on his own.

Matthew is very helpful. When one of the boys wants something he has he will often willingly give it up or trade to make his brother happy.

The kid is fast! Freeze tag is one of his favorite games.

We sure love him and all he adds to our family. I can't believe he is six!

Halloweenie

*One of many October posts. Catch-up time once again!

Every year Kevin's aunts put on a great Halloween party on his grandpa's farm. They decorate the barn and the fields with all kinds of Halloween stuff. They set up fire pits to roast hot dogs and marshmallows (thus the name Halloweenie). We try to go when we can because the kids have so much fun, and this year certainly did not disappoint.

The boys looking at all of the decorations.

R2-D2!!


With Aunt Jeneile and Darth Vader

Kevin at the Dead End Cemetery

On the train cars

The tractor ride

Thanks so much to our aunts for putting on such a great event!

No Girls Allowed

Amy bought Ryan this "No Girls Allowed" shirt a few months ago because it just fit so well with his personality. Well today we found out that it was true. We are expecting boy #4 in March 2011. We are very excited and can't wait to welcome the new little guy to our family!

If you have name ideas, send us an email. Amy doesn't like any of the names that I have suggested.

Like Father Like Sons

Kevin has this extremely amazing talent of being able to tune everything out when something interesting is on the TV. Apparently it transferred to his sons. Notice not one of them looked up when I took a picture of them all watching a movie. Talent, I tell ya.

More about Ryan...

The kids love to build towers with the Megablocks lately. Here is Ryan with one of their creations, along with a very interesting creation in his clothing.

-One day last week we had to run to the store because we were low on milk. We came back to find that Kevin had beat us home. Ryan went inside and asked, "Dad, how did you get home so fast? Did you push your speed button?"

-Another time we were talking about some things we could do in downtown Salt Lake since we would be heading up that way for another event.

Mom: What if we just took a walk around Temple Square? We haven't been there for awhile.

Ryan: Or how about Temple Circle? Or Temple Rectangle?

Ryan's First Day of Preschool

Ryan decided he wanted to try preschool this year, so we thought we would give it a shot. After watching Matthew getting ready to go he was very excited to be doing the same. He had a lot of fun his first day and informed me that he wished he could go to preschool every day. I guess I need to do a better job of keeping things entertaining around here!

Zachary's Birthday

Zachary turned two in September! This little boy is no longer my baby. He has definitely asserted his rights as a toddler.



Grandma and Grandpa Tuft came over for a little party. The boys love to wrestle with Grandpa.




Zach had a lot of fun opening presents this year. As you can see, it was very serious business.




Zachary loves Thomas the Tank Engine and Curious George. Every time I asked him what kind of cake he wanted, it always ended up changing. So I opted for the easiest choice. Thanks George!





It was a busy day. The little boy was pretty tuckered out when it was all said and done.




Some fun things about Zachary:

He loves to tease his older brothers

He wants to be like his brothers and therefore prefers playing with Legos and building robots.

He loves balls.

He has the best pouty face I have ever seen on a little guy. It can seriously be hard to remain consistent when he pulls that out on you.

He is trying to learn his colors but everything ends up being green.

He is a little afraid of airplanes right now because he saw one flying very low. Whenever he hears an airplane or helicopter go by he covers his ears.

Things he is saying: all time favorite- No mama, I will do dat! Look mama (which I love!), faffle (waffle), aubot (robot), all the animal sounds, Hi dad!, color, gib a lub (give a love, followed by a hug), Jesus, Wyan (Ryan), Mafew (Matthew), need a drink, take Mafew to cool (take Matthew to school), doodle (noodle). He copies everything you say and communicates very easily now.

He's such fun little guy and we love him to pieces!

Matthew's First Day of School

September 1, 2010


Kindergarten! I can't believe this little man is now in kindergarten. He can't believe it took so long to get here. As you can tell he was very ready and excited to get the show on the road. I had to pin him down for pictures.

Walking to school with Ryan and his buddy

Waiting in line to go to class

I promised myself I wouldn't cry, which I am proud to say I did not. Matthew waved goodbye, threw me a kiss, and was on his way. I did tear up a little, but it was over and done almost before it began. I was excited for him to start this new adventure.

When I picked him up, he said he really liked his class and his teacher. He was also pretty sad that he didn't have any homework yet. His classroom is decorated like a jungle and he sits on the lion table with 5 other students. He couldn't wait to go back the next day.

A Barrel of Monkeys

(Still trying to catch up on our summer fun.)

August 17, 2010

Today we took our little monkeys to see the monkeys and other animals at the zoo. They were very excited to go, especially to see the baby elephant Zuri. The boys loved the monkeys and the spent lots of time watching Zuri eat breakfast with her mom. They couldn't stop talking about the little elephant. Matthew liked all of the animals, but he was really interested in the bats we saw. Ryan loved the snakes and tiny poison frogs in the reptile and amphibian exchibit. Zachary wanted to be out of the stroller, but he enjoyed the animals nonetheless. He was especially fond of the bird show and kept yelling "buhdie, tweet! tweet!" or "owl, hoo, hoo." We went to the playground for some run-around fun before our train ride. The boys loved the big animals and the slides. But it was starting to get hot and a cool ride on the train was just what we needed to wrap up the day. Afterwards we decided to splurge and headed to Chili's for lunch. It was delicious. Matthew decided he needs to go there again for their grilled cheese sandwich. I told him I could make one at home, but somehow the one at the restaurant is better. It was a fun day!