Enjoying the nice weather. Outside walking around.

These two love being outside. We have been going on walks around the neighborhood lately and exploring all the fun things in people's front yards. So far their favorite things to pick up are rocks (they get this from their dad) sticks and pieces of garbage. :-) We are all loving the spring weather.

This is why we can't have nice things around here.

This is one of Mike's favorite things to say to the boys, when they are banging on things or tearing up the house.They usually just turn and look at him with big grins on their faces. Today, however, he really will mean it when he says it. I went into the boys room after their nap and Owen had broken two of the blinds. What a cute, naughty boy.

Organizing My Life

(Quick funny story before I get to my point. To keep Owen entertained while I write this post, I put some of the letters that I'm throwing away out in the hall, at first he was just crinkling them up and spreading them around, but now he is grabbing a few and taking them over to the stairs and throwing them down, then he runs back, grabs a few more and throws them down the stairs. I'm going to have a big mess to clean up in a little bit.) :-)
Now, back to the title of this post. I have been hauling around about 8 boxes of letters, pictures, memorabilia, etc... for about 10 years. I keep meaning to scrapbook the photos or organize the letters in a folder or do anything with them besides having them sit in a box taking up space in my basement, so I decided this week, to go through the boxes and get rid of the stuff. If I like the letter, I scan it into my computer, if I like the picture I put it in a pile to scan (there are a lot of them) and if I like a piece of the memorabilia I take a picture of it, so I can look at it and remember it later and then I throw everything away. It has been a great process and so far I've gone through about 4 boxes. It has also been fun to remember all the "memories" associated with each person, object or picture.
I never really realized when I went to school and on my mission how many people wrote to me. I have loved reading letters from both my grandma's, they sent me birthday cards and were so supportive while I was on my mission. In one letter I received from my Grandma Hacking in January 1998, while I was attending school at Dixie, she said she wanted to move to St. George where it was warm, but when she asked my Grandpa if they could go, he said he would go only if he could bring the cows, so she said, "I guess we aren't coming." Ha. I love my Grandma Hacking so much and this just made me remember all the wonderful memories I have of her and my grandpa and spending time with them and my cousins on their farm.
I also found a check from when I worked as a janitor at BYU-Hawaii that I never cashed. Too bad too, because I could have been $93.23 richer.
Anyway, it has been a great process and I'm not only enjoying getting rid of some of this stuff, I'm also enjoying a cleaner, more organized basement.

I be a pirate. Yarg!

Shaking the crib to pieces

We can tell when the boys wake up in the morning or from their naps, because we can hear them jumping up and down and shaking the cribs. We have to regularly check and tighten the screws, to make sure they don't shake the crib to pieces. :-) I took this video the other day. We have all been sick at our house and that is why Owen goes from being smiley one minute to crying the next, it has just been a tough week and our emotions are all over the place.

Exotropia

We've noticed for a some months now that one of Caleb's eyes seems to wander when he looks at things far away. I called back in November to schedule an appointment and final, today, we went in to see the pediatric ophthalmologist. It turns out he has a condition called exotropia. What that is exactly is "a noticeable outward deviation of the eyes". The doctor said that it can require surgery, but there are some other treatments that he wanted to try first. He has prescribed that Caleb where a patch over his eye every day for two hours for two months and then we will go back in for an appointment and see if his eye has gotten any better. I tried putting the patch over his eye today and he did not like it one bit. It took him about  a minute to rip it off. I have a few ideas on how I can keep it on, so wish me luck.
Yes, he looks like a pirate with the patch on and yes I will post a picture when I get one. :-)