Trucks!

Ransom has been so excited about trucks recently. Every time we are out and he sees a big truck he has to tell me. He still does not attempt to say truck but he will try to sign it which is great. So today was a big day for him he got to see very big trucks and very big tires.
This tire behind us came off a haul truck and John said that one of these tires costs about $35,000 each and every haul truck has six tires that are replaced about every 9 months. The haul trucks are about the size of a two story house and hold about 400 gallons of diesel fuel, oh and they carry a lot of dirt. I should have gotten a picture of the truck but it would mean nothing from so far away, trust me. The hole keeps getting deeper and wider. It really is impressive but because of the expansiveness there is not real perspective in just looking at it or photographing it. John suggested that you could stack the world trade center towers on top of each other and they would not make it out of the hole.
There are some not so interesting fun facts for the day. It was fun to go out for a little bit and do something different. After the mine visitor center a couple of us took the kids to the park in Copperton and had lunch in the park and let the kids run. They have this very old cement thing that should go away that the kids just loved to climb on and did not look safe to me. So I went up with Ransom and the metal slide looked like the best way down so I had Ransom sit on my lap and we went down, down and down way too fast. I pushed Ransom to his face as I went down on my face too. How embarrassing. Everyone there had a good laugh. To bad there are no pictures of that it would have been absolutely hilarious. We all had fun!

camping anyone?

John got a tent that sleeps more that 3 people for his birthday. We thought we should try it out and set it up in the yard last night and we all slept out there. The boys thought that it was so fun. Yes I thought that is was a bit chilly! Here is Ransom asleep this morning.
Here is Ashton asleep. (He is in there somewhere.)
Here is Tahlia asleep.
So After breakfast we took Ashton to his last soccer game. He got his trophy today and he is so proud of himself and so are we. He has done a great job! Today he got his third goal to bad it was for the other team. Today the other team was pretty aggressive and Ashton got bonked on the nose and it was bleeding pretty good. Once it stopped he was ready to go back out and play without complaining. He was a good sport! This evening we were out and on the way home Ashton told us "I had a lot of fun today." I am so happy about that because often things during the day do not turn out as I had hoped or planned and we often do not do what I said we could do and today was another one of those days and he still had fun. I guess that more water balloon games is something that he can still look forward to over the next week after all he got to sleep in a tent and got a trophy. That is a lot in one day.

Sleepyhead!

So I have decided to save myself the frustration and I have stopped putting Ransom in bed for a nap. I figure when he is tired enough he will fall asleep. I know a crazy approach, but we have found that Ransom does not require as much sleep as Ashton and that if he takes a nap he stays up until at least 10 pm and now that means that he is running around until 10 pm. No thank you!
On Wednesday, at nap time Tahlia was in bed and the boys were playing in their room so I layed down on my bed and fell asleep, I woke up 15 minutes later and I did not hear the boys so I got up to check on them and went down stairs and found that Ashton had cleaned up all the toys and took Ransom outside to play. They were happy so I let them play, until bed time. Then Thursday I just let them do their thing and the played all day in and out and all around. When we sat down for dinner I looked over at Ransom and this is what I found. His eyes kept closing and John asked him if he wanted to lay down and he said "unhun." I took him and washed him up and layed him on the couch and a few minutes later he was asleep. Then Ashton did the same thing. A little later we put all three in bed early and for the first time in a long time we had a nice long quite evening and we watched a movie together. That was so nice.

big boys

Well, I think that Tahlia is ready to go to her own room and the crib, but there has been a problem with that, Ransom is still sleeping in the crib and still wants a binky. I have been telling him for awhile that he will soon be sleeping in Ashton's room and his binkys will go away. So Wednesday night I was going upstairs to tuck the boys in bed and Ransom ran into Ashton's room at bedtime and started to climb the ladder and I told him to climb into bed, Ashton thought that Ransom would be safer on top, so that is where I tucked him in at. Sometimes I surprise myself, John came home in the middle of this and asked "does he need his binky" and I said "no way lets just make this a clean break." I usually put any sort of transition off until I have to or someone else makes me and it has always turned out great. After 30 minutes of both of them running around out of excitement I calmed Ashton down and he went right to sleep, like always. After another 30 minutes or so I convinced Ransom that he should at least stay in bed until he falls a sleep. That kid can stay awake for hours, but he did it. He did even better last night at bed time, I did not have to go in there one time, he just sat there until he fell asleep. Although nap times are a different story. He has always gone right to sleep but not anymore.
It has been funny to watch Ashton play with Ransom now, it almost seems different. It is almost like it was a right of passage for Ransom to sleep in a big boy bed.
I guess the only thing left is to decide what color and how to paint Tahlia's room. If you have any suggestions.

gross!

Here is Ashton crying, and why you ask? Don't look at the picture too closely but Ashton and Ransom were eating a little trail mix while I was making dinner and the next thing I knew Ashton was freaking out. He he told me he put a peanut up his nose. What the heck? He was fortunately able to blow a raisin out of his nose. I asked him what he was thinking to do something like that and he told me "I just wanted to be funny." Yea well, Ashton, look and see who's laughing now.

Look how big!

I cannot believe how big Tahlia is getting. She is 11 weeks old today. She is probably over 12 lbs. now. She never smiles for the camera but loves to stare at it. She loves when we talk to her and loves to be held. I just love to have a little girl to dress up in pink and bows. If she is all girly girl she comes by it honestly.

Last Day

On Thursday was the last day of preschool for the kids and I just know that they were all heart broken. No really Ashton was a little sad, he has really enjoyed it. He is very social. I am almost worried for him this summer. I let them do their favorite thing: paint. Does it get any better than that? After the finger painting we played ABC Bingo. I was very pleased that all of the kids knew several of the letters in the alphabet by looking at it. I was afraid that this would be a problem for Ashton and he even surprised me several times. I am convinced more that ever that he is just playing me for a fool, and to think I let him. After Bingo we had another game that turned out to be a favorite too. The pinata. They were hitting it pretty good and it still took a long time for it to break. They had a lot of fun for sure.

It was a lot of fun teaching a little bit of preschool this past year. It kept me busy but the kids were great and so much fun watching them grow little by little with each little bit of knowledge that we all gave them. Ashton never tells me right away what he learns at preschool, he has already moved on but it seemed that several days latter something would come up about what he learned in preschool. So, I know that it made a lasting impression on him. Just tonight he sang the days of the week song that I thought he did not know. What fun!