Going Private

I thought this day might come. I finally decided that I better make this blog private, I know that makes it a pain for you all to access it and private blogs don't seem to work with Google Reader. I've been delaying this because I have loved getting in touch with friends who I've lost contact with you have found me through others blogs. Anyway, I'll probably switch in a week or two so send me your email soon so I can invite you to continue reading.
angela.bragonje@gmail.com
Thanks everybody, sorry!

Grapefruit

I had to laugh when I saw Ammon squeezing the last drops of juice out of his grapefruit. I always do this and apparently he has been watching. I can't imagine he was able to squeeze anything out of that big thing but it's cute to see him try. And Josh, most of the pictures I have of Josh are of him wearing this sweet shirt. He tries to wear it everyday.

Whistle while you work...

This picture cracks me up. I try to give Josh jobs to do every now and then. I draw a picture of his job and put an empty box next to it that he checks off when the job is completed. The last job is always to come and give me a kiss. This particular morning he was so excited to do his jobs that he stuck the paper to himself and ran around doing his work really fast. I have to think that he likes having to do work. I guess that makes everybody happy.

Bad Dreams

Josh wants to sleep in my bed almost every night, and I usually let him and then move him to his bed. He thinks he will have bad dreams in his room and I feel so bad because he really gets so scared. In this picture he is sleeping with his pet 'snake' made from a paper plate in preschool. It is there to eat the mice that scare him in his dreams. He also dreams about skunks eating his fingers, the stairs turning into water, big dogs in his room, sharks, scary people coming in our house, flying. Poor boy, I don't know what to do.

Thanksgiving Point

The Thanksgiving Point Membership has been renewed, and my boys couldn't be happier. I am a believer in memberships, days can get so long at home and it's go nice to have a place to go and play, especially when the membership is only $55 (I get the individual one and everyone I'm with is 50% off). I think I'm just anticipating the Tulip festival and trying to hurry it along. My goal this year is to rent a segway at the gardens and for once get to try it out. Last year we took me grandma around in a golf cart and that was pretty fun too, especially for the boys.

The boys are waiting to eat their free ice cream cones (3yrs and younger free) and then we hit the dinosaur museum (they are currently eating their suckers someone gave then at the store check out). Ammon at the messy, but cute, sand/erosion table. He was so cautious at first and was so perplexed by the sand sticking to his hands. It was really cute. The last picture cracks me up because Ammon was scared of this little dinosaur thinking it was real. I couldn't get him to come close to it. Apparently Josh isn't scared by 'wild' dinosaurs. Now I just have to come up with an excuse for my boys when they ask me everyday why we are not going to Thanksgiving Point.

Easter Weekend

I think I appreciate Easter more and more each year. We had a great weekend. We had a little easter egg hunt in our house on Saturday night, church was great on Sunday and a family dinner that afternoon.








The dogs had to stay in the kennel during dinner, we are so mean, they are so cute.


















Everyone is so serious. We don't like to smile in our family.















Great grand kids with Nanny.





And Dad's grand kids.





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Ammon

This little boy has been cracking me up all day. His words are limited and mumbled but he sure has mastered the, "super-spoiled, shrill, nasty, white-valley-girl" accent when he says, "HEYYYYYYYYYY!!!". I get this when I roll up his window in the car, take away something he's not supposed to have, when Josh teases him...and it cracks me up every time. Love ya Ammon.

Just try it

Here is a beauty trick you have to try. Years ago in Argentina I was surprised to see my great companion putting patroleum jelly on her face, every morning. Wouldn't you expect a major break out if you even let this stuff touch your face. Well my companion had great skin, no break outs. I had to ask her about it. She told me that one time she had asked a man in her ward, who worked in a lab for one of the big makeup brands, which skin moisturizer really was the best. He said it was plain old petroleum jelly. Nothing fancy, just really keeps the moisture in. I reluctantly started to try the stuff and my skin always looked great! Very moisturized, no fine wrinkles. After getting back to the states my mom had made an appointment for me to get a facial (RM's need a little help, especially girls). The estitician was great. I was excited and told her about my vaseline experiment and she did not think it was a good idea. She told me that the vaseline keeps any air from getting into whatever it's covering, that's why they use it after surgeries, etc. I had noticed that I had little white bumps on my checks, she told me this was called 'milia' and probably caused from the vaseline. I was sad, my trick didn't turn out to be so great. So I stopped for awhile, occasionally putting it under my eyes. And then recently I was reading a Reader's Digest article about things different celebrities can't live with out. Tyra Banks said she couldn't live without Vaseline! She said she swears by the stuff and puts it on in the corner of her eyes, her smile creases, and her elbows all the time. Yes, someone else that recognizes this great everyday product.
The other night I noticed how dry my eyes look (love this desert climate) and decided to put a little under my eyes again. I forgot about it, went to bed. Sometime the next morning I was washing my hands and looked up to the mirror and was surprised to see that my eye wrinkles were gone! I am always shocked at how well this works! So, you need to try it. Don't smear it all over your face, just your eyes. You'll thank me in the morning... or in 20 years.

Google Reader

Please tell me you all use Google Reader. I know some of you are who told me about it and now it's one of my favorite things on the internet. It's like checking your email. You just open it up and it shows you who has updated their blogs. You don't have to click around on everyone's blog to see who has updated.
To set it up you go to your gmail account. On the top bar on the left click on the 'more' tab. This will drop down a little list of options, click on 'Reader', and you're there. Where it says, "Add Subscription", just put in the internet addresses of all your favorite blogs. So easy, and you'll love having it set up.

Year of the Free Babysitting

Lately we've had lots of offers to babysit our kids by family who lives close by, and I don't think we've every passed anyone up on an offer. My dad has been out of town for the week and my mom has babysat her grandkids for one thing or another almost every day this week. If she's not babysitting she's helping my sister (who doesn't have kids yet) in her classroom at school. Needless to say she helps out her daughters a lot, thanks mom! Last night she watched our kids and we went out :) It was kind of last minute so we hadn't made plans. My date idea was to put on walking shoes and walk around neighborhoods with old house and just look at them and take pictures. Still a little cold for that idea. I looked up BYU's website, searched for their calender and was surprised at all the activities going on. The had:
-a couple different comedy shows
-a tour of one of the smaller museums, make your own pottery, and refreshments date ($10!)
-a cool "Hunger Awareness Dinner", you pay $16 at the door and they randomly assign you to sit in a high, middle or low income area and provide a meal corresponding to their assigned income class. Entertainment included.
-salsa dancing
-And the Museum of Art was offering a cool film series about the Victorian era (corresponding with their current art exhibit) were they give you all kinds of background and facts about a certain film and then you watch it

I was so impressed with BYU, they really make it easy to go on a date. We had decided to go to one of the comedy shows, because it started the latest, but then Dave remembered his brother, who is in a band, was playing at a small venue in downtown Provo. We went to that instead and had a lot of fun. His bro plays the bass guitar, and is really good. My favorite part was when everybody was dancing close to the stage and Dave just stood right in front of Michaels face and stared. It was also fun watching Dave wear the medium sized band shirt I bought. Fun, fun. We will just enjoy this free babysitting for as long as we can.

The hair dryers

David has a remote control car that he can spend countless hours with the boys driving, adding new stuff to it, fixing it... On Saturday Dave decided to take it all apart. The boys were glued by his side handing him screwdrivers and watching the car come apart. I thought it was all cute until David told me he needed my blow-dryer. I guess I didn't realize how protective I am of the one blow-dryer I've ever owned that I actually love. He told me he needed it to blow off the screws after he had washed them so they wouldn't rust. Are you kidding me? I just pictured my great blow-dryer being on for hours and hours on end until it burnt out. Can't you just use a little towel to wipe the water off the little parts. Apparently not. Here are the boys and they're favorite Saturday past time. (Ammon just wanted me to take a picture of him too. Gladly.) (And yes that is Dave scrubbing a little piece of plastic with a toothbrush.)

It's a great day

How can you not be happy when you get to eat breakfast across from this great hairdo each morning? (eggs look gross)

Looks like Ammon already styled his hair this morning with a little water (which he likes to do).

Come home Daddy

Dad works late, a lot. We miss him. One night Ammon started setting the table were David always sits thinking that this might bring him home early. This little boy can say a few words but it always amazes me to see all the different ways he finds to communicate. I'm sure this is only cute to me, his mom, but it is so amazing to see their little brains growing. Don't grow up too fast Ammon, I love your two-word sentences.

I can do it on my own!

Case and Point Exhibit below:

Josh loves to get himself dressed which is really handy for me, but at the same time kind of tricky. Tricky because he does not like me to make any adjustments or suggestions about his choice of outfit.

I love that he tries so hard to do it all by himself, but sometimes, and only sometimes he needs my help. He is finally happy in this last picture because he gets to finally pose how he wanted to. Love ya Josh, sorry I make you change your outfit sometimes.

Stuck in my head...

My sister, Diana, sent me this video a while back and it occasionally pops into my head and I can't help from laughing out loud each time it does. If you are a Carrie Underwood fan, you'll understand the spoof. I'm kind of embarrassed that I think it is so funny. Hope you enjoy a laugh...
Okay I couldn't put it in this post so I put it on the sidebar, it's the first video on the video bar.

Yuck...

....these are gross. Chocolate covered bananas. For some reason I always feel like I need to make a really fun dessert for FHE. Not the same chocolate cake and pumpkin chocolate cookies I always make for everything. So when I'm trying to rack my brain Monday afternoon for a good a treat I often think of a conversation I had years ago in Florida with Amy about making chocolate covered bananas for FHE and using bad chocolate or something because her kids didn't like them. I thought I might give it a go tonight... and I must have the same bad chocolate as Amy because they were yucky. Ammon liked them, I think he was the only one. So are they supposed to be frozen or something? Maybe I should have read up about them a little. I'm just glad I got that out of my system and never have to make them again. FHE was fun. Josh and I read simple scripture stories and David acted them out. Ammon ran around a little copying Dave. We played, Red Light Green Light, and I think Dave and I broke the couch. Ooops, at least I won, I think?

It's so cute to me how much Josh loves FHE. I've never see him clean up his toys so fast, with out even asking him to, as when we are getting ready to have FHE. The other week it was taking us a while to get to FHE after dinner and Josh had a big pile of books and his soccer ball on the rocking chair ready to share with us. He knows he gets our undivided attention each monday night, at least for a little while, and he is the happiest little boy while we all play together. He is always saying, "...lets put Ammon down to bed and then have FHE tonight. " I'm so glad we have this tradition.