Talmage the Poet

Talmage is doing a unit on poetry and he absolutely hates it. But I think it shows offs his gifts for language and imagination. Here is his sonnet. I suggested he do Julius Caesar as he loves Roman history and recently read the role of Mark Antony in his class's reading of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. I typed this up for Talmage and helped him get it into iambic pentameter, but almost all the words are his and all of the ideas. (I don't know a thing about Roman history!) His Social Studies teacher loved it.

Julius Caesar

I thought that you were my good friend, Brutus

We fought together in the war abroad

We slaughtered many foes who lost their mucous

So, when you held that knife I thought it odd

Cleopatra fought her evil brother Pharoah

She gave me cash to fight the war in Rome

Against the insane Consuls army blows

After we beat her brother Pharoah sore

Augustus my son that I did adopt

You ruled after me and were Emperor

You punched Barbarians, and mucous dropped

And Pax Romana had its conquerer

Then Julius Caesar way back in the past

Wanted to give us cash, and then he passed.

Beautiful Winter

We've had snow on the ground continuously since Christmas. Last year we shoveled our walk ONCE! This year it's sometimes a couple of times a day!

Someone forgot their shoes!

You can see the buried foundations of the boys igloo they made the week after Christmas. They made it with bread pans. The snow was so dry a slight breeze would have destroyed the whole structure.

The view from our front door looking down Laird Avenue is beautiful every season of the year.

Over a couple of weeks the icicles from the roof met the shed that sits right outside my kitchen sink window. It reminded me of the stalactites and stalamites that we saw in Timpanogoes cave this summer.

Add more snow and some sunny days and weeks later its just stalagmites! Despite the fact that they look like prison bars, I love my beautiful icicles! And Talmage challenged me to a sword fight and it was fantastic! I loved icicles as a kid, but we were mostly girls in our house and that never occured to us.

Christmas 2012

Sweet Boy

Our traditional birthday cake for Jesus breakfast, with bubbly! A sugary way to start a sweet day.

Lest anyone get a head start! I'm grateful that we inherited a tradition to start Christmas after breakfast. Everyone slept in until 9:00! Good thing because Clint and I had the flu and we were not feeling peppy.

This is the unfinished denim/fleece rag quilt made for Cole. Talmage's was still in squares! I wanted to make all the boys twin-sized quilts so their beds wouldn't be such hodge podges of random blankets.

The hit of the day was the Nerf fight sets that came with fuzzy vests, velcro darts and safety glasses!

Trace got a V-Tech camera.

Legos and Lord of the Rings combined? Cresap heaven!

This is Trace's quilt. I had it machine quilted and I still need to do the binding.

Jack's quilt was the only one I finished in time for Christmas, but I did start it when I was expecting him eight years ago! It's high time I finished!

Trace got a DiscoveryToys vehicle set that you build and take apart with a screwdriver. "I always wanted this my whole life!"

And the Nerf battles continued throughout the day.

The shocker of the day was this sweet bike from Clint to me! It weighsless than 20 pounds, even fully tricked out with the computer, pedals and tri bars. He also got me shoes and a trainer for indoor riding!

Here are more great efforts from Clint. His annual pixie present cutting board glue-up. This year we got a request from a friend to make one for her brother for a wedding present. So we sent one to Kentucky, one   to Mike and Lisa Hale, one to our friends the Nielsen's and one to Clint's Aunt Megan Cresap. And did I mention Clint makes Dad Hale's jerky every Christmas in our smoker? Smells like Christmas and makes me so happy.

Spreading Holiday Cheer

My boys must be getting more independent because more and more lately (shhhhhh! don't tell! It's a secret!) I've had a lot more freedom and time to get things done. I actually feel like I have to work consciously to fill my time. Taking care of just one very independent 4-year-old during the school day is not that hard. So this year I got a little carried away and made 25 cookie plates. Hey, be proud that I listened to my saner side and cut the list down from 50! So one day while the boys were at school I made three different kinds of cookies, two kinds of chocolate covered pretzels and pumpkin chocolate-chip muffins for the holiday plates. The boys love "Boo!"ing around Halloween so I really had to talk them out of dinging the doorbell and running. I told them this time it would be nice to have a little face to face and tell our friends Merry Christmas. I love baking. In fact I must have heard from five other middle-aged moms that week how much they also loved baking. There is something very therapuetic about mixing butter and sugar and knowing that even if it's not pretty, it's going to taste good and make someone happy. Cole told me once "Mom making cookies is pretty much the best thing you do." I wasn't sure how to take that!
And it is true that as you cast things upon the waters....we got more treat plates than we ever have received in our lives! Out the window went my sugar fast (dumb idea in December anyway!).

Holiday Programs

Trace got a special chair at Miss Wendy's program to keep him from being so social. Trace's best friend, Will is in the plaid shirt.

The choir program was lovely and I was impressed that they managed to get through eight songs without one mention of Christmas. But they threw in a Jewish song and a Kwanza song to make sure no one was offended. I know Jewish people and African Americans and I'm pretty sure they are not that sensitive. I guess it doesn't hurt to be considerate.

Live Nativity in the Hood

Clint looks so awesome as a shepherd, this year we had to invite the whole family to come and see.

We gathered at the Pulsiphers for pizza and good company before walking down into the gulley. It was so warm (high 40s) we didn't need all those layers we piled on!

Vicky was cute, because she's always cute.

Our happy hosts

The youngest and tallest couple there. I think we made them kiss under the mistletoe.

P.S. I've got to remember to bring my real camera. The phone pics are unsat.

Oh Yeah, We Went to Grover for UEA

Thanks to the Malmborgs and Laffertys who lent us four wheelers and Chad McKay for lending us the trailer, we looked like full-fledged Utahns driving down south to Grover.

Our friends the Nielsons from St. George met us down there.We kept ourselves busy chatting, riding the four-wheelers, shooting at Clint's 3-gun range, exploring, running and moutain biking (at altitude-choke!). We never even left the Ranch. We had a great time.

No texting, but how about shooting while driving your 4 runner?

Don't let her sweet exterior fool you. Kristin has her concealed carrier permit. Although, I'm pretty sure that was Tyler's idea.

Bryce and Chelsea with the sweet 22 in the Lower 80.