The Most Disgusting thing ever...

The following stories are not for the faint of heart...

First, to make a long story short...when we were living in Logan, and Chris was still in school and Austin was about three he picked up a random coke bottle and drank the contents. He proceeded gagging and throwing up. When I looked to see what he actually drank it was someones left-over chew spit! No, I am not joking, that is really what it was.

Has your stomach stopped turning?

Well, up until now, I thought there was possibly nothing more disgusting than that. Even what I am about to tell you only comes close to topping it.

My sweet little Asher loves to get into everything right now. And I mean everything! My other sweet little child, Abigail, who is still trying to learn the "ins and outs" of potty-training, forgot to flush the toilet after going poo. Well, you can see where this is going. We found Asher with his hands in the potty and toilet paper in his mouth! No, I am not exaggerating. I only wish I was. How do you clean poo out of a baby's mouth?

Both stories completely disgusting but in completely different ways!

Did I mention that Asher means "happy." I have resorted to calling him my "happy" monster. Because every time he is getting into something he looks at me and giggles. Yes, my 8 month old giggles at me.

Sorry folks, no pictures with this one! :)

Asher - 8 months!

Once again a month has passed in the blink of an eye! Asher is now 8 months old. He is crawling ALL OVER THE PLACE! He gets into EVERYTHING! Believe it or not, I have not had childproof locks on any cupboards, drawers, doors, etc. since, well, Austin! Boys! He also pulls himself up to a standing position all the time too. I keep sitting him back down! He is TOO LITTLE to start walking yet! Austin walked at nine months, but I was a first-time mom and didn't know any better then. He also has two teeth.

For some reason, we often find him in the stools. I am not sure what he finds facinating about them but something sure attracts him.

He is so proud of himself.

He also loves the water! He is already trying to swim. :)

You win some, You lose some!

We will start out with the losing side of things. This was Austin's first year in the Cub Scout Pinewood Derby. We were actually naive enough to think that the kids actually built their own cars so Austin did a lot of his own work...although it is really hard to cut it out without the help of an older person. He designed, sanded, spray-painted, and painted the car mostly by himself. He learned a lot and we are very proud of him. BUT when we got to the pinewood derby, we knew his car was not going to fair well against all the "dads" cars. They literally were sitting around talking about what they did to "their" cars. It was kind of funny. But we just had a FHE lesson on having good sportsmanship and so we felt like this was going to be a great night to put it into practice. He placed 14th out of 15. Yikes! He actually handled it very well.

Now for the winning end of things! Austin did the science fair again this year. He did it when he was in Kindergarten as well. In Kindergarten he placed 2nd at the school and 1st at Regionals. This year he placed 1st at the school and 2nd at Regionals. I am so proud of him because he did all (well, most of) the work himself. He had to keep a daily log. He took the pictures, learned how to use Microsoft Word and transfer and resize pictures. He even learned how to use a cricket to cut letters. He was very happy, especially because he won $10 for winning regionals.

Zion Camping

I have to admit, before I had kids, camping was the last thing that I wanted to do. I don't like to get dirty! I REALLY DETEST bugs! I like sleeping in my own bed! I like having running water! Really, the list could go on. But the last few years, I have really come to appreciate what camping has to offer. No hotel room can offer the sights, sounds and smells that being in the great outdoors can. You can't dutch-oven in a hotel room. And have you ever had microwaved smores - I have, and they are disgusting. Plus, my kids love being able to run outside, get dirty, go exploring, hiking, fishing, etc., and that alone is worth it.

We went camping at Zion's National Park this weekend. Our family had so much fun. It was beautiful even though the trees haven't bloomed yet. We went on two hikes, ate yummy food and held an Easter Egg hunt for the kiddos.

Cascading Falls was a new hike that we found online. It isn't a marked hike, so that was a little scary especially when we were taking 11 kids under the age of 10 on it. But it turned out to be a great hike, especially because no one else was on it. There was a tunnel, amazing rocks to climb and pools of water to play in.

That night, we came back to camp and ate awesome dutch oven food. Dutch oven cooking is probably my favorite food. I look forward to summer just so we can use our dutch ovens more. Mmmm-mmm!

On Saturday morning, we hid some Easter eggs for the kids to find.

After the Easter egg hunt, we took the kids on our annual Emerald Pools hike. We hike this every year because it is easy enough for the kids but challenging enough that the adults don't get bored. Plus it is beautiful. I was so proud of Abigail because she hiked it mostly by herself. She had some help from Mom and Aunt Anne but she really did well.

After we got back from camping, we went to Newcastle to spend Easter with my family. The kids enjoyed their THIRD Easter egg hunt! Spoiled brats! J/K :)