2008

Easter 2008
Noble 9
William 7
Hewy 2

Easter through the years

A few fellow bloggers have done something similar to this on their blogs. I thought it was cute so I steal - I mean borrowing it. :)


Easter 2007

Easter 2006

Easter 2005

And the rest enter into "still attached to my 35mm film camera even if I do own a digital I will will never give up my 35mm no matter how cool digital is" until Alec splurged and spent the BIG bucks on a digital 35mm era of my life. So 2005 is as far back as I can take Easter.

Our Scare / Our Champ

I couldn't decide what was the better title, so I went with both.


This picture was taken to show Hewy's hospital bracelet and his bandaged arm where they drew blood. I love how proude-fully he is displaying them and the smirk on his face.

Am I really ready to blog this?

And if so, then where do I begin?

Our Scare
When I put Hewy down after getting him out of bed he looked at me with a pained "what did you do that for" look and then collapsed to the floor. The night before Alec and I noticed he had was walking funny. I watched him for awhile and he couldn't, try as he might, get up. He tried to crawl, but still when he put weight on his right leg, he whimpered. I called the doctor who wanted to see him ASAP. He had limited range of motion in his right hip and (suspected) referring pain to his knee. All kinds of soft spoken big words rambled from the doctors mouth - all I was waiting to hear was "Motrin and rest" but instead I heard, "blood work, x-rays," and a whole lot of scary sounding could and might be's.

Our Champ
We have always said that Hewy is tough. That Hewy is calm and laid back for the most part. Did he ever earn his titles today! First the x-rays. Cold, sterile room. Laid right down on the table, stayed there, still as could be for two x-rays. No cries, no fussy, no whining, no problems - completely still. Next came the blood work. Friendlier room, still very white and sterile. Laid down on the bed and stayed there. They brought in a tough but gentle looking helper to hold him down in a gentle hug slash cradle kind of way. When they stuck him - no flinch, no cry, no whimper - and then the vein rolled and they couldn't find it. He stayed still and quiet. The tough guy loosened his gentle but firm hug on him. What seemed like 20 minutes but was probably two or three while they looked for the vein, he stayed there, still, laying on the bed, not fussing or crying. They got what they needed and brought him some juice, he said Thank you.


The Afternoon
So we waited all afternoon which felt like an eternity for the results. Finally at 5:30 they called to say "Everything is as normal as we would expect it to be as if there was nothing wrong." The doctor then went through all the blood tests that were done and said they were all normal. So this must be viral. Synovitis. It should get better in a week or so. And then the words I wanted to hear, "Motrin and rest" as I thought to myself - oh he shouldn't have been outside playing Star Wars with his brothers all afternoon then.

He now walks, just funny. Like a duck - ironic, I know. Hewy the duck.

Share

Grandpa and Hewy sitting on the front porch. Grandpa asked if H-y would share his drink so Grandpa pretended to take a drink. Two buds sitting on the step together sharing a drink.

Captured

Do you ever snap one of the pictures that when you get it back it nearly takes your breath away? These pictures do that to me! I love all that these pictures captured. In the first, it's the scrunched nose, the hands knitted gleefully as he playfully stares someone down. This is my playful Hewy, that screams "I'm tough" as he growls and snarls with a grin on his face. The second is the sweet casual comfortable Hewy that I love to swoop up and smooch! I love that smile, those cheeks, that presence.

This is a boy that has captured my heart.

Easter Boys

Noble looking all grown up and handsome.

Hewy looking all cute and innocent.

Liam looking full of fun and humor.

Our boys three - All Easter-y

Easter Basket Fun

Easter morning is always a treat.
The bunny leaves clues to help the Dunn's find their baskets.
This year there were more toys than candy to be found in their baskets. Jump ropes, play-dough, bubbles, cars, rubber duckies, Animal shaped soap, water guns, etc. etc.

Liam and Noble rest on the quiet room couch after finding their baskets and all the plastic candy filled eggs.

hew had a string to follow from his bedroom to his basket.

Hewy wanted his chocolate bunny opened, but his surprised it was chocolate. He had carried it around as a toy for quite awhile. Then he licked the ear and oh - wow this bunny tastes like chocolate.

Liam delights in his Easter Goodness.

Just dyeing

Dyeing Easter eggs is so much fun!
Anna and Henry joined us.
And so did Grandpa and Grandma.

Gold Star for Noble

Tonight at Pack Meeting we met at our neighbor's house and held it outside. The Mom sat around on the grass and chatted afterwards while the kids ran around and the dad's caught foul balls from hitting the other houses.

Connie, our Primary President, told me a story that is worth sharing about Noble. her husband was subbing Noble's primary class and asked a question, she couldn't remember what it was, but Noble raised his hand and said something like this: "Well in Mosiah 2, King Benjamin says..." She said that Matt's chin dropped to the floor. When Matt came home that evening he said - "We need to do family scripture study better!"

Way to go NOBLE!!!!!

Evening Routine

This is routine for the Dunn family just about every night. Just before dinner or right after, all the boys head outside to "play" some golf.


Hew practices: "See the club, be the club."

In the picture below, notice where the club is and where the ball is. "Nice Miss!" I also appreciate his tongue position.

Liam gives his neighborhood friend Chatanya a golf lesson. This is important because we normally cannot "golf" when friends are over because we have strict rules about yard golf etiquette - like making sure you are clear a full club length all the way around you before you swing and never ever hit a ball towards the neighbor's houses. My kiddos know to keep these rules because there are NO warnings - if you break them, clubs go away for the day. Neighborhood kids are not so good at keeping rules like those, so we don't usually get clubs out if friends are over. Although the clubs attract them like magnets! Chatanya is over quite a bit and he knows I am strict about rules. (Thankfully his parents don't mind that I follow through with consequences of rules if he is at our house - like this week when he rode his scooter in front of a car in the street - I made him get off of it and not ride it until his parents came to tell me it was okay - they were out for a walk, they agreed with me, thankfully)

Another yard gold note
Noble is not allowed to hit balls in the yard anymore because his drives have gotten too long and he, like his Dad, hits it too far! He is happy to make practice swings without the balls. He is allowed to "chip" in the yard but he has to be careful as he has a lot of power and connects a little too well sometimes and sends the ball flying down the street or over the fence to the ranch or into the ditch.

Zzzzzz

Caught ya sleeping

Egg Hunt at the Yellow Park

Cutie pie Hewy thought the rock looked just right for sitting. Liam and joined him and it made for great pictures.

Everyone had a good time and the kids enjoyed being outside int he sunshine.

HSM on Ice

High School Musical on ICE!


Santa had put tickets to see High School Musical on Ice in our Stocking on Christmas. Liam was surprised when I finally said we were going! It seemed to take forever to get here. We all had a good time singing along to all the songs.

Mud Storm

On Tuesday we got some much needed rain. As I was driving to Anna's house so that we could have dinner together with the kiddos minus our hard working sweethearts, I noticed that every time the wipers swished - there were streaks. I ended up spraying the windshield 20 times between home and Anna's. This is what the van looked liked the next day and so did almost all the other cars in San Antonio. We had experienced a "Mud Storm."

Annoyed

I will be honest.

I am annoyed.

Annoyed is an emotion that I try to avoid. Because, really, what can you do about it? Usually nothing, and that's why you are annoyed, right? So I try and avoid it altogether in the first place - when I see annoyed coming I make up my mind not to care.

But sometimes, I just can't.

So, I am annoyed.

Who is that determined that Easter is the first Sunday after the first full moon in Spring?

Who, WHO, came up with that? It's annoying to have it switching all around and no real way to figure it out unless you have the Moon schedule on your calendar too. Urgh! Annoyed.

Can't we just say it the first Sunday after April 6th? That makes sense to me. Or the first Sunday in April? That would be fine too!

Like I said, nothing really that I can do about it, so why be annoyed. But I am. Annoyed.

I. Can. Count.

Okay, I can count. I can also cut and paste in computerland. My dear friend, Lois, was so kind to point out that my last post was missing some numbers. Only good friends tell you stuff like that. Like you have lipstick on your teeth. Or your tag is sticking out of your shirt, like the price tag you forgot to pull off. Or you tucked your skirt into your panty-hose. Or you have toilet paper stuck to your shoe. Seriously, if your friends won't tell you that you missed a number or two on your last blog post are they really going to tell you those embarrassing things?

So here are my M.I.A. numbers and the questions Lois made up to go with them.
#3 - kids? Males
#12 - Dear friend? Lois!!!
#17 - favorite place to be? DisneyCruise

Just. One. Word. Tag.

You can only answer with one word.

1. Where is your cell phone? Car

2. Your significant other? Love

4. Your mother? Supportive

5. Your father? Encouraging

6. Your favorite thing? family

7. Your dream last night? Sci-Fi

8. Your favorite drink? Cherry-coke

9. Your dream/goal? Celestial

10. The room you're in? Overloaded

11. Your fear? knives

13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Europe

14. Where were you last night? Gifford's

15. What you're not? alone

16. Muffins? scones

18. Where you grew up? UTAH

19. The last thing you did? typed

20. What are you wearing? crocs

21. Your TV? cooking

22. Your pets? dogs

23. Your computer? attached

24. Your life? comfortable

25. Your mood? content

26. Missing someone? always

27. Your car? Sienna

28. Something you're not wearing? make-up

29. Favorite Store? Amazon

30. Your summer? vacation

31. Who will win the presidential race? Guess

32. Your favorite color? Purple

33. When is the last time you laughed? today

34. Last time you cried? today

35. Who will/would re-post this? friends :)

My Friend Sheila

This is from my friend Sheila - it made me feel all warm and better. Had to share it.

Guest Chef

I have been taking cooking classes recently. My latest class was last night and the Chef was a guest chef to the school. His names is Roland Mesnier. He was the Executive Pastry Chef at the White House for 15 years and cooked for five presidents. All of them lived, he joked.

The Pastries were amazing. Dried Blueberry Scones. Seasonal Fruit Turnovers. Lemon Madeleine's. Parisian Macaroons. Miniature Pizzas on Brioche. Orange Creme Brulee.

In addition to gaining his recipes which you can get from any of his cookbooks, I gained the more valuable personal insight. Many have asked me why I would pay to watch another chef when I could read the recipe myself - that's why. The tricks that do because they are second nature to them, but they never get written down for the book. Watching a chef make their recipes gives whole new insight to the recipe.

But this chef - was funny! In addition to making butter and flour taste and look like it never has for me personally, he was entertaining to watch and listen to as well.

I just had to write down some of the things he said. Some are funny, some insightful, some thought provoking, some are stories, some are memories.
- "The Lady is very thoughtful..." (Speaking of Nancy Reagan) it made me want to be thoughtful.
- "White chocolate is not chocolate and milk chocolate is not much better. Real chocolate is chocolate, what you say 'dark' is just 'chocolate,' you see." (imagine that in a french accent)
- "you will learn far more with you mistakes in pastry than by your successes."
- "Whoever invented the dough hook was not related to Einstein." (musing that the dough hook does not do what he thinks it should, "use the beater")
- One day he had made a 10" Strawberry cake for President Clinton. President Clinton ate half the cake by himself, he was dining alone that night. "He dined alone most nights" he nods his head as if we all understand. The next night the butler comes and says to the Chef - "Thank you for tonight's dessert, but Mr. President wants the other half of the strawberry cake." The cake was no where to be found. Clinton was found punching the table with his fists and yelling in a tantrum, "I want my strawberry cake, where is my strawberry cake!" it was never found. Chef Mesnier prides himself that he never, in 25 years, repeated the same dessert! The strawberry cake recipe can be found in one of his Cookbooks, but I can't remember which one.
- every year at Christmas Chef Mesnier would make a gingerbread house for a centerpiece at the White House. It was usually something spectacular, like a winter scene of the Whitehouse itself. One year First Lady Laura Bush calls him in and says, "Chef this year I would like to do something different, instead of a traditional gingerbread house, I would like you to make Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory." He said, I agreed and told her what a wonderful idea it was. I went back to the kitchen and gathered my team around and told them the Fist Lady had made a special request and could someone please tell me what is "Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory?" I like two things from this story - 1) Laura Bush's love of literature and he desire to capture it everywhere, and 2) that he was willing to do what ever she wanted, even if he had no idea what it was.
- Each year there was/is an event at the Whitehouse that employees are allowed to go upstairs and choose a trinket that has belonged to the first family, but that they are disposing of. Gloves, canvas bags, inexpensive items, etc. Chef said he went one year and decided he didn't need or want other peoples discarded junk. However the event was highly looked forward to by the staff. One year a young line cook from the kitchen had gone and to his surprise there were dresses near the taking table. He reached over and found a blue one that he thought would be great for his Mom because he was taking her to dinner that night for her birthday. Later that night, First Lady Barbara Bush went to get dressed but the blue dress she had just got back from the cleaner was not to be found! Her staff finally realized what must have happened, so the began questioning the staff, and found that yes someone had taken a dress. They hunted down who it was and called him, only to find him already out with his Mother who was wearing the blue dress! They were able to explain the matter, get the dress back AND Mrs. Bush still wore the dress that night to the function she had intended!

And now the story of stories.
As he was assembling the annual gingerbread house one year, Martha Stewart was at the White House filming for her show. She approached him and told him he would need metal pins to hold it together - like he had never done anything like this before. He insisted that he never used pins and he used only chocolate and gingerbread to construct his gingerbread houses. A week later he was in Florida with President Clinton and her show was on as he flipped the channels - and she was saying how while at the Whitehouse she had instructed the Executive Pastry Chef how to construct gingerbread houses properly! he was miffed - clearly still miffed about it today!

I enjoyed the class, I enjoyed him, I enjoyed his goodies!

Cheese and hippos

[Warning gushing prideful Mommy moment ahead!]

All three boys had dentist appointments today. Eee! "the dentist." I try really hard to hide the FACT that I have a personal dislike for dentists. My mouth, my teeth, why does anyone else get to have an opinion. MINE! I do like our Pediatric dentist - probably because he has never asked about or commented on my mouth or teeth. He is a really good dentist and nice guy. We could be friends, but I don't think either of us want more friends.

So, me and the three boys were taken to the family room - did you know dentists these days have "family rooms?" I did not. It was a room behind the usual chairs where I guess normal people with 2 or fewer children go. That is where I had always been with Noble and Liam before - but today Hewy had an appointment.

So there were three teeth cleaning chairs, two normal chairs, a child's table with chairs, a train table like the one in the waiting room and one of those giant cubes with wire and beads and other fun things to play with covering all sides, books, toys and magazines. I was impressed. It was almost fun.

Chair number one - Noble
Chair number two - Liam
Chair number three - Hewy

While one child was worked on he others could play, but when it was their turn they hopped on to their assigned chair.

Noble is a champ. No stress, no concerns, no worries. Teeth and gums look good.

Liam on the other hand has had so much dental work done that just sitting on the chair makes his jaw start to tremble and his hands visibly shake. But he makes it through it with the gentle coaxing of the nice hygienist.

Hewy jumps right up on the chair and when asked to open does so widely and proudly! Okay here is the gushing mommy - He's two! He was brave and obedient. He was helpful and calm. We had practiced "what does a Hippo say?" (open mouth wide like a hippo), we read Dora books about a trip to the dentist, we talked about it - but he's TWO, I didn't know how much he understood. I have to admit that I waited, waiting for the trigger. Something was going to happen that made him flip out - would it be her fingers in his mouth, the spinning cleaning brush, the water squirter thing, the sucker that sucks out all the water and spit, the fluoride? Nada.

So then the dentist comes in and we start the process over.

Noble - check double check, perfect teeth. A little all over the place, but great teeth. He has another molar coming lose.

Liam - oh, Liam. He has "broke the root" of all four of his capped teeth. he says they do not hurt, so we leave them for now. He has some minor soft spots, something to watch - but no cavities.

Hewy - again jumps up on the chair. Opens when he needs to, bites down when he needs to. Wonder boy.

Everyone including the receptionists were impressed, by time we made it to the desk they had "heard" how wonderful the little guy was. He was the talk of the office. "A two year old?" "What did you do to prepare him?" "He is the best two year old we have ever seen!" "This was his first visit? Kids always cry on their first visit!" Not my boy!

So all the cheesy practice smiles and Hippos open wide practice of the past weeks paid off.

Visit From Flat Stanley

Just a little background for those of you that don't know about Flat Stanley. He is from a book that most first graders read about a boy that has a bulletin board fall on him - so he is now flat. Of course he is sad about that until he finds out he cane be folded and mailed all over the world. After reading the book students send their very own Flat Stanley to someone somewhere and the hosts then send things back so that the class can learn about the place Stanley visited.

Our Flat Stanley came from Salt Lake and spent a few weeks with us taking random field trips around the city. It was a much needed homeschool break - still doing basics each day.

Make a slide show - it's easy!

Random Happenings

A fort.
The boys love to build forts and sleep in it overnight. This time we blew up the air mattress for them because they do it on the kitchen tile floor and it makes my back hurt to think about. They haul in all the pillows they can find and have one fun slumber party.




Hew grabbed a celery heart off the counter and started munching on it. So far he is the only one that likes celery of all the boys. Cute munchkin.


Our first ride on Atlantis at Sea World. Probably the best water ride we have ever gone on. That is Alec, Liam and Noble in the front row! Alec and Liam got soaked!



Guadalupe Rive State Park. Grandpa and Hew sitting by the river throwing rocks!