Henry's Fossilized Marshmallow

By Grandma's request, I'm finally doing another Henry post. While his younger brother is making us laugh, Henry is confounding us on a regular basis. Every day he increases my understanding of how all those boys in elementary school already knew EVERYTHING about science, animals, volcanoes, dinosaurs, etc. before we ever learned about them in school. Boys like Henry CRAVE nonfiction books and can't wait to learn more and more about all that crazy stuff.

We recently got a great book from the library called One Million Things: Planet Earth. Henry would look at this for hours and hours at a time and run back and forth to wherever I was, reporting his latest find. "Mom, did you know that there are palm trees on the western coast of Scotland?"

During the six weeks we had this book from the library, Henry was also lucky enough to find this "fossilized marshmallow" in our backyard.

What a discovery! Who knew our backyard was such a treasure trove?

The next awesome book we found from the library was Animals: a Visual Encyclopedia. If you want to catch a glimpse of Henry's excitement about this book, watch this clip:

Henry Reads about Animals from Ben and Jenn on Vimeo.

This kid knows more than I do about . . . pretty much everything.

We had to renew this book after our six-week stint, because Henry wasn't ready to let go of it. It's too exciting! "Mom, did you know that only one kind of tortoise is endangered, but NONE of the turtles are endangered? BUT some of their numbers are declining . . ."

We brought this book with us on our Thanksgiving road trip, and Henry spent over 2 1/2 hours reading it. Literally. He started at 7:45 and finished the book around 10:30. And then he turned back to the beginning and started reading it again. This kid, I tell you, may not actually be my child. Okay, so when you look at his face, you can't deny that he's mine. But his brain must be directly from B.E.N.

Iverson Day!

We celebrated our 7th anniversary on Sunday. Ben and I had a nice date on Saturday night . . . but we are starting to feel like there is now even more to celebrate as we commemorate our wedding day. We wanted to celebrate the day the Iverson Family was born! Hence, Iverson Day -- our new family holiday. The festivities included watching the "Mommy Daddy Show" (our wedding video), as well as:

a candlelight dinner with sparkling grape juice

cute boys in fancy clothes

Strict adherence to one of our favorite family rules: Rule #28: There's always a beater for everyone!

Did you know that one of our favorite newlywed memories is the night we had frosting and graham crackers for dinner?

Did you also know that one of our other family rules is: Rule #3: You can eat as much cookie dough as you want. ? Go on and judge me or worry about my children and the worms that will grow in their stomachs. I still think it's a good rule.

That's not to say that I remind the boys about the rule on a regular basis . . .

Raking and Leaf Jumping

Leaf Blowers

Leaf Blowers

I loathe you,

thick-skinned men

with your crude weapons

strapped around your waists.

You enter an innocent morning,

a perfect crisp day

and start firing --

haze into the clear white sky,

noise into my cloudless thoughts,

leaves and leaves into ugly swirls

and then nice, neat piles --

producing order

in place of the glittering

chaos of Autumn.

Darn Squirrels

When I came home and discovered one of our pumpkins had bite marks in it, I thought that Ellis must be the culprit.

"Ellis, did you bite the pumpkin?" I asked.

"Yes . . . I did!" he responded, with that cunning naughty-boy look on his face.

"Why did you do that?" I asked.

"I bite da pumpkin!" he declared.

I was pretty bewildered (Why would Ellis eat pumpkins and not macaroni and cheese?), until later that day when we returned home again, only to catch a guilty squirrel in action. He made quite a mess of pumpkin #1, and then he or one of his relatives got pumpkin #2 the very next day. As if we were just kind-hearted animal-lovers putting out a nice snack for the squirrels! Arghh. Someone told me to coat your pumpkins with Vaseline and the squirrels will leave them alone.

I wonder if Ellis would bite into a pumpkin if it was coated in Vaseline . . .

Little Angel

Other times I think there is a little angel living inside Ellis. He surprises me sometimes with the things that come out of his mouth -- usually things I don't think I ever taught him.

Here is Ellis' rendition of "Come Follow Me" - a hymn we had been practicing with Henry for the Primary program. Who knew that Ellis was not only listening, but learning all the words? "Come Follow Me" is now definitely one of Ellis' favorite songs:

Come Follow Me from Ben and Jenn on Vimeo.

And then here are a few clips showing Ellis' recent obsession with our Church's General Conference and the prophets and apostles. Both boys were shockingly well-behaved for Conference this year, and Ellis really got SO excited about each new speaker and wanted to know all of their names, especially "Present Monson" and "Present Oof-dorf." He has been talking about them several times a day for the last six weeks. Well, yesterday he discovered that you can watch General Conference anytime -- on the computer! What a revelation this was! He watched several clips last night, and asked to watch "Conference" for at least 30-40 minutes today (I showed him Mormon Messages on YouTube). Since Ellis is still only eating his food if he's plopped in front of the computer screen watching a show (we're pathetic parents, I know), he chose to watch Conference for all of his meals today. He chose Present Monson and Present Oof-dorf -- hands down -- over Diego, Dora, or Thomas. I'm wondering how long this will last, but for the meantime it's pretty sweet.

I love his excitement for Present Monson in this one:

Watch Present Monson from Ben and Jenn on Vimeo.

And in this one, totally un-prompted, he confessed his "nuv" (love) for "doze guys," meaning the prophet and apostles. Who wouldn't nuv doze guys?

I Nuv Doze Guys from Ben and Jenn on Vimeo.

Lastly, here's Ellis' favorite of the Mormon Messages we watched today. It was a hit because it includes several of his favorite presidents and elders, and another favorite . . . Jesus! Check it out:

Little Rascal

There is one side of Ellis that thinks it's really fun to be naughty. If you ask him if he is naughty or nice, he will almost always say "naughty" with a little smirk on his face. There is something fun about being rebellious! You can really see that look on his face in these two pictures.

This little rascal thought it was pretty funny to sit and stand in the "GPS Truck."

Another funny incident occurred the other day while Ben was driving with Ellis in the car. Ellis called out, "Dad! I took off my shoes! I'm turkey!!!!" and then laughed his little evil laugh. Apparently he gets a kick out of when Ben calls him a turkey for being mischievous.

When teaching 6th grade, I always had a special place in my heart for the naughties, especially those hilarious boys. Looks like I've got a little naughty boy all to myself now ;)

The Smartest Kid Ever

We have been using these pictures from the Gospel Art Picture Kit to teach Ellis the scripture stories every night. Thankfully, he's really interested in them! So on Friday, I left him for a few minutes and returned to the room to find something similar to the picture above: Ellis surrounded by hundreds of gospel pictures, all once numbered and in order, now scattered randomly in piles all around him. On one hand, it was great that he was so interested in them; on the other hand, I wanted to scream! Only because I'm the annoying kind of person that really likes to have things in order. So I spent the next 20 minutes getting the pictures all back in numerical order.

Well, I should have learned not to put the picture box right back in the very same spot, because this picture was taken Saturday morning, when he did the exact same thing and scattered all the pictures once again. I came in the room and tried to not lose it. "Ellis!" I said, "What did you do? Did you take out all the pictures again, you little rascal?" In his most enthusiastic and sincere voice, he responded, "Yes, I did it! And . . . I LOVE Jesus!"

I don't know if Ellis is just the smartest, most clever kid on the planet, or if he was intentionally trying to provide me with one of those rare it-must-all-be-worth-it moments. Either way, it worked. I let him keep taking out the pictures and scattering them one by one, while I listened from the other room reveling in my success as a mother as Ellis rehearsed all the names of the prophets he knows and got ecstatic every time he saw a picture of Jesus.

Hmmm. I like being the Mommy of this sweet little boy.

What Part of "Gnome" Don't You Understand?

A week before Halloween, Henry saw some pictures of gnomes and decided he could envision himself with a white beard and a red cone hat. Jenn readily agreed, thinking that she could probably pull off making gnome costumes using nothing more than felt, scissors, and hot glue. Anything to avoid the sewing machine. So, we went for it: 2 days and $19 later, we had all of the supplies and wouldn't you "gnome" it, Ellis is terrified of fake beards! Every time he so much as saw a corner of the white fluff he would go into hysterics. This was bad news for the gnome costumes. So, instead, Ellis got a white "star" on his shirt, but he still was not going to go near me or Henry while we were wearing our beards. It was quite the spooky Halloween costume in the end...

At the last minute, Jenn decided that I needed to be a gnome as well, so she bought a knock-off Snuggie from the dollar store and fixed it up for me. The final task was finding a costume for He-who-must-not-be-named, and, considering his current round stature, we settled on a toadstool costume.

Of course, the boys had to go through the requisite sorting of the candy, which is nearly as much fun as eating it all!

They ended up with quite a haul, but we should have "gnome" that Ellis would love the lollipops the most! He gathered them all up and ran around the house yelling, "Lollies! Lollies!" for about 20 minutes. That's what Halloween's all about.

Elections: The Silly-Season for Economics

I don't know how many of you have seen this ad from the White House, but it's the perfect example of how politicians use shoddy economics as propaganda during the election season:

This kind of thing drives me bonkers. I won't go through all of the things that are wrong in the video (there are a lot), but there are two big things that really stand out: First, he's making it sound like the president (either Bush or Obama) is the main driver of job growth/losses in the economy. This is just foolish. True, governmental policies can have large impacts on the economy, I won't argue against that. But there are dozens of factors that caused the recent recession, and I can think of at least 10 that are far more important that Bush's policies. At the same time, the reduction in job losses that has occurred since Obama took office are due to a multitude of other factors. In terms of the full jobs picture, Bush and Obama should just be footnotes, in my opinion.

Second, he's making it sound like the policies that are enacted have immediate impact on the economy. I love how he makes the point that job losses hit their worst in the month Obama took office, as if things turned around exactly at that time because of Obama. This is ridiculous! Think of the economy as a very heavy, very large boat. If it's going in the wrong direction, even if you throw it in to reverse at full throttle, you're going to keep going forward for a long time before you can slow the momentum down and get things turned around. It seems unlikely that there is anything that Obama could have done that actually shows up in the jobs numbers in February or March 2008, after he took office on Jan. 20th. In my opinion, at the earliest you might see something show up about six months after a policy is enacted.

What gets me about all of this is that Goolsbee (the economist in the video) is a smart guy. He's got a Ph.D. in economics from MIT and is generally well-respected within academia. Either he has been severely brainwashed from his time in Washington, or he knows that most of what he is saying is bunk. I'm guessing it's the latter. Don't be fooled!

Side note: This wasn't meant to be a defense of Republican policies or an attack on Democratic policies. Both sides like to use sham economics to make their points. This was just a particularly awful display, and since elections are on Tuesday I thought it was timely. I actually think that Obama has done as good a job as could be expected with regards to the economy. I don't agree with everything, but he's doing alright in my view.

Making Whoopie!

Announcement: I just discovered the dessert recipe of the year: Pumpkin Whoopie Pies! I cannot even begin to describe them to you. Look at the picture; look at Ellis' delighted expression; go get the ingredients; make them today. You will not be disappointed.

So . . . one would think that a weight goal like this one ["Try to only gain 1 pound per week"] would not be that hard to stay on top of. Let's just say that all of the wonderful fall foods are getting the best of me. Cider donuts, all the yummy pumpkin and apple treats . . . aah! There is still a half bushel of apples sitting on my counter waiting to be turned into pies, dumplings, and crisps. I need like 10 people to come live with me and help me eat all that I desire to bake. Anyone?

Scottish Lads

Ben's parents sent these darling plaid ties from Scotland, where they are serving their mission. I finally got white shirts for the boys so they could show them off at church this week. Aren't they just dapper? Both boys kept their bowties on for the entire day -- they were so proud of them and didn't want to take them off. Henry commented that bowties are the best church clothes ever because "they just look the best." It's hard to argue with that one!

Apple Picking Pics

Just another perfect autumn day for apples, pumpkins, cider, and donuts. For those of you in MA, we went to Berlin Orchards (Berlin, MA) and really liked it a lot. They're a good place to keep on your list of possible places to pick apples. For everyone else, click here for a great song about another farm we went to, Breezelands Orchards. Breezelands was closed for the picking season (hence the trip to Berlin), but they had great cider donuts, and the song is quality. Enjoy (we did)!

Columbus Day Weekend

Of course, Columbus Day has always been one of my favorite holidays (love that Nina-Pinta song). Since moving to New England, though, it has become even more significant -- only because, according to Ben & Jenn's personal almanac, Columbus Day marks the beginning of peak "Leaf Season" here. Hooray! We decided to go big in our celebrations this year, thanks to some encouragement from our friends, the Sorensens. We drove to New Hampshire and stayed here:

Cozy little chalet in a Swiss village -- perfect place to hang out and play!

The view from the chalet

Getting ready for the train ride of their lives

Here's our train on the Conway Scenic Railroad.

Fully-equipped with a window seat, a hot chocolate, and a buddy

Lovely views from the train

Let's top it off with a rainbow to wow the kiddies!

STORYLAND!!! Storyland is such an adorable little theme park based on fairy tales and nursery rhymes -- PERFECT for the 7 & under set. Our boys loved it! Ellis' favorite part was actually this Humpty Dumpty statue. He's been waiting a long time to meet "Humpdee-dee-a-wall."

I opted out of the teacup ride :)

Look how adorable - a pumpkin coach that takes you on a ride to Cinderella's castle!

And our dear friends, the Sorensens, with us inside the pumpkin!

Meeting Cinderella herself

And meeting "Grandpa Dave" shortly thereafter

Isn't this just a dreamy little place?

Next, we drove to a tiny town in the middle of nowhere, Vermont (which is the most beautiful middle of nowhere I have EVER seen) and stayed with "The Other Ben and Jen." Ben Allred is my wonderful cousin who has an amazing wife and a beautiful house filled with 4 strapping boys. The littlest of those boys is named Henry, which makes our friendship with them even more fun. It actually took Ellis some getting used to, and by the end of our time there he decided his name was Henry too :)

We had a lot of fun family time with our closest-living relatives! Henry and Weston bonded and played together mostly the whole time. We are so glad Weston is not too cool for Henry, even though he's almost 5 years older.

Next, a bike ride in Stowe, VT

The start of the trail

The view along the way.

The town center, where we had a nice little lunch.

In other words, the PERFECT weekend!