He's Seven!

The Twist is turning 7 today. I can't believe it's been 7 years since this not-so-little man came screaming into our lives!

Even all puffy and cone headed he was adorable.

It can't possibly have been 7 years since we saw this little face. Holy crap. Time goes way too fast.

Now he's a giant human. Kids are the worst. They just grow up and don't even care about how much it breaks your heart.

Here are just a few of our favorite things about Twist.

He has the most infectious laugh of all time. I need to record it and put it on here so you can all hear it. It's the best laugh ever.

He has the vocabulary of an English professor. He says things like, "You know how when you like something for a long time you get disinterested in it? Yeah, well it’s like that with me and Adventure Time." And "This is fascinating" or "That seems very unlikely." And "We were just discussing how Conzo has a crush on Mary Anne." Discussing? Really? You're seven. It's hilarious.

He has an amazing memory. I can't remember anything. Ever. Caulder forgets nothing. My favorite thing about it is that he memorizes movie lines and then performs them for us. The best is when he does Jim Gaffigan bits, like Hot Pockets or the bears bit. He has the whole things memorized, and when he launches into, "Warning! You just bought Hot Pockets! I hope you're drunk or heading home to a trailer. You hillbilly, enjoy the next Nascar event" I know I should be questioning my parental judgment, not laughing my guts out, but I just can't help myself. Some kids sing primary songs or do the itsy bitsy spider when they feel like entertaining family. Caulder performs Jim Gaffigan.

He's still such a good brother. I put together one of his Legos today and he let Tukker play with the police car that came in it before he even took a turn. I told Tukk he couldn't play with it because it was Caulder's new toy, and Caulder said, "It's okay Mom. He can play with it. Tukk, just tell me when you're done and then I'll have a turn." Who does that? I'm certainly not teaching him to share on his birthday. Birthdays are all about selfishness. And cake, of course.

He's gotten a little more cuddly in the past few years. He gives "surprise" hugs and kisses once in a while, and the other night he wanted me to lay down by him to help him fall asleep and he actually grabbed my arm and put it around him... LIKE WE WERE SNUGGLING. This is huge for Caulder. I held my breath and tried not to even blink so I wouldn't ruin the magic. It was pretty much the best night of my life.

The dude is just hilarious. He has the sense of humor of a quirky 17 year old. He cracks us up.

And even though he's seven we still catch him snuggling Tootsie once in a while. Love it.

We had his birthday party last night. He's not much of a sugar boy (I'm still baffled by this anti-sugar behavior), but he LOVES chocolate, so instead of a cake we busted out Yaya's chocolate fountain and let him cover his favorite foods in the good stuff. Strawberries, bananas, grapes, apple slices, pretzels, Oreos, brownie bites, and... what's that in the far right corner? Could it be... gasp... bacon?

You bet your arss it is. He loves bacon. He loves chocolate. What could be more perfect than chocolate covered bacon? Nothing - that's what. It was delicious. Seriously. I'm craving it right now.

Caulder chastises me severely if I don't keep apples in the house, so I made him a very special birthday apple. Hooray for moms who go the extra mile by ramming some candle thingies in an apple! I should totally put this on pinterest.

 Just look at the birthday boy enjoying his birthday bacon. I may have been responsible for the birthday apple, but the chocolate covered birthday bacon was also my idea, so I'm still saying the kid's mother is a genius.

 Mmmmm.... chocolatey...

 Then we opened presents. He was really, really excited about the Legos.

 When he opened his Lego Forest Police Station he was overcome with joy. Or maybe he was in a chocolate covered bacon coma.

 After everyone left he told us, "That was a rockin' birthday party." Success!

It was a good thing we celebrated yesterday, because today he woke up sick. He had to have a breathing treatment first thing this morning. (He likes to wear glasses when he's getting nebulized. He says he doesn't want the "smoke" to get in his eyes. I think it's just because he knows how cool he looks.) Shortly after that he started barfing.

His breathing got so bad I made him go to the doctor - ON HIS BIRTHDAY! - where the doc threatened to put him in the hospital because "he's just not moving any air in or out of those lungs." But the birthday gods smiled on Twist and the doc agreed to let us try a double steroid treatment to see if that would help improve the air flow. He also told us that with Caulder's history (every time he gets sick he ends up needing nebulizer treatments) and with the frequency we have him in for lung gunk AND with the inflammation his lungs had today he definitely has asthma. So now he gets to do twice daily inhaler snorts for at least a year, plus go back to the doc in a week or two to check the state of his lungs and make an asthma action plan. Happy birthday to him!

Apparently making healthy lungs isn't our talent at the Bott household. Fetchin' family of lungers. But I just fed Caulder three bowls of chocolate ice cream, so I think he's feeling better. And he got ice cream for dinner on his birthday, so that's something. But we're still having a birthday do-over as soon as he gets better.

Happy birthday Twister man. We love you!

The First Day of First Grade

We were all really dreading the first day of first grade. Cole and I have been depressed that Caulder will be away from us all day. Forever. Boo. And we were nervous about how he'd handle being there all day. There were a few tears in the morning before we left (and, if I'm honest, I shed a few the night before), but when we got to school we all held up like champs (even me... hooray!).

We may or may not have gone down at 11:30 to have lunch with him. We were trying to pretend it was because we didn't want him to be anxious about the lunch room scene on his first day, but one of our neighbors teaches there and as soon as she saw me she started laughing and said, "Just can't let go, huh?" Busted. We can't help ourselves. We kind of like this kid.

 When I picked him up I asked him how first grade was and he said, "The classroom didn't look anything like I expected. The lunch room looked kind of like I expected. And it was way longer than I was expecting. It totally sucks."

And I found this in his backpack:

But he was still smiling. So I'm calling it a victory.

The Fish Finders

My boys are developing a serious addiction to fishing. About a month ago, Cole took them down to Otter Creek so they could go fishing off Grandpa Kyle's yacht. As you can see, they were pretty excited about it.

I'm betting Tukk spent 90% of his time stealing Grandpa's Oreo cookies.

But he earned his keep the other 10% by catching fish. When he came home he couldn't wait to inform me that he'd caught the "king fish"... the biggest fish of the trip. They clamped his pole onto the boat so he wouldn't lose it, but then he'd reel the fish in all by himself, even this one that was almost as big as him.

Here's Caulder showcasing his mad pirate skills. Must be genetic. You're welcome for passing that face on, little buddy.

The impressive catch:

We also did some serious fishing at the Johnson family reunion last week in Fish Lake. Grandpa took us down to the lake at 5:30 in the morning, because he swore that as soon as the sun started coming up the fish stopped biting. I wasn't sure if any fishing trip could be worth getting up that early....

 But I was wrong. Here's what we came home with:

The secret was to send Grandpa out in his hip waders to cast all the lines in. He'd wade out, cast, drag the pole back and hand it off to a great grandkid, take a fish off somebody else's line, rebait the hook, then wade out again. I bet he did that 100 times as fast as he could go and he still couldn't keep up with the kiddos.

I finally had to stick to baiting duty while Kolby and Jess helped the kids reel the fish in and Grandma made a zillion trips over to the shore to string all the fish we'd caught into the water. All while Grandpa stayed hip deep in freezing cold lake water. For hours. We're not afraid to sacrifice an old man's extremities if it means we can catch more fish. That's the price we're willing to let Grandpa Kyle pay. Plus I'm pretty sure he was having the time of his life. Or he was delirious from the cold. Either way the fishing was fantastic!

We also had Kaleb's wolverine paintball challenge.

A dead tree tipping spree

Some hut building

The Ranger treasure hunt (here's Caulder finding a clue)

with awesome prizes at the end

And the world's best camping slumber party.

We also went on some wicked Ranger rides, and we made the mistake of letting The Babe drive. He gets some sort of mountain madness when he's camping and riding an ATV, very similar to the madness that always takes over his body when he's around fireworks of any kind, and he started pushing over stumps with his Ranger, gunning it through puddles and streams, screaming and veering... it was a little frightening, but the kids thought it was hilarious. Caulder said, "The only thing you can count on with Grandpa Babe is that he'll be crazy!" Amen.


We had sword and princess hat decorating, shirt making, rock painting, mug coloring, and treasure hunts, but I'm pretty sure the kids' favorite thing was playing on this pile of dirt. They spent hours just sitting there, on a huge mound of dirt, having a ball. And when Uncle Kaleb dug a hole for them to sit in? Heaven...

When he wasn't helping the other kids make a coyote trap or catching salamanders in the mud pond, Caulder practiced for his audition to join KISS.

 And these two did some snuggling. Awww... doesn't Grandpa Kyle look so sweet and snuggly?!!

 Speaking of cute and cuddly...

 Oh, the family reunion. And oh, the Tukk's teeth. Both are fantastic and amazing, and we can't wait for next year!

How to Tell It's Been a Good Day at Grandma's

You’re either 

A) still in your pajamas 

B) not wearing any pants

 or C) you look like this

My boys are generally some combination of all three after their Grandma Sara Tuesdays. They LOVE Grandma Sara Tuesdays. They go see the baby lambs and the baby pigs and they work in the garden with Grandpa Kyle (and Grandpa doesn't even mind that for Tukker that involves a lot of stomping through the plants and eating everything in sight) and they read books with Grandma Sara and they eat Lunchables and Oreos until they're ready to burst. They turn Grandpa's trailer into a hut and he lets them have free reign to play in it whenever they want. Sometimes Gram even takes them on a Ranger ride up on West Mountain or for a picnic in Grandfather's Cave, where they - of course - have to have epic Star Wars battles after lunch. She makes them "the best scrambled eggs on the planet," according to Caulder, and when Tukk gets worn out in the afternoon Grandma rocks him and sings him primary songs until he falls asleep. Sometimes when I get there she's still rocking him; she says she's afraid if she puts him down he'll wake up, but I'm not buying it. And the boys always - ALWAYS - need a bath when they get home. Have I mentioned this beautiful Grandma of mine is in her 70s?

I think she might be super grandma. It's easy to ditch your kids and go to work when you know they're going to have the best day ever.

Our New Addition

You guys are totally panicking right now, aren't you? Don't worry, Armageddon isn't imminent... I'm not pregnant. But after old Sakalou died the boys were very sad, and Caulder kept saying, "I just want to know when we're going to get another dog."

I argued that I was still mourning Sakett. Cole just rolled his eyes. Then I said we had a Tukk, who is tiny and adorable and super messy, so we didn't really need a puppy. There was more eye rolling. And then one day when we were coming home from Fairview Canyon Cole said he'd seen some puppies advertised in the area, so we should just stop by and check it out since we were already down that way. I figured it couldn't hurt to just stop by to check - not actually shop - so I agreed.

Oh, foolish Misty.

Because then we met this:

It should be quite obvious by now that I'm a complete and total sucker for brown eyes. Plus she made Caulder smile. So before I knew it, we were driving home like this:

 

 And now we're doing a lot of this:

And a lot of this:

And cracking up whenever she pounces Tukker and tries to eat him, because half the time while she's trying to tear his curly out he says, "Wook! She wubs me!" Caulder is convinced he's her favorite, because she thinks he's a superhero and she's his sidekick.

She's a Golden Doodle. I know, the name is a little embarrassing. It's a cross between a standard poodle (the big ones, not the little purse dogs) and a golden retriever. Her name is Muggzy Trailer Sunshine, which is still somehow less ridiculous than Golden Doodle. Caulder wanted to call her Golden Sunshine and Tukker wanted to name her Trailer Pee Wee Herman, so we had to compromise. Although I have to admit that Trailer Pee Wee Herman was pretty brilliant.

I'm still not sure I'm happy about having a puppy... no matter what it might look like in this picture. But my boys are loving it. Especially the big one. So I guess I'm stuck with her. At least there's finally another girl in the Bott house.