Messy faces

What can I say?

 Henry  knew he was being silly when he stuffed all of these crackers in his mouth at once

 Henry really enjoyed feeding himself yogurt

 Henry (and Kim) had a really rough night the night before. He ended out falling asleep in his high chair around lunch time

 Nixon made this turkey hat at school

 Kim helped the two older boys trace their bodies on these huge pieces of paper and then they got to draw on them

 That is A LOT of snot!

 Henry loves to laugh. Even ripping paper is funny to him

We had a healthy chocolate dip and fruit after dinner one night and the kids all got really messy because they liked it so much

 Henry got to help Kim test out some new lights

 I am officially licensed to practice law in New Jersey

 Kim took the kids to a make-up skating session yesterday because they will be missing their class this week. They all did really well with a smaller group size and more direct instruction

 I took the kids on a walk and to the park yesterday while Kim did some shopping. Mason was really proud of himself for getting up on this electrical box

 Lyza and Nixon love climbing on these rocks

 I was working on a project in the garage yesterday and found this little spider on the back of some melamine shelving material that I needed to cut. It was about the size of a black widow (or the size that I think a black widow is) and I wanted to document it before I removed it from our habitat

 My Google search this morning revealed that it is a "triangulate cobweb spider" and is not only very common, but also not harmful at all

I think I was still justified in being a little worried with those markings. Although, after reading what types of things it eats (ants, fire ants, other spiders, pillbugs, and ticks), I wish I would have just relocated it.

Watching Mason feed Henry is pretty cute

 Nixon got himself all dressed for church this morning. Dress shirt collars are pretty tricky!

 Kim and Lyza both looked beautiful this morning and were both wearing gold

Take care

Who would win in a fight, a moose, or a bald eagle?

I think I mentioned last blog post that the sunrises and sunsets have been beautiful. Here is some evidence of a beautiful sunrise.

 Monday night Nixon and I went to the water park together

 Nixon tried every single slide even though he was a little scared at first. We had so much fun.

 While we were swimming the others were at home having a dance party

We had skating lessons this week and everyone got a little more comfortable. You can see Mason here on the left in the red jacket skating toward his teacher. Nixon is on the far right in the black and green jacket

 Mason is catching on pretty well

Henry is starting to play more and more like a big boy with his toys

 He also went for his first walk where he wasn't riding in the stroller (he made it to the end of the block)

 It is really cute seeing him hug Nixon

 We had a big hairy visitor this week. Kim had just gotten the two little boys ready for a walk and as she walked out of the garage she turned around and saw a moose! They looked at it for a while and Mason was convinced her could go pet it...

 The moose loved eating our ugly shrub

Here is Mason explaining what happened

If Henry would turn 90 degrees he would have much more room

 Mason has been enjoying building with his magnatiles

 His structures are getting more and more complex

 He gets really proud of what he builds

 But whether it is a sibling or gravity this is the unavoidable outcome

 Mason is also into modern artwork

 Kim and I had a nice visit to the temple yesterday morning

 In the afternoon I took Lyza and Nixon to Coeur d'Alene lake to look for eagles and get outside

Our trip did not disappoint 

 We saw LOTS of eagles

 The eagles are visiting migrating and stop in CDA because of all of the kokanee salmon that are in the area. This is what the BLM says:

Each winter from November through February a migrating population of bald eagles visits the Lake Coeur d' Alene area to feed on spawning kokanee salmon. The BLM began counting bald eagles around Wolf Lodge Bay in 1974. The number of eagles returning to this area varies from year to year.

 You could see the salmon jumping all over the place and the eagles take full advantage of it

 There were also tonnes of other birds (mostly seagulls) that were eating the dead and left over salmon

 There were also lots of ducks

 This guy was just sitting around waiting to be posterized

 Seagulls going after fish

 This was another type of eagle

 The kids were fascinated with the dead fish they were finding

 They also really enjoyed exploring 

 This rock retaining wall was a fun spot for pictures

 There were also lots of people there fishing

The kokanee are pretty nasty looking

 Here is a video of some of the eagles flying

Kim thought the moment I was explaining to Nixon how the toaster works was worth documenting 

 The kids were having lots of fun hugging last night

Take care