Hail Storm

We had a crazy hail storm the other night. Taylor unfortunately had not come to bed until after midnight, Hyrum was up from about 1:30 to 2:15 ish. Right before 3 am we both woke up to pounding on the roof, so not much sleep.

The hail was pretty hard and about pea size at first and got bigger. I was worried about our garden, but it did great. Also worried about the crazy chicken who insists on sleeping in the tree, but she seemed fine as well though only one chicken laid yesterday so they must have all been somewhat traumatized.

Too bad we just put in an insurance claim on our roof for the crazy wind storm (see Shingle People) so now we'll probably have to pay another deductible for the back of the roof that wasn't damaged enough in the wind storm.

I wanted to wake up the kids to watch, but since James was already awake from the noise I just had him come out and watch with us. The hail was so loud. It covered the whole trampoline so it looked white and it was a pretty cool experience.

After we got back in bed Taylor and I had the following conversation:

Me: I hope James remembers this when he gets older.
Taylor: I should have put some pants on.
Me: How come?
Taylor: So he would have a better memory.

Hail at the boys' school parking lot about 4 hours after the storm.

James' Art Show

James is in an art class once a week and this is the piece he entered in the art show several weeks ago. He calls it "Colorful Owl" and it is done in pastels. 

One funny story from art is once all his pastels spilled and I was helping him pick them up. He said, "Mom you have to keep all the cool colors together." To which I replied, "How am I supposed to know what colors you think are cool?" James--"Like some are cool and some are warm."

We had a Pi Party the other day with Taylor's co-workers. Taylor has a post doc in his lab from China, Jong, who had his mother and wife in town visiting. They came to the party and Jong spent a lot of time translating for his mother and me. While we were talking she asked, "Does someone come to the house to help you w the kids?" To which I replied "No."

"In China we cannot do this", she said. "We have grandmas and aunts and mothers and mother in laws. We cannot take care of the children alone."  *pause*  "Who takes care of you?"

Good question. Haha. Multiple generations living together or near one another has some advantages. And I'm really missing out on all the free babysitting my younger sisters owe me.

Matthias' Tooth

Matthias lost his first tooth!! He is super excited. I still get queasy when Taylor pulls them out. But he looks so cute and grown up with a little hole in his mouth. The one next to it is about to go also so then he'll have a great gap there!

Garden-Spring 2013

Our garden this year is going to be spectacular we hope. The kids have been able to help a lot this year with getting the ground ready and planting.  We already have most all out tomatoes out and some peppers, peas, and beans. Hoping to get the rest in through out this next week when we find a chance. The weather should be sunny and 70s every day and it's spring break for the boys so we should have lots of time to hang out in the yard this week. I'm so happy it's finally going to be above 70...those 50 and 60 temps were chilling me. =]

Hyrum Maxwell Bryan

Hyrum in his "jumpy toy". He likes to bounce in this thing...as long as all 4 of us are all looking at him and cooing over him. =] He just loves having attention and someone to play with. Can't believe he is already 4 months old. This little boy is really giving us a brush up on all we had forgotten about babies...mainly they are A LOT of work. He is not a great sleeper, but will have a good night here and there and then we all rejoice. He just moved to Hannah's room and we have high hopes that he will start to improve.

His 4 months stats are:

15 lbs 8 oz
25.5 inches

Hyrum is pretty much solid muscle, he has chubby cheeks, but the rest of him is just tough. He is a really cutie when he is happy and loves that wide open mouth baby smile. When he wakes up in the morning or from a nap not screaming (which isn't often) he will talk to himself and give you a big smile when you pick him up. He loves all the kids and wants to be a part of the craziness.

Hyrum just started eating solids about a week ago and while he seemed fairly indifferent to rice cereal he was really excited about the sweet potatoes I gave him a few days ago. He loves to suck on his bib while I'm feeding him so he's generally a giant mess by the time he's through.

Hyrum loves going places...he likes to ride in his car seat, he loves being outside. One thing a love about Hyrum is he loves holding my hand. Especially when he is trying to sleep he likes to grab my fingers and hold my hand against his chest. It's super cute but wish he was better at sleeping alone.

Shingle People

Last Monday we had a giant wind storm that blew everything everywhere. We lost a lot of shingles off our roof and they blew all over the yard. Matthias and Hannah collected a bunch and used rocks to scrap them into shapes for these shingle people. Pretty cute and creative!