December 2021

 We went to see the lights at Scentsy Commons.

It snowed a few times.

Ambrose thought that he wanted to be an actor, so I signed him up for an acting class. After the first couple of classes, he decided that it was "way too cringey." The scowl in this photo on his last day of class pretty much sums up his feelings.

Of the two Christmas pictures that I took, this one was the least blurry.

Jace's family came to visit.

Ambrose Quotes

I just found a list of Ambrose's recent(ish) quotes and figured I should put them on here before they get lost.

#1) After looking at a grocery store ad, Ambrose asked, "What is evaporated milk? Is it just an empty can?"

#2) After sniffing Gideon's armpit: "Smells like puberty."

#3) Ambrose: "I wonder why there's an age limit on dating?"

      Me: "Just so that you're old enough and mature enough."

      Ambrose, in a tone of complete understanding: "Oh, so you don't ask weird questions like, 'Do you fart?' 'Do you eat bologna?' 'Do you eat fresh fried organs?' "

Fall 2021

We went to the BYU Spectacular and homecoming football game in honor of Grandpa Stott's birthday.

We carved pumpkins and Silas and Ambrose dressed up as... 🤷

And here are some pictures that we took on a cool foggy morning.

Spring/Summer 2021 Catch-Up

Ambrose had eyes in the back of his head a couple of times this spring and summer.

Silas turned 11 and got this electric scooter from Peter.

The boys caught some bull frogs at Hyatt Hidden Lakes Reserve.

We traveled back and forth to Emmett a lot. We stopped one evening to take a sunset picture overlooking Emmett.

We had a picnic and played at Robie Creek with family.

The boys spent a month with Peter. I picked them up and we went to Clay's house in Wyoming. On the way back from Wyoming, we stopped in Soda Springs where the boys climbed trees, played at a fun park, and tried water from the naturally-carbonated spring (nasty).

The Eagars came to visit us and we bowled, went on a hike, played at Eagle Island, and made spaghetti-noodle structures with them.

We went bowling several more times. The best part of bowling is watching Ambrose bowl. As Gideon put it, Ambrose always bows to the bowling gods before he bowls.

Gideon officially became a teenager.

The boys helped me rip up some bad landscaping.

We got to watch a chick hatch.

Today Gideon started school! Ambrose and Silas start on Thursday.

Most of the Stott family was able to get together for my parent's 44th anniversary. These pictures were taken the next day on April 30th.

The last picture I took of my dad was this one on May 14th. Ambrose was trying to massage his head to make him feel better.

He passed away this Wednesday, May 19th at 4:30 in the morning. Here is his obituary.

Ambrose at the Rollerdrome on Monday:

 Fort building on a rainy Saturday:

I got a good laugh out of what Silas chose to pack for last weekend's trip to Provo. In addition to his clothes, Silas packed a sewing kit, tape measure, ruler, notebook, car, and my personal favorite--a pamphlet of the Constitution.

I made lamb shank a little while ago and apparently Silas liked it so much that he got a straw and tried to suck the marrow out of the bone.

We had a lovely Easter last Sunday. The boys played Coup, had an Easter egg hunt, ate great food, and enjoyed having Jace's family around.

This week Gideon got to dissect a frog during his science class. Apparently he did an amazing job of it. His science teacher (his aunt Kodie) is pretty sure that he should grow up to be a surgeon now.

Yesterday Gideon woke up and immediately started doing one of his chores. As he worked, he told me: "Mom, I just thought up a philosophy: maybe I can do hard things sometimes." About thirty seconds later he said, "Mom, I thought up another philosophy: I'm better at doing easy things."

Gideon the Entrepreneur

A couple of weeks ago, Gideon came with me to WinCo so that he could buy candy from the bulk bins to sell. Not only did he make this adorable box to try to hawk his wares, but he also tried to convince some of his friends to sell candy for him at the middle school. He proposed a deal with them where he would pay them in candy and they would bring him the money from their sales. Thankfully they rejected this offer. Oh Gideon...😂

First, the sequel to my last blog post...we found and captured the hamster and returned it to the pet store. Hallelujah!

Last weekend we got a really good snow storm and the boys had so so much fun sledding, building snow forts, and shoveling the driveway and sidewalk.