Brian's Thunderbird Award

Brian and I had a fun date last night.  We went to the Thunderbird Awards 2012 Ceremony.  We'd never even heard about them until Brian was nominated for an award.  SUU holds this "Oscar Night" each year, recognizing students, professors, and staff who have excelled in things like campus involvment and academic achievement.  We don't know who nominated Brian, he just got an email asking him to fill out some paperwork, and was later asked to come in for an interview.  He was chosen as a finalist, so we got an invitation to the awards night.

We got a babysitter, dressed up, went to the reception beforehand, and then to the Awards ceremony.   John Schmidt and Steve Nelson (New Age pianist and cellist) performed in between several of the awards.  They were amazing!  To top our evening off, Brian won the R. Kenneth Benson Award! It was fun to see him recognized for some of his hard work.

Here's what the award is all about:
"Recipients of the R. Kenneth Benson award have excelled academically, maintaining a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.60.  They have also shown outstanding leadership ability and dedicated themselves to serving the university and the community.  This is the most prestigious and distinguished award given to a male student at Southern Utah University."

I'm so proud of you, Brian!

Because she let's me practice...

Most of my pictures have been of Chandra lately. Chandra is just a lot more patient (or oblivious) to me practicing on her. Bracken gets bored or really crazy. So while Bracken napped yesterday, Chandra and I played...and I took pictures.

Bathtime!

Chandra loves the bath. When she hears the word "bath," she straightens her body so she'll slide out of my arms to the ground, then takes off like a rocket for the tub. She gets so frustrated that I make her wait to get her clothes off before climbing in, and tries with all her might to pull herself over the edge into the tub. She loves when I leave the water running a little so she can play with it, but she's also given herself a scare when she pulled up the shower lever while the water was on. She loves to drink the water like a puppy, or with a scoop. She's usually pretty sad when I pull her out, but getting blowdried helps to cheer her back up.

A Science Experiment

Bracken and I got the food coloring out the other day to have some fun...and learn to combine the primary colors to make new colors in the process. Bracken had so much fun he's been asking to do another "Skience Esperiment" every day since then.

So today we got out Brian's lab goggles and set to work. We used baking soda, vinegar and food coloring (of course). I asked Bracken what he thought would happen when we put the vinegar in. "I think it will make a mess, because you got a LOT of washcloths." He was so excited about the results, we had to repeat the experiment six times until we almost ran out of vinegar. What a fun morning!

Hopscotch

The kiddos have loved playing outside when we get some sporadic warm weather. We got the sidewalk chalk out the other day and stayed outside for hours. Chandra kept trying to eat the chalk, and Bracken loved playing hopscotch and drawing letters. ("Look Mom! I drew a D!") It just feels good to be in the warm sunshine. Boy are we ready for Summer!

Favorite Activity

Bracken's favorite activity is acting out the scriptures. Sometimes for FHE Brian will put on a play of a scripture story with all of Bracken's animals. Last week it was the Tower of Babel. Bracken thought it was hilarious when his lion started speaking in German, his giraffe in Chinese, and his zebra in who-know's-what language. They built a tower of books and Bracken got to knock it over at the end of the lesson.

Here are some of his other favorite stories to act out:

Samuel the Lamanite

Alma and Amulek

The "Nephi Game"

Bracken is Nephi, I'm Sariah, and Chandra is Jacob (I get in big trouble if I slip and call her Jacob. "No Mom! His name is Jacob, stop calling my little brother Chandra!") This game usually involves walking around in the desert (our living room), building tents (piles of couch cushions, blankets, and every pillow in the house), going hunting for mountain goats with bows and arrows, breaking our bows, building new ones, and cooking beans. I have no idea how cooking beans became a part of the Nephi story, but he wants to mix beans, water, salt, and pepper almost every day. We have been eating A LOT of beans.