rees genre

It was a happy coincidence that my mom’s birthday happened to be near Easter weekend. We started our trip with a visit to Temple Square. Mom gave us a tour of the Church History Museum where she volunteers as a docent and we saw the International Art Competition at the Conference Center. On Saturday the boys enjoyed the Fruit Heights City Easter egg hunt, a party with my cousins, and another hunt at the house. The Easter Bunny arrived after church the next day and left his famous trail of M&Ms for the boys to follow. They were happy to find a full basket at the end of the trail! Chris and I were honored to make Easter dinner on Sunday. We went with a Mediterranean theme and served roast lamb with tzatziti sauce, pitas and hummus, souvlaki, roast pears, and a salad. Chris did a great job with the meat and everyone enjoyed the meal! We had a great time playing with my family. As soon as we arrived at my parent’s house, Davin started talking about mini golfing with Grandpa. We had a ...

I asked my mom what she wanted for her 50th birthday and she replied: “my grandsons!” I sighed and told her some reason why we wouldn’t be there for her birthday while I giggled inside, knowing that she would get her wish. The trick would be keeping it a secret from Mom; we bought our tickets at Christmas, so we had months to wait for our visit. The list of people “in the know” was very short. The trick to a surprise is that the fewer lies you have to tell, the more believable it will be, and the fewer people lying, the better the surprise. Tiff bought a ticket as well and we choreographed our arrival so that our planes landed within minutes. Dad picked us up from the airport and we went to the Gateway Mall in downtown SLC. Dad told Mom that he had an idea for her birthday and he wanted her to meet him at the mall so that he could show her the gift and take her our to lunch, to which she happily complied. While Dad went to meet Mom at the Verizon store on the other side of the mall, we...

A few weeks ago, I was sitting in our ENT doctor’s lobby, waiting for Rowan to come out of surgery. He was having tubes put in his ears and it was apparent that I was not the only parent that day having the procedure done. I kept listening to other ENTs dressed in scrubs, telling their patient’s parents that the child was fine, “the fluid just oozed out of his ear for a long time, there was a lot of it. He’ll feel much better after this procedure. Your child should wake up soon.” It wasn’t long until my ENT came out of surgery to inform me of Rowan’s condition. “The procedure went well, he should be awake soon.” Probing him for the gory details, I asked: “Was there a lot of fluid?” “No, not too much. The audiologist will be out soon to discuss the results of her exam with you.” He smiled, leaving me feeling concerned that we had just put Rowan through a needless procedure. The audiologist soon followed and asked that I follow her into a smaller consultation room off of the main lobby. ...

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It's 5 am and I wake up to something bumping me in the back. Somehow in my fog I realize it's Davin. "I'm a slither snake, Mom!" he gleefully declares. "Davin, it's too early for snakes. Time for the slither snake to go back to his own bed." By some miracle, Davin obeyed and went back to sleep in his bed, but it was just the beginning to the day. Davin's imaginary world is so vivid and it encompasses everything we do. I'll find him crawling around the floor: "I'm a Doggie-Davin!" or putting his head through a pillow: "I'm a Turtle-Davin!" (He always adds his name to whatever he imagines.) Every day objects take on new uses that are incorporated in his play, such as using napkin rings as hockey pucks and the living room rug as his swimming pool. Life seems to be a swirl of imaginary bliss interrupted by the occasional inconvenience of eating dinner or getting a hair cut. Sometimes he includes me in the play and I al...

So far our March has been a little unpredictable. We started off the month with a lion of a storm. In one day, the storm broke the record for the most rain and the most snow for that day. The next day, the boys awoke to another snow day (they are kind of like holidays here). Chris took the boys sledding in the back yard and they finished off the event with some hot chocolate. Last Sunday, the barometer hit above 80 degrees at our house. We decided to have a cook out on the deck, the first of the season. Chris did a pork loin and I added grilled green beans, grilled sweet potatoes, strawberries and melon with a fruit dip, and a spinach salad with a mandarin orange dressing. We had a great time soaking up the warm sun bug-free (bugs will come later in the season). I thought spring had arrived but this weekend has been nothing but rain and 40 degree temps. I know that it probably sounds a little whiny for all of you who live in more rustic climates but I have had daffodils blooming since...

I decided that it was time to give Rowan his first hair cut. As you can see in the picture below, his hair was constantly in his eyes. After some intense work, here are the results: Okay, so not much of a change. In my defense, it is kind of tricky to cut a wiggly boy's hair. Also, I'm having a hard time wanting to hack into these curls: