Fire Trucks and Cubelets

Dear Emily,
My new friends are Violet and Leah and Paige and Mia and Finely and Sammy. And I think that's it. And I went on a field trip to the fire station. At the fire station there were cool things. And we saw a giant ladder on top of the fire truck. And we watched a movie about fires and smoke. And we saw some cool fire things that they use. We saw a giant hose and people got to try one of those things that they use to see your heart.

We also went to a park. At the park we played games and there was a cool spinning thing. It was crowded.
On Daddy's birthday we got some cool blocks that were magnetic and they each could do different things. Like, dark dark blue is a battery.
I hope you are having a fun time.
Love,
Rebecca

***

Dear Emily,
How are you doing? I'm doing good. I been painting, playing Starfall. I've been doing preschool. Starfall. Starfall. Painting. My cousins came over. I played Harry Potter. I been painting. I've been watching Trollhunter. It's scary. I like it. We watched it over and over and over again.

Starfall. Starfall. I got my daddy an Incredibles shirt and me an Incredibles shirt and Becca an Incredibles shirt. My shirt is red and black and red and black and yellow. Grandma and Grandpa were here. My daddy is incredible. Me and Becca and Daddy were wearing Incredibles shirts.

I played Koala's with Becca. And we saw axolotls. They were at the pet store. They were cute and funny.

Pink is all over the house. Purple is all over the house too. Black's all over the house too and red's all over too and yellow's all over the house. I love you so much! You're Selfie and I'm Selfie. Emily's not a princess, I'm not a princess. I'm a pirate! Arrrgh! I'm a girl. A girl pirate!
And Idaho (Uncle Joe) came. This week we watched Trollhunters.
Love,
Marie

***

Daniel's section.
On my dad's birthday my dad got an Incredibles shirt, candy, a controller, and some Cubelets. So yes, you can buy them. Here is a video of a Cubelets creation I made:

For scouts we played kickball and they even let Rebecca play! On Tuesday we had parent teacher conference, and they said I was doing well.
Love,
Daniel

***

(Eric wrote this section for Daniel, but Daniel rejected it and decided to write his own. But I liked it so we decided to keep it in.)
When I grow up I want to be a Gopher. This is what I want to look like:

I want to dig in the ground and eat worms and berries and clowns.
Then I want to meet a nice platypus and we can get married:

Our kids would look like this:

I think my favorite thing to do with my Gopher/Platypus family will be going on rides on our pet Narwhal

September 2018

Hi Emily,

How are things? We've had fun reading your blog and Daniel suggested we make a blog for you! 

Dear Emily,

I love kindergarten. My teacher's name is Ms. Boyd. She's so nice. I like school and it is fun.

Rebecca loves school 

I ate a chocolate covered cricket! I didn't like it that much. 

Rebecca eating a chocolate cricket

And I also held two tarantulas! I wish I could hold more tarantulas. It felt kind of ticklish but I still liked it. I also lost my left top middle tooth.

Rebecca holds a tarantula

I love you. I wish I could wish I could see you soon. I hope you're having a fun time.

Love,

Rebecca

Dear Emily,

I'm in preschool. Mommy's my teacher and Julie. We mixed paint.  I like preschool. 

Marie and Carter painting

We're writing letters to you. I went to the spider festival. I maked a web. I painted with markers. I held a spider. It was Jumpy. It was cute. I want to hold another spider. I DID hold another one. 

Marie holding a jumping spider

I didn't want to hold a tarantula. It was too big. Daddy's here. I like yellow capes. Daniel broke his arm. I want to tell you "I love you." I played hide-and-go-seek and I was sad Daniel hided in the same place. I want a 'Punzel dress.

Love,

Marie

What Daniel has been up to:

About two weeks ago we went to Lagoon. It was fun, but on one of the rides I would have thrown up if I had food inside me.

Daniel, Rebecca and Marie riding Bluey the Whale ride at lagoon

In school I got this cool Indian vase and we played this game where you're trying to say a pinyin sound faster than the other person. I defeated 8 people on the other team, until the teacher told me to sit down so someone else could have a turn.

The Indian vase

On sept 13, 2018 I had a boat race. My boat looked the coolest, but it kept turning.

Daniel holds his boat up

On sept 17, 2018 we went to Park City to see an arachnid show. Where there were these cool robot blocks called Cubelets. Later we went to a cool street that looked like an old European street.

Daniel made a cool creation with Cubelets.

The kids by a bookstore at the entrance to the cool street

We had a fun time.

Love,

Daniel

Our Picky Little Eater

Daniel loves reading recipe books with me.  Especially the one that is full of recipes for kids.  We flip through it and pretend we’re eating food from the pictures, but Daniel is a VERY picky eater (just like his dad was) and he won’t even PRETEND to eat dishes that look like dinner food…with one exception.  For days now he’s been begging me for Sloppy Joe Cars and today he got his wish.  He was so excited he talked about it all day.  He even helped me make it! 

But when the final product was on his plate he refused to eat it.  He would even take a bite when we bribed him with the Oreo tires!  We made him eat one bite and he managed to swallow with tears streaming down his face but wouldn’t eat any more. 

I told him it made mommy sad that he wouldn’t eat his special food and he left dejectedly to play in the corner with his cars.  As we finished our dinner we could hear him talking to himself about “Sloppy Joe Car” and “don’t like it” and “sad mommy.” 

A few minutes later he came up to me and, with all the sweet sincerity he could muster said, “Daniel… love… Sloppy Joes.”  Then he gave me a big hug which melted my heart.

“Oh good, I’m glad you liked it, that makes mommy happy.”  He was SO pleased with himself for making mommy feel better. 

Of course, when I asked if he wanted some more, he said “All done! All done!” as quickly as he could.  He’s so much trouble, but he sure is cute about it.

Daniel is an Artistic Genius (at least his mom thinks so)

Daniel drew this picture a couple of days ago and said it was a Brachiosaurus.  Pretty good huh?  I colored it in for him in Photoshop so he could see his creation.

Parts of it probably worked out only by chance, but still, I was proud of my boy.  He’s barely two after all!

A Non-traditional Valentine’s Day

Once there was a brave and handsome man,

Who loved a girl,

Who loved flowers,

…but not as much as she loved Legos.  So when Valentine’s Day came, this wonderful man told his lady of his everlasting love,

and gave her an AWESOME Lego set because he knew it would make her happy.  It did, and it made their son Daniel happy too.

This is what it looks like:

They had fun building it together and playing with Lego games with Daniel. What a great Valentine’s Day!

Daniel’s favorite character is the cow.  He always likes to put the cow to bed in the upstairs room.  He doesn’t think much of the notion that cows shouldn’t be allowed inside.

It’s a great toy to keep me and Daniel entertained, though I’m not sure how I feel about the horse dropping pieces Lego included as part of the stable…yuck!  I guess they were going for authenticity.  Despite that it’s a fabulous set, and it made a great Valentine’s Day gift.  Eric is the best!

What’s for Dinner?

Yesterday I found out that I have Celiac disease just like my sister Sala.  That means I can no longer eat anything containing gluten; no wheat, no noodles, no pre-made dinners, no fast food, no gravy, no lunch meat, no taco seasoning, no salad dressing, very few candies…it’s amazing how many things contain gluten.  Basically if it’s not fruit, vegetables, or meat and it’s not labeled “gluten free” I can’t eat.

So what are we going to eat for family dinners?  Well…

A while back we took Daniel to the allergist and found out that he was allergic milk and peanuts. He’s so allergic to peanuts that peanut dust on my hands caused him to break out into a huge rash when I touched him. So dairy and peanuts are out.

Eric, as we all know, has a self proclaimed intolerance to vegetables. When eating a bowl of corn, I’m restricted to the opposite side of the room. 

So we’ll either have long distance family dinners or just eat meat and fruit (except blueberries because Daniel is allergic to those to).

We’ll probably starve….

I just hope no one decides to go vegetarian on me!

Happy Birthday Jaron!

For Jaron’s birthday we got the whole family together and had them act in a little adventure RPG we made.  Everyone’s in there (minus a few pets), see if you can find yourself!  Happy Birthday Jaron!

Instructions on how to install the game:

1. Save the following file to your computer: http://dl.degica.com/trial/enterbrain/xp/xp_rtp104e.exe
2. Double click on “xp_rtp104e.exe” and step through the install process. (This creates some necessary support files to run the game)
3. Save the following file to your computer: http://etedj.com/rpg/JaronsQuest.exe 
4. Double click on “JaronsQuest.exe”
5. Extract the game to somewhere on your computer (Like your desktop)
6. Open the Folder that it creates (It should be called “JaronsQuest”)
7. Double-click on “Game.exe” to play the game

Hopefully that isn’t too tricky! It is almost a quest in and of itself!

(Note: We updated the game since we first posted it. It is better now )

		In-Game Screenshots VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL