Ear aches and oh, yeah, Kate turns 5!

Ammon's ears were hurting this week.  We were very blessed that he mostly slept through the night, but I spent a lot of time holding and worrying about my babe.

I love taking care of sick people (when I feel like I know what I am doing and I am being helpful)!  This picture was on day one, when I was confident in my nurturing abilities!  Note I am already struggling to prop up my eyelids.  A few days later... we won't go there.  But today- 4 days later- he was all the way better!  Whew!

Katie turned 5!

She is so fun and loving, she brings lots of sunshine to our family!

She wanted to eat popsicles and watch fireworks at Grandpa Mark's house for her birthday (she must have some great 4th of July memories!).  Grandpa Mark obliged, and the big and little kids had a great time making lots of noise and smoke with him!

She started tantruming first thing on her birthday.  MAKE MY BED?  Are you serious?   She wouldn't have been surprised if she woke up and we were dancing and playing tambourines and eating ice cream all day, but I explained we would be having her favorite things for dinner, the dessert she requested, presents, and a princess movie, and she was willing to accept the reality of the rest of the day!

 We went to Lake Rogers on her birthday.   I had clear boundaries this time, brought candy to back me up (more importantly- they KNEW I had candy.  I wasn't willing to have a learning experience that day), and we had NO mud escapades...

This monkey bar Noah is swinging on is the BEST!  You run and it lifts you up in the air (a little bit if you are tall, a LOT if you are little!) and the other side lowers down toward the ground so you can run along and then get lifted up again.  It is an excellent arm work-out!

Mark and I had a great time playing king-of-the-mountain on a bouncy triangle there.

Other highlights of this week:

 Sarah discovered my calligraphy pens and enjoyed exploring that art.

Mark practiced magic tricks.  He did a great job on the magic, but I was even more impressed with his resilience.  He didn't get discouraged when he messed up, even if Sarah was giving him a rough time.  He just kept practicing.

We finished White Fang and are reading Heidi.

I went on a hike in the woods, and the kids were concerned I might get lost, so Nathan went along as my guide.  He was quite the gentleman and host!  He brought a long stick so he could point out where NOT to step- he pointed out that wherever there was a fallen tree, there would be a pit, because that is where its roots used to be.  He showed me the best spots to cross the creek at, and letters that had been carved into an old tree a long time ago.  He pointed out trees that were rotting, that he thought were turning into petrified wood.  We saw a cocoon-shaped wasps nest, and looked at crystals embedded in the roots of an old tree tipped over.  I pointed out a purple one, and he has praised me several times for my rock finding skills!  I don’t mind saying- he is a fantastic young man!  He was very protective and kind to me.

The kids favorite part of the week- John put new speakers and MP3s in their rooms (he found inexpensive ones with good reviews)!  Now they can listen to 'audiobooks'  (John is trying to train me to quit saying 'books on tape'!) in style.   John enjoyed setting it up for them, and they were thrilled.

Talent show, mud, and a happy dance.

I don't have any pictures this week, because the camera battery died and I kept forgetting to ask John to re-charge it (I am so glad I have him!  Not only does he earn all the money, pay all the bills, do all the grocery shopping - he also rescues me from our gadgets!).

We had a talent show at our house for the homeschool group.  I had spent the morning the day before making chocolate chip cookies to serve, much to the kids delight.  Mark and Sarah did a skit, Matty told jokes, Elijah did taekwondo, Kate told a poem, Ethan showed off his rock collection, Liam showed a video of how he could hang from the pull-up bar, his little sister had cute scripture-poems memorized (she said to me, with the cutest baby-voice "I used to be a baby, until last week."  !).  We also had various, spontaneous dances from Joan "My turn!"  and turning of summersaults from little kids.   Nathan had made a large cube encrusted with jewels in the backyard the day before ("It's arts and crafts, mom!").  He got covered with our lovely orange clay.

I played the opening song.  This was a big deal for me, because I usually get very nervous and mess up when people are listening, especially singing along, but I have been practicing for my family.  So, I didn't mess up, but I did chicken out and stop after one verse!

Mark has been helping A LOT around the house lately, and it has been fantastic!  He keeps Joan busy, switches out the laundry and puts it away, loads and unloads dishes, sweeps, cuts veggies (not his favorite).  Not all of those things on the same day, but pretty much whatever I need him to do, he has been an extra pair of hands!  He has also been cheerful and great company, although he does enjoy debating when he gets the chance!

Instead of being satisfied and resting on my laurels, I am fascinating about how clean and gorgeous our house could be....

We went to a play ground next to a lake yesterday.  The weather was GORGEOUS, and it was exhilarating to stand on the pier.  The kids were thrilled with the playground, it had a spinning monkey bar.

Nathan was fascinated with the 'beach'.  There were clams there.  John and I decided they could only go on the beach if escorted by an adult, but this just whetted his appetite (he found several clams).

John took the girls down the pier one more time, and Nathan took a 'short cut' across the beach and got stuck in very gooey mud.  I stopped swinging Ammon and took him to go and stand with Joan on the pier so John could pull Nathan out.

I got a great view of John leaping deep into mud, yelping and leaping again.  He thought it was going to be a slow sink and he could leap across the top.  John and Nathan both had mud up to their calves, but this must not have been a new thing at this pier as there was a convenient washing station...

Noah got to talk to Caitlyn on the phone the other day.  When he was done, he did not hang up, but just walked with the phone swinging in his hand.  John instructed him to push the off button when he was done, and he did and said "I pushed the off button!"  and did an energetic happy dance.   When I am not feeling satisfied with what I am getting done, John has said to me "Remember Noah pushing the off button?"

Fun in January

Mark LOVES to read, especially adventurous books. 

He likes to make up his own adventure stories, as well as jokes and riddles.

He also spent many hours working on Saturday building a TMBG car out of cardboard.

Sarah loves to sew!  She has wanted to get at my sewing machine for a long time!  I required that she finish her knitting project first (mitten strings on a mushroom loom- she was super excited to do that until she got into it and figured out knitting is very repetitive.  Mark helped her finish a bit.)

I had to re-learn how to use the sewing machine myself (nasty creatures), and show her how to do it, and then let her go.  She came to me several times saying she had broken it, but was just having issues with not holding onto the threads when she first started.  THEN she said she had REALLY broken it, and I did not take her seriously, and sat down to do some sewing myself (we are making doll diapers for her friend), and ended up wanting to swear.   It seemed that EVERYTHING was doing something different than what it was supposed to.  The foot fell off (figured that out), there was some weird thread in the bobbin area (got that out with tweasers and lots of maneuvering), and then the knobs were turned to things that were making it too loose or something, and I had to figure that out.   SIGH!  And then my time for sewing was up.

But now, with a few stipulations (don't touch THIS or THIS or THIS unless you ask me) she can use the sewing machine by herself!

That lovely organized sewing kit is her work ( a gift from my mom. The sewing machine was, also.).  With me, it was all jumbled up.  Everytime she uses it, she puts it into gorgeous order.

Joan is growing up!  She is anxious for some things to do that feel BIG.  She enjoyed this activity (filling the pepper grinder).  

I said to Joan, as I swung her around cradled in my arms- “Are you my baby?  Are you my big girl?”  She said “I NOT a baby.  I NOT a big girl.  I LIKE my diaper.”    Hey, sister!  I wasn't even trying to go there!

 I came downstairs in my long silky nightgown yesterday.  It is a frumpy grandma type nightgown, but Joan was impressed and insisted that I twirl and "Sing.  SING!"  I scooped her up and complied.

Joan has a pair of frog boots that she loves.  She likes to wear them everywhere.  This Sunday, Kate plead on bended knee that she would wear her sparkly diamond dress shoes.  Joan replied  "No, thanks.  I like my boots."

John and Nathan on a campfire date.

Mark and Sarah built their own campfire and spit, even punctured holes in a food storage can (with permission) to dangle over it.

John made pool noodle swords for the boys.  We have enjoyed SPECTACULAR weather this winter, off and on  (note the bare feet).

This is what the boys spend most of their free time doing.  They have invented various baseball time games with names like "Phoenix ball".  But most of it is down and dirty sword fighting.  Nathan gets the brunt of Mark's energy, comes and tattles, then runs right back into the fray to pay Mark back.  I have fought with them, and they are getting really good!  They 'cut' my arms off before I can do anything.

Ammon was in heaven here- his fav toys AND the stairs.   We sing songs every morning in devotional while John plays the piano.  Ammon likes to 'sing' and play the piano.

Sarah peels a lot of carrots.  This isn't fun for her, but it is fun for me!  She doesn't mind it as much when she gets to listen to books on tape.  She likes to listen to conference (!!), John Bytheway, hymns, the Book of Mormon, and plenty of classic fiction.  

She asked me to braid her hair like Laura Ingalls, one of her favorite books.

 John loves me A LOT!  He took me and Mark and Sarah contra dancing in Chapel Hill this Saturday.  In his words "I had a lot more fun than I thought I would, dancing with other guys."  Life is sweet with John!

It was a family dance- there were a lot of little kids and their parents.  We had a lot of fun, but it was a bit awkward since the partners were not boy-girl.  It was fine swinging around the circle with little kids, but with other adults?  Smile...don't smile TOO much...???  I hope we will get to go to a grown- up dance sometime, and then John won't get cooties.  :)

Nativities

Our family got to be in two nativities this year.

The first was at the Stake Center. They had hundreds of little and big nativities on display, a "Life of Christ"room, and musicians and singers. John's favorite was when we were told about various paintings of Christ, especially one painted by a man who was imprisoned. The kids actually listened very well. We got to see people play the bells. Probably the kids favorite nativity was one made out of chocolate.

And we got to be in the live nativity!

Jocie's parents did their traditional nativity on Christmas Eve. Grandma Cici set up the scene gorgeously.

Grandpa Mark keeping the babies busy by blowing raspberries on their cheeks while everyone else was getting ready.

Angel and Baby Jesus.

Mary and Baby Jesus

(Ammon is usually a calm baby, but after 5 minutes of being stuck in a basket with his feet up in the air, in the dark, being hovered over by costumed children, he decided he had enough, and his substitute was brought in.)

And, of course, the wise men beating each other up.

Fall Leaves and OTHER Cute Kids

Ammon gets his own post for cuteness, but I will lump everybody else into one!

John organized all of the kids into a big leaf-raking project. They worked together very well, and the yard looked fabulously clean!

The orange hats? It is hunting season here, and orange is the IN color if you would like to go OUT side at our house! I have only seen a hunter in our woods once, but once was enough. We did have hunting dogs run through our neighborhood. They had antenna's on and numbers spray painted on their sides. I guess they lost track of the deer they were looking for, but thought John putting up Christmas lights and kids running around the yard were interesting.

Is it Summer Yet?

Mark and Sarah made earrings and necklaces out of bark they peeled off of a (dead) tree. Mark was hoping to sell them at the Village of Yesteryear at the fair. He gave some to his aunts for their birthday.

Kate loves to help cook and clean!

Sarah and Kate and I went to the Nutcracker with the homeschool group, thanks to Kim (and CiCi for watching the other kids!). We loved the dancing truffles and the gingerbread kids.

Nathan needed his two front teeth this Christmas! (I am pretending to sleep so John won't take my picture. I have tried protesting when he takes my picture, but those don't turn out very well!)

Nathan enjoyed making 'diamonds' in our backyard (granite?).

Does John count as a cute kid? He was very happy to get the propane tank hooked up and the fireplace turned on, in case we get snowed in.

Ammon is Cute

He is leaning forward with the hope he will get to grab the dangling camera cord.

This 'photo shoot' was several weeks ago (late Nov 2011), and several things have changed since then! He needed a boppy behind him in case he would tip back and smack his head, and now his favorite past time is pulling up to standing on the furniture (and squealing and bouncing up and down with glee, and THEN falling over!)

He still likes to chew on his tooth brush, but doesn't spend lots of time examining it's finer qualities.

He also used to be a chubby vampire:

But now his top two teeth have come in. I think he is YUMMY! Our family photos are our screen savers, and when one of his photos comes up, my heart flutters.

Bah, Humbug!

Cover your ears, I mean eyes, if you love piles of presents for kids on Christmas. We want our kids to have good memories, but are anti-STUFF, so we had a bit of angst. I thought about what my favorite memories were about Christmas, and it was the cozy feeling of looking at Christmas trees and Christmas lights, and doing secret service for other people. We planned and made those things part of our holidays, but still wanted to do something more that would leave good memories for our kids.

So, this is what we (actually, John) did:

A scavenger hunt with clues all over the house (they were racing as fast as they could to beat the other kids to the clues)

Along the way, they found an envelope for each child, with an illustrated letter from John describing a fun 'Daddy date' he had planned for them (Movie night for Noah, airsoft gun shooting for Mark, painting lessons for Sarah, campfire cooking for Nathan, Yogurt Mountain for Kate). He planned at least 2 dates for each kid, and has done about half of them so far.

Then we had a great family activity- we went to Sweet Spoons-

HEAVEN, I'M IN HEAVEN..........

Our best friend, Kyleigh, got to come....

Joan said "COLD" but kept on eating (they have one non-dairy flavor, whew!).

Don't even THINK about it. You aren't THAT cute!

And then we went to Blue Jay point, the kids favorite park. They love the layout of the park, it is apparently ideal for playing freeze tag. Nathan made it all the way across the monkey bars, and Katie made a "new best friend!" that she makes any time we go anywhere. (She protested as we were leaving, because she needed to find out her new best friend's name.)

When we pulled up, Joan said "Look like fun! Whoohoo! Let's go!"

And Ammon liked it, too.