Photo a Day: Somewhere You Went

Monday afternoon was HOT. I don't know if I've ever said that about an Idaho spring before. So I called Pete and suggested we get some KFC and have a picnic at the park for Family Home Evening.

But Monday evening was a little windy, and started to get overcast quickly. We stuck with our plan and got some food and went to the park. After eating, my kids just played and played and played. It got windier, and colder, and even rained on us a bit. But my kids didn't seem to mind. They continued to play in the dirt/mud, slid down the slides and got wet butts, and ran up and down the steep hill in that park.

Not pictured: Brock, because he and Pete left to get some ice cream. Which we still haven't eaten. For some reason I always forget about having ice cream in our freezer.

Photo a Day: Something you Found

I'm kind of cheating today on my photo a day thingy, because I'm feeling "blech" - achy and tired. I'm REALLY hoping that this doesn't turn into what my husband just got over. *sigh*

Anyway, for "something you found", I'm going with pics of the kids doing the Easter egg hunt that my mom does every year. Which is totally awesome, because she stuffs 'em and hides 'em, and because she does such a great job I don't have to do a hunt of my own.

Jake, the spazzy picture poser, just like his mom

sweet sweet Brock

Troy the excited hunter

Ivy, happy with just a few eggs

Photo a Day: Green/Hair/Funny

Okay, I need to preface this with telling you that I think that what we did was funny. Probably this was more dorky than funny, but I'm a dork, so there you go.

My cute little nephew loves a lot of girl things, like painted nails, My Little Pony, etc. Part of the girl things he loves includes long hair. Here he is, in the middle of my two kids:

Which, I must point out, he's Ivy's age, but I think he's taller than Troy. My sister makes really tall kids. (Also, Jakob in the background is a spaz and a half.)

Anyway, Micah doesn't have long hair. In fact, he has short, platinum blond hair that's so, so cute. So to make up for it, he wears "hair" around, which ends up being an old T-shirt. Lately it's been a green tank top that I think belongs to his older brother.

So Micah's "hair" got left at my house. We decided to take ransom pictures of the hair for my sister for our Family Home Evening. You know, instead of having an actual lesson about love and kindness or something. So here we are, modeling the "hair".

Jakob's spazzy model face:

I was going for a picture that was more like the shirt had its hands up, but this is what we got instead:

Again, I was going for a beard for Pete, but it was too small. So it's like a bank robber instead:

I just realized that none of my ideas turned out as planned. I have vision, but not execution. I was going for three-headed monster, but again they didn't all fit quite right:

 I can wear little boy clothes!

 A skirt for Ivy:

 And a kangaroo diaper:

We sent these pictures to my sister, along with a ransom note about bringing us Black Dutch Fudge for its safe return, but then we ended up going over there and taking it to them right afterwards.

We would make crappy kidnappers.

Photo a Day: Bedside

Sideways on her bed:

This is totally weird, because when I first got up and peeked in Ivy's room, she was under the covers and lying the right way. I took this picture about 20 minutes later, yet she was (and is) still asleep. Hm.

And this was Jakob's bed last night, apparently:

We've been passing this awesome fever thing around, that lasts for about 4 days. Troy had it before spring break, Brock had it for the last 4 days (I sent him to school today because he wasn't feverish - hopefully he's doing okay), and Jakob started in on it yesterday.

I asked him this morning when he came upstairs why he was asleep in the bathroom. He said, "I wanted to be close to the toilet just in case I had to barf." Poor kid. Which, he totally barfed right after getting medicine. Nice.

One of these days we'll be all better.

Jake's Baptism

Jakob got baptized over Labor Day weekend.  It was so awesome!

We had many family members come for the event: 3 of Pete's brothers (Mike, Mark, and Richard) and their families, Pete's parents, my parents, and my sister Lexi and her hubby Chris.

The only baptisms that I have attended were where just one person was getting baptized.  In our stake, because there are so many young families, they baptize all the kids that turned 8 that month in one big session.  There were 6 kids that were baptized the same day as Jakob.

Because of that, our stake assigns each ward one month to be in charge of the talks and musical numbers.  So...we just had to show up, and that's it.  Easy peasy.

There was a great talk given, and a musical number: "I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus".  Then, it was time for the baptism.

It kind of felt like we were riding a train.  First stop: the chapel for the talk, etc.  Second stop: the font for the baptism.  Third stop: a different room for the confirmation.  Pete preformed both the baptism and confirmation, and he did great.  He was really quiet as he was giving the blessing to Jakob - it's because he was trying not to let his voice crack from emotion.  *sniff* So cute!  What a great dad.

Jakob was so cute.  When walking into the chapel, he had a big old grin on his face.  He was just so very handsome when he came out after being baptized and was in his vest and church pants.

After the baptism was over, we had a lunch at our house - sandwiches, and brownies, and salad, and cool caramel dessert (which I need to get that recipe from my mom-it's DELICIOUS), and jello, and chips.... SOOO yummy.

Then we went to the fair.  When we got there, it was almost dinner time.  So we walked around a little bit and saw a few of the animals.  Then we got dinner.  And then Pete's two brothers and their families had to head back down to Utah, so they left.  I felt bad that we didn't get to spend more time at the fair seeing the different things, but oh well.

And this is the one picture I got from the fair.  It's not even very good-it's of everyone's torsos.  Sheesh.  The nice lady on the left let us pet her sheep.  It was a weird species-it has hair instead of wool.  Weird.  So they don't clip it - it sheds in the spring instead.

(Also part of the crappy picture-taking by Nat - the pic of Pete and Jake is all that I got from the baptism.  Had I been thinking 4th-dimensionally, I would have gotten pictures of everyone there, and of our family all dressed up...Doh!)

One thing I did do, however, was ask family members to write a little note to Jakob for his baptism.  My request rendered a few responses.  My plan is to put the letters into a little booklet about his baptism that he can have to help him remember his baptism day.

I hope people don't mind, but I want to share snippets from each of the letters.

From Lex: Your silly dances, faces, and poses can always make me smile.  And you are also a sweetheart!

From Howard: The very first person in my line was named Andrew; he was my great-grandfather.  He joined the Church in Denmark in 1861....There are many generations on both sides of the veil that are there to help you as you progress in your life.

From Marianne: Jakob, we love you and are grateful that you have made the decision to be baptized.

From Kar: You are such a great kid.  One of the things I love best about you is your desire to make good choices.  You always strive to be a good boy.

From Jim and Jennifer: We're proud of the good choice that you have made and the good example that you are to your cousins.

From my mom: I am still learning things about the baptismal covenant and about receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, just like you are.  We have to keep learning so that when we make mistakes we will know how and why we repent.

From my dad: Jakob, you are a good boy and a great brother to your brothers and sister.  Always watch out for them...I want you to know that I love you very much and I am so proud to have you as a grandson.

From me: We can hear the Holy Ghost the best when we are doing things like reading our scriptures, saying our prayers, and attending church.  Remember: he uses a still, small voice, like a whisper or a thought or a feeling.  When we have peace inside of ourselves, and take the time to listen, that's when we hear what we need to do.

I asked Jakob how he felt about getting baptized, and he said he was really glad.  I'm glad, too.  What a cutie pie.

Ramble, Ramble, Back to School, Ramble, Ramble

Well, now that school is back in session, I'm almost back into the swing of things...almost.  Here's the rundown on how things have gone thus far:

Jakob

On back to school night, we took Jakob’s school supplies to his class and got a chance to meet his teacher.  She seems really nice.  There’s a girl in his class that he’s buddies with.  She is just a little doll and a half.  She came up to him and said, “Hey, Jakob! Are we going to play at recess?"  Jakob, with a shy little smile, replied, "Yes." She said, "What are we going to play? ....Zombies?!?!?"  And Jake got a huge grin on his face and said, "You KNOW it!"  It was just so cute.  I'm glad he has some friends in his class.

I think he’s doing...okay so far.  He wants to be able to do everything right the very first time he tries something, and if he can’t then he gets frustrated.  We talked about it, and I told him that if he already knew everything, there would be no reason for him to go to school at all.  He really is a smartie pants, though.  He hasn’t had homework so far, which has been nice (for me).

Brock

I got to meet Brock’s teacher the week before school started.  She called parents and had them come in individually with the student and school supplies.  She’s a thinker, that one.  She is also very much on top of things-she didn’t miss a beat in asking me if I could come in to help in the classroom.  I told her I would try-my only hiccup is how Ivy is doing when she is with me.  Sometimes, when I’ve gone to help at the school, Ivy has been great-she just sits there quietly and plays.  Other times, she’s wanting to run up and down the halls.  So we’ll see how this year goes.

The first day of school, Brock lost his lunch box.  I swear it went to the Phantom Zone for a while, and this is why: he forgot to put his lunch box in his room’s basket.  At the end of the day he realized that, and so they went to the lunchroom and found his box, and sent him on his way with it on the bus.  But then his box was exactly like a girl’s box that rides the same bus, only she’s in 3rd grade, and somehow he had her box.  So he came home and was in tears because he lost the box.  We went to the school, to his classroom, to the lunchroom, and called the bus, all to no avail.  The next day, voila!-the lunch box appeared…in Jakob’s class’s basket.  Hm.  Very random.  But we got it back.

Brock loves school.  His homework has taken the most time so far, because he wants to color everything meticulously.  Grr.  I’m like, just scribble, child!  But he is a SUPER artist, and wants everything to look right, so I have to hold my tongue.  He’s getting better and better at reading, but still wants to guess at words.  If I stop him, though, and point at the word that he guessed, he’ll read it the right way.  I think he’s just trying to go fast or something.

Troy

Troy is just so cute.  He’s a dawdler, so I worried about him being on time in the morning to catch the bus.  But he’s done great so far.  The first day of school we were walking in to the front doors with a bunch of bigger kids.  Troy’s eyes got wider and wider.  But once we got to the classroom I think he was okay.  There are a few kids in his class that he knows from church, so I think that helps.  And he plays with his neighbor friend at recess that’s in the other kindergarten class.

This week for homework we had the Mom Scrapbook Project, as I like to call it.  Each of my kids has had this: it’s a packet that asks questions about your child, like their favorite color, a cool trip they have been on, what they are scared of, etc.  (Incidentally, Troy said his favorite trip was “when we went to Wyoming”.  He doesn’t say when we went to Lexi’s wedding, but that’s the only time we’ve been in Wyoming.  So random.)  So you answer the questions, and then you have to find things to show the answers, like pictures, and stickers, and dye cuts, and on and on.  When I did it with Jakob, I think I put a lot more time and effort into doing lots of different…mediums?  Like, stickers, and yarn, and I had him color a whole bunch.  This year, I did almost all pictures, because it’s just that much easier.  We got a few stickers, too, but that’s about it.  Oh, and I had Troy draw a couple of pictures.

Troy is just so eager to learn - he wants to know everything, and how things work.  He’s constantly asking about what words start with what letters, that kind of thing.  The other day he asked Pete to explain how waterfalls work, and ate up every word.

Ivy

I thought about trying to do a little group school thing for Ivy this year.  And then I remembered how much I hated doing the neighborhood preschool for Troy when he was three, so I quickly changed my mind.  So far, she mostly just wants to play with toys while “da brudders” (translation: “the brothers”, which is what she collectively calls Jakob, Brock, and Troy) are at school.  Sometimes she wants to be with me, so she’s at my mercy-she helped me do laundry, and put away dishes, that kind of thing.

Twice a week my mom and I are walking - outside right now while it’s still nice, and then we’ll start mall walking when it gets cold.  So Ivy rides in a stroller with a blanket over her.  She thinks it’s the best thing ever.  Which takes us to…

Nat

Have I been productive? Yes.  Am I busy? YES.  But do I have down time?  Yes. 

During the summer we slept in, and kind of took our time doing things during the day.  It’s amazing how much more one can get done when one gets up and gets moving.  After I get the boys out the door, I’ve been exercising for the first time in YEARS, either walking with my mom like I mentioned, or doing yoga.  I bought this DVD of 20 minute yoga, and so far I really like it.  The dude on it talks about how people go to bed too late, and then get up with a huge to-do list and rush through the day.  His philosophy is to go to bed earlier, and then start the day right with down time, to set the mood for your whole day and get you in a peaceful mindset.

My other morning routine is reading my scriptures.  This has been a wonderful way to start my day.  We read together as a family at night, but it’s just one page.  Reading on my own has been hit and miss, but now it’s part of what I do, and it’s been great.  It does the same thing as the yoga - it gets me in a peaceful mindset to start off my day.

Another great thing about school is the lunches.  I came up with a rotation of sorts for school lunches that I send with the kids.  It’s not fancy, but it helps break up the monotony of a PB&J every day.  I’ve been trying to include healthier sides, like carrots and celery, or little fruit cups.  So, when Troy gets home, I make the same lunch for him, me, and Ivy that I did for the other two.  So I’ve been eating a little better as well.  The other day I was like, Ooooh, celery!  I don’t normally chop up celery for my own eating, but since I had already cut a bunch of sticks it was easy to grab and eat.

After school, I teach piano.  I have 14 students this year.  Every year, before I start teaching, I get really nervous - about if I’m teaching well, if I’ll have enough time to get everything done, that kind of thing.  Last week was my first week, and it went really great.  Well, at least it went great for me – I hope it’s the same story when my students get home.  I really love teaching, and all my students are awesome.

And then at night, of course, I clean at my dad’s office.  Luckily, I’ve been doing that for a couple of months, so that’s really second nature now.  I’m glad things have been adding on little by little or week by week so I didn’t get inundated all at once.

So, weekdays, doing okay.  Weekends, however, are a different ball game, especially Saturdays.  On Saturday, I just want to sleep in, and relax.  But what I NEED to do is grocery shopping, and cleaning at my dad’s, and cleaning my own house with my kids.  I wish my kids were old enough that I could just set them to it, but I know we’d end up at the hospital with bleach in a kid’s eye or something.  So I help them out, which takes longer than if I were to just do it, but they need to learn at some point. 

This last Saturday we were cleaning after dinner and clear up till bedtime, but at least it got done.  So that’s something I need to think about.  I could try fitting one chore into every day of the week (like Monday is dusting day, Tuesday is windexing day, something like that), but I don’t know if that would be better or worse than what I have going on now.  My other thought, and I REALLY need to do this, is go grocery shopping on a different day other than Saturday.  It would be less crowded on a different day, that’s for sure.

Well, I think this post is long enough now, so I’ll be off.  But don’t worry-I’ll be back to ramble another day!

It's Great to be 8!

My Jakob turned 8 earlier this month. He's gotten so big!

It was kind of like a rerun of Troy's birthday: we went to the park, and we ate yellow cake with chocolate frosting that night.  However, when we went to the park, I decided to get my kids up early and go.  PERFECT plan!  No one was there, and it was nice and cool.  This time we got to go on the super big playing area.

We've had a poster hanging up in Jakob's room.  We made it when he was in first grade, when they did a spotlight on him.  I wanted to compare some of his favorites from then to what his favorites are now.  So his favorites from first grade will be listed in green, and his favorites now listed in red.

JAKOB'S FAVORITES:
Favorite holiday:              all of them!                              Halloween
Favorite song:                  DuHast, Billie Jean                 Until Forever
Favorite food:                  ranch chicken taco and pizza   pizza
Favorite color:                 red                                            white
Favorite movie:               Up                                            Transformers
Favorite toy:                    Bakugan                                   Wii and Bakugan
Favorite TV show:          Mythbusters                              Mythbusters
Favorite animal:              cheetah                                      cheetah
Favorite Superhero:        Gooie Man                                Deathacus
Favorite book:                 Junie B. Jones, Horrible Harry Harry Potter series
Favorite person:              my sister Ivy                             Ivy
Favorite school subject:  science                                      gym
Favorite cartoon:            Avatar, The Last Airbender      MAD

A couple of side notes: the superheroes are ones that he has made up.  Clever little guy.  And I have no idea what MAD is, seeing as how we don't have TV.  Also, it's nice to know that he's growing up, but that some things stay the same (favorite animals, food, toys, TV show, person).  Also, both times (in 1st grade and now), I secretly wished that Jakob would say that I'm his favorite person.  But I'll settle for it being one of his siblings.

We went to Arby's for dinner-his choice.  It was yummy.

Then my parents came over, but they couldn't come until a little bit later.  So we had the kids take baths and get ready for bed before they came.  Hence the jammies.

Jakob got new scriptures, a scouting outfit, a Wii game...

...and clothes.  Notice his excitement about the clothes below:

He was also not very excited about starting scouts at first, either.  I told him that he could try it for a couple of months, and if he didn't like it he didn't have to do it.  But then my mom took him to buy his shirt and badges and all that on his birthday, and then he got way excited.

Some Jake-isms for ya:
Jake: (coughs) Me: Jake, cover your mouth. Jake: Oh, sorry. It's just my asthma. (He totally does NOT have asthma.)

Beej to Jake: Do you have a girlfriend? Jake: Yeah, it's Ila. Beej: Is she pretty? Jake: Yeah, she's pretty....pretty HOT! (Yeah, Ila's not his girlfriend.  Just a friend.)

I love my Jakob.  He's turning into a little man, where he has actual conversations with us.  He's so concerned that he's doing everything right.  He loves anything science, and is a super good reader.  He's a great older brother.  He's really amazing at the different Wii games that we have. Jakob is super creative and really funny.

I love my boy.

The Short Version

I think I am the President of the Procrastinator's Club.  Of course, I wouldn't know, because procrastinators would just put off having their meetings, wouldn't they?

Anyway, I've been gone WWWWAAAAAYYYYYY too long from my blog.  And so much has happened!  But I'm afraid if I try to do super detailed posts of everything, then I won't get around to doing any posting at all, because I'll just fall further behind.  So, I'm going to do the highlights, and you can fill in the details in your mind.  I trust you to make up awesome things.

So, without further ado...

Pete had his birthday.  He got a computer mouse, and then some drawings done by the kiddos.  It was very chill.

I started a chore chart for my kids. Jakob had been doing bathrooms with me for forever, and the other kids didn't have any chores.  I revamped it, and now we have a rotation of several chores.  My kids have been really great about doing chores-eager, even.

I have to supervise them, but for the most part they do pretty well.  A couple of weeks ago Troy was on dusting, and I didn't know that he was trying to do it by himself.  Needless to say, I had to scrape off oodles of dust stuff off of my dresser.  But he tried, and I guess that's what counts.

I also got a laundry basket for each of my kids, and now they fold their own clothes.  I have to help Ivy a lot, but they do well folding their own clothes.  I'm not quite ready to have them try and run the washing machine by themselves, but it's helped me a lot to divvy out their clothes for them.

Brock lost his two top teeth in the last little bit.  I love the toothless smile.

We spent mother's day with my parents.  It was really fun.  My mom is a spaz.  She's so cute!

My cute friend Sara got some free tickets to a show called "Handsome Little Devils", so she invited me and our other friend Anna to go. The actors do a lot of juggling tricks-that kind of thing.  It was really impressive. And I got pulled up on the stage!  The actor next to me had me hold some roses out in front of me, and he whipped the tops of them off while balancing on a ladder!  It was really cool.

We had an Easter egg hunt at my parents' house, in the 400 mile-an-hour wind.  Idaho "spring" is very, very windy.

Ivy had her third birthday.  For some reason, I always space on the candles for cakes.  Also for some reason, I had a brand new "1" candle, but that's it-no others.  Awesome.  So that's how we ended up with two matches as the other candles.

She got some clothes, and some hair things, a Tinkerbell doll, and the movie Bambie.

I was outside on a Saturday, and Troy ran out to be with me.  His hands were in his jacket.  He tripped, and fell flat on his face on the driveway.  I saw the whole thing and couldn't do anything to stop it.  So very sad.

A few days later, Troy graduated from preschool.  He loved preschool, but he is so ready to go to kindergarten in the fall.

And speaking of graduations, Brock graduated from kindergarten.  Their program was really cute, and I thought I would cry a lot, but I didn't.

(Okay, so here is where I tried to insert a video of Jakob's piano songs, but it wouldn't load.  Good job, blogger!  So, maybe someday I'll get it to load, but until then, just pretend that you can watch that video here.)

I had my piano recital.  I've been teaching Jakob this year as well.  He did an awesome job!  He was all, "My legs were shaking a lot!"  And I don't know why he decided to stand while playing, but whatever.  He did great, as did my other students.  I played as well, and did pretty good, but botched the end of my last song.  Oh well, though.  It's not the first time I've messed up a performance, nor will it be the last, I'm sure.

Also, I look like Beaker when I play the piano: my eyes are really wide, and my mouth turns down at the corners.  It's neat.

Right after school got out, I got sick, for a week!  It was way super awesome.  I love being sick.

We took a quick jaunt to Utah for Pete's mission reunion.  I was a little bored but I think Pete enjoyed seeing some of the people from his mission.  We hung out with family, and went to Thanksgiving point, to the dinosaur museum there.  I had no idea why Ivy is crying in the above picture.

They have a digging spot at the museum, where you can uncover "bones".  All my kids enjoyed that part.

All of my boys have individually told me that they want to either study or dig up dinosaur bones.

We ate at Benihana on the way back home.  The kids' menus folded up into hats.  Troy zonked out with his hat still on.

And, this last Sunday, Ivy decided to take some scissors to her own hair.  The pile of hair she chopped off is in her hands in this pic.

She did a very thorough job on both sides of her head.  It was very mullet-esque.  It's kind of hard to see in the pictures of it.  Needless to say, we needed to get it fixed up.  I figured a cute little pixie hair cut would work.  And, of course, all this happened before I got her 3-year-old picture taken.  Because I've been really on top of things lately.  (Pres. of the Procrastinator's Club, remember?)

Here it is, all fixed up.  Pete thinks it's kind of boy-ish, but I think if I keep a barrette in it then it will be feminine enough.

Well, that pretty much catches us up to speed.  Sorry it's not heavy on the details, but I just wanted to get 'er done, you know?  So that maybe, someday, I can step down as the President of the Procrastinator's Club.  You know, when I get around to it.