The rest of January

Home school = our life
With the basement out of commission for the past little while, all of our school work has been done upstairs. So this is what my view looks like most days. :)


Here's Lindy working really hard on her fine motor skills:


Gwen building rhyming word toilet paper tube towers


Gwen practicing counting money by making "coin-a-pillars"


Gwen being very proud of a picture she made on play-doh after writing her sight words in the play-doh.


Miles showing off the cookies he made for math one day. The lesson was all about reading fractions in recipes etc. It was probably the most involved I've let him be cooking anything thus far. He was proud and loved taking them to share with his art class that day.



The news must be out about us having bunnies, because another one randomly showed up in our yard the other day. I checked around the neighborhood, and it doesn't seem to belong to anyone around here. So, until we adopt it officially or someone claims it, we have a cute little male, lop ear bunny. The kids have been calling it "the visitor".


This is the best sledding picture you'll probably see from us this season. I haven't gone on any of their excursions since I still think Benson's too little to be out for that long. And Richie hates hauling the camera and pulling it out to take pictures while he's so busy hauling kids up and down hills. So, I snapped one as they were getting into the van. Proof that sledding happened that day! Ha!


After they came back, we had hot chocolate and Richie took these pictures of the girls and Benson. Don't mind their ragamuffin hair or chocolate mustaches. Just look at that happy, chubby baby in the middle! Oh, my heart!! He is certainly very loved around here. Gwen has officially nicknamed herself Benson's mini mama.




Other than that, we've been gearing up for Miles's birthday and baptism, took Miles and Gwen to see Uncle Tanner in the BYU play "Mary Poppins"-which was fantastic, Miles started some reading tutoring with my wonderful cousin Janiel, and Richie undertook the large task of getting he and the 3 oldest involved in the Bluffdale community play "Beautiy and the Beast", (For which I'm very grateful. That is not really my cup of tea, but I think it will be a really good experience for the kids).

First Half of January

I can hardly believe it, but our Miles is turning 8 at the end of this month. Time really does fly. We are doing our best to prepare him to make and keep those sacred covenants, so a lot of our FHE's have been baptism centered. Most of them are very low key, just reading a few scriptures or books etc. But I got crafty for this one. All it was was a punch board with questions (and a piece of candy) inside, but the kids found it very entertaining.



Home school stuff- We got to a really fun part in our history curriculum, studying all about Robin Hood and King Richard, and Knights etc. I only snapped one picture when we hosted last month, of "archery practice". Other pictures are from our Medieval feast. I wish I would have snapped more! We decided not to do a Christmas family meal this year, and instead opted for family dinner in January. It was much less hectic this way and we kept rolling with our Medieval theme. We ate artisan bread, potato and leek soup, roasted chicken legs, mini chicken pot pies, and 2 fancy displays of fruit and vegetables. For dessert the kids had Sword in the Stone cupcakes, while watching the show and the parents chatted. So much fun!



Cute Benson


My parents spent some time with us on their way to the MTC to get ready for their mission to Cove Fort. Couldn't be more excited for them and to visit them at the fort!


Our basement flooded. Yay. We had just set some goals and plans for the year and decided we were going to try and get new flooring on our first floor. We had a guy in our ward who has a flooring business come and give us a quote and were all excited. Then I went downstairs on a Sunday afternoon to grab something from the storage room, and saw water pouring out of our utility closet and noticed immediately that the carpet was completely saturated. We don't go downstairs much on the weekends. We mostly utilize it for school time, so we figure that the Reverse Osmosis System (the cause) must have frozen and then burst on Saturday night and run all night, and all Sunday till about 3 when we realized it was happening.
The disaster company came and brought fans and a dehumidifier that had to run 24-7 for almost 4 days. It was so noisy and it made it look like a bomb went off downstairs, but the kids thought it was great fun to run around in the tornado that was the basement. Hopefully this week they will come repair the walls and put in new flooring, fingers crossed the insurance covers a new RO system, and then I'll get everything put back together.
Our insurance will cover damages after we pay the deductible, so that's good. And we're also excited to get new flooring downstairs (bedrooms excluded), because the carpet was old and worn. I guess flooring for upstairs will just have to wait!

Kid Update

Miles

*Tonight, I asked you to entertain Benson while I worked on the dishes. You really put all of your effort into making your little brother happy. It's so fun to hear you interact with him. When you came back in the kitchen I told you thank you for helping me and you said, "Well, I do what I can." and walked away. :)
*During art class last week at the Beckstroms, you guys were playing with Perler Beads when I came to pick you up. You had used yours to make a little boy that looked just like you. You had your boy wearing overalls, just like you were that day. BreAnn asked you what the yellow line in the middle of the overalls was, and you said, "It's where I pee out of." She awkwardly said, "Oh really?" And you said, "Yeah, see??" And proceeded to point to your lower half. She thought you meant something other than the gold zipper running down the overalls. :)
*You are trying so hard to like what I cook for dinner. :) You have always had a hard time eating things you don't like, or don't think you'll like. I don't know what it is, but in the last little while you seem to be making a conscious effort to be more complimentary of my cooking. So you'll taste a bite of something and with a grimace say, "Oh hey! This is good! I love this!" and then promptly ask me "How many bites do I need to have?" Ha!
*You tend to get really down on yourself when you fail at something. You want it to be perfect the first time, and it's hard for you to mentally pick up the pieces and try again, although you are consistently improving at being mentally tough. I think the times when you get most down on yourself is when you feel you have disappointed me. If I get after you for something, especially something you know you shouldn't have done/could have done better/did badly on purpose etc you tend to feel really guilty and get really down on yourself.

Gwen

*You have had a bit of a cold recently and have been sad to miss out on church, home school group and dance. But you'll always say, "I really want to go, but I don't want to get my friends sick. I'd guess I'd better stay home." It's been hard for you not to hold and kiss on Benson!
*You, like Lindy, have this thing with sleeping in Mom and Dad's room. It seems like every morning, I wake up to find you on the floor of our bedroom.
*You are getting better at not lying. For instance, if I ask you if you wet the bed, instead of immediately saying "Nope", you'll put your finger to your mouth and say, "Let me think about that". Sometimes you'll say, "It's just water" but if I push you and remind you not to lie, you'll reluctantly tell me that "Ok, I did pee the bed. But only a little and I didn't mean to!"
*You try SO hard to be patient with your sister. You two fight so much, but you love each other so much too. You really try and work with her, share with her, include her, but once she crosses a line (usually by using your lip gloss without asking, or deliberately breaking something of yours) you snap and there's lots of yelling and tears. I always feel bad that I have to punish you as well as Lindy in these instances. Because even though you may have ended up screaming at her and sometimes worse, I know how far you let Lindy push you, and I think you handle it remarkably well.
*You continue to be at ease with any group of people. I used to worry a little because sometimes in a big group, you'd run off to be by yourself and be perfectly content to play on your own. But the more I watch you interact with your friends, the more I am in awe of your confidence. You draw people to you and you radiate happiness.


Lindy

*You are such a ying and yang of sassy and sweet. I feel like we have had a resurgence of the terrible twos lately. You'll do something really frustrating (like getting into Vaseline and rubbing it all over the house) and I just want to scream, and the next thing I know, you're doing something incredibly sweet or funny (like quoting "Elf" in your own Lindy-ese and giving me the most radiant smile! Or singing "Edelweiss" to Benson) It's exhausting.
*You love Benson so much, so it was a real trial for you when you got croup right before Christmas and you couldn't kiss or hold him. It was so hard for you to understand and we had to get after you several times, which always made you feel sad.
*You are really phasing out your afternoon naps in earnest. This is such a dreaded time for me. The more I fight it, the most frustrated we both are. I suppose I should just embrace it and let you play in your room and cross my fingers you get the hang of "quiet time" sooner than later. But you still need those naps, and if you don't sleep you are so ornery the rest of the day.
*80% of your sleeping occurs in Mom and Dad's bed/room. Not to say that you sleep with Mom and Dad. If you do nap, it's in Mom and Dad's bed. At bedtime, after we go through the routine in the girl's room, you ask if you can fall asleep in Mom and Dad's bed. Then when Dad goes to bed, he picks you up and puts you in your bed. But inevitably at some point in the night, you come back into our room and end up sleeping either on the recliner or on the floor. It's so crazy to me. I'm sure you'll phase it out at some point.
*You have another little cold, and whenever you get a cold, it inevitably seems to turn croupy. Tonight you woke up coughing while I was still at the computer and so we went outside to breathe in the night air and then I snuggled you in bed for a bit. I took some time to marvel at your beautiful eyelashes, eyes, nose, perfectly formed lips, and those super kissable cheeks. Oh, they were so nice to snuggle! I told you how wonderful you are, with many different adjectives, and with each compliment you would shake your head up and down in agreement. I hope you're always confident about yourself!

Benson

*You are such an angel baby! I couldn't have asked for a better behaved baby. *knock on wood* You sleep when you're supposed to sleep, eat when you're supposed to eat, and when you're awake you're just as pleasant as can be. It's such a JOY to be your mother. I wish I had another 24 hours in a day just to dote on you.
*You have sleepy eyes. Even when you are wide awake, people will comment that you look like you're about to fall asleep.
*You are my first baby that doesn't like pacifiers. I was worried about this at first, but it's actually quite freeing. And you're so pleasant that you don't even need one. You do like to suck on your upper lip sometimes, and if you can find your hands, you like to slobber on those sometimes too.
*You are such a chunk! You usually outweigh babies several months older than you, and I keep having to pull out bigger clothes and diapers! You are a bit older than 4 months (as of Jan.10) and you are comfortably in 9 month clothing.
*Whenever it's time for you to take a nap, I can't bear to just wrap you up and lay you down. I love to have those few minutes to sing to you and stare into your eyes. Sometimes you fight it a bit, but it doesn't take long for you to realize you're tired. You always snuggle your face into the chest or arm of the person who is holding you till you'd think you couldn't breathe anymore! It's like you just need your face to be covered, and then you really start to doze off.
*You are my first baby who won't take a bottle. We haven't been exhaustive in our efforts, but as of now, you won't take one. It's a little frustrating because that means I am really tethered to you. Most of the time, that suits me just fine. But every now and then, it would be nice to leave you with a sitter for longer than 2 hours and know that you wouldn't get hungry.
*You are showing no interest in rolling over or sitting up or anything in that direction. I LOVE it! :) You are just this ball of cuddly, happy, chub who likes to snuggle into your shoulder when you hold him and sits almost perfectly still when I hold him while I eat or check my email etc. Ahhh...I know this will be short lived, so I'm really soaking it in.
*You do love to jump though. When you're really excited, you want to jump in my lap. However, you're so heavy that your legs can't support all of that weight, so it turns into quite the arm workout for Mommy!
*The noises you make are decidedly male. Your laughs and grunts already sound so manly. :)

Annual Book List

Instead of a one-by-one review of the books I was able to get to this year, I'm only writing the bare minimum, as that is what my time allows. :) I noticed that when I typed this list up, the majority of the books I read this year were non-fiction. Although the kids and I did read quite a handful of lovely fiction books this year, so that counts right? I don't know if I'm remembering all of the books I read/listened to with the kids, but here's a sampling anyway:

Books read to/listened to with kids:
*Mary Poppins- P.L. Travers (Probably my favorite book read all year. SO fantastic)
*The Wizard of Oz- Frank Baum (Which inspired our Halloween Costumes this year)
*Childhoods of American Heros: Neil Armstrong (Read as a supplement to our science curriculum)
*Childhoods of American Heros: Davy Crockett (Richie read this one to them)
*Mission to the Moon- Mary Pope Osbourne (Another great Magic Tree House book, to supplement our science curriculum)
*Nearly done with "A Wrinkle in Time" by Madeleine L'Engle (Also connected to our science curriculum)


Books I read just for me:
*How to Raise A Healthy Child in Spite of your Doctor- Robert S. Mendelson
*Sense and Sensibility- Jane Austen
*Men of Valor- Robert L. Millet
*The Entitlement Trap- Richard and Linda Eyre
*Amazed by Grace- Sheri Dew
*Daring Greatly- Brene Brown
*The Gifts of Imperfect Parenting- Brene Brown
*Baby wise - Ezzo and Bucknam (Always re-read this one before a baby comes)
*Passion Driven Education- Connor Boyack
*Leadership Education- Rachel and Oliver Demille (Also a good one to re-read before the school year starts)
*Your Farm in the City- Lisa Taylor


Will there ever be enough time to read all the books I want to read? Will there ever be enough room to build enough bookshelves to hold all the books I want to own? These are the deep questions I ponder at 11:09 pm on a Wednesday night. Here's to another year of squeezing as many pages in as possible. Cheers.

Last bit of December

Usually when Richie has time off, he doesn't really take it. Especially if we're not in a different town on vacation or something. If he has time off and we're in Riverton, he'll go into work anyway to get things done. That's what happens when you're busy working multiple jobs or working on a Masters. However, this Christmas break, he actually took time off! When we got back from St. George, he did put in a few hours here and there on his lap top from home, but other than that we just had a really relaxing week, easing ourselves back into reality after the Holidays. And I have hardly any pictures to show for it!
We always had a cozy fire burning, Richie had time to actually sit on the couch and read leisurely (gasp!), I had an extra pair of hands as we took Christmas decorations down and did the day to day things, and the kids had fun outings with just their dad. They went sledding twice and built a snowman in our backyard who is swimming away from a shark! Lucky kids. It's been so lovely. It also made today a little hard. The first full day back into real life always stings a bit.



One night some of Richie's family came over just because we hadn't seen them over Christmas break much, and Richie and his brothers spent forever working on this ridiculously hard puzzle of the earth. He had pulled it out to do with the kids, but they gave up within minutes. I had to chuckle at this group working so tenaciously to finish the puzzle.



A picture of Lindy taking a nap, just for good measure. I wanna go kiss those cheeks! She can be a real stinker, but she easily makes up for it with extra sweetness. And whenever I see the kids sleeping, it's like all of their misdeeds throughout the day have been washed away, and all I can think about is how angelic they look.


New Year's Eve we invited the Garner and James clans over for games and snacks. We played pie face, danced with glow sticks, played flashlight tag, and the kids watched a movie. Around 10 or so, they went outside to bang pots and pans and officially rang in the new year. :)