heidiopolis

A few things I loved about today...

2011-06-16T21:30:00.000-07:00

-My sweet Duncan giving me random, loving "snuggles" while I was wearing him at the store
-My children working side by side with my hard-working Mom to paint my newly remodelled deck
-Hanging on every word 2-year old Brighton says, just loving the sound of his sweet voice and the cute things he says and the way he says them
-Hearing my children generously thank me for numerous things all day long
-Eating some of the yummiest Doritos I've had in years (good batch, I guess!)
-Realizing my oldest son has become a thoughtful, mature young man right before my eyes
-Hearing the thrilled squeals of joy coming from little girls in the backyard as they ran through the sprinklers
-Only having to change Brighton's clothes once, instead of 4 times like yesterday (kiddie pool...)
-Having Scarlett try to twirl what little hair I have while listening to Haven read us a book
-Joking with my fun Dad on the phone

-Letting the strong winds whip around me while watching the storm clouds come off the mountain
-Watching my brave 1 year old experience above refrenced crazy-strong winds with wonder and awe
-My strong Fiona helping her mother (who had a sore back and was wearing her little brother in the baby pack) lug a 55 pound bag of dog food in and out of the shopping cart
-Laughing at some genuinely funny remarks made by my witty kids
-Enjoying Elijah playing with his little baby brother so eagerly and sweetly
-Catching up with some old friends
-Taking the time to really soak in and appreciate the utter sweet wonderfulness of my children so much so that it brings tears to my eyes to realize how blessed and privileged I am to be their Mom
-Knowing that my life is so rich, wonderful and blessed that I could come up with so many "things I loved about today..." to keep me up all night typing! :)

I did it!!!

2011-02-13T23:16:00.001-08:00

I reached my goal weight and lost 70 pounds!!!

This is how I looked before I started my weight-loss journey.

This is how I look now! It's hard to believe I let myself be so over-weight for 12 years!! But instead of dwelling on the past, I am soooooo looking forward to the future! I have many more fitness goals I can't wait to achieve over my lifetime! It's surreal to be in a position now to work on those goals, instead of having to work on losing tons of weight first! It's surreal....and it ROCKS! :)

To read more about my weight-loss journey and any future health endeavours, click here or the link in the sidebar!!

Answers to 5 Questions

2010-12-09T09:05:00.000-08:00

My lovely friend, Michelle, tagged me in her blog to answer 5 questions....for which I am very grateful! :) I was just thinking this morning, before reading her blog and finding out I was tagged, about how lame I have been about keeping my blog updated. Life has been CRAZY for the last few months since I have devoted so much time and energy to getting healthy plus life with 7 kids is just CRAZY all by itself! :) I haven't felt motivated to blog about stuff we're doing because it didn't seem fair to post about one day and not another, if that makes any sense...which I'm sure it really only does in my busy, unorganized mind! :) So, point being: thanks Michelle, I needed a good reason to blog today! :)

1. If you had one super power to wish for (x-ray vision, invisibility, etc) what would it be and why?

This is actually a hard question...there is tons of cool, useful stuff I would love to have as my super power! It would totally rock to be able to fly places I needed to go and be SUPER handy to have super sonic hearing or something. There was a time when I actually did pin down the super power I thought would be the awesomest to have....but now I can't remember what it was. :( I think I would want to be like Mary Poppins...I'm not totally sure what her super power or powers would be called...but instantly befriending and helping kids, cleaning up with the snap of a finger, fitting tons of stuff into a small bag, floating, going into neat drawings/paintings and singing really well all fit in with would I would like! :)

2. What is your favorite book of all time?

I would have to say the Little House on the Prairie series are my favorite books. I just love that era in general...and I love the story telling and descriptive way Laura tells of her family's life. I also love Pride and Prejudice. I could read all of these books over and over and be happy. :)

3. What is your idea of the perfect day?

My perfect day starts with a good nights rest, waking up to a spotlessly clean home and happy children all busy doing productive things (whether that's playing or something else.) Then we'd all go do something fun together (the zoo, a museum, the mountains, etc) and eat yummy snacks and homemade lunches (that included full-fat Doritos!) I would get to take lots of really awesome, good, meaningful photos on our fun excursion. Then we'd go home and Dave and I would get to go out on a date and eat yummy food and have a good time laughing and talking while our kids were at home with a super fun babysitter. I would also want all calories on this day to not count. :) My evening would have to include a lovely, hot bath and a good book to read. :)

4. If you had the chance, what one famous person would you meet and why?

I think I would like to meet the prophet, President Thomas S. Monson. :) Or really, any of the apostles. :)

5. If you could possess one talent and be truly proficient at it, what would it be?

I would love to be able to just wail....as in sing and just belt it out and have it sound super awesome and feel really great. :) And play the guitar while I was doing it! :)

Please let this be a trend! Please let this be a trend!

2010-11-04T11:54:00.000-07:00

Duncan has never been a very good sleeper. Coming right after Brighton, a.k.a. The World's Best Napper, this has been tough. For the first few months of his life, he needed to be rocked to sleep and then held to stay asleep. We then tried a swing (which worked so awesomely for Brighton and Scarlett) but he would only stay asleep in it for about 15-30 minutes. These are magic nap numbers for Duncan: basically all of his naps, unless he's being held, last for about 15-30 minutes...which makes for a baby who is always on the verge of a meltdown from being overly tired and also makes it very hard to get things done around the house. Yesterday and today, though, things have been a little bit different. Happily, Duncan slept for over an hour and a half at the gym childcare and then he stayed asleep in his car seat in the bathroom after my shower for 2 whole entire hours!! So today during my shower, he fell asleep (as he usually does) under the little heat light with the fan going and has, so far, stayed asleep for 45 minutes!!! I REALLY hope this whole napping thing, as in actually napping, is a new trend!! :) Hurray for napping babies!! (As I write this, I can hear Brighton, who is supposed to be napping in his room, playing with blocks instead of sleeping. But, he usually lays down in his bed after an hour or so of playing and goes to sleep.)

Duncan, who usually wakes up for good before 7am, even slept in this morning! (See above photo of His Cuteness right after I had to wake him up.)

Night time sleeping is never really a big deal to me. Our babies sleep snuggled up in the crook of my arm, which I love and feel is the best and safest place for them. (See sidebar for more information on co-sleeping and how to do it safely, etc) Even if I have a baby who wakes up every couple of hours to nurse, like Duncan does, it doesn't really bother me too much. I wake up as the baby is making little "I want to nurse" noises and hook the baby up. The baby quickly nurses and within 5 minutes or so, we are all back to sleep.

Naps and babies taking them, however, are important to me...and to the happiness level of the baby. So I really, REALLY hope Duncan is finally going to start napping! :)

Another One Bites The Dust

2010-10-28T18:44:00.000-07:00

The world of Facebook is a strange one. One day I have 297 friends, the next I have 296 and I have no clue who's missing. Or why.

I was very reluctant to join Facebook. For years, friends were sending me e-mails saying they had joined and wanted me to too. I didn't. I fought it. I didn't really understand it. Then, one by one, most of my family (including my 99 year old Granddaddy) joined. So I did to. Then, I got it! Facebook is basically hanging out with family and friends whenever you want!! :) It is the main way my extended family communicates with one another. In fact, since joining Facebook, I interact with my extended family and friends more in a month than I did before in a year! I really like that. :)

Facebook is not just a meeting place for family...it's also the place where you are now friends with people who knew you when you were only 3 1/2 feet tall and missing most of your teeth! Re-connecting with old friends has been so much fun!! :)

As a non-phone person, I also REALLY enjoy being able to arrange stuff with people via Facebook!!! Playdates, zoo trips, errands, visiting teaching appointments....it's all made so pleasant and painless by sending them a message or posting to their wall!!! :) It actually makes me so happy to not have to arrange stuff by phone that I'd like to jump up and down and giggle with glee!!!!!!!!!!!! I will spare you that image, though, and remain in my seat...but still smiling. :)

It is a strange phenomenon, though...this missing friend thing. It happens a lot. I'm not sure why, but some times I have a few less friends than I used to, but I can't tell that anyone is missing. Of course, out of the almost 300 friends only about 30-40 post much at all...so I guess whoever defriends me hasn't posted enough for me to miss that we aren't friends anymore.

I won't defriend you if you won't defriend me. :)

Our laundry system

2010-09-09T15:10:00.000-07:00

After posting here about our new family closet, I thought I should post about my dirty laundry management system.

After years of trial and error, I finally found a system of keeping and organizing dirty laundry! One of my main problems was having enough bins to keep a weeks worth of dirty clothes (because I don't always do laundry regularly) sorted and where they need to be....close to the washer. After going through big laundry hampers that took up too much space and over-flowed way too soon, I bought some heavy duty laundry sorters with 3 canvas bags each from Lowes. (I tried the cheaper version from Wal-Mart...NOT worth your money!)

Each bag can hold 2-4 whole loads of laundry! I made a handy little chart so that "helpers" can easily tell where each color goes. I sort them as follows (and pictured from the top left to the right): whites, browns+yellows+oranges+khakis, greens, blues, blacks+grays, pink+purple+red.

As you can see from the first picture, I keep towels and sheets in a pile in front of the washer, and blankets and pillows in a pile on the floor next to the sorting bins. In the future I will probably put a basket where each pile is. :)

There are hampers to collect dirty clothes in the master bathroom, the upstairs hall, the big boy's room, and next to the hanging clothes rack (in our family closet area) in the family room. Kids take turns having "sort the dirty laundry" as one of their monthly chores.

As I do loads of laundry, I sort the upstairs clothes (mine, hubby's, and the two little boy's in addition to the towels and other linens) into one big hamper and put the other kid's clothes away quickly and easily in the family closet.

This system (with the family closet) has been working better than anything else I have ever tried! I think it's a keeper! :)

By the way,

2010-08-25T09:39:00.000-07:00

I've lost 20 pounds in the last 2 months or so!! :) You can read about how/why/etc HERE. :)

Family Closet

2010-08-25T09:17:00.000-07:00

After struggling and struggling with laundry issues for years, I finally decided to make a family closet! I first saw the concept of a family closet from watching the TLC shows about the awesome Duggar family. I don't have a whole room I can dedicate to it, but I did figure out that it could fit nicely in our family room, located very conveniently next to the laundry! Our family closet consists of 2 dressers, a few bins and crates, and a hanging rack with bags underneath. I keep the five oldest kid's clothes in the family closet. Mine, Dave's and Duncan's are in our master bedroom (like normal people...) and Brighton's clothes are still kept in his room.

Everything is labeled. Each of the three girls have three drawers: one with undies, socks, swimsuits, jammies and undershirts, one with long and short-sleeved shirts, and one with pants and shorts. The boys each have a drawer with their undies and swimwear. Then I ran out of drawers. :) So the boys have two stacking bins, the bottom one with their socks (they wear the same size) and the top with their jammies (again, they basically wear the same jammies.) The sock bin is our cat, Owl's, favorite new napping place. :) I keep the boy's shirts in the two crates turned on their side: one stack of short-sleeved and one stack of long-sleeved.

All the kid's church clothes are hung on the hanging rack. Girl's skirts are kept folded on top. The hanging bags below come in very handy! One bag is for items that need to be mended and/or dyed, one bag is stuff that needs to be donated and the last bag is stuff that has been grown out of and needs to be sorted into the correct storage bin to await the next kid to grow into it!

I LOVE this new system!!! It has made laundry a joy to me! For years, I have gone from one method to another, mostly consisting of each person in the family having their own clean clothes basket....with the goal of putting their clean clothes away at least once a week. In reality, all 9 or 10 clean clothes baskets (gotta have a sock basket!) were lined up in my room where kids rifled through them each day to find clean clothes (and left their jammies strewn about) and each night to find jammies (and left their dirty clothes mixed in with the clean!) I only got around to putting clothes away every month or two. Our master bedroom always felt and looked like a disorganized laundry room. Now, my kids clothes are all put away for the first time in a looong time, and, better yet, I know that they will always be put away! No more clean clothes baskets (except for Dave and I, but putting away our clothes will be much easier now!) means that the kids clothes get put away as soon as they are washed and dried!! :) I hope in our next house, we will have a laundry room big enough to house our family closet...or even a small room close to it to devote to the cause!

Want to see our dirty laundry? Check out this post to find out how we manage it! :)

Need some more laundry room/laundry keeping ideas? check out this link and all the links here to see how other families do it!

Other good reasons to get healthy!

2010-08-15T22:56:00.000-07:00

I changed my life a few months ago by embarking on a weight-loss/fitness journey! I thought I was just going to loose weight and get healthy...but so many more good things have happened! :) Did you notice my clean table??? :)

And my clean counter tops????

And my sink that is dirty dish free????? Isn't it lovely!?! :) I have found that the side effect of taking control of my health is that I naturally have started taking control in many other aspects of my life!! :) What a bonus! I still have a long weight-loss journey ahead of me, but now I have even more to look forward to than skinnier thighs! Making the choice to become healthier and following through with that choice 100% has empowered me to become more responsible in many other aspects of my life that I have been struggling with. I don't think my family has ever seen the bottom of the sink or not had their cereal bowl stick to the table on such a regular basis! :)

I don't have to be able to "hoot" like an owl to be one!

2010-08-09T23:01:00.000-07:00

I really just don't know what it is. I have spent years fighting it. I have spent years trying to change it. I have felt guilty about it, irritated and even angry about it! Something I can't control just happens to me every night around 9pm: I get ideas, motivation, energy, excitement...I have to make things happen!

My husband Dave, on the other hand, has the opposite and more approved issue of feeling really great and productive in the mornings whilst I lay in bed sleeping. Everyone knows that "Early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise," right? Then why is it that I get all my good ideas and tons of work done late at night and would rather not get out of bed before 9am?

I've experimented with going to bed early. Some nights it works; I fall blissfully asleep and don't feel completely wiped out when the kids wake up in the morning. Some nights, my brain just keeps working and working and working...unconcerned with the fact that my body is all snuggled up in bed and I awake groggily and dead tired in the morning. The difference for me, regardless of how I feel in the morning, is that if I go to bed early I miss out on getting lots of good stuff done!

My husband totally understands this. He no longer worries when he wakes at midnight to find my place in the bed empty...he just knows when he gets up in the morning he'll find a room rearranged or a cabinet organized or my blog updated. :)

Dave's acceptance of my night-owlishness has helped me to fully embrace my way of getting stuff done. When most people are seeping drool onto their favorite pillow case, I am being productive! :)

Hiking, Camping and Laughing: OH MY!

2010-07-16T21:04:00.000-07:00

Over 4th of July weekend, we had our first house guests! Well, our first house guests that weren't family members! :) Our friend, Chuck, came out to visit Colorado with his two oldest boys and we all went camping to enjoy the mountains!

The campground was gorgeous and we got two camping spots right next to each other. Here is Sebastian reading while the dad's are setting up tents.

Brighton was SO happy to be out in nature and to be free to walk around and explore! He busily went from one rock to a pile of sticks to a tree and back again! Fiona helped me keep track of him when she wasn't busy playing with the other kids.

Here is Dave and Chuck (and one of Chuck's sweet sons) setting up the tent that Chuck and his boys slept in.

Brighton found this cool piece of bark and used it like a gun!?! He's only 20 months old! He made the cutest little shooting sound effects for it, too! Such a sweet, busy boy!

Scarlett is a hair twirler! :) Here she is taking a little break to twirl her hair. :)

The kids all had tons of fun exploring the woods and chatting with one another!

Our little tree-hugger!! :) Literally: Brighton hugs trees. They are pretty great and easy to love....

Food always tastes better in the mountains! Here is everyone eating a yummy lunch before our hike!

Elijah and Charlie had a lot of fun while the dad's were setting up camp.

While I was following busy Brighton around camp, Duncan was taking a nice, cozy nap in the sling. I thought we were mostly in the shade, but after a few hours it became clear to me that we had been in the sun a enough for this to happen:

The half of poor baby Duncan's face that was exposed in the sling got FRIED! I felt terrible! You can see how swollen his eye was and he even got little blisters on his cheek the next day! I have never sun burned a baby before...I guess at 10,000 feet above sea level you HAVE to wear sunscreen, even if you are mostly in the shade!

The kids all had a lot of fun hanging out and joking around the campfire. :) I think campfires and hanging out around them are one of the very best things about camping!

Just on the edge of our campground was a meadow where elk come down to graze in every evening like clockwork! We enjoyed seeing these amazingly gorgeous animals!

My dream property would look like this!! I love the combination of pine trees and open meadow. Can't you just picture a lovely house with a wrap-around porch and large decks there on the hill?

We went on a very fast paced hike to the reservoir. (Chuck is apparently a very fast hiker!) :) Here is a cool rock on the reservoir the kids all scrambled on...they are the small dots on top!

Chuck pushed the double jogger with Brighton in it most of the entire hike! :)

It was a long hike to the reservoir and Scarlett started dragging right before we got there. Luckily, I had brought several different baby carriers and Scarlett got to ride on her Daddy's back for a bit!

I had been carrying Duncan in various slings for most of the hike and we were both getting sweaty! Here is Dave holding Duncan and giving me a bit of a break from the sweat! :)

Brighton really enjoyed getting out of the stroller and climbing rocks!! He didn't seem to mind he was missing a shoe...

There were TONS of cool, gorgeous rock formations on our hike! We stopped at this one to let everyone have a bit of a break and climb on cool rocks. Why is it so hard to get boys to smile for pictures?? :)

Our friend, Chuck, was very happy (dare I say "obsessed?") with the gorgeous mountain views...we stopped at the above spot several times on our excursions so he could inhale it all and take pictures. :) Fiona and I thought it was a gorgeous view too. :)

Driving back down the mountain, we took a back road that was supposed to be more scenic than the highway. It totally was a gorgeous drive (see above view!) but ended up taking almost 2 hours while the highway takes about 30 minutes! It was worth it, though.

After our weekend of camping, we went on a hike with our friends through Garden of the Gods. It was hot and dry, but we had great company and got plenty of good exercise! Here is Fiona, the consummate scrambler, with a gorgeous view of Pikes Peak in the background.

All the kids LOVE this cool rock formation! It's fun to wedge yourself between these two rocks and there are lots of little perches to hang out on!

Here is most of the group!

After our hike through Garden of the Gods, we headed over to Helen Hunt Falls. The kids had fun playing in the creek to cool off while I nursed Duncan before our hike up the falls.

After hiking several miles through Garden of the Gods, we drove this cool back road to Helen Hunt Falls (not named after the actress.) You hike up about a billion stairs made in the dirt to get to the falls. It was a GREAT work-out! And a pretty view. :)

It was a busy, whirl-wind weekend with lots of activity, good exercise, great company and lots of smiles! :)

The Magnificent Seven!

2010-06-28T12:29:00.000-07:00

The first picture of all 7 kiddos! What a good look'n, sweet bunch of kids! :)

I came from a family of 7 kids. I remember always feeling like 7 just was not enough kids in our family. Maybe it was because I was toward the end of the family and my siblings were mostly all older...but probably it was just because I loved my family so much and felt like there weren't enough of them!

7 kids has always been the number I knew would be at least our minimum (if not our maximum) number of kids we would have. I have always wanted a lot of kids. When I was a little girl, I would tell people I wanted 23 kids...by the time I met and fell in love with Dave, that number was down to a more realistic 13. Kids are just amazing and fun and wonderful and bring so much joy to the planet!

Other people look at our family and sort of freak a bit at the amount of children we have, but looking at them all and knowing them all....7 feels like a very small number. They each bring such a unique light and love to our family....which light could we have done without? Which sweet smile and which bright laugh would we not miss? Wow, makes me depressed just thinking about living my life and trying to learn all I need to learn without every single one of my children. I am so blessed and my life has been made so much richer from having the extreme privilege and honor of being the mother to each of my 7 children!! Is it more work, more noise, more mess, more busyness than if we just had a few? Of course it is....but it's all worth it...and then some!

Spring finally starting springing, Duncan started giving us lots of smiles and Dave went to China!

2010-06-25T20:17:00.000-07:00

After a VERY long winter that began way back at the first of October and lasted until the middle of May, Spring finally arrived!

Our two apple trees (from which we never get any edible apples thanks to the bugs and birds) burst into full bloom all in one glorious weekend!

Apple blossoms are so cheery; so bright; so happy; so SPRING!

Duncan has always responded to our happy faces by giving us a little smile here and there...even from the day he was born. But around the middle of May, he started smiling even more!

We started being able to count on him smiling pretty much every time we smiled at him (and he was not crying...)

Suddenly, he became much more interactive and sociable!

At 4 1/2 weeks old, he was giving his Daddy regular smiles....just in time for his Daddy to leave us for 5 weeks to go to China!

The day before Dave left, we met him so we could release a few "pets" that really belonged in the wild. While we waited for him to arrive, the kids enjoyed climbing a big tree...

.....playing with some big sticks....

....walking around, enjoying the nice weather and sunshine....

....looking for bugs....playing with more big sticks....

.....delighting at the discovery of "wishing flowers".....

.....climbing very high in the big tree.....

.....nursing the baby (well, I did that, not the kids)........

......being silly........

......hanging out in the car............

......wrangling REALLY big sticks.....

....and then Daddy arrived and took the kids down to the creek to release the critters.

Yes, we use our food storage containers for critters sometimes.....What? It's safe...we're not dead yet....

There goes Charmander, the tiger salamander off to enjoy his new life of freedom! The kids also released a garter snake, whom I'm sure was also very glad to be free....so glad, in fact, that he slithered off too fast to get a picture of!

The next day, early in the morning, Dave left a very emotional post-partum wife and their 7 children to spend 5 weeks in China.

Very happily, my generous and kind Mother came to stay with us for the majority of the time Dave was gone. As you can tell by Duncan's very happy face, we were all over-joyed she came! :)

Fiona's baptism

2010-05-07T07:14:00.000-07:00

Fiona recently turned eight!! In our church, we don't believe in infant baptism. We believe, through modern-day revelation, that we are not born in sin. We believe children reach the age of accountability (and thus become responsible for their mistakes/wrong-doings and are old enough to choose for themselves) at eight years old. Before a child is baptised, they have an interview with the bishop of our congregation just like any convert of any age would. The bishop asks them, essentially, if they have a testimony of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and if they have a desire to be baptised in his name.

Here is the family before the service...our first family picture since little Duncan was born! He was 9 days old in this picture. :)

I am so happy for Fiona that she chose to become a disciple and follower of Christ by being baptised! I am very proud of the choices she makes. She has a great desire to choose the right. I am thankful her older brothers have chosen to be such great examples to her and the other kids. I am very thankful for a husband who chooses to be a worthy priesthood holder and can use that priesthood (which is the proper authority to act in God's name through ordinances and blessings) to baptise and bless our children. Duncan was blessed in church the day after Fiona's baptism. :)

After her baptism, Fiona went for a daddy-daughter date with Dave. They went to the church book store so Fiona could choose her very own set of scriptures and get her name embossed on them. Then they got some ice cream. :)

Hunt and peck....

2010-05-06T07:30:00.000-07:00

Three weeks ago today, the above sweet little baby, Duncan, was born! And ever since then, my arms have constantly been holding him.

I LOVE holding and snuggling my babies! But it does call for one-handed typing which is slow and frustrating....thus I have hardly e-mailed, facebooked....or blogged! Some day my arms will be all too empty of babies...I'll blog a lot then! :)

Sample birth plan for a natural hospital birth

2010-03-30T08:15:00.000-07:00

Before I had my first baby, I heard of a lady at church who at gone "all natural" for the birth of her babies. I pictured a woman lying in a hospital bed, hooked up to all the regular stuff, thrashing in pain. I think this is probably the way most people picture a "natural" (meaning no pain meds) hospital birth. I had already started reading a bit about natural childbirth and felt that was the direction I wanted to go. Since that time, I have read and studied and read and studied some more about the subject and, of course, given birth a few times! The birth plan I have worked out and feel really happy with is not really just about not having pain meds during birth; it is really about achieving a birth with as little intervention as possible.

An intervention-free birth is very important to me. I did not work hard to bring this sweet baby into the world only to have him whisked away by nurses when he should be cuddling skin to skin with his Mommy. I didn't go through 3 months of pure nausea to be tied down to a hospital bed with wires and monitors and IV's plugged into me . I didn't endure countless nights of insomnia only to be told by nurses to hold my breath and push while they count to 10! Not only are these interventions things that I personally don't like, they have all been proven to be pointless and even harmful to a normal, healthy labor.

The AAP has stated that the mother is the best means of warming a newborn and immediate skin to skin contact helps facilitate bonding and successful breastfeeding and yet the routine in most hospitals involves the baby being whisked away from Mom to a warming table and then not returned to mom until the baby has achieved a desired body temp and is wrapped tightly in blankets. Even though studies have concluded that breath holding and directed pushing can deprive your baby of oxygen, it is still the "norm" in most hospitals today. The same can be said for most routine hospital protocol...it's either just not necessary or it can actually hinder your labor/birth/bonding. This is where a good birth plan (and good birth attendant) comes in.

Below is a sample birth plan to help you achieve a "natural" or non-intervention birth.

Birth Plan for:
EDD:

I would like to wear my own clothes during labor, birth, and postpartum.

I would like freedom to use the tub and shower as I see fit during labor.

I will not require a routine I.V.

I would like the freedom to move about and labor and birth in any position I feel comfortable. This may include giving birth in a location of the room other than the bed. If the birth does take place on the bed, I do NOT want the bed broken down.

I would like the room to remain dim/naturally lit.

I would like intermittent fetal monitoring with a Doppler, not continuous.

If labor augmentation becomes an issue, i would prefer to use natural methods deemed appropriate by me.

I do not want any extra people in the room while I labor and give birth. The only hospital staff present should be my midwife/doctor, the nurse, and the baby nurse.

I want to be able to push when I am ready to push with no directed pushing (holding breath and counting to ten.)

I would rather tear than have an episiotomy.

I would like my husband and/or myself to "catch' the baby if appropriate.

I want my baby's cord to sop pulsating before my husband or I cut it...a minimum of 5-10 minutes after birth.

I want my baby to be immediately placed on my chest following birth, nurse right away, and remain with me continuously. I want all procedures/baby checks to be done while my baby remains on my chest. I do not want the baby to spend any routine time on warming bed.

In the event of an emergency/unforeseen circumstance I want my husband to remain with the baby at ALL times.

My baby will not receive the eye ointment, vitamin K shot, or hepatitis B shot.

If my baby is a boy, he will not be circumcised.

I would like the freedom to return home within 24 hours after the birth if I so desire.

I would like my family to be able to visit myself and the baby immediately following the baby's birth if I so desire.

Yes, emergencies arise and sometimes plans need to be altered and that is fine...the key is to be as educated and prepared as possible to help prevent those emergencies. If you are interested in achieving a birth with little to no intervention, I recommend not being induced and waiting until you are in active labor before going to the hospital, as well as educating yourself. It is important to be flexible with your expectations, but in the case of a normal, healthy labor there is no reason why all of your desires for you birth can not be met! Hiring a doula (a professional labor assistant) will also greatly benefit you with having the birth you want!

Is a pain medication-free birth the best choice for every woman? No, I think every woman has the right to make that decision for herself...but it is every woman's right to have the safest birth and the birth she desires for herself and her baby...the fewer the interventions used, the more likely she will attain this goal.

Le Grande Cirque

2010-03-06T14:37:00.000-08:00

7 or 8 months ago, Dave bought tickets for our whole family to go and see a troupe of Chinese Acrobats preform. They do an act similar to Cirque de Soliel and it sounded really fun and exciting! After anticipating it for so many months, last night was finally the big event!

The performance was held at the Air Force Academy. We thought we'd try and get a better parking spot by going on campus (where you need a special clearance badge to get on) rather than waiting in the very looooooong line of cars to get into the regular parking. Hmm...didn't really work out that way! We were running a bit late already, so we argued a bit and then parked in a lot that I thought was closer than it really was. Apparently, Dave knew how far away we were but didn't want to argue too much with a pregnant woman...he'd rather see her hike 5 billion miles up hill. :) It was pretty darn windy and cold, but the kids were all super excited and that excitement gave them the motivation and energy to hike such a long way. I was grumpy about it, of course...and not mentally/emotionally prepared to walk (mostly up-hill) such a long distance. About 10 minutes into the hike, Scarlett turned to me and with bright eyes asked "will there be real live bats?" She was a bit disappointed as I tried to explain to her that bats had nothing to do with acrobats.

We finally made it to the auditorium just as it was supposed to begin, but there were so many people still coming in that they didn't start right away. We had a nice row 6 seats off to a side and Elijah and Sebastian sat behind us. It worked out perfectly that Brighton could walk around and was not able to escape our row.

The actual show was pretty good...very dramatic and exciting to watch with the usual cool tricks like 5 billion people on a bicycle, a guy balancing on a ladder who balanced a couple of girls on his shoulders, contortionists who sat on their own heads and stood on their own shoulders, plate spinners, guys who jumped and tumbled through hoops, etc. In between acts, there was a "funny guy" who pulled people from the audience and did entertaining and funny things...Haven especially really liked him. I think everyone's favorite act was right after intermission when they had the stage completely dark with black lights shining at it. There were performers dressed in glow in the dark clothes who did neat tricks, but mostly all the performers were dressed in black and you couldn't see their bodies...just the ribbon they were twirling or the table they were spinning or whatever. It was pretty cool.

My favorite thing about the evening was hearing the kids spontaneous reactions to what they were watching. The boys, who were sitting behind me, kept getting louder and louder as their excitement grew. Sebastian kept saying things like "spectacular" or "amazing" and Elijah kept saying either "rad" or "that's so cool!" It was sweet to watch Haven clap during parts she really liked...even though no one else was clapping at all. Scarlett, who was sitting next to me, would look over at me with a big smile when she saw something she liked. There was one part where ladies came out in costumes that looked like they had flowy wings and she said to me "those must be the bats!" :) Fiona leaned forward and watched everything pretty intently and mostly helped Brighton with his snacks ...and by "helping" I think that meant she got some snackage too. :)

The show lasted about 2 hours and, at it's completion, it was 2 1/2 hours past Brighton, Scarlett and Haven's bedtime! Scarlett was VERY tired...she almost fell asleep at the end and there was no way she was going to be able to walk all the way back to the car. Once we got outside, Sebastian sweetly offered to carry her. He tried for a few minutes, but his coat was very poofy and slippery and he hasn't figured out the hip carry thing yet, so it was pretty hard for him and not comfy for Scarlett. I offered to carry her and mentioned I had a nice little bump for her to sit on. She liked that idea. :) I carried her for a while, with Sebastian offering over and over again to carry her so I could have a break. He is a sweet son. :) I needed a break after awhile and tried to teach him the hip carry...but being an 11 year old boy, he doesn't really have hips...and again with the puffy, slippery coat...so it didn't really work out again, but even just the one or two minutes he carried her gave me the break I needed to be able to carry her again. (Dave was carrying Brighton.) The wind was even colder than when we had arrived and everyone was sooooo tired! After we got down a big hill, I needed another break from carrying Scarlett so Sebastian tried to create a "bump" for her by having the diaper bag hang from his neck and have her sort of sit on the diaper bag at his front. That lasted about another 2 minutes. Then I tried to coax her into walking a bit and told her we were almost to the car!! She kept saying "no we're not...I can't see it!" and was just too tired to walk. Then I told her "pretend you're a little pioneer girl and we're walking to Salt Lake!" She was not very thrilled about that, either so I scooped her up again and we all finally made it back to the car.

It was a really fun, family experience and I'm very glad we went. I have to admit, though, that it wasn't really that much more exciting than watching it on t.v....so while I'm glad we shared this experience as a family and my kids got to go, I probably won't be that excited to do it again. :)

Happy Birthday to my mom!

2010-03-03T08:10:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday, Mom!! I am so lucky to have you as a Mom and as my kids' Grandma! :) Thanks for your wonderful example and all that you have taught me!! :)

Big boy hair!

2010-03-02T08:28:00.000-08:00

It's hard to see it in the above adorable picture of adorable Brighton, but he was starting to sport a mullet. I don't have anything against people who choose this particular style of hair, it's just not my thing....nor do I want the mullet to be the thing for any of my kids. :) It was time for Brighton's first hair cut! I have wanted to trim it for some time, but the protests of his siblings and father have delayed this momentous event. It seems that everyone was very attached to his baby hair, except his mother. :)

But once I started throwing around the "mullet" term, I garnered Dave's full support...well mostly full. :) I trimmed it Sunday morning before he got in the shower with his daddy. He was very wiggly and the hair cut is NOT even in the slightest...but the mullet is gone and he is looking like a big boy! :)

Dave was slightly appalled that I could just throw his little baby hair away in the trash and not save any of it. The girls all came in and made sad sighing noises for the loss of his baby hair. When he came out after his shower, the boys all cooed over him and how sad it was that his baby hair had to be cut off...but everyone also made sure to let him know how handsome he looked. :) I'm just glad the mullet is gone!

A very delicate surgery

2010-03-02T08:16:00.000-08:00

Sebastian decided that his remote controlled T-rex, now nick-named "Rexy", needed to have his broken legs stabilized through surgery. He gathered all the necessary equipment/tools and placed them on a "sterile" paper towel. Haven was assigned as his surgical assistant/nurse.

It started out just being Sebastian and Haven, but soon an audience formed.

Elijah and Brighton took a break from watching to play. :)

Fiona was later enlisted to help with the stitching up. She is the one, after-all, with the sewing kit. :) Haven is helping with the stabilizing sticks (pick-up sticks broken in half.) I'm not sure if Rexy is any more stable than she was before, but she now has cool scars to show off to all her dino friends.

The great computer change-over.

2010-03-02T06:51:00.001-08:00

Usually Thursdays are one of my very favorite days of the week. Of course, Thursday is right before Friday and Friday is just about the weekend! Then there's the fact that my 4 oldest kids attend the Home School Academy all day that day, the house is quiet and calm and Scarlett and I get to hang out together. :) One of my sisters-in-law loves Thursdays and always celebrates that day. Thursday is also one of my work-out days, which I look forward to and love. Oh, and Survivor is on that night. :)

Last Thursday was not the usual joyous Thursday, however. I was scheduled to have my first root canal that afternoon (in place of my usual work-out...so not the same!) I had downloaded some stuff on to the computer the night before that I could put on my phone (which is also an MP3 player) to listen to during the dreaded dental procedure. I planned on getting this done first thing in the morning after I dropped the kids off at school...but the computer would not turn on!! I tried for about an hour to get the computer to boot up, but it wouldn't. Then I remembered the laptop and decided to use it, instead. Guess what? It's battery was just about dead and the power cord was not working!! I got to quickly check my e-mail and facebook before the battery died. I tried different plugs, wiggling the cord, everything but it would not work! Not the greatest way to start off root canal Thursday, in my book!

After lunch, Dave came home and I was off to my root canal appointment. Technically, I could've walked. I purposefully choose dentists (this is our 3rd...) who are located in the business park across the street from our neighborhood so that we can walk there. The biggest obstacle to this goal, however, is that the street you have to cross, although it does have a light, is freakishly busy and scary to cross. Plus it was colder that day. Plus, having never had a root canal before, I didn't know if I would really feel like walking home afterwards. I'm glad I drove.

I have inherited a lot of really wonderful things from my mom....my teeth not being one of them, however! (Sorry Mom...still love you!) She has told me how it can be very hard for her to get numb for dental procedures and how her root canals have been two-parter's. I didn't really think about any of this before my root canal...everyone said it would be no big deal at all, so that is what I expected. Until he had numbed me 4 different times already and I could still feel the drilling. The dentist said, as a last resort, he could just drill very quickly into the nerve cavity and then be able to inject anesthetic directly into it. Well, it turns out I also had a pulp stone (akin to a kidney stone, only in your tooth root) so he had to "quickly" drill into my nerve about 4-5 different times! Then he had to inject the pain killer directly into about 2-3 more times before I was finally numb! But this time, my jaw was already killing me from being propped open for 45 minutes, and the root canal hadn't even officially started yet! This is one reason why I only got 1/2 a root canal that day...

There was, however, good news when I came home from the dentist...Dave had called Sam's Club (where we purchased our relatively new and now dead computer) and the very nice manager there said that he would take the computer back as a return and credit us so we could buy a new one!! What a nice guy! And what great customer service! So we picked out a new one on Saturday and Dave set it all up Saturday night while I used the laptop (the new cord was ordered, but the old one was working again, randomly.) He spent a lot of time last night switching all our old computer data (which a nice friend of his from work was able to save off our dead computer!) to the new computer. I still have not hooked up the camera to the new computer, however, which was the whole point of this long-winded post. :) I have not been taking nearly as many pictures as I used to, anyway, since my camera is getting old and not taking very good pictures...but there are a few memorable moments sitting on that little card inside my camera that I really should download and blog now that the great computer change-over has taken place!

Sleeping like a baby.

2010-02-27T20:12:00.000-08:00

Sleeping FOR your growing, in-utero baby is NOT like sleeping like a baby! Of course it's hard to get and stay comfortable and random appendages fall asleep. It's definitely frustrating to have to get up every few hours to go to the bathroom. Then there's heartburn to contend with, and weird, random leg cramps. Speaking of legs, there is also restless leg syndrome that can get pretty darn irritating! But this pregnancy, those things seem like cake to get over compared with the dreaded INSOMNIA!!

I am tired. I am overly tired. I am exhausted. I go to bed and it can take HOURS to actually fall asleep! Then, when I finally get to sleep, I wake up several times a night for NO REASON and then can't fall back asleep right away!! AGH!! I used to find solace and relief in my daily nap, but now INSOMNIA has ruined that too!!

Being pregnant is a wonderful, happy blessing. I love my sweet little unborn. :) I love that my body can nurture and support this new life. I just wish it were easier to get some rest!

6 weeks left and counting!

Oh No!

2010-02-24T18:35:00.000-08:00

The other day, we actually got enough snow to warrant shoveling. I sent Sebastian, Fiona and Elijah out to get it done. About 10 minutes into it, I saw the above image. Oh no! Has Elijah fainted from over-exertion?

Are we experiencing another round of stomach flu and he is about to throw-up?

Oh...huh...he's just taking a bit of a break to hork down as much snow as possible without actually having to do the work of picking it up and bringing it to his mouth. :)

Sebastian and Fiona, on the other hand, were hard at work making another snow curve to keep kids from going into the street when they sled. Sebastian had most of the sidewalk shovelled and had used a lot of the snow for the wall.

The girls were busy playing while all of this was happening. Then they came out and saw the kids outside and, of course, wanted to join them.

When Elijah saw the above picture of Scarlett, he said "aw, she's so cute!" Elijah is her buddy. He came in shortly after the pigging-out-on-snow feast. Being her buddy, he helped Scarlett get ready to go out into the snow. What a nice big brother! All of the kids are just so sweet and helpful...they impress me every day with their willingness and desire to help one another!

Back to the snow scene outside: Once Sebastian caught onto the fact that, while he was still shoveling, Elijah was taking an extended "break" to eat snow, he came over to "encourage" Elijah to help out some more.

And on a completely different note: I have been letting the kids use the camera pretty much whenever they'd like to. It's getting older and not taking nearly as nice of pictures as it used to, so I am not all that protective of it these days. When I was downloading the snow pictures, the above picture caught my eye. When the boys saw it, they both started giggling. Everyone is so good at playing with Brighton and love to think of different things to make him giggle. I guess Brighton thought it was funny to sit on Elijah's head. :) I'm sure he didn't get *any* encouragement from his big, silly brothers! :)

The kind of day we're having...

2010-02-19T10:21:00.000-08:00

Brighton just dumped a nearly full bag of Honey-Nut Cheerios and I don't really care....in fact my first thought was "awesome, they can have a snack and be entertained at the same time!" instead of something more sane like "oh geez, there went $3 and now I have to clean it up!"

That's just the kind of day we're having. Or, more specifically...the kind of day I'M having. There have been some days during this pregnancy where I have been a normal, productive person; doing normal, productive things like cleaning and feeding people. I have to admit, though, that the majority of this pregnancy has consisted of days like today. I'm tired. I don't feel like cleaning. I let kids sleep in late. I'm just sitting around. The house is a pig sty and a half. I am not really "making" kids do chores and clean stuff up. The kids certainly aren't complaining. The dogs (who now get to eat hundreds of cheerios off the floor) are certainly not complaining. But I am...it never really feels good to not be productive day after day. It does feel good to get things done and to have a clean house and yummy, healthy food to eat. The motivation and energy just aren't there most days. Some of my pregnancies have been super productive times....when I was pregnant with Haven, my house was so consistently clean that I ran out of things to clean every day and resorted to washing couch cushions and such! I had a lot of energy and, I think just as importantly, tons of drive to get things done. Not so this time around! I guess I have plenty of years ahead of me of having a clean house.....that's what I am telling myself, anyway! :)

Budding composer

2010-02-16T18:55:00.000-08:00

Fiona has been taking piano lessons for a few months now from an adorable teenage girl in our ward (our church congregation.) She has been learning a lot and really loves to practice and loves playing the piano. This week, she started writing her own songs. With hand-drawn lines on a blank piece of paper, she meticulously wrote in the notes as she selected and played them. The next day, I printed off some blank sheet music from this site.

She went right to work on some new songs! She really gives a lot of thought to how she wants her song to sound and tries it out several times before writing down the notes.

This particular afternoon, Brighton was having a hard time taking his nap, so she voluntarily played a few octaves higher and pressed the keys very lightly. :) I love seeing her play the piano and hope that she will continue to love it and achieve a comfortable level of proficiency as she gets older.

My Dad taught me how to play the piano when I was little. I practiced very little and had whole years at a time when I hardly played. I did manage to continue learning, though I never tried very hard. I really enjoy playing the piano now, but am sad I never took the time to reach a more serviceable level of proficiency; I play only a few songs well enough for myself or anyone else to sing along to and I do not play well enough to be an accompanist at church...both things I hope to accomplish one day! I guess I should follow Fiona's example and practice more!

Happy Valentines Day!

2010-02-16T18:46:00.000-08:00

Err, or was that Happy Chinese New Year? Or wait...I guess it was both, but at our house, we sort of only paid attention to the Chinese New Year part. :) Dave brought back the girls some lovely Chinese dressed last time he went to China, so the girls wore those to church on Sunday. Above is Fiona in her dress, with a Chinese shawl and even holding a Shitzu! (we were doggy sitting...)

All three girls (and Brighton.) Dave wore a Chinese tie, I wore a skirt he brought me back, Elijah wore a Chinese vest, and Sebastian wore a silk Chinese jacket type thing.

I put chopsticks in all three girls' hair. It was pretty darn adorable...though Scarlett and Haven's kept falling out at church, so we just left them out. I guess they need more hair...or less slippery chopsticks!

Out of pure desperation...

2010-02-16T18:37:00.000-08:00

No, that is not a picture of one of the girls when they were younger....it is poor Brighton! I have been soooooo neglectful of the laundry that tonight after his bath, all I had to put on him that would be warm for bed was a purple "Big Sister's Rock!" shirt. At least he had some "manly" sweatpants with fighter planes on them to balance it out. Now to go tackle the mountain of laundry...

true to form

2010-02-10T16:10:00.000-08:00

True to form, I have procrastinated the kid's valentines until the very last minute! Tomorrow is their school day and their valentines class parties. I've known about it for weeks, but, like usual, I didn't help them do anything about it until this afternoon. I didn't feel like going to the store to buy valentines, so I used this idea from Family Fun magazine. Now, I knew our version would not turn out as dainty and cute as the magazines...it's the thought (and the process of making them) that counts!

Above and below is what it looked like in our kitchen while everyone was hard at work cutting out all the little hearts...we cut out a LOT of little hearts!

You may have noticed the bench and all the chairs tipped over on their sides and people standing up or sitting on the table rather than on said bench or chairs....this is all for a very good reason named BRIGHTON. Except at mealtimes, we have to keep the bench and chairs lying down to prevent Brighton from climbing on them and using them to climb onto even higher things. He is very adept at moving the chairs to a desired location and then climbing up to get into things or to sit on the table...all not too safe things for him to be doing. The little kids don't take up enough room on a chair to prevent him from climbing up on it with them, so they can't sit on a chair unless Brighton is busy or in his highchair (which he also can climb out of...) It will be nice in a few months when we can all sit down again...and not have a bunch of chairs lying around!

Here is our finished valentine. All the kids worked together to cut out the hearts and assemble the valentines, then they all split them according to their class sizes. They used the petals to write "From..." I think they are pretty adorable...and the kids really enjoyed making them!

So have I learned my lesson about waiting until the last minute? Probably not...I think that's just how I function best, actually. Even though it would more than likely be less stressful and maybe even more enjoyable, I am a procrastinator...I get some of my best ideas and inspirations at the last minute...I get the drive and motivation to get things done at the last possible second...I'm not good at planning ahead; it's just who I am and I guess it works for me! Well, most of the time it works...

A new take on the homeschool Workbox system

2010-02-08T08:32:00.000-08:00

Using the workbox system has really revolutionized our homeschool. But the original system is not a keeper. We used to do it this way, and it was great for awhile. It helped me to organize our day better and get a whole lot more accomplished in our homeschool. I think it also helped the kids get more "into" doing school work each day. There were a couple of problems with the original workbox system, though. The plastic bins, even though we used way less than the actual workbox system suggests, turned out to be a waste of space...space that was sorely needed to store actual stuff, not just bins that were empty most of the time. Taking 30-45 minutes EVERY night to fill the bins turned out to not be my thing...way too time consuming! The kids would get out their bins out to do their work, and suddenly the table was a mess of bins and papers and very little room for kids to work. It's taken me a few weeks, but I finally figured out how to solve our storage problem and adapt the workbox system to fit our needs. TA-DA! The workbox crate! (see above picture) Each child has 4 hanging file folders; one for each of the 4 days that we homeschool a week. All the kid's file folders fit nicely in one crate....so much less space than all the plastic bins! PLUS, I can load up a whole weeks worth of work in one night! YAY! :)

At the front of each of the sets of file folders, there is an expandable folder with the child's name on it so they know which section is theirs. This expandable folder is also where they put their finished work so I can check it/look it over at my leisure. I haven't figured out exactly how to integrate the funner, hands-on activities that I used to put in their bins (larger, bulkier things, etc) but I'm sure the solution will come to me soon!

Another "new" system I have implemented in our house is the individual white board. Why does each kid need their own white board? Several reasons, actually: first, my kids LOVE drawing on my white board and most of the time it is full of kids pictures and a cause of contention in that we have 5 kids who want to use it and only one small white board; second, kids have been REALLY dragging about getting their stuff done very day! While at the school supply store doing our shopping for the semester on Saturday, I purchased some super cool white board stickers that turn any surface into a white board! Later that day when I went to Wal-mart to finish up my shopping, I bought 5 clipboards for 98 cents each. Viola! 5 individual white boards! What does this have to do with helping motivate kids to get their stuff done every day? Well, I thought I'd try and tie in the love my kids have for their white board to help them see what needs to be done every day and see when it is completed.

On each child's white board, I made a list of all the things I expect them to get done in the morning...things I usually have to remind/nag about until after lunch. Each child can see exactly what they need to accomplish before they have free-time, and they get the added bonus of getting to wipe each task off after it is completed! Today was our first morning using the white boards and it went sooooooo well!! It's just after 10am and I have one child who is minutes away from completing his whole list! Wow, what a difference a white board makes!

Now that we don't have all those empty bins lying around, I have so much more storage! I also bought a few pieces of cheapy furniture from Wal-mart to complete our organization (see the very blurry picture above.)

And here is what Brighton did for his "school" this morning. :) This is our one cabinet that we can't seem to baby-proof all the way...he knows how to open it anyway! So he has lots of fun getting the pots and pans out a.l.l. d.a.y. l.o.n.g.! He's cute, though, so we don't mind. :) I usually let my toddlers get into a few cabinets and drawers in the kitchen, it's fun and educational for them even if it does make a bit more mess.

'Cuz you're a Pregnant

2010-02-04T07:47:00.000-08:00

In our house, being pregnant is not just a temporary state of being...it's a whole new species. Scarlett and Haven say things like "...and she's a Pregnant..." or " and you be the Pregnant, okay Mom...since you are a Pregnant" or "and this horse will be the Pregnant..." and "only Pregnants give birth to babies" or "if you are a Pregnant, you can sit down..." :) I'm not sure how I feel, being elevated to a whole new species...but I do like that at the tender ages of 4 and 5, they understand that Pregnants need to rest, take naps, drink lots of water, and get extra help from their kids and husbands every now and then. :)

Elijah's Blue and Gold Cub Scout Banquet

2010-02-03T07:18:00.000-08:00

Last night was the annual cub scout Blue and Gold Banquet. In this ward, they have a tradition of the boys making cakes every year. Last year, Sebastian and Elijah (and Dave) made this dino dig cake. This year, Sebastian is no longer a cub scout (he's an 11-year old scout), so the cake project was all Elijah's...and Dave's. :) Well, and I baked the cakes and made the frosting.

Here is Elijah spreading the red "lava" frosting on the cake that has already been frosted with chocolate frosting and surrounded by smashed oreo "rubble." Basically the whole hollow center of the cake ended up being filled with "lava"....that's a LOT of frosting!

Here is Elijah with his almost completed cake. We wanted to wait until we got to the church building before adding the exploding lava candy pieces (candy made by Dave) so there wouldn't be a chance of them falling off in the car. Of course, right as we were about to get out of the car, Elijah accidentally let some pieces slide off the cookie sheet onto the dirty floor, but most were still on the sheet, so no harm done.

Here is the finished cake. Dave got the plan off of the Family Fun website. I think it turned out pretty cool! In past years, the kids have all just eaten the cakes at the Blue and Gold Banquet. This year they did something a bit different. For the past two weeks the boys have had the opportunity to earn points by meeting different scouting requirements. Every boy had the same opportunity of earning points; it was up to them to full-fill requirements. They then got to use their points last night in an auction to bid on the cake they wanted to take home. Elijah ended up with a lot of points and got the very cake he wanted: a cake decorated like an X-Box and controller.

Here is how Brighton and I spent most of the time before the banquet actually started (we got there a bit early and they started late...so a good 30 minutes or so.) He had LOTS of fun wandering around the gym trying to get into fun stuff and just letting his little legs move and move and move! Scarlett helped follow him around. At one point, she turned to me and said "it's okay, Mom, I will take care of him and you can go find a place to sit down." :) Sweet girl. But I didn't take her up on that offer. I'm thinking 4 years old isn't quite old enough to watch a baby all by yourself. :) She is good at it, though.

Everyone always has a good time running around the gym. These two cute little girls did their fair share of running around with friends and having a good fun! Here they are settled at the table, waiting for it to start.

Here are Fiona, Sebastian and Elijah waiting patiently. Just as Sebastian has stopped pulling weird faces (and thumbs up) when I snap a picture, Elijah has started....he really was having a good time! :)

Here he is getting a few awards (he got his Bear and some arrow points and a belt loop.) After each boy received his awards, there was clapping, of course. Brighton thought the clapping was so fun...though he didn't actually do any clapping until about 30 seconds after everyone else was done clapping. :) He also, instinctively I guess, rolled his arms after every clapping session....like how when you play patty-cake you clap and then roll your arms. It was super cute. :)

I love the scouting program! It has given the boys lots of cool educational opportunities, amusement opportunities, character-building opportunities, and lots and lots of opportunities to have fun with friends! I have a very busy brain, so Dave has done an awesome job of being the main parent who helps the boys keep track of and accomplish their scouting requirements. When the boys recieve a big award (like Elijah earining his Bear,) they have the mom come up to recieve a special pin in honor of all the work the mom does to help the boy earn his award. I always feel a tinge of guilt at this point, since Dave is really the one who did all the work to help! But oh well...I did give birth to him and nurse him for almost 2 years and wash his clothes and cook most of his meals and clean up his barf....I guess those things count too! :)

What's in a name?

2010-02-02T06:56:00.000-08:00

Our usual baby name picking routine is that we make a list. We usually come up with a good 4-5 names that we both agree upon and feel good about for our impending arrival. The list is handy right after the baby is born and we decide who we think this baby is. It worked well for Sebastian, Elijah, Fiona, Haven and Scarlett. Brighton was a name we had picked out for a boy before Haven was even born. We still had a list of back-up names, though, in case he came out and wasn't Brighton...but he was. :) This pregnancy has been a bit different, though, as far as names go. I had several girl names that Dave liked. Then we found out we were having a boy, so obviously the girl names were out! I would suggest boy names to Dave every few days and he didn't like any of them. He would suggest names to me and I didn't like any of them. I was beginning to think our baby would just be called "Baby" for the rest of his life. Then, one day, I suggested a name and Dave said he loved it. I loved it. We came up with a middle name right away that fit perfectly. We knew our baby's name and no other alternatives were necessary. Weird. This has never really happened before. It's cool, though. It's made the baby like an "official" member of our family already. The kids talk to him and call him by name. He is included, by name, in our Family Home Evening song. :) Sometimes, it's like he's already here...just quite.

I always thought it was sort of strange how people had their baby's name picked out months before the baby was born, but now I understand. Of course I am open to the possibility that he may come out and not be who we think he is and then he will be known as "Baby," but I'm pretty sure he is.....well....I'm not going to say until he's born! :)

New 'do

2010-01-26T18:27:00.000-08:00

I'm really just NOT a long hair person. Some women look gorgeous with long, flowing hair; I just don't. I am a short hair person. My first short hair cut was when I was 7. I asked my mom to cut it short. I think I specifically asked for it to be like my older brother, Grant's hair. (See above photo of the very hair I am talking about...both mine and Grant's!) The next year, when I turned 8, I had her cut it even shorter...I basically looked like a boy. It's what I wanted, though. I also started dressing like a boy. Most people, in fact, thought I was a boy. My mom, bless her heart, dealt with it all very well and very positively. Good job, Mom! I had that same short hair cut until one fateful day when I was 10 1/2 or so. I was riding my bike in the neighborhood and a girl whistled at me. Apparently, I was handsome as a boy. ACK! From that day on, I started growing it out. It wasn't until I was 16 and had a bleaching/dyeing kick that ended in fried hair that I cut it short again. I loved it! And I really felt that short hair suited me so much better than longer hair (by "longer" I mean shoulderish length, by the way...I was never patient enough to let it grow longer than that!)

Since that time, I have had a pretty regular cycle of growing it out, then chopping it off; growing it out, then chopping it off. When Fiona was a baby, my hair was the longest it has ever been since I was a little girl. This was my "hippy" stage where I went a year without wearing any make-up or shaving my legs to make a statement about women's beauty. But, the fact remained that I really did not care for long hair. Hair on my neck bugs me and it's harder to style. Longer hair doesn't do much for my face structure and I usually end up wearing it in a pony tail most of the time anyway which leads to the dreaded pony tail headache...not fun!

I think it may be official now: no more long hair! Ever. Again. Why do I keep doing it when I don't really like it? I can be a cute, feminine and beautiful woman without having long hair. So last night I took my trusty hair-cutting scissors and cut off a ton of hair. It felt very good. :) I usually prefer cutting my own hair since I am the one with the picture of how I would like it to look in my head. When I go to someone to get it cut, I usually end up coming home and "fixing" it anyway.

Now with the world of Facebook, if you mention you cut (or color or whatever) your hair, everyone wants to see a picture! (Me, included...so if you cut or color or whatever your hair...post a picture!) So this morning I thought I would take a few photos to post. Ya know, some people are just really photogenic and hardly ever take a bad picture. Some of us, however, are NOT. I remember my junior year in high school the day our school pictures came back. I happen to be working in the office that hour and saw my picture. UGH! It was really quite bad. My dad (who was principal at the time) was there along with some friends, trying to reassure me that it was a "fine" picture. :) We all knew it just wasn't. There was one guy there who said "well, it looks like you and you look good." Somehow that made me feel a bit better...but not really. :)

So jump to this morning... I ended up taking over 100 pictures! I still don't know that I am particularly all that pleased with any of them...but I am not about to take 100 more. (The song "You're So Vain" kept playing in my head...) :) So here are three that I don't hate. :)

Nice to have some help!

2010-01-26T18:05:00.000-08:00

Last week I had a women's conference to attend at church where they were serving dinner. Some mom's make something yummy to leave at home for their families to eat while they're gone. I, on the other hand, asked Sebastian to make waffles. Don't get me wrong; waffles are very yummy and tasty...they just aren't what I wanted for dinner so it seemed like a good night to have them. :)
Sebastian would probably really enjoy more cooking opportunities then I currently give him. He is pretty good at following recipes (see above photo of him checking his recipe to make sure he has all the ingredients needed) and cleaning up as he goes along. So far, he makes eggs/omelets, cookies, ramen, and pancake/waffle batter. It is very handy to be able to ask him to make these things from time to time and he does a good job.

Brighton, on the other hand, is not a whole lot of help in the kitchen! He now thinks it is super fun to climb on the stove (hello...dangerous!) and he loves to be in on the action. My left arm is significantly more muscular than my right from carrying him on my hip while I cook and clean in the kitchen!

All the kids are great helpers. They are very ready to grab Brighton off the table, rescue him from falling down the stairs, help find a lost paci or numerous other tasks that make it a bit easier to care for a busy little toddler.

A few months ago, we instituted a "buddy" system in the house. Each of the three older kids has a younger child as their "buddy" whom they help with various tasks and in general look out for them. I was surprised how ready and willing (even excited!) the older kids were to take on this new responsibility. Sebastian is Haven's buddy, Elijah is Scarlett's and Fiona is Brighton's. Generally, the only things Haven really needs help with is maybe finding shoes, help with lunch...not too much else at home. The one day a week they attend school, though, Sebastian is super diligent about looking out for her. He always waits for her to get out of the car at the curb and follows her into the building escorting her to her classroom. He waits at the end of the day to make sure Haven comes out and doesn't come to the car until she is already in. (He actually does this for Fiona too, even though he is not her "buddy".) Elijah is very helpful in being Scarlett's buddy. He will often get a cup for her, a snack for her, a bowl for her, etc. He helps her with shoes sometimes and in general tries to keep an eye out for her when they play outside and things. Fiona is great with Brighton. She is always willing to pick him up, tote him around, give him his paci, get him up from naps, give him a drink or snack, etc. Everyone helps with Brighton, but I try to remember to ask her as he is her buddy and she is always there to help. I have really liked watching the older kids feel a since of responsibility for their younger siblings. It is certainly not their job to take care of them or be in charge of them (that is what parent's are for,) but have some responsibility and care for a younger sibling is a great learning tool and has provided them with a chance to form a bit more compassion and empathy for the younger ones. I think it has helped the younger ones to feel a bit more cared for and loved by the older ones, as well. :)

Baby belly

2010-01-21T11:24:00.000-08:00

I am 29 weeks pregnant. I know all to well that these last 10 weeks or so will go by too quickly, so I am trying to really enjoy and relish my sweet baby in utero, though I am so impatient to meet him and snuggle him! In my impatience (this happens every pregnancy, of course!) I can't wait too long to buy something for the baby! We don't really ever need many baby items since we've had so many babies...so usually my first (and pretty close to last) purchase and splurge is name-brand newborn diapers with the cute little umbilical cord cut-out. When we were shopping at Target this morning, I couldn't resist buying them!

I realized that we don't really have any pictures of ye ol' baby belly yet this pregnancy and so wanted to get a few shots. I took a zillion while holding the camera at arms length...none of them really turned out too great (weird angle) so I finally used the timer and the kitchen counter and captured that first picture above. The one directly above, Brighton thought it was nice of me to have bought him a fun plastic bag to open. :) He kept stealing the diaper package away. :)

He was just about to start pulling out diapers and I took it away. He was pretty darn bummed, but I think it's a bit early to start getting the diapers out!

Mr. Fix-it

2010-01-21T11:11:00.000-08:00

The two little girls have been making little houses and enclosures out of chairs and benches turned on their sides in the living room. Then they fill the enclosures with dress up clothes and blankets for their beds and substrate. :) We have these two little kid stools I picked up last summer at a garage sale. I am a sucker for cute little wood kid furniture and stuff! They are not the most well-made stools on the planet, however, and we really haven't used them all that much. The girls thought they might fit well into their plan for walls, so they brought them out to the living room. Almost immediately, a leg fell off. Brighton found the screw that fell out and set to work trying to put the screw back in the stool!

Here is Haven's hand trying to help Brighton's cute little chubby hand! :) So sweet!

He worked pretty hard on it for about 20 minutes or so! Wow...for such a busy, busy little guy, I was very pleased that he worked on it so long! :) His fix-it session ended, however, when he gave up putting the screw in the stool and started eating it....

Escapee!!

2010-01-21T10:57:00.000-08:00

Our baby gate is not all that secure...the place we had to install it (due to stud location and banister location) is about 7 inches away from the top step...which creates a large gap. We have pretty successfully kept the baby in the living room by shoving an old couch cushion in the gap. Brighton is now figuring out that if he can wedge himself between the gate and the cushion, he is a free man! Here he is looking all innocent with one leg under the gate and Willow looking on.

I turned around and then heard little giggles that sounded like they were coming from the entry way...and they were! He had escaped.

And was very happy about it! :) He is pretty safe on the stairs and, obviously, knows how to get down. I am not ready to take the baby gate down yet, though. I like knowing where he is and that he can not get downstairs without me. The gate will stay up for a few more months, at least. He has not tried to escape yet today, so that's a good sign, right?!? :)

Helping Daddy

2010-01-21T10:23:00.000-08:00

Brighton is getting to the age where he LOVES to be involved in what we are doing and LOVES to feel like he is "helping". It is so adorable! Last Christmas break, we started our kitchen remodel. This Christmas break, we wanted to finish it. :) I had decided I did not like the new lay-out, however, and came up with a new lay-out that I knew would work better. So the day after Christmas, Dave got started on making it all happen! The first step was to turn our "new" half-wall into a full wall. Brighton was very ready and willing to "help" Daddy with this fun project!

Once the wall insert was built and Dave was installing it, Brighton found his little toy squeaky hammer and I showed him how he could "do work" too by hammering the wall. He was so proud of himself! I missed getting a picture of it, however, but I'm sure you can imagine how adorable he was! :)

Part of the new layout involved moving the stove and microwave (again...) Dave needed to go up into the attic and move some wiring and thus needed the ladder. Brighton, who is quite the climber these days, thought the ladder looked super fun! I had deterred him a number of times. When I was out of the room, Brighton started to climb again. Dave thought it was adorable and spotted him while he ventured up the ladder.

As I was coming down the hall and Dave was grabbing the camera, Dave called to me to spot him so he could take some pictures.

Once Brighton got to the top, Dave said "let go and I'll take a picture!" I was a bit nervous about letting go, but I think Elijah (who is such a sweet big brother) was even more nervous!

Brighton was SO happy and proud of himself to be at the top! After this fun adventure there was no keeping him off of the ladder, so it went back in the garage. :)

The kitchen is VERY close to being completed! We now have almost all of the cabinet doors up and all the cabinet trim. I LOVE the new layout and can't wait until it is fully and completely done! I will post pictures of it soon!

December 2009

2010-01-21T09:51:00.000-08:00

We had a lovely Christmas break. It's always so exciting and cozy to open up the Christmas tubs and get all of our Christmas stuff out every year! The kids loved playing with the Christmas hats...they especially loved putting them on their adorable baby brother and exclaiming at his utter cuteness! :)

We had some very special visitors stop by in December! Dave's Great Uncle and Aunt were in town and were nice enough to share a few hours with us! :)

We managed to make a few homemade gifts this year (not as many as I had hoped, though.) Above is a picture of the soap that Sebastian made for his cousin (we do a cousin gift exchange every year.) They smelled soooooooooo good!

The kids re-discovered this year the fact that Dave juggles a bit. We thought it would be fun to make him some stuff to juggle! The kids made the balloon (with beans inside) juggling balls, and I quickly sewed the bean bag juggling bags.

One day I let the girls all take turns taking random pictures with the camera. The above is one that Fiona took. We have LOTS of random pictures of obscure household views and items now. :)

We set up the Christmas tree down in the family room this year. Our living room is just a bit too full of stuff to find a place that totally did not block a window (I am not a fan of blocking windows...I need light!) and the fire place is in the family room, so it seemed like the perfect choice. We set it all up one Sunday morning before church with a fire going and Christmas music in the background....very fun and cozy! The baby gate worked well to keep Brighton out of the tree and later the presents (as well as the keep the chewy dog out!)

This year, we gave all the kids new pajamas and slippers on Christmas Eve. (see above picture of them on Christmas morning.) I think we may do it every year...they were all so adorable in their new jammies!

Christmas Eve night ended up being a looooong night...I can't remember why exactly, but there were LOTS of kids waking up LOTS of times...by morning time (which started at about 5am, with us finally getting out of bed about 6am) I was in a bit of a grumpy mood. How sad is that, to have a grumpy mom on Christmas morning!?! I can blame it on pregnancy hormones, right? :) This is why we don't have any pictures of present opening and such. It was a fun Christmas morning once the joy of the children and the occasion melted my grumpiness a bit...very cozy with the fire going and the kids all so excited! The big present this year was a Wii and Wii fit. Dave played the Wii with them Christmas day and I REALLY enjoyed hearing all the giggles and how much fun they were all having!

I grew up with the tradition of having a big breakfast/brunch on Christmas and have carried that tradition on in my own family. After all the present excitement had died down and we had cleaned up some of the mess, I got to cooking. We had waffles, eggs, turkey bacon, little smokies, toast and orange juice. YUM!

Gourmet Hot Cocoa and Daddy's Special Touch

2009-12-23T12:58:00.000-08:00

About 10 years ago, one of my sister's-in-law changed my life forever. Toddler baby Sebastian and I were visiting her house on a winter vacation. She offered us all (my mom and I think my little bro were there too) some hot cocoa. This was to be no ordinary hot cocoa. She pulled out these big, round cocoa mugs and some flavoring syrups. I chose Irish Creme syrup for mine...it was soooooooooo yummy!! I did not grow up drinking hot cocoa on a regular basis during the winter....as soon as I got home from this trip I went and bought some hot cocoa, flavoring syrup and used our BIG soup mugs for Dave and I to enjoy this special treat at our house! :)

Dave has added his own special touch to our gourmet hot cocoa experience...he has taken it a step further by adding whipped cream, chocolate syrup and sprinkles!

Everything is more special with whipped cream, chocolate syrup and sprinkles! Suddenly your pancakes are happy to see you! Your hot cocoa makes you feel pampered! Your ice cream is restaurant worthy! Add whipped cream, holiday sprinkles and a little lemon-lime soda to egg nog and you have a festive holiday treat! Daddy's special touch makes everything a little bit better! :)

More sledding photos!

2009-12-23T12:40:00.000-08:00

Scarlett making a sweet little snow angel. :)

Sebastian fortifying the barricade.

Fiona taking a little break from working on the "ramp"...which was a little hill they made in the middle of a sled run.

There is always a lot of snow eating during sledding!! :) YUM!

Elijah on his way back up to go down again! I'm so happy we bought the boys snow pants last year! I'm so happy we live in an area where they actually get to use their snow pants! We have amassed kid snow pants for years and years and they saw very little use. Last year after we realized we could actually expect snow several times each winter, we decided we needed to start amassing bigger sizes of snow pants for the kids who were outgrowing them! They have actually gotten a lot of use!

All five of the oldest kids!

Here is Scarlett experimenting to see if a skateboard on the sledding hill would be fun. It's not really....

Brighton, who woke up abnormally early from his nap, got very excited watching the kids out the front window!!

Another great day for sledding!

2009-12-23T12:18:00.000-08:00

We have been getting jipped. After every snow storm that passes through, we only come out with a few measly inches. I am very thankful for the many number of times we have been blessed with a few measly inches so far this year, but we have been waiting and hoping for that storm that brings a few FEET....at least a few inches is still good for sledding! Above are Scarlett and Haven going down the slight hill that is our front yard.

Here is Scarlett after a good wipe out. :) All the kids had VERY strict instructions to stop themselves before they got into the street. Our street is not super busy, but we are only 4 houses up from a VERY busy road and so we do get traffic. The kids have a hard time stopping themselves at the sidewalk...not because it is hard to stop yourself, but because it is hard to stop the fun....In comes brilliant Daddy...

Dave came to the rescue by building a little snow wall with a curve to direct kids away from the street. :)

Added bonus to the snow barricade: it seems to be more fun! :)

They are still out playing and sledding in the front. From what I hear, Dave just got done building a "jump". :) Fiona just asked "can you make the jump bigger?" :) Brighton is having LOTS of fun watching them from the window and there is hot water simmering on the stove for when all the little frozen kidcicles want to come in and thaw out. Christmas vacation ROCKS! :)

Another little Billy Goat!

2009-12-23T12:15:00.000-08:00

Brighton is an active, busy little guy. I leanrned a trick from my sister to pack books into a bookcase so tightly that babies can not pull them out. It really works great....until your baby learns to climb up higher to get to the non-packed books. :) Such a smart little billy goat! :) And so adorable.... :)

Watching the sky for Daddy!

2009-12-23T12:04:00.000-08:00

Dave had a cool opportunity last week to view Colorado Springs from a few thousand feet above the ground. He had done a favor for someone at work, so in return the guy offered to take Dave on a flight in his little plane. We knew about what time he would be flying over, so we all went outside to try and spot him. We did see a plane or two (well, I did...the kids really just played) that I thought might be his, but it turned out that he had flown over our neck of the woods a bit earlier than anticipated. Although we missed seeing his actual plane, the kids had fun taking a little break outside and enjoying the "warm" low 40's weather! :)

All the kids are so good with Brighton and know how to take care of him, but Fiona seems to want to do it the most. :) She is a very sweet big sister and takes really attentive care of him. He had LOTS of fun jumping on the trampoline with her!

The other girls wanted turns jumping with Brighton, but, sadly, I didn't think they were old enough to be in charge of him on the trampoline. They got over it and soon all had lots of fun again! :)

Brighton and I went in once his little bare feet were getting cold and watched for airplanes from a living room window. I love our living room windows because they are so low that Brighton can look out them perfectly. He thinks it is great fun to check out what is happening outside...he especially loves it when he sees Fiona getting the mail or another kid taking out the trash or Daddy coming home from work!

In case you need to know: How to Make a Dragon

2009-12-16T15:41:00.000-08:00

A Recipe To Make A Dragon
By Sebastian Boyd

1. Start with the complete genome of a crocodile.
2. Modify the leg genes to make them longer.
3. Insert the DNA of bat wings into the shoulder bone and increase the wing size by 40% and attach muscle genes.
4. Modify head to give it bumps and chochkas and thing-ga-ma-bibs.
5. Finally, change it's false pallet into a fire-false pallet, give it a plutonium stomach and an appetite for plutonium and give it a flight bladder.

There ya go! If you happen to have a crocodile and a DNA extractor, you are set to make your very own dragon!

Fix my hair too!

2009-12-14T08:52:00.000-08:00

Brighton feels left out when the girls get their hair done! He has started bringing us the spray bottle (which originally held no-tangle spray, no we refill it with water and a little squirt of conditioner) and begging to have us spray his hair! :) Today, Fiona and I decided to give him a mohawk. :)

He thinks it's so fun! The girls sometimes fuss about it, the big boys DEFINITELY complain, but he begs for more!

Then he turned it into a fun "chase me" game with the girls, who LOVE to play cute games with their adorable baby brother!

From there, it turned into a "stick the cute baby in the pink chair and look at how cute he is just sitting there while we push him around the kitchen" game. :)

He was so cute, just happy to sit there and be subjected to whatever the girls wanted to do with him next! Fiona plopped him in the chair saying "Oh, Mom! You have to come and see how cute he is!" Here in the above picture, Scarlett is spraying his foot. :) Then Haven pushed him around the kitchen for awhile. Scarlett parked him under the table where he was happy to just hang out for a good 5 minutes! :) He adores his brothers and sisters, and they all adore him! :)

Museum opening!!

2009-12-14T07:40:00.000-08:00

A month or so ago, Sebastian constructed a life-size replica (including skeletal system and internal organs) of Lyuba, a 10,000 year old baby mammoth that was discovered frozen in Siberia almost completely intact. (You can find out more about her here.) The kids put her out in the back yard to simulate the aging that would take place when exposed to a frozen, cold environment. Well, it was only cold and frozen for a few weeks...then the snow melted and Lyuba started to deteriorate a bit more quickly than Sebastian had anticipated or wanted. On Sunday, he and Fiona excavated her out and brought her into the more stable environment of our house. Then Sebastian, like any good scientist, proceeded to do a small autopsy and take some important samples from the specimen. The above picture is of that procedure. Scarlett and Haven assisted. :)

Above are the samples that were taken, on display for the museum visitors to see.

Here's Sebastian right before he closed Lyuba back up to be able to put her on display.

Here we are at the museum opening! Haven handed Sebastian our museum "membership" card and we went in!

Here is our very first view of the museum: Lyuba on display and cave-man Elijah, who took part in an inter-active exhibit about early humans.

Here is the cave-man fire...pretty cool! Complete with a light under the tissue paper! You can see the cave in the background.

And here is the star of the show, Lyuba!

Here is Fiona, Elijah and Sequoia....cave people just would not be complete without a cave-dog! :)

Here is Scarlett checking out some of the art-work hanging on the museum wall. My favorite was the one of the giant ground sloth (megatherium) on the top right.

Sebastian loaded this empty set of drawers with interactive displays for kids. Here he showing the little girls a bone. The other drawers held the samples taken from Lyuba and some different games (what does not belong, etc) The little girls loved it! :) Brighton was a bit bummed that we wouldn't let him down to rampage and destroy the exhibits, though. :) The kids did a great job with the museum and it was fun to check it all out!

Sorry, not this year!

2009-12-14T07:13:00.000-08:00

I'm sure you do this to: the day is going really well, kids are happy, things are clean, you're feeling abnormally good and happy and so you plan big; "Sure, I could have 5 more kids! No big deal, it'd be great!" or "I can totally tackle that remodelling project without my husband, no problem!" I have had way too many of these moments recently, once of which being when I said "Let's do a homemade Christmas this year!" I must've been having a REALLY good day that day! We made big plans for a large variety of presents for the kids we could craft ourselves...the bulk of them sewing projects. I am not a real big sewer. In fact, it's been probably over 2 years since I sewed anything. And 5 years since I actually "made" anything by sewing. And, to add to that, I made this great sewing/homemade Christmas idea about 2 weeks before Christmas. I am a huge procrastinator and it usually works out for me okay, but 2 weeks and lots of huge projects to get done ONLY when the children are sleeping????

Reality hit me a few days later. I am 5 months pregnant and dead tired all the time, have a busy 14 month old baby to chase and care for, 5 other kids who need my attention and, lets face it, aren't all asleep until between 10-11pm at night!! There is no way I can sew and make a bunch of homemade gifts this year. This is NOT the year for a homemade Christmas! Once I announced such to Dave (who giggled when I told him,) I felt as if a weight had been lifted off my shoulders! Some day we'll do a homemade Christmas...and when we do, we'll start before December even begins (good suggestion, Dave!)

A whole new meaning to "I've got a monkey on my back!"

2009-12-11T09:36:00.000-08:00

On chilly mornings like today, I like to get a warm fire going downstairs in the family room to take the edge off of the cold and make it more inviting for kids to be able to be down there and play. This morning, after I had explained to the kids the "new and improved" chore system, Sebastian started to work on his chore (or jurisdiction) of the family room. He found a pile of monkeys and decided his little bro would look adorable with one riding on his back. I think he was right! All the kids gushed about how cute Brighton looked with the little monkey hugging his back. Brighton seems to think it's pretty fun too...he's been wearing the monkey now for almost an hour (and none of the chores are done yet, in case you are wondering....ergh.)

A monkey on his back, a brush in his hand to carry around, and some snackage in his mouth; life is good! :)

It happens so quickly!

2009-12-09T15:24:00.000-08:00

Brighton is learning and growing so fast! He just turned 14 months old this week. He is understanding more and more every day and is just so fun and cute! Today, to distract him from something small I needed to take away from him that wasn't safe, I put a hair scrunchy on his wrist. He thought it was so fun. He kept taking it off and then bringing it to me to put back on his wrist. After my enthusiasm for how cute it was on his wrist wore off, he would have me put it on his world and then walk over to the gate at the top of the stairs "yelling" to the kids downstairs (who could not hear or see him) how cute it was on his wrist. :) Then he decided to try putting it in his little ball maze thingy. He would stuff it in (as pictured above) and then try and REALLY stuff it in there using a paint stirring stick. Then he would pull the hair scrunchy out and do it all over again. So adorable!!

Of course, once I pulled the camera out and started taking pictures of him, he was hamming it up with big cheesy grins where his eyes are all squinty and his little beaver teeth stick out of his smile. :) I didn't manage to capture one of those classic baby looks (my camera is dying I think and not doing the job it used to), but I did catch the sweet one below. :)

Brighton is a real sweetheart. He loves cuddles when he has time for them; he is a VERY busy little guy. He goes from one thing to the next to the next to the next to the next to the next to the next to the next and so on pretty much all day long! I forgot how tiring it can be to try and keep up with a busy little boy! (Just since I started writing this post he has moved on from the hair scrunchy to the window, to some cords to pull down and play with, to "mopping" and "sweeping" in the kitchen and now on to something else...) He always takes time to check in with me, though, either by talking to me and smiling or coming over for a hug. He has learned a few of the signs we have taught him. He has "eat" down pretty well (one of his favorite hobbies...), working on "more" (he usually signs "eat" for "more"...pretty much gets the same result!) and "all done" when he is, well, "all done." :) He has started bringing me things to open for him or help him with or do for him, which I think is pretty adorable and smart. :) One of his favorite things to do is just walk around holding something. He'll take a lap or two around the room with something, check on some stuff, find something new to hold and then go around again. :) Brighton brings a lot of joy and sweetness into our home and we all love him a lot!!

File Folder Addict

2009-12-08T13:44:00.000-08:00

Above is a gorgeous picture of my file folder stash thus far. I LOVE these things! Last summer I decided to purchase some file folder activity books that you use to make your own educational file folders. Some people make their own from scratch; some people print off file folder activities from the Internet; some people buy pre-printed color file folder activity books. I am relieved that I am a part of that latter group, at least as a file folder newbie. Now that I have actually done all three options, I know the pre-printed color books are so much easier and faster to put together than the other two options.

Here are a few examples of the younger kid's file folder activities. (The one open is an activity reinforcing what an antonym is.) It takes me about 30-45 minutes to complete one of the younger kid's folders. These folders were made from these books ordered off of Amazon. They come in different grade levels. I also ordered a few other ready-made file folder activity books for the younger kids, but have yet to use them since they are not color...thus you have to take the time to color each one and THEN still put it together. I am thinking about selling those books...and now that I know which books I really like a lot (see below) I plan on purchasing some of those in other grade levels and subjects for next semester!

Here is an example of the older kid's file folders. These were made with the excellent Take It To Your Seat centers series (find link to the right under homeschool resources.) I LOVE these...VERY educational and useful. This series is my favorite. The younger kids activities use actual file folders. These ones use kids school type folders with pockets inside to hold the supplies for each activity. The folder open above is about 3 different types of poetry and contains laminated examples of poetry, spare lined paper for a rough draft of the child's original poem in one of the three styles, and worksheets to illustrate and write the final draft of the poem.

To make the folder, I simply tear out the pages along perforated lines, cut things out, glue things on the folder that might need to be attached firmly (makes the laminating look better and have less bubbles), mount components on card stock and then laminate everything that needs to be laminated (which is everything that is non-consumable papers/worksheets.) Then I cut the laminated pieces out and trim up edges, affix any velcro where necessary (mostly for the younger kid's folders) and then put the game pieces, etc in a zip-top plastic bag which I staple to the folder. Since each folder is laminated and any necessary components (cards, pieces, etc) are mounted on card stock and then laminated, I expect them to last through all of my kids!

These file folders have really helped to enrich, reinforce and introduce new ideas to our homeschool. I love that the kids can largely do them all on their own (the front cover contains the instructions and the back the answers, if necessary.) I love how organized and "together" they make me feel. :) I especially LOVE that the kids LOVE them (well, the math ones might just be a strong "like") and are very happy to do them.

Here is another place Brighton hung out this morning during school work (other than the dog.) :) This cabinet does have a child lock on it....but obviously not Brighton proof! What a cutie! He gave us all several good laughs this morning. :) And several sweet moments that melted our hearts, too. I love babies! :)

Just needed to take a little break...

2009-12-08T08:15:00.000-08:00

While everyone was working away at their school work this morning, I looked over and saw that sweet Brighton (who got up waaaaaay too early this morning) had decided the best place to take a little rest would be on the dog. :) Willow (who is now about 7 months old) is very sweet and gentle with him and didn't seem to mind being his pillow in the least.

She especially didn't mind once she realized Brighton had brought some snacks with him! After all our years of having dogs and toddlers, I have observed that dogs REALLY like toddlers: where there are toddlers, there are usually snacks!

He's learned to be such a great little pack leader already! She got a little too close to his snacks and he gently kept her away. :)

This was all going on under our work table. :) Here is Haven showing me a pattern page she just finished. All the kids are doing really well and making great progress. Haven (who is 5) has started sounding out words better than I had anticipated. She did this pattern page all by herself where you needed to read color words (blue, green, etc) and we have not practiced that, but she sounded them all out and finished the page all by herself!

Even though a few of us have the grumpies this morning (Mom in included...), we are still trying to make the most of this beautiful, snowy, wintry day. Cute babies, nice dogs and workboxes all help with that!

Always learning!

2009-12-07T10:46:00.000-08:00

Workbox system or no, children are learning ALL the time! As long as all of their time is not taken up by t.v., video games or texting, children are natural learners. Is the learning they do "on their own" any less valuable than learning done in a workbook or a classroom? Heck no! I would argue that learning they do on their own can actually be much more valuable. For one, the things we take the time to figure out and learn on our own and directed by ourselves, we tend to remember much more readily than facts we learned by someone else's wishing, direction and taught generally in that person's learning style not our own. The learning children do just by being curious kids can be more valuable also because that learning is incorporated and reinforced in their daily lives and activities.

We are raised in a society that really only values tangible education: grades, papers, tests and degrees are all ways we validate learning in our society. Parents think they need to get their 3 year olds a workbook and flash cards or they will never learn their colors. Parents feel pressured to put their little 4 year olds in comprehensive pre-school programs or they will never learn their letters and thus will flunk out of kindergarten. Schools are now sending tiny little children in early grade school, who are in school all day long, home with homework every night. Kids are required to do more standardized tests to "prove" how much their school has taught them. Pressure, pressure, pressure. Work, work, work. Results, results, results. Has all this improved the over-all education and intelligence levels of your average American? No, actually it hasn't. But we still push and still pressure and still load our kids down with more and more work.

I am so thankful to have the freedom to homeschool my children. We have largely been "unschoolers" up until this point and I have seen my children learn and grow and attain knowledge I never would have even thought to direct them in learning! And, honestly, they know a lot more about certain subjects (paleontology and other sciences for instance) than I ever learned in school or had the opportunity to learn about. For the most part, my children are free to learn as much as they want and as thoroughly and in depth as they desire. They have learned history, geography, spelling, reading (yes, how to read and the love of it), many sciences and some math all on their own basically. I have kids who devour every book or magazine that enters this house...and redevour them again and again. I have kids who do things like make a life-size replica of a baby woolly mammoth (skeletal system, organs, skin) for fun. I have kids who work well together and know how to get along with little kids, older kids and adults. I have kids who are able to just be kids and not worry about trying to be little adults. Would I have kids like this if they had gone to public school? Maybe...though they wouldn't have as much time to explore the world and the amazing things in it there are to learn and I seriously doubt they would feel as free to just be kids. Learning is more than rote memorization of facts; it is the igniting of a fire and a desire to learn more...not just about math, spelling or geography; about anything and everything a mind can come up with and enrich a life. The goal here is to help each child be confident in their abilities (and in gaining any abilities they so choose or need), be confident in who they are (a divine child of a loving God), be a good addition to the world (loving, empathetic, helpful, giving, able to solve problems in productive ways, willing, etc), be awesome parents and spouses (or at least have been given the tools to become such), and be obedient sons and daughters of God. For us, all these things are accomplished in homeschooling.

This post kinda turned into a "pro-homeschool" type of post that I had not really intended. Do I think homeschooling is right for everyone? Heck no. It's not right for every kid or every family. Yes, we need public school in our society and I doubt we will ever not need it. I do wish they would make the changes in public schools that researchers have been telling them for years that they need to change, but I doubt that is going to happen in the next 10, 20 or maybe even 30 years. Thus, I am very thankful for the freedom I have to choose homeschooling for my children and my family. It is a wonderful lifestyle that includes too much noise ALL DAY LONG, too much mess ALL DAY LONG, and way too many bonding, growing and learning opportunities than any one family should be allowed to have. :)

More thoughts on the Workbox system

2009-12-07T10:21:00.000-08:00

Here we are about a week later and still loving the Workboxes! I love the organization of the kid's work and how we all know what we need to accomplish that day. I love that they know when the bins are empty, they are free for the rest of the day. I am free as well: free from guilt! For years I have wondered and worried and stressed about what we were NOT getting done each day. Now, it's all neatly laid out every morning and when that work is done, I know that we have accomplished all we needed to for "school" that day! It has lifted this huge weight off of my shoulders in another way as well...for years I have been buying homeschooling materials that we have never gotten around to using and now we are fully utilizing them! That was money well spent, not wasted! I also really enjoy coming up with things to put in the bins. I haven't gotten super creative yet (other than printing off some holiday themed fun sheets) but each day every child has at least a few fun and educational activities in their bins. I am looking forward to a few new homeschool purchases this next semester and it will be nice to know exactly what type of activity it needs to be (mostly child directed, reinforcing some skill/knowledge base and can generally fit in a bin.) I am also appreciating the way I can hold myself accountable as well as my kids. Before, I would have them do some work or study something and there was not a lot of follow-through or follow-up on my part because everything seemed pretty open-ended. Now I check their work every night before I refill their bins. If they got some things wrong consistently or if they did not complete something as I had asked, I put a note on it and put it back into their bins. Now they have motivation to get things done correctly and completely the first time around since they know that if they don't, it will add to their work the next day. It is also helping me to do something I have not been good at and that is making the kids do a bit of rote practice and memorization for things that need it like math, handwriting and spelling.

The only down side I see of this new system so far is all the paper we are using! I make lots of copies and print outs to fill the bins. But we recycle and buy cheap computer paper at Sam's Club, so I guess it's not that big of a downside! :) The other thing I don't like is having to block a window with the bins. At least they are clear and let in light in....they just block my view! In our next house we will have a dedicated "school room." Then I will be in Heaven! :)

Bless the lady who came up with the "Work Box" system for homeschooling!!

2009-12-02T15:06:00.000-08:00

Searching for some homeschooling inspiration a few months ago, I came across a few homeschooling blogs that raved about a work box system. After doing some google searches and reading more about it, I felt like I had finally found exactly what I needed to implement for our home school!

You can check out the website of the lady, Sue Patrick, who actually made this system popular (www.workboxsystem.com) and do a google search to see the different ways people have modified her idea to work for them and their home schools. Sue's original plan is to have 12 clear plastic bins for each child you home school. I knew right away that would not work for us...that is just WAAAY too many bins and WAAAY to hard to try and find a place out of the baby's reach to keep all the bins! It took me a few months to figure out how I could modify the idea to work for us. Some families were just using 12 folders per child all kept in a milk crate, and I thought that might be the only way we could do it. Then the other night I got a brilliant inspiration to set up our foldable table and see what I could fit on top of it.

Miraculously, things fit PERFECTLY. Each of the 3 older kids all of 4 bins which I fill with between 2-4 assignments depending. The two little girls each have 2 bins. And there is even room on the table for my crate full of file folder activities (another "new" addition to our home school and another life saver!!) and my little clipboard to keep track of the assignments I have the kids complete each day (very general.)

We have only used this new system now for two days, but it has literally revolutionized our home school and I can't imagine life without it! I have been amassing home school materials and books for years and have not really known a good way to implement them all into my children's education. The workbox system is the perfect solution! There are some things that go in bins each and every day of school (we school Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday then the kids go to the Home school Academy on Thursdays and Fridays are reserved for special projects and field trips.) I have a few great books like daily prompts for writing and daily math practice prompts and things of that nature. Each kid gets a few file folder activities that cover a range of subjects from reading to geography to writing to math. I LOVE file folder activities (my favorite are the Take It To Your Seat learning centers) and my laminator and I have had many nights of bonding (ha, literally!) as I have put the folders together. I still have TONS to assemble, but am so happy to have found this great resource! I try and put a few "fun" things in people's bins every day like puzzles, tanagrams or other fun activities. It has taken me about 30-45 minutes to fill the bins every night. I have had to make copy's out of books so that takes some time (even consumable books I generally make copies of so other kids can use them later on.) I really enjoy filling the bins, though, and finding things to put in that we have never had the chance to use! I also try and think of things the kids will enjoy finding in them. :) In general, this is the EASIEST homeschooling system we have ever had!

I have been literally amazed at the children's response and enthusiasm for this new system! Sebastian was actually up early and wanting to start on his school work first thing in the morning! He is usually *less* than enthusiastic about doing any school work. They all get their bins out and work through their assignments with basically NO complaining! It is lovely, wonderful and heartwarming to see them all busy at work for a few hours every morning!

The best way to enjoy "black friday"...

2009-12-02T14:55:00.000-08:00

...is to go to the zoo and museum! That's what we though, anyway! The forecast for the day was near 70 degrees and the Denver Zoo was calling to me! We had planned to go to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science on Monday, but the weather was just so awesome on Friday that I decided we should go to the zoo and then the museum (they are right next door to each other) and pick up the extra boxes of bamboo flooring we needed that happened to be at a Sam's store only about 10 minutes from our desired destination! It all seemed so perfect! We drove to the Sam's and bought the flooring along with way too many snacks. We filled our tummy's with Sam's Club pizza and then loaded up. The zoo was PACKED! I had naively thought it would be relatively deserted with the holiday weekend. I was sorely wrong! There were TONS of people there!! We still had fun doing a quick 2-hour round of the zoo, though. We haven't been to that zoo in about 4 years since we moved away from Boulder. We have such fond memories there; I pictured little toddler Elijah running around, little pre-schooler Sebastian speaking with an Australian accent about the "beauties" in the reptile house, and little chubby baby Fiona in a sun hat hanging out in the sling and later in the wagon caboose. :)

After the zoo, the kids and I high tailed it over to the museum while Dave went to the parking garage to move the car over to the museum parking lot. We had about an hour and a half before the museum closed. We only got to go to two exhibits, but we had lots of fun anyway. The museum was also pretty darn busy! I wish they stayed open later than 5pm!

Once the museum was closed (and they kick you out pretty promptly at 5pm!), we loaded everyone up with snacks in the car and they watched a few Magic School Bus episodes on the way home while Dave and I got to chat with one another. It was one of my favorite Black Fridays ever!

Thanksgiving 2009!!

2009-12-02T14:35:00.000-08:00

Brighton REALLY enjoyed all the yummy food and REALLY packed it in! :)

We had an AWESOME Thanksgiving break! Dave had the whole week off and we used that time to work on remodelling projects around the house. Dave and I finished the kids bathroom and the master bathroom! I painted both (the master twice...the first color I choice stank) and he installed the new water-saving toilets we bought last spring, a new vanity/counter/sink/faucet in the kids bathroom (it looks soooooooooo good! pictures to come soon...), new light fixtures in both bathrooms and fixed our sink once and for all so that now it actually drains! We also discovered why our hot water in the master bath did not work properly; the hot water line was not turned on all the way! That was an easy fix! And now we can actually wash our faces in the sink with warm water and it drains!!! :) Dave also got most of the front entry way completed with new bamboo flooring! It looks so amazing! We found the first three boxes on clearance at Sam's Club and then picked up a few more (at regular price, boohoo) at a Sam's in Denver. Way to go, Dave!!

The day of Thanksgiving was one of my favorite of my whole life, I think. We had cleaned the house really nicely the day before. It's always lovely to wake up to such nice cleanliness! I got the stuffing and turkey cooking and then we did a bunch of Thanksgiving school stuff. I had printed off a TON of material for the kids to work on a few week prior and then found even more good stuff that morning. The kids and Dave hung out on the nice clean kitchen floor doing some activity worksheets while I read about the history of Thanksgiving aloud. Wow, I sure learned a LOT! It was really cozy and the information was captivating enough to keep kids listening and we discussed along the way. The kids and Dave each had a Thanksgiving BINGO sheet they were supposed to be working on while listening to me read aloud...they were supposed to listen for the words on their BINGO page to be able to get BINGO. Sebastian is the only one who actually got BINGO, but it was fun anyway. :)

All the food turned out really yummy! The turkey was done more than an hour before I had anticipated it being done, though, so I did a bit of scrambling to get dinner finished. We had the turkey, yummy stuffing (my mom's recipe), cranberry sauce (first year having that), homemade rolls (family recipe), green bean casserole (new family tradition for the last few years), sweet potato casserole with marshmallows (first year for that), mashed potatoes and, of course, gravy! We always buy sparkling juice every Thanksgiving and this year bought some "fancy" glasses to drink it out of! They are plastic, but turned out to be waaaaay taller than I thought and I was very nervous about huge spills, but no one spilled!

We had plenty of left-overs which Elijah especially enjoyed for many days afterward. Last night was the last night the left-overs would be good and we still had a lot of turkey and stuffing left that I did not want to go to waste so I looked up some recipes on the Internet and made 3 freezer meals out of the left-overs and a modified turkey pot pie with stuffing as the crust for dinner last night. Dave and I thought it was SUPER yummy...the kids mostly picked at theirs; Haven ate all of the turkey out of hers, Elijah ate all the peas out of his, Fiona ate most of the carrots and turkey out of hers, Sebastian stared at his. :)

It's A BOY!

2009-12-02T14:25:00.000-08:00

We found out last week our precious new baby is a boy! I was pretty surprised, actually. I had been almost positive it was a girl. It's nice of him to be a boy, though; it will make room sharing a whole lot easier and give Brighton an insta-best friend! Sebastian and Elijah are THE BEST of friends and get along so wonderfully, it's nice to know that Brighton and the new baby will have the opportunity at that kind of a relationship too. And the three girls all have each other, so it really works out pretty darn perfectly; a set of boys, a trio of girls, then another set of boys. :)

I also found out why I have not felt as many kicks from this little active guy as early as I did with the other 6 kids...the placenta is anterior (or in the front) where most moms feel a lot of kicks. I do feel kicks there, but only really strong ones and not until about 19-20 weeks. So that was reassuring as I usually start feeling pretty regular kicks around 16 weeks or so.

We are over half way to holding our sweet new baby in our arms! Just about 18 weeks left to go! :)

Wonderful weather!

2009-10-21T16:22:00.001-07:00

One of the most endearing things about the area we live in, to me, is the weather! Never too terribly hot in the summer time, and always plenty of variety year round! I am a gal who likes change. No, I am a gal who NEEDS change. I like different hair styles. I like rearranging furniture often. I like re-organizing closets and cabinets. I like that we have moved a zillion times in the last 12 years. I find change reinvigorating and a motivation to change things in my life or family or home that need changing. Rearranging a room suddenly makes the room 1. cleaner and 2. fresh. Frequent weather changes, for me, are exciting and help catapult me toward the sort of day I need to have; productive, happy and fun.

This fall has been perfect so far; warm, sunny days mixed with cooler sunny days mixed with cold snowy days! So perfect! Today is a cold, snowy day and I have LOVED it! Waking up to a fresh blanket of white feels so good. It makes me want to make our home cozy with clean spaces and good food and a happy, attentive mother. It makes me want to stay in and be with my family. :) It makes me want to cook for them and clean for them. It makes me happy to look out the window and see little snow flakes fluttering around.

I could not survive in a place where the weather was static most of the year. I need all 4 seasons...and within those seasons I need variety still! I am so happy we have found that in Colorado! :)

Wishing for an automatic!

2009-10-16T14:04:00.000-07:00

Man o man o man! Sometimes it is just so hard to get kids into gear to get the things done they need to get done! I know (from remembering my own childhood) that this is not an exclusive problem to homeschooling families. Perhaps it feels more intense to me because they are here ALL day long and thus there are more times in the day where I need to ask them to do something. We have gone through periods of time where kids get up, get their stuff done in a timely manner and without too much reminding and then had their free time. Those times were GREAT! Now, however, we are just coming off the last 3 months or so where I was just "blah" and didn't follow through with the kids a whole lot. Now that I am no longer as "blah," some kids are taking issue with the fact that they need to be actual contributing members of the household and get stuff done. Some kids are taking issue with the fact that they need to learn things (like math....) that they don't want to learn. Some kids are taking issue with the fact that the chores have to be done all the way. Change is difficult at times. When you get out of the habit of things, it can be hard to get back in the habit. Cleaning and doing math are not the most exciting, fun things a kid could be doing. I understand the reluctance. I understand the resistance. I remember having those exact feelings as a kid. And I know now, as an adult, how thankful I am that my parents made me do them. I can say I actually like cleaning. I like the process. I LOVE the result and knowing that I transformed a room from filthy and cluttered to clean and organized. I appreciate the things I learned in school. I appreciate the knowledge gained through study as a child. I did not at the time. This is one of those "Circles of Life." It's a glorious challenge for parents to help guide, direct and get their kids in gear to accomplish the tasks and jobs of childhood....but they'll love us for it later! .....right?

Good excuse for my neglect

2009-10-14T09:36:00.000-07:00

I have been so neglectful of my poor blog!! But I have had good reason...the first trimester. Ugh. Some women are able (willing?) to just plow through and live life as normal even though they feel like puking at any moment; like a very heavy, wet blanket that makes you just want to lie down 24-7 is draped over your body; like you haven't slept in months and need to sleep NOW desperately; like your emotions are not your own....I just am not one of those "plow through" women! I become a couch potato in the first trimester. My house is a literal pig sty (minus the pigs.) We eat lots of processed junk food and take out. People may wear the same outfit 2 or 3 days in a row. Kids may watch more than their fair share of movies and have a little longer than normal game time. Ugh. It is not me at my finest, by far! :)

I am now 14 1/2 weeks along with lucky number 7! I am so happy to be feeling more "normal" and not so blah. I have more energy and definitely more motivation! I only have nausea in the evenings and not all day long. I don't get grossed out by everything I eat anymore! I have actually deep cleaned some badly neglected areas of our home!!

We are very excited to be welcoming a new baby into our family. New babies are just magic! And we just think our kids are the awesomest kids around and are so excited to have to have another! This will likely be our last little one, which is a weird concept to me. I have been pregnant and/or nursing for the past 12 years pretty much. It will be weird in a few years when this new little one is weaned and I will be done with this phase of my life. It's a hard concept to grasp.

The boys all want the new baby to be a boy, of course, and the girls want it to be a girl. :) Right now we are at 3 boys and 3 girls, so this baby will be the tie breaker. :) What do you think? Boy or Girl?

Yes, I really worry about that!

2009-09-04T13:51:00.000-07:00

Being a mom rocks and is totally awesome...except when it isn't. I love my cute kiddos. I love watching them learn and grow and interact and make choices. I love hearing the things they say and watching the way they react to things. Being a mom is what I have always hoped and aspired to be from my first memories as a little 2 1/2 year old in Wyoming. Motherhood is more full of joy and happiness and fun than I thought it would be. It has also presented some obstacles and troubles I had not anticipated in my pre-mom years. One of the most irritating is WORRY.

I think every year and every passing day brings a new, sometimes more ridiculous, level of worry into my mother brain. Everyone worries about their child's health, their happiness, and their safety. Some of us, however, are gifted in taking those worries to the extreme.

A few nights ago, I couldn't fall back to sleep after nursing the baby in the middle of the night. Brighton was next to me, sound asleep. Dave was next to him, sound asleep. I got up, got a drink of water and noted that everyone else in the house was 1, still breathing and 2, sound asleep. I went back to bed and tossed and turned for hours. I probably could've gone right to sleep if I had been able to do it before my brain started on it's worry-path. One little worry thought about children's safety led to this huge and gigantic train of thought leading me to plan out how I would take down a night intruder and permanently mame them...I actually came up with several different plans. It's good to have plans, right? I finally worked myself up to the point where I was SURE there must be an intruder in the house (even though I had not heard any break-in and our barky dog was sound asleep, not worried in the least) and eventually drifted off to sleep with my glasses still on, just in case. This is not my favorite way to fall asleep....in an uncomfortable position (due to the glasses) and awaiting an emergency at any moment.

I know it's silly. I know we live in a "safe" area and have taken precautions to keep our house even safer. I know that, ultimately, it is not in my control. Maybe that is why it haunts me so much. I can't really control our safety. I can take necessary steps to keep us safe, but, ultimately I have no control. One of the main things I need to learn in this life, I think, is faith. I do have faith in Heavenly Father that He knows me, knows my children and loves us and cares about us. I have faith that we are in His hands. I have faith that He is watching over us. It's something I need to keep building and practicing and need to remind myself of at 3am!

Kents Lake, Utah

2009-08-25T14:43:00.000-07:00

For our family vacation this year, we wanted to go camping! After having several different plans, we finally decided to camp in my Dad's old stomping grounds in the mountains above Beaver, Utah. The first thing we did when we got to Beaver was stop at the pawn shop for Dave and my Dad to get Utah fishing licences. Brighton had fun getting out of his car seat and looking out the window!

After the fishing licences were acquired and a few forgotten items were purchased at the little grocery store (how could I forget the all-important hot dogs!?!) we headed up the canyon. It took us only about 30 minutes to reach Kents Lake. As soon as we arrived, the kids went exploring. Elijah came back after a few minutes already covered in mud! :)

We got The Best camping spot EVER! The campground was a mix of camping spots; a few out in the open, a bunch in the trees. Our spot felt like we were in the mountains, on the lake all by ourselves! To the left was this HUGE open meadow where the little girls had fun walking around a bit in while the 3 older kids went a bit further.

Right in front of us was the lake!! There were several little trails down to it and the grasses growing all over were so green and lush!

Behind us was more meadow and trees...it was just perfect!

Here is a view of our set-up from the bathroom area. Isn't perfect!?! We had a HUGE tent, my parents a smaller one and then we eventually set up 2 more tents as play tents for the kids.

As soon as the tents were set up, Dave helped the kids to start fishing. Technically, the older 3 had already caught a fish or two in a stream they found behind the meadow by our camping spot. They used a net to catch the fish, however, which we found out the next day, is a very big no-no. Those fish they caught the first night, though, tasted the best (or so I hear...)

Sweet Fiona enjoying some fishing time!

Our set-up inside the tent was perfect! I had packed all of our clothes into plastic storage drawers so it would be easier to find everyone's clothes and keep them organized (a packing strategy I observed in the back of someones van years ago while in a Wal-Mart parking lot). The folding table worked GREAT for holding the drawers and left plenty of room underneath for bags of dirty clothes (which filled very quickly!) The door to the tent was a swinging door! Made camping in a tent so much nicer!!

Dave and I bought an inflatable bed on legs for this camping trip. It was so great to be up off the floor, but the bed was sooooooooooo noisy!! Every time you move even the tinest bit, it sounds like you are walking and rolling over a zillion noisy, squeaky balloons! And I HATED my sleeping bag! It zips up the middle, not the side and it made it VERY hard to stay zipped up with the baby in there with me! (The pack-n-play was for naps.) The little girls slept on that air mattress at the foot of our bed and the 3 oldest kids slept on camping mats on the other side of that little dividing curtain next to the pack-n-play. We had so much space!! I really dislike tent camping (there were several times when I thought for sure a bear was in our camp and was going to rip into our tent at any moment, not to mention how hard it is to sleep when the slightest breeze through your tent sounds like Gail force winds!) and we were hoping to purchase a used pop-up before this trip, but if you have to tent camp, this is the tent to do it in! The ceiling as a domed ceiling with a built-in light that reached 8 feet high!

Every time I glanced at the lake, there was some amazingly beautiful sky going on! There were lots of clouds and little storms passing here and there that just made for gorgeous skies!

My Dad fly fished every spare moment he got...which added up to a LOT of moments. :) I tried to get lots of good shots of him, but think the above picture is my favorite!

Here's Fiona bringing back a "legal" fish they caught on the stream. I never went over to the stream, but apparently it was teaming with fish!

Here is a fish Sebastian caught from the kayak. After the first night of fish eating, no one was as enthusiastic about eating the little guys. They still tried all the fish, but they didn't really get eaten up.

The guys out kayaking. There is one kayak to each side of the tree. We just found another used, tandem Old Town kayak right before our trip which bumped us up to 3 tandem kayaks -probably all the kayaks we will ever need. Kayaking is SO MUCH FUN!

Here are Scarlett and Haven on one of the trails to the bathroom (which was actually a pretty nice bathroom as far as vault toilets go!) They were such cute, sweet little campers and had so much fun!

Here's a picture that Scarlett took of my Mom, me and Haven. :)

The last morning we were there, Sebastian caught just one more fish!

For our last night, my sister drove down with her kids to camp with us. I am so glad they did! We had a lot of fun sitting around the fire and chatting. The next morning I was able to squeeze a few more pictures out of my dead-battery camera as everyone was sitting around the morning fire waiting for our big breakfast of pancakes, eggs and bacon to finish cooking.

After breakfast, I took my sister and mom and all the girls out kayaking! It was so great! I wish my camera hadn't died so I could get a picture of sweety pie Brighton in his cute life vest and sitting in his booster seat in front of me in the kayak! He wasn't sure how fun it was to not be able to crawl around, but liked having water patted on his arm. :)

The guys stayed behind while we kayaked and started to break down camp and take down tents and stuff. Then we switched and the guys got one last kayaking trip around the lake in while the ladies stayed behind and packed stuff up. It took us almost 5 hours to finally finish packing up everything and loading the kayaks back on top of the Suburban and everything. UGH! That is my least favorite part of camping! And what I look forward to most about some day owning a pop-up or trailer.

Our camping trip was so much fun! We stayed for 4 days and 3 nights and very thoroughly smelled of camp fire for days! We were all so happy to get back to my sister's house (almost a 3 hour drive) and take showers!

Poor, neglected blog!

2009-08-25T13:12:00.000-07:00

Wow... I have really neglected Ye Ol' Blog lately! We have been a bit busy since Dave got back from China (almost the same day as my last post), so I guess I will use that as an excuse! We gave Dave a few days to readjust to the time change (like 18 hours) and then we were off to Utah to visit family and go camping in the mountains above Beaver, Utah. While in Utah, we got to see some family we haven't seen in too long awhile. We visited Dave's Grandpa and the kids got to meet him and hang out. Fiona, above climbing a tree, is forever climbing anything and everything she can! There were lots of fun things to climb at the park in front of Great Grandpa's house!

Sebastian, the only one of our kids who had met their Great Grandpa before (when he was 1) was very grateful and happy to see him. He gave him lots of hugs. :) He is a sweet boy.

Great Grandpa, the smart guy he is, had snacks ready and waiting for our busy crew! Everyone took a break from playing for a few minutes to enjoy them (well, Fiona climbed while enjoying them...)

We also got to see Aunt Shan and her sweet kids, but I forgot to take any pictures!!! :(

One of our favorite things to do in Utah Valley is to go to Thanksgiving Point and their dino museum...it is one of the best we have ever been to! Here is Dave and the oldest 5, almost being eaten by an ancient shark. Close call!

Here is Dave and the 5 oldest running, very wisely, from a t-rex! I'm so happy we escaped in one piece! :)

I love visiting Utah. We have some great family there, and that is always fun, but I also just have really fond memories there. My sister has lived in that area since I was about 10 and I visited her and her growing family quite often. The mountains there are really stunning, they have a Sizzler (my fav. place to eat out!), lots of places with scones and special sauce (no, not to eat together...), a chapel and a Temple almost every direction you look and I just like being there. :)

Life can now resume as normal; a food storage tale of happiness.

2009-07-15T15:09:00.000-07:00

We are used to using almost all 100% whole wheat in our house. But a few months ago when I ran out of wheat to grind, I didn't buy any more....until today! Life has just not been the same without wheat. I haven't cooked as much and we haven't been eating as healthy in general. For me, doing something proactive like grinding my own wheat flour and using it in almost everything I make helps me to be more proactive in other areas of my life and inspires me to eat healthier in general. After years and years of grinding my own wheat, the past few months without it as just not been the same.

In the past, we ordered 25 pound bags of organic wheat from Whole Foods at about $20 a bag...that is NOT cheap. This time around I decided to care less about the organic aspect and went to our church's Home Storage Center (see www.providentliving.org for more info on home storage and where the nearest Home Storage Center is to you) and bought 25 pound bags for $5.80!! What a great deal! I only have enough storage buckets for about 75 pounds of wheat. This fall I am going to do a big beef up of our home food storage and buy another 100 pounds or so of wheat, 100 pounds of oats, 100 pounds of beans and assorted canned foods that we use on a regular basis as well as salt, spices, oil and other cooking needs.

A family's food storage is about having a store of food to be used and rotated and there for you when you need it; a lay-off or a natural disaster for example. Only store the foods you and your family will and do use in your everyday lives. Only acquire your store of food as you can afford it. For most people, that means buying a few extra items each time you go the store, and hopefully sale items. We use this method, and then a few times a year (usually coinciding with tax return season, etc) we stock up a bit more fully. We buy flats of canned goods and bags of dry goods that we store in food grade 5 gallon buckets with tight fitting lids.

Our food storage is very helpful to us. I usually have all the regular ingredients on hand that I need for every day cooking and baking. During months when our food budget might be a bit tighter than usual due to some unexpected expense, we can use our food storage for most of our needs and supplement with fresh fruits and veggies on sale at the store. I have had friends who had suddenly lost jobs and used their food storage almost exclusively for 4-8 months! You could use it completely exclusively if you had canned fruits and veggies and stored dry milk.

When you are just starting out, aim for reaching a 3-month supply of food, water and other neccesities. Then work ip to a 6-month supply. Ideally, you work your store of food up to about a years supply. We have not ever reached that (maybe 6-8 months), but that is one of our goals for the year.

In considering what to have on hand in your family's year supply, remember to include essential non-food items. We have sturdy metal shelving in our garage that I keep our food storage on, but in our crawl space I keep our non-food items. We have stores of toilet paper, paper towels, dishwasher detergent, laundry detergent, toothpaste, tooth brushes, deodorant, shampoo, conditioner, body soap, ziploc baggies, cleaning supplies and any other items that we use on a regular basis. You should also store water both to drink and to use for washing should your water supply go out for a few days or longer. It's also wise to have a camp stove (or outdoor grill) and a few extra propane tanks.

Every year, there are always sections of the country affected by power outages or water issues. Having a year supply would be the difference between possibly going hungry for a few uncomfortable days or weeks and being well fed and having the things you're used to having on hand. During an emergency, being able to cook foods your family finds comforting and being well prepared in general will make the emergency, whether it is a power outage or a job loss, much less stressful and much easier to get through!

Today, with my freshly ground wheat, I made some delicious black berry muffins. We had the black berries frozen in the freezer from a few months ago when they were on a killer sale! I use a wonderful, awesome and great all-purpose muffin recipe I learned from my friend, Jenny Hatch.

4 c whole wheat flour
2 c brown sugar
1/2 t each b. powder and b. soda
2 tsp salt
2-3 eggs
14 oz apple sauce (or other fruit sauce/puree)
1/4 oil
Bake at 350 until a tooth pick comes out clean (usually around 20 minutes, give or take)

It is a very versatile recipe; feel free to substitute some honey for the sugar, add more or less liquid depending on your preferences, add nuts and fruit (dried or fresh) or anything else you think might be yummy! They always turn out great! I usually do two batches of this recipe and add freshly ground (in the blender) flax seed meal to both and then add nuts and fruit to one batch (this would be the "adult" batch since my kids don't like to eat things with junks) and they get eaten up very quickly!

I will add a "Food storage resources" section to the right very soon, look for it!

Haven's Actual 5th Birthday!

2009-07-12T21:27:00.000-07:00

I decided, very last minute of course, that it would be fun for Haven to have a friend's birthday party on her actual birthday. I didn't want her actual big day to be a let down since we had already celebrated it as a family, plus she really wanted a friend party! Not everyone we invited could come (it was VERY last minute!), but we are so grateful to the ones who could!! We invited older siblings and parents to hang out too. It was a fun party, thanks for coming! :)
I thought it would be fun to have a pool party in the back yard. Now that the deck is done, we can finally entertain out there! YAY! :) We had just purchased some kiddie pools to make the last few hot weeks we've had more bearable, so we just picked up a few decorations and we were in business! The party was a sort of lunch/pool party...hence the above spread of food that included home made cheese pizza, strawberries, carrots, cookies, chips and lemonade. YUM!
Our lawn is not very lawn-ish at the moment. It's way better than it was last year at this time (when we moved in, it was mostly just sand/dirt), but there are still huge patches of ground with no grass covering. I wasn't sure how we were going to have a pool party without also having mud pits (something I was NOT aiming for!) Then I spotted the foam floor blocks we had stored up in the attic. I had Sebastian crawl up there and get them all down and the other kids helped him set them up over the dirt. There were still some spots of exposed ground, but not too bad and no one made any mud holes out of them! :) The older kids had a really great time playing with water guns (and a HUGE thank you to one of the kids' Dad's for playing with them!) and the younger ones went from pool to pool to trampoline to pool again.
Before the party, Sebastian and I had talked about him giving a pet demonstration for all the kids. About an hour into it, he and Elijah went down and gathered up a few pets into containers. We had the kids all sit down and Sebastian started out with Eon, our Russian tortoise. He placed her on the deck in front of the kids and everyone got to pet her while he told a bit about Russian tortoises. Then he moved onto the remaining pets he was going to show; Packer, the Pac-man toad, Zappy the leopard gecko, and Millie the giant African millipede. The kids all huddled in close to see and pet these animals. It was fun and I think we will have the boys do pet demonstrations more often!

Here is Haven opening some presents. She got some really fun stuff! Thanks everyone! :)

Happy 5th Birthday, Haven!

2009-07-12T21:07:00.001-07:00

Wow, a big 5 year old! Haven is growing up so fast! We celebrated her birthday a few days early, while my mom was still visiting. We had a yummy homemade cake (cake mixes have soy) that I tented purple with frosting to match. She was very excited about the pink sprinkles! :)
Haven is a really fun girl. She loves to tell funny jokes and giggle and laugh and have fun. She pulls the funniest faces, as well! She is a very helpful and loving big sister to both Scarlett and Brighton. She is very sweet and loving with Brighton and really knows how to care for him. One of her aspirations for when she is "grown-up" is to be a babysitter. :) She says she will be a very good babysitter. :) She loves to draw, color and play dress-up. She loves princess things; frilly dresses, tiaras, rings, necklaces, shoes, etc. Haven's big, dimpled smile and sweet, uncontrollable giggle are infectious! She is a bright, happy spot in our family and we are so happy to have her in our family! :)
Singing "Happy Birthday" and ready to blow out the candles!
Grandma enjoying some cake!
The gang enjoying cake!!

Longhorn Cattle!

2009-07-10T09:25:00.001-07:00

To promote a large, local rodeo event, there was a longhorn cattle drive down the streets of Colorado Springs last Friday. The term "cattle drive" invoked mental images of large amounts of cattle and lots of mooing and tail swishing. I am a rancher (or farmer) at heart, as is my mom, so we were excited to wait along the street to get a glimpse of the cattle drive. The kids eagerly watched and waited for signs of cows and cow boys.
We waited for about 15 minutes or so. We took pictures. Hung out. Chatted. Snuggled with Grandma. Wanted to climb trees but I said no. (They were smallish trees....didn't want to ruin them with my brood climbing them!) Then we spotted them coming! Well, first we spotted some policemen clearing the path of on-coming traffic, then we saw the rumps of cattle!
There were several babies, even!! :) So cute! The herd, however, was only about 20 head....much smaller than I had anticipated. They were surrounded by about 20 cowboys/cowgirls to keep the crowd and parked cars safe from those long, pointy horns. It was over almost as soon as it had started.
Even though their numbers were small and their appearance brief, we all really enjoyed seeing the annual Longhorn cattle drive downtown! Well worth it! :)
The street we were on had lots of cool little shops. One was a bike shop where a guy refurbished old bikes (I am guessing?) and fixed them up really cool and sold them. I loved the colors!! I love cruiser bikes, anyway...need to get one! :) My mom loved them too and wanted to go into the store to get a better look. Tip for those of you who may want to follow suit: don't! She quickly came out after swiftly ushering any children who wanted to follow her out. She said there were very unsavory pictures of women hanging on the walls. Not sure how that would relate to bikes...very disappointing!

Our first visit to Woodland Park

2009-07-10T07:36:00.001-07:00

I LOVE MOUNTAINS!!!!! I love the fresh, mountain air. I love the trees and foliage. I love the smell. I love the skyline. I love the weather. I LOVE MOUNTAINS!!!
The Colorado mountains are so green and lush this year!
My mom got camera happy in the car, waiting to depart for Woodland Park. :)
We didn't have any particular destination or plan in mind. We packed a picnic lunch and extra snacks and took off! Once we got to Woodland Park, Elijah kept asking "where is the big park?"...He was thinking about the "Park" part of Woodland PARK. I told him it was not named after an enormous play ground or anything. He was bummed.
We drove around the small town, admiring the trees and some cute houses and yards before finding the city's large ball fields...and a play ground! The kids all LOVE to swing and this was Brighton's first time! He thought it was very fun and funny and giggled a lot. Have and Scarlett took turns pushing him and just thought he was too adorable in a swing! :)
Sebastian and Elijah LOVE to swing. (My mom walking in the background) They were trying to go so high they would flip over the bar. Those of you who watch Mythbusters, however, know that they would've needed a jet pack to actually propel them over...and then they would probably end up shooting off and breaking every bone in their body. Glad there were no jet packs laying around! :)

Sweet Brighton swinging!!
They had some really unique playground equipment. They had the usual play structure with slides and a little climbing wall and monkey bars, then they had this thing that Fiona is on where a kid stands on each side and they bounce...sort a teeter-totter idea. Then the blue thing in the back left was this cool thing where 4 kids each sat on a side and tried to roll a little ball into their "goal". The ball and goals were under plastic. It was pretty cool.
Ultimately, I was a bit disappointed in Woodland Park. I expected more, I guess. I expected it to be either more like Sandpoint, Idaho or more like Manitou Springs....it was neither. After we left this play ground, the kids really wanted to go back to the main park in downtown Woodland Park. It had a small pond, some picnic tables and a wood play ground. There were some seedy locals there, and not enough pretty scenery. But we had our picnic and played a little bit more before heading out. The drive their and back is a very easy one. I expected more of an incline, but it hardly seemed like we were changing elevation at all. On the way home we drove through Manitou Springs so I could show it to my mom. I LOVE this little town! It is so adorable and they have done such a good job of maintaining it's charm and appeal and character. I'm not completely writing off Woodland Park; we will go back to check out the surrounding mountains and kayak in the lakes, but the town itself doesn't hold much appeal for me. It was a fun trip, none the less, and an exciting adventure! :) Pikes Peak looks prettier from Colorado Springs, though!

Old Farm Park

2009-07-10T07:18:00.001-07:00

There are so many awesome parks in Colorado Springs! And so many hidden gems amongst seemingly innocent, normal looking neighborhoods! Old Farm Park is one of those hidden gems. There is your normal play ground, then follow the trail around a bend and BAM: there is a cool jumble of rocks to climb and explore surrounded by wild grasses and flowers and native plants and animals!

The prickly pear cactus were in bloom and oh so gorgeous! They were EVERYWHERE! I was so tempted to pick some and bring it home to our tortoise, Eon. Prickly pear cactus (once you burn off the prickilies) is a perfect tortoise food. I wasn't sure if it was okay to pick, and plan on calling the extension office to see if it is allowed before going back to bring some home!
The Yucca were also in full bloom. I don't know that I have ever seen prettier Yucca flowers! We were blessed with a cool, wet spring that nurtured a lot of wild flowers and plants! It was just gorgeous!
Sebastian, Elijah, Fiona and some of their friends took a less used path to the rocks. Our friends' older kids took Haven and Scarlett up to the top of the rock, while Brighton and I followed on at a slower pace. The sky was just gorgeous that day! It finally started sprinkling after a few hours, but before that it was just gorgeously dark and we frequently heard rumbles of distant thunder. On their way back down, the boys found a lizard that they tried to catch, but he got away. We all had such a great time!
Once it started sprinkling, and Scarlett needed to find a restroom (which the park did not have), we reluctantly left. We will definitely return and explore the trails even more!

Good-bye to a good friend.

2009-07-10T06:49:00.001-07:00

We only got to have him in our lives for a little less than a year, but we are so glad he was a part of our family!
We adopted Damon at the end of last summer. He was about 10 years old at the time. We wanted an older, mellow dog since we were about to have our 6th child and didn't want to house-train a puppy nor deal with puppy antics. We adopted him from a very nice family who had given him lots of love and he fit into our family perfectly. The kids all adored him and gave him lots of hugs and were constantly telling him what a good dog he was.
He had a very sweet, mild disposition and was so great with the kids! He never really cared for our other dog, Sequoia, and mainly ignored her. He barked at the cats at first (and tried to chase them for some doggy entertainment) but soon learned that was not the thing to do. He swam with the turtles in our little pond a few times. I'm sure the turtles were more than a bit surprised to have a 90 pound Golden Retriever suddenly in their pond, but we all thought it was fun and got a big kick out of it! :)
About 3 weeks before he died, we noticed he was having a very hard time getting up the stairs in our house. He still acted happy, but just couldn't seem to make it up the last few steps. We also noticed that he was not eating as much as he used to and seemed to suddenly loose a lot of weight. We took him into the vet, they did some tests and determined that he had liver cancer and such severe arthritis that his spine was beginning to fuse. Poor guy! They prescribed a good pain killer and told us he probably had 3-4 months left to live.

About 5 days later, we realized he didn't have that much time left. He was not wanting to come into the house much at all. He wouldn't eat the super yummy wet food we bought for him. He slept more and more and more. Then one night, he didn't ask to come into the house at all. When we woke up in the morning, we saw Damon sleeping in the same place he had been sleeping the day before. He got up, walked a few steps to the turtle pond for a drink, then immediately lay back down. He didn't move when the sun started to shine on him and make him hot. Dave picked him up and lay him down in some shade. I checked his gums and they were white. We knew he was dying and that it would be less painful for him to be euthanized, rather than slowly die. Poor guy. We told the kids and gathered them around to tell Damon good-bye. They all gave him hugs and kisses and told him what a terrific dog he was and how much they loved him. Sebastian cried really hard and held Damon for a very long hug. Once the other kids saw their big brother crying, they all broke down too, as did Dave and I. After we said our good-byes, Dave carried him gently to the car and stayed with him until the end.

Damon was a great dog! He was greatly loved and has been greatly missed! We are so blessed to have had him in our family for a time! :)

Through this experience, we have come to LOVE the vets at Dublin Animal Hospital. They were so caring and compassionate and fair and sweet. We used to go to Banfield, but never will again. The caring staff at Dublin Animal Hospital made an impression of Damon's paw for us and sent us a sweet card a few days later. They helped to make this painful passing a bit easier.

If you are reading this with Windows...

2009-07-10T06:46:00.000-07:00

...the formatting you are viewing may be "off". It all looks normal using Firefox, though. I'm not sure why and I'm not sure how to solve the problem. Firefox is a GREAT browser, though. If you don't already have it and use it, you should!

Going to play catch-up!

2009-07-06T18:48:00.000-07:00

Sweet Scarlett, the hair twirler. :)

Haven pulling a face. Cutie! :)

Sweet Brighton, first time wearing a baseball cap! Couldn't be cuter!

Hanging out in hammock world with the two little girls and Brighton (below). Brighton loves to swing in the hammocks! So does his dad and mom...and siblings. Most mornings, the three oldest kids can be found out in hammock world...swinging to and fro and chatting up a storm. Hammock world was Dave's brilliant solution to the awkward space below the addition that was made to the house decades ago. It left an area not high enough for an adult to stand up in, and sand not suitable for growing anything in. Last Father's Day of '08 (just a few weeks after we purchased and moved into this house,) Dave bought himself a nice hammock and set it up under the addition. It looked so great and finally gave this potential dark, useless "cave" a wonderful purpose, so I suggested we buy a few more and hang them up as well! And, VIOLA! Hammock world! :) In the future, the floor will be a thick layer of mulch and the ceiling will be painted a more endearing, relaxing color...I may even keep shade plants in the window boxes ALIVE this year! :)

So I have been noticeably neglectful of my poor blog. Expect rapid fire posts over the next few days as I play catch-up! :)

In want of an exoskeleton...

2009-06-21T22:10:00.000-07:00

...Or a nice, hard, protective shell; I'd always be safe inside. The first hint of danger, and I'd retract all of my soft, squishy parts into the safe shell for protection. Heck, with a thick exoskeleton I wouldn't even have to be on the look out for danger; my soft, squishy parts would always be protected.

We all have some form of shell, we all have ways we've learned to sheild ourselves from pain. Some might laugh and brush aside the cutting remarks of another; some might lash out first, never letting the other person get the upper hand; some might be a perpetual victim illiciting sympathy and compassion from those around them. "Shells" come in all shapes and sizes. You could turn to drugs or alcohol to numb and stuff the hurt. You could keep yourself constantly distracted to keep from feeling the hurt. You could hold people off at a distance, not letting them in past the crusty exterior you've worked so hard to construct. Sometimes, having a shell sounds nice and safe and easy.

Life is full of pain. You try something and fail. You want something and don't get it. You see loved ones hurting. Disapointments pile up.

Life is one big risk.

Only A Person Who Risks Is Free
Author Unknown

To laugh is to risk appearing the fool.
To weep is to risk appearing sentimental.
To reach for another is to risk involvement.
To expose your ideas, your dreams,
before a crowd is to risk their loss.
To love is to risk not being loved in return.
To live is to risk dying.
To believe is to risk dispair.
To try is to risk failure.
But risks must be taken, because
the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.
The people who risk nothing, do nothing,
have nothing, are nothing.
They may avoid suffering and sorrow,
but they can not learn, feel, change,
grow, love, live.
Chained by their attitudes, they are slaves;
they have forfeited their freedom.
Only a person who risks is free!

Is the risk and ensuing pain worth it? YES. Life is full of pain, but we are made to have JOY. Every pain, every heartache makes us stronger, gives us more empathy for others and teaches us how to be better and do better. It sucks. It hurts. It's a struggle and a fight. It's worth it, though. It's worth the pain to grow and give and learn and help!

What the kids and Dave did for 5 days while I was gone.

2009-06-19T12:11:00.000-07:00

Dave, being the very nice, thoughtful and supportive husband that he is, insisted Brighton and I take a little vacation to visit my family in Idaho. It's been a few years since we have visited them and we couldn't afford for all of us to go, so it made sense for Brighton and I to fly out. I have never been on a vacation away from my kids except when I flew out to Colorado Springs last spring to try and find a house for us to buy. That wasn't really a vacation, though. This was. :) I missed Dave and the kids a lot, but I was happily distracted by my many wonderful relatives and their sweet and adorable kids. Dave is so great taking care of the kids and the home, I didn't worry about them once.

While I was gone, Dave got a lot of projects done and he and the kids had a lot of fun. One day, he took them to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo here in Colorado Springs. It is a great zoo with lots of fun stuff. We always have memberships to the local zoos and museums; for a family our size and for how often we like to go it just makes a lot more sense.

The girls got their faces painted. Fiona and Haven both have a flower on their cheeks, and Scarlett got her face painted like a walaby. Cute!

See how close that cute chipmunk is?!? I guess they saw it running across the path and they stopped to look at it. It spotted some yummy food stuck to the path and ran right over, within inches of the kids, to eat it! Too cute!

Here is Elijah in front of some cute animal, pulling a face. :) He looks so adorable in a ball cap!

The Cheyenne Mountain (click on title of today's post for their website) has a large herd of giraffes that you can pet and feed biscuits to. Above is Sebastian petting one.

Here is Fiona chatting with another. They are so cute and friendly!

Here's the gang, all decked out in sun hats. :) Brighton and I had a lot of fun visiting family in Idaho, but knowing what an awesome job Dave was doing with the kids at home made my trip even better!

Help me decide!

2009-06-08T12:39:00.001-07:00

Sweety pie Brighton.

Elijah, who is also a sweety, was in a grumpy mood about something and I only managed to get a few pictures of him, but luckily this one was about perfect! So no need to decide there! :)

Sweet Haven.

Sweet Scarlett.

Sweet Sebastian. He is into ALWAYS having "thumbs up" in pictures!!! Funny, sometimes...but not ALL the time!!! Oh well. :) He's still a cutie. :)

Sweet Fiona.

I am trying to choose which pictures of each of the kids to frame. Which ones do you like best?

A toothful forcefully lost...

2009-06-08T12:29:00.001-07:00

We were in Lowe's the other day. While looking at door knobs and locks, which took a lot longer than we had anticipated...why do simple things like door knobs cost so much?!...Dave was keeping Fiona and Haven happy by playing a game with them. It was some variation of London Bridges. Things got a bit wild. The kids got a bit crazy. Fiona's mouth slammed into Haven's forehead. OUCH! They both were crying. I was comforting Haven while Dave hugged Fiona. Then we realized Fiona's mouth was bleeding. She said her tooth got knocked out. As I was saying "what? Really!?" and stepping toward her, I stepped on her tooth. This was the next tooth she would naturally loose (she already lost her other top front tooth), but it was not really loose much at all...so it hurt! Dave made a comment to her that maybe the tooth fairy pays extra for teeth that are forcefully lost. And she did. :)

Memorial Day 2009!

2009-05-26T18:57:00.000-07:00

Our wonderful ward (church congregation) had a picnic at a local park. It was a gorgeous day! Many of you might not of thought so what with the cooler temperatures, the ominious rain clouds hovering and the occasional drip drop or two of rain but I LOVE spring weather!! I am so happy Colorado did not skip spring this year and go straight to summer!! :) I am going to soak up and enjoy every last little bit of cool, over-cast, rainy weather! It has also made things here nice and green...almost reminds me of Indiana!
The above picture was my attempt at trying to get a frame-able picture of all 6 kids...I did not achieve my objective! But they are still darn cute...
The park was really big and cool. It is pretty large with extensive walking/running/biking trails all around it. We did not use the paths to see the whole park, we just stayed at the picnic area our ward reserved. It had bathrooms, a play ground and swing sets, a ball field and a WONDERFUL view of the gorgeous mountains with gorgeous dark clouds looming over them!
The above picture is the boys with one of their friends drinking sodas. They read the ingredients on the soda and were trying to eat away the rocks by pouring their stearic acid filled soda onto them!
Fiona had fun in the above tree! And she's so adorable with those piggy tails!! She's so adorable anyway, but piggy tails are just adorable!

Big sister Haven loves to hold Brighton! She is so good at taking care of him and is so sweet and caring!!
Here is Scarlett on the top of a little hill she climbed up with some of her friends. They all tried to roll down the hill...I think only one little girl really knew how to do it because she is the only one who actually got to the bottom of the hill that way! The rest of them walked. :)
One of the ladies in our ward is the captain of a city league softball team. She had her team challenge our ward to a softball game. :) Too fun! Dave loves to play softball, so he had a great time and some really great hits, including an awesome home-run that I missed while snapping photos of cute girls picking dandelions! It was great to see him play! The only other time I've seen him play was a few days before we got engaged at the Sandpoint Stake Sesquacentenial Celebration up in Bonner's Ferry, N. Idaho. And, I have to admit, I don't think I really watched all that much since I don't have any memories of him playing...so this was really like the first time I have seen him play.

I could only eat some chips and carrot sticks at the picnic (the only things I knew for sure were soy-free) and was pretty hungry, but it was well worth it and so much fun! The kids got to play with friends for hours and explore the park, Brighton got to snuggle with me in the sling for hours, Dave got to play softball, and I got to enjoy great friends and watching my family have so much fun. :) I love our ward!

Eagle's Peak - Why God made Dads

2009-05-22T10:20:00.001-07:00

Dave and a friend from church/work, Jared, took the kids on a hike up Eagle's Peak. Eagles Peak is on the USAFA grounds. The kids happily got up at 6am to leave by 7am. They had a blast! The trail is apparently very steep and rocky, so they also got a lot of good exercise.
Before Dave showed me the above picture of my babies climbing just above a jagged, rocky, steep cliff, he said something to the effect of "Don't get mad at me, everyone was fine." As soon as I saw the picture and took a deep breath, I told him "this is why kids have Dad's!" Experiences like safely climbing up rocky ledges and scaling steep grades would not happen as often if Dad's did not take their kids to experience them. Dad's are notoriously less "babying" of their kids. A Mom looks at her child; memories and scents and feelings flood her mind of birthing this child, nurturing this child at her breast, kissing owies, smoothing a fevered brow. Combine that with "dangerous" activities and the possibility of broken bones, blood oozing and her baby crying and screaming...thus the dilemma a mother faces when her children grow older and their realm of experiences expand. I feel this way not only when it comes to steep cliffs and jagged rocks, but also when my children are near water (geez...especially if they actually want to get in the water) or in crowded places (ya know...where a child is going to be lost and/or stolen at any moment.) This is, very wisely, why God made Dads. He knew that if it were up to us Moms, the kids would be safely within arms reach (preferably wrapped in bubble wrap with emergency contact info taped inside) until they are 20.

The kids with Jared. This is one of my favorite pictures from their hike! Those trees are awesome!
The kids in a cool little cave they found. As soon as I saw this picture I asked Dave, "did you check it for mountain lions first?" He didn't...and I worried. :) I worried, ya know, hours later after this had already happened. Another typical mom thing.
Of course my worry is well-founded. There is a sign at the trail head, warning that mountain lions are in the area and what to do to give yourself the best odds of not being eaten, should you run into one. (For those of you who wonder, you are supposed to stop and look at the mountain lion, but not in an aggressive, stare-down way. Then you are to slowly pick up small children so they appear larger and less like a small, tasty snack. Then you are to make yourself look bigger by raising your arms and spreading out your jacket. Then you make low, shewing noises to try and frighten it away. The whole time you pray...hard. The sign did not come out and say to pray hard, but I think it is implied!)
They all came home in mostly one piece (they each showed me all their cuts and scrapes and bruises before they were even all the way in the front door) and all very, very happy. :) I am happy they have such a great Dad who takes them to do things their Mom would freak out about. :) It's a good balance.

A day of firsts

2009-05-21T09:32:00.001-07:00

This is Brighton eating some oatmeal. :) This is not his "official" first time eating solid food, though. I gave him some of the bread I made the other day. But that was just a few little pieces. Later that day for dinner, we had oatmeal and eggs. I shared bites of my oatmeal with him. LOVE the cute "what the heck did you put in my mouth!" look! :) Last night I gave him some mushed up rice and he pulled the same look with every bite, though he begged for more and laughed and giggled at how fun it all was. :)

We had some really warm weather (mid 80's!) and Brighton wore his first summer outfit! :) We got to see his cute, chubby leggies and armies all day! :) His eczema flared on his knees and arms, though, from rubbing on the carpet. But he was so cute! :) The above picture is of him thinking "Mom, enough pictures already...pick me up!" Elijah was holding him for me. Elijah is wearing a towel because he and Fiona, Haven and Scarlett had sprayed themselves with the hose to cool off. Of course, as soon as they did, the clouds and a cool wind came and then they were all cold. But at least they weren't hot anymore! :)

A few modern technologies I bet Laura would've appreciated!

2009-05-19T12:35:00.001-07:00

As some of you may know, I am a HUGE fan of The Little House On The Prairie series! We are now on the last book, The First Four Years, and I will be sad when it's over. It's the shortest book, by far, as it was not published until after Laura's death and even after her daughter, Rose's death. Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote the manuscript later in her life. Once her husband, Almanzo, died she lost interest in revising and finishing it. Her earlier books are dripping with detailed imagery and description. This last one is still very well written (as the publishers wisely knew not to alter the original manuscript) but does not have the detail, so it is shorter. The book covers the first four years of her and Almanzo's marriage. In those days, they made bread once or twice a week to last the whole week. It was, of course, all done by hand.
Growing up, I always had this impression that making bread was such a huge ordeal and very hard to do. That belief, however misconstrued it was, has largely been the reason I have not made bread on a regular basis. As much as I LOVE home made bread and know that it is healthier for me and my family (and our bank account,) the task seemed too daunting. Even after I started making bread and experienced how relatively easy it is first hand, this false belief still hung on. It's really not that hard to throw together the ingredients in a bowl and then knead for a few minutes. It's not a big deal at all to divide the dough after it's risen and place it into greased bread pans to rise a second time. It's really easy to turn the oven on and let it do the baking. The easiest part, of course, is buttering a warm piece of bread, fresh from the oven, and devouring it in 10 seconds. Still, I hardly ever made bread.

Then my mom lent me her Bosch (pictured in the background above.) Wow...throw the ingredients into the bowl, turn on and let it do all the mixing and kneading for you! Silly as it may sound, the part I disliked the most about making home made bread was cleaning the counter after I was done kneading the dough; it was always caked with a solid mixture of dough and flour that I hated scrubbing off. Then the mixture would stick to the fibers of my wash cloth and I would have to clean that off. Tough life, I know! But the Bosch eliminated that problem! So, of course, a new problem emerged: I could never cut the bread nicely! Okay, some of that has to do with being impatient and not waiting for the bread to cool...it is so yummy all fresh from the oven! I always ended up with a crumbly, uneven mess when I cut the loaf myself. I could never imagine ever using the bread for actual things like sandwiches because of this dilemma, so the bread was always eaten as a special treat with butter and jam.
Then, I bought myself an electric knife (pictured above with the bread.) :) It cuts soooooooooooo nicely! I made three fresh loaves of bread today. The entire first loaf was mostly a "treat" loaf eaten with bread and jam. The second loaf was used for sandwiches. Sebastian made a tuna sandwich. Haven and Fiona enjoyed peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Elijah had a ham sandwich and I had the most delicious and yummy grilled cheese sandwich ever! The third loaf is all nicely sliced and in a bag, ready for sandwiches to be made in the coming days! Since Brighton and I can not eat soy and most store-bought bread contains some form of soy, we will mostly be having home made bread from now on. Yum!

I bet that Laura would've really appreciated a Bosch mixer and electric knife! (Among other modern technologies like indoor plumbing and electricity!) :)

Here is my favorite bread recipe and is super easy to memorize. It was given to me by my friend, Cheryl Jenness in Indiana. It is a white bread recipe. I tried it all whole wheat and, although it was still good, it was not as good. I usually make it half wheat and half white and it turns out so good! It's also SUPER easy!

4 c warm water
4 tbs yeast
4 tbs sugar
4 tsp salt
4 tbs oil
enough flour to make a smooth, non-sticky dough

Cook at 350 degrees. Makes 3 loaves.

Summer buz cuts!

2009-05-18T13:39:00.001-07:00

I spied this cute scene yesterday morning from the girl's bedroom window. Dave shaved Sebastian and Elijah's hair, then Sebastian returned the favor for his Dad. :) So cute!! :)
Later, Dave shaved Sequoia as well. I was gone to a singing group practice and, apparently, Brighton woke up and needed to be held before Dave was done. Sequoia currently looks a bit like a mangy lion! But still cuter than the rag-a-muffin, street urchin look she was sporting before! As for Dave's "look"...he asked me yesterday afternoon why he was dressed so dorkily (picture the above outfit with black socks too!) I said "you always dress like that on Sunday!" He was shocked at himself. :) He did remove the black socks...that helped! He likes to be comfy. :)
Our rhubarb is so big and beautiful!
The apple trees are in full bloom...so gorgeous!
My lilacs are FINALLY blooming!! I think it took longer than usual because it doesn't get tons of sun because of our side deck. I think when we re-do that deck I will end up moving the lilac...it is right where we plan on installing some stairs from the deck to the backyard. Hopefully it will still live after we move it! I just LOVE the smell of lilacs! On a walk through the neighborhood the other day, the scent of lilacs was so thick and lovely in the air!!! I love springtime! :)

My new favorite afternoon snack

2009-05-14T15:16:00.001-07:00

The word "rut" has sort of a negative connotation. I would call the way in which I eat the same things for a period of time a food "cycle." I know I'm not the only one who falls into these "cycles." I find something that I like and eat it...regularly...and sometimes exclusively. It's very similar to the first time I tasted Taco Soup. A lovely family in our ward (at church) brought us a meal after Scarlett was born. People had brought me Taco Soup before, after other baby's births, but I never really appreciated it...or maybe even tried it...until this instance. Maybe it was hormones. Whatever it was, I fell madly in love with Taco Soup! There have been months since then when we have eaten Taco Soup (or some variation there of) 7 or 8 times. It got to the point where my kids would see me making it, roll their eyes and say "Taco Soup....again?!?" There were even a few times when I caught a small glimpse of that same feeling in Dave's eyes, as much as he tried to hide it and be the supportive and loving hubby he is. The main difference between that and my new "cycle" of food is that Taco Soup is a family meal and thus subject to familial opinion. My new favorite afternoon snack is my own personal snack. Kids, for the most part, never have much of an opinion about my own personal snacks....unless they want some, of course! :)

Slice up some fresh strawberries (or defrost some frozen fruit and slice), add a layer of vanilla yogurt and top with home made granola and viola...my new favorite afternoon snack! It's sweet, tangy, crunchy, cheap and EASY. :) This is week 3 of this "cycle"....no sign of stopping anytime soon!

Field Day!

2009-05-14T14:44:00.001-07:00

The kids have been attending a WONDERFUL part-time school program at a local charter school (TCA). The Cottage School Program has been a huge blessing for our family and our homeschooling. The kids attend classes two half-days a week and study grammar, P.E., music, art, Latin, and Spanish. It has meant a lot of driving for me since Elijah and Fiona attend in the mornings and Sebastian attends in the afternoon, but it has been very worth it!

Today was their Field Day!!! The Cottage School kids got to join the regular elementary kids in a day filled with fun games and activities like a water balloon toss, face painting, relay races, three-legged race, crab walk race and tug of war. When I was in elementary school, Field Day was always one of my favorite days of the year! I loved the change from the regular school day and playing fun games all day with my friends. I was very excited for Sebastian, Elijah and Fiona to not miss out on this fun elementary school experience! The picture above is the three kids all greased up with sunscreen and ready for the day!
The three youngest kids and I arrived to pick the kids up about an hour early so that we could watch some of the fun activities.

It was hard to spot the kids from the bleachers, but luckily their shirts were color-coded and we could scan the field for pockets of the correct color of shirts. Above is Elijah walking back with his class and below is Sebastian, about to catch a water balloon.
Below is Sebastian catching a water balloon.
Below is Fiona (with the red bandanna and braids) running a lap with her class.

It was a fun day! The kids got lots of great exercise and had the experience of their first field day! Sadly, we will not be returning to TCA and The Cottage School Program next year. It is just too much driving. However, we are so blessed to live in an area with so many homeschoolers; our school district has yet another homeschooling class option! Next year, Sebastian (who will be a 5th grader,) Elijah (who will be a 4th grader,) Fiona (who will be a 2nd grader) and Haven (who is more than thrilled to be a kindergartner) will be attending The Homeschool Academy at a local elementary school. It is one full day a week and they will all be attending on the same day! YAY! We are super excited and, although the kids will miss the friends they've made at TCA, they are looking forward to making new friends! And I am very much looking forward to only driving them to school one day a week!

Soy allergy

2009-05-13T15:10:00.000-07:00

Today was Brighton's appointment with the allergist. They did one of those skin tests on his back and soy came up as an allergen. It was a pretty strong reaction, too! We will be doing a follow-up blood test to confirm this finding, but in the interim and since I am breastfeeding Brighton, it is time for me to say "Good-Bye" to all soy-containing products!

Soy is in sooooo many things these days! It's used as a filler (it's cheap) and soybean oil is one of the main oils used quite frequently (again, it's cheap!) I'm terribly relieved that he is not allergic to wheat, however. I love to grind our own wheat and make our own pizza and pancakes and muffins and cookies, etc. That would've been hard. There will be a LOT of things I won't be able to eat (I already checked my favorite cereal, Nature's Path Organic Flax Plus Pumpkin Raisin Crunch, and it contains soy!) Luckily, a lot of products now list allergens in bold print below the ingredients list so that you don't have to read through the whole list, you can just glance and see if any of the major allergens are used in the product. That is very handy and nice of them to do.

Now that we know what he is most likely allergic to, Brighton gets to start eating some solid food! :) At 7 months old, he has been eyeing our food for awhile now! I'll probably start him on some oatmeal and a few bites here and there of what we are eating (that is soy-free, of course!) We don't really do the whole rice cereal/baby food route. Rice cereal is nutritionally pretty void and is very bland....but it's a great money-maker and marketing ploy! Baby food, again...pretty bland and costly for the nutrition...and another great money-maker for the companies that produce it! If I want my baby to try pears...I will feed him some mashed up pear. If I would like my baby to eat squash or sweet potato...I will feed him some mashed up squash or sweet potato! Mostly, we feed our babies what we are eating and don't get caught up in how much or how little they eat. Breast milk is usually their main source of nutrition until they wean (around 2 years) but we offer and they eat as much or as little solid foods as they want. Babies don't have to have rice cereal and baby food...unless, maybe, their education fund is tied to stock in Gerber! :)

Can you identify this spider?

2009-05-07T09:00:00.001-07:00

Sorry, these are graphic pictures!! You may notice an itchy, creepy-crawly feeling...Dave and I both had the heebie geebies for a few hours after finding these guys! We were moving a playhouse in the back yard. "We"...really means Dave, the guy with the muscles. :) Once Dave tipped it back, we saw literally a hundred of these spiders hanging out on the bottom of it. I have scoured the internet, trying to figure out what kind they are...well, were, anyway. Any clues?

Dave squashed them all, with my full support. Now, I am all for spiders. They are great at killing other, unwanted bugs and play an important role in the eco-system! However, I HATE these hard, shiny body types! So creepy!! Plus, they are on the playhouse where my children play....so...ya. They are all dead now. There was also a HUGE ant nest on/in one corner. There are ants EVERYWHERE in Colorado...it's like ant heaven. I have never had negative feelings about ants...until now. They are just EVERYWHERE!!! We may have to do something about them.
This is Dave posing. :) He's such a babe. :) And I was definitly impressed that he moved that playhouse! It looks much better where it is now...it still needs a complete re-hab...new paint, new flooring, etc...but it's in a much better spot. This was one of the first steps to re-doing the backyard. We have a great plan...I just wish all I needed to do was snap my fingers and it was done! :) Oh, and didn't cost anything to complete...that would be nice. :)

Happy 35th Birthday to my sweet hubby!

2009-05-04T15:16:00.000-07:00

Dave is turning 35 today!! Thanks, Chuck and Christa, for bringing him into this world! :) He is a great guy, a fun daddy, and a sweet hubby!! We have such a fun life together. I thank Heavenly Father EVERY DAY for putting Dave and I together and steering us in the direction our life has taken. He is the perfect hubby for me and I just love him more and more every year! :)
The kids made some awfully cute cards for their daddy. I made a card and wrote the following literarally superb poem:

My Sweet Hubby, Dave...

He works so hard,

and he's really tough!

He earns the money,

to buy us fun stuff!

He is so handsome,

and oh so sweet!

His funny jokes,

just can't be beat!

He loves his family,

and loves to cuddle!

He's such a gentleman,

he'd carry me over a puddle!

He has a beautiful way with words,

and a very sharp wit!

I love my sweet hubby Dave,

and won't ever stop...it!!

These pictures are of Dave on his recent trip to China. The above photo is his cheesy "Heeeyyyy..." grin. :)

The kids and I made a big Happy Birthday poster and they helped come up with the following things we like about Daddy:
You are fun to play with! You're generous! You're cuddly! You love us! You read us books and tell us silly stories! You are kind! You are nice! You help around the house! You write funny poems! You earn money for us! You take care of us! You buy ice cream! You're fun! You let us help with yard work! You help take care of Brighton! You love the Gospel! You tell silly jokes! You wrestle with us! You buy us food! You snuggle with us! You buy us food! You have a fun sense of humor!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAVE! I LOVE YOU TONS! AND OODLES! AND GOBS! AND HEAPS! AND FATHOMS! AND LEGIONS! AND PILES AND PILES AND PILES OF LOVE! :)

For the love of safety scissors!

2009-05-04T08:44:00.000-07:00

When Sebastian and Elijah were just sweet, cute, little toddlers (they're still sweet and cute...just not as little,) my mom sent them each a pair of kid scissors. Sebastian was 3, so his scissors were the metal kind with round tips. Elijah was 2, so his scissors were Safe-T-Cut scissors made entirely of plastic. I didn't think they would cut, but they actually cut paper quite nicely. I thought it was so clever of my mom to find them and send them! It's nice that children's scissors are small, have colorful plastic handles, and have blunt ends...but they are still metal and still cut pretty much anything and everything; paper, crayons, skin, clothes...and hair. We have had way too many incidences of kids cutting their hair with kid scissors. We have gone months and months when no one was allowed use of said scissors because of the great loss of hair. It was saddest about 6 months or so ago when I noticed a little trail of blond curls strewn about the house....Haven and Scarlett had been cutting their hair!! Sweet Scarlett actually came and told me "Haven and me snipped our hair!" Oh, those sweet little blond curls looked so forlorn on the floor without a sweet head to be attached to! The kid scissors were banned to the top shelf pretty much until recently.
Yesterday, as Dave and I sat on the couch chatting, Scarlett found a pair of scissors and proceeded to try and "snip" off her entire pony tail!!! Thank Heaven she had found the Safe-T-Cut scissors!!! Try as she might, those plastic shears would not come even close to cutting off her precious pony tail!!! I have never been more thankful for those plastic toddler scissors in my life! Thanks, mom! :)