Fun with Cousins

We had so much fun on the
train. The train was super long. - Brooklynn

Family Circus #3

Yes, it was Sacrament Meeting at church again. Only this time, I was up on the stand. (I am the new chorister for our congregation.)

As I sat in peace, Mark was sitting on the second row with the 3 kids. Brooklynn on his left, was trying to be good. Jeffrey on his right,was elbowing him repeatedly as hard as he could, just for some manly fun. And Malia on his lap, was singing at the top of her lungs,

"Singing altogether,

Running round and round

Bouncy, bouncy on the bed

We all fall DOWN!"

Hehehe. Mark was trying to keep her quiet while the Sacrament was being passed. She wouldn't hush. Then she started yelling and waving, "Hi MOM!" I waved back with a little smirk. Glad it wasn't me!

Weather Poems

Winter Morning

by Ogden Nash

Winter is the king of showmen,

Turning tree stumps into snow men

And houses into birthday cakes

And spreading sugar over lakes.

Smooth and clean and frosty white

The world looks good enough to bite.

That's the season to be young,

Catching snowflakes on your tongue.

Snow is snowy when it's snowing,

I'm sorry it's slushy when it's going.

Clouds

by Christina G. Rossetti

White sheep, white sheep,

On a blue hill,

When the wind stops

You all stand still.

When the wind blows

You walk away slow.

White sheep, white sheep,

Where do you go?

What we've been up to this week

This week has been full.

We hooked up a new CPU! Hooray! I've been blogging for the last year with a computer that wouldn't show all of the little buttons, like text size and pictures. So, I've had to guess where very thing is.

Jeffrey found this game, Liquid Measure 2, at gamefudge. Once you get past the first few levels, it can be mentally invigorating! He mastered the game and is pretty excited about it. He has also been practicing for his first violin recital tomorrow. He's ready!

Brooklynn gave a presentation in her book club. They have been studying, "Josephina," from the American Girl series. She had to report on her favorite part of book 6. Since she didn't have a favorite part to tell about, she spent Wednesday morning making Mexican Wedding Cakes- a treat Josephina might have eaten at her dad's wedding. She also been busy this week practicing her flute. She learned to play, "Mary Had a Little Lamb." She has been working for a year to coordinate her breathing with her fingers moving! What an accomplishment for her!

Mark has been putting in long hours a few days this week with work. Malia has spent her days playing with her babies. Poor thing doesn't have a stroller or bed for her babies. She was using Brooklynn's until she broke it. She's been improvising with empty boxes and baskets from around the house. (I'm sure she is going to love what she is getting for Christmas!) She has also had a great time this week coloring and playing with our nativity set.

I've been up to the usual, cleaning, cooking, laundry, keeping the kids on task with their school work, etc. Nothing really exciting. I decorated the house for Christmas. I think this is why the kids are starting to go crazy. I bought all of our Christmas baking supplies and our Christmas cards ready to mail! Such a fun time of year!

"Mom, I need to tell you someteen,"

says the two year old as she is trying to go to sleep. She twirls her small ponytail around her right forefinger and rubs between the toes on her left foot with her left hand.

"Bookin have a droller. I don't have a droller for my babies. I don't have a bed for my babies. Bookin have lots of dolls. I have my babies. Bookin have Pet Shops. I love Pet Shops. I don't have any Pet Shops. Jeffey have Pokemon cards. I lost my Pokemon cards...." and on and on she goes. All the injustices of being two.

Fall Hike #2

I organized a 'hiking group' this fall consisting of a few families and LOTS of little kids. Here is a picture of Jeffrey right after he threw up on our first hike. The poor thing was sooooooooo excited to go hiking with friends and he ended up with a stomach virus that morning.
I love this picture of Malia on the trail!

Brooklynn reached the top of the summit!

Great views of the valley!

Having a break before the descent. Granola bars are always a welcome snack.

I'm sure when the weather warms up in the spring we'll start hiking again with our friends!

Glimpses from when we first moved here

I found these on a camera card I haven't used for a year... Jeffrey helping with the watering
The trampoline under the willow tree

Finding a bird's nest

The Game of Life

Our snowcovered view this morning. Brrr. Today's high will be 36! Here is the park behind our house. Over the summer when everything was green, we would ride bikes down an enormous hill. So fun! I was really looking forward to going tubing down it. Last week that little bulldozer in the bottom right of the picture demolished it :(. No explanation from the city at the city council meeting.

So, with all the cold, the kids broke out the game of "Life" this morning. I have a feeling we'll be playing a few rounds today between schoolwork.

Pinewood Derby 2010

The car "Team Jeffrey" built
All the boys in the troop were so excited about this big day! Hours and hours worth of effort was put into building the cars.
Watching the end result

Even though Jeffrey won second place, his car was the fastest 3 out of 4 time in the final round. Great job 'Team Jeffrey'!!!

Family Picture Practice

Tonight I had Malia practice her smile for family pictures this Saturday.

Hmmmmmm. I'm thinking a candid picture might turn out better than a posed one.

A Few Fall Favorite Pics

Such a sweet picture of the girls!
When Cousin Rachel came to visit her sister, they invited me join the fun for an afternoon! We chatted and quilted. Okay, so they quilted. They were quilting together fabric from our grandma and their mom's collections. So cute! They finished the quilt off with a red velvet heart that my grandmother had cut out years ago. I think they could have finished the quilt faster if I wasn't there. I did quit a bit of unpicking. Thanks for letting my clumsy fingers help anyways!

Fall Hikes #1

I took the kids on a hike up the mountains a few months ago. My book said it was a 1/2 mile hike and there was water at our destination. Now that's my kind of hike! Reality: a hiking backpack loaded with a 2 year old makes any hike feel longer...a lot longer. At one point I thought we had taken the wrong trail. We finally made it!

Jeffrey helping with directions. He earned his hiking beltloop for cubscouting this summer.

Taking a break on the bridge.

Stopping at a meadow

Staying on the trail

Climbing on rocks

Crossing the stream

Discovering

Being her cute self

Missing!!

A few months ago we were having a great afternoon, all involved in our own things. I was reading a book and realized that I hadn't seen Malia for a while. I called her name, but she didn't answer. We checked all of the rooms. No Malia! I started to panic and checked the doors, they were all locked. Hmmmmmmmm. More panic. "Malia, Malia." Still no answer. I quickly ran through the house searching room by room, closet by closet. We found her...
...in the shoe closet. She told me later that she was hiding to eat some candy she found!

Jeffrey

Jeffrey earned his Bobcat award for cubscouting. (I know, it was a few months ago and I'm behind.) He's also earned several beltloops and patches. The next award, his Wolf, it taking longer. Hopefully we'll, I mean he'll, have it done by the end of January.

He was also knighted, Sir Jeffrey Knight of Inventiveness, a few weeks ago at his Knights of Freedom bookclub. He is really enjoying the friendship with this group of boys!

The Pumpkin Bat

This was the first year we used patterns to carve pumpkins! Not bad. Not bad.

Trunk-Or-Treat

Thursday morning, Jeffrey had a dentist appointment and had some work done. While he laid on the couch recooperating, Brooklynn and I quickly decorated our trunk with pumpkins, ghosts, and bats. We headed a few towns away for the homeschool trunk-or-treat and halloween party. There were tons of people there from all over the valley. The kids got enough candy to be satisfied. I had a great time! I met a few moms that I really like. We're going to join the same group for their Christmas Party in Dec. I've already volunteered to help with games and crafts.

Our Snow Princess

Mr. Incredible

Goody Walk

Bean Bag Toss- Jeffrey got the highest score

My little flower swinging

Monster Walk

And last but not least, Red Rover Red Rover!

Cattails

A few weeks ago we played in the cattails for our nature study. Today we went back and they were ready to 'pop'. The kids spent 2 hours collecting and popping the casings open. So fun!

My disclaimer: I didn't have my camera, so this picture I "borrowed" from the internet.

Confession

I just unpacked a box I packed 15 months ago in Omaha.
The great news: I am FINALLY almost done unpacking!

The Task Master

I'm not sure what drove me to have Brooklynn complete 12 language arts lessons today or to have Jeffrey do 3 math lessons and a unit test. Maybe it was their whining that their work is too easy? Maybe it's the way K12 has set up their website? Their feedback with charts and numbers, the 'percentage complete' page (Brooklynn is 33% done with her language arts) and 'projected end date' calculation button ( all courses will be completed by May 6) keep me plowing through the workload. My brain is swimming in circles and it hurts- just like during finals week in college.

Brooklynn has a few math problems left, and we haven't started history. I'm ready to wrap up and call it a day. Tomorrow we'll stick the to plan- one lesson per subject!

Yesterday's Fire

I was outside yesterday afternoon and couldn't miss seeing BIG plumes of smoke coming over the mountain. A few hours later the flames were on our side. The fire department and national guard evacuated 1600 homes. We were 16 blocks north of the mandatory evacuation area. We put the kids to bed and weren't concerned.

A few hours later, strong winds blew the smoke to our neighborhood. We discovered our windows aren't sealed properly. Smoke was coming into the kids' bedrooms. We packed a change of clothes, some breakfast food, and spent the night at Mom's. Thanks for your hospitality, Mom!

I was't worried about the fire hitting our place, but since we've got a touchy smoke alarm I was worried about it going off. And in turn, setting off the sprinkler system. Last night was a loooooooooooong night!

Here are a few pictures I 'stole' from my brother.

Mark and I came home this morning. One side of the mountain is charred, but the fire was stopped before it hit many homes. Three homes are lost. It looks like the fire is almost out, but we haven't heard anything official on the news. A few hot spots are left smoldering. The winds have changed direction and sent all of the smoke south. Safe to come home! Great job fire department!

The school district cancelled local schools for the day. We came home and the kids are a bit grouchy from being up late. It's hard to motivate them to get their school work done when the neighbors are having fun outside!

Lesson learned: Come up with a better plan for our 72-hour emergency kits. Besides food and water, they really do need to include clothing, toiletries, shoes, important documents and cash.

On the brighter side: I have a working oven and have reorganized all of the closets and dressers! Yeah!