(child's voice) All Done!

Jacob is through with second grade! Here he is with his teacher, Mrs. Garrett,
at the end of the year class party. He loved being in her class and finished out the year with a bang!
Jacob had a different teacher for the majority of the year and he really struggled. He was quite stressed and acted out often, but it took a lot of time for Mike and I and Jacob to pinpoint what was leading to his tough times. We met numerous times with the teacher, counselor, assistant principal, and then principal....and finally I just pulled him out of school for a bit in March. Thanks to a great principal and impressions I recieved after much prayer, we put him back in with a different teacher. The environment was just what he needed. Lots of greens and gold stars followed! Way to go, Jacob! We love you so much and are proud of you for all your hard work!

Andrew participated in a little preschool this year and enjoyed himself immensely. He was the oldest one and became the "helper" for all the other children. His favorite lessons included dogs, lemonade stands, making all things pumpkin, and learning about the sea. This little puppy is excited for kindergarten to start. As soon as school was out, the boys and I made goals for summer learning. Two of Andrew's goals were to be able to count and recognize his numbers to 30 and to write and recognize the lower case alphabet. (Just because it's easier, I've only taught him the upper.) ANYWAY - this goal oriented, determined boy mastered the numbers almost up through 100 in the first few days. He is going to do great in school!
We love you, Andy Doondy! RUFF!!

Summertime is here

Yes folks, long active days and bellies full of watermelon occasionally lead to a face down/in the plate/early bedtime.

Beware the woken child. (This picture kills me!)

Oh, wait. She's back down again.
Her shorts were soggy with watermelon juice and stickiness was everywhere! Jacob picked our first watermelon of the summer and it was a winner. Huge and delicious. We'll probably be working on this monster melon for a week!
*After typing that I realize it may sound like we picked it from our garden, but alas, not this year. We picked it straight from the boxes at the supermarket. (:

Thank you

The month of May turned into a crazy one. I had committed to do a few things for a couple different committees at school and am the secretary for the Relief Society (women's organization) at church, and just had some of the general busy-ness that comes near the end of school.

All of it was going to be manageable until the school district decided to postpone all extra-curricular activities for two weeks due to the swine flu threat. (Puh-lease.) So all the things that were originally spread out thru May, were all dumped in one week. That meant juggling things at the same time, spending a lot of time redoing things that had already been done for our school's silent auction, redoing signs and posters, remaking cakes for the cake walk....on and on. All I can say is that my body physically gave out each night. There was too much to do and too little time. Mike was fantastic to help out either cooking dinner, or at least not complaining when he often was home before we were. He put the kids to bed, was supportive of every meeting I needed to be at, and always gave me encouraging words for all the things I was working on. Sorry for the back up in laundry family!! (ummm..backup is not the right word. Jacob actually had three different days where there simply was no clean underwear left...small pajama shorts under regular shorts? Sounded good to us!)

Anyway - my family was fantastic, but the reason I started down this long wandering narrative was to say thank you to my sister in law, Jenny. On the day of the silent auction I had so much to do, a filthy kitchen, no energy left, and was just feeling awful about how little I was getting done around the house. I could barely stand up anymore and had six cakes to frost and decorate. Ding dong! Jenny flew in, blew around my kitchen for half an hour, infused me with energy, gave me a great hug, and left me with a spotless kitchen and a humongously thankful heart. It meant a lot to me. Thank you Jenny! You were just what I needed!

**And yes! I do know when to say no to volunteer "opportunities." This just ended up being an awful time for any parent at our school, due to overscheduling events. An example - in one night of the crazy week they jammed the Book Fair, Gallery Night, Talent Show, and ISP Presentations. AYE-YI-YI-CHIHUAHUA-MAMASITA!!**

Wow!

(Two seconds ago...)

Andrew: Hey Mom! I want to go to Utah so bad right now, I can smell it. For real life. Right here in the front room with the door and the window closed. I can smell it!

Thoughts

This past week a little nine year old girl at Jake's school was killed in a backyard accident. I was asked to make a memorial poster/banner (for lack of a better word) to hang in the school. What a task.

If I was concentrating on my lettering or cutting, I was okay, but every time I would stand back to check centering and I would see her sweet face smiling at me from her picture, I would fall apart again. Her poor family. I don't like to even imagine.

That realization came again of how quickly life can change. That I need to always be striving to be close to my Heavenly Father. To follow Him each day and act in faith, so that I am strong and prepared and trusting when unexpected challenges come my way.

I am so thankful for the presence and spirit and joy each of my little one's bring into my life, and to know that when our loved ones pass on, that we will have the chance to be reunited. Such comfort it brings.

I'm so tired, and my mind is in a million places, and I have two pressing projects that need to be done tonight, but I cannot be on my feet anymore, so I will take a break lying down and record some things I've been meaning to.

-A couple of weeks ago was our week of shows. Mostly having to do with magic and art. The boys made out tickets and money and collected them behind the play cash register. There were top hats, things disappearing under handkerchiefs, music, pirate ship drawing contests, castle drawing contests...and ALWAYS a drum roll called for before the winner was announced. Pillows were laid out for each person to sit on, and place cards were made. I think we did it 4 different nights in one week. It was so fun to see the boys' creativity and planning.

-I love that when Andrew gets really excited about something he cannot stop hopping while he tells you about it. I also love that he stutters for the same reason. "and, and, and, and, 'JACOB! (he shouts), stop interrupting! I'm telling Mom about it!' and, and, and then we......"

-Jacob is playing soccer for the first time and is really enjoying himself. He is pretty aggressive at getting the ball from others and has made a few goals. He runs all out and is exhausted and happy at the end. I was not able to go to his first game and so I asked him about it when he came home. He talked about the team doing well, but only making two goals while the other team made three. It wasn't until Mike came in that I found out Jake had made both the goals, and that even at the time of making them - while everyone cheered for Jake- he acknowledged the boy who made "such a great pass" to him. He definitely made his momma proud with that!

-My garden is in! What? Do you hear that? An angelic hallelujah chorus?! Yes. It is beautiful. Smaller than originally intended, but good for my first time. I have 6 tomato plants, 2 zucchini (when we came home from the store, Jacob went running out to show Andy the zucchini plants and Andrew hugged them to his chest "Mmmm...zucchini bread."), 1 cucumber, and a number of herbs. It is so enjoyable to sit and weed for a little while in the evening while the kids play.

-We have a playscape finally! I scoped one out on Craig's List and the kids love it! Amelia could swing forever, and the boys are awesome to push her whenever I am doing something else. They are so funny together.

-On a past Friday the boys and I were having one of those "What would we ever do without our little Millie girl?" conversations. On Saturday evening Mike and I were worn out from a day in the yard and Jacob made dinner for everyone. And not the same thing for all of us, mind you. He even made me a salad with chicken on top! (Leftover ingredients, but he did have to cut a few things). He called his operation "Jake's cowboy cookin'." He then insisted on doing all the dishes and wiping down the counters. I was thinking "This boy is HEAVEN SENT!" Later on as I was weeding the garden he came and sat down next to me.

"Mom? Can I ask you a question?"
"Sure, buddy boy."
"Do you ever wonder what you would do without me?"

Oh my goodness! He got kisses and hugs and lots of reasons why we would be so sad not to have our wonderful Jacob around!

-And lastly, little Amelia Love has grown some hair and I can put it in pigtails! So exciting! She is adorable! She loves to have her hair done. If I mention it, she runs to the bathroom and waits to be lifted to the counter. She also wears my shoes everywhere and likes to pick out what shoes she and I will wear. The other day she played dress up in her room. She would point to the items she wanted, and wait patiently for me to put them on, would walk around for awhile (oh so conscious of herself), and then would choose new things to wear. She cracks me up. I want to squish her always. OH YES! -she really loves to prance - she has this little hop in her step all the time. And she wears a "pearl" necklace most days and headbands around her neck, and loves to fold her arms now.

-So that's that. Some things I didn't want to forget!

Good Boy

This morning, right after "breaksis:"

Andrew: Mom, in Primary they told us a story about a girl who tried to be like Jesus for a whole day. I choose today to be the day I will be like Jesus.

(Sounds good to me!)

Heads Up

Today we went to pick up a playscape for our backyard. (Hooray!!!) While waiting for a guy to come back with some different tools, I slid into the seat of the van, hoping to get a some needed shut eye in the air conditioning. The boys were busy rearranging all the wood pieces in the big trailer. After a few minutes Jake knocks loudly on the window. I open my eyes, and with a very serious look he motions for me to open the door.

As soon as the door is open he soberly gives me the latest heads up:

"Okay. Mom? (right hand comes up and out, palm open, head cocks to the side a little and bobs almost imperceptibly) if anyone comes by and tries to sell you a unicorn horn, do NOT buy it. There are no such things as unicorns. He probably just went up to the Arctic and found some washed up Narwal, took it's horn, and is going to sell it to you. (Pauses and thinks for just a second). He will probably just make up the cost of getting the Narwal horn, or maybe will try to even make a bit extra."

I almost totally lost it when he said unicorn horn. I didn't see that coming. Where does he come up with these things!?! And Narwal? As he walked away it took me a few moments to remember that it is the name of some kind of fish - maybe a type of small shark? Whatever.

Update:
I (Miguel) looked it up, and Narwhals are crazy -like a unicorn for boys, but for real. Here is a page with several pictures.

Let's Run Away, Shall we?!

Today I have been informed that I am the "horridest mom in the world," and have been called a butthead numerous times, and hit with dinosaurs.

Lovely.

So I'm thinking about running away to a beautiful beach somewhere far, far away. Care to join me?

Tip #78: How to get sleepy BOY out of bed

We had a violent hailstorm two days ago. Freaky. Exciting. Lots of damage. Never seen anything like it. I'll put up a few pictures when I've got time......

Anyway -

This morning I could not wake Andrew up. It was dark and misty outside, he was cozy and cuddly inside. It was also 9:30! Couldn't get him up. So I went outside to seed a few of the bare patches in our backyard. While back there I found a large decapitated bird (from the storm).

(AHA!)

I leaned in the back door and yelled, "ANDREW! I just found a bird in the backyard that got it's head knocked off by the hail."

.03 seconds later he tumbles (he did actually fall - he was trying to run so fast) down the stairs, jumps to his feet, and RUNS outside.

"Where?!!"

Wedding Weekend

Mike's stepsister, Cara, got married this weekend to her love of nine years. It was a beautiful ceremony in a picturesque chapel, with perfect weather. We had a great time spending the day with all the family.

Jacob was asked to be the ring bearer. He carried little Roxy (Cara's dog) and the rings down the aisle. What a cutie! As he and I were waiting for his turn in the ceremony I could see Roxy and Jacob start shaking. He was nervous and was holding onto her for dear life! I gave his arms a break for a minute, then it was his turn. He did great!

Mike had the camera - and was sitting with the other two - so no pics, but I'm sure we'll see some later from the photographers.

And here are some we took afterwards...

Sweet Surprise

This evening Jacob announced the following:

J. "Mom, I think this is probably the best time in my life."

M. "Really? What makes you say that?"

J. "Well, we're all here snuggled up in a cozy kitchen, you are making cookies, I just finished almost completely cleaning the kitchen, Amelia is sitting down hunched over a dinosaur encyclopedia - which is, of course, upside down (hearty chuckle), and Andrew is just drawing some picture of....something. It feels just right in here."

Holy cow. You could have mopped me up. This really is such a surprise, because this same little boy has been having some serious struggles lately. School has been rough. I took him out a week ago, and we are kind of feeling out what the best thing is for him right now. He is on my mind constantly, and I have been worried about how happy he is, and what I could do better for him.

Today was one of those sweet assurances that all the effort we are putting in to our family life is doing something. Jacob has felt our love for him and he feels safe in our home. Not only that...it feels like one of the best times in his life! Yippee!

-And a little sidenote of humor....

yes, our little girl is pushing around a stroller carrying precious cargo - a gun(which she unfortunately knows how to use) and a dinosaur book, and then after a while she added a baby. Gotta love her.

Let's be honest. This afternoon was incredibly difficult. Small child lost control, I proceeded to go into this "I'm out of control - I'm in control" bouncy thing. Yelling one minute, calmly ignoring the next. Repeat. Yeah, I know, straight from the chapter in every parenting book of what to avoid.

SO! I am here to remind myself of why I want to be with these little buggers when they wake up all bushy tailed (or perhaps-brace yourself Cheri-breathing fire again).

So here they are in all their sweet glory.





Alright. They are sweet.

Awesome Possum

In preschool today Andrew learned about space. He's been drawing rockets since we got home and I suggested he add some stars to his pictures. He told me he didn't know how, so I taught him. Now he is chanting "Awesome, awesome possum." And singing "I can draw stars by myself" to the tune of "I love mother, she loves me, we love Daddy, yes siree.."

January Catch up

Hope you're sitting down. This is a super (everybody scream...super is my word for the week) long post. Lots of pictures. Had to catch up on what's been going on around here.

Poppy (Mike's dad) is talented in the woodcarving area. He made these awesome cars and blocks for the kids for Christmas. Beautiful. Thank you, Poppy!



Went hiking with cousins and a friend over Christmas Break. Had a little picnic and enjoyed the gorgeous weather.




These cinnamon rolls were meant for serious bartering. Incredible. Came from friend's recipe titled "Clone of Cinnabon" and I'm telling you what. They were delicious. I love that in this picture Mike caught the boys picking at the flour. The crazy kids love to lick it. yuck!



Trip to the mall playground. Thought it would be a nice quiet outing. Ummm...28 kids there running around. We didn't last long, but Amelia loved the slide.




I think my boys are the coolest fort builders. They built this out of garden edgers and sticks.

Amelia sneaks in while Andrew makes repairs and then wonders how long til he notices her and hauls her out. This would happen over and over and she thought it was so funny. He is actually repairing the last section she snuck through, and does not know that she just walked right in through the entrance. I was greatly amused. (Oh- and if you look closely, there is a jar of caterpillars and leaves. Isn't being a kid so great!)

Me and Doons. I LOVE him! I love watching and listening to him play. I'll miss him when he goes to kindergarten.



Back at the ranch. Another boy moment. Andrew rigs up own parachute and decides to put it to the test.

Climbs to highest point he can find.

Makes the leap and then repeatedly tells us how cool and awesome it was. Repeats process. Is this dangerous? Yes, I'm sure. Especially when he began jumping with two large sticks for his "bracers." Mom put an end to that. Ahh, boys.




Mike took the boys out golfing on MLK day. They loved it. You must notice the polo shirts. The boys took care to "dress the right way." Thank you Jacob/fashion consultant.




Andrew was Robin Hood today. He was extremely proud of the clothesline he set up and insisted that I come out a take a picture, "because it really does look like the real Sherwood Forest, Mom. I even put clothes on it, but some of the clip things were really hard."



While making dinner I heard Jacob and Amelia laughing. Found them in the bathroom with Amelia intently putting "make-up" all over Jacob and combing his hair. He was such a good sport, and even though Amelia would occasionally laugh, she was very intent on what she was doing.


Andrew has friend over for playdate. They play cowboys, on a ship. He reads the map and she punches in the calculations to send them to Africa.