Taneal's Open House

We had open house the same night for Taneal as we did for Camie. Taneal is so different from Camie. I knew exactly what to expect because Taneal told me everything. Taneal is quite a talker. And I love it! She has two teachers, one for Math and Science and another teacher for Language Arts. In her science class they made a diorama of a gorge. She was pretty excited about. She also drew a great picture showing symmetry of a milk shake shown it the picture at the top of the bulletin board. She is quite the artist.

These two pictures are of her teachers. I haven't been able to be up at the school very much this year volunteering (I never really do when I have a new baby). I don't know her teachers very well, but they are great. Taneal is learning so much and her teachers treat Taneal with so much respect. They really love her and do such a great job.

A few weeks before the school had a culture night. I wasn't able to go, so Taneal showed me her block at open house. Each class made a quilt. Each student made one square from a piece of paper that described something in their culture. Taneal decided to draw a picture of the temple because our religious beliefs are so much a part of our culture. Evan took the girls to culture night and noticed a quilt square of the first vision. Pretty impressive. Taneal and Camie's school is very diverse so it was interesting to see all the different quilt blocks created by the students in the school.

Camie's open house

Last week we had open house at the school. I love going to open house because the kids are so excited to share with me everything they are doing. I learn more in 10 minutes in their classroom then I do in week at home. Camie was so excited to show me EVERYTHING. We started off with her story she wrote that was posted outside her classroom on a main hallway. Below is the story where she wrote her favorite animal is a bunny but her cousin's dog killed the bunny. It made me laugh that Camie would telling that story that and not think anything of it.

This is a cool experiment showing, in Camie's explanation, how tornado's work. It was pretty cool and she sure loved showing us.

The class is actually growing a frog! Camie's teacher tried this in years past and the tadpole never survived. Her teacher told me that Camie researched tadpoles and came up with a solution as to why their tadpole wasn't growing, it needed light. So, they got a light and shined it directly on the cage and guess what? It worked. The tadpole now has legs. I had no idea Camie was such a scientist.

Camie has had a great year in 1st grade. Her handwriting has become very pretty because she has slowed down and taken time to improve it. She reads like crazy and has finished books like A Series Of Unfortunate Events and The Spiderwick Cronicles. She is zipping through books so fast. She stays up late at night reading and reads the minute she finishes any school work in class. She gets so excited to tell me about the books she reads and she just makes me happy.

Danielle finishes swim lessons

Danielle just finished up swim lessons at the local YMCA. She loved it and got to take the lessons with her best friend, Lindsay. They had a lot of fun together and Danielle actually started putting her face in the water and dogie paddling. It was mostly just fun for her and got her comfortable being in the water. I haven't signed her up for anything before and she has watched her sisters play soccer and baseball and swim team, so this was special for her to have something of her own.

Nathan is sitting

I am doing a little catch up here. I have been very consumed in the world of digital scrapbooking and loving it. But, my blog is suffering because of it.

Nathan is sitting. This is a great picture showing how well he sits, but it is rare that I have him naked. He started sitting early, at five months. This picture is taken a few days before he turned six months. Now, a month later, I can leave him and come back in the room ten minutes later and he is still sitting. Those newborn days are so gone and although I am excited that he is learning and growing, it saddens me that he is growing up so fast.

Did you notice the nice rash on his chest below his chin? I'm pretty sure it is food allergies. Every time I give him rice, oatmeal, or wheat, the rash comes back bright red. Poor kid. I don't know what to feed him. He handles fruits and vegetables well and enjoys them. I fed him Cheerios and it made his rash inflamed. I need to get him into the allergist soon.

Taneal's scrapbook page

I decided to give digital scrapbooking another go and this is what I came up with. There is so much I need to learn!

Mom, look what you did!

"Mom! Look what you did!!!!! You got my shirt wet!" Spencer scolded me this morning. He spilled yogurt on his shirt so I got a wash cloth and cleaned it up. And I thought I was remedying the problem, not making it worse! And to think his shirt not being the same was my fault. I wish you could see the exasperated expression of this two-year-old. It actually made me laugh.

I've been awake for 1 hour and 15 minutes and oh, the tongue lashings I have got from my children. Camie was upset because it is picture day and I asked her, oh so nicely, to please put on a shirt that actually fit and matched. The mean looks would not go away the rest of the morning. Taneal was mad at me because I spent 15 minutes straightening her hair for school pictures and I couldn't quite get this bump out of her hair near her head (I wished she like the simple curls naturally in her hair). I begged to use spray gel and she just gave me that look of "how dare you even think that". She also asked for eggs this morning so I got up and made them especially for her and then she didn't even eat them.

Thank goodness this is not normal. So what happened this morning? My children appreciate me, they love me. I am never treated like this. And for three of them to go at me at once! What happened? Were they upset that I made three of them go to bed at 6:45 last night because of their grumpy behavior? I woke up in such a good mood.

The rules so far are working (see my last post). None of them have broken the rules (except Spencer giving me the tongue lashing this morning). They have walked a thin line, but not broken them. So maybe something positive is happening this morning. I decided I needed to vent, so thanks for listening. The Backyardigans are entertaining my little ones while I take a break. And to think it is 8am and we are already watching tv. Something needs to change today.

Let the consequences begin

As my children get older, the fighting, yelling, hitting, bickering, tattling, etc. keeps getting more and more. I have had enough. "Mom, Camie hit me", "Mom, Taneal isn't being nice." and on and on and on. So, this morning I was tired of the tattling. Time out wasn't working, serving one another wasn't working. So, I thought, why not help me with the jobs that just don't seem to be getting done? The girls sat down with me and we made a list of consequences for undesirable actions. This is what we came up with. Hopefully this will help. Within 10 minutes Camie yelled at Taneal and had to march upstairs and clean both bathroom floors. She still needs a lot of practice, and unfortunately I'm afraid she will get it. The nice part about the list was I didn't have to tell Camie the consequence. She walked over to the predecided consequences and then went and did the job. Whohoo! My bathroom floors look great and there hasn't been any fighting for two hours now!

Happy Valentines Day

I never really liked Valentines Day as a youth, probably because I never had some hunk of a guy (or any guy) head over heels for me showering me with chocolates and flowers. Then I got married and now I have a hunk of a guy head over heels but I still am not being showered with chocolates or flowers, and I am great with that. It is kind of funny holiday that I think is there just to make single people feel bad. And so in my family, I want to change what Valentines Day is and make it something positive that they can look forward to even in the years ahead that they are single.

So instead of ignoring the holiday, we decided to make Valentines Day a family occasion. We set the table pretty and make an extra yummy meal and have a candle lite dinner. The kiddos think this is great and I don't harbor any feelings of the missed chocolates because I buy them for the family. It is great fun and we get to show the ones we really love that we love them and want to spend time with them.

And, this year Evan did go above and beyond and brought home a potted flowering plant and great cards for all of us. Way to go, Evan!

Heart on the Ceiling

Camie got this sticky heart thingy that she was enjoying flinging at the wall and it would stick. Well, she threw it at the ceiling and it really stuck. She left it there while we were at church to see if it would be there when we got home, and it was. Right before it was time to go to bed, someone started jumping off the bunk bed onto the floor upstairs over and over and over. Then, they were jumping up and down and shaking the chandelier that hangs over the table. I yelled upstairs to have whomever was making all the noise stop, and after a while, they did. Then, Danielle came downstairs and Evan heard her explain to Camie that she tried to go upstairs and shake the floor so that the little sticky heart would fall down, but it just didn't work and she didn't know how they were ever going to get the thing down.

I love the creative minds of children.

I don't think he likes it

Nathan has eczema. It started about the time I introduced cereal. When I have backed off the cereal, the eczema cleared up some, but didn't completely go away. Now when I feed him the cereal, he starts throwing up after a few hours. I don't quite know what to do. I decided to give the cereal one more try, just to be sure that's what was causing the rash and throwing up, and within a few hours he was throwing up. Later that night the eczema was really bad. The pediatrician told me that if the eczema got too bad, to where the cream wasn't really helping, to give him benedryl. I know I shouldn't really give babies medicine, but I really felt like he needed it. I have given it to him once before, so I knew he didn't like the medicine. This time I decided to get it on film because his reaction is so funny. Enjoy the video.

S-P-E-N-C-E-R

Danielle has gone from learning to spell her name to full fledge reading. I took the journey with Taneal and Camie when they were this age. I really enjoy this process, it is so fun to watch them learn. So, I decided it was time to start helping Spencer learn his name. This is the beginning of a great time together that makes them feel so special and smart. At Spencer's first birthday he couldn't really talk, but he could sing "Happy Birthday." The boy has an amazing ability to remember tunes. So, I put the spelling of his name to a tune and I am trying to teach it to him. He does really well, just can't seem to remember that it starts with "s", instead says for that letter soemthing like "pess". Anyways, the song ends with "that's how you spell Spencer" and Spencer sings that part SOOO cute. I got it on the video. It is so fun to hear him sing the song. We are just in the beginning, but I couldn't pass up how cute he is trying. I hope you enjoy.

Another one of those moments

Sometimes I get overwhelmed with all that I need to do. Besides just loving my children and trying to spend time with them, there is all the cleaning, the laundry, the cooking, the errands that have to be done, reading to them, the homework, and on and on. They are all things that I really don't mind doing, and most of them I really enjoy doing. When I have a baby in arms I find doing just about anything, other then holding my baby, simply has to wait.

Recently we had gorgeous weather. I really needed to get some Primary stuff done and should have had it done days before, but life happened and it still wasn't done. Dinnertime was approaching. Nathan really likes to be held . . . a lot, to say the least. And, I love to hold him. But I have so many things to do that I feel I'll go crazy trying to get them done, so I let so many things go just to avoid going crazy mad.

All the kiddos were outside in the back playing (in their pioneer costumes that my mom made them last summer) and Nathan wasn't letting me do anything other then just hold him. He does love to be outside, so I put his baby saucer out on the back porch and put him in it to see what he would do. And, he sat in it and watched the kiddos play for about 30 minutes (until it started to cool down) and I was amazed at what I got done in that time. It was a welcomed break, the best kinds of breaks where I still get to watch and enjoy my children and can also get somethings done. To simply enjoy.

It was one of those moments.

Taneal's birthday

Friday was Taneal's birthday. My little girl isn't so little, she turned 9! She wanted an American Girl doll for her birthday, but didn't even ask because she was well aware of their price (she did a lot of Internet searching). She said clothes or whatever would be fine. Well, we splurged and got her the doll. She was very surprised and even more excited. All weekend she has been thanking me and telling me how responsible she will be and how she is just so excited to play dolls with Camie (Camie got an 18 inch doll for Christmas). The only problem is that Danielle doesn't have one. I tell you kids are beginning to get really expensive. I can't just buy one anymore, I have three girls!

Taneal and I had fun decorating her cake. I have used fondant before, once learning to use it in my cake decorating classes (10 years ago) and once on a wedding cake. The stuff is fairly easy to use, holds color really well, but isn't very tasty. Taneal doesn't like frosting, so I figured we might as well have fun with the cake because she wouldn't be eating the frosting anyways. She loved her cake and it was fun to make.

We do birthday parties every-other-year and this was the year for Taneal to have a party. She wanted a sort of "sleep-over" with the little problem that we don't do sleep-overs. So, we had a "late-night" party. She invited several girls from school and from church. Most of them came and Taneal was delighted to have 15 girls running around the house for 3 hours. We had pizza, a craft, cake and ice cream, a movie, and games. It was so much crazy fun and Taneal loved it. Afterwards, when I was crashed in bed but not yet asleep, Taneal got out of bed and came into my room and told me "thanks for a great party, it was even better then I had planned." What a sweet and wonderful girl.

Infant Torticollis

Yesterday Nathan had a trip to the doctor downtown to a pediatric cranial facial plastic surgeon. i was a little nervous. The reason Nathan needed to see the specialist is because of his head shape. He has a flat area on the back right side of his head. I have been trying to get him to lay differently and am constantly repositioning him to correct the problem, but it wasn't getting better, enough. So, the pediatrician told me to take him to the specialist. I had heard that once you go to the specialist it is a guaranteed helmet. I didn't want that. So, I took Nathan to another pediatrician and he agreed with the first.

No, Nathan does not need a helmet, yet. He has Infant Torticollis. It just means his head leans to the side. All I have to do is stretch his neck muscles throughout the day and give him a lot of tummy time. They will reevaluate him in six weeks and decide whether or not he needs physical therapy. They don't think he will need that, what I am doing should work. A helmet would be used if what I will be doing AND the physical therapy didn't work. I think that all will be well. I was just relieved that it wasn't a definite "yes, he needs an expensive helmet" simply because I saw a specialist.

I tried to get pictures of Nathan's flat head. I'm not sure how well you will be able to tell, but here they are. See how on the left side it is flatter and on the right side it bulges out pretty far?

This is just a regular picture, but see how he leans to the left? It is just slightly, but enough to make him have a flat spot.

And, as a side note. They weighed my baby boy. He is five months and weighs 19.5 pounds (he was 6 pounds 10 ounces when he was born)! Danielle was 16 pounds at a year and both Taneal and Camie were 18 pounds at a year. He has all my girls beat at 5 months! Spencer was 22 pounds at a year. I think Nathan is going to beat them all.

Balls

Last weekend we went to Troy and Becky's ranch and invited some friends along with us. Pippy, who is 18 months, kept picking up the "balls" on the ground and showing them to her mom. The little "balls" were all over the place. The ranch has many Elk and sheep. The "balls" were not balls, but poop. I got this great picture of Pippy. I asked her to show me a ball, she immediately bent down, picked one up, and showed me. Aren't kids great?

These are the moments

As I was cooking supper the other night, I noticed my home was unusually quiet. Hmmm, not good. I get worried when it is too quiet because usually that means someone is doing something they shouldn't. So, I put down my spoon and casually walked around the house, checking, making sure everything was okay. Nathan was cute and happy and all smiles.

Danielle was quietly doing her workbook and loving it.

Taneal was in the front room cuddled up on the couch reading a book! Taneal has always been a good reader but usually chooses just about anything else to do before she will sit down and read. She made me smile (and get my camera), made me happy to see her intrigued with a good book.

Camie's favorite thing to do is read, so it was no surprise to find her cuddled up with a good book.

What really made me chuckle was when I checked on Spencer. He was right outside the backdoor playing with his dump truck and happy as can be. Not a care in the world. He is recently potty-trained. I loved how his under ware was hanging outside his pants. Oh, to be two and not care about those things!

These are the moments that I want to always remember. I loved seeing my children happy and content and able to be happy all on their own. I loved seeing their own personalities bloom. And, I loved the peaceful feeling throughout my home. This time the quiet was good.

After 20 years

After 20 years they stopped working. They were there with me through High School, traveled with me 1200 miles away to Ricks College, they stayed with me through my wedding and the birth of my five children. And then I guess they'd had enough. Suddenly one day they no longer got hot. I tried to rescue them by plugging them in to different outlets throughout the house but to no avail. I couldn't bring them back. So long.

Dog Pie

Danielle asked what we were having for supper, and I told her, shepherd's pie. A little while later I heard her complaining to Camie that she didn't want "dog pie". I listened in on the conversation before I realized she was referring to the yummy dinner I was cooking as "dog pie". With a name like that no wonder she didn't want it!

Welcome to Big City, USA

We've been living here several years, and we should be thankful that it didn't happen before.

As a work"perk", Evan gets to drive around this great 4-door truck. Evan tries not to act excited, but when he struts in the door after driving around and makes special trips just to give the kiddos a ride, you know he is excited.

Friday night he took Taneal and Camie to a birthday party at one of those places that has go-carts, etc. They stayed until 9:30pm, not too late.

When Evan put his key into the door handle of his new truck, the key turned to the left and to the right, but would not unlock the door. He tried calling me but I had already fallen asleep and the phone wasn't in my bedroom, so I didn't wake up. After a half hour of trying to get me, he gave up and called Becky (sister-in-law). She came and picked them up and brought them home.

Then, we loaded all five (3 sleeping and out for the night) into my car to see if another set of keys would unlock the truck.

No success.

Then Evan saw where someone had taken a screw driver, or something like that, to the door handle and tried to pry off the handle, thus breaking it. Security said they were after the rims. That's what we get for driving a cool truck.

Evan spent all day Saturday fixing it.

mispelled

Danielle is convinced we spelled her name wrong. It is spelled Danielle. She says that is wrong because of the "e" is on the end, it is pronounced Daniell "e" (Dan-yell-e). Thus, on all her school work and on anywhere where she writes her name, she is spelling her name the correct way, per Danielle, as shown in the photo. I guess teaching her to read gave her even more reasons to be strong-headed!

Danielle learns to read

Danielle has been working very hard, since June, and finally finished the 100 lessons that taught her to read. I am so proud of Danielle, because we had to sit down for about 15 minutes each lesson over the course of 5 about months, and learn to read. Most of the time she was excited to do it. It is one of those moments that makes me excited to see her succeed and be very pleased with herself. Way to go Danielle!

Nathan's talented tongue

Nathan does this really funny sucking on his lip. He has an unusual tongue, he can make it all pointy and twist it and do all sorts of interesting things with it. I'm sure it isn't unique, but so cute.

I'm a BIG boy!

Yes, Spencer is completely potty-trained! This is a very exciting moment for me as the mom. No more stinky diapers (except for Nathan of course), no more HUGE monthly diaper bills, and a happy boy who thinks the whole world revolves around him, which is great. Way to go Spencer.

I did take a picture of Spencer sitting on the toilet for this post, but decided otherwise. Too much information for the eyes and the public!

Lizards

My nephew, Tyler, loves animals. He has had many pets, which right now includes a family of lizards. We went to the ranch over the New Year and Tyler caught a few more to add to his collection. Spencer was very interested in them and surprisingly, not really afraid of them. Camie and Danielle were okay with the lizards on their jackets, but not anywhere else. Enjoy the lizard video, and a few pictures.

Snow, really?!?

Yes, it snowed in my neck of the woods (about a month ago, better late then never, right?). And, my kiddos don't really remember snow. Taneal vaguely, but that's it. Watch the video and you can see their excitement. I fugured they would be excited, which is why I had the camera out and ready for them to get off the bus.

Happy New Year

Troy and Becky invited us out to their ranch to spend the new year. We had a great time. Becky cooked us a very yummy dinner. Afterwards we had fireworks and then everyone went to bed! What's up with that? I couldn't. I just couldn't go to bed a 10pm on New Year's Eve. So, I happily grabbed my book, the 4th book in the Twilight saga, and read until midnight. I was very happy and did what I really wanted to be doing.

The next day was so much fun. We rode around on the 4-wheelers, canoed a little, the kids played with the tire swing, and we played games inside. While on a 4-wheeler ride, we saw a cow just minutes after giving birth. It was so cool! Troy and Evan fried a delicious turkey and while I was out canoeing, Becky made a very nice dinner with sweet potatoes, fruit salad, and pumpkin pie. I felt bad I didn't help, I didn't realize she was inside cooking up a storm while I was out playing. But, I was grateful. We stayed until after dinner and then headed home.

Spencer loved being on the tractor with Uncle Troy!

Christmas

We had an absolutely WONDERFUL Christmas. Evan and I stayed up until about 1:30am doing, ya know . . . Christmas stuff. Around 5am Taneal and Camie woke up ready to go downstairs and see if Santa had come. I wanted a happy Christmas morning, so I was afraid to wake Spencer up. He didn't quite "get" the Christmas thing yet. Would he be his normal extremely-grouchy-self-when-woke- up-too-early? or would he see the magic of Christmas morning and be able to be happy? I was too afraid to find out, so I told Taneal and Camie it was too early and sent them back to bed. That was not fair. But, not ten minutes later they were back in my room. I couldn't resist, so I had them go carefully wake Spencer and Danielle up while I got out the cameras. And, Spencer tried to be grouchy but couldn't resist the excitement he saw in his sisters. They headed downstairs and were so excited!

Having Children takes Christmas to a whole new level. If I could , I would have twenty more children just to keep the excitement of Christmas going. Of course that isn't going to happen. But I can capture the excitement as best as possible on video and try to remember their excitement and the magic that takes place.

Taneal is the best at showing her excitement. Santa brought us a Wii. I told her there was no way Santa would EVER be able to bring us a Wii. If he did bring us a Wii, there definitely wouldn't be any other presents, so don't even ask. Of course she did not ask, and after she had opened her other gifts, she found a gift under the tree with all the kiddos name on it. They all gathered together and she just couldn't hold her excitement in after the first of the wrapping paper was torn off. She was jumping up and down and screaming! She was so much fun to watch!

Camie was happy about getting what she calls an American Girl Doll. I'm not sure that it is that name brand, but she loves it and that is wonderful. After she opened the present with the doll in it, she kept asking to call her cousin, Audrey, to tell her the news because Audrey had an American Girl Doll also. I was hoping Santa would bring Camie one because I made her some clothes to go with it. And she loved those. Camie really appreciates gifts with thought into them, things made specifically for her, and she loved the clothes and the time I spent just on her. She was a happy girl.

Danielle was happy to be opening presents. She really didn't care what was inside. She is 4 so she understands Christmas morning very well, but she doesn't really care about the gifts other then she has some to open. She got things that she REALLY wanted and once she opened them she set them aside. She got Bella Dancerella which she plays with all the time at her friend's house and she hasn't even played with hers once. She got a kid-tough camera and took some pictures later that day and then hasn't used it much since. She's kind of funny that way. Gifts don't really mean anything to her. She did this with her birthday and last Christmas. I figured last Christmas it was because she was only three. Well, she did it again. I guess it is just Danielle. She was happy and excited, just didn't really care about the gifts. I think she could have got some lipstick and cheap make-up and a new outfit (she did get a sparkly outfit and wore it for three days straight afterwards) and nothing else and she would have been delighted.

Spencer, loved the gun he got at the Chinese Exchange the night before. He opened his gifts but kept going back to the gun. What is it with boys?

Nathan slept in until his normal 7am. After a while Camie helped him open his present. He just smiled, burped, and cooed. Cute little baby.

Taneal told me, more insisted, that I was to ask Santa for a present. I hesitated, knowing of course I was too old for presents from Santa. Taneal was persistent, told me how her teacher asked for things from Santa and got them. I decided I would try. What I really wanted was a new printer that could scan, make copies, and print in color. With Taneal being so insistent, I decided to try. And, guess what! It worked.

Evan, he was here. Back in November, Thanksgiving weekend, I remember him calling me and telling me he absolutely would not be home for Christmas. I was driving to Fossil Rim (the park with the giraffes and zebras) when he broke the news to me. After I hung up I had tears rolling down my cheeks. I was getting mad at myself for breaking down with all my children in the car watching me. I needed to be strong, but just couldn't do it. I missed him so much and then to find out he wouldn't be home for Christmas was too much. After a few moments I gained composure again. We had a great time in the park. And then on the way home, Evan called me again and told me the news had changed, he was being layed off. At first I didn't believe him. No way! Then, I got back to my parent's house and Evan confirmed again that he really had been layed-off. And the next day he was home, home to stay. I missed him so much during those four months away. I had such mixed emotions. I was dreading going through unemployment again, but I was so glad he was home. And, Christmas morning as I looked around at the happiness, I knew why. Evan was home. He was sharing this moment with me. Taneal even mentioned how blessed we felt that day. I pointed out to her that the only reason dad was home was because he lost his job. She got a mischievous grin on her face and said, "I'm glad he lost his job." Happiness is being together. Evan started working two weeks after he was layed-off, he found a job quickly this time. We really have been blessed. Our family is together again and we are happy.

Christmas Eve

We have a few Christmas Eve traditions. This Christmas Eve we headed over to Troy and Becky's house (Evan's brother that lives a few miles from us) for dinner. We had some of my favorite things: deviled eggs, mashed potatoes, ham, homemade rolls, and pumpkin pie! After the super yummy dinner, we had a Chinese gift exchange. Each person participating brings a gift, a fun gift. Everyone draws a number out of a hat and number one goes. Number two can wither take number one's gift, or pick a wrapped gift out of the pile. It continues on and is so much fun. Spencer ended up with a flash light, Danielle ended up with a barbie, and Becky's sister ended up with the Oreos. Everyone ended up with something fun.

We headed home and made it without anyone falling asleep. We opened pajamas. It was a little late, as you can tell from the pajama picture--Spencer was beyond willing to cooperate. We had a great Christmas Eve and the kiddos went to bed with a lot of anticipation of the coming morning.

As you can tell, I am way behind on blogging. I am caught up in the Twilight series. But, as I use this blog somewhat as a journal, I have to write about Christmas, just a little late. Those books sort of suck you in.