Alligator Park

For Spring Break I took the children to an Alligator park. You walk along pathways that gators cross and are right there in the water. It sounded pretty scary, but my friend that I went with, assured me it was safe. I felt safe, but looking back at the pictures, I wonder if I should have felt that way. It was a lot of fun and the kids absolutely loved it.

Read the sign. And we took our kids there?

Spencer (above) is checking out the momma alligator and her 11 babies as shown in the picture below.

The babies are kind of camouflaged, they have yellow stripes.

Taneal, Camie, and Spencer are standing on the sore near the mom and babies. You can barely see the mom between Taneal and Camie's elbows.

Check out that snapper!

This alligator is sliding into the water.

And Spencer doing what little boys do best.

Right before we took this picture Taneal noticed a HUGE snake by their feet in the grass. We thought it was dead at first and then it slowly slithered away into the water. I took a picture of it and asked the ranger to identify it. It was a water snake but not poisonous.

Everyone that wanted was able to pet the real baby alligator held by the ranger.

Temple pictures

Saturday I was in the picture taking mood. I thought about getting some bluebonnets pictures with the children in their Easter dresses, but I didn't want to drive too far. The temple is only a few miles from my house, so I thought we'd head over there and snap some photos. I ended up taking 99 pictures (thank goodness for digital). These are some of my favorites.

St Patrick's Day

St Patrick's Day is a VERY fun holiday in my home. My children get almost as excited as they do for Christmas. The kiddos decorated their treasure boxes a few nights before. Then, on the Eve of St. Patrick's Day under the light of the moon, they left the lids off their boxes to see if the leprechauns would fill their boxes with treasures. And, sure enough, it worked! (Camie left the leprechauns some green food and a measuring cup with water and three miniature straws)

I bought them t-shirts this year and they loved them. They only had white t-shirts written in green for the boys and Spencer was pretty sad that his wasn't green like his sister's, so I had to buy Nathan one so Spencer wouldn't feel left out. Spencer wouldn't know what to do without another little boy to help him with what boys do and don't do (like lipstick, headbands, etc.)

And, everything we ate was green. Breakfast was green eggs (I added too much food dye), and for supper we had cheesy broccoli chicken rice casserole with green jello, a green salad, and green punch. We had green chocolate chip cookies for desert.

Photoshop fun

I have been playing around in photoshop, and look what I did! I have been taking pictures of our family and turning them into a drawing and the kiddos have had so much fun coloring pictures of themselves. Photoshop is so much fun! And I allow it to take so much of my time!

Nathan in his johnny jumper

I have had this Johnny Jumper since Taneal was born. Camie tried it along with Danielle and Spencer and none of them ever liked it. Nathan, yah well, he LOVES it! He jumps while I cook supper. It is so nice! I have so much fun watching him jump. I thought you'd like to see some of the things that make me smile.

Nathan's bath pictures

When my children are 6 months, I take them in to have bath pictures made, which I hang in the children's bathroom. Nathan is 6 months, so it was his turn. I just got them back yesterday and I really like them. I will hang the one where he is sitting in the tub. As soon as I get a chance I will scan all the bath picture so you can see what all my children look like at 6 months. They all look pretty similar. They all are so cute!
Why I like the one where Nathan is looking at the duck, I really don't know, but I do really like it. It just makes me laugh!

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.