Happy 4th of July!

We had a great week leading up to the 4th, fun and action packed, at times a little too busy but we made it! We spent some fun time swimming at the water park this week and going for our family morning walks. The kids have loved hanging out in the backyard discovering our yard is Wild America. We have a huge toad, about 15 small frogs and now a large frog that the kids found on Thursday. We have a catch and release policy since we read that frogs need to not be touched for too long or they lose their "slime coat" which helps them breathe. We recently discovered we even get to see some fireflies in the backyard if we let the kids stay up a little later.

In terms of Mommy School, the kids loved studying about Ants last week and we got started late on Trees. Basically what it involves is us finding books about the subject at the Library once a week and reading a book a day and talking about what we learned. I have been lucky and found some fun crafts or activities to go with it but nothing too hard or complicated. We have started learning about trees and pick up leaves everywhere we go. If we can learn 5 tree names, I'll call it good and we'll keep looking for them over the summer. Starting on Wednesday, our next trip to the library we'll get books about dolphins and whales to get ready for Virginia Beach and our ocean themed animals. A friend was telling me about a paid chance to swim with dolphins at a nearby aquarium. That sounded cool but we probably wouldn't do it this year. Maybe if we do this again next summer.

At church we have gotten through our 4th Sunday on the pew without Jon. I feel like carving a tick mark under the bench for the weeks we made it. I'm pretty exhausted by the time Sacrament Meeting is over just trying to maintain the peace. The kids are still trying to sing the songs when it's time, but are struggling writing anything down on their notebooks. I'll keep encouraging them but not worry if it doesn't happen. I'm trying to be close enough to Ashton and Corynn that I can whisper prompts to them like, "He's telling a story about a boat. What's happened in the boat?" With Taison I say ask him, "Can you hear a word that she is saying?" He'll repeat a few words for a while but eventually tune out, which is fine. too.

Tyler is getting pretty squeaky in his voice exploration during the meeting so I'm trying to keep his mouth occupied. I've been wearing a necklace to church so he can chew on that :), and my watch which he loves. Then a little canister of cheerios. Ashton begged and begged to hold him and when I finally relented, Corynn popped cheerios in his mouth and he was so content. I wondered why hadn't I put them to work before. Of course they were loving it and I figured as long as they didn't fight over holding him, it would be ok. He also likes to sit on the bench upright beside me. As long as I put my arm in front of him in case he falls over, he really likes the independence.

The only tricky thing with Jon's calling is with the kids being home from school and Jon gone a couple nights a week and a lot of time taking care of the kids on Sunday, I feel like I'm constantly with the kids. By the end of the week, I feel like I need a date night. Once everyone's back in school it won't seem so long. Thank goodness there's the two hours of Primary classes on Sunday where the kids thankfully are taught and taken care of by wonderful volunteer teachers and nursery workers.

Jon had work off on the 3rd so we loaded up the kids and the car to go camping with some friends. Even though we had planned this out for a couple of weeks, we love to pack in a whirl wind 30 minutes right before it's time to go. I don't know why but we love the spontaneousness. The only down side is forgetting random things like flashlights. Every camping trip we go on there is at least one or two essential things we miss but that's almost part of the fun, trying to figure out how to get by without it. We were short of paper plates so we actually wiped them down and reused the old ones the next day for breakfast. :)

After we got to the campsite and set up, we set out for a fun hike. The kids were awesome and marched along like it was no big deal. After about 30 minutes the Mommy radar started going off that we needed to turn around before whiny-kid sydrome kicked in. We made it half way before tiredness and little legs won us over.

Here's Jon before the hike

And the last stretch of the hike

Ashton watched Jon carefully as he chopped wood and built the fire. He was more attentive than ever at the workings of camping. :) It was cute! Towards the end he earned the chance to roast a hotdog and was very careful.

For some mid day fun, we "borrowed" some cones from a grass patch to make our goals for soccer. The kids were running around and having the men show off their competetiveness.

The swiping of the cones:

After we got home from camping and unpacking, we spent some time resting and relaxing before another fun night. Some friends from soccer live near a school's field where the fireworks are great to see. We had a BBQ and later played a kids' version of two-hand touch football. I feel like I'm actually getting better at it and can plan out plays. It was girls' against boys. Jon's pretty dog gone fast. I ran so fast, I could hear the wind whistling in my ears. For not sprinting for at least 2 years, I was glad to know my body still knew how to do it.

Waiting for the fireworks to start: our safer version of sparklers this year, unfortunately they kept getting chewed on.

While we were waiting a few of us decided to race down and back across the field. Jon was running along side me, while I was "giving it all she's got" and then all of sudden he smoked me. I died and he ran on to victory. I found out, he had been saving his real energy for the end, and had been just using me as a pacer. It's not bad enough he beats me at every board game, or card game imaginable but he has to beat me at a measly race too. He asked me if I wanted him to have let me win and not do his best. I said no, I just wanted him to let others do their best too. :) Sounds like a good argument to me, right?

Happy Birthday Taison

I can't believe Taison is 3 now! It just seems so weird that he's gotten so old already. I'm amazed with how much he can say, how intricate he talks with his toys and how eager he is to copy everyone. He gives the best kisses and is a total charmer. He's by far my most huggy loving kid and I love saying goodnight at bedtime and naptime because he gives the sweetest kisses and waves goodbye when I close the door. Such a sweetie! He has a tradition of kissing Tyler everytime he sees him. Sometimes he grabs Tyler's foot as I walk by and kisses the bottom of his foot, sometimes he yanks his arm to give him a kiss. After I've done something he particularly likes, he yanks my hand and kisses it. I'm so grateful this sweet little man is in our family.

Taison was so excited all day yesterday, cheering that it was his birthday. On a trip to Walmart a month ago, Taison had cried and cried for "dragon fly". I was beside myself to figure out what he was talking about. I couldn't remember seeing any bug toys. So I let him go show me. I laughed so hard when he walked a couple aisle away and pointed to a dragon with wings... of course dragon fly. We had gotten behind in our errands so we picked up presents in Walmart yesterday. Ashton and Corynn watched what Taison played with. And of course he went right to the dragon with wings. As I went around the aisle with the other kids, Ashton picked up the dragon and wrapped it in Tyler's blanket so Taison wouldn't see. Ashton said some people were looking at him. Hopefully they didn't think some kids was trying to shoplift. ;)When we checked out, we distracted Taison with looking for something along the cash register. Somehow though, when I put him down for his nap he knew what he was getting and told me, "After my nap, I see Daddy and open presents and see my dragon fly."

After naptime, we made sandwiches and loaded up to meet Jon downtown in DC. We had a quick picnic and got to go see Taison's favorite museum where the dinosaurs and "element" (elephant) is. They randomly had a special exhibit about Ants and since we've been into ants this week, it was perfect timing. Taison made up a song as we walked through the bones exhibit, singing "Where are the ants, ants, ants, where are the ants, ants, ants, ants, ants,..... "

We got home right before bedtime and sang Happy Birthday, blew out the #3 candle that we bought for Ashton eons ago, and opened the presents.

The Infamous Dragon Fly

Taison Loves Little Einsteins so we got him this little bathtub rocket. We sang the theme song around DC and Ashton changed the song. "We're going on a trip in our favorite rocket ship, zooming through the sky, Little Ellsworths..." It was cute. They decided our van is our rocket.

Here are some sweet pictures of Taison and the year he has had.

Visit from Grandma Sandy and Grandpa Bert- playing Thomas the Train Go Fish

The old days of using a pacifier- one of his favorites, the purple one

First time holding Tyler- he newest best friend

Halloween 2008- Don't ask me why Taison is wearing Corynn's pink ball cap. He had a cute Thomas one that must have been lost.

Watching Corynn draw- Taison shoving his mouth full of food- I just like this one because it shows his silly look, which is how he looks to me most of the time.

Here's a blurry video I took of him a few days ago with one his favorite little girls; Caitlyn. He insisted on holding her hands on a short hike we were taking. You can hear his latest favorite word: crocodile.

Yucky Pests

These are the little guys I dread most of all: the indian meal moth. It's a light tan tiny moth that doesn't fly away very fast. Last summer I found a couple each day on the ceiling in the kitchen and after swatting them, I thought I had out smarted them. Then discovered the grossest thing imaginable, a little caterpillar in my cupboard, teeny tiny. I had the nagging feeling I needed to clean out the cupboards and when I did I found an open bag of chips and an open granola bar full of them.

All of a sudden I felt violated. Bugs in my cupboard! How dare they!! I got online to see what food they like and would probably be in: it said beans, rice, flour or anything made from those things, sugar. Basically anything in my cupboard. As I started going through my food in my cupboards I decided to throw away any opened bags of anything. As I did I saw food sticking to the inside of the top of the bags on tiny webs... a sign they had been there. I was SO grossed out. Then I inspected the food that was still sealed. They had chewed little holes in the bags because 1. I found the little web things inside with tiny food dangling in mid air and 2. the bag couldn't hold air when I squeezed it. The ones I inspected that looked OK, I put in the freezer for 4 days to kill any potential on the outside of the package. It was awful! I thought it was just a Virginia thing, but then my sister Kari in Utah had the same thing.

After buying more secure containers for my food and making sure no open bags were in the cupboards I thought I had erradicated them. Later I found more moths and after thoroughly cleaning the kitchen, vaccuming crumbs in the cupboards and silverware drawers, I moved the oven and found them in an lost animal cracker. My kids learned that if they saw a moth, we all screamed and killed it. After getting nice food bins and still finding them around the cupboards, I was one angry pantry owner.


The Answer: My sister saved the day by finding moth traps online. They lure the male moths so no baby moth making occurs. It worked immediately and after our last cupboard cleaning food tossing episode we've been moth free until 7 hrs ago.

That's right. This morning I found a moth in the toy room. How do they get in? The front door... wide open so come on in and if they find the food, they like to stay. Can't wait for my moth traps to get here.

Sunday Ideas

In our church Sunday is a special day- the Sabbath so we go to church every possible Sunday we can, to take the Sacrament. It can get a little hairy during Sacrament Meeting because families all sit together and being an hour long toddlers especially struggle being quiet, let alone sitting.



When Ashton was a toddler, he'd kick and scream, randomly throw cheerios. It was crazy and when Corynn joined us on the pew, we thought church was going to be nothing more than a public wresting match. We spent most of the time in the hallway. After feeling bitter for 6 months, we felt like giving up wasn't an option and just making the effort to go to church would help us be better week by week. We knew if we were in the right place when we should be there, we could feel the Spirit in small or quiet moments during the week and become better people just from being in the building. I could still get ideas that would help me during the week and if I wrote them down, things could still be inspiring and rejuvenating for me.


When Taison was born, I thought we were doomed to hallway walking, but by that time Ashton and Corynn learned if they were disobedient in the chapel or noisy, they'd have to sit on the wall in the hallway, Supernanny's method of timeout the "Naughty Corner". They started being better. Slowly we weaned them off of snacks and went to stickers. Then to coloring books and little lift the flap books. Since the Star Wars coloring books inevitably involve gun shooting noises, we went to bringing just plain paper. That led to making paper airplanes which was fine as long as they never made lift off. But now that Ashton's 7 and a year away deciding whether to be baptized, I feel like he should be able to listen to the speakers at some point during the meeting. Especially when there's a story someone is telling, I think he should be able to get something out of this, but there he is lining up the crayons into an army or shooting at Corynn.

About a month ago, a sister in law gave me the idea of a church listening notebook. I found 3 dollar store notebooks that we call "our handy dandy notebooks" to feed into Taison's love affair with Blue's Clues. The idea is that during part of the talks people give, the kids are to write down 5 words that the speaker says or if you're Corynn write down the first letter of the word and then draw a picture of what the speaker says. So far she's drawn a lot of stick figures talking into a microphone. Anways, at lunch we'd talk about what they wrote and what they heard.


A couple of years ago I had an idea to help the kids sing the hymns during the meeting but it seemed to cheesy to start. I wanted to start teaching them some of the songs so they could actually sing with us during the meeting instead of it being another part of the meeting to ignore. But with the hymnbook being full of millions of songs the chances of them actually hearing the 3 songs they know would be small. Then I thought of asking the organist what songs were being sung. It took me forever to actually get up the courage to ask. It seemed like an overachiever idea and way cheesy, but the idea kept persisting. I knew Heavenly Father was trying to help me out. So about 4 months ago I asked and she gladly emailed me their list for the year. Out of the three songs for the week, I pick one to teach the kids before we read family scriptures at night. We do a lot of hand actions/ made up sign language to keep the kids attention and allow Taison to "sing" with us.


By the end of the week they really know it. I find myself singing the inspiring words of the hymns around the house (instead of just the Barbie Island Soundtrack Corynn loves so much.) It's been amazing. At first the kids thought I was magic when the songs would be played. They were amazed that I knew which song to pick. Now they sing willingly at least one song and are trying to sing along with the other songs they don't know. Mostly they are impressed with how nice it sounds when there are lots of people singing their special song and how cool the organ playing with it sounds.

Now that Jon has been called to the bishopric and sits on the stand, I've laughed that maybe this was Heavenly Father preparing me to handle Sacrament Meeting tirades on my own. So I've come up with the Smarties Reward for helping them a little more. When we get home and Jon gets back, we go over how Sacrament Meeting went. They will get one smartie for each song they sang, and then for each word they wrote down from the three speakers whether youth speakers or someone else from the congregation. (up to 5 words per speaker, and it has to be good words, not the, is, at's.... :) We'll see how that goes for a while. I want to use it for the next little while and then taper off when they've got it turned into a habit. I only have a little while before Tyler will be the next toddler needing to run around or scream in the halls so I want to help them get something out of the meeting while I still can. Thankfully I've had lots of offers from people in church to come sit by us if it gets crazy.

I got this idea from the Friend, the church's children magazine and we tried it one week. It was called Sunday Stations. We put ideas of fun Sabbath Day ideas in a bag and have the kids pull out 3 ideas. Then we choose which place in the house to do those things. We set the timer for 15 minutes or just move on when we felt like it. The ones we drew this random Sunday was "Have your parents tell you stories of when they were growing up" "Write in your journal." "Write a thank you note to your teacher at church." The big hit was the storytelling festival.
Somehow Jon and I got on the topic of weird animal stories from when we were little. Jon told the story of how a big oppossum died under their house and his brother Craig crawled under to pull the stinky mess out. I told the story of how the pigs escaped from their pen during our family fireworks launching one 4th of July and came running through the trees next to us, scaring the living daylights out of us as me, Michelle and Summer hid in the back of the pick up truck watching the boys and Dad chase them back into the pig pen. It was amazing how many stories kept coming once we started. Now whenever there's a lull at dinner time the kids say, "Tell us a story!"
Here's Ashton writing a few sentences in a cheap dollar store journal. I think he wrote about Daddy graduating and him throwing up. He drew a picture. Someday I'll figure out how to use my scanner so you can see it. :)

** Here are the other things listed in the Sunday Stations article.

Read a story from "The Friend"

Watch a church video or DVD

Think of someone you can befriend this week and decide how you will do it.

Make a scripture story sculpture out of playdough.

Write a letter or call your grandparents.

Read about one of your ancestors.

Have a family write-athon. Collect pens, paper, envelopes and stamps. Invite your family to write letters to relatives, friends, missionaries, or people serving in the military.

Read the scriptures.

Draw a picture of what you did today and put it in your journal.

Draw a picture and send it to a missionary or someone serving in the military.

Get out your family history and work on it.

Have your family discuss the talk in church or from the last General Conference. Decide what is something you can do this week to live that principle.

With your family, sing some hymns or Primary songs.

Ashton's End of Year Party

Ashton loved 1st grade and his teacher Ms. Kost. She was fun and soft-spoken and sweet. I watched her get the classes attention and she never raised her voice just to be louder. I was impressed. I could learn a thing or two from that I'm sure.

Since we have been in for a few class parties and once or twice to help out during reading centers, the kids in his class know Tyler. He's practically a celebrity. It's an eternal truth. No matter where you go, all ages from elderly to mid-aged to grade school to toddlers; everyone is enthralled when a baby enters the room. Even older babies are interested in babies younger than them. I think it's a special kind of heaven they still carry with them. :) Ms. Kost said she felt like she was holding a little baby Ashton. I told her how weird it would be in 5 more years Tyler had her for a teacher.

A lesson in budgeting

I am of the personal belief that there is no such thing as "too young" to teach a lesson in personal accountability and budgeting. The fiscal problems that exist today are evidence of the general need of personal accountability and budgeting.

When Ashton started school two years ago, one of the most exciting aspects of school was lunch. I mean, is there anything better than having lunch with all your friends?

We allowed Ashton to buy school lunch on occasion these first two years. Buying school lunches is a little different today than it was 24 years ago when I was Ashton's age. I remember having a paper card that was punched each time I bought lunch or bring $1.10 in cash or coins. And your only options were regular or chocolate milk - at least, that's all I remember (maybe there were more options but I wasn't allowed to buy them).

Today, it's a little more high tech with many more options. First, each kid gets a card for their lunch account. Ashton calls it his "credit card" and it really is like a credit card because the lunch people will run his card whether he has money on it or not. Many times we found out that his account was in deficit. Second, regular and chocolate milk aren't the only options. There is ice cream, cookies, breakfast; many options that have an additional cost which not only stimulate the young mind but stifle the pocket book.

It wasn't until recent that we found out about these options, their exorbitant fees, and that you can turn off these options on Ashton's credit card. We also quickly realized where the excess spending was coming from. A regular lunch was augmented with a cookie or he was buying breakfast before school started after just eating breakfast at home - all in the name of peer pressure because his friends were doing the same. All of sudden we had a habit to break and it was time for a lesson in budgeting.

Our kids are good servants - um, workers at home. We started requiring them to take over their plates when they were two and to unload the dishwasher when they were three or four. We actually repositioned where we put our dishes to the lower cabinets so that the kids could reach them. Today, Ashton and Corynn wipe off the table after meals, sweep under the table, fold their clothes, make their beds, and a number of other jobs. By so doing, they earn a nickel for each accomplished job that they track on their job list on the fridge. If they are hard workers, they can earn a couple of dollars a week.

With this earned wealth, they give 10% for tithing, 50% to their savings account, and get to spend 40% on whatever they want. Corynn has been saving up for a Snow White Barbie doll that's been sitting in the pantry for a couple of weeks. Ashton really wants a Bakugon.

Well, a couple of weeks ago we got "the bill" for Ashton's lunch escapades. We sat down with Ashton and asked him why he owed so much money for lunches. He confessed that he would eat breakfast with his friends some mornings and have an occasional cookie or ice cream during lunch. And then came the lesson: We asked him how he should pay for it? It wasn't an easy concept and there was quite a battle turning over his spend money to the lunch room, but I hope now that he understands that there is no such thing as a free handout and that whatever he buys, he needs to pay for.

He finally earned enough to pay off his tab yesterday and with good time: tomorrow is the last day of school. He understands now that what he earns will go to buy his Bakugon toy.

Kids' Summer Plans and Schedules

I've been mulling over what to spend our days doing this summer. I want to do fun projects together, do some learning together and definetly have some outings.
Here's an email I got from a sweet lady at church. I asked her what she does over the summer for her kids once they are out of school. I loved her response so much I decided to post it. She has older grade school children and teenagers but I think her ideas are good for younger kids too.

Shaunae,
This summer, I may back off a little in the afternoons. But the mornings will be filled with breakfast, family scripture study (I hope; we're thinking about moving it to dinner time), quick pick up of the house, piano practice & learning time (I'm going to have them work on typing skills! Fun "brain" games, too.). In the afternoons, they'll have some free time, but if they want to do more, I like doing craft projects, letting them cook, going to the library, going to parks, swimming, hiking, and having friends over. A couple of specific things I want to do are watch National Treasure 2 and then take the National Treasure tour at Mt. Vernon, where several scenes were filmed; and watch Night at the Museum 2 and then go to the Smithsonian. I love getting into DC, but my kids kind of drag their feet about it. I'm hoping that if we tie it into a museum, and let them bring friends, it will be more interesting.


When my kids were little I got a membership at a great aquarium, and we would go there all the time. I also love hands-on kids/science museums. If it's hot and they need to burn some energy, I love the huge Burger King playground by the Stake Center. You can just get them an ice-cream cone or a drink and then relax on the couches on the second floor and let them play for as long as they want. The library often has free events, like magic shows, or puppet theaters, or something. You can sign up for the summer reading program at the library too, and your kids will get prizes for reading. If you want a bigger library than the Central one, I just discovered Bull Run library...Wow! I love it. I've also heard great things about Chinn library. Sometimes we get out pillows and blankets and snacks and have a read-a-thon. You could have neighbors over and run through the sprinklers or have a wet sponge fight (easier than water balloons, and they can keep at it longer.) We have bought a huge roll of paper and put it on the wall and let the kids do a mural. We have used the same paper and let them make their own car mat/city that they can use for hot wheels. We have played baseball, with little kiddy pools being the bases. You can put out a bunch of toothpicks and gumdrops, and the kids can build all kinds of bridges and towers...and then eat them,of course. We have done a movie night too, complete with tickets that could be redeemed for treats and popcorn (that made it fun and limited the amount they could eat).


Oh, my gosh!!!! Have I knocked you over yet? Sorry. I started remembering stuff and got a little exited there! :) One summer we were in Minnesota for an internship, so we had all of us in a little apartment with nothing to do. We decided we had to come up with something so we wouldn't go crazy, and that's where lots of the ideas came from. I found it was helpful to assign activities to a certain day...Craft Day, Swimming Day, Library Day, Creative Cooking Day, etc. That way we all had something to look forward to, and the kids didn't run through everything in one day and then become bored. I know it's often crazy, but you're at a really fun stage with your kids. I hope you enjoy it!!! Have a great day!




So what am I going to do? Well, since I've always kind of coveted the homeschool atmosphere a little, I've decided we are going to do some "school" things. My schooling background is a whole other story that I need to tell but I've been sitting on the fence for a while about whether to homeschool or not. I mostly have felt the answer for us was to send them to school and supplement the parts that they would miss or the family time they miss. I love the family devotionals that involve scriptures and singing hymns so we are going to do that at breakfast time. Then sometime in the morning we are going to do our "Mommy School". I asked the kids what animals they wanted to learn about and then randomly at the dollar store found some of those animals and bugs. Buying them and using them for labeling and later playing with we have a bug or animal a week we want to learn about. Thanks to some fun premade school project sites, we have our schedule. It won't take more than 30 minutes a day and I'm hoping it'll help pull our family together and be fun learning together. Besides it lets me use the teaching that I miss sometimes.
Other things I'd like to do is spend some time leraning a new sport with the kids and Jon one night a week. The night he's home I'm hoping to have enough energy to go to a park and practice playing basketball, soccer, tennis, jump rope or something different, flying kites, etc. We'll see if that part happens. :)
Here's our Mommy School plan:

Summer Mommy School Themes
Week 1- June 22nd-26th- Ants
Week 2 – June 29th-July 3rd-Tree Leaf Collections
Week 3- July 6th-10- Dolphins and Whales
Week 4- July 13th-July 17th Sting Rays and Sea Turtles
Week 5- Trips to Virginia Beach and Utah
Week 6- Trip to Utah- Family Members interviews & Leaf Collecting
Week 7- August 3-7th- Planets and Stars
Week 8- August 10-14th Rockets
Week 9- August 17th-21st Spiders and Ladybugs
Week 10-August 24th-28th -Backogon’s/ Japan
Week 11- August 31-Sept.4th

No More Preschool

I can't believe it's the end of preschool for Corynn! She had Ms. Kersti's last year and Grace United Methodist ths year. It was a great transition for her to spend some time with friends from church and then meeting new friends in the community. At Grace she had Ms. Susan and Ms. Kim. At the graduation this week she was called a self starter and craft/project expert. Considering she produces on average 15 pages of some new drawing or glued or taped craft a day, I wholeheartedly laughed when they gave that description of her.

Here is her self portrait doll she made from some torn clothes she didn't want to throw out. If you look close enough you can see she outlined the eyes with pink glasses. :)

As a celebration this week, we got online and ordered some Barbie movies from the public library. Randomly, they all came to the library on the same day. This week during Taison and Tyler's naptime Corynn gets to watch a movie a day. Thumbilina, Nutcracker, Swan Lake and Fairytopia. Our favorite was the Island Princess and we also were able to check out the soundtrack from the library. She sings those songs SO well as we drive all over town.