Small Things

Winter Time Memories

2012-02-09T13:01:00.000-08:00

After Christmas I had a hankering for peanut clusters. Growing up we always found peanut clusters in our stockings. I half-heartedly looked in stores for them but only seemed to be able to find truffles and "turtles". The craving just wouldn't go away so I got online. Guess what I found out. They are the simplest thing ever to make. Just melt down some milk chocolate chips and pour in some peanuts and let them cool on wax paper. I actually had leftover candiquik that I used and then for the second batch chocolate Almond bark. They tasted equally yummy. The kids kept asking for a "chocolate cookie" for their dessert. Unfortunately I ate most of them and my bulging tummy shows the proof.

We got a couple of inches of snow for a few hours. Corynn hurried and scraped the backyard with a bucket and they got this snow man out of it. His buttons and bow tie were from a dollar spot Target snowman kit. The kids sledded down the back yard's slight slope and tried to throw snow at each other.

Ashton and some of his cub scout pack going Ice skating! Jon had fun trying too!

And of course more cuteness from the queen of cuteness: Baby Elise.

Christmas 2012

2012-02-07T13:48:00.000-08:00

We love Christmas! It's such a sweet and exciting time of year! We love reading the Christmas story, acting it out and reading other uplifting stories about people helping and serving others. We love listening to Christmas songs and getting reading for a Christmas Piano recital at a nearby Nursing Home. We love making cookies for our friends and neighbors and picking out presents to mail to our extended family. Within our family this year we had the kids draw names and buy a present for one person in the family using about $5 of their own money and we pay for the other $10 or so. Then they get a gift from us as their parents, and one from Santa, plus the gifts from family.

Another fun tradition is "Filling the Manger". We tell the kids we want to fill the manger to make it soft for baby Jesus. But the only way to get the "hay", we use cotton balls is to do something nice for someone in the family and do it in secret. This can be things like making someone's bed, cleaning something or setting the table without being told. They leave a cotton ball at the scene of the crime so we recognize something nice was done. Whoever finds it gets to put it in the manger.

This year I picked up a Rice Crispie house kit in lu of Gingerbread houses.

Christmas time is not quite the same without nuts to crack. This year I got smart and sent the kids outside to crack the nuts. The shells were swept under the stairs and not all over the kitchen floor.

Our tree and Corynn's girl church groups' manger they made. Perfect because I really wanted one this year!

I finally got around to organizing a cookie and caroling neighborhood party for this neighborhood. It was fun! It was pretty chilly but the kids did sing at one other house. Next year we'll gather the neighbors with caroling first and then cookies and cocoa at our house at the end, instead of the other way around.

Another fun piano recital: our previous nursing home was closed at the last minute, quarantined from a stomach bug so we frantically searched for another place. The America House, a smaller facility, was very open and warm to our request and the residents were SO happy to see children.

Taison's song- his first recital! He loves playing and practices with such seriousness. He's been looking forward to his turn to have piano time.

Corynn is enjoying learning the piano. She doesn't pick it up as easily as Ashton and that frustrates her but she is making progress. She enjoys how good her songs sound at the end of the week.

Ashton LOVED Carol of the bells. It was all we heard for a month and a half. He turns back and smiles mid song at a part where I kept telling him to slow down and count. He really wanted to play it SO much faster but I wouldn't let him. He has a natural gift for music.

Corynn's 2nd grade Christmas concert was a special pre-Christmas treat. Her teacher Ms. Miller is someone Corynn listed as one of her favorite friends.

Christmas morning picture on the stairs before they could take down their stocking.

Gifts before church on Christmas Sunday-Ashton got his much longed for DS. He didn't believe he'd ever get one.

Taison excited for his Star Wars ship

The Skyrail track that we got for Ashton- a cool marble track that teaches all sorts of cool building skills.

Tyler was in his own little world unwrapping presents. He didn't care how many or what order we were going in watching each other unwrap gifts. He just wanted to play with his little fire trucks and new big fire engine.

And the coolest gift:

One of Jon's present was a simple make your own ping pong table. This retractable net was perfect for our dining room table.

When family life gets discouraging

2012-01-31T12:42:00.000-08:00

There are times when I'm not honest enough with myself and with others how stressful family life can be. We do have our struggles. Our kids get sassy, rude and even violent. Not wanting to yell myself or grab or worse, even spank, I've looked for alternatives.    This weekend was one of those weekends.

And in response to the upheaval a whole bunch of anger causes, I felt tired, drained and overly despairing. When I need new ideas and new life breathed into our parenting, I turn to a lot of different resources. First, I pray to be able to find the love that I know God has given me for each precious person in our family. I try to keep myself calm enough to receive the inspiration I know only He can give. I make sure I'm finding time to hear that voice by reading scriptures a little each day. Then I look around for good ideas and good options. I believe that a loving Heavenly Father will help me find the right resources. I know when I find the thing that will work, I will feel empowered by the thought and feel like I can move forward with something, instead of no plan at all.

One of those resources over the past 7 years has been a TV show of all things. It started off with a British lady called "Supernanny", and more recently "America's Supernanny". As cheesy and hyped up as reality TV shows go, I have found this one very honest, very real and very upbeat. When things get rough or discouraging again, I program our DVR to record a few episodes and watch a few. The ideas I have gleaned truly have enriched my parenting abilities and taught me to be consistent. After the years, I have seen patterns in what the show teaches parents to do. Here's what I found:

Discipline: They almost always started teaching the kids and parents the "House Rules". Usually these were things like "Using nice words" "Use a gentle touch" "Listen to your parents" "Be kind and show compassion".

For children under 11 or so, the technique used was called "The Naughty Corner" or "The Naughty Step" depending on where the parents wanted the time outs to be given. The child was to be given a warning by the parent just short and sweet. "You are not using a gentle touch" or "You are not listening" If they continue, they are taken to the corner or spot or step with the words, "You are in the Naughty Corner because you......." Parents are to set a timer for how many minutes old they are. Then comes the tricky part, parents are not to talk, interact or respond to them if there is any yelling, name calling, etc. But if they try to leave, they are gently but firmly put back being told "You are in the Naughty Corner because you hit your sister." After the timer goes off, they are told why they were put in the Naughty Corner or they are to tell you. They are to apologize and then give that person a hug.

"America's Supernanny" does a similar technique called "The Calm Down Corner". You give the child one warning and if they don't listen, they are brought to the Calm Down corner. The time for this is only 3 minutes but it only starts once the child calms down, which at first can take a lot longer. The idea is that the child needs to be able to monitor their feelings and get themselves calm. Again there is the same principle as a parent of not reacting, being bated into reacting to what the child yells back or getting mad as the parent. ** Note- We have tried this recently with our 3 year old and figured out he doesn't understand the calming down part. So I definitely would only recommend this consequence for children over 5 years old.

For older kids, I saw one episode that used the "Lose what you love" technique. Basically, the teenager would get warned and then if they continued, the parent would state what item they lost for a day. There shouldn't be any reaction, anger, or grabbing or yelling from the parent in response to what the child might say or do. It's just the way it is.

I appreciate these techniques mostly because it gave me a way to discipline the kids without being worked up over it and adding to the problem with my own emotions.

Schedule: The older Supernany show was very big on making a family schedule. They would write it on a poster board and put it up for everyone to see. The family schedule included homework time, lessons, and most importantly family recreation time, i.e. time when the family played together, Dad with the kids, Mom and Dad and kids, time to be together in a positive way, making time for the kids to have their parents' positive attention. Having a schedule made me much better at making sure I was getting meals done before low blood sugar levels crashed and tantrums and fights started. It also made me play with my kids in positive and creative ways.

Sleep Techniques:   Another thing I noticed over and over again were sleeping problems in homes. Many children who were nursed in bed or who had been sleeping in their parents' beds would not sleep through the night without their parents. The Supernanny a technique for that too. She had the parent explain to the child that they wanted them to sleep in their own bed all night long. (We usually use this technique when transitioning from a crib to a toddler bed.) She had the parent do a simple bed time routine like a story in bed, prayers, a hug and kiss and say goodnight. The light would go off, the door shut. Then the parent would sit outside the door and wait. The first time the child gets out of their bed, the parent goes in, says, "Stay in your bed. It's time to sleep." or something simple like that. Then they leave and wait outside the door again. The child usually thinks it's a game and keeps coming back to which the parents continue to return the child to bed, but this time with no talking to them. The first night it takes about 2 hours for the child to finally stay in bed and fall asleep. If the child is used to being fed in the middle of the night, they will wake up like normal, but parents are encouraged to put them back with a one simple sentence. It is definitely a noisy process for the first 2 or 3 nights and it can disrupt the other family members' sleep so it's a good idea to do it over a 3 day weekend or another time when school and work aren't the very next day. For children with serious separation issues, parents do the same technique but sit in the room with their backs facing the child for the first night teaching. When the child gets out of bed, the parent gently but firming returns them to their bed over and over again.

I have seen it work again and again. Our kids all go to sleep by 8:30, earlier for the littler ones and they do not get up multiple times for things from us. Once in a while someone will get up with a bad dream, in which I give them a quick hug, tell them to go potty and to go back to bed. (I think bladder pressure is what can trigger bad dreams too.) I have found that I function better with sleep and the only time I have broken up sleep is when the baby at the time is under a year and I need to feed them once or twice a night.

Etc.- There are so many other side ideas. Helping children have higher self esteem, talking to young girls about how beautiful they are with or without makeup, having children write their parents a note about their feelings and then reading it to them, dealing with sibling bullying, and avoiding giving too much responsibility to older siblings to "raise" younger siblings, initiating chores around the house. There have been episodes with multiples (twins or triplets), episodes with special needs like Autism, ADHD or down syndrome, episodes with large families or small families, and episodes with working parents, stay at home parents or working from home parents. There have been parents who were abusive, verbally or physically and been given a new way to approach their parenting to break the cycle of violence.

Each family is different but the results are pretty much the same, children being held accountable and parents sticking to monitoring their children and helping them learn correct behavior for home, school and wherever they go. Children are happy and feel loved because they know where the line is. And families come together in VERY loving ways by the end of their time together.

"Shopping with kids" was one that really helped me when Ashton and Corynn were younger. The show taught one mother how to go to the mall and walk with her 4 children. It was amazing to see how the kids responded and went from running in and out of clothes racks to, walking beside her or walking in close proximity. Basically it's the same as the Naughty Corner but children who misbehave have to hold onto the cart as the Naughty Corner. When I was teaching Ashton and Corynn as toddlers, the Naughty Corner was back in the van for a few minutes, leaving the shopping cart behind for a little while. It was totally worth it. And when they get out of practice, we have to remind them and ourselves what to do besides just get upset and threaten. :) It's definitely a work in progress, but I feel like there is progress.

Overall parents come together to be on the same page. I particularly liked one episode where the parents did a "Parent Contract". They wrote down what they wanted to stop doing in one paragraph and the next paragraph what they wanted to do and be as parents. They then shared these goals with their children and let them know they wanted to change a few things. Then they shared the "House Rules" with their children.    The show has dealt with parents that feel close to divorce and the Supernanny helped them with techniques on communicating, dating more often, having time alone and reconnecting with each other.

So when my application of the techniques get a little rusty, I reteach myself by watching an episode. I have learned to not react when my children are in the Naughty Corner, now the Calm Down Corner. I have learned to only give one warning, a simple request and if they are not listening to not give multiple nags but simply send them to the consequence location. I have learned to try harder to not raise my voice, corner my children, or be physically threatening but just simply follow through with what I know will work. It doesn't mean they don't test me. That's their job really. I'm not meant to be their BFF but their parent. And I have a job to do, to take seriously and not to sit idly by.

I definitely have reading to do to keep up with what the teen years will be like. But if I'm lucky, there might be a few Supernanny episodes for me to get the "Cliff notes" version. :)

Jon's Mid Life Crisis

2012-01-26T13:01:00.000-08:00

"It must have been the blood clots," our townhouse neighbor Ashby said. Yep, I agree. Something came over my sweet hubby who I affectionately call Jon-boy.

About the beginning of December, Jon brought up the idea of getting a cooler car to drive to work, or I should say drive to and from the train station. Our van was getting paid off this month. While I was celebrating being debt-free, other than the houses, Jon was fidgeting with the prospects of already budgeted funds being put to good use. Christmas comes and in the vehicle world, that's their year end, getting rid of the old models because the new ones are on the lot. Deals fly around the TV on commercials and pictures of big bows on vehicles tempt people.

I remember one interesting talk our bishop gave one year about the need for families to be more frugal especially around Christmas time. It was in the heighth of many job losses in our church family, known as a ward. He said there was no shame in having a "light" gift giving year and he particularly said, "A spouse should not surprise the other with a vehicle. It's too big of a purchase, a debt to strap down a family, to be made by one person alone." I wholeheartedly agreed.

So Jon decided to start bringing it up a little at a time so we could make the decision together. He knows how hard it was for me to give in to getting the Hyundai new. I thought $13,000 was WAY too much to spend on a car. When we barely had enough to get by, it seemed a luxury. Besides my family always bought cars used and it felt wrong and a little uppity to purchase something fresh off the lot.

Then the van was bought 5 years ago in January new: $25,000. That was another big decision that took careful planning, budgeting and hunting around car lots in the DC area via the internet. Since I'm not fond of change and making BIG purchases, I've got to be eased into things like this.

Jon told me about the idea of a Camaro convertible, a two door which seemed totally impractical. "In your dreams," was my phrase. That's something someone older gets when they want to look younger. Another excuse I had was that when I could think of spending $35,000 on something, then we could talk. Jon was sweet about it. He didn't insist, wasn't obnoxious about it, just threw the idea out a few times here and there.

I happened to mention it to a couple of friends who said their husbands were wanting new cars too. I bragged about how good I was at saying no to big huge purchases. I finally had given into getting Jon an Ipad for Father's Day. That seemed over the top. We weren't planning on spending anything big for a while.

One night he showed me a picture of one online at a lot not to far away. The advertisement was for a 0% interest loan. The car was $37,000 marked down to $33,000. He was itching to go. I was baffled and beside myself. After turning him down again, when I woke up to feed Elise that night I couldn't go back to sleep. I tossed and turned feeling bad that I wasn't even considering it. I want him to have what he wants just in a wise order and time. He's very careful with money and if he thinks we can afford it and still manage to save money, then I can at least hear him out. I nudged him and stated, "I've been thinking about the Camaro."

He couldn't have woken up faster. Before I knew it, he had his Ipad out and was giving me a power point presentation on how cool this car was, how discounted it was, all the cool interior features, everything. So here it was 4 in the morning and I am staring at the blinding screen of the Ipad trying to make sense of everything.

I fired questions and scenarios at him. What kind of gas mileage, what if it rolls over, the safety of a convertible, the budget, how much will we still be able to put into savings, can we trade in the Hyundai and for how much? Then I pulled out the emergency situations: What happens if we have medical problems and we have lots of bills? Would he be willing to sell this car first thing? What happens when the government cuts spending? What will happen to his salary? What about when this car gets to be 5 years old? Is he going to want to sell it again and get a new car again? On and on and on I went and he had a good answer for everything. I swear, he could be a politician.

I told him maybe it would be okay to look at it this weekend. He said he was worried it would sell before then. Work was having a light day. He could take a day off and we could go look at the car that morning. :)

I told him there were tons of projects that needed to be done, basement shelves, storage room organized, the garage rearranged to fit everything. There were things he had promised to do but had run out of time. With a fancy new toy, would he have time for them? Would he spend too much time cleaning it, taking care of it? Would he freak out if the kids touched it? Again, beautifully appeasing answers.

I canceled my morning plans with toddler activities and errands and we drove both vehicles to the car dealership. The car was beautiful, a white convertible but it didn't really seem worth that kind of money. I felt skeptical but felt like I needed to let him make this decision. I prayed we would make the right decision and not get into something way over our heads. Just watch, some thoughtless decision and then something bad will happen, like a pay cut, etc. It would be fair enough to happen.

We drove away to have lunch and for them to test drive our Hyundai to give us an estimate. Jon's stipulations were, it would have to 0% interest like the ad said, $33,000 and they'd have to give us $4,000 trade in value for the Hyundai. That would make it so our payments would be $400 or so, pretty much what we were paying for the van already.

When we got back, it took forever to finally meet with the manager who said they had never heard of the 0% interest deal. They would offer $3,000 for the Hyundai and the payments would be $600 a month. I was tired at this point and discouraged. Why couldn't he just like another car?

He told me later, that earlier as Baby Elise had been fussing, he'd been outside walking around the dealership parking lot trying to get her to fall asleep. He noticed a black Camaro with a gray racing stripe down the middle. It was a 2011 pre-owned 6 cylinder car with no leather seats, no blue tooth, no seat warmers. The same large driver and passenger seats, the same impossibly small back seats with 2 inches of leg room. The same new car smell. But what was $27,000 was marked down to $24,000.

Jon said while he was out there, he felt the strong impression that he shouldn't get the convertible. It was unnecessary. It was frivolous and it was too extravagant for the phase of life we are in. It was, for the first time he remembers, getting an answer of NO to a prayer.

When the dealer heard his no, he was anxious to sell Jon something. He offered to have us look at another car. Jon pointed out the black one. After a quick drive, Jon gave him his terms. He would take it if he could get a 2% interest rate, get $4,000 for the Hyundai and keep our payments to $400 or less, making it a loan of $20,000. I had to leave to make it home in time for the kids from bus. When he pulled into the driveway an hour later, I got the answer.

So it's Jon's special car- his baby. A neighbor's husband stopped by that night and when he got home said to his wife, "Did you know the Ellsworth's got a new car?" Her response was, "I can't believe Shaunae let him get it!" Me neither, but I'm glad! He works so hard for our family. Even though it doesn't get tons of miles on it a day, it makes me happy for him.

And yes, the garage is organized, the storage room shelves built and he hasn't yet freaked out when the kids got too close. It's his baby and I hope it stays that way because I don't plan on getting a new vehicle for a very LONG time.

Ashton thinks it's pretty cool too. Too bad he'll never get to drive it as a teenager. That was another one of the stipulations. A race car in a teenagers' hands. I don't think so.

Thanksgiving with a Twist

2012-01-26T12:10:00.000-08:00

This year we were sad to not spend Thanksgiving with our Ohio Ellsworth's. They moved and are now affectionately known as the Kansas Ellsworth's. But we are excited to stay with them on our road trip this summer out to Utah for family reunions and such.

So instead we had a Thanksgiving with a twist, a Michelle twist. No she didn't show up on my door step completely unannounced. She planned it out and told me about it, a first! But she brought a guy. A very special guy! Mark.... sweet, awesome Mark! He was a real trooper all week to let the kids play with him, endure crying and silly noises alike.

And Michelle, the awesome chef that she is, cooked my Thanksgiving dinner so I could sit back and hold Baby Elise. It was nice! The food was awesome! The mashed potatoes with a hint of cream cheese were divine. The pies- fattening. The turkey- so moist we weren't sure if it was cooked....

Thanksgiving night we took Michelle and Mark downtown to see the monuments. Jon and I think the best way to see the monuments is all lit up at night. They are like beautiful temples, peaceful, special places at night.

The next day we all took the train into DC. It was quite an adventure waiting in a massive line at the Bureau of Engraving but we survived. We somehow managed to entertain the kids in line and keep Baby Elise happy. Here are the kids doing Yoga with Michelle on the sidewalk. I was grateful for her ability to help think up ways to help them endure the moment of line-waiting.

Silly cuties

Once we got inside the kids stayed with Mark and Michelle and watched a short film, while I snuck away to feed Elise in one of the bathrooms there. She, of course, had a diaper accident and her clothes were decimated. I was prepared for once in my life and had an extra change of clothes for her so it wasn't too awful. We caught up with the tour and saw the printing of masses amounts of $100 bills. At the end of the tour was a cool height chart that showed how tall you are in stacks of dollar bills or maybe it was $100 bills. That makes more sense now that I look at it.

Corynn

Taison

Stud- muffin Ashton

One of Corynn's close friends from 1st grade moved to Colorado this summer. They've been having fun being pen pals and she sent Corynn a Flat Stanley school project. We get a lot of Flat Stanley's from people for their kids. Why? Because we live in the coolest place ever! :)

Then we made sure Michelle and Mark got their DC tourism photo op.

Toyota!

Next we took a quick walk over to the Natural History Museum. Michelle and Mark were kind enough to take Ashton, Corynn and Taison through the dinosaur exhibit, their favorite, while I fed Elise on a bench and Tyler slept in a stroller next to me.

Shortly after that, I headed back home to the train and McDonalds. Michelle and Mark stayed on the mall to see more sights. It was the first time I was alone with all 5 kids in public and I had my "Mother Zen" face on which equals calm, taking everything that comes with tons of patience but keeping everyone in careful check. It was definitely a challenge getting everyone on the train and the stroller folded up and unloaded but there were nice people all around that were willing to lend a hand, lift the stroller so I could carry the baby. The kids were famished and spent the return trip eating their chicken nuggets and giggling at each other. Even though I had to keep on them to stay in their seats and keep their voices down, I guess we weren't that bad. When we got up to leave, the lady behind me told me my kids were SO well-behaved, Ha!, because she had been in another car where the kids were running up and down the aisles screaming.

Baby Elise Mania

2012-01-18T13:43:00.000-08:00

We have had SO much fun getting Elise to smile. At first she was smiling only a couple of times each awake time. We all felt priviledged to earn a smile from her. Someone would shout, "I got it! I got the smile!" Now she's a little older (3 months today) and loves to smile, coo and giggle. Babies are the best! Really, can anything be as sweet as a new baby in the family. Despite the times of noise, crying and fussiness, they really have so much joy to share with the "old" people in their lives.

Kami's awesome photography!

Michelle's photo session

Beautiful girl!

Corynn's Baptism

2012-01-16T15:55:00.000-08:00

I can't believe Corynn is already 8! She is such a sweet girl! Some days I wish I had more time to just tell her how wonderful she is. She is a creative writer, lover of all projects and art supplies and a sweet sister and nurturer. She has grown up SO much and takes careful time to read her scriptures on her own because her teachers at church have challenged her to. She gives our family a high bar of academics to reach for. Her willingness to obey is SO helpful and she is a great example for her siblings to follow.

Since her birthday was in October and she was turning 8, we talked to her about baptism. In our church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or nicknamed Mormons, children are not baptized until they are accountable, meaning old enough to know right from wrong. We believe this age is 8 years old. Before this date, we teach and ask the kids to pray to know for themselves if this is the right decision for them. We tell them to see how they feel in church, pray to gain their own "testimony" or feelings about whether it's true or not. Line upon line, testimonies are built, and children really feel their own knowledge of gospel truths. This is the beginning of being able to build a life of righteous patterns that will help them steer clear from major mistakes and work out repentance through little ones.

Their fathers, if worthy and a holder of the priesthood, get the opportunity to baptize their children. To be worthy to hold the priesthood, men have to be total loyal and faithful husbands, refrain from alcohol, tobacco, have a testimony of Jesus Christ and among other things, be honest. It can seem like a pretty steep list of things but I find obeying these commandments prevent a lot of heart ache in our world and help families stay united in the long run.

Jon was almost not well enough to baptize Corynn. Behind her, he's holding his cane to get around. :) But he felt well enough that day to get up and down. If not my Dad or Jon's were ready and willing to step in.

The baptism was short and sweet, simple and pure. Afterwards, the gift of the Holy Ghost was administered through a priesthood blessing from Jon. It was a quiet peaceful moment and I felt glad that Corynn could have this wonderful gift to help her through the tough decisions of her life as long as she was worthy to listen to its' promptings. I know this guide has blessed me in immeasurable ways, a sure true tie into heaven's messages moment by moment, day by day to help me know how to talk to people, how to help someone, how to care for my children and keeping me and them safe.

Back at home we had a fun time playing a game called 99 that Grandma Sandy introduced us to. It was loads of fun and a great math practice for Ashton.

Taison and Bryson were dressing up again and playing.

Halloween 2012

2012-01-16T15:30:00.000-08:00

Halloween is one of the funnest holidays! We're not too much spooky and creepy parts of Halloween but we love dressing up and making silly food. This year since we knew Baby Elise would be coming around that time of year, we started asking the kids early, what they'd like to be for Halloween. The consenus was to have the family theme of the Scooby Doo Gang. It was SO fun coming up with the costumes. As you know, I'm not much of a sew-er, but I do sew a little. I love to take things people have already made, via thrift stores, and hot glue things together, unstitch parts and sew a little to make it appear to be a real costume. My costume ended up being the only one I actually bought because an orange wig was the same price as the full costume.

Taison and Tyler were Scooby Doo and Scrappy Doo. I looked and looked for reasonable priced Scooby Doo costumes but found nothing under $15. On a whim I went to a thrift store and found their halloween costumes all for $1.99. There were no dog costumes but tons of lion costumes. Then it dawned on me, I could cut the manes off and hot glue some colored felt on them to make them dogs. We took a head band from Corynn's hair stuff and glued little ears on them.

Jon and Ashton's costumes were pretty easy, just buying colored T-shirts and jeans. Then Corynn's was an adult orange sweater that I took a little off the sleeves and sides to make into Velma's orange stockings. Her wig was fun for her to play with. The only down side to our family theme was that I didn't have time to make or think of anything for Elise.

Tyler and Brynna, the cute cow-girl

The whole Trick or Treating Gang- Bryson is the Darth Vader.

Our hotdog mummies, mashed potatoes monsters, carrot stick monster fingers and punch with gummy worms was our Halloween Feast. It's always silly and fun to prepare this to meal.

And of course, we finished off the night by Trick or Treating. Our neighbors Kevin and Vanessa and the kids' favorite, their dog Cloe, were excited to see them in their costumes. While I stayed home with Elise and my parents to give out candy, Jon, Kami and Grandma Sandy drove the kids around the neighborhood to trick or treat. Poor Jon was all worn out after a busy week from the hospital trip two days prior. He was a real trooper to not let the kids down and let me keep Elise home.

Tyler's Birthday

2012-01-16T14:25:00.000-08:00

The week after Elise was born was Tyler's 3rd Birthday. Since I knew it was going to be a wild week, we planned just a simple family party with a Fire truck cake as he "special" thing. He still rants and raves about it his "fire truck cake" so I'm glad I made it. If I had planned ahead, I might have called our local fire station and asked if we could visit or even better, they could drive out in front of our house. I thought this sounded a little bit too big of a dream but I knew it would blow him away to see one pull up in front of HIS house. Maybe someday if I smooze well enough it can happen.

He picked out this Hot Wheels case from Salvation Army 2 weeks before and I hid it away hoping he'd forget. He didn't. He just kept asking everyday when his birthday was so he could have his "car suitcase". Thanks to Tyler's love for vehicles plus Ashton and Taison's stock pile from when they were toddlers, we now have more than 100 match box cars. Ug! They are everywhere in this house but, hey, at least there's a case for them.

This is the first time both sets of Grandparents have been to one of the kids' birthdays. We felt so lucky to have them there.

And having Kami and her two kids, Bryson and Brynna there was an extra special treat! Thanks Kami for all the wonderful pictures. I was too scatterbrained to remember to take any. :)

Jon's scare

2012-01-12T15:29:00.000-08:00

The week that Elise was born was a busy week in events for the other children in our family. Jon had recently been called to serve as a den leader and their den was running the Magic Show at the church's Halloween party that weekend. So naturally he needed to be there to teach the boys magic tricks the next night. I know.... we could have found someone else but Jon was excited to get started with the boys. My mom went with Corynn to Activity Days, the church's young girls program. That night just happened to be the Mother Daughter Date, a yearly special time for moms and girls to spend time alone together playing games, etc.

That first night I wanted to try having Elise sleep in our room for a while. But in the middle of the night, I felt uncomfortable with not knowing how she was doing. Being exhausted and dying to get my first night's hours of sleep since Sunday night, I called the nursery to take her in. When they didn't bring her back in when they said they would, I got a little worried and rang for them. It took a little while longer and they came to tell me that the night had not been uneventful. She had spit up a large amount of mucus and was choking badly enough that they decided to pump her stomach. Luckily, the pediatrician had been right there when it happened and they were able to help her as quickly as possible. I'm sure this happens all the time, but to me it was a small miracle. I know I would have slept right through it. I am SO grateful for quiet promptings, ideas that I know are heaven sent.
The next couple of days at the hospital were peaceful and sweet. I called room service often and enjoyed tasting food I hadn't cooked. The nurses are just like angels to me. I enjoyed friends bringing yummies and holding my sweet new baby. Peace and love seemed thick in the air of my hospital room. :)

We came home Thursday morning and Jon went to coach Taison's soccer team and take the other kids to their practices. While doing a running drill with the kids, running backwards, he felt a cramp or pulled muscle in his right leg. It seemed like nothing until that night when he woke up writhing with pain. The waves of cramping were intense worse than he's had before. He had had cramps in the past, sometimes so bad that he'd be unable to walk for a couple days. We thought they were normal, or from sudden exercising.

The next day he laid around and rested, stretched but barely could handle to pain. Being a little woozy myself from lack of sleep and healing, I felt bad for my parents who were now taking care of two helpless adults and a small army of clutter-creating children.

By Monday Jon was feeling much better and even went into work one day, taking his 1 mile walk to and from the Train to his office in DC. Jon's parents and sister Kami were in town as well for Corynn's upcoming baptism and had a time share in Virgina Beach for the week. They invited Jon and the kids to come down so Jon drove the kids down Wednesday and they spent the day and a half down there. On the 3 hr drive Jon noticed the same leg swelling. He had read online about that being a size of clots but not wanting to ruin everyone's vacation, kept that information to himself....

When they came back in town, he was quiet and after we put the kids to bed, he stated matter-of-factly, "I need to go to the hospital." I just about jumped out of my skin. What? was my response. He showed me his swollen leg, and told me about the online search he had done the previous week on blood clots since his sister Kathy and brother Rob both had had them in the past 3 years. He drove himself to the emergency room right. Three hours later as the technician looked for a blood clot in his leg with an ultrasound machine, she was quiet for a VERY long time and stately flatly, "You are not going anywhere tonight." Out of 3 major veins in his leg, one was clotted the entire distance from his knee to his hip.   Not just one clot but many, many clots.

He called to give me the news around 3 AM, and softened the blow by telling me they had found A clot. Ha!   My sweet man! Trying to help me get more sleep but sleep was a hopeless cause anyways. What sleep I had was filled with prayers, prayers sent up with more gusto than ever before.

He was put in a wheel chair so he wouldn't dislodge the clot and send it to his lungs. He was admitted to the ICU and started on shot blood thinners. We weren't sure what was going to happen, how many days he would be in the hospital as they monitored the clots. But strangely three or fours doses of shots later, they determined that since he wasn't having trouble breathing, the clot hadn't moved into his lungs. They released him from the hospital mid afternoon and he was able to come home. His leg was still swollen and it was hard for him to walk so we got him a cane to use. He had a prescription for some more blood thinner shots to give himself as well as a blood thinner medication that wouldn't be accumulated in his blood stream enough for another week. They told us the clots would take 6 weeks or so for the body to gradually break them down.

With weekly appointments to test his blood's clotting ability we learned there is a scale from 1 on up, his blood being at a 1 clotting immediately after being pricked, where most of us are at a 2 or 3. After a month of many appointments his blood would test at being too thin at a 7, not clotting at all. There were jokes passed around about not getting a paper cut or he'd bleed to death. They would adjust his medication and now it's a steady 2.7.

Unfortunately we haven't learned what caused the clots to begin with. He tested negative for the genetic Factor 5 or Factor 9, I forget... We have learned that with his tendency towards clotting he needs to take frequent breaks at work to walk around. He also has to be careful not to eat too much spinach, pumpkin and a few other random things that we never eat. Ibuprofen can change his blood as well so he takes Tylenol instead.

Looking back on it all, we are very grateful that we were made aware of the clots when we did.   We were blessed to have TONS of help because our family was in town for Baby Elise and Corynn's baptism. The kids didn't feel a bit neglected during that time. They just thought Jon's cane was cool. I myself wasn't too fond of it. It was a reminder of how fragile life is and that we can really appreciate the gift it is much more.

Baby Elise

2012-01-01T14:14:00.000-08:00

I know this post is WAY overdue! Once I got out of the habit of downloading my pictures and getting them written up in the blog, it's been hard starting up again. But here we go!

The pregnant belly! Tyler playing the Wii.

My parents made it into town on a Saturday night. We had a small window for them to be in town so we scheduled a "just-in-case" induction date on Thursday. Since we only had a week left and I was already dilated to a 5, they all made guesses to which day she would be born. To the winner was the priviledge of choosing the flavor of ice cream to buy from the store and celebrate as a family. Ashton's guess was Monday and when Monday came, he asked me if I could do something to have the baby. I explained it wasn't really a choice I had. He's pretty competitive and just wanted to win.

After we put the kids to bed and had said goodnight to my parents, Jon and I sat around chatting. For the first time ever, I experienced the water breaking outside of the hospital. It was a huge shocks. There were no contractions, nothing. We called up the Dr., surprised my dad with the news, woke up my mom and drove out of the driveway, watching her worried face. By the time we got to the hospital and checked in it was about 11 PM. Things weren't really that active. The monitor was reading no contractions. Then when I stood up to do something, they hit and they were awful! Thankfully we had only a few minutes left for the IV fluid to finish so I could get the epidural. But still the monitor was reading no contractions. It turned out the monitor wasn't working... :) It seemed just a short hour and a nap after the epidural and she was born at 2 AM.

It's such an AWE some experience when they hand the new baby to you. You forget how small they are, how amazing it is! Everything!

Since she was born early in the morning and they had to move us to the post pardum rooms, Jon and I didn't get to sleep until 6 AM when the sun was coming up. It was the most tiring day not having normal sleep and having our nights mixed up. Our nurses were wonderful as usual and I loved having room service and the quiet time to sleep every chance I could. The next day Tyler and my parents came to visit after the kids were in school.

My parents were so sweet to manage everything without us. It was extra special having my Dad there to hold a new new baby. He was very loving and sweet with her. That night Corynn and Ashton got their chance to see baby Elise on their way to some big events at church, Ashton to cubs and Corynn to her Mother Daughter Date, which my Mom stepped in and attended for me.

Having her in our family has been such a huge blessing! Everyone wants their turn to hold her and are SO gentle. I forgot how the whole house feels different after a new baby. Everything feels so much more homey- so peaceful even in the middle of chaotic times. There is so much joy with having her presence, smallness and it brings out the best in the rest of us. This recovery seemed to be the easiest so far for me. But there were still many days when the lack of sleep left me feeling hazy and clouded. We were so blessed by so many wonderful friends, visits, and gifts! Everyone was so thoughtful!

To follow tradition, we posed her with the Barnum animal crackers. Adding another member to our family circus and another Barnum grandchild.

Back to School for 3

2012-01-01T13:42:00.000-08:00

First day of School! Yep, that's right. Taison's in the mix now! He was so excited!
He lucked out and got Corynn and Ashton's Kindergarten teachers, Ms. Colley and Ms. Watts. He loves them and takes putting his backpack away and homework so seriously.

Corynn is in 2nd grade and happened to get Ashton's old 2nd teacher, Ms. Miller. We love her and Corynn is at the top of her class in everything. It's amazing to see how easily she does her homework, school projects and reads. I love not having to remind her about everything.

Ashton loves his teacher, Ms. Johansen. She is straight forward, has high expectations and he really enjoys school. His reading over the summer has improved tremendously. It's so neat to see him pick up a book for fun and just read. A beautiful thing!

Ole' Miss Vs. BYU Trip 2011

2011-12-05T07:41:00.000-08:00

Jon has been a big BYU football fan since he was little. He got a half tutition scholarship the year we met, his freshman year, to play the trumpet in the marching band. The money didn't really matter since tutition at BYU is only a couple thousand a semester. The real perk was being able to attend every football game, a few away-games, a bowl game and he always have great seats. I got a job as an usher at the games and loved hearing the band play more than anything. :) I didn't really understand what was going on in the game of football.

After Jon's mission and we were married, he missed a year being in the band. I felt like things were too crazy and busy with both of us gone so much, me teaching 2nd grade and he trying to recuperate from poor freshman year grades, my fault I'm afraid. But by the 2nd year, we agreed it might be a special thing for him to get to be part of the band one more time.

When we moved out East, Jon wanted to continue to have time to be a BYU fan in the fall. Unfortunately between late working hours, studying for his CPA exam for years on end, and then getting his Masters, it was always tricky finding the time for the games. Besides that, I felt like game time was all about me watching the kids yet again. My stipulation was if he was going to watch the games, he needed to help watch the kids and it had to be a family thing. If the kids weren't into it, then we needed to spend our little time together doing something they would really enjoy. He also couldn't let a loss make him totally bummed and useless to me for the rest of day or next day.

Then all of a sudden two years ago, Ashton noticed the game. He noticed how riled up all these normally mellow men were and wondered what it was all about. He started mimic-ing their trash talking at the opposing team (non-swearing of course), understanding penalties, 1st downs and remembering players' names. Much to Jon's excitement, the games became a family affair.

And I realized that instead of just chatting with all the other fun ladies watching the games with us, I was actually getting into it a little. I was understanding the rules, and with Jon's help actually seeing the plays. It was fun to learn something new and I was glad I could share that hobby with him. Throwing out a name of a player every once in a while and asking Jon how he was playing this season or asking about who the new recruits were, would send Jon into an excited explanation of HIS world. :) Watching him watch the games is half the fun. He cracks me up and I see a side of him that I never see at home- total up and down emotion!

So the short of the story is, last year he promised Ashton if there was a game on this side of the Mississippi, they would drive to it, buy tickets and watch it in person. Their chance came up this past month with BYU's opening game at Ole Miss. A couple of dads and their sons carpooled, booked hotel rooms, and had the adventure of their lives. :) They had been planning it all summer, chatting about it on the side and anytime Jon brought it up to Ashton, he'd just beam and bubble with questions.

When a BYU alumni magazine came in the mail, Ashton memorized which channels the games would be aired on, spouting them off to my Dad one day when he asked if we knew. They drove together early Friday morning and got to the hotel about 5 PM at night. The team does a "fireside" or a religious devotional at a nearby Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints building sharing their feelings about Jesus Christ and, yes, singing a song or two. It's pretty special and sweet.

The tiny chapel they went to had over 2,000 people there. Our guys got seats in the hallways near a door so they could still see the players but Jon said shortly after the opening song, exhausted Ashton fell asleep. :)

The next morning the boys and Dads had breakfast, played in the hotel swimming pool, were scared off by an enormous horse fly landing on people's heads and biting them. Then they took off for the stadium and grounds for the Tail gating event. I did not realize how intense some people are when it comes to tail-gating. They bring campers and start hanging out a couple of days in advance. They set up grills, tents, cable and even huge screen TV's to watch more football games!

Here is Ashton with Garrett Jones and Caleb Gregory standing under the Walk Of Champion's sign. This is where the Ole Miss football team walks on their way to the stadium.

A true tailgater not only has TV in their tent, but has several TV dishes to watch multiple TV channels on their many 50 inch plasmas in their tent.

This is the Grove at Ole Miss where they tailgate.

Ashton, Caleb and Garrett at the BYU tailgate spot.

In line for some southern pulled pork, BYU style.

We went down with Keith Jones and his son Garrett, Aaron Gregory and his son Caleb, Joe Walker and met Eric and Leslie Olsen down at the game.

Here's the Grove while the players were walking through.

Overall, it was an awesome time to hang out with Ashton. BYU won 14-13 on a last minute fumble recovery for a touchdown. It made the 11 hour drive home a happy one.

Family Pictures 2011

2011-12-05T07:35:00.000-08:00

We took our first family pictures with Elise this week and they turned out great! The family picture was the only picture that we got with Elise looking at the camera. She was very interested in the boys' red sweater vests.

We always get a picture of just us and then a picture of just the kids. We hang a big 10X13 of the family above our fireplace mantle and have our picture and the kids' picture on the sides as a 5X7.

And here is the kids' picture. It's amazing how much they've grown in the past year. Corynn's face has really thinned out and Ashton looks so much like a preen (pre-teen) in this picture. Taison's at the age where he tries to smile for pictures, so you don't get that natural face, but he's a cutie. And Tyler is such a heartthrob :)

The Day of the Earthquake

2011-10-02T19:39:00.000-07:00

It happened!   An earthquake on the east coast! Crazy! There were somethings I thought just weren't going to happen while living on the east. I guess earthquakes and a volcano erupting were on my mental no-worrying-about list.

Jon's financial staff of about 20 women were excited when they found out we were expecting a baby girl. They offered to give us a baby shower before the kids started school so everyone could come in and say hi. We've come in a few other times and the kids love all the attention, the passing out of candy that comes their way and the sweet compliments of how well behaved they are. (Ha!)   I know how long to stay and when to leave, right before all silliness breaks out, that's the secret. :)

The baby shower was planned and to add to the adventure of being downtown, Jon decided to take us all to a Nationals Baseball game. Since the shower would be in the afternoon, it would give us a chance to visit the kids' favorite Smithsonian Museum, the "Dinosaur and Bug Museum" as my kids affectionately call it, better known as the Natural History Museum.   Then the evening would be dedicated to baseball experiences.

As we were driving in on 66, Tyler was snoozing, the kids were listening to music, Jon called with an interesting thing to exclaim, "There's been an earthquake in DC." click..... long pauses and no cell access. My immediate thought was a terrorist attack, a bomb, something other than the real thing. I turned on the radio and as they chatted about random things, they interrupted the program with the same announcement. An earthquake of 5.9 about 2 hrs south of us in a little rural town in Virginia. We crossed the Potomac River and started down crazy-busy-congestion-filled Constitution Avenue just in time to see government employees pouring out of their buildings, littering the sidewalks with worried faces all dialing on cell phones.

I figured all the cell phones in use were accounting for the lack of Jon's cell phone being useful. My sister in law in Colorado got through instead and wanting to know if I was okay! I was so impressed with her ability to be so quick to respond and call. She said they had an earthquake the night before as well, another unheard of occurrence there. After about 30 minutes on Constitution Ave, we slowly inched our way past the White House and Washington Monument and Jon texted me through a co-workers' phone since his had lost power. He said he'd meet me outside his building and knowing the odds of finding him, I plodded along the streets, now filling up with tourists that were being sent out of all the museums as well.

When I got to the DC Courts and saw all the people everywhere, I wondered if I'd ever find him. A lady stopped her car in front of me to talk to someone for about 5 minutes. Feeling a little annoyed and stuck, I later mentally thanked her for delaying us because just up ahead on the corner I saw Jon turn a corner and look out of a crowd. He had just circled the block and left his staff's meeting place to catch a glimpse of the van. It couldn't have worked out any better. We hung out on the side of the road for a while to make sure they were really sending home the employees. With the baby shower definitely off, we quickly drove to the mall to avoid the mass exodus of people rushing to the metro and trains before they were overloaded and their commutes would be hours long.

Fast food places closed, museums closed, I worried how to entertain the kids while we waited to figure out what to do, whether the baseball game would be canceled and we should head home or kill time. Right before we got out of the car, we heard on the radio that the game would not be canceled. Scavenging through the van for anything we could use to help us plan out the next few hours, we happily found a few granola bars and water bottles from a previous day, the baseball mitts and balls for the game, a few books and Tyler's back pack of toy cars. We headed to the only place we could think of that wouldn't be evacuated: the National Sculpture Garden. We had been there before with our cousins and soaked our feet in the fountain there. So with a couple of hours to spend, we collected leaves, got our feet wet, and analyzed the pattern of spraying in the fountain. :)

After a while there, we went to the big grassy area on the mall and played catch for a while. Ashton and Jon threw back and forth and I practiced with Taison and later Tyler. Corynn played photographer and Tyler drove his cars in the patches of dirt interspersed with grass.

Jon and I love playing catch, throwing it as fast and semi-accurate as we can. We try to count how many times we can actually catch it without dropping it in a row. Another version is setting my watch's timer and seeing how many times we can catch it consecutively in a minute. I think our record is 35 or so. I love the feeling of my arm warmed up and throwing the ball! It was a lot of fun until we got tired and a little less accurate. We almost hit a few people walking by and an overthrown ball went rolling into a side street. At that point we decided finding a McDonald's would be our next diversion.

Luckily finding a place that was open to business wasn't as hard as we thought it would be. We ate and headed to the stadium. Waiting in line proved to be a challenge in our parenting patience skills. Because of the earthquake there was a good amount of delays as the staff had to check the structure for any post-earthquake effects. We met the big headed "Presidents" mascots which freaked Tyler out of course, typical toddler and massive mascot creatures phobia's.

As the kids' hyperness level rose, they ran circles around Jon and I, chasing each other and shrieking. We decided to break out the back pack of cars and play on the ground. The older kids played an intense game of "I spy..." finding stripes, yellow socks, brown hair, glasses on all the people around us. I told Jon to get ready with a back up plan in case it was much longer since I was all out of ideas. Luckily the gates opened and we rushed to find our seats. We had awesome front row seats in the out field. Ashton was ready with his mitt in case a ball came our way. He REALLY wanted to catch one for a souvenir. Jon splurged on a few treats from the expensive stadium vendors.

We tried to explain what was going on but Ashton and Jon were really the only ones paying attention. ;) At this point Tyler had no interest in his cars, even though Corynn and Taison were somewhat entertained with the coloring books and crayons we had packed. Thankfully there was a strategically well placed playground inside our side of the stadium. So I spent a trip or two watching the kids play. We left after the 7th inning and thankfully made it home with a car filled with sleepy snoozing.

We checked over the house for evidence of the earthquake and found a few pictures that had fallen, stacks of already precarious books that had toppled and a few more crooked pictures on the wall, but other than that nothing. I was kind of bummed I had been driving and hadn't felt it. I actually lived through an earthquake and didn't feel it.

The next day we headed back into DC for another attempt at the baby shower. They had interesting stories to tell of what it was like during the earthquake 5 stories up, the swaying of the building, the rolling look of the floor as they set up the baby shower. Jon told a story of a couple of women near his office screaming and he telling everyone to stand in the doorways.

The shower was awesome! Every one was SO nice and so sweet. It was fun meeting the ladies again and hearing about their families. Opening the darling girl clothes made me teary-eyed.

So many little outfits with pink tu-tu's, and phrases like "Daddy's little angel". One of the men in Jon's office was announcing his wife's recent pregnancy and he was so excited! It made me remember the sweet excitement we felt with the news of Ashton's coming. So much fun and growing together and joy!

Water Park Memories

2011-09-29T11:41:00.000-07:00

Our 3rd year having passes to a simple children's water park paid off great dividends this summer. At $45 per person for a total of $250 for our family, we had a place we could go every day if we wanted to burn off tons of energy. It was such a blessing to have a place to go where I didn't have to tell them what to do constantly, keep the house clean, etc. We typically went after nap time around 4 PM and spent the last two hours of the afternoon playing before Jon came home. We had snacks we would take and sometimes did Peanut butter and jelly for dinner.

The weather this summer was wonderfully warm and the kids loved cooling off. I loved sitting with my prego legs in the water and simply keeping track of Tyler and chatting it up with our buddies who got passes. The kids LOVED seeing their friends so often and on the days when it was just our own family, they enjoyed coming up with new ways to play together.

While the pools themselves don't lend themselves to real swimming, they were perfect for the safety of the little ones. We will be shopping around for next year's pool and passes to see which in the area can provide some deeper areas for the older kids but we will really miss our old hang out spot too!

My Pregnancy so far

2011-09-29T11:11:00.000-07:00

I keep getting requests to show the belly so here it is. I'm at 36 weeks and so far things have been really going well. It seems like every pregnancy has gotten a little easier for me but that could just be my optimistic attempts talking. I know the other pregnant ladies in the world who suffer from nausea would throw tomatoes at me for admitting, I just don't get sick. I start off the first trimester with heart burn, super tired and dizzy sometimes. I consider myself lucky that when I start to feel my heart racing or a little whoozy, I am usually in a flexible enough schedule that I can just sit back and chill for a while. If I really listen to my body instead of fight through it, I feel fine after about 10 minutes.

I typically swell like a balloon when I'm pregnant and gain about 60 lbs. I don't know why but this time, I haven't had as much trouble with that. I can still wear my regular shoes. I can still see my collar bone and bones in my feet. It's great! I've also tried REALLY hard to keep the impulse to eat my junk foods; chips and whatever else sounds good. After a tailgating party for a football game and eating some chips, I woke up the next day with a puffy face, hands and feet. So now I know! Me and salt aren't a good regular thing together.

I have had a new symptom of varicose veins which I hear is something that tends to happen the more pregnancies you have. I have this great reclining anti gravity chair I sit in during the afternoon quiet times and evenings when we watch TV. It's awesome! Sitting at a computer is particularly bad for my feet and sometimes I can feel them just swelling as I sit there.

As for the heartburn, I've hardly had any, which at this point I was buying a bottle of Tums each week and chomping on them all the time.

As a pregnant lady, I have this constant chomping frenzy. This is probably what adds to my crazy weight gain since I have to really try hard to stop eating. :) An email from babycenter.com randomly talked about the myth Dr.'s wished would die out in pregnancy, the one that says, "I'm eating for two." They say gaining too much weight is really hard on our bodies and that the baby only consumes 300 more calories than what you normally need. My knees and hips would get hurt a lot with my previous pregnancies from the added weight. So when I mentioned it to my Dr., he and I set the goal of only gaining 30-40 lbs. this pregnancy. To help me be accountable to myself, I printed off a simple 5 month calendar to track my weight gain and times I had exercised. I have it in the bathroom and check every few days or so to see how I'm doing. All I do for exercise is a simple 10 minute walk when I remember to. Before when I was mowing the lawn or doing tons of cleaning, I'd count that. :) Writing my weight down is the easy part but I really haven't exercised as much, even though it feels great to. So far I'm right at the 30 lbs mark so I have a little more wiggle room for her to grow. (literally)

The other statistic that I've heard recently is that the average adult eats 2-3 times their daily recommended amount of sodium, a lot coming from eatting out, frozen, or pre-made foods to enhance the flavor and increase shelf life. The high levels of sodium (salt) are contributing to many health problems. In me, it just makes water stay inside. But if I keep drinking a good amount of water and eat the regular meals we were eating before, it seems to be alright. I still indulge in my spoonful of Nutella and handful of pretzels and pecans almost every afternoon so I haven't kicked that habit.

My urge to chomp and chew ice is still there, a symptom of low iron, which my doctor just confirmed from a blood test. I have been trying to keep up on my prenatals. In an effort to get more vitamins and healthy stuff as well as avoid the chips and popcorn, I have tried different kinds of fruits and veggies. I didn't realize how awesome so many of these foods taste. Everything tastes so good to me! I am loving the chomp-chompiness of celery, slightly steamed green beans, sauteed zuchinni with a little garlic salt, steamed spinach and the blueberries I bought on sale over the summer and froze in little baggies. I LOVE the frozen blueberries so much, I worry the baby will turn out tinted. :) I have also discovered how much I love mangoes which I never really ate before.

Since I feel shiny-faced and kind of ugly when I'm pregnant, I decided to do my hair and makeup every day I could. After cleaning out my jewelry box and throwing away the things I don't use, I added wearing jewelry to the list of things I did to make myself feel pretty. I went shopping for a couple of cute maternity shirts all stylish and non-frumpy and chucked a bunch of bell-shaped clothes. So a lot of times, I have looked a little more dressed up than normal and that plus the compliments people would throw my way, have helped me not feel grumpy about the way I look.

And now we have our emergency numbers all ready, friends ready to come at a moment's notice should baby Elise come early, my parents flying out mid October and most things ready. We are excited and a little nervous for the changes in the noise level at our home. But overall we are happy for this new adventure of parenthood to come our way again and to meet baby Elise.

When Ashton asked what the baby would look like, Jon squished up his face and made a crying face. The kids all thought that was pretty funny! I said she'd look like Corynn did, black hair, white skin and red little lips, beautiful as can be.

Corynn drew a picture about how nice it will be to have a sister. Ashton said he'd rather get a dog. And Corynn countered with, "I'd rather have a dog, than an older brother."

Chincoteague Trip 2011

2011-09-23T11:27:00.000-07:00

Our vacation extents usually involve going back West to visit family. On the East coast our adventures have taken us to Cleaveland to see family, New York for Jon's prior audits, and Orlando for Disney World. Here in Virginia we have taken tons of trips into DC, and a good amount of trips to Williamsburg and Jamestown. After Jon and I's get away to the Eastern Shore of Virgina, we determined to get the kids out more to see the beaches, and fun culture hidden on our close by coasts.

After starting the book "Misty of Chincoteague", a book about the wild ponies and a brother and sister's adventures trying to raise and train one, we thought the actual location of Chincoteague seemed perfect. Our sweet friends, the Gregory's also had been reading the book and wanted to take the trip this year as well so we sporadically found the time to go. The big touristy season is Pony Penning day when a round up crew swim the horses from the protected island of Assateague to the inhabited island of Chincoteague. Young horses are sold and later the older horses are driven back across. Since there can be up to 50,000 people on the island during Pony Penning week, the last week of July, we opted to go mid August. It was also our only available weekend after reunions, church activities, etc.

We found a hotel called the Blue Heron Inn that boasted of having their own Chincoteague ponies on sight and booked an overnight stay for $125. The rooms were old and musty and they weren't too terribly happy with how many kids we had, but it worked. We left early Friday morning and arrived after lunch. We went straight to the beach after picking up some cheap $5 boogie boards from a road side stand/store.

After setting up a few things on the beach, the kids and Jon tried boogie boarding for the first time. They had a BLAST! It was a constant round of taking turns, getting tossed around by the waves and digging in the sand as a break.

At first Tyler was terrified of the waves. We invented a game of standing on the shore and trying to jump over the waves as they came up to our feet. He laughed and laughed and laughed. Eventually he wasn't holding onto my finger for dear life. A couple times I got too comfortable with him being in the water and wasn't paying attention when a wave plummeted over him and knocked him down. I felt like an awful mom when Jon brought him to me sputtering and shaken.

An older boy showed Ashton and Caleb how to sit and feel in the sand for sand crabs, little non-pinching crabs that burrowed down into the sand every time they were uncovered by a wave. We grew quite the collection.

Later we released them, as is the rule with all our critter collections; catch and release so we don't hurt the little guys so they can go back to their homes.

That night after we got pizza for the kids, we experimented with picking steamed crabs. Since we got it as take-out, we found some picnic tables at the hotel and using Aaron's leather man, we cracked open the crabs and ate the meat we found. At first I was pretty grossed out, but a week later brave enough to really "pick" a bunch of crabs that we had steamed for a get-together. It was actually not that bad. I felt like I was in a dissecting class though, learning about their bodies and what to eat and what not to.

The next morning, after a hearty breakfast at a nearby restaurant with vouchers from the hotel, we headed back to the beach. We quickly nabbed a great spot, set up Jon's cool invention of a tent and took some "morning on the beach" pictures.

Since the water was still pretty cold, we decided to drive back to walk to the Assateague Lighthouse. It was only a short walk through some woods but we got eaten along the way by amazingly ravenous mosquitoes. They seemed to really love the shaded woods, which made us glad we weren't going on the nature trail hike and that we hadn't decided to camp overnight to save money instead of the hotel.

Along the road we could see some ponies in herds out in an open swampy area. We took turns using the binoculars and the kids kept asking me which one was the "Phantom", the mysterious strong mare from the book. :)

Back at the beach, the kids continued to find endless ways to entertain themselves. When they weren't boogie boarding, they were digging.

They discovered another type of critter, which I can't remember at the moment. Lori pointed out millions of tiny shells that dug themselves into the sand under our feet. Tyler discovered the joys of filling a bucket with water to throw at people.

Of course, the dads had to have their turns on the boogie boards. Since they held the post of in-the-water-lifeguards for the kids and Lori and I kept the beach monitored, they spent most of their time on the boogie boards with the kids. They are just big kids at heart anyways.

Tyler, Lily and I loving the wet sandy feel under our feet

Emmy and Corynn catching waves

Chilling with Daddy on my awesome anti-gravity lawn chair Jon bought me to get my prego swollen feet up. We had a pretty simple lunch of yogurts, peanuts and fruit. I had to pry the kids away from the water to actually eat anything and to reapply sunscreen. They were hypnotized by the waves and the endless fun they were having.

Digging big holes with a big smile

I'm out there with Jon and Aaron keeping my eye on the waves. Jon didn't think it would be a good idea for me to actually boogie board so I just watched the waves and rode them up and down before they crashed.

By 4 PM we were tired and ready to load up. It still took about an hour to get everyone changed, and our little "homestead" (tent and dug out cleaned up). We stopped by Arby's on the way home and everyone proceeded to fall asleep. For the kids that were awake later, I read the rest of "Misty of Chincoteague". They did not want me to stop reading anywhere along the way. They were SO excited to see what happened next. We pulled into our driveway around 10 PM and got everyone into bed, even though they were still a little sandy. Overall it was an amazingly long well spent 48 hours. (My kind of vacation, short sweet and back home before serious whininess sets in.) There were sweet memories, fun friends and lots and lots of time experiencing the joy of the ocean!

Mommy School Over the Summer

2011-09-20T06:40:00.000-07:00

One of my attempts at home schooling or being more involved in my kids' education is what I've heard others term "Mommy School". Over the summer we plan out what things we'd like to really reemphasize in our kids' education, things to fine tune or expand on and fun projects to explore together. By doing this, I really don't have any reservations about sending the kids to school in the fall and I feel more in control of our summers, not as easily bugged by the chaos of the kids. Mostly it gives me a schedule so I don't get as stir crazy myself.

I started off this summer knowing we really needed to find something to help Ashton get his reading up to where it should be. He had qualified for summer school for reading but the school was going to be further away. I also wasn't too keen on having him in another summer school environment especially as he got older and was around older and "wiser" kids.

So I was wracking my brain trying to figure out what I could do to help him with his reading. Most of the time when I read with him, he was guessing at many words and continuing on even if they didn't make any sense just to be a "fast" or "fluent" reader. I was worried about his decoding and phonic skills in breaking words down. My mother had used a spelling program called "Corrective Spelling through Morphographs" or what I called "Morphographic Spelling". It basically teaches chunks and their meanings, adding them onto words and seeing all the parts of a word. I felt like by doing the work sheets and group exercises with Ashton and Corynn each morning, their handwriting would be reinforced, their spelling practiced and their reading improved.

The other thing I wanted to make sure my kids got was some Math Facts practice. Thanks to the Math Investigation series they understand why and where the answers come from which really helps as they move into upper level math, but don't have the speed and memorization practice time. When I was in school and later as a teacher I used "Math Timings" simple worksheets I made on the computer that were either all +1's or +2's and had about 40 problems on the page. To avoid making masses of copies each day, I laminated them this summer and had the kids write on them with a wet erase marker called a Vis-a-vis marker and then timed them. At first it was just a matter of improving each day. Later I gave them the time limit of 2 minutes. When I was a teacher, the goal was to get it done under a minute. If the students could get all of them done, with 100% accuracy, 3 days in a row, they passed it off and went on to the next number, like + 4's. Corynn worked on addition and Ashton worked on multiplication. It was a fun short little exercise and the kids seemed to improve in their quickness to recall basic math facts. Here's a sample of one.

Usually after the first 40 minutes of our Mommy School, the kids were ready for either an outing, a walk, a play date or a chance to play the Wii. Lunch time was followed by stories, me reading a book or two to everyone. Then was blessed Nap time/ Quiet Time. Tyler went down for a nap and the other kids each went to Quiet time, a different room in the house to play quietly for 45 minutes. During this time, I decompressed, rested and usually watched a favorite show. After Quiet Time was reading time for 20 minutes. They had to read out of a chapter book and I took turns listening to their reading, talking about it, writing down tricky words, etc.

Depending on the day and my energy level at this point, we would try to do something related to our topic for the week which they had helped me choose at the beginning of the summer. These were things they were interested in or that I wanted to teach them. Corynn choose horses as a topic, Ashton wanted to do trees and snakes, Taison wanted to do bugs again and I wanted to do astronomy and a little geography. The week or two's topic usually just involved checking out a few books on that topic and reading them together. Sometimes we took notes while we read the books, sometimes we did lap books, which are a version of a board book made from little cut outs that fold and are glued inside a file folder. I think out of the whole summer we only got around to putting together 3 lap books. One on horses, one of Mexico and one on Canada.

After doing something small with the project for the week, I let the kids play the Wii for 30-45 minutes. It was by far the biggest motivating factor in the day. :) After that we would either go to the water park for an hour or two, have a play date with a friend or neighbor or just hang out at home. I had the kids practice their piano a little to keep their lessons moving along. I had had a goal of teaching them the flutophone or recorder and even had a basic book out to teach them, but felt like we needed to just stick to piano for now so it wasn't too confusing. Maybe next summer.

My favorite thing we did, which we only got around to a few weeks out of the summer, was doing a Read-a-loud. I had gobs of books I had written down to read to the kids at night as a family. Tales of the 4th Grade nothing, Twenty one Balloons, Stuart Little, the Box car Children, Little House on the Prairie, just tons. But the only book we really truly read and finished was "Misty of Chincoteague" which we started the week we learned about horses and didn't end until almost a month later. (It was an awesome read though especially since we secretly had planned to take the kids there before the end of the summer.) At first the kids were restless when we read out loud, especially Taison and Tyler. My mom suggested reading at the table and giving the kids the job to color in a coloring book for one or two pages. It worked really well. They were all occupied and also using their fine motor skills, which I hoped would help Ashton with his handwriting and Taison with his need to color the whole page one color. :) I told him he needed to color with at least 3 different colors and try to make the sky or people's faces normal colors.

Most days were interrupted by outings that lasted a long time or swim lessons or vacations, but we were able to get at least a little bit of school work done. I put the highest priority on Morphographic Spelling and the Math Timings. The residual effects of the summer were that Ashton discovered a book series that was easy to read called the "Secrets of Droon" and Corynn found "Rainbow Magic" fairy books. Taison liked reading his Bob books which made him feel like a school kid.

To survive the summer a little better, Jon and I had more date nights, I had more Girls' Nights out and I traded off with a friend every week to watch each other's kids while the other did errands. I started doing grocery shopping on the weekends too. It went well and I'm sorry I hadn't insisted on these kinds of breaks more often when the kids were younger. It would have relieved a lot of stress and made me a better happier mother. But now that I'm older, :) I know my limits and can sense when I'm reaching my patience drop off zone.

It was a good summer and I didn't have any real regrets when school started up again. We had spent some fun times together. I had done the best I could to help prepare them for another year. I had put effort into their education and yet slacked off enough to not kill myself from trying to do too much. There's still more I want to do with them, I'd love to teach them about microscopes and do something cool like build a solar panel but that will probably be one of our projects for next summer. As for now, short little topics and lessons that I see a need for can wait until the weekends, quiet Sunday afternoons, Monday night Family Home Evening character and gospel based lessons, vacations or there's always my "next summer" list that's getting started.

Going to the County Fair

2011-09-16T11:03:00.000-07:00

We have lived here within 2 miles from the County Fair grounds for the past 8 years and never ventured to the fair. Every year the traffic and long lines plus the expense seemed a little much for us. One day this summer Ashton started talking about it in the back seat of the van. "Mom, there's this really cool thing that happens every summer right by our school. It's called the Fair. You go there and go on rides and can pet animals." He continued to explain why we really needed to go and it made me laugh and realize, yes, this was a culture event my kids needed to experience every once in a while.

Worried about the price of admission plus rides, I talked to a friend who happened to have a family pass rate through an online company called Certifikid. It gave us admission and unlimited rides for a family of 5 for $30. Since Tyler was free and I couldn't ride on any rides being prego, it worked out perfectly.

We opted to go on the night of the Demolition Derby because Jon thought the boys would think that was cool! It also wouldn't be on the crazy Dollar Day when things are a little cheaper but lines are a lot longer. Our first stop once inside was to see the animals. Tyler refused the stroller and we totally lost him at one turn. He was checking out the sheep all by himself. I should have dressed him yellow like we try to when we are in a public place.

Tyler checking out the baby chicks! He said they were "ours" and we needed to take them home. I had hoped to see some horses up close and there really were only 2 or 3 barns of animals, mostly goats but they were super cute!

The first ride of the day was a bus ride that went up in the air and dropped down. Each time it came around Tyler's face grew more and more serious until the end when he was crying.

Taison got to go on this speedy car ride all by himself! Corynn was too tall and Tyler too short.

Tyler's favorite ride, which we did well past dark, was a Bob the Builder type ride. You could ride in a back hoe, dump truck, or a "bull-da-dozer" as Tyler calls them and they just went in a simple circle. Tyler LOVES construction vehicles! When we drive around town, he is the tour guide, telling us what vehicles he sees. If he ever sees a fire truck or a cement truck, he is just beside himself.

Our explanation of the demolition derby went something like this: There are these old cars with really smart drivers in them. The goal is to smoosh the other cars without getting your engine broken. That's why they back up so much. They have to protect their engine so they use their trunk to so the ramming. The first time around the kids were so amazed that the cars were actually allowed to get into accidents. By the 2nd round, the kids were getting ansy so we all choose a car we thought would win. My car and Taison's car were the last two and when Taison's won, he was ecstatic. It was green after all, his favorite color!

We left early from the Demolition Derby and Jon took Ashton and Corynn to the older kid rides. They did the Ferris Wheel, the roller coaster and some rides that Jon decided to sit out so he wouldn't get sick. He was amazed at the kids' ability to stomach all the twists and turns.

Tyler and Taison and I hung out at the kid rides. I would help them get on and then wave from the fence. They had a great time and I was grateful for their ability to be each other's buddy since I wasn't much help not being able to ride them.

The kids went home tired but really content for a day of fun adventures. I was glad we had finally broken out of our mold and done something different.

Fishing Trips with the Dads

2011-09-16T10:33:00.000-07:00

Thanks to our friend Aaron, the older kids got to go fishing two weekends in a row. Each morning they would load up around 5:30 AM with fishing poles and smelly lures and head off to a fishing lake about 30 minutes away. About lunch time they came back, showing off their spoils: some cool but small blue gill. Since they were too small to eat the idea was to bring them home and release them into the drainage ponds by our house.

The munchkins that fished

Releasing them back into the "wild"- I'm sure we are changing the ecosystem of our pond and will suffer dire consequences but the kids really liked the idea that their little fish will grow nice and big and be happy in the pond. Also an added incentive to pick up litter around it so "the fish won't get sick".

Shortly after this, the kids started melting down and fighting just like clock work. Early mornings plus being out in the sun equals whiny -ness and mandatory naps. :) But it was fun to hear how excited they were when they caught their own fish!

History in our Town

2011-09-15T14:07:00.000-07:00

Our little city in Northern Virginia is the location of a pretty cool Civil War battle so we get to experience some neat parades and reenactments. This summer was the 150th anniversary, I think for that battle. Since we had never been to a parade in our downtown area, we decided to give it a try. As we scouted out a good spot to sit along the parade route, 4 ladies in authentic Civil War area clothes stopped by to let the girls get a closer look.

And let the parade begin!

The excited bystanders

At another location the next day we were able to go to an Elementary school where they had set up a bunch of tents and had a little bit of a battle reenactment. We just barely missed seeing the "fight" but were able to get a ride in these cool buggies.

Chilling out in the Red Cross tent

With record breaking heat that weekend, the Red Cross was prepared. Right after this we went into the Elementary school gym and participated in Virginia Reel. The only way I could get the little boys to do it was to promise them Taco Bell when we were done. Taison and Katelyn were the cutest partners ever!

Corynn getting bandaged

The sign of a great outing: smiles and then complete exhaustion!

Get-away to Virginia's Eastern Shore

2011-09-03T05:23:00.000-07:00

Jon and I have had a rare few times in our marriage when we have had family watch the kids for us and we've escaped for a few days. As part of Jean and "the guys" visit, she offered to stay an extra few days so we could. In December I had kept a few of her younger kids with me for a week while they prepped their house to put on the market so she wanted to make sure we used our babysitting "credits" soon. The timing of their trip this time happened to fall fairly close to our 12th Anniversary so we claimed it as our Anniversary present to each other and felt very confident leaving the kids in an environment they already knew well with cousins and an Aunt that they love!

Jon picked the location. I wanted some place quaint, old with history and he wanted the beach so we found the Eastern Shore of Virginia. It's not as touristy as Ocean City Maryland, very quiet, lots of farm land and small towns. We left Sunday after Jon finished a few meetings at church and headed out on the road. It was a weird feeling driving away. We drove across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge which seemed to last forever and is super high up. Of course Jon had to tell me how windy and icy it gets in the winter time and how a semi truck swerved to miss a lady, fell off the bridge and died on impact. Nice....

We drove past fields of corn, soy beans, that was a new one, hay, beans, and wheat already dry and ready to harvest. Being the east coast and pretty wet and humid, most farmers don't have irrigation systems, so it's "dry farming" as they say in Washington, plant the crop and let it grow until it gets hot and then harvest. Later we found out that farmers actually plant soy beans right after the wheat is harvested, getting two crops out of a field per season.

Our Bed and Breakfast was right on the Bay near the small little town of Belle Haven. The place was called Bay view Waterfront Bed and Breakfast and was in the middle of a corn field and soy bean field. The owners were 4th generation family owners and the wood work and creaky floors were had Civil War time period charm.

It was beautiful! We were the only guests at the time so we felt like we had the run on the place. We loved chatting with Mary Will and Wayne, the owners, hearing about their families and grand kids that all lived fairly close by. They were wonderful tour guides and lent us some good books to help us learn about the history of the Eastern Shore.

There was a beautiful view of the bay, a pool, large grassy area and a dock to walk out on. I held Jon's hand for dear life as we walked out on it.

It was so nice being able to take as long as we wanted getting ready in the morning. I determined to do my makeup, hair and look my best on the vacation so it would really feel like a date. The breakfast was enormous with country biscuits, fruit, eggs benedict, which I hadn't had before, bacon and little cherry tomatoes filled with cream cheese and basil. It was heavenly!

We found a Walmart for some leisurely shopping without kids, a big difference, and ended up buying a few good snacks including tons of fruit which made good lunches after such large breakfasts.

We spent our first day going North to see Chincoteague and Assateague Island, the islands made famous by the book, "Misty of Chincoteague" and the wild ponies that are round up there. It was a neat experience to be there and the beach was a nice fairly calm beach with not too many people. We made a mental plan to bring the kids there soon. Jon and I walked the beach to give my pregnant legs some exercise. We dug out "sand chairs" and sat in the sun for a while.

We chatted about everything, Jon's job and how things were going there, promotion opportunities, government politics and what the latest was in the news that I had missed. (Jon keeps me updated because I like his versions better.) I asked a lot of questions and it was so fun picking his brain about everything. He's a wealth of knowledge and when I don't understand something he's not patronizing. He has a real knack for relating and comparing complex world issues, accounting terms and even football to things I know really well, teaching, children and prices at stores :). He considers me the expert on our family and has that role set high on a pedestal. He truly is the best friend I could ever have! How on earth I found him, only Heavenly Father knows!

Our next day we decided to spend sight seeing in the local little towns. The oldest town dating back to the early 1600's was Accomac. Next to Jamestown, it was one of the oldest on the East Coast. We decided to do a driving tour with our book in hand, take pictures and "ooh" and "awe" over the old houses. I thought they would be fun to sketch sometime, pretending again to be an artist just for the heck of it. We'd never really been into architecture before but thought it sounded like something the kids would never let us do so for a day we were amateur architect admirers. The book we had explained each house, what it was used for and the pattern of building it was. I wish I could remember the names of them. We learned how the big houses usually had their kitchens built a little way off with a hallway connecting the two. Sheesh... what's the name.

I believe this was the home of a wealthy governor and then an old school at some point.

My favorite house

The Courthouse- I believe this was the newer version. The older one is on the left.

We spent the evening in Onancock and I pushed my taste buds by trying some more sea food. I had smoked salmon BLT and tried some of Jon's crab cakes. It was very good and I was surprised! We walked along the river front for while until the misquitoes found us, something we discovered was merciless anywhere on the Eastern Shore when the sun went down.

A few people asked us if we were moving to their towns. We smiled and said unfortunately no but the thought seemed appealing.

The next day was our last day. Checking out seemed sad. We were fed even more for breakfast and sent with tons of rolls with jelly in them for left overs. My pregnant self got misty-eyed leaving the sweet people we had met and their good dedicated lives.

We decided to take the route home down East. Our hosts had recommended seeing Eastville, the next oldest town on the Eastern Shore. It had the first court house and court records. It's old buildings were being renovated but we were able to step inside for a while. Jon found the records and old house interesting considering he works for the DC courts.

The old prison behind the courthouse- thick walls, a mattress and tiny windows.

We heard Cape Charles was a little more "resort-y" so we stopped there before leaving the Eastern Shore. It still seemed a little old and run down but beautiful in it's own way as well. It had interesting old ships in the bay that had been retired there, filled with concrete and used as a man made barrier. The beach at Cape Charles was the most shallow long beach I've ever seen! We saw people sunning on the beach and then people standing out in the water a hundred yards into it. I thought it would be an awesome safe beach for the kids sometime.

The 4 hr. drive home was fun! We went on Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel, a crazy 30 miles long. It wasn't as high up in the air as the Maryland Chesapeake Bay Bridge and alternated between tunnels under the water to bridges above. Still it was freaky driving out into the ocean, seeing only blue on either side of the GPS and our little car going across.

Thanks to Jon's iPad, I watched Harry Potter #6 on the way home and finished it just in time. I was SO excited to see the kids. I truly had missed their noise, their silly voices and adventures. It had started to feel too quiet everywhere Jon and I went without them by this 3rd and last day.

Ashton had written "I love you Mom. I love you Dad. " on our bathroom mirrors with a bar of soap, kind of a tradition Jon and I do when he goes on trips. It was cute realizing it had come from him and not just Corynn this time. The whole house was immaculate, thanks to Jean and her organizing the kids and teenagers in a massive wave of cleaning. Her niece Missy had even scrubbed and polished our wooden dining room chairs!

It was a sweet experience to come home and love everything about our home, our family and our life here together.

Last Visit from the Ohio Ellsworth's

2011-08-25T18:23:00.000-07:00

The "Guys" as Ashton affectionately nicknamed them when we first moved out here have been our closest family on the East Coast. Jon's brother, Jeff worked as patent lawyer in Cleaveland, Ohio and luckily for us, they lived there longer than any other place they've been in before. I think the total time was 5 years. We have loved having them only 6 hrs away and enjoyed tons of Thanksgivings, Christmases and the occasional stomach flu together. :) But a better job came along and would get them closer to the west, so while Jeff went to work in Kansas, the family kept the house on the market and got to visit us two times over the past 6 months. It was Awesome!

This time around they had a homeschooling conference with Debate so they came out shortly after we got back from Washington. They had their niece Missy with them and she was a big help to me getting the house back in order after my trip and keeping track of the younger kids while the older ones went to their camp.

I love it when Jean comes because I get great ideas on how to parent in a gentler way :) and get very motivated to serve more fruits and vegtables at every meal. So far I've kept the good habits going.

While they were here, my next door neighbor sold us her wooden play ground and the teenage boys plus some friends from church helped us move it into our yard and put it back together.

The biggest blessing was that with Jean here, Jon and I were able to get away for a couple of nights.Jean stayed home with the kids and took care of everyone. They cleaned, read and had a blast together. Ashton especially was interested in the hornets that seemed to have found a hole under our cement steps in the back and found that if he held really still, he could wait until they landed and put a glass container over one at a time. Then after a day in the sun, they would die. He ended up with 9 hornets by the end. Gross!

Time to say goodbye- We will miss them but hopefully when we drive out to Utah for the next year's reunion we can stay with them in their new home.

When the Cousins Came

2011-08-25T18:05:00.000-07:00

We were so lucky to have visitors while we were in Washington. A friend from Virginia, Lisa, had recently moved back home to Moses Lake and came visit us for a few hours with her kids. It was fun chatting about life and kids, moving and jobs.

It just so happened that some old friends from high school, Dora and Heather, would be in town at the same time and they came over with their families. At first the kids were all a little shy but by the end of the time we had to chat, they were chasing each other, swinging each other and loving all the fun and craziness. It always amazes me how versatile kids can be. "I don't know you," to "Hey, let's play and be sillly," within a matter of minutes.

It was so awesome seeing Dora and Heather again! They are wonderful examples to me of amazing strong women who are doing their best to raise their children to be happy and feel loved.

A little while later, my sister Michelle came after a long drive from Utah with my sister Kari's kids Gunnar and Paityn. It was nice being able to spend time with these awesome cousins and have some fun experiencing the ditch, the dirt, the garden, the strawberries, the corn field and the trampoline together. Michelle was smitten by Taison and Taison was loving the attention from Aunt Meesh.

Corynn loved having another girl around after a week of only brothers. Paityn, though a year younger, was the perfect play mate. She loved doing whatever Corynn thought up. They are modeling their newly made flower hair barretts we brought as a craft. They wore matching ones on Sunday to church.

I don't remember what Taison did to get this dirty but he loved the cement ditch with 4 inches of water running down it so that's probably the "where" this fun happened.

Michelle and I got out our old Barbie dolls from the storage room and set them out on the patio tables. It was SO fun reminiscing about which dolls belonged to whom and we even fought a little over the cool ones saying we were sure that doll had been ours from a birthday party. As soon as our opening the boxes and silly memories were over, the little girls went crazy! They set up worlds of make believe and played for the rest of the afternoon.

Gunnar having a crazy time swinging on the rope swing

Paityn and Taison waiting in line for the rope swing

Friday afternoon my brother Karl, and his wife Becca and kids came into town from Colorado! It was so fun seeing everyone again. They all loved jumping on the trampoline and we made up a game of avoiding bubbles that the adults would blow or fling towards them. We also played dodge ball, the kids floated more "stick boats" in the little ditch and they made fun hiding in the corn field. All the boys slept in a tent outside and it made for some fun cousin silliness.

On Saturday Michelle taught an awesome Yoga class for the women! We loved the exercise and the chance to get away. When we got back home, the guys were taking turns driving around on the tractor with the kids. My nephew Matthew found a big patch of mud with the pick up truck as well as the millions of tadpoles living in the muddy road. Summer and I hopped in her car, following the "strong" men on the tractor to pull the pick up truck out, and hurriedly caught as many tadpoles as we could. When we got back to the house, we filled a big metal bowl with water and the kids loved watching them and feeding them lettuce and spinach. The cats were soon fascinated too!

Later that morning we took everyone to pick peas and then spent a bunch of time shelling them!

In the afternoon the cousins and Karl played in the bigger dirt ditch. Mud slinging was the favorite activity and I kept my distance. The littler cousins stayed in the blow-up raft and floated back and forth trying not to get hit by the mud. Karl was the favored target of goo.

Being a few days before the 4th of July, Karl brought some fireworks and we had a fun time watching them. We all sat out by the black top and watched Jon, Matthew, and Karl throw out the snapping, twirling fire works. They looked a little TOO excited to be lighting things on fire if you ask me. But it reminded me of all the times growing up that we launched fireworks right there, having our own personal firework show out in the middle of no where. Here's a random side view of "the belly". :)

Here's Meesh on the trampoline with the masses. My camera couldn't hack the action or even still shots for this.

Tyler can't go anywhere without his "star blankie". My dad is holding Tyler on his lap kicking back in his reclining lawn chair.

Joanna and her friend, who Tyler loved to play with.

Sunday was a mellow day. We went to church in the morning and came home to rest, play games and chat. The kids actually played with the toys we had out from the past week. The whole front room was full of fisher price/little people toys and everyone had some story going on. It was super cute to see their imaginations in full swing and hear their "conversations" between toys.

Michelle, Summer and I got to sing some of our favorite 3 part harmony church songs around the piano. Our favorites were "The Olive Tree" talking about bringing peace through the gospel, "He Gave His Life for Me, " a song about the Savior and "Away from the Roll of the Sea" a song about the ocean, not particularly religious just some cool harmonies.

Then we played a big family game of Guesstures or charades that night out on the lawn, since the house was a little crowded and hot.

Summer and Ethan

Michelle and Taison

It was hard to say goodbye to everyone. All in all there were no fights or scuffs between cousins, just a fun peaceful time. It was SO refreshing to be back home for the first time in 4 years and I'm so grateful for the sweet memories and joys my children were able to make back home on the farm.

Fishing with Grandpa

2011-08-14T15:42:00.000-07:00

Since Ashton had been fishing last year with the cub scouts, he'd always wanted to try again. My dad, wanting to break in a new hobby with some friends, took us on a day trip up past the Grand Coulee Dam on the Columbia River. It was a beautiful drive!

We fished from the shore and were able to borrow some poles from a friend from church. We sat and waited and waited. I just remember eating a lot of trail mix because it had M&M's in it. :)

We got better at casting out the lines and being patient. We didn't catch anything but that was just fine. We had fun trying and getting our hooks caught on rocks and weeds. The people next to us caught some trout and I thought a type of salmon.

Back Home on the Farm

2011-08-12T12:29:00.000-07:00

We were lucky enough to go home and visit the farm in Warden, Washington this summer! It was so relaxing for me and SO exciting for the kids. They loved the open areas, the new experiences and tons of free time to roam and play. I loved spending time alone with my wonderful parents and watching my kids build some of the same memories I had had there as a child.

Even though my Dad was in the Air force and we moved around a bunch when I was really little, by 1st grade my Dad moved us back to his parents' home, bought the house and land and we lived there ever since. On the Eastern half of Washington, there is beautiful rich and mostly not rocky farm land as far as you can see. It doesn't get a lot of rain so the canals and ditches that bring water from the rivers like the Columbia and Snake River change this desert into a beautiful green oasis.

My parents picked us up in Seattle and we stopped outside of Snoquomie Falls for lunch. The weather was so mild. I forgot what it felt like to have heat without humidity.

When we got there, the kids immediately went to "work" exploring and discovering where this 2 week vacation designation would take them. It was so wide open, it took me a while to get used to at first. I had this strange sensation something was going to fall out of the sky and land on me? Wicked Witch of East syndrome maybe? I've actually heard that people who are surrounded by trees often feel that way when they go somewhere flat in all directions. It was a bizarree feeling for the first few days.

The views: the patio in the back of the house. This is where I discovered the coolest anti-gravity chair to sit and put my feet up while monitoring the kids and reading my Nancy Drew books. The weather was surprisingly cool. Mostly in the 70's and sometimes down in the 50's.

The Play House: This little club house was built by my Grandpa Barnum. When I was little, we had many tea parties, slumber parties, waiting out rain storms with all the kitties in this cute little home.

The view of the garden, grapes and what used to be the orchard: I guess all the fruit trees were becoming too much work so my parents had taken out a bunch of trees. The raspberries and grapes were still there and a really neat drip system in the long massive garden to make watering and weeding easier.

Facing the other direction- Our blue spruces and walnut trees were SO tall. My parents got out the trampoline for the kids which ended up being the FAVORITE thing.

The corn field just beyond the yard was a fun place to "hide" for the shorter kids. The burn barrels in the distance were another source of amazement. Growing up we always burned the trash out there in those, putting all the food leftover stuff in the garden for instant compost.

Jobs on the farm: My parents were sweet enough to think of some "jobs" the kids could do and earn money for. Because the Blue Spruce pine trees dropped cones every few days and they messed up the lawn mower, Mom and Dad paid the kids a penny for each pine cone they put in their bucket. Can you believe that in 5 days Ashton had earned $1.50 and Corynn $2.89!

They also helped put up the tomato cages and weed the garden.

Playing house in the Play House

One of the joys of the farm was the great produce! My Mom and Dad's strawberries were just perfect for picking and they saved them on the vine for us. The kids were amazed at how many there were and how big they were.

Dad had a friend's son who was growing peas and they let us pick as many as we wanted. The kids kept saying, "There's a big jackpot over here!" and filling their plastic bags.

After we picked peas, we stopped by the Pot Holes Reservoir which strangely enough is only 10 minutes from our house. It had interesting black sand on it's rocky beach and we only stayed for a while. I thought it was weird that we really didn't spend much time there growing up. We were too busy with the farm to just go swimming or hang out on the beach there. But the kids would have loved to stay there the whole day and throw rocks and swim.

Hanging out with Grandpa on the ditch bank

Tyler loved walking around pushing things. He discovered the fertilizer spreader for the grass in the shop and it kept him busy for a long time.

The kids used an interesting long strip magnet to help Grandpa pick up loose nails from the shop and black top in front of it. I wish we had that when we were little. I remember Grandpa paying us a nickel for each nail we found.

The rope swing Dad made for the kids under the walnut tree. It's lower branches were now so high something like this could fit. I remembered all the Barbie doll houses made out of cardboard boxes we had in that tree growing up. Many fun Barbie doll adventures resembling Swiss Family Robison.

The sandbox! Once we found the boxes of cars and tractors out in the storage shed, Tyler played in the enormous sand box for hours. He was in boy heaven!

Ashton discovered an ant hill and wanted to collect them for an ant farm.

The old cyphon tubes- We spent many hours when we were younger moving these individual tubes down the ditches. Starting a cyphon tube is a fine art form. You put one end in the ditch, cover the other end with the flat part of the palm of your hand and shake it back and forth until you feel water reach your hand. Then you let it fall and the water rushes out making a steady stream of water flow for one individual row.

The view from the back of the shop and garden

The home place (that's what we call the field around our house) and it's circle. This year my parents have rented it out to a family of farmers and they have field corn or silage corn planted (basically future cow feed).

Tyler waving at Grandpa while he mows the lawn

Time on the Tractor- Thankfully out of all the equipment my dad got rid of, he kept the front-end loader tractor. It's amazing how many projects come up around the house that you just need a tractor for. :) Hauling out old and dead trees, dumping burned out trash barrels in the bone yard....
My dad indulged the kids by taking them on their own individual tractor rides around the black top.

My sister Summer and her hubby live about 2 hrs away. They have a sweet boy named Ethan who was an instant friend for Tyler. He, unlike Tyler, actually enjoyed the trampoline. Tyler couldn't wait to get off.

The ditch bank in front of the house has a little wooden bridge. The kids spent hours there soaking their feet, digging in the mud, floating sticks. It reminded me of the countless hours I did the same thing.

Summer came up with a great idea. We made boats out of egg cartons and glued pine cones on them as passengers. Then we dumped them in the bigger ditch and the weir, which is a fancy word for, the place where the water goes under the road and it's covered with a grate and makes quite a loud splashing waterfall type noise. The boats survived the crazy currents in the weir and popped out a few seconds later on the other side of the road.

Chilling with Grandpa watching the news- My kids hardly watched any TV the whole time they were there. My goal was to get them outside and help them be explorative. But when Grandpa watched the news, they all came flocking. They didn't seem to care what was on, they were zombies.

Sunday afternoon fun- We tried to think of some non-dirty and rowdy Sunday activities and we came up with puzzles! This was a favorite of ours growing up. I was surprised all the pieces were still there.

Corynn's treasure hunts- She filled this bug catching jar with feathers, bits of smoothed broken glass, shiny things, anything she thought was interesting.

So for 10 days we chilled. We just hung out and enjoyed the air, the constant breeze coming across the fields and the cool weather. As I sat in my chair reading and watching the kids, I felt like I was at the beach listening to waves crashing. It was mesmerizing and so peaceful. We played dodge ball, went exploring and discovered how life would be living in the country. That and being with my parents was heaven to me.

Flying with the Kids

2011-07-21T05:04:00.000-07:00

This was going to be the year I stayed put for the summer. I was mentally bracing myself for a two year stretch in between seeing my parents and siblings and then my Dad surprised me by offering to fly us out for a few weeks to my hometown in Washington. It was a sweet and wonderful offer. Since I didn't want to be traveling later in pregnancy, we opted to schedule the flights for right after the kids got out of school mid June.

It was a stressful week, end of school year parties, a few birthday parties and Taison's to do early and then packing. But it all worked out in the end and the Tuesday after school was out, we were heading to the airport with butterflies in my stomach. Since Jon needed to stay and work, I'd be going through the flight process with the 4 kids on my own. I was a little nervous. :) Thankfully we were able to get a flight that was non stop and being Southwest, we were able to check the bags for free. As I prepared for the trip, I packed a back pack for each kid filled with a new coloring book, new crayons, markers, a few new books picked up at the Used Book store, a few baggies of small action figures and some hand me down toys I had saved up in the basement for Christmas. With Lunchables and veggies, gum for take off ear aches and random snacks, the kids toted pretty much everything we needed and I took care of keeping Tyler moving. Even he had his own little back pack, which was so cute! Jon parked the van in hourly parking and got an escort pass to help us through security and stay with us until the flight took off. It was much easier that way for sure!

Once we found our seats on the plane, I had each of the kids' backpacks under mine, Taison and Tyler's seats. Then I could control when what things were brought out and not all the surprises were used up at once. Corynn and Ashton sat in front of me and Tyler, Taison and I were on the next row. Tyler was so excited to see so many airplanes and the take off was a life changing moment for him. He was so amazed to see the ground disappearing.

Corynn and Ashton met a sweet Grandpa sitting next to them. He seemed to not get enough of listening to their take on airplanes, flights, take off, little cars and little people. They were cute, witty and funny as I listened from behind. Worried they would bombard him with constant chatter, once we had gotten about 45 minutes into the flight, I started passing out the first thing on my list. (Yes, I made a list of all my options, put it in my back pocket on a notecard so if my memory failed me or if chaos made my mind run blank, I'd have the list to run through.)
Here it is:
9-10 Gum for Take off
10-11 Books, board book with lots of flaps to open for Tyler
          New Toys-
11-12 Snack
          New Coloring Books and Markers
12-1 Lunch
        Journals-Ashton and Corynn to write about the trip, Taison and Tyler to put stickers on paper
       Math Timings for Ashton and Corynn
1-3 Movie-Nap
3-4 Bathroom Trips
       Baggie of Disney figures for Taison, fairies for Corynn, dollar store airplanes for Ashton,
4-5   Snack/candy,
Magnet Tins (Walmart themed tins with stickers and backgrounds)
Dollar store craft, sticker murals, foam stickers,

Watching the movie was the big guns in my arsenal and I didn't want to use it right away or the brand new toys. I wanted to use those as the reward for when their "school work" was done. So I passed them the new book and told them to read for 15 minutes and set my watch's timer. When that was over, I passed up the next thing, the new toys. Corynn had an airplane polly pocket set, Ashton 2 new Star Wars action figures and Taison 2 new star wars action figures. They played with those for about 30 minutes.

Tyler wasn't as easily entertained. Every five minutes he was throwing something, unhappy that Taison sat between us and I couldn't hear what he was gibberish-ing about. When I finally realized that was the problem, I switched seats with Taison and he was much happier. Ultimately flying with a toddler or baby is all about something new to touch or taste. I spent most of the time introducing him to new candies, new toys or reading board books. He especially enjoyed looking at the airplane safety guide card since it had so many pictures of airplanes.

I did finally get a nap out of Tyler and Taison which was a relaxing moment in time to be "off duty" for a while. I read a little from the latest Nancy Drew book I had brought along for some light reading. I didn't feel too stressed or overwhelmed and Tyler wasn't too terribly loud. I was grateful for the sweet man next to Corynn and Ashton and thanked him profusely when we landed. Everyone around us was very sweet and complimentary to how well behaved the kids were and my mother "Zen" face still on, graciously accepted their kind words while keeping my eyes peeled for the next possible outburst. Surprisingly there were still a few things in the bags I hadn't even gotten to, so the flight home would still have some new surprises to entertain.

The Animal Kingdom in Virginia

2011-06-16T18:34:00.000-07:00

I remember being so surprised when we first moved here of what I termed strange wildlife. The birds out here actually had COLOR! Bright red cardinals, startling bluebirds, and amazing goldfinches. We first lived in Fairfax in an apartment complex and with our ground level sliding glass door, we saw tons of birds. I determined to learn their names and how to attract them to our yard. Over the past 8 years, I've totally become a bird lover/ bird watcher and even though we know a lot of the names of the birds that come to our feeder, I'm still not able to walk through a park and say the names of forest-y birds. I'm not a true bird expert but it's still pretty cool to hear the kids say things like, "Look, there's the mourning doves or there's the goldfinches and the females." Just call us bird geeks. :)

The next surprise was what I thought were black big spiders in our apartment. The first time I tried to smash one and it jumped away, I figured out it was actually a black cricket. Just a few here and there. Strange enough, I haven't seen any in our house here yet.

By mid July-August, come the cicada's. They are sometimes as long as a quarter and make a strange loud noise in the trees. Big swarms of them come into the trees, talking loudly to each other, molt or leave behind a little exoskeleton which the kids think are "ghost bugs".

The other thing I found where fire flies. Once the humidity comes in, after 9 at night, little quick flashes of light along the side of the road would totally surprise me. After reading up on it, we found out that each different type of fire flies each have their own signal. The females stay put on the grass and signal to a similar male. He matches the signal and flies to her until he finds her. (There are mimic females though that are predators. :) They lure a male but with a signal other than their own and then chow down. Gross! )

At night the road or sidewalk to our development has always had a frog or toad hopping across the road. Some are small but there are a few BIG ones, about the size of a fist. It's pretty cool! I almost stepped on one and screamed. The other night when I came back home from something, I opened the garage door to pull the car in and realized a frog was on our garage door going for a ride up inside the garage! He must have had good light out in front of the house and good height for bug catching. One night when I went outside to water the garden after the kids went to bed, I jumped to see a frog on the glass of the door. Our light had been on and luring tons of bugs for him to eat.

A huge past time for the kids is frog hunting in the back yard. I let them catch these tiny frogs and toads (no bigger than a pencil eraser) in our backyard that they find along the house, in the shade, garden or along the fence. They collect them especially right before we mow the lawn to "save their lives". Corynn loves to fill the lid of the sand box with water and make a pond for them. I have a "catch and release" policy of one hour, telling them of all those times Michelle and Summer and I made beds for our frogs growing up, only to find them shriveled up like raisins in the morning. Too much touching by salty hands, takes away their "slime coat" which actually helps them breathe or absorb oxygen through their skin.

At night slugs cross the sidewalks and those aren't so much fun to step on..... but in the morning they leave a cool sparkling path of where they've been. The paths don't wash off in a quick rain and over time the sidewalk will glitter with tons of these little paths.

Overall, I love the critters and things we've discovered on the East Coast. The kids love them too and it makes our outside time so much more interesting. :)

Cub Scout Skits

2011-06-12T13:37:00.000-07:00

We had a fun time preparing these skits for cub scouts. This past month we practiced a silly song each den meeting. We choose "Tom the Toad" a song about road kill, "I Met a Bear" and "Boom a Chicka Boom". The boys were young enough and silly enough to think these songs were hilarious. :)

From the cub scout website, I found a bunch of skits that didn't involve too much memorization from the boys. This past den meeting we practiced the skits and got the backgrounds and props ready. To pass off some Wolf Electives we painted scenery, basically a forest and camping scene. We used some simple PVC pipe stands from a previous church activity to hang the butcher paper on. To pass off some Bear Electives, we made paper bag masks of bears and squirrels. It was a fun den meeting and the boys really enjoyed being silly. I arranged with a nursing home that we do our piano recitals at, to have the Cub scouts come and perform for the residents. It ended up being a busy weekend for a lot of families so our attendance was really small and I had to fill in a little more, but it ended up being a pretty special memory anyway.

The Invisible Bench skit

Big and Tall Skit

                                            Tom the Toad Song

                     One Man Tent

                 Camp Punch

                      I Met a Bear Song

                                                       I am a Child of God
This is our 2nd time as Cub Scouts to the nursing home. Last time we did skits and a Magic Show. But one tradition we try to have is to end with this favorite Mormon children's song/hymn. It was sweet to see many residents feeling touched and commented on how soon we could come again. Hopefully every year.... :)

At the end of the month, we'll have a special Pack Meeting/ BBQ and entertain the parents with our silly skits. I think the boys will be pretty proud of their funny acting.

It's a ......

2011-06-06T11:19:00.000-07:00

Girl!!! Baby Ellsworth girl is on her way! I'm so excited I can't wait to tell the kids after school!

This morning was my ultrasound and since Jon's office was getting audited, he couldn't make it. When he asked if I wanted to reschedule, I said, "No way!". I wanted to know as soon as possible! This morning while we had breakfast, I did a quick "scripture story" about how we lived with Heavenly Father before we came to earth. That we were His special children and excited about a chance to come to earth, be in a family and get a very special creation- our very own body. I wanted to emphasize on this day especially that there was someone waiting to come to our family and no matter boy or girl, he or she was a very special child of God, just like they are. I told them Heavenly Father loves them very much and has known them and their potential much longer than even I have. I wanted to especially make sure that if we found out it was a boy, that Ashton wouldn't tease and Corynn wouldn't cry.

When the technicians asked if we wanted to know the gender and I said yes, they immediately went at it trying to figure it out. Within seconds they told me, "It's a girl." I totally cried.... but then again when I'm pregnant I cry all the time. :) She had the back of her little hand up to her head and the technicians said they could tell all ready that she was a drama queen. :)

Corynn will be SO excited to have her very own "baby doll". I might have to work hard to reaffirm that I'm the mother but I'll let her pick out clothes and help with her hair.

Last week I was randomly reading an article from the church's magazine for kids, the Friend, and came across a story with a little girl named Elise. I thought about it for a minute as a possible name for a little girl if we had a little girl and before I knew it, I was tearing up. :) I know it's a little tricky to have an "El" with a name like Ellsworth so we'll keep thinking about it. But so far it feels right. I'll try to find a cool family or church name to go along with it as a middle name.

These past few weeks have been hard sleeping nights at our house. Taison has had allergies and wakes up screaming that his nose hurts, tickles and is running everywhere. "I want you to take my nose off," he complains. I try to console him, get him a drink and a new dose of allergy medicine and send him back to bed. Then on the off nights Tyler wakes up screaming needing consoling. It's just once a night but seems to have taken it's toll on both of us. It was a big realization that it might be extremely tricky with our bedrooms all being kind of close and small once the baby comes. I might just move to the basement so everyone else can sleep better. We'll see. With the joys will come the regular tricky times, but we'll make it, I know we will. Last night we decided to help the situation out by giving Taison his allergy medicine much more regularly, and getting ourselves to bed at 9:30 PM. That and a special prayer that everyone would sleep through the night, we got a full night of uninterrupted sleep. We'll try to stick to that for the next week and see if we can't all get a little healthier and happier.

And the next question that everyone asks is, "Are we done having kids?" I had always imagined having 6 kids in our family and Jon has imagined 5 but it all depends on my health before and after the pregnancy. Any health problems, serious depression, risky pregnancy issues and we are definitely done. It's not worth putting our whole family's well being at risk if something were to happen to me. We also will take into account our families' needs and issues and what Jon and I both really want. Right now it's not too bad or un-managable while they are little but I know when they are older and wanting to be more involved in things, it will be a tricky thing to be running people everywhere. All these things will play into our decision which we probably won't make or pray about until this new baby is 2 or 3. There are days when things are pretty busy now and I feel like I didn't really pay attention to Taison or Corynn being in the middle. I don't want myself to slip into that pattern of being overwhelmed and then neglectful. They are so special and I don't want to lose my relationships with them.

Canoeing, Cleaning and Cuteness

2011-06-05T13:34:00.000-07:00

This past week we FINALLY were able to find some time to get the canoe out. We started on a shallow little river and literally had to pull the boat along in places that weren't deeper than 3 inches. The deeper parts seemed 4 feet or so. It was fun! The Pocahontas feeling of communing with nature came out and I couldn't help but sing "What's around the River bend" and "Row, Row, Row your boat". The weather was mild, the view beautiful and the stillness, awesome! Tyler sits in front with me on the floor, gripping the sides for dear life. :) Taison in the middle on the floor and Corynn and Ashton share the middle seat.

Our buddies in the water- the Gregory's. I'm so glad we had them around to ram into, spot fish together and to save us when we tipped over. Lori's parents came along in a canoe as well and at a traffic jam on the river, we got too close to them and got stuck up against a tree. The water was surprisingly fast and kept us stuck against this tree that was blocking the path. We tipped and flipped! I didn't think it was possible because we had literally tried before to tip over and couldn't when we had been on the lake with Jeff and Jean at Willow Bay in NY. Somehow I thought the Mad River Canoe was un-tippable. I guess it started when Ashton leaned over to his side, the boat filled up with water. As soon as we started to tip, I grabbed Tyler by the back of the life jacket and held him up as high as I could. The water was only 4 ft deep but when I turned around, I saw Taison getting pulled down under the canoe as it flipped. I grabbed him by the back of the life jacket and pulled the two crying boys to the edge. I was proud of myself. I really do have mother bear instincts! :) I dragged them out like two wet kittens. I couldn't help but laugh even if the camera might have gotten ruined. It was still funny. But after the guys dumped the canoe out and we got back in, we had a greater fear of tipping. Tyler hated it when we came to any trees and even though he was totally sleepy, he kept his death-like grip on the sides of the boat and was mad to find himself falling asleep.

We saw this blue heron and followed him down the river quite a ways. It seemed like every new bend, we'd startle him and he'd fly further down only to be annoyed by the next time we caught up to him.

By the end when we reached our cars, we were all tired and wet but glad we had time to make fun memories.

The next few days every time Tyler woke up from a nap he'd talk about the "boat" and "water" and "fall in". He was thoroughly scarred!

This week we filled any extra time we had, including Memorial Day learning the hard facts of being landlords. Our previous tenants needed to end their lease early due to additional extended family needing to move in with them. Since our townhouse is a 3 bedroom, 1800 sq feet. it was wise for them to move on. We were really worried about finding tenants when they broke the news to us two months ago. But after posting it for rent on Craig's List within 3 hrs. we had over 6 families interested in it, all wanting a walk through the first day we posted it. We went with the couple that were the quickest to fill out the application, credit check information and everything came back on their references and credit ratings as being very high class and honorable people. After they saw the place, Jon felt very good about renting to them. We were even more impressed when they offered not only the deposit but to pay the rent one month ahead each month and hand deliver the signed lease, etc as quickly as they could.

But when moving out came around for our previous tenants, we didn't realize how much work it would take to get the house ready. We had really been excited about our previous tenants but realized as time went on, they weren't as dedicated at taking care of the already worn carpet, and yard. It was a hard pill to swallow that in the next 3 days before the new tenants moved in, we would have to replace a stinking smelly carpet, that was heavily stained, get rid of tons of ants, wash down all the walls, figure out how to fix the mostly all weeds of a back yard, etc. Our list seemed overwhelming. Since the walk thru was on a Saturday, we had all day Sunday to rest, take and step back and decide on a game plan. We created a time schedule with 15 minute intervals for the whole day starting at 6 AM until 10 PM. Thankfully we had a day off with Memorial Day to work all day long on getting as much done as we could. I was still hoping to salvage the carpet by some more cleaning but Jon thought it was better to just start fresh and clean with the new tenants, hoping by giving them something beautiful to begin with, there would be more likelihood for them to take better care of it.

Jon started bright and early at 6 AM and came home at 9 AM for breakfast. I swapped him until noon washing down the walls, cleaning off mold from the deck, killing ants, etc. We switched at lunch and Jon took the afternoon shift. It was a whirlwind and with a timer, we were able to keep the schedule moving along in our 15- 30 minutes allotted time slots we'd given each job. Jon re cocked around the counters, changed smoke detector batteries, light bulbs, fixed a water pipe, cleaned out the U-bends, rediscovered the back yard again, spackled, took out some nasty ant hills in the backyard, sanded down old outdoor trim that was coming off, everything. It ended up being a really hot day of 90 degrees while he was doing all that outdoor work. In between all that, he ended up buying carpet as well. Thankfully we found a discontinued Shaw light tan carpet at Home Depot on sale for $0.59 a foot and were able to find someone who could take out the old and install the new the very next day. Hopefully it won't look too dark being tan instead of a creme or white.

To re carpet the whole house would be around $3000. Thankfully we had just that in savings to cover it. And thankfully Jon had not spent it yet on a patio, bigger TV, the newest electronic toy he'd been looking at or another desired splurge. Jon decided to take off an extra day from work to get the paint touched up on the dry wall repairs and general nicks so I wouldn't have to with kids in tow. We discovered to our relief that keeping the old paint is SO essential. And marking which room they went to, also important.

The touch ups went off without a hitch because we had that old paint in our garage. But because we had used the same color numerous times in the house, we had to try a few times before we found the exact paint can for that particular room. By the end of Tuesday, Jon was exhausted, poor guy, but most of our crunch-time worries were over. Wednesday morning I spent some time scrubbing floors, getting off tons of built-up dirt off the linoleum, wiping out cupboards, and dusting the higher places and light fixtures. By Wednesday night the carpet was finished and the new renters in to make it their home. The house was beautiful again especially with new carpet.

We were grateful that in our time of feeling overwhelmed and tired, answers came as to what really needed to be done, how to do it and what took the highest priority. After big projects like this is, it makes us grateful for our boring day in and day out life that gives us the opportunities to swing with the every-once-in-a-while-chaos.

Tyler during one of our cleaning sessions in the home he had never seen before. We had moved right before he was born.

In between the work, there was cuteness to come back to. The kids enjoying time together, being silly, playing and doing projects.
Tyler and Taison, Tyler and Corynn with his dump truck we found at a garage sale. His new favorite toy!

Square Foot Gardening

2011-05-25T15:39:00.000-07:00

This past birthday my Dad got Jon the book on Square Foot Gardening. It was a pretty simple and quick read and before we knew it we were excited about building our little boxes. Our garden the past 2 years hasn't really produced the way we wanted it to so we hoped to get some pointers. The key is not changing existing soil to be better, but making your own special mixture that is absolutely amazing! It's a mixture of something called Vermiculite, Peat Moss and Compost or Humus. The boxes cost us about $100 each to build, supply with dirt and seeds. We only plant the exact number of seeds the book says should be in a foot of space and save the rest of the seeds for next year.

Garden on steriods is what I think of when I see it. Whatever we plant, grows! And the book gives ideas of when to plant what so that when one square has died off and ended it season, you can plant something in it's place so you have a constant harvest.

The peas are crazy! They are getting so tall, they are taking out our trellis. We planted a pole type of pea plant against the banister of the stairs and they are doing fine, but the normal peas that aren't supposed to get so tall are going bezerk!

Here are the beets. They are massive and I don't think they will be ready for another 2 months.

Here's some onions we planted, I think they are for green onions so maybe they'll be ready soon.

We planted at least 6 squares with spinach and have been trimming the big leaves off the sides every couple of days. We have had fun with our homemade salads and sandwich toppings.

In our regular garden, we used twine and bent over wire as stakes to mark off the square feet and planted more peas, since I LOVE fresh peas, lots of squash and corn. Hopefully it turns out producing too.

Though the peas have been planted every couple of weeks, none of them have been as massive as the ones from the square foot garden.

In other areas of our yard, Jon's Mother's Day present 4 years ago, bloomed again. It's cute and small and comes back every year. I'm grateful this present I haven't killed...yet.

On a whim, I asked a friend to help me learn how to make strawberry freezer jam. I was so amazed at how easy it was. I bought some freezer containers in the canning section at Walmart and some Sure Jell pectin. Then about 5-10 lbs of sugar and 5 regular containers of fresh strawberries and viola! My freezer is nice and full of jam and when I run out it will only take 5 more containers of strawberries on sell.

Projects: I decided about 6 months ago that whenever I thought of a random project that needed done around the house, instead of stewing about it, hoping I'd somehow remember, I write it on a list for a certain month and hang it on my fridge. When we get it done, we cross it off and write the date next to it. On a folded piece of paper, that now has 4 months worth, it's been amazing to see what we have gotten done, sometimes just small little things. Some things we might decide not to do, that they aren't really that important if they stay on there long enough. :)

Taylor's Farewell

2011-05-25T15:18:00.000-07:00

We made a quick weekend trip to Cleaveland, Ohio to be there for Jon's nephew Taylor's farewell. He's turned 19, been found worthy and is excited about serving a 2 year Latter-day Saint mission to..... His mission call came in the mail a few months ago and he was called to a Texas area mission, McLaren, I think, Spanish speaking. So not only will his Spanish from school pay off a little but he'll be in a different country... :) Texas. They feel that way don't they?

We drove the 6 hours on Saturday and got there around 4 PM. Since we were trying to keep the house clean and kid-free since the house is on the market, we spent a lot of time outside playing.

We took the kids on a walk around the circle which turned out to be a mile long. All the little people were fighting over the stroller, Jon's shoulders or mine by the end. We found frogs, rocks to throw in the ever swampy small ditches along the road.

Sunday was a sweet experience. Taylor gave a wonderful and very well prepared talk on how to gain a testimony or personal conviction of Jesus Christ. He looked so grown up already and so sure of his purpose. I was impressed with how confident and kind he was. After church we finally were able to get a group picture... a first for our mini-Ellsworth's reunions.

Since Ashton had tests the next day at school, we left right after church to get home at a descent time. But not before brushing up on a little Latter-day Saint (Mormon) history. That area in a small town called Kirtland is one of the places Joseph Smith and early church members lived and built a temple. We stopped quickly at the Visitor Center and felt the sweet peaceful feeling there. This is the Newel K. Whitney store.

We were able to see the Kirtland temple and because it's no longer owned by our church, payed a small fee to walk through. (LDS temples today are open to the public before they are dedicated to temple service and then worthy members from 12 years old on up serve there but don't go on tours. :) )

In the museum Corynn was excited to dress up for a second in the period's garb. She was so chatty on our tour and asked the tour guide what everything was. He was nice to answer her and think it was cute.

It was a super quick trip! Though we spent a lot of time driving, we wouldn't miss this chance to hang out with our East coast Ellsworth's one more time and be there for Taylor's big day. We know he will be such a positive influence with his strong testimony of the Savior.

Things I Don't Worry About Any More

2011-05-16T10:52:00.000-07:00

*Trying to get Tyler to eat eggs- It used to bug me since I love big breakfasts but I don't worry about it anymore. I make pretty much the same breakfast foods I normally do, just give Tyler everything we are eating without eggs. He might get extra toast or ham or cheese or something but I'm not too worried about him not eating the eggs.

*Ironing- We buy wrinkle free shirts for Jon and if I hang them up after they come out of the dryer, it seems to look alright. If I really want to iron something for myself, I'll do it but there's always getting it a little damp and throwing it in the dryer for 5 minutes too.

*A Cleaning Schedule- I just decided for me I clean what bugs me that week. I do have a set day I do the laundry, and usually do either the bathrooms or the floors at the same time but it's not always. On Saturdays there's usually a chunk of time for jobs to get done with the help of the kids so anything I haven't gotten done, we work on together. During the week the kids are in charge of emptying the dishwasher, taking out the trash, folding and putting away their clothes and keeping their rooms and toys picked up at the end of the day. All the random jobs and cleaning I hope I will see throughout the week if they are really bugging me, cleaning the walls, or dusting, etc.

* People's problems- A while ago I realized how important my family was. It was reaffirmed at church yesterday that the family is ordained of God and the most vital unit of eternity. Without it, people's lives are forever altered and society has to step in way too often to help people function. A family is there for each other and when everyone's direction is looking inward to helping and earning money for their own family, many things turn out alright.

Being focused on my family has helped me not to worry about other things that often take my attention and focus away. While I do my part in my church calling, I don't have to worry about everyone else's problems; the cancer-stricken sibling, the many people lacking jobs, the adult son with HIV, the marriage that's failing, the teenagers in their funk, the family member refusing to be medicated, the financial carelessness and woes of many. I used to worry so much it would make me ache for them. While part of that was a loving thing to do, it was consuming and unhelpful. My thoughts would turn to others' problems and in my spare time I would not really be paying attention to my own family and their needs.

Now I know, care about and empathize with my friends in their struggles, but I don't worry that they can't handle it on their own. I trust that they will be in tune to receive the inspiration from a loving Heavenly Father to find a way. When I hear other people's problems, I have started to tell myself, "It's not really my business." It's not my calling to know everyone's issues, nor do I have the authority or inspiration to know how to help them or what advice they need to hear. There are people out there that do. Their church leaders, their fathers, their mothers, their siblings and their close friends. And when there is a need for help, I will help, but I don't have to overwhelm myself with being too involved and thereby neglect my own family. People aren't victims. They are strong and capable and have the light of Christ within themselves. They were all sent to Earth to fulfill a vital mission and role in Heavenly Father's plan. They can handle what is placed in front of them. All I need to do is be kind, be gentle, serve periodically when my children's cups are full and trust that God is going to inspire them to know what to do.

*Hand in hand with that is that I have stopped worrying about what people think of me. When I was a teenager and home schooled, I had WAY too much time on my hands to obsess over what people thought of me, what that random comment meant that someone had said, etc. Unfortunately as a stay at home mom I also have had a lot of "thinking" time and a good chunk of my young-mother-immaturity-time was spent feeling bad if I felt like someone didn't "like" me. It's so nice to not care now. I'm not sure when exactly I stopped caring but I don't and it's awesome. Instead of worrying, I know my friends like me for my good qualities and my quirky ones and I like them for theirs. We have our faults, no doubt, that could fill endless conversations on the part of others, but who cares really. We're pretty dang awesome when it comes right down to it. :)

Teaching Kids Manners

2011-05-10T18:28:00.000-07:00

I just happened to stumble across a Cub Scout Belt loop explanation for Good Manners this past month. I also found a Faith in God requirement for the church's program that can be passed off for learning and practicing good manners. As I was scheming which Den Meeting to have the boys practice cutting their foods with a knife and eatting properly as well as some other fun and potentially silly moments of practicing manners, I realized I needed our family to learn this NOW.

As Ashton picked up a calzone with the fork and tried to put the whole thing in his mouth, I cringed.
As Taison and Ashton picked up their eggs cooked over easy for breakfast and chewed on them until they "exploded" in their mouths, I cringed. They call them "explode eggs". :)
As Taison licked the syrup off his plate after eating pancakes, I cringed.

Lately I've been disgusted with my children's manners especially at the table. As I was cleaning out our crazy messy utensil drawer I stumbled across the IKEA plastic ware we use, to find the rarely touched plastic IKEA knives. As I was deciding to chuck them once and for all, I stopped myself. Was I really holding in my hand the very tool for reformation?

And so it begins.

We had chicken roll-ups and instead of letting the kids pick each one up with their fork and biting off chunks, I showed them how to hold their knife in the hand that writes, and hold the food still on their plate with the fork. I showed them how to push down on the knife and slowly move it back and forth. I told them to cut it in pieces that had to be smaller than their fork because it wasn't good manners to have to show everyone ALL of your teeth. Taison and Ashton's first attempts launched the chicken roll ups off the table onto the floor. But pretty soon they had small pieces on their forks.

The next rule I thought of was keeping your other hand on your lap, not using it to push food on your fork. The idea was the fork gets dirty not your fingers if you have good manners. Ashton grumbled how he really did not want to learn good manners. I pointed out that people who I thought were showing good manners could possibly get seconds.

When Taison picked up his plate to lick off the creamy chicken sauce off his plate, I came up with the next rule. Save your last piece of bread or in this case chicken roll up to, with the fork push it around and wipe up anything left you really want.

And when Ashton started slurping his water through his curly straw, Corynn pointed out that making noise when you drink is not polite either. It was funny and a good challenge to see how hard they tried. Even Tyler by the end of the meal, wanted to try to use the knife and wanted his food cut up small.

Any more ideas to add to my list of torture techniques..... I mean teaching manners?

Quiet Time

2011-05-10T17:15:00.000-07:00

What would I do without it? I'm not sure.

What is Quiet time?

Well, here's the story. When the kids were still napping and super young and squirrel-y, I was afraid of what I would do when they out grew naps. I NEEDED that 1-2 hrs to be by myself to think, breath and mostly put my feet up and rest. When I voiced my worry to a friend, I heard about Quiet Time. When younger ones are napping or when everyone is grown, it's a set time each day when the kids know they are to play or read quietly in one area of the house alone. They are given a set time and then Mom can rest and have that time alone. I used to have Corynn watch a video at that time for nap time before I had been let in on the Quiet Time secret. But watching videos seemed to make her or Ashton more wound up and whiny then normal from sitting still for so long. The other down side was that with only having one TV, I really wanted a chance to watch my one favorite show, whatever it was at the time.

Taison has recently out-grown naps. (I know I got really lucky to have him nap for so long.) He started having a hard time falling asleep at night and we knew it was time. With all day kindergarten coming, we knew we also needed to help him learn how to cope with no sleep in the middle of the day. So after lunch now, after I read stories to the boys, I put Tyler down for a nap and Taison goes to Quiet Time. He gets to pick the room, a room that has a door so he doesn't wake any one up or hear me watching my show. He gets to pick what toys to have in the room. I set my timer on my watch, leave it in the room and for about 45 minutes, I get some good alone time.

At first he came out a lot to talk to me, but I reiterated, as my friend had told me, to teach them they have to wait until the timer goes off to talk to Mom (unless they are hurt). He now LOVES Quiet Time. Many times if I sneak quietly past the toy room, or his bedroom or the basement door, I hear bombs blowing up, see dinosaurs lined up talking to each other and the action packed adventure in full swing. He seems to save his best imaginative play for when he's all alone and no one else can mess with his diorama.

And the best thing is that even over the weekend, after lunch when Jon and I are feeling dead from the days events, all the kids know what Quiet Time is and other than a slight bicker over what room they get to be in, they go off quietly. They seemed almost relieved to have time alone, to have a breather.

Jon and I can sit and chill, watch a show, eat our favorite yummy stash, make plans for our next family adventure, spending reason, or we read. When the kids are back from Quiet Time, we're ready to be involved and asked questions and play in the backyard or whatever. Quiet Time is helpful during the school year, but has become essential during the summer when the kids and I are together most days. No matter what craziness occurs in the day or what head ache I might feel coming on, I know my Nutella and pretzels and 30 minute show is coming in a few hours and I'll be as good as new soon.

Here's Quiet Time after church this past Sunday.

When I snuck in to Taison's room, I heard him saying, "We can't find the treasure. It must have been taken in the rocket."

Ashton was racing cars on the window sill, saying, "The King has run into the Dark Side of the force. He was taken into the sky." Some car was strung up in blinds.

Corynn had created a pillow floor for all her stuffed animals and the matching dogs were having a meeting teaching the zebra that, "if you go to the monster that's Ashton, you will get eaten. Let's make a plan so the Wolf doesn't eat us."

I love their creativity and my built-in time to chill. Thanks to many great moms who pass on great ideas!

Mother Daughter Date

2011-05-08T12:25:00.000-07:00

Every year our church encourages a Father and Sons' campout. The Friday before Mother's Day was our local church's Father and Son's Camp out. It's a pretty special time for the men and boys to bond. But when the kids were too little to go, I didn't like the idea of Jon ditching me to hang out with the guys. This year was completely different. With 3 boys in our family, I was thrilled to have a whole night and morning with just Corynn. (I also was excited about Jon watching the three boys on his own. he he he)

For the past week or so, I had been feeling like Corynn was getting a little neglected. She's always so good and sweet and helpful that I forget to really give her the time she needs, to listen to her talk and not to just be shuffling her on to the next thing on our schedule. I was really looking forward to having some time alone with her and build our friendship much more. It wouldn't be a complete fix but a good chance to gets things really rolling for us again.

When I threw out a few ideas of what we could do, Corynn chose going to Chick-fil-a and doing make up. :) Jon got me this incredible make up "tool kit" from Sephora that opens up to a million eye shadow and lip gloss colors. Since I haven't really felt excited about sharing it with Corynn and the ever-curious Tyler, we broke it out for our special Mommy Daughter date.
After the boys left and I finished teaching the last of piano lessons, we had a never quiet house. I don't think Corynn has ever heard it that quiet. I was pretty tired from the craziness of the day so I just sat and stared at the wall for a few minutes before we took off for Chick-fil-a. We met another sweet mom for a mommy daughter date. Corynn had fun playing and then once we got home we were really alone. It was kind of strange and I almost felt a little awkward trying to fill the space. Corynn got super silly and goofy and I don't know why but I felt annoyed. :) When I told her we really didn't have time to watch a girl movie plus paint finger nails, do face masks, make flower barretts etc., she told me she really just wanted to put on make up with me.

So we headed upstairs to the coveted make up kit. I had her put on a head band to keep her hair out of her face. (I felt like a Mary Kay lady or something. ) We started with foundation, then eye shadow, the base, main color and the crease color :) I think she chose a light pink first, a goldish color for the main color and then the crease was purple. ;) I decided not to do the whole mascara thing with her since it can really make eyes hurt if it gets rubbed in. Then I showed her how I draw on my lips with lip liner... if not I don't have lips. ;) and then fill it in with the color I like. She had fun trying to draw around her lips and then filled it in with all sorts of fun colors. Then we dusted everything with a little bit of powder.

Next she descended on my "jewelry". I don't have much and what I have is silly and cheap but she loved putting on as many bracelets and necklaces as I could find. Afterwards we did a special hand spa treatment that I had gotten from Mary Kay years ago. I think the lotion smelled a little rancid so it was definitely beyond it's prime. But the scratchy stuff did it's job and our hands were so soft!

We stayed up a little later than normal and I sat on her bed and talked to her about her day, the ultimate way to tell Corynn that I love her. She LOVES to talk my ear off at this time of night. :) Not always my favorite thing since I'm ready to punch out on the clock but tonight was special.
Lately Tyler and Taison have habitally been getting up around 4 AM ish just for a quick drink or hug or something, so this night I got a good night's sleep. It was awesome!
When we woke up, Corynn wanted to make her "special" eggs and play some computer games. After we were ready for the day, we went yard selling for the first time. She brought along her piggy bank and we wandered around our area stopping and hunting. She found a bunch of stuffed animals she wanted but narrowed it down to two, a little tea kettle which she has since filled with juice and hot chocolate for our family, a bunch of curly straws to share with the boys, a shiny golden purse and a fun hat she called a "sombrero". I'm pretty sure that's the wrong word and culture but since I didn't have an alternative name for it.....

I found what I was looking for..... a big dump truck for Tyler. I also stumbled across a closet rack that I had been pricing out at stores for $2, a football helmet for a costume for Ashton and the boys and a cub scout activity for Day camp.

I found a winter coat for Tyler for $2 and a winter coat for Ashton for next year for $3. It was a fun day and we spent, I think about $15 on two hours of Dukes of Hazard driving and front yard shopping. Corynn asked if we could do it again next week but I told her maybe just once a year.

I can't wait for our next Girls' night out. When she's older, it'll be fun to do manicures, see a play, dress up and go to a fancy restaurant, or anything else she'd want to do.

Spring Break Memories

2011-05-05T18:42:00.000-07:00

Spring break was awesome! We loved spending time together! Jon's brother Jeff's family from Ohio came out for part of the time and since Jon had a training to go to and was going to be gone all week, I was glad for the company. We mostly just hung out, the boys played basketball on the mini-hoop downstairs, we went for lots of walks, set up the badmitton in the back yard and played at parks. We flew kites one day while the boys played ultimate frisbee with a group from church. Having teenagers around to play with the kids was awesome!

I don't know why I never remember to have a group picture taken of everyone. It was about 7 people and Jean and I worked together to get the kids to clean up, make meals, etc. The chicks of course were a big hit!

Jacob, Corynn, Taison and Becca worked on a fort made from taping blankets across between the patio chairs. They had fun reading stories and pretending to take a nap.

With everyone there, we decided to finally name the chicks. Corynn chose a Mario Kart character, Baby Daisy, Taison "Dry Bowser" a mixture of two Mario Kart names "Dry Bones" and "Bowser", Ashton "Funky Kong", Rachel and Becca chose "Sunny" for the one with the hurt leg, I chose "Baby Peach" for the one I had helped hatch and Jacob chose "Jasper" for the last yellow one. With the help of a little fingernail polish on a few of their toes it wasn't too hard to find out who was who, though the kids were much faster at it than I was.

We decided to introduce them to some bugs. It was gross! But one finally got brave enough to try it and pretty soon they were all pro's with the worms, especially after Josh cut them up. As you can see Tyler is with "Joshie", his favorite of the cousins. Although he knew everyone's name by the end of the week again and loved to talk to everyone in his gibberish.

We decided on a warmer day to take the chicks outside for a few minutes and let them experience grass, bugs and other fun outdoor things. At first they huddle together, scared by the wind, the bright sun and the pokey grass. After a while they tried running around a little but would only stay close to another chick in the process. We tried seeing how long it would take the chicks to find each other by each holding a chick, scooting our circle wider and setting them down at the same time. One of the black chicks, I think it was Ashton's Funky Kong, ended up chirping to everyone and all the chicks seemed to find him and come. It was pretty interesting. We tried it a few times spreading the circle wider and they'd actually flap their wings to get to each other faster. It was deafening surround-sound chick noises until they found each other.

Jared got a couple of chicks to fall asleep. I just love this picture of him. It captures him about 3 years ago. He looks so much older but this picture just seems so much like he was when he was young, young. Still the same sweet awesome boy.

Tyler loved trying to feed the chicks with chick feed by holding a fist full up to their faces. Once someone actually took him up on the offer.

The lilac tree bloomed this week! It was gorgeous, short-lived but smelled so good! My smell of home and the lilac tree.

Other random fun with the cousins! We set up the badmitton net and the boys had such a good time playing. Ashton actually was able to hold his own with the older guys. Afterwards, Tyler and Jacob threw a ball around together.

Later the kids got to use a little time doing video games. I decided nonstop video games like our past trips wasn't really a good use of family memory time. But for the last day, I let the kids introduce Just Dance for Kids to the "Guys". It was SO funny watching them dance and the kids loved watching it just on the camera and laughing. I swear I got their permission to post these.

Connor and Josh trying it out for the first song. Ashton was the video guy- sorry about the wiggliness. He does pretty good for a 9 year old I think. He remembers to get out the camera more often then me.

A little sillier video- Corynn cackling in the background.
Becca, Connor, Josh and Rachel competing. The game actually monitors your remote and how accurate you are at doing the motions at the time the example dancers do. Jon can still whip me even at this game. Drives me crazy!

And for a last minute project after everyone was all packed and they had cleaned the house before leaving, the girls did a quick craft. I finally ventured to try making the trendy hair barretts with flowers hot glued on them. Rachel, Becca, Corynn and I went through an old box of fake flowers I had, some old barretts from Grandma Fielding's curlers and I ended up finding white bias tape to glue over the barretts. Too bad I didn't get pictures of their creations. They seemed to be in heaven with this rare "all girl" moment in a week of mostly sports.

Meanwhile the boys went next door to my neighbor Kevin's. He's a retired percussion musician and specializes and studies African and South American rhythms. He has an awesome studio in his basement with over 40 drums, easy. Their session was at least an hour and when we came to visit, the boys were all on a drum follow his instructions staring off into space concentrating really hard. It was awesome though. After we left I later saw Connor playing the ottoman next to the couch staring off into space. He announced he wanted a drum for Christmas. :)

When they left, it was the most depressing quiet ever especially knowing Jon was still out of town for another few days. I'm a big wimp when it comes to falling asleep as the lone adult in the house. :) Not really but it is harder to. Thankfully to switching Jon's job to a non-traveling one, I don't have to get much practice at that.

Easter was another sweet memory of Spring Break. This year because we had family in town we didn't do our scripture reading of the last week of the Savior's life, reenacting Jesus riding the donkey or some of the other fun ideas I got from a book, one per night before Easter. It's pretty cool to go through the sad parts with them and about his life in general and then wake up Sunday morning and read about the happiness of the resurrection and the apostles running to the tomb and Mary being the first to see Him. Pretty cool! But this year we didn't have the time to do all we wanted to. We did do our sample Passover with a 30 second retelling of what the Passover represented. Then a spot of dijon mustard on a saltine cracker (unleavened bread :) to represent the bondage of the Israelites or our bondage to sin without the Savior. Thinking about it know we could have tied it into the hard and bitter times Jesus would have to face in completing the Atonement. Next year. The kids try to see who's the bravest to taste the mustard. They usually spit it out, but Ashton went for super torture with a big glob. I decided to try it with him. :)

Then comes a saltine with jelly on it to represent the joys of freedom from sin and death, the joys of the atonement. It's short and fun. We did remember the special Easter rolls where we covered a marshmellow with a plain pillsbury roll. When they bake, the marshmellow disappears to leave behind a cool "empty tomb" representing Jesus was resurrected and his body and spirit were again together and perfect. The marshmellows ooze out and make a sticky mess on the pan but it's a cool visual to represent the resurrection.

We did the candy part of Easter on Saturday so it wouldn't detract from the spiritual side of things on Sunday. This year we randomly had at least 10 of 6 different colors of plastic Easter eggs. The kids practiced with the empty Easter eggs about 5 times the day before. Corynn LOVED hiding them in the backyard for everyone and Tyler LOVED putting them in his basket. The dayso dumping all the candy together, each person got to help stuff Easter eggs. The only rule was "No eatting" and "You had to fill someone else's eggs, not your own" to ensure fair distribution of the M &M's. He was so excited. It wasn't until the next day when he realized they had candy in them, that he fully grasped the joys of the eggs.

Tyler showing the contents of his 10 orange plastic eggs. Tons of M&M's, and jelly beans.

Another picture of Ashton posing with the "goof ball" pose. I don't know why but he always likes to pose with a playing guitar pose.

He discovered that if you bit off the head of the hollow chocolate bunny it created a cool "candy bank" for all the jelly beans and Easter eggs. So all the kids followed the idea, filled their bunnies and put them in a plastic baggie at the end of the day. For the next few days the bunnies and their contents slowly disappeared. We got the bunnies at Aldi's, a Germany based grocery store, super cheap, and those bunnies were some amazing chocolate. Totally going with their stuff again next year. Nestle's stuff didn't even compare with that chocolate from Germany and Austria. Wow!

Taison with his usual silly smile pose and his, of course, green eggs. Loves green!

Easter Sunday with the chicks.

The chicks were headed home in the morning so we ended Spring Break with saying goodbye to them and letting them have one last adventure in our backyard.

A Sad Moment

2011-04-17T14:14:00.000-07:00

We have our cousins over this week and in the excitement of showing the chicks to everyone, I let my guard down a little too much. Usually I insist that when someone takes them out, I'm sitting or watching near by. Since I had older people around, I took an alone time break upstairs, which was awesome. But after a while, I had the feeling I should go be involved and just sit in the room with the kids. I heard quite a bit of chirping and knew Corynn was getting the chicks out again. (It was obviously a prompting from the Holy Ghost that I really should have followed.)

A little while later I came down and heard her say in a soft voice, "One of the chicks is dead." I rushed over and saw him there on the carpet. When I asked what happened she said she was holding another and got up and didn't see where she was and stepped on him.

Thankfully in my quiet time I had been reading scriptures, the first time in about 4 days. I had been feeling like I was getting too impatient with the kids and I needed to tap into that awesome spiritual strength that was pointed out in a church talk today comes through reading the scriptures. The first little bit of reading brought no insights or thoughts but as I read another conference talk I felt ideas come and feelings of peace.

So at that moment in time holding the baby chick in my hand, I knew my daughter's feeling were more important than that chick. I was able to keep my feelings of chastising in check and tell her it was okay, that accidents happen. I told her I had the feeling I should have been down here and if I had listened I might have been able to help keep the chick safe. I told her we weren't going to get the chicks out for the rest of the day to let them all rest and to make sure I was in the room the next time we got them out.

She didn't cry and immediately changed the subject to string, projects and building lego's. At first I was a little mad she didn't show any remorse or sorrow. As I put the chick in the trash, I cried a little for another little life gone from our egg hatching experience. But it's alright. I went and did what I should have before and sat by her and built things with lego's. It wasn't until later that she asked if the chick would wake up. No, I told her, it's spirit had left it's body because it's body was broken. But it was okay.

I hope she doesn't hold that burden on herself and doesn't feel too bad. She's a sweet little girl and presence in our home. I'm grateful for her nurturing nature. Out of all the things she could have been doing, shooting nerf guns, chopping with swords, playing games, she had choose to be near somethings she could love and nurture. It shows her desire to care and cuddle something else which is a beautiful part of her future gifts as a daughter of God.

More fun with the chicks

2011-04-13T07:52:00.000-07:00

Our total is up to seven! We are assuming the others won't hatch, but Ashton and Corynn can't bear to throw them out. We'll give them a few more days, but I haven't felt any movement.

They were so funny when they were first put in the brooder. The first day they just laid there moving around a little, jumping up anytime anyone made a noise, then slowly melting down from their standing position, falling asleep wherever they were. They even fell asleep in the water dish. They would rest their heads on each other or sprawl out stretching their feet. Sometimes they fell over on their backs and fell asleep that way. Tyler loved laying by the chicks with his blankie and watching them.

Chick 6 came in the middle of Sunday night, a day behind the rest. She had problems with her toes and standing up. It seemed like they were out of joint or not strong enough to hold her up and kept buckling. At first I thought they were broken. It was heart breaking to watch on Monday how she couldn't move around. The older ones, having had a full day's sleep were becoming explorative and always walking on her while she was totally exhausted. I even cut out a little cardboard foot and thought about somehow attaching it to help her feet and toes to spread open. But by the next day she was walking around like the rest and I couldn't tell the difference between her and the others. Unfortunately the next day, she reverted back to walking problems.

By Monday morning there were two more eggs that had holes pecked in them. One died in the night somehow, maybe rolled wrong. I was so sad, thinking I had done something somehow to impede their progress. :) The other stayed put with larger hole for about 12 hrs. It seemed her egg was drying up and she was stuck in the sticky membrane in the egg. I could see her breathe in and out and knew if she didn't push soon, she'd die. We tried whistling like Jon to help call to her. We tried putting a chick back in to help cause enough ruckus to get her going. Nothing, just breathing and beak wiggling for a few more hours.

So I broke the rules. I helped. You're not supposed to do that. They need time to get used to larger holes, it effects their blood pressure. They also need to build the strength that breaking the egg brings. But I helped. After the other one had died, I just couldn't be home to see another one not make it. I pulled back a little more shell a little each hour and was glad to see she pushed and wiggled back. Once I could see her eye blinking, that was it, I couldn't let the egg be. I helped crack the rest of the top of the egg. I rolled her over and once her feet were down, she pushed out! I wasn't very hopeful that she'd make it. She plopped down, chirped, slept and dried out for a few more hours.

When it was time to add her to the rest, the rest were too curious to leave her lying on the floor. They all gathered around to peck. My finger acted as the pecking finger to knock the other ones away. A few of the pecks got her up and pecking food for herself. Since it was almost night, I knew I didn't trust the rest to sleep near her. I made two sides to the brooder by taping up a file folder. The other tired chick with the foot problems made a good companion for her.

In the morning the kids and I were excited to see both the foot problem chick and the youngest chick 7 walking around. They were drinking water and seemed fine when I took the seperating file folder out. I watched for 30 minutes to make sure the black ones weren't going to peck at her too much. She seemed to get out of the way or peck back. Since we had to go, I left them alone. Sometimes she still seems exhausted and needs more sleep. The rest are getting active and don't need as much sleep so she's gets walked on and probably not so restful sleep. I've given her a little break with the file folder but trying to get her with the group as much as possible. They are all fully poofed up, their little feathers amazingly popping all over. Hers are still small and flat but I saw her start to preen herself and some as opening up. She's standing here next to the black one. The foot problem girl is doing the splits on the right.

So the grand total: 5 yellow ones, and 2 black ones. We have no idea whether they are boys or girls. Since they all look so similar, I thought we'd paint a few toe nails with finger nail polish then name them. I don't know though if that will make for more pecking problems. Since we'll have them for probably only another week, we are taking them to school to show Corynn's class, to help their unit on life cycles. We'll probably bring them in at the end of the week, have the kids sit in a circle and let them hold some chick feed for them to eat out of their hands. Corynn is excited to get to show them!

I Love Our School

2011-04-12T04:53:00.000-07:00

Can I just tell you? I love our elementary School! We have been so blessed to be in a school with so many amazing resources and programs to help. I know many schools are different based on where they are located or the funding they receive but I have been impressed and happily surprised with how pro-active our school has been to help Ashton with his reading.

About a month ago I received a letter requesting Jon and I to meet on a certain day with a number of staff, his teacher, the reading specialist, the counselor, school psychologist, vice principal and one other specialist, I believe. They didn't specify what it was about and I was SO nervous that the school thought something was mentally or emotionally wrong with Ashton. I guess deep down I wondered if school counselors would find out how often I yelled or something. :)

Well the day came and when we sat in, they explained that they were trying out a new program working with 3rd and 4th graders who were now fine at decoding words but just needed an extra push to be able to read more fluently or more words per minute. He was currently reading at 50-60 wpm and they wanted him to be somewhere around 100. They asked if it would be okay if he could be taken out of class 3 times a week to work with a tutor specifically teaching him how to speed read, or read much faster. Within seconds of our approval, they had printed off a goal sheet of where they expected him to be in a couple of months, around 80 wpm and then by the end of the year at 100 wpm. They would send home regular progress reports of his improvements and ideas of exercises we could do at home with him.

I was blown away, not only with the technology and programs that were available, all new since I taught 10 years ago, but that they could type it all up while we talked, and print it off right there and then.

From working with the school I've learned parents don't have to wait for the school to say something is wrong. Teachers are totally receptive to receiving emails, chatting after school and asking if things are going okay in the classroom or parents simply saying, "I think there's something wrong with my child's ability to learn. Can you test him or her? What's available to check to make sure there aren't learning disabilities we can be helping them work through. What can I do to help him/her?" The phrase commonly used in the schools is performing a "child study", where testing from all spectrums is done to help pin point and get the right specialist to help. These child studies, and specialist are available all the way up in high school not just elementary. Because of the era we live in, schools are much more pro active and labels and teasing are less acceptable as they used to be.

When I was a teacher, I was impressed that no matter the funding, schools had some serious muscles when it came to testing and being on the latest research for students with any type of learning problem. Whole groups of staff where brought in for IEP to set goals to help students, getting all involved in that child's education on the same page. Tests were administered judging a child's learning preferences, strengths, weaknesses, and I was so grateful so much had changed since I had been in school.

As I was hosting a playgroup this week and talking with some young mothers about their fears of their child starting school, I remembered that's EXACTLY how I felt with Ashton. I was worried he wouldn't fit in or would be too rebellious, or sassy or something. I worried I was being a bad mom because I was sending him away. Fear seemed to be my main opponent. Not wanting to be driven by fear, we continued on. Day in and day out I wondered if I was doing the right thing because it was the first time he was really away from me. By the time he was in 1st grade, I felt much more at ease with my decision and when Corynn entered school, I felt even better. They both loved school and even if Ashton made excuses frequently about staying home because of a sick tummy or something, he'd forget all about it once he got on the bus and got to school.   Now he knows I only keep people home for fevers or throwing up so any excuses I say, "First you have to throw up or have a fever." He gives up on that latest request and thinks of something else he wants. :)

Today I got to go into the school, pay my friend to watch the younger two, and make copies for the teachers and eat lunch with the kids. Making copies is mindless but somehow very fulfilling when your day is filled with stimulation and children :)   When I came into the cafeteria, Ashton came over and gave me a hug. He showed me how to load my tray for school lunch and I gave in and we bought something extra.... a cookie. We sat at his class' table and I attempted my usual lame small talk.... "So who do you play with at recess again? Where are they? Who's that over there? Isn't that Brody from kindergarten? Do you ever see Thomas at recess or did he move? So what did you do in class before lunch? Social Studies? What was it about? What are you going to do next?" It's broken up with the deafening noise of kids talking and being silly making googly eyes and sticking out their tongues, Ashton giving his little buddies special "knuckle" hand shakes, and Ashton telling the fastest girl in the class how he will beat her on the track next time.

When the class is told to line up, everyone cleans up their things. A few students who are assigned for the week, stay back, sweep and wipe the tables. Ashton gets in line and gives me a hug and asks me to stay. I tell him I can't and they walk off. I see him again on the stairs and he kisses my cheek. Man, I almost cry. What an awesome kid! And a 3rd grader too! I'm sure he'll be too cool to do that next year so I'm grateful for it now.   I come back to pick up my kids from my friend's feeling refreshed like I just had a Girl's Night out or a long conversation with a good girl friend. But it came from being quietly alone making copies and eating lunch with my kids.

Fear comes at many times in our lives, especially when we come to the unknown, the next phase of life. Middle school and middle school attitudes is the big unknown. But having older moms as friends and mentors and seeing their kids navigate through those years has been a huge blessing. In our church we have high standards for our youth. We expect them to not drink, not smoke, and be abstinent before marriage all very unpopular things in our culture today. Not only to refrain from the drinking parties, the pornography, the R-rated movies but to pay 10% of what they earn in tithing and save for a mission and college. It's not an easy road but I see teenagers every week at church that are doing just that. Out of them I'd say there are about 75% that live up to those standards, who don't give into peer pressure and find good friends in between the not so honorable.   They make it because their family is STRONG, and love hanging out together. And they have very clear direct guidelines not to mention an understanding of God's commandments regardless of popular trends. There are a few that choose not to, that somehow don't make the right choices, don't live up the high expectations we have, but they are still pretty good kids.

I feel good with my kids attending public school. I love the resources the teachers have access too and the latest research and opportunities they implement. I love that my kids are learning how to be silly with other kids, know appropriate slang but also know enough to not pick up on the sassiness that Cartoon Network promotes. :) I hope that with our teaching them proper rules, rights and wrongs, they will be able to ignore the bad things that will be introduced to them and they will thrive with the close good friends that they will make. All they really need are a few good friends to stand by them. With us and the gospel, I think they will be able to withstand a lot. I also look forward to finding ways I can be involved at middle school and high school. I've thought how great it would be some day, if I'm not working by the time everyone's in school, to be able to rotate a couple hours a week at each school, making copies, reshelving books, whatever to be able to see what's around my children and continue to help them pick the good out of the bad.

Happy Hatch day To You!

2011-04-10T12:24:00.000-07:00

Last night we heard a few random "chirps" coming from the eggs. The kids were SO excited!

A few hours later two eggs had a little air hole pecked at the top. We watched them breath in and out of their little hole and stay that way for about 3 hrs.

Tyler waiting for the chicks to hatch.

When we went to bed we were hopeful that in the morning we'd see some bigger holes. Not only bigger holes but when Jon and I woke up early to see them, there were two little guys newly hatched! A black chick and a yellow chick.

Two hours later when the kids woke up, I heard Ashton yell, "Wait! What's that sound?! The chicks- they are loud!" I looked up at him from downstairs and nodded my head that some had hatched. He went tearing back into the room to wake up Taison then over to Corynn and Tyler's room yelling, "We have chicks! We have chicks!"

Thundering feet came downstairs to see. They all lined up to watch. I sent someone up to get Tyler since he was still too groggy to come down the stairs. At first he didn't want to look but when he realized they were moving, he smiled and his eyes got all big. He did the sign for bird, a little beak opening and shutting. ;)

They got to watch two more hatch before it was time to leave for church, another black one and another yellow one. It was cool beyond belief! They had to stay in the incubator and dry off for another 4 hrs before we could move them to the "brooder". The brooder is basically a high walled tupperware or aquarium with a lamp and some food and water. It took us a while to fiddle with the bulb and wattage to get the desired 95-100 temperature before we could put them in. Since this was a relatively free project we splurged on a real water feeder $3 and chick feed feeder $3 and heat lamp for about $8. The chick feed was $5. We ended up using a 40 watt bulb and keeping it about 6 inches away from the chicks.

After church Jon sat and watched them move around. He hadn't gotten to see the awesome little miracles. After a while, he had a pretty good fake chirp whistle down and it seemed that one egg in particular really responded after he whistled. He coached this one through.

Now we have 2 more eggs with air holes to go. The other 16 will hopefully join us soon, but we are pretty happy with our soon to be 7 little chicks. We aren't holding them much today but will for the next week or two until we give them back to the 4-H office. We will give them names and watch them to our heart's content.

Are you Crackers or just Nuts?

2011-04-07T18:58:00.000-07:00

Another animal is adding to our crazy circus. Are we crazy? We are announcing! Baby #5 is healthy and happy! 12 weeks! I feel strangely at peace that we will be able to handle things. The official due date is Oct. 24th. It seems like perfect timing. Taison starts kindergarten next year and I'll have time with just Tyler for a month and a half. He will be my buddy as we enjoy the adventures of the new baby together. He will hopefully still be taking naps so I can get the much needed nap time for the first 2 months while the baby gets into a regular sleep pattern. We've already moved Tyler into Corynn's room in his toddler bed and the baby room is empty and getting cute. We'll wait until we find out the gender before we really decorate the room.
I came home from the Dr. today with the ultrasound picture on the fridge. We hadn't told the kids and when Corynn and Ashton came home from school, Corynn said,
"Ashton, there's a picture of the chicken in the egg." We have these eggs here that we are incubating and she thought it was a picture of when we shined the flashlight behind it.

Ashton came into the computer room with the picture and very seriously said,
"Mom, what is this picture of?"
"A baby."
"Where is this baby?"
"In a tummy."
"Who's tummy?"
"Mine."
"Really?!" big smile and patting my tummy says, "I can't feel it." I explained that the baby was only 2 inches long but later he'd be able to feel it. But he was SO cute! And so happy! He wants another boy because he says, "The boys need to rule the world." :) Corynn of course was MAD about that. If it's not a girl, she'll be sad. Jon will explain to Ashton that some day you will want an equal number of boys and girls or there will be some pretty lonely boys. :)

We felt like having a baby this coming year was the right decision. We felt that way for about a week before I freaked out and said, Not yet. I'm not ready. We were pregnant so quickly as it always happens with the others. Not an accident, planned but with a small window for the miracle of babies to happen. And yet Heavenly Father allows us another.

Our concerns for another were Ashton's schooling and grades, Jon progressing in pay at his job and finding a better balance with family time and church callings. Since those concerns 3 months ago Jon has been promised a raise, Ashton's grade are improving and he's receiving even more tutoring in reading, and callings don't seem quite as demanding and hard to juggle as before. I feel strangely strong, capable, brave and very happy. This year I have found true joy in being a stay at home mom. I REALLY enjoy my time with the toddlers and babies at home finally and love how happy I feel to see the kids after they come home from school. I want to spend time with them and enjoy them. I know this feeling could come and go but right now I'm thanking God for the peace and assurance that as we do our part, He'll take care of us.

I do worry that Taison and Corynn will be lost by the wayside without as much attention being middle kids. I've decided to mimic my friend's April idea of having Daddy or Mommy dates where once a month each child gets to run an errand or attend a meeting or event alone with us and get a small treat or something special afterward. We will need to consciously give our children time to be with us and for us to really listen as they talk about their lives.

So here comes the heart burn that makes me want to eat constantly, the instanteous gaining of weight, the bloated face and nose and knees that don't feel happy as I gain the weight. But my health is good, I don't have morning sickness and I'm not crazy up and down with emotions. We'll see how the after math effects me and our household. But soon I will hold a little person with little diapers and little socks and little fingernails. It makes me want to cry.

P.S. Since my Dad's a Barnum, he and my mom came up with the tradition of announcing pregnancies and births by passing out Barnum animal crackers. We've decided to continue the tradition.

Fun with the News

2011-04-04T17:51:00.000-07:00

We were blessed with some AWESOME weather today and it happened to be a teacher work day. So we headed to a park and when a news anchor and video camera headed our way we knew it would make for an interesting afternoon. At first I thought it was for some documentary since the area's a civil war historical site but it turned out we were playing within a 100 yards of a supposed black bear passing through the area.

I thought Lori did a great job coming up with something intelligent to say. I was hiding behind the news anchor. But I was okay when she asked the kids a few questions. Ashton's final phrase is about "skedaddling". The news anchor laughed and asked him to say it again. I wonder where he got that word. Corynn was bummed her comments weren't included but she's hoping someday they will be :)