FHE Board

I'm on the Enrichment Committee. For some people that's like a "Free Pass," but for me that always seems to mean a lot of work! I know...I bring it on myself. There are just some things I can't seem to stay out of...like these FHE Boards. Our Enrichment leader showed us something similar she made 20 years ago. It was a chalk board, flannel board, vinyl pocket and word-strip board--all in one portable package. Perfect for FHE or Primary Lessons or At-Home Preschool. I just love these kinds of things!
We updated it a little by making it a magnet board, flannel board, wipe-off board and vinyl pocket. You put it all together with duct tape which comes in a million colors. I'm boring and like black (I think it makes it look professional). My kids like this teal or purple.
The wipe-off board is the coolest...just some white tile board from Home Depot cut into the size we needed. Me and a few other ladies gathered the supplies and one poor husband (not mine) did a LOT of work on preparing the stuff for us. We put them together during a Relief Society Retreat we had on Saturday. I am so GLAD it's over with!

My Turn

Hi, this is Jared. Being only three I almost never get “computer time” so while I’ve got this chance I’m going let you know what I really think. Sometimes I get frustrated because everyone in my family (except my dad) tries to tell me what I’m supposed to do—what to eat, what to wear, when to sleep… it can really be aggravating. It’s like they don’t think I can make my own decisions. I always thought decisions were best made when you take out the emotion… so why do we have the emotional people in this house making most of the decisions? I think me or my dad need to step up and start calling some shots or the wheels are really going to fall off.


This is a picture with me and my sisters… your probably thinking what a cute little boy enjoying a picture with his sisters. In reality I’m thinking about why everything has to be so emotional in our home. I think about this a lot. The only thing I have come up with is that maybe my sisters get it from my mom. The littlest one Ellie, she’s borderline psycho if you ask me. I tried to explain to her that this was just a camera taking a picture… not a roller coaster ride.



Let me give you another example (I notice my mom has already given her account of the story in a previous blog). A week or so ago I’m quietly minding my own business when I hear some screaming and hysteria going on in the next room. Next thing I know everyone is rushing in and accusing me… something about ruining the carpet, drying out magic markers, life coming to an end… the usual overreaction. I just sat there calm and collect knowing that with my dad at work someone has to hold this place together. Well sure enough after a while the littlest one Ellie gives in with an “uh oh”. Suddenly it’s not my fault anymore, all the anger has disappeared, the attention has shifted, and everyone is hugging and kissing Ellie and thinking she is so cute. So if you wonder why I look confused sometimes, come try living in my world for a day.


When it comes to emotion, it’s not like there’s not a time and place for a little excitement. Here are a few pictures where I’m being thrown way up high in the air by my dad.

What a sweet ride… isn’t my dad so cool! Being thrown high in the air like this is an appropriate time to show some emotion.





Other times include after scoring goals in family soccer matches, while wrestling with dad, and during BYU football games.






I think my dad even cried once after BYU lost a bowl game. Although I probably agree with you that he went over the top...


... at least it was about something that's important...

... and not just because you can’t wear the pink barette today or your silky blankie has gone missing.











Here is one last picture of my family. Don’t get me wrong, I think they’re all pretty neat—especially my dad. I just needed a chance to let you know that there’s a little more going on below the surface sometimes. I guess I’ll just have to keep putting up with it because I love them.

Later,
Jared

Unjustly Accused

After lunch Kaitlyn walked into our TV room and started screaming because someone had dumped out our container of markers and taken the lids off of every one of them. There were at least 20 markers and lids scattered all over the floor. Everyone started blaming Jared (he was the likely suspect). Jared was adament he did not do it, and then we heard Ellie say "Uh-Oh!" She had been looking on innocently but then we noticed her foot was drawn on with every color of the rainbow and we knew we caught the real culprit! We all thought that was so funny.

On another note, last night I read a short article from the Ensign. I wanted to post a link to it, but because it's in the August's Ensign I can't seem to find it yet. It's called Grasshoppers, Purple Bathtubs and Other Surprises, p. 52. It was the perfect article for any mom that feels things are a little (or a lot!) out of control at times. Gratefully I read it last night, just in time for the dumped out box of raisin bran and the 4lbs of sugar spill on the floor this morning. At least I had a better perspective on it and really did find the humor in it.

INTRUDER!

The kids and I just got home from a 3 week stay in Utah. Scott was with us for one week, but went home to work for the last two weeks. Without the kids playing in the backyard everyday intruders snuck in!

A couple of days ago I went outside in the backyard where our garden grows high on a wall and found a big bunny munching on some leaves. I was quite surprised to see her up there since we didn't think they could jump up the wall. We have bunnies in our yard off and on all the time, but we have never seen them in the garden. Much to the kids chagrin, I shooed that bunny out of there as fast as I could. With a little more investigating done by the kids we found where the bunny had dug a bed for her under the beans. I thought she was getting ready for babies until the next day as we were harvesting beans we discovered an entire family of intruders in our garden!

Digging around in the garden for those little bunnies was just like picking beans. If you have ever picked beans you know you have to move that plant around quite a bit so you don't miss any beans that seem to hide. Even when I'm sure I've picked every one of them, further inspection seems to find more. And there's probably a few out there that I still missed.

The bunnies were too little to hop down from the garden wall so we had to catch them and remove them. The kids ran out with ziploc bags on their hands--to protect them from wild animal germs of course and the hunt began. We caught one, and then someone noticed another running around. I chased that thing all over the garden, but he could hide so well. When I finally had him and reached down to get him I discovered another bunny hiding quietly as well. We spent a good 45 minutes trying to catch all the bunnies, and just like I missed some beans, I'm pretty sure we missed one of the bunnies, but I still can't find him! It was actually a pretty fun morning.

I wanted to let the bunnies go to find a new home in one of the nearby fields, but the kids could not let them be. They chased them all over the backyard for an hour. I was actually feeling sorry for the little bunnies.

I guess we're not true farmers around here--the rabbit family brought so much joy and my kids are hoping some more are born in our garden soon.






Jared in the garden with his ziploc bag gloves.

Recently....

Kaitlyn FINALLY lost her top front tooth. Her permanent tooth was coming in and pushed her baby tooth all the way to the side and out. We think she resembled Nanny McPhee (a fun, family movie if you haven't seen it). It was really weird looking! I even had a dentist appointment scheduled for her, but the night before Scott took the advice of a friend of ours. He put a warm wash cloth on her tooth and then yanked the tooth out. Kaitlyn didn't even know it came out. The wash cloth idea was great--the warmth kept her mind off of the tooth and the wash cloth acted as a gripper to get the little tooth out.

Brynn graduated from preschool. She can't wait for kindergarten. She also saw the ENT last month. They did another scope to see her vocal chords. They stick a wire with a tiny camera on the end up her nose and down the back side of her throat to see the vocal chords. She is such a trooper and so brave. They compared last years picture to this year, and the vocal chords look so much better!! Her nodules on both vocal chords have also shrunk to just a tiny pinpoint. YIPEE!! I guess this means her prevacid (for reflux) is really working. She will continue to use it for another year before we try to take her off of it to see what happens then.

Jared is just hanging on! He loves having his sister's home (most of the time).

Happy Birthday Ellie!

Ellie turned one in May. The girls helped me make a birthday cake, and of course we all enjoyed watching her eat it. She ate the frosting, and dropped the cake on the floor--typical kid, right! I remember when Kaitlyn turned one, eating the birthday cake was a big deal--the first sweets for her. Not so for Ellie--but still fun to watch her.

Notice Ellie's little hair barrette. She barely has enough hair to keep it in, but I love the way it looks--and seems to cut down on the number of people commenting on my cute little "boy." She probably has another year before her head is covered with hair.

Ellie has become quite independent. She refuses to eat unless she is feeding herself. Occasionally she can get the spoon full of yogurt in her mouth, but mostly she holds the spoon in one hand, and dips her fist in the yogurt and licks it off. It's a huge mess every time she eats anything!

AHHH!! It's Been a Long Time . . .

I know, I know...I haven't posted something in over a month. I knew if I didn't post something soon my family would stop checking my blog and erase me off their blog links. Blogger drives me crazy and it takes me 3 times as long as I think it will to post something. So for today, a few pictures of when my sisters came to visit. And hopefully more to come in the next week.

My sisters came to visit. It was so fun to have Betsy, Hannah and Abby here. Betsy and Hannah brought their boys so we had the house full of little one's. I just love to have the cousins around. We went to the zoo and aquarium, went to the park and the Nature Center and shopped. I loved having my sisters all here and it made me want to live closer to all of them. A favorite memory, much to Hannah's chagrin, is Sammy's amazing curiosity. He managed to open the gas container that Scott holds gas in for the lawn mower and dump it all over the garage. Luckily we realized he was not part of the pack of kids in the backyard before he found the matches too!

Jared celebrated his 3rd birthday with his cousins. He had a "tool" birthday party. The boys each got a Home Depot apron and then went on a scavenger hunt for a tool box filled with a small flashlight, tape measue and a couple of bolts and screws. I didn't want to encourage hammering or banging holes in the walls and furniture at my house so didn't put in a hammer or screwdriver. Each boy got to hammer nails in a small block of wood and screw and unscrew (a couple of times) a screw with Scott's electric drill. I think they liked that part the best. It was fun to watch them pile in a dark closet to see their flashlights glow. I was so glad Jared could have his cousins here with him. He loved it!