Current Events

We have had a busy week and I haven't had much time to focus on a specific post. This is what we have been up to since last Thursday.

• Thursday, August 21: Therapy, cleaning house to prepare for weekend and company
• Friday, August 22: made bread, shredded zucchini, scarpbooking, farmer's market
• Saturday, August 23: wedding luncheon, wedding (preparations, travel, etc.)
• Sunday, August 24: church, scrapbooking, sending off company, updating blog
• Monday, August 25: scrapbooking, watered garden, harvested vegetables
• Tuesday, August 26: Dinosaur Museum, hung pictures in Bekah's room (last step to being moved in), went to see Kung Fu as a family (fun movie!)
• Wednesday, August 27: grated cheese, sliced peaches, shredded zucchini, laundry, etc.
• Thursday, August 28: ran errands with kids, went to the library, dinner with friends, visited with Amme on the phone
• Friday, August 29: prepare things for camping with friends

After Saturday, I am hoping that I will have a little more time to focus on blog posts and more pictures to share. Harvesting the garden is taking a lot of my time, as are my children, but we are alive and well and way too busy for my liking at the moment. Life is constantly changing on us and just when I think things will start to slow down a bit I am usually given something else to keep me busy.

It's a Wedding....

Well, they did it. Scott and Alisabeth were married yesterday. They are quite the happy couple and the wedding was nice. I hear that the party afterwards was pretty fun too, but I had to take tired and frustrating children home to bed early. I will post more later.

Balancing

Benjamin is learning to balance on narrow surfaces. He is very good and loves to do it at every opportunity. He is even brave enough to try it on raised surfaces. What am I going to do with such a little dare devil?

The Wheels on the Bus

The other day while I was cleaning the house the children decided to play nicely with each other. When I came downstairs to the family room I found them like this.

Benjamin had lined up the chairs and the potty chair that was on its way to storage so that they could play bus. He apparently was the driver and Bekah decided she was the passenger by climbing into one of the chairs to sit behind brother. In nursery, they have been singing the song "The Wheels on the Bus" and Benjamin likes to sing it at home as well. It was nice to see the children playing together and coming up with unique things to do with their toys.

Oh, What do you do in the Summer Time?

Some people go water skiing or tubing. What do we do? We go sledding. Not sledding in the mountains where there is possibly snow, but in the back yard, on the grass. Benjamin loves to go sledding and the last couple of times I have mowed the lawn he has gotten his sled out of the garage. For a while he pulled his soccer ball around in the sled. Then tonight he pulled his sister around in the sled. After a while of pulling, Benjamin got tired and asked Mom or Dad to pull him. Tonight Michael pulled Benjamin and Bekah around the yard for a while and both of them giggled constantly as dad pulled them from one side of the yard to the other. Children are so creative and come up with some fun ideas that parents wouldn't think of. Thanks for sharing the joy of childhood with us.

I like this picture.

Michael is fascinated with taking pictures of his wife, among other things. This is one of the pictures that I really like. I think he took this pictures while I was working on the computer, which I find myself doing a lot lately.

We have a busy weekend planned with Michael's sister getting married on Saturday, so I will have to limit my computer time. At least that means I will probably have a lot to post about come Monday.

Bath Pictures

I have decided that every childhood should have at leasst one modest bath picture. After seeing several old and new ones on other people's blogs, I realized I didn't have any of our children. So here are some modest pictures of our children playing in the bath tub. These pictures don't show how soaking wet the bathroom is after the children get done, but it does show them playing in the tub. Baths are a wonderful form of entertainment!

Cranes

One morning last week Michael opened the curtains to see these unique birds wondering across our back yard. I had never seen a crane so close in the wild and the children and I watched them with fascination from the house while Dad went outside to take pictures (thus the last picture is of the birds flying away.)

A Mother's Hands

As I was scrubbing the children's plastic potty this morning, I thought about a mother's hands and the things they do. Not so much just the truly gross things that I find myself doing as a mother that it is not likely I would do otherwise, but all of the things a mother's hands do to take care of her family and share her love with them.

• Mother's hands tuck in children at night, even when they think they are too old to be tucked in.
• Her hands carry us when we are little, love us better when we are hurt, and give us high 5's when we celebrate.
• Mother's hands scrub toliets, wash dishes, and clean up bodily fluids of all kinds.
• Her hands help restrain us from getting hurt or need to stop and focus before we move forward into something without thinking.
• Mother's hands answer the telephone so we can visit when we are away from home.
• Her hands prepare the food we eat, pour drinks, feed us, and fill our plates.
• Mother's hands select items from the store that make our lives continue to run as smoothly as possible.
• Her hands turn the pages of the books we read together and put the movies in the VCR for us to watch.
• Mother's hands dress small children and give them baths.
• Her hands buckle seatbelts and drive the car to get us from place to place.
• Mother's hands make our clothes or help us pick out clothes at the store.
• Her hands wipe snotty noses and check fevered brows.
• Mother's hands hold pencils and paper while teaching us to write and draw, and they help us with our homework and projects as we get older.
• Her hands lock the doors and windows to make sure we are safe in our home.
• Mother's hands write the notes and letters that are quiet reminders of her love for us.
• Her hands do the laundry to make sure we have clean clothes to wear.
• Mother's hands catch us when we fall.
• Her hands are attached to the arms that are always open to us.
• Mother's hands point to new things for us to see, learn, and do.
• Her hands pay the bills using checks or the computer, or both to be sure our needs are met.
• Mother's hands are often found giving service to others.
• Her hands play peek-a-b00, board and card games, ring around the rosies, basketball, volleyball, hide and seek, and every game a child can come up with.
• Mother's hands wrap presents for birthdays, Christmas, and other celebrations.
• Her hands show us how to work and clean.
• Mother's hands search the internet for information and entertainment.
• Her hands search for books to read for herself and her family.

A mother's hands do so many things it is hard to name them all. It is amazing what a mother's hands can do.

Pictures & Photography

My sweet husband got me an early birthday present. He called the LDS Business College to see if I was eligible for a "refresher course" (alumni are eligible to take one course for free every three years and it is considered a refresher course.) While I do not need a refresher course in accounting, I have wanted to take a photography course for a long time and not been able to fit one in my schedule while I was going to school full time. So for birthday, Michael decided that he would like to see me enroll in a photography course so I can learn a little more about taking pictures and using a camera. He said that he found one and called to check on all of the details for me and said that he would watch the kids while I go to class. I was surprised and excited at the same time, so I ran up to LDSBC today to fill out my paperwork and get registered for class. I am excited!

It was also nice to visit a lot of my old coworkers at LDSBC. Even though it has been over a year since I had the chance to visit everyone it felt like it had only been a few days. I miss working at LDSBC, but I enjoy being home more. I am looking forward to my class and will be sharing some of the things I am learning.

Must Feed Sheep...

Last night we went to the garden do some watering and weeding. Bekah spotted the sheep across the street and immediately started scooting across the grass to go see the sheep. I tried to pick her up and bring her back into the yard, but she wasn't satisfied until we went over and fed the sheep from the grass that grows outside their pen. She actually fed the sheep by herself and didn't shiver or shake when they got close to her hand. The only response was to try to pick more grass when the sheep had eaten everything she was holding.

To let you know how redundant our life is, I mean besides feeding the sheep being blog-worthy, I found cucumbers in my garden last night. I thought all of my cucumber plants had died and when I was weeding around my pumpkins I found some cucumber plants with a dozen cucumbers ready to be picked. Growing your own garden is so satisfying. The food seems that much more valuable and tasteful when it is something you have put a lot of time and effort into. I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to grow a garden this year and look forward to planning a place for one in our yard next year.

Games Children Play

One of the presents Michael received for his birthday was the game Crazy 8’s (8-08-08). Benjamin was excited to play the game and is actually very good at it. It is a good game for matching colors and numbers and Benjamin enjoys playing it with us. He is very good at games.
Benjamin loves to play with this game. Can you guess why? It makes noise and has a lot of movement. When we play the game with him he giggles about who is going to eat all of the marbles first.

This is another game that Benjamin likes to play with the pieces of. The first couple of times that we played the game with him he actually played all the way through, but after that he just wanted to match the cards to the people on the game board and sort the colors into different piles. Lately he has shown more interest in wanting to actually play the game instead of playing with the pieces.


No, Benjamin does not actually play this game. However, every time we get this game out to play with friends Benjamin wants to sit on our laps and help us by holding and sorting our cards, or reorganizing our game pieces into different piles and configurations.

We love games at our house and apparently it has rubbed off on our son. Bekah even gets into the action by crinkling cards and trying to eat the marbles which we do our best to prevent. We really enjoy having friends over to play games with and have started our own collection of games. Playing games is a great way to stretch our mind and spend enjoyable time visiting with each other.

Girls will be Girls

Bekah is most definitely a girl. Not only does she have the beautiful head of curly blond hair, she loves girl things.

• She loves shoes. Whether is is playing with the shoes in the shoe basket, trying to put them on, or bringing her shoes to Mom to put them on, she loves shoes.
• The phone is a must have. She loves to play with our cell phones. One of her favorite things is actually talking to someone or just pretending to. If she sees the phone she must have it or a tantrum results.
• Accessorizing is fun. She love bracelets and necklaces and even pretends that some of her toys are bracelets (usually the stackable rings that fit perfectly around her little arms.) She plays with Mom's jewelry when she wears it and likes to try it on for herself.
• Bags and babies mean that we are ready to go. Occassionally she will either find one of her bags or Mom's purse or diaper bag and put it over her arm and head for the door. Lately she has also started rocking and packing around her baby dolls just like a little mommy.
• She loves to talk. She has her own little language that she jabbers in for undetermined lengths of time and she has to have your full attention because you know exactly what she is saying. We love her cute stories and that she is learning new words all of the time.
• Changing clothes comes naturally to her. I have the feeling that she is going to learn how to undress and dress herself sooner rather than later and then she will be changing clothes qite often. She already helps by pulling her arms out and pushing them through the sleeves as well as lifting her feet to put on shoes and pants. What girl doesn't love clothes?

Yep. Bekah is definitely a beautiful little girl and we love her very much.

Breakfast

Benjamin loves breakfast. In fact, he love it so much that he is willing to do anything to speed up the process. Since Benjamin is our alarm clock most mornings we have had to figure out a way to turn off the alarm, so to speak. So we started asking him to get out spoons for breakfast and give us a chance to wake up. Over the last several months that has graduated to spoons for everyone (not just Benjamin and Dad), plastic bowls, and cereal, and Benjamin knows who wants a big spoon and who wants a little spoon as well as what kind of bowls to get for Mom and Dad and the kids. I am amazed that our 3 year old can set the breakfast table all by himself. The things he wants to learn and learns how to do amaze me.

More Personality Tests

I took this test three times because I wanted to give three answers on each of the questions. The first one is fairly accurate, but I am a good combination of all three. It looks like Amme and I are different this time.

I did try one other quiz: What punctuation mark are you? (at the bottom) Try that one, Amme, and let's see if we are the same on that one.

You Are 2: The Helper

You are 2: The Helper You always put on a happy face and try to help those around you. You're incredibly empathetic and care about everyone you know. Able to see the good in others, you're thoughtful, warm, and sincere. You connect with people who are charming and charismatic. At Your Best: You are deeply giving, altruistic, and humble. You devote your life to others while caring for yourself too. At Your Worst: You are manipulative and enjoy making other people guilty. Your Fixation: Rejection Your Primary Fear: Being unworthy of love Your Primary Desire: To be loved unconditionally Other Number 2's: Mother Teresa, John Travolta, Princess Diana, Dr. Phil, and Mr. Rogers.

What Number Are You?

You Are 8: The Challenger

You are 8: The Challenger You're brave, impulsive, and gutsy - loving challenges. You act first and think later. And you're not afraid to speak up. You are confident, so much so that you can be a bit bossy at times. Whether people like it or not, you always stand up for yourself. At Your Best: You are heroic, courageous, and ready to change the rules of the world. A true leader and inspiration. At Your Worst: You intimidate, fight, or threaten to get your way. And you won't back down. Your Fixation: Lust Your Primary Fear: Being harmed or controlled Your Primary Desire: To be independent and self sufficient Other Number 8's: Donald Trump, Courtney Love, Pablo Picasso, Fidel Castro, and Rosie O'Donnell.

What Number Are You?

You Are 6: The Loyalist

You are 6: The Loyalist You have strong relationships and are intensely loyal. People find you easy to love and care for. You like your world to be stable and secure, no surprises. You're cautious. You prefer your inner circle to the outside world. At Your Best: You are courageous, a positive thinker, and expressive. You can take on the world. At Your Worst: You are secretly insecure - which makes you sarcastic, cold, and argumentative. Your Fixation: Doubt Your Primary Fear: Abandonment Your Primary Desire: Security and support Other Number 6's: Mel Gibson, Woody Allen, Jay Leno, Marilyn Monroe, and Julia Roberts. You Are a Question Mark You seek knowledge and insight in every form possible. You love learning. And while you know a lot, you don't act like a know it all. You're open to learning you're wrong. You ask a lot of questions, collect a lot of data, and always dig deep to find out more. You're naturally curious and inquisitive. You jump to ask a question when the opportunity arises. Your friends see you as interesting, insightful, and thought provoking. (But they're not always up for the intense inquisitions that you love!) You excel in: Higher education You get along best with: The Comma What Punctuation Mark Are You?

I have to admit that I have a weakness for personality quizzes and would spend hours taking them to find out more about myself if I had the time.

Sidewalk Chalk

Yesterday we picked up some sidewalk chalk at the store. Today we got it out and decorated our back patio. The pictures don't show the cute pictures that we drew very well, but we had a lot of phone drawing on the pavement.

Thunderstorm Beauty

On Saturday, we had a gentle thunderstorm. Meaning, the house didn't feel like it was going to fall down around our ears and the sunshine was coming through the clouds intermittently. The rain was also fairly gentle even though it was falling in huge droplets that sounded almost like hail. Michael took some great pictures of what the clouds and sun were doing outside. Please ignore the cows, they were in the one spot where there were no houses on the way to our house.

Dinosaurs at the Dinosaur Museum

I have posted a lot of pictures about what there is to do at the dinosaur museum and why Benjamin loves going there so much. Michael took some great pictures of the exhibits when he took the kids on Saturday, and I borrowed the pictures from him as usual. I think we are feeding each other's habits. I love to blog and he loves to take pictures, so as long as he is taking pictures and sharing them with me I post them on the blog to share with everyone else. However, I do believe that I will probably slow down on my blogging sooner than he will slow down on taking pictures. Anyway, here are the dinosaurs.



The children call this their 'pet' dinosaur. They love to climb on it, poke its eyes, and give it hugs. It is one of the hands on activities and right behind it are the top 10 questions (or most frequently asked questions) about dinosaurs, thus Mom gets a chance to learn something new each time we go. (I have yet to memorize all ten answers!)

To give you an idea of how big this sea turtle is look at Benjamin down in the right hand corner. The first time Bekah saw this she started to cry because it was so large and so unexpected when we walked from the Tyranosauruses into the the deep sea life room.

One of the guys in our old ward, Brock, put this Triceratops skull together. He is now working on putting the body together but because the skull is so large he needed to get it out of the garage so that he had room to work on the body. Luckily, he has done a lot of work for the museum and they wanted to put it on display for a while.

Utah Raptor

Memories

So I'm finally getting around to the memory post, and I'm posting this because I wanted to leave comments on everyone's blog who has done this already. The first time I saw this was on my friend Becky's blog, and since then it has been everywhere.

1. Leave a comment on my blog, one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.

Benjamin & Dinner

Benjamin has a hard time eating dinner. A couple of nights ago I tried videoing him to get him to eat faster. After three videos and Benjamin eating at the same rate I gave up, but I do have the videos to share because he was being cute.

Playing in the Rain

I was sitting at my craft desk looking out the window at the rain. The sun is shining through the clouds so it is actually warm outside instead of cold. I was thinking of how soothing the sound of rain is when I notice my son holding his jacket out to his dad. He wants to put his jacket on so he can go outside and play. Michael proceeds to help Benjamin put on his jacket and lets him out the back door. Benjamin just stands on our back pad while the rain falls on and around him until Mom and Dad bring their cameras to the back door, and then he proceeds to dance around and play in the rain. Kids are so interesting sometimes!

Michael's Birthday

Yesterday was 8-08-08. Flip the numbers backwards and forwards and they say the same thing. Michael started his day with opening cards and presents and ended his day with cake and ice cream (his favorite!). His parents gave him a card with this fun sticker in it. He wore the sticker all day.

In case you can't read the picture, it says 'It's my birthday, and I'm an incredibly smart, exciting, good-looking person!' Happy Birthday, Michael! We love you!