Sept. 23, 2008

Friday--Lagoon!
I found tickets on Craigslist (I heart Craigslist) for Lagoon... it was $32 for all of us to go to Lagoon, plus parking. Normally tickets are $30 each and parking is $8. Todd and I switched off riding some rides and that was fun because when we went to Disneyland and Marine World I was pregnant and couldn't ride rides. There were no lines, the weather was gorgeous and a good time was had by all.
We are on Alex's favorite ride. A kid ride that we go up and then free fall a couple times. He rode it about 1324098235098715-7 times.

Rockets AND laser guns!

Behind my gorgeous husband is the roller coaster Nathan went on. He wasn't tall enough, but the teenager working the ride didn't care, so he went on his first "mommy daddy ride" and loved it! As we climbed the first hill, I thought he might be scared, but he turned and said "this is going to be SO fun!" At Disneyland he was very mad that he couldn't ride any roller coasters. He is fearless when it comes to rides.

Chunky monkey (and the baby too)
Katherine had lots of fun, too. She was awake most of the time looking at all the lights and twirly spinny things and people.
They fell right asleep on the way home. We were there 4:30-11pm.

We went to the Spanish Fork Harvest Festival the next day. This is the giant mural and everyone painted one square. Nathan painted the dragon head (yellow eye, pink fire)
bowling with pumpkins
This lady is pregnant and was there 4-8pm doing balloons. CRAZY!
The farmers

On Sunday, Ryan, Shannon, and our gang went on a drive and picnic in the mountains to look at the pretty fall leaves. The camera didn't do the colors justice AT ALL. They were so vibrant and beautiful-- yellows, oranges, reds...

Nathan and Alex on an adventure to find leaves and stuff

Nathan fell asleep and Ryan is picking his nose.
Nathan just woke up and he's not happy
Here is Ryan throwing Alex into the water.
Todd and Shannon are having a picnic :)
Happy Fall!

Today Todd met us for lunch at a Japanese Sushi restaurant. We are learning about Japan in history right now, so we went on a field trip.

Look Mom... this outfit fits her now!
Todd likes his Japanese food.

The boys and I made pumpkin cookies tonight. Here they are testing the dough. They decorated Pringles cans to put the cookies in and we're giving one to Nancy (Nathan's future wife who is 65), and Erika (we miss her so!)

Katherine is looking intently at her daddy while he talks to her. She is trying with all her might to steady her head! What a sooooooo cute baby!

Sept. 19, 2008

Here is the flower bed this year. The grass needs help. Halloween decorations curteousy of Alex.

Sept. 18, 2008

We have a new tradition in our family, and that's "family time". I got the idea from here: http://www.he-and-she.com/TeaParty/adventure.html .
Every night before bed we turn off the lights, light the candles, turn on relaxing music, drink something from our teacups (except Todd has a regular cup) and sometimes have a little treat. We talk and be together and relax for about 15 or 20 minutes and all of us love it, even and especially the boys.

I'm excited because Alex loves music! Todd showed Alex how to create his own playlist on itunes and he made one. Sometimes when I wake up he is downstairs listening to music. One time, Alex was listening to his music (The Promise by Tracy Chapman) and he had tears in his eyes! I sat down and we listened to music together and I showed him some of my favorite songs. It was so fun and exciting to have someone to share music with that loves it as much as I do! So I bought some tickets to some BYU events (choir, orchestra, band, etc.) that I'm taking him on a date to (thanks, dad).

On another random note, I was noticing lately how happy I am. Ever since the baby was born and I'm off the emotional rollercoaster, I have been so happy. I have a great (for lack of a better word) husband who is my best friend, I have the cutest baby girl in the world that I can dress up in bows and dresses and pink, pink, pink, and dream of our future together in girl-world (tea parties, reading girl books, mother- daughter dates, etc. etc. etc.), I have two wonderful boys who have turned out to be really great friends to me (and to each other) and they always (well, 99% of the time...I'm remembering this afternoon when "numero uno" decided to write on our living room chair with a pen...what the...???) make me smile :), we are all healthy and safe, none of us are stressed out (namely by daycare), I have energy again (I hibernated the last 3 weeks of pregnancy, literally...right, mom?), Todd has a great job that financially covers all of our needs and he likes his job (free lunches and massages), I'm loving doing school with the boys, so I don't feel like my day consists of surviving and taking care of the physical needs of the wee ones-- I am teaching them important stuff! and it gives my day purpose and feels more meaningful and I can have fun and be creative with it; and I can read funny blogs that give me a daily laugh. I'm so happy that I am keeping my house clean...(those of you who have fallen off your chair, I'll give you time to recoup). It's by no means spotless, but it's pretty dang good for Kristie standards. (Not that it means I'm unhappy when the house is messy, obviously.)

Kid's journals sept. 10

Sept. 17, 2008

We made caramel and chocolate apples tonight:

Nathan is truly ambidextrious (how in the heck do you spell that??). When we first started school, he would write his letters and numbers with both hands, doing equally well with either hand. Lately, though, he pretty much just uses his left hand. (It's funny how much Allison's Kevin and Nathan are alike!) Nathan hit a plateau with reading over the summer, and he started hating it, so we stopped for a while, until we started school in August. Just this last week, he has had a breakthrough! I am so excited! He loves to read again and is learning a ton every day. We started getting books from the leveled library at Alex's (old) school. I think he likes to be like Alex so that's what did it for him (Alex gets books on his level, too).

I started doing math with them seperately. Alex is really good at math and is whizzing through. Nathan is also really good at math but just doesn't go as fast as Alex. Doing school has made me see how really smart Alex is. Nathan is really outspoken, so it is more obvious with Nathan, but since we started, I am so amazed at how quickly Alex picks things up. The other day Alex wanted to buy a book for $4. Around the house he finds quarters, so he was thinking, and then told me, "I need 16 quarters to get the book"-- he figured it all out on his own!

I really love to be their teacher. It is so much fun to teach them and see them learning new things. After doing home school/online school for a little over a month, I am seeing how it is a much better education than public school. Alex went to a great school for kindergarten, with a really great teacher, but they can't get the kind of education in a classroom with 30 kids as you can one on one, and with a different setting-- What I mean is, we go on field trips every Friday. Last Friday we went to Salt Lake to This Is The Place Pioneer park. They learned about how life was lived back in the 1800's when the pioneers came to Utah and built one room log cabins. I was watching the boys do chores there- washing clothes on a washboard and hanging them up on the line, beating a rug, combing wool to be spun into yarn, etc. (they loved it) with other kids who do this homeschool program, and I thought, "now this is education!" Hands on, and fun, but still learning. Today I taught them how to spell and write their full names.

We also decided that we like to clean now. (Really I hate, no--DESPISE cleaning) but we decided to say that we like cleaning now, and do it without complaining. (One of those "if we say it enough, maybe we'll start to believe it" kind of things). We'll get up and do scripture study like usual, but then we'll do our chores together before starting school. We did it today all together-- I even made them help me clean the bathroom. Since they are young boys, they miss the potty sometimes (99% of the time, really). They were grossed out having to clean the bathroom, so I hope this improves their aim! They really like to do cleaning, just not the "picking stuff up" part. They fight over who gets to mop, do dishes and do laundry (and who can put the soap in). They also love to wipe counters (anything really), and use the spray bottle to clean windows. I have to redo everything, but right now we're just forming habits, right??

My favorite hobby right now is reading blogs of people I don't know but are funny, and people I do know. Every day I check the "C Jane" blog. Her sister had a major surgery today and I was thinking about her all day! Our family prays for their family, and I have never met them. I'm not a big reader, but I really love reading blogs. Wierd, huh? (Sidenote...I also love reading family blogs. I always check to see if there's a new post and I bet you I'm the first to read it!)

Little baby Katherine had a bath this afternoon and smells like newborn baby and baby soap! I wish I had a smell capturer (like camera is to pictures, smell capturer is to smells). We love her noises. She started squeaking when she gets upset, breathing in and squeaking. She sounds like a squeaky toy. I also love her baby movements. I went in to check on her sleeping just now and she started wiggling around and tooting. She's good at that.

It's 3:30AM and here's what my family looks like right now:

(I'm such a night person... WHY CAN'T I SLEEP??)

Sept. 14, 2008

the cute little plop is watching something on the computer (it just turned black in the pic)
She is fascinated by it
They were selling puppies outside Wal-Mart and Nathan said, "Take a picture of me!"
Todd let me get some new bows for Katherine... so cute!!
So cute, even when she cries:( (Help! Mommy put some crazy thing on my head that reminds me of a 1980's wedding dress!!)

As I was posting picture, I heard Katherine fussing a bit, and when I turned around, this is what I saw... (poor girl...it's rough being a girl!)

Sept. 10, 2008

Today I printed out Halloween themed add/sub story problems for the kids' math lesson. I started reading one: "There are six people in line to buy a costume. Suzy is 5th in line. How many people are in front of her?" Nathan started guessing numbers (all wrong) and then said in his Nathan way, "I'm outta here!" and got up and walked off. I guess it was a little too much...

After doing school with the boys, I've gained much appreciation for teachers. They all need raises! I think that I am a pretty patient person, especially with my kids, but it takes an infinite amount of patience to be a teacher! For instance, I was teaching Nathan "the" as a sight word. I showed it to him, and said "This says 'the'. What is this word?" Nathan said, "umm, 'was'?"

Today I asked Alex if this sentence needed a question mark or a period: "we go for a ride" He said: "take a taxi". I said "question mark or period??" He said "Just take the taxi!!" Where did I go wrong?? I think if I were a teacher of 30 kids, and dealing with behavior problems, I would be like Nathan: "I'm outta here!!"

They are good little learners, though, and we have fun. As soon as Todd comes home to show me how to do the scanner, I'll post some of their writing.

Sept. 7, 2008

I got this from another blog:

" Basket-head mother, not I!

Sometimes life feels this way.
I really enjoyed this quote by Anna Quindle.Elder M. Russell Ballard quoted her in my favorite talk"Author Anna Quindlen reminds us not to rush past the fleeting moments.{or if I could enter here-the basket-head mother syndrome} She said: “The biggest mistake I made [as a parent] is the one that most of us make. . . . I did not live in the moment enough. This is particularly clear now that the moment is gone, captured only in photographs. There is one picture of [my three children] sitting in the grass on a quilt in the shadow of the swing set on a summer day, ages six, four, and one. And I wish I could remember what we ate, and what we talked about, and how they sounded, and how they looked when they slept that night. I wish I had not been in such a hurry to get on to the next thing: dinner, bath, book, bed. I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less”(Loud and Clear [2004], 10–11).
Starting today I am going to be better. I never had a basket-head mother, and I AM NOT GOING TO BE A BASKET-HEAD MOTHER! I am going to listen, love, communicate, cherish, enjoy, teach, preach and prepare my children. Time for everything else later. "

It just so happens that the mother of 4 young children who wrote this blog is in the hospital, with 80% of her body covered in burns and a 60-70% chance of living. Here is the story:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/07/fashion/07burn.html?_r=2&pagewanted=1&sq=By%20ALEX%20WILLIAMS&st=nyt&scp=1&oref=slogin
I put the update blog on my sidebar. Read "c jane's" blogs before the accident... they are hillarious!

Sept. 5, 2008

We spent the day at Thanksgiving Point (I love that place!) and had a really fun time. We got to the Dino Museum when it opened at 10am, we were meeting other K12 (our homeschool/online school) families there. We had to wake up at 8:30 and Alex said he didn't want to do any more activities so early in the morning:) (we are a little turned around right now). We spent a few hours at the dino museum with their friends, and then had a picnic lunch on the grass. It was an absolutely perfect, gorgeous day! Then we looked at in the shops there, and the boys did good while I looked in "Mommy stores". Then we went to the farmers market there and had a lot of samples. Then we spent the rest of the day in the free garden area. My idea of heaven-a beautiful day, a beautiful garden, holding my beautiful baby girl and playing with my handsome boys-- it doesn't get better than that!

Nathan is obsessed with this Megaladon shark in the din0 museum (and the t-rex).
I laughed out loud when I saw these garden plaques:) (sorry if this offends anyone)

NO PHONE

I don't have a phone right now. Email me if you need to get ahold of me. A little neighbor boy threw it in the pool.

Sept. 2, 2008

I'm having a lot of fun with Katherine. 1. she's very cute 2. she's a calm baby 3. when she cries in the car, Todd and I can still have a conversation 4. She's a girl so I can do fun girl things with her 5. She's our third baby, so we are much more relaxed with her. We know we can keep them alive, for at least 6 years.

Here's the cute new shirt I got Katherine: