midnight thoughts

It's midnight, and I don't want to go to bed! Once the kids are asleep in bed, the house is actually QUIET and I get some alone time and down time. If I go to sleep, it will end! So, I decided to write a post and then go to bed:).

-I am so proud of my boys! We've memorized all 25 scripture masteries from the Book of Mormon, so now we're going back and reviewing them and making sure they can match the reference to the scripture. We're also learning the articles of Faith. Alex knows the first seven already. We've been playing games to review them and they are amazing me. They love it and ask to do it, too! I thought about writing what we do on my homeschool blog. Today I gave them a story or question and they had to give me the reference and say the scripture. For example, one was "Are Mormons Christians?" and they said Article of Faith 1 and said it. It's made me happy all day:).

-I let Alex blow in my flute the other day and he's a natural! He made a beautiful sound! Amazing! so piano will be his main insturment, but I'm going to teach him the flute. It would be a waste not to!

-After going on the church history tour and learning about the pioneers, I've been interested in me and Todd's geneology and learning about the pioneers in our ancestory. I got a family tree chart for me (15 generations) and the boys (8 generations). The boys are almost done filling out their charts. I've been collecting personal histories so I can read them to the kids. I was so surprised to find that we are living either next to or ON my ancestor's family farm! My mom's dad's side of the family all were pioneers that settled in Spanish fork Utah! As I learn more about that side, I tell the kids the things I learn as we drive around town. Some of our ancestor's pictures are in the town history museum (daughters of Utah pioneers spanish fork).  Tonight we were at Todd's grandparents' house and they were telling us stories about ancestors, and what they remembered about their parents and their grandparents. We were also talking about how everyone was at one time a child at the end of the line. But when the boys showed the grandparents their charts, they (being the boys' great grandparents) were higher up the line. All those names high up in the line, at one time were our age and were real people. It makes me think about what kind of legacy I want to leave for my posterity. It makes me have a better perspective about my life when I think of it that way. What things will I do that will have a lasting impact on my kids and their kids, etc? Grandpa said that all he remembers about one of his grandmas is that she was fussy about everything being in order and her doilies she had everywhere not getting messed up. Not the kind of legacy that I'd want to leave. He talked so highly of his mother, going on and on about how she, as a single mother in the Depression, raised 4 boys who were smart, great men. That is a good legacy. Being a mother is SOOOOOO important!! A friend of mine's son (he's around 5 years old) was just diagnosed with cancer. On her blog she said how her perspective as a mother has really changed. Everything is so simple now: family is everything and nothing else really matters. She said they saw a butterfly and her son was looking at the butterfly, and she let him watch it for a really long time. Before the diagnosis, she wouldn't have spent so much time on such a "trite" thing, there were things to do and busy lives to live! I've been thinking about that a lot. Why is it that this sounds good? Maybe it's not about the butterfly, but about having a bonding moment, and stopping to have that moment to share together. Maybe it's stopping to appreciate, finding joy and happiness and contentment in the small and simple things that we already have if we stop and look for them. And there's just something about nature, that is so peaceful, that when I stop and appreciate it I feel God's love.

fall heaven!

I decided to drive up Hobble Creek Canyon and it was so gorgeous!! The weather was so perfect (probably 70'). At Jolley's Ranch there were trees with lots of leaves all over and we were the only ones there. We all thought it was heaven and never wanted to leave. (click on pictures to enlarge)

Here are the kids throwing leaves:

playing in the leaves with Manzo too:

Abbie finds a patch of dirt to play in:

Making leaf angels:

When the wind blew, it rained a shower of beautiful golden leaves. That's an old barn, but it's just a public area now. I would give anything to live right here!

 
                                              the boys are in heaven:

so is Manzo. Here he is rolling in the leaves:

The girls decided they wanted to roll in the leaves too:

SO SO beautiful. The pictures don't even do it justice:

Alex, my beautiful boy:)

Alex and Katherine playing. This is on my desktop wallpaper. precious!!:

Ring around the rosie:

Look at Nathan's happy face:

We all fall down!

Manzo:

Abbie "playing" with Manzo:):

look at his eyes:

such a good dog:

awwww...

what a cutie!!

I think I'll have to frame this one, even if she only has one pig tail in:

Adorable!!!

Fall Heaven!!

boys' surveys

Name: Alex


Name your favorite...

hobby: social dance

sport: football

car/vehicle: airplane

color: blue

movie: The Last Airbender

TV show: Eon Kid

animal: bird

food: steak

dessert: apple pie

music: The Happy Farmer (piano piece)

school subject: science

book: Henry Huggins

Do you collect anything? I like to find sticks

What do you do for fun? piano

What do you want to be when you grow up? a composer

What are your special talents: piano, building, reading and helping

What is your dream vacation? to live in AZ with Dallin

What is something about yourself that you would like to change or improve?
being nice
What is something about yourself that you like? I like that I can play the piano

How would your mom or dad describe you? loving, loves music, doesn't like making decisions, loves to read, good at building, always content, social- loves to be with friends, sensitive, likes movies, loves learning

How would you describe your personality? always filled with energy

What else would you like to say about you? nothing

Name: Nathan


Name your favorite...

hobby: violin

sport: running

car/vehicle: motorcycle

color: orange

movie: Rio

TV show: Spongebob

animal:all the animals (he LOVES animals)

food: soup

dessert: daddy's eclairs

music: carmen Suite

school subject: reading

book: scriptures

Do you collect anything? no

What do you do for fun? play the Wii

What do you want to be when you grow up? a paleontologist

What are your special talents: running

What is your dream vacation? China

What is something about yourself that you would like to change or improve? getting better at the violin

What is something about yourself that you like? everything

How would your mom or dad describe you? sweet, caring, good at playing with little kids, good at math and reading, determined, goal oriented, loves animals, loves learning, loves swords and playing pretend battles, sensitive, good back scratcher

How would you describe your personality? nice

What else would you like to say about you? nothing

Update

There was a time that I was always updating my blog, and it was interesting. What has happened??
So, I will give a quick update. We just got back from our 4, 626 mile road trip church history and visiting Tawnya trip. We went to Palmyra sites and Peter Whitmer's home, Kirtland, Nauvoo and Carthage. The kids did great. It was a great trip.

Abbie is learning so many words so quickly. I think she is going to be so smart. If she wants something, she says, "Mine." That is the word we hear all day. The kids have gerbils and at the Sacred Grove she saw a squirrel and said, "gerbil!" She likes to dance. She'll try and lift her legs and fling her arms around like Katherine. She has the biggest smile and she is a very happy girl and laughs all the time. She still sucks her thumb constantly. She is the only one who ever sucked her thumb. Katherine had a pacifier, and the boys didn't want anything. She takes one nap during the day and sleeps 11-12 hours at night. She's 16 months old. To say drink she says, "dink." When we say, "Abbie, do big eyes," she opens her eyes and mouth really wide.  She likes to put on necklaces and carry dollies or stuffed animals.

Katherine is doing ballet now at the Classical Ballet Academy in Provo. She misses her old dance studio, but she really likes the ballet, so I thought that this would fit her better. At first I wanted her to go to both, but there's only so much time and money! She wants to be doing everything the boys do. She likes to sing- real songs and made up songs. Right now she's in her underwear, with two different shoes on, eating a piece of bread, singing and rolling around on the couch. And feeding some of her bread to Manzo dog. She is stinkin adorable right now, which is good when she has one of her screaming tantrums. Like the rest of my kids, she has a set of lungs and a high pitch scream. I should get all my kids into opera singing. She says the funniest things. I should be writing them down. She loves giving me hugs and kisses. She is so sweet with Abbie and calls her "my dear, sweetheart," etc. She just cut her own hair for the first time. It's not extremely noticeable, thank goodness. She cut the top layer of bangs really short. She really loves horses and we're taking horse riding lessons as a family. She got pink cowgirl boots and a pink cowgirl hat. She loves riding horses and she's not scared at all. She was so excited to get on the horse yesterday for our lesson. She stopped taking naps when she turned two, but last month I started doing quiet time for her when Abbie is taking her nap. She has to stay in my bed for an hour, and I give her a lot of books and toys and puzzles she can do, or she can go to sleep. If she stays in the bed, she gets a little candy. That way I can do school with the boys during that time. Then I just give the boys assignments they can work on by themselves when the girls are awake. I'm going to do preschool with her, and we did a project where she cut something out, and she did it! I only helped a little. She knows her colors, and mostly her shapes, and how to count to 10 and mostly to 20. She can sing the ABC song, and can identify "K for Katherine" and the number 3 and 2. That is all stuff she just picked up, I didn't teach her except her colors. She still loves Signing Time and knows lots of signs. On our 4, 626 mile trip, we pretty much watched Signing Time that whole time. Here's what Katherine says:
What do you like? Bingaroo. (a word she made up. She makes up all sorts of stuff. she's very creative.) I like happy, not sad, just happy. (singing Baby Signing Time now).
do you like nursery? no. i just like scra' meeting. (she really does like nursery, unlike the boys at that age.)
Do you want to tell a story? I want a story about a nutcracker.
Tell me the nutcracker story: no, you say the nutcracker story.
What do you like? the gerbils, Manzo, pretty dancing, Abbie, riding my bike, going down the slide
I wanna say good-bye. k, good-bye.

The boys are really in to Halloween this year, like every year. When we got back from our trip, it was a lot cooler, and so the boys decided it was Halloween time! They went up and made black and orange count down chains and other things. We've been listening to the "Wee Sing for Halloween" songs. I got the cd when the boys were little and we love it and listen to it every year. Alex has been playing some of the songs on the piano because it comes with a song book. Alex loves piano. He's always loved music. He's been growing a lot lately. This last year I think he's gotten a lot bigger (and moodier, too).  Right now Nathan is doing his boom boom game with a purple light saber. He's running back and forth across the living room making explosion noises and pretending to fight monsters and bad guys. All the toys my boys need are swords and legos. Alex got a snap circuit set and played with it non stop- he loved it. He loves building things. They just started their Friday school, and they're taking art, sewing and cooking, making things work, nature studies, social dance and lego robotics. They loved all their classes except sewing, because everyone needed help and so they spent most of the class waiting for the teacher to help them. Then at lunch they didn't have my boys' names down (a mix up) and they called me crying that they didn't have a lunch. I went over there and got it all worked out and they ate their lunch late.

We are hoping for a warm fall! We planted our garden late, and we have tons of green tomatoes and green pumpkins and we've never, in all our time here, actually had a good tomato harvest or a pumpkin! I think I've planted them most years, too. It's a wonder I love to garden so much when I'm really not that good at it. I just figure I'll learn and I always say NEXT year will be great!

We had our family horse riding lesson yesterday and it was so much fun. I am so sore today though. My shoulders, back and legs are so sore! People make riding a horse look easy! It's hard! We did galloping last month, and yesterday Todd and I did cantering or lop. All I've got to say is that saddles need seatbelts!

right now Todd is making Nathan's special day dinner, which is mummy dogs, homemade macaroni and cheese and apple pie.

An update to the update: I went outside and found some ripe tomatoes! Yay!! Today from our yard I picked: lots of little white pumpkins, strawberries, blackberries, spinach, basil and tomatoes!! I found a little zucchini on our plant- hopefully it can grow maybe one before frost. Our pumpkin plant has about 10 pumpkins, but I'm doubtful they'll make it to be orange. We also have 5 cantelope on our plant, so I'm hoping it stays warm! so far this has been the best year for a food garden. Also this year our white nectarine tree gave us lots of good fruit...so good we call it forbidden fruit.

Other half of April

Every year Todd's grandparents have an Easter egg hunt at their house. Here are the kids in their backyard:

Then they decorated Easter cookies:

In Abbie's Easter basket, she got an "Alice in wonderland" theme: A book, Queen of Hearts Tarts, and Tea Party Lemonade. (I printed out pictures and glued them on the packages):

Katherine got a bunny theme: carrot seeds, jelly beans in a rabbit jar, a real rabbit, Rabbit lemonade and a Peter Rabbit puzzle in a box (that she loves):

Alex and Nathan got: seeds, a popcorn bowl, jelly beans in a rabbit jar, chocolate milk (covered in an Easter picture that I glued on as well), a how to decorate cool sugar cookies book (for fun or for a business for them), magic card tricks, and a recipe binder to write down the recipes they learn with their daddy:

Todd made Easter bread bunnies:

Here are my beautiful and handsome kids ready for Easter Sunday:

For our homeschool group, I did an "author's guild" once a month for boy's club. The kids would write something on a theme I would give them, and they would come and turn it in at the activity that would have to do with that theme. This month it was "miniature theme" and I read "The Borrowers" with the boys and then they wrote about if they were little. The kids loved that book, and they are now convinced that Borrowers are real, and want to go in the crawl space with flashlights to look for them. For the activity, we met at the park and ate a miniature meal: pie, soda, banana, potato and hot dog (lil smokies in a bun Todd made) on little plates: