Sunday Letters

I read a book a couple months ago entitled the "Wednesday Letters".  The premise of this book is that the father figure dies and as the children are going through his things they find boxes of letters, one for every Wednesday of their marriage from the father to the mother.  While I have no intention of solving familial issues or unlocking mysteries of past skeletons, I do love the idea of a weekly letter and would like to be more consistent in writing to and about my children so someday they can look back and have a record of our ordinary wonderful life together, and so they can be reminded of the things that are most important to me.

This week we've tried again to redouble our efforts to do those things that matter most.  Last Sunday was a beautiful fast meeting - full of testimony and spirit.  I guess right now is a "high time" where things Spiritual are concerned for me.  I hope I'm not the only one that finds myself in peaks and valleys of spirituality, although I strive for consistency.  I have loved my scripture study and have been reading from the book, "Stand ye in Holy Places" by Herald B. Lee.  It is wonderful.

Just a few days ago we decided we needed a night with just each other and the best place we could think to go was the temple.  Having an announcement of the new temple to be built here is wonderful, but doesn't remove the immediate need for us to worship in the temple.  We headed to St. George and enjoyed a blissful time doing initiatory work.  It has been SO long since I did this work and my Spiritual cup was filled to overflowing.

I felt that same overwhelming spirit today as I taught my beautiful primary class.  We discussed covenants.  As I prepared our lesson I remembered Grandpa Guymon and how he always said, "I can tie that knot" - regarding the sealing ordinance.  I brought some rope and we discussed the covenants we make at baptism.  I held up one end of the rope as we discussed what we promise and the other end as we discussed what Heavenly Father promises us.  Then we tied the knot.  I testified that as we keep our covenants, and God ALWAYS keeps his promises to us, then we can bind Satan so he cannot have power over us.  I also reminded my cute class that when we fail to keep our covenants, or when we let our obedience "slip" (like a knot slipping) then the knots are untied and loosened and Satan has more power over us.

What an amazing thing covenants are!  I'm so thankful that Heavenly Father is willing to make promises with me - even knowing that I'll break my promises occasionally.  The gift of Repentance is so humbling to me, and I want to utilize it more!  I have loved the increase in the Spirit that I have felt as I try diligently to read and study and pray and not lose patience with the kids.  If only I were "there" in that department.  I think the harder I try to be a "good mother" the more I am faced with moments that push  me to my limit.  I still yell.  I still get frustrated.  I still have moments where I know I'm doing it wrong - but do it anyway.  And yet, I hope I'm getting better.  I hope I'm loving more.  I hope I'm listening better.  Maybe that's what Paul meant when he said, "We hope all things".

And so for my kids, if there is one wish I could have for you it would be that you will MAKE  & KEEP SACRED COVENANTS with your Heavenly Father!  This has been the source of the greatest joy, the greatest comfort, the greatest peace and the greatest hope of my life.

Random Week

These are the only pictures on my camera this week.  Not impressive, but I guess that's a reflection of our crazy busy life and my determination to be more on top of the meal preparation part of being Mom and Wife.  So far, so good.  Mornings go so much better when the breakfast is already made the night before or at least in my head.  Evenings go so much better when dinner is ready before Daddy gets home and most of the cleanup is done also.  Ahh, housewife harmony.  It's bliss.

Darla and Daddy love to cuddle and I love that she still looks small when she's in his arms (that's about the only time the little heifer looks small, I can't believe what a chunk our dainty Darla has become)

Ksenya recently had a sad incident in which her violin got broken.  In an attempt to get enough money to buy a new one we decided to sell these fun little lemon trees that we sprouted from seeds.  I was amazed at how many people wanted to buy them and within one day we had sold enough to order her new violin.

I don't even know what this is a picture of except that he is growing every second and is in a highly mischievous  stage right now.  I love him, but sometimes it's a lot of work :)

I've also been taking time here and there to make our house a little more functional.  This is the tiny corner in the laundry room at the crossroads of the back door and the kitchen door.  It is always a pile of (usually muddy) shoes.  So I built these little shelves so the kids' shoes can be put up off the floor (even Darla can reach her shelf) and they are only allowed out one pair at a time.  So far it has helped me retain a little floorspace in the kitchen.

It's also sprouting season.  What you see here is the silhouette of my new sprouting shelves.  This is the only safe Southern facing window in our house (meaning up high enough that the littles can't reach it and we aren't closing blinds in it all the time.

We also needed some benches as there isn't quite enough room in the kitchen for actual chairs.  I measured exactly what size I wanted them and went through the scrap wood at my parent's house and built these benches.  They were awful - wobbly and bendy and ridiculously not level.   After a frustrated Mommy had a few lessons in building from a very patient Daddy I decided to try and sure them up a little and now they work just fine.  Still not a work of art by any means, but they are working and all 8 of us can now sit comfortably around the table.

Here we have Darlin' taking care of one of the babies.  This particular baby used to be the same size as her but now she's finally hit her growth spurt you can once again tell which is the baby doll and which is the baby Darla.  Crazy busy random life and post, but sometimes that's the most accurate depiction of our crazy wonderful life.

Lovely Mischief

There are no words.  We love her so much!

Easter 2013

For Easter we went out to Grandpa Horse's house for a fun day with Teniah and Kiki.  Here is the group before the chaos began.  There were SO many eggs this year and it really was a mad dash and each got more than they needed.  They were all sweet though, and looked out for each other.

After the chase they settled in for some good old binging and trading and it was fun to see what each of them tried to collect.

Leisl loved her first hunt and went after a whole one egg.  She was cute as can be and thought it was so fun to watch all the bigger kids run around like crazies.  

Grandma Lu

We went on an adventure to take pictures of Grandma Lu the other day.  She's "in the market" as it were and as lovely as can be.  She's such a fun lady and the herd enjoyed running around SUU with her and making her laugh.  

We had to snap a picture of all of us with her.  You can tell how much the kids love her!  You can never have too many Grandmas.

Danny Boy

This is our neighbor Danny.  He is the sweetest boy and Kabe's newest friend.  They are pretty much inseparable and sweet as can be.  The boys like to build ramps out in the wild back yard for their pine wood derby cars. His angel Grandmother sent this Easter cake over to our house and my herd pretty much drooled over it for 3 days before I let them eat it.  So sweet.  What fun to have great neighbors!!!

Rockin' Out

Darla has decided that Ksenya's ipod is really hers.  She has used her mad skills to convince Ksenya to let her play with it at bedtime (so that she's quiet and her big sisters can sleep).  Many nights I'll go in to turn off the lights and find my 2-year-old playing a matching game on the ipod.  She is very smart and knows her way around the technology. 

Recently, her sister showed her how to listen to music.  Darla LOVES music and loves to dance and sing to it.  It's so funny to watch her jiving out.  The other day I caught her like this, just beebopping away and I wanted to see what music she was listening to.  "Angels we have heard on high" was the track playing and she was very distressed when I tried to 'listen' with her.  What a sweet silly girl.

Leisl's First Birthday

It's your very first birthday, a year old - it's true, and this little poem is all about you! 

You are easy to smile and giggle and laugh.  You like to be chased and crawl very fast. 

You occasionally bite with your mouthful of teeth, you snuggle with Mommy and love Uncle Heath. 

You're learning to walk but won't try when we look, you hold your own bottle, your toys and your book.

You're sweeter than honey your bright as a star, if there's one spoiled baby in our house - You ARE!

We love you Baby Leisl - Happy Birthday.

Scouts Rock!

I have finally wrapped my heart around scouting.  For the longest time I thought it was "extra".  Like "good for you - your son's an Eagle Scout, bonus points".  

I've recently had an education.  For the last 3 years my husband has tried to change my heart towards scouting.  It is the activity arm of the Priesthood.  The church spends a LOT of money to be a part of the BSA, Pres. Monson himself is still a scouter.  It must be important.  Then he taught me about what scouting does for a young man.  Not just how to tie knots, lots of camping and amazing survival skills, but honor, dignity, integrity, and a lot of other really cool things I want my sons to BE.

And still, I resisted just a little.  Yes, it's great, yes we'll support it, but I've known some guys who were Eagle Scouts and still royal jerks.  It can't be all that.  Enter the above happy scouter.  He really has changed my heart.  Since starting scouting not even a year ago he has worked his little heart out.  He is diligent and guess what?  It works.  Each time he gets frustrated and wants to give up I simply remind him "do your best".  He wants to be loyal, he knows what all of that means.  A lot of that is due to the AMAZING (read rock-star awesome) Wolf leader he's had.  This woman GETS it!!!

A lot of it is due to this guy (and Uncle Heath and Papa Cox) who are phenomenal examples and support to Kabe and who finally got me on board with the whole Scout "thing".  Oh - and doesn't my husband look HOT in a uniform?  (he'll love me for that later).

Here's Kabe's car.  He did 99% of the work himself and was so very diligent.  I even have the picture he drew in the planning phase and it looks just like this.  Seriously impressed with my little guy and who knew, after all that work he came in 8th place which I thought was pretty impressive for his first try.  Brace yourself world - Mommy is finally on board with raising Scouts!

Birthday Baby

Last year I was having a baby.  Weird.  It doesn't seem like an entire year has gone, but here she is in living proof that she's not a baby anymore.  She's all over the house, she has a whole mouth full of teeth (4 as of her birthday and another sprouted a week later, the sixth is peeking through).  

She loved the tissue paper and knew just what to do with the present.  Then she tore the paper into tiny pieces and proceeded to eat quite a bit before I realized where it had gone.  (fyi - tissue paper comes out the same color it goes in).  She got spoiled by her Grandma's and the kids made a special effort to be extra sweet to her all day.

Then the cake.  WHAT!??  CAKE???  She didn't waste any time with that either since it's her first experience with anything bread-like.  This particular oat/rice/flax version was NOT my favorite, but it was chocolate and so they all ate it and enjoyed it, no-one more than Leisl.  Her expressions made me laugh so hard and she didn't need any help getting it everywhere.

We put her right up in the middle of the table to make her mess and since we were all eating around her she took the opportunity to take hand-fuls from everyone else's plate as well.  What a wonderful baby she's been.  When we named her I knew that she would be "lovely".  That was the word that described each of the names on our list.  They were all a little more elegant, a little more graceful, a little more fancy.  She really is a beautiful spirit, though not without the hallmark Petersen mischief.  We sure love our Lovely Leisl.

Love Spillin' Over

Seriously - how can you NOT kiss those cheeks?  She doesn't seem to mind too much either!  Sweet sisters.  I am amazed at how well my four girls get along (for now).  I always loved my sister, but I never knew how much she loved me until I see my big girlies loving on my little girlies.

The boys don't do too bad together either.  Kabe was helping patch up Brig after a little hurt and he was so very tender.  Funny that these two wear the same clothes, but they're 4 years apart!  Kabe is great to take care of Brigham and Brig is a fun playmate for Kabe (they like to make trouble and mud pies together).

Daddy gives a lot of love too.  Darla is always asking for an adjustment and so when she jumped up on his lap he gave her one.  She was so happy she just giggled.  What a silly girl and she still has the whole house wrapped around her little finger.

Good Luck Charms

Am I the luckiest Mommy in the world or what?  (Don't worry - Brigham is fine, just really didn't want his picture taken.)  Happy St. Patricks Day!  This year I did nothing fun.  It was on Sunday and I was unprepared.  Not to mention, with Leisl's birthday the day after, I think I'm going to let St. Patty's fall by the way-side in the hopes that I'm on top for her birthday.  Still, gotta wear the green and I did get some fun pinching in.  Apparently there's this rule that only Daddy and Kabe knew about that if you wear red on "green day" you get kisses instead of pinches.  Had to laugh when I found out after Kabe had me iron his red shirt for church.  Sadly, Ksenya insisted he change and wear something green so the poor boy didn't get the kisses he'd hoped for.

Crafty Surprises

Ksenya, see this cute headband?  Well, you're taking embroidery and knitting lessons from Grandma Cox.  Every Sunday you spend an hour at her house after church being crafty with Kodi and you keep coming home with amazing skills.  You even tried to teach me how to knit and were so patient as I dropped stitches and tied knots.  You really are growing into a beautiful young woman and I'm constantly surprised at how mature you can be.  At your parent teacher conference your teacher, Ms. Wand, (who we LOVE), couldn't say enough good about you.  She asked if you had any concerns and you said "Yes!"  You went and got a few workbooks and I couldn't believe what I saw.  One of them was Algebra!!!  No kidding.  You're in 4th grade for crying out loud and you're worried you're not making enough progress in Algebra!  I was a little floored and may or may not have teared up a little.  We are so proud of you and love you so much!  Slow down the growing thing though, Mommy is losing her breathe.

Someday you'll be a Daddy

Dear Kabe,
     Someday when you're a man I hope you will treasure this picture.  I hope you will remember that though Daddy and I are hard on you, we are only that way because we know just how amazingly capable you are.   Did you know that we talk about you at night after you're in bed?  While you are reading (which you always are), we sit on the couch and marvel at how smart and kind and creative you are.  We laugh at the ramps you're building in the back yard to race your pine wood derby car on.  We are amazed at the sheer volume of reading you do and the way you can recall tiny details from each story.  We share the random facts that you've shared with us through the day.  Something about centrifugal force or the temperature on mars or a silly laffy taffy joke you heard and remembered.
   We agree that we're so proud of you for what a great helper you are when we're working and how diligently you are trying to be tough and not cry like a little girl when you get hurt.  We comment about how careful you are to be clean and true and reverent and "do your best" and we pray together that you'll always strive for these things.
   Someday Kabe you'll have a girlfriend, a job, a car, a group of friends, and maybe even an attitude about what kind of parents you got.  When that day comes I hope you'll remember that we are doing our best for our amazing boy and forgive us for our mistakes. You see, we love you more than you'll know until you have your own little boy.  I imagine you'll be a lot like your Daddy and you might just be a little hard on your first-born son.  On that day, when you're measuring to make sure your tie fits him just right, you'll understand how amazing you are in our eyes.
Love,
Mom

Sneaky Sneaky

The other morning Daddy and I were laying on our bed - just talking.  The kids were already off to school and we were just working on our 'game plan' for the day.  All of a sudden we heard some scratching in our closet.  We both thought the same thing, "there's a rodent in the closet".  So far we haven't had any vermin issues and I'm hoping it stays that way so needless to say I opened the closet door with a little trepidation.  This is what we found - the cutest little rodent ever, doing the baby download of Mommy's office drawers.  She thought she was pretty smart and stayed right there while I grabbed the camera to take her guilty picture.

Mommy Lessons

This picture has absolutely nothing to do with this post - just made me laugh.

Mommyhood should be accompanied with a 12 week course (every 12 weeks).  At least a detailed manual or something (I'm thinking along the lines of when they cover the dog in peanut butter do this ____ or when they pee on their sister say this ____).  Though my Mommy experience has been lacking in formal training, yesterday I had a very poignant lesson I don't want to forget.

It was Leisl's first birthday.  Don't ask me why first birthdays are hard for me.  Probably because in my heart I think they should be special, but because the birthday baby is oblivious I don't go out of my way to do anything exceptionally celebratory and so I feel lame.  I'm also an emotional mess because it marks a very real passage of my baby from infanthood to toddlerhood and I'm never ready for this milestone.  Ever.  Kabe's first birthday was a terrible day too, one I'll always remember.

Needless to say it had been a LONG day, full of yelling, fighting, whining, crying, and MESSES!  From get up till get down I had been cleaning up messes, yelling at the kids to clean up messes, begging the kids to put away messes and in general, hiding from messes.  Everyone was cranky (most of all me).  The guilt of being a bad mom escalated into pretending not to care I was a bad mom, into going out of my way to do the witchy thing because I was already a 'bad mom'.

Tyler called about 6 O'clock.  "Hi Hon, how are you?"
"FINE!"
"really?"
"Yes, except (insert inner moan from my husband who's about to be unloaded on) I feel like a slave, no-one around here cares that I spend every minute of my day cleaning up their crap and I feel like we are living in a pig-sty and I just can't feel happy in a dirty house which means I'm ornery and I've been yelling and doing the mommy-freak-out all day and I don't like myself when I'm mean to the kids and they certainly don't like me and I'm sure they wish they could have a different mother who had time to do fun things with them but this one doesn't because she is always cleaning up their crap and I'm just sick of it and they won't stop fighting and I'm not helping because my attitude sucks today and I want to run away and it's not fair and it's all my fault!!!"  (all said in one horrendous breathe).

long pause

"Well, there need to be natural consequences and you do not need to pick up their messes."
"Thanks, maybe you should talk to them about it at family night tonight (classic Mommy passing the buck), I've got to go, something is burning in the oven."
click.

The rest of the evening continued much this way.  There was a mountain of laundry to fold.  I tried putting on some church music thinking it would help.  It sort of kind of almost did for a minute, then I needed the computer (our only source of media in the house these days) for something so the music got turned off.  Daddy was an hour late for dinner.  Dinner was burned and gross.  I was emotionally spent and feeling like an utter failure.  It was bedtime and we hadn't even cleaned up dinner yet.

Time for family home evening.  On nights like this why do we even try?  Oh yeah, so we don't have to try and fit it in later in our crazy week.  We sit down.  I sit on the opposite end of the room from where I usually do.  I want to distance myself from family night.  The birthday baby is crying.  I want to cry with her.  Deep breathe.

Daddy conducts for me because I'm not in the mood even though it's my turn.  As we go through the opening song, prayer, article of faith, testimony, family business, my heart is not in it.  I'm irritated with everything.  I go into the other room to make a bottle so Leisl will be quiet.  I realize it's Darla's turn to teach the lesson.  That's code for Mommy's turn.  I don't have anything prepared but a lecture/whine-fest.  I grab my scriptures because last week when it was Leisl's turn I challenged our family to open the scriptures at every family night.

I turn to the topical guide.  I see the word Home.  I hear the words to the song, "Home can be a heaven on earth" in my head.

I inwardly scoff.

Some heaven.

It's Darla's turn.  She brings her cute little chubby self over to me.  She knows I'll help her "teach her wesson".  I say the words in her ear and she repeats them in her cute 2-year-old voice.

"In ow house we feew wots of fings.  We feew mad, we feew sad, we feew tie-owed (yes this is how Mommy is feeling) we feew happy and 'cited (wishful thinking), and sometimes we can feew duh spiwit (my heart starts to soften)."

I tell the kids that Pres. Hinkley told us that there are two places on earth we can feel the spirit stronger than anywhere else . . . where do you think those two places are"

Darla calls on Kabe, "the temple and the church".

We talk about the temple, "it is Heavenly Father's house, it is clean and quiet and beautiful.  We always use our most reverent voice in the temple and always think the best of others.

The other place is not the church.  It's a place where we should always feel loved, and safe, and accepted.  A place where we can be ourselves and bear our hearts and do the things we love to do."

Brigham has a blank look on his face - today has been particularly hard for him.  "Where is this other place?"

The room is quiet.  The big kids know the answer but today has made them question the description I just gave.  From my lap Darla interrupts without any prompting from me, "Ows Home".

This is when I start to cry.

I talk about how our home didn't feel like heaven today.  I tell them how sorry I am for the way I behaved, how I drove the spirit out of our home.  I promise them that I'll do better, try harder to invite the spirit.  I tell them how badly I WANT the spirit to be here, how much I want our home to be like heaven.

Then I ask a question, "Can I make our home a heaven?"

They all nod their heads vigorously.  A happy Mom means a happy home.  I have that much power here, they trust me that much.

"No I can't.  Daddy and I can't, Ksenya and Brigham can't, Kabe and Ayvri can't.  We ALL have to work to invite the Spirit to make our home a heaven.  It only takes one person to drive him out, but it takes ALL of us to invite him in".

Suddenly I realize, our house feels different.  Gone are the feelings of anger and frustration and resentment.  I don't want to run away and hide, I just want to sit there and stare into their amazing faces.   They forgive me.  My Heavenly Father forgives me.  He knew I'd have this day.  He knew I needed this lesson.

There may not be a manual for Mommyhood, but the Savior, through His infinite atonement has given us the answers we need to every problem.  They are in the principles of the gospel, they are in the words of the prophets, they are in the counsel and support of a loving husband and they are given to us in our hour of need when we finally humble ourselves and ask for direction from the Spirit.

Today will be better.  It may not be perfect.  It may not be heaven.  But it will be better as we diligently focus on inviting the spirit into our home.

Lesson learned.

Being Mommy

Last weekend I went "away".  For 29 hours I wasn't with my kids or my husband.  I learned a lot, one of the most impressive lessons of the weekend was this:

I LOVE BEING THE MOM!

I like being the one that wakes them up in the morning, the one that helps them get dressed.  I like making their breakfast and washing their dirty faces.  I enjoy telling them goodbye as they march out the door and hugging them hello when they march back in.  

I love being the one they share their excitement with, and treasure being the one they share their disappointment with.  It is hard being the one to watch them make poor choices and then love them as they suffer the consequences of those choices.  I love the bedtime snuggles, kisses and endless questions.

I love being the one that turns off their lights when they're asleep and thanks Heavenly Father for the thousandth time in a day for sending them to me.  Being Mommy is the hardest job ever, it's also the best and for my next birthday I think I'll stay here and enjoy every mediocre "same-old" moment of my ever-too-quickly fleeting Mommyhood.

Side-note.  On my birthday the kids were guessing how old I am.  Brig is determined that I'm 39.  I guess for 39 I feel pretty good!  When I got home from my weekend I was literally attacked with affection from all of them.  They had decorated my bed with drawings and "presents" and were so sweet and cute.  What a blessed Mommy I am (and the Daddy had dinner on the table when I got here and spent the evening just talking with me, the best part yet.  As much as I love being a Mom, I love being his wife even more - it's a lot easier too).

Techno-starved

Yet another example of how my kids are starved for screen time.  They all piled on Aunt Jeri to watch her phone.  Silly kids.  Never thought we'd be so addicted to our technology!

Singing Strings

Ksenya has been getting ready for her next orchestra concert.  She is playing a song from Tangled and has really improved so very much since her last concert.  She has been working pretty hard and has better technique than I do.  What fun to have her set such a good example for the other kids and really start to enjoy playing.

No "Kid"ding

Sunday we got a call from Papa Horse that there were baby goats that weren't doing so well.  He was really sick and needed a little help getting them to eat.  We went right out and I instantly fell in love.  But these babies weren't happy and Mama goat wasn't doing her job.

By Monday one of the babies had died and Papa said we could bring the other ones home and try to save them.  Only problem was we don't have any pens at our house!  Aimee said we could have her dog run and large dog house and I figured that could work so Monday morning I put my muscles to good use moving the dog run and relocating it to our backyard.  Then we went to bring them to their new home.

The first item of business was to name them and since Brigham and Ayvri were with me they each got to name one.  The little runt was "Hally" and the bigger, wrinkly baby is "Sally".  Both girls were having trouble eating and Mama, lovingly named "Mama" wasn't being very helpful.

After the first day of bottle feeding Hally she started perking up a little.  We had to tie Mama up so that she would hold still and let the kids eat but after day two they were eating on their own.  This whole experience brought back so many memories for me of raising baby goats and other animals when I was growing up.  I wanted the kids to witness and be a part of it and now I'm happy as a clam to look out in the backyard and see Hally and Sally doing so very well.  They are skipping around with their little tails wagging.  What fun!

Salsa Baby

The other day I gave the kids some chips and salsa for a snack and left the room, when I came back in Leisl was on the table scarfing down the salsa.  She would pause between bites to take some deep breathes and then keep on eating.  I don't know how much help she had in getting up there but I do know this baby liked salsa a lot.  Silly girl.

Dr. Seuss Day

Friday was Dr. Seuss day at school.  Ayvri got to wear her pajamas and eat green eggs and Kabe got to make Ooblek.  Ksenya came home a little disappointed that she hadn't had a lot of time to celebrate at school so we decided to have a little fun at home.  We made a whole pan of ooblek and enjoyed making quite a mess - then we all changed into our pajamas and read stories for the rest of the afternoon.  That's my kind of party!

Buddies

Darla got this new outfit from Grandma and when I put it on her she said, "Mom look!  I soo pretty."  She makes me laugh and loves being girlified.

She also loves her big brother.  These two have learned to play nicely together this year with Ayvri gone to school in the mornings and Leisl sleeping.   Each morning when I settle in to "work" in my "office" (bedroom) they have to play together because there's no movie to plug them into.  They usually do pretty well together and come up with the funnest things.

This particular morning they decided to take a "vocation".  They packed all their babies and mounted their horse and went on a trip to the kitchen to color.  They were so serious about it and made sure to kiss me goodbye and tell me when they were coming home.  I had to laugh.  What fun to have a buddy.  I love this picture because I have one very much like this of me and Heath when we were little.  Brothers are such a great thing!  I think every girl should have at least one!

TV Free

When we moved into our new house there wasn't room for Tyler's Graduation present - a gigantic TV that we bought 3 years ago.  In our space saving heaven we measured and measured and measured again and there is just absolutely. no. room.

So we have been a TV-free family for more than a month now.  For the most part it has been great, the kids aren't watching crap, not watching as often, reading and playing more together and it has been a good choice I think.  Still, there are those days (and nights) when we just really want to sit down and turn our brains off, to be together, but not be doing anything.  For those days, we are sure thankful to have a laptop that we can sit on a chair and enjoy the tiny screen.  Daddy is obviously less than impressed with the set-up and we are both hopeful that there is a larger screen in our future (one that will mount on the wall where there is some room left).  Still, for now, these are fun memories I don't want to forget.

Blue and Gold Heaven

Kabe is officially a Cub Scout.  He has been working his little heart out to complete the requirements in his book and at the last Blue and Gold Banquet he received his Bobcat and a couple of belt loops.  

He was also supposed to decorate a cake for the banquet and decided to make the "Monster book of Monsters" from Harry Potter (go figure).  He worked really hard on it and did 99% of it himself.  I was very proud of him and thought his cake was the bomb.com.  He is such a sweet boy and we are impressed at how seriously he takes the Scout motto "do your best".

Looking forward to years of Scouting fun with this guy - and a lot of learning for the Mommy who is still begging for a heirarchy flowchart and perhaps a Scouting dictionary so I can understand it better.

Foot Braiding

We were working on a project and I needed a long braided yarn piece.  I tried braiding it by hand but it was too long and kept getting tied in knots.  We decided to try and make it into a game.  We tied each of the strands to the three big kids feet and let Brigham hold the end.  Then they had to step over and under and dance the braid.  

It was a great lesson in patience and an exercise in cooperation and when it was over I think they understood the concept of the braid we were making and I had the necessary supplies for my project.  I don't know if we'll do it again soon, but it was definitely worth doing once.