Come unto Him

“If we notice that planning for parties and scrambling for presents begin to detract from the peaceable message of Jesus Christ and distance us from the gospel He preached, let us take a step back, slow down a little, and reconsider what matters most.” —President Dieter F. Uchtdorf of the First Presidency

Silent treatment

Jaya can ignore everyone and everything when she has a good book. I actually waited to tell her I had it because I wanted to have her attention this morning. This is what she's looked like since 11:00am.

Wakey Wakey Kale

I found the golden ticket to waking Kale each morning...Elf on the shelf...He came to our home last year and this year has grace with his presence again. I can't tell you how much "Ted" has helped Kale wake up each morning. While this would normally be a very daunting part of my morning, now I just have to rub Kale's back, and softly whisper "I wonder what Ted has done today?" Up Kale jumps and runs to find him.
A couple of times I had the camera ready when he found "Ted", and it doesn't quite capture the excitement that's there, but it's close!

 

Watching The Littles!

My sis-in-law had her baby, and so I got to babysit her other 2 boys for a few days, we call them The Little's. Everyday was an adventure, and the nights were lots of fun too! It's hard to believe I did sleepless nights for so many years, and makes me grateful for the season my children are in now. I wish I could have recorded all the funny comments and sayings that we laughed at over dinner and during car rides, but in short it was a fun to have them over.

What this experience taught me about my own son was that he loves to teach. He would come up with a cool trick (ie. cutie mustache) and insist on teaching his cousins.

 

 

Another great game that Kale came up with was called "I ask the questions, if you agree raise your hand." I'm not sure that Coleman ever really knew what he was agreeing too, he just went along with it.

 

Needed therapy

You know those days you are just bugged? Well this girl was having one of those days, and while riding home from church she finally lost it (all because her brother was counting). It was the perfect opportunity to discuss anger management I gave her a list of ideas she could do to feel good again. 10 minutes after we got home, this is what I found to be her chosen method of therapy...petshops...goes to show that play is therapy!

Uno has returned

Card games have recently resurfaced at my house. This is always a sign that photography season is over! It's so nice to be able to see my own family for awhile.

On the cube

On Sunday Kale grabbed a book, found a seat and quietly looked at the pictures. Maybe those endless hours of  reading books with my kids has made a difference.

Flippin' Awesome

Daddy look alike?

Alot of people lately have been telling me how much Kale and Darrin look alike. I don't see it. I am glad that they do, I think Darrin is very handsome (obviously) and I think Kale is just the cutest thing in the world, but I don't see the resemblance. I have always had a hard time seeing Darrin and I in our own kids. I just realized that sentence sounds like I have no problem seeing ourselves in other people's kids :)

 

Darrin was just telling me the other day that one of his pet peeves is when dads and sons have matching haircuts. Then he realized that him and Kale were following that trend.

This week Kale got a haircut.

Darrin just told me tonight he was going to get a haircut.

I am noticing a trend.

 

 

I love these two with all my heart, I could scoop them up and never let them go!

Attitude Adjustment

I was driving Baylie to soccer and she said "today was a great day!" She then started listing off the things we did...
- Math
- Language Arts
- Got to go to the library
- Went out to eat for lunch
- Made milkshakes
This was her list. As she finished, I thought why did I feel like it was a crummy sort of day even though I did all those same things?
I starting thinking about how it really was a great day, we did do some great things. Sometimes I tend to think about all the times I had to tell the kids to do their tasks, which are so many I spend most of the day doing this. I tend to think about how tired I am, or how I would just love to take a nap right now. I tend to think about all the things I want to do uninterrupted.
I am grateful for Baylie's list of good things. I told myself to change my attitude. When I got home, I opened the front door and greeted the kids with a loud "HELLO! I'm home". It's never too late to rescue the day.

I don't want to forget

I have been reading the book "Heaven is here" by Stephanie Nielson. What I am learning is that there are quite a few moments that I don't want to forget so here goes...

- We saw 20 worms on the sidewalks up to Kale's preschool today and every time Eden touched one, it would shrink up like she scared it to death. Then we saw a tiny snail in it's shell, and when Baylie put it in her hand it stretched it's little head out so far you could see it's neck. Then she gasped, throwing it down saying it was slimy.
- I heard Baylie fall off her stool upstairs when she was all by herself, I heard her get up and shout "I'm okay! I'm okay! I thought it was cute that she wanted to let us know, even though no one acknowledged it.
- Laying in bed with Darrin this morning, instead of running, was absolutely what I needed.
- Walking in the rain isn't that bad, it's actually quite delightful
- I drove the van next to my kids as they insisted on riding their scooters down our street, even with a car waiting patiently behind me, thank you to the neighbor that didn't honk or get impatient.
- I forgot 3 appointments I had, maybe I should use my planner
- I told Kale that his cousin was waiting at our house, and he said "YEA! It's his birthday! I almost forgot it was his birthday!" I thought it was so cute he remembered.

There will be so many, many, more moments I don't want to forget but I will start here, with this day.

Here comes Peter cotton-tail

 

Kale found Eden's bunny costume that she wore for the assisted living centers a few days before Easter. I kept the costume with good intentions of getting pics of Eden in her cute little costume (it was seriously so cute) but before I could do that Kale found it and ran around the house with Eden right behind in the rest of the costume. Happy Easter!!

When Daddy comes home

While I was making dinner one night I came out into the living room to find a group of kids huddled around Darrin reading a comic book that Kale picked up from the library. They were so mesmerized by the stories (and the voices that Darrin uses while reading) they didn't even acknowledge the camera. I am so glad when Darrin comes home, we miss him when he's gone.

Kindergarten farewell

 

Eden was the only child I had in public school this year. There were good things and inconvenient things, and certainly not because it's public school. Taking Eden to school everyday was a burden, it was hard to leave and disrupt our schedule at home and try and get the others back on track. It was hard to not take days off, I felt such flexibility with our homeschooling schedule (we had every Friday off), and to have Eden still on a schedule outside of what I wanted was difficult. The great things were, she loved it. She made some really good friends, she learned to read (which I was scared to do), and I got to come to her class and do art with the kids.

Near the end of the school year Darrin and I needed to make a decision about next year. Baylie wanted to stay home, Jaya liked both options but would prefer to do public school, and Eden wanted to go to public school. We made our pros and cons list and discussed it quite heavily with the kids and settled on homeschooling all of them, except Kale who will start preschool with a local preschool.

I love the idea of them being home while they are little. There are things to learn all around them and I love being flexible enough to choose what we are going to study. I'll be honest I am not as "pumped" about it this year as I was last year, I think mainly because I know the work it takes, but I don't want to end after one year when I feel like I was finally figuring a few things out. So I am excited for the challenge, with a lot more reality mixed in. I am very curious how it will be with Eden added to the mix and being here all day with us, but I think it's going to be a good thing for all of us.

Happy summer!!

Mrs Bowen - Eden's kindergarten teacher was great!

Mrs Geest - The kindergarten aide - LOOOVE her