Book Club

Well, I didn't get a chance to blog last week, so I have a bit of catch up to do.

September 25th was book group.  We had it at our house this month.  We discussed the book Elantris by Brandon Sanderson.  It is one of my favorite fantasy books.  We really only talked about the book for a bit, but mostly visited - which is what I love about my friends here, we can talk forever.  We had a good turn out and had 9 people there including myself.  (Janae, Alayna, Tami, Ashley, Keisha, Sarah, Aubrey, Natalie and myself)

In the book Elantris it is about a city that was glistening white and magical and then turns cursed and dirty - so I made white and brown treats to go along with that theme.  It was a lot of fun.  I usually don't make so much, but it was kind of a farewell party for one of our friends.  She is moving to Arkansas and this was her last book group. :(

I made some new things from pinterent, some lemon truffles and pumpkin truffles.  I liked the lemon ones a bit better.  The pumpkin ones had crushed gingersnaps in them and they were a bit over powering for me.  I had some cauliflower and jicama with dip, some popcorn, and some mini pies.  The brown was mini brownies and a muddy buddy mix that had toffee in it.  

 The pies turned out great.  I was afraid the edges would cave in or they would break but they were very tasty.  I did a key lime and a banana cream.  The cream I piped to look like the towers in the city of Elantris.  I was having fun :)

 I wanted to make something for Janae since she was leaving and I came up with this fun idea that I threw together.  I had some magnets and some of these gems and I got online and made a name collage, and voila and cute magnet so we can remember everyone (I had enough stuff to make one for everybody).  If you were wondering the website was tagxedo.com.  It was really easy and you could choose from a gazillion colors choices and chose different shapes for your name cloud.

We stayed up until midnight talking and eating.  I love my friends here in Firestone!

Family Pictures

Last week we had our family pictures taken by a friend.  They turned out great!  It is very hard to photograph our family - so I was amazed that we got so many good shots.  Here are a few of my favorites.  Kaylee has the more pink shirt and part in her hair.

 This one was just a funny one of Tyler and Chris :)

I love my family!  Thanks Jennifer for taking them.  She is working on her portfolio now, so any of you who live in my area, giver her a call if you need some pictures taken. 

WOW Museum and Fun in the tub

I had busy mornings this week, Monday was visiting teaching, Tuesday was projects at home, Wednesday was helping in Tyler's class, Thursday was a trip to the WOW Museum for Chris's preschool, and Friday I watched my friend's kids.  It kept the week busy and that is good.

The Museum was fun.  It was nice that is was on a smaller scale.  There were only two main rooms so you could keep an eye on your kiddos a bit easier and didn't have to corral them as much.  

 They had a pirate ship:

 The girls sat in this car the majority of the time.  It would move a bit with the push of a button, they thought that was awesome.

 More buttons below a slide.

 Pull yourself up with the help of pulleys.  Yeah, my hands were sore after so many trips up.

 Chris and his friend Luke peeking out of the pirate ship.

 Jenna

 Kaylee

They also had a wind room that Chris really had fun with at the end.  He liked to watch a ball get blown up and balanced by a powerful fan.  There were areas as well: grocery, bank, train station, bubble, art, balls, dinosaurs, and a slide.  It was a fun day.  

The only pictures I took with the camera this week were these ones of the girls in the tub.  They are getting pretty wild together, we may have to start bathing them seperately - or just get used to lots of water on the floor.  They are pretty cute together.  Most times they play pretty well, but often times Kaylee ends up pouring water on Jenna's head which Jenna does not appreciate. They are cute to help me wash themselves.  They ask for soap and start rubbing all around.  

Kaylee / Jenna

Not much going on

Last Sunday Amy and Candice flew back to utah, we played the Farming Game with them before they left.  They said it was fun, but too much math.  Thanks again for coming to visit. 

I only took 5 pictures this week, so I guess that just shows we are back in a normal routine of school and being at home.  Karate started again on Monday and Damon said he wanted to give it a try, so both Tyler and Damon went.  Damon said it was different that he expected (I think he wanted to be fighting already), but he liked it.

Tuesday Chris was spinning in the bouncy house and landed funny and really hurt his shoulder.  I thought it was his forearm originally because that is where he was pointing when he said it hurt.  I actually had a neighbor boy come over for a bit and I took Chris into the Dr.  We had it x-rayed - but it was probably uneccessary but we didn't learn that until later.  We figured out that it was more of a shoulder injury because Chris just didn't want to raise his arm at all.  We tried to trick him to have him point at some sharks or give high-fives, but he wouldn't do it.  It slowly got better each day, but for about 4-5 days he just kept it close to his body and wrote/ate/pointed/reached with his left hand.  I had to help him get dressed and get buckled up.  I felt so bad for him.  Anyway, finally today he says that he is feeling better and he showed me by raising his arm high.  This was a new type of injury for us and it is so hard when you can't do anything to help your child get better.

Damon had scouts as well on Tuesday.  He is doing well and enjoys it.  I need to go through his book and make some goals on what to work on next.

Wednesday Damon and Tyler had two of their good friends over to play.  The friends were grounded from video games and I was kind of glad.  They played so well with their Legos and built some really cool space ships.

Thursdays are a busy day for Damon he goes to choir early before school and then he and Tyler have piano lessons right after.  They had practiced througout the week and knew their songs well.  It is fun to hear them playing.

Friday was very cold and some forecasts had shown a possiblity of snow.  It didn't, but we could see our breath in the morning.  The boys' two friends came over again after school because they wanted to finish their space ships and have a big war.  They had a fun time.

The evening time is so busy sometimes and after dinner everyone seems so wound up.  I was glad Doug was home so I could walk around the block for some peace.

Saturday was busy.  I went to Super Saturday from 9-2:00 and ran over to a baby shower at 12:00 for a little bit.  There were a lot of choices of crafts and I wanted to do most of them.  But I was glad I only picked the few that I did.  I didn't want to bring home a large craft undone.  I have to finish a few of them, but I think I will get them done tonight.  We made a very fun patriotic wreath that was just my style of creativity. (clothes pins, foam stickers, and a bow)  I also made 2 felt Mr. Potato Head activities.  I finished them this morning so the girls could play with them at church.  They liked it ok, but Tyler and Damon had more fun with it :)  I didn't let Damon play much, but Tyler did.  The other craft I did was a nativity ornament.  I just need to finish glueing a few pieces and then I'll be done.

I was in charge of a canvas temple picture.  It ended up being more of a process than people expected.  We did a technique where you use a gel medium to transfer the picture from a color copy to the canvas.  So once the paper has dried on the canvas you wet it down and rub the paper off, revealing the transferred image underneath.  It's pretty cool, but it takes awhile.  I prepped most of the canvases, so I coated 35 frames (Wednesday and Friday) with the gel stuff and put the picture on so they could dry in time for the activity.

After Super Saturday I came home and got everyone ready for family pictures.  The girls were spectatular holding still so I could do their hair.  I think the Fruit Loops helped a lot.  We had an early dinner then went out to a field to take pictures.  A friend of mine took them and I'm excited to see them.  I hope she got some good shots.  The kids were acting pretty crazy from what I could see, but I can hope.

Since I did the girls' hair yesterday I didn't have to do it this morning so that was nice.  It was a little fuzzy but not too bad.  Church went well and I taught a lesson on honesty for my 8 year olds.  They are a pretty good class.  Our one boy who has Asperberger's was having a pretty crazy day, but he settled down towards the end.  He likes to run out of singing/sharing time and go into the boys' bathroom because he knows we can't go in there to get him.  We usually end up having to find some dad to go in and get him out.

I usually have the bread machine make us a loaf of bread to have ready when we come home.  It's such a nice smell to come home to.  Now all is quiet and it is nice to have a moment to write things down.

A few tid-bits.
Chris's conversation with his primary teacher:

Chris - "What happens when we die?"
teacher - "We go to Heaven."
Chris - "We don't become zombies?" (concerned questioning tone)
teacher ' "Nope, no zombies, We go to heaven to talk with Jesus about the choices we have made."
Chris - "So no zombies." (confiming that wouldn't happen)

I don't know where he was getting the zombie stuff from, we don't talk about them and the boys don't play games with them.  But he must have overheard it from somewhere.  Kind of funny though.

His teacher told me that last week a girl leaned over and kissed him.  His reply was "Don't do that!"

Chris really likes to be with Damon right now.  He wants to sit with him at breakfast and at church and play with him when he gets home from school.  Damon is pretty good to play with him, but occasionally he want to do something else.  For the most part the boys do get along most of the time.  It's usually best when there is just two of the them and the other is doing his own thing.  Three is just harder.

We have good kids.  The girls are fun and wanting to dress themselves.  Which is fun but frustrating too.  I just have to remember to let them have plenty of time to do it themselves.  They sit up at the bar a lot now, and only used their highchairs if we are eating something messy and at dinner time.  We just don't have a place for them to sit at the table yet, we need to find a bench.

Fall is coming, the leaves are turning.  It is a season of change.

First week of September

First week of September:

Labor day we didn't do much.  I went to the grocery store without the kids, which is always nice.  We had a picnic lunch outside with Lunchables.  I remembered why I never buy them, my kids don't eat them very well.  But it was fun to be outside.  We grilled some hamburgers for dinner and just enjoyed being together as a family. 

 Tuesday was Chris's first day of preschool.  We are just doing a co-op with three other mom's so the group is small.  They are all boys, so that is fun or crazy.  Chris liked it and was excited to go back again on Thursday.

After I dropped off Chris at preschool we went to the park for a minute.  I was watching my friend's kids as well, so they all enjoyed playing together.  

Wednesday my friend watched my kiddos so I could run some errands.  I bought some new exercise clothes which were greatly needed.  I have been doing well since school started.  I have exercised every day (M-F) for 3 weeks now.  I don't see much difference, but it still feels good to exercise.

The boys started piano lessons this week as well.  Damon wasn't too excited about it, but then afterwards he said it wasn't going to be that bad.  They were even good to come home from school on Friday and practice.  We'll see how long that lasts. :)

Doug's sister Amy and her daughter Candice came to visit us this weekend.  Their flight came in late Thursday evening.  Friday they witnessed our normal lives of getting kids to school and then we took Chris and the girls to the open gym.  I hadn't been in awhile because I couldn't handle both girls running around and not following the rules.  They did much better this time.  They seemed to almost understand the concept of standing in line. :)

We picked the beans again, they are still producing pretty well.  Not a lot at once, but that is perfect for our family.  Jenna and Kaylee really like to try to help me in the kitchen.  Jenna actually did a good job of snipping the beans. She did a small bowlful by herself.

 It is always nice to have a few extra hands or laps around.  Candice was good to read a story to the girls and put them to bed.

 Jenna put on her goggles and was fixing the wall I guess.  Hitting the toy bike like it was a nail.

 Saturday morning we went geocaching.  We found 2 and tried to find a third, but when we made it to the location we realized we would have to tromp through a swamp to get to it.  It was at the far side of a local reservoir, so the girls were tired by the time we walked all the way around.  The boys have really had a fun time going on these 'treasure hunts.'  We brought some things to trade this time and Chris chose a cool TMNT bike from one of the caches.

The kids all had fun throwing in rocks and trying to skip them.  

We had Papa Murphy's pizzas for lunch and then we had a baby-sitter for the kids while we adults went to the temple.  Candice is leaving for her mission in November and had just barely received her endowments, so this was her second time going.  It was a good session.  They have made three new temple movies, but I have only seen one of them -keep getting the same one. :)

We did some quick shopping afterwards - helping Candice complete her missionary wardrobe.  We ate quickly at Chick-fil-a then headed home.  We made it home in time to put the kids to bed then watched a history channel movie about Houdini.  Now I feel like I need to do some research to see if all of the stuff they showed about him was true.

Church went well this morning and we are enjoying a nice quiet time right now.  Amy and Candice will leave this evening to catch another late flight home.  It was nice to have some company and spend some time with them.  Thanks for coming.