Busy, Busy, Busy!

Alright so it has been a few months since my last informative post. I kept finding reasons to procrastinate; the new pictures aren't on the computer, so much time has passed that will be old news now, I can't post on the new thing because I haven't posted on the others, etc, etc. Then I thought why not just throw everything together in one post. A recap of our summer if you will. So here we go...




We ended the school year off with the annual time killing field trips. Lance loves to get time off for those and go as a parent chaperon with the girls. Katelyn's kindergarten class went to the Discovery Center; a hands on, learn how a ton of stuff works, kind of place. We had been there before but they discovered a whole new area we had never seen, and it's more fun with classmates and Dad.


Rebekah's field trip was to the Springfield Cardinals game. Now before you say "How is that educational?" they did get to watch weather balloons being launched and learn what they can teach us. No pictures of that though, so I guess we know which Lance thought was more exciting.



Playing dress-up and reading are always favorite past times for the kids. Believe it or not they really do get along most of the time. This particular dress-up picture we have husband wife dynamic duo Mr. and Mrs. Superman/Girl, with their daughter the cheerleader (no super powers) and their son Buzz Lightyear. I am not exaggerating when I tell you they played this game for three days straight. As for the reading on the stairs? I don't know, but they sure were enjoying themselves and not messing up their clothes before church, so you will not hear a complaint from me.

I think we wore them out.

After school let out we travelled up to St. Louis to visit some cousins we hadn't seen in a while. Thank you Dan and Sylvia for letting us come to your lovely home with our four rambunctious kids. They still talk about the great time they had and Benjamin and Josh want to go back and play with "Poppy".



In June we all headed down to Texas to meet the newest cousins on my side. Welcome Matthew and Seth. My girls enjoyed being big enough to actually help a little with the babies. And it was great having all the cousins there to play with. We are definitely going to have to make a habit of getting together annually.



Of course while we were there we had to check out what Texas had to offer in the way of caves. My kids are pretty comfortable with the cave thing, and I think everyone was just happy to get out of that Texas heat. There is something to be said for that constant temperature. Warm in the winter, cool in the summer, hmmm, if it weren't so wet we could just move in. While visiting the caves we discovered that the old saying "everything's bigger in Texas" applies to their insect life as well. Rebekah wanted to keep that thing as a pet. "Dad, since we can't have a dog, can we have this huge bug? I think I'll name him Buddy." No we didn't keep it.




After the Texas trip everything else kind of blurred into one long day. A few highlights: an afternoon at the theater to watch a production of Peter Pan (the boys had a new hero for about a week), an amazing professional fireworks display right out our back door, a David and Goliath family home evening complete with marshmallow stones, and a trip back to the San Luis Valley to visit with friends and family. Despite all of that the kids always like to go back to the favorites, a good book, a great game, or a quiet afternoon coloring at the kitchen counter.
We had a great summer and look forward to a productive and fun school year. With a third grader, first grader and afternoon preschooler we are always on the run. What am I saying the two year old alone keeps us on the run. You should all look forward to many more exciting updates from us.

Fun With Hair

Often while getting ready for school or church and it's time to get their hair done the girls will ask for braids. Then they say they plan on sleeping with their braids in so they can have "poodle hair" the next morning. We'll even braid their hair after a bath or shower when it's still wet and the curl stays in longer. There seems to be a problem though. Every time we take the braids out there is one section that is curl free. We have tried french braiding and regular braids (the only two I know how to do). We have tried just one and also one on either side of their heads. We have even tried some strange twisting their hair into little knobs all over their heads thing. Then one night Rebekah came to me with her solution. "Mom, I want 6 braids." I had my doubts about her actually keeping them in to sleep in but I gave it a try. She ended up with 8 braids all over her head. Katelyn came out, took one look and requested the same thing. I had even more doubts about her keeping them in all night but she also ended up with 8. Of course we had to take pictures.




Here is Before


Amazingly enough they both slept all night with 8 braids each and the next morning had the curliest of curly "Poodle Hair". And we still found sections without curl, but they were still happy and evidently got some comments at school (nice ones).



























Here is the after






Not to be outdone, the boys had their own excitement with hair. Joshua found he could spike his hair(with a little help of course) and he had "Dinosaur Hair". Very cool!



I am most definitely wearing it like this to church tomorrow!
Hey, my hair is just naturally this cool!


What could we possibly do to top all of this excitement? Next post... "The Haircut"

A Trip to the Past

A little over a year ago I started reading the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder to the kids. We needed something to do while we waited for Lance to come home from work. I have fond memories of all of us piled on the couch around my Dad reading those same books. As I hoped my children loved them, especially the girls. I'm not sure Benjamin ever understood what was going on and we lost Joshua around the time Laura reached 11 or so. Rebekah and Katelyn enjoyed just about every minute. What started as a fun activity to wile away the after dinner before bedtime hour turned into our favorite pastime. When we would drive in the car for an extended period of time (Lance driving of course) I would read to them. There were times when I would have to strain my voice to be heard in the far back row of the van, and they couldn't always see the pictures but it passed away many a long mile.
Of course when we started Lance was not home so he missed Laura and her family living in the big woods of Wisconsin. The excitement of Ma slapping a bear, Laura's birthday and Charlotte the doll. However on those rides in the car he would hear the stories and be just as engrossed as the kids. By the time we hit about the fourth book we couldn't read unless he was present. It slowed down our progress a bit and we had to find other things to do while waiting for him to come home, but it started a great Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon tradition. We all eagerly cheered Laura on as she took her teachers examinations, held our breath as Almanzo and Cap raced a blizzard to bring in the wheat to save a starving town.
Laura's story became important to our family and we were sad as it came to an end. We read the final book and on the last page was a picture of a bread plate and a caption reading that it and other artifacts were housed in the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum in Mansfield Missouri.

Missouri!! Are you kidding?!
I have read that series I don't have know how many times and I guess I just never thought about it. But now we live in Missouri! Where is a map!! Can you believe it Mansfield is only about an hour away from us! If we had known that we could have taken my parents and Lance's Mom (who read that series to her fourth grade class for years) when they came out a couple of years ago! What are we waiting for? The next nice weekend that Lance had off we went; reading of course. What did we read? the book On The Way Home, Laura's journal entries of their trip from South Dakota to Missouri.
We get to the museum and they have so many things from the books. Pa's Fiddle, Mary's braille slate, dresses that Laura made the writing desk where the hundred dollar bill was lost, numerous pictures and artifacts. Then you get a tour of the house that Almanzo built, unfortunately no picture taking is allowed inside the home. After you tour that home you drive down the road a short way and tour the home that Rose had built for her aging parents. You hear the story of how Rose tried to teach Almanzo how to drive and he crashed into a tree while pulling back on the steering wheel and shouting "Whoa!"
Lance and I had a great time looking at everything. Unfortunately this home is where the adult Laura lived I think the girls wanted to see some of the places where the child Laura lived. Add to that the fact that you can't touch or handle a lot of things and that makes it a little more boring for the younger set. However, they enjoyed seeing some of the things they had read about so frequently. And Rebekah realized she is already taller than Laura was as an adult. Lance and I felt it would have been fun to spend a little more time there if the boys had been older, most of it was lost on them and they began to get very wiggly.


The only pictures we could get were of us sitting on the steps of the porch.


So what are we reading now that we've finished the series? Well Rose's adopted grandson Roger Lea MacBride who had heard all of Rose's stories and had all of her journals and letters has taken a try at writing about Rose's life in the style of her mother. We are only on the first book, and I had to ask how many times we're allowed to renew a book from the library (as long as there is no hold on the title, unlimited), but so far we are enjoying it.


Now you all know what we do for fun. Read together, learn a little history and drag the kids to historical sites (hopefully someday they won't think it's so boring).

You can bring a kid to an amusement park, but you can't make them smile.

I was looking through some of our more recent pictures trying to decide what might be fun to share, and I came across our November trip to the local amusement park. They had it all decked out for Christmas, and being that we live in a fairly mild climate all of the rides were running that day. We got there right before they opened and had a quick lunch then hustled on over to some of the bigger rides before the lines got too long. Rebekah is tall enough to ride everything by herself and of course that is all she would like to do all day.


This is the look of a roller coaster junkie, permanent grin.
(I don't know who the guy in back is)


Look in the second row


The day we were there Katelyn had one request. She wanted to sit with Santa and tell him what she wanted for Christmas. For those of you who don't know, the thing Katelyn wants most in the whole world is her very own pet "lion with a big mane". We have told her unfortunately until she and her siblings are less bite sized we won't be able to help her out. We didn't even go into the legality of owning and caring for exotic creatures. I guess this year she decided that she would go over our heads and ask the big jolly man himself. We went and stood in line for a very, very, very, (you get the idea) long time. For those of you who have ever stood in line with young children, you know just how pleasant this was. We got to the front, where of course they were only taking pictures and trying to get you to buy them. I don't think Santa knew what to do when Katelyn told him her request. Rebekah was horrified that Lance wanted her to squeeze into the picture, Joshua was terrified and Benjamin was just irritated that we wouldn't let him play with the toy truck prop. And the camera guy was miffed that Lance took his own pictures.


Mission accomplished!
(Sorry I don't know how to turn the picture)



"We are a happy family!"


After giving the girls both what they wanted (Rebekah was in a sour mood the rest of the day due to the effects of the coaster rides wearing off and not seeing another one in site) we thought being the generous parents we were we would take the boys to the kiddie section. Both boys love trains and we thought they would get a kick out of riding on one. They loved seeing it, and hearing it, Once on, I'm not sure that Benjamin made the connection we were on the train. I think both boys enjoyed it and I'm sure I was the only one singing on the "Santa, sing-a-long train" but all in all a fun time.





Kiddie Jail? No just waiting in line for the train.




After the train on to the really little kid rides. The ones, where Mommy or Daddy can barely squish into the seats but if your kid wants to ride a flying bug, you have to ride too. When you push the button the ride goes up, when you leave it alone you just go around. Joshua likes the safety of being near the ground with a death grip on my hand. Benjamin just wants to be the one to push the button.



Sometimes when you're going around in circles it's a little hard to pick Dad out of a crowd.







Katelyn just having a wonderful time with her
flying bug (I don't remember what she named it).

All in all we had a fun day just together as a family. However Katelyn was a touch disappointed when she didn't get a lion for Christmas.

Today we mourn the passing of Bill the Frog. For those of you who don't know we have rather nontraditional pets in the form of tree frogs. Bill has been a part of our family for the past two and a half years. Ironically after sharing our home for so long we neglected to take any pictures of him. The pictures provided are of his close friends and relations as they sit outside our front door during the summer.
Bill started out about 3/4" in length and quickly grew to about 2 1/2" inches. Mostly due to the fact that he was a pig and we readily served it up. Little Bill was every one's favorite being very active and climbing around his tank at all hours of the day or night. Many a fond hour was enjoyed in his company while coloring pictures or doing homework at the kitchen counter. Bill was always ready with a jump in your direction or a splash in the "tub" for general amusement. Bill the Frog will be greatly missed. He was preceded in death by Hoppy and Kermit. When Yogurt and Jr wake up from hibernation, I'm sure they'll miss him too.

When I told the girls about Bill's passing they broke down in tears and were very upset for quite a while, Joshua asked when he would be resurrected and Benjamin just looked at us like we were all crazy. Then of course it led to the inevitable question of "can we get a dog?".


It was interesting to note that the kids all turned to their testimonies of Jesus Christ and our ability to be resurrected and reunited with loved ones as a comfort to them. I hope that as they grow older and lose those even more dear and precious to them (as happens with time), they will still be able to find hope and comfort in the same place.

New Year, New Habits?

I have come to the conclusion that I'm not that great at keeping a journal or with keeping everyone up to date with the goings on of our little family. After some thought I decided why not follow in the footsteps of my younger sisters and start a blog, thereby killing two birds with one stone. With the help of a friend, who didn't laugh too loudly when she walked me through this very simple process, I'm now on my way. Wish me luck!

Here are some recent pictures of the fam.

Ok, so I'm just learning and I don't know how to get the pictures to go where I want. If anyone has any suggestions let me know.