Fall Fun

We are loving the cooler weather here in Missouri. The summer is so unbelievably hot and then here comes fall with mild temperatures and beautiful colors. We love being outside then, unfortunately I usually forget to take any pictures. We did have the opportunity to visit the local corn maze. Everyone had a great time, and each child had a chance to "lead the way" through the maze. Some of them were a little better at it than others. We definitely had a couple of times where we were going in circles. It was a long maze with two parts, after a while the boys were getting very tired. We tried the piggyback thing and discovered that Benjamin must be afraid of heights because he didn't stay up on anyone's shoulders for long. We went early enough that it wasn't "haunted"yet. However that didn't stop Lance from jumping out and scaring the kids a few times. We were even challenged to compose our own special poem about corn. Here is ours, "Corn, corn, good for the heart, the more you eat, the more you want more corn." We were supposed to recite our poem at the ticket desk for a goody. Imagine our children's surprise when they had to recite it for none other than our bishop. They suddenly clammed right up. Rebekah and Katelyn were eventually coaxed into performing and each received a sucker (Rebekah hates suckers). Lost in the corn maze

"I've always wanted to be an animal"

As we got a little closer to Halloween Lance came home from the store with little pumpkins for the kids to decorate. We all sat down for Family home evening and the kids colored their pumpkins with markers. Everyone's design was as individual as they are. Rebekah covered hers with a family of dragons. Katelyn drew double faces, one on each side. Lance drew a face for Benjamin to color in. Joshua, Just drew with all the colors, all over the entire pumpkin. Then added a tiny face for fun. Unfortunately we aren't sure which had more marker on it, the pumpkin or Josh.


Despite the coloring fun everyone claimed they wanted to actually carve a pumpkin too. After a lot of persuasion Lance brought home a big pumpkin. We waited until the day of our ward Halloween party to carve it. We discussed what type of design we should put on it and everyone agreed it should be a dragon (the previous night's viewing of "How to Train Your Dragon" I'm sure had nothing to do with it Ha Ha). With the design in mind we got to work. Lance cut the top off and we informed the kids they now had to "gut" the pumpkin. All their exuberance quickly wore off as they realized what that would mean. Their fearless leader Rebekah volunteered to go last. After a lot of "not Me's" Benjamin stepped up and loved it, for three whole handfuls. Joshua was next, "It feels like wet grass" he informed us all. Evidently handling wet grass leaves much to be desired because he also only took out about three handfuls. Next up, Rebekah, two dainty pinches with the loveliest expression on her face. She will still argue that she took out handfuls but we have the pictures to prove otherwise. Last but not least Katelyn, she took out a couple of good sized handfuls with slightly less complaining than her sister. Unfortunately that still left a good portion for yours truly to scoop out. Lance then did the carving with only the captive audience of Joshua who really seemed to find it intriguing. The finished product was quite impressive, but I don't think we'll be carving our own again anytime soon. Maybe they'll grow out of their squeamish stage (I really was surprised by the boys lack of enthusiasm).

The Finished Product

Following the thrill of pumpkin carving we had everyone get dressed up in their costumes. I know some people spend weeks planning and creating the perfect costume. We are not those people. We are the buy the costumes for $1.00 on clearance after Halloween the year before and break it out for this year kind of people. Then after our day of fun we add it to the dress up rotation. Next year they can choose from a dress up costume or any new ones we may have. The system seems to work for the most part. Unfortunately Rebekah grows so tall so quickly she often has very little selection of things that will actually fit. This years line up; a bride, a sorceress, Wolverine (humorous as he doesn't even know who that is, he just likes the claws) and Superman.
With everyone dressed up and our pumpkin in tow we headed off to the ward trunk-or-treat. After our kids went through the line once, we dug through their bags and gave away half of their candy to the other children still coming through (yes we re-gift too). Our guys still end up with more than they know what to do with. We lucked out this year that our ward activity was the day before Halloween so on Halloween proper, we turned off all our outside lights and sat in the basement as a family hanging out until bedtime. That way we didn't have to worry about trick-or-treating/ers on Sunday. Everyone had a great time. We still have plenty of Autumn left to enjoy and are looking forward to the Holidays that so quickly approach.

Thoughts from my children

A story by Katelyn;

I see a cow.
I see a big cow.
I see a big, fat cow.
I see a big, fat, brown cow.
I see a big, fat, brown and black cow.
I see a big, fat, brown and black cow on my lap, OUCH!
I do not like that cow!

The End

P.S. Did I mention that I hate that cow?


A profound thought from Joshua;

"My shoes are white, and bird poop is white, so if a bird poops on my shoes no one will know."


And for those of you who are wondering Benjamin woke up Lance from his nap the other day with this;

"Dad, when I'm 19 I'm going to be a missionary! I'm going to get baptized! I'm going on a mission. Then I'll be a football player and the ball goes in the net and comes out the teeny, tiny hole."

Just a few of the fun little things said at our house during the past week. Their little brains are always turning, always working and I don't always understand where this stuff comes from, but it sure can make my day.

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.