Halloween and a Birthday

The kids dressed up two nights in a row, first for our ward trunk-or-treat, and then for actual Halloween. After all the festivities were over and they had collected two bucketfuls of candy, guess how many pictures I had taken of them. Zero. After my parents dropped by for a pre-bedtime visit, I dragged out the camera and got them to stand still for a couple shots. I love Luke's expression in these. It's indicative of his attitude the whole time. As soon as he realized what was going on with the whole trick-or-treating thing, he started doing a little happy dance and shouting, "More, more!" every time someone dropped a piece of candy in his bucket. He ran 90% of the time we were trick-or-treating, only because the other 10% of the time he was falling down. I wasn't smart enough to get any video of him either.





Lucy turned 5 today! She has become quite the conversationalist lately, so we've been talking about it for weeks. She woke up smiling and proud that today was finally HER day. She just went go bed, smiling with satisfaction. Apparently today was everything she hoped it would be. At 5, Lucy is positive and optimistic. She likes to help wash dishes and empty the dishwasher. Whenever I ask her to "set up the table", (her words) she always responds with a bright "sure!" She is becoming interested in reading and wishes she could do it by herself. She is learning letter sounds with me during our "preschool" at home everyday and loves to say "that's easy" every time I give her instructions for a new page. She's funny and pretty and is getting quite tall - a cute little lady!

Parenting Success

As parents, we sometimes wonder if what we're trying to teach our kids is sinking in. But every once in a while, we catch a glimpse of something we've taught being reflected back to us, and we realize that we're doing something right. Recently, we had such a moment with Luke. Watch the video...

No, It Doesn't Make Me Feel Old

This is pretty late, but I still wanted to post about Jane's big important birthday! We have an 8 year-old in the house! Jane's birthday was a couple weeks ago, but she's been counting down for months. Her desktop wallpaper says "It's great to be 8!" She makes her own wallpapers with Photoshop. I should post some of them here because they're kinda cool. Anyway, I would have to agree that in many ways, it is great having an 8 year-old in the house. Lately, on the weekends, Jane has been getting up with the younger 2 kids and helping them get breakfast while I stay in bed a little longer. Two weeks ago, on Sunday, I walked out of my room and was greeted by 3 kids who were all fed and dressed for church. Shoes too! Jane knows how to make brownies all by herself and she can handle some pretty big chores (if properly motivated). It's nice to be able to rely on her for some real help instead of the kind of hindering helping that Lucy does when I let her cook or clean with me.



For her birthday, we gave Jane a shrink-art jewelry book from Klutz Press that comes with instructions and supplies to make real jewelry from shrinky dinks plastic. I'd have to say it's the best $25 I ever spent on a kid. She has been making jewelry for herself, Lucy, her friends at school and even earrings for me non-stop. Here she is with her favorite butterfly necklace.



For her birthday party, she got to go on a girls' night with her cousin and my sisters and mom. We went out to eat and then painted pottery together. As you can see, Jane painted a fish.

She requested a new dress for her baptism day and I was happy to oblige. She was so much more excited for her baptism than I remember being when I was 8. It was really nice to see so many friends and family all gathered to support Jane on her big day.

And just to illustrate what a thoughtful young lady Jane is growing up to be, I thought I would post this lovely sign that Jane made for Lucy. I hope you enjoy the bloody scab that is dangling from Lucy's knee in the middle of the picture.

Young Women Handout

Lesson 35: Living Righteously amid Pressures

I use a lot of other people's handout ideas for my lessons, so I thought I would share one of my own.

This is sized to fit on a package of Orbit gum. Get it? Chews? Click Here for a whole sheet of these to print off.

I'm related to Adam (by marriage)

Nate and I were looking around on new.familysearch.org last night. We like to click on a family member's name and then click on that person's parents and that persons parents and that persons parents until there is no more information on that particular family line, just to see how far back we can go. We started with Nate's grandpa, Albert Bowler, and clicked his father, then his father's father and so on. While we were clicking, and getting back into the 1400s, we talked about how we're sure someone somewhere has traced their roots to Adam. The father's fathers kept on coming and soon we were seeing like 300 AD. The names had already changed from Old English to Jewish names and we were shocked that this family line had made it through the medieval times, indicating royalty because records of peasants were not kept during that time. The word "King" appeared in front of several of the names. Suddenly we saw Joseph of Arimathea, born 80 BC. He is the one who donated his own tomb for the burial of Jesus Christ. We kept on clicking, past Noah, right on through, Jacob, Isaac, and Abraham and then finally, Adam (first man) and Eve (first woman). That's exactly how their names are listed.


We couldn't click any more past that.



A self portrait from several months ago. Lucy made me add the crown. Fitting I'd say.

Texting...

Periodically throughout the day I will text Hailee to see how she's doing and just say hello. The way that I do this is the same every time.

My text always is this:

"How's it."

That's it. That's all that needs to be said. What's replied back is great and I thought I would share a few of the replies:

"How's it." (yes that is a valid reply)

"Luke pee-peed in the potty."

"At my mother's."

"Lunch."

"Feedin kids."

"Cleaning kids"

"Going to swim"

"Good"

"Starting a load of laundry. It's awesome."

I guess to the casual observer this may seem quite boring. But how is it any different than Twitter or Facebook. At least this way it's my wife and not some random person.

Colorado Trip

Fun Valley sure was fun this year! What I had forgotten about it is that most of the people who visit there are from Texas (I don't know why that is) so we end up picking up a little Texas drawl and folksy tendency to talk to everyone we see. Nate overheard an exchange that went something like this

"Hah, how ya'll doin?"

"I'm fahn, how're you?"

"Well, I reckon."

Nate tells it better. Anyway, the people that run the place are all retirees, and they're happy to help and talk all you want. After a week, I start to get used to everybody and it's fun when we go back how we recognize a lot of them again. So until next time...

Goodbye lady at the snack shack with the drawn-on eyebrows and the tiny mouth.

I'll miss you guy with the handlebar mustache who sits in a booth at the arcade, making change.

See ya next time, neatly dressed gentleman who runs the golf shack.

Bye jovial guy who drives the trolley around all day with his dog Snickers... or Schnookums...or something.

Bye other guy who drives the trolley sometimes and can't hear us yell "stop!" when we want to get off.

Goodbye Lady with the droopy cheeks and pink lipstick who sells the tickets to do all the fun stuff.

It's important to me to get a lot of photos of our trips because I can barely remember this place, or any other place we went to when I was a kid. I think there were about 550 on the camera. Here's a few for you.


Jane and Lucy flagging down the trolley

Waiting to go fishin' at the stocked pond.

Jane caught the biggest and Lucy caught the most.

Luke just wanted to hold one.

This was right after the rain stopped and before I cooked dinner. Late afternoon after the rain was a fun time to come back out and play.

Luke, cleaning up everyone's breakfast bowls.

Inside the tiny log cabin playhouse

Nate and Jane tubing down the river

The Fam

This boy loves trucks. Nuff said.

Mini golf. It's fun for about the first 3 holes until people start stacking up behind us and the kids aren't paying any attention anymore, but won't let us call it quits.

Eulogy

I’m swimming.

I look up, and all I see is the blue of water all around me. Then her substantial black body and her four black dog legs are swimming overhead. Like a dolphin playing near a ship, I twist slowly to avoid her churning feet, and watch her sail on. Moments later, I am sitting at the edge of the pool, soaking up the sight of my family playing in the water, in the sun. She comes to sit beside me and I reach out to pat her back. I listen to the slap, slap, slapping sound of my hand on her fur, still heavy with water. These are some of the last moments with her that I would have, because later that night, she would die, passing from this life to the next while we slept.

Since we aren’t having a funeral for Bindi, and her body already rests somewhere in the desert, under a tree, where Nate says she can be in the shade, I felt I needed to memorialize her somehow.

On the day Bindi joined our family, she was young, but not a baby, kind of like us. We were still newlyweds and went to get her within hours of learning that she was looking for a home. We introduced her to our backyard and imagined she would like it there, but after 4 days and nights of crying and standing with her nose pressed to the back door, she got her way and became an inside dog. She was an instant member of the family, accompanying us on snow trips, trips to the pool, and even one crazy middle-of-the-night drive to the beach, and camping. Camping with Bindi was something to look forward to. She was her best self when she was camping. She loved having her family outside with her all the time, and she loved chewing pinecones and exploring the forest. We had to put a glow stick on her collar at night because she blended in with the darkness.

I’ve said before that if Bindi could talk, I know she would make me laugh. She had a funny, cheerful personality. She knew when to be serious too. She learned all the rules and obeyed them (mostly). We never could convince her not to jump up when people came to the house to visit. She didn’t jump onto them, just up high in front of them, the better to see their face. She had a loving nature and welcomed all people and dogs to our home.

My ears miss her. She was really pretty loud as far as dogs go, and not because of barking (although I was proud the first time I heard her big, deep bark). Her panting could be heard by people on the other end of the phone. She also had some sinus thing or apnea that made her snore loudly in her sleep, but she could be silenced with a firm SSSHHH! Whenever she put her nose to the ground and went around sniffing, the same apnea thing caused her to make a chugging sound, like a train. And lately, she always let out a long groan as she lowered her body to the ground to lay down – probably because of sore hips. All these sounds became a part of our home and our lives, and it feels quiet, even with the three kids running around.


Seems like a lot to say about a smelly, hairy dog. It’s OK if you think I’m weird. I think I’m weird. I didn’t think I would love an animal this way, but I did. I do.

Bindi May 5 2000 - June 30 2009

Freeday

Jane and I sometimes talk about how we wish there was a day called Freeday. A day where you could relax and play, or if you had to, you could use it to catch up on stuff you can't do during the other seven days of the week. It would probably fall somewhere around the weekend - Thursday, Friday, Freeday, Saturday - or maybe it would be a floating day that you just insert anywhere you feel you could use an extra day. Today it felt like we got our wish. It was one of our lucky Fridays that we get during the summer when Nate works four 10 hour days and then his office is closed on Friday. We all did some jobs in the morning (as I suppose one would still have to do on an average Freeday), then we got to lazy around the house. I was at the computer, Nate was on the couch with the remote, the kids were in the basement (ahh), and there was nothing else we felt like doing at the moment. When there was a knock at the door, everyone rushed to welcome our guest, Chuck. Chuck is our friends' new puppy who came for a sleepover while his family is out of town. After introducing him to our own doggie and getting him settled in the backyard, we had lunch and stuck Luke in bed for a nap, then we picked up right where we left off with our various diversions. At 3:00 we went swimming at our old house. It was the perfect day to swim. The sun was hot and the water was cool, but not cold. We showed Chuck how to swim and we all paddled around the pool until the clock said it was time to go home. We brought home Sonic burgers and drinks for dinner, then Nate put on some Michael Jackson music (in honor of the late, great) and we danced. Later, the kids and I played outside with the two dogs until the sun went to bed.

Not all of Nate's Friday's off are like this. We probably should have been doing more, and we'll have to make up for it tomorrow (which isn't how Freeday is supposed to be), but it's one of those days that I'll remember.

Jane is getting a few pointers from Dad on her dancing. This is to help her avoid dancing in the style of Elaine Benes of TV's Seinfeld.

Bindi and Chuck walk around side by side and kiss all day. He's too young for her, though.

Slushes

The kids and I have gotten Sonic slushes several times this summer. I'm hooked on the Cherry Lime slush. Jane favors lemon-berry, while Luke and Lucy like the fake grape and watermelon flavors. I'm pretty sure that each kid at different times has used the straw to break up the slush for better drinkability, only to end up poking the straw straight through the styrofoam cup. Why do they all have to do it? Don't they learn from watching their sibling cry and moan over having their dribbling cup snatched away by mom and hurried to the nearest trash receptacle? If they can't learn from each others' experiences, does that mean I will have to teach them each separately all of the same things? Will I have to explain to Lucy and then to Luke, just as I have to Jane about sharing and hitting, about why we don't pray to Santa, why we're not democrats, how the toilet works, electricity, fireworks, thunderstorms? One day I became overwhelmed, thinking about all the things I want to teach them. Isn't it my job to make sure they know everything I know? I started making lists in my head of skills I should pass on like crocheting, photography, sewing, writing, singing...

Then I stopped worrying. I thought about all those things and realized that those are not things I learned from my mother. I picked up most of those things from books or by practicing, just because they were things I wanted to be good at. My mother did teach me how to cook, how to french braid hair, and probably all of the homemaking skills that I have. She also taught me to invite the weird, smelly girl to my birthday party because how would I feel if I was the one who got left out? Then when I was the one who got left out, she taught me that girls can be mean and that the fact that I was the target of their treachery didn't necessarily mean anything was wrong with me. She taught me about Jesus Christ, and about prayer and recognizing the answers when they came. She taught me about faith and obedience, integrity, forgiveness... Now that, I can teach. Those are things that I still work on every day, so it's easy to teach my children as I go along. As long as I teach them how to be good human beings, whatever skills and talents they pick up on their own are just bonus features. And if they end up poking a few holes in styrofoam cups, I guess they'll learn about that on their own too.

Summertime Blues

Isn't summer supposed to be relaxing? We haven't had much time to unwind yet this summer. We moved 2 weeks before Jane finished school, so between unpacking, taking photos, entertaining kids and maintaining 2 houses, I'm still waiting for things to slow down.

Speaking of two houses...Since we have an offer on the house we recently moved from, we have to make sure we keep the weeds and the pool under control.

Like this.

I also have a garden that's still growing over there, so I water it and pick the vegetables every few days.

Before

After!

Last Saturday, Nate and I each had been in and out of the house a few times doing a few jobs. As I was leaving the house with the kids, I hit the button to shut the garage, but it only went down about 2 feet and then froze. "Aw Craaap". I said. I hit it again, and it went down 2 more feet and froze. I got out of the car thinking Great, Nate's gonna be mad that there is yet another thing to fix at this house we don't even live in. I checked the sensors to see if they were aligned. I waved my hand in front of one of them, and the garage went up! That's never happened before. Must be something wrong with the sensors. I ran back and forth between the button on the wall and the button in my car, stepping over the invisible line made by the sensors a few times. But the stupid thing just wouldn't go all the way down. Just as I was getting ready to disengage the opener from the door and close it by hand, I hear "Beep!" That's the pathetic little horn on Nate's truck. He's parked behind my car, just out of sight LAUGHING HIS BUTT OFF with his finger on his garage remote. Hilarious Nate. I laughed/cried/punched his arm a little bit because it was pretty funny/embarrassing/really mean. Then I didn't give him the drink I had that he wanted.

I'm not in the mood to be teased due to my latest project (see below).

I hope to blog more often now, simply because every time I check my blog feeds and see that someone has gifted me with something new to read, I feel guilty because I don't pay anybody back with a post of my own. Hope everyone is having a happy summer!

Halfaday

While I was packing to move today, I found a book about face painting that came with some face paints. Since Jane had early release today and usually spends all day asking for something to do, I thought I would let her play with it. I knew she would like it, but man! She was all over it like honey on a hot biscuit! She stood in the bathroom all afternoon and painted and repainted her face. Lucy had several makeovers, and Luke did too. If only I had known... I have bought her so many crafty things that require me to stay right there and help, if only to contain the mess. This turned out to be one activity that required no help or supervision from me plus she actually entertained the younger ones, and all it cost me in the end was a minute of wiping down the bathroom (and whatever the paints cost me about 12 years ago).

I already felt like Nice Mommy for that little bit of fun. Then when they came running in and told me the ice cream truck was coming up the street (Luke was chanting "Ice.Cream.Ice.Cream."), I remembered the money they got from Grandma's Easter eggs. They each had a 1 dollar coin pressed into their palms when the truck rolled up. It was their first ice cream truck encounter. Luke loved his green push-up which he thought was a drink. Lucy chose a cherry italian ice with a gumball at the bottom. Jane got a fudge bar. What?! A fudge bar? I have those in our freezer all the time. At least the girl knows what she likes. Thanks Grandma for the dollars!

Oh, and Luke ate poop today. He came up to me saying "unh, unh, uhn" with his mouth hanging slack and handed me what was unmistakably a little marble turd from his own diaper. It had a bite out of it. Boys are awesome.

This is what happened yesterday when I picked up the phone to talk to Nate for a minute. I was mad at first, but then I told him good job for stacking them so high! Talented son of mine.

Baby!

Katelyn and Brian's little girl was born on Saturday night! Her name is Lily Jill. Nate and I got to meet her yesterday. Here's a few pics.

Easy Care

While I was washing some dishes today, Luke came and asked me for something. I have no idea what he was asking for because I was distracted by how disgusting he looked. His hair was full of some sticky substance and it was standing up in every direction. His face had at least three layers of different goop encircling his mouth and his hands looked like he was wearing dirt gloves (to be fair, he had, in fact, been digging in the dirt). So I put the dishes down and thought to myself I'll wash that one instead. I laid him down on the counter and stuck his head under the running water. I just used the dish soap that was right there to lather his head, then I rinsed and patted his head dry with a paper towel. Using the same paper towel, I cleaned up his face and hands, then styled his hair with my fingers, put him down on the floor and patted his butt. Two minute makeover complete! I'm sure others before me have figured out how easy it is to take care of boys, but I'm used to girls with the bathing and the blow drying and the brushing. I would take more boys for many reasons, but this just adds another big one to the list.


This wasn't from today. Same boy, different mess.

Hailee Needs Stuff Too

A Special Space

To find a Forever Home

A Horse

To stop hitting

Free music downloads

LadySports Full Wrestling videos

A newspaper for Paul Johnston headlining all actions and thoughts between Hailee and Paul.

Timberland Tall Boots

A Labrador Retriever

52 Perfect Days

Nate Needs ...

Go to google and google " (Your name ) needs" and write down the first 10 things:

1. Nate needs help.

2. Nate needs a haircut.

3. Nate needs explosive thermal detonating muffins to fight evil. (I swear that was in there. I can't make this stuff up.)

4. Nate needs your votes.

5. Needs to Make More Plays to Earn His Salary. (Huh?)

6. Nate needs an assistant.

7. Nate needs a permanent home.

8. Nate needs a strong human pack leader who will teach him boundaries.

9. Nate needs a job.

10. Nate needs a car.

Try it. It's pretty funny.

Shower!

This post is mainly for Allison and Sommer who couldn't make it to Katelyn's baby shower. It's also for me because I think everything turned out so cute!


Pretty food and cotton candy (made by my Dad).


Appliqued onesies double as party decorations




Grandma Jackson, Aunt Jennifer and Camryn sharing treats.

Don't look at Katelyn's expression. Look at the sweater. I made it!

Katelyn set rules about the position from which I was allowed to take photos. I broke a rule.

Katelyn likes the dress sent all the way from Utah.