Update

I haven't written for a month now I think. So here is my quick update. We had a good Thanksgiving--at least I did. Terry had to work so I went up to Sugar City for a feast with my family. We had tons of good food. Other than that we have just been trying to get ready for Christmas. We are going to Oklahoma City to see my parents for a week so we are trying to get everything done now.

All the kids ate Thanksgiving dinner downstairs. When they were done, but adults ate. It made our feast very peaceful.



These pictures are for my dad who I think misses the old homestead.

Thanksgiving play

This is for mom who didn't get to see the play all the neices and nephews (those present) put on during Thanksgiving. Sorry the video isn't high quality. But you sort of get the picture.

Ellie's Violin Recital

Ellie had her second violin recital yesterday. She seems to be pretty laid back about these things. I couldn't get her to play through her songs beforehand, but she ended up doing just fine. She doesn't act nervous at all, but she said she was a little nervous. Here is a video of it.

Watermelon

This is just a picture of the watermelon we grew in our garden. We had about 5 little melons growing, but they just didn't have prime conditions. But it didn't hurt to try.

Two funnies about Ainsley:

I think Ainsley is going to grow up to be an animal rights activist. Lately when we sit down to dinner and are having meat, she suddenly demands, "What animal is this?!!!" When we tell her it is cow or chicken or pig she will respond with "AH! We cannot kill the cow/chicken/pig!" And she says she won't eat it.

Then last week, we all were sick with a stomach bug. Ainsley was talking one day and said--"You know that thing that is in your body and it gets really tight and squeezes really hard and then it makes all your food come out?" I thought that was a funny description of throwing up.

Halloween

On Tuesday our neighborhood had a party at the park with a trunk or treat. There was a great turn out and the kids had fun. The one thing I don't like about it is that it is dark during most of the party so if you lose a kid then it is hard to find them again. Sam was Darth Vader and so the black made it extra hard to spot him. Luckily he and Ainsley and Abby were really good about sticking right next to me the whole night(where was Terry? Good question. Somehow we were separated most of the night and I had four kids while he had none. But I am sure there was a good reason for it. Right?) Anyway the kids got tons of candy--which we were able to give away on Halloween night.





On Halloween we were running all day. I got Ellie off to school then got Abby ready for kindergarten (costume and all) and then ran and did some visiting teaching--then ran to the school and helped with Abby's party and watched the kids parade through the halls in their costumes (Terry was home with the other kids, holding down the fort--it was nice he had 11 days off in a row this month). Then we ran home and got the rest of the kids ready and got in the car and zoomed up to Sugar City for another trunk or treat. Then we went to my sisters and had taco salad and scones and talked politics. Then we zoomed over to Grandma Shirley's for some more food and more talk on politics. Then we went over to Terry's brothers in Rexburg and then we finally drove home. It was a fun busy day--but boy was I ready for a slow no responsibility day.

Pumpkin Carving

For FHE last Monday we carved the pumpkins. The kids drew their own faces and then we helped them cut. Terry had to modify Ainsleys because her drawing was so spaztic.






And then the final products--notice the great outfit Ainsley is sporting.

Primary Program

I am home sick today--and I missed the primary program at church. I am in the primary presidency so I feel bad, but what can you do? A stomach bug has been going through my family and Sam and I are the last ones to get it. He just fell asleep on the couch while I have been typing. He must be sick because he never just falls asleep.

Anyway, yesterday we had a primary practice at the church and it was crazy for me. Terry had a class he had to go to so I had all the kids with me. Actually Ellie wasn't with me because she was home sick. We left her home alone but she had a phone and I had a phone and I wasn't too far away. So we checked in with each other every few minutes. She likes feeling she is old enough to be by herself.

At the practice I wasn't much help. I will just describe some crazy moments. Ainsley had been doing well sitting in her chair and being good, but then she had an accident. The primary president was trying to tell her it was her turn and she moved Ainsleys chair. AInsley had been standing for a song so she sat down without looking and fell on the ground. Anyway, after this she refused to do anything and just wanted to be by me and cling to me. Then Abby came over to me in tears. I couldn't figure out what was wrong for a while. She just kept saying she didn't want to do her part. She just wanted to go home. I finally figured out that she had missed her turn to go say her part and she ended up going up at the wrong time. Another primary kid told her a little harshly it wasn't her turn. So Abby filled up with anxiety because she didn't know when she was supposed to go up. I reassured her we would make sure she knew. So in the process of calming her down, Isaac was crawling around and he crawled up on a little stand and fell backwards and bonked his head and started crying. Sam was being cranky and was crying pretty much the whole time over different things.

So at one point I had all four kids clinging to me and crying. One mom looked at me and said, "Boy you REALLY have your hands full."

Anyway, Terry called after the primary program and said it all went well and the girls all remembered their parts.

Soccer

Abby finished up her first soccer season--and maybe her last. She did a good job this year, but sometimes was reluctant to go to practices and games. But once she was there she did her best. She was funny to watch because she wasn't the one scoring the goals or anything but she was really positive with her teammates and cheered them on really well. One day she told her team mate who had made a mistake, "It doesn't matter if you win--only that you do your best."

Abby also ran around with a really determined look on her face. She wouldn't give up. Good job Abby.

Swore Farms

On Friday afternoon, Terry and I took the kids to a corn maze and pumpkin patch. It was a cute maze and they had farming questions at different turning points with each answer pointing a different direction. The kids liked it. Terry and I learned we don't really know a whole lot about farming.

After the maze the kids had to get their faces painted. And then they went to a story time corner. A girl who was probably 10 was reading the story and it took about 15 minutes to get through it. I don't know if she had read the story before or not, but she would stop after turning the page and look at the pictures for a minute before going on with the story. It was funny.




After the story we went to the pumpkin patch and the kids each picked out their own pumpkin.




It was all great fun.

Kids

Here are just some pictures of my kids.




Ainsley is so funny. She loves the feel of skirts on her head because she feels like she has long hair. For a while she had a skirt on her head every day. She has calmed down a little, but she recently had this get-up on.

Ainsley's preschool teacher called me the other day to tell me a funny little story. She said that one day Ainsley was playing with a barbie and she was naked. Ainsley said she needed a shirt so the teacher grabbed the closest one which was a spaghetti strap shirt or something like that. Ainsley said, "That is NOT modest!" Her teacher was tickled that she knew about modesty and would care about it. Little does the know that Ainsley knows about it because she is always running around in next to nothing and I am telling her she isn't being modest.

Ainsley has also been talking about the eggs in her tummy. All my girls know about the birds and the bees is that they have little eggs in their tummies. I have told them that much. Well Ainsley has been curious about it in the last few days and she keeps asking me questions about her eggs. Where are they exactly? How big are they (asked while we were cracking eggs)? When will they be a baby? Anyway, I was pushing her on the swing yesterday and I was kind of pushing her stomach to get her going. She said, "MOM!, you are pushing my eggs!." I laughed and laughed. Kids are so funny.





Abby is very studious at doing her homework. She has been doing great in school. Her teacher was talking to me one day and said that she loves Abby and she has been such a big help. There is a special needs boy in her class and Mrs Westwood said Abby always tries to help him and make sure he is where he needs to be, doing what he needs to do.

Harry Potter

Ellie just finished reading the last Harry Potter in the series. I am impressed that she read them all as a third grader (I am sure there are others who have done it too). But I think I would have looked at the size of the book and said no way. In fact it was funny to look at her reading the books because the books look bigger than she is.

Anyway, she had to do a project at school on a book she read so she and Terry made a salt dough diorama of Harry and Dumbledore going across the lake to get the horcrux. It was fun for them to work together. And I guess I forgot to get a picture of the final product.

Harvest

I haven't posted for so long so it is hard to start again--because where do I begin?

Well I'll begin with harvest. We had a great garden this year--our first one and we loved seeing how big and lush everything got. We have so many tomatoes and I think I have done about all the canning I am going to do this year. I have done peaches, pears, pizza sauce, fresh salsa, pickles, pickle relish, and have juiced enough tomatoes to make spaghetti sauce. I am just waiting for a little more ambition before I finish the last one.




I don't know why it is so satisfying to grow things and can them, but while Elder Uchdorf was speaking during the general relief society broadcast I had an insight. He talked about how we find joy in being creative-- in taking unorganized matter and organizing it into something beautiful. We are exercising godliness when we create and therefore we find joy in it. When I garden, I am creating and so that is why it is so satisfying. Anyway, I think tomatoes and cucumbers are beautiful vegetables.

Ellie's Baptism

We had the special experience of having Ellie get baptized yesterday. It was a neat day. Ellie has been preparing for this for months. We have had family home evenings many times talking about the covenants she would be making and she has been praying she would be ready for this day. We had one special Family Home Evening a couple of weeks ago. Usually they are so crazy and we can't get the kids to settle down. I don't know that we feel the spirit much. But we invited Ellie to share her testimony with us because we knew she would be having an interview with the Bishop and he would ask her about her testimony. I told the kids that if they were really quiet and listened for a minute then we might feel the spirit. So the kids were completely still and Ellie gave a sweet testimony and we really did feel the spirit for a minute.

Anyway, yesterday we got ready for the baptism and then headed over to the stake center. Her cousin Kayla got baptized with her and so her family was there along with Aunt Cheryl, and Tom and Kerry (who missed the baptism because of a miscommunication, but they were there when they were confirmed). From my family, Grandma Shirley and Aunt Linda were there along with David and Kelley and kids, and Suzette. We had some other neighbors come and support Ellie also.





It was neat to have Ellie get baptized. I have been teaching primary and keep telling the kids that baptism is the first step on the path back to our Heavenly Father. It is the gate that gets us on that path. I am glad Ellie is on that path and that she did it with some thought and preparation. She was confirmed a member of the church and received the gift of the Holy Ghost afterwards. I am glad she has that gift with her now. It has been such a blessing in my own life.





It was cute to watch Ellie all day yesterday. She was so good and wanted to be super obedient. She did whatever we asked her to do without a single complaint. She is a sweet girl and we are proud of her.

Camping

We decided to go on a long camping trip and see how our little family would handle it. And we had a great time. It all started on Monday when we were preparing to go camping. That wasn't such a good day. We planned on packing all day long, but I had to get Ellie's birthday presents, Terry had to finish painting a bedroom, and then we had a crisis. While I was shopping, Terry called me and told me we had a big water leak from our kitchen down into Ellie's bedroom. By the time I got home, men were in the home tearing it apart. They cut out a big hole in Ellie's ceiling and tore out a part under our kitchen sink. They said it was a good thing we were leaving because they needed a few days to dry things out and dry out our wood floor in our kitchen.

By the time we got that crisis a little under control it was 9 PM. Then I had to make 3 batches of strawberry jam because I didn't want the berries to go bad while we were gone. So I started making it while Terry started pakcing. Then the power went out. It was out for a few hours. The girls refused to stay in their beds because they were scared the lights were off. So they helped me make strawberry jam by flashlight and lantern.

I finally go them to sleep by singing to them for a while. Then I went out to the garage to try and help Terry. He wasn't getting much done. We finally just decided to go to bed. By this time it was almost midnight. So we closed our garage doors and started up to bed, and then the power came on. So I went to bed and Terry stayed up and went shopping for our food and did some more packing.

The next morning we finally were ready to go around 9 AM (we were supposed to be gone around 7:30 because men were back at our house and needed us out of the way). But we got on our way but had to stop in Idaho Falls, and then Rexburg. We finally made it to Island Park around 4:00 PM. We were not in very happy moods while we were trying to get set up. The kids were hungry and we were all tired.



We are almost on our way


By Macks Inn


The next morning was much better. We were all fed and happy and the rest of our trip was fun. We stayed at Buttermilk Campground which is right by Island Park Resivoir. We hiked and biked and Terry and the girls floated down Big Springs with Jodi's canoe. That night some of Terry's family came.


Terry and girls before the float



Terry and the girls leaving





Feeding the fish at Big Springs--a lady told Terry that the year before people weren't seeing any fish and they finally figured out a bear had camped out by the river and was swiping the fish out with his claw and right into his mouth. They had to move the bear out of the area.

The next day we rented a couple of sea doos (is that how you spell it?) and that was a blast. I told Terry I would support him in getting one. We rode those all day and I took Sam out on it and he fell asleep riding around. It was so cute. The kids loved swimming around in life jackets evening though the water was pretty cold. I know because Terry threw me in. But he suffered the consequences.


I thought this was funny. Joel--my brother in law and Vincent my nephew wanted to fish but they didn't want to row across the lake so they had Terry tow them on the jet ski.






The girls with their Aunt Cheryl









Anyway, the next day we packed up and left. That was the 4th of July. I was tired and we weren't too festive. Ellie was getting baptized the next day and Terry's family stayed at our house so I just wanted to get cleaned up and organized for the next day. We stopped at David's house on the way home and had a barbecue with them and Suzette, Aunt Linda, and Grandma and Grandpa Shirley. We had pizza at our house that night and set off some fireworks in our front yard. That was the extent of our festivities.

EEEEWwwww!!!!

Last Sunday we were sitting down to dinner and Terry went and got Isaac out of his saucer (known for causing horrible blowouts). He came and sat down at the table and we were preparing for the prayer when I noticed Terry's shirt. All I can say is I am glad it wasn't me. However, I ended up having to change Isaac and bathe him because Terry was tied up getting himself cleaned up.

Ainsley's Birthday

Ainsley had her birthday a few weeks ago. We had a great day celebrating her birth. It started wtih eggs and bacon for breakfast, not anything worth mentioning for lunch, and corn dogs and mac and cheese for dinner. I kept saying, you can have anything for dinner. Are you sure you want corn dogs and mac and cheese? Yep!

We went to Horton Sees a Who and I decided we still have too many little ones to take the whole fam to a movie. Ainsley kept saying she wanted to go home and she and Sam wondered up and down the rows of seats (there was only one other family in the theater). But the kids attention was reengaged during the "We are Here!!!!!" grand finale part.

After we went home for some yummy strawberry shortcake (cream cheese frosting and all).



The present that got the biggest squeal of delight was the chapstick.



Ainsley was pleased with her new huffy bike.