Five Months Old

Look at the big five month old! Ollie, you turned five months old on the 27th, but when did you get so huge? Haha. He's still as happy as ever though, and I am very grateful. He's pretty go-with-the-flow, and low-key, and mellow. Which is good, because we need someone with a mellow personality in this family. :)

Oliver is holding his head up completely on his own now, which has made the play saucer and the Bumbo chair possible. He likes to sit in either of those and watch the crazy goings on of his siblings. When he's in the Bumbo, he likes to play with his toes.

He's still my fantastic sleeper angel baby. He's easy to rock to sleep, and usually sleeps for a long time once he's down. He's the only child I've ever had who will let me move them from the car seat to their bed without waking up.

We Got One!

The short version of the story is this: We got a piano! Yay! The end.

The long version is a little, well, longer. :) And is goes like this. It is important to me that my kids learn to play the piano at least well enough to be able to play the hymns. There might be times in their lives (like on a mission, or if they live abroad) where they are in a ward or branch where no one can play the hymns. And I want my children to be able to step up and provide that service. If they want to make more of their music then that, then all power to them, but they will at least learn to play the hymns.

Anyways, ever since we bought our house, I've been thinking that we needed to get a piano and get Lincoln started taking lessons. They say to have kids start taking when they are old enough to read, and we've been reading for awhile. So I've been looking off and on on KSL to see if anyone would list one for $300 or less that was in decent condition. I also wanted one with dark wood to match my house. Aaron and I have both been looking for a long time, and hadn't really found anything.

Fast forward to the other day...this random Latvian foreign exchange student knocks on our door and is trying to sell us books. Maybe we are suckers for this kind of thing, or maybe it was because she was selling books, I don't know, but either way, we let her in to do her "five minute" presentation that took about an hour. She did have some cool books for sale. There was one, that appeared to be a human body encyclopedia of sorts, with awesome drawings, fun activities, and good info about the human body. We don't own anything like this, and I really want to, because the kids ask me questions about how the body works all the time, and some of them I don't know the answers to, and frankly, I'm a little nervous to Google search body parts/systems/functions, because you never know what will come up. So I thought I wanted to buy this book from the Latvian chick. But, it turns out you couldn't just buy a single book...you had to buy an entire set. A set of encyclopedia-like books is not the worst thing to have in your home library, and the illustrations were excellent, and the activities inside looked fun. It was a little more than we wanted to go at the moment, $180, but what the heck? So we put in an order. The girl left, and then Aaron and I had the entire evening to think about our purchase. And it wasn't really sitting well. The books were cool, but there were other things we wanted more. And we thought we could probably just save the $180 and put it towards a piano.

So Aaron cancelled our book order. The next morning, he got up early with Oliver, and got on KSL to look at listings just for something to do while he held the baby. And there was a listing for a piano, in very excellent condition, being sold by a family who was moving to Arkansas and couldn't take it with them, and needed to get rid of it fast. They were selling it for $180 --no joke. It was meant to be. Aaron called on it, and the guy said he'd hold it for us until after Aaron got off work that evening and could go pick it up. Aaron and his Dad took the trailer out to Herriman. And that was that. We are now the proud owners of a piano! And a nice one at that.

We've spent a few hours this weekend rearranging. The piano goes in the front room, which means we had to move the desk into the family room, which means we had to move one of our book cases into the front room, etc. This is how the front room turned out. At some point we'll get an over-sized chair, and maybe another plant to fill in a little bit of the extra space, but for now I really like how it is.

And my kids...they are thrilled with the piano. It's been an on-going concert since Aaron brought it home. We've had to set up a timer for taking turns and everything. It makes me so happy to have music in our home, and to look forward to when it will be real music. :) Bring on piano lessons. For the kids, and for me too, because I totally went on Amazon and bought a beginning piano book for adults. We'll see how good I am at teaching myself to play a little bit. Can't wait!

Provo Canyon

Aaron teaching Linc how to skip rocks

We spent several hours playing along the river up Provo Canyon today. Aaron's side of the family had a get-together, with a bunch of Aaron's extended family. It was a great day for it too. Not too hot, but still warm. The kids had fun playing by the water, and on the playground that was at the campground.

Ivan found a large stick that he tried to use as a fishing pole for a good forty-five minutes. He told me he wanted to catch a large-mouth bass. :) 

It was a cool camp ground. They had these swings set up here and there on the bank of the river. It was so peaceful and beautiful, and nice to have a place to sit and just enjoy it. 

Uncle Rob caught a garter snake, which all the little boys thoroughly enjoyed.

Linc is getting to be such a big kid. Love him.

Napping baby, handsome husband, photo-bombed by Lincoln.

Ivan and Jeremiah, fishing buddies

Ivan helping Asher into the swing

Magic School Bus Science Club: Acids and Bases

My kids are Magic School Bus freaks. You don't believe me? Well...my two year old walks around saying, "According to my research..." before making statements. And my four year old often says, "What are we gonna do? What are we gonna do? What are we gonna do?!" When something slightly dramatic happens. And the first time my five year old ate a Hostess Ding Dong, he called it a Mallow Blaster. :) And all of my kids say, "To the bus!" when I tell them to get in the car. In fact, if I give them the choice between watching a Disney movie and a Magic School Bus episode, they pick Magic School Bus every time. But I'm good with it though, because along with all the funny sayings and silly jokes, my kids are actually picking up some awesome science concepts.

Needless to say, when I heard that there was a Magic School Bus Science Club that we could join, I knew we had to do it. Basically it works like this: you go to their website and pay to be a club member for a year. Then, the send you one Science kit every month for 12 months. Inside the kits are materials and instructions that you need to complete about six different experiments having to do with that month's theme. All the experiments are kid friendly. It's so cool!

Our first kit came this week. This month's theme is acids and bases. For experiment #1 the kids got to determine which of five edible substances were acids and which were not based on if they tasted sour or not.

For experiment #2 we had to boil some red cabbage and strain off the water. Then we divided the cabbage water into six different cups. Then we took the six cups of edible liquids (vinegar, baking soda mixed with water, lemon juice, cola, water, and lemonade) and using a pipette dripped drops of the edible substances into the cabbage water. The substances that were acids turned the water red or pink. The substances that were bases turned the water blue or green, and with the substances that were neutral the water stayed violet. It was fun. And the boys really enjoyed it.

Ollie and Del woke up from their naps before we had time to do any of the other experiments. So we'll be doing the last four later this week. I read ahead in the directions though, and it looks like we'll be using Litmus paper to determine which liquids are acids and bases, copper plating a nail, and using acids to clean off dirty pennies. It's gonna be great. I love science!

A Trip to H-Town and the Maiden Voyage of Car School

I took the kids up to Hooper yesterday to hang out with my mom and my brother Kyle and his wife Kels and their adorable baby Abi. I even got to see my brother Tanner a little bit too, before he had to go to work. And my brother Jackson's little girl Emree was there as well. I love Hooper. And I love hanging out with my family. If Jackson and Bri and Aaron could have been there, it would have been the perfect party. I'm so excited to go up to Bear Lake at the end of August and hang out all together for a few days.

My wonderful mother gave me a hair cut while I was there. She's the only person I've ever found who will cut it as short as I want it. I love short hair. I may never have long hair again, and I'll be totally ok with that. I can't be bothered with it in my eyeballs all the time, I've got better things to do. Including trying to figure out how to keep my sanity. :)

Do your kids fight in the car? Mine do...well, at least my older boys do. Like cats and dogs. I don't understand it, most of the time they play just fine together, but the very instant they climb into the car, they start poking each other, and making faces at each other, and breathing each other's air...until I want to rip their lips off. But I can't do anything about it because I'm driving and they're way in the back. Then, I had a genius idea! Car school.

Monday afternoon I took the kids to Walmart to hit up the school supply sale. (I've always said if I had a million dollars I would spend it on office/school supplies, so this time of year is like a little slice of heaven for me.) I bought each of the boys a clipboard, a folder with pockets, a zippy pencil holder bag, a box of colored pencils, a pencil sharpener, a notepad of elementary sized lined paper, and a small rubbermade container that would fit between the arm of their car seats and the car window. Wa-la, the beginnings of our very own car school. :)

Monday night after the kids were in bed, I knew we'd be making the hour and half trip up to Hooper (and then back again) the next day, and I thought it would be the perfect time for our car school's maiden voyage. First I printed out a check list for each of the boys, and stuck it on their clipboard with a few rows of little stickers for them to use to "check off" the things they accomplished. (I thought the stickers would be more fun that just putting an X in a box.)

Next, I went through each of their lists and made sure they had everything they needed to complete them in either their rubbermade box or their folder. In Lincoln's box I put
-a set of spiral bound flash cards with the Articles of Faith written on them
-a set of single digit subtraction flash cards on a ring
-a zippy pencil holder with colored pencils inside
-a regular pencil
-a pencil sharpener
-scissors
-three books I'd like him to read

In his folder is
-Story #64 printed from our Funnix program with the reading comprehension questions on the back
-several color by numbers pictures that I printed off the internet
-some colored construction paper
-a math worksheet with subtraction problems on it
-several different easy mazes
-his writing notepad

Ivan's box is slightly different because he is younger and can't read independently yet. In his box I put
-several BOB books
-a set of single digit addition flash cards on a ring
-scissors
-a pencil
-a pouch full of colored pencils
-a pencil sharpener
-some slash cards with lists of simple rhyming words

In his folder he had
-a few pages of cutting sheets
-several color by numbers pages
-his lined notepad
-some colored construction paper for drawing.

Then I put everything in the car so it was all ready to go Tuesday morning. I was a little bit nervous about how it would go, especially since I had to rely on Lincoln to read Ivan's list to him. But everything worked like a charm! I couldn't have been more pleased with it. We road the whole way to Hooper and the whole way back with no fighting, and only occasional talking to ask a question or tell me about something cool they were working on (I'm not opposed to happy talking in the car, it's just the fighting/whining that I can't deal with). Lincoln's favorite things were the mazes and color by numbers. And Ivan's were the cutting sheets and the BOB books.

Neither of them finished their lists, but I'm totally fine with it, because that means next time we get in the car they have something to do. And when they run out of things to do, I'll make another list.

Anyways, I'm pretty excited about our car school. I'm looking to adding in some audio books and our Story of the World CDs, and maybe even some language learning CDs, but we'll see. I want to have the ability to mix things up so they don't get bored with doing the same things over and over. But right now, they are happy with what they have. Our first attempt at car school was successful! And if it continues to be so, maybe the 4 hour drive to Bear Lake and back won't kill me off, like I've been anticipating. :)

Corn

I think I love everything about corn. I like the way it waves in the wind in the field next door. I love how it looks with the mountains in the back ground. And most of all, I love the way it tastes. Corn on the cob is one of my favorite summer treats. And because there are lots of farms around here, we get fresh, local corn, for a good price, just about whenever we want. My kids even think it's fun to shuck, so I don't have to do that part. It's a win-win.

Sorry Song

"Mom, this is my sorry song, because sometimes you need a song for all the things you're sorry for." -Ivan

We ate dinner at Aaron's parent's house tonight and Ivan found Uncle Ryan's guitar downstairs and asked me if I wanted to hear his sorry song. I thought it was adorable. I wish I could remember the lyrics. 

I guess Ivan is turning into quite the little musician. The primary chorister stopped me in the hall after church today and told me that she just loves to hear Ivan sing in primary. She said he just belts it out and knows all the words and makes the cutest little facial expressions. She is the third person from the Primary to tell me something similar. I want to go in and see for myself one of these weeks. It makes me happy that Ivan loves music so much.  I hope I can help him develop his talent, it makes me a little nervous because I don't have a musical bone in my body, but I'm going to give it my best shot, and hope that if he loves it that will take care of the rest. 

Pictures of the Kidlets

Ollie is such a good baby. I still can't get over it. He played so nicely on his blanket with his pig while the boys read to me this week.

“There was never a child so lovely but his mother was glad to get him to sleep.”

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ivan sporting his hat and shades, munching on Cheetos at the park.

 Ollie doing the baby backstroke in the tub

 Mommy and Mr. Crank, I think we've got some teeth coming in maybe?

 A little water gun fun to beat the heat

Yay! Ivan's drawings are starting to actually look like what he says they are! Proud Mama.

Lincoln Liners, Ivan-isms, and Adelia's Additions

"But we don't have mummies anymore, now we just burry dead people in the ground, body and all." -Linc 

"Our yard is just rock world and weed world. " -Ivan

"Oliver's watching me as if he's waited his whole life just to see it. " -Linc

"Adelia, super heroes don't smoke. They obey God. " -Ivan

"Oh Mac and Cheese! I forgot about Mac and Cheese. I must have taken it off the list in my head. I just have a list in my head of all the foods we can eat. I have lots of lists of things in my head. " -Linc

"Kate was making a big cake that needed 13 eggs. She has 9 eggs. How many eggls will she need to borrow? Mom, if she borrows 4 eggs and uses them, will she just take back the shells?" -Linc

"This hat is up to no good! Because it doesn't cover my ears. " -Ivan

"Mom, sometimes you meet bugs. On raspberries. " -Linc 

"Mom, I think Ivan's sleeping to death." -Adelia

"Dad, I want a pickle sandwich for dinner. " -Ivan

"Adelia, everything on the Earth was made by Jesus. Except our shed. Dad made that." -Ivan

Del: "Mom, can you climb up a mountain?"

Me: "Yes. Can you climb up a mountain Del?"

Del: "Oh no, but I can take the escalator though."

Del: "Oh a booger came out. "

Me: "A booger came out of your nose?"

Del: "Yup. I'm ok."

"Mom, this is not rum, it's milk." -Adelia

"Good thing I am good at testing if it's raining or not. " -Lincoln

"Mom, could you perhaps turn it up higher. " -Linc 

"Mom, will you open the blinds a little so I can peer out the window?" -Lincoln

MLB All-Star Game

Our good friends the Shaws invited us over to watch the All-Star game with them. Julie made an awesome baseball themed dinner, hot dogs, peanuts, cracker jacks, cotton candy. She even got cups with baseball tops, and bowls that looked like baseball hats with all the team logos on them. Everyone had a great time.

Sam, Lincoln, Ivan, Del, Tyler taking a break to swing in the hammock during the game.

Sneaky Parenting

One thing I've learned in my almost six years of parenting is that sometimes you have to be sneaky. For example, I stumbled across this awesome book called Follow That Map!: A First Book of Mapping Skills by Scot Ritchie, and I wanted to do it with my kids; however, I knew if I sat them down and said, "Hey we're going to do some mapping activities." that they'd probably fight me the whole way. I bought the book, and when it came in the mail I didn't make a big deal out of it, but I kept leaving it places where I knew Lincoln would find it. He paged through it a couple of times, but never mentioned it to me. Time passed, a couple of months maybe, and I forgot about the book.

Then last night while I was in the middle of making dinner, Linc came dashing into the kitchen and asked me to help him make a map of his bedroom like it was the most urgent thing in the world. He'd been reading the book, and came to a page with a list of instructions  and couldn't resist his need to do what the list said (the kid IS a list freak, it finally worked to my advantage!). Number one was to get a piece of paper and a ruler, and he had both of those, and number two was to measure and draw an outline of your bedroom, and that's what he wanted my help with.

I wasn't able to help him until quiet time today. But it was a really fun activity...made even more fun by the fact that it was his idea and he was therefore, motivated to accomplish the tasks. :) The book told him to walk the perimeter of his bedroom and count how many steps it took to walk each side. Every one step Lincoln took was equal to two squares on his graph paper. That's how we measured his room, to scale and everything. He measured all his furniture and their positions in the room the same way. Next the book had him color all the objects on his map. And lastly, it told him to make a map legend. Pretty cool if you ask me.

Basic map skills were acquired, and he didn't suspect a thing. Sometimes you just have to be a sneaky parent. :)

Spoils!

Galatians 6:7 "...For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."

We are reaping aplenty from our garden this week! It is like heaven on Earth to have fresh garden tomatoes. Sometimes I wonder why we bother with the tasteless store bought ones at all. My tomatoes aren't quite Hooper Tomatoes, but they are lovely anyway.

My peas haven't done so well this year...probably the heat.

And I've successfully grown radishes for the first time. Yippee!

There are two green peppers that will be ready tomorrow as well.

I LOVE MY GARDEN.

Where Else Would We Go on Saturday?

I'm pretty sure we've been to Home Depot nine our of every ten Saturdays since we bought our house. It's good though, because that means things are getting done! This weekend's project was Operation Birthday Sandbox. Or in other words, we're planning on building a sandbox for the kids for Adelia's and Lincoln's birthdays, and we needed to get the stuff.

It didn't get finished today, but we're making good progress. I think it will be done by Adelia's bday on the 3rd.