Our Weekend

We had a really fun weekend this week. On Friday night, for date night we went to eat at The Malt Shoppe here in Provo. For the first little bit we had the whole place to ourselves. It was fun. The boys LOVED the jukebox, and we caught them dancing quite a few times, especially Ivan. They also got to have their very first ever corn dogs. And both boys gobbled them right up, which was nice because usually when we go out to eat they are too distracted to actually eat. After we got home and put the boys to bed, Aaron and I finally got to watch My Big Fat Greek Wedding, which we bought for our anniversary. I love that movie. We've seen it so many times, but it cracks me up every time.

Saturday we spent all morning doing yard work around the apartment complex. We have these huge trees that get this little seed pod petal things that come off by the millions and blow everywhere. So we tried to clean those up a bit, and planted some new lilac bushes (my fav!), and did the lawns. After that we loaded up the boys and took the to the Lehi Aquatic Center. We've been promising Lincoln to take him swimming for completing his potty chart for about a month and a half now. It was such a cool place! They had a baby area, with little slides and bouncy seats, and a lazy river, and a regular pool, and then the coolest toddler area I've ever seen I think. It had a big play set with tunnels and wheels you could turn to make water spray out, and a bigger slide, and on top of that structure was a giant bucket that would fill with water, and every 20 minutes or so, bells would ding and the bucket would dump out onto a roof with grooves in it that sent the water flying in all different directions. That was Lincoln's favorite part.

Since it was indoors and muggy, we didn't want to take our camera, but here's a picture of the bucket tipping that I found online. Linc had a blast swimming, as usual. Ivan on the other hand, still hasn't really warmed up to the idea, and he clung to either Aaron or I almost the whole time. We're hoping with more exposure he'll come around.

Sunday after church and naps, Aaron wanted to do a fun project with the boys, so he built them a whirl pool bottle. Basically you take two empty 2 liter bottles, fill one about one third to half way full of water, and then duct tape the other bottle to it so that the water can pass between the bottles. The boys thought it was great fun, even if they don't totally understand the concept of a whirl pool. They really liked watching Aaron make the whirl pool, and they also liked making the water just bubble (which is what happens if you don't spin it to make the whirl pool) like a spring.

And since I haven't posted a picture of my pregnantness since I started showing, I thought I should probably do that. Here's me and the belly at about 29 weeks.

This pregnancy the baby is riding low again, like Lincoln did (Ivan was up in my rib cage the whole time) so it'll be interesting to see how things go. I don't feel as big as I felt with Ivan, probably because there is more space inside of me. But I think I look bigger. But that could just be that it's pregnancy #3 and I'm all stretched out already. Either way, I'm not really concerned about it, just observing. It always amazes me how each pregnancy is so different. August still seems forever away in days, because the days go by so slowly, but the weeks go quickly and I'm trying to plan lots of things to keep my mind occupied for the next two months so that it will go by as fast as possible. At the same time, I have a lot to do and wonder if it will all get done before she gets here. :) Don't try to figure out the mind of a pregnant woman, it'll just confuse and frustrate you as much as it does her.

Toddler Train

Since Ivan started walking he's been a lot more insistent on being part of things. So I've been trying really hard to do a few activities each week that target him specifically, and then also finding ways to involve him in what I'm doing with Lincoln.

This morning while I was trying to get ready for the day, Ivan was on a rampage and needed a distraction. So I took a 5 minute break from getting ready and made him a toddler train. I got the idea out of The Toddler's Busy Book: 365 Creative Games and Activities to Keep Your 1 1/2 to 3 Year Old Busy by Trish Kuffner. I like this book a lot, I'll do a review on it one of these days.

To make a Toddler Train you'll need

3 or more assorted boxes (I made boxes out of sheets of card stock, and I only had two)

String, ribbon, or yarn

Plastic straw
Scissors

Use scissors or another pointed object to poke small holes in the ends of each box. Insert about a foot of string, ribbon, or yarn, into the back hole of the first box, then tie the end of the string around a short piece of plastic straw to prevent it from pulling through the hole. Insert the other end of the string through the front hole of the next box and fasten it in the same way. Use more string to continue connecting boxes until the train is finished. Use a longer length of string for the front hole of the first box. Tie a cylindrical wooden block or small plastic vitamin bottle to the end of the string for a handle.

I couldn't convince him that it would be cool to pull his toys in his train, but the empty train kept him busy for the next 25 minutes while I finished getting ready, so I'm not going to complain.

Today in my Kitchen I Noticed...

Oops. Even though it has been snowing, I should probably take down the Santa towel since it's MAY! Haha. I guess keeping my decorations up to date hasn't been on the priority list.

According to Lincoln

Lincoln is a lot more aware this go around of my expanding stomach. So we told him that his little sister Adelia is in there. He seemed ok with that, but now every so often he claims to also have a "Delia" in his tummy. He says things to me like, "Mom, Delia kicked me." or he'll go lay on the couch and I'll say, "Linc are you tired." and he'll say, "Ya, I'm tired, my back hurts." Gee, I wonder who he hangs out with all day :) And even more recently he's been sticking stuffed animals up his shirt. It's cute and ridiculous at the same time. I love it.

Every Day at 5:10pm

Every day at approximately 5:10pm the boys climb on the back of the couch and look out the window.

Waiting.......waiting......waiting......

And finally.........

The Reward!

I feel the same way, except I'm too big to climb onto the back of the couch. :)

P Day: Pizza, Pavement Painting, and a Picnic at the Park

Today for P Day, Suzy had the boys make their own personal pizzas. They got to pull the dough out of the bowl, and push the dough down to make it flat. Then spread sauce and put cheese and pepperoni on top.

While the pizzas were baking, Suzy showed the boys how to paint on the pavement. I'll admit, as the manager of our apartment complex I was slightly nervous when she announced this as the activity, until I realized that she meant painting with water. :) She gave each boy a yogurt cup full of water and a popsicle stick. They got to dip the popsicle stick in water and use it to make fun designs on the pavement outside. All the boys thought it was great, and didn't seem to notice or mind that it was just water and not real paint. I'm going to have to do this again...same entertainment and no mess! You can't beat that. And it was easy enough that even Ivan could participate and have a good time.

After the pizzas were done, we packed up and walked to the park for a picnic. Then the kids got to play on the playground. It was a great day, and nice to have a little bit of a different approach to letter day. And the kids still got the idea of the letter P even though they were at the park and not really in a setting where they were continually reminded to focus on the letter. :)

"I'm Tough to the Finish, Cause I Eats Me Spinach..."

I've been tired a lot lately. I think it has a little to do with getting sick, being sick, and recovering from sickness, and a lot more to do with being pregnant in general. The other day I was doing some reading about the third trimester, here is just a small portion:

To meet his increasing nutritional demands, you'll need plenty of protein, vitamins C, folic acid, and iron. And because his bones are soaking up lots of calcium, be sure to drink your milk (or find another good source of calcium, such as cheese, yogurt, or enriched orange juice). This trimester, about 250 milligrams of calcium are deposited in your baby's hardening skeleton each day.

And it occurred to me, that the reason I'm so tired is because the baby is soaking up all my nutrients and I'm not eating enough of them to give both of us what we need. Now don't get me wrong, I consider myself to be a fairly healthy eater, especially while pregnant, but it's looking like I need to be paying more attention and making sure the healthy things I eat contain the stuff Adelia and I need. As I was pondering the best way to go about this, I came across a really awesome post by my friend Paige. She suggests lots of great ways to get some good things going with your diet. One of the things she suggested were green shakes. And since I think I do fairly well on my protein and iron already, and the thing I have the hardest time getting lots of are veggies, I thought I'd take her up on her idea. She was right, the thing was amazing! I put 1/2 cup spinach in mine today along with 1 cup blue berries, 1 cup strawberries, 1 cup blackberries, 4 oz of yogurt, one ice tray's worth of ice, and just enough milk to get things wet. It was really really good. I ate almost a whole blender full of it. And she was right, you can't even taste the spinach. I'm excited to try some different combos this week and see what I can come up with. Thanks Paige!

 

As I mentioned, I had the shake for lunch, and by the time my kids woke up from their naps, I still felt like I had energy! (Usually that's our hardest stretch of the day because I'm tired and out of ideas, and it's still a long ways 'til dinner.) And since the sun had decided to come out (it rained all morning) I decided we'd go for a nice long walk up to campus and meet Aaron and walk home with him. The walk to campus was beautiful, perfect weather. Just as we picked up Aaron and got headed in a homeward direction, dark clouds rolled back in, and before we even got to the edge of campus it was pouring rain. There was really nothing to do about it except keep walking. We all got absolutely soaked. But we had fun. At one point Lincoln wanted Aaron to carry him, so Aaron put Linc up on his shoulders and Linc said, "Dad your head is all wet." It was really funny because by then all of us were all wet all over, but Linc thought he'd point out Aaron's head being wet.

 

 

When we got home, we had our neighbor take our picture. I don't know if the picture does enough justice to our soaking state, so just in case you can't tell, we are all thoroughly soaked through, except Ivan's head, it managed to stay dry underneath the stroller visor, but the rest of him and the all of the rest of us are wet everywhere there is to be wet. I'm just glad I thought to take all our jackets, or else we would have been cold too. We went in and gave the boys a warm bath and had tomato soup and cheese sandwiches for dinner, yum!

 

And yes, if you're wondering, I'm one of those terrible mothers who makes her child where the harness backpack when we walk to campus, because I'd rather he be safe and tethered to me, than squished like a bug because he ran out into one of the busy intersections we have to cross on our way without waiting to hold my hand. I never use it to drag him or pull him along, just to ensure that he not dash away faster than I can catch him, resulting in him hurting himself, or me hurting myself (or baby) by trying to run after him. And he's happier because he doesn't have to hold onto my hand, or the stroller for our entire walk. So yes, I think there is a time and place for the harness backpack if you use it the right way, so sue me. If you'd like to debate the issue further, I'd be glad to, just let me know.

FHE: Daniel and the Lions' Den

Ivan and Lincoln the lions in front of their "den" before Daniel was thrown in.

Continuing on with our "Follow the Prophet" theme...tonight we did Daniel and the lions' den. Here is the verse for Daniel:

Daniel was a prophet. He refused to sin;
So the kind threw Daniel in the lion's den.
Angels calmed the lions, and the king soon saw
Daniel's power was great for he obeyed God's law.

Then we read the story out of the scriptures. And as many times as I've heard this story, I saw kind of a different side of it tonight, which I thought was interesting. Usually the focus is on Daniel and how good it was of him to keep praying even when the law said not to, and how because of this he was saved. And yes, all of that is true and good, and I like it. But tonight, for some reason, I was focused more on the story of the king. The king was tricked into making the law, he didn't do it on purpose to catch Daniel, that was the other princes. And when he realizes that by signing that law that he put Daniels life in danger, he feels really bad, but can't go back on the law. But the king, I think, shows great faith as well because he tells Daniel, "Your God will protect you he always does." And then the king goes home and fasts the whole night for Daniel's safety. I just thought that was really interesting, and I wonder, if at least partly, the king's faith had something to do with Daniel's safety.

Anyways, after reading the story, we all acted it out. Earlier in the day I made little lion manes for the boys to wear (somehow I knew they would want to be the lions) out of a paper plate and construction paper. I just cut the middle out of the plate and cut strips of yellow and orange construction paper and glued the strips around the outside of the plate. Wha-la, lions. Easy. The den was made out of kitchen chairs and a blanket. Aaron got to be Daniel and I was the angel. I, as the angel, had a bit of a rough time convincing our ferocious lions to "shut their mouths" and not eat Daniel. But luckily he made it out alive and we sent the lions to bed. Much to their dismay.

Everyone Loves a Slinky...and Other Sunday Thoughts

Pretty much I spent all of Saturday either in my bed or sitting in front of the toilet. I hate when that happens, but thankfully I have an amazing husband who stepped up to the plate and took care of everything, including me, so that I didn't have to worry about a thing. I love Aaron so much.

I was still feeling a little off today, so I stayed home from church. I re-listened to Elder Uchtdorf's conference talk, the one about us being Christ's hands, and the whole time he was speaking I kept thinking of Aaron. Aaron is such a wonderful example to me of so many of the attributes of Christ the President Uchtdof mentioned. Aaron is always quick to help out, slow to judge, and most definitely makes love an action word, instead of just something spoken or written about. I love you Aaron. And my goal is to work on being better at showing it than I am at saying it.

Aaron took both boys to church by himself AND taught the Sunday school lesson. The least he deserved was a nap. So when Ivan woke up from his, I let Aaron sleep and got up with Ivan. We played together in the living room. At one point Ivan found a slinky. I think this video is funny.



Ivan sure is getting to be so big. He's not really a baby anymore, which I guess is good, since we have another baby on the way, but I still can't believe how fast he's gotten so big. He's starting to say things now. He says Mama, Dada, no, duck, light, ball, boing boing (while he's making something bounce), and what's this? (he slurs that one together pretty badly, but you can still tell what it is.) And he makes barking noises for things he thinks are dogs (almost all furry animals) and he can make a duck noise and a monkey noise too.

We had spaghetti for dinner. Which Lincoln calls pa-sghetti. So Aaron, trying to teach him to pronounce it correctly said, "Lincoln say, Spa (small pause) ghetti." So Lincoln does, says it just perfectly, then turns to me and says, "Mom say, Pa (small pause) sghetti." Subsequent attempts from Aaron to get him to say it correctly only resulted in Lincoln trying to teach me to say it incorrectly. We had a good laugh over it.

Tonight I was feeling quite a bit better and decided that we should make one of my favorites, Chocolate Chip Zucchini Cake, for dessert. Everyone pitched in to help out, especially when it came time to lick the spoon and beaters.

The Potty Project: Bathroom Humor

It's been a long time since I posted anything about how Lincoln's potty training is going. Mostly because not much is happening. Oh, we are still doing it, don't worry, it just feels like making any progress is taking forever. Maybe slow and steady will eventually win the race...in our case I don't care if we win or even place, I'd just like to finish all in one piece. :) I think my sister-in-law Sydni said it best when she said, "Potty training is good birth control." Yup. So is being pregnant. But that's a story for another day.

I guess I should note what progress we have made with it.

-We are (FINALLY!) past the point where Lincoln would scream for up to an hour at the top of his lungs while sitting on the potty because he didn't want to poop because it hurt. I think our little bout with Hand Foot and Mouth can be given credit for that, diarrhea. Super. But at least he got used to going while the going wasn't tough, and can now do it without as much drama.

-Lincoln can, about 75% of the time, put his underwear on facing forward. Big improvement.

-We have successfully transitioned from having to give him a treat every time (aka ruining his meals) to having him move a magnet along a potty chart to get a bigger reward at the end (we will be taking him swimming sometime if we ever get all of us feeling well at once), and from that to just going because that's what you're supposed to do (this is mostly the result of my laziness because I never got around to making another potty chart once he filled the last one).

-He hasn't peed while sitting in time out for a long time, whew!

-Linc can keep his underwear dry all day IF I make sure to have him use the potty every so often.

-IF I can get him to use the potty before we go out in public, he can wear underwear without me being scared to death he'll have an accident.

-Lincoln mostly always wakes up dry after naps and in the morning. He gets credit for this all on his own. I have done nothing to attempt to potty train him in his sleep. :)

-We have also transitioned from the little potty to the big potty. This came about because now that he can hold it for longer periods of time, he has a lot more pressure built up, and even though he was pointing down in the little potty, he was too close to the bottom and the pressure would cause lots of splashing and mess everywhere, and I got tired of cleaning it up. So now Linc uses the big potty with a stool. Much easier to handle, for me at least, and he doesn't seem to mind, so we're good.

-And lastly, but this is the biggest, most important step so far, sometimes he tells me he needs to go BEFORE I suggest that he might want to go. This is a very big step in the right direction.

-Oh, and I should probably mention our "special case". This has only happened one time so far, but it gives me great hope. Once when the boys were taking their naps, I went out to get the mail. When I came back, Lincoln had gotten up and was sitting on the potty. AWESOME! That proves he can do it all by himself.

So those are our improvements from last time. Here are some things we are currently working on.

-How to wipe. He has the motions down, but the effectiveness is still pretty shaky.

-How to wash our hands. He'll do it if I remind him, but he does a lot more playing than actual washing, so I always have to supervise.

-How to pull his pants down far enough that they don't get in the way while peeing. Self explanatory.

And lastly, I'm not generally one for bathroom humor, but with potty training you either have to laugh or you'll cry. Here are some of the funnier moments.

- I took the kids with me to one of my Dr appointments, and I had to sit up on the exam table. While I was up there Lincoln kept saying, "Mommy on the potty? Mommy need to pee? Mommy go potty?"

- The other day during dinner Lincoln mentioned that he needed to poop, so he got down and sat on his little potty, and proceeded to do so. When he was done he said, "Look Mom a C!" My first thought was that Ivan had put one of our magnet letters in the potty and Lincoln had gone on top of it. Lincoln kept persisting that I come and see the C, so finally I went to look. To my relief there was not a magnet letter in the potty. What I did see was a perfectly shaped C poop. Linc was so proud of himself and kept saying over and over, "I pooped a C! I pooped a C!" I don't know whether to be grossed out, or just glad he's recognizing his letters.

-A little while ago Lincoln told me, "Mom, pooping is still hard."

- When Lincoln was having trouble pooping, we'd sit by him and hold his hand and try to help him relax. So the other day I was using the bathroom and Linc came in (do mothers ever get to use the bathroom alone?) and said "Here Mom, I squeeze your hand. Now do this (and he proceeded to take a big exaggerated deep breath), good." Thanks for the moral support Linc. :)

-Ivan is now a pro at the potty dance, even though he has no idea what is going on, whenever Lincoln and I start singing, Ivan waves his hands around and dances right along with us.

-We manage our apartment complex, so that means we have to show the vacant apartments. Anyways, a guy (single, probably 21 or so) came to look at one. When we let him in, Lincoln quickly informed him, "I peed in the potty. And pooped." I think Linc was a little disappointed that the guy didn't show the same enthusiasm about it as Mom/Dad/Grandma etc. usually do.

O Day: Orange, Oceans, Octopus, and Doughnuts :)

For O Day, I started out reading Lincoln and Nathan (and Ivan and Kaitlyn) one of my newest favorite board books called Ollie the Stomper by Olivier Dunrea. It's a simple and cute book and captures the nature of toddlerism almost perfectly. Check it out!

Then we went into the kitchen for a little practice making O's. I had cut out two big pieces of cardboard from a recent box I received in the mail, and drawn a big black O on each one. I remember loving to paint with sponges when I was in pre-school, and I haven't had Linc try it out yet. Today was the day. I gave both boys a piece of sponge and squirted some orange paint onto a plate and told them to try their hand and making orange O's. Lincoln did really well with his, except he wanted to fill them in after, so his look more like orange circles, but it's all good.

To introduce our next topic, I played the song "Way Down Here Beneath the Ocean" off of the Disney Silly Songs CD, and had them try to pick out the O word. They had a little bit of a hard time with this, since I hadn't told them the word before hand, but after a few clues from Suzy and I, they got it. Then I asked them what kind of things live in the ocean. Lincoln told me Nemo, which we categorized as a fish, and Nathan said octopus.

So we made wind sock octopi. I got the idea from here. She made hers out of a lot sturdier material though. We just used construction paper, tape, and streamers for the legs. We also glued on googly eyes, and a puff ball for a nose. We tried using a pipe cleaner for a mouth, but it wouldn't stay on, so we just drew one in. I think the most exciting part for the boys was hanging them outside and watching them blow in the wind.

For our last activity, we talked some more about the ocean, and I asked the boys if they would like to make one. They thought that sounded cool. I got the idea for this here. I gave each boy an empty plastic bottle (soda or juice work great, I think ours were V8 Splash) and I made little funnels for each one out of paper (not a necessity, but it helped with the mess) and had them use a plastic spoon to put decorative sand in the bottom of their bottles. You could use regular sand or dirt, but it might cloud the water. Then I filled each bottle with warm/hot water. Then I let each boy pick two Magic Growing Capsules (you can buy these in all varieties at the dollar store, if you are doing ocean you want to make sure you get the sea life ones)

to put into their bottles. After a few minutes the capsules grew into sea creatures. Lincoln got an octopus and a fish, Nathan got a penguin and a sea horse. Cool! Then we screwed the lids on tight (ideally we would have super glued them on, but I ran out of super glue) and let them have a good look at them.

The last thing we did was our snack. We had leftover doughnuts, so that's what I gave them. And yes, I am aware the doughnut does not start with O, but it is shaped like an O, so I used that to my advantage.

Nathan and Lincoln with their mini-oceans

Adelia's Early Birth Present

Even though Adi won't be here until August, she got an early birth present in the mail today. Aaron's mom and my mom (and probably our dads too, though most likely they weren't as involved, hehe) went together to get us this awesome new pack 'n play. I'm really excited about it, since our old one is one we got for free from someone who got it for free, when Lincoln decided to have a change of plan and be born in Arizona instead of waiting until we got back to Utah where his crib was.

This new pack 'n play has a bassinet AND a changing table AND a new born napper. It's also adorable, and the perfect color. I'm really excited about it (did I mention that yet?) since Adelia will probably sleep in this for the first few months so she can be out in the living room where it's a little warmer. And so that if Ivan has trouble adjusting to sleeping in a bed, we don't have to kick him out of his crib right away.

Aaron was a good sport, as soon as he got home from work, I had him set it up for me just so I could see it all out. He loves me and puts up with me :) Thanks Aaron.

Egg-citing Sounds

Every year after Easter I have what seems like a million plastic egg halves (yes, halves because my kids take them apart and then leave them strewn all over the house) floating around. I always wonder what to do with them; it seems like a waste to throw them away, but by now the kids are tired of playing egg hunt. I don't even remember where I got this idea from, but today I gathered up as many matching halves as I could find and made shakers out of them for Ivan.

They were super easy too. I found a bunch of different things to go inside that would sound different from other thing when shaken. I used rice, oatmeal, corn kernels, sugar, pennies, pebbles, tin foil, bird seed, and navy beans...just things I had around the house, but the possibilities of what you could use are pretty much endless. I filled each egg, then super glued it shut and wrote on the outside what was inside each one. Just in case the kids and I ever get into a discussion on sound I would be able to say things like, see the pennies are louder than the sugar, and so on.

Needless to say Ivan L-O-V-E-D them. I think he carried the basket of eggs around with him the rest of the day, and always had a least one egg in hand to shake.

FHE: Noah's Ark

Tonight for FHE we decided to revisit the Old Testament prophets and the song "Follow the Prophet". We did Noah tonight. We sang through the Noah verse of "Follow the Prophet" a few times to start out:

Noah was a prophet
called to preach the word
tried to cry repentance
but nobody heard
they were busy sinning
Noah preached in vain
they wished they had listened
when they saw the rain

Then, we read the actual story out of Genesis, so the kids could get a feel for the language of the scriptures. After that (for understanding and simplicity) we went online to the Friend website and clicked on the Old Testament scripture stories, and found chapter 6 on Noah. You can either read them or watch them in video format. Our kids really like the video format, even though they are the same pictures from the book just as a slide show instead of on a flat page.

For our activity, Aaron got out our baby bath tub (the boys play with this all the time and call it a boat anyway, so it really wasn't that big of a stretch) and told them it was the ark. Then he had them "save" all their stuffed animals and puppets, by piling them in the ark. Next he explained that Noah and his family also got it the ark to be saved from the floods, and had the boys climb in on top of the animals.

Lincoln really wanted Aaron to make it rain, but since they'd been bathed once already, we decided against it. :) Then Aaron told them that when Noah and his family got out of the ark, God sent them a rainbow as a promise to never flood the Earth again. As a family, we colored a picture of the ark with a rainbow in front of it.

Aaron drew the picture with pen, colored the land, and made Noah. I colored the ark and the sky, Lincoln did the rainbow, and Ivan's contribution is mostly all over our kitchen linoleum. Good thing it's washable marker :) This masterpiece is going on our fridge.

Family History Tidbit

I think I've mentioned before that one of my callings is to teach the Family History class. I love it, mostly because it forces me to learn more things and keep going with my own family history. This week our lesson was on gathering information from public records. There are lots of things that can be included in the public records category, the Internet being one of them, but I won't go on to re-teach my whole lesson here. Mostly I just wanted to share a really cool resource that I found.

That resource is a little site called http://www.findagrave.com/, ya I know it sounds really weird and unofficial. And kind of it is, but I thought it was cool. Find a Grave is a website started by I have no idea who, but they had the idea to go to cemeteries all across the country and take pictures of gravestones and post them online for anyone to have access to. Sometimes they even have other information with the picture. For example...I decided to search for my dad's grave since it's in a small out of the way town known as Hooper, UT. This is what I found.

Birth: Nov. 20, 1959

         Salt Lake City
         Salt Lake County
         Utah, USA

Death: Nov. 13, 2002
           Salt Lake City
           Salt Lake County
           Utah, USA

Salt Lake Tribune, The (UT) - November 15, 2002
         Stewart Ross Lemmon passed away on Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2002, at the LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah of leukemia.
        He was born in Salt Lake City on November 20, 1959, the son of Earl Scott and Maxine Harrison Lemmon. He attended Weber High and served an LDS mission in Munich Germany.
        He was married to Tamilynn Hogan on September 24, 1982 in the Logan Temple. He was an active member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He served in a bishopric, on a High Council, but his favorite calling was as a Sunday School teacher. He also enjoyed spending time with his family in the outdoors, hunting, fishing and camping.
       He is survived by his mother, Maxine Lemmon, his wife, Tamilynn Lemmon and four children: Krystal Lynn, Kyle Stewart, Jackson Earl and Tanner Ross. He is also survived by his three brothers and three sisters: Lee Nelson, Salt Lake City; Lani (George) Tolman, CO; Charlotte (James) Trainor, California; Valarie (Hagos) Egzibher, N.C.; Scott Lemmon and Steven Lemmon, both of Ogden. He was preceded in death by his fathers, Grover Thompson and Earl Scott Lemmon and his father-in-law, Jack D. Hogan.
      Funeral services will be held Saturday, Nov. 16, 2002 at 11:00 a.m. at the Hooper North Chapel, 5000 S. 5900 W. Friends may call at Myers Mortuary in Roy, 5865 S. 1900 W. on Friday, November 15, from 6 to 8 p.m. and on Saturday at the Church from 9:45-10:45 a.m. Interment, Hooper Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, please make donations to the family.

Burial:  Hooper Cemetery
             Hooper
            Weber County
             Utah, USA

The picture of the headstone itself is an awesome family history find, especially because my dad's has a ton of information on it if you know what to look for. Birth and death dates, full name, name of spouse, birth of spouse, marriage date (and if you notice the temple picture you could assume they were married in the temple), and names of children. Most headstones don't have that much info on them though.
 
Having the obituary included in the information was awesome! Obituaries are like family history gold mines. From them you can get every thing you need to complete a person's temple work, and get lots of ideas about family members to search out and where to start looking.
 
And yes, obviously, I already know this info about my dad, and have seen his headstone before (helped design it in fact), and have copies of his obituary, but I'm just using it as an example of the kinds of things you can find on this website. Other things you can do on the website are add your own pictures, leave flowers at the virtual grave (ya, that's kind of weird), leave messages, and put down your contact info in case other family members come on the site and want to get a hold of you.
 
Anyways, it's a lot faster than grave hunting yourself. Trust me, we spent about 4 hours once in the American Fork Cemetery looking for some of Aaron's ancestors. So give it a try and let me know what you think.

Happy Mothers Day!

It's not all that often that I get on here to write an entry, but I wanted to let Krystal know how much I love her and respect the wonderful mother and wife that she is. On a daily basis, she teaches are children, cleans up scrapes, invests her time in keeping our family history, searches out resources to educate Lincoln and Ivan, cleans the living room (on an hourly basis), does laundry and dishes, takes our kids to story time, letter-days, playgroup, museums, and the park, prepares dinner (when she's not absolutely exhausted from the day), and shows us how much she loves us with all her heart by everything else she does with whatever time she has left.

I love you!

Aaron (and boys... and girl)

4 Whole Years

Yesterday was mine and Aaron's 4 year anniversary! Woo-hoo, four years! That's pretty good. I'm not going to lie, today was not the best day I've ever had. Ivan didn't sleep hardly at all the night before (which means no one else did either), and Aaron got up and went to work early, and I dealt with cranky kids and a messy house I didn't feel like cleaning for most of the day. And just for the record, I probably wasn't the most pleasant of people myself.

But we did take some time to do something fun. Aaron's Aunt Debby was kind enough to watch our boys for a few hours so we could go out to dinner. We chose to go to Macaroni Grill, one of my favorite places. Italian sodas have been calling my name for awhile, so it was nice to finally indulge that craving. The food was good, and it was nice to be out with Aaron without any distractions.

I'll admit one of my favorite things about Macaroni Grill is that you get to color on the table cloth while you're waiting for your food. :) Aaron and I took turns drawing different memories we've had together during the last four years and whoever wasn't drawing had to guess what it was. Aaron is a better drawer, so I had an easier time guessing, and therefore won the game.

And here's our yearly postcard. We started this tradition on our honeymoon. So every anniversary since then, we take a picture of our feet against the backdrop of whatever we did to celebrate that year. If you think about it, this picture is pretty impressive...somehow I managed to get my feet up and over my pregnant belly and sticking out the window of the passenger seat of our van. I almost didn't make it back down. :)

Happy Four Years Aaron! I love you. And may our children sleep through the night tonight.

N Day: Noses, Necklaces, and Nests

Lincoln matching the nose to a sheep.

To kick off the letter N, Suzy read the boys a fun book about noses. Then she had cut out a bunch of different animal nosed, and had the animal pictures to go with. The boys got to pick a nose out of the pile and try to match which animal it belonged to. At first I wondered how well they'd do at this, but they surprised me, and caught on fairly quickly, and were able to identify most of the animal noses and put them with the right animal picture. 

 The next activity went right along with the fine motor activities Lincoln and I did all last week. Suzy gave each boy a piece of yarn with a knot in one end and a piece of tape around the other, and a pile of Cheerios and Fruit Loops. The boys got to string the cereal onto the yarn to make necklaces. I had a hard time convincing Lincoln not to eat all the cereal before we could make his a necklace.

Here's the finished project. Linc can be such a spaz when he wants to be. But at least he was wearing an appropriate shirt for the activity. :)

The last activity Suzy did was to make little nests. First she helped the boys to melt butterscotch chips. Then they poured slivered almonds into that and stirred it together. She poured the mixture into a cupcake cup, and had each boy make a hole in the center with his finger. The boys each got to pick out four jelly beans to use as eggs, and put in their nests. They got to go play while the nests cooled and hardened. So fun!

Nathan and Lincoln and their nests

Happy Birthday Mamacita!

Ivan, Gramma Tam, and Lincoln

On Wednesday May 5th it was my mom's birthday. So the boys and I loaded up in the van and drove up to Hooper to take her out to lunch to celebrate. She chose to go to the new Chic Fillet on Riverdale Road. They have a play place there. The boys were super excited about that. (And in reality, I think that's why Gramma chose to go there, so the kids could play. Even though I told her we'd take her anywhere she wanted to go.)

Ivan's face after he got kissed by Gramma. Deep down he loved every minute of it though.

It seems like ever since Aaron and I have been married, we've either lived out of state or been out of town and haven't been able to celebrate my mom's b-day, so I was really glad that we got to go up and be with her this year, even if it was only for a few hours. (She's a busy lady, and everyone wants to hang out with her on her birthday!)

Happy Birthday Mom! We love you so much, and are so grateful for everything you do for our family. Hope you had a wonderful day. :)

Now, on a completely random side note and tangent, I would like to thank Lacey Mark (sorry I don't know your married name) who we ran into at Chick Fillet, for having 3 kids in 4 years and still being happy, positive, sane, well-groomed, and out in public with your darling little girls. You gave me hope that just maybe I can do the same thing in a few short months and live to tell about it. :) 

Book Review: Marshmallow Math: Early Math for Toddlers, Preschoolers, and Primary School Children

  by Trevor Schindeler

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I originally picked this book up to get ideas for simple counting and math games for Lincoln. I was pleasantly surprised to find, not only the games I was looking for, but a philosophy about teaching math to young children that I agree with.

This book focuses on how to teach solid math principles instead of just memorizing equations and rules. It encourages using objects (i.e. marshmallows, pennies, jelly beans etc.) over written numbers in the early stages of math so that children can see and physically manipulate the numbers they are trying to work with, and gain a understanding of what they are actually doing with each equation. Most importantly, it does this in game format to make it fun.

Other things I liked about the book...it encourages short, focused, fun time periods for doing math, instead of long stretches with lots of "work". It is easy to read and simple to understand, as in, they don't spend pages and pages trying to convince you why their method works or is better. In fact, each chapter is only about a page long. The book itself is only 153 pages, which includes charts and game boards that you can print out to use. Also, the concepts start with simple things for toddlers, and gradually advance in difficulty to about a 1st or 2nd grade level. So the book and it's ideas will be useful for awhile.

I would recommend this book for anyone out there with younger children looking for fun ways to include math into your everyday playtime activities.

Fine Motor Mania

Since we've been stuck inside this past week because of sickness and bad weather, I've had to constantly think of something to keep the boys entertained because I refuse to let them just watch movies all day. I decided instead to work with Lincoln on his fine motor skills. It's really the first time that I've taken a whole week to focus on one specific thing, and I liked doing it. I took the ideas for games from different places and also come up with a few on my own. I was a little bit surprised at the positive response I got from Lincoln. I guess I was afraid that he'd think the activities were boring or something, but no worries. He loved the games, and would ask to play them over and over. He never suspected we were working on a skill :)

For our first game we used marbles. I filled a small bowl full of marbles and gave Lincoln a spoon and told him the game was to pick up the marbles with the spoon and put them in the other bowl. He went back and forth between bowls several times.

Then we decided to take it up a notch. I put the full bowl of marbles on a chair at one end of the kitchen, and the empty bowl on a chair at the other end of the kitchen, so Lincoln had to go a lot farther, and do a lot more balancing, to get marbles from one bowl to the other.

After several rounds of that, I tried making a course that was a little bit harder, requiring Linc to walk a circle around a chair before putting his marble in the bowl, but by that time his attention span was at an end. He did start inventing his own games though, that involved making the marbles make as much noise as possible. :) And that kept him entertained for another 10 minutes or so.



Another game we played this week was to place colored stones in different patterns on a board. For this I just used colored floral stones that I bought at Wal-Mart for $3. For the board I made up my own in Microsoft Word and printed it out. The game was for Lincoln to pick out of three different colors, white, light blue, and dark blue, and place the stone on the corresponding color on the board. This game was a little bit more challenging for him. He had a little bit of trouble telling the difference between the light blue and white spaces on the board. Like the time I had him sort jelly beans, it was interesting for me to see how he chose to meet the requirement. For the most part he did all the dark blue stones first, then the all the white, and then the light blue; instead of picking stones at random. After he'd done the whole board a couple times, I turned the board upside down for variation.



Lincoln's favorite activity was the easiest to come up with and to prepare for. I just gave him an empty cereal box and a pair of safety scissors and let him have at it. He stayed busy for a long time, and this activity is the one he asks to do again most often. It is also the activity I like the best, because I don't have to be right there with him every second. It keeps him occupied while I do dishes or other chores. :)



Lincoln also really enjoyed our marshmallow game, probably because he got to eat the marshmallows when we were through. For this game we added a little math into the mix. I dumped out a bigpile of mini marshmallows and separated them into several different piles with a different number of marshmallows in each pile. I had Linc count the number of mallows in each pile. Then I gave him a pile of tooth picks and we counted how many of those we had too. Next I let him spear the mallows with the tooth picks, and showed him how to make different shapes by hooking the tooth picks together with marshmallows. We talked about and counted how many sides and how many points each shape had. Before I let him eat the marshmallows, I had him count how many was on each tooth pick as he pulled them off.

A few of the other fine motor activities we did this week were coloring with sidewalk chalk, threading large wooden beads onto a shoelace, and painting both with fingers and with brushes.


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Hooray for Dad and Forts

It's been a really really long week here at the Swan house. I mentioned the Ivan was sick with HFMD so we have been staying away from people (and since the weather has been snowy/rainy that means inside). On Thursday Lincoln woke up from his nap with a fever, which meant it was likely he also had HFMD. I was pretty much in despair at the thought that we'd have to spend ANOTHER week couped up alone inside with no escape.

Friday night I had a mini breakdown, you could say. I was being pretty cranky, and as a result Aaron sent me to time out. It was actually exactly what I needed...peace and quiet.

Then Saturday Aaron was pretty much amazing. He played with the boys almost the whole day, so I could get some things done. I love watching Aaron play with Lincoln and Ivan. They do things that only boys could do together...male bonding I guess. But I'm always impressed with the activities and games Aaron thinks to play with them, they are so different from the things I do with the boys. And I am sure that Lincoln and Ivan love the change of pace playing with Dad brings. So it was a good day all around.

One of the things they did was build a fort. Now, I do occasionally build forts with the boys, but mine are never as cool or elaborate as Aaron's, and I definitely never would have thought to let them wear headlamps inside the fort. And, being in the pregnant state that I am, I rarely get inside the fort; but Aaron always does. :) He got some great pictures for me.

We still have to keep Lincoln and Ivan away from people, probably until Thursday next week. And I'm still not really looking forward to that, but it was so nice to have Aaron's help this weekend, and it helped me feel like we'll make it through, even if it is a long week. Plus, the weather is supposed to get better, which means we can go outside! Even if we have to play outside by ourselves, just getting out of the house will be refreshing. So things are looking up...