service gift

we started a family service gift last week for family home evening. it is a wood block wrapped like a present. the idea is, you do something nice for someone and give them that gift. then it would be their turn to do something nice for someone and give them the gift. ethan and i weren't sure how well our little kids could do this, but i really wanted to give it a try anyway.

the next morning i woke up to find the service gift in my bed. as i got up this is what i saw:

apparently, while i was sleeping, maria woke up, ran downstairs to get the gift, came back into my room with a stool, used that stool to find a shirt in my closet, grabbed some pants and then laid the outfit on my bed. isn't this so cute? she did all of this without me waking up, which is very lucky for her because i am usually a light sleeper.

i was so delighted that, not only did she understand the idea of the service gift, but that she also thought of it first thing in the morning and wanted to get it started. i just love it and i love my little family.

home school woes

okay, for those of you that are home schooling or have home schooled in the past, how am i to survive this? i guess i'm looking for words of encouragement or tips and tricks. also, did you all feel like you were doing a terrible job at first? i'm so worried she's going to be the most uneducated kindergartner out there because of me.

how do i make sure i get school done and not let other things get in the way (including toddler moments)? how do i develop a good regimen? how do i motivate my five year old? she gets frustrated easily, how do i help her keep an up-beat attitude? how do i foster a positive school attitude? we already do a morning devotional, but sometimes it seems like i need to include about twenty silent prayers just to get through one hour of school.

it's not always really hard. usually maria has a good attitude and is excited to do school, but how long should i expect a five-year-old to hang in there?

i think my biggest problem is not letting other things get in the way. this morning we ended up cleaning the kids rooms all morning. not my intention but what happened.

i really feel like home school is important and i really want to do this. i'm not going to give up; i'm just feeling a little discouraged and could use some kind words from fellow home school moms. i do know that when i have what i consider to be a successful school day, i feel good and know that this is the right thing to do. it also can be a lot of fun. i guess i just feel that lately it's been more discouraging than encouraging. so . . . help me!

grandma's party

every year my mom has a christmas party for her grandkids. it started out as a way for my siblings and i to christmas shop without kids present but it's become so much more than that. it's a christmas tradition and a great time for all the kids to be together without the interference (annoyance) of their parents. it's also a ton of fun and the kids look forward to it for weeks.

here maria and hudson show us some of the projects they worked on at grandma's party last night.

beautiful ornaments.

gingerbread houses. i think this is one of the favorite activities at the party.

i know my kids had such a fun time and i'm glad my mom does this. it's a great tradition. i loves all the stories maria told me this morning of her funny cousins and all the things they did that made her laugh.

bye the way, doesn't hudson look so big in his suit coat?

hudson's cake

here is a video of hudson blowing out the candles on his birthday cake. sorry it's a tad late, but i just replaced the batteries in my camera which i haven't been able to use since then.

hudson had a very nice birthday and i can't believe he will be going to primary next month!

i think his favorite birthday surprise was the card he got from his great-grandma & grandpa hawkins. they gave him a really cute puppy card and five dollars all in one-dollar bills! he loved that and felt (still fills) so special to have his very own money.

fading innocence

those of you with a lot of boys, please tell me this is a boy thing.

maria and hudson were fighting . . . again.

me: stop fighting! let's be kind to each other.

hudson: no.

me: you don't want to be kind?

hudson: i want to be naughty.

i sure hope this is a boy thing and not a hudson-is-destined-to-be-a-super-villain thing. he also immediately took on the role of bad guy when they were playing super heroes. what is with this?

keep in mind, i had a girl first, a mellow girl (used to be anyway). she wanted nothing more than to be sugar and spice and everything nice. now this. he just wants to be bad. and he seems to have a lot of pent-up aggression already. i find myself wishing there was wrestling or boxing for 3-year-olds because this kid needs an outlet.

it's a boy thing, not a hudson thing, right? right? are all guys like this?

those of you that have older or grown-up kids, is it like this all the time? are you constantly trying to keep the girls from overreacting and the boys from punching things?

hmm . . . i'm starting to think that is right, and that some never grow out of it, because i know some "adults" that like to overreact and punch things.

hudson's 3!

today hudson is three years old! he is an important part of our family and we are so glad he is with us.

not your fault

a few years ago i read "glimpses" - a collection of talks by, and stories about, sister hinckley. there is one talk that has stayed with me more than the others. she spoke of gratitude.

" A grateful heart will give you a touch of refinement that can come in no other way . . .I know some of you think you are on a tight budget, and you are, I am glad if you are. But it is a tight budget because you have nothing else to compare with it. It isn't your fault that you have had three square meals a day, most every day of your life. It isn't your fault that you have never been hungry in you life. It isn't your fault that somehow or other you have always been able to get a new pair of shoes, whether you needed them or not. It isn't your fault that you have at least five or six changes of clothing in your crowded closets. But all of this makes it doubly hard for you to be truly grateful . . .When you finally develop a little gratitude in your heart, make up you mind to express it. 'Appreciation unexpressed is not appreciation.' If you can't find someone to say thank you to for something, just take a look at your toothbrush and say, 'thank you for being. You are a wonderful little gadget.' 'Thank you' is a wonderful phrase. Use it. It will add stature to your soul. Never let a day go by without saying thank you to someone for something - and especially to your Heavenly Father."

indoor snowman

this morning maria and hudson built an indoor snowman. it really made me smile and was what i needed to get out of my semi-grumpy mood.

very fun. i love when kids get creative.

climbing already

so i walked into the living room yesterday and saw this:

what? no! she can't be climbing the stairs yet!

but here she is. climbing the stairs.

what a rascal. she certainly keeps me on my toes. i never had to worry about these kinds of things when my other kids were this young. she keeps trying to climb the chairs in the dinning room also.

the snow is cold

it snowed all day. not a lot of accumulation but just lightly snowed all day. tonight, while going from the store to the car, maria stated with a shiver, "ooooh, the snow is a lot colder than i expected."

libby - 9 months old

i just can't believe how big she is getting. time goes by so fast. she is turing out to be quite a wild girl. she's gonna be trouble. only 9 months old and she's already trying to climb the baby gate. none of my other kids tried that even remotely close to that age. she loves to wrestle dad and her siblings, but mostly dad. she really goes for it, too - growling and everything. she stands in her crib and bangs her stomach against the rungs and shakes her crib so much i worry she's going to shake a screw loose. she loves to dance and will bounce along to any music she hears. she's still really happy . . . except when hudson tries to sit on her, but, hey, can't blame her for that. she seems really bright and very interested in things around her. she's really just quite a character. raising her may be interesting. i used to be so glad i didn't have another boy after hudson because boys are crazy but libby seems to be a female version of him, so there goes that security.

hudson

check out this handsome boy!

my goodness, doesn't he look so old in this picture? it's a little sad how fast they grow-up.

but he still is very much my little boy.

playing in the leaves

i have such a small front yard. why do i have to rake so many leaves? the backyard is eleventy times bigger than the front yard, yet in the back i hardly have to rake any leaves at all. well, at least the kids love all the leaves.

this was quite common. i don't know why she kept trying to eat the leaves. every time she put one in her mouth she didn't like it and spit it out. so why, then, did she try to eat leaves, like, thirty times?

maria was pretending to be a dog. i'd throw the stick and she'd fetch it. i dunno. whatever. she was having a lot of fun. and check out all those leaves in the background. that's only half of it.

three beautiful kids. and one on the way? how blessed am i?

libby in leaves

yesterday i let maria and hudson play in the leaves. libby was very upset that she was stuck in the stroller so i let her out. she actually really enjoyed playing in the leaves. i couldn't believe she even crawled through them!

create

libby speaks

libby jabbers quite a bit. her little voice is so cute. she says daa-daa really well. i've tried to get her to say ma-ma but she just laughs and says daa-daa more. i've tried so hard to capture all this talking on video but every time i get the camera out she only becomes interested in trying to grab it. these clips don't show how noisy she really is but i've got a couple cute daa-daas.

libby loves to watch these videos. she'll talk back to herself.

family home evening chair

hudson has a special family home evening chair that he makes for every family home evening and only for family home evening. and yes, this is a recent picture although from his outfit one would think it is summer. i just took this picture yesterday. as you can see, he makes his chair out of two pillows. no family home evening has occurred without this chair.

here's a funny buddy story but only read it if potty humor is not offensive to you - but it really is funny so maybe you should just try it.

boys really are different. a couple of weeks ago the kids and i were taking a half-hour drive. hudson is at the age where he talks nonstop and asks eleventy-billion questions (half of them are the exact same question, i.e. "mom, where's dad?" "he's at work, hudson." "but mom, where's dad?" "he's at work, hudson." "but mom, where's dad?" argh!). during this half-hour drive hudson discovered he could make himself burp. this was very funny to him and he did it over and over again. however, he didn't know the word for burp so he said:

hudson: (chuckle, chuckle) i toot in my mouth.

mom: hmmm. i don't really need to know about that.

hudson: (chuckle, chuckle) i toot in my mouth again.

mom: hudson, it's bad manners to tell people when you burp. you don't need to tell me.

hudson: (chuckle, chuckle) i just toot in my mouth.

i tried to explain to him that i didn't want to know about it (yes, i thought it was funny, but i didn't want HIM to know that), but he just kept talking and laughing, so i figured maybe he'd stop if i just ignored him.

hudson: (chuckle, chuckle) i toot in my mouth again.

mom: (nothing)

hudson: (chuckle, chuckle) i toot in my bum.

this was my whole half-hour drive - listening to hudson and his joy of bodily discoveries. maria would have been done with this in two seconds. boys really are different.

snow

it snowed yesterday. the kids took advantage of the situation to throw snowballs at each other. hudson soon decided he doesn't like snowballs in his face.

can you hear maria saying "merry christmas"? she is looking forward to christmas and figures the snow means it must be coming soon!

it was fun to have some snow but i'm glad it's all melted today. i'm not ready for winter! more fall please.

by the way, maria thinks we're having a boy. the other day we were at the store and maria said out of the blue, "mom, i think you have a boy in your tummy." that surprised me because she's been wanting a girl. later i asked her about it again, "so, maria, you think i have a boy in my tummy?" "there IS a boy in your tummy," she replied.

pumpkin walk

yesterday we went to the pumpkin walk. the pumpkin walk is a fall tradition in north logan. ethan and i have been going since we were first married. it feels like every year we go we add another kid . . .

the pumpkin walk is a lot of fun. anyone can be involved. there is a different theme every year and each group involved makes a display based on that theme. they use all sorts of squash and other things to make up their scene. some people are quite creative. here are some of our favorites (you may need to click on some of the pictures to really see what's going on):

in this scene they used pumpkins to create an entire garden.

a clever turkey

the adult ducks are made of gourds (and i love the frogs in the background).

i love these sunflowers!

hudson found this scene depicting "where the wild things are" interesting, but i could not get him to stand by the pumpkins by himself for a picture. i guess the characters were just a little too weird for him to want them behind him.

the kiddy crew.

there were a few other scenes we really liked. there was one where they made sheep out pumpkins (for the head) and tumbleweeds (for the body). that was fun. in another scene they made cows out of hay with pumpkins for the head and udder. pretty creative.

i feel like this post is a little difficult to read. sorry if my writing isn't very good. my brain doesn't work too good right now. i'm really tired right now. maybe i should go take a nap while the kids are sleeping.

weeding machine

maria is a weeding machine. everyday she says, "mom, can i go outside and weed?" it's crazy. if i could just get hudson to say, "mom, can i do the dishes?"

cupcakes and kids

how is it that it can feel like not much is going on and at the same time there's too much to do? we are enjoying the fall season. the kids are looking forward to halloween even though we don't celebrate the holiday. we have a tradition of taking the kids to a movie on halloween night. last year we saw walle. not sure what we'll end up seeing this year.

we love to make treats all through the holidays. last week we made fall cupcakes. maria and hudson really enjoyed frosting the cupcakes and loading them up with sprinkles.

here are some of the cupcakes we made. mine are the left and middle row, hudson's are in the right row. i thought it was funny that he hardly put any frosting on the cupcakes considering that's the only part he eats.

maria and hudson showing off their creations (and looking forward to tasting them!)

liberty is growing so fast it's crazy! she is crawling all around the house, enjoying her new found freedom. she loves to explore. she is quite the busy-body. she still is as happy as ever - excepting when hudson takes toys from her or tries to control where she may crawl. he loves her very much and i often find him in her crib. "bibby and i nuggle," he says. he often tells her he loves her and smothers her with kisses. she tolerates it quite well.

look at my teeth!

here i come!

maria is doing well with home school and i'm getting more comfortable with the idea of teaching her. she loves math and seems like she could do it for hours. she is also a huge help with libby and the house.

i keep saying that libby is such a happy girl. now i think i know why that is. i believe it's because heavenly father knew what was coming . . . another baby. yup. i am officially declaring it. we are expecting again. what can i say, we love our family. we are due may 1st.

and there you have it. you're all somewhat updated.

salmon run

we have a tradition of going up the river from porcupine reservoir to watch the kokanee salmon run. we do this every fall, the saturday of general conference between morning and afternoon sessions. it's always fun. here are a few pictures.

almost 8 months

i don't have much time right now, but i thought i would at least post some pictures. libby will be 8 months next week and is so close to crawling it's scary. she can scoot herself across the floor to get something she wants. she still is very much an angel, very sweet and very happy all the time.

cutest girl

i know i keep saying it, but i just keep saying it because it's true! she really is the cutest little baby girl in the world! and if you can't agree with that surely you would agree she is the best baby there ever was. she's so sweet and happy nearly all of the time. and yes, her tongue hangs out all of the time. boy, i sure hope she grows out of that or there may be some awkward moments when she starts dating.

she is so grabby! i'm going to be in big trouble when she starts crawling, which could be pretty soon.

i think this picture is funny. it's like, "aaaaahhhh! watch out, here comes baby!"

this is pretty much how libby is all of the time. always happy. always smiling. always looking for a reason to laugh.

my two cents

so there's a lot of, shall we say, "discussion" about president obama's speech to the children coming up. i know, i know, but i just can't help myself.

here's what i think: people are totally overreacting. i do not support obama and his ideology, but it doesn't make me the least bit concerned that he wants to talk to the children of our country. i think it's a great idea, actually. the president seems so far removed from these little children and their lives i think it's nice for them to believe he cares about them and how well they do in school.

i know some parents are worried obama will try to "indoctrinate" their kids with his politics but to those parents i say, seriously? this is what you are worried about? a very short speech your kids will hear one time? i doubt these same parents are so concerned about the actual curriculum their children are learning from at school because, believe me, that is what is going to make the difference.

i remember when bush sr. was inaugurated. i can remember watching that in school. do i remember anything he said in his speech? no. but i can remember thinking "this is cool" because i felt like i was a part of history. i doubt most kids will remember anything the president says in his speech this week. if they remember anything it will probably be about school because that is relevant to their lives right now.

as mentioned before, what the parents should really be worried about is what their children are learning from their teachers, because the public school curriculum is very liberal. our history and government books are not unbiased. this is coming from someone who, believe it or not, remembers a thing or two from her own public education, or "indoctrination". i was taught to be liberal minded and was that way when i got to college. but now, as i learn things on my own i begin to see that what i believe now is a lot of times opposite of what i learned in class, particularly in the case of whether a certain president or program is considered beneficial or not. and i'm certainly not saying that being liberal is evil. i just would have liked the opportunity to make the choice myself instead of just being taught to be liberal, because, as it turns out, i am not liberal.

that is all i am going to say about politics right now because i don't really like to talk about it. a lot of people tend to believe only their way is right and treat you like an idiot for believing something different instead of having an attitude of hey, it's okay that we disagree and i understand why you feel that way. i don't like discussing politics.

but it does bother me that people can't see president obama's speech as a great opportunity, and that is why i finally give my two cents. i would like to watch it with my daughter. i want her to have a chance to feel what i felt when i watched president bush as a kid. i want her to feel an importance and sense of history whenever she hears any president speak. i want her to listen when a government official wants to specifically talk with her and not run away if he belongs to a different political party then she. i want her to develop a respect for the office of the president of the united states regardless of who that president is. most of all, i want her to have in interest in politics and be active in our government. starting now seems like a great time.

wow. that is really long. sorry. i don't think people like to read long things online. it's boring. don't worry, i won't do it very often. i don't like people knowing what i really think about things.

nightly guitar

this is the new almost-nightly ritual. ethan has been reading the little house series to the kids. in the book pa plays the fiddle at night for his family. ethan and maria decided it would be cool if he played the guitar at night before the kids went to bed. they love listening to him play and i love that ethan is (1) developing a talent and (2) creating lasting memories for our family.

what the . . .?

boy, people will try to sell just about anything nowadays. this is in our local classifieds right now.

Push lawn mower Runs okay sometimes catches fire, easily put out with garden hose. $45.

interesting bit of news

apparently it can be handy to be obese. this was in our paper today:

Aug 8, 9:26 PM EDT Obese Texas inmate hides gun in his flabs of fat

HOUSTON (AP) -- An obese inmate in Texas has been charged after officials learned he had a gun hidden under flabs of his own flesh.

Twenty-five-year-old George Vera was charged with possession of a firearm in a correctional facility after he told a guard at the Harris County Jail about the unloaded 9mm pistol. The Houston Chronicle reported Thursday that Vera was originally arrested on charges of selling illegal copies of compact discs.

The 500-pound man was searched during his arrest and again at a city jail and the county jail, but officers never found the weapon in his rolls of skin. Vera admitted having the gun during a shower break at the county jail.

flee, fly, flo, mosquito!

hudson is suffering from a common ailment among kids during the summer time:

mosquito bite! poor guy, his right cheek got bit and swelled right up. the squitos really go after him, too. he will have dozens of bites at any given time. i don't even know where they're coming from. we don't really like our kids playing outside at night after the mosquitos come out. somehow they must be getting into the house and seeking out hudson. i dunno. i guess he does look tasty . . . nice 'n' plump . . .

here's the funny buddy story of the day. i was in the bathroom, and, i'm sure it's this way with all moms, when i'm in the bathroom i am always bothered. privacy in the bathroom no longer exists. it's like, as soon as i go into the bathroom they think, "oooh, mom's in the bathroom. what do i need from her right this very minute?"

anyway, today while i was in the bathroom i heard hudson's little knock on the door, "mom, i got a boogie." "okay, hudson," i said, "i'm almost done. i'll be right out." as soon as i opened the door he laughed and said, "oh, you open the door." then he looked down at his finger and said, "oh, where'd the boogie go?" oh, but that's not the end. then he sat down on the floor and said, "boogie, where awe you?" that really made me laugh. he's such a funny guy.