Forty-fourth Passage

On Saturday we drove up to near Idaho City to find us a Christmas tree.  A permit to chop a tree is much cheaper than buying one at a lot. And it's a fun family thing.

We learned a few things. Next year we won't take the family hiking up snowy hills. It wasn't a good experience for most of us. There were tears and choruses of complaints.

We looked around for a decent tree for awhile. Some possibilites were found to be bare on one side, or in very difficult places to chop. The kids got whinier.

Eventually we found the tree we ended up with. David chopped it down like he'd been chopping down trees his whole life.

I really wanted to get on video when the tree fell over, but my phone kept shutting off and saying it was dead, when it actually had 60% battery.

Oh well. 
David dragged the tree down the mountain, as well as Owen.

 

And here's us with the tree.

When we set it up in the living room, we saw how clearly this pathetic tree was different from the trees you might buy in a lot. It has a hard time supporting the ornaments, and it's very bare, and hiding strands of lights is an impossibility, but we like our tree. It's our first as a family, and it's got character, and we found it ourselves!
Here are the kids and the decorated tree. Owen opted to go to bed early. He wasn't feeling well.

Forty-third Passage

This time, at least, it wasn't a result of a violent action from a brother.

The other night David and I were up playing a game. Out of the blue, William lets out a death wail and we hear him make his way down the stairs. Once again there is a bloody trail from William's bed, down the stairs, and through the kitchen.

And once again, William is leaking pints of blood from his nose. When that boy hits his nose, he bleeds. Like crazy. And the sight of blood freaks him out, so he cries, screams, wiggles, spits, and does everything in his power to keep the blood from clotting.

David put a cartoon on his ipad to calm William down, and it worked. He sat and watched it while holding the towel to his face. And the bleeding finally stopped.

We learned that this all happened when William fell out of bed. At first he thought nothing of it, and climbed back in bed, but when he realized that what he thought was snot was actually blood, he let out his cry of terror and made his way downstairs. I think William really might think that bleeding=very real danger of death.

Post-it #65

Remember how Lydia likes putting things in her ears and nose? That still happens.

Post-it #64

Morgan drew a picture to send to his Uncle Casey on his mission. Check out that suit and tie! That's about as good as I could do it.

Forty-second Passage

Last week for Family Home Evening, we talked about Chistmas, and the nativity and stuff, and then we talked about how we can give Jesus gifts by serving others. We made a manger out of construction paper, and cut out little strips of yellow paper, then talked about how we can put a piece of hay in the manger every time we do an act of service. The idea is that on Christmas we will put a baby Jesus in the manger, and hopefully he will have a soft bed to lay in, filled with lots of hay.

Here's the manger.





The first night, the boys were anxiously going about the house looking for acts of service to perform, and adding hay to the manger. It was great. The next day they had no interest in doing service. But that has changed, and they have found a nice place in between the two extremes. It's funny to hear them trying to find lazy ways to serve though. Like, putting the dishes away, for instance. That is always their job. Owen does the silverware, and William and Morgan take turns either standing on a chair and putting dishes in a cupboard, or handing the dishes from the dishwasher to the brother on the chair.
They wanted to put hay in the bed, so they came up with an idea. William would do a service for Owen by putting away the silverware, Morgan would take William's turn on the chair, thereby serving William, and Owen could serve Morgan by taking Williams place. We had to explain to them that an exchange of chores is different from service.
But they've been pretty good about it, really. They often make my bed for me, so it looks like this. :)


It makes me happy when the boys are excited about serving their family members.

Post-it #63

During one of the unseasonably warm days, we were playing outside. Lydia got out one of her brothers' skateboards and tried it out. Mostly she just stood there with one foot on it, but she occasionally tried to take a step. I think she's cute.

Post-it #62

We were at Wal-Mart the other day, and Lydia made herself comfortable.

Post-it #61

Remember the ornaments David and I painted?

We got them back.

One of the first things David said upon seeing his reindeer was, "It's so pink!" He didn't anticipate the paint coming out so pink on the feet. The term "pig feet" has been tossed around.

Post-it #60

I just finished reading Bunnicula to the boys. It's a fun story about a vampire bunny that joins a family and sucks the juice out of vegetables, leaving them white, and the family cat and dog who try to alert the humans to the vampireness. But they end up friends. :)

 I think the boys liked it. I found that if they are allowed to color or something while I read, it goes much better. Otherwise it's very hard to keep their attention, and get them to keep their hands to themselves.

Post-it #59

Morgan has more teeth than he should. I didn't know about it until this past weekend when his dad noticed something strange, and alerted me. The baby teeth in front of the permanent teeth are barely even loose. We worry that this will cause a major overbite or something, so a trip to the dentist is in order.

Post-it #58

A recent date David and I had was to one of those paint your own ceramics studios. We painted Christmas ornaments. It was fun. We get to pick them up anytime now, so we can see the finished product. Yay!\

Post-it #57

Aren't these the cutest pancakes you've ever seen? They are David's creation. Not only does he make breakfast, he does it in fun and creative ways. I get the gold medal for picking a husband.
(silly sideways picture...)

Post-it #56

My blogging time seems more and more limited. So I'm gonna skip past Thanksgiving and other bigger posts, (hopefully I'll get to them later) and move onto quick things.

Like Lydia.

I don't know what it is with this girl, but she seems to have a fascination with putting food in her hair. This was minutes before I had many ladies coming to my house for a meeting, so she went down for a nap smelling like chicken.

Post-it #55

Flower from David 11/27/2012.

Forty-first Passage

Remember how the six year old's got bb guns for their birthdays? Well, the love them. Here are some pics and video's of them shooting them in the backyard.
  I love this picture. And...the video's.

Fortieth Passage

Owen is 4! His birthday was in the middle of the week on a day he was at his Mom's house, so we didn't celebrate until Saturday. We did the now traditional things, like streamers with candy and balloons on the door.

He picked the meals. I even tried to use mommy-manipulation to get him to choose something more adventurous, but he would not be swayed. Breakfast was a bowl of cereal, lunch was ramen noodles, and dinner was hashbrowns and bacon.

We had a birthday party with family and friends, and our little Owen was very spoiled. Here are some pictures.

He loves this guitar that Grandma Martin got for him.

 David and I bought him a bike. After some coaxing, he decided he really likes it.

 The cool car from Nana Sugar, so now he can play with Morgan and William and their cool cars.

David and I made him a batman cake, which I thought was pretty cute, but I failed to get a picture of it.

Now we have a four year old.

Post-it #54

We finished reading through The Mouse and the Motorcycle on Friday.

Then I found the movie and let the kids watch it. It's an old movie, made in the 80's, and wasn't of very good quality. Within the first 10 seconds of the film, (which showed a station wagon driving up to an old hotel) William was complaining, "I don't like this movie, it's boring!" About a minute later he was non-stop giggling. The kids loved the movie. I think it was fun for them too, to see what we read about.
I remember watching the movie as a kid. I loved it. Especially the part where Ralph almost gets sucked up by a vacuum. I watched bits and pieces with the kids, and it was a little shocking how horrible the graphics were. Well, they weren't really graphics. The mouse looked so unreal. I didn't notice that at all as a child. I don't think my boys did either.

Thirty-Ninth Passage

Today in school we made Thanksgiving chains. On each link, the boys wrote something that they were thankful for. Morgan and William did a great job writing them, and coming up with creative spelling.
Of course, I wrote the things for Owen. It was a little difficult to get him to understand the concept of "thankful." I would say, "What is something you are thankful for?" and he would say, "I'm thankful help me to not be bad." Uh... Or, "I'm thankful that no one can die." But everyone can die, son. It worked a lot better when I finally started asking him "What is something you really like?" "I like that snakes don't go in anyone's houses."
But we eventually got a good list. 13 days till Thanksgiving, so 13 things they are thankful for.

Here are the lists. I'll write the words as he did, and offer my interpretation.
William
Brutrz - - brothers
backwards pensilz - - pencils
Spirit (Spelled right all by himself! He meant his own spirit.)
jakits - - jackets
Family (he asked me to write that one)
Skool teeshrs - - school teachers
God
Hlee Spirit - - Holy Spirit
State
tooklevrmomz - - two clever moms. Haha!
parins - - Parents
Book
Clothes (also spelled by me.)

Morgan
Dads
Candee bag - - candy bag
God
Jesis - - Jesus
USA
Dolrs - - Dollars
Muny - - Money (haha! I didn't know until right now that Morgan had two money type things!)
The anjels - - the angels
Mom
Nana and Papa
Toys
Zoo
Holy Speerit - - Holy Spirit

Owen
Racecar Toy
Toys
William
Papa
Prayer
Nana's House
Nana Sugar
Daddy
Jesus
Legos
Tasha Mommy
Food
Melanie Mommy

He buttoned his jacket himself. :)
Yay for Thanksgiving!

Post-it #53

It's come to my attention recently that Owen might benefit from regular naps. He's always saying he's tired, and falls asleep in his bed if he's doing anything on it.
Yesterday Owen was suddenly not around. I found him sleeping soundly in his bed.

Thirty-eighth Passage

Halloween night we only had Morgan and Lydia. As we ate dinner, Morgan informed me that he didn't want to be Mario with out his Luigi and Wario. He wanted to wear his old Superman costume that he got when he was just 4.

And also wore for a Halloween thing at age 5.

But we had the costume, and a Supergirl costume as well, so we went for it.
Lydia would not cooperate for a picture.

We went to a trunk-or-treat at the church, then headed to our neighborhood to trick-or-treat. The kids did great and had fun. And the weather was pretty fantastic!