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.