old and new pics

About 6 weeks ago Sarah finally lost her top tooth.

This is a typical evening at home with Emma dressed up as a princess -sorry it's so grainy.

Last summer Emma got into my bronzer makeup and looked like an Oompa-Loompa.

Little miss Morgan 7 months old. Sleepy baby.

The only cell phone pic of Morgan's blessing. Beautiful dress by Aunt Cheryl (far right w/mommy).

(I'll have to scan in the other pictures sometime.)

(Mom, Verle's family, Felicia & Jeff's family, Don & Laura's family, Leroy, the Velluto's, Mommy & Morgan, Sarah & Emma in front)

Sarah learning to climb the monkey bars.

Every time it rains, a park by our house gets flooded. Sarah & Emma playing last Spring.

My niece, Chelsea, at her college dorm at BYU. Cutie!

congrats hubby!

Tuesday night Gene and I attended an award banquet, honoring an elite group of employees from his work, at the Grand America Hotel. They had to have spent a couple hundred-thousand dollars on this party. An hour before dinner were hors d'erves and a meet-and-greet with the Vice President of the company.

The invitation said the dress was either formal or 70's disco. I saw only one tuxedo and ball gown, a lot of suits and dresses (like us) and mostly disco costumes. Gene was lamenting that we didn't dress up silly. At 7:00 they opened the doors and out flew a ton of confetti and the sounds of Saturday Night Fever. As we walked through the doors they "high-fived" Gene, and everybody started dancing. (Go ahead, I dare you, as much as we might hate disco music, it's almost impossible to sit still without so much as a head-bob when we hear it.) We enjoyed a three course meal with the award presentations between the courses. The salad was very interesting. Melted asiago cheese formed into a "napkin ring" with the lettuce leafs inside like a "napkin". Dinner was Fillet Mignon and Sea Bass with whipped potatoes and steamed broccoli. And for dessert, a very rich bread pudding with caramel sauce.

In between the salad and dinner is when they called Gene up on stage. His superiors said that "he takes care of his people and creates friendships that last a lifetime", and they often refer to him as "Mean Gene machine" or "Bull-dog".


You might be able to see Gene on the big screen (middle--blue shirt) running up on stage slapping "high-fives" to the executives. We were there for 4 hours and had a really fun time. I'm really proud of you, Gene. Good job!

bullets

• I'm tired.
• Was up most of the night with my 7 month old, who can hardly breathe, because she has a cold.
• Emma got sick Friday night while DH and I were on a date.
• We have the most amazing babysitter in the world--my niece, Alyssa.
• Now I feel flu-ish, but still got through a day of school work and house cleaning...
• Well, kind of, until the plumbing under the kitchen sink started leaking.
• I can no longer blow dry my hair on hot--it burns my scalp, and I think it's bad for my hair which is thinning enough as it is.
• So now I blow dry on warm.
• I'm switching from Coke to Pepsi. Every time I drink Coke I am wired for hours and even well pass midnight, not so when I drink Pepsi.
• One of my favorite flavors lately: crumbled blue cheese.
• Some of my favorite celeb's have 3 daughters (like us) of their own: Harry Connick Jr., Tim McGraw and Bruce Willis.
• My current favorite color is navy blue.
• For some reason I am having a hard time finding anything in fashion that is navy blue.
• I have a lot of tomatoes that I need to do something with before they get spoiled, but not enough to go to all the work of preserving.
• I got rid of my summer highlights and opted for a single tone brunette, now that it's fall.
• I absolutely love autumn!
• One reason is because it's premere time for my favorite shows.
• I am an NBC Thursday night junkie.
• I really want Jim & Pam to get together soon--I hope they don't draw it out.
• I'm tired.
• When I'm tired I'm a beast, or at best I'm boring.

seattle

We got back from our vacation 5am Sunday morning, and spent the rest of the day sleeping. We had so much fun! It was the best vacation and the most rejuvenating time spent in a long time. Our picture collection sucks, but I'm okay with that because this was one vacation where I just lived in the moment, without thinking about what shot would make for a great scrapbook page. I don't regret living in the moment! We got a lot of video and pics taken with our film camera, so these are the best of our cell phone pics. Now back to the daily routine of things....more later.

We kept the kids entertained on the ride with a new "penny toy" to open every couple hours.

The Space Needle from the Pacific Science center.

Emma at the water table in the PSC. We spent all day at the Pacific Science center!

Not our usual hamster wheel of life.

Emma taking aim...not bad.

The aquarium "petting zoo" table.

Sarah loved the harbor tour and feeling the sea wind in her hair.

Mommy & Morgan with the Seattle skyline in the background.

At the Woodland Park Zoo bear attraction--this was so cool!

At the Zoo --the girls' in the foxes den.

We walked the piers and also enjoyed the Pikes Place Market and Underground tour and just walking around and being together! It was SO fun!

back to school co-op

On Monday we met with our home-school co-op group at a park to have a "Back-to-Home-School-party". It was so much fun to get together after a long summer and make plans for group time and watch the kids play.

I enjoyed watching Sarah pair up with her usual girl friends; it's so funny to watch the dynamics of girls and thankfully, at this age, they all seem to get along so well!

Emma still doesn't leave my side, maybe to play in the dirt for a while, but always within arms reach. The great thing about this group (that we've been with now for 2+ years) is that all the siblings have their own age group--even the babies! So hopefully Emma will break out of her shell and make some friends this year!

Sarah at the start of 2nd grade.

Emma at the start of pre-K

Parachute games.

Sarah jumping on the left.

The whole group.

Incidentally, Morgan is now 6 months and scooting into other rooms when left alone, and is also just as chubby and adorable as ever!!!

back to school

The past couple weeks have been spent cleaning and preparing for this coming school year. As a home-educator it is usually a very busy time sorting through curriculum and supplies, and making decisions, but this year we are WAY ahead of the game and have hit the ground running.

We've received our K12 curriculum for the year, the "school room" is clean and decorated and organized, even including Emma's pre-K stuff. I am loving this K12 curriculum--it's so thorough and organized and easy to follow. Sarah is taking 6 subjects: Language arts, Math, Science, History, Art & Music. Every Monday after we are done with the academics we get together with our homeschool co-op group for field trips, holiday parties, science experiments & book club. So, this is our schedule:

• 8:00 eat breakfast, get dressed & do chores
• 9:00 family prayer, scripture study & pledge of allegiance
• 9:10 Math
• 10:00 Language arts
• 11:30 Music/Art (we switch days)
• 12:00 lunch
• 12:30 Outside "get your wiggles out" time
• 1:00 Science/History (we switch days)
• 2:00 clean up/Monday co-op time

Emma doing her Pre-K book

Looking in through the doorway

She's into wearing her headbands that way lately, silly girl.

My sewing table and the curriculum shelves.

crazy making behavior

It's the perplexing behavior of a person, usually close to you, that makes you feel like you're the one going crazy. Also known as Passive-aggressive behavior. A few people in my life come to mind when I think of crazy making behavior and/or passive-aggressive behavior. I've been reading a lot of articles on the subject lately, so as to know better how to deal with these people and come out of these relationships SANE! One such article from Prevention magazine states that passive-aggressive people "aren't hostile one moment and then kind the next. Instead, they perform the maddening trick of being both at the same time." They never learned the right way to convey anger and hostility, and learned "tricks" in their childhood to couch their feelings in excuses, blame, forgetfulness, back-handed humor or sarcasm. Worse yet, if not called on it, they continue these tricks into adulthood wrecking relationships along the way.

To quote the article "He's so uncomfortable with self-assertion that he tries to get his way by doing nothing. By allowing others to take charge, he leaves himself only one option for getting what he wants: sabotage." They say one thing and then deny they ever said it because they don't want to be held to their word, because they didn't want to do whatever "it" was in the first place. It's this behavior that makes me want to smack my head against a brick wall when dealing with certain people in my life. I think it would be an awfully exhausting life to live--constantly undermining one's self. They often don't feel appreciated and say that they haven't done anything wrong, trying to pass blame onto you. Making you the "bad guy".

Unless you know how to react the right way: Nix the guilt; it's their problem! Don't let them get away with it; confront them about their dishonesty. And then try to create an atmosphere in which they'll feel comfortable sharing their feelings with you. Something that I've been working on, within myself, for the last year or so.

These articles got me thinking about teachings from the Savior and about forgiveness, accountability & the power of our words. My mind raced as I remembered talks and lessons and even though it seems a bit scrambled and rambling, I think the common thread is Choice.

Thomas S. Monson, in a conference talk, said "Let us not find ourselves as indecisive as is Alice in Lewis Carroll’s classic Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. You will remember that she comes to a crossroads with two paths before her, each stretching onward but in opposite directions. She is confronted by the Cheshire cat, of whom Alice asks, “Which path shall I follow?” The cat answers: “That depends where you want to go. If you do not know where you want to go, it doesn’t matter which path you take.”"

We can choose not only our actions but also our words and thoughts. In a talk by Jeffrey R. Holland, he said:

"Our words, like our deeds, should be filled with faith and hope and charity, the three great Christian imperatives so desperately needed in the world today. With such words, spoken under the influence of the Spirit, tears can be dried, hearts can be healed, lives can be elevated, hope can return, confidence can prevail. .....

"In all of this, I suppose it goes without saying that negative speaking so often flows from negative thinking, including negative thinking about ourselves. We see our own faults, we speak—or at least think—critically of ourselves, and before long that is how we see everyone and everything. No sunshine, no roses, no promise of hope or happiness. Before long we and everybody around us are miserable."

We can learn great and simple lessons from children too, they being so close to the spirit themselves. The other day Emma was goofing around and Sarah said to her "You're crazy!" to which Emma emphatically said "I'M NOT CRAZY! AND IT'S MY CHOICE!" Summed up very well, I thought.

three pints thursday

This past week has been fun with trips to the park & scrapbooking, but with mommy PMS-ing the days have been progressively less & less fun. I hope to find a clip on Youtube that will illustrate how I've felt & shamefully acted a couple times. So this weeks kids' post is not only belated, but to the point and mostly photo filled.

Sarah is in the middle of placement testing for this year's curriculum. She does so well on the math portion of the test that it's amazing, and I find myself wanting her to achieve the same scores in the reading, but she is her father's daughter in that regard. She is on level with the reading, but struggles at times and I find myself struggling to be patient with her. During "mom's time" is NOT a good time to have your child tested if you hope for them to retain a fragment of confidence & self esteem.

Emma is summed up in this poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: There was a little girl, who had a little curl, right in the middle of her forehead. When she was good, she was very, very good, but when she was bad she was horrid. Let's just say that this second daughter of mine has her vocal cords still to this day, by shear mercy on my part.

Morgan cut her second tooth this past week and also is up on her hands and knees rocking back and forth preparing for that day that she'll crawl her way into havoc. She is a sweetie that melts my heart. I am running around with this ever impending sense of urgency and doom to baby-proof this house better and shampoo the carpets, etc. We've been all too lax on the home remodeling clean up for the past several...yeah.

At Liberty Park. We brought along Sarah's friend, Christina.

Sarah looking so tan and cute on her two-wheeler.

Emma posing infront of her bike.

Morgan looking just simply adorable.

three pints thursday

My head is foggy today. It hurts from so much emotion & shock from recent events, or rather events brought to light recently. And it's not going to feel better anytime soon, there are some tough circumstances and consequences that are going to have to be faced in the coming weeks. So, sorry that I lack the enthusiasm that I wish I had for today's post.


As I stated in a previous post I intend to dedicate each Thursday's blog entry to my kiddos. In retrospect I think loosing my PDA info has been a blessing; it has forced me to re-examine how well I journal my life and my children's lives, but man do I have a lot of work ahead of me!


This past week Sarah got her Jr. level green belt in Tae Kwon Do. She is in the "Little Dragons" class and loves it. We only have one more month on the contract and asked Sarah if she'd like to try something new, but she insists that she stay with TKD until she gets her Jr. level black belt. A couple weeks ago Sarah lost another baby tooth, so now she has 4 adult teeth. Is it just me or does anyone else get sad to see the baby teeth go? I look at how small they are and remember the time that she was barely months old and broke in that "first tooth" and I get melancholy.

The one thing that Sarah has been doing lately that I need to nip in the bud is her reaction to discipline, meaning that when I get upset she can't help but smile and sometimes laugh. And that is a big mistake--I want to be taken seriously when I'm reprimanding. Of course I realize that it's probably due to the fact that I yell too much or give her a reaction that she's wanting, and I seriously need to work at that. I know the Love and Logic response (let her deal with the consequences & not care more about her choices than she does--in other words let her learn from her mistakes), but why is it so dang hard for me to implement it?

Sarah trying out her new rollerskate shoes that she got from her cousins

This past week Emma had a hearing test. I try not to compare my kids to each other, and I know each child develops at their own rate, but Sarah was very articulate for her age at even two years old, and Emma, at 3 years old, is still very hard to understand sometimes. I remember learning in my Communication Development class at USU that evaluation should always start with the hearing, because if one can't hear correctly they sure aren't going to be able to speak or repeat words correctly. On one hand I wanted them to find something wrong (but not really), turns out that she has great hearing--passed with flying colors. So apparently she's just choosing to ignore me. Now I know. Anyway, she has a speech evaluation test next week where I fully expect to get a diagnosis and starting point.

On another note, we fully expect our kids to do certain chores around the house simply because they are a part of the family, but we give our children an allowance for special chores or things that challenge their growth and development. Gene, being the only male in our home, insists that our girls grow up NOT afraid of bugs and spiders, so he implemented a reward/allowance system for squishing bugs. 1 bug or spider = 25 cents. I've been using this system to try to teach Emma the value of money. For example, when the ice cream man drives down our street and they want a Popsicle they need to use their own money "Well, that Popsicle is a whole dollar, or 4 quarters, or 4 bugs worth. Are you willing to squish four more bugs to earn another dollar?" (FYI: we really don't have an endless supply of bugs or spiders for them to squish, our house is fairly clean in that regard, but Gene didn't make an exception so Emma will kill an ant on the driveway.)

I love this photo of Emma swimming--she looks like a froggy to me

Little miss Morgan is already 5 months old today. She is just about the sweetest baby anyone could ever have! I am so in love with her it's not even funny! She cut in her first baby tooth on July 24th. Sarah says that the tooth fairy recycled her baby tooth and gave it to Morgan. Morgan is blowing raspberries (even while nursing -which cracks me up) and cooing and full-blown laughing at times when her sisters act silly or I tickle her sides. She rolls all over her room and will get stuck between her dresser and the rocking chair and just sigh "Aaahh aaahhh aaahhh" and wait patiently for me to rescue her. She's also starting to lift her tummy off the floor, which means that full-blown crawling is right around the corner. Time to get these carpets shampooed! And put up the baby gates!

Morgan kick, kick, kicking

flying

I'm sitting at my computer listening (via baby monitor) to Sarah & Emma playing in the baby's room; unaware that the monitor is on, they are sweetly exchanging in ideas and dialogue and giggling and it's warming my heart!

This past Saturday Gene had some fun of his own redeeming the gift certificate that I gave him for Father's Day: a Discovery flight. For an hour you get to take a private lesson and then sit in the pilot's seat to fly an airplane with an instructor. He had a blast! He couldn't fly over our house (restricted air space) but he did get to fly over his mom's house, and even called her so that she could come out and wave. Gene said he has no idea how he's going to top this come Mother's Day. Oh, I'm sure I'll have some ideas to help him out....overnight girls retreat sounds pretty good, day spa, hmmm....

Pilot Gene

hangin' loose

Take off

the SL valley below

Gene's mom's house

dude! an unfortunate event

Something terrible happened to me recently. I lost all the info on my PDA. Including journal entries about my kids! I'm talking info from the past 18 months! And, NO, sadly, I had not backed it up during that time. I don't know why--testing fate? Stupid? Busy? All of the above? I know it was in part due to the fact that our computer has been hanging on by duct tape (literally), and I just didn't want to bother with it. I cried for a solid hour or two and slept poorly all night long the day it happened. Since then I've been busy pouring over old calendars, photos, videos, school folders, doctors notes, this blog, etc. to try to remember certain events, cute sayings, daily occurrences... that have been erased. I used to be so much more organized in my life, I used to be better than this, I used to regard myself a historian of sorts...what the hell happened?

• Lesson #1 learned: Never keep all journal info in only one source. Record the same event in a couple different places.

• Lesson #2 learned: Back up and print OFTEN! (stupid, stupid, stupid!)

• Lesson #3 learned: Brag more about my kids; to Aunts, Uncles, Grandparents and this blog, so that they can help me remember and record.

So, because of this event, I've decided to dedicate each Thursday (baring we're on vacation or something) to my kids, and I'm calling it Three Pints Thursday--since I have 3 little ones. There is a silver lining to this cloud and that is "Dude! We got a DELL!" And a very nice one at that! Something about an Intel Core 2 Duo processor with other upgrades. So now I will be taking all that history that I'll be gathering; journals, photo's, videos and all and burning it to discs. And possibly distributing copies far and wide in case of a future mishap. Hmmm....Christmas card cd's?

happy fourth of july

I love that this time of year brings out the patriotism in people, including myself. I am so incredibly thankful and proud to be an American. Don't get me wrong, I like Lee Greenwood's song "Proud to be an American", but for some reason this song struck a cord with me; who would've thought Taylor Hicks would come through?!

With all that's wrong in this country at times, I still wouldn't want to be anywhere else. I believe that there was a Divine hand guiding our founding fathers in establishing this country, it's rights and liberties. I also believe that, though things might get worse before they get better, it will be that same Divine hand that saves this country and it's constitution. This time of year also reminds me that people are inherently more good than bad. Thanks to all the people in my little world who love liberty more than life.

"It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died.

Rather we should thank God that such men lived."

- General George S. Patton

entering my jazz phase

I love all kinds of music, but usually not all at the same time. Each year I seem to go through different phases; 80's pop, jazz, country, folk, soulful boy-bands and even Broadway musicals. I have my favorites in each genre: HoJo, Erasure, Harry, Sinatra, Tim McGraw, James Taylor, BoyzIIMen, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (featuring Donny Osmond, of course).

When I'm feeling very mellow there's nothing better than my Natalie Merchant Tigerlilly CD. For cleaning the house it's Alanis Morisette Jagged little pill. Usually this time of year (coming upon the fourth of July) I start my country/patriotic phase--completely subconsciously.

However a couple weeks ago my girlfriend, Rosann, and I attended a Harry Connick Jr. concert and it has thrown me into a serious jazz phase (which usually happens around Christmas time for some reason). I can't get enough of this song! I had so much fun at the concert with Rosann, and I can't thank you enough, girlfriend, for coming along. Even though it would've been way more fun in a city that actually moved to the rhythm, instead of sitting still properly tapping our toes. I was really impressed with his band and I loved the sax players, but my favorite band instrument is still the snare drum. Of course, my fav favorites are Harry's 3 pianos and his smooth crooner voice!

oh, my aching back

The new IKEA opened today just 15-20 minutes from my house. I took my kids and my Mom (who visited Sweden last year) to the grand opening (click the link for pics & video of the Draper opening). We arrived as the doors were opening.....and 45 minutes later we actually got INSIDE the store. Country, I should say; this place could have it's own zip code! The line wrapped around the 310,000 sq. foot building and zig-zagged back and forth about a dozen times. It was very packed inside, yet I have to say everything ran as smoothly as a well oiled machine! They should be proud.

I bought a few small things--a throw for my couch, some closet organizers & a soap dish (I plan on returning with Gene to buy the large things), and we ate at the restaurant--YUM! My kids did pretty good for 6.5 hours. Emma freaked out over a paper cut, and I had to take a nursing break occasionally for Morgan, and Sarah had fun at the play-land, but all-in-all I won't be taking my kids back there any time soon!

I am so stinkin' tired and sore...I hope I can move tomorrow!

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cinco de mayo

This past week dragged on and on, in part due to a cold that turned into Bronchitis and Laryngitis, and in part due to extreme weather conditions; hot one day and snowing the next. (If Gene knows what's good for him he'll get us some central air SOON! Swamp AC's just don't cut it!)

I watched a lot of TV and enjoyed my Must See NBC Thursday-- except no 30 Rock? What the heck? And (as I told my friend Jamie) loved Scrubs and commiserated with Turk & Carla's problem. *sob* So I was looking for any little pick-me-up and Cinco de Mayo was the ticket! We haven't eaten at Cafe Rio in a long time, but I had earned a free meal, so we piled the kids in the van. As soon as we left our neighborhood Emma started crying that she had left her "toy of the day" at home (you know how kids get attached to something and want to carry it with them everywhere they go--that's Emma). We tried telling her that it would be waiting for her at home, but after many sobs and more than half way there, we turned around and went back home to get her toys. Below are the "before" and "after" pictures. There's no way we could've enjoyed our dinner amidst sobs. The weather was so NOT festive--rain, sleet, snow and winds. Would've much rather had the mid 80 degree temperatures that we had last weekend.

sad and missing her cinderella rings

reunited with her cinderella rings & happy again

Little miss Morgan looking up at the camera phone

Yummy quesadilla, barbacoa & enchiladas!!!