Life at the Goulden Nugget

Peter is one!

2012-02-15T22:53:00.000-08:00

Happy birthday, Peter-love!

Messy face, clean tongue...

Do you like that?

Maybe just a little bit.

This was the closest we got to a smile out of him while he was eating the cake. Anyway, I think he liked it. I know I did. Someone had to finish off the rest of it. ;)

Guess who's five!

2012-02-03T10:02:00.000-08:00

Happy birthday, Sam!

Shower - 1, Crisis - 0

2012-02-03T09:55:00.000-08:00

This morning dawned, day two without a shower. I was starting to stink, and my head itched. Usually I shower at the YMCA or when Jason is home, but today I decided to try it at home, with all three kids - awake.

After breakfast, I asked my newly-turned-five-year-old to "keep an eye on" his younger brothers. I turned on Cars 2 and hoped for the best. I knew Sam and Benji would be absorbed in the movie for at least half and hour, but my little Peter-love has a TV attention span of about 30 seconds. I instructed Sam that if someone got hurt or stuck he should first try to help them himself, and second come get me if that didn't work. Peter was making I'm-not-watching-the-TV-anymore noises before I shut the bathroom door.

I had just filled my hand with shampoo when I Sam came running in my room, hysterical. All I could hear through the roar of the shower was "...PETER.......................HEAD...!" My mind raced to fill in the blanks. Peter bumped his head. Peter's head is stuck. Peter is bleeding from his head!

I turned of the water, ready to dash, dripping wet, to rescue my baby. I asked Sam to tell me again, what happened. "Peter pushed a button and made the movie jump ahead!" Oh. No blood. No pain. Just overwhelming anguish that his favorite show, that he's seen about five gazillion times, skipped ahead.

I asked Sam to calm down enough to hear my instructions. I explained how to find the rewind button on the remote control and he ran off, appeased. Crisis averted. Shower resumed. Clean mom = happy mom.

Now I get to go down stairs and see what kind of mess Peter made while I showered and blogged for the last 45 minutes...

Subduing a stubborn soul.

2012-01-25T22:46:00.000-08:00

I've been blessed with a stubborn son. He got it from me. I got it from my dad. Lets just say stubbornness runs in our family. My sister, who is also blessed with a stubborn son pointed out to me that its not always a bad thing. She got a call one day saying that her little first grade son refused to get off the bus. It turns out the substitute bus driver was mistaken, it wasn't his stop. If he was a more compliant child he would have obediently trudged off the bus and onto some random street corner in Seattle. So being stubborn isn't always bad, except for when it is...

My little stubborn guy gets into moods when he doesn't want to comply with any requests. He knows what he wants and it is NOT what you are asking him to do. Being stubborn myself, I'm often guilty of digging in my heels and waiting for him to back down. Usually this results in yelling and crying and sometimes hitting. Oh, and a whole lot of frowning. So pretty much its a no-win situation.

I've been praying lately about how to help improve this situation. Specifically I asked for wisdom so that I can react to my boy's obstinate moods in a more positive way. I came across this quote from a modern day prophet in the Ensign magazine. I knew it was an answer to my prayer. I copied it onto a slip of paper and put it on my fridge:

"Kindness is the power that God has given us to unlock hard hearts and subdue stubborn souls"

- George Albert Smith

When my sweet son doesn't want to cooperate I try to remember to be even more kind, instead of insisting forcefully that I am right. Sometimes I even say it out loud, "I am trying to be very kind to you. Will you please cooperate?" And the amazing thing is that it has been working. All of the force in the world couldn't get my little love to comply, but simple sweet words, spoken long enough, have elicited the most miraculous results. We both soften and life is much happier around here.

Yea for modern prophets and answered prayers!

A mouth full of whipped cream

2012-01-18T06:00:00.000-08:00

Sam was in charge of refreshments for Family Home Evening last week. We had a little chocolate-peanut butter-marshmallow yummy, at mom's suggestion, but then he thought that wasn't quite enough and a little whipped cream would hit the spot. Much to his surprise, mom agreed. And then came this...

and this...

Even Peter got a little bit, straight in the mouth.

I figure you've got to do crazy-fun, spontanious things sometimes so that the kids can have some good memories when they grow up, right?

This is my life

2012-01-17T09:57:00.000-08:00

I have cabin fever. The weather has been snowy and when it snows around here the world shuts down. It is fun for a while to go sledding and then come into a warm house and drink hot chocolate, but after a while I get anxious to return to my routine. When it looked like things were thawing this morning I was excited to get out. I wanted to go to the YMCA and exercise, like usual. I have a few things on my list for Target and we'd be home in time for lunch and then be off to Sam's piano lesson. It was a good plan. Life as usual. Life, as usual, is good.

A few fussy boys (alright, three fussy boys to be exact) interupted my plans this morning. At one point I had one crying in time out, one crying at my feet as I tried to finish my cereal and one yelling at my from the living room that he was NOT going to the YMCA. Ahhhhhh! I just want to get my things done. Nothing is going according to my plan!

I sat on the couch trying to figure out how I could salvage my day. "I have life to get to!" I exclaimed to my kids. Then I looked down at my sweet nursing baby and a voice in my head said, "This is my life." They are my life. In the end, these kids are what matters most. If they get in the way of my other plans maybe I need to rethink my priorities.

So, this morning I'm going to stay home, again, and fill my time with loving my boys. Maybe we'll turn on some music and have a dance party and I'll get my exercise in after all. Maybe we'll just sit around and play games.

It just started snowing again. I'm glad we're not out on the road.

CTR Pretzels

2012-01-16T06:00:00.000-08:00

We got the idea for these CTR pretzels from the Friend magazine (link). We made them for
Family Home Evening. CTR stands for Choose the Right. Sam was especially excited because he had been talking about CTR at Sunday school and got his very own CTR ring.

The pretzels were so yummy we made some more for Sam to take to preschool on his snack day. Sam helped by rolling the dough into snakes then I shaped them into twists.

The face recognition program on my camera recognized 5 faces in this picture.

If you want to make your own pretzels, here is the recipe:

CTR Pretzels

By Heather Brinkerhoff

1 teaspoon salt

2½–3 cups flour

1 tablespoon yeast

1 cup warm water

1 tablespoon sugar

melted butter

Mix the first five ingredients until they form a ball. Then knead dough until smooth and elastic. Cover with a clean towel and let rise in a warm place for one hour.
Pull off sections of the dough and roll into long ropes. Form the ropes into the letters “CTR” or make the shape of the CTR shield.
Put the pretzels on a greased cookie sheet and bake 8–10 minutes at 450°F (232°C). Brush pretzels with melted butter. (note from Neoma: I just peeled one end of a stick of butter and rubbed it on the hot pretzels instead of brushing them with melted butter. I also sprinkled them with a little salt.)

There, now my crafty mom quota is filled for 2012.

Mischief Maker

2012-01-14T14:33:00.000-08:00

He looks innocent enough, but this little mischief maker just strode into the house and pelted me with a snowball as I sat on the couch. I guess the first snow of the year can do crazy things to a kid.

For the love of a brother

2012-01-07T19:44:00.000-08:00

As I watched my boys interacting today I realized just what an amazing blessing it is for them to have each other. Most of my childhood memories involve my siblings and me. I know my parents had a profound influence on my childhood - and still influence me today, but I don't have as many memories with them as I do with my siblings. The same will most likely be true of my boys, too. As much as I feel like their life revolves around me right now (and sometimes it does, very literally), their earthly relationship with one another is most likely going to outlast their relationship with me. When Jason and I are gone, they are still going to have each other. It melts my heart to see them love one another, make each other laugh, and play together (ok, so they fight a lot, too, but I don't so much melt about that part). Those are the memories they are going to look back on. I'm so grateful that Heavenly Father sent us these three boys - and I hope someday to add a few more siblings to the mix, maybe even some sisters.

Post script: This afternoon I heard Peter and Benji laughing uproariously in the other room. I peeked in to see what my almost 3 year old was doing to make my almost 1 year old laugh so hard. Peter was laying on his back on the floor and Benji was standing on his little brother's chest. Every time his stepped up Peter bust a gut and then Benji would fall off and laugh and laugh. He wasn't just resting his feet on the wee one, either. Benji had his full 30 pounds on Peter's chest! I wasn't sure whether I was supposed to scold Benji for stepping on his brother, or thank him for entertaining the baby. In the end I think I snuck back out of the room and left them alone. Oh, the memories...

Freaky Weirdness

2012-01-04T06:00:00.000-08:00

I caught a glimpse of this out of the corner of my eye on Sunday night.

With wildlife like this around who needs to go to the zoo?

Peter's newest trick II

2012-01-01T21:03:00.000-08:00

Santa brought us a slide for Christmas two years ago (see post). Benji was Peter's age at the time and he was pretty scared of it. Peter, not so much...

I know it looks like Sam pulled him down, but he didn't grab his feet until he already got to the bottom.

Star-studded, literally

2011-12-18T15:10:00.000-08:00

This afternoon Sam came home from church with a sheet of stickers and intructions to place one on his forehead every time he does a good deed. There was a list of good deeds such as: dress yourself, shine your dad's shoes, hug someone, play with your brother or sister, smile at someone, etc. Each star represents a gift you are giving to Jesus. He latched on to the suggestion to say, "I love you," He wandered around the house telling everyone he loved them and then telling them, again, and again, and again... After each expression of affection he'd place a star on his face and giggle.

He ran out of room on his forehead and started down his cheek. Before he was done he had several in his hair, too.

Sam bestowed a sticker on Benji when Benji said, "I love you" back.

Peter earned the last sticker for smiling since he can't talk.

Jason and I got stars, too. Sam even took a picture of mine, but he zoomed in really far and it is a little scary. Since this is Christmas and not Halloween we'll stick with pictures of the angels.

Sam's face is still plastered with stars.

No pictures, please!

2011-12-04T21:10:00.000-08:00

I crack up every time I see this picture. You'd think he was some famous celebrity and I was the paparazzi.

Sam seems to hide his face in most of our pictures these days

(unless, of course the picture was his idea and then he is usually showing off).

I'm a little worried that when he is older and looks back at our family photo albums he will say, "Hey, where was I when I was 4?"

It's a good thing that we have a couple of other obliging grinners in our house:

This was from this afternoon. How does he fit in there?

My little Peter-love can't get enough of the camera. He's always cheesing it up.

Don't you want to eat him up?

Have you ever been licked by a yak?

2011-11-29T06:00:00.000-08:00

I have.

I wish my thumb was greener (aka Victoria Trip, part 3)

2011-11-27T22:56:00.000-08:00

While in Victoria we visited Butchart Gardens. The original garden was started 100 years ago as a way for Mrs. Butchart to make something beautiful out of a used up rock quarry. It is amazing!

It was raining hard that morning, but we prayed and bundled up and by the time we got there rain had mostly stopped. The boys had fun playing with the complimentary umbrellas anyway.

Peter and I just wore our hoods.

The sun even came out a few times.

We met a group of Chinese tourists. Benji charmed them all with his quick smile and a mimicked "Hi, nǐ hǎo." He posed obligingly while they all took pictures of my cute little white boy.

Sam was excited about the carousal and carefully chose the best animal to ride on. He wanted to go again, but at $3 a pop, once was enough.

We found flowers in bloom, even in late fall.

The leaves in the Japanese garden were especially stunning.

Sam walked on water.

And by the time we were done, Peter was ready to go home.

Simple pleasures (aka Victoria Trip Part 2)

2011-11-23T16:52:00.000-08:00

My boys love to do "tricks." When Benji saw this rope winder he naturally gravitated to it and started to do dangerous things.

Not to be out done, Sam did some tricks of his own.

When we went to dinner the first night Jason, Peter, and I enjoyed some delicious Italian food, Sam was too busy colouring (I used the "ou"spelling in honour of Canada) to eat much, and Benji licked the cup of garlic butter.

I think the boys favorite part of the hotel was the TV. At home we live without TV and cable, so any shows we watch are either movies or online. I let the boys watch cartoons in the morning (mostly so that Jason and I could stay in bed longer). They loved it. Can't you tell by the look on their faces?

I had to bribe Sam to smile for this next picture. He hid his face for every other family picture I tried to get the whole trip. I figured it was worth a peanut butter cup. The capital building is behind us.

We Do Believe in Ferries! (aka Victoria Trip, part 1)

2011-11-19T12:01:00.000-08:00

Work has been rather stressful for Jason lately, so we decided we needed a little family vacation. A couple years ago we got passports for us our family in anticipation of a trip to Australia. The Australia trip never panned out (we still want to do it someday), but the passports have come in handy. With passports in hand, we set sail for Victoria, British Columbia.

We took one ferry across the Puget Sound from Edmonds to Kingston. Note Benji's doggy backpack harness. Sometimes he doesn't want to put it on, but if I offer to let him wear it on the front and "hug" his doggy then he gets excited again.

We drove for a couple hours and then took a ferry from Port Angeles, Washington to Victoria on Vancouver Island.

We had never taken the international ferry across the Strait of Juan de Fuca before. It was a lot more bumpy than the other ferry. Jason got a little sea sick, but a chilly walk out on the deck helped.

Our little Benji likes to be silly and make people laugh. He crawled around with his head down like a snow plow. I don't know what he was doing. I just hope he wasn't licking the floor.

Benji and Daddy spotted land.

Even Peter was excited to get to Canada.

Stayed tuned for the Victoria report parts 2 and 3.

Budding Pianists

2011-11-17T23:47:00.000-08:00

This summer Sam and Willow started taking piano lessons from Grandma Gould. Grandma is a professional piano teacher. She currently has 38 piano students. At 4½, Sam and Willow are her youngest students. She prepares individual lesson plans for each of their weekly lessons as well as choosing several recital choices for each student from her massive music library. She is very busy and very amazing lady. It is really special that Sam gets to take piano lessons from his Grandma.
A couple of weeks ago they performed in their first recital. Because I'm a proud mother I have to share their performance videos with you.

I'm sharing Willow's video, too, because it is actually hilarious. Rhys dressed up as a dog and sang one of the songs while Willow played. In case you can't tell, it is about a dog named Tucker taking a bath.

The ultimate bed-fort

2011-11-15T06:00:00.000-08:00

Do you remember making forts as a kid?

Mine usually involved blankets, chairs, encyclopedias and clothespins.

A few days ago I pulled out some old sheets and made a fort for the kids.

It had a secret entrance,

And two compartments. Although (or maybe because) it was smaller, the top bunk was the favorite hang out.

It makes me so happy to see my kids happy.

Being a mom is a great job.

Playing with blocks

2011-11-12T06:00:00.000-08:00

Jason has been trying to build a block tower to the ceiling for quite a while now. He finally succeeded,

...When Sam and Benji were both in time out...

Don't worry, after Daddy was done, we let the boys out.

And then down she came:

Our pet caterpillar

2011-11-09T06:00:00.000-08:00

In September I found this little guy in our front yard.

I've seen plenty of those fuzzy, black and yellow, bad-for-your-trees, tent-building caterpillars before,

(One year girl's camp was infested with them, they fell in our food and crawled into someone's nose while she slept. That is a story for another day).

this caterpillar was different.

Being the good mom that I am, I searched online and identified our new little friend as a Western Tiger Swallowtail caterpillar. This wasn't a pest, this was a real butterfly. I looked up how to hatch a butterfly. I gathered the right kind of leaves and put our new pet in a jar. We eagerly awaited the magic that would inevitably happen.

Sadly, we're still waiting.... it has been almost 2 months. I'm pretty sure it's dead.

I'm not sure what happened.

So much for being an awesome science project mom.

Anyone want oatmeal for breakfast?

2011-11-06T06:00:00.000-08:00

When we came downstairs the other morning and we were greeted by this scene:

In the middle of is all was this cute little boy, licking uncooked oatmeal off the floor.

Its kind of hard to be mad at Benji when he is having so much fun. I think this boy has a future in demolition. At least we can feed the dirty oatmeal to the chickens. But, we have a new rule around our house: No one is allowed to come downstairs before mom and dad get up in the morning.

How to get your kids to eat their vegetables

2011-11-03T23:37:00.000-07:00

A little while ago my friend blogged about how she uses reverse psychology to get her kids to eat their vegetables (link). I thought I'd share with you the favorite method at our house.

The appetizer.

It works like this: Mom is busy trying to make a nutritious and balanced meal for her family. The children are running crazy and fighting and crying because they are all starving (probably because I forgot to give them a snack, but that is beside the point). Mom whips out the vegetable that she was already preparing for dinner and asks, "Who wants to have an appetizer?" All the kids flock to the table and devour whatever is on it:

On tonight's menu: edamame. Young, green soy beans. You pop them from the pods straight into your mouth. Fun, yummy, nutritious. We buy them frozen, pre-cooked, from Costco.

Nothing whets the appetite like starvation.

We should have named you Prozac

2011-10-28T11:37:00.000-07:00

How could I ever be depressed with this little face smiling up at me every day?

Peter is a pretty special boy. He is so happy most of the time. He is quick to smile and laugh. He even puts up with the mauling love of two big brothers and the two doting cousins who share our house.

Typical of a third child, he often has to wait for mom's attention,

he doesn't get regular naptimes,

and a little someone is always trying to "help" him,

But he does get to play with all sorts of dangerous toys (notice the choking hazard in his mouth?)

So I guess he thinks its worth it. At least that's what this face tells me.

Apple Core

2011-10-27T06:00:00.000-07:00

I guess no one ever showed Sam the right way to eat an apple. Or maybe he just takes after his dad who doesn't believe in the right way to do anything (Jason likes to eat cheese with a spoon). The first time I gave Sam an whole apple to eat we were walking and he was riding in the stroller. After a while he said, "Hey, where did my apple go?" Apparently he ate the whole thing without realizing it. He makes me laugh.

Sidewalk Chalk Artists

2011-10-24T17:13:00.000-07:00

We took advantage of the dry weather the other day to make some sidewalk art. The kids found a safe place to set the chalk tub:

Peter liked crawling around and chewing on chunks of chalk (and looking super cute while doing it).

We had a lot of fun tracing the kids.

Benji is my wanderer. He preferred visiting the neighbors to coloring on the concrete. Its a good thing he can't fit in the cat door.

Here's our toddler totem pole.

We made another tower where Sam and Willow were holding themselves up. Sorry the picture is sideways. I tried to save it rotated, but Blogger keeps turning it back.

Peter's newest trick

2011-10-16T06:00:00.000-07:00

Peter learned a new trick last week:

After a few minutes, he got some help(?) from a few cheer leaders.

Sorry, the video was interupted by a time out. Peter sure has a lot of people who love him. What a lucky kid!

Sam's new pants

2011-10-13T06:00:00.000-07:00

The other day Carol and I were sorting through a box of shared maternity clothes and pulling out things that didn't fit either one of us. Neither one of us is pregnant. I don't need to start that rumor. I would pull out a item and Carol would say, "I'll keep that," or "Toss it." When I pulled out this pair of crazy pattern pants form our sister, L, Sam yelled, "I'll want it!"

He explained that he wanted to keep them until he grows up and can fit them. I laughed so hard I had to let him keep them. After trying them on he tied them around his neck like a cape and played with them all afternoon. You may grow up, Sam, but I'm not quite sure those are ever going to fit you.

Young Entrepreneurs

2011-10-10T13:55:00.000-07:00

Carol has been looking for ways that Willow can earn money. Willow really wanted a doll at the store and Carol said she could buy it if she earned the money herself. Picking up pine cones was apparently not lucrative enough. This is what they came up with. Carol had a bunch of corn from a community garden she participates in so she sold the corn to the kids 8 ears for a dollar and the kids sold corn to the neighbors 4 ears for a dollar.

Willow wrote the sign herself. It says: Fresh Sweet Corn 4 for $1. Carol helped them carefully peel back the husk on one ear so they could show that it was good quality corn. They loaded the wagon with a bag of corn and a tag-a-long little brother and started canvasing the cul-de-sac.

You can see the mason jar for collecting money in Sam's hand. When they finished our street I went with them so they could go to other houses in our neighborhood.

All told, I think the kids earned $8 in profit. Not bad for two four year olds in one afternoon. The cutest encounter came when a teenage girl answered the door and said she would love some corn, but didn't have any money. Willow exclaimed, "That's ok, we can give some away for free!" Then she ran back to the wagon and retrieved two ears to share with a somewhat bewildered teenager. Nothing like having a little charitable giving built into your business model.

Note: Willow is now about one quarter of the way to her doll. If you have any more ideas for ways a 4 year old can earn money (without creating a lot of work for her mom) we'd love to hear them!

An itty-bitty, teeny egg

2011-10-03T06:00:00.000-07:00

The other day we got this little baby, mini egg. I knew it was Jackie's because her eggs are much darker than the other hens'. Jackie is only 6 months old so her eggs are still small, but this egg was less than half the size she usually lays. In the picture below, the one on the right is a large egg from one of our full grown chickens, the middle egg is Jackie's usual size and the one on the left is the mini one.

Isn't it cute? When I cracked it open I only found a little streak of yellow instead of a full yolk. It was the original fat free, low cholesterol egg product. Carol suggested that they should breed chickens to lay no-yolk eggs like that. Only one problem...I don't think those no-yolk eggs are going to be hatching chicks any time soon...

Toothless... for the next 4 years...

2011-10-01T06:00:00.000-07:00

Last Christmas Eve Benji fell down and chipped his front tooth. I never did figure out exactly how he did it. He was carrying a plastic step stool on a linoleum floor and tripped. How does that cause sufficient oral trauma to break a tooth is beyond me. However it happened, it resulted in a call to the pediatric dentist long distance from Texas (we were visiting my brother's family for the holidays). After examining the tooth a few days later Dr. Rama (an excellent pediatric dentist, by the way!) said Benji could keep it as long as it didn't get infected. The tooth turned grayish brown, but the chip wasn't too noticeable. And then last month he got an abscess. So out it came. Here are the before and after shots:

I'm still not quite used to the toothless grin, but I'm sure I will have plenty of time to learn to love it before his new tooth grows in...in 4 or 5 years.

Rhys's iPod

2011-09-29T06:00:00.000-07:00

These days Rhys walks around with an iPod.

It looks remarkably legitimate until you examine it and notice that it is paper thin.

It is actually the packaging from his mom's iPod. He uses it to play games and take pictures. On Sunday he used it to help Benji read the scriptures:
R: And it came to pass
B: An it ame to ahss
R: The Lurminites were 'stroyed...

I'm pretty sure that passage is in the Book of Mormon somewhere...

Do you want a little bagel with that cream cheese?

2011-09-27T06:00:00.000-07:00

At breakfast the other day I asked Benji if he wanted cream cheese on his bagel. Before I could help him, he helped himself:

In case you couldn't see that very well here is the close up:

Looks delicious, doesn't it?

Amazing Deal - Super Cheap Meat

2011-09-25T21:32:00.000-07:00

I'm not an avid couponer (although I think that could be cool), but I do like to watch for deals and when I come across a good one, I stock up (for an ice cream example see this post). Recently I stumbled upon a source of super cheap meat. There is a company called Zaycon Foods that sells food directly from farms to consumers bypassing the whole "store" thing. The prices seemed a little too good to be true, but I decided to try it. In August I bought 40 lbs of 93% lean ground beef for $2.79 lb. We were not disappointed! The beef was very lean, fresh, never frozen, and wonderful quality. We made hamburgers and Carol kept raving about how tender they were. I divided it up and froze it in vacuum sealed bags.

Their next event is boneless skinless chicken breasts $1.49/lb. The deals are for a limited time, but they do recur. Check it out at the Zaycon Foods website.

I guess money really does grow on trees

2011-09-15T21:11:00.000-07:00

Sam has discovered the joys of money. He has had some money in the past. I think he got a dollar from his uncle for his second birthday or something like that, but it has been just in the past few days that he discovered what money is good for: GUM!

Sam has finally reached that wonderful age when he can "chew and chew and chew" gum instead of just chew and chew and swallow gum. It is a glorious age, unless you the mother of the new gum-chewer and have him tailing you everywhere you go asking, "Can I have piece of gum?" One day I told him that if he buys his own gum then he can chew it whenever he wants.

First, Sam needed to earn some money. Thus far, the only job I've come up with to pay him for is picking up pine cones in the yard. The pine cones aren't good for the grass and they're rather unsightly, too, but picking them up is a tedious, never-ending task... a task that can be accomplished with little or no supervision. Perfect job for a 4 year old. I told the kids that we would pay them a penny a pine cone. Hence the title "Money really does grow on trees."

Sam picked up over 100 pine cones. We sat down and figured out how much he needs to pay in tithing. Then we put the change in a little red coin purse and went to the store. Sam chose his very own package of strawberry shortcake flavored gum and paid for it with his own money. He was in heaven! He was very generous with is new treasure, sharing with me, Willow, all the kids in the neighborhood, etc. It lasted about 24 hours. Then he went out to pick up pine cones again.

It took him a couple of days to pick up 100 more cones. It doesn't actually take that long, but he gets distracted easily. We finally got to go to the store again, today. This time Willow came with us. Each of them bought a pack of bubble gum for 99 cents. The cashier was very gracious, returning the penny of change to their outstretched coin purses. This time the gum lasted about 3 hours. The last piece of pre-chewed gum is currently in a bowl in Sam's window sill, patiently waiting for tomorrow when it can be chewed again.

Thus far the pine cone project has been a great success. The lawn is largely free from those little lumpy landmines (although most of the grass is brown anyway; that's what happens when you water your lawn a total of two times all summer). The kids are learning about tithing, the value of work and how to make change. Yes, I'd say it has been a success... all except that time when our 10 year old neighbor wanted in on the action. Six dollars later, Carol realized he'd been collecting pine cones from the yard next door...

A New Leak in the Bathroom

2011-09-13T21:28:00.000-07:00

[by Jason]
When I bought this house in 2004, (two years before Neoma and I got married), the upstairs bathroom floor had some water damage by the bathtub. And the bathroom and recroom ceilings below it did also. It took several weeks of nasty labor by me & several friends from the Singles Branch, to get it cleaned up & replaced.

So, it got me worried when Kevin came upstairs and said, "has the source of the major water leak stopped yet?"

Perhaps I should back up again.
Earlier tonight, I brushed Benji's teeth, and then I tried to brush Sam's teeth. He was being especially wiggly. I ended up brushing his neck, his ear, his cheek, and his hand, significantly more than his mouth. So ... when I finished brushing his teeth, & went back to the bathroom, what did I find?

Benji, sitting entirely in the sink, fully clothed, with the water on.
Yes, entirely in the sink. (2-year-olds can fold up into a little ball quite effectively.)

I ran and got the camera. Unfortunately, by the time I got a picture of him, he had crawled partly out of the sink, so it wasn't quite as cute.

I probably should have been paying more attention when I heard the sink turn on, while I was brushing Sam's teeth. ... and I probably shouldn't have allowed/encouraged Benji to play in the water again, after I got the camera, so I could get a good picture. I told him something like, "you can play in the sink again right now, but _never_do_it_again_."

sigh.

I'm pretty sure he emptied the entire contents of the sink onto the floor multiple times. He also had a great time splashing in the water on the countertop after I dragged him out of the sink...

It was really cute. I had to laugh, until Kevin came upstairs...
Hopefully we won't have to replace the bathroom again ...

The Parable of the Unfinished Applesauce

2011-09-10T23:56:00.000-07:00

My in-law's apple tree was especially fruitful this year. Which means one thing: Applesauce! The apples have been sitting in our garage all week, and today was the day to tackle them. It took us about an hour to get out all the equipment and start things rolling this morning, but then we started churning out delicious, pink applesauce.

I think if we could have worked all day we would have finished the three boxes we had, but there were a couple other things on the calendar today. This afternoon we went to a baptismal service. A wonderful woman joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by following Christ's example by being baptized. But the timing wasn't so great. It was nap time and I had a sticky kitchen full of unfinished applesauce. I was tempted to stay home and put up fruit, after all, I didn't know this woman very well and I was right in the middle of something important, but I went. I got us all changed into (somewhat wrinkled) church clothes, packed into the car and on our way.

The baptismal service consisted of a couple of musical numbers, several speakers, and most importantly the ordinances of baptism and confirmation. It was a wonderful, Spirit-filled event, but I didn't actually feel the Holy Spirit very much. You see, my kids were some of only a few children there and I'm pretty sure they were, by far, the most disruptive. Between Benji playing in the curtains, Peter babbling and fussing, and Sam rubbing the bald head of the sweet stake president sitting next to us we were pretty conspicuous. I spent the majority of the time outside the room bouncing a baby and trying to keep my toddler from pulling the leaves off the fake plants in the foyer.

I could have been home, doing something productive, instead I was struggling to keep my kids quiet during a church service. I didn't hear much of what the speakers said, but I'm not sorry I went. There was about 2 minutes in the middle that made it worth the effort and the unfinished applesauce. When the moment came for the sister to go down into the water, my two little boys went up to the front to get a better look, and then Benji came back and sat next to me. It was one of those few moments when he is quiet and still. I leaned over and whispered in his ear about what it means to be baptized. In just a few sentences I explained that we can be baptized just like Jesus was and when we are baptized all the bad things we've done are washed away and Heavenly Father forgives us. He nodded his head and said, "Yeah." He understood! In that moment a warm feeling swelled up in my heart and knew the Holy Ghost was telling me that the words coming out of my mouth were true. From the look in his eyes, my sweet 2 year old felt it, too.

I could have easily stayed in the kitchen with Martha (see Luke 10:38-42), but I'm infinitely glad that, at least this once, I chose the better part.

Wait for me!

2011-09-08T15:58:00.000-07:00

I left the door open yesterday so I could keep and ear on the kids playing in the front yard while I made dinner. I guess Peter thought he was big enough to got out and play with the big kids.

At least he stopped at the threshold.

Caught, white handed

2011-09-06T06:00:00.000-07:00

The other day I caught Rhys and Benji ~~red~~ white handed. They had gotten into the craft paint in Carol's house. Of course Carol was gone and I had charge of all 5 kids. The paint was all over the boys and the carpet. Luckily the carpet in that room is already trashed, so a few extra stains won't stand out. I think I yelled a little more than I should have, but I soon calmed down enough to get pictures.

They thought it was lots of fun until I hosed them down. When I was a little girl I always thought it would be fun to have twins. With two sets of cousin-twins in the house, I've discovered that while its nice for them to have a built in playmate, they tend to egg each other on and get into even more mischief. Rhys got out the paint and Benji spread it all over the room.

The Tortoise and the Heir?

2011-09-04T06:00:00.000-07:00

We had visitors last week who brought their pet tortoise, Sooka. Sooka was about the same size as Peter. We decided to have a little race.

And once again, the tortoise won.

Sooka was pretty cute (this picture reminds me of Morla on The Neverending Story).

But, Peter was cuter.

Deja Vu?

2011-09-02T06:00:00.000-07:00

Does this look familiar?

Oh, yeah. It looks a lot like this:

click on the picture to see the post about Benji

Peter is turning into Danger Baby II, only he has reached this stage a month and a half younger than Benji did. Heaven help me!

Did you forget something, Sam?

2011-08-31T14:51:00.000-07:00

It looks like Sam forgot to take off his shirt before putting his nightshirt on. Its a pretty stylish look, actually.

Family Photo Shoot

2011-08-25T06:00:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking for a while that it would be good to get some new family pictures taken. In our last family picture, I was wearing a hospital gown and Peter was only a few hours old. So I set a date and asked a friend to take some pictures at the park in our neighborhood. Incidentally this is the same park where Jason and I took pictures the day before our wedding. We also took family pictures here the summer after Sam was born and the summer after Benji was born..

The photo session went something like this:

Here we go. Smile for the camera.

Sam, if you cooperate and smile nicely, you can have a treat when we get home.

Note to self, bring treats with us to the park next time.

Smile like this, mom?

That's better, at least Peter looks cute.

Jason, look at the camera, Benji's actually smiling.

Sam's smile is getting a little tired.

Mom, can I go play with those kids on the playground over there?

Lets walk to a different part of the park.

That is the smile we're looking for, Sam.

Let's try a silly picture.

At least we can do silly well.

Ohhhhh, say can you see?

Lets take a picture right here, mom.

That might be cute if I could get these two boys to stop rolling around.

Woah! Benji is posing just like Daddy.

Click on this picture to get a better look at Peter's face.

Mom, there's something in my sock and Peter is crying.

Mom, there's something in my nose.

It's called your finger, Benji.

I think we killed Jason.

At least we look cute, Peter.

You got that right, mom.

I think we lost the kids to the playground.

How about a family picture on the big toy?

How about one of you and me, daddy?

Time to go home.

Did you guys have fun?

Let's try some walking down the street pictures.

Smile for the camera, one more time.

Are we about done, Neoma?

One more big jump.

Don't kick Benji!

And one more jump for Benji!

I think one of these years I'll have to break down and pay someone to take our pictures. Until then, I'll keep mooching favors from friends and utilizing the neighborhood park.

You're doing it, Peter!

2011-08-21T17:04:00.000-07:00

Don't you love the Living Scriptures soundtrack in the audio background? Yea for 'Sunday movies.'

Isn't he cute!? Six months seems awfully young to be crawling, but there he is. It is a good thing we are inately excited about babies learning new skills, otherwise I would be more hesitant to have a mobile, get-into-everything, danger baby again.

The H. L. Crapo Reunion

2011-08-20T06:00:00.000-07:00

In the beginning of August we had a family reunion for my dad's family in Westport, Washington. We stayed at Twin Harbors State Park adjacent to a big, sandy ocean beach. Here's a little pictorial summary of events:

Sam wore his sunglasses almost all the time, whether it was sunny or not. Below, they were protecting him from the campfire and cloudy haze:

Benji enjoyed grooving out to some classic rock that Uncle Paul picked up on his radio.

Jason toasted our bagels over the fire. He's got this thing for toast. They were actually really good.

It drizzled the first night we were there and the drippy haze stuck around until noon. We prayed that the sun would come out so we could enjoy warm weather at the beach. After lunch the heavens parted and the sun shone down. It was magnificent! Sam liked it.

So did my niece, Z

Uncle Kevin made a sand sculpture. I think he was inspired by goldfish crackers.

Aunt Carol helped some of the kids make a sandcastle. I think they had as much fun destroying it as they did building it.

Despite the solemn expression on his face, Benji loved getting messy in the sand:

We caught grandma and grandpa flirting:

Some men buy sports cars when they have their mid-life crisis. My dad took up kite flying and enjoyed his second childhood in his 60's. My dad passed away in 2003, but we broke out his kites at the beach and remembered him.

While everyone else watched our kids on shore, Jason and I took advantage of the sun and did a little wave jumping. The sand was smooth and level for a long way out. I don't think I had played in the ocean for 15 years. I forgot how much fun saltwater waves can be.

Even when the sun is out, the oceans of Washington state are COLD!

We lost half of my nephew O.

Before heading back inland we stopped to climb the tallest lighthouse in Washington State. Sam and Willow climbed it twice.

FAT in the summer

2011-08-18T06:00:00.000-07:00

Once a month all our local family gets together and we have FAT (Family Activity Time, or Family Afternoon Together, or Fun All Together, the source of the acronym is unimportant). It usually consists of a potluck lunch, visiting, and games. We have a somewhat loose definition of family. The group includes all my siblings that live in the area, my in-laws, a couple cousins, and a step-nephew and all their families. We usually have somewhere around 30 people. And we have a riotous good time. Two of my siblings and their families are moving away this summer so FAT is about to shrink. Is that called liposuction? Anyway...

Here are some highlights from our July FAT:
Three of my adorable nieces and Peter:

We arm our children in this family...

At least we do when we're having epic Nerf battles...

I think the $5 slip and slide was our best investment of the summer. The box said it is not intended for children under 5 or persons over 12. That rules out everyone in our house, but we like to live on the wild side so we bought it anyway. The littlest kids didn't quite get the run and slide part. Instead they would walk or crawl down the slide laughing up a storm and then jump in the pool at the end. It cracked me up.

In the lower corner of the picture you can see our garden. Its going gangbusters this summer. We have cabbage, snap peas, nasturtiums, basil, cilantro, chives, marigolds, potatoes, tomatoes, rhubarb, squash, egg plant, peppers, carrots, beets, strawberries, and raspberries. Most of it came as starts from my master gardener father-in-law who has crazy-awesome hook-ups.

Boys, boys, and more boys...

2011-08-16T06:00:00.000-07:00

Sam and Peter have a really neat relationship. Sam is very affectionate and protective of his baby brother. He entertains Peter with songs when I am busy with other things. In return Peter loves his biggest brother. He is always quick to smile and laugh. They are so cute together.

I actually don't remember the story behind this one, but its funny, isn't it?

I think Rhys and Benji must have been hungry when they came across this sack of food from Grandpa's garden. They started digging right in. Rhys is munching on some swiss chard and Benji is enjoying some cabbage.

We don't have many dull moments around here...

Patriotic T-shirts for Independence Day

2011-08-14T23:40:00.000-07:00

About once a year I get crafty. This year it was for Independence Day. I've been wanting some sort of patriotic thing for my family to wear on the 4th of July. I was inspired by Family Fun Magazine to make these star t-shirts. I learned that acrylic paint mixed with water works great on fabric, and also that it clogs spray bottles. After ruining 3 spray bottles we had the most success when Carol used two straws taped together like a T in a cup of paint/water solution (it was something she learned in her Elementary ed classes, you'll have to ask her how to make it). I think I've filled my craft quota for the year.

Here are two of my favorite boys being cute together in their matching star shirts: (Jason and Peter)

In case you can't tell, even Peter's blanket was patriotic. (Benji, Peter, and Rhys)

Here we are all decked out for the kiddie parade around the church. (Sam, Carol, Benji, Neoma, Jason, Willow, and Rhys - Peter was there, but someone else was holding him and I couldn't find him in time for the picture...is it bad that I didn't know were my baby was?)

Sam sprayed the paint on his own shirt. I think it looks kind of like fireworks.

Pioneer Day

2011-07-27T14:12:00.000-07:00

On July 24, 1847 the first Mormon pioneers entered the Great Salt Lake Valley. Those early members of our church were fleeing violent mobs who had chased them out of New York, out of Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois and finally completely out of the United States (the Salt Lake Valley was part of Mexico at that time). Some came even further, traveling all the way from Europe to find peace with the saints in the west. My great-great Grandparents were among those who literally walked to Zion.

So each July we celebrate Pioneer Day to honor these faithful men, women and children. This year we dressed up for the occasion. Do you think we look authentic? If nothing else, I'm pretty sure that pioneer children were just a little bit crazy like ours:

Sam sang in a children's choir at the celebration. He liked to practice his favorite song in front of the baby, because Peter always smiled at him. Early this morning Sam got out of bed to go to the bathroom just before Peter started crying in his crib. Soon I heard Sam singing at the top of his lungs through the bathroom door, "When pioneers moved to the west, with courage strong they met the test..." He was trying to comfort his baby brother, all the way from the other room. I love that kid (even if his does pick his nose in pictures).

Benji's bear

2011-07-13T17:16:00.000-07:00

Benji has started carrying things around with him lately. Most often its been this stuffed bear. This afternoon he had it out on the deck with him while the kids were eating popcorn. He and bear shared their snack. I watched him take a piece of popcorn, put it in the bear's paw and then have bear feed Benji the popcorn. My kids have never had a lovie before. I always thought that was a good thing, since I didn't have to worry about losing it or trying to clean it, but the sight of Benji toting around his bear is just so stinkin cute! I'm not really sure whether the attachment will stick or not; so I'll just enjoy it for now.This was the face he made when I told him he couldn't eat popcorn that spilled under the table. I'm usually a big fan of the ten second (or ten day) rule, but we have chickens that walk (and poop) on the deck and I have to draw the line somewhere.

Speaking of chickens here is the new coop I built. My neighbor calls it our chicken condo. My goal was to make it functional and cute (hence the barn red paint and the white trim). It is big enough to house 8 chickens (we currently have 5) and the girls seem to like it well enough.

Dinner and a Show

2011-07-08T19:24:00.000-07:00

I wish I had a hidden camera in my house to record the events at our dinner table tonight. Here is the short summary.

Willow got upset because Sam stole her used napkin. She made a super sad face and was about to throw a fit so I said I bet I could stick my lip out further than she could. Thus started the contests. Sam stood up and became self appointed judge and director. Hilarity ensued. Here are the winners:
Who can stick out their bottom lip the furthest: Willow
Who can smile the biggest: Sam (When Sam asked Benji if he had a smile Benji said, "Right here," and pointed to his eye).
Who can open their mouth the widest: Neoma (although I'm pretty sure the judge was biased because everyone knows Carol has a bigger mouth than me, and Willow's mouth is amazingly close to the size of her mother's).
Who can pull their hair up the highest: Carol - her curls stretch out reeeeaaaally far. (Sam started - his went up about half and inch, I know because I just cut it with the #4 guard on the clippers).
Who can hit themselves on the head fastest: This one was a draw - Sam and Willow were the only ones who participated, the adults were too busy trying unsuccessfully to hide their laughter.
Who can hit their head the slowest: Ditto on the above.
Who can pull their ears out the furthest: Sam (Benji abstained from the contests, but I'm pretty sure he would have won this one - the kid's ears are bigger than Sam's - I measured them one day).

I love this age!

Anyway - I'd better take care of my kids again, I abandoned the table to record the experience while it was still fresh in my mind. I don't want to forget this night. If anyone wants some cheap entertainment, you are hereby invited to have dinner at our house. Make sure to practice you pouty lip.

Camping at Deception Pass

2011-07-05T17:22:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago we went camping at Deception Pass. Here are some of the things we did (at least the ones I got cute pictures of):

Benji went sand-bathing.

Willow made a rock collection.Rhys rode the drift wood.Carol took a nap.Peter wore a gorgeous sun hat (courtesy of Aunt Carol).Neoma hugged a cute baby (she also set up the super 10 man tent all by herself - but we don't have a picture of that). We hiked from our campsite to the bridge.Sam carried water bottles for three people in his backpack. And Jason spit off the bridge.I'm sorry those last two pictures are sideways - blogger did that and I can't figure out how to fix it.

You can't really tell from the pictures, but walking across that bridge is not for the faint of heart. You can cars whizzing past you at 40 mph on one side and a 180 foot drop on the other side.

We stayed two nights. The first day was sunny and about 60 degrees - great weather for these parts. The second night it started raining. In the morning we abandoned all plans of cooking french toast on the camp stove and packed up before breakfast. Actually, we packed up before we left the tent. I carried Benji straight from the tent to the car seat - that kid gets in enough messes, without a muddy campsite to run amok in. We stopped for breakfast on the way home and got home nice an early.

One of these things is not like the others...

2011-06-24T13:09:00.000-07:00

Now I want you to sing in your head (or out loud if you prefer) the song from Sesame Street "One of these things is not like the others. One of these things doesn't belong..."

Do you need a hint?

I woke up to crowing this morning.

It turns out Lulu (bottom right) is a rooster.

Here is the conversation I had with the kids this morning after they found out:

Willow: Does that mean we can get baby chicks?
Neoma: No, we can't keep a rooster in our neighborhood.
Willow: Will we give her away?
Neoma: Maybe; or the other option is to eat him.
Willow and Sam in chorus: Yea! Eat it! Eat it! Eat it!
Rhys: I want to eat Lulu.

So it looks like we might be having chicken soup sometime soon.

The Ultimatum

2011-06-20T13:39:00.000-07:00

This morning as we were leaving a friend's house I moved the car into the driveway to make it easier to load up. When Sam came out he saw that the car was in a different spot and wanted me to move it back. I said no, but he didn't like that answer. Very seriously he replied, "Either you move the car back to where it was or I will go back inside and become part of this family!"

Sam likes to give ultimatums. They are usually followed by, "Those are your only choices." Hmmmm...I wonder where he heard that line? He has perfected the art of giving choices, he just hasn't mastered the part about giving me an alternative that he is ok with, but I won't like. It cracks me up. I think my all time favorite was when I left him home with a babysitter and he said, "Either I get to come with you or I am going straight to bed!" I think that is a great idea, buddy, why don't you go to bed.

Water Boy

2011-06-14T09:11:00.000-07:00

I sat watching Benji in the bath tub. He splashed and laughed, tried to dump water on his head and laughed some more. Usually Sam gets mad at him for being so rowdy in the tub, but Sam wasn't sharing a bath with him this day so he was free to play his own way. As I watched the unadulterated joy bursting out of this very wet little boy I had a revelation: Benji loves water.

This may not seem profound to anyone else, but it was news to me, and it explained so much about my son. I hate getting messy, I always have, but Benji isn't like me. Suddenly I knew why Benji dumps out his cup at every meal, why he drinks out of mud puddles and why he can't keep his hands out of the chicken's water dish. I knew why he isn't afraid at the pool and why he splashes in dirty dishwater in the kitchen sink. He isn't trying to make a mess. He isn't trying to be disobedient. He can't help himself. The temptation to play in liquid is too strong to resist.

When I realized that these incidents weren't just a series of unfortunate events, but were exhibits of a character trait, all the frustration I felt with my messy son melted away and I was left with one giant puddle of love. This is where Benji finds joy. How could I get mad at him for that? My job now is to give him as many positive outlets for his aqua-obsession as I can, and try to remove the temptation at inappropriate times.

I believe this realization came directly from Heavenly Father. God knows my children better than I do and He wants to help me care for them with love and understanding instead of frustration and anger. I am so grateful for His tender mercy that helps me be a better mother.

Almost perfect...

2011-06-12T21:35:00.000-07:00

I woke up early this morning to make breakfast for Jason. I made crepes and sausage (two of Jason's favorites). I stuffed the crepes with blueberries and Nutella and topped them with whipped cream. I made a second plate for my dad who happens to be visiting this weekend. Then I served them breakfast in bed with a warm, "Happy Father's Day!"

After breakfast I woke up the boys. I told Sam that its was Father's Day and we were going to do a surprise for daddy. Jason has been wanting a CD of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony so Sam and I started it playing while we fed the boys breakfast.

Everything was falling into place. It was almost perfect. Too bad today isn't Father's Day.

Oops.

Do I have to make him breakfast in bed again next week?

For the record, Jason said it was one of the better non-Father's Days he's ever had. :)

We love you, Jason!

Pudding Paint

2011-06-09T15:00:00.001-07:00

Carol decided to let the kids finger paint with pudding for Family Home Evening. We remember doing this when we were kids. Somehow it doesn't seem so appealing now, but I know we loved it once upon a time.

The kids started out pretty calm.
Caro,l showing off her mad self portrait skills: It looks like Sam is having fun.

What's the fun of pudding finger paint if you don't lick your fingers?

Yum!

Jason added some whipped cream...

...and created this masterpiece (he took the orginal photo himself, too).

After a while things got a little messier...

and yummier...

and smilier.

Pop Quiz

2011-06-03T21:22:00.001-07:00

In honor of the end of the school year I have a story problem for you all:

While Carol was transporting dinner from the counter to the table she accidentally dropped the whole wok of stir fry on the floor.

She had 6 hungry mouths to feed and the ward activity started in an hour. What did she do?

a. Dumped the rice on the floor, too, and told the kids to dig in.

b. Sent Neoma to Little Caesar's to pick up a couple Hot-n-Ready pizzas while she cleaned it up.

c. Scraped it off the floor with a spatula, reheated it "to kill any germs," and then served it to her family.

d. Left the mess and stopped at Wendy's on the way to the church activity.

Bonus question:

What made Carol's frown of frustration turn into this face?

Style by Samuel David

2011-05-22T22:38:00.000-07:00

Last year backwards clothes were all the rage. For 2011 Sam is pairing bold floral print shirts with warm up pants (aka "snap pants").

And what does next season hold in store? Only time will tell, but there have been rumors of "morning shirts" making their debut. A morning shirt is the daytime equivalent to the classic night shirt. The advantages of the night shirt are demonstrated in the background of the pictures below:

(Sorry Peter, I think you were just upstaged.)

Peter Pete

2011-05-22T22:19:00.000-07:00

I had to share a little of the cuteness that lives in our house. Here is our little Peter Pete (or as Willow calls him, "Peter Peed")

Tulip Festival and muddy shoes

2011-05-12T12:13:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago we went up to the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival. It's about 45 minutes north of here and the views are amazing! After a few days of having Benji run out into the street I decided to put him on a leash.

He was not a fan of the harness. The upside was that he had a beautiful backdrop for his tantrum. The downside was that it was wet and muddy. I think next year we'll bring boots. We did end up with a few fun pictures.

The highlight of the day was when Benji found an old barn with three big trucks and a boat. He was in heaven. He danced around saying "uck, uck, uck, oat."
Sam was particularly impressed by the outhouse where you could potty into a big hole in the ground. He went twice. I'm not including any pictures of it, but here is one of Sam looking cute.Overall, it was a good day. The sun was out, the clouds were fluffy, and the tulips were blooming.

Thoughts on Mother's Day

2011-05-08T14:55:00.001-07:00

I was thinking earlier this week how ironic it was that my greatest desire on Mother's Day is to have Jason take care of the kids so that I can relax and have a break...from the very things that make me a mother. Although Jason tries really hard to show his gratitude and make this a wonderful day for me, it is never quite as relaxing as I envision.

Even on Mother's Day I'm still a mom. This is not the time for me to sit still and bask in my mom-ness while ignoring all the motherly duties that are an integral part of my life right now. This isn't a holiday to celebrate me (that is what my birthday is for). This is the day I get to celebrate motherhood. I get to think about all the things that I'm blessed to be able to do because I'm a mother and do them with a little more joy and gratitude. This is a great day for me to smile and sing while I get my children dressed and fed and ready for church. This is the day for me to glory in the achievements of my children, not because they have done something that no other child has ever done, but because they have done something! Today in primary, Sam drew me a picture.

It was a picture of me (Can you tell?). It is the first time that I remember Sam drawing a picture of a person. My heart swelled with joy and love. It probably looked very similar to the drawings made my millions of 4 year olds throughout time, but here I am crying about it because this was my son and he is learning! I wanted to hear all about it. He pointed out the head, the eyebrows, eyes, and nose, the arms and legs, and the big tummy. He said he made my tummy like that because he wanted to draw a picture of me when I was pregnant and my tummy "stuck out the side." I always wondered why moms are so impressed by primitive drawings, but here I am swelling with love and pride, not because he is more amazing than any other child, but because he is amazing all by himself. He came out of me and he can draw a picture of a person.

I love being a mother. I love when Benji comes up to me and yells, "MAMA!" in his deep gravely voice, and smiles joy and affection all over the place. I love it when Peter is fussing for someone else, but then calms down when I hold him. Somehow he knows it is me and he likes me.

Motherhood makes me happy. It makes me exhausted and tired, too, but today, on Mother's Day, I'm going to forget about that for a moment and focus on the happy.

Overheard from the back seat

2011-05-07T21:00:00.000-07:00

Willow: Slug Bug blue!

Sam: Where?

Willow: ...There is always a slug bug blue at my monkey's house.

Sam: ...There is always a slug bug green and an orange convertable at my giraffe's house.

Willow: You're silly.

Sam: Why?

Willow: Because you keep talking about things that are not at my monkey's house.

"I'm Robin"

2011-05-07T17:58:00.001-07:00

Yesterday Willow and Sam came upstairs looking like this:

"We're playing Batman and Robin," Sam explained, "I'm Robin."

I never knew Robin looked so much like Miss Piggy, Sam.

Bedside Prayers

2011-05-02T11:11:00.000-07:00

The other day I saw Benji playing by himself, laying on the window sill. I thought it was cute and wanted a picture, but when I came back with the camera this is what I found:I couldn't tell what he was doing until I heard him say,

" Ear. Ank-ee. ood. Ice. Amen!"

He was saying a prayer. Then he laid down on the window sill again. I guess he was practicing for bedtime. Maybe we're doing something right after all.

And,just for fun, here's a cute picture of Peter smiling. He has adorable dimples at the corners of his mouth. Don't you want to just eat him up?

What a big helper you are!

2011-04-22T20:19:00.000-07:00

We've had a problem with Benji turning on the light and playing after we tuck him in bed at night. For a while we unscrewed the light bulbs each night. There was much crying the first night, but it worked. A few days ago I realized there was a simpler solution. I removed that chair that Benji had been climbing on to reach the light switch. Viola! No more late night parties. That is until tonight... Jason found the boy's light on after bedtime and asked Sam why the light was on. He replied, "Benji could almost reach the light switch, so I picked him up and he turned it on. Then he brought me lots of books." Thanks, Sam.

I make milk. What's your super power?

2011-04-13T21:08:00.000-07:00

Sam announced tonight that he doesn't want to be a dad when he grows up. He wants to be a mom so that his baby can eat him.

Part Boy Part Monkey

2011-04-08T16:30:00.000-07:00

I know this should probably make me nervous, but for some reason watching Benji climb up there just gives me confidence that he'll be fine on the bunk bed.

My buddy, Rhys

2011-04-08T14:41:00.000-07:00

I have a soft spot in my heart for Rhys (pronounced Reese), my 2 year old nephew. How can you not have a soft spot for a cuddly kid that simply adores you? He also cracks me up. The other day we had a snack of cheese and crackers. Sometimes I would eat my cheese on two crackers like a sandwich. Rhys decided to copy me, but added his own twist. In case you can't tell there are about 10 pieces of cheese between those two crackers. I don't know how he fit it into his mouth. Rhys is very verbal. He started talking quite young and has an extensive vocabulary. He often repeats phrases that you just don't expect to see coming out of the mouth of a kid who's not even 2 1/2. While we were eating dinner a couple of nights ago Rhys jumped down from the table and announced, "I need a napkin. I'll be right back." He ran into the kitchen and came back with this: I think that might be big enough to clean up your spill, little buddy.

Marc Crapo - Leather Artisan

2011-04-05T21:39:00.000-07:00

That's my brother!

Custom Leather Work from Marc Crapo on Vimeo.

Just visiting the neighbors...

2011-03-29T20:23:00.000-07:00

Today I was visiting my sister, Elizabeth, who also has chickens. At some point I happened to look out her kitchen window and see my 2 year old, Benji, inside the chicken coop. He wasn't just in the fenced in run part, he had crawled in the door, up the ramp and onto the second floor (its a two story contraption with the run on the bottom and the enclosed coop on the top). He had to crawl through all the dirty bedding to get in and he was covered in poop. Yuck! How do they think of these things? The chickens sounded a little distressed to have a visitor, but Benji had a big smile on his face. What am I going to do with that boy? Now I'm sorry I didn't get a picture of it.

Welcome home little fuzz butts

2011-03-25T11:09:00.001-07:00

I've learned a few things since we got our first chicks almost two years ago. One is that rats can dig tunnels and another is that when you line the bottom of the chicken run with concrete pavers to stop burrowing rodents, rats will find a way to fit through the holes in the chicken wire. As excited as I once was about the chicken tractor I built, I've discovered a lot of flaws in my design. So here I am, embarking on another adventure, the hunt for a better chicken coop. I decided to do a little more advanced planning this time and I've given myself permission to spend some money on construction materials. Here is what I have so far: I'll keep you updated with my progress.

I think the most exciting part of the new chicken coop is that it is big enough to house 8 chickens, which means we can get new chicks! We started with 4 chickens in May 2009. We are down to two. Essie died last winter. Two of our chickens stopped laying when they molted in the fall. In an effort to stimulate laying I put a lamp in the coop a couple months ago. Dot started laying within a week or so, but Goldie never did. A few days ago I decided that I didn't want to keep a chicken that wasn't laying so I posted an ad for a free chicken on Craigslist. Someone came to pick her up the next day. Now we only have Amelia and Dot left. Time for some new babies. Jason and I took a trip to the feed store this morning. Carol and Kevin were busy today so we had all 5 kids with us (Am I crazy? Maybe, but at least I made Jason come to help me before he went to work).
We wanted to get an Americana because they lay blue eggs, but they were out. We ended up with one Salmon Faverolle, one Rhode Island Red, one Buff Brahma, and one Cuckoo Marans.
We named the yellow one Penny (she is the Salmon Faverolle). We haven't come up with names for the others yet. Any suggestions?

Benji's birthday present

2011-03-21T16:55:00.000-07:00

No wonders Sam complains of being tired all the time! I get tired just watching him.

Scenes from last week

2011-03-20T21:53:00.000-07:00

Sam learned the funnest way to eat olives.Peter took his first plane ride. He even got an official-looking certificate signed by the flight attendants and the pilots. We attended the funeral for my granddad, Hollis Hullinger. Peter was his 98th great-grandchild. We celebrated Benji's 2nd birthday in Roosevelt, Utah at the home my mom grew up in. He didn't mind that the festivities were minimal and most of the guests were cousins that he just met earlier that day at the funeral.
We hung out at Grandma Girsberger's place.
We visited my old roommate, Anna. She and I lived together for 2 1/2 years on College Ave in Rexburg, ID. She and I and our other roommates got so close that we adopted our own name: Cisham (it was created from the first initial of each of our last names - incidentally each of us has a different last name now). We visited Jason's friend, Ryan, too, but we didn't get any pictures of that. And we welcomed cousin, Seth Krieser, home from his mission. We had great time during our unexpected vacation. Someone at the airport learned that we were traveling to attend a funeral and commented, "that is never fun." Actually, it was a lot of fun. Even at the funeral we had a good time. We laughed at the stories my uncles told of their father. At the viewing great-grandchildren ran and played around the room with Granddad's body. Laughter filled the air. I can't help but think he would be pleased with the joy of his posterity.

My Granddad was 97 years old. He lived a wonderful and full life. He was an amazing man who loved and served the Lord. I have no doubt that when he died he was taken home to meet his maker - and it was a joyous reunion. His health had been failing for several years. He suffered from Parkinson's disease for about as long as I can remember. It made his hands shake, sometimes violently, and it made his body weak. In the last couple of years his mind started going, too. On the first Sunday of this month we had a family fast that Granddad could be released from this life. Five days later he passed away quietly while eating supper. We're so glad that he could graduate and be with his beloved wife again (Grandmother Elaine passed away almost 28 years ago). I look forward to the day when I can see them both again.

Why Benji isn't allowed to play with crayons

2011-03-12T16:15:00.000-08:00

PS Now that I've figured out how to upload videos via youtube, you should be seeing a lot more of us in action.

Fun with Dry Ice

2011-03-12T10:36:00.000-08:00

After Carol and Jason successfully asphyxiated the rat on Wednesday we had some left over dry ice (apparently 12 lbs is way more dry ice than you need to kill a rat). On Friday we decided to use the leftover dry ice to make strawberry soda. The soda didn't actually taste very good, but it looked really cool!

A unique experience (by Jason)

2011-03-08T20:46:00.000-08:00

Well, that was ... exciting, scary, invigorating, gross, emotional, primal, long, gratifying, cute, sad, and certainly unusual.

For the past few months, a rat has been getting into our chicken coop. It eats their food, drags dirt, food, & junk into their nesting area, and generally freaks us out every time we see it, usually because it jumps out the door when we open it to collect the eggs.

The past few times we've seen it in the coop, we close the door quickly so it won't escape, and then, Carol & I go out to play "whack-a-rat", which involves some shovels. The past 5 (or 10) times we played whack-a-rat, we never got close to hitting it, and it always escaped, usually in a tunnel under the coop. Although one time I managed to chase it all the way across the yard before it disappeared under the fence.

Tonight we tried a different strategy. We barricaded it in the coop, leaving only a door that we could crack open to try to poke the rat. Once it was barricaded in, we turned the coop light on, which initially made it not move long enough that we could poke it.
Problem was, we couldn't find anything sharp enough or long enough to poke it with, which would actually kill it. And after we poked it once, it started getting really mad & attacked the stick, jumped around, and generally freaked us out a bit. And really, we didn't want to poke it to death because that would have been gross. I think we each poked it once or twice before deciding that we didn't want to go that route.
The adrenaline rush was sure interesting. I could feel some hunter-type instincts kicking in. It's certainly not a usual behavior for a programmer.

Carol came up with the idea of using dry ice. With the back door closed, there weren't any air holes lower than 3 inches. So I bought some (way too much - like 12 pounds) of dry ice. We smashed it up into small pieces, dumped it into the coop, and then shut the door. Dry ice sublimates into carbon dioxide gas, which is heavier than the rest of air, so it sinks to the bottom of the coop, and should asphyxiate the rat.
We dumped the stuff in.
The rat hid in the corner.
We waited.
And waited.
It kept breathing, although it wasn't moving other than that.
We figured it had passed out at least... but it just kept breathing. So we moved some of the dry ice directly on top of the rat.
And it kept breathing, probably for another 5 minutes. (Wow, tough little bugger...)
I said a little prayer that it could pass away quickly, and it breathed its last breath a few seconds later.

I suppose a Klingon would say something about it being a worthy opponent, or something like that. I received a somewhat honorable burial in a zip-lock bag in the garbage can. It looked pretty peaceful, and actually pretty cute. I always figured wild rats would be uglier.

I've had the past 3.5 weeks off of work, because Microsoft is nice & gives us a month off whenever we have a baby. So ever since we got home from the hospital, I've kept a to-do list on the whiteboard in the kitchen. "Rat" was on it.
After putting the rat in the bag, I was a bit excited about going to cross off "rat" on the list. But then it felt somehow sacrilegious, or at least insensitive. Ironically, I didn't have to worry about it because I discovered as I was grabbing the marker to cross it off, that sometime this evening (just before we caught the rat), had accidentally brushed up against the white board and erased the quarter of the list where "rat" was written. (sigh)

Anyway, good bye to the rat.

Dear Mom,

2011-02-14T15:20:00.000-08:00

Dear Mom,

Well, here I am. I waited until you weren't so busy, just like you asked me to. Was Saturday morning a good time for you? I hope you always remember what a kind and obedient boy I am. Thanks for doing that whole labor thing, Mom. Seven hours isn't too long, right? I did my best to keep the contractions under control (8 minutes apart) until you were 7 cm, but then we had to get down to business for a few hours so that I could come out. Sorry I interupted your Canasta game. I did let you win a round before the contractions got so strong you couldn't play in between them. That last hour was pretty intense. I know you just couldn't wait to see me. I could tell by all that noise you were making. Five minutes of pushing wasn't bad, mom. You are so strong! When I came out I was so glad to see daddy that I peed right there on the delivery table (isn't that what everyone does when they get excited?). Then I started crying so that you could know I was nice and healthy. Was I loud enough? Well, I'm getting a little bit tired. This whole being alive thing is pretty exhausting. I love you, mom.

Love,

Peter Johnston Gould
born February 12, 2011
weighing 7 lb 5 oz
and measuring 19 1/2 inches long

Daddy, Mommy, Sam, Benji, and Peter (Sam wasn't so interested in smiling for the camera, although we did catch him smiling at his new baby brother a few times when the camera wasn't watching).

What do you want to be when you grow up?

2011-02-07T22:04:00.000-08:00

At lunch today we got talking with the kids about what they want to be when they grow up. Sam said he wants to be a "fighter fire" (aka a fire fighter); Willow said she wants to be a mom; and Rhys says he wants to be a Sunbeam (Sunbeams is the Sunday school class for 3-4 year olds at church). Now there is a kid with ambitions!

Dear Baby

2011-01-27T18:13:00.000-08:00

Dear Baby -

I know it is getting a little cramped in there (I'm feeling cramped on the outside, so I can only imagine what it is like on the inside), and I am getting really anxious to hold you in my arms and not in my belly, but if you could just sit tight for at least 12 more days, I'd really appreciate it. You see we've got a lot going on between now and your due date in two weeks. Every night next week is scheduled, including Sam's 4th birthday party on Wednesday, our baby shower on Friday, and an all day Cub Scout training conference on Saturday (I already paid the registration fee for the training conference, so I really hate to miss it). Oh, and we can't forget the boys' dentist appointment on the 2nd and Sam's check up on the 7th. So you see, we really are swamped. I love you and I'm excited to see you. I don't think I'm the only one excited to see you, either. Just a few minutes ago Benji was walking around saying, "Baby. Baby. Baby." I think he's excited to be a big brother. The bassinet is all set up in my room and we even have little newborn diapers. So you see we're all set, except for the whole timing issue. You are welcome to come any time after the 7th (except on the 14th because I don't think anyone really wants their birthday to be on Valentine's day). In the mean time enjoy the warmth and occasional hugs and feel free to dialate my cervix all you want (Benji got me all the way to 4 cm before labor started so lets see if you can beat that). See you soon, my little love.

- Your loving and very large Momma

Faith to move a mole hill

2011-01-20T23:01:00.000-08:00

So I know that the Bible says that if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed you can move mountains. I whole-heartedly believe that. Just last week we witnessed a mountain moved in the life of a family at church (you can read about their miracle here). The part I sometimes struggle with is the little things. I guess I always figured that when we needed a mole hill moved Heavenly Father expects us to either get a shovel and take care of it ourselves, or realize its not that big and just get over it. Last night He showed me that He cares about us enough to work even small miracles in our lives.

Sam woke up and came into our room last night around 4 am. He was crying about not being able to find his truck. My boys have never latched on to a particular security item, but they do occasionally choose a favorite for a day or two. Sam chose to take a matchbox truck and a play phone to bed with him last night and apparently he couldn't find the truck. I sent him to the bathroom and I went into his bedroom to see if I could find his lost toy. I found it under his pillow before he was even done with the potty. No sooner had I tucked him in then he got frantic again saying he couldn't find his phone. I groped around a bit in the dark but didn't find the phone. I tried to tell him to just go to sleep and we'd find it in the morning, but he couldn't be consoled. I felt around some more - under the bed, in the bed, behind the bed, around the bed. No phone. I wanted so badly for him to just get over it. We'd find it in the morning when I could turn the light on and think clearly, but I remembered an incident when I was 13 and I woke up in the middle of the night in a panic. I had just realized that I had left my book at a house I was baby-sitting for that day. I lay awake and cried because I couldn't figure out how I was going to get it back. Its hard to be rational in the middle of the night, especially when you are a kid.

I heard myself suggesting we say a prayer. My hope was that the prayer would help him calm down and go to sleep. I knelt next to his bed and asked Heavenly Father to please help us find Sam's phone or to help Sam feel peace and be able to sleep. That was my choice of words. Sam wanted to say, "Please help me find the phone or else I will cry all night long." I really didn't think we would find it. I had already felt all around his bed. It couldn't have gone very far. I wasn't going to turn on the light. I was tired. I wanted to go to bed. Suddenly I asked, "Did you take it with you to the bathroom?" He got up to check and came back happy as a clam, clutching the beloved phone.

Sam quickly went back to sleep. I, on the other hand, lay awake for quite a while thinking. How is it that Heavenly Father bothered to intervene in such a small matter? How is it that such a simple solution came up so soon after we prayed? Something that hadn't even entered my mind before. There was no sequence of thoughts that led me to the bathroom. The thought came out of my mouth almost before I registered it in my mind. It wasn't my faith that brought that answer. I didn't have faith that we'd find it at all. It was the faith of a 3 year old that moved that mole hill. I suppose mole hills seem a lot bigger when you're his size. Heavenly Father knew it was important to his son that he find his toy and Heavenly Father knew that his daughter needed a little lesson in faith. I guess we both got what we needed.

The spontaneous "date" and the bookworm

2011-01-14T17:27:00.000-08:00

A few nights ago we had an evening snow storm. It started snowing about the time the boys went to bed. It snowed for several hours and then turned to rain. It was all wet slush by morning. Around 10:00 pm there was 3 inches on the ground and Jason invited me to go outside with him and build a snow man. So with the boys safely in bed we donned snow gear and went out to the front yard for a little winter wonderland date. The neighbors probably thought we were crazy, laughing in the snow in the dark. Here is Jason imitating the funny little snowman we made:
My snow clothes barely fit and I admit I probably looked pretty funny, but at least I was warm and dry. I'm at the stage of pregnancy when I can't tie my shoes without getting winded so bending down to build a snowman left me panting like I just ran a mile. We had fun, and the best part was that we didn't have to spend an hour gearing and ungearing the little guys. Here is the belly pose (36 weeks) with the snowman:

And here is the little bookworm. The other day I walked into the kitchen and found Benji lounging on the floor with his feet up enjoying a book. It was about wolves and every once and a while he would point at a picture and say, "dog." He makes me laugh every day.

I met a few angels at church today.

2011-01-02T11:54:00.000-08:00

He looks so innocent, doesn't he? Benji and I came home from church early today. You see, we had a little incident. In sacrament meeting the couple in front of us blessed their baby. She is a darling little girl and she was wearing a beautiful white dress. Shortly after the blessing my own darling little boy (pictured above) threw up, all over himself, me, and the family in front of us. It was one of those moments when you are so surprised and concerned that you freeze up for a few minutes, unsure exactly what to do. When Benji finished throwing up and coughing vomit onto the poor people seated around us I realized that there was no way I could clean up where we were and I scooped up Benji in my soiled skirt and made a very unceremonious exit.

Before I could even reach the bathroom door angel number one swept out of the chapel and rushed to my aid. She didn't ask me what I needed she just opened the door and set to work. She tore off about a dozen paper towels, turned on the sink so I could start cleaning myself and my little one. She found some plastic garbage bags to put our soiled clothes in and cleaned the vomit smeared on the door before returning to the meeting and her family (she has three small boys of her own).

While in the bathroom I met the two women who had been seated in front of us. They came in to clean bits of vomit from their hair and clothing. I tried to apologize, but mercifully they laughed it off. They could have very easily been angry, not only for being barfed on, but for us disrupting the reverent spirit if their baby blessing; instead, they found humor in the situation, helping me take off my coat and unload some of the embarrassment I was feeling.

Carol also came to my rescue. She came to the bathroom, loaned me the extra clothes she had brought for Rhys so that Benji had something clean to wear, and disinfected the bathroom counters and sink. She also offered to give Jason and Sam a ride home so that I could go home and not worry about coming back to pick them up in a couple hours.

I then went home from church, leaving my good husband to clean up whatever mess was left on the pew. I felt very conspicuous walking down the hall with my obviously soiled skirt. Kindly, most people ignored us. A few of the mothers we passed gave me sympathetic looks, as if to say, "I've been there, honey."

I have been to a lot of church services in my life. At least 1500 if you do the math. I don't ever remember anyone making such a big scene in the middle of sacrament meeting. That either means that most moms are perceptive enough to keep their kids home before they throw up in the middle of the chapel or perhaps that those who witnessed our disturbance today will forgive us and forget about it over time.

As much as I hope never to repeat the events of this morning I am grateful for the angels who made my uncomfortable morning a little more bearable.

A potty emergency in the carpool lane

2010-12-05T20:58:00.000-08:00

I get the feeling Jason thinks I left an important detail out of the story I told of our harrowing journey through the snow (and Thanksgiving traffic) to pick up Grandma at the airport. I had Sam and Willow in the car with me that day. They are both pretty good with the whole potty training thing, relatively speaking, at least. I remembered to have them both go potty before we left the house, but as rush hour, bad weather, and holiday traffic collided our 45 minute trip to the airport stretched into hours and I knew that no 3-year-old's bladder was any match for that kind of waiting. We were stuck in the carpool lane in stop and roll traffic when Willow mentioned that she needed to use the toilet. I asked her if needed to go right then, or if she thought she could hold it for a while. Of course she said that she needed to go really bad and she didn't think she could wait. We were moving at anywhere between 0 and 3 miles per hour. I took a moment to think of my options:

I could cut across 4 lanes of thick traffic, wait for an exit, and hunt for a public restroom. This option would add a significant amount of time to our trip and we were already running late.
I could try to pull over and let her relieve herself in the snow, but there were a lot of people around and it would probably freeze her little fanny, not to mention the potential of spray that would result in wet clothes anyway.
I could just tell her to try really hard to hold it and be prepared to spend the rest of our trip in a car that smelled like urine. This option would also include the joy of cleaning the car seat later.
I could whip a diaper out of our 72 hour kit, put it on her, and buckle her back into her seat, all without having to pull out of traffic. Genius!

I opted for #4. After reaching behind my seat to root around blindly in the backpack of emergency supplies I came up with a diaper - a whole package of them, actually. Its too bad they turned out to be size 3 - even my little Benji is wearing a size 4 these days, but it would have to work. I told Willow that we were going to put a diaper on her. She seemed a little perplexed when I unbuckled her car seat while we were still driving. I explained that it was OK because we were going very, very slowly. She stood in front of her seat and I managed, with her help, to get the diaper on her with one hand on the diaper and one hand on the wheel. The Velcro tabs barely reached around her. It probably looked something like a bikini, but I don't really know because of course, being the cautious driver that I am, my eyes were on the snowy road and the brake lights of the car in front of us. Willow pulled her pants back up, climbed into her car seat and I buckled her.

The whole maneuver went off without a hitch. Of course as soon as I got her legally restrained, again, Willow optimistically announced that she thought she could hold it now (although, I will note that her diaper was wet by the end of the evening).

When we finally arrived at the airport I broke the rules and parked at the curb while mom took the kids to the potty. While they were gone I listened to the warning on the loudspeaker, "No parking or waiting on the airport drive. Violators will be ticketed and towed." When she got back I admitted that my pregnant bladder needed to be relieved, too, so mom sat with the van while I ran in to use the facilities. Luckily our van wasn't "ticketed or towed."

In case you need more evidence of guardian angels: Jason took the van in yesterday because it had started shaking. It turns out the tires were completely shot. We replaced all 4. So much for my theory that we had good tires and that is why I was able to stay on the road while cars (and buses) were sliding all around me. We'll have to chalk that one up to Divine intervention.

The belly and the boys

2010-12-02T21:17:00.000-08:00

Here's my first pregnant picture since this one. That wasn't on purpose - its amazing how many fewer pictures you take of yourself with two little subjects who are so much cuter than you are running around. The newest baby Gould is expected to make his debut in February. Here is Samuel ready for bed and for church at the same time... He is wearing his favorite night shirt. It has PacMan ghosts on it. Sam calls them "snowflakes." Here is my Benji-boy reading the Wall Street Journal. Yup, he's pretty special. He especially loves the car advertisements.

Sam and Benji helped me rake leaves today.

And here is Sam hiding under his new little brother...

I'm dreaming of a white Thanksgiving...

2010-11-27T22:22:00.000-08:00

We got snow for Thanksgiving this year. We started out with a few flurries on Sunday and Sam ran outside to taste it:On Monday we got a little more and everyone got excited. (Here is Jason going cross-eyed trying to look at the snowflake that landed on his nose.)Benji, my little blue marshmallow, had fun eating snow. He didn't care if it was fresh or clean, but then again he eats dirt by itself so why would he be afraid of dirty snow?On Monday afternoon I got to drive through the snow storm with two 3 year olds to pick up Grandma at the airport and deliver her to my sister's house in Seattle (my sister just had a baby and mom was coming to help take care of the house and the other 6 kids). We had to deal with Thanksgiving-travel traffic and first-snow-of-the-winter traffic. We saw lots of cars (and a bus) sliding around on the slick roads around the airport. We had to stop twice to use the restroom and once to find some food. We also stayed long enough at my sister's house for my brother and brother-in-law to put chains on my mini-van. The trip which should have taken about 3 hours max, took 7 hours instead. But we arrived home safe and happy - evidence that prayers are answered.

On Tuesday Jason stayed home from work and we all went sledding - even me with my pregnant belly (I'm amazed the snow pants fit!) Benji loved it. He yelled, "Yay!" as he rode down the hill. Sam went down once and then declared that it was too fast so he spent the rest of the morning eating snow off the neighbor's bumper. Sorry there are no pictures, we forgot the camera.

On Thanksgiving morning we got some more snow. This time it was warmer and wetter - perfect for making snowmen. The snow was all melted by Friday - just the way I like it. The snow came, it was exciting, we got to play, and then it went away before it got too ugly and dirty.

Learning to use a spoon

2010-11-19T21:52:00.000-08:00

It's probably my own fault. Most of the time is seems easier to just feed him myself than to clean up the mess later. Benji eats with his hands a lot, but he hasn't ventured into the realm of utensils yet. That is until Aunt Carol decided to plunk a bowl of yogurt in front of him one morning and give him a spoon...

He didn't do half bad.

Conversations with a 3 year old

2010-10-31T21:56:00.000-07:00

Sam has become very talkative lately. He will talk (extensively) to anyone that will listen - especially people he has just met. Luckily the strangers mostly think its funny and they smile and respond with appropriate amazement. I can also tell that he is thinking about things before he comments on them. It is fun to see a little of how his brain works. Here are a few of the highlights from the last couple of weeks:

Conversation #1 - driving through Tacoma:
Mom: Hey look, there's Mount Rainier.
Sam: Where's a reindeer?
Mom: Mount Rainier is over there. You can see the top - the rest of it is hiding behind the clouds.
Sam: The clouds look like a reindeer?
Mom: No, its a mountain. Its called Mount Rain-ear.
Sam: Then why are you talking about reindeer?
(In Sam's defense, I realized later that we had just visited Point Defiance Zoo where I had pointed out the window and said, "Look Sam, there's a reindeer.")

Conversation #2 - In the kitchen, right after hearing the toilet flush
Mom: Sam, did you just go poo poo?
Sam: Yea.
Mom: Did you wipe?
Sam: I wiped one time.
Mom: Did you check to make sure you got all of it?
Sam: Well... the inside of my bottom feels kind of spicy...
Mom: That means you need to wipe again.

Conversation #3 - through the window in the van, trying to leave for church
Dad: Sam, I can't get in the van because the door is locked and you have my key.
Sam: Dad, I can't hear you very well. Open the door... Are you coming with us?

Benji's favorite game

2010-10-22T22:47:00.000-07:00

So currently Benji's favorite game to play is steal something from the fridge while mom isn't looking and then run away laughing. He is a very stealthy little thief. I wish you could see the mischievous look in his eyes as he runs away - or more correctly when he stops to look back and make sure you see what he has done. Occasionally I won't notice that he lifted a bottle from the door of the fridge until several minutes later when I hear someone call, "Benji has the fish sauce, again." Once caught he will usually come back and return the stolen goods - only to steal the bottle again in a few minutes when I open the fridge again to put leftovers away.

Chefs in Training

2010-10-11T20:39:00.000-07:00

We've been having some extra helpers in the kitchen lately. Sometimes they are just helping themselves to a snitch, like these little apple thieves:
(Four kids on one chair is not bad, huh?)

But other times they are actually helpful. It is very exciting that Sam and Willow (3 1/2 years old) are getting big enough to make things easier for us instead of more difficult when they help. This week Carol had the kids making applesauce. Sam put the cooked apples in the hopper and Willow pressed them down with the little pusher tool:

They were a very efficient pair and they were very happy to be helping.

Tonight Carol was making homemade pasta for dinner. Making pasta is a Vezzani family tradition. The Vezzanis are Italian, after all. Carol was closely supervising the two cousins as they rolled the dough through the pasta cutter. Then Carol had to turn around for a moment to do something else and when she turned back the pasta was finished. The kids did it by themselves.

So apparently not only are Vezzanis Italian, but I guess Goulds are, too - or at least one 3 year old Gould is.

(Sorry the pictures are kind of blurry. I think there are finger prints on the camera lens or something.)

Trees and snow

2010-09-28T21:03:00.000-07:00

Last night we went out to the Costco food court for dinner. (I wanted to try the new Carne Asada Bake - very good by the way.) I knew that whatever we ordered there would taste delicious but probably wouldn't make a very balanced meal so I put some cut up broccoli and ranch dressing in my purse (I know, I'm weird). At dinner Sam was loving on the pizza, but he didn't want any broccoli until I pointed out that when you dip the broccoli in dressing it looks like little trees with snow on them. He thought that sounded pretty good and he ate some (he ate a few trees with lots of snow, but that's OK).

After our dinner out we went swimming at the YMCA for Family Home Evening. On the way home Sam complained that he was hungry. I told him that the only food I had was more broccoli trees and snow. He replied, "I want some trees and snow, but not that first thing you said." Alrighty, I can work with that. I guess its all about proper phraseology.

Food Storage Essentials

2010-09-22T19:12:00.000-07:00

In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints we are taught to be self-sufficient. Part of this self-sufficiency includes preparing for potential emergencies. For example we are counseled by our church leaders to have a 3 month supply of the foods we eat every day and a 1 year supply of basic staples that sustain life. Growing up we always had shelves and shelves of food storage in the garage: barrels of wheat, bottles of home canned peaches, #10 cans of ketchup, etc. It was wonderful! Since getting married we've tried to follow this great example and have been slowing building our own food storage. We have also individualized this concept to fit our family. That is why we currently have 17 containers of ice cream in the freezer. In case you don't believe me, here's the evidence:

Those are just the open ones in the kitchen. The deep freezer in the garage has more:

There are 4 more in that freezer that didn't fit on the door and a few cartons in the Vezzani's freezer in the basement, but I'll spare you the pictures.

I think all this madness, I mean genius, started sometime last year when there was a big sale on ice cream. When I saw the grocery ad I thought to myself, "Self, you have the freezer room; why not have a year's supply of ice cream?" So I bought 20 cartons. Jason mocked me. Carol thought it was amazing. I don't quite remember how long it took us to work through that supply. I know it was far less than a year. Last month Carol caught wind of a great deal on ice cream, again. Tillamook is one of our favorite brands of ice cream and they were on sale for $2.00 a carton compared to the usual price of $6.50 or more. So she came home with 30 cartons. Jason was incredulous. He laughed at us, but I think we're rubbing off on him. A few days ago I sent him to the grocery store with a short list. I also mentioned that ice cream was on sale. I pointed out that we did still have some in the freezer, so this wasn't quite an emergency and it wasn't the best sale ($2.50), just a good sale. He smiled and then came home with 10 more cartons of Tillamook.

Mmmmmmm...food storage...

I guess the human species really can adapt

2010-09-14T22:27:00.000-07:00

My boys are picky eaters. It pains me to admit that we have this problem in our home because I had some very strong opinions about how I wanted to feed my children and I was firmly convinced that if I followed the rules my kids would be great eaters. The guidelines I try to follow are from Ellyn Satter a nutritionist and psychologist. I still believe in the concepts - at least in theory. I'm just not sure where I went wrong. Both my boys ate a wonderful variety of food when they were babies, but somewhere around 15 months they both stopped eating about 80% of the food I put on the table; often subsisting on bread and milk since those are staples we include with just about every meal. There still is the possibility that the division of responsibility (I am responsible for when, where, and what is offered and they are responsible for how much they eat and which of the foods offered they will choose) will still work and if I just wait a few years my boys will grow to be incredibly successful eaters. Even more perplexing is the fact that my sister's kids live in the same house and have essentially the same mealtime rules and they gleefully enjoy a wide variety of foods.

Anyway, now to the point of my ramblings: I came to an amazing realization today. My boys eat next to nothing and yet, they grow. This can only mean one thing. Sam somehow defies the laws of physics and generates all necessary energy from running and wrestling and Benji has miraculously developed the ability to extract nutrients from the rocks and bark he sucks on all day long. I have evidence of evolution in my own home.

Benji likes to lick a lemon

2010-09-12T21:44:00.000-07:00

We had lunch with daddy at work on Friday and we gave Benji his first lemon wedge to see what he'd do. He licked it and then he did this: He kept putting it back in his mouth, making faces, and shuddering... and then doing it again and again:

Apparently he liked it:

...a lot. I stopped taking pictures of him, but I didn't realize he was still going at it until I saw him in the background of this cute picture of Sam and Jason:

In case you couldn't see it very well, here is a close up:

What can I say? Benji likes his lemons.

Why I like to shower at the YMCA...

2010-09-12T10:29:00.001-07:00

Don't you love it when your child interupts you in the shower to tell you something that, being completely naked and dripping wet, you can't do anything about, all the while his other parental unit is just in the other room, completely available to help him?

"Mom?"
*knock* *knock*
"Mom!"
"Yes, Sam?"
"Benji still has his pajamas on."
"Oh, Can you go tell Daddy?"
"OK."
*slam*

It may be interesting to note that when I finished my shower and was drying my hair Benji padded into the bathroom... still in his pajamas...

Duck, Duck, Goose

2010-08-25T22:38:00.001-07:00

As we were all sitting on the floor this evening having family scripture study, Benji started walking around tapping each of us on the head, one by one. Then I noticed that he was saying, "Uck" each time he hit someone on the head. He was playing "Duck, Duck, Goose." Scripture study is supposed to be a reverent time so I tried really hard to hide that fact that I was cracking up laughing. Uncle Hollis introduced the kids to this classic childhood game a couple months ago when he came over for family home evening. Sam and Willow really caught on, even Rhys occasionally starts smacking people on the head and saying, "duck", but this was the first time I heard Benji launch into a spontaneous round of "Duck, Duck, Goose." He might not be able to say more than 6 words, but he knows how to play "Duck, Duck, Goose." He's pretty much a genius.

A little three year old experimentation...

2010-08-23T21:32:00.000-07:00

So I think Sam has been experimenting with the versatility of bathroom fixtures this past week.

Experiment #1: A few days ago my sister, Carol, found Sam sitting up on the counter in the bathroom, naked. This in and of itself isn't too unusual because sometimes he strips down to go potty and then climbs on the counter to wash his hands. But when she asked him if he went potty he seemed a little reluctant to answer. After a lengthy interrogation of yes and no questions she finally figured out that he hadn't gone potty in the toilet and he hadn't had an accident on the floor, but he did go "a little" pee pee in the sink. She told him that he had better tell me what he did. When he reported the incident to me he did clarify that he rinsed it very well afterward (Jason wondered if he was trying to "flush" it).

Experiment #2: Yesterday I went into the bathroom after Sam was finished and noticed some small puddles of water around the toilet. I had been in there a few minutes before when Sam used the toilet and didn't think he had missed (like sometimes happens). The subsequent conversation went something like this:
"Sam, why is there water on the floor around the toilet?"
"From washing my hands. "
"Did you wash your hands and then come back to flush the toilet?"
"No, I washed my hands in the water after I flushed."
A little sign language clarified that he washed his hands in the toilet water after he flushed. Then as I was explaining that toilet water isn't clean and he needed to wash his hand in the sink with soap I caught him absent-mindedly putting his fingers in his mouth. Ewwww!

The funniest part about this all is that I don't think Sam was trying to be naughty on purpose. When I told him that we don't pee pee in the sink and we don't wash our hands in the toilet he very sincerely promised not to do it anymore. Nevertheless, I think I'll be glad when the potty-experiment phase is over.

Maybe he's learning something good after all

2010-08-22T21:30:00.000-07:00

This evening Sam enjoyed watching several videos on www.lds.org. He loves watching movies and he especially loves these Mormon Messages because they are short, interesting, and he has learned how to use the mouse to play them all by himself. Among the six or seven that we watched was one called My New Life. It is about a woman who was in a plane accident and now lives with horrible scars on her face and body that make every day tasks very difficult. She blogs about her experiences and the hope and healing she has found in Jesus Christ. When Sam saw her face he asked why she looked like that. I explained how she was in an accident and she because she was burned now her face looks different.

Fast forward to bedtime. Before Sam says his personal prayer I usually ask him what he wants to thank Heavenly Father for and then what he want to ask Heavenly Father to bless. He said that he wanted to ask Heavenly Father to bless the woman that her face would "go away." Sam remembered the video that he saw and he wanted to ask God to heal the woman's face and make her scars go away. I think the Lord commands us to be parents so that He can teach us to be like Him through our children.

You can see the video here: My-New-Life

Super FAT

2010-08-17T11:46:00.000-07:00

Once a month all my siblings that live in the area get together and we have what we call FAT (Family Activity Time). This summer we decided to go out to the Washington coast and have a mini family reunion ("mini" since only half of the eleven siblings could be there). We called it Super FAT. We stayed at the Hoh Humm Ranch and spent our days hiking in the Hoh rain forest and playing at Ruby beach. We Jason and I visited all the same places with our boys last summer (post). We had so much fun we decided to go back and bring my family. Here are some of the high lights of our first ever Super FAT.

Here is the clan (I'm not going to name them all, but we had 5 siblings, 3 in-laws, 2 grandparents, and 13 grandkids. I like how all the babies have a finger in their mouths):

We found a driftwood fort on the beach. Here is Neoma, Benji, and Sam in the fort:

Here is another view of the fort: Here are some pictures from the rainforest

Here is Jason and Sam (Mr. "I am smiling, mom.")

We stopped to see the biggest living Western Red Cedar tree. It didn't look so big until you got up close to it. It was almost 20 feet in diameter. Notice Jason and Sam standing in front of the tree (click on it if you want to see it bigger).

Here is day 2 at the beach. The water to the right is made by a stream that runs into the ocean. It makes a fun freshwater pool to play in.

Benji enjoyed eating grandpa's pudding...

...as well as lots of sand and rocks. He almost constantly had something gross in his mouth. Someone hypothesized that maybe he liked sucking on the rocks because they were salty, but Jason tested one out and debunked that theory.

Uncle Hollis and Aunt Carol took the kids for a ride on a piece of driftwood. It was overcast and chilly most of the time we were there, but that didn't stop the kids (and some of the adults) from getting all wet. Jason finally convinced me that although dormers look really cool on the outside of the house, they aren't very practical on the inside of the house (a couple of us cracked our heads pretty good on the corners).

The folks at the Hoh Humm Ranch keep all kinds of animals. On our last day there they gave us some grain and we went around feeding the animals. The most exotic were the deer. The were more skittish than the cows and the goats, but the kids still got one of the deer to eat out of their hands. It was raining pretty hard that morning so those who braved crossing the field in search of the deer came back soaked.
We had a lot of fun, stayed up to late, and laughed at things that probably weren't that funny. I love my family.

A real dad

2010-08-15T20:38:00.000-07:00

Last night as Jason and I ran out the door late for stake conference I watched my dear husband pause to fill a sippy cup with milk. I was confused at first because this the was the adult session of stake conference and the kids were staying home. My confusion turned to clarity as I realized this is Jason. Of course the milk wasn't for the kids; it was for him. We were eating dinner in the car and I guess the water bottle I was bringing wasn't good enough, he had his heart set on milk. He didn't want to spill in the car so what would be more logical that putting it in a sippy cup? Duh!