Happy Birthday, Desirae!!!

As I was getting Desirae ready for bed a couple nights ago, it really struck me...My baby is getting so big. She talks up a storm. She will repeat anything you say. She has always been really coordinated but she does so much. She has figured out how to open all the doors in the house, fill her cup with water, drag a chair anywhere she can't reach. I really think she is doing these things younger than her brothers did. She is so sweet and fun. She is such a girl. We are so lucky to have her in our family. She brings a bit of little girl out in all of us. We love you Desi.

Tuesday

Our usual Tuesday is a bit hectic. Here is a general rundown…
* 7:36 Out the door to the bus
* 9:30 Andrew to school
* 11:30 Andrew from school
* 11:47 Benji from bus
* 12:00 Lunch
* 1:00 Desi’s nap
* 1:30 Reading/homework
* 4:00 Spencer home
* 5:00 Football
* 7:00 Scouts
* 8:30 Bed
There are some gaps and there are some overlaps. It takes both Gary and me with cars going in all directions to get it all done. Well, this last week Spencer threw another item on our get-it-done list. We got to go to Insta-Care for a gash on his forehead. I feel so guilty. It is all my fault. As you can tell from the schedule there isn’t really a spot for dinner, especially for Spencer. I give the younger three something quick and easy but Spencer has a Gatorade at football and maybe a snack after the game on his way to scouts. By the time we all get home he is starved. I was nuking him a hotdog before bed and as he walked toward me a stuck my hand up in his face like I was going to bop him. You know, like in school, you would try to get someone to flinch or “syke” them out. Well, Spencer flinched big time. He ducked, spun around, and smacked his head on the corner of the granite counter top. I am glad it wasn’t laminate or else it would have been a lot worse. He had a big dent in his head and blood just gushing out. I grabbed and ice pack and got him in the car. He was so tough. He didn’t really cry he was just worried that he would need stitches. We got him in and luckily it wasn’t too deep and it was a clean cut. The doctor just used some special glue to hold it all together while it heals. He is pretty proud of it now. I still feel so guilty. I just hope the scar isn’t too bad.

Title-of-Liberty Flag

At church a few weeks ago, our Sunday School teacher challenged us to create a Title-of-Liberty for our family at our next family night. I made this flag a few years ago for a family night activity. I love it. I love that it is what I see when I pull into the driveway and I love that everyone that approaches or drives past our house knows what the people that live here believe in. I not only hang it outside our home, I also take it camping. I hang it so that when my kids go exploring it is easy for them to see which camp-site is ours. Since I first made it I have had many, many people comment on it, compliment, "What a great idea!", and request a pattern. Well, I haven't had a pattern, until now. My sister-in-law spurred me on in her latest request. We were all camping at Bryce this last summer and she noticed it, again. She asked if I would be willing to make her one. (she doesn't sew) I told her I didn't have a pattern, I just made it up from some scraps left over from a quilt I had made one of my boys. I thought about it a bit and with her continued requests decided to come up with a pattern. So here I am. I figure if she wanted one so badly, someone else might also.
This flag measures 34"wide x 44"long. I painted the words using fabric paint, then had each member of our family "stamp" their hand print as their signature. It hangs on a standard decorative pole. It has the hooks inside the sleeve to secure it to the pole.
I will take custom orders, where you tell me what color scheme, words, and emblem you would like and I will complete it for you. All you would need to do is have your family "sign" it any way you want. I will also have kits available. You just choose the color scheme and the emblem you would like in the background. It will include all of the fabric needed, cut to size and directions for sewing it together. You would need to add your own words. If I have enough interest I will invest in a gadget that will cut fabric letters out and you would just need to iron them on.
I would love for you to visit my other blog www.titleoflibertyflag.blogspot.com and participate in my poll (to the right of the post) so I can get an idea of how much interst there would be in this product. Or, just leave me a comment. I would love to hear your ideas or feed-back, positive or negative. Thanks for helping me out with your input.

Snowbird

Our annual trip to Snowbird was a huge success. We had such a great time. We are so lucky to have such fantastic parents that give us this time to share with our family. Thank you so much Mom and Walt. We love you so much. We only wish you guys could come and enjoy it with us. We actually started our trip on Thursday afternoon. We got to Salt Lake late that night so we could get an early start on our day Friday. We had some shopping and errands to run as well as a little b-day party for Desirae that night. Saturday Gary took Spencer and Benjamin to the Dew Tour. It is an extreme sports show with a huge outdoor track that covers a big parking lot and the inside of Energy Solutions Arena. There is skateboarding, BMX, Motor bikes, and a couple others. The boys really wanted to see the Motor bike finals. However, when they got there the line for general admission was down the street and around the block. They decided not to stay and we headed to Snowbird a couple hours earlier than originally planned.

It is so beautiful up there. The air is clean and crisp, but not cold. It smells so good and feels even better. It is Oktoberfest time and that means bratwurst and sauerkraut. Yum, Yum. There is an alpine slide that the boys went down at least seven times. They jumped on the trampoline with the bungees so they got to do flips and stuff. There was a bounce house and a giant inflatable slide. Spencer was bummed that he was too small to ride the zip line but I was relieved. It was hard enough letting Spencer and Benjamin ride the ski-lift to the top of the slide without me. We went swimming a few times and went on a couple hikes. Spencer really got into taking pictures. On our second hike I let him use my camera and take whatever pictures he wanted. Some of them are fuzzy but some of them are fantastic. I love looking at things through his eyes with his perspective. I never would have thought to click some of them. Here is the slide show of just his photos...

The colors are just starting to change. They will be truly spectacular in a couple weeks. I can't wait. I love autumn. It is my favorite. We were only there for two and a half days but oh, what a fantasic way to jump-start this georgeous season.

Another First Day of School

I guess it is not really "school". It is more like a glorified play group. But Andrew is so excited to get to take a backpack with his very own box of school stuff in it to his friend's house. I am trying out a co-op this year. A group of 6 Moms, all with three-year-olds, take turns having school at their house two days a week. So I will be the teacher for Tuesday and Thursday next week. Kind of like Joy School but it is "Mother Goose Time". There are three little boys and three girls. They are all so cute. A couple of them are still really clingy to their Mom but Andrew sure doesn't care. As soon as I tell him to grab his back pack he doesn't care where I am. As long as I get him to where the party is. It is a really great program. It provides a topic for the month, all the lessons, crafts and supplies, story books, schedule, everything you need to have a fun and organized-as-it-can-be-with-six-three-year-olds time. I think it will be great for both of us. Andrew gets to think he is a big boy and go play for a couple hours and I get to play with Desi or go run some errands with just one child. It will work out just fine.

I know, but I just couldn't resist. Desirae is not going to school. But I was making a big deal of Andrew going and we were getting all of his stuff together and putting it in his back pack. Desi LOVES Dora and she is always asking for a backpack. I haven't brought myself to get her a cute Dora backpack. So this morning she was of course wandering around whining and crying for a backpack. Then it hit me that I have a small backpack that Spencer and Benji used. It is not feminine at all but it was good enough to quench her need for a backpack. I was then taking Andrew's pictures on the front porch and she, of course, had to get in on that too. She is so pretty. Even with her wispy scraggly hair. After we dropped Andrew at school we headed to the DI and I found her a little purple sparkly backpack. Hopefully she won't need me to fill it with glue, scissors, and crayons.

Long, Long Ago, In a Backyard Far, Far Away...

Anyone who knows me knows that I have a tendancy to go overboard when it comes to my kids birthday parties. This year was no exception. I love making everything fit into a theme. Benajamin had his friend birthday party on Friday the 29th. He chose Star Wars. Our neighborhood is full of kids and most of them are Benjamin's age. Lucky him. He is never at a loss for a friend to play with. We began our journey by having each of the boys choose a character mask and a light saber. We then reported to the "Refueling Station" for Yoda Soda, Wookie Cookies, Flying Saucers and Fire Sauce. With the boys all pumped up on sugar we began training exercises (light saber fights), skills tests (an obstacle course), ship design (decorating flying saucers), flight lessons (throwing the saucers), and firing missles (toss the velcro balls at a felt solar system trying to hit a planet). With those skills honed we concluded with celebratory cake and gifts. What a blast! So much time and planning for an hour and a half of pure imaginative bliss. Worth every penny spent and moment preparing. I love seeing the kids having so much fun and the best is hearing them say, "This is the best!" Everybody had a great time. Even me! Our Cast of Characters were...Anakin - Benjamin, Rex the Clone - Spencer, Yoda (or as he calls it Yoder)- Andrew, OBWon - Logan Dana, General Grevious - Gage Tucker, Yellow Clone - Trever Scott, Darth Vader - Dylan Pilling, and Red Clone - Alec Goodrich.

First Day's' of School

I know, I know, I am kind of late but now I can squish Spencer and Benjamin's first days together even though they started 9 days apart. Spencer's first day was Monday the 25th. He was so excited. He couldn't get to sleep the night before. I remember having an anxiety dream every year the night before school started. They would usually consist of me being half dressed or not being able to find any clothes at all and having to wear my pajamas. As I got older they changed to not being able to find a class or losing my schedule or locker combo. I still have them every now and then. I don't panic quite so much but it is very unsettling none the less. Spencer was so worried that he would not wake up on time to take the bus. He got up and joined us in our bed a couple times before I finally convinced him my alarm really was set and I promised he would not be late. He was still up and dressed by 6:30. He had a hard time waiting over an hour to leave. He looked so handsome. Thanks to a couple great sisters with boys just a couple years older than Spencer I didn't need to buy any new clothes except for sox and shoes. He even let me do his hair and didn't complain that his shirt had buttons. That was a bit of a conflict last year. He wouldn't wear any shirt with buttons. And he has insisted on fixing his own hair as of late. We made another "deal" to deal with that. I get to do his hair on Sunday and he can do it nicely for school, and on Saturday he can do anything he wants. That usually turns out to be crazy spikes or a faux hawk of some sort. It works for us and keeps the arguing and pouting to a minimum.

Waiting for the bus with Gage and Dace (yes, he made it on time)

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Spencer was also very excited to have a man for a teacher. I think it is great. Especially for the third grade. I think it is important for boys this age to see men reading and teaching and doing school type stuff. I don't want him to think that only girls or women find education important and fun. Gary does so good at making sure he reads to the kids but he isn't home when it's time for homework. Well, Spencer had a great first day. He even had homework. I like him to have homework every night. I know that sound weird but I want him to know that I think school work is important and I want us to make time for it every day. Spencer is so bright and smart I know he will have a great year.

Now for Benjamin's first day. Benjamin is so different from his brother. He doesn't worry and stress about things. He just kind of takes what comes and thinks that whatever it is, it is great. He is happy to start kindergarten. After three years of preschool he is more than ready. We have tried really hard to not say we held him back or that we started him late. We still think that we made the right choice to not start him in kindergarten last year. His birthday is so close to the cut off. The only thing we would have done differently is not have him in preschool when he was three. But we didn't know then that we would be waiting to start him. We won't make that mistake again. I think we will only plan on one year of preschool for the next ones. Anyway, Benjamin is going to have a great year. He is so prepared and very excited. I think it will be good for him to be a little older than the rest of the kids. He has a tendency to just go with the flow. That is definitely not a bad thing but I would love for him to learn to be more assertive and make decisions for himself more. He too was so excited to take the bus to school. I am very happy that Spencer will be there with him. That takes a lot of the worry out of my mind. When he went to bed last night I wanted to snuggle and talk to him about school so I laid down with him. I started talking and he said, "You can lay with me but I need to go to sleep." Well alrighty then. I can take a hint.

Dace, Spencer, Gage, Benjamin, Dylan, and Trever

I had to wake Benjamin for school this morning. He is a really good sleeper. I asked if he wanted me to take him or if he wanted to ride the bus. I already knew the answer. I guess I was just hoping he would surprise me. We was so excited to ride the bus with Spencer and all the other boys in our neighborhood. There are three of them starting kindergarten today. Spencer was so nice to Benjamin this morning. He was telling him he would sit with him on the bus and show him to his class room. They are such good friends.

Could he be any cuter?

Off and Running

After the bus left I hopped in the car and drove to the school. I just couldn't bear the thought of Benjamin feeling lost or not getting to his class alright. I know that sounds pathetic but he is so tender and quiet around people he doesn't know. I was worried that he wouldn't ask for help if he needed it. When he got off he was too busy yakking with his friends to even notice me. But I'll console myself by pointing out that he walked right past his class. I pointed him in the right direction, snapped another photo and left. 12:00 rolled around pretty quick and the bus came to drop them off. Thumbs up for a great first day.

What Are Little Girls Made Of???

I think Leah will appreciate this one...

I am fairly neurotic about keeping my scrapbooks in chronological order. This slight disorder has transferred to blogging. However, with laundry and dishes piled up I need a bit of immediate gratification this morning. So I am going to go against my grain and even though I am a week behind I am going to make a quick post of something that happened yesterday. I took Spencer and Benjamin to the dollar store and grocery shopping yesterday afternoon. While I was gone Gary called and asked how to get fingernail polish out of carpet. That is not really the type of question I want to get while I am not home. I have child locks on all of the bathroom doors but they don't always get shut. Well, sweet little innocent Desirae got into my bathroom cabinet and "painted" her hands and face as well as my bedroom carpet and french door. I guess fingernail polish doesn't taste very good because Gary found her due to her crying about it being in her mouth. For future reference there is not much to do to get it out of your carpet. A website suggested polish remover, windex, goo gone, or hairspray. None of which really worked too well. Oh well, at least I have pretty dark carpet and I guess I could get an area rug if it bothers me too much. Moral of the story...close the door behind you. And that nonsense about sugar and spice...they never met my little darling.