Mind Trick

I found this gem this morning while I was trying to put more stuff away.  (So much stuff!  We will never get settled!)

I held it up to Sarah and waited for her reaction. Her first response was, "Which one is you?"  Then she corrected herself, but made several confused comments as her brain tried to sort out an old fashioned look with people she recognized.  Lol!  I wish you could have seen the expressions on her face.

Perhaps I should be offended that she thought I was old enough to have really had a picture so ancient.  But it was all funny enough to overlook the insult.

Quote of the Day

Compliments of Sarah, after getting a panoramic x-ray at the dentist's office:

"And then she just left me there all alone. I mean, who does that?  To a little girl?"

Picture a fake disgusted look with hands outstretched. 

Lol.  She hasn't had enough x-rays to know the technician always leaves the room.

Saturn, by Sarah

This school we're in has the kids start doing research reports in Kindergarten.  I both love it and hate it.  Thankfully, they make them super easy and increase difficulty as they get older.

Sarah recently had to give a report on a plant as part of an astronomy unit.  She chose Saturn.  The report had to be her work and in her handwriting.  I helped her look online and she did the writing.  She also had to make a model of the planet.  I gave her some ideas, but she did 90% of the work.  (I think Daddy helped her cut the inside circle out of the transparency sheet.)

I think she did a great job!  Her teacher agreed.  :)

Sarah's painting

Sarah was invited to a birthday party last month (or the month before - I've lost track).  It was at an art studio and the kids were guided step by step through a predetermined painting.  These types of painting classes/parties are really popular in this area!

We were pretty impressed with Sarah's painting!  Her older sisters were fawning over her skills, which prompted Sarah to reply, "There were instructions!"  Haha.  She was just being modest.  It is a really cute painting and I'm sure much cuter that many of the other girls'.  (I can be a little biased as her mother!)

Though she exhibited some modesty at one point, Sarah was not above finding a place of distinction to display her masterpiece.  The living room had a very convenient tack in the wall and there her bees and flowers still hang!  But I don't mind because I really like it.  :)

If Sarah had $100...

Friday (the 22nd) was the 100th day of school for us.  The first grade really celebrates with t-shirts and snacks and games, etc.

One of their activities was to write what they would do if they had 100 dollars.  Here is Sarah's paper. The translation is below.  ;)

"A mansion with an 'S'."
"A beautiful dress."
"A beautiful crown."

I'm seeing a theme here.  Unfortunately, HRH was born to a common family.  I remember when Leah discovered her life wasn't royal.  It was very similar!   Lol.

I did see some interesting wishes on the worksheets of other kids, including lipstick, cats, and more money.  My favorite was the little boy who was going to get a gift for each of his parents and nothing else.  :)

Ice Skating party

Leah was invited to an ice skating birthday party this past weekend.  Because her friend has a little sister in Sarah's class, Sarah was also invited. I'm sure she was meant to keep the little sister occupied and she filled that role marvelously.

Neither Leah nor Sarah have ever been ice skating.  They have been on roller blades all through the house, but I warned them that the skate blades were much thinner than wheels.  I don't think they even noticed.  

As soon as Sarah had her skates on, she was up without any hesitation and running soon after.  Yeah.  Running is discouraged in public places and I did my best to slow her down.  

Here is a picture soon after their skates were on.  This is not the birthday girl standing next to Leah, but one of the party guests and one of Leah's closest friends: Kiera.  And that creature down at Leah's elbow is supposed to be Sarah.

I think she's trying a little too hard to smile for the camera! 

Here is Sarah with her friend, Emma.  They are both crazy and full of energy and the youngest members of their families.

I did not know that they had modified walkers for beginner skaters, but it makes sense!  Sarah was fearless on the ice with her walker.  But her feet were flying in all sorts of directions as she sped around the rink.  I'm not sure which part of her body got the bigger workout: her legs to get her moving or her arms to keep her from falling down.

It was a late party (skating started at 8) and so I left about 8:30 with Sarah and Leah was dropped off a little after 10.  Church comes early at 9:30 and it's even earlier when you've gone to bed late!

Cold weather in Florida

We have had some cold weather lately. The coldest day was the day of Sarah's field trip to Kennedy Space Center.  I was freezing because I thought it would warm up so I was only wearing a sweater.  I was wishing for a hat and gloves!  Sarah should have been dressed warmer, too.  But we've been colder than that in our lives.  It's just been about three years since then.

Here is frost on the roof!  Brrr!  ;)

They have a pretty nice program at the Kennedy Space Center for the area schools.  And it's free!   They say that when the rocket to Mars goes up in 2-3 years, that the folks at Disney World will feel it.  We are an hour closer to the launch pad than that!  We'll have to take our pictures off the wall before that!

Sarah was trying out the astronaut gloves.

She and he friends were trying on an old capsule for size.  I'd say the size isn't quite right.

Yeah.  She could barely see over the edge of the hole!  Haha.

There was a simulator ride there that she was too small to go on.  I think she was the only one in her class that couldn't go.  She was pretty sad, but kept her tears in check because she was in front of her friends.  :(

Morning Madness

Mornings can get pretty crazy around here.  Thursdays are even crazier as we try to leave 30 minutes or more earlier than normal.  This is because Joseph and Leah were both elected as class representatives a couple of months ago.

This morning Joseph was trying to finish homework that should have been done last night.  So his temper was precariously perched on self-destruct.  I found it funny that he would choose the LARGEST pencil in the house to do the work.  But somehow, it relieved some tension and helped him finish the task.

Sarah was a little reluctant to wake this morning and left herself very little time to wake up/dress/eat/groom before we had to leave.  So she skipped the waking and grooming part.

She had braided pigtails yesterday and thought they should still be good for today.  Considering they barely survived school yesterday, today was not going to happen.  She wasn't happy about the loss of her precious tails and refused to let me do anything more than put in a barrette...including taking a picture of her crazy mop.

As we got to school, she decided she wanted a ponytail after all.  Unfortunately, we didn't have any ponytail holders, so she was out of luck.  She walked into the school trying to tame her waves.  :)

It's seemed so quiet at home after the bedlam of the morning.

Neglected Children

While I was outside shoveling the snow off the sidewalk and driveway (so glad we finally got some), Joseph(4) and Sarah(2) were left alone inside. I knew Sarah needed to be dressed, but PBS was doing such a good job keeping them busy, that I decided to let it wait until I came back inside.

I have such helpful children. It doesn't hurt that Sarah is so fun to take care of, either. So when I got back in the house, Joseph mentioned he was having trouble getting Sarah to let him put her shirt on. BUT, he did told me, he was able to change her diaper! And before I was able to put my boots away and hang up my coat, Sarah had pulled her own shirt over her head.

Here are the triumphant children. The shirt is on right (she got lucky, think), the diaper is on backwards. However, I think it would have still served its purpose. Good job, you two!

I'm just glad you didn't decide to start cooking while I was outside!

Simple Melody

Sarah is sitting on a step stool with a "Wheels On The Bus" book. In her high-pitched little girl voice, she is singing, "Wheels on bus...GO, GO, GO!" Each time she turns the page, she repeats the verse. At the last page, she sings one more time then says, "All done." That's when she starts over. If you look at her, she stops singing and turns away, embarrassed.

That girl can add joy to even the saddest of hearts (I can testify to that)!

Mistaken Identity

Chad is on the floor playing with Sarah, Joseph, and Rebekah. They have the Book of Mormon figures out and Chad has been saying to different kids, "Do you know who this is?"

When Chad held up Moroni appearing to Joseph Smith and asked that question, Sarah said, "Jesus Christ, Amen."

Ha Ha! That is the first time I've heard her say that on her own. Good job, Sarah! We won't count it as a wrong answer this time. ;)

Blue

It was just one little Dum Dum sucker. I think it was 50% food dye and 50% sugar. I am the best mother in the world! And at 9 AM, no less.

Fall Leaves

I usually rake up leaves every fall and get pictures of the kids in them. Somehow, the time to do that slipped right by me this year. I'm still not sure what happened.

Leah must have noticed the void because she tried to pick up where I was slacking. Now there are two of us who know what a big job that is!

Leah got a nice shot of Rebekah sitting in a small pile of leaves. Cute! I especially like that Nightmare is in the background scratching himself.

Next, we add Sarah to the shot. I think it was a little cool out there at this time and of course, neither girl has even a long-sleeved shirt on. Sarah may not be real clued in to the importance of these traditional pictures! Or maybe she is just waving. (I doubt it.)

Uh oh. I think the photo shoot is falling apart; the subjects are walking off the set!

A nice back shot of Rebekah. I think Leah is trying different perspectives.

Yeah...this photo session is over. Sarah is looking on the edge of miserable. Get the poor girl a jacket!

On to new photography subjects. We have several cats. Here are half of them. Meets Stripes, Trouble and Nightmare. They are waiting to be fed. They are always waiting to be fed. I have noticed a marked decrease in mouse evidence since we've had cats. I'm grateful for that! But we have a few large fields around us. There should be plenty of mice out there. Why are these lazy cats just sitting there??!

And that is the end of the photo shoot. Darn. It's now November 16th. Is it too late?

Cute and Irritating

This is a post about my oldest and youngest. I'll start with the youngest first. ;)

Sarah is sleeping in a toddler bed...has been for several months. She is pretty good about staying in it. She doesn't get out at bedtime, but she will sit in bed and cry a complaint or two! She does get out in the middle of the night or in the early morning when she thinks it's time to get up. If it's after 6 AM, I'll lift her into the bed and let her snuggle up. Don't think I use "snuggle" casually. This girl will try to become one with you!

If I am about ready to get up anyway, I enjoy the moment. She is my baby, after all! I am soaking up as much of this lovin' as I can get! But I do fear that it will go too far and I will have a screaming child on my hands in the middle of the night. I'm always weighing the decision to let her in the bed.

Last night, she came in just before 2:30 AM. Yeah...that's a little too early for me. I carried her back to bed and covered her up (with 4-6 blankets) and then heard her saying, "Lee-Lee...Beka. Lee-Lee...Beka."

How sweet that she wanted her sisters! Thankfully, she fell back to sleep for another 4 hours. In a year or so, she will love being upstairs with the rest of the kids (and then there really be a party at bedtime)!

And now to my oldest...

I'm going to chalk this all up to the fact that he's eleven. This is mostly because I can't bear the thought that it's a personality flaw.

Anyway, Leah was practicing her spelling words for a spelling bee today and tomorrow. She was stuck on a word and just as she was getting it, Daniel spelled it as he walked out of the room. Grr. I wanted to whack him in the back of the head! I yelled after him, which I'm certain really had a lasting effect.

As the kids were heading out the door and I was encouraging Leah to spell a word on her way out, Daniel did it again! Does he intend to be rude or is it just coming naturally? We seem to be struggling with gaining a level of consideration. Luckily, my foot was too far away from his rear end.

My excuse du jour

Dear Fate,

I really wanted to be successful today. Since I've showered, eaten and have a load of laundry going, I guess I could call it good. But I had plans for a little more.

The problem is that you gave me a sick 2-year-old who kept me up all night and keeps saying "Up, please." It's not even 9 AM!

I may accomplish a bit more before I attempt another night of sleep, but just in case I don't I wanted you to know why.

Sincerely,
Arlyn aka Nurse-slave

P.S. Thank you for the beautiful sunny morning.

Curse that Independent Streak!

Sarah is keeping up with her siblings and is so helpful (even when I don't want help). She pulls things out of the dishwasher faster than I can put them away. And if she sees me reaching for something, she tries to beat me to it just to hand it to me.

If she starts on a job of her choice, she really does not appreciate anyone trying to help her finish it. (Hmmm...I wonder where she gets that?)

So today when she had a stinky diaper, I should have been expecting something Sarah-like. I was sewing (Halloween pj's) and didn't want my momentum disrupted. When she brought a diaper, but no wipes, I tried to get Joseph to go find them. Instead, Sarah went to get them herself. Since she was in the middle of pulling her little pink pants off, I thought it would take her a while to shuffle there and back.

Next thing I know, she's back, without her pants, but with a second diaper which she was trying to put underneath herself. Her onesie was unsnapped and...sticking to her backside! YUCK! That little stinker (oh yeah, that pun is TOTALLY intended) had removed her diaper and put it into the diaper pail.

Her hands had a little bit of poop on them, but her bum was pretty yucky. Into the tub she went for a straight-from-the-spout shower. That was a dirty (pun intended, again) way to get my attention. And she succeeded in getting me to empty her diaper pail!

Are we ready for toilet training? That would be lovely, since it's starting to travel around the house!

Little Parrot

Sarah is starting to talk.  As she just turned two, this may be an underwhelming announcement.  But it is a family tradition to be a little slow to start talking just before becoming a chatter box.  (Remember, Nathan didn't talk until he was THREE.)

Another family tradition is to resist help from others in learning to talk.  If someone tells you to say a certain word, the best response is grunt at them in a way that expresses they are bothering you.

Then there is Sarah.  She has been very willing to try new words suggested to her.  It is so cute to watch her (hypocritical) older siblings giving her talking lessons.  She has been such a good sport even if she hasn't been getting anywhere close to really saying anything. But she's good at getting enough syllables. 

Sarah say elephant.
Ba-ba-ba.
Good job!

In the past week or so, something in Sarah's brain has connected and the words are starting to form.  This, with her desire to speak has created an interesting echo in the house.  Now I hear a tiny voice trying to mimic the last word spoken in the conversations we have.

Let's put the clothes away.  Way?
It's time for lunch.  Unch?
Mommy, will you cut me a Halloween bat?  Baa?

What a fun time we are having and those little echos are etching smiles onto my heart! 

Sarah is TWO!

Sarah celebrated her second birthday two Saturdays ago and we all celebrated with her!

My cake decorating ambitions have suffered a bit and I'm almost embarrassed to show this one at all, but sometimes a gal just has to swallow her pride (and a bit of frosting). I give my thanks to Silhouette for helping me with this creation.


We actually celebrated a day early because we were spending Sarah's birthday on the road and at a family reunion in Utah. I didn't want to mess with cake and presents with a bunch of strangers that are related in some obscure way.


We found a park and whipped out the birthday cake. Sarah tried really hard to blow out her candles by herself. She had some help from behind.

It wasn't that help that she minded, but the help taking her candles out of the cake offended her a bit. Some things should be sacred!

As tradition dictates, our family gives the honor of cutting and giving out the cake to the birthday person. I'm not sure Sarah really understood this, but she wasted no time getting down to business! And then we took that cake mutilating tool away from her and got cake passed around the table.

Things quieted down a bit when everyone had their cake. We all got busy enjoying our treat. (I love taking pictures of Chad when he's making a strange face!)

Come on, Joseph! Don't get distracted!

Daniel is focused on his task and makes that cake disappear with little effort.

Here is a close-up of one of our resident jack-o-lanterns.

Once the cake was eaten, the party moved on to the entertainment: watching Sarah open her presents. She didn't take too long to figure out that there was a real reward for ripping off the wrapping paper. She was also motivated to get the job done before all the others who were sneaking in to try to help.

Sarah got two presents. One was a name blanket. It's yellow and white and has her name on it...hence the reason we call it a name blanket. Every one has one now. ;)

Here's the 2nd present. It's a baby that makes sucking sounds when the bottle gets near her mouth and then coos and giggles. There's something wrong with the fact that your three older brothers are trying to steal the very baby you're trying to bond with!

I got a lot of really cute pictures of Sarah with her new baby. I'll spare you and only share two.

Happy Birthday, Sarah! We love you so much!!

Rain Gutter Regatta

The cub scouts held a Rain Gutter Regatta this year.  This was the first regatta I've ever attended.  Chad said he'd never done one when he was in cub scouts.  Daniel just missed being a cub by 3 months.  Darn.

Anyway, Nathan sanded and painted a little boat and anticipated the event.  The weather was a little warm, so it was a good night to be outside and playing with water!

There are a few differences between a Rain Gutter Regatta and a Pinewood Derby.  The biggest difference was the lack of regulations.  There weren't any serious requirements to building the boats.  No one weighed or measured or qualified the boys' individual boats.  Some of them even had sails made from paper instead of the sail that came with the kit.  They had a rule that you couldn't touch the boat, but when they got stuck, someone usually reached in and freed the vessel for the sailor.  They did give first, second and third place, but I don't think that really represented the boats very well because the races weren't really monitored all that closely. (I don't know if these differences are specific to our pack, or if the regattas really are more just laid-back.)

Another difference in a regatta vs. a derby is that the boys have to do the work!  Gravity and a little skill in building a sleek race car are what make or break a winner.  In a regatta, a strong set of lungs is what really counts!  Unfortunately for Nathan, while he has a strong personality, he doesn't have much in the way of blowing strength.  He huffed and puffed out his cheeks with a steady determination.  I don't know how much
he filled his lungs to do that, though!

Nathan raced several times and got ahead several times, but life on the high seas still waters of a rain gutter can turn treacherous and snag a sail boat in an instant.  He lost more races that he won.

And he usually wasn't very happy about it.  Of course, a younger (7 yrs.) boy had come up to him before the races started and told him that his boat wasn't very good and he wasn't going to win.  That made him feel bad and he admitted that he didn't like that kid very much.  I felt the same!  Some people should teach their kids better manners so my kids don't have to feel so bad!

But Nathan did win sometimes and Chad caught one of those moments in motion.

(By the way, this movie wouldn't load in Internet Explorer, but only took 10 minutes or so in Google Chrome.  Glad to have options!)

And while the real sailors competed, there was a splash pool for the tiny sailors to keep busy in.  They even had little boats to sail.  Joseph really enjoyed himself.  (That little girl in the back is Ady.  Joseph says he'll marry her someday since he can't marry Sarah.)

And then there are little trouble makers like that little girl in the purple shirt.  She was the smallest one there and was getting everyone the wettest.

I don't think she was one bit sorry for it, either!!

Speech Lessons

Joseph has been trying to teach Sarah how to say "Cordelia" (the name of one of our little cousins).

Here is the break down for all of you who would also like to learn how to pronounce "Cordelia."

Ca - dillie - ah.

Poor Cadillieah, will you still like us when we make such a mockery of your name?