Go Hop On Pop

Alyssa always looks like I haven’t dressed her or done her hair, so I took a picture of her this morning to show everyone that she does get cleaned up everyday. At nap time she removes her hair thing, why I don’t know, and with her being potty trained she often takes herself potty and sometimes finds other clothes to put back on. Because she is being independent I try and let her have a little control over her clothing. She’s also discovered how to dress and undress herself so if you ever venture into our home you might find her naked. I’m hoping it’s a phase.

Soccer practice are on Monday nights for the next couple of months, so F.H.E. has been moved to Tuesday nights. Tonight being St. Patrick’s Day I decide to do a little craft with the kids. We got the kids all dressed in one of Dad’s big t-shirts and they had a blast. Alyssa cried and cried when her pot was all finished, she wasn’t ready to be done. Anyway, some pictures of the evening.

I’m having so much fun with online tutorials. I found an online tutorial here to make a cute blanket for the baby. Since we don’t know what the baby is I had to go neutral with my colors, but it was amazingly easy, and cheap, Joann’s sent me a bunch of coupons in my email this morning. They couldn’t have come at a better time. We weren’t planning on another baby so everything is gone for this new baby, but being my 5th baby I know what I really need, next on my list of online tutorials is going to be some burp cloths and bibs. I think I’m actually starting to get excited.

This morning a talented lady in our ward had a bag sewing class. This was really easy, and fun too, I think I’ll have to make one for each of my girls. I asked Danny if I made one with really masculine fabric if I could make one for Tanner, he said probably not, I just don’t want him to feel left out. Maybe he’d like a new pillow case. Anyway, right after this class, I drove down to a local bar to meet up with my family. Yep you read that correctly, a bar. These nice people were holding a fund raiser for our friends the Hamblins. It was actually pretty fun, they had some large trees (that were burned in a recent fire up at Tahoe) hauled to the parking lot and they held a chainsaw cutting contest. Nothing like mixing alcohol and power tools. It was all for a good cause. It was an interesting day though, starting out with Relief Society and ending at a bar.

Just had to show the lining on the inside.

I have noticed that our Family Home Evenings have been geared to our older kids, it seems like they naturally get more out of it. I was talking the other day about Nephi to my younger kids, and they weren’t familiar with the story that I was talking about and I realized that I have neglected to teach my little kids what I have taught my older kids. So back to basics for a little while for us. On Monday we had a lesson on Lehi’s dream and then we ran a string from one end of the house to the living room. We had done this with our older kids but not with Aubrey and Alyssa. Emma and Tanner enjoyed the review of the lesson and the little kids loved it. Alyssa is a little bit of a chicken and wouldn’t let us blind fold her or turn out the lights, so she just followed the string but the other kids loved trying to follow it in the dark and blind folded. It was a reminder to me to keep things simple.

The kids have been looking forward to our wards annual sledding party. I had them get all of their gear together last night, and we were out the door this morning by 7:45am. We stopped at Wal Mart to pick up another sled, somehow Aubrey has grown up on us and we didn’t notice, but she wanted to know where her sled was. In the past she has been content to share with the older kids. I’m so glad we stopped and got her a sled though. That kid went up and down probably 50 plus times. We made sure of her location, but she was off on her own. Emma and Tanner of course were off and gone on their own, so that left us with Alyssa to watch. Alyssa enjoyed it most of the time, and took turns going down with everyone, but then was pretty content just to hang out on the side with me. It looked like fun, but figured I should probably sit this year out. We all had a great time until Aubrey met a tree with her head. When I got to her I brushed some bark off her head, and she just wanted to go to the van she even refused a donut and hot chocolate. I’m thinking her pride was more bruised then her head. She is fine though!!! The snow was on the short side this year, and there was a lot more mud poking through then normal, but we still managed to enjoy ourselves.

Life is pretty calm right now. Nothing exciting to blog about, I guess that is good. Last night was the Blue and Gold Banquet. The leaders did a great job. I’m pretty much clueless when it comes to scouting, but trying to figure it all out. The boys dressed as a famous American. Tanner chose Orville Wright, and then they told a little about that person. Boys that age are so cute.
Let’s see on other news, Alyssa had her 2 year old check up. The doctor has referred us to a skin cancer specialist for her birth mark on her side. It has developed moles over the last two years. She also says her legs are twisted. She didn’t refer us to a specialist for this, but I’m thinking I might look into it a little more. The doctor said some kids are just twisted, and that wearing braces is embarrassing for kids, but if you’ve ever watch Alyssa walk, she’s pretty turned in and I’d like to see if there isn’t a simple way to fix this while she is young.
As for our weekends lately, we’ve been staying home and doing some work around here. We had a contractor special for a front yard, so we’ve been moving some plants from the front yard to the back yard this week, and I gutted Tanner’s room. His room looks so nice now, he ran up and gave me a hug and thanked me for doing this for him. I could tell it was bothering him. Clutter can really wear on your mind. Last weekend was so warm and delightful that I sent the kids out to clean up a winters worth of dog poo. You’ll have to look at the picture to see how excited they were to have been given this chore.

This Saturday we are are going to Tahoe to go sledding. I’m sure I’ll post picture from that later.

We went out with some friends today to do some geocaching. The kids love to gather trinkets from around the house to trade with the treasures they find in the boxes. We did some local caches, set out to find 4 of them, but only located 3 of them. It’s always a cheap fun activity that reminds me that it doesn’t take a lot of time or money to have a good time. Even Alyssa found a treasure this time, one of the caches had a little beaded bracelet that she fell in love with. She kept telling me to take a picture of her bracelet. Shay found a billion dollar bill, too bad it wasn’t real…



Emma had a friend sleep over last night, so today Tanner had lots of boy time. You can’t get a group of boys together without some sort of stick sword fight, can you?

These are the flowers Danny sent me for Valentines Day. He’s brought flowers home before, but never had them sent, he only gets better with age.

Grandma O’Barr sewed skirts for the girls. It started out as my project, but it was a little over my head, although I do think I could make one now. Anyway, I only had a pattern for Aubrey, but Grandma was able to manipulate it to make two more patterns for Emma and Aubrey. They turned out cute!

Poor Tanner, Friday was not his day. I took the kids to school and when they got out of the van Tanner realized he didn’t have his backpack. He had is Nintendo D.S. though… hmmm. Anyway, I was very patient, it’s not like I’ve never forgotten anything so home Tanner and I went to get his backpack. Now the poor boy was late so I had to unload the girls and walk them into the school so that I could sign Tanner into school, I was still being very patient considering I had somewhere I needed to be. So Tanner went to school and I took Aubrey to preschool.
When we got home from preschool I got a call from one of Tanner’s friends moms inviting Tanner to go with them after school to a movie. So I stepped into Tanner’s room to get away from the noise of the girls so that I could chat for a minute, and there sitting on Tanner’s floor is his homework. The same homework that at breakfast he had assured me was safe in his backpack. Hmmm, what to do with the forgetful boy? Tanner doesn’t care for writing he doesn’t mind coming up with things to write, but the physical act of writing drives him crazy. So I decided to have Tanner write me a paper on being responsible, funny boy, here’s his paper.
He was pretty upset that I made him write, I think I have found an effective punishment. I laugh at the part about him being able to have sweets… I don’t think I have ever told him no sweets as a punishment, I have threatened to serve nothing but broccoli for dinner before though.

Hiking with the Hamblins Sept. 2008

Emma and Devree camping May 2008

As many of you know our good friends here in Dayton have a daughter who has been diagnosed with a brain tumor, and it’s cancerous. If you want to read their story you can click on Devree on my blog.
Devree has had a huge impact on my Emma. When Emma was in Kindergarten she would sit with Emma on the bus and make sure she made it to her classroom safely. Devree is 5 years older then Emma but has always treated Emma as an equal. She has attended Emma’s birthday parties, and is never embarrassed about hanging out with little pipsqueaks, I think was her term of endearment for Emma and her friends.
Anyway, Devree has shaved her head for the radiation that she is currently undergoing, and wants a wig so Emma was very excited to donate her hair for this purpose. So today Emma got her hair cut and I just wanted to share the before and after pictures. I think she looks older, but very cute.