All dressed up for the Primary Western Hoe-down Party Do we look convincing?

Poo; a family home evening discussion.

Olivia has been very interested lately in where toilet water goes once we flush the toilet. So, I asked Jaron if he could give us a little lesson on water for family night last Monday night. The lesson, though filled with lots of information and a few difficult concepts, was a huge success with the kids. Normally we have to coax them into paying attention to our lessons by using lots of pictures, enthusiastic voice inflections, and flailing our arms and limbs around like big baboons to get them to pay attention, but not for this lesson. Jaron sat coolly on the couch as he explained where toilet water goes, how it is treated, and how hydrology works.

The word poo and pee were used a lot, which kept Warner enthralled. Finally! A lesson he can relate to.

A few favorite moments during the lesson were:

1. When Jaron was explaining the process of water evaporating into the air and becoming vapor, Liv said, "But water can't fly!" But vapor can, exclaimed Jaron.

2. My favorite part of the lesson, by far, is when Jaron was talking about what happens to the poo- water at the S.T.P (sewage treatment plant) also known as "the poo factory". Liv was absolutely disgusted when Jaron explained that the poo-water is cleaned by little bacteria that eat the poo. Her eyes widened, and she through back her head, covered her mouth, and whilst gasping yelled "But why!".

All the while Warner is chanting "Yea, eat poo. They eat the poo. They eat the poo!"

After Jaron explained the hydro logic cycle to us, showed us where our closest poo factory was on google earth, and demonstrated evaporation/precipitation with a pot of boiling water the lesson was over. While he shoved a sugar doodle in his mouth, we asked Warner what he learned from the lesson and he happily exclaimed "Poo is sunny!"

So there you have it folks. Poo is sunny.

The Primary Program

Dear Olivia,

I'm sorry the pictures of you are blurry, because they don't do any justice for how cute and nice you looked on Sunday. That's what I get for trying to take pictures as we are frantically heading out the door to try to be early to church.

Last Sunday, we had our primary program, which is by far, almost always, my favorite sunday of the year. Now that you are in primary, it is even more fun for me to anticipate and watch.  Especially since you love to sing. And today in the program, I want you to know that you sang so beautifully. You worked hard to memorize the words to the songs, and you were fearless as your voice carried the beautiful messages in the primary songs high above the chapel walls.

You were quite a site to behold as you sang song after song so boldly and so courageously. You know just how to sing loud, but not shout. It amazes me how your little four year old body can produce such a huge sound.  When the Br. Hinkley on the organ, and the congregation joined us to sing the third verse to Praise to the Man, we could still hear your voice, loud and clear, above the entire congregation, the organ, and the primary!

As your Dad and I watched you from the congregation our emotions teetered between tears and laughter. We felt so proud of you.

Many people came up to me after the primary program, just like they did last year, and said that they just loved listening to you. Many told me that you have natural talent and that I should encourage you to keep singing all the days of your life.

Some have asked me how it is that you have come to sing so well? You have always enjoyed learning the primary songs. And you worked on them everyday in the back of the van as we ran errands and you listened to the music, but you always did this on your own. Music is something you just love, and you are never afraid to share your talents. In fact, you really seem to love being in the spotlight.


Remember this video I posted when you were only 2 years old?


You have been singing ever since you discovered your voice. One of your favorite things to do get into one of your dress ups and clean things with wet wipes around the house as you sing all sorts of made up songs. 

I want you to know that after the program was over, one our primary teachers came up to me and said "Jessica, that little girl of yours is going to do well in life", and it made me cry.
 
I love you Liv. I'm so grateful that you are so brave and fearless with the talents God has given you. Some days you are just down right stubborn and sassy with me, and it wears me out, but I think even those qualities will one day help you to be a good girl.

Keep on singing Liv.

Love,

Mom

Ellensburg

Last Monday night the kids and I drove down to Ellensburg, a little town a few hours west of here, to visit Jaron, who was doing some field work on a river there.  The drive down was so beautiful. I loved all the changing leaves. We could see mount Rainier reaching up to the sky, bright and beautiful.  We passed lots of lazy rivers, ponds, and lakes reflecting back the beautiful fall leaves into the sky. It was quite a site.

The kids had a blast playing at the hotel, eating pizza, swimming in the indoor pool, and playing at parks in Ellensburg. Even though we only got to see a very exhausted Jaron for a few hours, it was a fun little trip.  Here are some pictures I took at the Yakima river, where we stopped to eat lunch on the way home the next day.

Buster babe is 4 months old.

 The paint on his nose is from an FHE activity.

Isn't it a relief and a realization of blessings when you walk away from the doctor with a healthy, happy, nicely developing little baby in your arms? Albeit a little teary from having shots. After waiting in the waiting room for 20 minutes, then waiting in the doctors room for another 20 minutes, the doctor comes in and does his assessment of the babe, which usually takes about 10 minutes tops.  

I like our pediatrician. He's a great guy. He's bald. He's got a big smile. He always wears bow ties, and he does his job. He is also very positive. Or maybe that's just because my children are healthy, but either way inevitably whenever he gets done assessing my kids he always exclaims to me, "Well done mom! Wow! Your doing a great job! Congratulations! He's a healthy, happy little boy!" And he shakes my hand with a big firm grasp and gives me a big, huge, happy smile.


Inevitably whenever the doctor says this, I think two things, I think to myself:
1.I'm so grateful my child is healthy and happy
and
2.Do I really have to pay $20 dollars every few months to hear that?
Really though, it makes me feel so good to know he's healthy, and I guess he does get his shots to protect him from all those crazy diseases out there. Although even then, my neighbor just informed me that they actually put fetuses in some of the shots. Seriously? Is that true. I'm rambling. Ok on to Buster.


Here's is the latest and greatest on my 4 month old babe:


*He spends the majority of his time eating/pooping/sleeping/cooing/snuggling/and spitting up (so, incidentally, I spend most my time doing laundry). 

*He loves to kick his legs really hard when dad walks in the door, or when Mom is going to pick him up, or when Olivia comes over to give him a piggy noise.

*He kicks his legs around Warner too, but more out of nervousness than joy.


*He coos and responds so wonderfully. He even laughs on occasion when he is really happy. 

*He gets giddy in the bath and sometimes after he has eaten. It's almost like he is a sort of a drunk-like giddy, with squeals of delight. It is so cute.


*When I put him on speaker phone with dad, he knows how to respond to Jaron's voice. He doesn't even interrupt.  He simply waits for Jaron to stop talking and lets out his little coos when Jaron is done.


*He is warming up to tummy time, but gets sick of it after about 8 minutes. Its a work in progress.


*One of his favorite sources of entertainment is his own hands. He loves to find them, and has not yet discovered that they belong to him. It is so cute to watch his hands fly past his face and his eyes light up in amazement. Then it happens again and again. He thinks he has scored big time when he can actually catch his hands with his mouth and that makes him really happy. I wonder when he will figure out that he can do that whenever he wants to.


*Another favorite thing that Buster likes, is when we flutter our hand over his mouth while he coos. He loves the noise that makes. It is so cute to watch him play with the different fluctuations in his voice.


*He really loves watching his brother and sister play. His eyes will follow them as they run from here to there and everywhere around the room. They love him equally.


*Warner especially loves to sit next to Buster in the double stroller when we go for walks while Liv rides her bike. I think they will be great buddies when Buster grows up a little.


*Olivia loves having a real-life little baby around to help take care of. She helps to cover him up when he is cold, feed him a bottle when he is hungry, and grab me endless amounts of burp cloths from upstairs when I'm feeding him.  She is most helpful and sweet. I'm sure she will be a great little Momma one day.

Gangsta BB

Shots from Summer

TUMMY TIME

A month ago, you could say that tummy time was not his favorite thing.

( Maybe saying "its not his thing" was an understatement.)

But now, I think he's starting to like it a little.

Yay Boyd! Look at that little neck holding up that huge noggin.

Who wouldn't struggle with those kinds of proportions? 

My favorite thing to do these days is squish these thighs.

And this double chin.

Happy Wednesday to you!

Square foot gardens meet large appetites.

My papa loved to garden. Or so I hear. I don't really remember that about him because he passed away when I was seven years old, but because of this knowledge of him loving to garden, I have secretly always wanted to learn how to garden. So, this year Jaron built us some beautiful square foot gardens.

We each got a box.
Liv planted, potatoes, strawberries, mint, cilantro, and carrots.

I planted, alysums, carrots, strawberries, potatoes, and basil (which never graced us with its presence)


Jaron planted some peas (which were the happiest little plants), tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, and strawberries. Though the one tomato that ended up growing I think got stolen by a squirrel. Darn squirrel.

Jaron's peas won the award for the fastest growing and most fruitful plant.
Liv's box in general wins the award for best growth and best carrots.
My box gets the award for the most obnoxious mint plant. Why the heck did I plant two of those? Those things spread and grow like crazy. And how often does one seriously use mint? Not that often it turns out. Need some mint anyone? Come on over and pick some.

Warner actually didn't get his own box this year. We didn't feel that a two year old was capable of taking care of his own box quite yet. Maybe next year. But he did help with the harvesting. He definitely wins the award for eating the most green strawberries. Poor strawberries, they never had a chance to turn red with Warner's hawk eyes, and big mouth. Chomp chomp.

Here's what we learned through the whole process:
If planting basil, use a starter.
Maybe try planting peas next year that you don't have to de-shell.
Plant more strawberries to keep up with Warner's appetite.
Less mint.
Sprinkle Red Cayenne Pepper all over soil to keep pesky neighbor cats from turning your gorgeous garden into a liter box.
 Potatoes are the funnest plant ever for kids and for the belly. Harvesting potatoes is like digging for gold, except way easier and less economically enhancing. My kids had so much fun sticking their hands in the airy dirt to search and find one big delicious looking potato after the other.

So, gardening friends. What gardening tips do you have to share? 

Love is in the air

Olivia has discovered something wonderful about Buster. He loves piggie noises. She found this out, through trial and error. She was of course performing a miryiad of silly noises, and got held up on her little snort when Buster started to laugh. She then repeated it over and over again, all the while Buster laughed and grinned.


A few days ago Jaron was sitting on our family room couch doting on the babe, when Liv came running by. J asked Olivia if she could go upstairs and brush her teeth to get ready for bed. She replied that she indeed would, "but first", she said, looking at Buster, and taking his hands in hers, "I will give you a piggy noise, because I know you like that. . . .snort".  A wide grin spread across Buster's face, followed immediately by a giggle.


I hope Buster can refer back to this blog one day when they are teenagers and going at it as siblings sometimes do, and remember how much his sister really does love him. After all it takes a lot of love to figure out which noises and silly things make your siblings laugh.