Happy Birthday Grandpa

Today is Grandpa-on-the-Island’s Birthday. He is called ‘Grandpa-on-the-Island’ because he is our Grandpa and he lives on an Island! How ‘bout that?! We don’t get the chance to see Grandpa that much, but when the kids are with him, it’s as if no time has passed, they all love him and want to be the one to sit by him. We sure miss you Grandpa, and hope we will get to see you soon. This morning Emeron said, “let’s surprise Grandpa and take him a cake for his birthday!” How I wish we could all hop on a plane, then a car, and then a ferry to come see you (and bring you a cake) today. We look forward to time we can spend with you soon. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!



Here are six of your grandkids; Farrell is trying to be taller than his sister so that is why he has that stretched-neck look. But David and Jacob are looking in the camera and smiling so it’s a winner! We love you!

Spring Snow

We have been enjoying beautiful spring weather here. We have stashed the winter coats and the kids have pulled out their shorts. Just last week when we were working in the yard Anna and Emeron ran outside with their swimsuits on ready to run through the sprinklers! Temperatures in the 60s remind us of warmer sunshine-ier days and I guess they just couldn’t resist. But today, we woke to this…..



Aaah, spring! ;) The good news is that the snow was gone by mid-day. Now we get to enjoy the mud.

Dumpster Dive

Another of Geoff’s “finds”! He brought home this little motorcycle, because it’s “fun for the kids.” :) Geoff and Farrell fixed it and now it runs like a (loud, smoking, choking) charm! Jacob calls it his ‘mo-cycle’ and just about everyday asks dad for a ride. Ems and Anna also love rides. Abby and Farrell can handle it themselves and Geoff rides it with his knees on his chest.

Happy Face

Snake

Spring springs slithery snakes in our back yard – something the boys think is pretty cool! The girls, not so much cool – unless it is at a distance. :)

Plant Your Rows Straight and Long

We tilled up the garden and got it ready for planting last Monday. Geoff has taught our kids all about planting and caring for a garden.
We’re startin’ ‘em young!!



We have planted the peas so far. It sure can be hard work – here are our ‘sweet peas’ all tuckered out!
I think they are already dreaming of eating the peas.

Fuselage

Does it look like my kids are playing in a piece of junk? Oh no! Not junk, but an old broken up fuselage from an airplane – yes, the kids have their own real ‘airplane’ in their backyard that will take them anywhere they can imagine….. The possibilities are endless. And, I suppose with all the fun they have with the airplane, I could start to see it as ‘fun for the kids’ instead of a huge ‘eye-sore’. :)

Cousins

Both Geoff and I love the memories we have of playing with our cousins when we were young. We always looked forward to get-togethers. Our children are the same. There is a special bond between cousins and it is fun to see friendships develop…. When we get together, these two are inseparable.
Seth and Ems.

Surprise Egg

We went to our City Egg Hunt at 9:00 am ‘sharp’ last Saturday morning. We always go telling the kids not to worry if they get only one egg because it’s always so packed with kids – that way there is no disappointment. They each ended up with a couple of handfuls and had a fun time in the 6.5 seconds it took to clear the lawn. The City had candy and local business freebee coupons in the eggs. The kids were all enjoying their loot when Abby noticed a sad little girl who didn’t even get one egg. Touched by the spirit of compassion, Abby went up to the girl and gave her one of her prizes from her basket. Then she came back and was looking through her stuff again and found an egg she hadn’t noticed before. The prize inside this one was a gift certificate for $25 to open a savings account at a nearby credit union. (As it turns out there were only 2 of the mentioned gift certificates given at this egg hunt, and our Abs got one of them.) We attribute her good fortune to her genuine kindness to others!!

Lucky Me

We love traditions. One of which is to make the biggest deal out of every holiday we possibly can. St. Patrick’s Day is in the running, for the kids, of one of their favorites (one of the 12 favorites, that is.) We eat green food, we wear green clothes, we seek out those not wearing green and pinch them, we relish in green-ness, we spend green, we go green, we get gold coins, we feel lucky, we enjoy another holiday tradition.



Anna came home from school today and said, “They won’t let us pinch anyone at school anymore. It’s not fair! Other schools get to pinch and we don’t. My teacher had green paper shamrocks for anyone who wasn’t wearing green to wear so they wouldn’t get pinched.” Can you imagine - I’m guessing that St. Patrick’s Day is not on the list of favorites for school teachers….. :) I know that it is not on Geoff’s favorite list either, “do we have any mashed potatoes that aren’t green?” and “no thank you, I’ll pass on the green milk.” It’s all in good fun, right?

Anna Lost a Tooth

Annalyn lost her first tooth this past weekend. She loved having a loose tooth, but when it came to actually loosing the loose tooth, well, the drama came out in full force. But she is okay with it now and it has become a conversation piece with everyone she talks to. “I lotht a tooth!” She sure looks cute with that missing tooth!



Just a little side note: I added pictures of the kids to the left on this blog and the first four kids are easy to take pictures of, but when it came to Jacob and David…. (especially Jakes) I think I took 20 times as many pictures and those were the best that I could come up with. I guess they do show a little of their personality - Jacob loves to eat and David is a juicy drooler! I'll keep working on it. :)

Fiddler on the Laundry Basket

The girls find various ways to keep their violin practice interesting and on occasion, when the weather is nice they may practice outside sending their lovely music throughout the neighborhood. Today, however, Anna found that the laundry basket full of clothes made a perfectly comfortable spot to sit for a moment while practicing her violin. Daddy walked in from work and said, “Hey, it’s the Fiddler on the Laundry Basket!” I wondered if this would become a ‘tradition’ for her. I also wondered if when she finished, she might do a little ‘match-making’ with the socks in that very laundry basket!

Lesson Learned

The other night we went to Temple Square, Joseph Smith Memorial, and the Church Museum. We got an early start and rode Trax for the kids (mainly Jacob, who absolutely loves trains.) We had a great time, the older kids really enjoyed the Joseph Smith movie and the younger kids loved all the hands-on stuff at the I Am A Child of God exhibit in the Museum.

As we walked around there were a number of people who made casual comments like, “Boy, you sure have your hands full!” or “You must be really busy!!” and “Are those all yours?” and my favorite, “what well-behaved children!” ;) And all the while I couldn’t help but agree with them as my heart would near burst with gratitude for every one of the little spirits that keep my ‘hands full’ and keep me ‘really busy’ every day!

At about dinner time however, we proposed a choice to the kids; “would you rather eat at The Garden Restaurant now or go to the museum and then get fast food later?” They ended up choosing the museum first and fast food later so by the time we finally got to our car to go eat it was about 8:30 pm – 3.5 hours after the kids’ usual dinner time. So, let’s see, all of our 'well-behaved' cuties melted as soon as we got to our car at the end of the night and we had.… 1 crying baby + 1 crying toddler + 2 whining four and six year olds + 2 grouchy eight and ten year olds = never give kids an option of their dinner time. Lesson learned. :)

Suzuki Graduation

The Suzuki Violin Graduation is always in February and this year Abby graduated from Book 4, playing Concerto in A Minor, 1st Movement by Vivaldi. (They ‘graduate’ by completing a number of songs in a book, usually the last piece, but not always.) I think the smile on Abby’s face in this photo says how she feels to be moving on! :) As they would say in Japan, “gokorosama!” Or, in other words: keep up the good work!

What About Emeron

The other day Emeron was standing by my side as I was at the computer and said, “what about Emeron?” He was wondering why there were no pictures of Emeron on the computer screen, as he saw pictures of David, Jacob, Anna, Farrell and Abby, but no Emeron. So this post is your spotlight!

There is a little bit of me that feels sorry for Ems on occasion, especially when he says, “What about Emeron?” I remember a while back, my Mom was talking about who was giving whom Christmas presents and Emeron was by her side listening for his name. When he didn’t hear his name he said to Grandma, “What about Emeron?” She quickly said, “oh, yes, Karen gives Emeron!” On another occasion, Emeron was playing with his cousin Seth at his Grammy’s house and Seth was looking at a some of his own pictures and a look came over Emeron that has become a little too familiar lately saying, “What about Emeron?” Grammy quickly said, “let’s get Emeron's photo album” Ems beamed and enjoyed looking at page after page of pictures of himself. :)

• Emeron is a great kid! He has big dark eyes and dark lashes and light hair.
• He is the fourth child and four years old. He is happy and kind.
• Emeron is super smart! He is ready to read as he knows his letters, sounds and is blending well.
• He loves boy-ish stuff, he doesn’t want anything to do with pink. We have a pair of ‘magenta’ gloves and if he ever gets stuck with them, he always says to me, “these aren’t pink, they are red, huh!”
• He loves anything Star Wars and is known to hum the theme-song regularly.
• The first thing Emeron does when he wakes up is he will walk up to me and just stand and look at me until he gets a hug and hears me say “did you wake up?” after which he looks to see if Jacob is awake.
• Ems is a very thoughtful, caring and compassionate boy. When given a snack, he always makes sure he gets some for Jacob. (Maybe he found this was easier, rather than having Jacob snatch some - as Jacob would.)
• He loves to give his baby brother David kisses. He sings to him and loves the feedback of ‘coos’ and smiles.
• Em is very imaginative and loves to pretend. He can’t wait for Anna to get home from kindergarten so he can play ‘the other baby game’ with her.
• He also loves to dress up – with his favorite as BATMAN, a COWBOY or a BAD-GUY. Recently he likes to pretend with a ukulele and a microphone while listening to Ryan Shupe.

• There isn’t anyone who can get Emeron to laugh like Fare, he loves to rough-house and be silly with his older brother.
• When looking for comfort however, Emeron will often go to his older sister Abby, for she will help him with anything. She is always making his day.
• His all time favorite thing is to listen to stories Daddy tells. Daddy is Emeron’s #1 favorite person afterall.

How about that Ems? – a super long post all about YOU!! We love you Emeron!!

Flip Flop

Regarding the title….Is it about Politics? No. Cute comfortable summer sandals? Nope. It's all about our baby DAVID!! He flip-flops all over the place and thinks it’s pretty neat. He loves to reach and hold things in his Velcro-like hands. David is almost 5 months old.

Will You Be Mine

I have been the luckiest girl to have a sweetheart Valentine like Geoff!! Thanks for being mine - I love you! Happy Valentines Day! I love it that Geoff gives me flowers and I love receiving them!! XOXO This weekend we will celebrate our 13-year anniversary. The years keep getting better and better!



For valentines this year, in lieu of sugar cookies and frosting, we went easy-gourmet and made chocolate dipped strawberries and gourmet rice-krispie treats… can rice-krispie treats be gourmet? Sure, cut them diagonally and drizzle a little melted chocolate over them, walla! Gourmet. We had a valentines dinner at home with the family and I tried to make it noticeably valentine-ish by pulling out special dishes with the glass goblets to drink from. I paid so much attention to detail as to even have heart shaped ice cubes in the glasses – to which only Abby and Anna really cared about. Love you girls!!

We have another tradition of something we call ‘kick-a-valentine’ that stems from when I was a child and my Mom would go from the front door to the back door and then the front door and so on leaving treats and valentines for us. We would run from the front to the back giggling and finding prizes at each door repeatedly. We love that tradition, and love it that Grandma still does it – for the grandkids. I wonder, however, why we called it ‘kick’-a-valentine? Did we used to kick the doors as we would drop valentines and run? Now, thankfully we drop valentines then ‘ring’ and run.

Proud to be a Cub

Farrell is so proud to finally be in the Cub Scout program. He wears his shirt every week to school and buttons it to the top, even when I suggest otherwise. You see, he likes to look 'sharp'. Can everyone give Farrell 'a big hand' for being enthuiastic about scouts?!

Catching Colds and Zzzzz's

We have done a lot of resting and sharing this last week…. sharing fevers and sore throats, that is. Monday Jacob started acting like he was not feeling well and came down with a fever (peaked at 104), earache and sore throat, next it was Emeron with the same symptoms, then came Abby-who didn’t want to-but did anyway, and then our little David without even knowing it found himself congested. Farrell decided today that he missed out on the sharing and joined in as well. As far as the kids go, Annie is the only one who didn’t participate in on this bout of sickness. Lucky girl. A look on the bright side however, we only had one co-pay and one prescription to fill! Enough of the sharing, now for the resting part….Look at this funny picture of Jacob, he found a warm and cozy hide-out under David’s crib to relax and catch a few “Z’s”.



I think it’s so funny how when all the kids have tried to forego naps, end up crashing in the most unlikely places to rest. I remember Farrell falling asleep on the pack porch, cheek against cold cement and all. Just last week Jacob fell asleep snuggled up on the kitchen rug. Then there are all the times they fall asleep during meals and while playing with toys. It seems they are sleep deprived and exhausted. Wait, that's me. ;)

In Memory....

President Gordon B. Hinkley’s 6 B’s….

Be Grateful. “Walk with gratitude in your hearts. Be thankful for the wonderful blessings which are yours. Be grateful for the tremendous opportunities that you have. Say thank you. Express appreciation to everyone who does you a favor or assists you in any way. Thank the Lord for His goodness to you.”

Be Smart. “The Lord wants you to educate you minds and hands, whatever your chosen field. Seek for the very best schooling available. Become a workman of integrity in the world that lies ahead of you.”

Be Clean. “Avoid evil talk. Don’t waste your time in destructive entertainment. Be Clean. ‘Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the spirit of God dwelleth in you?’ (1Cor 3:16).

Be True. “Be loyal to the Church under all circumstances. I make you a promise that the authorities of this Church will never lead you astray. They will lead you in paths of happiness… Be true to your own convictions. You know what is right and you know what is wrong. Be loyal. Be faithful. Be true.”

Be Humble. “The Lord has said, ‘Be thou humble; and the Lord thy God shall lead thee by the hand, and give thee answer to thy prayers’ (D&C 112:10) I believe the meek and the humble are those who are teachable. They are willing to learn. They are willing to listen to the whisperings of the still small voice for guidance in their lives. They place the wisdom of the Lord above their own wisdom.”

Be Prayerful. “You need his help, and you know that you need His help. Get on your knees and thank Him for His goodness to you and express to Him the righteous desires of your hearts. The miracle of it all is that He hears. He responds. He answers--not always as we might wish He would answer, but there is no question in my mind that He answers.”