Back to School

Kensi and Simeon getting ready for their lovely 45 minute bus ride. It will actually probably be Kensi's favorite part of the day as she gets to sit next to her friend. I hope Simeon decides to make friends or gets really good at entertaining himself as that is a lot of time to be sitting on a bus.
School at home for Salem...with the other kids in public school I'm really looking forward to being able to focus on Salem and how he learns (auditory and kinesthetic like his dad) We used clay to make the spelling words and lots of manipulatives for math already this morning. We play catch while chanting math facts and spelling and it really helps him remember better. Sometimes he is overshadowed by the domineering (ie bossy) personalities of his older sister and younger brother so this will be some nice time to develop his skills and confidence as well as just get to understand him better.
Asher will do preschool at home, and boy is he excited about it. Give this kid some paper, crayons, scissors, and glue stick and he will seriously entertain himself for hours! He loves writing his name too.
And Thaddeus will keep us on our toes by demanding attention at the most inconvenient times but then he will smile and giggle and we really won't mind too much!

Before and After

So, every once in awhile I have to look back at where we've been to realize how far we've come. A little over a year ago the basement was just a dirt floor open carport and we had no siding on the house at all. Now, this little bench on this brick patio is my favorite relaxing spot. Its great for watching stars, looking at the mountains, reading a book, or even watching the kids as they play in the yard or jump on the tramp. And it still isn't even close to finished. We're getting ready to seed some grass in front and then imagine some window boxes on the 2 middle windows, some hanging baskets on each side of the overhang, a little wrought iron bistro table with 2 chairs over in front of the door, a few half barrels and some cool ceramic pots with beautiful scented flowers in them...are you getting the vision? I have a tiny lilac start planted off to one side and a wild rose on the other. I want to plant a mock orange as well and make it into a little scent garden where I can just sit and inhale all those intoxicating fragrances.

I'm already excited for spring again but I've got to wait through the entire winter. Sometimes things just take much longer than I would like.

Then and now...

Abe and I celebrated our 11th anniversary and it was one of the best we've had. We didn't even go overnight because Thaddeus still nurses quite a bit but we did spread out the celebration over 2 days. On Friday night we went to dinner and saw the Time Traveler's Wife. It was entertaining and a nice love story; I still need to read the book. Then on Saturday, we dropped the kids off in PG where Abe's brother and his wife watched the kids for the day. We went to the rec center where Abe taught me to play raquetball and then we swam in the pool for awhile. I love swimming and just floating on my back and relaxing but when you always have small children with you I'm always helping/holding them so it was nice to actually swim instead of just supervise. Then we had a fabulous lunch at a local Mexican restaurant, after which we spread out a blanket under a nice shade tree at the park and napped, and talked, and cuddled for a few hours. It was great! Check out those photos! Can you believe how much 11 years can age a person? What is a scary thought is that in another 11 years Kensi will be 21, which is how old I was when Abe and I got engaged. Its strange how some days it can seem like we've been married an eternity already and other days it seems like we were just married yesterday so how on earth can we have a 10 year old as well as 4 other kids? Some days I worry I'll wake up and be in my 80's and wonder what I did with my life. How can it go by so fast?

Story Time

So is anyone else's brain so fried by bedtime that they can't put together a coherent sentence, let alone come up with some kind of clever bedtime story? So I ask my kids to tell me stories instead :-) Asher was being especially cute tonight and I managed to record one. Here it is with the transcript (for those not well versed in Todder-ese).

"Once upon a time, uh, somebody decided…um…I’m gonna tell a different story.
Rock monsters were in a Superman cave and they killed all the Supermans in there,
but then they walked into a different cave that was called Spiderman and they killed all the Spidermans. And, uh, they found bikes and they wanted to keep them and the mother said he can keep ‘em. And…uh…uh…that’s the end."

The story he told me before was much longer and was about dragons and finding gold but I guess he got bored of that one. Its a good thing kids are so entertaining since I have no time or money left for much of any other kind of entertainment.

Salem's Baptism

Today was Salem's baptism. Sometimes I forget how spiritual baptisms can be. It was a really nice ceremony with some great friends and family. We had a nice luncheon at our house afterwards (a good excuse to make fruit pizza again--man I love that stuff!) Salem is very obedient and kind-hearted and especially empathetic and loving of those around him. I'm so excited to continue watching him learn and grow. This is a little video montage I put together that we played while he and Abe were changing into dry clothes. Isn't he a handsome little tyke? Enjoy! (for some reason the music doesn't repeat like its supposed to. Oh well. I'm still trying to figure out all these technological wonders)