Squirrel-isms continued...

Last week, I told the girls that their room had to get cleaned up, big time.  It was such a mess, huge, gigantic practically falling out of the door messy.  Well, after a bit of grumbling, Nutmeg went in and took care of most of it, while Squirrel was the errand runner.  This is typically how it works during clean up, Squirrel just can't figure out how to deal with big messes.  Even Nutmeg was challenged by this one, but they prevailed and got it back to a somewhat passable state, not clean by my standards, but much improved.  They have also divided the room into sections, and Nutmeg tries really hard to make sure that Squirrel cleans her part.  However, Squirrel's way of cleaning her section looks more like shoving everything under her bed, into the closet, under her pillow, or into her drawers.  After she stated that she was done, I quizzed her about those areas, and she grinned sheepishly, and I told her that she had better go back and try again, or that I'd be coming in there with a garbage sack at some point in the near future.  I knew I couldn't do it that day, so I told her it would be with in the next three days that I would do it unless she got to it first.  Of course, she didn't choose to go do it right then, she wanted to go play.  I mentioned it again the next day, and she just smiled like she didn't really believe me, and off she went to play some more.  Well, the next day I decided that I had time to tackle that room, and told her that during naptime, I was going in.  She looked at me and said,

"Well, just don't throw away my journal, okay?  Those are really important."

And off she went to play in the snow.  I am sure glad she knows what is really important.  :)  And now there is actually room in her bed for her to sleep.  And she can find the important stuff (like her journal) in her drawers, since I cleaned them out for her.  I took out a kitchen sized garbage bag full of papers and other things that she generally insists that she can't live without.  Boy she sure made us laugh around here at that one though, what a fun girl she is, so glad we have her!

Nutmeg's piano recital and other artistic achievements

The other night, Nutmeg had a piano recital.  It was such a fun evening, but boy was she nervous!  She did fabulous though, I recorded it, so here it is.  Hopefully, it turned out.

She is turning into quite the pianist.  I love listening to her play.

She has tons of artistic talent that I'm blown away by, especially since I struggle to even draw stick figures.  Here are a few of the paintings she's done recently in the art class that I finally convinced her to take.

She's so funny, she was very reluctant to take the class, not feeling very comfortable with someone that she doesn't know.  Each week I'd ask her if she was enjoying it, and she would be really casual in her answer.  Not a lot of excitement at all.  Most weeks she would say, "I already knew how to do...what ever it was they learned."  But although she knew how to do it, she didn't always know why you do it.  So, I think it was good for her, and I think she's excited to start the next class in January.  

Waterlily

autumn tree

Moab?  Looks like Southern Utah anyway.

My favorite-a tree in bloom.  

Can I just say how interesting and sometimes challenging it is to home school a child who is so different than me?  She is so creative, and loves to make things beautiful, I am far more practical in the way that I approach things, that trying to find the best ways to help her learn are really trying on me at times.  But, she is coming along so wonderfully and it is so fun to see her very unique self coming out.  I can't believe she's 11 already.  Wow.  Love you Nutmeg!

The many faces of Apple

What a whole lot of fun this little girl is.  She cracks us up daily.  She talks up a storm, which is so nice since I haven't had a baby do that since Ginga was a baby, the other three took their own sweet time developing their languages skills.  She will pretty much attempt any word you ask her too, unless there is a stranger watching, then she plays mute.  Here are a few of our favorite looks from her.

 Here's a close up of that funny scowl that Rock taught her how to do. She will go from big smiley face to scowl in a second, just because she thinks it funny.

Here is the scowl in a variety of phases.  It's been really hard to capture this look, but it's so funny that I am glad I did, great to remember.

Super happy baby!

She likes sour cream, sometimes. 

She loves to wear an old necklace of mine as a crown.  It's been officially added to the play items of the house.  So cute.

Here she is becoming a concert pianist. 

Halloween 2013

We don't really love Halloween around here.  Shocker to many, I know, but, in the years of being a parent I've come to wonder what good it really is.  I mean, really-spooky scary decorations, tons of time and/or money preparing a costume, tons of candy to make your kids super hyper and rot their teeth.  And then when you read into the history of the holiday itself, well, less than to be desired.  This year we went and spent the evening with another like minded family friend who also doesn't get into it all, but has some fun traditions that we had fun being involved in.  Here's some pictures:

I'm not exactly what Nutmeg was, pioneer, or baker woman?

Squirrel decided to be a flower girl, she looked for everything flowery in our house.

They also bobbed for apples, ate donuts off of a string, and hit a pinata.  I know I said I don't like the candy thing, but..there wasn't very much inside, and we had something around 16 kids there, so the ratio was very manageable.  :)

Nutmeg really wanted to do this, but was super concerned about how truly sanitary bobbing for apples actually is, so requested first go.  Funny girl.

Ginga had no problem getting his apple, we didn't plan very well getting a big cooler clean for this activity, my friend and I were having too much fun chatting earlier in the day, we were lucky to get dinner on!  Love her!

That bowl is almost as big as she is!

Of course, Rock wouldn't do any of the other activities.  Big surprise.  I'm glad he did this one though, I got him on camera, because he can't see that I'm taking it!

Apple really wasn't very sure about the whole night, but daddy did his best to get her in on the action.  She is one cautious little lady.  I've discovered that it takes her about two hours to warm up to new surroundings when we go places.  That's a lot of lap time on mom.  :)

It was a fun night, we adults had fun at the end playing the game headbandz, pretty fun trying to figure out what our names were!  Thanks to our good friends, it was a great evening, I'm so glad they moved back from Hungary!  Love you guys!

Where does the time go!

I really don't know how time seems to go by so quickly.  I think time is speeding up, either that, or I just have a very full life with a lot going on!  So, for a few updates.

Here my boys are at an Order of the Arrow event.  So cool that they get to do this.  I actually don't really know what they are doing, but Mr. T assures me that it was fabulous and they both remembered their parts pretty well.  This was just in October, up at Camp Kiesel.  They had pretty good weather, and they have recruited several of their homeschool friends, so they have a pretty good time when they are there.

Don't they look awesome!?

The biggest event in Apples' life right now is this:

If you guessed that she's sitting on a little potty, then you're right!  She is 20 months old and thinks that she should use a potty.  She is pretty good about it too.  I am rather surprised and unsure what to do with one that will train without any treats or incentives.  Since I took this picture,  just a few days ago, she has decided that she prefers using the big potty like everyone else.  She just seems to young though, but I guess it's best to seize the moment when they want it! She requires so much more assistance though than an older baby.  For example, she doesn't understand that she shouldn't shred the toilet paper, or play in the toilet.  Typically I always keep the bathroom door shut to avoid some of those messes, but with her wanting to train, I kind of have to leave it open.  Also, she always want to wash her hands, always.  Drives me crazy!  And then I thought, ugh, what about when she wakes up in the mornings?  She's still in a crib, and there is no way I am putting her in a big bed yet.  Just not doing it.  I'm not fast enough in the mornings to get to her and help her so she just gets mad that she's going in her diaper.  Sigh..oh well.  I guess we have some messes in our future.  :)

Rock has turned into quite the chef around here.  He has really decided that cooking is kind of fun.  Here he is making Lembas bread.  It's pretty tasty.  If only it actually kept you full as long as it does in The Lord of the Rings.  Just think of what I could do with all that time I usually spend preparing meals.  :)  

Apple loves feeding her siblings, once she's full of course.  It doesn't really matter what it is, as long as they open their mouths.  Here she is helping Ginga eat popcorn during conference.  She got to the point that she was grabbing fistfuls and shoving them in his mouth, and then grabbing another in the other hand and trying to shove it in before he'd even had a chance to begin chewing the first fistful!

On Constitution day, we went to the park where there were several booths about the beginnings of America.  Ginga and a couple of his friends were in charge of the Jamestown booth, they dressed up and pretended to be from that time and told how it was to live there.  Here's a picture of Nutmeg in the stocks that they had set up.  

She also has developed a love for making very colorful veggie plates this summer.  Here's one she was very proud of.

In preparation for her being old enough to join Vanguard next year, (really, she's going to be 12! When did that happen?) we have been practicing weekly mentor meetings and Student Accountability reports.  She loves them.  She's a list maker I guess.  She loves to be able to see what she should work on each week and not wait for me to let her know.  It's been fabulous.  She's been very responsible to own her education.  This week she wanted to do some kind of hands on project about the Solar System.  So she painted in planets with the help of me and her dad, he then hung them from her ceiling, because that's way cooler than hooking them together with sticks.  Thank you dad!

Squirrel came to find me last week to show me how she was a true "housholder".  She can hold two houses at once.  She was very giggly about it.  

SUMMER HIGHLIGHTS

Squirrel and Nutmeg both had swimming lessons this summer, here's a video of Squirrel trying to be brave enough to go off the diving board. Hopefully it works.  :)

Here's one of a great flop dive of Nutmeg-she said it hurt, yes I laughed.  

Apple loves her corn on the cob!

We went to see Ginga at Camp Loll this summer, Apple didn't enjoy the ride, this is just one of the many last ditch attempts to keep her from screaming about being in the car.  Rock was quite the sport.  

The one and only picture I took at Camp Loll.  :)

It was great to see him after so many weeks not seeing him!  It is a beautiful camp!  At least he took lots of pictures while he was up there all summer!  I can't believe I haven't blogged about what happened while we were up there.  It was pretty crazy.  We pulled in around 5 on Friday to find out that one of the scoutmasters of a troop was missing.  Search and Rescue and just gotten there, and things were really jumping.  Turned out that he had gone off that morning, but his troop had waited to tell the camp staff until 3 in the afternoon.  It was very impressive to see how the staff handled it, and to see the camp director working with his staff.  Friday night it was important for most of the staff to continue with the program for the sake of all the troops that were up there, I don't think many of them even knew there was a problem yet, the staff was great at taking charge, even though the adult staffers were busy elsewhere.  What a great group of youth!  The next morning though, it was all business.  They hadn't been able to find him before it got dark on Friday, so first thing in the morning the staff was organized into 15 groups and each group had some search and rescue people with them.  They had a briefing, and they were assigned to different trails and off they went, planning to be gone the entire day if necessary.  My younger kids were pretty disappointed that Ginga wasn't going to be around to spend time with him, especially Nutmeg, she was very mad at that man for getting himself lost.  We ended up spending a fair amount in their trading post so that they could work on some projects to get their minds off of not seeing him.  But, within the first hour that they were out they found him!  The search and rescue people were so impressed by these youth who knew how to behave and knew these trails and knew all kinds of things for surviving out in the woods.  The really cool thing for Ginga is that because of this, the entire staff who participated earned the brand new search and rescue merit badge-and they even each got letters from the council congratulating them on a job well done!  They were the first to earn it! And what a way to do it too.  We were happy that he was found, safe-and that we ended up having lots of fun times with Ginga after all.  And for the record, I plunged into the polar bear that day.  Unfortunately, no one thought to grab a picture of it!  

I did slightly better at picture taking when we went to family camp.  I took about 15 pictures there, and on the very first day.  She had a blast getting filthy right off the bat!  She wasn't clean again until we went home 5 days later.

Nutmeg ended up getting super sick on Thursday of family camp, and so the girls and I all came home.  I decided that I'd had enough of the dirt, and the last thing I needed was to figure out how to deal with a dehydrated girl and a baby while living in a tent! Afterwards though, I heard that the weather turned yucky the next day, and so I'm really just fine admitting that I enjoyed a nice warm, dry house.  :)  And indoor plumbing, yeah!!

We have started our school year now, and we are having a great time in Vanguard.  We went to a concert on Friday night on temple square.  They played a cello concerto by Haydn and Symphony #2 by Rachmaninoff, it was so good!  Words cannot possibly describe it.  Fabulous.  Here are a few shots of some activities we've done so far.  

The one above is a team building activity that Ginga was in charge of.

This was our theme activity night that Rock was in charge of.  They were split into different groups and they had to create a stop motion video using photos that they took.  Each team had to decide on a scripture story and recreate it with play doh.  It was so much fun.  

It was pouring outside though, so we had to move into the garage to make it fit for us!  Most of the kids were drenched though, because it was too much fun to play in the rain before we started our activity!

This day we went on a hike for the Imaginative Arts lens-it was a beautiful day, and we even saw two moose!  I was sort of freaked out, but they just waded through that pond and headed up into the hills.  Just really glad they didn't have babies!

Well, that brings us up to date.  Maybe I'll actually remember to update this more regularly, just for you, Grandma and Grandpa!  Oh, Grandpa, you'll find it fun to know that Apple says grandpa, just like Ginga used too-bok bok!  So cute!

Van update, clingy babies, Articles of Faith, Sweet squirrel-isms

Sienna update:  We took it to a transmission place, they ran a bunch of tests on it, and it would seem that a good flush and refill has fixed the transmission problems.  Hmm. I hope so.  That was much less expensive than a whole new transmission.  :) It just makes me wonder about the multiple mechanics who said that there was a problem with it.  It's been a couple weeks now, and it seems to be running well. So, I guess we will just keep an eye on it.   Mr. T says I'm hypersensitive though to it now because I get nervous about any little out of the normal movement that it makes.  :)  I've recently come to grips with the fact that I really like being comfortable and having a nice predictable life, so cars that malfunction, sort of stress me out.  More on all that in another post though.

Lately, Apple has been so clingy.  She is just fine if I sit down and don't move from that spot.  (Real practical, I know.) She will then go and play, and wander all over the house, but as soon as she returns to find me somewhere other than she left me, she flips out, comes and finds me, and then won't let go of my legs.  Ah...I'd almost forgotten how annoying that can be.  I kept thinking that maybe this time, I'd get a baby that didn't do that.  I have friends with babies that never seem to get clingy, they just wander around in their happy go lucky way's, and my friends get to do whatever it is they need to do at that moment.  I'm sure that it's not always that way, but it seems that way to me.  It has made me wonder why is it that these precious little souls of mine, (and yes, all 5 of them have been this way for a period of their lives) are like this.  Is it really just them, or have I created it somehow in the way that I mother?  I guess I'll tell myself that it's them, and they needed a mom like me to coddle and love them through it, since I don't know how to be a different kind of mom.  :) So, in the meantime, I will just ignore whatever it is I think I need to do, and hold her, and sit in one place, (with a book in hand of course!) and help her feel secure in her growing up time.  I know all to well how fast she won't want me anyway.  She is such a fun baby, and growing so fast, the fancy meals, and areas of my house that really need my attention will just have to wait.

I recently discovered on some other lady's blog, this awesome DVD/CD.

Here's a link too.  Zack and Zoey explore the Articles of Faith  I decided to get it for Squirrel, because she has been dying to learn them all, and those of us around here just sometimes get a bit tired of trying to keep up with her need to be 10.  :)  (She wants to do everything that Nutmeg does, it's just not fair that she can't yet. )  Anyway, I thought, she's a visual learner, and although I don't love my kids to watch a lot of TV, a DVD about this can't be a real problem, and then we will also have something else that is Sunday appropriate as well.  Win-win.  Now I know that the church has the official songs, but the really cool thing about this DVD is that it helps the children learn what they actually mean, not just learning the rote memory of them.  That is what did it for me, that she could memorize them, AND know what they mean.  Plus, they are really pretty catchy tunes.  She memorized #4 in just a few days. (She's already learned the first three, and wanted to pass off the fourth one in primary last week, she did!)  We keep the CD in the car, so she can listen to it there.  Anyway, we like it.

Yesterday, we went to the May birthday party with Mr. T's siblings.  It was so fun to see all of them.  It isn't very often that all six of them and their families are together, but they were all there this time, love it!  Anyway, we were all outside eating dinner, and I turned around to look at what Squirrel was doing, and I saw her sitting on the swing, swinging; when all of the sudden she gets this thoughtful look on her face, and quickly bows her head and folds her arms.  Obviously, she was saying a prayer, but then just a moment later she opens her eyes and starts swinging again.  Then, just a second later, she repeats the whole thing.  It was so cute.  I wish I had a picture, but of course, things like that happen so quickly.  I asked her a little bit later what she was doing, just to see what she would say, and she said, "I was saying a prayer to Heavenly Father, because I wanted to talk to him, and the only way that we can talk to him is when we pray, and you said that I could say a prayer anytime I wanted to, so I did, because I wanted to talk to Heavenly Father."  It was the sweetest little statement of faith.  I just love my little ones, they are so sweet, and grow up far to quickly.  

"New" van, End of year, choir solos, & Rock's presentation

It's been awhile, and where to start.  Hmm..well, we'll start with the "new" van.  Back in March, we decided it was time to try a decent and small-ish vehicle for me.  We almost always buy used, and have never had much trouble with that.  (At least with the Beast, we knew what we were getting into anyway)  So, we found a car, nothing fancy, but much smaller Toyota Sienna, and figured it would also be good for Ginga' to learn on.  Well, three weeks into owning the silly thing, it starts acting up.  Big time.  Long story made much shorter, we discovered it had been in a wreck that had been unreported and covered up very well.  The mechanics we took it too both said that they had to really get in there to see what work had been done and what problems it had.  Basically, it will need a new transmission and there's no guarantee that would make it work fabulously.  So, now we are trying to figure out the best way to lose money on it.  Fix it or trade/sell it. Hmm...yuck.  For now, it mostly sits in my driveway.  Fabulous.  And I'm back to driving the temperamental Beast.


On to much more positive notes-Choir has just wrapped up, and the kids had a blast.  Here are the two soloists from their performances.  Rock and Nutmeg didn't have any close ups, when they were singing, they were usually blocked by other people.  What to do.

The little girl in red-she's the same age as Squirrel.  Crazy, huh?  She got tall genes and Squirrel got short ones.  Funny thing though, Squirrel never would look at her choir director to know when to come in on the song.  She performed it four times, and every time was unique.  But she loved it!

My phone had a new camera on it, and I couldn't figure out how to make it so that it wasn't so glaring.  Oh, well.  Ginga's on the right, and sings first.  Just in case you can't tell due to the white out.  :)

Aw, still cute.  Love that girl!

Rock.  It's been a harder year for him as he has been transitioning in his studies.  Growing up can be hard to do.  He started our scholar class this year, and I've said so many prayers on his behalf that he could catch a spark and get excited about the things we were doing there.  I don't expect him to be like his brother, they are complete opposites, but I do want to see him excel in his way and get excited about what he is learning.  As the year has come to an end though, I was still thinking and wondering what to do with him.  I finally thought that perhaps he should see how another Vanguard class worked.  He went to a class, and enjoyed it, but in his Rock like fashion, didn't say very much about it at first.  He tends to think on things for a while before sharing what he's thinking with anyone else.  He finally came to me and shared that he just didn't feel like what we were currently involved in was working for him.  He didn't really feel like he had any really bosom buddies in the class, and that made it hard for him to want to push himself there very much.  So, we decided to let him attend another class at the other Vanguard again, but this time he looked over what was being taught the day he was going to go, and he did the work to attend so that he would be able to have a more meaningful experience and understand what they were talking about.  (He has done all the work for our group all year too, so at least he knew what was happening, but he never really got excited about what we were learning.) Anyway, the mentor of the class had assigned each youth a letter from the Hebrew alphabet and they were supposed to come prepared to teach the others what they had learned about their letter.  At first, I thought, yea, he's not going to want to do all that she has for them to do.  But I handed it to him, watched a couple videos on Hebrew with him, and off he went.  Like crazy.  He got super excited, made a power point presentation, and worked through most of what she had put on the assignment to help them prepare for the day.  He was having fun, and was excited to go.  Then I thought that he might not really want to give the presentation to a bunch of kids that he barely knew.  (He knew a few pretty well, but a lot of them he didn't.)  When it came time for his letter, the letter tet, he got up there and did it.  It was awesome!  His eyes were dancing, and he was smiling, and having a fun time.  I could tell he was a little nervous still, but he pushed through and did awesome!  Afterwards, I talked to the mentor and told her that at first I wasn't sure if he would actually do it, and told her that he hadn't done anything like that in our class all year long, and she was so surprised to hear that.  She thought that he'd been doing things like that.  When we got home though, he was happier than I've seen him in a long time, and he couldn't stop talking about how it felt, and how much he enjoyed being there.  (Okay, so he didn't talk very long about it, but for him he talked about it a long time.  :) After seeing his excitement to them and that experience, I knew that we needed to make some changes, no matter how hard they would be for me personally.  In the home school world, it's easy to get attached to these moms and their families, and so when changes come, as changes always do, it can be hard.  It's a bittersweet thing, I love all the mom's from both groups, so although it's sad to be moving on from some of them, it's happy to be able to spend more time with the mom's from the other group.  Talk about mixed emotions.  If only all our kids needed the exact same things, then we could all just work together forever!  :)  (keep dreaming, girl, kids in the same family don't even need the same things, let alone kids in different families!)  I just hope that these mom's know how much I care about them. (yea, I know that some of you read this, but I really do want you to know how much you've helped me grow and learn through the years.  Thank you so much!  And I'm glad that our paths will always cross, even if it's not as often as we would like, and thank goodness for technology to help us stay in touch!)

As this school year is winding down, I am grateful for all that I've learned this year, about myself and about those that I am here to serve and grow with.  Changes sure can cause growing pains, but I am grateful for the opportunity to stretch myself and become better than I was before.  

Please forgive any typos and such, if I have to proofread this, it may not get posted for another three months!