Wednesday, January 21, 2009

My thoughts on 1:00 Chruch

When we get home from our 3 hour block of church at 4:20pm do we:
  • put him down for a nap and stay up late with him until he gets tired for bed?
  • Do we keep him up as long as possible then put him down for bed really early and pray and fast that he sleeps until at least 5:00 am.
  • Miss Church entirely for 1 year and come back when church starts at a decent hour like 9 or 11 am.

So far neither of the first 2 options are working really well. Below is Benson it is approx 5:07:45 pm. Just for the record he woke up at 7:34. That is just in time to take part in the big kids bedtime routine. Ben fell asleep at 8:15. And I was up with Benson until midnight reading and trying to keep my self awake so he wasn't awake and loose in the house. Finally just before midnight I put him down, after minimal whimpering he fell asleep. And slept until 6:20.
Notice how charming and happy my son is NOT. This is monday before lunch and he was all tears and upset. It is hard to hear the yelling he is giving the pole and me in the first picture from the blog. Just trust me it was testign my patience. So I ignored him! I wrote in my planner, when he was not looking I found him on the climbing apparatus. He smiled when he saw me. And I let him know I saw it. It would be one thing if this was his only tear stained meltdown of the day . . . . it was one of MANY all wonderul happy day long. Meltdown Mondays are all too frequent now! Why do the terrible two's have to coincide with 1:00 church.

Any recommendations?

fall . . . .we miss you!

This post has two purposes. the first and least important is to sing praises to the season of Fall. The second and greatest reason is to share some of the cutest pictures of my kids. Seriously, look at the first picture. Benson has the cutest smile poking out from a pile of fall leaves. Not only is it beautiful that these leaves have so many colors but they bring so much joy to rake, play, hide and all around play in.
Madisen and Jeddy love to go up in their tree. It is a rite of passage for them. A coming of age when they can get themselves up in the tree by themselves. Well Jeddy uses a chair . . . but he puts it there himself. They sit up their forever pretending and playing. I would absolutely love this if it was in our back yard. It now sits in our front yard over the sidewalk. Not the best place to fall out of a tree. I love 'toys' and entertainment that is simple and makes the kids work for it. Simple meaning it does not require 12 hours of assembly, 4 batteries, or require adult supervision. They have to make the sounds and create their own setting; it is not dictated. Not that I am against supervising my kids. But with 3 mess makers I need to be supervising as I fold, or wipe, or clean.

I can't help looking at these pictures and think of My Heavenly Father and his beautiful creations. One thing I miss about Virginia, and Utah also is their fall season. I miss driving through the rolling hills and Mountains during the changing of the leaves. I miss Bridal Veil Falls' water crushing down the rocks as red leaves float in the wind. I miss driving through the streets and churning up the leaves in the gutter. I miss making huge elaborate mazes in the leaves that covered our front lawn. In our sunny California Paradise we have Fall in January and it rakes into a 50 gallon trash can. Be careful not to miss it before all the leaves drop.

I laugh to see the small size of our leaf pile. If it were in Virginia several things wouldl be different. Depending on the year the kids would not be allowed in the leaves because we had several copperhead snakes living in our front yard. The second one we found I killed with my trusty leaf blower. Also the leaves would be a darker maroon color and the pile would take in the entire yard, and it would be a paramount job to rake and bag over several months. I have to admit fall in California is alot less taxing . . .we don't even own a rake. We left it in Virginia . . .with Fall.
Benson hates being left out of the tree fun. So a few times we sit him up there. He just sits and squeals with excitement. Who knew sitting in a tree was so exciting.

Friday, January 2, 2009

It was a White christmas for us.


Our sweet boy Jeddy, he is always willing and eager to help. He loves to get involved and be doing things. So he helped Dad and Grandpa shovel the huge driveway. They can park like 12 cars at least. Jeddy was a big help!

Sled rides with the Johnson's. In an open field in the middle of Orem, Utah Trin's Uncle Keith pulled the kids in a snowshoe sled behind his Subaru. They have a big beautiful Dog named Ronan, and he would chase the car and the sled. He even was biting Ben when he went with Jeddy and Mikey . . .that led to their demise and the sled tipped over. Jeddy didn't like that at all. After he 'cooled off' and warmed up in the van he went on the sled a few more times.
of coarse my little helper Jeddy gets us all hot cocoa . . . it is a must when one has so much play and rompus in the snow.
Benson is all smiles playing in my old playhouse. It was so hard to get him to wear gloves or a hat or even a coat. but once he went outside a few times and realized we were all bundled and that it is colder then what he is use too . .he was SO MUCH MORE cooperative.

I am still trying to get pics of Madisen and trinity sledding. They went off by themselves and just had a blast. It was a new experience for the kids. They all decided we can never move to UTAH it is too COLD.

Smoking in the New Year

Has anyone gotten themselves in a bind and had to buy something expensive to use once.
For example has any one tried to move all their belongings from a storage unit in California to Las Vegas and forgot to bring the keys for the padlock? So then you have to buy bolt cutters. Bolt cutters? Seriously what am I going to do with huge bolt cutters. Ben and I are not really into petty theft so they have just gathered dust for years.



One reason I love real Christmas trees is I love cuttign them down and burning them.
It is tradition for us to burn our Trees and have cozy game or story time in front of the fireplace.


So this year I took my awesome bolt cutters to our douglas fir and went to town. It melted through the branches so smoothly. I was even able to cut 2 in thick branches with ease. Good thing we are getting our use out of our 'useless' bolt cutters. Any one have a tree they need to get rid of?

The kids had such a great time. They kept Ben busy loading the fire with branches. It smelled so good. We played old Maid, cranium, and chinese checkers. Listend to our ipod and ate yummy homemade popcorn. It was a fun night.