Sunday, September 28, 2008

Happy Sunday

I don't know that I have much to say. So, another picture post I guess. Good thing I have cute kids so it's not a hardship. :)
Redheads.
The kids before church today. Jethro was sick, that's why he's not in the picture.
The girls. (Oh, and Kami I bought the red dress for Elena when she turns 4. But Hazel's going to wear it in the meantime. It's even prettier in real life.) And why can I NOT get my hair to go how the hairdresser styled it after she cut it?!
Talmage in a hat. (So of course there had to be a picture. But don't worry, I'm sure there will be more pictures in the hat.)
And we walked to the park today and saw some ducks.
I know, I know, Jethro was too sick for church and yet not too sick for the park. Hmmm.
Oh, I do remember now that I have something to relate. Remember how Jethro got his bike stolen? Well, we first walked to the playground at Jethro's school (before the duck park), and there were some kids riding bikes around the parking lot. I saw one little boy on a bike that looked like Jethro's, so I pointed at it and Brett went over and looked at it. We knew it was Jethro's because there was tape around the handlebars where he had hung a toy shrunken head from it (it was in a pirate gift box from my sister...). Anyway, so Brett told the kid that it was his son's bike and asked where he got it. He said his dad found it on the road. Well, we ended up taking the bike, since it was Jethro's. But now I feel pretty yucky that we kinda yanked it out from under the kid. It was one of those things that we really should have thought about for a few minutes before approaching the situation, I guess. I'm truly not sure what was the best thing to have done--just let the kid keep the bike? What do you think we should have done? (oh, just as an aside, Jethro's been praying every day that he would find his bike.)

The sun and clouds were doing pretty things today.

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Many pictures of a beautiful girl





extreme cuteness

This kid is so extremely, fantastically, enormously cute. I don't know how I do it, but I keep having kids that amaze me with their adorableness.I mean, just look at this kid's hair!! It's impossible not to love!
Awww, another sweet sister to hug him.
And this one's just funny.

Thursday, September 25, 2008

pictures and John Smith

Handsome man.
Ethne enjoying painting in Joy School today. (She's not in Joy School, but when it's at our house she gets to participate. Actually she demands to participate. :) )
What Hazel made. She loves Joy School.

Simply beautiful.
I love kids right after they wake up in the morning and they've still got the sleepy look to them.
This is my favorite oufit of Talmage's. It has a gorilla and says HUNK.
Sweet siblings. It seems like he's almost as big as her!

So, I took my sister Andrea's advice and got the book 'John Smith' by Charles P. Graves and read it to Jethro tonight. Talk about interesting! I never knew much about John Smith except that his voice sounded like Mel Gibson's and I am not related to him. (I am related to Pocahontas. It's true.) Thanks for the recommendation, Ands.

Anyway, so he went and fought for the Dutch against Spain for a couple years and learned about using fireworks from them. Then he decided to go help the Hungarians fight the Turks, and on his way there, some Frenchmen threw him off the ship because they didn't like Englishmen. So he swam to an island where he was picked up by a ship that took him way in the heck away, around Africa and stuff before getting him back to Italy I think and then he finally made it to Hungary. Then he helped the Hungarians win some battles using his knowledge of fireworks and a code that he had learned of while studying warfare. He also beat a few Turks in jousting matches. Then he was wounded in a battle and picked up by some Turks who sold him as a slave. His owner was really terrible, and one day when he was whipping John, John got fed up and turned around and killed him with his flail which he had been using to thresh grain, and he got away to Russia and then back to England. And the crazy thing about all this? ---it was all by the time he was 24! Wild, eh?

We're going to get the book about Marco Polo from the same series next. I was telling Kami about this on the phone tonight, and she said that it sounded like a Louis L'amour character, which was precisely the thought I had while reading it! :)

Another random tidbit--I was reading an article in a magazine while waiting at the doctor's office about genetics, and it was saying how some things they never can unravel whether it's genetics-based or a learned thing (because it's some of both). For example, individuals in families tend to have the same facial expressions when they're really happy, sad, surprised, etc. And on the one hand, children who have been born blind actually do this too--make the same facial expressions as their family even though they've never seen it, but on the other hand, children who have been adopted into a family make the same faces as their adopted family. Interesting.

In other news, Talmage has an inguinal hernia and he has to see a pediatric urologist Nov.5 to decide if they'll have to operate on it. And he weighs 11 lb 9 oz in case you were wondering. He's just so sweet. So soft and cuddly. My friend Margot recommended I get a pickle jar to preserve him in this perfect squishiness. What an ingenius idea!

Happy October 25.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

welcome

Here is the wonderful birth announcement my incredibly talented sister Kami made for me. Thanks Kam--you're the man!!!

I love that picture. He is so sweet. Here's the one I picked for if the announcement had needed a vertical picture instead. Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.
And now, by request, my own answers to the getting-to-know-you questionnaire.
**if you could have any celebrity as your best friend, who would it be?
I think I'd pick Bill Cosby, cause he's so funny, and then maybe he and dad could have dinner together and I would get to listen to their banter. It would be the funniest night of my life, I'm sure.

**favorite movie?
Willow
** favorite cereal?
Granola-types, and recently I really like Oatmeal Crisp and Honey Bunches of Oats Just Bunches.
** Least favorite household chore?Clearing away clutter

**what do you think is your best quality?
Easy-going

**worst quality?
Ambition-impaired
**what five books on a desert island?
BOM, The Perilous Gard, The Prisoner of Zenda, A House of Many Rooms, Quest for a Maid (what can I say, I like easy-reading)
**if you were famous, what would you want it to be for?
I don’t really want fame, but I guess an author
**if you could be living anywhere in the world, where would it be?
With my honey, somewhere close to my family, in a place that looks just like Grandma and Grandpa’s ranch
**all time favorite tv show?
Cosby Show
** would you rather have a personal chef, maid, or trainer?
Maid/hairdresser
**hot dog or hamburger?
hamburger
**beach, mountains, or city?
Mountains, with a lake that has a nice beach
**favorite fast food establishment?
Subway I think.
**on time or late?
On time
**working hard or hardly working?
Hardly working
** do you feel that you kissed too many boys before you were married or not enough?
Just right
** where do you see yourself in 10 years?


With a real job and no cares in the world.

Monday, September 22, 2008

Weekend and other stories

So, I posted some pics from the weekend, but here's the rest of the story.

On Friday we took Jethro out of school early and left to go to Chicago, but first we made a stop in Hammond where there's a junkyard so Brett could get some things he needs (and wants). Luckily for me and the chillens, there's now a Cabela's in Hammond, so he dropped us off there. We were there for a good three hours. But if you're going to be stuck in a store with 4 kids for 3 hours, Cabela's is the one. In fact, we didn't get tired or bored or cranky or anything. You see, it's got everything in there--an aquarium, tons of animals that have been stuffed, free fudge samples, books, toys, cool hats, a cafe with venison, buffalo, and ostrich meat (although we did not eat anything from the cafe), and last but certainly not least, shooting galleries. Several different workers at different times gave the kids tokens, so for spending no money, Jethro and Hazel got to shoot a awful lot. I did it once too, and got an incredibly high score. Okay, so that's only compared to Jethro, but still. I took a bunch of pictures, but I don't feel like posting any except these ones of cute little Talmage Crockett.

Anyway, when Brett finally came and picked us up we continued on to Chicago and met Kami and her kids and Jennae, our friend and college roommate who came to visit, at Millennium Park, where we played in the fountains and saw the cool sculptures, and then we went to the theatre and ate sandwiches and listened to a cool band from I cannot remember where. Actually, I don't think I ever knew. Anyway, that's what the videos are from. It was good times.

We went back to Kami's house and put the kids to bed and youtubed for awhile. Sometimes I feel very abused not to have high speed internet. But I'll survive.

The next day Brett and I went to the temple while Kami and Jennae generously watched our kids. Kami even nursed Talmage for me (which I am totally fine with, in case anyone wondered). They actually watched them at the beach--so the kids had a great time. Brett and I met them there after our session. It was a beeeee-autiful day--so gorgeous. I borrowed Jennae's swimming suit (I hadn't thought I would swim) and swam for a while. It was awesome. I love love love swimming, and it was fun. I feel much more at peace with it being Fall now that I've had a good swim.

Then we went back to Kami's house and she made us dinner and we went home. Ethne cried all the way from South Chicago to our house. It was amazing. (She was sooooooo overtired, there was really nothing we could do for her--trust me, we tried everything.)

Unfortunately, we weren't thinking, and we forgot that Jethro had ridden his bike to school on Friday, and we didn't take it home when we picked him up early, and it got stolen. Sad, sad.

Yesterday Brett had to go to a branch 45 minutes away to do an audit right during our sacrament meeting, so I called a couple families to have my kids sit with them so that I could play the organ. It was actually so easy--I sat by one of the families when I wasn't up there, but I really didn't have to do anything. I could even listen. (!) I think I'll tell Brett to leave more often so I can just dump my kids on other people. :)

When I was in the nursing room feeding Talmage, I was talking with two women from a different ward whom I had never met, and a girl from my own ward. The girl from my ward mentioned my having four kids, and the two other women's eyes practically bugged out and they gaped at me. In their surprise they said, "You have four kids?!!! You look so young! You look so put together and composed!" I thought it was funny. Though, in their defense, I look young because I am young. In fact, I was thinking the other day how when I'm thirty-four I'll have a 15-year-old. That's weird.

This morning I actually exercised. I know--blasphemous to my morals. But a girl is doing aerobics workouts at the church, and that's actually okay to me. It's not boring running, and it's not lame videos. She had upbeat music, and a really hard workout that was also fun. At one point she was doing some aerobic kickboxing stuff, and it reminded me of the good old days at USU when Andrea, Kami and I took an aerobic kickboxing class and we would punch each other really hard (with bags, of course). Good times. Anyway, we shall see how faithfully I continue to go. Of course, if I mention to Hazel that tomorrow is exercise day and she gets to go play at the church, she will make sure I go!

Last week I started making bread, and I asked Brett if he would go check and see if we had any more wheat flour out in the bucket in the pantry. He went and got it, there was a little left, so I dumped a couple cups into the bread dough. Then I heard Hazel and Jethro saying something about seeing ants in the flour. I turned around and they were looking in the bucket, so I looked. Sure enough, there were these TEEENY little bugs just teeming through the flour. They were small enough that you couldn't see them at first, but then you noticed all the movement. YUCK! So, I looked in the bread dough. Ewwwww! Needless to say, I had to throw it out and make a new batch. Sans wheat flour.

The other night I was getting Hazel ready for bed, and she wanted to ask me something, but every time she was getting started and said "Mom," I would interrupt and say, "No!" I did it several times and finally she squealed and said, "Stop no-ing!!!" hee hee.

Jethro left a note beneath my pillow the other night. It says "Daer Mom, i love you. You are fun. Sometimes you let me make crafts. Love Jethro." and it has a picture of two stick people (actually rectangle people) holding hands. It was kindof unclear at first whether it said "you are fun sometimes" or "sometimes you let me make crafts," but I had him read it to me, and it was the latter. Phew. But my favorite part of the note is that he wrote it on a sheet of paper from a pad we have on the fridge which says "TO DO LIST" on top, and he crossed out TO DO LIST and wrote "LOVE LIST." :)

Sunday, September 21, 2008

For Kate

This is for you Kayli.






Love, Kami

Millennium Park Reflections


















Good times.

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