Happy Birthday Molly!

Molly is my spunky, fun loving, irresistibly adorable firework.

There is no one quite like Molly.

I can't help but love her...and her spunk.

The morning started by letting her open one present.

I forgot to take a picture of what she actually got...silly me.

(It was an Our Generation doll "doll with real hair" that she wanted.)

There were only a few birthday requests she made, library story time was one of them.

Soon after story time I found her over by the kids books, piling them high. I said, "ok. That's probably enough books."  Her reply, "I can get all these books because it's my birthday!"

I couldn't say no. We ended up taking 59 books home. And that was just grabbing her books as quickly as possible to check out and leave.

After lunch, Molly invited two friends over to decorate cupcakes and make paper flowers for her "flower birthday". 

When dad got home, Molly opened her next season present.

Pink cowgirl boots.

I asked her make a pose...this is what she gave me.

Dinner she chose, make it yourself sushi.

Her request that she knew she wanted, decorate your own cupcakes.

She had a great birthday.

Ups and Downs...and More Ups and More Downs

Morning started early.  Like 4 AM early.

Paige woke up on and off from four until six.

That was the down.

Then things went up.

We took my friend, Kimmarie, to a doctor appointment. She needed a ride and we hadn't seen each other for a long time. It was nice to have a short car ride together to just talk for a bit.

The grocery store was the next stop.

Happy cookie samples.

But cookie samples only take us so far.

On to the second grocery store.  

We all started to grow a little tiresome.

Especially Paige who only had little naps between car rides.

But groceries were desperately needed.

Once at home, we did some school work.

Leila went to a friend's house.

Molly went to a friend's house.

Eden and I got some hang out time together with Lego building.

Dinner.

Then emotions got high as children remembered they were tired.

Or had become tired because of all the going here and there.

I got to talk with Molly all about how excited she is that it is her last day being three.

Then the littles went to sleep.

And Eden and Leila got a happy chapter of Harry Potter.

Unintentional Cleaning Day

Over the holiday, cleaning took a bit of a back seat.

So, today was a cleaning day....and unintentional cleaning day.

My original plan was to replenish our very sparse food supply.

...until I couldn't find the car keys.

My house motto is often "if you can't find something, clean."

Didn't work this time.

My keys are still lost.

I REALLY need them tomorrow.

But the house is clean.

I must admit, the house is much cleaner since Eden went to school.

One of the things I love about Eden is her incredible imagination. But her imagination often ends up in the form of seven half-completed projects throughout the house. And she goes by the model, "go big or go home". These are always big projects. The family room turns into a fortress where cushions create walls and couches are tipped over to create caves. Bedrooms turns into a day care fully equipped with play areas, food stations, a place for nap time, and educational enrichment areas. The kitchen becomes the crafting zone using any recycled material, paper, crayons, markers, glue, tape, yarn, and scissors. Then clean up time is extremely difficult (and full of complaints) because...it is a disaster.

Now the girls at home get out Candyland, puzzles, stuffed animals, etc.

And they clean them up without too much complaint.

Interesting...

But man those girls love and miss their sister while she's gone all day!

She gets arm loads of happiness when she gets off the bus.

Cough Cough Sniffle Sniffle

Looks like we are still sick.

Improving.

But not enough improvement to make it to church today.

We lounged around the house.

Played games.

Read books.

Take naps.

...and blew our noses...a lot.

Tomorrow is coming, sick or not.

Luckily Tyson and Eden are the ones going out...and are the least sick.

Family Day

It seems like forever since we have had such a fun day with our whole family together.

Eden had Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday off school (and the weekend of course).

Tyson had Thursday and Friday off work (and the weekend off as well).

After all the Thanksgiving festivities and getting over sicknesses, we had some time to just be a family. It was so wonderful.

Legos.

Breakfast.

Family clean up.

Playtime.

Lunch.

Put some training wheels on for Molly.

Rollerblading and bike riding at the walking path.

Shopping for Molly birthday presents.

Get Harry Potter at the library.

Order pizza for dinner.

Harry Potter reading by dad to the older girls.

Playtime for the littles.

Get ready for bed.

Family clean up.

Another chapter of Harry Potter for the olders.

Children's books reading by mom to the littles.

Scriptures and prayers.

Putting littles to bed.

And the olders are reading another chapter of Harry Potter.

(Can you see Molly's bike hanging on the stroller? The tire popped while on the walking path!)

I May Be a Little Excited for Christmas

I even wore my Christmas shirt today.

And put on makeup and did my hair...

Even though I am still sick, have no voice, and had several sick children.

Though I had no where to go, I got ready anyway.

It felt nice.

Molly woke up last night with a fever.

Paige has a bad nose and cough.

Leila still has a bad nose and cough.

And of course Eden has killer immunity 

....and she claims she may have been a little sick at one point.

And Tyson has somehow skated by with not much trace of sickness.

So we stayed home.

Did Black Friday online.

Ate Thanksgiving leftovers.

And just hung out.

Happy Thanksgiving

It was a pretty good Thanksgiving.

Although, instead of the normal feeling of gratitude, I realized how UNgrateful I have been this season.

Two neighbors asked us if we wanted to spend thanksgiving with them. And we responded with "maybe, we'll get back to you". And both response we forgot to respond to until they came to us asking.  And we PLANNED on inviting our neighbor, Grandma Helen, over for dinner. Once again, we forgot about that as well until right before dinner time to find out that she had already decided to buy all the food for herself and cook and eat Thanksgiving dinner alone because her kids already had plans. Then we eat a huge feast with just our family with a ridiculous amount of leftovers and there were so many we could have shared with.

I am feeling a bit UNgrateful for such amazing neighbors.

But I truly am grateful for them and need to not take them for granted so much.

There is so much good to be done. 

I forget to think of others too often.

Time to get off my high horse and do some good for others.

I am grateful for my health.

I am grateful for my children.

I am grateful for my husband.

I am grateful for our home.

I am grateful for so much food that we can eat leftovers for days.

I am grateful for my wonderful friends and neighbors.

I am grateful for family who care about me and love me.

I am grateful for all the choices I am choose.

I am grateful for God.

I am grateful for Christ.

I am grateful to be me.

Sick

I'm sick.

It's awful.

It started yesterday.

Yesterday afternoon while Tyson was gone at work and the weather was too bad to send kids out to play, I put kids straight to the television.  They know sick days are often movie days.

But when I let my kids watch too much tv, something in them snaps.

They become really mean to each other.

They forget how to use their imagination.

They forget how to play.

They forget how to be patient.

So things got bad and I banned the tv.

Time to bring out the big guns...Legos.

Now I remember why I have larger sets of toys in bins in the girls' closet that aren't around all the time.

For times like these when it is like having a brand new toy that they can spend HOURS on.  The good thing, Lego play lasted today as well.  And since I'm still sick, it was a lifesaver.

Yesterday I was feeling pretty good, then all of a sudden I got hit hard with the sickness.

Today has been better. 

My body still aches.

And my head still wants to explode.

And I get out of breath going up the stairs of my house.

And I can't stand in one place for too long.

But at least today I'm standing instead of hugging the toilet seat, ready to throw up.

That is a vast improvement in my book.

And today was a good day.

We read some books on the pilgrims.

The girls made mud pies and forts.

We cleaned the house.

I folded laundry.

Tyson got home early.

And of course there was lots of Lego time.

Pretending to Be Thankful

This is our thankful tree that we created for school today.

I think it may have been more me trying to find a way to mask the chaos I've been feeling and to use this as a form of anger management.

It failed.

Though, it was still a cute activity that the kids relatively enjoyed.

I'm not exactly sure what is going on with all this anger in the house.

There is a lot of anger though.

Perhaps it has to do with this little bean thinking 5:30 in the morning is a great time to wake up, ready to go, every morning.

Then their is always a look at who our role models are...

Maybe that plays a part. Poor role models, including me.

But we have had our proud moments today as well.

We had some great library time and Molly did this puzzle, almost entirely by herself and was BEAMING with pride...which she should. She worked hard.

But I have been doing some research today to find some ease to this anger.

I've looked quite a bit at Carol Tuttle's books.

I have looked a decent amount at her Dressing Your Truth information.

I've really enjoyed those.

Recently I looked into her theories on raising children.

Several if her tips have been quite helpful.

So today I looked further into her website and podcasts on The Child Whisperer.

I have some ideas that will hopefully help the anger.

Cross our fingers.

A Little Early Excitement

So, I kind of got the "decorate for the holidays" fever.

Usually Tyson gets the fever and I say "meh".

But I'm feeling it this year...even a little earlier than normal.

So, even though we usually decorate the day after Thanksgiving...we did it early.

But we did put up the FEW thanksgiving decorations we have as well.

Then we moved on to Christmas.

It is still a work in process.

For now we put up the tree, put up own banner, put up stockings and mistletoe, and put our other things on the shelf.

...and we may have also watched a Christmas movie and read a few Christmas books...

I still want to get a Christmas wreath to replace the spring one, and change up the thanksgiving decorations on the piano after thanksgiving. And if I spoil myself, I'll get some Christmas pillows for the chairs and couch.  But this will do for now.

Other than decorating, today we went to church where I actually went to Relief Society because I was released as a primary worker AND and a Cub Scout leader. My new calling is a primary worker, but doesn't start until the new year. I will teach Eden's class. Good thing she goes to public school or else she'd never get a break from me! Tyson was also released as a nursery worker and he inherited my Cub Scout leader position.

We are actually kind of sad. We loved being nursery leaders and we're finally getting to know the kids really well and love them. But I suppose all good things come to an end.

I realized that I forgot to write a blog entry yesterday.

So here's my quick version...

Molly went to a birthday party.

Eden got fleece lined leggings so she doesn't freeze on the playground.

Tyson had a guy's night at our house.

I put the two littles to bed and took the other girls to a friend's house for a late night party.

We made homemade hot chocolate and ate ice cream.

The kids watched a movie and we chatted.

It's nice to have a friend. I love Autumn and we have a good time together.

I don't have many friends, so it's nice to have one.

Girl Party!!!

Tyson is off at work tonight.

Means there's a girl party at my house tonight!

Paddington Bear, the movie.

Little Cesaers Pizza....with veggies.

Everyone was tired after the movie...except Leila.

So we got in our footie pajamas and are having our own little party.

Ice cream and America's Funniest Home Videos.

We like to party.

I'm Exhausted

Today was long.

Paige has been waking up around 5:30 every morning.

Then I have to help get Eden out the door.

Then Molly and Leila school.

Then at around noon, Eden had a day where family could come to lunch with their children for a special pre-thanksgiving meal.

I was late because right before leaving to go to the school Paige coughed and threw up all over herself and the car seat.

Then we made it in time to see Eden finish eating her lunch and say, "well, I'm going to recess!"

It was a slightly anticlamactic event. But I at least showed up.

Then the girls asked to go to the park.

Even though it was super windy.

That didn't stop them.

Three hours later, we came home.

Where they said, "let's go to the park!"

So back to the park they went.

Their favorite game lately at the park is where I ask them school questions and if they answer correctly then I give them a big push.

Luckily there were leftovers for dinner.

And the house was relatively clean.

We ate dinner.

Did a house clean up.

Took much needed baths.

I had to finish up dishes and some laundry.

Now ther girls are in their beds.

I'm exhausted.

First Day of School, Last Day of Dental Work for My Implant

Eden was so cute going to school today.

On the way she said, "I think I'm more nervous than excited."

But she came home saying, "I love public school!"

She made a few friends and loves her teacher.

The only thing she was completely lost in was social studies.

They are learning U.S. Government....which we haven't even touched yet.

There's a test on it tomorrow, so the teacher sent home flash cards.

As for the implant, it's finally DONE!

New tooth, in.

Random Day

I've been working time tests for math since knowing public school was on its way.

Getting some basics down.

Molly enjoyed Frozen yoga (which in my opinion was really weird but she loved).

Eden took some time to create a mini baby garden after school.

Paige has decided to grow up a bit.

She now likes the "big girl" swing.

And we set up her "big girl" bed on the bottom bunk as well.

Getting too big...

Primary Program, Tithing settlement, and Missionaries

Today was the primary program.

The girls did wonderful, all the children did.

Eden said her memorized part clearly and proudly.

Leila had her part memorized but didn't want to leave it to chance, so she read it.

Molly said her part wonderfully and had a few extremely loud moments while singing.

Leila was vertical proud of her part. She wrote it herself about her family. I didn't work much with the girls to memorize but she took it upon herself to memorize her longer part. She just read it and practiced it by herself until she had to memorized.

After church we went home for a little snack.

Then we went back to church for tithing settlement.

Back home again for dinner.

...and to do a little clean up of the house.

...and then watched a friend's family vlog for a while.

After dinner the missionaries came over to share a message.

Then to bed we went.

Late Night with Friends

We missed the Stanley's while we were in Utah.

Glad we were able to get together today to play.

Play time.

Dinner.

Dessert.

More playtime.

Then more guys came over for a game night.

Autumn and I chatted.

The kids watched a movie.

Leila, Drew, Molly, Paige, and Isadora fell asleep.

Eden and Pearl stayed strong and played until midnight.

Sleepy

Kids and hubby woke up early.

School.

Chores.

Playtime at the park.

Date night to Dr. Strange.

I'm tired.

Apparently, so was Molly.

Mid-day she was outside playing and I eventually said, "where's Molly?" At the same moment our neighbor came to our door to say, "did you know Molly is outside in ther stroller?"

She fell asleep for all to see while playing in the stroller.

It was a long day.

Oh, and my side note: Eden's school called and she starts on Tuesday. She is overly excited.

This is Where We Start Getting Nervous

Eden, Leila, and I went to the elementary school today.

Eden kept saying she was nervous, but seemed much more excited.

We passed the lunchroom with some students doing some after school activity.

Eden "it is SO loud in there! It kind of hurts my ears."

She may need to adjust her ears to the sound of school lunch.

Leila was gripping my hand quite tight the entire time.

She also kept telling the secretary, so they knew for sure, 

"I'm not going to school. Only Eden is going."

I was fine until we walked the halls of the school and saw kids work posted on the walls.

Great fear that I have severely undertaught my child struck me.

What they seemed to be learning, was NOT what I was teaching.

But then we all took a deep breath.

.....but then I lost my breath again when I had to go shopping for "school supplies" and my already slim budget was drifting away.

Then I took another deep breath.

Eden took many breaths to ask things like,

"Do I had to carry ALL of this to school everyday?"

"Do you think they will have show and tell?"

"When can I start going?"

I didn't know the answers.

They took the paperwork and said they would give me a call next week.

So now we wait...

...and I try to make sure I cover some basics of Eden's education that may have been lacking.

Changes

So, looks like we have decided to put Eden into public school.

We knew it was headed this direction.

We thought it would happen next year.

But I think we're gonna try to enroll her right away.

You know, I made a million excuses why I did homeschool.

Now I am making a million excuses why I'm putting her in public school.

In the end, it comes down to a story my mom once told me.

While dating Tyson, back in my college years, I had a conversation with my mom not sure where things were going and how to know if he was "the one".  We talked and (from the way I remember it) she told me that while dating my dad she never had a "he's the one" revelation. She instead never felt the spirit tell her "stop, he's NOT the one."

It was a strange sort of confidence she had.

That's how it was with Tyson.

Tyson and I had been dating about three months. I had already broken it off once simply because marriage is a huge commitment that I couldn't commit to....with anyone else.

Then one day I woke up...with at strange sort of confidence.

That morning, I made the decision and nothing said "No. Stop."

So I kept going.

So....naturally, I called Tyson.

Me: "We're getting married."

Tyson: "Woah. No need to rush things. It's ok."

That tactic didn't work.

So I talked to my mother instead.

Me: "Mom, I'm getting married,"

Mom: "Does Tyson know this?"

Me: "I tried to tell him but I don't think he believed me."

Mom: "Maybe you should call him again."

(Dial Tyson)

Me: "We're getting married."

Tyson: "Are you sure?"

Me: "Yep."

That night we went ring shopping.

I was engaged that same night.

Married three months later.

And that's kind of how it felt with homeschool.

One day, when Eden wasn't even old enough for preschool, I chose homeschool.

I had a strange sort of confidence and knew it was the right thing for me.

Perhaps, like my engagement, it was a little more than a decision that was OK with God.

After I let the option into my heart, God gave me confidence that said, "Yes! Do it!"

And for those who know me, confidence isn't my strong point.

Recently, homeschool has been a greater challenge.

So, I asked God his thoughts.

He gave me AND Eden confidence.

All of a sudden I felt at peace with sending Eden to public school.

In fact, I feel confident that it is a good choice.

And before I even mentioned it to Eden, she came up to me and said, "I think I want to go to public school before next year. Can I do that?"

"Yes. Yes you can."

So, yesterday and today I took some quality time to figure out what I'm doing and filling out paperwork.

I want to talk to a few people I know with third grade children first so I don't just go in completely clueless.

Leila still wants to stay the year with me.

I'm ok with that.

Maybe next year. Who knows.

For now, I'm just trying to keep an open mind and heart so God can talk to me more.

Good Day

This is the only picture I took today, I love babies falling asleep while eating.

Today was a really good day.

After serious school, I decided to have fun.

Molly chose a random craft from a library book we had. It was SO Molly which is what made it hilarious. She has such a quirky sense of humor.  It was a paper bag George Washington wig made with the corner of a grocery bag to fit around your head and it was covered in cotton balls and then a ribbon with a little pony tail at the end. It was so sad looking, but that is what made it so funny for the girls to make.  It looked more like a sheep head.

Later Eden went to Activity Days and me and the other girls had a dance party, played cards, and ate some treats. Then Molly and Paige played a little while Leila and I had some cuddle time where I asked her questions about her and she answered them. She was in heaven.

Eden later came home after the other girls were in bed and she was so excited to tell me all about Activity Days.

It was better than good.

It was a great day.