Joe's Bob Cat

In January Joe started Cub Scouts. He was very excited to go and he has a lot of good friends in his pack.

He was really looking forward to this months pack meeting for two reasons.

First of all, it was the Blue and Gold Banquet, and they were serving one of his favorite meals, tacos.

And Second, he had worked very hard the past few weeks to earn his Bob Cat Merit Badge.

I am very proud of how hard Joe worked for this. He was very motivated to earn it quickly. For this badge there was a lot of memorization. Every day after school, he would bring me his book and we would work on it. It did not take him long before he was ready to pass things off.

After all of the awards were handed out the boys put on a few puppet shows. Joe was the narrator for this one.

I am grateful for Joe's leaders who make Cub Scouts so fun. He is loving it!

My Big Helper

At two and a half, Valerie has entered a new phase of busy. She still gets into things, and makes a few messes, and she still prefers her clothes on the floor rather than in her drawers, but now her intentions are to be helpful.

For example, her clean clothes are usually on the floor because, she likes to pick out her own clothes, and get herself dressed. But often this results in most of her clothes on the floor, because she was looking for a certain item. (usually something pink.)

Most days I enjoy this new busyness It is fun to have a little helper with me at the grocery store. She loves pushing the little cart, and as long as I remember to put my foot up when I stop, it is not too painful to let her do it.

She always tries to add a few things of her own. I usually let her add one thing, and she is always good about leaving others on the self if I tell her no. But, it is usually because I point to the item already in the cart and have her chose which one she wants. There have been times when we find an extra item or two in the cart when we check out, but she does not seem to notice that they don't always make it home.

Valerie also likes to help me in the kitchen. She likes to stir the things in the pan, and sometimes she tries to add a few spices of her own to the dinner. I usually stop her, but with three other kids, sometimes I am not quick enough.

The other night I was helping Josh with some homework and did not notice the items being added to the soup I had simmering on the stove for dinner.

Valerie had helped me make the soup by adding a few things that I told her to, and stirring it while I added others. When we were finished I put the lid on the pan and told Valerie that now we just needed to let it cook. I then went to help Josh on the computer.

While I was in the other room, Valerie got back on her stool and added an entire containers of Thyme, Cumin, and bay leaves to it. Needless to say we did not have that for dinner.

Another thing she likes to help me with in the kitchen is the dishes. What kid can resist a sink full of soapy water? She also helps me unload the dishwasher. She likes to hand me the plates and cups and have me put them away. She has been doing this for a few months, and I found this week she is getting a little more Independent in this job.

The other morning when I got out of the shower, I could hear dishes clanging in the kitchen. I knew this meant Valerie was "Helping" with something, but I could not imagine what. So I quickly got dressed, and ran out to find Valerie unloading the dishwasher and placing everything in it's appropriate pile, ready to be put away. I was a little surprised how well she had done.(and glad nothing was broken) The bowls, plates and cups were all in nice stacks. So I quickly put it all away. This turned out to be very helpful, but I hope next time she waits for me before she does it.

Valerie also likes to help me clean up. She is good at helping me put things away when I ask, and when I vacuum she gets out the old Swiffer mop and pretends she is vacuuming too. It does not have any soap in it, and Valerie likes that it makes a sound like a vacuum.

I love my big helper, and I am glad she is learning so much. I don't mind cleaning up the messes that come from her helping. It makes me happy to have a buddy to do my everyday things with.

Crazy Hair Day!

Today was Crazy Hair Day at school. My kids love this day. They have been talking about it for days. I have tried to talk them into a few of my ideas, but all they want are Mohawks. So Mohawks it is.

Even with their crazy hair, I think these are two cute little boys.

Happy 6th Birthday Josh

Today is Josh's birthday!

It is hard for me to believe Josh is 6.

When we asked him what he wanted all he said was new DS games.

However Emily had a better suggestion.

For Christmas Joe wanted to be tricky in his wrapping, so he wrapped Josh's gift in an empty Ritz Cracker box. Christmas morning when Josh opened his present, he was so excited when he saw the crackers he started telling us that they were all his. Then he opened the box and pulled out the Angry Birds shirt inside, and was a little disappointed.

Emily thought we should buy him a real box of crackers. So we did,

and he loved them. We did get him a DS game, but I really think that the crackers were his favorite present.

We celebrated josh's birthday at Classic Fun Center.

(Left to right) Sarah, Nate, Camdon, Ryker, Aiden, Joe, Emily, Jackson, Valerie (you cant really see her), Ben, Josh, and Rowan all came to the party.

They had so much fun playing Lazer tag, Bouncing in the bounce houses, Climbing in the jungle gym,

Playing blaster ball, and skating.

Josh even won a few prizes from the birthday wheel and money tube.

It was so fun watching all the kids play. Josh is getting to be such a big kid, and I am so grateful that he is a part of our family. We Love You Josh.

Happy Birthday!

Joseph's Baptism

Joseph was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints today by his dad.

He had lots of family come and support him.

All of his grandparents were there, including Great Grandma Atkin. Uncle Jon and Aunt Jenny, Uncle Kevin and Aunt Alisa came. His cousins Violet, Jaxson, and Asher were there, and his cousins Matthew and Davis came from Washington with Grandma and Grandpa Lay.

He also had a few friends there. These are his two good buddies, and they are both named Max.

I am so happy Joseph made this decision to be baptized. I know that the gospel will be a great blessing in his life, and as he comes to know and use the Holey Ghost, the Lord will be able to bless him in so many ways.

We Love You Joe!

Happy New Year!

2012

Christmas Morning

I have to admit that I was really excited for Christmas morning. Emily had asked for a few things like a new trumpet case, and a Dragonology book, and a few other things, but I knew that what she really wanted was a cell phone. She had been hinting for one since school started, but when we would ask her what she wanted for Christmas, it was never on her list. I think because we had convinced her that she would never get one.

In October Ryan and I upgraded our phones and changed carriers. When we did this we also added Emily to our plan. We thought about just giving it to her right away, but after about a minute of thinking that, we decided it would be more fun to torment her a little more with our new phones first. So we did.

We also decided that it would be more fun if we didn't just hand her the phone Christmas morning. So Santa wrote a note and wrapped it up in a pretty box. The note said, "Do you hear what I hear?"

Emily opened the package read the note, and did not really respond to it. I asked her what the note said, and she read it to me just as a Transibirian Christmas tune started playing from somewhere. Emily just sat there and said "That sounds nice." I told her she should go see where it was coming from. She found it pretty quickly tucked in the branches of the tree.

I don't think I have seen Emily that surprised and that excited for a long time. Josh was pretty surprised too.

I am not sure that Emily really knows what happened the rest of the morning, but the rest of the kids all had a good Christmas too.

I was excited for Josh to get his gift, even though I knew he was "planning" on it. I was happy he was getting a DS to replace the pink hand me down DS he had been happily using the last couple of years, and I knew he would be excited.


I was really excited to see Joe open his present. His was the hardest for me not to get out and play with myself prior to Christmas. I am sad I was not in a better place to get a picture of his face when he opened his gift.

This Fall Joe was not sure what he wanted for Christmas and I really didn't have a good idea, so We started looking for ideas together. One day I took him to a toy store near our house (not toys-r-us) and we found the perfect thing. He got a bad guy castle a couple of Christmases ago, and he loves to play with it. But he needed a good guy castle to make the playing even better. The store we went to had a few different castles, and we had fun looking at all of the possibilities.

Joe was a little disappointed when he saw how much things cost, but he didn't realize that Santa has the internet to shop on and can find deals. I told Joe we would keep looking for things he wanted, and maybe we would find something in our price range.

Christmas morning when he found the Castle he was so excited. I think he will have fun with this for a long time.

Last but not least. Little Miss Pink. All Valerie asked for this Christmas was a pink present. Just after Thanksgiving, Grandma Bolander surprised Valerie with a little pink tree she had found while she was out shopping. Valerie loved it. In the day she had it out in the front room, and at night she took it into her room. When we set up our tree and got out the decorations, every decoration that was handed to Valerie went on the little pink tree. After that it stayed in the front room, because when she tried to move it the ornaments fell off.

Santa brought Valerie a present wrapped in pink, and a new pink stroller for her baby. He put her gifts under her pink tree, so she would know they were for her.


Valerie was the hardest for Santa this year, not because he didn't know waht to giver, but because there were so many things he thought she would like. He decided Valerie would enjoy her own castle to play with when Joe got his out. She loves it, and does like to get it out to play castles with her brothers. They don't seem to mind it either. Secretly I think they like having a princess castle in their game.

I think I had the most fun Christmas morning watching the excitement on the kids faces. I am grateful for all that we have been blessed with this year.

Merry Christmas!