April '09 Finally catching Up!

Jared is finishing up his Spring semester in school and enjoying it tremendously. He actually helped me write this post as well.
Julie is busy writing poetry and scrapbooking fun pages and layouts lately. She was successful teaching the activity day girls in her ward about scrapbooking. They made a layout for their mom's for Mother's Day. It turned out fun and memorable for each of the girls.
Hopie continues to do brilliant things in the 7th grade. She recently completed a fabulous report on Cyclopes. Her parents are pleased to report that she is of such a character, that their fears about raising teenagers remain unrealized. She is a sweetheart and a pleasure to have in our home. She's also discovered that she has a flair for art and photography. She is one of the one hundred featured artists in the upcoming middle school art show known as SHARE. We'll post more about it in May when we attend the reception and the unveiling of her art project she entered!
Brig is eager to get started in 6th grade next year. He met with the band director who spent several minutes with him fitting him for different instruments. The director felt, and Cowboy agrees, that the trombone will be an excellent fit! He is pictured here with his Science Project on planets. He used glow-in-the-dark paint and now enjoys it hanging in his room. As an 11 year old scout he is excited to be attending Merit Badge University at a local university in the coming week.
Nessa recently performed in the ward talent show doing a dance routine with several of the girls that she attends activity days with. It was a delightful experience for both the dancers and observers. Nessa did a great job - Really cute! She has completed several projects in school, one being a replica of the Alamo complete with cleverly made toothpick people, and has been noticed for her hard work. Her Alamo project stayed on display at the school library for an entire month. Zayah made a comment to her about how his class saw it. It really turned out great!
Zayah is doing a fabulous job in Kindergarten. He clearly favors the use of his left hand and is the first of our children to have legible handwriting at the age of 5. Lefties Unite !!!!!!!!
Gracie adores her trips to the library with her mother. Each evening she haggles with Daddy about how many books they will read before bed. She usually starts with three books. When he is lucky, he can talk her down to two.
Noah, in contrast to his older brothers (at the same age), is quite fearless where climbing is concerned. Top of the piano - fall - counter top - fall - table top - fall - he remains undaunted and unharmed. He's little Mr. Boogie pants and begins bobbing up and down any time he encounters a catchy tune - If there is a beat, he'll dance. His three sisters think he's the cheese.

March '09 - Highlights of Spring Break

We have been busy, as usual! Our children enjoyed Spring Break, March 9-13, which was earlier this year. We had so much fun and Jared was able to have a couple of days off to spend time with all of us.
First, he built our boys a triple bunk bed and it really it quite ingenious as it can store cans of food at the bottom as well. Cowboy & Hopie helped make it. Our boys are loving it!
Second, We enjoyed a family hike at Enchanted Rock!
It was a gorgeous day and not too hot at all. It was rainy the next few days of the week but we still enjoyed a day at the Zoo! The butterfly exhibit here is so amazing - the butterfly's will land on you if you hold real still. You can barely feel them at all! We just love going to the Zoo! Last but not least, we enjoyed a picnic at the park of hot dogs, grapes and chips. We had the best Spring Break ever!

Other March highlights include:
Hopie planned a birthday party for her dog, Candy, who is three years old. I'm amazed that she's lasted so long in our crazy life. Hopie feels Candy is a Princess and is still taking pretty good care of her which was always part of the deal in getting a dog anyway. The party turned out really fun and I think the dog was spoiled with bones and doggie treats. I bet she loved it!
Cowboy just received his Scout award and is doing his best in school.
Nessa is very clever at writing and her teachers have noticed. She has been working very hard on a report about Rome and has taught me things that I didn't know about that civilization which turned out very well. I think she is a hard working student at school and it shows in her grades!
Zayah continues to make me laugh every day and he is learning to write sentences in school. His favorite subject to write about is me, as his mom - Imagine that...it sure helps me remember about what I most likely thought about my mom in Kindergarten as well.
Gracie loves to have books read to her and will listen to anyone who will read to her. She loves Joy school and her friends. She misses her Daddy when he is away and often stays up until he comes home from work each night. It's so cute to see her give him the biggest hug she can when he gets home.
Noah is walking!! I am absolutely thrilled with all that he can do now! It is a "Watch out world - Here I come" time for him right now! I found an old picture of his cousin, Winsor when he was about the same age as Noah is right now and I was amazed at the resemblance which I pointed out to Jared and he thought so too. It was really incredible to see! If I can figure out how to work the scanner, I'll scan the picture in along with one of Noah and you can see for yourself. I'll most likely put in a current post. I'll let you know when I do.

February '09

Kindergarten Fairy Tale Ball
02/13/09
Isaiah's class dressed up as their favorite fairy tale characters and had a Fairy Tale Ball. Isaiah wanted to be Prince Charming and I think he accomplished just that. Jared was able to attend and he said that Isaiah was a perfect gentleman at the ball and was so cute! Too bad, I wasn't able to talk him into being Mr. Darcy.

Oh, but Mom, I don't know who Mr. Darcy is?

I'll admit I'm completely biased, but isn't he charming, though?













Our Butterfly Girl's Birthday

Nessa turned 10! She's in double digits now! She was very excited about that, I think.
Jared made her favorite dinner and cake. I made her birthday card and made sure to buy her presents. Incidentally, she loved her book and 3-D puzzle! Her birthday party was a wonderful time for all! She shares so much happiness with us! I love to see her smile! :)














Valentine's Day

Jared made the morning something special with his gourmet breakfast. He made crepes filled with raspberries, cream and chocolate, of course! It was amazingly yummy! Not only did he make breakfast in bed for me but for all three of our girls as well! They were so surprised and never saw that coming! Each girl received a valentine card, (which had been signed by all the boys in the family), flower arrangement and a stuffed animal as well. So darling!
Brigham and Isaiah helped with the preparations too. What a loving memory for all of us!













The Diary of a Teenage Birthday

Wow, Can you believe that? Hopie is 13! A teen! It's Amazing! We are so happy to have her in our family and we love her! She is so helpful and kind to her brothers and sisters.
I think it's the cutest when Gracie and Noah give her hugs! My heart melts a million times over!
Hopie is becoming a beautiful young lady, a talented artist and photographer as well! I'm putting up a photo that she took of Brigham that I think you'll see that she has an incredible eye for taking photo's!

A Family Project: Laying Tile

I've been feeling a loss of what to put up on this blog since Jan. I'm sorry if you've given up on following it and I understand. It's meant to share a little bit about our family. So, I'll see if I can continue to do just that. How about some stories, projects, pictures, facts, etc... Hopefully, it will be enjoyable for all.

Laying Tile:

I have meant to post about Jared's idea for laying tile in our main living area for some time now. We did get this finished in time for Nathan's arrival at Thanksgiving time but I never posted the photo's about the process it took for all of us to pitch and help getting this tiling project done.
In actuality, it was a challenging ordeal to tile our floor but we lived through it! I've been getting used to the tile again and it is looking nice still. In the end, I can say now I think I'm enjoying the result.
But tiling is no joke! It is hard work. I kept telling my children when they became tired of helping: "This is why you need to stay in school, go to college and graduate, so that you don't have to do this type of a job all the time." (Unless you want to, I suppose.) Overall, my children were all amazing helpers and even better than me. Do I want to admit that? ;)
Now, I do realize that some people may really love this type of job. I have nothing against them at all - more power and brute strength to you. For me, I really struggled sticking with it and I found myself frustrated. The not-so-nice truth about myself is that I was giving in to periods of laziness. I found out with tiling, you can't do that. You have to stick with it until it's over or it just becomes a lot harder. Digging and scraping up a mistake was not so great.
Jared also had an amazing idea to create a mosaic. It's a true north, celestial theme. He came up with the design and all of us in one way or another contributed in finishing it. It's funny because I found it interesting to figure out how the pieces would fit together to create the mosaic. Quite like doing a puzzle.
Each year for New Year's Eve my mom would put a puzzle together & if we wanted to stay up and watch the big crystal ball drop in NYC, which I always wanted to, then we could help her with the puzzle. We put together some big and interesting ones over the years as I grew up.
The amazing thing about this project is that we worked together as a family and we finished it in time for Nathan! Now, that's a great feeling. Accomplishment!

Hope you like the photo's of the final mosaic from three different angles and one close-up: