Fireman Sam's (Joshua's) Morning at the Station

Joshua (Fireman Sam) woke up, got dressed in his "fire clothes", and rode with me to take the kids to school.  On the way home we saw the that the fire trucks were out at the station, so we stopped by for a visit.  We didn't know if they would let us in without an appointment, but they did.  The firefighters saw Joshua in all dressed for work and let him come in.  They were so impressed with him that they let him use the hose, turn on the siren and pretend to drive the fire truck.  Here are the pictures.  Joshua was so happy  - to say the least!  The firefighters invited him to come back any time, as many times as he wants.  Be sure to check out the video clip at the bottom!

San Francisco in the Summer

Here are some pictures from our trip to San Francisco with Suzanne, Liz, and David.  I meant to post them a while back, but I guess I forgot.

We had a fun time.  One of the places we visited was a submarine called the USS Pompanito.  We toured the ship and met some of the guys who were on the submarine during the war.  One of them was from another ship just like the Pompanito.  We all were amazed at the small quarters, and marveled at the thought of being on a ship, under water for months at a time.  You have to be brave, for sure!

Malinda, Eve, and Joshua next to an anchor.

Here are Suzanne, Joshua, Liz, David, Malinda and Eve on the ship.

Nathan's Hair Cut

Nathan with his new hair style.

"The Joys of Life"

Joshua wanted to make the Jaws of Life that the firefighters use.  Once again the No Ends allowed us to accomplish this task.  He calls the "Jaws of Life" the "Joys of Life."  I think he is so happy to be a firefighter and the jaws of life rescue people so that's happy, therefore he hears "joys" instead of "jaws".  Here he is cutting the couch.

Leah's Surgery

Okay, I've just posted 3 blogs tonight, so even if you've read recently you'll want to scroll down and read the other two posts.  

Leah had her first of two surgeries today.  Here she is just after we arrived home.  She was a trooper about it all.  The surgery went well, and Leah is doing well.   She is not in pain - thanks to the great medicine that she is on.

The surgeries are to correct an extremely high arch that has caused Leah to walk on the outside edge of her foot.  That has caused alignment problems which resulted in pain in her ankles and knees.  

We are so grateful for the advances in medicine that allow these things to be fixed.  We are grateful to the medical professionals that have studied and worked to provide such important services to each one of us.

We hope you feel better soon, Leah!

The Helicopter

  We have these toys called No Ends.  Joshua wanted to make a helicopter.  He always wants to make something.  Sometimes it's a helicopter, sometimes it's a fire truck, and sometimes it's a school bus.  We all have fun making things with the No Ends and trying to make them better than the last.  Eve says, "No Ends Rock!"  

Here is Joshua doing "construction" on the helicopter we made.  What that meant was that he put the pencil behind his ear, looked over the chopper, and then marked it where he thought something should be adjusted.  I thought it was so cute that I took this picture.  I did have to tell him not to mark them up anymore.

Finally, it was ready to fly.

Coming in for a landing.  Great flight!

Nathan's 15th Birthday

For nearly a year, Nathan has been wanting this guitar.  He decided that if we combined birthday and christmas with money from both sides of the family, that he could get this guitar.  

He thought he was going to have to do some jobs around the house, including bricking in part of the side yard.  Nathan has been so dedicated to learning the guitar, and practicing it, that we got it for him without him having to do those jobs.  He was completely surprised!  He didn't expect it at all.

It's great to see our children work on something they love!

Halloween Pictures

Halloween was more fun this year for me than in the past.  We decided to have Halloween the way I remember it - with a more homemade feel.  I get really annoyed by the expectation to wear a costume with a big wow factor, and by how expensive Halloween has become.  With five kids to buy costumes for, it was getting ridiculous. I wanted the kids to find out that it could be so much more fun to be creative.  It took very little convincing to have them agree to making a costume instead of buying one.  All I had to do was to tell them I would only pay $15 toward each of their costume.   They quickly calculated how much money they had, and each person decided whether it was worth the cost to them to buy a costume.  Nathan didn't dress up.  Eve bought her costume.  Malinda and Eve made their own.  In the end, we all found making costumes so enjoyable, that they want to do it again next year.

Joshua's costume was already determined in July, so he was a fireman as usual.   Here he is in our living room.  This one was taken a few days before Halloween, but it has him with his beloved torch.  On Halloween day, he had his torch with him, but not at the times when I had the camera, so I thought this picture was a better representation of what he looked like on Halloween.  We, of course, went Trick-or-Treating to the fire station.  He was in awe, but not afraid to talk to them.  He wants to go back and get invited in!

Here is Malinda during the parade at school.  She was a tiger.  We made her costume with a T-shirt, some duct tape, and pipe cleaners.  She designed the ears (they look like triangles in this picture, but they really had a great shape - rounded triangles with a pinched point at the top.)

Eve was a ladybug.  She looks so cute!

Leah wanted to be a honey bee, but all of the costumes except one were soooo inappropriate! We tried to buy the cute, modest one, but it was super popular, and everyone was sold out - both online and in the stores.  I hope that tells the costume designers something about what people want, and that they will design more modest costumes.  Anyway, Leah and her friend Ashley were both bees and went Trick-or Treating together.  Leah made her costume with a T-shirt, duct tape, and pipe cleaners.  I was going to sew a little skirt on the bottom of the tee, but we ran out of time.  The wings were from last year's fairy costume.
We Trick-or-Treated around the neighborhood, at church for a Trunk-or-Treat, and went to Grandma and Grandpa's house.  It rained so we got wet, but it wasn't cold - it was actually really fun!  I love where we live, because the whole neighborhood is out and it's a great social event.  The kids get to see all of their school friends either on the sidewalk or when they knock at the door.  It's probably the only thing I like about Halloween - seeing the friends and seeing how excited the kids are to be dressed up.  Now, if we make our costumes again next year, then it will tap into my love for creativity and that will be another thing I like about Halloween.

Band, Books, and Doctors

Leah is in the band at school - she plays the flute. Last night was a band concert and some of us went to see it. The band was really good! I forgot my camera, and my cell phone camera is pretty bad (no zoom) - I couldn't get a good picture at all, so I don't have any pictures to post. We had a great time - can't wait for the next one. I love seeing (and listening to) our children making music. What a great talent!

Leah got her braces off earlier this week. I took a picture and will post it later.

Nathan was at his weekly Young Men's activity and the girls were at Activity Days making Halloween crafts and playing games, so they missed out on the concert, but had fun doing their own thing. Wednesdays are always our busiest days.

I finished reading Twilight on Monday and gave Eve the go-ahead to read it. She is so excited, that I find her reading it all the time. I think she will be done by Saturday.

Today I finished reading New Moon, so I have to get to work on catching up on the missed housework. It's not too bad. Just need to do some extra tidy-up in the living rooms and wash some extra dishes. I also have to correct some assessment tests for Eve's teacher. He gave them to me to do on Tuesday and didn't tell me when he needed them back, so I hope that tomorrow is good enough. I think so, because he goes over them at parent-teacher conference and that is still 2 weeks away.

I usually don't read books as much as I'd like to. I knew this Twilight book series would be one that I couldn't put down, so I waited for a couple of months to read it (waiting for a time when the famly could get by with me doing minimal work). It's been fun to get a mini vacation at home. Yesterday I was almost at the end of New Moon when I couldn't concentrate on the book anymore. I hit my vacation limit. I thought doing a few dishes in the morning and playing with Joshua for a few minutes every half hour would be enough work to keep me from feeling like I needed to be doing something useful. I found out I can't sit for 5 hours reading without feeling like I was shirking my responsibilities, so I am taking a one day break and starting up book 3 on Friday afternoon. ( It's 10 o'clock now and I've already started catching up on everything, so I'm tempted to change my thinking. In my head I find myself saying, "Maybe after I correct those tests, I'll peek at a few pages tonight, but not get sucked in." Ha! Ha!)

Joshua had his wellness check-up today and is 40 inches tall, and weighs 30 pounds. So he is very tall and very slender for his age. On the elevator to the Dr.'s office we noticed the emergency button on the panel inside had a red firefighter's helmet picture next to it. We noticed it and Joshua said, "It's a firefighter's helmet! It's just like mine, except for mine is black." I said, "Your right!" He is using such big words and phrases now. If he didn't still have his little boy pronunciations he would sound much older than he really is. He's been really doing a lot of growing lately. He's really fun to talk to - I love to find out what he's thinking about.

Kids Have a Different Way of Thinking - I Love It!

Joshua did a cute thing two days ago. He saw me making a shopping list, so he decided to make his own. He got a pad of paper and a few pens and started "writing". When he was done he told me that he had a list and that it said we needed to buy paper towels. I asked him what else was on his list and he said, "Let's check." He opened up the pad of paper and started writing something new, then he read it and informed me that we needed fruit snacks. I thought it was so funny that he had to start writing in order to know what the list said. Very cute!

Thanks Eve!

Here's a picture of Eve and I. She was showing me how to take pictures on the webcam and then post them on a blog.

Liz and David at the Shark Tank!

Tonight our whole family went with our cousin Elizabeth and her boyfriend David to the San Jose Sharks game.  It was great fun!  We had never been before and, if it weren't for showing family around, we might not have ever gone.  We are so glad we went that we might go again sometime.

Here are Malinda & Eve with Elizabeth & David just after the game.

Here's a picture of the hockey game - the Sharks were tied at the end of the game, but won in overtime.  Next is the big family picture.

Here we all are.  David, Liz and Malinda are on the left.  Leah, Nathan, Suzanne, Joshua, then me and, in the front, is Eve.  Matthew took the picture, so you'll have to see him later in another post.

Tomorrow we are going to sight-see in San Francisco.  I'll post more pictures later.

Busy Week

During the past week we celebrated Eve's birthday, Malinda's birthday and my birthday. We've had lots of fun! It seems like everyday we were busy doing something. The weather has been beautiful - so warm!

We are trying to set up new routines and habits. School and Seminary has begun. I'm driving nearly somewhere between 60 and 80 miles a day depending on the day. That means that the kids have to do more around the house to keep things running smoothly.

We are really making a concerted effort to get to bed early since Nathan and I get up at 5:30 and everyone else gets up at 6:30am. While Nathan is at Seminary, I go to Curves to work out. Then at 6:30 Matthew gets everyone else up and going. At 7, Nathan and I get home and I make lunches. Leah and Nathan both leave for school at 7:30, so Matthew takes one (usually Nathan) and I take the other. All the while, Malinda and Eve are getting themselves ready for school. By the time I get back from driving Leah to school it's just about time to take the other girls to school. So that's how our mornings go.

Getting everyone home is easier. Leah takes a bus to Malinda and Eve's elementary school, and they all walk home together while I pick up Nathan. Then we have a snack and do homework.

As for other things the kids do. Eve is in the school choir and Leah is in Drama Club. Malinda and Eve are taking gymnastics one day a week. They like their extra activities.

I don't think I've been this busy for a long time. We have always known that keeping things uncluttered is important, but it can be difficult. The more people in a house the more difficult it becomes. We are finding that keeping the house uncluttered is really, really important. That means I am pointing out the things the kids leave on the table, floor and counters more often.

I'm so glad we got the major living areas of our home in order before school started, so that things can run more smoothly. I'm also thankful for good habits and how quickly they can be improved upon when you really commit to it.

I know in some ways being super busy is a blessing for us. It seems easier to keep up on the routines when the pressure is on.

Birthdays

September is a busy month for birthdays in our family.  Tonight we celebrated Auntie Suzanne's birthday with cake and ice cream for dinner.  We are going to have dinner for dessert.

On the 18th, Eve will have a birthday, then me (Kathryn) on the 20th, followed by Malinda on the 26th.  Looks like we will have a lot of cake in the coming weeks.  It's funny, we go the first 9 months of the year without birthday cake (Matthew doesn't like cake, so we have cookies or brownies on his birthday) and then, at the end of the year, we have more cake than we could want in such a short time.

In other news, one of our cousins is coming to visit the US from England.  We are so excited and hope she can make it to see us out here in California.  We are just waiting to hear what her plans are.  Suzanne has met her once, and I never have.  As children, we would love to hear about our cousins in England and what they were doing.  Our moms would write to each other and we loved to hear parts of the letters read to us.  We always wished we could meet them and see them frequently, like our friends could do with their cousins.  As the years went on, we didn't keep up as much as we should have.  Now that we're all grown it will be so great to have at least the chance to meet Elizabeth, and we hope it's the start of keeping in touch with that part of our family on our own.

I found this picture of Joshua on the camera, and have no idea who took it.  But it was so cute that I couldn't resist putting it in with this entry.  Most likely it was Eve, because she wants to be a photographer when she grows up, so she is constantly taking pictures of things and people.

Starting School

I haven't kept this blog up the way I planned because I was waiting to learn how to get pictures onto the blog, but I'm just not getting around to it and Matthew would show me if I remembered to ask him. He says it's simple, so hopefully soon... Anyway, I decided that I need to update even though we don't have pictures yet, or else nobody would remember to check the blog anymore.

The kids have all started school now. Nathan started high school on the 19th of August, and the girls all started on the 25th. Leah is in the 7th grade, Eve in the 5th, and Malinda is in the 3rd. We were sorry to see them go, but we know that they will have a reasonably good time at school. At least they'll be busy... Joshua has really missed his brother and sisters since they've been gone. He is so eager to play with them when they get home. His favorite thing is to wrestle with Nathan.

Matthew has been out of town for nearly 2 weeks for work, so he's missed this so far.

During the day Joshua and I have kept ourselves busy playing firefighter, of course. He has discovered that he likes television and that there is a show called Fireman Sam, so he is inspired to create new story lines for his dramatic play. We pretend there are people to be rescued and fires to put out everywhere. However, Joshua has been branching out a little bit by playing Bob the Builder, Wonder Pets, Go Diego, Go!, and Super Why! He assigns characters to everyone and calls us by that name all day long.

Joshua is potty trained. (Hooray!) We had the most amazing experience with that. I told him in June that when he turns 3 we'd use up the last of the diapers and when they ran out then I wouldn't buy anymore. So around the middle of July I told him that we only had about 2 weeks worth of diapers left, and then every other day or so I tell him how many days were left. After a week of that he started asking me how many were left and then when we got down to 4 diapers we did a count down. We went to the store and bought some little cars and put them in a "treasure box" and told him that whenever he used the toilet he could get a treasure. So, the diapers ran out the beginning of August. He went to the toilet and did his business and got his prize and he was set. About a week later we had a set back with #2 that lasted for 3 days. I couldn't find the right motivation for him, but it turned out that I just had to tell him that he could have an ice cream cone everytime he went #2 and that was it (and a little bit of nature taking its course). So, the first time he overcame his set back was at 9:15 PM, and I didn't have ice cream in the house, so we all got into the car and drove through the McDonalds to get a cone. The fact that we did something out of the ordinary impressed upon him the greatness of what he had accomplished, he felt really proud. We had to get ice cream everyday for a week, but it worked.

There's so much I could write about, but I will just stop here and keep this blog better updated from now on. Hope you are well.
Kathryn

Joshua has been playing firefighter day and night since we got him some Hard Hat Harry videos for Christmas. He has turned his winter coat and a backpack into his firefighter costume, so for his birthday we thought a fireman theme would be right up his alley. He got the firefighter costume from Grandma Bertolet and Grandpa Ted tonight when we celebrated his birthday at their house - he loves it!

As a family we bought him a firetruck pedal car. He wasn't supposed to see it until Tuesday - his birthday, but...

I wasn't home when the package was delivered, and on the outside of the box was a giant picture of the pedal car. Joshua saw it and knew immediately what it was. He had to open it right away. So he's been having fun riding around and spraying water to "put out fires" since Wednesday. Now he is a firefighter through and through.

On Tuesday we'll keep it simple. We will have a nice dinner on "Lightning McQueen" party plates, sing a Happy Birthday medley that we made up from Primary songs, and put out pretend fires. Should be fun!