Eve Knits a Snake

Two things Eve loves are knitting/crocheting and photography.  

Every Sunday, Eve takes her yarn to church and crochets or knits as she listens, sometimes she finger knits things.  On Sunday, she finger knitted this tube and decided that it looked like a snake, so she tied it off and left some yarn for the tongue and split the end to look like a snake.  She had fun playing with it.  When I told her we should take a picture of it and post it on the blog she got her camera out and took this picture of herself.  I think she is so creative with it!

I love this picture ^ up here^

Joshua Climbs A Tree

Here he is - so proud of himself.  Yesterday, he asked me how people climb trees.  So I told him, then he asked if I would help him climb a tree.  I said I would in a little while.  Well, about 1/2 hour later he went outside and just did it all by himself.

You can see that there is a bike resting up against the tree.  Well, climbed on that and stood on the seat to get himself into the tree.

He didn't want me to take him down, so I let him sit there for a while.  All day he would go back and I would hear him call me to come take a look at his accomplishment.  Then when I would try to take him down, he would say that he wanted to stay there for a while.  I think it's so cute!

Malinda's Big Read

Malinda likes to read, but it hasn't been high up on her list of extra-curricular activities.  She has read books and enjoyed them, but picked only very short book.  She didn't really get the hunger for reading, until Twilight.  So many kids she knows have read Twilight (including everyone in our family except Malinda & Joshua.  Eve has only been allowed to read the first three books).   But we thought the subject matter was too grown up for her until recently.  

Now that she is nearing 10 yrs. old, we decided that the first book is an appropriate enough book for her to read.  She was so happy she just read and read and read.  Well, she finished!  It's a very long book, and she is so proud of herself!  I know it will motivate her to read more in the future.  She wants to read more Twilight, but that isn't going to happen until she's a bit older.  So if any of you have some book suggestions, we're taking them.

The Power of Television

Last week the kids had a whole week off of school, and on the first day there was a Pokemon marathon.  So, since the kids have loved Pokemon in the past, we had a nostalgic day of Pokemon.  The weather was perfect for such a day, because it rained all day.

Joshua had never seen Pokemon before, but once the kids explained it to him he was hooked!  He watched right along with them.  After a few episodes, he decided he was Ash (the main character), and ran to get dressed up like him.  Eve has some Pokemon stuffed toys, so Joshua grabbed one of those and spent the next several days being in character.  It hit me once again just how powerful an influence the media is.

I'm so glad that Ash's outfit is jeans and a t-shirt and a jacket.  Joshua has a track jacket that looks like Ashes minus a yellow stripe, but I don't have a picture of that.  It was strange to see him put aside his fireman persona for a while.

Isn't he cute?!!!

Fast forward to yesterday...  Joshua saw Jay Jay the Jet Plane and now he is Jay Jay.  Television is powerful stuff.  BTW, he has not dropped Fireman Sam.  The other characters are just that, characters, but he assures us he is still Fireman Sam for real.

More Fun at Christmas

We haven't taken any pictures lately, but I took these at Christmas time.   We had some friends of ours come over on Christmas Eve to watch the Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert.  The kids and their friends were so creative with the "No Ends" that I just had to snap some pictures.  Usually we make fire trucks/fire stations and helicopters, but the kids decided to try something new this time.  They made costumes.

The boys were making helmets and some kind of boxy body - like a robot.   Joshua was a spaceman.  Matthew (in the gray & red) made a rounded helmet - kind of like hair - I don't know what he was pretending to be.

Here's Joshua trying on his suit to see if he needs something added.  Yes, that is Nathan in the background playing ball with David in the house.  And Eve was looking on and helping when needed.

This is our friends daughter, Leah.  She made an angel costume, and I just loved it!  I especially liked that it was  in keeping with the Christmas celebration of the evening.  Kids are so creative.  I love to see what they can think up.

I Haven't Forgotten

We're still blogging, just haven't for a while.  The weeks surrounding Christmas were filled with preparation (fun!) and sickness (boring!).  I was the one who got sick first, so I've been playing catch up ever since - and no, I'm still not caught up.

Fortunately, we were blessed to be healthy for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day!  Hooray!  We had a really lovely time.  I'm sure it's the best Christmas we've had in a long time.  I didn't feel rushed or stressed about presents, and we had a beautiful live tree (which I loved!).  Everyone was healthy for about a week - and they are mostly healthy now.  We have the lingering, seemingly never-ending cough, but we're alright.  On Christmas Eve we made cinnamon rolls, and baked them up the next morning for breakfast (YUM!)  The kids played with toys and we adults played with the kids.  Suzanne spent the night as has been our tradition for the last 10 years or so.  The kids love it when Auntie Suzanne spends the night, and she loves seeing them open their gifts in the morning.

The other things that have kept me away from the blog are Primary & Facebook.  Primary is like Sunday School in our church.  I have been working really hard (along with the other ladies in the presidency)  to organize the 2009 primary classes, time schedule & budget, and getting set to take on Primary by myself for 3 weeks in Dec/Jan.   With children starting in new classes and with new teachers, I wanted it to be as smooth a transition as possible, especially since the other 2 ladies in charge are gone for vacation.  Also, in Novemeber we had a training meeting that we put together for the teachers.  So I've spent a lot of time on Primary, and so to relax I've been playing word games on Facebook instead of doing anything else.

(Hmmmm... maybe that is why I'm still trying to catch up on things.)

Leah is out of a cast and on crutches.  She has been in Physical Therapy for only a week and is trying to walk with one crutch.  They are hoping to get her on her feet unassisted in 3 weeks, but it may take a little longer.

Eve started violin lessons yesterday.  She has been wanting to play for years, but we kept trying to put it off.  We have heard that the formative years of violin are painful to the ears.  After taking piano and doing other things she still wanted to play the violin.  Anyway, she will probably enjoy it very much.

Malinda has informed me that she wants to quit gymnastics and try Irish dancing or Fencing.  So I'm looking into those things.  We're going to try the Irish dancing first, because the fencing costs are extremely high.

Nathan continues to take guitar lessons - it's been about 2 months.  And he was a little disappointed on Christmas that he had already gotten his present a month before, but he got over it pretty quickly.  Matthew had bought the family a video game, that really leaned toward the his and Nathan's interests.  He was also going to get a family present that leaned toward the girls' interests, but the stores were all sold out of it ( I can't tell you what it is until he gets it.)

Nathan got a Calvin & Hobbes book and a few other little things from his sisters and Joshua, as well as Suzanne and his grandparents.  It's just that in that moment when all the kids were opening gifts they had been wanting for so long, it was a bit of a disappointment.  A few minutes of guitar playing & video games cured that right up.

Joshua got some fire trucks and Bob the Builder cars, and his Fireman Sam toys came 2 days after Xmas, so he is in 7th heaven right now.

My camera was out of power on Christmas morning, so this picture was taken later that day.  Suzanne's camera has all our Xmas pictures on it, so as soon as I can get those off of her camera I'll post some more.

Bye for now!

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!