Christmas Countdown: Days 4-20

I am not very good at blogging in December. Okay, I probably could have stopped after the word "blogging", but in December it is especially hard for me. There is just so much to do and to enjoy, that it is hard to find the time to get on the computer. I'm sad that I haven't taken more pictures over the month, but I thought I'd include a little bit of what we've been doing this Christmas season.

Sleeping next to the the Christmas Tree.

Sitting on Santa's lap at our Church Christmas Party. That night when putting Little C. to bed, she told her dad, "Sorry I freaked out on Santa's lap dad." She was really worried she was going to be put on the "naughty list" after that. We had to assure her that Santa understood. How cute are 3 year olds?

Making gingerbread houses with Grandma.

Attending the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert. That was a highlight of the month so far. The music was beautiful, the spirit was so strong, and Doug and I had a wonderful evening with H-Man, and I-Mac. I'm so grateful we were able to get tickets this year.

There have been so many more things we've enjoyed this month, but unfortunately that is all I have captured on camera. 

I love Christmas time.

Christmas Countdown: Day 3

I started this month with great expectations of documenting all of the wonderful moments and memories of this Christmas season in words and pictures, but here it is the 6th of December and I only have one day to report on. We have been battling major illness in our household for the past month. H. Man has had it the worst and I think he is just finally turning the corner on a three week battle with bronchitis. We're praying that we are all healthy by Christmas and that we have paid our dues this last month so we can stay healthy the rest of the winter.

I decided to start a couple of new traditions to help us to enjoy the true spirit of Christmas a little more this year. The first thing I did new this year was to find 24 Christmas books, wrap them, and place them under the tree.

Each morning one child gets a turn to pick a book to open, and we read it together as a family. There are a mixture of fun stories like The Night Before Christmas, and The Polar Express, but I tried to make the majority of them ones that exemplified the true meaning of Christmas, like Christmas Day in the Morning, and A Christmas Bell for Anya. We have been loving this addition to our Christmas traditions. Each child can't wait until it's their turn to pick the book for the day and I love the mood it sets for the rest of the day as we start the morning cuddle up together on the couch reading stories about Christmas.

The other new thing we have done this year is that I made a Christmas Activity Advent for the kids. I got 24 bags at the craft store and filled each one with a treat for each child and an activity for the day. I hung them all up on our banister and each child takes a turn opening a bag for the day.

I had wanted to photograph and document us doing each of the activities, but I have only remembered to pull out the camera for one so far, and that was for our trip to see the lights at Temple Square on Friday night.

We all bundled up (although the weather was quite pleasant for December at 40 degrees) and headed downtown to take in the sights.

C. Bear was mesmerized by all of the lights.

The boys favorite thing was the life sized nativity. Little C. loved everything and Doug had to carry her or she would have spent the entire night wandering around, enjoying it all at her leisure.

After looking at the lights, we headed to a nearby café for hot chocolate and treats.

It was the perfect ending to a perfect night.

Wordless Wednesday: Face First Snow Angels

1 Down 179 to Go!

(First day of school 2010)

We did it! We officially completed our first day of the new school year! We started a little earlier than normal because we will be taking off a week and a half in September to go to California. I felt so underprepared heading into today that I was rather nervous and stressed out last night, but now that the day is over I think things went pretty well. 

Little C. started school with us today and was incredibly excited for her first day of "school". I am doing Before Five in a Row with her, and started the reading game I made and used for all of our kids (I'll post more on that later). She just turned 3 last month, but she so wanted to do school with us this year, that we are just going to take it slow and have a lot of fun. I can tell it will be a good thing for her to get this special one-on-one time during the school day because she was able to play on her own so much better today after having her time with me. I was able to focus more on the boys and not have to spend as much time worrying about keeping her busy and happy. Hooray!

G. Diddy isn't thrilled about starting school, and we had our battles today, but he did a great job on his Math-it game and it was fun to see his sense of accomplishment in that. I-Mac wishes summer wouldn't end, and just can't wait for our California trip to come, but he is so easy going that he just does what we ask without complaining. We are reading some fun books together right now, so that is always a draw for him. The three of us will be studying about American History this year (my favorite subject) so we should be reading a lot of interesting books this year, which we are all looking forward to. If everything goes as planned, we will be taking a trip to Washington D.C. at the end of this school year to wrap up our history studies. Everyone is excited about that prospect.

H. Man was excited for school to start today. He is entering his "Middle School" years this year, and that is one of the main reasons I have been so stressed. His work load is a lot heavier this year, and I'm not sure I'm fully prepared with what I need to do on some of his courses. Luckily, most of his work is done independently and he is a very motivated student so hopefully everything will go smoothly.

Although I have thoroughly enjoyed our summer, and it didn't seem to last long enough, it is exciting to be starting our new learning adventures this year. It is so fun to watch the light bulbs turn on as a child grasps a new idea, to learn about people and places you've never heard about before, to feel the wonder with your children as you ponder on the many amazing things God has created for us. For these reasons and so much more, I am grateful for the blessing and challenge of homeschooling my children. Here's to hoping I can remember to savor those moments all year long.  

She's Three!

After patiently waiting through her three older brother's birthdays last month, Little C. finally had her day in the sun. She was so excited for her birthday all week, that I think she was a little overwhelmed when the day finally arrived. 

We started the day with presents from her brothers and her choice of breakfast; Coco Puffs. She loved the little presents from her brothers and the outfit from mom and dad. We probably could have stopped there and she would have been thrilled. 

She was very anxious for me to make her cake, so when C. Bear went down for her nap we made her Tinkerbell cake. It was a little more work than I was anticipating, but she loved it so it was worth it.

 

Dad came home from work early and we went to the lake to swim and play at the park.

We ended up not being able to swim because the water was contaminated, but everyone had fun climbing on the awesome jungle gym at the park.

 

C. Bear even had fun hanging out in her chair while everyone played.

After that we went to Grandma's for Little C's birthday dinner (pancakes and eggs),  presents,

and cake.

Little C. is such an amazing girl. She has such a love of life and of people. We love her so much and hope she had a wonderful day!  

Happy Birthday Little C.!

Joy in the Journey

I was sitting in church today, struggling with our extremely active Little C.  As the sacrament was being passed I thought about how I used to enjoy reflecting on my week during this time, thinking about what went well, and what I could improve upon.  It was always such a peaceful and spiritually renewing part of my week.  Now, in order to keep the peace, I am usually searching for numerous ways to keep Little C. distracted and happy so that I can at least stay in the chapel.  As I was longing for the time to rerturn when I could focus more on my spiritual growth, I was struck with the thought that this was my mission right now.  Loving and enjoying this prescious child of God is most important for me right now, and will ultimately bring me the most spiritual growth.  It seems simple and obvious, but I love it when the Spirit brings things into focus for us when our expectations get a little off the mark.  Motherhood is the greatest sacrifice, the most difficult challenge, and the most sweetly rewarding endeavor we could ever undertake in this life.  In many ways, the work we do as mothers, as we lovingly and submissively give our lives (through our time, energy, sleep, pursuits, and hearts) for our children, we come closer to emulating the life of our Savior than through anything else we could do.  The Savior spent time studying the scriptures, but the bulk of his life and ministry was spent teaching, loving and serving the people.  It was a sweet experience today to be reminded of this fact and rather than feel guilty that I couldn't sit quietly and focus completely on the speakers or ponder the feelings and thoughts of the spirit, I held my baby and thanked Heavenly Father for the opportunity to be a mother and be taught a little more about what it means to loose myself in the service of others.

Wordless Wednesday: Memories of Summer...

School/Life with Baby

One of my greatest fears when we started this school year was how I was ever going to be able to accomplish anything in school with a brand new baby.  Much to my surprise, things went much more smoothly this year than I had ever dared to hope.  Until now...  

Carol has been (and still is) a wonderful baby.  She is almost always happy and easily entertained.  However, her new favorite thing to do is to pull out anything and everything that she sees that is put away.  If I try to stop her, she gets very mad and starts to scream.  This means that if I want to accomplish anything I have to compromise.  I let her make her messes so that I can get done what I need to at the moment, knowing it means more work for me, and then I clean up her mess when she is distracted with something else.  This morning during our family read aloud, Carol started to pull everything off the school bookshelf.  (She does this a couple of times a day.)  I felt a little exasperated because I really didn’t feel up to another day of chaos control, but just before I lost it, the thought came into my mind that I am so going to miss this some day.  I decided to get out my camera instead and took a few pictures so that I can always remember the fun times we had when everyone was little, and our biggest worries were cleaning up the messes. I hope I can always remember to cherish every moment.  They go by way too fast.  

                       

And yes, we totally do school in our pajamas.  Isn’t homeschooling great?!

Little C's Room

Little C. is seven and a half months old and I finally finished her bedroom today!  I have had her curtains and a cute cross-stitch that my grandmother made for her, that I just haven’t gotten around to putting up, but I finally got up the gumption and did it today.  OK her room is still decorated pretty sparse, but this is still more than I ever did for the boys.  Pink is so much fun!  Here are a couple more pictures