TBT - Baby Jesus?

In 2007 we were living in Georgia and Cat, then 2, attended a Methodist preschool two mornings a week.  It was a great place with kind, caring teachers and they taught lots of Bible stories.  Cat loved going to preschool there and we loved it for her.

During the Christmas season, probably shortly after we'd told Cat that we'd be having a baby the following year, I picked Cat up from preschool and she excitedly told me all about what would be happening when the baby came.  "The baby's name will be JESUS and he'll be born in a STABLE!"

I quickly tried to kindly correct her on those two facts, but it took me a little longer to figure out why she had made those assumptions.  I think she was excited about the Christmas story she'd heard in preschool, but just a little confused about how it applied in our lives.

January 2008

Cat's Book Club

Yesterday Cat and I hosted a meeting for our Mother Daughter Book Club.  The book was The Power of Poppy Pendle about a little girl who is born with magical powers but instead of wanting to study to be a witch, she is intent on being a baker.  The book contains several yummy recipes and the story includes afternoon tea, so we used those elements when we planned the meeting.  We made herbal iced tea, we had a selection of fruits, and Cat made an orange cupcake recipe from the book which turned out great.

Then we had the mothers and daughters make their own brownie recipe using a base batter that Cat made and adding in the extracts and mix-ins they wanted.  This was a last-minute activity we planned, so we just pulled out things we had on hand already, but it was successful and Cat's Lemon Mint Brownies were quite tasty.

Mint chips, butterscotch chips, Craisins, white chocolate chips,
marshmallows, and toasted sliced almonds.

The girl who is to be in charge of next month's discussion brought three books for us to consider, and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone won by unanimous vote.  This was at about 2:30 yesterday afternoon.  Cat began reading our copy right away, and even though she had piano practice, dinner, and a softball game after the book club meeting, she managed to finish the book before she went to sleep.  Ben and I were hanging out in the family room at about 11pm and Cat came upstairs, thrust the book in my lap and told me I could read it now because she was finished with it.

She read the entire second book today (even though we spent hours at her cousins' house) and has a healthy start on book three.  When we were arriving at the library this afternoon, I looked over at her reading in the passenger seat next to me and said in a surprised tone, "You're going to finish that today!"

She replied, "I only have 200 pages left, so, yeah, probably."  (It turns out that she had less than 100 pages left at the time, but it was still a funny comment, and a great illustration of the way she often attacks books.)

Finishing up Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets in the Provo Library.

The first time Cat read the Harry Potter series, she finished all of the books in a month.  I'm wondering if she won't finish all of them in a week this time around?  (And yet, I have to say, for the record, that Cat has made the bold claim that the Fablehaven books are better than the Harry Potter books.  And I'm pretty sure she's already read that series at least twice...)

Lukey Chukey Lately

Oh, how he loves wearing my glasses.
If only the camera on my phone were as fast as his grabby-hands.

Snuggled up with the little pillow and blanket Cat made
for Eliza's birthday doll.

This is how a kid is supposed to sleep in Mom and Dad's bed.
Perpendicular to both Mom and Dad.

We were in the church waiting for the rest of the play group to arrive when Eliza
and Luke decided to be brave and walk down this dark hallway.  Luke wanted
to hold Eliza's hand, and she agreed, and they were brave the whole way
down the hall.  I think that companionship must make everyone feel more brave.

When Grammy had the audacity to bring Luke books when she visited recently, he
collapsed on the floor in a puddle of tears.  But in no time at all, he was snuggling up
on the couch with her, asking her to read another book, and another one...

 

(Nom nom nom) "You're right, Daddy."
(Nom nom nom) "Thai restaurants do make the best rice."
Okay, maybe the only thing he was saying when I took this
picture was "Nom nom nom."  You guessed it.

Luke went through a cute but brief LEGO phase, where he loved making "ships"
and wanted to take them everywhere, and got very upset if they came apart.

Yesterday at dinner Luke decided he'd had enough of everyone else's noise and shenanigans.  He pointed his spoon at each of us in turn, commanding, "You be quiet.  You be quiet." Then he announced, "I am the only one in charge."  I suppose that sometimes, the baby just has to demand to be heard.

Meet Art

This statue resides in the adult non-fiction section of the Orem Public Library.  All of the kids agree that it's creepy.  When we were in the library recently, Jack reached out to touch the statue and I told him that he shouldn't touch the art.  Then Luke asked, "So that guy is called Art?"

It's Beyond Me

What I don't understand is how he can have so much ice cream on his face, and yet the cone looks all but untouched.

Also, thank you to the Orem Public Library for giving my kids coupons for free ice cream cones, just for reading.

Ben's Birthday

Ben had a birthday with a longer-than-usual celebration schedule earlier this month.  He went out of town for work two days before his birthday, then got home in the wee hours of the morning the day after his birthday.

He opened presents the night before his trip, getting himself his first non-tuxedo bow tie and a couple of other surprises.

Since he was gone on his actual birthday, we texted him some birthday wishes during the day.  I might have given my kids instructions such as "go crazy" and "sing Happy Birthday with your mouths full of doughnuts." I'll never tell.

The day after the big day, we had a family trip to a nearby indoor pool then had a fancy dinner out at Applebee's (where we had coupons for three free kids meals from the school, haha).  Yeah for a fun celebration for our favorite birthday dad!

  

TBT - Reflections on the Life of Charles Whitlock

I had a special experience this week.  We went down to the Manti, UT area for a little camping trip and to attend the Manti Pageant.  This is the area where my ancestors settled after crossing the plains with the Saints, so we made sure to visit two cemeteries in the area.

We found lots and lots of Whitlock tombstones in the Mayfield Cemetery; Cat spotted one even before we got out of the car.

We perused the small cemetery for a while, and the girls and I did a few grave rubbings (which caused just a little confusion with Cat, who thought I'd suggested that we do some grave robbings).

The tombstone I was most excited about finding was that of Charles Whitlock, who I blogged about last year. (Edited to add: the tombstone below is actually the firstborn child of the boy in the story I blogged about previously.  Charles Whitlock, Jr. was born in Sanpete County shortly after the pioneers arrived, and I believe he was the first white male born there.  Charles Whitlock, Sr., was one of the original settlers of the town of Ephrai.  He is buried in Ephraim Cemetary and lived 1833-1920.)

I couldn't help but think, as I looked around at the desolate valley Charles and his family helped settle, that their task was one which took exceptional faith and courage.  What must it have been like to travel from the lush banks of the Mississippi River, all the way to the desert of Utah, and finally feel safe in the body of Saints in Salt Lake, only to be told to continue to travel to a smaller, more remote, valley, and tasked with the near-impossible assignment of making it prosperous?

I said a prayer of thanks for these people who lived their lives in such a way that I can have the life I have today.

Pen Palling

I contrived a sneaky way to encourage my kids to write this summer.  Ideally, they will do some amount of writing each day, but knowing that they'll get tired of journal entries and story-writing, I had them send out several homemade postcards to friends scattered across the United States.  They drew pictures on the front and wrote messages on the back and at least some of them have reached their destinations successfully because we've received a few responses already.  I only hope that the recipients enjoy the drawings and notes as much as I do...

Paddleboarding by Jack

"I want to play soccer but Mom said no so I didn't." - Eliza

Sad Eliza NOT playing soccer.

"Thanks for being my friend.  Would you like to be my pen pal?  Love, Jack.  PS You are nice."

Somehow Jack and his friend Madi (the daughter of Ben's best friend of 35 years, give or take) have already declared their love for each other.  When Jack received this letter in response to his postcard, he read it to each member of the family, then read it to himself over and over again for days.  Before long, the card needed to be taped together.  It's good to know that at least one child has solid plans for the future.

Side note: Our second wave of postcards looked much better than the first.  We used cardstock on the first round and the markers leaked through on both sides.  On the second round I cut up posterboard and that worked much better.  Also, be sure that the size of the postcard does not exceed 4x6 if you want to use a postcard stamp.

Good Morning

Bridal Veil with Friends

One morning we went to Bridal Veil Falls with a friend of Cat's and a friend of Jack's.  I don't have any pictures of the boys, but I have a couple of pictures of the girls I wanted to share.  Cat and her friend let Eliza tag along while they climbed up to the waterfall.  They were gone for a long time and I started wondering if I should be worried, then I saw them coming down.  Apparently, the older girls were helping Eliza up and, especially, down.  In the first picture, you can see Cat helping Eliza get back down to the pedestrian bridge.  The older girls were a little exasperated about how long it took to get up and down but I was proud of them for working together and not giving up.

Utah Lake Festival

A few weeks ago Ben and I took the kids to Utah Lake State Park for the annual Utah Lake Festival.  This was a free event and opportunity for the public to learn about the lake's environmental issues and recreational opportunities and we had a great time.

The highlight, and the main thing that motivated us to go, was the opportunity to try paddleboarding for free.  The four oldest members of the family tried it, and the younger two were able to come along for the ride and we all had  a great time.  Cat got the hang of it right away; Jack spent a lot of time stuck in a slip and Cat and Ben helped him out at different times; I needed a few minutes to feel comfortable but figured it out eventually; and Ben had no problem.

Cat fell off her board once and got completely submerged.  I lost my balance a bit but didn't fall in; I dropped my paddle but Ben got it back to me.  Jack had a hard time getting off of the board when he came back to the dock and ended up hanging/falling on to the edge of the dock and having someone pull him up, which happened pretty quickly, so no harm done.

Can you find Cat way out there?

When Cat's turn was over, she grabbed my phone to take pictures of Luke and me.

Let's just say it takes a special touch to take pictures using my busted phone...

The other activities at the festival included informational booths and lots of games and activities for the kids.  We met our first Sea Scouts and Cat was disappointed that you can't join until age 14.  Now she has something else she wants to try out when the time arrives...

We checked out a DNR speed boat and Luke was anxious to try out the captain's seat.

Look out!  It's a sand monster!

Luke decorated a fish hat right before we left.

Children's Art Festival

A week after the art festival at the BYU Museum of Art, I took the kids to the Children's Art Festival that was part of Springville's Art City Days.  It was hot and sunny and pretty crowded, but we still had fun.  We only did  a fraction of the art activities that were available.  The Bigs got their faces/arms painted twice.  We drew on white-framed plastic sunglasses with Sharpies - that was a big hit!  And the kids made sand art pictures and decorated drawings of their initials.  Then we went into the Springville Art Museum to do an art scavenger hunt.  As a bonus, we had a few friends to hang out with while we were there.  It was a very fun way to spend the morning.

This sculpture was titled "The Von Scrap Family Swingers."

On the last day of school, Jack was excited that he had his "Krispy Kreme Coupon"and it took a second for it to register that he was referring to his report card.  We redeemed the kids' coupons after the art festival and nobody complained about eating doughnuts before (or in place of?) lunch.