Homeschool Exchange Student

The week after we got home from all our holiday travels, we hosted a delightful exchange student who was just 6 years old.  My sister Jenny had the fun idea to have each of our homeschoolers spend a week at the others' home since when you homeschool, you can do stuff like that in the middle of the school year!  Jenny did a lot of fun crafts with the girls, and I did lots of fieldtrips (to the Aquarium, Zoo & Explora).  Daphne and Jemma had lots of fun together, and Jemma was very brave to be away from her family for that long!  She even flew home by herself!

Field Trip #1:  Botanical Gardens/Aquarium

We talked about birds and how the girls are plain and the boys are fancy.  We saw lots of different ducks that illustrated that point.  But for some reason when we got home and the girls were drawing pictures about what they saw and what they learned, Daphne drew a picture of her gazing at a horse and wrote a little description about how she knows that you can talk to horses in your mind if you just gaze into their eyes.  A little off-topic, but at least she remembers the movie, "Secretariat." 

The next day we read "Paper Bag Princess" and then made our own paper bag dresses.  Little cousin Lilly joined us for this one.

Jemma told me, "I don't really wanna wear this--it's not very comfy."  

That girl is the queen of COMFORTABLE!

Our three paper bag princesses

Field Trip to the Zoo:

I don't often think about going to the zoo in the winter, but it's the best, because you have the place to yourself, and the animals are out sunning, so you can see them a lot better.

It was cool to see the Cheetas out.  They are the hardest animal to spot at the zoo, and they were BOTH (I didn't even know we had 2) out sunning that day.

a baby giraffe with her mom

Thanks for coming Jemma!  We loved having you come for a visit.  

some randomness

1. I am in process of catching up on all the exciting adventures of our lives.  For any of you who are interested in reading about them, or seeing the funny pictures, or want to know what Arthur got me for Christmas, scroll down, because I'm dating them by when they happened.

2.  In church on Sunday, Sydney stood on my lap during Sacrament Meeting with her rubber soled shoes, and tore my dress.  It was a thin sheer fabric with lining underneath, so thank goodness I wasn't exposing anything unseemly.  But it just so happened that yesterday, I was asked to give not one, but 2 opening prayers, (Sunday School and Relief Society.)  What are the chances? So I got to stand up in front of everyone and pray, and all I could think about was the hole in the front of my dress.  Fortunately, I was called out to play the piano for the Young Women in the 3rd hour, and thus escaped the 2nd opening prayer.  So which is worse?  A holey dress in front of all the Young Women?  Or a holey dress in front of all the Relief Society?  It was probably the holey dress in Sunday School, the prayer I did end up giving.

3. I was recently introduced to Pinterest.  ah.  what to say about Pinterest?  It is cool because it gives me such fun ideas.  But not cool because I don't have time to spend looking at all the ideas, and yet, I look anyway.  Here is a fun little craft that Daphne and I made recently that I found on Pinterest.  It took all of 10 minutes to put together.  :)  Mason jars, paper doilies, ribbon and felt hearts.  Plop a candle inside, and they are irresistible.

December & January Quotes

December was so crazy, that I just didn't write down much of what my kids said. As a result, the December quote page was looking pretty slim.  But, so far this month, we've already had a good supply of blog-a-ble quotes.  So I'm hoping my kids will keep up the good work and supply us with plenty more so I have some to post at the end of this month.  In the meantime, enjoy a few from December and the first week of January.

On a VERY windy night as I was preparing to leave for our Stake's "A Child is Born" concert, Daphne said,   "I feel sorry for you that you have to go out in the wind.  

I hope it doesn't blow away your good looks."

Driving home from getting our Christmas Tree, Sean said, 
"It looks like our car has green hair."

Sean:  (to Hayden) When you're too old, you die.

Dallin (getting annoyed with Sean):  There's something wrong with your brain.

Sean: Wait, which brain?  The one in your head or the one in your--

Dallin:  There's only ONE BRAIN!  I've studied it in class. There's only one brain.

Daphne:  I think God created Santa Claus so Christmas wouldn't be so boring.

Sean: (regarding Santa's present) "Well, I didn't ask for this.  But I like it."

Hayden:  I don't want to be in this family anymore.
Me:  Oh yeah?  Why not?
Hayden:  Because nobody loves me.
Me:  Well that's certainly not true.  I love you so much.  Everyone in our family loves you.
Hayden:  Well, nobody's nice to me, so I'm running away.
Me:  I hope you don't because I will miss you so much.
Hayden:  Well, too bad.
Me:  Well, how will you get food if you run away?
Hayden:  I will bring my dollars.
Me: Where will you sleep?
Hayden:  I will bring my blankets and sleep by the fish at the Equarium.
Me:  Well, the Aquarium is really far away.  How will you get there?
Hayden:  I'm taking the GPS.
So apparently, he's thought it all out.  I'm glad to report that he hasn't actually left yet.  Because we would sure miss him!!!

During a family prayer that Daphne had been asked to say, Hayden decided to say his own on top of hers.  Sean leaned over and whispered loudly, "Hayden!  Stop doing that.  It's too crazy for God!"

A rather morbid conversation as we loading the car after a field trip to the Aquarium:
Me:  Please shut that door Daphne.
Jemma:  Why do we need the door shut?
Me:  Because if we were driving with the door open, someone might fall out and die.
Jemma:  Oh.  Then we would be on the news.
Hayden:  What's the news?
Jemma:  The news is where they tell you all the bad stuff that happens.
Daphne: And sometimes they have good stuff too.
Jemma: Well, if I fell out of the car, they would put me on the news and say, "A little girl fell out of the car while it was driving and got runned over because the door was open."  And my parents would see it on the news and be so sad.

Hayden:  I'm not thcared of anything.  Exthept for chickenth.

Hayden:  The only food I like is rootbeer and cheetos and bacon.

Sean:  I'm sorry, Hayden.

Hayden:  Oh.  I already told on you.

(because obviously the only reason to say sorry is to avoid getting told on.)

A conversation at church:
Hayden: So the bread is for Jesus' body?
Dad: Yes
Hayden: And the water ith for Hith blood?
Dad: Yes, that's right.
Hayden:  Ith there blood in the water?
Mom:  No, the water just helps us remember His blood.
Hayden: (pauses to think...) Well, what about Hith bones?

Happy New Year

On our way home we stopped at Natalie and Brian's for a couple of days to spend New Year's with them and the Andersons who also stopped on their way home.  We had a blast playing with the Evans!  (Thanks for putting up with all our loud chaos, guys!)

We forgot to pack our swim suits, so we got a little creative when the kids all wanted to get in the spool. Daphne and Sydney borrowed stuff from Kyrie, Dallin just wore a pair of shorts, 

and Hayden and Sean . . .  Well, you can see what they did.  

The kids just LOVED that spool and were in it every minute we'd let them.

One morning we forced them to play out in the front yard (the opposite yard of where the spool is) and sure enough, they found something to do.  They searched for rollie pollies, and made them a cute little house.

But despite all their best efforts, their rollie pollie wasn't appreciative and went to find himself a crack to live in instead.  

On New Year's Eve, Brian took us to the beach at Camp Pendleton.  

We had the place to ourselves, and had a great time.  The kids played in the sand, the dads played football, and I took pictures.

Eventually, the kids ventured into the water and got much wetter and colder than is probably advisable.

And the moment it became too much to bear (i.e. when the whining commenced) was the moment our trip to the beach ended.

All in all, a nice place to spend the last day of 2011.

Thanks for letting us ring in the New Year with you, Nat & Bri!  

a lunch with long-lost relatives

After Christmas at Stonehaven, we returned to Mom and Dad's for a a couple of days.  On one of those days, we drove out to Dublin to meet some Garietys we hardly ever see.

Arthur's oldest brother, Norb Jr. and his wife, Kathy, had come out from North Carolina to visit one of their daughters and her family.  So we drove out with Mike and Amber to meet up for a Gariety lunch at Fuddruckers.  It was the first time I'd met Arthur's niece, Anne, (who is actually older than Arthur) and  it had been years since we'd seen Norb & Kathy.  In fact, when we told the kids who we'd be meeting for lunch, Dallin said, "I have an Uncle Norb?"  wow.  We definitely need to do better at keeping in touch with our relatives!!!

It was really fun to catch up and get reacquainted with some of Arthur's family.

We stopped on the way back to Mom and Dad's and Mike and Amber showed us around this giant place called BassPro (I think).  It was like Disneyland for hunters.  Our kids loved looking at all the stuffed animals everywhere--bears, wolves, elk, deer, moose, turkey, mountain goats, fish . . .

Here's Daphne by a couple of wolves.

And we all had a fun time at this shooting range.  

(look at Hayden--he can barely see over the counter.)

And the excursion would be incomplete without a picture of us all posing by a big ole' bear.

(Sydney looks a little nervous, don't you think?)

good times. 

Christmas Eve/Day 2011

Christmas Eve

Preparing for our Live Nativity

We borrowed costumes from one of my mom's friends, and they were awesome!

Jemma and Sean as Mary & Joseph (don't you love the beard?)

Hayden and Carter--the cutest donkeys I've ever seen.

The wise people.

the cast.

After reenacting the Nativity story, comes a part of Christmas eve that is the most anticipated of all!  Building our hiding forts to watch Santa in the morning.  Here is Carter and Hayden in their hiding spot.  They were SO quiet on Christmas morning--I think they may have held their breath the whole time!  And Santa, who fell asleep on the couch . . . again . . . touched Sean's BACK! when his hand fell down while he was snoring away.  Sean didn't move a muscle, and as far as we can tell, our secret is still safe, and Santa does not have a clue that there are people all over our family room hiding under tables and behind couches and in the corners watching him deliver his Christmas presents.  Oh, we are good!

Christmas Morning--The kids with their presents from Santa

Look how much of the floor you can't see with the kids and their wrapping paper spread everywhere.

We got Sydney up a little bit later, after the main chaos had died down.  

And she was still pretty groggy.

This year, the husbands did something really fun for us Stone sisters.

They gave us each a card with some letters in it, and we had to combine the letters and unscramble them to find out what the gift was.

And it was . . .

tickets to see Celine Dion in Vegas together!  

Way to go, guys!  Can't wait!

(stole this pic from Jen's blog--Dad was blinking in mine.)

Finally, here's Mom and Dad opening the present from their kids.  

This year we all pitched in to start a mission fund for them.  After all the college tuition and missions they'll have helped pay for by the time Nathan is home from his mission, they won't have had a chance to save for their own mission.  Since they will be some of the best missionaries ever, we had to make sure a fund was  started for them.  It's something that we can all continue to add to as we're able, and more and more of us have jobs.  :)  We love you, Mom and Dad!  

The Christmas Day sickies.  

Poor Emma and Jacob sharing their Christmas dinner of saltines and gatorade.  

After church, we tried to get some pictures of all of us together using a timer on Jen's camera.  I'm pretty sure the little kids were bribed with cupcakes if they would hold still and smile for a few or 10 pictures. 

 All things considered . . . not bad.  

except for Brian looks like he has a bird on his head.

(see my sister Mel's recent blog post here, if you're wondering what the heck I'm talking about.)