7 & 9

Daphne and Sean recently celebrated birthdays.  (Poor Hayden laments on a daily basis how far away his birthday is, and why oh why did God make him born in NOVEMBER!?!)

Daphne turned 9

Here she is with her especially requested"Beanie Boos.  Sydney has since claimed the giraffe.  But Daphne is a good sport to let Sydney think it's hers.

Daphne is a wonderful girl--she loves playing with her brothers and being with friends.  She sings beautifully, and is learning to play piano, although we frequently have battles about practicing . . .  She also LOVES going to Activity Days with her friends at church.  She is a good artist and loves drawing pictures of princesses and mermaids.  She has several homemade paper dolls that she designs and draws clothes for.  She continues to LONG for a pet.  We told her when we were done potty-training the last child, we might consider getting a pet, but for now, we are maxed out on the amount of poop clean-up we already have.  So even though that may be a while out, she still constantly thinks about what kind of pet she wants and what she'll name it and how responsible she'll be in cleaning up after them.  Daphne is a big help with her younger siblings and is good at picking her room up when I ask her to.  We're so glad she's in our family!  Happy Birthday Daphne!

And Sean turned 7.  

The only thing he wanted for his birthday was this particular lego set, and it was good that's all he wanted because it took his whole birthday budget.  :)  They have been playing legos non-stop ever since.

Sean is a great kid.  He is happy and finds his own fun where ever he is.  He hates doing homework, or any kind of work for that matter.  Once when we were all doing family jobs, he refused to do the work, so I had him sit on the dryer until he was ready to help.  He sat on the dryer for TWO HOURS!! when he could have been done with his jobs in 30 minutes if he had put his mind to it.  (So clearly, we still have some training to do when it comes to that department.)  But Sean is very gentle with his younger siblings and Hayden and Sydney adore him.  He is enjoying playing soccer this fall, and is especially good at defense.  He is also learning to read and is pretty good at math.  He loves playing with legos, cars and will do almost anything to earn computer game time.  He has a unique way of looking at the world and frequently says things that make me laugh.  We love this boy and are so glad he's in our family!  Happy Birthday Sean!

Hayden Preschool update

When I picked Hayden up from his first day of his new preschool, the first thing he said to me was, "I made thom friendth!"

That's all he needed.

July & August Quotes

Sean:  Being a lifeguard is very boring because nobody ever drowns.

Hayden:  I'm tho glad that God thent Thydney to live in our family.

Sean:  I'm hungry!  

(20 times a day this entire summer)

Mom:  Stop whining! 

(20 times a day this entire summer, and not just to Sean who is perpetually hungry.)

Hayden:  (randomly at dinner) Eggnog!

Dallin:  (first day of school as a 5th grader)  Today I get to sit at the back of the bus.  

I have been waiting my whole life for this!

Hayden:  I know, I know, I jutht forgot, okay?  I'm only four yearth old!

Hayden:  Bananas are my life!

(Watching Beauty and the Beast)

Belle:  We're together now, everything's going to be fine.

Beast:  At least I got to see you . . . one last time . . .

Hayden:  And now he's gonna turn into a weirdo.

I heard Sydney saying, "Excuse me . . .  Excuse me . . . Excuse me . . ."  

She had the hiccups and was excusing herself for each one.

Sean working on homework.

The homework instructions read: "Add some words to finish the sentence:  Sam can . . . "

Me:  Sam can play?  Sam can ride a bike?

Sean:  Sam can . . . BLOW UP!

Me:  Or . . . Sam can eat a cookie.

Sean:  Sam can . . . do something violent!  Just kidding.  Violence isn't good for school.

(clearly there's been a conversation about that.)

Dallin:  What kind of tree is this?

Me:  A Crabapple

Dallin:  You planted a CRAP Apple?

Me:  No, a CraB apple.

Dallin:  I was gonna say, these apples must taste really bad!

Sydney: "Oh, pitty spahkles, Mom!"  (pretty sparkles)

Hayden:  Mom, when are we getting a new car?  

We've been driving this one for like . . . a hundred days!

Listening to "What Makes You Beautiful" 

Hayden: I need to thing thith thong (song) to Ellie becauthe I love her.

Sean:  You're too little to be in love.

Hayden:  I'm four and I love her.  Like boyfriend/girlfriend love.

Sean:  Mom, there's something in my folder that we can turn in but we don't have to.  We get a prize if our class turns in 15.  So I don't need to bring mine back because everyone else will.

Hayden:  Mom, what does our king look like?

Me:  Our King?  We don't have a king.  We have a president.

Hayden:  What?!?  We don't have a king?

Me:  Nope, we have a president and a congress, and no king.

Hayden:  Why don't we have a king?

Me:  Because we live in a free country--we don't want a king because they can take away your freedoms.

Hayden:  I don't care if they take away our freedoms, Mom, we NEED a king!

Me:  Have you been anywhere that has a king?

Hayden:  Utah.

These last two are not quotes--just funny stories I want to remember about these two boys.  Sean and Hayden are buddies.  Hayden LOVES Sean.  He can't wait until Sean gets home from school and sits with Sean while he finishes his homework, so the second he's done, they can play.  I love that they are friends, but they are also co-conspirators in lots of misdeeds and get a real kick out of teasing me.

It's a regular occurrence for me to get in the car, and Sean and Hayden are sitting like little angels in the back, all buckled and ready to go.  If I look closely, I can usually spot mischievous grins on their faces, as they wait for me to start the car.  When I start the car, all the blinkers are on, and the windshield wipers are going full blast, and Sean and Hayden start laughing hysterically at their prank, like it wasn't the 27th time they've done it.

Last night I was practicing a song with a group of ladies for an upcoming ward social.  From the piano I could see someone was placing stuffed animals all along the banister as if they were watching us.  I thought it was cute that they were providing us an audience.  When our rehearsal was done and I turned off all the lights and started coming upstairs, I heard giggling, and then a whispered, "1-2-3!"  All of a sudden, it started raining stuffed animals all over me, and those boys just erupted into laughter.

Last Day of Summer, First Day of School

Friday, August 10th
Monday, August 13th

Here are pictures from the last day of summer, and the first day of school.  (I guess I might never catch up . . . )

I'm not sure if this is actually from the last day of summer, but I liked this picture and it's reminds me of summer, so . . . there you go.

On the last day of summer vacation, we went down to the school to meet the kids' teachers, and bring all our supplies to their classroom.  We pulled up the hill our little red wagon laden with bags of crayons and markers, glue and pencils, paper towels, clorox wipes and reams of paper.  And went to each classroom delivering supplies and meeting the teachers.

Sean, 1st grade, with Mrs. Chavez

Daphne, 3rd grade, with Mrs. Altweis

(She was really busy with lots of other students and their parents, so I felt bad asking for one more picture--hence a dark one.) 

Dallin, 5th grade, with Mr. Dolan

After our trip to the school, we went to Pop-Pops to enjoy one last cold treat of the summer!

First Day of School!

(Hayden snuck into the picture)

All ready to go for the first day!

I think we are in for a great year--the teachers are all seem great, and the kids are enjoying being with their friends again after the summer break.  Daphne has jumped right back into public school without a hitch.  She is making new friends and comes home with a smile everyday.  Hooray!

Hayden and Sydney were excited about the first day of school too, and each of them found a backpack that they wore around all morning.  Hayden even took himself on a pretend field trip to ITZ (the backyard).  

Here's Hayden on his first "First Day of Preschool."  That's a whole story in itself.  I put him in the same preschool that Sean went to, but Sean and Hayden have very different temperaments.  Sean is pretty laid back and is happy to play by himself.  So he was a great peer model in the Autistic-Specific Preschool, where many of the children are not verbal yet.  But Hayden, who loves to talk and interact with other people, has not adjusted well.  So after two weeks of fighting with and bribing him to go to preschool, we've decided that not everyone is cut out to be a peer model, and Hayden is one of them.  So, he'll have a second First Day of Preschool this Tuesday.  Hopefully he'll do alright in this one . . .

Some projects

Okay, here are some projects I've worked on the last few months.

This first one is a project Jenny showed us when she was out here for the 4th of July.  What makes this project remarkable is that she was only here for 2 days, one of which was the 4th, so of course we didn't do any projects on that day.  But the next afternoon, during our sister's outing, Jen convinced us that we could make these cute little sign posts.  With nothing but a picture on Jen's camera, Emma, Julianne, Jenny and I went out and got the supplies, cut, sanded and stained the wood and even started assembling these sign posts.  

Unfortunately Jenny had to leave the next morning, or we probably would have finished these puppies in about 2 days.  So what makes this doubly remarkable, is that Julianne and I actually finished our posts a couple weeks later without Jenny to help us be brave and figure out what to do!  

Jenny took her pieces to her new home to assemble, so below are pictured mine, Jewels' and Emma's.  We also made one for Mom, but didn't have the right colored door-knob at the time of the picture, so hers was still in the garage.

They turned out pretty cute, if I say so myself.

The following are more of those fun table runners that Mom and Jenny taught us to make:

April/(Easter)

May/June/Summerish

4th of July

Obviously, not a table runner or a project--just a cute little Sydney

"Arise from the Dust!" Trek 2012

July 26-28, 2012

Albuquerque, NM Stake Youth Trek

Arthur and I had the privilege of going on our Stake's Youth Trek as a Ma and Pa this year.  We loved our experience four years ago, and I was, I confess, a little sad when all the Ma's and Pa's were announced and we weren't among them.  I know there are many wonderful and capable couples who should all be given an opportunity to be a trek Ma and Pa, and they wanted to get new people this year, but I was still hoping . . .

Then about a month before trek, the couple in charge of Trek asked so come meet with us, and asked us to be a Ma and Pa because there had been so many registrants and they needed to create 2 more families.  I think I squealed when they asked if we would go.

So I had 1 month to whip my butt into shape, and it still wasn't in shape when we went, despite my walking almost everyday for the month I had to prepare.  Oh well.  

Our family flag, held by our "daughter," Conner

Pa and some of the boys

It started raining right when we pulled into camp the first night.

Huddling under the tarp waiting for the rain to stop--

which it did, after not too long.

Ma and Pa Gariety

The Gariety Family

5 girls, 6 boys, plus Arthur and I
Oh, and our rice baby, Hezzakiah

The families were bigger than they were hoping, but I tell you what, it was a blessing they couldn't recruit any more Ma's and Pa's because we needed those big families to push through miles and miles of sand.  Everyone had to have a hand on the cart to get us through much of the 2012 trek.

Brother and Sister Mortality waiting to distribute death or disease.

We actually had quite a lot of REAL trials, and didn't need their intervention very much to make things hard for us.

I love this picture of the company stretched out.  The ranch where we did trek this year was BEAUTIFUL!

Trek is an amazing experience--there are so many life lessons to be learned from pulling and pushing a cart.  I wrote the lessons that had the most impact on me in my journal, so I won't elaborate here, but the two key points I took away were:  

***Teach my kids to work!  

We need doers to put the gospel in action, doers to build the kingdom, doers to build a family.  And doers who don't wait to be asked, but who recognize a need and fill it.  We have a saying in our family, "Find a need and fill it" that I have been ramming that down my kids' throats since I got home from trek.   We have been on a major work campaign lately, that might be making my kids wish I hadn't gone to trek this year.  ;)  They'll thank me when they're older.  

***The foundation makes a difference.  

I couldn't believe how much more difficult and slow and heavy it was to pull the cart through the sand as opposed to hard packed dirt.  There was a point when our whole family was pushing the cart through a flat, sandy arroyo, and on the other side, was a steep incline.  When we got to the hill, the earth was firmly packed, and we actually accelerated up the hill.  It was easier and faster, and took less people to push the cart up the firm hill than it did through a flat area of sand.  My take-home message was that we can choose to live our lives based on a firm foundation by keeping the commandments and utilizing the Atonement of Christ.  When we are built on a firm foundation, our steep inclines are not as difficult to traverse.  Our burdens become lighter and yoke easy to bear.  But when we choose to do wander from the path our Savior has shown us, our foundation becomes sandy and it is much more difficult to face the challenges and obstacles in our lives.  

{ha!  okay, I said I wouldn't elaborate, but Sean, who is patiently waiting for some computer time would beg to differ.  He keeps saying, "How many more letters are you going to type?"

I wrote more than I intended--sorry}

My sister Emma volunteered to come out and watch the kids for us while we went on trek, and we are so grateful for her willingness to take that on.  Our kids ADORE their Aunt Emma. 

This is all of them saying good-bye Monday morning before I took her to catch her plane home.

THANKS EMMA!