Beware - My Blog Is A Diary!

Today I slept in and forgot to take Lukie to preschool. So I took the kids to the library and they had story time and made paper hats with sequins and such. Then we went to Walmart and got various non-essentials and got Subway (veggie of course for me). Mary was so cute driving home from town. She just sat quietly sucking her thumb in the back seat with her brown-bag triangle hat on top her head. I watched her through the rear-view mirror as I drove. I love my Baby Bee-ya.

I also forgot to take Mary to soccer practice! The girls went to Ella's house for about an hour this afternoon. I tried to get Leia to take a bottle - no such luck! I tried soy formula, regular formula and then just expressed breast milk. She WILL NOT take another nipple. She didn't eat all afternoon till about 7 pm. I finally breastfed her. After the 5 hours of crying in the car on the way home from Rexburg, Idaho, I realize this is one stubborn baby, and I probably will not succeed in changing her tastes for different milk or nipples.

I bought size newborn socks and shoes for Leia today in Walmart. She is almost 5 months. The newborn shoes fit her perfect. So cute.

9-21-2009

If Travis or I do not feed the kids fast enough in the morning (or any time of the day actually), Gina will get the container of oatmeal down and bring it to us! "Wont oak-meel, Mom...." It is so cute and pathetic. It sure makes you feel kinda bad too - like she's some urchin child begging for food (her rat-so hair only adds to the effect as well!)

Yesterday, Mary was bugging Travis all morning to make her a box - so he did out of cedar wood. Well making one box is not that smart - you need to make 4 if you are going to make 1! Luke was in tears about not having a box. Well Daddy had to go to work and the box would have to wait. So this morning Luke was up before all the kids, on the porch waiting for Daddy to come back from riding the horses. "Daddy, can we make my box now?" So another cedar box was made. He carried it around all day, even in the car. He put cotton balls in it.

As homeschool was winding down today,the kids just naturally dove into their artistic sides - Luke and Gina were drawing a jungle picture on the white board, Mary was constructing hats out of paper plates and cotton balls and Jane was pretend cooking with my pots. So I suggested that she could make something for real! Jane made her first baked creation - Kids' Dump Cake. It turned out very good! We ate it for treat after Family Home Evening. She also learned how to run a load of laundry. She felt very empowered ! "I can bake! I can do the laundry! I can change a poopie diaper! I can do a lot of things!" : ) I love my Jane. I am very proud.

Luke's First Day of Preschool 9-16-2009

My Lukiesan started school at 'Teacher Buffy's'. I am so happy she opened her preschool again. Jane and Mary both went to her school. I finally decided to do a.m. preschool (8:15-10:45). The morning class had more older 4 year olds like Luke. Luke is a good boy and very happy to go to school and learn. He is already doing very well in home school learning to write his name (even though it is mirror image - upside down!)

I could not resist taking this picture to show how goofy Gina is! She put on the helmet herself. The backwards helmet with the wild hair and the Dora pajamas (put back on in the late afternoon) on a Thomas the Train bike. Happens every day.

9-15-2009

I guess today Gina needed a nap - so she decided to just take one on the concrete porch! So she grabbed her Dora quilt, a bunny and a pillow (who needs a pillow? : ) and parked it right in front of the door.

Leia feeling the weird grass.

9-10-2009

Peek-A-Boo!!

Leia loves to sleep on her stomach. She has been rolling over front to back and back to front since 6 weeks old! She thumps around in her crib when she wakes up. Having so much tummy time makes strong baby arms - she'll be crawling soon!

9-9-2009

On the way home from the family reunion we stopped off at the apple tree on the side of the road in Starr Valley and picked these apples. So after home school we got busy making some healthy 'no sugar added' applesauce!

Jane washed while I cut...

Mary churning out the steamed applesauce! We had a lot of fun.

The girls also made banana chips.

A Princess Leia morning!

The Family Reunion 9-5-2009

Gina blowing bubbles in the stream with a blow dart.

Mary took the honors for the only casualty on the reunion. She got ripped up from some barbed wire on the hill. Jane, Mary, and Clay were trying to get t some apples on an old tree on the steep hill next to the cabin. I said no to the whole endeavor, but Travis said there was no harm in it. You can imagine my warped glee as my offspring came back bloodied. Jackson carried Mary down the hill after she fell. Poor thing! But Mary is - and always has been - a trooper when she is hurt. Even as a baby she would always say,"I'm O.K." through her tears....

9-4-2009

So here we are in home school making 'melty chunky crayons' (breaking old crayons into a muffing tin and melting them into new chunky rainbow crayons). The girls finally succeeded in getting me to put the foam curlers into their hair...Gina had me put them into her also the night before, but she did not want to sleep with them.

Afros! Curlier than expected - but fun!

Jane taking a picture of Mary's hair with her 'phone'. (Trav's old phone - she uses it as her camera)

Today we went to the Elko County Fair in town as a family. The girls looked beautiful with their ringlets and Luke in his Wranglers. We checked out the rabbit and chicken barn, the cows and sheep and goats. Then we walked over to the rides in the dirt parking lot...Well it felt like we walked straight into Hell. The wind literally blew in huge gusts all around...The Carnies working the booths were unimaginable truly...So we just went on the Ferris-Wheel. When Jane saw the man operating the rickety Ferris-Wheel she exclaimed,"Look at his hands!" The portly man's hands were so dirty - they were black. The poor man was smoking a stump of a cigarette with his blackened sausage fingers. He hollered to another fellow Carnie for help in actually turning the wheel to get it started. We crawled aboard and the winds of Hell picked up once again as we rocked on the ride. I was very happy when it was over. Jane Mary and Luke also took a ride on the Big Slide in a gunny sack. It was fun to watch their faces as they slid down. As we left the rocky dirt parking lot, it felt as if we crossed from the telestial to the terrestial kingdom - weird!

The Meager Harvest

So here is the much anticipated first harvest of the year.... These carrots look ALOT bigger in the picture...They are about as thin as half of my pinkie finger and some of them are like hair carrots....

Gina's face says it all about the peas.....

Enjoying the minuscule harvest!

Daddy and company watching Sponge-Bob...Even Leia is absorbed by Sponge-Bob!

Trip To Idaho 8-7-2009

So here we are snug in our hotel in Idaho going to see Evan and Katie's sealing...

The Beans almost always looks just like this.......like a poor unclothed ragga-muffin.

The kids had so much fun in the pool. It was deafeningly loud in the pool room...ugh! There was a family reunion of some sort in the Shiloh Inn as well. They must have had 20 or so kids in the pool...plus other people's kids...Plus I was having a constant mild heart-attack just keeping watch that my children didn't drown...... I found the flotation devices Travis bought less than adequate...

At the Temple.

Zeb was at the sealing and he invited us up to Rexburg...so away we went! Here are the kiddos walking to church...How cute is that!