Almost Summer and Random Thoughts

The kids only have 29 days left of school.  I don't know whether to be scared or happy.  There are those who love to have their kids home with them and like to do lots of fun things throughout the summer.  I am not one of those people.  Don't get me wrong, I love my children very much and I like to hang out with them.  They are just happier children when there is structure and schedule in their lives and I am not good at creating that all summer long.  I kind of like to have a little alone time.  I don't get much.  In fact, as I am sitting here typing, I have a three year old on my lap singing songs to me and asking me questions.  I have heard my name at least 20 times since I started typing.  She feels like it is her turn to type.

We do have some things planned.  We are going camping and the kids and Cameron are going with his family to St. George later in the summer.  We also have cub country and Weblos camp scheduled too.  It's just the every day in and out routine I need to get my mind around.  I am bound and determined to not let them veg their summer vacation away in front of the TV.  Maybe if I put it in writing, it will actually happen.

We are getting out garden in this year though!  Yay for us.  It only took us three years.  We have started the plants and they have been growing on our ledge for a while.  I finally had to plant the pumpkin plants because they were getting all "Feed Me Seymore" on me.  hopefully the freeze has gone.  I tore down our playhouse today.  That was pretty exciting.  I took a load to the dump and found out my license has been expired for a year.  What??  How did I not notice that?

I thought I would add some random pictures because I haven't been very good at taking them lately.  This is a picture of me and my brother Mark playing Frosty the Snowman.  Probably my idea.

Here's my four cuties as little babies. 

Latest family picture.  Almost a year old.  I guess we need a new one. 

 These next few are for Cameron's family.  I came across these pictures today and thought they were fun.  Do you guys remember this day?

We are all so young!! This was ten years ago people.  How did time go so fast?

Pictures

I just had some pictures burning a hole in my camera and I wanted to get them on the blog.  Some of these pictures are from my birthday, but most are from a day we just decided to take a walk and ride some bikes as a family.

Liam.  What can we say about Liam?  He is almost 10 years old and is a deep thinker.  He has lots of questions about things and really thinks about the answers.  He loves his video games, especially Minecraft and Ghost Recon.  He loves to make his own worlds in Minecraft and could do it all day long if I let him.  I don't understand the appeal, but he loves it.  He likes science and loves reading.  He is ready to be done with 4th grade.  He is reading the Fablehaven series right now.  We have a hard time getting him to stop reading at night.  He's learning to play the recorder in school and does a really good job with it.  

Erin is 7 years old and is navigating through 2nd grade.  From my experience with my two oldest, I hate 2nd grade.  She has her own mind and will not be swayed by anything or anyone when she thinks she is in the right.  She knows what she likes and exactly how she likes it.  It is fun to see her coming out of her shell a little and being a little goofy with us.  She has kept her feelings and emotions pretty close to the chest in the past and is just recently okay with being silly in front of us and singing in front of us.  She is responsible and kind with her younger sister.  I have a hard time reminding myself that she is just seven because she acts so much older.  (Most of the time).  She is passionate about things and can get quite emotional about things she cares about.  She has a fiery temper  and we have seen lots of it.  She is trying so hard to learn how to control her emotions though.  She likes her teacher and likes to read, but only at school because as she says "there are more interesting things to do when I am at home."

Owen is six!  How did that happen?  He is our daredevil and energizer bunny.  He likes to go, go, go, but every once in a while he will sit and let you give him hugs.  He is sensitive to other's feelings and is my best helper.  He doesn't love reading.  He reminds me a lot of Erin when she started reading.  It is more of a chore than anything.  He likes to count and add and you can't get away with saying "give me five minutes" because he will tell you exactly when the five minutes are up and badgers you until you do whatever it was he wanted.   He has lots of crazy ideas that he cooks up and gets Reagan to do with him.  Just this morning, I went into the kitchen to see both of them naked and swimming in my kitchen sink!  

Reagan is a ham!  She is so silly.  The following pictures were not coerced or thought out or anything.  She asked me to take her picture and she would pose and then would hear the camera click and change poses.  Click, change, click change.  I had to ask her to smile normally for the one above. 

See?  Total ham.  She is three years old and thinks she is as old as Liam is.  She likes to play with Owen and says "Wee Haw CowBerry!"  She can't say her R's, so it sounds like CowBewwy.  She also says minja for ninja.  So when she comes to you with her very serious face asking you to help her look for her minjas it is pretty funny.  She has had a grand time this last little while as it has gotten warmer and the neighborhood kids are coming out and riding bikes.  She rides her scooter with them and runs after them and is very upset and hurt when they leave her out.  She has oodles of confidence and I hope it stays that way.  She loves to just sit and give loves too.  She is probably my most cuddly of all the kids.  We were going to be done having kids after Owen, but she told us in no uncertain terms that she was still waiting to come to our family.  It's funny, because looking back, I can see her insistent personality in the experience we had. 

It was also my birthday.  Another year older.  It was a good day.  We got some yard work done and took the kids to Dairy Queen.  Then we had some delicious cake that is my very favorite and I didn't want to share with anyone, but I love my family, so I did.  Stinkin'!

February Date

This month for "The Gift" we went to see Les Miserables at a playhouse and we had a gift card to go to Applebees, so we went there afterward.  It was so much fun to just go and be together for more than just a couple of hours.  Big thanks to Grandma for watching the kids!  I didn't get any pictures of us, but we don't really need that right?  Let's cross our fingers that spring will come soon.

February

It is the middle of February.  Boo!  And Yay!  I really don't like January or February, but it is almost over and for that I am thankful.

I thought I would update What's going on in our lives this month.  First and foremost...Cameron passed all of his CPA exams!!!!  Hooray! Hooray! Hooray!  This is a big deal for our family.  He is done with school and done studying.  It has been such a long road to get to this point, but he did it!  He worked so hard and went to school and worked simultaneously for years and years and it is starting to pay off.  Going to school is hard enough, but when you have a family, it makes it so much harder.Good job Cameron!!!

Liam is loving 4th grade.  He has a couple of good buddies and I am so grateful for them.  He seems to be growing up quicker than I would like.  He turns 10 in a couple of months.  He is starting to burn out on scouts, so hopefully Weblos will spark his interest again.  He has been with me for two years.  New leaders that are not his mom should help.  He is starting to become more responsible and tries to keep the peace when the others are fighting.  He works hard to be a good big brother.

Erin is going through a rough patch.  We are working on keeping her temper and being kind to her siblings. I have decided second grade is a hard, transitional year.  Liam had a hard time that year too.  She did finally get her bunk beds this week.  She sure is excited about them.  She is loving that the snow has melted and she can get outside and ride her bike with the neighborhood kids.  She likes her school class and is one of the top students.  She is really looking forward to being baptized later this year.

Owen has flourished with Kindergarten.  He is still his happy, crazy self, but a little more controlled.  It is fun to see him becoming more confident in life.  He doesn't really love the reading part that comes with Kindergarten, but loves the math.  This kid has a mind for numbers I tell ya.  He just kind of knows how they work and go together.  He is good to play with Reagan and let her love him all the time.

Reagan is our three year old going on sixteen year old.  She feels like she is just as big as the other kids and can do everything they can do.  She loves giving loves and snuggles and is a bit stifling at times with her attentions.  She sits on my lap and grabs my head and pulls it down so she can love it.  She rubs her hands on my face and nuzzles her nose on my face.  Her new toy is a hockey mask that she wears all over the place.

She wears this thing to the store, to scouts, when we walk Owen to school...everywhere! 

She likes to strike a pose and try and scare people while she has it on.   

This is me with the T.A.R.D.I.S.  So exciting for me!  If only The Doctor was with it.  I may have run off with him.   

Cameron's birthday was this month too.  Happy Birthday to him!  He was feeling a little old, but what can you do but keep getting older right?

My boys. 

 He was a nice Dad and asked for a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting because he knew Erin really wanted that.  She had tried to talk Owen into having chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, but he didn't go for it.  The cake was gone by the end of the night.  Happy Birthday!

Owen is six

Owen had a birthday this month.  It is the only redeeming quality January has for me.  Anyway...his birthday was on a Saturday this year, so he got to just stay home and play all day long.  He chose to have sugar cookies for breakfast, so I made them the night before.  We woke up and he opened his presents which consisted mainly of angry birds stuff.  Then he got to get out of cleaning the house because he is the birthday boy and then the kids just hung out and played with him all day long.  He wanted waffles, pancakes, eggs and sausage for dinner, so we invited Grandma and Grandpa Williamsen over for dinner.  We ate and then had cake.  I think he liked picking the food better than anything.

Our boys with presents from Grandma. I would like to note the awesome shirt Owen is wearing was made by me.  I thought it turned out cute.  The Chewie angry bird reminds me of Owen.

I would just like to note that Reagan did not have one serious picture in the bunch.  This was the most normal, and that's saying something. Reagan also wanted an angry birds shirt, so I made her one too.

We didn't even have to prompt this craziness.  It's just normal at our house. 

This is his cake.  They had clearanced out all the angry birds stuff at Target, so I was lucky to find packs of angry birds for $2.50.  Fortuitous for me!  Owen was very specific on the frosting style.  Half black, half white.  Then the kids had fun putting all the birds and pigs on the cake.  

Owen is my kindhearted, happy boy.  He will do anything for anyone, even if it means he misses out on something.  He gives his stuff to others who are sad.  This morning, he cleaned up the living room, cleared off the table and cleaned his room, all by himself, without me asking him to.  He just wanted to help.  He loves Kindergarten and loves math.  Not so much reading, but he has a math mind.  He is doing multiplication right now like it's nothing.  He thinks it's fun.  (He did not get that from me at all!)  He's a good brother and the comic relief in our family.  Love him to pieces!!

The Gift

For Christmas, I never know what to give Cameron.  Anything he wants, he usually has to get himself, because it involves electronic know how, which I do not have.  I never can surprise him.  So this year, I decided to give him "The Gift".  I got the idea off someone else's blog.  Can't remember who's, but I can't take credit for the idea.  I planned one date a month all year long.  They are all mostly prepaid, pre-planned, pre everything.  I put each month's activity inside a manila envelope and gave them all to him as one gift.  He is not allowed to look ahead to see what each date is.  We open it together at the first of the month and pick a day that will work for us and plan it then.  I tried to plan lots of different, fun stuff that we haven't done before.  Some are stay-at-home nights, some are day trips, some are just regular dates.

This month was a fondue night.  I have never made fondue, but it was fun to try.  I made two kinds.  Cheese and chocolate.  I had fun getting all sorts of dippers for it.  I got bread, broccoli, chips, and I had ham, but forgot it.  The chocolate dippers were strawberries, marshmallows, pretzels, cheesecake, and...I think that's it.

Cameron with January's date note. 

 This is the cheese fondue pot.  I think I will make a different cheese fondue next time.  All the fondue recipes called for white wine, which I did not have on hand so I looked up a substitute and it said to use beer or apple cider vinegar.  I used the vinegar and the cheese just tasted a little vinegar-y.  It was still yummy,

The little silver Hershey's kiss had the chocolate fondue in it and it was delicious!!  I sort of just wanted to eat the chocolate fondue by the spoonful.  

It was a fun night.  Amy took the kids to her house and hung out with them and we just ate fondue and watched a movie and hung out together.  We get to open next month's date on Saturday.  It should be fun!  

Post Holidays

I've not been too good at taking pictures lately.  I have no pictures of Thanksgiving and none of Christmas, believe it or not.  We got the camcorder out, not the camera.  Thanksgiving was at Amy's house this year.  Good food and it was fun to have it at Amy's house for the first time.  Grandma made up some minute to win it games and the kids had fun doing those.  You know, I am not a huge turkey fan.  I think we should change the tradition to something else.  Bacon would be good.  Mmmm Bacon.....

For Christmas, we tried to do some fun things with the kids.  We went and saw lights at Temple Square.  We saw the candy windows at Macys,decorated gingerbread men (which we all liked so much better than gingerbread houses.), went to see a movie (Frozen.  Loved it!!), and tried to just be together as a family. They even got to have a cousin sleepover after Christmas.  The one thing we did differently this year was we tried to do one act of service for every day in December.  We talked to the children about Jesus' birth and why we celebrate, and challenged them each to do one act of service every day.  At the dinner table each day, we would go around the table and tell everyone what our act of service that day was.  The kids learned to expect the question at dinner, so they would look each day for something they could do to share at night.  They all did a great job.  They found kids who didn't have anyone to play with and played with them, they helped pick up the floor of their classrooms after school, they helped mom with laundry, or folded someone else's laundry before they got home from school.  It was fun to see what they came up with.

We did get pictures of the gingerbread men after they were decorated.  We helped them a little with the icing, and they did the candies themselves. 

 They even ate their men afterward.  

Liam actually ate some of his guy, but then just ate the candy and licked off the frosting.

We had the rest of the guys for a few days and they would munch on them off and on. 

Can you tell who put the most candy on theirs?  She didn't really care about the icing.  Just wanted to get the most bang for her buck candy-wise.

Cameron was off for Christmas week.  It was fun to have him home.  The kids loved having him around to play games with them.  He was really good to play with them.  He was still studying for his last CPA test, so he made time for both.  This Christmas was the year of the Lego.  Each of the kids got a Lego something from Santa and a game.  We drew names and they bought a present for each other and I made them each a Doctor Who shirt.  We love our Doctor Who at our house hey hey!!  They got some new gloves and hats from Grandma and some fun blankets from our other Grandma.  I think it turned out to be a pretty nice Christmas.

For New Years Eve, we went to Grandma's house and played games with Grandma and Amy and Karl.  We brought all our candy we got for Christmas and snacked on candy and chips and veggies and donuts and played all the games we got for Christmas.  The kids wanted to stay up, but Cameron needed to sleep for his test, so they went to bed at 8:30.  It was funny, because the next day, when they woke up, they were so tired anyway.  I was glad they didn't stay up until midnight.

I think this is the first year in a long time that no one was sick for Christmas.  We got our fair share after Christmas, but it was nice to all be healthy on the day.

Before Christmas, I did some Christmas minute to win it games with my Cub Scouts.  One of them was a cup stacking game.  My kids loved it and have been doing it ever since.  Reagan sat down one day and made this big stack of cups and was so proud of it.  She wanted me to take pictures of it.

She built it all by herself.  She was pretty excited about it.  

It was taller than her.  It was fun to see her ever so carefully place the cups on top of each other. 

In this picture and the next, she is saying ta-da! 

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She thought up all these poses.  She is a funny girl. 

She needed dad to come and see it too.  Note Cameron's super awesome beard.  He grew it out while he was studying for his test and shaved it the day after he took it.  The kids hated it and Erin was grossed out by it.  I don't know why.  She refused to touch it.  The funny thing is that after he shaved, Erin told him he looked better with the beard.  I like him clean shaven, thanks.