Bennett & The Blue Bombers

Let's not forget Bennett. He has been tearing up the field this season in flag football. A game where going the right way is optional, throwing grass at each other is funner than getting the ball, playing with and taking off your own flag is much more interesting than pulling off your opponents. As his coach would say "It is like herding cats." It makes for very amusing Saturday mornings!

A job I dislike

I love just about everything that has to do with fall. The smells, colors, sights and cooler weather are just wonderful. But there is one thing that I dread doing and I usually put it off until the last minute. It is the swapping out of summer clothes to winter clothes. I dislike it for a number of reasons.

I like to think that I am a relatively organized person. I have big tubs full of clothes that have been neatly folded and placed according to size. I have them labeled so that it is easy to locate the correct sizes and do an easy swap. Unfortunately it doesn't work this way.

First of all each brand of clothing has their own sizes. It is not uncommon to have 2 shirts labeled 5T and in actuality one of them would fit Bennett and one would fit Owen. So then I am in a quandary as to where to put the shirt. Do I put it in the 5T box even though it fits a 4 year old? When I decide that I should put it in the box that I think is the right size regardless of what the tag says then undoubtedly the next season I am wondering what idiot put all the wrong sizes in the box and I end up re-sorting them over and over.

And then what do you do with shirts that can't commit to just one size. Where do I put a shirt that is labeled 4T/5T when I have a box for 3T/4T and one for 5T/6T. I don't know. To top it off, there are always a handful of shirts that completely reject the number sizes and just have s,m,l for their size. Well who do these shirts fit and what box should they go in?

Then what do you do when you have kids that wear different sizes and these sizes have no correlation whatsoever to the tag. Taylor is tall and has to wear slim pants. He cannot fit into regular pants. Bennett wears regular size pants and Owen wear regulars but Owen usually wears a larger shirt. So if I have a shirt that is labeled 5T but I think is small for its size and Owen is age 4, but usually wears a size larger than his age, what the heck do I put him in and in which box would it be located? I have no idea.

While I am sorting without fail I will try and figure out where certain clothes have gone. How is it even possible that Owen can have 10 winter shirts that he fits into and no jeans. He has 2 older brothers. What did they wear when they were his age and where did they go? And why on earth can I only find one decent long sleeved church shirt for Bennett. I know Taylor did not go naked to church. What did he wear and where did it go? You can't tell me that we have no 12 mo. pants for Chasey. I know we have some. Where did they go?

Can you see how this is frustrating for someone who is trying to stay organized? With 4 boys and at least 8 sizes I am dealing with it gets chaotic. I have piles in every size for 2 different seasons, ones that are going back in the tubs and ones that are coming out. I usually end of having each boy try on a variety of sizes to see what fits. Then the rest of the clothes get shoved into a box, very unorganized like until the next season. Then it starts all over again. I am glad I am done until spring.

Our Day

We took a drive up American Fork canyon yesterday to look at this



and most definitely this



We ended up here



There was a whole lot of this going on



We decided to jump on the bandwagon

This kid is handsome so I snapped this



Owen just looked like he wanted his picture taken so I took this



We tried to figure out what animal was digging these all over the place



Scott took this



I don't know what photo trickery happened here, but I shot this



In between the leaf lookin' and picture takin' we did this



and this



Then Owen wanted to get behind the camera and decided to take this



And one of the kiddos requested a kissing photo. So we obliged. Isn't that a lovely view of my neck? Is is my best feature you know.



We did a little bit of this



On our way back up the trail the boys decided that Chasey needed a photo shoot. So Owen took this



And then I couldn't resist a pix with all of my handsome men so I took this



At the end out our day we enjoyed these


The end

Happy 4th!

Yep he has turned 4. And what is this kid's likes and dislikes right now? Well let me just tell you what he said.

Fav food: meat and chips
Fav shows: Berenstain Bears and Dragon Tales
Fav clothes: his red "tiny pants" and his surf board shirt
Fav toy: his new Geotrax train set (of course)
Fav book: Go Dog Go
What he likes to do outside: play tag
What do you think is funny: 8 is funny
What do you want to do when you grow up: look at trees
What do you like to do with Mom and Dad: go camping

Well there you have it. The life of a four year old. Now you may be wondering if his naughtiness is letting up yet. I'm not sure and I will tell you why.

The other day he ran up to me and wanted me to look at the pictures he drew on the wall. I was all geared up to see writing all over my walls. But when I went to look at it, he had written on post it notes and then put those on the wall. I breathed a sigh of relief and thought that maybe, just maybe he was finally growing out of it. I mean this has been going on for years now.

A few days later I went to take the post it notes off the wall and guess what? They wouldn't come off. That kid had glued them to the wall with his glue stick. So you tell me. Is that a step in the right direction or two steps back? I do not know. Regardless this kid keeps us laughing and crying! It only seems like yesterday when he took a sharpie to my carpet. Oh what fond memories! Happy Birthday kiddo!

Paper Decorating 101

This class was so much fun! It was very similar to finger painting for adults. Except we didn't use our fingers. My teacher taught us 3 different types of paper decorating. This one involved using walnut oil, coarse salt, watercolors, liquid acrylic inks, vinegar, rubbing alcohol, brushes, rags, droppers and a whole lot of "do whatever you want to do." Loved it!


With this one we took black sumi ink, made a design on the paper and then used water to wash it off with the intent to make the ink flow all over the paper and make new designs. This was the hardest to do. I don't think anyone got it right. But when you do get it right it looks beautiful! I must practice with this. I loved how it looked.



And last but not least was a technique called cooked paper. Except we didn't cook it. You take a very liberal amount of watercolor and cover your paper. Then you add a little walnut oil on the top to add depth, crunch it up in a ball and throw it in a tin can for 2 days to cook. I don't particularly like the colors that I used and I wasn't liberal enough with them, but I like the look. I will try again with different colors.

Why do you make your own decorated paper? One, because handmade, decorated paper is very expensive to buy. Two because you can make something unique for your book covers. And three because who doesn't like to play with paint?

I am working on 2 books right now and am planning on using one of these designs for a book cover and one for the inside of the other book.

Good, Better, Best

As I was sitting in sacrament meeting today I was thinking about our summer. Back in June, Scott and I sat down and made a list of things we wanted to do with our family before school started. One of those things was to go camping several times. We set the dates and vowed that we wouldn't change them. And sure enough every single time we had a camping trip planned another engagement or sport activity would surface that we were invited to. In those instances we had to make a choice. As I was thinking about this today I remembered a talk from Dalin H. Oaks that focused on this exact predicament.

Some uses of individual and family time are better, and others are best. We have to forego some good things in order to choose others that are better or best because they develop faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and strengthen our families.

Parents should act to preserve time for family prayer, family scripture study, family home evening, and the other precious togetherness and individual one-on-one time that binds a family together and fixes children’s values on things of eternal worth. Parents should teach gospel priorities through what they do with their children.

This is exactly what happened. It is easy to see how going to the temple is better than going to a movie, but I think it is harder when you have to choose between 2 good things. Camping vs. an invitation to a wedding reception or the missed baby shower were hard choices to make. These things I really felt I ought to go to, and to be honest I felt some guilt when I didn't go. But Scott and I decided each and every time that the best thing for our family was to spend quality, alone time in spite of other pressing, good invitations.

I also learned that if we don't schedule what we feel is important for us and our family either others will decide for us, or the opportunity simply passes by and we will look back and wonder where the time went when our children were little and when they wanted to spend time with us. Football games will come and go, showers and receptions, church callings and other various obligations will come and go as well. But what will not come back is time. right. now. With 4 kiddos who want nothing else than to romp around in the creek and roast marshmallows over the fire.

Life is about choices. Sometimes you are flexible and other times you stick to your guns. In this case we made the best choice.

We call him sock boy

I don't know what prompted this, but Chasey has started sucking on socks. Any size, any color, clean or dirty he will suck on it. Here he had taken off his own sock and fell asleep while in suck mode.