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.

Tooth Fairy Position Available

We've got a lousy tooth fairy around our house. She is late, forgetful and incredibly absentminded. Let me tell you why.

About 2 weeks ago Taylor had a visit with the orthodontist to see if he is getting close to being called "brace face." He is not quite there, but the ortho suggested he get 3 teeth pulled to make room for the new ones trying to get in.



I took him to the dentist the following week and out they came. They were placed in a special little tooth fairy box. That night he put the box out and fully expected to see money in the morning. And wouldn't you know it, she plain forgot!

So the next night he did it again. And would you believe she was a no show again? What kind of slacker is she? So for the next 4, yes 4 mornings he tried to figure out why she didn't come. Perhaps it was because she couldn't open the little box. She does have little fairy fingers. Well that is easily fixable. He decided to leave it open from now on. Maybe she didn't know where it was? He left it in clear sight on his dresser, not buried under his pillow. Maybe, he surmised with his dad, that she wasn't going to come because they had been pulled out and didn't naturally come out on their own.

Each morning I would rotate through excuses like "sometimes she is a little forgetful" and "maybe she is just a little backlogged" while wondering why that absentminded, poor excuse for a fairy wouldn't show up on time. We won't even get into the fact that sooner or later he needs to be informed who the slacker really is.




Finally last night she decided to show. And for his patience he got an extra dollar and he got to keep his teeth. Now, where do I go to hire a new one?

By the skin of my teeth

Anyone recognize this?

Anyone who has gone to college?

BYU maybe?

Anyone who has decided that this semester was the time to take a class on a subject that has interested her for some time but for various childbearing, lactating and childrearing reasons has not done it?

Anyone who has wanted to take a class only to find out it was full.

Anyone who is willing to contact the professor, get 2 ecclesiastical endorsements, apply for permission to take an evening class and hope and pray that a spot opens up in an immensely popular class.

Anyone who went to class the first day with an add/drop card hoping the professor would sign it and let her in despite the fact that the class only has 18 students and the professor has had requests from 16 other students to add the class as well.

Anyone who was lucky enough to have a very accommodating professor who just wants to teach people what she loves, sign the add/drop card anyway in an already over-full class.

By the skin of my teeth I got in and I am ecstatic. I need this. I need to leave my mom mode once a week and learn a new skill. And that is what I am going to do.

Well what class is it? You ask.

Some sort of math class maybe? Those of you who know me are laughing their heads off at this one.
Absolutely not

Geology maybe?
No

How about some sort of physical fitness class.
No. I don't need to be reminded that my body is 10 years older than my classmates.

It's gotta be a humanity class then. She really enjoyed those.
Interesting to be sure, but sadly no.

I signed up for bookbinding. Even writing that just gets me all excited.
It is a class where I will learn several different methods of making books as well as paper decorating. Handmade, beautiful books. I can't tell you how excited I am that once a week for 4 hours I get to learn a new skill, work with my hands, create something beautiful (I hope) and have some "me" time.

And if I'm proud of my work and it doesn't look like a preschooler did it, I may show ya. Wish me luck!

We've got ourselves a problem

Scott and I have been working hard on our back yard. We have somebody that wants to see our efforts fail. I didn't know about this until I noticed that some of the branches of our newly planted trees and shrubs were missing their leaves. My first thought was why on earth would Scott strip the leaves off of these trees. Why I didn't think of Owen first I know not.



But then upon further investigation I see these. I'm pretty sure Scott's feet are not this small. Nor are they cloven.



Yes, we have a deer that has decided to nibble on our plants. Based on the size of this print I would guess he is a small one. I also know that he eats buffet style. One branch off of every tree and shrub. As soon as he lets all of his buddies know what he has found up the hill, I'm pretty sure our trees will be stripped bare.

Today I mixed up some nasty concoction of raw eggs, hot sauce and garlic and sprayed them all over the leaves. This is hopefully just a temporary solution until we can get some kind of physical barrier around these poor trees. We have worked too hard to let them all die!