Friday Morning Ritual

On Friday mornings we will be eating our breakfast when suddenly Olivia's head jerks up at the distant sound of a large truck rumbling into our neighborhood. She climbs off her chair and races to the front room, where she begins tugging at the blinds. I race in right behind her to save the blinds by pulling them up. All so she can watch the garbage truck as it drives up and down our street. The truck passes our house several times because we are at a "T" intersection, and every other week there are two trucks- garbage and recycling.

She is also the only enthusiastic watcher of the house being built on the street behind us, because of the big trucks they have been using-cranes, delivery trucks, cement trucks and more. Kurt and I are sad to be losing a chunk of our view.

Today, watching the truck pick up our neighbors trashcan from one window.

Dashing to the next window to watch the truck pick up our trash and on down the street.

Last week watching with Jolie.

Last week again

Good-bye until next week!

We're going to the zoo!!

We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo

How about you, you, you?

You can come too, too, too

We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo.

(Chorus of "Going to the Zoo")

Today was the Home School Day at the Hogle Zoo--all homeschoolers (and I'm thinking anyone else who showed up because the ticket stands were closed) were able to get in free. This was my first "major" outing, on my own, with all 4 kids and it was hectic.

Moments of Annoyance: 1. Of course my kids assured me they didn't need to use the bathroom as we passed one on the way to lunch, but 5 minutes later when the younger 2 and lunch was unpacked they had to go really bad. loading everything bakc onto the stroller at top speed and dashing to the bathroom, we fortunately made it in time.

2. So it wasn't a surprise when I was horribly tempted to let Nyah wet her pants later when we were minutes into the Reptile house, Jolie almost asleep in the sling and Olivia ecstatic to be out of the stroller, having passed a bathroom just before going inside. Ah, the trials of motherhood. By the time we trooped back outside through the crowds, reloaded unhappy toddler back into the stroller, went to the bathroom, back to the reptile house, unloaded and back inside with all the crowds, I was frazzled and ready to leave. So we raced through when sadly, its probably the place we would have liked to spend the most time. Oh well, next time we'll make it our first stop and hopefully it won't be as busy earlier in the day.

Lesson learned: As the mom you know your kids will have to go to the bathroom sometime so you might as well make them while you are by a bathroom.

Thankfully there were plenty of enjoyable parts to the trip as well. We arrived just after it opened and the Zoo was the quietest I've ever seen it. As a result, we were able to do some things I had planned on avoiding like the train and carousel rides, and playing at the playground. At last year's home school day the weather was nicer and we arrived later so there were lots more people. Olivia loved the train until the man's voice came through the intercom and startled her, so she cried for the first part of the ride.

While it is always exciting to see the exotic animals, like elephants, rhinos, gorillas, and lots more, I was especially interested to see the animals we have been studying in science lately. We saw a striped skunk, bats, squirrels, and cotton-tail rabbits. Unfortunately, the prairie dogs and marmots weren't out, but we did see a wild weasel, not part of the zoo exhibits, but just living there, scurrying around. We also saw a number of birds of prey--bald eagles, hawks, owls, and a kestrel. I'll post most of these pictures on my homeschool blog.

Sadly, I didn't take enough pictures--my hands were too busy!!

Highlight of our visit--petting a Chinchilla.

Happy Jo

Slide--Olivia's favorite!!

We expect Nyah to hatch any day now :)

Austin the Explorer

What a sweet girl!

Being eaten by a crocodile

Fabulous Family Visitors

On Friday we had a surprise visit from my Aunt Julene, Aunt Dorthea, cousin Julianne, cousin Suzanne and her 4.5 year old son, Greg. It was so exciting having surprise visitors!! Then on Saturday we had my cousin Brad, his wife Katie, and their adorable daughter, Ruth, over for part of the day. Brad is helping us with the electrical work in our basement so he and Kurt were busy with that, while Katie and I hung out with the babies. We also barbecued for lunch--I love that the weather has warmed up!! The only picture I took was of Nyah with Ruth. I'll have to have my camera ready next time--so consider yourself warned!!

Thank goodness for Michael!!

So, we, like many people around the world, watch the Academy Awards last night. I admit I am not into movies, I've only watched 2 of the movies nominated last night (Wall-E and The Dark Knight), but Kurt wanted to watch, and there was a bag of fabulous chocolates up for grabs

in Justin & Jesse's contest, so I watched, though I didn't really care. There were parts I enjoyed, there were plenty that made me roll my eyes and gag, and I've enjoyed catching up on justin's report of the awards. But I didn't think about or even recognize what was completely missing from this whole deal until I read my brother's testimony in his email from his mission this morning:

"I know that god lives and that he loves us and i know that as we give all our time and talents to the lord he will bless us far beyond that which we can earn on our own. I know that Christ is our savior and our redeemer and that he loves us and knows us personnally. i know that through his atonement that we will be purified if we want to be. God loves us. and he wants us to be happy. i love you all and wish you a very good week!
Elder Laws"

I was missing the Spirit!! Which is not intended to be some lecture on keeping the Sabbath day holy or to say what is acceptable to watch or not watch, but I think many of us can agree there was an awful lot of "wordly wisdom" being passed off as acceptance speeches. I'm grateful I can read my brother's testimony, my scriptures, and the words of latter-day prophets to keep my head on straight.

Because I went private . . .

If you know of anyone, such as family members, etc. who were reading my blog and would like to continue reading my blog, please send me their email at kluvsfam@gmail.com so I can invite them. It seems I've missed some and didn't know about others. Thank you.

Happy Anniversary to Me! and Kurt!!

Today is our 9 year anniversary!! WOW!! My awesome husband, Kurt, gave me the 4th season of Dr. Who, my favorite. I love Donna, and am still disappointed she only gets to be with the Doctor for one season. I can't really see how she would continue to be a part of the show like Rose was even when she was lost in a parallel universe, especially with Donna's whole brain going to fry if she ever remembers the Doctor or anything that happened, but I'll change subjects now because I'm sure many of you have no idea what I'm talking about. Dr. Who--check it out.

Kurt took the day off so we had a nice quiet morning. And in the afternoon, once Kurt was done with his new P3 soccer game (what a good wife I am), we loaded up the kids and headed to the Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point. Here are some pictures from our wonderful day:

Brachiosaurus foot and Olivia
Jolie wanting out of the stroller.

Kids creating a dinosaur

Water and Mud, a girls best friend, well, at least one of Nyah's favorite activities.

Austin was very methodical in creating this forest.

Archelon ischyrus- BIG turtle. Austin and Nyah are in the background.

BIG Fish- Notice how Olivia has her blanket? She dragged it all through the museum. Maybe we have ancient dirt on it now.

BIG Shark and crazy kids.

By this time Jolie was tired of being cooped up in the stroller.

People taking out a mammoth

Mammoth taking out personJolie's turn to chew on Olivia's blanket

The only child I know who wants to get back IN the stroller.

My sweet husband, checking those emails.

Fossil hunting

Happy Valentine's Day!

The kids have had a great Valentine's Day. On Friday, the 13th (didn't even think about that until way past- no bad luck here!) we had a Valentine's party with our homeschool group. The kids had a blast exchanging valentines, playing with friends, and eat chocolate dipped strawberries, pretzels, marshmallows, and so one. I love how they can spend hours pouring over the cards long after the candy is gone.

Valentine's morning Nyah came in early to wake me up and tell me Valentine didn't bring her anything--for whatever reason I think she was thinking there's someone like the Easter Bunny of Santa for Valentine's Day. When I told her our family would exchange valentines later she looked so puzzled. Here is a picture of all 4 of them happily playing and laughing together, early Valentine's morning.

In the afternoon we went to the Timpanogos Monument Visitor's Center for a Kids in Nature program, featuring Birds of Prey. The kids had a great time and were amazed at the many birds we were able to see. I'll be posting more pictures of the birds of prey at my homeschool blog. We plan on visiting in the summer to go through the cave. If anyone wants to come let me know what weekend you'll come visit and we can go together.

Austin has the wing span of a Turkey Vulture.

Nyah also has a wingspan of a Turkey Vulture.

I don't remember Olivia's, and her head is covering the bird name, but it looks like a Falcon or Hawk.

Beautiful even covered with snow!

NOOOOOOO!

Do you know how I feel when I look at this picture? Terrified. Exhausted. I am being pulled kicking and screaming into potty training. Actually, today Olivia was doing the kicking and screaming when I put a diaper on her. She wants to sooo badly, but I sooo don't. Even when I am on the ball asking her every 5 minutes if she needs to go potty, she just says no until she's standing in a puddle. But has a major meltdown when I try to put a diaper on her. Hopefully, she will see things my way (You don't think I'm really that naive of a mom do you?)

Black Eyed Jo

Taking pictures of Jolie is hard to do-- I finally had to pin her down to get a good shot of her black eye. She was much too busy playing on the stairs and with her sisters toothbrush to pose for me.

I kind of forget she has a black eye, until we were in public today and practically everyone who looked our way gasped is surprise. I start looking around like, what's going on? Then I remeber, "Oh yeah, my baby has the black eye."

Curses on sharp corners!!

The Shiner:

The culprit (i.e. the corner of our fireplace, in case someone out there thought I meant Abby-Cadabby)
More colorful this afternoon:

The Story: Last night, minutes away from being safely tucked into her crib, Jolie decided to lunge head first into the corner of our fireplace. I have no idea why, though I suspect the elephant toy she was plaing with had something to do with it. All in all, it looks a lot better than I was expecting, as in a smaller bruise and less swelling than I thought I'd wake up to find. That's something I suppose.

New Blog

I have started a new blog to focus on our homeschooling curriculum and activities, and to become a larger part of the online homeschooling community. I will probably make this blog (Our Days) private in a few days or so once everything is set up, so send me an email at kluvsfam@gmail.com and I will send you an invitation.

The new blog is http://booksandmudpuddles.blogspot.com/

Talents I've recently discovered thanks to my children

1. Diapering in the dark. Yeah, I know, it sounds a little freaky, because it is a little freaky. Many hidden dangers. But Olivia likes to turn off the lights and isn't so cooperative when it comes to "please turn the light back on . . . please turn on the light . . . turn on the light . . . OLIVIA!!"

2. Not going insane while listening to the play-by-play recount of Austin's time playing Lego Star Wars on the wii. "I did this, and I did that, and I bought this guy, and I want to buy that guy, but I didn't have enough" and so on. I DON'T CARE!! but I pretend to because its so important and exciting for him.

3. Biting my tongue, or not saying something that would cause contentious feelings. The other day Nyah asked what "nag" meant, and in the context of what she was reading it meant old, broken-down horse, but she asked what else it means, so I told her its someone who is asking someone to do something over and over until it gets done, and she said, "Oh, like you." I bit my tongue, though I was tempted to say something along the lines of "if you would do what I ask, when I ask, I wouldn't have to keep asking, and if you think I'm a bad nag I can show you what a bad one is really like." Wow, it felt good to finally get that out.

4. Not cleaning :), at least I think its a talent. I don't need to do it all through the day because once I put the books back on the shelf someone else comes along to pull them off, once I put the coloring stuff away someone else pulls it all out again, once I wipe the counter its time to eat again, once I load the dishwasher the sink is full of dirty dishes again, and so I've committed to doing things ONCE a day, and spending the rest of my time enjoying the time with my kids or on my hobbies.

5. Functioning with a 18-24 lb hip attachment that needs to be held, leaving me with one arm to do anything and everything else. I actually have two hip attachments (Olivia and Jo), and its a darn good thing they are adorable and I love them, because between the two of them I'm carrying someone around all the time.

So those are the talents my sleep deprived brain can think of right now, because I certainly haven't figured out how to fit more hours of sleep into a limited number of day hours. Wouldn't that be a great talent to figure out.