Conference Weekend

I am a bit behind in my blogging, since the pictures are in limbo between computers right now. But last Saturday was the annual neighborhood Easter Egg hunt! Last year, Tyler was not a fan. It was freezing cold, and he really had no idea what we were trying to get him to do. I was excited because Easter is later this year, and Tyler and Kaitlyn both understand the "pick up the egg and put it into the basket" concept.

And then it SNOWED. Not past tense even, it was actually continuing to snow as we hunted for eggs. Of all the nerve! Tyler has inherited my dislike for the cold, so even with two coats and a pair of gloves on, he was till shivering around the fire at the end.

McKenna (one of my cute beehives) was my helper again this year, and Kaitlyn needed it because every time she tried to lean over in her puffy snowsuit and pick up an egg in her gloves, she toppled right over. Poor girl! She was still smiling the whole time though, which is more than I can say for Tyler. It is so nice to have helpers so I can take pictures!

And then we rushed home for General Conference. Every 6 months, my church broadcasts a weekend of meetings from the leaders of our church. I think a lot of people get rather tired of 4 2 hour meetings in two days- many use it as nap time. But unfortunatly for my family I am a fanatic. Kaitlyn has getting more and more restless lately, and I have felt like the only part of weekly church I get to pay attention to is the part I teach my young women while Christopher takes care of her. My tank was running on empty, spirtually, and so for 8 hours this weekend the kids were on their own.

Don't worry, I am not a cruel mommy. I literally count TiVo as one of my blessings every 6 months because I can pause and rewind every time I need to help the kids. I am happiest when I can sit on my extra comfy couch taking notes while the kids nap. But it was mommy's turn, by golly!

I remember when I was in college, and my religion professor talked about coming into conference with questions and concerns on your mind. Since then, I try to make that a goal, and I am always amazed at how little things that they say just speak to my mind and bring me answers to my prayers. This time I really came away with some concrete goals I am working on, and I hope to be a better person as a result. In fact, when I take notes during conference, it isn't like taking notes in a class. Sure, I write down each person's name and a couple things about what they said, but often my mind takes tangets from there and I end up writing down notes to myself about what I get out of it. Often when I compare it to the written talk later I don't know how I got that out of what they said, but I truly feel inspired while I listen with an open heart like that.

I will link to the written talks as soon as they are posted, but for now, if you didn't see it you can listen to any of these talks here.

I loved Sis. Lifferth's talk on respect and reverence. She mentioned a lot of checklists to make sure that we are teaching our children proper respect for one another. Are we pointing out the best in others, especially at home with those we love the most? Are we respectful with those we disagree with? Are we teaching them to respect their teachers, or automatically taking sides without listening? This all leads directly into reverence, which is something I am currently struggling to teach to toddlers. She points out that it doesn't come right away or naturally, but it can be taught bit by bit. I look forward to when all of my work pays off and my children understand how to reverently sit and listen during church.

Elder Packer had an analogy I liked. He said that he used to be on the football team in High School, and learned through grueling practices to listen to his coaches. During one loud and tumultuous game, he got distracted and confused during a play. But over all the voices (and having been on the field during a high school football game, I can tell you that every person seems to be shouting the entire time) he heard his coach's voice clearly and followed immediatly. Amongst all the voices I hear around me every day, am I listening to the quiet voice of inspiration? And do I instinctually follow it from habit?

Elder Eyring talked about adversity, and how important it is for us. Why do we feel like we deserve a perfect life, and feel like anything less than that is "not fair"? In order to be like our Heavenly Father, we have to learn to make the right choices when they are hard to make, not just easy.

I like how Elder Uchdorf mentioned that whatever we want to work on, "the journey starts right where we are." No matter how far off course we are, start right there and head back, rather than merely wishing you were somewhere else.

No matter what Christian religion you belong to, I think everyone should listen to Elder Jeffrey R. Holland's talk for this Easter weekend. It was such a powerful message about how alone Christ truly was during his last few days on earth. He suffered all of this for us so that He would understand, no matter how alone we feel in our journey. But it is up to us to make sure that we do not abandon him, as so many did that week.

And a quote: "Testimony is to know and to feel, conversion is to do and become."-Elder Dallin H. Oaks, Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

So this weekend I think I truly felt inspired, and learned a lot of things that I personally need to work on. I only hope that I can "do and become" in the months to come!

April Fool's Day

I had fun with our little playgroup this morning, so I thought I would share. I mentioned to my friend the other night that I didn't know what to do with them this week, and she pointed out that it was April Fool's Day. So I started looking around the internet for fun things.

The first thing I liked for the food. I had never thought of this before, but a bunch of sites had recipies for food that looked like something it wasn't. I went with the fake fish sticks, which are actually wafer cookie sticks covered in peanut butter and then rolled in crushed cornflakes. Since my group is 2-3 year olds, I did the PB, but they really enjoyed using a rolling pin on the ziploc of cornflakes to crush it, and then sprinkling them on top of the cookies. And the "peas" of green apple taffy were a big hit. They also liked the clear kool-aid that I made, because they could easily see the gag that it looked like water but tasted much better. Anything that makes their food more sugary can't seem bad to them, right?

The whole day I kept talking to them about how "April Fool's!" meant pretending something was true that wasn't, so our next game was playing dress up. Thank heavens for my awesome sister-in-law, who drew our name for last Christmas and sent us her hand-me-down box of dress-up clothes as well as our present. Levi especially got into his role as the cheetah, and spent the whole time crawling around and growling at our "princesses".

And then for our coloring time, I altered some normal pages to have something wrong with them, so we could talk about what was "silly" about the picture. It took only 5 minutes in photoshop to download a coloring page and then put flowers growing out of a tree and replace the face of a bunny with something else.

I am no preschool teacher, but I felt like I actually made things work today. I have to say that having kids this age stretches me, because I have always felt perfectly at home teaching teenagers math topics. I look at these kids that don't even know how to talk yet, and I am so glad that I have had help from Kids on the Move and everything else to teach me the "early childhood education" stuff everyone else I knew majored in at BYU. Guess they had the right idea in some ways! Except later on, when they have to pay for me to tutor their teenager in Algebra. Ha! Take that!

Tyler's new paint job!

This post gets an exclamation mark in the title for sure. I got the idea for Tyler's room almost a year ago, and finally this last week we put it into action. The hang up was the original condition of the walls. The ceiling had a strange deformation, and we think it was where they took down a canopy or something. And the walls had a wallpaper border that WOULD NOT COME OFF. (We finally used a clothes steamer and hours upon hours of picking at it.) But I had a deadline, so we had to have the room ready to paint by this last Wednesday no matter what.



See, a while ago my Beehives were all brainstorming activities they would like to do, and a list someone had from the internet mentioned "paint a room." They all got excited, but didn't know what to paint, and I said "Tyler's room needs to be painted." Suddenly this was the best idea ever. I have always said that what I love about my Beehives is how they throw themselves into any activity we do and have a blast- and this, to me, shows that off nicely. Because basically this was slave labor. Here, everyone, why don't you come do my house projects for me? Granted, they had more exuberance than know-how, so we had a lesson first and they still were a bit more sloppy than Christopher or I would have been. But they did a fairly good job putting up the first coat of white paint. It took us the rest of the week, but finally it is all done!




Tyler loves the stickers. He keeps going around the room, pointing to each one, labeling them "digger, dump truck, digger, dump truck." So cute. Here's my problem though: the stickers are coming off already! The instant I put them on the walls, they started to peel back. AARG! I might have to resort to wallpaper paste to keep them on, which would be just too ironic for words. But he loves them so much . . .




In other news, Kaitlyn cut her tongue the other day when my friend was watching her. So the rest of the day was her personal heaven- because she got to have a couple of Otter Pops to "put ice on the swelling", as it were. Kaitlyn loves eating ice, and is way too addicted to sugar for her own good. Jackpot.

And finally, I am including this picture of Kaitlyn after church the other week, because I love dressing her up for church. :) Oh, and she is sitting on a stool becuase otherwise she won't sit still for pictures. Whenever I try and take picture of my kids, I set them up in a spot, and then as soon as I back up to take the shot they run straight for me so they can check out the camera.

Happy pi day!

I just wanted to wish everyone a happy pi day! (3/14 is pi day, as in 3.141592653589, for you non-math nerds, and yes I know that far by memory.) We had a good day here- I got a new laundry hamper, a few fun toys for the kids at the dollar store, and we had a great trip to the park with Stephanie and Hailey, since the weather was relatively warm. It is a little boring and lonely now, since Christopher is in Moab for the weekend, but that's ok. In the meantime, here are some park pictures!

Peek a boo!

I took pictures of Tyler's first trip to the park at almost the exact same age. I remember he wasn't walking yet, so he just crawled around after a ball I brought and flung wood chips. But he loved the swings! Kaitlyn wasn't very impressed with the swings, but she liked just wandering around and liked the slides a lot. And Tyler is still flinging wood chips and laughing like it's hilarious.

I tried to get them all to smile at me for a picture. Hailey was more than happy to smile, but my kids just kept on eating. Stinkers.

Crazy husband

I mentioned before that we had a fun weekend, but I was waiting for the pictures. And so now, you get to see what my crazy husband and his co-workers did last Friday night.









Yup. That would be 5 grown-ups in matching company shirts and homemade MC Hammer pants. They all went to the MC Hammer / Vanilla Ice concert last weekend, and had an absolute blast. Christopher said that as they were going, there was a part of him that (logically) thought "why on earth are we doing this?", but apparently once they got there they loved every second. They got there way early though- they had the start time off by an hour- so they ended up standing right in front of the stage. "How close?" you ask.

This close. Front row. They had to cling on the barrier for dear life, with everyone behind them trying to shove their way forward. But that hard work payed off at the end when they picked people from the front row to go up on stage, and my husband was one of them. This is how close he got to Vanilla Ice.

It was funny how pumped he was when he got home, telling me all about how they danced like maniacs up there. And their outfits were funny, but at least they weren't dressed like this purple guy!







And then on Saturday , we dropped the kids off at Grandma's and went on the annual DigiCert snowmobiling trip. When I went the first time, I was really nervous becauese I normally don't like things that go fast and scary, but it turns out I LOVE SNOWMOBILING! The scenery is beautiful, they are really easy to use, and I get a certain amount of daredevil indestructible feel to it all that lets me do all the crazy stuff everyone else is doing. SO much fun! I couldn't go last year, since I had just had Kaitlyn, and the year before that was the first trip. I think we had 6 snowmobiles that time, so under 10 people total. To give you an idea of how much the company has grown, this was our group this time.




And I honestly like all of his co-workers a lot, which is amazing I think. I was thinking about that when we sat down at dinner that night- there wasn't anyone in the room that I wouldn't want to sit down next to and strike up a conversation with. How awesome is that? Not many people can say that about the company they work for.

And in laundry room news, I can't stop smiling! It is now painted, with a new light fixture and new curtains. So I have a functional, beautiful laundry room! The cabinets are the next step, but given that I didn't have cabinets in the room before, it's not like I miss them now. In case you are a before/after shot nut like me, here are the pics.

Bits of us

Kaitlyn:

* Is constantly trying to do whatever we are doing. The other day, she decided she wasn't content playing with her own toys while I was tutoring. So she cried until I picked her up and put her in my lap. Then she wanted her own pencil like I had, so I got her a scrap to draw on. And then that wasn't good enough. Eventually, she was drawing on the student's notes like I was, and talking to him in very serious tones just like Mommy was. He had two tutors that day!

*She has found even more ways to get into trouble in bathrooms lately. I think the "playing in toilet water" phase started a couple of weeks ago, and the "un-rolling the toilet paper everywhere" thing has been going on for months. Hence, in our house, the rolls were sitting up on the counter so she couldn't un-roll them. But now she has decided she likes to pick up the whole roll and drop it in the toilet or shower to soak up water, and then leave it somewhere.
All of our bathroom doors are being kept closed until further notice.


Tyler:

* The other night, X-Men 3 was on TV in the background while I made dinner, and Tyler decided to sit down and watch the ending. He always gets excited to see things he knows the name of, so I wasn't suprised when I heared him say "he-gi-copter!" And there was a slight pause. "Hegicopter broken!" as it smashed to bits on screen. A second later I heard "Car! Car broken!" as a car burst into flames. And as the fighting began he looked concerned. "Oowie." I like it when he narrates movies for us.

* A few people have asked me why I don't just homeschool Tyler, and I think that is a valid question I want to answer. I am trying to homeschool him as much as I can- I pick up little things to do from all kinds of sources, and I think I am the best resource he has for learning about the world. But one of the concerns that Kids On the Move had when we left was that his social skills were really lacking. He needed to learn how to interact with other kids, and listen to instructions from adults other than mom and follow what the group is doing. That is one thing I can't provide on my own, and why we are looking at preschools. Thank heavens for the neighborhood playgroup and nursery, so he is already getting two classes a week anyway. My kids are also loving the weekly music clases.
Oh, and the rec center preschool has sign ups for next year at the end of the month. They hand out numbered wrist bands in the morning and then you have to come back in the evening- the whole thing sells out in an hour or so. Sheesh! But he has to be potty trained, and we aren't close to that level yet. I can only hope that by August he will be?

*Oh, and in terms of learning new things, apparently he has been listening to me too much lately. Something frustrated him the other day, and I heard him say "dang it!" He has been saying it in context ever since, even adding "gosh dang it!" once. At least I don't use actual swear words!

Sarah:

*I have two goals for myself lately. One is to work on my Personal Progress more. I got my medallion when I was in Young Woman's, but now that I am a leader they ask you to do it again with your girls. I have barely done anything since I got in over two years ago! It is time to buckle down and do it.
The second one is getting back to piano. I used to be fairly good at it, peaking about half-way through my freshman year of college. And then I just fell away from it. I have always tried to keep up a little bit, but for the last couple of weeks I have been trying to get in a half an hour a day. I didn't realize how much I missed it! I was worried that the kids would never let me do something like that, but I honestly see a difference in how calm the home is when I am playing peaceful music on the piano. They often come and try to play while I am playing, but usually wander off after a bit to do something else. I make sure they get some time on the bench to try it out too, and they like that. My new challenge is to try Waterfalls. I dated a guy my freshman year who could play this song, and I have always been jealous! It is nothing like the things I usually play, so it is quite a stretch for me. So far so good though!

Christopher:

*He is making more progress on the laundry room, but waiting for mud to dry has been frustrating him lately. In the meantime, he keeps coming home from Home Depot with more things we didn't know we needed around the house, that we on sale/clearance. So he has replaced lights in the kitchen and garage, fixed the fireplace, worked on Tyler's room, etc.

*This weekend he and some friends are all going down to Moab. I am grateful he has this "Moab group", because mountain biking is not something I ever want to attempt. I am not in shape enough, and not daring enough. But he loves going down these with these guys.

Mini updates

Laundry room:
All of the plumbing and electrical work is done, and Christopher got drywall up the other day. He still needs to do the mudding and sanding, as well as repair the ceiling where it looks like people covered over old water damage (which we know was fixed, don't worry) with a gob of putty and called it good. Then we paint, then we install cabinets. Moving right along! The only problem is that right now the washer and dryer have been unhooked for a few days, and things are starting to pile up. Christopher was hoping to get everything set and painted before we get them hooked up in place, but if the laundry gets much higher that will be just too bad for him.

Pre-school:
I think everyone I know in the area is going to be sick of me quizzing them about preschool soon. Miss Melva's was great, in a lot of ways. She was a good teacher, and the other girls in her class were very well behaved and fun little girls. But the class was way too academic for Tyler. He needs people reading simple books, not 3 paragraphs on each page. These girls were learning what sound each letter makes! I will probably send Kaitlyn there someday, but I just think he needs someone who works more on individuals and not on the groups as a whole like she does. Great place for smart kids.

Then I went to Brighter Child, which is at the bottom of the hill. It sounded really good on paper. They have an introductory class for his age group that "teaches them how to learn and understand classroom tasks", which is something he really needs. But after watching one class, I can see what a friend was talking about when she called it "glorified day care". The first half an hour was free play gym time, then 20 minutes for snack, and then the last 40 minutes was coloring and learning activities. But to pay $50 a month for 1.5 hours once a week, I feel like I expected a bit more, ya know? Still not a horrible option, but it didn't feel right either. He gets that much in nursery class in church on Sunday. I did like that they had parent viewing areas off to the side though.

Tomorrow I am going to go see our Rec Center. A couple of friends just told me late last week that they run a preschool there, so I will keep my fingers crossed for this one. After this, the only other option I am looking at is the Learning Tree, which was the most expensive and amazing one I have seen. They are double the cost of other places, but they were founded by a mom looking to help her child with his language skills (just like Tyler needs) and are kind of amazing. I'm talking granite countertop kitchens to make pancakes on "P" day, with a science room for computers and animals, and a geography room with a map on the floor. Oh, and they come and get your child from your car for you so you don't have to get out. It's like the fancy place in Daddy Day Care, but run by cute, happy, little mormon mommies. I still need to watch an actual class, though.

After that, I don't know. BYU and UVU have preschools, but I really don't want to trek all the way down there if I don't have to. And my speech therapist is looking into ways to get him into Head Start or the district preschool eventually, but I know better than to hold my breath for that. If I don't find the perfect one soon, I will just settle for now and keep looking for something better for the fall. In the meantime, I have a neighbor who teaches music in preschools, and she is coming over once a week to teach them both music classes. And he still adores his playgroup on Wednesdays, which we honestly run like a mini, informal preschool.


This weekend was really fun, but I am waiting to blog about it until I get the pictures that other people took and promised to email. So I guess everything I said today is a work in progress!