Scratch the scratch paper!

When I got off the stand after giving a talk in church today Barry told me that Mackensey thought it was funny that I was showing off her spelling list to the entire congregation. "What?!?" I had printed off my talk on our homeschool printer which has scratch paper in the paper tray (Maddy prints off her online lessons, using up 10-12 pages/day. We go through so much paper with homeschooling four children we always have tons of scratch paper to reload into the printer tray.) Oh well, at least if they didn't learn anything from my talk, they now are better spellers. :-)

Mindy and Marianne wore matching dresses to church today. Mindy wanted me to take a picture. Marianne did not! Mindy just likes to have her picture taken. I don't remember why we took this other picture of her. It was after we had decorated cupcakes for FHE on Monday. You can't tell, but she has icing on her face.  Have a great week!  Love, Avery

2 cUte

Here is a picture of Marianne modeling her birthday outfit. Below is Ben in his BYU "tougar" shirt.

On Wednesday evening Barry returned home after spending a week in Phoenix, going to a business convention and visiting family while down there. I sure missed him while he was gone. On Friday night Barry and I had a double date with some friends. We went to an historic theatre in Spokane (Fox theatre, one hundred year old, restored) and watched Michael Ballam perform. He walked through history and sang songs from different musical chronologically. While there we saw Barry's two sisters who live in Spokane and their husbands. So in two weeks time Barry has been able to see many of his siblings. (He's number six of ten children)

Maddy wants me to tell you that she made two peach and one apple 22/7 (3.14) tonight. (get it?) We ate them with ice-cream.

Have a great week! Love, Avery

Skiing Blind - I mean Night Skiing

 

When I sent out the picture of Marriane eating the flour out of the pantry, my Dad couldn't resist sending me these photo's of my brother and me playing with the flour. I think my Dad's words were: Like Mother Like Daughter, or The apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Something like that.

This week I was able to go skiing twice! Once on Monday with the girls, then last night Barry and I went up for night skiing. It was Barry's second time skiing, the first time in over 15 years. Ted Bowers met us up there (he was the person who taught me) for Barry's first skiing lesson. Watching Barry learn to ski reminded me of where I was six weeks ago for my first lesson. I've come a long way! I was feeling pretty pleased with myself, invisioning how much my skiing ability has improved (from non-existent to passable). Then I came down the end of a run and my opinion changed. With the lights behind me it caused my shadow to reach in front of me and I saw bent and crooked legs where I thought I was smooth and fluid. I was doing well, but there is always room for improvement. I was enjoying myself, though, and that is the important part!

With tomorrow's holiday and our schools being closed on Friday, we are enjoying a four day weekend! Mostly relaxing, baking, having friends over, etc.

Have a great weekend! Love, Avery



Did NOT burn the house down (again)!

When I was up in the middle of the night I saw the light on in one of the girls' bedroom (she would prefer to remain anonymous). I went in to turn it off and smelled smoke. She had placed a cotton sweater around the lightbulb of her lamp to create a dim nightlight. By the time I got there at 2:30 am the lamp had scorced a hole in it and they were both very hot. I am grateful for protection from the heavens for me and my family.

I don't know if this is normal but it seems like our children play musical bedrooms and switch who they share rooms with about every six months. This way they get to take turns on who gets to have their own bedroom. Now that Marianne is sleeping through the night she has joined Mindy - who no longer has her own room. Makayla is moving in with Ben, and Mackensey is moving out and getting her own bedroom. Maddy will now have her own bedroom.

Two weeks ago I mentioned that I was preparing to go "up on the mountain" for my next skiing lesson. Well, the next day I was expecting to pick up where I left off, take a few runs down the bunny hill, then head up the "big" chair lift and ski down from the top. Ummm, I bonked. It took me half of the lesson to even get warmed up. My teacher stopped me in the middle of the bunny hill and gave me a lecture that sounded like this: "You are a daughter of God, and He loves you, whether you can ski or not. Now, we are just out here having fun. You need to relax and not have so much fear." Shortly after that I got my "Mojo" back and made some advancement in my skiing ability. Needless to say, we did not make it to the top that day.

This week we did one run down the bunny hill then before I could change my mind we went up to the top. It was a beautiful ride up to the top, but as we started down I felt like a fish out of water. Everyone was zooming past me and all I could remember to do was snow plough. The hill was so steep it looked like it just dropped off into oblivion. I said a quick prayer for my safety, then begged the Lord that they wouldn't bring my baby up there (Mindy's teacher had told them that they were ready to go up top). Within seconds of my prayer I saw Mindy and her class about 10 yards above me on the hill. "Don't let her see how scared you are." was all I could think. She smiled and skiied past me a minute later. Ugh. I made it down the steep part, and actually enjoyed myself when it leveled off a bit.

Marianne took her first steps this week. She did it at a time when the entire family was watching, so that was fun. I only have two children that walked before a year. Guess who the other one was...

Have a great week! Love, Avery

Flour, Hats, and Frozen Water

Marianne has found that she likes to eat flour straight out of the five gallon bucket of flour we keep on the floor of the pantry. With a face as angelic as that, who can be upset with the MESS she makes in the process.

By the middle of winter the kids are tired of gettting hats, coats, gloves and boots on just to play outside. A good sunny day above 30 degrees and they are out riding trikes on the back deck without winter gear.

Maddy has enjoyed knitting this year. Since I do not knit or crochet I was appreciative to her friend Bessie's mom who taught her how to knit a hat (how many scarves does one family need?) Maddy has fun going to Bessie's house, but sometimes Bessie gets jealous when Maddy and her mom spend the whole time talking about knitting, cooking, and other hobbies that they have in common. "Mom, she's MY friend and I invited her over to play with ME!"

Ben got a little tickled today on the way home from church when he realized that the water bottle that he had left in the van was frozen. "Hah! the water turned to ice, and that makes me laugh - that is why I am smiling, because the water turned to ice, and that is funny!" Cute boy. I think I'll keep him.

Have a great week! Love, Avery

Shopping List: more steri-strips

Makayla lost her first tooth this week. Mindy made sure that it was plenty loose on Sunday, and I didn't think it would last through a meal, but Kayla protected it and the tooth stayed in until Tuesday evening. We had just finished finished a chili dinner which we had prepared for the missionaries. They were sharing a scripture with us in the family room when Makayla jumped off the couch yelling, "my tooth! my tooth! I lost my first tooth!"






This is the picture that Maddy had taken for her drama resume. She tried out for the next play, Pinnochio. I wasn't too excited about this play, but Maddy really wants to continue to be involved in drama. She is going to be one of the puppetiers (I'm glad - I was a little afraid that they would cast girls in boy roles).

Mindy and Mackensy are having fun learning how to ski. Maddy is learning snowboarding this year and really likes it. It amazes me how quickly children pick up on sports. I have the opportunity this year to learn to ski while the girls are in their lessons (sure beats sitting in the freezing cold lodge for 3 hrs). Tomorrow will be our fourth lesson. I've stayed on the bunny hill, improving little by little. My instructor want to take me up "the real hill" tomorrow. I'm nervous and excited.         

Do not continue reading if blood makes you quezy. We ran out of steri-strips this week. Three of the children had cuts bad enough to need them. The first was Ben on Monday. He already had a black eye from falling on the floor (didn't trip on anything, just fell for no reason). Then, while jumping on Mindy's bed his head hit the window sill. Barry was home and I watched as he took care of the one inch gash, thinking, "I need to learn how to do this". The opportunity came for me to use my new skill Friday afternoon. Mindy was chasing Maddy into Maddy's bedroom. Maddy closed her door on Mindy's pinky, and it popped like a grape, leaving a 1 1/2 inch gash. Barry was in Spokane all day, so I used steri-strips to close the wound, then she iced it as it was getting swollen. Then on Saturday Mackensey was helping Barry in the kitchen. Barry tossed a container at her telling her to "catch". She caught it in between the eyes, a 3/4 inch gash across her nose. "Don't worry, I got this" and I took her to the bathroom where I used the last two steri-strips. Now we need to buy more steri-strips because it has become a staple in our household.  

Have a great week! Love, Avery

Maddy's first driving lesson

These are some pictures that Barry took from our balcony.



 We had church cancelled last Sunday due to freezing rain, and youth group cancelled on Wednesday night due to a snow storm dumping 4 inches Tuesday night and another 4 inches on Wednesday. We had plans to go to Spokane onWednesday, but were able to wait until Thursday. Barry's mom was at his sister's house and we went there to visit her. On the drive home Makayla asked me a question from the back seat of our minivan.

"Mom, where to babies come from?" It was late and I was tired and she wasn't speaking very clearly, so I had to ask Mindy to help translate. "Did Makayla just ask me where babies come from?" "Yes." Pause, "Kayla, babies come from a very special place, and I would like to talk with you about it, but can we wait until we get home to discuss this?" Mindy said, "She just wants to know if you eat something, then a baby grows in your stomach."  "Oh, no, baby's don't come to your belly because of what you eat. Babies are in mommies bellies, but not in their stomach." Then Ben started asking questions about male/female anatomy. My babies are not babies anymore.



Maddy drives the tractor

In preparations for our New Year's Eve party Friday night, I was busy cleaning inside the house while Barry, Maddy, and Ben were busy outside working sanding the driveway. I went outside at noon to tell them that lunch was ready and saw that Barry had taught Maddy how to drive the tractor so that he and Ben could shovel that sand from the bucket onto the ground. I just laughed, "You're going to teach her how to drive a tractor before she learns how to drive a car?" "Sure, why not?"

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