I'm Leavin' on a jet plane!

I sang the John Denver song, "I'm leavin' on a jet plane" when I was in Jr. High. I still know all the words to that song and it comes to my head sometimes. It has been going through my head today because I will be leaving on a jet plane...tomorrow! "All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go!" Marianne and I will meet my parents in Tennesse to visit my sister and her family and see their new house.

This week was filled with sick kids, who passed it along to me this weekend, which made me miss out on some fun things that I had planned. We're all feeling better now, though.

Have a great week! Love, Avery

Crazy Hair

We had fun spiking Marianne's hair before we put it in side ponytails. Everyone said she looked so much older with her hair that way.

Ben wet down his hair, put his sunglasses on, then asked me to take his picture. How could I say no, he has always been the one who didn't like getting his pictures (the girls were never camera shy).

On Thursday morning Barry took the children for their morning walk, while I stayed inside because Marianne was still asleep. (Most people take their dogs for daily walks, we take our children for walks). I was in the kitchen making fruit smoothies for everyone's breakfast when Mindy burst through the front door, excitedly saying words like: first one and newspaper and picture. I didn't know what she was talking about until I turned around and saw what she was holding in her hands. The first buttercup of the year. Chewelah's first signs of spring! I took her picture holding the flower, then we waited anxiously for that days' paper (the Chewelah Independent comes out once a week and we get it in the mail on Thursdays). The first buttercup of the year is a big deal and front page news. If there were no pictures in the paper of anyone finding a buttercup, then we could email this picture to the newspaper and Mindy would be on the front page next week. We were very disappointed to find that a little boy had found the first buttercup at his granparents house in town. We are always a week behind, living at a higher elevation and all.



Maddy had a band concert on Thursday. Beginner band dressed up in festive green for the occasion, but advanced band was asked to wear black pants and their red band button up polos (which they all hate). Since Maddy is in both bands, she wore her red shirt with a green vest over it to play trumpet with beginner band. When the bands switched we motioned for her to take off the vest (we were sitting on the front row) and she refused (seeds of rebellion?). She played flute, then accompanied for a friend.

Thursday morning (everything happened on Thursday this week!) Barry and Ben pruned the trees in our orchard. Ben asked Barry why they were doing it and he told him "so that the peaches will grow". Ben went out several times that afternoon to see if the peaches were growing yet. He has mentioned it almost everyday since. "I wonder when the peaches will grow." Maybe we should break the news to him how long it will take before we see peaches on the tree. But I tell ya, when we do he will be SOOOOO proud! :-)

Have a great week! Love, Avery



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