Kate's Maybe Bunny

I chaperoned the Treehouse Preschool field trip to the Thanksgiving Point Farm today. Since we have been there quite a bit and I have posted about a lot of trips to the farm, I'll skip the rundown of animals and get to the exciting part.
Okay, I don't know how exciting for Mom and Dad, but Kate is being quite persistent about getting a bunny after seeing them again at the farm. I keep hearing, "Mine bunny", "Kate bunny", "I want bunny", "Mommy, bunny please".
I have to admit, these bunnies were adorable. But, I know nothing about rabbits. I hear you can litter box-train them and that for some people they make good pets. What do you know about them? I've read on the Internet, but I want to hear from people who have actually had pet bunnies. I know, I know - our pet saga is getting old and we should really just break down and get a dog, but we're not there yet.

A few pictures, because they were cute!

Homework

I feel like we do a lot of homework at our house. Okay, Gavin does a lot of homework and occasionally I'll do some momwork (you know, homework that really only Moms can do - costumes, editing papers, etc).
Enoch also does homework. It's suppose to be daily, but we shoot for 3 days a week. Of course, Kate has to do her homework too (coloring her Hello, Kitty and Strawberry Shortcake books). I realized for something that we do most days, I didn't have any pictures of it. Today, Kate and Enoch were being very kind to each other. Good day to take a picture.
PS - I just noticed that Kate is coloring with her left hand. Maybe she'll be a leftie.

Enoch did WHAT?!

I am only now calm enough to write this post. It's taken me most of the day to get to this point. I'm sure as some of you read this post, you will perhaps smile, chuckle or think, "I'm glad that's not my kid." Believe me, I'm not there yet.

My Enoch is sweet, adorably curious. That is good. He is smart, too smart. That can be good. He doesn't believe in rules. That is so not good.

Today, while Greg, Gavin and I sat at the kitchen table, Enoch set fire to the field behind our house. Yes, you read that right. A fire! ARRRRRGGG! Enoch came in looking for a glass of water because he was 'thirsty'. I told him he couldn't take the glass outside (because they never make it back inside). He insisted. I said no. It was then that Enoch's friend ran to the door and yelled that the backyard was on fire. WHAT!! We all ran outside. Yes, the field was on fire! Apparently, Enoch had found some matches; where I don't know. I threw all of ours away years ago. I swear this kid's a bloodhound for dangerous objects.
We tried to turn on the hose and realized the outside water was off. Why? Because Enoch plays in it and fills up Gavin's window well with buckets of water, so we turned it off. Greg ran downstairs, turned on the water, ran back upstairs and took over hose duties because I was shaking so much.
Luckily, very luckily, the fire didn't get that big. We were able to put it out by ourselves. Enoch was sent to his room while we figured out what to do with him. Greg finally took him to the fire station. There, he spoke to a fireman about fire safety. I hope he understood. I know he understands about being safe; I hope he understands that this applies to him. We have done everything we can think of to get this message across. Trust me.

Tonight, Greg gave me a hug and said,"I'm sorry". I told him that it wasn't him who needed to apologize. He said, "I'm sorry about the fire. I'm more sorry that you have to be in charge of this kid everyday by yourself." Yeah. Tell me about it.

Self Photos

1. Enoch 'borrowed' the camera (sneaked into Mom and Dad's room and took the camera).
2. Enoch fiddled with the camera (hope he didn't break anything).
3. Enoch learned how to set the timer (if he would only apply these smarts to school).
4. Enoch took a lot of pictures of himself. These are my favorites I found while downloading pictures tonight. What a fun surprise!

State Science Fair

Gavin attended the State Science Fair at BYU today. He was so-so excited to go. He was excited to get out of school, but not so much about the judges interviews.
He set up his project on Monday afternoon in the Harmon Conference Center (first trip to BYU for Mom). The next day, he was dropped off at 9am (second trip to BYU for Mom). He got into the room and the first judge was waiting for him. I wish he would have had more time to settle in, but he sounded great as I was herding Enoch and Kate out of the room.
Gavin was able to watch the BYU Devotional after his judges interviews (he had four interviews). Jim Lovell, Apollo 13 commanding astronaut spoke and Gavin really enjoyed it. They had pizza for lunch and then he hung out with his friend, Trey.
At three, they had the awards ceremony (third trip to BYU for Mom). Gavin was a bit disappointed that he didn't win anything, but when you are competing against 900 kids, your odds go down. He had a great time and we are so proud of Gavin! What a great kid!

BYU Bowling

Gavin was attending a Scout Pow-Wow at BYU today (he passed off his Weather, Citizenship in the Nation and Family Life Merit Badges). It was our turn to drive car-pool, so we decided to take the whole family and hang out at BYU while Gavin was in class.
We started the morning by dropping off Gavin and Cayden at the ESC and then the rest of us just walked around campus. Enoch and Kate had a great time running around and exploring BYU. Maybe people aren't used to seeing kids on campus, but Enoch and Kate got a lot of sweet and indulgent looks. At 10, we headed down to the Games Center and the real fun began.
It has been a long time since our family had been bowling; I'm not sure that Enoch or Kate has ever been. We invited Uncle Jarom and we all had a great time.
As you can see, Uncle Jarom beat us all. Kate and Mom shared a game and Enoch did a great job.
After bowling and picking up Gavin and Cayden, we enjoyed a yummy lunch at the Creamery on the 9th. What a fun day.

Scattered Thoughts

*I rarely have the TV on during the day, but I was folding laundry and wanted a distraction. I turned on the Ellen show and Kate was fixated. She loved the music and started dancing with Ellen. It was very cute, I should have taken video. PS- Don't mind the dirty face and feet; that's just how we are these days.

*Our family attended the BYU Family Engineering Night and Thanksgiving Point last night. It was a lot of fun and Gavin especially enjoyed it. He designed an electric robot that spun markers around a plastic cup and came away with ink splatters all over his face and arms. He also built a boat out of a small piece of normal tin foil that held 30 pennies while floating in water. I wish I had pictures; I forgot my camera.

*A few tidbits from family prayer this morning, said by Enoch:

"Please bless Kate that she will listen to me and do what I say."
"Please bless Gavin that he won't tease me today."
"Please bless Mom that she won't yell at me today."
"Please bless Dad that he will drive to work really safely and be safe and come home from work soon and be really safe."

I guess we know who Enoch loves the most.

*I can't decide if Kate is really short or if she just wants to do big things like Enoch (probably a bit of both). She has taken to carrying around a step stool everywhere she goes so she can reach things. I always know the last place Kate has been because her step stool is there. I swear this girl's getting some pretty good definition in her bum and legs from all her step aerobics!

Pie Day

This year for pie day our family voted for raspberry pie (with frozen raspberries from our garden) with vanilla and strawberry ice cream. YUM!
Kate liked her pie, but she really enjoyed her "pink" (strawberry) ice cream.
Ohh! This is so good!
Gavin doesn't like raspberry pie, but he likes chocolate ice cream with chocolate syrup.

Enoch, Enoch, Enoch

I guess I was totally asking for it when I named my son after a prophet. I should have named him Stinker Pants Fowler.

I'm convinced that Enoch isn't trying to be mischievous - it just comes to him naturally. On Thursday, I finally sent him to his room because I had to get some things done, and I couldn't follow him around anymore. Within about a 20 minute period he ran away twice (I had to go find him), tried to spray paint the house, tried to spray paint the car, tried to start the BBQ grill in the shed and dumped a 1/2 gallon of milk on the floor. Really, it is a full-time job to supervise Enoch all day. At least, we avoided the spray paint and grill, but only because I was within 15 feet of him (and he still was almost successful).

A little insight into Enoch's mind:

1. Gavin and his friends were working on a school project in the garage. Enoch kept going out there and bugging them. I told Enoch to stay in the house, that he was not allowed into the garage. He stood in the laundry room and looked at the door leading to the garage.
Enoch: "But, Mom, the door is right there!"
Mom: "Enoch, just because there is a door there, doesn't mean you have to go through it!"
Enoch: A look of total disbelief, "Yes, I do! It's a door!"
Mom: Throwing my hands into the air, "NO!"

2. After an afternoon of constant cleaning up after Enoch
Mom: "Enoch, please find something quiet and not messy to play with right now."
Enoch: "There's nothing to do!"
Mom: "Enoch, your room is full of toys and the basement is full of toys."
Enoch: "You've put all the fun toys away or up."
Mom: "What? What toys?"
Enoch: "The glow-in -the-dark paint, the hot glue gun, the scissors and markers."
Mom: Surprised at the list he had going; he must have been saving that up for awhile, "Gee, I wonder why?"

3. After getting out of the shower, I found Enoch in the kitchen making a pitcher of lemonade. Of course, there was a mess everywhere (and I had just mopped the floor the day before because of the milk-spilling incident).
Mom: "Enoch, what are you doing?"
Enoch: "Making lemonade."
Mom: "Why?"
Enoch: "Because I want to." (Like I don't hear that 80 times a day.)
Mom: "Enoch, next time ask me for some help."
Enoch: A look of total wonderment on his face, "I never thought of that!"
Of course not. Why would Enoch need help.

What am I going to do? We haven't even hit summer, the peak time for running away, making messes in the backyard and finding new (and unusual, dead and gross) pets. I'm at a complete loss with this kid. He's wearing me out.

Family Mission Statement

I've wanted to put together a family mission statement for sometime now. Our family brainstormed a few ideas, knowing that we didn't want it so formal, but more casual like us. I finally decided that it did no good taking up space in my brain, that I needed to just do it, even if it didn't turn out exactly how I wanted it.
I think it's a good reflection of our family - what we are and what we want to be.

Remembering Kids

Gavin - 11 years - Gavin's favorite words are Yeahbut and Wulbut, closely related to Yes, but and Well, but.

Enoch - 4 years - When Enoch gets upset, he demands, "Look at me! I have angry eyebrows! I'm mad at you!"

Kate - 14 months - When trying on summer sandals, Kate would walk up and down the aisles and carefully pick the ones she wanted and bring them to me to put on her. She would only try on pink sandals.