Scattered Thoughts

1.  In Kate's class, they are talking about pets and how they fit into families.  Mrs. Woolstenhulme asked the kids for pictures of them with their pets.  Kate was so excited to send one in with her and Coal.

2.  Yesterday at dinner, Kate briefly mentioned that her hands hurt.  When I looked at them, I couldn't believe how many blisters and calluses were covering her little hands!  Her hands take a beating working bars at gym class, but no more monkey bars at recess!

3.  Guard goes to preschool on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday mornings.  He loves preschool and can't wait to go.  He insists on getting himself ready - dressed, teeth brushed, hair combed or a hat.  As long as he is dressed in weather appropriate clothing, I let anything go.  Its fun to see what he comes up with each morning.

 

Sunday drive through the canyon

Sunday mornings can get a little chaotic at our house.  No friends, no TV (or we try on that one), not a lot to do but pick at your siblings.  Greg and I thought maybe a field trip would help things out.  A perfect time to see the fall leaves.

We might have hit the leaves a bit early, but they were still beautiful!

We drove up past Mutual Dell and stopped at a little rest stop.  We went on a short hike, although Gavin wasn't too keen on a lot of hiking.  He and some friends had just taken a midnight hike to the top of Timp to watch the sunrise.  He had fun, but got cold!
The hike was short, but so much fun.  It was good to get along with each other, be outside and be kind.

After our hike, we found a shaded picnic table and enjoyed some homemade hot chocolate (Enoch's favorite!).

It was a great morning!

Thanksgiving Point Design Challenge

 

Our family took the opportunity to participate in the Thanksgiving Point Design Challenge.  It is a once-a-month contest to compete in engineering projects.  We are very excited!
Our first challenge was the ice cube melt.  We had a variety of materials and we needed to built a container that would keep our ice cube from melting.  We used tin foil, baggies, tissue paper and twisty ties. 

We let the kids help decide how to build it and what they thought would work the best.  Guard just liked the orange tissue paper, but Kate had some really good STEM ideas.  Go Team Rocket!

Enoch decided he wanted to be on his own team - Team Fire!  He also thought his project through and ended up taking a different approach than Team Rocket.  He packed his tin foil and tissue paper very tightly around his ice cube.

After an hour of playing in The Jungle, we went back to weigh our ice cubes.  Well - Enoch totally smoked us!  He was the number one team out of all the competition!  His ice cube had hardly melted.
It was a fun afternoon and we can't wait to do it again next month.

Scattered Thoughts on Guard

1.  The other day, Guard fell and scratched his knee.  While I was washing it off, he said, "Mom, I'm okay.  Seriously, I'm okay.  It literally doesn't hurt at all."  Umm...where is that coming from?  Probably Kate - those are her favorite words.

2.  While walking to preschool, Guard picked a fluffy dandelion and said, "Mom, its a wish flower, make a wish.  Your wish is you want a big rhino."  Where are we going to put this big rhino I asked.  "In the back yard," reasoned Guard.  And how are we going to feed this big rhino.  With a completely duh look on his face he said, "With a big bowl."  Come on, Mom, think it through.

3.  In preschool, Guard and his friends are learning about the months of the year.  They have done a few activities that have focused on each child's birthday month.  Because of this, Guard has been talking about his birthday a lot and how he is so excited.  Today he asked, "How far away is my birthday party?"  His birthday is in May.  I told him it is a long way away.  He said, "Good thing our car is so fast!"  It took me a few seconds to figure that out!

4.  Greg and I had to divide and conquer while running errands.  Greg took Guard to Osh Kosh to get some new jeans for the winter.  He sent me a picture of Guard, asked if the size looked good.  I called him back to tell him they looked great.  While I was talking to Greg, I can hear Guard in the background yelling, "Get these pants off of me!"  over and over and over.  It took an obscene amount of Skittles to get Guard into his jeans for family pictures.  He came home from preschool yesterday, immediately took off his shoes, stripped out of his jeans and while standing there in his underwear, said "You can't make me put those back on!"  At least he made it through two hours of preschool without losing his pants.  This is going to be an ongoing struggle,  I think.

Enoch's Arrow of Light

Being a Cub Scout has been a great experience for Enoch.  It isn't always his favorite, but he has pushed through, learned a lot and has done some hard things.
Tonight was the culmination of all that hard work - his Arrow of Light ceremony.  He was very excited.  It was held outside with fires burning (he loved that!).

He received his Arrow of Light along with Tyler, Preston and Jordan.  It was a great night that the boys all looked forward to. 

Enoch has talked about Greg being able to paint his face in his ceremony for years.  He was so excited!  I wasn't able to get many good pictures, because the sun had gone down already, but is was a fun ceremony and Enoch loved it.

We are so proud of him!

Enoch's favorite things he has done is Cub Scouts were his BB Gun and Archery belt loops done at day camp.

To the dentist

I'll admit - I hate the dentist.  I like our dentist, but I hate the dentist.  I have just not had good luck with teeth.  Unfortunately, most of my kids have inherited my bad teeth.
Well, this time around at the dentist office there were high fives all around.   No cavities!  For anyone! Okay, Gavin still needs to go in next week, but he has never had a cavity, so I hope our streak continues.  So exciting that we didn't have any cavities!
Kate did have to have a tooth pulled.  It was one that already had a pulpectomy and it was falling out piece by piece, so we just pulled it.  She did great!  Not even a flinch when she got her shot or when Dr. Lambert pulled out the tooth.  She's tough!  The tooth fairy gave her a trip to Subway with her dad - her favorites!  She loved it.
It was Guard's first check-up and cleaning.  I wasn't sure if he would sit through a cleaning, but he did great - the ceiling TV really helped.  He was so relaxed and never wiggled.  He hated the taste of the fluoride, but that was the worst of it.

Whew!  So glad that is over for a while.

Healing Field

We have started a new tradition on our family - visiting the Healing Field in Sandy each September.

It is such a great remember what happened on 9/11 and it provides a peaceful way to talk about that day with our kids. 

An entire grassy field filled with flags - one flag for every person who died that day.  It is overwhelming to see, to walk through, to remember.

Each flag has a brief biography attached to it.  It was fascinating and heartbreaking to read them.

I remind the kids in the car to remember to be respectful, but once they start walking through the flags, they realize how special it is and they are happily reverent.

It was a wonderfully thoughtful afternoon.  It's  hard to remember, but so important.  We stress with our kids that it was a horrible day, but also a day our nation came together and remembered God.

Thank you, Sandy City for letting us be a small part of this.

2015 Family Pictures