Strings

Jaco has been participating in our school's Strings program. Starting in 4Th grade the kids can choose to play the cello or violin if they want. They meet 5 days a week for 30 minutes each day. So for $19 a month (cost to rent the violin) Jaco has been learning how to read music, how to play an instrument, and has gained confidence in himself! He has come so far and I am very proud of him! Last night they had a concert for the young musicians. They were asked to dress in nice clothes which I interpreted as church attire. Jaco did not want to dress up and fought me the whole time. When we got to the school, I realized he was the best dressed boy in the room but I still thought we had made the right choice. There were some girls in dresses but for the most part it looked like a room of kids dressed for a regular day at school. After the program I thanked his teacher for all her work and she commented on how nice Jaco looked. She agreed that he had dressed appropriately for the occasion and talked to Jaco about how if he keeps playing, when he gets to High School he will have to wear a tux and the girls will wear formals. To me, it shows respect for yourself if you look your best when you perform. Why would you work and practice for months on something, just to show up for performance in jeans and a t-shirt? If you dress up you are saying to the audience that they should pay attention because you have something to show them.

Here's my boy in action!

Is HE the Mom or Dad?

I am not sure who is more confused, Cody or the baby kitten. For those of you (Maria) who can't view it on here I also posted this clip on YouTube so here is the link! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOqHy9zAq8M

My top 3!

Top 3 reasons I love being a mom!

#1 Jaco!
I love this boy! He is smart, funny, and so handsome with the most amazing brown eyes with lashes every girl would kill for! He has always loved books and now that he is an accomplished reader, we are able to share books. It is so fun to be able to discuss books together. We both recently re-read Bridge to Terebithia. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it! He is so sweet and will bring me home books from the school library that he thinks I will enjoy and so far I have loved them all! Today for Mother's day, he made me breakfast and a great card from school. Jaco is an incredible boy who will do amazing things with his life and I am humbled to be his mom.



#2 La-La
From day one this little girl has been the biggest sweetheart. She was born with the desire to nurture and care for those around her. At school she always wants to help the other kids and if someone is not feeling good or gets hurt, she is the first one to render aid. If you ask her what she wants to be when she grows up she will always answer with a MOM! I love her curls and freckled nose and cheeks. She has such a determination to succeed. She has been learning how to do cartwheels, cherry-drops, and how to cross the monkey bars. She does not stop trying until she does it. Her hands prove it as they are covered in blisters and callouses from the monkey bars. She is so proud of herself as am I! I can not wait to show her how to do make-up, dress her up for prom and do all the fun mommy/daughter things yet at the same time I am scared to death for her to grow up.



#3 Care Bear
Where do I start with this little girl. She is a challenge for me but I love her so deeply it amazes me. She is such a ham and loves to be the spotlight. Her eyes never cease to melt my heart and it is a good thing with all the mischief she likes to get in to. I see her being our little athlete as she is so active. Care Bear has no fear and wants to try everything she sees her brother and sister do. The scary thing is she usually is able to do it! She started truly smiling at one week old and I think she knew she needed to so she could make up for all her screaming. I love her huge toothy grin and she loves to share it with me. From the first day I found out I was pregnant with her, I have known she is here for a reason. She has an agenda to fulfill and I just pray I can be guided in helping her achieve her goals.

For Mother's day, our primary leaders had the kids make all of their Mom's cookbooks. These are not your every day recipes but the kid's versions. They are so cute and it was fun to see my cooking skills through the eyes of my kids. Here is what they each wrote!

Stroganoff according to Jaco
Take noodles and put on meat and white sauce. Put somewhere on the stove for about 10 minutes at 70 degrees.

Pizza La-La style
Buy bread at the store and put it in the oven for 30 minutes. Take it out and put some stuff on it: spices, white cheese, and tomato juice - that's all on top.

Potatoes by Care Bear
First, mom puts on some make-up and says, "Lets go shopping!" She cuts up the potatoes in big pieces, cooks it, puts it on some plates and puts on some cheese. Then she says "Dinner's all done" and we say "Yeah!"

Happy Mother's day to all Moms young and old!

So Easy and VERY YUMMY!

Miss Care Bear is not a big meat eater but she gobbles this recipe down as fast as she can with lots of "mmmmm this is so good!" between bites and La-La always asks for seconds. I love it because it is really tasty, it requires ingredients that I usually have on hand and EVERYONE licks their plates clean!Salisbury Steak (from Taste of Home Cookbook)

1 egg lightly beaten
1/2 C soft bread crumbs
1/4 C chopped onion
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 lb ground beef

Gravy:
2 TB flour
1 can (14-1/2 oz) beef broth
1/4 C ketchup
1 TB Worcestershire sauce
1/4 tsp dried basil
1 jar (4-1/2 oz) sliced, drained mushrooms (I have never made it with mushrooms because personally I think they taste like dirt!)

Mashed potatoes

Combine 1st 5 ingredients. Mix in beef and shape into 4 patties. Place in shallow 2 qt microwave safe dish.
Cover and microwave at 70% power for 5-6 minutes. Meanwhile, combine flour and broth until smooth. Stir in remaining gravy ingredients.
Turn patties; drain. Pour gravy over patties. Cover and microwave at 70% power for 5-6 minutes. Gently stir gravy; cover and let stand for 5 minutes. Serve over mashed potatoes.

Randomness continued....

Here are the kitty's at almost 3 weeks old! Their eyes opened when they were about 10 days old and now they are finally able to walk on all fours but not with any agility yet! There are 2 boys and two girls but they all still look so much alike! They all have white spots on their tummies so that is the ONLY way you can tell them apart!

This is Onyx! He is the male we are going to keep. So far he has the most personality and the most white spots so we can tell who he is!

Here are the kittens in action! Right before their eyes opened, Mom cat decided the box she had them in was no longer OK and moved them under the bathroom sink. I tried to put them back in the box and Mom moved them right back to the cupboard.

Jaco has decided that he loves playing basketball. Our neighbors across the street have a hoop so he was always over there shooting away. We found this basketball hoop on Craigslist and Jaco agreed to help pay for it with his allowance so we bought it on Saturday! He is now outside every chance he gets trying to better his game. I love it that he finally enjoys doing something outside! Jaco told me the other day that he is a well rounded person because as he said, he is a nerd, he plays soccer, he plays the violin, and he plays basketball!

Here is the future NBA star making the game winning basket!
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La-La has a new look times two! She has another hole in her smile *and* new glasses! The first pair of glasses were repaired 3 times in less than 2 weeks and then she decided to put them on the floor while there were 4 kids running around. I think you get the picture. Thank goodness we got the warranty so it didn't cost anything. So far this second pair is holding up much better. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that these are Hannah Montana frames.

This is just a fun picture I took with my phone while we were at the Oregon Caves. I finally figured out how to get them off my phone!

Here are some of the funny things Care Bear has said in the past week.
She was playing with the kittens and they were trying to nurse. She moved one kitten and said "Here is a pimple for you!" translation-nipple
She LOVES High School Musical and watches it every chance she gets but she calls it Hi No Noosical.
She always throws her head back so she can feel her hair on her back and then she tells me how long her hair is getting. I ask her if we should cut it and she says no because then it won't be long anymore!
Care Bear was so excited to ride without training wheels but now she has learned that it hurts if she crashes. The only way I can get her to even try to ride is if she has all of her "Lily Pads" on. translation=knee pads, elbow pads, etc...

And finally, this is a short clip of one of the many hummingbirds that frequents our feeder. We were weeding outback when the bird kept coming even when we were right there! It was pretty cool. I had hoped you would be able to hear the buzzing of the wings but the camera didn't pick that up.

1-2-3 Magic

This is a book that was recommended to me by a couple different people. It is about a parenting technique that is surprisingly easy yet VERY effective! It is enjoyable to read which always helps! Any ways, We started using the 1-2-3 Magic with the kids about three weeks ago and we are now enjoying each other more and things are a little quieter with less screaming and yelling going on! The girls responded very quickly and Jaco in the last three days has made a dramatic improvement. Our mornings together are so much better and the kids are more independent in getting ready for school.

So what is 1-2-3 Magic? Here is the short version. 1-2-3 Magic is little talking, little emotion, and a lot of accountability for the kids. Lets say La-La is whining right before dinner because she wants a granola bar because she is STARVING! I tell her no and explain to her why I said no. She continues to beg/whine so I say "La-La, that's one" Then I don't say anything or show any emotion (this is the hardest part!). If she continues to whine I say "La-La, that's two." If she stops, we are all good. But, if it continues, I say "La-La, that's 3 take 6" (because she is 6 years old). La-La then has to go to her room for six minutes but she is allowed to play, read, rest or do whatever she wants in her room except anything electronic. Then when the 6 minutes is up, she is allowed out and here is the most important part. I let her out and don't say anything about why she was in there. It is over, done, finished. Another big part of the 1-2-3 Magic is getting kids to do their chores. One thing they suggest is you do the chores for them with a smile on your face. You are smiling because they have to pay you for doing their chore! So lets say I ask Jaco to clear the table and tell him he has until 7 to have it done. He chooses to play outside instead so at 7 I clear the table for him but he has to give me $.25 from his allowance.
As I said, the girls responded beautifully to the counting. I rarely have to put them in "time-out" because once I say "that's 2" they stop the bad behavior. Jaco has been a bit more stubborn about it and it kills him to not be able to argue with us because if he does, he is counted and has to go to his room. He finally seems to be getting it and we have had 3 great days with him! Not perfect by any means but sooo much better! I am excited to have found something so simple that really works! I was able to buy the book on Amazon for under $10. The author also wrote a kids version of the book to help teach your kids about 1-2-3 Magic and how it works. I bought this one also and it was great. It is illustrated and written like a story book so it is really easy for the kids to understand.
I highly recommend this book for any parent. If you had seen our mornings 3 weeks ago and then seen the last three mornings you would run to the nearest bookstore to get a copy! I know parenting is an ongoing ever changing process so I know we will still have rough days but I am just so excited that this really is helping our family be happier!

The Oregon Caves

After a morning of watching Jaco and La-La play soccer we took a short drive to visit the Oregon caves. These caves were discovered by a man named Elijah Davidson in 1874. He was hunting and his dog chased a bear into the caves so he followed his dog. Elijah found his way through the cave with just matches. Today your path is lit by lights and you can only enter them with a guide.These are beautiful marble caves that are 3 miles long! They have a very strict rule that requires children to be 42 inches or taller before being allowed on the tours so Miss Care Bear couldn't go and I was the lucky one to stay with her! She and I did get to go on a "sneak peak" tour which was just the first room of the caves. She was pretty nervous in the "pitchly back" so it was a good thing she didn't go on the 90 minute tour! Plus, I twisted my ankle the other day so I probably would have struggled with all the steps. Care Bear and I had fun hanging out by some waterfalls and little lakes and chasing Cody around. She is always happy outside!

Warm enough for this?

Oh YES it was! Yesterday hit 90, today was 91. Want proof? Here ya go!

La-La cooling off! She does have a swimsuit on, I promise! It just matches her skin too well but it is her favorite suit!

Care Bear's turn!

I don't think I have ever lived anywhere that we have been able to play in an UNHEATED pool without shivering in APRIL! My only complaint is I have had to turn on the AC by dinnertime or it is just too warm.

Before antibiotics. =( (The picture is not very clear because it is from my phone.)

Poor Jaco was not able to play in the water due to a case of Strep Throat. He woke up Sunday with a fever and sore throat. I knew we would be heading to the Dr on Monday when he spiked to 104. For some reason, Jaco always gets extreme fevers when he is sick. I can't tell you how many times he has gotten to 105+. The bad part about it is at night when he is feverish, he is LOONY! I remember once when he was about 3 he appeared to be hallucinating in the middle of the night due to a high fever. He was as calm as could be (and awake) and telling me all about the crabs and spiders crawling all over the walls. When he had strep in March he woke up screaming so I went in to help him. He would thrash around screaming and then suddenly go dead still like he was in a trance. Then he would start screaming again. I tried to reason with him and got head butted so hard right on my nose. It still hurts! Sunday night when I gave him another dose of advil before I went to bed, he was convinced I was getting the medicine out of the ceiling! When we went to the Dr yesterday, Jaco was so worried about getting the strep test. He HATES that swab in his throat! The Dr checked him out and agreed it looked like Strep. When he pulled out the swab Jaco instantly covered his mouth. The Dr stopped and said, "Oh yeah! He doesn't like this!" He decided to save the 10 minute drama and just gave Jaco the prescription for antibiotics because all the symptoms and his throat said Strep.

24 hours after first dose of antibiotics. Modern medicine is amazing!

My CRAZY 3 year old!!

Miss Care Bear never ceases to amaze me with her vigor and vim for life! She has kept me on my toes from day one. Before I even held her in my arms I knew I had a live wire on my hands. As proof, here is an entry I wrote while still pregnant with her.

"At seventeen weeks I had another ultrasound. Everything on the baby looked really good. It's little hands were up by it's face the whole time. It kept playing peek-a-boo with us. It would cover up it's face with it's hands and then move them away. Sometimes it looked like it wanted us to pick it up because it would reach it's little arms up. I fell so in love with this baby at the ultrasound. It already seems to have so much personality!"

I think I hit the nail on the head with that journal entry! Her primary teacher told us that she is so full of it and very funny. She is starting to show her true colors outside of the home so other people are seeing what we see everyday!

Tonight Care Bear did what I predicted a year ago. She rode her bike without training wheels! She has had her bike for one year now. I blogged about her new ride last year and said she would ride without training wheels even younger than La-La did which was 4 1/2 years old. Care Bear is 3 1/2! Her friend across the street who is 6 months older, rode her bike today without training wheels so Care Bear decided she was ready too. The first time she tried she went at least 50 ft without falling! I couldn't believe it but at the same time I was not surprised. She is scared to turn and needs to work on the stopping but balance is not an issue at all! This little girl never ceases to amaze me and scares me to death at the same time!

Here are a some funny things she has said and done in the last few days.

Care Bear has been loving her Easter treats and sneaks a piece of candy every chance she gets. Today I had asked her to put it away as it was almost dinner time. I went outside and a few minutes later she came out with a sucker in her mouth. I reminded her that I had said no more and she informed me that the sucker was not real. It was just a play sucker!

Yesterday she came to me and showed me how her dollhouse daddy can pick her up. She then put the doll up to her tummy with it's arms "around" her and jumped.

She still is really into figuring out boys and girls. She wants to marry daddy and gets mad at me when I tell her she can't. Now she has decided the boy named Thomas in her church class will make a good "hubsand."

She informed me that if her best friend was a boy she would make out with her.

She pours her own drinks if I don't do it fast enough. Sometimes she does pretty good but as you can see here, she stills needs to perfect the skill.

She has learned that when it comes to sunscreen she needs my help. We have the spray kind and the other day she got it right in her eyes. OUCH!

Care Bear loves to be the one picked for prayer and gets mad if someone else gets a turn. Here is a sample of a Care Bear Prayer!

"Hensey Fader, Sank you for dis day. Sank you for Princess Rora. Sank you for Mommy. Sank you for Daddy. Sank you for Jaco, Sank you for La-La, sank you for Jesus. Sank you for our house. Jesus Christ. Men."

Spring has SPRUNG!

Spring is in the air at our house from peas sprouting in our garden, blossoms on trees, new Easter dresses to baby kitties making their grand appearance.

Our small garden is finally showing signs of life! We have pea sprouts, lettuce, radishes but we are still waiting to see carrot tops. Plus our strawberry plants have lots of white flowers just waiting to turn into juicy red strawberries. YUM!

My favorite part of Spring is the blooming trees. I love the pinks, purples, and whites all over the neighborhood. Our neighbors have a tree that produced beautiful huge flowers that I could enjoy from my couch! I just had to keep La-La from picking them all!

We had a great Easter and tried to keep it focused on our Savior but with little ones it is hard due to all the candy and treats. Our Stake had an Easter Devotional that I sang at so we went as a family. It was a nice way to end the day thinking of the true meaning of Easter. On the way to the church I asked Care Bear what Easter means and she was quick to answer with "CANDY!" I asked her about Jesus and Easter. She told us about the sharp thing mean dads put on Jesus' head and how it made him bleed and how he died. Then that night in her prayer she prayed that Jesus' head would not bleed and that he would not die anymore. I was happy to hear she did learn a little about it this year! Resurrection is a huge concept to understand even for adults. When Jaco was 3 1/2 we had a pet guinea pig that died while we were on vacation. Our friend who was caring for him disposed of his body before we returned so Jaco did not get to say good-bye. He had a really hard time with this so we talked to him about how he would get to be with Slugger again someday. He asked if Slugger would get his body back when we all are resurrected and I told him that I do believe he would. The next day all of a sudden Jaco ran into his room and looked in Slugger's now empty cage. I asked him what he was doing and he said " I am just looking to see if Jesus gave Slugger back his body!" I was amazed and humbled at his innocent understanding of the Sacrifice our Savior made for us.

Finally, Spring has shown itself in 4 brand new black kittens that now reside in our bathroom. I posted awhile back about how I hoped our cat Aurora would behave herself until March 19th when she was scheduled to be fixed. Well, I think she heard about our plans for her and decided to spoil them by going on an overnight adventure within days of us setting her appointment. When we discovered the pregnancy, we talked to the vet and were told we could still continue with the surgery but we just couldn't do it. Even after being lectured to about how hard it would be to get rid of a litter of kittens and how we will only contribute to the overpopulation of unwanted animals, we still couldn't do it. To me life is life and it is not my choice to make! Well, unless it comes to the millions of ants that insist on living with us or other creepy crawlies like spiders and ticks! So finally last night our little Momma cat delivered four healthy kittens. La-La could not be happier. She is the one who noticed changes in Aurora that indicated pregnancy. She has counted down the days and was so frustrated when the babies did not appear when she thought they should. Jaco also is so excited to have kittens and Care Bear is a little unsure about the little black furballs. She woke up first this morning so I showed the babies to her and at first she was so excited. Then I picked one up for her to pet and she shrank back into the corner and said the kitty was scary looking. I think she expected it to look like a mini mom cat so she was very taken aback to see a strange looking thing in my hand. Aurora is the perfect little mommy. I was with her as she gave birth last night which was pretty amazing to see. I have never seen that and it was so neat to watch her inborn instincts take over. It was like she had done it a thousand times before. When I knew she was done, I put a towel over the box and as I covered her she looked at me and meowed as if to say, "Thanks for being there for me!"

Heebee-Jeebees!!! (WARNING! This is disgusting!)

Ever since our first tick encounter a few weeks ago, we have been doing regular tick checks on both man and beast in our house. La-La found one on Cody earlier today so I almost skipped his nightly check but I decided I probably still should. Everything looked fine until I rubbed his floppy ears. I felt a weird bump. Too big to be a tick and a weird color. It looked like a giant skin tag. You know those odd little flaps of skin? Upon further investigation I found this weird bump had legs. At this point I started feeling ICKY. I had heard Ticks become swollen and engorged with blood but had never seen one. I knew I had to take it off but I was so grossed out! I found my tweezers and sat on my poor dog and did what I never thought I could do. I succeeded with the nasty task only to find ANOTHER huge engorged critter plus two that were only just beginning their vampire like feast. I had to take a picture mainly because everyone else was asleep and I wanted to make sure they were able to share in my creep out moment. So if you dare look, here is a picture of my creepy crawly nightmares! EEWW!!! I think it is time to invest in some Frontline Flea and Tick killer for dogs! I am starting to wonder if having a dog is really so great! I didn't sign up for tick removal!!!

Looks kind of like a potato!

I had to get this shot to show the size difference!

Soccer!

Jaco and La-La had their first soccer games this morning! It was a little chilly at 9:a.m. but it was sunny so it felt warmer than it was.

Check out that concentration!! This has to be one of my favorite pictures ever of Jaco!

We gave Jaco the option of trying Baseball this spring but he chose to do soccer again. He played two fall sessions while we lived in Washington. This year he is on the U-10 team and it is a lot harder than before. This year they keep score and will have play-offs at the end of the season plus they play on the full field which looked HUGE. I was tired just watching the boys run up and down the field! Maybe I should run with them! I was really proud of Jaco today. He got into the game so much more than in years past and he seems so much more confident with his own body. He ran faster, payed better attention, and played more aggressively.

Here is a clip of Jaco in action. They came so close to scoring a goal on this play!

Isn't she so cute?

La-La has never played soccer before so she is in the Kinder Soccer program. They don't keep official score, they play 3 on 3, and there is no goalie. So in other words, it is a field of kids who really don't know what is going on except they need to kick a ball into a small goal. It was pretty entertaining to watch. Out of bounds... What is that? Which goal do I kick towards?

I love this shot with La-La's piggy tails flying!

Here is a short clip of La-La in motion!

The soccer games were played on a field at a local elementary school. The girls played on the playground while Jaco practiced. I was helping La-La on the monkey bars and I turned around and saw my fearless Care Bear crawling across the TOP of another set of monkey bars. It was 6-7 feet high! She then proceeded to climb down the other side. I shouldn't say she is fearless because as you can see in the video clip she gets a little nervous but it is not enough to keep her from doing it again and again!

Garden Time!

It was a little dark by the time we were finished planting but you get the idea right?!

After a week of preparing the soil, we planted part of our garden tonight! We planted the early crop of peas, carrots, radishes, and lettuce. Hopefully everything will grow. I think our garden will stand a chance as long as we keep the kids and Cody out of it until the seeds sprout! That will be easy!! =)


Care Bear found this swim tube when she was looking in the garage for a shovel so she could help daddy. Who knew a floatie was necessary for gardening!

Jaco helping plant radish seeds!

La-La's turn!

Teamwork! At least it looks like it in this picture. In reality there was a lot of "Hey! It's my turn!" "You took my place!" and "WAAGGHH!"

Care Bear snuck in and took an extra long turn when Jaco and La-la weren't looking!

A friend of mine gave me a Hummingbird feeder for my birthday and we all have loved watching these amazing creatures fly in for a meal. I love it when it is warm enough to have the window open and I can hear the tiny wings buzz as they come and go. They are very competitive birds and only one bird is allowed to eat at a time. That is a rule they never break and they fight to enforce it!

Here is Cody just minutes before his first official, much needed hair cut. Fuzz ball!

And here is the new sleek version of our dog!