Movie inspiration

My kids really enjoy getting to watch movies (they get to choose one a day) and recently there have been a few instances where the things they watch start turning up in their every day activities.
I'm sure this is normal and that my children have been doing this for some time, but these little reenactments were too good not to share :)

One of the movies we recently checked out from the library was the Magic School Bus one about space. Before this time I don't know how much my kids really knew about space and planets. Sure we had talked about them, but not in much detail.
Yesterday when I checked on the kids this is what I found...

Talmage has all of his planets lined up behind the sun (the first ball by Talmage). The little pink rabbit is on Earth in case you were wondering. He remembers all of their names (even though I've tried to explain that Pluto is no longer considered a planet, he keeps including it, because the movie had Pluto). The brick in the bottom of the photo is a meteorite (I think). They had larger bricks for asteroids, and rocks for comets. Man, he sure absorbs information!


Not to be outdone Grant had his line of planets as well. However, after Talmage constructed his group, there wasn't enough balls for Grant. I'm glad he was happy enough with the other toys to still play planets with Talmage. His sun was a scooter (sorry, not pictured). So funny. I guess they think they know all about planets and space. I love that they learn good things from movies :).


Now you may be wondering what a picture of a brick has to do with anything (and a broken one at that). This is our next story...
On Sundays the kids get to pick a church movie. They really like Bible stories movies (you know the ones with pictures and talk over voices). One section was called "Animal Sacrifices". Talmage reads pretty well so when the title came on he read the animal part and said "I love animals." I wanted to start laughing, but I held out to see what he would do about the sacrificing part. He asked a little bit about the sacrificing (why they were sacrificed, etc), but nothing really came up again about it.
The other day Talmage, Grant, and Sandra were outside playing and I could hear them from my room. They had their little beanie animals outside playing with them (remember, they love animals). Then I heard Talmage say that he needed to pick an animal to sacrifice. I was getting interested now. Then I heard him pick one and then Grant say "Not my puppy!" Oh I was really interested in how this was going to turn out and I went to get the camera. Grant continued to protest while Talmage tried to persuade him to let him sacrifice his animal. Then I heard Talmage concede and chose something else. By the time I got out there the deed was done and they were playing something else. I asked what they sacrificed. Then Talmage pointed to the brick. I wondered if that was the alter or what and then he said they sacrificed the brick instead of their animals. I guess that was a good trade. Especially since we no longer sacrifice animals :).
It's amazing what kids pick up! They make me laugh :)

Watermelon and Pun'kin

Yes it's another garden post... but I couldn't help it :). We are getting watermelons and they are so cute that I had to share! We have about four or so little ones like this.

But this is our main attraction. It has doubled in size in the last few days and I can't wait for it to be big enough to eat. We are also getting carrots and more bell peppers. I don't know why the harvest has been so slow this year, but we are grateful for everything we get to enjoy. It is really such fun :).

Ok, so it's not all about the growing garden... We also have a pun'kin growing in our yard :). That's Jeff's nickname for her just in case you were curious. She gets around really well now and loves to be outside. I just wish she would walk so she could avoid all of the little bugs that live on the ground. She also crawls kind of funny with one foot out to the side because she learned how to crawl in skirts.

Isn't she just so cute!

What a great time of year for fall and pun'kins :)

Ponytails!

This is to document our dear Sandra's first ponytail! She was just 9 months old and it is barely there, but she had a ponytail on the top of her head. (Seriously, you may have to click on the picture to get a better view of it). I was so happy she had that much hair! Both of the boys still had little fuzz at that age. (ok, I have to say it, she was a cute baby!)



Since this time we have grown into doing two pigtails and getting more and more hair. There have been some set backs unfortunately. The first one was from Grant and Sandra cutting at her hair back in Feb or so and then more recently (last month) from Talmage cutting her hair. That one will take awhile to grow in, but luckily it is easy to hide when we do her hair.

We have now officially had the first ponytail with all of her hair!


I'm sure you have all been waiting for this day, just as I have :). I had to use a few clips to help with the shorter hairs. After a few hours the shorter hairs were sneaking out, but I was still happy I got it up for that long!


The pictures don't do it justice, but I think it's adorable on her. It makes her look so grown up... for a 2 year old! Man where does the time go? Now I have another little girl waiting for her first ponytail. Mhari might have to wait a few more months to have enough hair though:).

The Bread of Life

Jeff and I both really enjoy bread. Jeff's family also really likes bread (I'm sure mine does too) and his mom used to make homemade bread for them when they were kids. A while ago she shared her recipe with me. I decided to give it a try... I am impressed to say that I can make bread. I've been making it for a while now and I really love this recipe because it makes 5-6 loaves of bread at once. Well, I started with the loaves in the beginning and now I tend to enjoy making more and more fun yummy things from the bread dough.

Here is what I made last Friday (only a couple of cinnamon rolls are left)...



Here are the rolls and cinnamon rolls rising :)


I forgot to get a picture of the pizza before I put it into the oven. I stole the idea to make pizza crust out of the dough from my friend (thanks Melissa). Man does it make good crust!


Here is the done photo. There is a section without cheese for Mhari so that is why it looks a bit funny. It was so good that we just kept eating...


Then I realized I hadn't left room for dessert!?! I love homemade cinnamon rolls so I had to squeeze one in. Talmage was sure to leave enough room too! I was so full that night!


Lets not forget the dinner rolls. They always look so beautiful when they are done! They taste wonderful too! We had little cheese roll sandwiches the next day for lunch. Yummy. Now you know what to do if you ever feel like making a lot of bread at one time and don't know what to do with all that dough! You could also freeze anything you couldn't eat fast enough, or even make little loaves to give away to other people. I've done that too, but it was too good to not eat this time around!

Campfire night

Jeff has recently mentioned that he wanted to do a campfire night on Thursdays with the kids before bed. He reminded me yesterday that if he was going to do it he needed a campfire. I guess I get to use my creative genius to construct a campfire....
The hardest part was figuring out what craft materials I had that could end up looking like a campfire. I was stumped. Then after quiet time I had the amazing idea to use sticks from our willow tree (there are so many in the yard). Talmage was great at collecting them for me! I know who would've thought to use sticks for a campfire!?!?

Here are the kids enjoying watching me construct the campfire. Did I know what I was doing? No. Did I do it anyway? Yes. I think it sort of looks like a camp fire. The point is that they can put a flashlight in it and feel like it's a camp fire. Making it in the box was the only way I could think it would last a while. I hope it holds up.



Still you must be thinking that it really doesn't look like a camp fire. I agree. At least the kids have a good imagination and Jeff isn't very picky either.


Here is a picture of the kids in their room with Daddy sitting around the campfire. (Talmage is just out of the photo). You can see how the flashlight is propped and where the kids are sitting etc. Once the flash on the camera is off it really does give a whole different feel!


Can you tell Jeff is holding Grant and Sandra is peeking at the fire? I know hard to see, but that's why we have the picture comparison. I think it turned out well when there's a flashlight turned on inside :).

The best part of this story is that Daddy spent some great time with the kids. They each shared their name, their favorite number, color, and animal (s). I even heard Talmage share a story. Then Jeff talked to them about a principle... if you are prepared you won't fear. He related it to Talmage getting ready for his talk on Sunday in primary or when Grant gets to pray in primary. What a great time. I was even able to put Mhari down for bed without wondering what my other 3 kids are up to. I love that Jeff is trying to find ways to spend quality time with the kids, especially with his limited schedule!

Reality Bites

Last night at a card party with some friends our blogging was discussed and how it seems that some people do such wonderful things... well we concluded that the things we blog are a small percentage of our lives and that the other time is normal everyday stuff that everyone else is doing too. To prove this we are doing a reality series :). This is my day in the life of well... me :) and to tell the truth sometimes reality bites , spits up, hits, or screams depending on your personal reality.
That brings us to the above photo. Jeff had a lot of reading to do last night and was staying up late to finish it up. This morning at 5 am I wondered why he never came to bed and went to see if he was still working on school work. Thankfully no, he had gone to sleep on our comfy couch around 1 am, but still had work to do. I told him I would be up in a while to wake him up. Here he is praying before his hop in the shower and get out the door for the rest of the day reality.

Here are Mhari and Cody. They like to get into trouble together. In this photo Mhari is holding her night light that Cody has taken out of the outlet in her room. One of these days someone is going to get shocked! I'm doing better at keeping Mhari's door shut, but they are fast when it's open.

Here is Cody playing with the diaper pail. I guess following instructions isn't easy for 1 year olds. Needless to say I've told him not to play with it, but it's still a problem. If I don't notice he's played with it then my house starts smelling and little bugs start finding new homes in the diapers... gross.

Out of all of the crazy reality here are a few sweet moments. I love quiet time in my house. Everyone went down pretty well today and sleeping children are just so precious! Grant with the leopard blanket was just too good to pass up!

Here is my Mhari. She woke up early from naps/quiet time, but she was so fun to play with that I didn't mind. She is so ticklish and laughs really well now. I also think that she is a beautiful baby which is a good think when half of the time she's snotty, cranky and teething. I wouldn't trade my reality, but it's not always fun or blog worthy to say the least :).
I hope you have enjoyed sharing some of my crazy day.

Ode to the Library

We have been spending may days at the local library. They have started up their story time on Fridays for little ones which we attended last week. They do a craft along with the stories so Grant and Sandra got to make rainbow fish. They love their fish :). We have also been going and letting the kids pick books, imagine that. I have always been concerned that letting them get books would be a problem because they would either loose them, rip them, or the baby would get them. None of these things have happened yet so that is nice. I have even been letting them pick a movie from the library. Yes we have plenty of movies, but it is always nice to get a new one to enjoy. Sometimes the movies are too scratched to watch which is a bummer, but otherwise it is nice to have something we usually don't watch (plus it's free!).

For our FHE last night we went to the library. They do a bedtime story night with milk and cookies once a month. Jeff was studying so we trucked out on a field trip for FHE. The kids had a great time. I would say it helped to have the milk and cookies, but my kids really do love books. Talmage has even gotten to go to the library at school and borrow a book. Maybe our love of reading has to do with Talmage's great reading.

Out of all of the fun of the library, I would add that it would be nice if it was a little closer. Oh well. It gets us out of the house and the books keep my kids entertained for days! I love my happy reading little ones :).

Our Animal

Grant is our little animal. Two years ago (when he was only 2) he started running like an animal on his hands and feet. He was really good too! I didn't think too much of it until Talmage couldn't really do it and Sandra is still trying to run fast like he does (she is now the same age as Grant when he started doing it). Here he is posing like an animal :).


It doesn't really matter what animal it is. He has his favorites... tiger, lion, cheetah, puppy, etc. but he will be almost anything depending on his mood. He is very kinetic (body movement oriented) so it is amazing to see the way he can use his talent :). He loves animals in general and has been making animal noises since he was 8 months old (thanks Baby Einstein).


I should post a video of it since he does it really fast, but you'll just have to get the feel from the photos :).


Since Talmage has started school I have been trying to figure out a way to help Grant with writing his letters and learning sounds etc. This has been a challenge because he's just not that interested. Yesterday I had the inspiration to do animal words for our letters. He figured out the sounds for the word tiger, zebra, ant, and cat and did really well with lion, giraffe, and leopard. I put the dots on the paper like Talmage has been doing in school and then he was to write on top of them. Talmage didn't appreciate us using his school paper, but he has three or four of them now, so he could share one, right?


I even got him to write ant and cat without the dots to follow. No it didn't turn out as well and I don't know if you can read it, but he still did it on his own. I'm happy that we have found a way to progress and work with Grant on some school stuff too! He is a great boy and adds so much creativity to our family!