I am so EXCITED!!!

Just a quick post to show you how cute my kids are.... :) My brother-in-law and sister took photos of my kids last weekend. Take a look. http://www.tavisjohnson.blogspot.com/ If anyone is in need of a wonderful photographer - they do a fantastic job!!! (Ok... I'm feeling a bit braggadocios about my comment about my kids being cute... oh, well ... I'm mom ... take it as a mom comment :) )

Date night

We convinced our boys last night to come on our weekly date. They chose McDonald's for dinner and we went to Scott's office to remove the 100 yr old wall paper. The bottom layer is like cardboard. They had fun until it got past bed time, then they needed a break so they headed for the Mckenzie's pop fridge (her job) and candy bin and went and played office. It was a fun night. Scott and Reese took off first thing this morning to continue on... I'm suppose to be cleaning and then off to help... got a little distracted :) I should have taken the pictures when we first started to get smiles instead of tired stares.

When in Rome, do as the Romans do!!

Reese's class has been studying Roman history this year. He has absolutely loved every second of it. History is his 'thing' he will say and Rome is his favorite. To end the unit the teacher had a celebration of Rome party. She had the room decorated like the Colosseum, the kids dress up as Roman God's, gladiators, or soldiers, had the slaves (parents) bring Roman food and serve them,

they performed "Androcles and the Lion", had to purchase their dinner by bartering (the women) and the men discussed legal matters... It was amazing!!! The kids had to bring pillows, rest on their left arm and eat with their fingers just like they would have in Rome. Reese had a wonderful time and I did too! I am amazed with the incredible things that take place at our school. His teacher is wonderful and when I ask Reese each day how his day at school was, he answers saying, "it was the best day ever." Love it!!!!

Lucky Charms

I've discovered the way to get all of my kids to breakfast at one time... tell them the box of Lucky Charms is ready. They all have to come at one time for fear that they will miss out. After they each had their bowl I had to get out my camera - it was a pretty cute photo op for me.

Homework and bed time

Mckenzie spends hours doing homework each night. Meili snuggled up to her and fell asleep - pretty priceless! She has to lick fabric to fall asleep and looks like she was enjoying Mckenzie's shirt.

Wheat Bread

This week I have been trying new recipes. Davis ground some wheat in our blender and we made some yummy whole wheat bread. They enjoyed kneading it to help. Davis is still home sick with pox and Lili is still refusing to wear clothes.

Good Sam vest

My grandma and grandpa use to take Ryan and I on lots of camping trips. Many of my younger memories are of hanging out with Ryan and my grandparents at Good Sam meetings, sitting around their table eating Raisin Rice and Rye (Ryan's favorite), motorbike riding and swimming. We always had a wonderful time. My grandma made this cute Good Sam vest for Ryan (she made me one too). We thought we were pretty cool because we were apart of the group and looked like all of the people in the club.

My grandma gave them to me. Davis discovered them and thought he looked pretty hot in Ryan's. He wore it proudly.

Family Home Evening and Chicken Pox

Reese had the chicken pox a couple of weeks ago. Now Davis does. Both have been immunized so I'm told they are not as bad as normal but still they have to stay home from school for way too long. Lili fevered a few days ago (has not been immunized, yet) so we are waiting to see if bumps show up on her. Mckenzie had them a long time ago - also immunized. By the time it goes through all of them I may be insane... :) Maybe we'll have to get a hotel for a change of scenery and Lysol it down when we leave.

Davis and Reese have been anxiously waiting for time to play with Austin and Ian. They were suppose to get together next week. Davis has come up with a quick fix to getting over the pox - he is going to stay in bed all day and have me bring his food to him. The "healthy menu" that he has created is, "for breakfast a healthy bowl of cereal, for lunch macaroni and cheese and for dinner a frozen burrito." He is going to go nuts (which means that Kristi and I will too) if they are not able to go.

I loved a few moments last night at Family Home Evening. Lili loves to participate just like the older kids. She loves to lead us in "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star". I've included a few pictures of her at the 'podium' leading us in the song. Davis loves to sing "Book of Mormon Stories" and Meili loves to do the actions. Oh, and Lili is totally against wearing clothes so this is her look most days... I do get her dressed but the clothes come off shortly after.

Our new celloist (am I spelling this right?)

Reese decided he wanted to play the cello this year so he could participate in the school orchestra. After a few weeks of orchestra he began asking for private lessons as well. Today was his 3rd private lesson and he was so thrilled to learn how to bow. I love going each week with him to take notes and watch his mind work. Hopefully, he will continue to enjoy the cello... this reminds me of President Allen's talk at Stake Conference on finances... when we buy one thing (free orchestra classes) we end up buying 10 things to go along with it.... ie, cello, books, lessons, stand, chair, and on and on...

But, if he continues to enjoy this it will be well worth the investment of the 10 items. I love his cute hair today - apparently he made it through the door without me licking my hand and smoothing it down ... :) I love the boy!

Our baby is growing up

Mckenzie was asked to give her first talk in Sacrament meeting today. She did an amazing job - we are very pleased with all of studying she did to prepare for her talk and that she wrote the whole talk by herself. Her topic was repentance. Way to go, Kenzie!!! ( ... nothing like a fridge to make a lovely background- hey, and if you want to feel good about your clean house click on the picture and you can see our dirty water tray -I'll make sure that makes it in the dishwasher tomorrow :) )

Saturday fun

(I finally broke down and bought a new camera... wish I would have done it a few weeks ago so I'd have pictures of halloween...)

After Scott worked and we cleaned the house (and I went to a class that Don Aslett spoke on cleaning :) ) and the boys went to a Primary activity, we took the kids out to our lot. We bought the 5 acres at the end of last year... about 5 days before Scott was called as a counselor in our ward. Our intentions at that time were to build immediately but after the calling we felt like we needed to wait and so we are still waiting... then we thought we'd start this next spring... but, we really like our ward and who knows what is going on with the economy and the housing market so we may continue to wait. While we wait we enjoy going out and spending time together. My dad brought a tractor down a few weeks ago and they knocked the weeds down. We wanted to make a bike trail with the tractor but it had a flat (one Saturday when everything seemed to go exactly opposite of how you would have hoped) so Scott made some jumps with his shovel and the boys are in Heaven. It is fun to go out and enjoy being able to be loud. The dog loves the space.

Scott started to pick up the few rocks that we have on the land... we will need to make another Saturday activity to pick all the rocks up.